ColecoGemini

The compatibility mod to allow Robot Tank, Space Shuttle, Decathlon and the Starpath Supercharger to work on systems with the bad timing circuit.

So would these new boards be used as a competitor, or a complement to the XM? Seems like some XM-only games will run on them without really needing the XM.

Being one of the fans in the minority having not been given a chance to purchase one kinda sucks

People have been saying physical media will be gone "in a few years" since DVD premiered in 1997. Calm down. Physical media isn't going anywhere. There are too many manufacturers and CE corporations invested in physical media for it to disappear. The world is much bigger than a handful if DLC packs and crappy iPhone games.

Speaking of this subject, does anyone here have a schematic for the X-Board mod? I've read that it's pokey method is the same as the XM, but it seems the person who made it doesn't make them any more? I would like to find a way to add pokey sound to my 7800, since sales of the XM have been suspended. I have a copy if Beef Drop and plan to buy DK XM, but I'm not sure if I will ever get an actual XM Thanks!

If you happen to have a 7800 with the suspect timing circuit in it, the fix to make the Starpath Supercharger and the Activision FE bank switched games (Space Shuttle, Robot Tank, Decathlon) work is really easy. One capacitor can be removed. Or you can just use a Harmony cart, as every game works with it.

Let's keep beating this dead horse, since it's not quite dead enough!!!

It's pretty discouraging seeing people get this upset by fanatics and flamers on here. Not exactly a nice way to welcome newer members to the community. But I guess that's par for the course for video gamer forums.

As is the way with many online forums with very a specific niche the problem goes both ways with the grumpiest of members. Some people complain about too many topics on the same subject, and chew out new users for starting new threads. Some people make a big deal about people bumping really old threads "necro-bumping" as it were, because apparently this violates some kind of unwritten message board etiquette rule or something. I find the best way to deal with it is to ignore both sides and post comments or questions wherever the hell I feel like it, and let people with a hair across their ass about complain to their heart's content. As for the XM, I would like to buy one, but I can't because according to all the threads i read lately, sales are suspended until its actually released. I can understand that, but that is a bit concerning, since previously everyone was told there would be plenty left for the people who didn't pre-purchase it. Guess we will all have to continue to wait and see.

Considering the relative cost to find 7800 specific repair parts and pain in the ass to desolder if the problem is tia or Maria related vs. just buying another working console, it's probably easier to just keep this one for spare parts/repairs and just get another one the works.

The funny thing is, the ability to Switch between PAL and NTSC is an odd feature, because the PAL version of this game is not rare at all. You can find PAL 7800 Commando on eBay for like $10 boxed. It's a common in PAL territories.

Demand sets the price, always. Again, what you're doing here is nice, but it's not in demand. No one asked you to do it. You took it upon yourself to make these carts. At that point the cost to make them is your own sole responsibility. If someone is willing to pay the $50 you're asking, that's great. If not, you may end up stuck with a bunch of products you have to sell below cost just to get rid of them. In my own personal opinion, none of these games should really sell for more than $5.00 each, because they are 30 years out of date, not the latest tech, and not very popular. The retro gaming market is a very small niche. to most of the world, these are worthless old games nobody wants or cares about. However, if your PCB can be adapted to handle multiple formats if 7800 carts, there may be much more interest on the part of Albert here at AA or some of the other AA Homebrew repro makers if they can be mass produced.

Nobody talks about those because those people paid too much. This game isn't quite that rare. It's normally worth about $18 depending upon condition. What you're doing is nice, but it's not in heavy demand, so the higher price isn't going to help.

I have a bunch of these. What's the going rate for AA store credit for these?

Only way to verify it is to plug it into a proper CRT tv. Some 7800s vary a bit in their output signal, and even though one will work with you LCD, another might not - but it may still work with a CRT. And if you do the "easier 7800 composite mod" you can find here, you can reverse it just as easily.

Well sure, that's the obvious answer. But the presence of these overpriced sales can drive up the price of the whole market if and when they do make actual sales. Not everyone who sells these games is an atari fan like most of us. Some of them just resell whatever items they can get their hands on that are selling for the most money. In fact - that's what most ebay sellers do.

No, it's not. That's what put US economy into it's stranglehold. Falsely inflated markets due to unscrupulous sales weasels. Allowing or encouraging people to blow normal commerce markets out of porportion "because they can" is the reason we have 8% unemployment and gasoline at nearly $4.00 a gallon. Sorry, didn't mean to get all political, I know that's a no-no in the regular gaming forums, but as it pertains to this subject, it's accurate. Retro Video Game sellers falsely inflating the value of games on places like ePay and other auction sites are no different than Wall Street swindlers and Subprime Mortgage lenders preying on people's weaknesses or lack of knowledge. Expoliting people is not the American way.

So is it safe to assume all the games GB had in development for the XM will never see the light if day, or had he delivered binaries to anyone for production? Also is $149 really the final price? Yikes. I was really hoping it would stay at $99

Pitfall 2 works just fine on the 7800. It doesn't work from the cuttle cart 2 on a 7800. But an original cart, or running the rom from a harmony cart works just fine. Out of the thousands of existing original and homebrew 2600 games, there are very few that have compatibility problems with certain revisions of the 7800 motherboard. They are: 2600 Space Shuttle 2600 Activision Decathlon 2600 Robot Tank 2600 Starpath Supercharger And that's a it. Atari added a timing circuit to the board because of problems with their own 2600 version of Dark Chambers. But there is a capacitor in that circuit that, if removed, makes every one of these games compatible, except 2600 dark chambers. Or, if you don't want to mod your 7800, just get a Harmony cart. It makes all of the games compatible, even on the suspect 7800 motherboard revisions.

The semantic argument here doesn't change the fact that S-video and YPbPr are quite different, and we both know the OP was referring to YPbPr as "component" because that is the common usage. And no, you can't get a raw "component" signal out of a 7800, unfortunately.

No, it isn't. S-video is simply Chroma and Luma separated, but all colors are mashed together like Composite. Compositie is S-Video with the Chroma and Luma Combined. Component is three separate color signals, Red Bias and luma, Blue Bias and luma, and Green/with luma and video sync. Component is much cleaner than S-video, ans is capable of delivering up to 1080i resolution. S-Video maxes out at 480i.

I got Commando NTSC for $18 loose on ePay not that long ago. Patience is indeed key.

This is why I keep a CRT in my game room. I have the LCD for PS3 and Genesis, but keep the CRT for the 7800, 2600 and SMS. There is a way to lessen the greenish hue on 7800 composite modded out put, by adding a bridging resistor between the outputs if a coupl of resistors on the luma ladder. I'll see if I can post pics of my custom mod later.

Nothing wrong with bumping the thread occasionally so new user can find it if the project is still ongoing. I have a 2600 HArmony cart, and would LOVE to get one of these since the CC2 is no longer made and crazy overpriced on ePain.

I, Robot would be awesome.