Ian Primus

I just picked up a fairly good pile of 5200 carts, including some made by third parties, and I must say - the brain-dead cartridge design from Atari seems to have infected the third parties as well. On the 2600 and 7800, all the cartridges have convenient labels on their ends so that when the games are piled on a shelf, or in a box, they're easy to identify. All Atari branded cartridges have end labels, and almost all third party carts do too. For the 5200, Atari decided to make their system as inconvenient as possible for people to use. This is where we got the special Atari-only automatic switchbox, the non self-centering stick, and the controller storage bin that won't fit the controllers unless the cables are coiled up just so. And, of course, the cherry on the inconvenience sundae - the cartridges lack end labels. So, Atari's cartidges don't have end labels. Activision, a well-known producer of quality titles for the 2600 must have agreed with this move - since their cartridges don't have end labels either. The end of the cart slopes down ever so slightly, and while some carts do have the name printed there - it hardly helps, since the angle isn't great enough to be able to read it when the cartridges are on a shelf. Parker Brothers produced games for the 5200 with a similar design - much like their 2600 cartridges, only bigger. The end of those carts is angled at a 45 degree angle, so this CAN serve as an end label. Pity that they still hadn't figured out how to work the glue. CBS Electronics actually designed a good cartridge, and came oh-so close to having end labels. The label folds over the end of the cartridge, and the end of the cartridge says... "CBS Electronics". Huh? How does that help? Amazingly enough, it would seem that whoever designed the label actually did a good job - but the idiots the glued them to the cartridge stuck them on upside down. Had the label been put on the other way, it would have been perfect. Look at one, and you'll see what I mean. The games name is printed TWICE on the face of the cart. And the smaller name is just perfect to fit on the end of the game... Of all the cartridges I have - it would seem that only one company did it right - Sega. I only have one game - Buck Rogers - but it has a label that wraps to the end, and the label is well adhered to the cartridge. Way to go Sega. -Ian

True - but my point was that you'd have to add active circuitry to convert the chroma/luma levels to RGB - thus defeating the purpose of RGB - the video isn't going to get any _better_ by converting it after it's been generated. -Ian

This wouldn't be possible without adding a substantial amount of extra stuff to the poor Atari. The TIA generates the chroma and luma signals directly. Video does not exist as independent color signals anywhere in the console. -Ian

I don't have one, and I can't say I've been looking for one either. If I found one at a flea market, I'd buy it though. I just use EPROMs to run games on the real hardware. -Ian

Yes. You could do it. At least with an LP or a 45. A wax cylinder wouldn't work, for various reasons - but mostly because it has too much surface noise, a limited frequency response, and the output of the machine that plays said wax cylinder is purely acoustic - no electrical signal output. I know that the magazine "The Rainbow" distributed a flexible soundsheet with computer programs for the Tandy Color Computer on it. That worked fairly well. But... here's another snag. You need a preamp to go from a record into something like a Supercharger. The output of a standard turntable is simply the output from the phono cartridge - no amplification. You would need a preamp, or a receiver with phono inputs to boost the signal enough to go to the Supercharger. Also, the equalization of a record is different than a tape - you'd have to talk with someone experienced in mastering records to be sure that your signal would come off the record (and through a standard RIAA curve on a preamp) in such a way that the Supercharger could understand it. The above mentioned soundsheet came with explicit instructions to copy the record to a cassette first, and load it into your computer with the cassette tape. And then there's the enormous cost of getting records produced. CD's and tapes are easy - everyone has that equipment at home. Record cutting machines do exist - but the records they produce are hardly "production quality" - they're acetate discs that wouldn't survive repeated playings. To get an actual record produced would be a rather expensive proposition, and you'd need to have a run of at least 1000 copies or so. That said, I know that a lot of small bands have singles made up, after the mastering and set-up charges, a run of a 1000 works out to around five bucks a disc or less. But that would be a 7" single. LP's would be much costlier. How long are supercharger games (in minutes) anyway? I've never used a Supercharger - I have an EPROM programmer... Unfortunately, the only advantage here is the "freaking cool" factor. The necessary setup would require a turntable, an amplifier, a Supercharger and an Atari - and it would all have to be operating properly. A turntable with a worn belt, or one with speed issues would screw things up big time. How many of us even have a Supercharger, anyway? -Ian

I think you should just put the game in your kitchen. <grin> -Ian

The heads come off EM pinball machines easily, and the solid state ones typically fold down easily - but can also be removed with more difficulty. You need to get inside the head though, since the bolts holding it on will only be accessable there. Raise the playfield and look to the back where the wires come down. If you're lucky, there will be a couple large molex connectors there. Disconnect them, unbolt the head, and away you go. If not - then you can simply disconnect all the wiring from the logic boards inside the head, and thread it through. Shouldn't be necessary though. With EM machines, the BACK of the head is a piece of sheet metal, which removes easily (a lock). Inside will be two or three big connectors for the wiring. But solid state machines have solid backboxes, the only access being through the front, by removing the glass. Don't worry - these things do come apart. But first thing's first - you do need to get inside the head, which means drilling out or picking the lock, lifting up the backglass and removing it. Don't worry about the lock either - you can buy another one for about five bucks. -Ian

If you desolder the cable off a Sega Genesis controller, it's already got the crimp pins on the end of the wires - it makes things much easier. But, that relies on finding a Sega controller with cable that's not frayed apart where it enters the controller... The local used video game guy gives me his junky Sega controllers - a lot are frayed apart there. I used one of these to make my Genesis Vectrex controller, so I had to cut the last couple inches off and thread the cable through the strain relief again - this works great, but that means I had to solder that stupid flexible wire. I found that the best I could do was strip back a little extra, twist it together, heat it with the soldering iron to melt that nylon thread that's in with the wire, then tin it, and trim off the end. Many, many moons ago I converted an NES controller with a bad cable to an Atari controller - this was before I had a 7800, I just used the cable from a broken Atari stick. The biggest problem was that the wire on those Atari sticks isn't that long, and for some reason, when I'm playing with a d-pad style controller, I tend to not sit up next to the TV, I like to sit back in the chair. The nice thing about Sega controllers is that the cable is nice and long. How long was the cable on a Pro-Line? I forget - it's been a while since I've seen one. Honestly, I think the hardest part of Ax's job is going to be dying the plastic parts and making up new labels that look nice. That's gotta be a pain. -Ian

Note that the above only works on keyboards that are made from switches soldered to a circuit board. Having never seen the Atari 800xl keyboard (at least, not remembered), I don't know if it is or not. If it's something else, like a membrane keyboard, then obviously, the "rewire the thing" trick doesn't work. -Ian

I've done something similar on a couple of occasions, although I never bought any fancy parts - I just did it "the hard way". For example, the keyboard I use on my main system at home is a Zenith terminal keyboard I bought from a surplus company. I hacked it up and connected it to the encoder board scavenged from a crummy USB Compaq keyboard. Basically, you need to: Take apart a modern PC keyboard. Inside you'll find two membranes with traces, separated by a membrane with holes in it. Trace out each side of the membrane, so you know the layout of the connections on the encoder board. The board in a modern PC keyboard is only about the size of a business card. Take a knife or a dremel tool and cut all the traces on the keyboard you want to interface. Basically, you isolate all the switches from each other. Rewire the keyboard manually to match the layout of the PC's membranes - manually, using wire, and connect it onto the encoder board from the PC. There you go! It's more work than the other solutions, but it's really not hard - just tedious. Took me a couple hours. But, you don't have to buy any special hardware, there's nothing to program, and the resulting keyboard is 100% compatible with the PC. I've done this a few times - like when I built a PC/clone into the case of an Apple IIe. -Ian

Eesh. That's a LOT of money for such a bad game. But, it is rare, and this is the extra-special-rare version that has a real label, instead of a file-folder label with "Halloween" scraweled on it in magic marker. -Ian

It's cheaper, and a fair bit slower. Also, the pricing is much simpler - shipping an item that weighs one pound costs exactly the same, regardless of "zone". If they'd just simplify the pricing structure, and perhaps lower it a bit - they could easily do away with Media Mail all together. It's to make shipping books more affordable. It was originally called "book rate" - but then got expanded to cover things like records and tapes. -Ian

PM sent. -Ian

Ah. Pity that this information doesn't seem to exist with the rest of the rules on the USPS website. Again, another poorly defined, poorly documented regulation. If you want your customers to abide by your rules, you must make the rules known upfront. Casual searching of the USPS website does not turn up this nugget of information. Yeah, I'm sure if you dug far enough, you could find it. But that's hardly the point. If a customer has something they wish to mail Media Mail, they think to simply check the website to see if it's allowed. They're not going to spend an hour going deeper, once they find the previously quoted text. As for people trying to send systems or computers Media Mail, well, that's just plain stupidity on their part. It's not a grey area, it's specifically not allowed. But, here again, the note on the website should really include that Media Mail is for Media ONLY - and not for related items. Not "Media Mail is generally used for books of greater than 8 pages..." I can also sorta see the logic "Well, if records can go Media Mail, then why not a record player? That's related to media". -Ian

Which, is odd - since, if they have a rule of "no video games", then they really ought to say "no video games". Here's what the USPS website has to say about Media Mail: And video game cartridges, to me, fall under the category of "computer-readable media". The last time I had anything shipped to me media mail was quite a while ago - a guy sent me a large box full of nine-track computer tapes (heavy suckers). Like all government-related substances, USPS seems to go out of their way to enforce rules that aren't stated clearly, and describe things in the most ambiguous manner possible. But yeah, if the post office is being jerks about shipping video game media as media mail, then I guess just avoid it. Priority is actually fairly affordable in many cases. Or, Fed-Ex. -Ian

Huh. While I've never sent anything Media Mail, this really suprises me. I mean, to me, the name "Media Mail" implies a method of mailing media. A game cartridge is just as much "media" as a CD, a book or a record. Actually, to tell you the truth, video game cartridges would be higher on my list of things I consider media than books would be. -Ian

Thanks! Yeah, that was a fun project. Took me a couple entire afternoons to build, but so worth it. The tubes are russian surplus I bought on eBay. The transformers were scavenged from HP DeskJet power packs, and wired back to back (isolation). Each digit is drivin by it's own transistor, and the timekeeping is standard CMOS logic, using AC line frequency as a timebase. Believe it or not, it's amazingly accurate. Yeah, I could have bought a kit, or pre-printed boards. But what's the fun in that? Speaking of which, on an Atari-related note, my very own copy of Beamrider: I couldn't find one, and it's such a great game, so I made my own. It started life as Pac-Man. Yeah, I could have bought one of the pre-fab boards from AtariAge store, but again - this is more fun And yes, that is a 2764 on that board, the additional four pins are folded over (they won't fit into the board, no holes), and I had to cut a groove into the cart plastic support because the EPROM sticks out more on the side. This only affects the internal part of the cartridge, you can't tell from outside. -Ian

I'm really suprised you weren't able to find a parallel cable in a computer store. They used to be so incredibly common. Target and Wal-Mart used to sell them. Sometimes called "parallel extension cables". You know, this is a lot of work to go through just to cheat at video games on your N64... with all the time you spent researching, you could have just beaten the game yourself.. :D :D -Ian

Eh, with 5200 carts, it doesn't much matter - it's not like the other end of the cartridge is any more descriptive. At least that way, the labels are all facing the right way up when you flip through the stack. The last time I fired up one of my old Sega tapes, it made me a waffle. <grin> But seriously, I always wondered what genius at Sega decided that Master System cartridges should be EXACTLY the same size and shape as a cassette tape case, but didn't bother to label the end of the cart so you could put them nicely in cassette holders! -Ian

While I have no idea what they currently sell for, the last time I saw one for sale many years ago, someone wanted like $200 for it. No clue on current value. As for getting it working with modern equipment, there should be no problem. It just takes line level audio, available from any hi-fi receiver, and it outputs video - RF I think - which is no problem to hook up to any TV. It's not like audio signals or TV frequencies have changed in the last 30 years. From what I remember seeing of that device - it's output is pretty limited. Neat, but limited. -Ian

And, then there's the GIICM - a wonderful quick reference for pinouts of parts. -Ian

Hehe. Fastest keyboard in the NorthEast -Ian

Yeah, but he's got a K6/2 - I think by then, it was pretty standardized on the coin battery. The potted RTC module or soldered on lithium battery was common in the 386 and 486 era - I can't recall ever seeing one on a Pentium or newer machine. Of course, that doesn't mean that it wasn't done, just, I can't recall ever seeing one... In any case, a picture would help... -Ian

I think that the best way to hold arcade marquess would be to put them into the brackets on the arcade machine. That seems to hold them nicely I've got a couple of plastic marquees hangung up using push pins - some below, some above, to hold them in place. For the glass ones, I'd go for those mirror hanging tabs that go around bathroom mirrors. Another idea would be to get a strip of wood with a groove in it, and screw the wood to the wall, resting the marquee in the groove, with perhaps another on top? What about those spring clips they make for holding plates to the wall? Perhaps one could me modified to hold a marquee? -Ian

Hehe - the picture tube in my monitor here at work is really worn out. Those pictures are almost entirely black here... Still having problems finding the battery? It should be fairly obvious - it's the only round shiny silver battery-sized item on the board -Ian