Atari-Collector

OK, I posted this yesterday, not a since reply or even a view so I'm guess something went wrong on the forum.. or the admin hates me.. So one more try.. I'm restoring a 2600 Darth Vader edition I recent bought. So far I cleaned everything and repaired the case to get it working again due to the abuse/neglect of the stupid previous owner(s). I've replace the "wang's" mystery brand capacitors with new Panasonic electrolytic capacitors. I plan on a simple AV mod, and remove or disable the RF box. I'm debating replacing the 1/8" phone system power jack and putting in a 2.1mm coaxial connect that is the standard for adapters today. And also think I'll add a 1N4006 diode in the positive line before the main filter capacitor to add reverse voltage protection. Any thoughts or suggestion?

I'm restoring a 2600 Darth Vader edition I recent bought. So far I cleaned everything and repaired the case to get it working again due to the abuse/neglect of the stupid previous owner(s). I've replace the "wang's" mystery brand capacitors with new Panasonic electrolytic capacitors. I plan on a simple AV mod, and remove or disable the RF box. I'm debating replacing the 1/8" phone system power jack and putting in a 2.1mm coaxial connect that is the standard for adapters today. And also think I'll add a 1N4006 diode in the positive line before the main filter capacitor to add reverse voltage protection. Any thoughts or suggestion?

So how critical is putting a cardboard head protector in a 1050? I just tried using the ones I made for the last move over a year ago, one drive took it, by the other has too strong a eject spring and the light cardboard is just bending. I really do plan on transports all my computer stuff myself. So it will get proper handling.

Last move was just over a year ago. I didn't use extra bubble wrap, instead I use blankets, towels, and my late mother's faux fur coat. The original boxed stuff was all inside bigger boxes for more protect and to hide what I had in them. Did won't some twit seeing them and grabbing them, The least fun thing to move was my TRS-80 model 4.. I love it, but the Atari stuff is so much easier to handle. Going to look are and see if I got some silica gel packs to put in with the 1050's... My 2600 has been packed for a few months now from when I originally planned to move but aborted because of my health scare.. Wish I'd left my clone sega pad out to play with all this time..

What I did last time for the non original box stuff in put hard 1/4" think plastic shelves on the side on the box to protect from crushing. Still have them and plan on doing that again. These things are so hard I've had trouble cutting them with a jigsaw.

Nope. I'm pretty much a loaner.

Last move it when with the movers, and made it, although they broke a ceramic Christmas tree my late mother made. When I posted online about it they threatened to sue me for slander.. Well I'll be hiring different movers this time of course, my heft and haul days are long over. but it'll be a shorter drive, so I do plan on making a few runs alone.

I going to be giving noticing tomorrow on my dump of an apartment finally, I would have sooner but was dealing with a cancer scare since last fall. It when back and forth a couple times, but as it stands no cancer but need to be checked again in 6 months. So one of the first things I need to pack up in my Atari computer stuff so I can take it's desk down for a place to stack boxes. I really don't like packing it up for a couple months or so, it could be packed up until September, so I want to do it right to avoid damage. Beside head rest cardboard (not original, file-folders cut to size) in the drives (1050) is there anything I should be think of? I have original boxes for my 1050s, 850 and 800xl, but my not the 800, 1010, carts, and joysticks etc.. So just looking for suggestions so I still have working hardware when it's set up again a few months from now...

OK, if I read that thing right, and bare in mind i'm not running on much sleep, it say you give THEM all the right and you get zero money in return... ? That's just moronic, stupid, rip off. I've wrote shareware for many years, and I've had people try to get my source code different times, One even tried insulting me to think my software wasn't worth paying for, so I was supposed to give them the code... People have the right to make money for their work and not just give it away. What really sickens me is the people to call stuff freeware then beg for donations to keep it free like it some bloody noble cause. So it's really just beg-ware. And worse getting people to contribute to something's development for free, while they are the ones collecting the money as "donation". Sorry, stuff like this gets me in rant mode easily and I've skipped off topic a bit..

I got my P: R: connection in the mail today... It didn't occur to my the serial connectors on the unit would be male DP9 instead on female DB9 like on a PC. So now I have to scramble to get it going. Are the pin outs the same as a normal RS232 or something else? I figure I can either try building my own cable if I have all the parts handy, or other something premade on Amazon.ca or something.. on ebay if I want to wait 3 months to see if anything shows up.. help

Yes, I meant SIO2SD... duh I don't know the U1M and SIDE2, but from what you said it connectors to a hard drive? I'll take a look at the LANTronix UDS-10 also, the MMS100 is just a model I read about on another site.

I'm playing with the idea of making my first Atari BBS. I've ran PC based boards in the past and thought I might be fun to try, I think I snagged the file atr file for Express 850 bbs or something like that a while back but never did anything with them.. Here's the crazy idea I have, my 800XL, 850 and SIO2SD to be 4 drives for the BBS and a Lantronix mss100 for telenet connections since I have no land line and is seems Magicjack no longer works good enough to support data calls now.. So crazy, dump, workable?? EDITED TYPE: SIO2SD no CD... my bad..

I never get far enough to worry about there being an end to the game...

OH i know all about UPS fees.. Years ago I had to get a good heat-sink and fan for a then high end AMD K6-2 400Mhz (I still have it btw) because the twit at the local store sold it with a undersized cooled that was only good for a 200MHz CPU.. I ordered one from a manufacture in California (Globalwin I think was the name) and they promised to send it US Mail, but then sent it UPS.. the cooler was $15, by the time I paid all the UPS fees it cost me $50, but I had no choice since the local store refused to special order what I wanted. Of course that store is long out of business.. So I'm a bit paranoid about stuff coming across the border. And I won't go in to my normal rant about ebay's Global Shipping program ripoff.. US Mail to Canada Post, best way to send anything across the border..

That is an interesting looking device. and it looks like he doesn't charge extra to ship to Canada which is a huge plus. on the ironic side, the Sega clone control I have only cost about $11 (C$), but it easier with my messed up right hand. I can still use normal 2600 sticks, it just that I can only use them a short time.

I'm thinking about getting a 7800, but I'm a bit confused about the joystick. I see a lot of them on the evil auction site with standard 2600 style joysticks, don't they need to have 2 buttons on 7800 games? Also, I use a clone Genesis controller on my 2600 because of a hand injury, would that work on the 7800 as well? then I won't even need to worry able the joysticks..

OK, this is probably come up before but I'm excited and have to share this I bought a $12 video to VGA converters on eBay not expecting a lot, and it arrived today, which was pretty fast shipping, but the best part is the thing actually works! I noticed some artifacts when I tried it with my 2600Jr with AV mod, but on the 800XL it looks pretty good on my 21" LCD. It's not perfect, and the menus default to Chinese when I got it.. but now I can finally have my 800XL at my desk and share the monitor with the PC I'm using right now.

Just thought I share a photo of my Radio Shack TV Scoreboard, one of the many pong type clones.. It's in great shape, original RF cable, power supply and owner's manual! And the topper, only ONE owner :D

Where would I find more info on a Harmony? how they work, where to buy,, etc? It would be a more economical way to play the games over all, and get real versions of the games i'm more attached to. I don't have the money or space to be a true collector, so I'd rather be a true player, and just got real versions of games that are special to me.. I was looking up info on Tempest (it was always my go-to game in the arcade , but I guess there's no 2600 version, seems to only exist on the 5200... ack.. of course if I won the lottery I get the real deal full size game:) l'd only consider selling one of my 2600s if I were to get a 7800. I like the idea of having a backup, and it's getting more expensive and harder to find the consoles in Canada.. and the two I have now are in great cosmetic and operating condition..

I'm getting back to my model trains, building a new layout. I have tons of track and and stuff from having a big layout when I had a house, so an apartment size layout is small, but I won't likely need to buy much new stuff. And yes, I have played with idea for making a control the would work with my hand problems. something with little effect needed to use..

Topped out at 92F here today https://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=ICHATHAM8 I just wish the AC in my car worked too.. No emulators, but I think that's the way I'll go instead of buying a 7800, just emulate it and see how I like those games..

I do have air conditioners, just didn't have any power to run them yesterday.. It's amazing how your world stops when the power goes out..

Yes, i go for testing August 8th, then see what happens from there, from what I hear about the medical system these days it could be a long drawn out thing to get anything done.. I don't plan on getting rid of an Atari stuff I have except dupes. but taking a break from actively looking for anything new would probably be a good idea. I pretty much all most all my most wanted games already anyways.

OK, one of those think out loud long winded babble on posts that probably nobody wants to read.. But here it goes... I've been giving this a lot of thought lately, stopping collecting Atari and possibly quitting another hobby or two, like ham radio.. The power was out yesterday for 2.5 hours in the afternoon, it was 88F, and getting warmer inside from lack of ac and gave me time to think about what I'm getting out of these hobbies and collecting or am I just doing them because I can and it's there. On the Atari front I have a modest collection, far smaller then a lot of you have and admittedly I don't know near as much about all the variations and tech side of them and a lot of people do either. I have a 2600 L6 and Jr. with about 50 games (for some reason I thought I had more but doing an inventory after discovering I had bought a number of dupes revealed a lower count then expected), I also have a 800 and 800XL, two 1050, 1010, 850 and about 23 carts with a handful of dupes there too, somehow I have three Star Raiders just for the 800... And in the heat of the blackout I got thinking where am I going with this? Is buying more game carts making me happy or just poorer? I hardly play any more because of a hand injury that gets painful if i play for a bit and how hard I play. So wants my end game here...? I don't have space or money to buy all sorts of variations and every game out there. I know some of you do and that's great if if that's what makes you happy, and I do drool when I see photos of some of the collections. But I have enough now, even being home most of the time on disability, that I couldn't play all the games I have. So maybe it's time to put on the breaks and stopping looking for more....? There's a few things that have been on my want list a while, Tapper, a 7800 and a Vader 2600. And I'm pretty sure I still want to add Tapper but when I think about it honestly, a Vader won't really add anything to me ability to play games, and I don't truly need to start on to 7800 platform. I don't see selling off anything I have except the dupes, but other then Tapper, I don't see needing to buy more either.. During the blackout, I was able to power my ham radio by battery, and because of the power being out I was free of electrical interference (modern switching power supplies are horrible) that let me hear signals I know I won't have normally. Yet despite that, I was not able to make even one contact because of all the bad operators on the bands, So I got thinking about what was I getting out of it too.. just an entry in a log if I some how manger to make a contact... I doubt many radio contacts go beyond just a log entry despite the way that toss the word friend around. ok, getting off topic here, but the point is am I doing these hobbies because I enjoy them, or some weird obsession that compels me to keep doing it just because I can? To wrap up this long winded babbling post, I'm thinking it's time to stopping collecting games and just play when I feel like it. And the radio stuff, well that's another confusing topic to think about some place else I guess,. Being home most of the time means having a lot of time to fill, yet today i mostly just laid in bed thinking about this stuff and should I keep doing it, or quit some or most of them and get back to something else like my model trains more...

I got thinking about this more.. and I think there will probably interest in Atari for a long time yet. Just like people collect old cameras, clocks, or radios, there will be those that will want to have the old games too. I think the question is how to preserve the hardware so it eventually gets in to the hand of those that will wany it in the distant future instead of meeting some horrible the the pop electronics of today deserve. maybe put a condition in your will that states nobody gets anything from your estate unless they keep and protect your Ataris.. call it the Defender clause..