Turbo-Torch

Always on sale for $1.99 and they are one of HF's best buys imo. I have several sets that I use on the job and in my garage...I've yet to break or even bend one.

Simply Google Colecovision power switch and you'll find countless how to instructions and even videos. Hard to believe a switch can cause so many issues, but it does.

There were a number companies that offered new picture tubes for the TRS-80 line in Green, Amber, Red or Blue. You could also choose the decay time of the phosphor. Price was about $80 bucks in the early 80s. I would love to find a red tube for my Model III. I'd settle for a good used amber tube from an old monitor, but even those are getting difficult to find. The redish/orange gas plasma in my IBM P70s are phenomenal. Never liked green and wouldn't consider it.

Clean up the power switch as mentioned by 4300 and all your problems will be gone. That issue has been a plague to the ColecoVision just like controllers to the 5200.

Have you hooked a VGA monitor up to it yet? I need to get an adapter as there was something odd about the connector...I think it was an extra pin that serves no purpose. I had a giant box of old cables I gave away and I'm still kicking myself over that because I didn't realize several of them were drive B: cables for the P70.

I'd first try to take the blue connector apart, gently remove the cable and line up the holes with the old black connector on the board. Then press the blue cap on to hold it in place. There could also be a plan B. What does the other side of the circuit board look like? Does the black connector have the same size round pins that are simply soldered onto the board?

Sorry, I didn't get a chance to play it this weekend due to helping relatives pack for a cross country move. I'll try and spend some time with it this evening and report back. I watched your video but I'm not sure what I'll be looking for? Do you mean when the enemies shoot, their missiles stay right under them instead of breaking away? For some reason you're not getting many views or downloads on this topic...it's a cool game that deserves more attention. Maybe try posting this in the main 2600 forum section which gets a lot more traffic?

Can't tell what the black connector's pins look like in your picture. Are they round mating pins or sharp split pins made to cut the insulation as a ribbon cable is pressed in...like what would be inside the blue connector on your cable if you took it apart? If so, split the blue connector apart and press it onto the black connector. Although, it looks like the left locking tab is broke off the black connector.

I think I've been in the BIOS once just to see what it was like and you need a special reference disk, you can't just press a key and boot into it. There is good info here on that... https://www.cemetech.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2925 This is an old article on what I believe I have... https://books.google.com/books?id=F6anv43MXVcC&pg=PA171&lpg=PA171&dq=kingston+micromaster+486&source=bl&ots=8_M3S92tAt&sig=GRT7EJhuPMkLkbMs8JnfoYmV_as&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiuxuipsMDZAhWJ3oMKHU0RBXQQ6AEINDAC#v=onepage&q=kingston%20micromaster%20486&f=false I pulled the covers off both and the boards don't have much information on them. I see the processors have been upgraded on both. One is an Intel with a heat sink and I think it's rated at 75 mhz (benchmark gets flaky with it and claims 420 mhz). The other has a small fan and it's running at 133 mhz. Pressing o at boot up goes back to the original 386 and it's running at 20 mhz according to the benchmark. Big difference! Memory is a mix and the system doesn't seem to mind. You can also see the additional memory on the AOX board. I'll post some full res pictures of everything including one AOX board removed and one memory module removed (click for full size). You may want to save these pics if you find them useful. My server space is limited so I'll eventually delete them.

Nothing crashing and it's fun, but can you post some instructions? I'm playing it but other than shooting aliens, I don't exactly know what's supposed to happen or what certain items are. What do the bars at the top mean? Do the right numbers represent the wave #? I see the green bars at the bottom are remaining ships, but what are the other 3 large graphic blocks (green with blue center)? The blue slightly extends to the right past the green and sections sometimes disappear as the game progresses. Collision detection is good when hitting an alien or being hit by alien missiles. At stage 4 the alien missiles sometimes disappear or get glitchy...hard to explain, sorta like leave artifacts. Colliding with an alien does no damage, I assume this is normal? edit... Made it up to level 8 so far and no other missile glitches. Seems to only be the yellow aliens in stage 4, and even at that, it doesn't really affect the game play.

It's cool seeing someone else with a P70. Here's some photos of mine and what's under the hood. Kingston AOS 486 upgrade kit, 120mb HD and 64mb of memory...this thing had to be a screaming hot rod back in the day! I also have a second one that's an identical twin. I'm guessing the Kingston kit in each is extremely rare; I found an old magazine review and it was $2,500.00. About a year ago I got a bunch of vintage stuff for free off a Craigslist ad and these were part of it. I was there mainly for the TRS-80 stuff, and after debating, I decided to grab two of these as they seemed somewhat interesting. Here's the bad part...I left at least 4 more behind as I didn't think much of them at the time. They were very clean and worked perfect except for the floppy drives. I bought some brand new Memorex drives off Amazon for about $6 bucks each and they fit beautifully. Unfortunately I couldn't swap out the blue eject button from the originals.

Looks like a great device and the ad also claims it's Sound Blaster compatible too. Too bad it's only for Windows...only games I'm interested in are for DOS. There was also the Disney Sound Source, which used the parallel port, but not many games supported it.

VGA Gas plasma display. There's also a VGA output for a regular color monitor too. The one thing that sucks big time is the micro channel bus. Trying to find an MCA sound card at a reasonable price is next to impossible.

Printers have always been a love/hate thing. Next one I bought was a Star NX1000 II from a company I found in Computer Shopper back in 1989. That printer was pure joy for 25 years and still had driver support through XP. LQ print really looks like it came off an expensive typewriter. Bought a really cheap Samsung Laser when prices came down years ago for $65 at Staples. It's a very basic monochrome model but a workhorse. Best thing about it is the toner cartridge has a fill plug on the side and no intelligent chip. Pull the plug, pour about $2 worth of toner in it and it's good to go again. About 2 years ago I bought a really nice all in one Xerox color laser printer. Before choosing that printer I made sure aftermarket toner was available...entire set of colors can be bought for about $30 bucks. So far I'm still on the original included toner and the gauges are only down 1 tick after a lot of printing over 2 years! I do still use the Samsung for the majority of my b&w printing though. The NX1000 has been retired to the closet, but it's still perfect when playing with something like the old IBM P70s from the same era. I got suckered with the next to free price on a few of them. Print just a few pages and your ink levels drop drastically. Have it self clean because you're getting streaks and it uses $30 worth of ink. Don't use it for a few months and all the ink magically disappears! I always suspected something was up when I'd hear them do stuff in the middle of the night for no reason. Cleaning the nozzles (aka filling up the ink waste tank) is what they were doing. Since the printer cost $20 and the ink is $50 to $60 it heads off to the landfill. The cheap Chinese replacement ink is a waste of money as it ruins the print head within a week...and that's if the chip actually works, so it's a losing battle no matter what. Laser printers do away with all those issues. I really like how one can sit dormant for a year and then fire out a perfect print.

Wow! Looks like it's never been on location! Home use only? Never played the arcade game but always like the 2600 version by Sears.

Definitely the DMP-110 printer I bought for my Model III. It was $400 and boasted all kinds of fonts, graphic capability and near letter quality print. The print was always horrible and after taking it in for service under warranty, they showed me the print quality on their display model was no different. Also, ribbons were only available at Radio Shack which eventually discontinued them. A while back I got a big stash of Radio Shack stuff off Craigslist and 6 new ribbons were part of it. I reinked them and the 110 is alive and well again but with the same crappy print. A few years ago I picked up a spare Model III off Craigslist for $25 and the guy also gave me a near new DMP-100. I was really surprised at how well it prints considering it was a far older model...it's even battleship gray. Keep in mind that's a retro disappointment. The few inkjet printers I've owned have been 10000X worse...the 110 has never failed to print and is still functional after 35 years.

Suicide Mission on the SuperCharger.

I'd be in for one! My only question is, how durable are the zebra strips? I've had little luck reusing them in other devices?

I have two of those systems with special 486 kits installed. Red gas plasma display is insanely cool. I would think any ps/2 key from that era would work? How's the floppy drive? They typically don't work but are easy to retrofit and make it look stock. Only thing I couldn't do is keep the blue eject button.

I was so awesome too! By age 1½ I had already received my high school diploma and was just starting out as a TV repairman apprentice!

You can ramble on all you want, you're not going to change my mind...especially someone who was in kindergarten at the time.

In 1982 most communities didn't even have places to rent videos from, let alone a VCR. By 1985, only 1 in 7 households had a VCR and that's when they were the hottest selling item and rental stores were on every corner. See, I remember this because I was actually old enough to work, drive and buy things in the mid 80s. Find some classified ads from 1982 and show me how many used VCRs were for sale...pick any area of the country you want. I read the newspaper and Bargain Finder back then, looking for cool things. Cheap, used VCRs were not dime-a-dozen. Also people who could afford to buy a $1200 to $1400 VCR in the 70s most likely weren't ready to take a $1000 hit in just 3 or 4 years or need to use of a pawn shop. Those $600+ 19" portable TVs were not flying off the shelves and bringing them up is pointless. I can also find brochures from Lamborghini and Ferrari back then, doesn't mean they were COMMON. They sold a tiny ass amount just like VCRs back in the early 80s. At any given time I can find 100+ vintage TVs on my local Craigslist for free. Funny how those $600 to $1000 19" models rarely show up. I'd actually pay money for the one you listed above, but they don't exist now because they barely existed back in the day.

A TV was pretty much a necessity back then and a VCR was a luxury toy. Those top of the line items you listed were a dream for most people. You gonna tell me that $640 19" TV was common in most peoples' bedrooms? A 12" to 19" B&W set was common, not that thing. We had a 25" at the time and it sure as hell wasn't that $800 model. As far as used VCRs go, those would have been from the 70s and how many sold back then?

Yeah, in '82 I knew of one person who owned a VCR. He was a good friend in grade school and his father was a technology nut. He wore his brother's hand-me-downs and lived on the poor side of town, yet visiting their house was like going to Disneyland. The big screen with the pull out section that projected onto a screen, top load VCR with dial tuners, endless 2600 games, first LaserDisc, 5200 on the day it was released etc. They started to become more common around '85 which is when prices came way down and rental places started popping up. I bought one when I was 16 (1986) and had a job. It was a return that also did time as a display model at Sears and was still about $300.00. As far as $640 in 1982...that was a huge amount of money. Equivalent of $1,700 today! What kind of dedicated entertainment device costs $1,700 today and how popular is it?

Because the world is full of gullible people who believe anything. If you claimed you held your breath for 20 minutes and produced a doctored up video of it, some dumbass will try to outdo you, even if it means they die trying.