Bryan

Ah.. well, I tried it, and my 2600 works fine on 12V. Hope this off-topic info was useful.

Is all this easier than getting a DC adapter? Okay, I'm the one who told Ben Heckendorn (VCSp) about the power requirements of the 2600. Here's the deal: The power input of the 2600 is fed directly into a 7805 regulator. This regulator can take an input voltage of up to about 30V and limits it to 5V for the TTL-MOS IC's. It has a dropout voltage of 2V, which means the input must be at least 7V for it to operate. This means, theoretically, the 2600 could run on 7-30V DC. The 2600 also provides about 7.5V to the color adjustment circuit, and it has crude voltage regulation here as well. If your input voltage drops too close the 7V, the color will stop working, then if it drops below 7V, your 5V to the IC's will drop. The upshot of all this, is that you should be able to run a 2600 from 8-12V or higher with no problems. Atari's own schematics for the 2600 specify 14VDC at the power input. For safety's sake, I wouldn't go any higher than that, however. -Bry

In parallel, maybe. Don't put them in series or you'll be putting 18V into the 2600. -Bry Parallel... Uhh oh... I forgot how to do that lol is it + to - to + to - Parallel means put the 2 positives together, and the two negatives together. This will double the amount of current available, but leave the voltage at 9V. In other words, the positive lead from the 2600 goes to the positive terminal of both batteries, in the same way, connect all the negatives together too. Series is to connect the batteries in a row (positive of one to negative of the other). This will add the two voltages together, giving 18V. Don't do this. You could probably get away with putting 12V into the 2600 using a couple 6V lantern batteries in series and get a much longer life. the power goes into a 5V regulator on the board which wouldn't care about the difference in voltage (do at own risk). -Bry

In parallel, maybe. Don't put them in series or you'll be putting 18V into the 2600. -Bry

The color adjust circuit requires a higher voltage than the rest of the 2600. If your battery is sagging, color will go first. -Bry

What was that? You wanted to see a 65XE box? Here you go!

The ones I've seen only go back far enough to hold a couple sideways ROM's. Atari was compensating for something. I think it just came down to something like, smaller than an 8-track, but bigger than the cartridges for anyone else's system. -Bry

Ripped from Ebay: I said before the 1200XL. I've never seen a different 800 box, and I got an 800 in 1981. Maybe there was an earlier one, but it changed before the 1200XL. -Bry

Ripped from Ebay: