newnewulm

thanks for the response, it's weird they changed the fire button's pin. i was thinking maybe the paddles routed their fire single to several pins as a safeguard in case 1 was broken but now I know the answer.

while fixing an atari i notice the channel selector switch "slide" had fallen off, without the switch I think the atari is on channel 3 even though no connection through the slide is being made - - - why? on the switch there are 3 wires going in to the slide area, so i would think the slide connects 2 of 3 wires at a time however I am puzzled why channel 3 is being selected and sent signal even though the slide isn't connecting any paths (i would think this is a break in signal). does the absense of a connection make the atari treat channel 3 as the target and therefore modify its signal accordingly? if so, how. is there any benefit to actual cutting off the metal that presents the channel 2 option thereby maybe increasing the signal power to channel 3? any smart people know how this part of the atari works and whether it's worth futsing with it to get a stronger signal? thanks

i've run across 2 ataris where apparently the joystick/paddle socket was broken (in one I could see one of the 8 or so pins was sheared off at the nub. In both these ataris a joystick plugged in to the socket would not fire, however paddles plugged in would work and the paddle trigger button would work too. I am glad paddles are so resiliant since it let me get some use out of these two ataris, but I wonder why paddles apparently don't need completely fine sockets while joysticks do. . . . Any short but sweet answers?

if you buy $25 of anything (and I think you need to be new customer) from viking office supply at 1-800-421-1222 (they ship free and gets to you same day if order before 11am, and no I'm not a viking employee) you get by asking a free mini black-white tv/radio that comes with a antenna plug that can take atari output which will does let the atari signal show up with very slight static on the tv. since I needed some office supplies and using a few friends names and daytime addresses to tell them to invoice and ship to I've gotten 4 free tvs and might get more in the couple months left on this offer. the tv-radio is quite good with all broadcast channels even UHF though tis small in order to be portable, and importantly comes with many power options including a place for d-cell batters, comes with a car-power plug-in, and comes with a wall-socket power unit. i've used the tvs to take the atari guts out of the plastic atari shell, wrapped the atari signal cord around the guts a dozen times and rubber bind the atari guts (which are about half the area of the plastic shell) to the top of the tv, i've connected with wires and just tape the atari power supply to the tv's batteries so when on it draws its 9 volts from the 12 volts of the tv batteries, and voila i have a portable black and white mini-atari that can be played anywhere. under my wiring set-up which just runs a wire right to first and last of the 8 d-cell batteries over to the atari power on underside of circuit board, when in car the tv can be run off the car's battery with the included power adapter however the atari will continue to draw off the tv's batteries. maybe in future i'll put the atari guts in a plastic box i'll bind to top of tv about the size of a hardcover book for protection and run the power wires and joystick wires and atari wire through holes in the plastic box. overall though i'm happy with this portable setup as is which cost me just some wires and some tape. sorry for going on for so long, but i wanted to share this good thing i found with others. p.s. i have a few hundred carts but never seem to bother hooking up the atari wiring to my tv, hope portable-atari will make playing pong over beers easier.