Rastignac

- 2600 Junior is always Pal. No Secam Juniors. Easy choice. The Peritel Junior is very rare, but the best choice. - 7800 is always Pal. No Secam 7800s. Easy choice. And Peritel equipped. - Older French 2600 (wood) has the same look as Pal 2600, so one can't guess at first glance. Be careful. - The serial sticker under the Secam 2600 says "2600-S" or similar, so avoid this one. - Newer French 2600 (grey) is easy to spot: if it's the grey one, avoid it. - Buying from nearby countries (Belgium, UK, etc) can help. All Europe is Pal, only France is Secam. - My favorite target: the UK six switch wood. France never had six switches 2600, only four switches 2600. Easy to sort out.

Scart gives RGB + Composite + audio. Some pins are the RGB ones, others are the composite ones. TV set looks first for the RGB signal, then drops to composite signal if RGB is not found. So, removing/pushing RGB pins from the Scart forces composite output. (There are also cheap "dongles" with Scart-in --> RCA-out).

Do you think it can be use with 2600 roms? The 7800 console runs 2600 games; will it run with this burner? (at least, 4KB/nonswitched games?).

If I remember, Epoch imported the 2600 from USA to Japan, years before the 2800. They sold only a few ones; they were expensive. They prefered to sell Epoch's own consoles; the Atari one was not their main goal.

Maybe: - 6502 was easy to use inside a "custom chip". (Nintendo's NES/Famicom also use a customized 6502). - 6502 has less transistors than Z80, so it is less power-hungry. - Atari's programmers (and Atari's partners ones) knew 6502 very well. - ...

Today is the day. I feel like I am the only one in the whole universe having the complete Activision 2600 Secam set... Here are some pictures. (Sorry for the meh quality). This Secam game runs on a Pal console (so colors are not the Secam ones). Note the "CARB" (aka "carburant", aka "fuel in French"). Thanks. "I don't have Atari friends. I got Atari family."

Modern TV sets are just like computer monitors now. They are just digital things dealing with digital signals. They don't think "analog" anymore. Most TV sets are worldwide identical. You can feed 720p, 1080p, etc, at 50hz, 60hz, whatever, they handle all. Some don't even deal with old analog parts now. A few monthes ago, a new French law even removed the Scart/Péritel inputs from all sold TV sets! You can't plug an old VCR or an old console with them.

Hertzian Secam broadcast in France is dead for years. France uses MPEG2 TNT and MPEG4 TNTHD.

Now, in a few days. (I traded a rare Pitfall2 PAL for a gigarare RiverRaid1 SECAM!) Soon, it must be dumped. Stay tuned.

Note that I'm still looking for "the Last Of Five French Activision Secam Games", aka RiverRaid1, but I really can't find it. I'm so sad about it. "It will be mine. Oh yes. It will be mine."

Some old thread about it: http://atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?t=1421

Great. Many thanks for your hard work. You're THE ONE!

It's from a (future/unpublished) French book about Atari. This part is based upon an Alan Miller's interview. << Alan Miller hired Bill Gates and MicroSoft. MsBasic already exists for 6502, so it should be fast to write. So the contract's delay is very short. Fred Thorlin is waiting. He calls Bill. Bill only has unfinished/uncomplete technical documents about Atari's computers, so it's hard to complete his Basic's port. MicroSoft must pay for every MsBasic's late day. The delay is already over. Even if MicroSoft finishes MsBasic's port, they will gain nearly zero dollars for it. MsBasic needs a 12KB rom, but target cartridge is 8KB. They can't optimize it under 8KB. So Atari fires Bill Gates! Atari then calls Bob Shepardson from "Shepardson Microsystems". (Team: Paul Laughton, Bill Wilkinson, Kathleen O'Brien, etc). AtariBasic is done from scratch and only in a few weeks. First version is ready for december 1978 (just before january CES). Final version is ready for april 1979.>>

MicroSoft was so late with their Basic's port that Atari "fired" Bill Gates. Also, MS Basic was 12KB and can't fit a 8KB rom. AtariBasic was a rush job to fill the hole before the computers come to the shops.

The last batch of French Junior have a Péritel/Scart output. So they are easy to plug into modern TV sets. And the video signal is quite good. They are very rare; I'm still looking for one.