Lodmot

I shall. :3

Alrighty. Thanks for the help. I'm glad to know this now, because a cap will be much easier to replace than a 16 pin chip xDD I'm nervous about messing up my heavy sixer when I do it anyway.

Boulder Dash can do it too, but in that game the pixels are drawn every other horizontal line for some reason. I don't think it's really worth the aggravation, because it's Atari 2600. You can't expect too much. Also, I made a game that uses the multisprite kernel, and it has flicker as well, but the objects in my game move very quickly around the screen, so the flicker isn't even that noticeable.

Interesting.. Isn't there a way you can check a capacitor by seeing whether it buldges or leaks? In a well-lit room, I can probably backtrack pin 6 to the TIA by its trace on the board and see what components are on it, and where they are on the board.

Actually, maybe what you can do is program it to make full use of the DualCommand controller, which has the paddle AND joystick all in one. The player can hold the controller horizontally, use the paddle knob to move the character around, push the joystick up to jump, and the fire button to attack? I think the controller pinouts for the paddle knob and the regular joystick controls don't conflict with each other, so maybe it's possible to read both sets of controls simultaneously? Though that may feel a bit awkward holding it in your hand that way.

I would guess that using a VCR would actually make the signal slightly worse, although it probably wouldn't be noticable. The reason being, it's not as direct of a connection as if you were just hooking it up streight into the TV. I also think that has something to do with the fact that using one of those tiny golden RadioShack RF adapters results in a much clearer picture than with the Atari's original RF box.

I have a heavy sixer 2600 model. I originally bought it for 34 dollars in non-working condition for the sole purpose of seeing if I could actually get it working. When I first got it, it had no RF cable, wouldn't turn on, and had a bad PIA chip. I've given it an RF cable, replaced the PIA and fixed the switchboard so that it turns on now. At this point, the system is nearly perfect in functionality except for one last issue. What happens is, at first, the system seems to play fine without any errors. But then over time, the fire button will automatically get triggered by itself. The weird part is, it happens only occasionally at first, then it slowly increases in the rate it does it. By the time 30 minutes has gone by, the fire button will act as if it's being completely held down all the time, even when you're not doing anything. The effect also happens without controllers plugged in, so it's obviously the system itself. I should also note that while this glitch is occurring, the system will however still detect regular fire button presses from the controller as it should be. Upon researching the way the 2600 works, it seems like the issue has to do with the RIOT chip. I've already replaced all 3 chips, and from what I gather, the problem is still there anyway. I'm hoping there's an easy solution to this problem that doesn't require using a soldering iron, because I really would hate to mess up this unit, because it's a heavy sixer and such.. If I have to though, I probably will. Even if the problem is the RIOT chip, I've looked around online for a spare RIOT chip which I can purchase, and found absolutely nothing. Anyone got any ideas? Thankies.

Its funny this question was brought up. Originally the 2600 was meant to be another type of pong system. Amazingly, it turned out to be much more than that. For it, I've managed to create a shooter game, a vehicular combat game inspired from Twisted Metal, and another completely original game. All the games I've written for the 2600 have music, titlescreens, and two of them have working menu screens, all things Atari probably never anticipated for the system. And to think it was supposed to be merely just another pong system. Its really stunning.

I have to say the Atari 2600 is best, hands down, because of Batari Basic. Just the fact that I can program my own games easily for the 2600 makes it so much more fun, especially because I've always had a deep passion to make video games. Batari Basic, the Harmony cart, and the Atari 2600 have allowed me to see my game ideas and concepts being played on a TV with a game controller.

A couple of questions: Does the fire button still work normally if you have that feature turned on? Will it work on a stock Atari 2600 controller or does it need to have two buttons? Have you tried the mod with the Sega Genesis controller?

Well, granted, I did get it to look nicer than I was thinking I could... but I'd still like it to be better xDDD I ish picky that way. > EDIT: This is pretty sweet. I actually managed to get a pretty nice color-fading effect that I like. Only issue is, it uses a bit more variables than I'd like.. Perhaps I can condense the amount of variables down somehow.. But anyway, take a look. Oh, and if anyone wants to use the code, by all means go for it. ^^ default.bas.bin

I have a very steady hand, so I was able to get the tape and the label placed very precisely on the cartridge. I should put pictures of it up, because it really turned out nice.

I saw that weird appearance on my ActiVision carts too. I thought it almost looked like the carts were carried in torrential rain at some point, or somebody dropped them in the toilet or something. xDD I think you're right though, it's likely the glue becoming older. My Tapper cartridge has that same appearance, and I'm pretty doubtful it's repairable... My Zaxxon cart for ColecoVision had a really damaged label, and I actually made a new one. The way I went about with it was by printing out a re-created version of the label graphic that I found online, carefully cut it out to size with the cartridge, and then I used double-sided tape to stick it on there. Then to give it a nicer kind of glossy finish, I put a single layer of packaging tape over the label. It came out pretty awesome, but I dunno if that's something you'd want to do.

Well, I tried it, and it sorta works, but the effect is pretty choppy. I think if the TIA had more color options I could create a smoother-looking fade. I'm not really too crazy for the way it looks. I kinda wanted it to look like an acid trip sorta. xDD

Is there a hardware forum, I come to this section so often I forget there are others? I posted some controller designs here but I haven't been booed or moved by an administrator. I'd hope somebody would tell me my fly is open or I have food stuck in my teeth. ^_^ Regardless I think trying the speaker addition sounds cool as long as the vibration doesn't hurt the 2600 over time, heavy bass and the like. Well you could always add an external port to the 2600 like a PC to plug speakers into ijs. xDD Well, I figured something like this would be pretty easy to do compared to other mods, because the heavy sixer's casing already has the speaker holders right in its case, it would just be a matter of finding the right size speaker that would fit in the holder. ^^ I don't think it would hurt the Atari either, because how much bass could the Atari possibly pump out with the type of sounds it makes? I would just like dig through a couple of old pong units that doesn't work and use the speakers from those. That should be more than feasible. I wasn't going to try this with any of the units I have now, but maybe after I've gotten more experienced with the inner workings of the console itself, I'd give it a shot. :B I was never that big on modding systems anyway, because I prefer the idea of preserving the original condition and authenticity of the original console.

Yeah, I know about fading from light to dark. But can you gradually fade from one hue to another? (Eg fade from green to red)

LOL!!!!!!!!!! 181 you're freaking grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrt! 8DDDDDDDDDDD xDDD By the way, I just noticed I put this in the wrong forum... ;w;

As many of us probably know, the Atari 2600 was originally designed to have built-in stereo speakers. I figured since its possible to get stereo sound out of the unit, and theres enough extra space for speakers, has anyone actually tried doing a built-in speaker mod?

Hi, I want to try and do this "fading" effect with colors in two of my Atari games, one which I haven't even started coding yet. Does anyone know if this is possible? The effect that I'm trying to achieve is in my original version of Game Catcher right at the titlescreen in the background, which you can see here: http://megatoxic.com/Games/Game%20Catcher.exe If anyone knows if this is possible at all, I'd like to know. ^^ Thanks!

You HAVE to have it running on a real system! That's just outta the question right there.

Ah, so does it like immediately start right into the game, or do you still get the black colecovision game, just not as long? This is very interesting

Hehe... It's white. :3 Have you tested it yet? Does it work?

I stumbled across a strange version of Missile Command. The front label has the title in yellow lowercase letters, and the end label is in white lowercase letters. If I do a google search for the lowercase label variation, the end label is in yellow letters, but that's not the case for mine. I couldn't find anything on a white end label variation of missile command. Also, according to the rarity guide on AtariAge, the lowercase lettering variation of missile command is the Asian version. Any ideas? Here are some pics of the cart:

Actually a cloverfield based game would be awesome (if doable). Another very appropriate game would be one based off the movie 2012. Kinda creepy considering its 2012 right now. XD Edit: Shit, nevermind. I didn't notice the years of movies you were looking for.. Maybe a movie based off of 2001 a space odyssey?

Heavy sixer, definitely. I bought mine on ebay for 34 dollars in non-working condition, just to see if I would be able to fix it. Sure enough, I got the system running perfectly, cleaned it up, and now it's probably worth over 100 dollars again. I now use that console even more than my light sixer because its just funner to play on the first model Atari from 1977!