MAC-42

Why, to show to your kids of course, as you mutter things about ten-mile marches to school in the snow, having to go uphill both ways, etc. What...? You mean I'm the only one who does that...?

Perry, I have to agree with everyone, this looks like a really fine piece of software. No matter how many times I see it, it just doesn't get old. And Curt, congratulations on your continued efforts and perseverance, too. Thanks for breathing new life into our little old baby.

Oh, look at that. Very nice! Now, make me jealous and tell me how much you paid, if one may ask. Hey, how do you find the gamepads? I picked one up because my daughter couldn't stand the joysticks and I never really felt like it was...good. I often get spurious inputs in incorrect directions. (Up along with right, down instead of left, you get the idea.) Do you experience this, too?

Yeah, I had a look at the pots over the weekend and again just now at your recommendation. They're properly calibrated from what I can tell when it's all closed up. I did try it out on Missile Command as you suggested, though, and that was interesting. With the lid and stick removed and with me directly manipulating the horizontal pot, I could move the cursor all the way across the screen. With the joystick assembled, I was only able to move to the right as far as the area above the last city on the right. If I gave the stick a good solid yank to the right after that, I could get it a bit past the city, but not all the way to the edge. Just me spitbalin' here, seeing as I know sod all about this joystick other than the usual and customary methods of cleaning the button contacts, but is it possible that the problem is with the actuators and how far they're moving in the joystick housing rather than the pot itself? Given the behavior of the thing when the joystick is open as opposed to when it's closed, that seems like a potential source of difficulty here. If that's so, how finicky are they when it comes to restoring them to working order?

Well, apart from the initial cleaning of my one working 5200 joystick, the thing has been trouble free, relatively speaking. That is, until this weekend. Suddenly, moving the joystick to the right did not reliably cause things on screen to move. Sometimes the effect is worse than others. In Pac-Man, the right motion is present, but sometimes requires me to really jam the stick in that direction to get some action. In Defender, rightward motion seems really inhibited by corresponding up/down motions. Interestingly, while playing Super Breakout, right always works, but stops about 90% of the way across the screen. I thought the problem was the horizontal potentiometer, so I opened the thing up and, using Super Breakout, gave it a twist. Seems to move all the way across the screen freely in both directions when I directly manipulate the pot. I'm really confused. Any ideas on what this could be about?

Tea. Earl Grey. I suspect you know the rest. Heh. Had to shampoo my carpet because I spilled some playing 5200 Defender recently. Stuff stains the rug badly.

I finally got around to picking up a copy of 7800 Asteroids this weekend on eBay. Been putting this off for months for no good reason, especially as it's one of the games I used to play the heck out of when I was a kid. (And it's my favorite version of the game, too.) It arrived today, all working and lovely. But there was something curious about it. Where on any 7800 cart I've ever seen one would find the exposed end of the PCB, I found a cover like one would find over old 2600 games. The slit that the PCB edge would slide through is exposed and I can see the board when the cover is...well, covering. And the cover itself responds to being pushed in simply by pressing it with a finger. I've never seen one of these before and just wondered if anyone could give me a little information on this configuration of 7800 cartridge. When I turned it over in my hand and found this staring back at me, I was a little baffled. Thanks!

Okay, here are the images of what I've done. The switches were secured and soldered down to the joystick and fire button PCBs; the fire buttons and the joystick...um, white bit on the bottom...required some grinding down with my dremel. The nubs on the white bit--gosh, I don't know what you call that part!--really had to be ground down low to get everything fitting comfortably within the case of the CX-24. The only thing I'm not really wild about is how the buttons have turned out. I'm actually convinced that I soldered down one of the switches slightly out of alignment, preventing consistent contact with the button. That's not too big a deal as I have a spare PCB and another switch. I'm also not so crazy about how the wide ends of the springs sit against the switches. I'll sort that out in time, I suppose. Anyhow, pictures follow. Enjoy.

Will do. They're on my iPad right now so I'll get them up when I can. I cannibalized one of my Proline sticks to make a gamepad from Nintendo gamepad. I haven't had a lot of play time with this new configuration yet, but I think I'm beginning to regret that decision. Maybe it's because I'm a purist. The stick still has that ridiculous tiny throw, but I don't feel like I have to push it as hard anymore to make it respond.

I got sick and tired of my joystick not working correctly so I took out the dome contacts and installed microswitches inside. The stick feels like it works a lot better now. This has worked well enough that I think I'm going to modify the rest of my joysticks for this. Has anybody else done this before? And if so what results did you find?

For my part, I would advise against buying any 5200 without first knowing that the sticks are functional. If "they haven't been tested," treat them as though they don't work. For that matter, don't buy any 5200 that "hasn't been tested." That's just a pet peeve of mine. How much effort does it take to plug the doggone thing in and run it? Good grief. Finally, just watch the price you pay for one. There are people who think they can really scalp 5200s; in my experience, and according to others, you can get them very reasonably if you keep your eyes peeled. (Also, definitely put up a Wanted listing in the Marketplace forum here. The people here are pretty good folks and will treat you pretty fairly.)

I'll second this question. My 5200 has its pink plastic over the metal band and I'd like to remove it. Left up to me, I'd toss the thing; I'm curious if, in the event that I ever have to sell the unit, I might be able to squeeze another $0.85 out of somebody because it's still there. (I'm becoming more and more like my dad as the years pass. )

Yup, learning this with each play. I'm on my first 5200 here, and it really is quite something. I grew up with a 2600 and 7800 and had the time of my little life with them. And I really never wanted a 5200 when I got back into buying these old systems again--thought my XEGS would cover me for 8-bit gaming. Glad that the whim to buy it came over me, because it's...different somehow. Really good stuff.

Goodness, Seethransom, that's pretty terrible. At least it worked, I guess. Have you been able to get it cleaned up satisfactorily? Sounds like yours is a 4-port, correct? It would have been a real pain in the posterior had that switchbox not been there. Mine arrived recently as you know. Paid $41 total on eBay for it, which came with three sticks, a coupler, and three common games. The thing was in pretty nice shape. Needs a little embedded dust cleaned out of it in places, but that's hardly the worst thing in the world. The worst parts were the broken boot on one of the sticks--which was clear in the picture--and the mucked up front sticker on the Pac-Man cart--again, no surprise there. I think my power cable has a break inside, so that's a small detail. And, as I mentioned to you in the status updates, two of the three sticks don't work. (Not entirely unexpected, so I wasn't disappointed. Gonna buy new flexies for them, which should bring them back to life.) The most amazing thing of all was how well the stuff was packed. Each piece was packed so well and then fitted to the next one in such a way that they could have survived the Apocalypse, Ragnarok, and a disappointing match at Wembley Stadium. It took me a half hour to unpack, I kid you not. Oddly, that was perhaps the most gratifying part of this whole thing. A bit like archaeology, maybe. Anyway. Good to hear that your baby is at least alive. And it was good to hear that you've corrected your friend there as to its fun factor. My six-year-old daughter loves the thing, as does my wife. Her family didn't have a lot of money growing up and, besides, didn't believe in video games; all these old machines I have are all new for her, so she really enjoys them. PS, I think AtariBrian is, in the main, correct. I took a small gamble with mine that the inability to start games described in the auction wasn't internal and it paid off. If I weren't a gambling man caught in a moment of whimsey, however, the Marketplace would have been the better way to go.

I just picked up a 4-controller 5200 with three joysticks, a dual-joystick holder, and three games--simple common stuff, Pac-Man etc.--for about $40 shipped on eBay. The seller said (and the pictures show) that the unit powers up and games load, but that he could not start them. I took a gamble that it was just the buttons on the sticks that were broken and hope to make some repairs with a little help from Best. I have no practical experience with the 5200, so I'm wondering how I did. Any thoughts?

Just what it says on the tin, really. I'm restoring a VIC-20 for a friend of mine and got burned on an eBay purchase of said item. Anybody around here have something like this laying around?

Could a smell possibly indicate a blown capacitor? Never had that happen (knock on my wood block head) so I don't know if there would be a smell, but just throwing that out there in case the simple faults don't pan out.

Congratulations on your new baby! I'm on my second one now. I think my parents sold it after we moved from New York to Florida 23 years ago. They never admitted anything either way. So I'm glad to have my old friend back. My kids love the thing, too. A 6-year-old playing 2600 games in the 21st century. Who would believe it?

Hi Mirage, thanks for the heads-up on this. I think I'm going to wait for Jaybird3d to get back in town. If I bring too much of this stuff into the house at once, my wife will clip my head off and barbecue it. She's a sweet, kind soul, you know? :-) Thanks for the offer though.

Jaybird3d, I know the Aquaricart well, actually. Your effort on it was probably the first retrocomputing thing I ran into a year or so back when I really started looking this stuff up. It's a wonderful thing and I will definitely consider it. Interestingly, we're about to have our kitchen torn to pieces and probably won't be back home until sometime next week ourselves. We'll reconvene then. :-) PM me when you have a chance and we'll discuss the Aquarius. Thanks very much!

Now, there's a study in contrasts, eh? I grew up with an Aquarius computer and am really thinking it's time the old thing came back into the fold. I think all I need is the computer itself and a RAM cart--4k is sufficient, more is better. (I don't think the RAM cart requires the Mini-Expander, does it? Never had the RAM carts when I was a kid, so I'm relying on my increasingly frail memory.) I'd love a Mini-Expander, don't get me wrong. But if a RAM cart can run without it, it isn't crucial. Don't really need any of the other peripherals. (I can record CSAVEs to a PC.) The Atari is a maybe. I'm not really sold on buying one, but for the right price I might. I have a 7800 so don't need to worry about 2600 compatability; therefore it doesn't matter if it's a 2-port or 4-port. That weird RF switch/power device on the 4-port is...fascinating, but I don't necessarily need that, either, if you know what I'm saying. I guess I'd take a 2-port over a 4-port if the price was better. I really don't care which one it is, I suppose. I'm not really set on that 5200, as you might be able to tell. Price matters. If you've got one being used as a doorstop and want to give it away, I'll take it if it works. But really, if you have one, let me know what you think and we'll see what happens. I'm in Florida, BTW, for shipping purposes.

As a would-have-been-in-an-alternative-dimension archaeologist, something that looks like that just means buried treasure that needs to be unearthed. It's funny, my 6-year-old loves my old stuff. She loves my 7800, but her favorite game is the 2600 Foozpong game. She loves my XEGS. For her, playing these old games is as natural to her as anything else out there. She knows about newer systems, but doesn't care to pursue them. We've got a NES and she wants an original Gameboy, but that's it. No Wii, no Xbox. Curious how they look at these things, eh?

Congratulations, tep. Looking forward to this more than I can say!

Agree with those above. I think the ProSystem version is much nicer, but these sorts of things should never be wasted. There's almost always someone looking for what you don't need. (Actually, ApolloBoy above looks like your guy!)

Schmutzpuppe, this really is most excellent. Great work. I agree with Jaynz, you should get in touch with Albert about getting this in the store. I'm looking for a first homebrew to buy, you know.