tetrode kink

Ha! Fellow pack-rat, I see. Just don't let those "Hoarders" people get ahold of you.

Are you thinking of what's called "galvanic corrosion"? Of course, there's no electrolyte, but still.... Sounds about right. I'm talking about the reason why plug terminals and sockets should be made of (or plated with) similar metals, otherwise the metal becomes corroded. You're right, there's no obvious electrolyte in this case, but maybe what I'm talking about is related to, if not definitively, galvanic corrosion. Thanks nightglider1, may your flights always be adventurous and fruitful... Congrats, dougy76. Ahh, another VCS saved by surgery. Gives me the warm & fuzzies...

Mini 2600? Just tear into an old Flashback.

Yes, tabletop radios would eventually be housed in Bakelite. I'm talking about the really big radios, the ones that stood on the floor. Like the size of a console stereo from the '70s, and some even taller than that. Now there was a piece of furniture! Yes, woodgrain was very evident in the '70s. But that isn't what you said. You said woodgrain was a '70s concept, which it wasn't. Hey, Do you have any of those old radios? I would love to see them! I'm a ham. kc8*** Heh, sorry, never did. Closest I came was me and my friend, being radio nerds in high-school, used to make the rounds of Goodwill and Salvation Army stores regularly and snap up "newer" tube radios. You know, the 5-tube specials from the '50s and '60s. In the late-'70s, those were abundant; seemed like there were new prospects on the shelves almost daily. mmm, tubes... 35W4 diode, all half-wave inefficient; 50C5 amp, dropping half the filament voltage and only producing 2 Watts output on a good day. Ahh, those were the days. When you wouldn't bat an eye at sucking 30 watts of electricity just to listen to the radio. Other than that, no, I've never seen one of the old monster "stove" floor-standing radios except in pictures and movies. Well, there was my Aunt Molly's old radio. I was a little kid when she still had it and all I remember about it was that it towered over me! Yes. The B&W/Color switch isn't tied to the video output in any way. It's a software-readable switch that the programmer could use like the other software-readable switches - Difficulty, Game Select, Reset. So, any game that used it to actually change the display for B&W merely used different colors in the VCS's color palette to display the objects. Space Invaders, for example, actually changed the colors to all shades of gray. Also, SI changed the light objects/dark background to dark objects/light background when you switched it to B&W mode. You could still see this change occur on a B&W TV, and you could even play the VCS in color mode on a B&W TV because the TV displayed the game like it displayed any color signal - in B&W. The programmers mostly just used higher-contrast colors for B&W mode when they actually used it for B&W mode.

It could be that the jack's internal contacts are fatigued or corroded (corroded isn't the right word, I can't think of the term for when two metals are in constant contact and "change" over time). Anyway, you might need a new jack. BTW, a part's solder terminals don't have to be completely buried in solder for it to be a solid joint. The solder can form a conical or "volcano" shape, with the terminal sticking out the top, and as long as the solder engulfs the terminal all the way around the solder pad, odds are it's a good joint (excepting a cold solder joint, of course).

Nukey comes through again! You and your mad gaming/programming skilz... Thanks, Nukey, re: Starmaster. A la Johnny Carson, (adjusts tie) "I did not know that!"

Yeah, and Starmaster might as well be Stare-master, cause that's about all you can do with it now. Dude, you just crippled your VCS. Well, for a few games, anyway.

Hey, nice photos. Just to contribute to the Atari nerd factor: Another problem is how she's holding the sticks. She's got such a delicate grip that she'd never get anywhere actually playing a game. Those sticks need to be handled! But then, some girls are timid when handling sticks...

OK, now I know what nathanallan does for a living - he works for the foreign service! El Paso is just your hometown, right nathan? You're really working in New York, right? Or do you have a diplomatic posting somewhere out in the world?

There is a pause kit available, developed by a member and sold by AtariAge. You can build it yourself from schematics, or buy the kit here.

Dial-up wouldn't just block images and replace it with "posted image." It would just load them slooooooooowly. It's more likely that someone's ISP didn't like those Ruskie servers. That's an interesting board. It looks like it has only one chip (of significance), like maybe it's a "VCS-on-a-chip" or something. CPU, TIA and RIOT all on one chip. Maybe the ROM with all the built-in games is under the cartridge port, or maybe it's on the Big Chip too. What I'd like to know is, does that thing put its signal out on RF? I can't see an RF modulator. NickKuz, does that machine put out its video on A/V, or RF? [edit] Just looked again, and I spotted the Channel Select switch on the upper-right corner of the board, so it must put out on RF. Wow, where's the RF circuitry?! Unless on that console it isn't a Channel Select, but something else... [/edit]

Yes, tabletop radios would eventually be housed in Bakelite. I'm talking about the really big radios, the ones that stood on the floor. Like the size of a console stereo from the '70s, and some even taller than that. Now there was a piece of furniture! Yes, woodgrain was very evident in the '70s. But that isn't what you said. You said woodgrain was a '70s concept, which it wasn't.

The Keeper of this, Ye Holy List has indefinitely, but possibly not permanently abdicated his duties earlier this year. The vaulted position of Keeper of Ye Holy List is waiting for the next Honourable Knight of Atarius to step up and accept the solemn task.

You got it, P4x4! Us cheap bastards efficient money handlers gotta stick together! Seriously, though, I'd buy several of each if O'Shea would sell them individually. How about a pool of AA members buy the remains from O'Shea, then sell them individually on eBay, GG, Marketplace here, etc. Then whenever any sold, proceeds would be divvied up among the pool of original investors. Probably wouldn't make any money, but it could be viewed as an investment of love in order to save games from the smelter.

I have a couple ideas... Dad finally decides to complete a major honeydo and paint the inside of the garage. Of course, that's where the carts are stored, and, of course, it's just old junk so Dad isn't concerned if it gets a little paint on it. Sometimes it might not be paint. Could be guano splatter from whatever was living in the attic where the carts were (unfortunately) stored. I'm sure I've only scratched the surface as to the possibilities...

Nice find zylon! And at such a low price, too! BTW, why do you assume you'll have to change out the switches before even powering it up?

The first best thing of course comes in packs of six! Hmm, I see what you mean, but that wasn't what came to my mind when iwan named Big Sexy second...

Disagree. You may be right about the VCS design looking like a small computer, since I believe the original idea was to put a keyboard where the large, empty cross-slatted area is, but I really doubt they were trying to make it resemble the Altair. That machine was made for a small group of serious, dedicated electronics/computer hobbyists, while the VCS was to be marketed to the general public. Yes, the designers included a few elements of the early computers which you mentioned, but surely it was because the engineers knew about the Altair, not because the general public would recognize the resemblance. Disagree again. The "wood" panel on the VCS wasn't a '70s concept, it was a design mode that came with the introduction of electronic devices for the masses in the early twentieth century - the first home radios - which were so big, they had to become part of the household furnishings in order for the Missus to accept it into her living room. Yes, futurists and computer makers/enthusiasts/evangelists did project that computers would be commonly part of the home, but that isn't why there was woodgrain on the VCS. This is all IMHO, BTW. ICBW. Also, the VCS doesn't have rocker switches, they're slide switches.

LOL, I think it's 72 games a case, so that's over 400 cases. Shipping would be a small fortune as well. Not to mention having to store many pallets of games. ..Al Group purchase? Maybe a pilgrimage... We could all show up with a couple hundred $$ each, and load up. Rip open the boxes, tear out the carts, make a bonfire with all the packaging. I bet we could be on national news! But by the time you add in legal fees (for my divorce...) it might not be worth it. ...not to mention permitting and liability for the bonfire... Plus they'd probably make you pay for the fire equipment to be there. Fun though a gigantic video-game packaging bonfire might be...

I'm not sure they would have gone to the lengths of doing a public survey in order to determine what switches to move to the back of the console. Not all business decisions are user-prompted; some are pure engineering decisions, and others are just geared to cutting costs. ICBW, but I imagine Atari was looking for ways to cut manufacturing costs, with the primary focus on reducing the VCS to a one-board affair. As stated previously, they could have done that while still keeping all six switches on the front and all the switches would still be board-mounted. But maybe that wasn't enough. Maybe they also found that they could move the Diff switches to the back of the console, still have them board-mounted, and then use cheaper slide switches to boot. BTW, I would like to take this opportunity to amend something I said earlier here: I would like to add that, even though I admire the redesign, I don't like having the Diff switches on the back, from a user's standpoint. I just admire the 4-SW design from an efficiency standpoint. Just wanted to clear that up.

Hmm... enhancement/replacement for LED indicators Panel switch status Rotating temperature display: Voltage regulator 6507/TIA/RIOT Ambient case, internal [*]Read out the MD5 sig of the inserted cart, as how Stella identifies carts; OR, if you really wanna get fancy, read out the name of the cart based on its known MD5. Could be used to identify problem carts (stealth hacks, pirates, bit-rot, etc.) Anything there that: strikes your fancy? is doable? I mean, come on, you're a techie. Do you really need an excuse to put an LCD display in anything?!

Good thing several people were ahead of me. I would have felt so guilty "stealing" all that kit for that price I probably would have offered you a little more... -tet

Congrats on getting it to work, endrien. BTW, the post edit limit isn't # of edits, it's time. You can edit your post as much as you want up to an hour after you first post it. If you're a subscriber, that limit extends to thirty days (or something like that). -tet

My thoughts exactly. Their selection of switches to move does seem a little illogical. Not really. Early eighties portable TVs were becoing more popular in kids bedrooms especially B&W ones. So, that they did not annoy the parent by using the main colour tv they could connect the VCS/2600 up to the portable. Although large B&W TVs were losing out to cheaper colour ones, the portable market was populated by B&Ws - colour portables still being very expensive. So, it would make sense to leave the color/b&w switch on the front. Perhaps in the UK, but in the 80's here in the states, B&W TV's were pretty rare except the occasional 5" or 13" screen. I agree with Supercat.Make some sort of different power switch, and leave the difficulty switches on the front. Would make Starmaster much easier. Hmm, really? I seem to remember B&W TVs still being sold all over the place, at least in the smaller screens. Remember the 12" B&W specials? Every OEM and their brand-badge buyers were selling those things. They were just about the only TV you could get for under $100 so there was still a market for them. ICBW, memory (especially mine) being an inexact record and all, but I'd hardly call that an "occasional" market. I don't quite understand your point about having the difficulty switches on the front making Starmaster easier: I don't think they were even used in that game. It was the B&W switch that changed screens so that made the switch equally accessible on both 6- and 4-switch machines. -tet

I get that on my Vader as well. Not only that, but sometimes it happens when actuating joystick switches. That happens most when I use my Wico stick. I have never seen any of that behavior on my H6. -tet