tkarner

Did you try both video outputs (RF and composite)? Maybe just one is failing. Or maybe you connected them the wrong way to your TV inputs (RF to composite or vice versa).

That raises another question, do the Flashback 1 joysticks work with an NES (assuming the proper connector would be spliced on)?

Cool. Thanks for the helicopter idea. Here's the new hack. - Convoy trucks are now tanks. - Player chopper (and white enemy choppers) now have a cockpit and an animated tail rotor - Jets replaced with new chopper type. Thanks to Hackomatic these are trivial changes but I'm enjoying the perspective an exercise like this gives into what the original programmers could do with 8 bit monochromatic sprites. ChopperCommandHackC.bin

Very nice. Question though: Who is your target audience? I ask because if you're trying to reach recreational gamers or a non-Atari crowd they will be overwhelmed by a list of thousands of games. They won't know what to try first and will get discouraged if their first exposure to the 2600 is some stinker of a game. I suggest creating a shorter list of games, up to 50 max, containing the household names of gaming: Space Invaders, Asteroids, Pitfall, etc. Then you can have a second link ("For more titles click here") to the full list for the hardcore gamers like us.

So I'm still fooling around with Chopper Command and Hackomatic. This time I'd like to replace the enemy jet with another chopper type (the game is called Chopper Command, right?). I'm looking for some artistic input. Below are some of my attempts but I'm not really satisfied with any of them. I'm looking for something sleek but aggressive looking. The first looks too much like a cargo chopper, the second like a flimsy civilian chopper, 3 and 4 look ok but let's see what you guys can come up with. Thanks.

Another possible suggestion: Sea Hawk Fire button launches an air-to-surface torpedo. But to fire an air-to-air missile you have to move the stick left or right and then press the button.

If you just need RF de-modulation I would try taking apart an old junker VCR. You might be able to separate the tape mechanism and just isolate the circuit board that has the function you need. You can then put that board into a smaller case. You might even be able to get creative with the modded case, maybe use a dead console or something. I was thinking of doing the same thing and using a steel case from an old router.

Most of us here should be old enough to remember the fate of Osborne Computers... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_effect

It's a great idea but I'm not as excited about it as the original. Why? The Harmony allows me to play 2600 games I'd never be able to play otherwise. The 7800 library is so small that I already own every game that I want on original cartridges. But for people that didn't buy a Harmony yet, a Harmony 7800 would be the way to go.

Very cool. I just tried it with a Harmony Cart on a 2600 Jr. The Harmony menu doesn't like the Sega controller so you have to use a standard joystick to select and start the game, and then swap controllers. Could something similar be done to employ 7800 controllers? As for other games that might benefit from this treatment, all the games that use the joystick 2 button come to mind: Spy Hunter (oil/smoke) Stargate/Defender 2 (smartbomb) Star Voyager (fires secondary lasers) Solaris (switches to map) Radar Lock (fires afterburner)

Already done that! It's a two button stick wired to both joystick ports. Perfect for Spy Hunter. I also use it for Stargate, Star Voyager, Solaris and Radar Lock on the 2600.

I've had these dumps of Road Runner and Midnight Magic for years. I forget where I got them but probably right here on AA and they both work fine on the Harmony Cart: Road Runner.bin Midnight Magic.bin

Thanks, good info Curt, et al. Running a joystick cable to the keyboard isn't quite as neat as I had hoped. Maybe I can find a junked keyboard and salvage the circuit board and cable and connect that to a joystick. I haven't looked inside the keyboard yet, how big is the board? Any chance it could fit inside a joystick casing or maybe a small project box? Or maybe it's too much effort if Defender is the only game I could use this with...

Here's a couple of very simple Chopper Command hacks but I thought I'd share them. This is my favorite side-scroller on the 2600 but I always found it a bit frustrating. The enemy jets are hard to hit and I always seem to get hit by a cheap shot that just barely nicks my chopper's tail. So I slightly widened the jets and slightly shortened the chopper to take a bit of the frustrating edge off without altering the character of the game. While I was at it I made some changes to the convoy trucks. In version A I added the Red Cross symbol to the trucks and in version B I replaced the trucks with M1 battle tanks. So you choose if you want to fly a humanitarian protection mission or escort an invading column of tanks. Credits: 1) These are Supercharger compatible thanks to Nukey Shay's modification to Chopper Command. 2) I got the idea for the tanks from the Chopper Command pirate hack Pyramid War but I improved on their tanks. ChopperCommandHackA.bin ChopperCommandHackB.bin

Example: When playing Defender, hitting the spacebar sets off a smartbomb. There are probably many other games where the spacebar is used in a similar fashion. Instead of reaching for the keyboard, I'm thinking of wiring button 2 of a two botton joystick to the keyboard port of an XEGS. Obviously it's not as simple as that. Has anyone done something like this before and can point me in the right direction?

Since I started this thread, here's what I decided to do. I modded a 2600 joystick with a second button. Actually I used an FB2 joystick, for two reasons: a) I like the feel better than a real CX40 and b) there is more free space inside to make mods. I used a momentary switch (Radio Shack part #275-644) and installed it in the front face of the joystick, below the original button, within easy reach of your left index finger. Minor dremeling involved here. Then I had to replace the FB2 cable with one from a CX24 because you need the extra wires. This involved easy soldering of the wires between the FB2 board and the CX24 cable. Unfortunately they both use different colored wires so you have to sort that out. Also, had to enlarge the hole for the cable since it's thicker. The trickiest part was figuring out the CX24's circuit for the fire buttons. It's not just two independent buttons. They're linked and there's two resistors on the circuit. So you have to work that out correctly. There's some intermediate level soldering involved here (wires to FB2 board). The original resistors are 620 ohm but I didn't have any laying around so I used 680 ohms. It worked fine. The results are spectacular. I am rediscovering almost half of the 7800 library, the two button games that I just couldn't play before. My scores are through the roof compared to my old scores with the CX24. I didn't take a picture of this mod the picture below is of a similar mod I made a while back (that one used a real CX40 and a second cable to use with smartbombs in Stargate and oil/smoke in Spy Hunter on the 2600). With the FB2 I got the second button closer to the original button.

Cool. I just noticed one of my hacks is in this, Odyssey Invaders (just another Space Invaders hack but with Odyssey 2 sprites). I'm famous! I'd like to thank the academy...

Now that you mention it, Donkey Kong is the worst offender. So it seems that maybe there isn't anything wrong with my console? (though I don't remember my previous 7800 sounding like that). Oh well, I guess I'll leave it alone then.

I was hoping there was a pot in there somewhere. No, it's not modded. I was using another 7800 but the picture went bad on that one so I'm using this one now. I deal with the volume as you said, just turning down the TV volume. But that doesn't solve the distortion problem caused by the gain being too high in the first place. If changing the resistor isn't too much trouble I can do that. Can someone point me in the right direction with a diagram?

Is there an internal adjustment in the 7800 to adjust the audio output? The volume on mine seems too high. It's louder than my other consoles and it sounds distorted with some games.

I have a cartridge I got right here from Atari Age several years ago. It has the ROM for Adventure Plus but has Pac Man Arcade labels. Albert subsequently sent me the correct stickers (which I kept but didn't apply to the cartridge). How's that for an error cartridge? If error carts are valuable, who'll start the bidding on this one?

What about Ski Hunt? It's kinda like Biathlon.

>I like the Imagic games and the box art is among the best ever. Like Demon Attack??? Silver spray-painted plastic dinosaurs? That box makes 1960s Japanese monster movies look good.