Rob Mitchell

Capacitors are cheap cheap cheap ... No big deal! Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

Well I did try out Thomas' hack .. and it does use the driving controller .. but the game still suffers because there are fewer angles of orientation of the car (as opposed to 16 angles of orientation of Indy 500 car). If Thomas could hack in more angles of car orientation into Sprintmaster .. then it could be a much better game. Heck .. just completely replace the Sprintmaster cars with Indy 500 cars! Thomas .. Looks like off the wall needs to have a paddle hack! and Beamrider needs a Driving Controller hack! Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

Does this have audio out? If so it could work with the Cuttle if it has Windows CE2 and can run PlayBIN. I still need to get a WinCE2/3 device for the Cuttle Cart. The HP200LX only has RS232 out .. and connects to the serial Vectrex RAM Cart via cable .. and built-in terminal communication program. Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

Paul: Looks like a great game .. I look forward to playing it! Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

My thoughts also .. coupled with the Cuttle Cart. Right now I have a DOS palmtop (HP200LX) connected to the Vectrex RAMCart .. and that is the best setup for the Vectrex. I want the same thing for the 2600. Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

That would be cool! I guess an original 1977 console would be best to modify .. You could put two speakers under the grill where it was supposed to have speakers. Then you could add a volume knob for a small stereo audio amp inside. Audio jack out for headphones. Back in 1998, I modded my four switch .. for 2 ch audio and Lumina/ Chroma out. I also put in the Battlezone Tread Control circuit with controller ports up front for the two suckered joysticks. Added autofire circuit for controller port 1. But now I have removed the Tank circuit .. in favor of having controller ports up front. And I am adding five buttons on top of the deck for Asteroids style control. Now if I could only find the best PDA for playbin WAV all the BIN games to the Cuttle. I am tired of being tethered to the family desktop! I want to get back to the basement where I have my Commodore monitor and small stereo setup. Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

Really? If you are gentle .. you should not be breaking pins. For me it was easier to just bend the pins and solder. The board tracing has the two connections shorted together immediately .. so that is harder to cut and separate .. than just soldering directly to the pins. Another thing I did was put electrical tape over the exposed pins and wires to prevent connection to the aluminum, RF shield when reassembled. I think I lined the inside of the shield with electrical tape too to prevent any possibility of short with pins 12/13. I did drill some big holes in the shield to accommodate all the A/V wires coming out. Then the wires go off to the SPST switch mounted on the back of the console, then back to the 2x resistor/cap circuit (outside the aluminum shield) and out to 2x RCA jacks on back. Never any problem or buzz. When you get it fixed, check out all the early games (combat, Indy 500, Air-Sea Battle) to make sure you got the Left/Right wired up correctly and not backwards. Then plug in Turmoil and crank up the volume! You will be truely amazed !!! At the first Cinciclassic (1998), I connected the 2600 to a stereo in the hall, plugged in Turmoil, cranked up the volume, hit reset .. and everyone in the hall turned their heads and dropped their jaws! What the hell was that? Sight unseen, one guy said, "TURMOIL!" Rob Mitchell, Altanta, GA (Next is Synthcart to be shown at Cinciclassic 2002.)

Here is the mod that I did .. 2 sound channel out .. and a switch to short pins 12/13 together to reestablish mono sound for the standard RF 2/3 out. Very clean, quiet audio .. no buzz. From: [email protected] (Kevin Horton) Date: 21 Jan 1996 02:20:11 GMT Also it's confirmed: You *can* get stereo out of a 2600!!! Both sound channels exit the TIA seperately. To get two seperate audio outputs from a 2600: Lift pins #12 and #13. Tie each to 5V through a 2K resistor. Attach two .1uf caps to the two joins formed by the pin and resistor. Attach two audio cables to the free ends of the caps and ground the shields of the audio cables. I suggest adding a switch to short the two pins together (that's what was done in the 2600) for mono sound. You'll need mono for things like Pitfall ][, unless you like your music in one side and all the sound FX in the other! :-)

David .. send me your mess and I'll make it work for you ... Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

Hi Scott: When you do the mod .. you should make it 2 channel sound out. TIA pins 12 and 13 are the two sound channels .. which are immediately shorted together to make the Mono TV Sound. You should put in a switch if you want to short them together: a Mono/Stereo Switch. Keep me informed when you get the Synthcart and the mod going .. Thanks Paul for a mind-blowing musical/ visual 2600 experience! Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

Well I was pressing the buttons .. and suddenly it happened .. Then I remembered you had sent me a message about it .. so I looked it up and I am able to go to the light show mode at will now. Very very very COOL! I'm gonna hook it to the Atari Video Music .. and have two monitors responding to my keypresses .. at the Cinciclassic! Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

Ok .. I found US patent #4081829 .. March 28, 1978 which documents the Atari Video Music. It shows the IC has outputs 21 (Chroma) and 23 (Lumina) as well as Sync going to the RF Modulator. So this would be an easy pick-up .. Maybe for fun... Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

I've always paid $2-$5 for a pong .. Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

My wife thinks videogames are a waste of brains ... Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

Hey .. I found my rarest cart at the flea on Melrose .. weekends are better that weekdays ... You can find thrifts between Hermosa Beach and Venice .. if I remember correctly .. Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

Sure .. But you might need a special S-Video cable connection .. Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

I did the mod that features the CD4050 chip (available at Radio Shack). I did it in 1998 .. It gives a great picture on the Commodore Monitors. I have lumina and chroma out .. which when shorted together make composite video. I have not had success with the cheap, "solder all the wires together and see what happens" mod. I also did the two audio channel out mod .. for stereo effects. These shorted together give the standard TV sound out. Do the mod .. it's easier than you think .. and makes the 2600 picture clear as a bell .. Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

I just plugged in Paul Slocum's 2600 Synthcart to explore some of the options .. and I activated the "light show mode" .. My gosh! IT'S VIDEO MUSIC on the 2600!! The preprogrammed beatbox rhythms activate white cross bars across the screen .. to the beat .. and when I press notes on the keyboard .. horizontal bars of color move quickly up the screen .. the height of the bars is based on the duration of the keypress. The effect is stunning! both visually and musically! It could be the basis of some cool rave music! Thanks Paul! BTW: My 2600 is modified for two channel sound out .. to a 100 watt stereo. Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

This thread lead me to think that there are not enough head-to-head 2 player games ... Someone please program Smithereens and Dogpatch for the 2600 ... Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

No .. I received a message from John last night .. He's been too busy at work to do anything yet ... Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA (dang .. I need to learn how to program the 2600 ...)

The Keyboard Controllers came out in 1978. They were sold separately and were not packaged with carts initially. They were sold at Sears also .. does anyone know if the Sears Keyboard controller is different in appearance from the Atari one? The first carts to use the keyboard are CodeBreaker (Sears and Atari), Memory Match (Concentration), and Brain Games --- all 1978. Later came Basic Programming (1981?) with overlay. (I made my own overlays.) Some time later there was a combo programming package with pack-in Basic Programming cart and keyboard controllers. Still later came Star Raiders (1982?)with pack-in video touch pad controller (electronically equivalent to Keyboards.) After that came the Sesame Street games (1983) with overlays that use the Kid Controller (electronically equivalent to the Keyboards) separately sold. The big crime is that Atari did not program the Basic Math cart (1977) and later Grand Pris Math cart to use the keyboard controllers. Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

The Keyboard Controllers came out in 1978. They were sold separately and were not packaged with carts initially. They were sold at Sears also .. does anyone know if the Sears Keyboard controller is different in appearance from the Atari one? The first carts to use the keyboard are CodeBreaker (Sears and Atari), Memory Match (Concentration), and Brain Games --- all 1978. Later came Basic Programming (1981?) with overlay. (I made my own overlays.) Some time later there was a combo programming package with pack-in Basic Programming cart and keyboard controllers. Still later came Star Raiders (1982?)with pack-in video touch pad controller (electronically equivalent to Keyboards.) After that came the Sesame Street games (1983) with overlays that use the Kid Controller (electronically equivalent to the Keyboards) separately sold. Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

Lunar Lander (graphics) (supposidly being programmed) John Dondzila is interested in making this one happen ... Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

Well .. Thrust .. Gravitar .. and Codebreaker .. Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

Hey .. I would like to see this Vectrex BIN .. and load it up on my VecRAM cart and see what it looks like on a real Vectrex! I've been dabbling in Vectrex programming off/on .. and have actually written a real program for the Vectrex: The Proof of the Pythagorian Theorem .. and it works! There are two excellent Vectrex programming tutorials .. makes it easy! Now it is time to check out the 2600 programming info .. and see what I can play with .. Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA (full of programming dreams)