Th3_uN1Qu3

Don't see no little red creatures, but the game in the last pic is called "Bobby Going Home".

Thanks for the heads up on that, i found the schematic while searching the forum. It's quite trivial, so i'll build it myself. I'm too lazy to drill holes for an extra switch (and when i do, they end up ugly anyway), so i'll just rewire the channel switch to act as a pause button. My 2600 Jr looks best on channel 3 anyway.

Try using flux. Also try desoldering the jack entirely and soldering it back. If your iron isn't powerful enough this won't work, but hey, i did it with a 25W so yours should be able to do it too.

If you tell me how it looks like, maybe i can recognize it. It's not on the "64 games" cart, and the other one only has lame games with crap graphics like boxing or bowling... It seems to be stable 'nuff so what do you think? Pirate broadcasting of course. That is if i can get it to do FM, if not, i guess i do eventually have to build a PLL transmitter from scratch. And yes i know about those car fm modulators, but they either whine, click, or both.

Thanks, i'll have to see if i have it... i think not. Anyway here's some pics: As you can see ghetto wiring. I didn't even bother to close it up properly... Actually, i did. After taking the pic. And yes that is a Sega Master System joypad you see there. It works fine with the 2600... It sucks, but i still like it more than the Atari sticks. And yeah, the cable was at fault. With the new cable the picture is great. A closer look at the console itself. Game over. Nice score though, dontcha think? I brought Bobby home. Yay! I would've posted a Pacman pic too but it didn't upload. And sorry for the dark areas, you can't get perfect pics of a CRT TV. Edit: Don't tell me this forum has the thumbnail bug too... Great. Here's direct links: http://img443.images...i/sn850403.jpg/ http://img43.imagesh...i/sn850406.jpg/ http://img96.imagesh...i/sn850405.jpg/ http://img412.images...i/sn850402.jpg/

It's probably digital noise from the CPU getting into the RF modulator and into your TV speakers. Do you notice any effect on the picture as well? If not, it's probably not getting into the modulator but maybe the sound chip itself. The shielding is needed so that the CPU and RF modulator don't affect nearby equipment, or are not affected by outside equipment themselves. However, shielding an entire assembly without using separator walls can (and will) make the various parts inside radiate upon each other. I used to have an old TV with a miscalibrated tuner. After a lot of trial and error i managed to fix the tuner, however i did the calibration with its shield walls off, and when replacing them, the thing would malfunction again. From that day on, the set ran without shields on its tuner and it worked just fine. That is till my grandparents decided to toss it and buy a new one, because the old one wouldn't receive all cable channels. I see Pitfall is a pretty impressive game by 2600 standards (too bad it's not on any of my carts), it probably taxes the CPU a lot, so its processing noise enters other circuits.

Thanks for the info on the Harmony Cartridge. But $60 plus $11 delivery cost, plus about a month till it gets here in Romania... nah. Maybe i'll try to hack my own out of locally available parts. I got my cable and will wire it together now, so i can play Pacman in better quality. Yay!

Hey all, just a little something about me. I'm 19, starting college next month, pursuing a career in EE, DJ on occasion, loving all things electronic and all things BMX. Today is a very boring day. It's a holiday so my religious grandmother isn't letting me do any work (i have to build a supplemental power supply to power an old 5v heavy server from a modern ATX 2.0 power supply which is 12v oriented), my girlfriend isn't coming out today so nothing to do outside either, and my friends are sitting at home playing WoW. I don't feel like gaming on the PC and there's nothing to watch on the telly... I opened my closet and dug the 2600 Jr out. In fact i had a choice between the 2600, Sega Master System II, and Dreamcast. I remember that the Master System is broken, and if i got out the Dreamcast i would probably stay home the whole week, something which my GF wouldn't like. I don't have a power supply for the thing anymore so i hacked it to use my adjustable power supply, and it seems to work. Only that the on/off switch is so worn that any shock to the unit power cycles it... At least i fixed the joysticks a few years ago so those still work. The RF output is somewhat weaker than i remember it, the picture is kinda bad. Anyway i'm enjoying myself playing Pacman and Bobby Going Home... Wait, the signal is going out... WHERE IS THAT PAUSE BUTTON??? Um, there is none. Aw crap, gotta start again. One thing i never liked about Atari games (besides the silly gfx) is that you always have to start them from the beginning. Are there any games that have levels on the 2600? I have two carts with various games, one has 32, the other has 64 games. Almost all of them are boring... I don't think there is ET on there. I'm gonna go buy me some new sneakers so i'll buy some coax cable as well, maybe the cable is bad. But still... anything other than Pacman that i can play on this thing? So my main Q is, anything useful that can be done with the 2600? I'm thinking along the lines of composite video output (i have other plans for the RF modulator, heh heh heh), maybe some programming, and... A DARN PAUSE BUTTON. I'll check out the programming resources on this forum, maybe i can do something fun with it. I'll come with some pictures later. Thanks for reading. - Andrew