[Atari Black Widow - Vector Display Issue with the Spider Web]

Good idea mr.bill --- I did replace the AVG chip with the Alan-1 version and a Test Mode run after that got it all sorted out. The web is fixed and the Black Widow is back in action!

 

 

[Atari in BART Stations in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1970's?]

I've heard that Atari had a presence in some of the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) metro system stations back in the 1970's. Anyone have any info about this? 

[Atari Black Widow - Vector Display Issue with the Spider Web]

My Atari Black Widow was out of commission for a few years, but a new WG6100+ Deflection Board and a XY Vector Monitor Transistor Upgrade Kit from ALAN-1.COM got it back up up and running.

 

The game screen does have a issue though - one of the outer rings on the spider web is out of place.  See photo.

Anyone have any ideas on what to do to fix this?  I'm trying to get it working correctly and hopefully get it to the Free Play area at PRGE in October.  

[How should I store my 2600 games?]

For loose cartridges older wooden tape cassette storage units work. They come in different sizes. Take out some of the wooden slats to fit the carts. The larger units can hold 100 or more cartridges.

[Supercharger audit]

Superchargers are pretty common, so many collectors have them. I've got a couple each of the Arcadias and the Starpaths. 1-7 of the boxed cassettes and a loose set of those ad well. And i have a Stella Gets a New Brain CD as well.

[Larger Than Regular Size Paddle Knobs -- What are my options?]

I have a pong clone that I am looking for some new paddle knobs for. It only had one funky looking knob when I got it. Knob is about 80mm across with indentations around tbe perimeter for fingertips to grasp it. The pot stems are typical D-shape. Unlikely to find a replacement one of those knobs I figure, but does anyone know a source for larger than normal (i.e. 2600 paddle) knobs? Offerings on Ebay look less than enticing, and I am not attracted to a stereo knob with a placement line on it.

[Art of Atari - book in progress and need help]

Great book Tim! thanks for writing it. I've purchased two so far. One a gift for my brother and the second one got loaned out to a friend right after it arrived. I might just get another and let him keep it.

[I Am Guessing This Is A NES SMB3 Prototype]

I haven't been able to play it yet, but I got it opened up and it is a pirate job. Looks like it was a lot of work to get the boards soldered together with all those wires! The surgeon used a piece of double sided tape on it--had to unstick that from the casing to extricate it.

 

I don't know what these things go for but anyone who is interested in it please send me an offer.

 

Here are some photos.

 

 

 

 

[I Am Guessing This Is A NES SMB3 Prototype]

Thanks for all the info. I'm still waiting on the tool to arrive so I can open it up. Makes sense that it likely is some sort of pirate job with that Famicom label on it. Whoever made it had to want to play it really bad with all of the wiring in there. I'll be able to plug it into a player over the weekend and when the tool arrives I will be posting some photos of the board.

[I Am Guessing This Is A NES SMB3 Prototype]

I was out with my brother the other day and wandered into this NES cartridge in a thrift store. The label caught my eye as it doesn't belong on this shape of cartridge, so I bought it. After I got it home and looked it over a bit I could see wires inside. Weighs 4.3 oz (121g). Can't find the screw remover I bought a few years ago so I've ordered another one.

 

I've got a NES compatible player somewhere so I'll plug it in pretty soon and check it out. I've never played Super Mario Bros. before so the suspense is unbearable.......

 

Best news is that my brother paid for it!

 

 

 

[Amiga 500 -- Workbench Compatibility]

I'm in the USA, and I've got a Amiga 500 computer but it is without the Workbench v1.3 software to boot it up.

 

I don't have a 2.5" disk drive to burn a floppy with the software so it looks like I have to hunt for a disk for it.

 

Will the UK version of Workbench work ok with this system?

[Your favorite Atari accesories?]

I'm partial to this one. It looks better with multiple beers...

 

[How to display my cartridges]

Those old wooden cassette tape holders work well. Sizes vary. You just pluck out enough of the slats to configure your cartridges how you like them. The larger ones can get heavy when full, but with some proper supporting brackets you could hang them on a wall.

 

Here is a large one eBay Auction -- Item Number: 230619477566 on ebay, but they can be found at flea markets, garage sales and thrift stores, usually for cheap.

[Did Kings Point Market Pong Consoles?]

I know they sold calculators back in the day, but did the Kings Point Corp. market any pong systems?

[My Atari 2600 Loaner Cart Has A Dot -- Automatically a Final Version?]

Is there any differences when you play this?

 

No differences. The screens look the same and it plays like a regular Berzerk cartridge.

 

wasn't white=ntsc and yellow=pal ?

but i'm not sure.

 

It is NTSC.

[My Atari 2600 Loaner Cart Has A Dot -- Automatically a Final Version?]

The other day I found a 2600 Berzerk Loaner Cartridge in a thrift store with a bunch of other cartridges. It has a gold dot on the label, and no hand written or typed date on the white label. I'm guessing it is a final version. Tempest's Atari Protos site says that the dots represented different areas where some cartridges were used in (focus group testing, internal development, home testing, etc.)

 

I have a few questions --

 

1. If a cartridge has a dot does it mean that it is a final version?

 

2. Has anyone ever deciphered what area the different color dots represented?

 

3. How many different color dots have been discovered?

[The Official "Thrift finds" Thread]

I don't see too much interesting stuff in the wild any more, but there I was today in a thrift store fondling two large bags of 2600 carts (each with about 30 carts), trying to justify the $12.99 cost of each. Trying to ID the contents, one bag didn't seem too enticing so I moved to the other and found a Subterranea and a Miner 2049er. The Subterranea is a replacement candidate for my dead cart of that title, so that bag was going to go home with me. Looking at bag one again, I turned over a Berzerk Loaner Cartridge. That sealed the deal on bag one.

 

Also, there was a $2 2600 power supply and a Tron controller for 99 cents so I got those as well.

[Marking your carts]

A name written on a cart or carts has been referred to as it being Coxed. Doing a AA search for Coxed will turn up some history for that term.

[Dating the Atari 2600 Systems]

Regarding the letters in the serial numbers, I'm not sure what they represent, but I know that a lot of bicycle manufacturers in the 1970's and 1980's used alphabetical letters to represent different months of the year on serial numbers of bikes. A for January, B for February, etc., for month of manufacture.

[My Air Raid Auction Update]

From the pictures it looks real to me. Good to see another 2600 mystery sorted out. This auction will be fun to watch!

[Companies of note for rare 2600 games]

Sparrow

[I'm looking for art to fill my wall, any big Fuji's out there?]

I don't make them. This beast is one-of-a-kind. I bought it a few years ago from a company that made it as a sample for Atari in the early 1990's. Per that place they made a really huge one that shipped to some Atari office. Maybe this one was a prototype for the larger one, or Atari decided they didn't want it. When my brother and I discovered it we decided it needed a new home. There is an old thread about it.

[I'm looking for art to fill my wall, any big Fuji's out there?]

I don't know if this qualifies as art, but it is a BIG Fuji and it does fill some space. A sturdy shelf would be required for it though. The video is kinda blurry--I'll try to do better this weekend.

 

[The R.I.P. Atari 2600 cart list]

I've got over 300 different titles and the only one of those that I've never gotten to work is Subterranea by Imagic.

[what is your rarest "Non cartridge"Atari item?]

Here's mine. It's pretty cool .