SearsRoebuck

Ordered the minute I saw the front page. Been waiting for this for months, thanks to everyone who was able to put this together. And Bob, I look forward to your future releases - I already have several of your homebrews on cart.

Yeah I actually first heard about this because the repairman I mentioned in my post managed to get one (but only one) of these and used it to repair a Millipede PCB - so I got a little excited thinking we had a great solution - until I saw the price. Obviously in the long run, it will go down as you say.

I still think in the long run, it would be good to have a more permanent solution than a finite number of donor carts. I know of an arcade repair guy who has hundreds of pokeys taken from Ballblazers that he uses for various Atari PCBs; someone making a few custom carts won't be a big blip in the long run, but I don't think this is sustainable forever. I just had no clue how many had actually been destroyed, maybe my experience with the repair man has made me paranoid. I have no intention of keeping these forever, and it is the only game I have more than one copy of. I only collect games that I will actually play, so my collection is rather small (about 300 games across all systems from 2600 to the Switch)

The issue isn't just this tiny blip of AtariAge people; my understanding is that there were others using Ballblazer as a donor on arcade boards or Atari 5200s. Again, you're probably right, but if I knew the numbers of these things that are out there vs. a pretty good guesstimate of how many have been destroyed, I'd probably stop worrying and learn to love to sell these things for people who might want them. I only need one copy for my collection after all.

I guess I'd have to see production numbers of Ballblazer + if anyone has any idea of how many have been sacrificed for Pokeys. If it turns out I am being too paranoid about them (it is true after all that the game is worth 30-40 bucks now loose), I can always just unload the ones I have. Still, I think as collectors we'd all agree that in the long run, it is better to stop having to 'borrow' the Pokeys from them entirely.

This. I just found out about the site take down, and while there was obviously some good traders there, there was alot of outright BSing that caused the site to slip several years ago. Alot of people who would demand a little knock off on the price compared to ebay, you know, from one collector to another. OK. And more than once, I would later see the games I just sold to these 'collectors' end up on ebay within a couple months with the guy reaping the profit. I'd also get guys wanting free shipping on 10-15 dollar games, shipping cutting so much into whatever I was going to make I may as well give you the game for nothing. Greed/how to make a quick buck became the overriding principle there. Half of them didn't even seem to really play the games. So I stopped going there quite some time ago. But it is still sad to see the whole site (and SegaAges) overturned and ruined. I hear alot of the younger guys say that Atari/classic games are 'too old', and maybe that acts as an insulation to a certain degree from the worst of the game 'collecting' scam artists/con men.

As a matter of fact, yes I do. Considering that we've managed to turn a formerly 5 dollar game into a 25-40 dollar game, I plan on holding on to them.

We gotta stop killing Ballblazer carts. As a collector it makes me cringe to see that many of them get their guts ripped out. It's one thing if we were recycling a super common 2600 gameshell, but Ballblazer was never *that* common and it seems like at least several hundred (perhaps even 4 figures?) of them have been destroyed for homebrewing. I've already hoarded about 25 of them over the last 2 years (Protective custody?), mostly ones I have run into locally, just so I can release them into the wild once a (cheap) pokey solution has been found.

I think you're probably 100% right about what would be needed, but the sad thing is I don't think there are enough of us interested in such a device to justify one, unless it were made in very limited numbers and priced very high. Those POKEY clones that have been discussed here I guess have issues with 5200 instructions from the controllers, and personally I don't want to see any more Ballblazer cannibalized (about to buy some just to hoard from people trying to do just that). That doesn't even begin to address how the 7800 would handle the 5200 controllers, unless the 'adaptor' also had controller ports like the Colecovision 2600 adapter did.

Well, to the OP know that you aren't alone in wanting this exact device. I can't justify the 'floor space' of a 5200 ie my TV stand can only hold so many systems, but do miss a handful of titles. Since I use my 7800 to do everything 2600 as well it would be nice to have the ability to do 5200 games too.

Playing them on the 4k is temporary until I can get a decent, smaller TV (under 20 inches) that can do component and s-video (there are a few later TV models that can). In the future, I will probably put the 4k through one of the extra video outs (this thing does have 8 outs after all), but have the component and s-video output going to the CRT (yes, stupidly as it sounds, 2 outputs going to the same TV, depending on what the S777 actually does). I check craigslist every few weeks and have told a friend who does flea markets to keep an eye out. If this goes on awhile, I may get that device though of course I always worry about introducing lag.

Thanks, and sadly from what you guys have said, I think I had the correct impression. Crossbow is correct about what I am trying to do (make everything go to component out). It's fine though, for me the s777 is still an upgrade and it future proofs me a bit better (though I intend to hold on to the s700 still). I will probably at some point get a CRT that has a S-video and a component input. The problem for my current set up is that 1) my 4k TV combines the component and composite (and has no s-video), so I was hoping to do it all in one and 2) my one CRT is composite only. The only 'true' all-in-one solution to my quandary is buying a 700-1200 dollar shinybow switcher, and that's beyond my level/budget. When it gets here, I will do a test just to see what happens regardless, but I am not getting my hopes up.

I just bought one, and now I am starting to wonder if I made a mistake considering I already had the JVC-S700. I bought the S777 because it had 2 component inputs and 1 component output, and although I knew it wasn't going to do any upconversion of the composite/S-video signals, from what little information I am able to find on this switch, it sounds like it won't output S-video/composite to the component at all, sort of defeating the purpose of why I bought it in the first place. So I'd have to have a strange setup with 2 different outputs going to the same TV, but 1 to S-video/compsite and another to component. Could someone who has/had this confirm this? Thanks.

I have a US Championship V'ball board that I blew out the sound on all the way back in 2001 by turning it on with the JAMMA plug on backwards. It's been sitting in a bin for most of that time, but I pulled it out last year and the thing still works and plays fine otherwise. Was told by another member who has done some console repair work for me on AA to just ask here - who to talk to, etc as I would like to fix this board.

And I am so thankful for that...I can't tell you how many times I've been playing an arcade game IRL or in MAME and thought 'man I wish Bob would do a 7800 port of this'. (Gaplus/Galaga 3 in particular)

Any idea when the preorders will be open to new customers? I want to know so I can have 150 set aside for it.

Great work guys, it gets better every time there is an update. One thing I would like to see, if possible, are just more sounds in the pinball section, particularly the flippers. I am fortunate to live near an arcade with a Baby Pac-Man, which I play every time I am there, and the game's pinball section is loud. Clunk clunk and all of that. So I dont know if more collision sounds would be possible. I never liked how the old time pinball sim-games had silent flippers, at the least. I know it is still a WIP so maybe you intended to that, anyway keep up the good work and I will be buying a cart of this when it is finished.

Oh yeah, thats one of the few customs I've actually seen in a used game store

I hope so! Hence why I hope a new round of pre-orders are opened up at some point - though from looking at this thread, it looks like there are some that go back to 2011. I'll have the $$$$ in hand for it when that happens, sudden appearances in the Atari Age store, well, who knows if I have a spare 150 around then.

This may sound like a dumb question, but since the preorders have long since sailed, and the number being put in the Atari Age store afterwards is 500, what about after that? Seems like a ton of work, but I hope it is available in the future. If a new set of preorders were available I would buy one, but it worries me that they'll all sell out and I have to hunt for a second hand one. I intentionally bought a non Pokey Froggie holding out for the XM unit, would hate to be disappointed and never get one.

I would def. be interested in this, but there is no way I can do 200 (for the system) before early November. If it were for the end of the year, then I could pull it off. Sorry if this has already been asked, but I see the delivery date for the system (in the 200 dollar) range is Jun of 2019. So I wonder - if I miss the kickstarter, which seems likely, can I reserve a system at a later date and still be able to get some of this June 2019 batch for 200? Or does the price increase if we don't make it into the kickstarter?

Hey all, bought a Super Video Arcade recently and I am getting the dreaded black screen of death when turned on. About half the time when I turn it on I can hear a short low noise, a quick 'bummm' sound, but nothing else. The reset button seems to work properly though. Taking it apart I don't see anything obvious. Any one have an idea? Asking around and I was told it could be a bad ram chip. Sadly none are available on ebay though. At some point I am going to send this off to Crossbow for modding but I wanted to see if I could get it working before that to save him the trouble.

Very interesting! And there is no limitation on which inputs go to outputs? I guess that part may not matter because it would just be one input and 2 outputs. I do wonder if there is still some signal lose going to those units. But this may be the solution I was hoping for. And it will save me a ton of money if it is what I hope it is.

Hey all, I am not sure if what I want exists, but I am happy to be proven wrong. Here is my set up and what I am wanting to do. I have 5 systems that I want to be able to output to different TVs (one 4k and the other a CRT) at the same time. But in the case of the old JVC selectors, I noticed that almost none of them allow all inputs to go to all outputs. For instance, many of them will only allow input 1 to go to output 1, and then input 2 only to output 2, etc. On the JVC units, the only output that allows all is the 'monitor out'. But I dont know if an affordable unit with 2 monitor outs exists. The only exception I can find is the 1000 dollar JX S1000. It has 2 'monitor out' outputs that I presume would allow all inputs to output through them. I am using a non powered unit that seems to be the only one still made with dual outputs. It works, but is only 4 input and I have to make the 7800 go through the Betamax VCR to be able to use them all through it. Could use some help.

I know exactly what you're getting at, I don't have this problem myself, but I have seen it in other 'collectors'. They stop being video game fans or even gamers at all, the 'hole' in the collection matters more than the quality of the actual game in question. There is a major collector I know who has a ton of very rare sealed NES games (worth 5 figures in some cases). He doesn't collect anything but sealed, period. But when I went to his house to see his collection, I noticed he doesn't have a system set up. He stopped being an actual gamer a long time ago, and now there is nothing left but a compulsion to get sealed games he cannot play, and in many cases doesn't even care for the actual game itself. Seeing this both in real life and among online classic gaming caused me to re-evaluate what my collecting was going to look like. I never was going for complete sets, but I had a looser definition of the reasons why I wanted to get certain games. After thinking it all over, I revised my definition of what was worthy of being in my collection, leading to a much smaller collection on just 4 systems, and games I actually LIKE. The difference is I feel like it is small enough to actually enjoy. Every one of these games gets played by me.