Ian Primus

hehe Updated the title... looking for NES carts as well as Super Nintendo cartridges - anything at all - I just need them for casings and circuit boards. -Ian

Nope. Once the gold plating is gone, you're left with the underlying nickel (or copper, if that's gone). I'm not sure about Gameboy cartridges, but on almost all other carts (NES, SNES, Atari), the plating IS gold. It's very thin though. I think Sega cheaped out though - I believe that most of those aren't gold plated. -Ian

Apparently he's selling this lot so that he can afford to buy a new keyboard - one with a functional carriage return key. And if he really does have an NWC grey... He ought to just throw all that other junk away and sell that by itself - or at least have a good, fuzzy picture of it -Ian

I'm looking for junk Super Nintendo games for parts - casings, circuit boards, etc. I'll take anything - sports games, dead battery games, dead games, whatever. Yes, I'll take Madden games! I was very suprised when I went to post this - Looks like Crazy Climber is working on a project too! I was going to ask for NES games too, but I'm not going to step on his toes. -Ian

Bought a copy of Pitfall II from him. It arrived very promply, nicely protected in a little inner bag. The label was in fantastic shape - easily the niceset Activision game I own. Would definitely buy from him again. Thanks! -Ian

That's because they stole his computer too... Yeah, me too. I've been hunting for a Cray for years now - and I would've been extremely jealous if you traded a couple consoles for one... -Ian

I've had a similar experience - with Sega's Star Trek though. Tac-Scan works fine. I have to try it on another TV, but the one that I usually play games on will roll when you put in Star Trek. The thing is, my TV was made in the early 80's - so I don't understand it. Maybe the sync circuit in this particular TV isn't that great? -Ian

Yes. This is the standard 2600 power connector. It's just an 1/8" mono headphone plug. It's the same on all models. All Atari consoles have sliding switches, not toggles. Those switches are just a standard part... for something else. Very easy to obtain and solder on. They would have been more expensive than the slide switches though. Remember that the Atari is mostly made of industry standard parts. 9 pin dsub connectors were cheap and easy to get - and still are. The slide swithces the Atari used wasn't even unique to Atari - they were standard parts. The fact that the board looks totally production - with silkscreened revision numbers and production RF shielding says that this was a regular production board that just got "salvaged" or "hacked" at some point in it's life. Fitting toggle switches and new controller ports is a trivial task, and would take all of half an hour. An interesting unit, for sure - but I'm betting this was owned by an employee that walked off with extra bits - not a prototype. -Ian

Don't bother shelling out for one of those universal types. Just dig around at thrifts and flea markets. You're looking for a nine volt, 500ma OR HIGHER, DC power supply. These are very common. Don't worry about the connector on the end. You can actually use a higher voltage supply on the Atari (yes, even 12v), and it'll work just fine - but the voltage regulator inside will generate a bit more heat. Best to stick to 9 volts if possible. Cut the old connector off, and use a voltmeter to determine polarity. Then, solder on a standard 1/8" headphone plug (available from Radio Shack). The tip is positive, outer ring negative. Much cheaper than buying a new one. You might even have adapters laying around that you can use! The Sega Genesis adapter, for example, works just fine. -Ian

I don't really think that other 2600 is a prototype. It's more than likely just a scavenged 4 switch board mounted in a generic/homemade metal frame. The plastic controller connectors have been replaced with standard panel mount sockets - either to better fit the enclosure or to replace broken/damaged/missing ports. And the top switches resemble the kind used in hi-fi equipment in the 70's - probably easily obtained surplus. Something tells me that this particular board "escaped" at some point in the assembly line before it's controller ports and switches were added... Same with those bare boards you have - those are production PCB's that likely grew feet from the factory floor and wound up with an employee... Still, quite cool. -Ian

You forgot: -Ian

They banned paint pens? That seems odd. Did they have a grafitti problem? I used to work at a school. We would use those pens (in gold, usually), to write the name of the school on all the computers and various school property. I spent many hours writing the school name on the sides of brand new computers. It _does_ come off, if you give it enough elbow grease. I used to rescue some of the obsolete equipment from said school, because I collect old computers. So I scavenged VT220 terminals and very old Macs and stuff like that. I was able to get the paint pen off by using the Goo Gone - put it on and let it soak for a minute, then scrub, then clean with alcohol, and repeat. I could get all the paint off pretty reliably, but you could still read the writing on some equipment because it had yellowed. The paint pen blocked the light, so when it was removed, there was clean, unyellowed plastic... on the side of a yellowed old terminal. It still looked better than the paint pen though. -Ian

We do if one particular brand keeps breaking in almost every case... I don't have an Xbox, but most of the people that I know who have one, have had problems with it. I know people that are on their third Xbox. There is just no excuse for that. To those that say that it needs to be properly cared for and ventilated... probably - it ought to help - but this is a game console. A GAME CONSOLE. It gets treated like every other piece of consumer electronics. It gets put in entertainment consoles, it gets stuck on top of the TV, or next to it. Whatever. Actually, the 360 is probably better off than most of the older consoles, because it has wireless controllers. How often did you play the N64 with the console pulled out of the entertainment cabinet and sitting on the carpet because the stupid controller cables were so short? My Playstation 2 ran just fine when I was living in a small apartment, and had an old Apple computer monitor sitting on top of it, crammed in a corner. If all my hi-fi gear, VCR and DVD player can live stacked in a cheap particle-board TV/entertainment center thing, why can't an Xbox? My NES doesn't care that it lives on top of a TV set. The Xbox is far more unreliable than any other piece of consumer electronics in recent memory. Seriously. It's poorly designed, poorly assembled, and poorly supported. If it were anything else - a car, a TV set, a DVD player - nobody would waste their time even thinking about buying one. But because it is the only thing that can play Xbox 360 games, people put up with it. The only modern console I have is a Wii. It's fun. I like it. It sits vertically between the TV and the wall of the entertainment console. Not a lot of ventilation, I'm sure - but it doesn't get hot, and it doesn't give me problems. It does what it was meant to do - play games. -Ian

I don't see how it would work without either rewriting the original game, or some really, really, freaking clever tricks (like a processor in the cart). The problem is that the Atari has no framebuffer. It draws directly to the TV. So, emulating it on a PC is tricky because you have to emulate the Atari with it's TIA and whatnot... but then you also have to emulate a TV set. The Nintendo is a tile based platform. It stores graphic data and program data seperately. This allows it to draw many complex objects on the screen, by simply addressing different graphic tiles, and specifying where to put them. The two systsems are totally, totally different. Sure, they use the same CPU - but everything else is totally different. The Apple II uses the same CPU as well... and you can't emulate an Atari on that either. But, I do see the potential to _rewrite_ various Atari games on the NES. Things that were hard for the Atari to do should be a piece of cake for the Nintendo. Of course, it wouldn't be a port - it would have to be a complete rewrite - but you could base a new game off the way an old one works. Like Beef Drop. That's a complete rewrite of BurgerTime - it uses no original code. -Ian

bump. Crossed out games I found. Added Kiwi Kraze for NES.

I don't see why Gamereproductions would have said that it couldn't be done. I don't see why it would be too hard. I'll have to try making one of these. I assume he just used a Mario 2 or 3 as a donor, since the game needs the extra work RAM. I was going to make one earlier, but just now found a spare copy of Mario 2 last weekend (complete with torn label and spilled soda sticky). -Ian

How much for Super DK, Montezuma's Revenge and Frogger? -Ian

To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems. -Ian

Collecting video games should be about just that - collecting video games. Don't worry about how much the stuff might be worth in the future. The important thing is that you enjoy it. Bring your kids up right - get them playing some good games. Who cares if the stuff is worthless in 20 years? Have fun now. If at any point you find that you don't care about games or aren't interested in playing them anymore - then is the time to sell. -Ian

I would avoid using WD-40 on electrical contacts. It's sort of oil, and makes things worse. Also, it dissolves some plastics. The alcohol is a good choice though. The 5200 switch controls a CMOS flip-flop on the board. Be sure that your problem is actually the switch. You can simply close the contacts on the back of the board manually, and see if it comes on. Or, desolder the switch and wire up a standard one, and see if you can reliably turn the console on and off. If so, then the switch is your only problem. If it's still weird, then you might need to replace the chip. I'll have to look at my notes, I forget which one it is. Also, there is a relay in the RF switch box. So, if the power light comes on, but you don't get a picture, then there could just be something wrong with the switch box. -Ian

"It's a mat, with all these conclusions... printed on it... that you can _jump_ to!" Something tells me that it's just a 7800 board with the 2600 Jr. Pacman on it. It was a quite good port, and was released fairly late in the 2600's lifespan. So, if someone were working at Atari, they could have easily "borrowed" a copy of the ROM and stuck it on the closest board at hand. Either that, or it's an elaborate April Fool's joke... which would be par for the course on AtariAge. Either way, it will be interesting to see the outcome! -Ian

I'm looking to pick up a few more NES and 2600 games. I really just want them to play, so I'm looking for just the cartridges, in good working condition. None of these are particularly rare games, just games I haven't found locally yet. NES: ------ Paperboy Super Dodge Ball Time Lord Galactic Crusader Adventurs of Lolo Mappyland Joust Battle Toads Kiwi Kraze Atari 2600: ------------- Pressure Cooker Pitfall II Bump N Jump Gyruss Tunnel Runner

And I knew what I was doing - I just didn't do it right... It was my own dumb fault for heating it too much, and I knew that. I posted this because I thought it was pretty funny that I blew up that battery, and I also wanted to warn others that these things can explode. But even then, the only danger was the solder spray. It wasn't much of an explosion - a little POP! like a small firecracker. The battery crud cleaned up easily, and while I washed it off my hands pretty quickly, it didn't seem caustic. Lithium coin batteries are pretty tame as far as caustic things go. I mean, I wouldn't eat the stuff - but it's not going to hurt you from the tiny amount that's in a battery or two. The same can be said for most consumer batteries. Alkaline batteries are also pretty safe - they can leak crud that will corrode electronics, but getting it on your hands for a short time isn't going to hurt you. Soldering to batteries is very doable and generally safe when done properly. But wearing a face mask protects you from when it isn't done properly. The same is true of using most power tools. Drilling holes in wood is generally safe - but it's a good idea to wear some safety glasses, just in case. In fact, any time that there is potential for tiny flying bits of anything - drilling, dremeling, using a table saw, soldering to things that might go POOF!... - I would much rather have a piece of impact resistant polycarbonate between my face and aforementioned tiny flying bits. But maybe that's just me. -Ian

Yes. A cap can fail without being obvious. However, when you reverse the polarity, they typically do explode. I reread your earlier post. You said that it worked for about five minutes _then_ failed? If so, then you hooked it up right. If you had it backwards it would have gone BANG almost instantly. It could really have been coincidence... did the 7800 work before? I'm intrigued as to what happened here. If it was a crummy solder connection, then it should have simply arced right at the connection, and left a little burnt mark. I assume that you've already checked that though. -Ian

Nope - the Genesis power supply will work just fine. There's an internal regulator in the Atari that generates five volts from it anyway. Meethinks you hooked it up wrong. The original Genesis power supply (9v) is a little odd - the outside of the barrel is the positive, and the inside pin is negative. I think you were using a Genesis 2 power supply - which IIRC, has the center positive and the outside negative - and I think it's 10 volts. Look closely at the Sega power supply connector, if it has a little yellow tab in it, it's for the Genesis 2 - not the Genesis. The extra volt would not hurt anything - but the mismatched polarity would. I've never used the stock supply on a 7800 - that connector is just too flakey, and by the time I got them, they were always really crummy. I just desoldered the old connector and fitted a new one. I haven't heard of a solderless mod... but I wouldn't trust it. I want something that's going to make a good, clean connection - not clip onto some existing pin. If you hooked it up backwards, you likely blew the main filter caps, possibly the diodes and very likely the 7805 voltage regulator. It's probably fixable. -Ian