Ian Primus

Everyone considers me a nerd, but that doesn't bother me. I am a nerd. My computer is totally homemade, and includes erector set drive mounts and duct tape to boot. I own my weight in game systems/carts. I have enough computer hardware to fill an entire u-haul truck. I not only know what an 8 inch floppy is, but I have some, and a drive. I have actually worn out mice. I have actually built a computer from legos. I have managed to go through 3 soldering irons in a year. I can drink an entire pot of coffee in one sitting. I figured out how to change the value of an integer number in Apple IIe basic so that 2+2 comes out as 6... Yup, i'm a nerd. But I guess that being addiced to obsolete games could be a good thing... I once won a bet that I couldn't beat a friend at any game. He let me choose - he watched me play Asteroids on the 2600 for an hour and a half and only die once, only to die in about five minutes when it was finally his turn. - "This joystick is too stiff!" was his excuse... Of course, my favorite question I ever got from a friend (different friend) was when I introduced him to Space Invaders. "What fires?" he asked. "Well, considering that the controller only has one button, I think that you can find it by trial and error" was my response. Ian Primus [email protected]

Can I get the schematics/driver software from you? I have built my own, but I never got it to work. I plan to build a new one, but I want to get a good set of actual tested schematics. Thanks! Ian Primus [email protected]

There is a local thrift store that has outrageous prices on everything. Not only do they (attempt) to sell 2600 carts for $5 each, but there are numerous other bad prices ... beat up old 13" color TV with knob channel changers - $45 45 RPM records - $1.50 - c'mon, they weren't that much new! old record player - $40 original 8-bit Nintendo - $35 Sega Genesis - $45 Nintendo carts - $10 Super Nintendo/Sega carts -$15 Super Nintendo - $45 Needless to say, I don't think I have actually ever seen anyone _buy_ anything there. I tried to talk her down on the Atari carts, but she said that they were old and rare now. She says she sells lots, and that $5 is a good price... I checked back two months later, and not even a single cart had moved! She still wanted $5... I only wanted two carts, and they were only uncommon. The rest were combat/pac-man/asteroids, etc. Ian Primus [email protected]

quote: Originally posted by Steve: My copy, however, won't work, and only shows lines when it's plugged in. Try cleaning the contacts with a pencil eraser. I have brought many a cart back to life that way. Ian Primus [email protected]

The original Atari brand joysticks are about as rugged as they come - I only have two that don't work out of maybe 25, and one is due to a broken cable. I did, however, have a problem with my Coleco Gemini. The left joyport actually loosened from the board, the solder joints were all cracked. I just heated them up with my soldering iron and melted some fresh solder in and it worked great. Try playing a two player game, and use the second port. Generally it is the first player port that wears out, from people unhooking the joystick to plug in paddles, I guess. Ian Primus [email protected]

ring even

One thing to check - if you hooked it up to a black and white set, keep in mind that there are generally two sets of screw terminal inputs on those suckers. One is UHF, and the other is VHF. The one you want is VHF. UHF won't work. Also, jiggle the knob on the set, sometimes the contacts get dirty. Another thing to check would be to use a multimeter to test the power adapter. if you don't have a multimeter, use an LED or even one of the little christmas light bulbs. connect it across the tip and ring of the power connector. If it doesn't light, flip it around, connecting it in reverse. if it still doesn't light, you need a new adapter. Actually, you can run a 2600 from a 9 volt battery. Don't worry about getting the exact amperage for it, anything from 300 amps to maybe 700 will work, and in theory, the VCS can run off of as little as 5 volts or as much as 35. In theory. That is what the voltage regulator in it can handle. It will REALLY heat up if you use 35 volts, and will most likely burn something out (though I never tried it). Of course, it isn't reccomended to run it from anything but 9 or 9.5 volts, and since it is so easy to find 9 volt power supplies, it is just a matter of converting it to use a headphone style jack. Just buy some plugs at radio shack and replace the connector on the new supply. The Atari uses tip positive, rind negative. Ian Primus [email protected]

As cool as the paper manuals and stuff are, I still prefer hardware. I have been collecting for quite a while, but even though I save the manuals and boxes, I enjoy the games. In fact, that's why I got started on the atari in the first place. I love to play the games. I call myself a collector, but I spend a lot more time playing games than I do collecting them. I buy games for the sole purpose of playing them. I have some shrinkwrapped games, and I leave them shrinkwrapped, but since they are so common, I have two or three others that are loose. Of course, if I ever found a boxed shrinkwrapped Quadrun at a flea market, I would keep it shrinkwrapped and have an EPROM cart made from Hozer so I could play it. But don't get me wrong, manuals and boxes are really neat, and a letter from Captain Atari is awesome too, but I just find that the most important thing in an Atari collection is games, and don't forget the heavy sixer sitting on top of the wooden console color TV set with the knob channel changers and some fake drawers in the front that would have been a perfect place to store your carts had they been drawers.

I finally found an Atari 7800! After lots of searching, I found one at a computer show of all places. There was a booth at the Dayton Computerfest selling nothing but classic game stuff. I bought a bare 7800 console for $5 (no power supply). I found instructions on the 'net for modifying it to use an Atari 2600 PSU, so I plugged in my soldering iron and replaced the oddball jack with a standard one like on the 2600. It worked great. I already had a handfull of games for the 7800 that I had picked up with 2600 carts over the years, and I must say that I am impressed with the graphics. The reason I am posting this is to ask a couple basic questions about the 7800. What games actually need a two button controller? I have just been using my standard 2600 sticks with the games and they seem to work. Should I get a power supply that puts out more than 500 amps? I read Crossbow's post about it, and I was wondering if it will cause a problem. I am, however, using a 2 year old PSU I bought from Radio Shack when I first got my 2600, it has the same specs as the original (9v, 500ma), but it isn't 20 years old. Is it just me, or is it REALLY hard to insert/remove carts on the 7800? It seems like it is a lot harder to plug games into the 7800 than it is to plug games into my old Sears heavy sixer. What games are not compatible with the 7800? I have heard that there are a couple 2600 carts that won't play. I haven't had any problems yet. Which ones don't work? And, is there anything else I should know about the 7800? Thanks, Ian Primus [email protected]

Faced with the problem of a costly eprom burner, and wanting to be easily able to reprogram carts without UV, I have been working on a RAM cart/cart writer. I have constructed it and a cart, but have yet to actually get it to work. Once I get it working, I will create a site with schematics. The cart itself can hold 8 4k games, and uses an SRAM chip that is easily obtainable for free. I am using chips swiped from old 486 motherboards, and each motherboard generally has 8 chips. I will post the schematics/drivers once I get it to actually work... Has anyone else built such a project? Ian Primus [email protected]

I play my Atari every other day, and in most cases every day. I collect Atari carts, but I mainly collect them because I like to *play* Atari carts. I don't collect to get every one, or strive to get rare carts that arent worth playing, but I love to go thrifting/flea marketing, and with carts at >$1 each, if I see a game I don't have, I buy it. I have never paid more than $5 for an Atari cart, but I have a great library of games to play. I consider Atari as a hobby that can be affordable or extremely expensive, depending on how you do it. Considering I'm 16, I don't have the money to do it the expensive way . BTW - I just got my driver's license a few days ago, and I have my own car now too, so look out flea markets, here I come! Ian Primus [email protected]

Check out www.perfectpacman.com - that is the site of the guy that managed to do a perfect game of Pac-Man. He hasn't really finished it, but you can email him. Maybe he would be willing to help or know some other Pac-Man experts. Ian Primus [email protected]

Space Invaders is a very common game, and I think that it was the one game that kept the Atari alive in the early days. I seem to remember reading that the Atari wasn't doing too well until Space Invaders came along in the arcades. It got people to start liking video games. Then when a cartridge came out for the Atari, people started buying the VCS for the sole purpose of playing Space Invaders. That is why Space Invaders gets my vote for the next most common game, after Pac-Man and Combat. Ian Primus [email protected]

quote: Although I don't have an answer for you off the top of my head, you do bring up an interesting point. I think we should categorize the games in our database. For instance, these could be: - Sports - Adventure - Action - Learning - Puzzle and so forth. We'd have to come up with a decent list that encompasses most games. Some, like the Color Bar Generator, wouldn't really fit in any category (which is fine). What do you guys think? Perhaps we should add a category for "Good idea ruined by rushed programming". It could include Pac-Man and ET... Ian Primus [email protected]

In my opinion, Atari didn't promote laziness, it was exercise. Just think - the people on this board probably have the strongest thumbs on the planet Ian Primus [email protected]

Most of you probably already know this, but I just noticed it, and I'm sure someone else hasn't... Atari's three systems, the 2600, 5200 and 7800 are all related. 2600+2600=5200 2600+5200=7800 2600+2600+2600=7800 They increase in increments of 2600 each time. Can we expect the next Atari console (I wish) to be the Atari 10400? Just a thought. Ian Primus [email protected]

One interesting thing is that the Genesis works with Atari controllers, with the exception of the lack of buttons on the Atari controllers. I have Ms. Pac Man for Genesis, and I really couldn't play it very well with a D-pad, so I found that if I started the game with the genesis controller, and swapped to the Atari controller as the game started, I could play with my little black Atari joystick. Ian Primus [email protected]

That's pretty suprising. Even my friends, who are my age (high school), hate old games. One of my friends absolutely refuses to watch a TV show that is more than 2 years old. (C'mon! Hogan's Heros is still funny) When asked why I am so tired one day, my reply was - I was playing Atari 'till 5 in the morning. It is totally beyond them to think that an obsolete game system could keep someone occupied for more than 5 minutes. Oh well, I managed to convince one of my friends to play "Surround" with me. He was addicted in three minutes... we played for 2 hours. I guess you just have to get them started... Ian Primus [email protected]

Does anyone happen to have a PAL Combat or Space Invaders or something? I would like to test it out myself, but since I live in Indiana, I have never seen a PAL anything. Ian Primus [email protected]

The genesis controllers work just fine, but in my humble opinion, the D-pad just can't give the precise directional control that is needed for Pac-man, Ms. Pac-man, Surround, and many others. I really like the actual Atari joysticks, but I also have a controller I built myself from left over arcade parts, that is really good too. Ian Primus [email protected]

Yeah, AAA - Atari Addicts Anonymous. Oh well, we are all hopelessly addicted to Atari, but I, for one, love the addiction. All worship the woodgrain. All hail Bira-Bira... Ian Primus [email protected]

I actually thought that the problem was with my ISP, since I have www.atariage.com as my start page, I thought that the internet wasn't working at all for a while, then I tried other sites, and it worked. We can all sleep well tonight, knowing our favorite website dedicated to our favorite game console is still operational. Ian Primus [email protected]

Actually, I bought the Activision disc before I had ever seen an actual Atari 2600 in person. I thought that that was what the games actually looked like, and I thought they were great. I played Kaboom! for hours. Later, I actually managed to get an Atari, and found a copy of Kaboom! several months later. The paddles make the game much better. Any plans for a PSX paddle? Ironically enough, I didn't even grow up in the 2600 era, but rather the NES/SNES era. I still like the 2600 better BTW-will the PSX discs suffer from a new sort of Actiplaque 15 years down the road? Ian Primus [email protected]

Are PAL carts playable in an NTSC system? Ian Primus [email protected]

I actually found two boxed Intellivision carts at a yard sale last week. Las Vegas Poker+Blackjack and Pitfall! for 25 cents each. It's rare I find any video game stuff at all in this town. (anything older than the Sega Genisis/Super Nintendo era, that is) If I do, it always ends up being in the posession of some jerk that wants $10 for a Space Invaders cart because it was a popular arcade game... Ian Primus [email protected]