Pilsner73

Stopped at a local Radio Shack and they had a two different electrical cleaners. One was a electronics cleaner and the other was a cleaner and lubricant. Now for the switches would it be better to clean and lubricate them or just clean? I can see what looks like grease/gunk inside them currently so just curious. Two more questions - just plain rubbing alcohol or what for cleaning? If doing some solder work, what other than a soldering iron and solder/wet sponge should I need?

Atari 7800 should have been what the first successor to the 2600 instead of what was the 5200. The 5200 was very powerful but I believe it was too expensive, lacked out of the box compatibility with the 2600, and the joysticks caused a love/hate relationship. If Atari could of released the 7800 hardware in 1982-83 it would probably of been a major hit. New improved graphics/games and parents who invested hundreds of dollars on a 2600 games and hardware wouldn't see that investment discarded. Atari releases the 7800 hardware no later than 1983 before Nintendo locks up the title rights and the 7800 has all the 2600 games and a ton of updated/new games for the improved hardware of the 7800. Now Nintendo comes along in 1985 with their NES and Atari has a head start, fights them on the licensing of games, and 7800 game developers are on the next generation of games for which really exploit the features of the machine to the fullest.

Thanks, ordered a composite cable and new power supply for the unit and am looking in to an SIO2 device. I will play around with this 800 for a bit and keep an eye for 800xl/130xe for sale in the meantime. Any other worthwhile mods for the 800?

Went to order a power supply, rf cable, switchbox, joysticks, and the capacitor for these reasons - Rf cable inside the unit where it connects to the rf board is a bit rough. Cable Switchbox, wanted one to work directly with cable to use with my 2600 and 800. Power supply, running a Radio Shack adapter so figured why not get the real one and no more reversed polarity happening by accident. 2200uf Capcitor - figure it's a quick change and cheap to replace even if it's not bad. Joysticks the ones I have are some cheap knockoffs that barely work. Well I got all that stuff and a Heavy Sixer to go with it. I started adding up all the parts and to be honest not sure if my Sears unit needs even more parts due to my snafu and it's age and it was getting close to the price of a whole unit. So being more than half way in cost to a Heavy Sixer unit I figured why not just get the capacitor and the heavy sixer. Thought about a 7800 but hard to find the original version that plays all the games including some good Activision ones and really never had a big interest in 7800 games. Now to get a Harmony cart to go with it!

I planned on it as a backup regardless.

Was going through a storage area at my house when I came around my old Atari 800 with 48k. I decided to take it out and see how well it work. First thing is I was pleased to see the plastic and keyboard looked clean with the factory gloss still there. I actually couldn't believe I ever used this computer before. I then decided to boot it up and hit my first snag, no luck no matter what I tried to get it to power up. Now maybe the cartridge door wasn't fully closed or something but I cracked open the power supply and saw the fuse was still in good condition so I gave all the wires a good check and checked with a multimeter showing it was sending out power. Gave another try and the unit booted up. I believe this unit may have the "Sally" processor but how do I make sure? Tried out Star Raiders and BASIC cartridges and both worked though the RF switchbox has seen it's last days. So still not sure about an 800xl/130xe/xegs but now that I have a working Atari computer. I have the 800 a switchbox, power supply, two joysitcks, and two cartridges but nothing else. I am going to order a new power supply and switchbox but what other mods/upgrades/accessories should I go for? Sio to pc? Sio to SD? Max Cart? Memory if it's compatible with programs made for the 64/128k 800x/130xe machines?

I just got out my Sears VCS light sixer made in Sunnyvale and wanted to play around with it. First thing I did was plug my universal power adapter in and nothing. I tried a few times and no luck so I went back to my Atari 800 and while playing around with that started to hear a faint squeaking noise which I traced back to the 2600. Pulled the power plug immediately. Found out I have plugged the power plug adapter into the power pack wrong way and polarity was reversed. I corrected the plug and plugged it in and the system came to life and worked somewhat ok, the switchbox I was using sucks and needs replaced. So I tore down the 2600 and found fluid coming from the rather large 2200uf capacitor, which I cleaned up. Now should I replace the capacitor with a new one and if I am doing that what other things should I replace/work on? I would like to clean up all electrical contacts and switches, do I just use alcohol or some kind of electrical solvent?

So back to some questions - Between the 130xe and 800xl I know the 130xe has 64k more memory, basic C, and the Freddy chip. I know the 800xl has cart on top, decent build quality, preferable keyboard, sometimes easier to modify. So my questions are 1) Does either machine have a video advantage? 1a) Can either machine be made to hook up to a LCD monitor (vga/dvi)? 2) Is the Freddy chip important? 3) If I upgrade memory in the 800xl do XE programs recognize it and work accordingly? 4) Are there cool mods/upgrades that prefer one computer over the another? And in general other than running old software what can be accomplished with these machines today?

Oh the great Dram Shortage of 88, I remember it well. Actually I remember it but since I was in high school my memories may be a bit hazy. I remember Atari was doing well in Europe and it seemed in the USA they were ready for a major push, third party support was going well and Amiga though a great machine was playing catch up. I remember launches for hardware products being delayed, prices rose, and finding certain models was an adventure. Wasn't it around this time Amiga came out with the 500/2000 lineup and the price difference dwindled? Regardless of the Amiga specifications I think if three people walk into a computer store to buy a new computer and see an Atari ST running almost all the same type of programs as Amiga and it's at least a hundred dollars cheaper, I bet the Atari gets two of them to buy. Take away the price advantage and then the customers are going to be a lot more critical of which machine to buy and probably go with the Amiga because of it's specs. I also seem to remember that it caused Atari to delay products like the STE and caused development of future products to be put on the back-burner because of funding but maybe I'm off here. I wonder what would happened if Atari kept their pricing advantage and could of released the 520/1040ste early in 1988 and then follow up with the Mega STE/TT030 no later than early 1989 with the Falcon coming out early 1990 what could of happened.

Thanks for all the answers so far. So if I do decide to go hardware, what hardware should I get? Also what can I do with an Atari 8-bit besides run old software? Computer - As for computer I always liked the 600xl/800xl best in terms of appearance/build quality though the 800xl has a bit more room to work with inside, the 600xl is quite small (I forgt to list I had a 600xl for awhile with 64k). The 130xe I can't stand the keyboard and the build quality is lacking but I have 128k and the Freddy chip built in. I know some mods seem to be more the XE (vbxe) also. I know I can memory upgrade an 800xl but the Freddy chip is lacking and like I said do some mods not work? Display - I don't plan on buying a separate monitor for any computer and my current PC is using a Dell 2209wa, so guess I would just use my hdtv through composite? Disk Drive - I don't have 1 5 1/4 floppy anymore, is this where the sio2pc comes in? Hard drive - Do I need one? What adapter? Other modifications to look into?

I have been reading this forum the past few weeks but this is my first post. From 1984 until 1996 or so was big into Atari game machines and computers. Lately been thinking about all those computers and some of the ones my friends owned (c64/amiga) and thinking about getting back into things somewhat, even downloaded a bunch of ST emulators to play around with. Atari equipment I owned - Atari 2600 (gone), Atari 800 (still have with a few carts), Atari Mega ST2 (gone) had a few upgrades, Atari 520ste 4mb with some upgrades(gone), Atari Lynx I (gone), Atari Jaguar (gone), Sears Telegames 6 switch (still have), Atari flashback (?), Atari Portfolio and some accessories (still have). Other than playing games I used my Atari computers for information exchange, word processing and other assorted tasks. By information exchange I was heavy into the BBS scene first with the 8bit and then with the ST computers. I ran both 8bit and ST bulletin boards (bbs express pro, bbs express st, ratSofT) for about 10 plus years. I always enjoyed the Atari but around 94-95 with the company all but done with computers and about to go under for video games I jumped ship to the wIntel crowd and using the internet. So now that I have the Atari bug again I downloaded some ST emulators and though some games are fun and all but the GUI is almost a let down now a days and it seems to me the 8bit lineup may have more new toys now a days. So been considering getting into the 8bits and debating do I buy some real hardware or just emulate? I like to keep my Atari 800 in the box but could see myself using a 800xl/130xe which I'd have no problem hooking up and modifying. What do you think stay with what I have and run emulators or get some real hardware and cool mods?