MaximRecoil

It doesn't seem like a tuning issue to me; the signal seems plenty strong, and in a static screenshot you'd never even notice the EMI patterns, because they are so subtle that you only notice them because they are in motion (I posted some screenshots from a few of my Ataris in this thread). Plus, all of my Ataris (and both of my Sega Genesis Model 1s) have it to one degree or another, and I wouldn't think they would all be out of tune. From best to worst: Sega Genesis Model 1 (both of them are the same) Atari 7800 (I only have one) Atari 2600 "heavy sixer" (I only have one) Atari 2600 "light sixer" and 4-switch woodgrain (I have 3 of the former and 2 of the latter; they are all about the same in terms of EMI) The only consoles with RF output I have which have no perceptible EMI are my NES front-loaders (3 of them) and my SNES Model 1s (2 of them). Ironically, that perfect RF output goes to waste because I use composite with them. Then of course, at the bottom of the barrel is my NES top-loader with its notorious "jailbars". I had a ColecoVision for a short while when I was a kid, and I remember that having a noisier picture than my 2600 "Vader". By the way, I tried the RF cable that came with some Atari 8-bit computers, which looks like this: It has a ferrite choke in that plastic box, and some people on here have said it works wonders, giving a composite-like picture. Well, in my case, it made no difference whatsoever. This supports my belief that the EMI isn't getting in via the RF cable in the first place, since no matter what I've tried for cables and filters and chokes, makes no difference at all. As I said before, I think it is a byproduct that's inherent to the design of the Atari's internal circuitry.

Yeah; it made sense when I thought it was just an ordinary light sixer case bottom with a thick sticker to cover the holes in the back, because that would just be a case of using up old stock, and factories do stuff like that all the time. However, this thing was specifically designed to be a hybrid of a 4-switch and 6-switch case bottom, and that's bizarre. Perhaps it was meant as a universal replacement part, so that service centers only had to keep 1 type of case bottom on hand. I don't think those little posts would interfere with using it with 6-switch guts (even if they did they could easily be broken/cut off); you'd only need to leave that thick sticker off of it. Mine does have the remnants of one of those red "Atari Super Service" stickers on the bottom, which says: CALL TOLL FREE ATARI SUPER SERVICE IN CALIFORNIA (800) 672-1404 CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES (800) 538-8543 I don't know if those red stickers came on them new or if it means it was in a service center at one point. Out of my 6 Atari 2600s, 3 of them have that red sticker, and the other 3 show no signs of ever having had it. The serial number sticker is missing from mine, though you can see adhesive residue from where it used to be. Someone else on here has/had a 4-switcher with one of these hybrid case bottoms, and its serial number sticker was a Sunnyvale one (no mention of Taiwan or Hong Kong). I wonder if there are any sixers out there sporting this hybrid case bottom. The easiest way to identify one in a 6-switch application without taking anything apart is to look for that hole in the bottom (as shown in the first picture I posted), which an ordinary 6-switch case bottom doesn't have.

I've seen a few threads/mentions of these here, but they were said to be factory-converted 6-switch case bottoms (i.e., a regular 6-switch case bottom with a black sticker applied over the joystick and power jack holes in the back). I have one of these [presumably] early 4-switchers, and that's what I assumed it was too, until I looked at it closer. There is more to the bottom half than a simple conversion of a standard light 6-switch case bottom; it is more like a combination of a conversion and a redesign intended specifically for a 4-switch; it seems to be an interim / beta design for use until they could design the real 4-switch case bottoms. At first glance it just seems like an ordinary 6-switch bottom half with a black die-cut polycarbonate sticker covering the joystick and power jack holes in the back, but the openings which surround the rear screw holes are narrower than on any of the other sixers I have (narrower than on my other 4-switcher too). I normally use a 4-in-1 screwdriver to take them apart, but the barrel of that screwdriver is too large in diameter to fit in the openings of that one. Also, unlike an actual 6-switch bottom half, and like a real 4-switch bottom half, this "converted" bottom half has the two little plastic posts inside on the bottom for the bottom of the 4-switch motherboard to rest against, as well as a hole, apparently for adjusting the hue pot without taking the case apart: Sticker covering joystick and power jack holes in back: Screwdriver doesn't fit: Here's a real 6-switch case bottom; no hole, no posts: And my screwdriver fits (like it does in all 5 other 2600s I have):

Well, like I said, I have two rev. 12, 4-switch woodgrain 2600s, and the colors looked exactly the same on both of them before adding the resistor and after. I think the most likely scenario is that they came from the factory that way, because the idea that they both drifted out of adjustment by exactly the same amount, or that two different previous owners both happened to misadjust them by exactly the same amount, are both unlikely. Plus, they weren't technically out of adjustment, but rather, they were missing a component; i.e., adding the resistor transformed that aqua color to green in both of them. Maybe early on in the 4-switch production they were leaving the hue pots set the same as on a 6-switch, and then later on they started compensating for the incomplete circuitry by adjusting the hue pot differently, until finally doing it right by including the resistor in rev. 16 motherboards and higher. I believe that rev. 12 is the earliest version of the 4-switch motherboard. One of the two that I have has hybrid between a 6-switch and 4-switch bottom half, which suggests it is a very early one.

While the difficulty switch does indeed alter the shade of blue for the maze, the color change he's talking about comes from the resistor fix he did. Blue is dark and dull on a standard 4-switch woodgrain (and on an Atari 7800), and brightens up a lot when the resistor is installed. I did the fix recently to both of my 4-switchers; you can see a before and after picture here. Notice the appearance of the blue number 0 and the tank; it is more like the appearance of blue on a sixer.

I'm surprised this resistor fix isn't a sticky thread here somewhere. The 4-switch is the most common VCS model, and how many thousands of people are missing out on good colors? Some people never even realize there's anything wrong with the colors of their 4-switch, because they've never seen the much better colors from a 6-switch. Plus, this is an official fix issued by Atari, Inc. back in the day, and they even incorporated it into rev. 16 and higher motherboards from the factory (which I believe is well into the all-black "Vader" era, i.e., I don't think any 4-switch woodies had the fix from the factory).

Everything you typed is false by definition, and adding "end of story" after four false assertions does exactly nothing to make them true. As to why your assertions are false by definition, what is the definition of an NES? Part of the definition is that it has a 72-pin connector. What is the definition of a Famicom? Part of the definition is that it has a 60-pin connector. 60 ≠ 72, therefore NES ≠ Famicom. If you were to list an exhaustive definition of both of them, you'd find more differences as well. Additionally, PlayChoice-10 and VS. System hardware are neither an NES nor a Famicom, though they also have the same fundamental architecture as both of them. Genesis/Megadrive and 2600/2800 are a lot closer to each other; at least they have direct cartridge interchangeability, but they are still different models by definition. Even 2600 and 2600A are different models; the birthdate of the 2600A is not 1977, by definition, and the birthdate of the 2800 is not 1977 either.

The NES didn't exist in 1983. NES is an abbreviation for Nintendo Entertainment System, which is a specific model which saw limited release in the U.S. in 1985, and nationwide release in 1986. The Famicom, released in Japan in 1983, is a different model, and it features a hardware platform which has fundamentally the same architecture as the NES, though there are some hardware differences, and their respective cartridges are not directly interchangeable (an adapter is required).

4K is pointless unless you have a massive screen. For example, the two most recent Star Wars movies, which were released in 2002 and 2005, were shot on less-than-1080p video (1920 × 817, which is what you get when you crop 1080p down to a 2.35:1 aspect ratio), which were shown in theaters at the same resolution they were shot in. How big is a typical movie theater screen? 50 feet? However big they are, they utterly dwarf your home TV. If 1080p is good enough for a big budget Hollywood movie intended to be viewed on massive theater screens, it is good enough for your living room on your comparatively tiny TV. By the way, tons of big movies, even today, are shot or mastered on 2K video (2048 × 1080), which is an ever-so-slightly higher resolution than 1080p (1920 × 1080), or slightly under 3K. The enormously popular professional movie camera, the Arri Alexa, is just under 3K for example (2880 × 1620); it was the main camera used to shoot Avengers: Age of Ultron, just to name one of about forty-eleven thousand recent examples, and the DI master for that movie was only 2K (which is typical), which means 2K is what was shown in theaters. But with regard to classic ~240p video games, there is only one type of display that's good enough for those: a ~15 kHz CRT. Anything else is a downgrade/kludge.

With regard to the RF shields within the consoles, I've had some strange experiences with those. For example, with a heavy or light sixer (both of which use a thick-walled cast aluminum motherboard enclosure for the shield), I see no difference when testing them without the shield. For a 4-switch, testing without the shield (which is made of thin sheet metal) results in a lot of extra noise in the picture, of the "snow" variety, similar to what you'd see with a weak signal or bad connection. With an NES front-loader, removing the shield makes no difference; the RF signal is just as pristine either way. It is interesting that the NES can send such a clean signal even with the deck seemingly stacked against it (i.e., cheap, thin coaxial cable going into an RF switchbox and no RF shield).

I get some ghosting on my Ataris, but it isn't all that noticeable. The main thing I get is faint, constant random motion patterns within the color, most noticeable on colors of a medium to light shade. The motion isn't truly random; it most often takes on the form of moving diagonal lines across the screen (not really "lines", because they are subtle, faint, shadowy, and indistinct, but I don't know what other word to use). The RF interference patterns disappear almost entirely when switched to B&W mode (on games which support B&W mode). Also, the RF interference patterns are never visible on a black background (unlike more severe forms of noise like from a weak signal or bad connection, which show up everywhere regardless of color).

Whatever may be going on in this house with regard to electricity, the fact remains that my NES and SNES deliver an RF signal to the TV which is as perfect as possible (zero perceptible RF interference), and none of my 7 Ataris can do that, which indicates that Nintendo knew something about RF circuitry that Atari didn't (or it indicates that Nintendo was willing to spend money on something that Atari wasn't). Nintendo didn't always hit a homerun though; I have an NES top-loader too, and its RF output is garbage (full of vertical shadowy lines, as anyone who owns one knows), but that was obviously a case of being cheap, given that the top-loader was an "economy version" of the NES. By the way, I just tried connecting my Atari AC adapter to the AC line filter in my Street Fighter II arcade machine (AC line filters are standard equipment in JAMMA cabinets), and it made no difference whatsoever.

The RadioShack RF Interference Filter 1500025 is useless; at least in my case anyway. I saw no difference whatsoever when using it. I tried it because I've seen it mentioned a few times here, and there are a lot of reviews saying it helps. Supposedly it is effective on RF interference from 54 to 900 MHz, which should cover most anything (it covers all of the VHF and UHF range), so either this gizmo is nothing more than a placebo, or the RF interference I see is coming from elsewhere. I know it's possible to get a very clean RF picture in my house on my TV, because the RF picture from my NES front-loader and SNES Model 1 is very clean (even though I don't normally use RF with them, because they have composite outputs). They have no perceptible RF interference at all (they could pass for composite), and that's with using an OEM Nintendo automatic RF switch complete with its cable that is so thin that it barely qualifies as coaxial cable. My Sega Genesis Model 1 has clean RF too, though not as clean as the Nintendos. It has a slight amount of perceptible RF interference, but less than my 7800 and any of my six 2600s. So what is Nintendo's secret? I know it isn't their RF switchbox, because I've hooked them up directly with an ordinary coaxial cable with an RCA adapter on one end (the same cable I use with my 7800) and they are just as clean as with their OEM RF switchbox. Since the differing amounts of perceptible RF interference (ranging from none with the Nintendos, to barely perceptible with the Sega, to mild with the 7800 and heavy sixer, to moderate with the light sixers and 4-switchers) doesn't seem to have anything to do with the RF cables, I wonder if it has something to do with the power supplies; not the wall warts themselves (I'm using an OEM wall wart in all cases), but rather, how the power is handled within the consoles' circuits.

Most people would say they want to, followed by "plus it's the law anyway" if they had reason to believe the person asking them about it didn't already know it was the law. Something which isn't technically conflicting can still be conflicting from the perspective of how people normally communicate. But, regardless of that (and like I said before), the fact that he wanted to change the colors means it would have happened either way, which makes the company policy, if there was one, irrelevant.

Saying that you want to change the colors conflicts with saying that you had to change the colors due to company policy. And if they were two parts of the same story, him wanting to change the colors indicates that he would have changed them anyway, whether the company policy existed or not.

Yes, I don't doubt that he said that; I'm just pointing out how it seems to contradict what he said previously, and what other Atari programmers have said.

Exactly. Even if, for whatever reason, he couldn't 100% duplicate the arcade maze layout, I would think he could have done something other than what amounts to a tiny maze copy & pasted 8 times (with half of them mirrored before pasting): And that maze has no "flow" to it as you travel through it like the arcade maze, because it is just a bunch of repeating squares. It is tedious to clear such a maze.

What did he say about it?

"Port" has always had the same definition, and it relates to software in general, not just video games. A perfect port would be one with no perceptible differences between it and the original, and the more perceptible differences there are, the less perfect the port is. Obviously a perfect port of Pac-Man isn't possible on the 2600, but the differences should be limited to necessary ones due to hardware limitations, rather than being compounded due to the whims of the programmer and/or his higher-ups. Yes, his supervisor/boss is ultimately to blame. Someone above him should have said no to the weird colors and maze layout which was drastically different than the arcade layout. Which is why "Howard" was also asked about it, who, according to that thread I linked to, was there a year earlier than Woita. His reply was: "Nope. Never heard anything like that."

It's one of my favorites too, and it seems to be an often overlooked game. It was one of the 5 games I bought the same day I bought my first Atari 2600 in 1985 (when I was 10). Like everyone else, I couldn't intuitively figure out how to play, but then my older brother read the instructions and we were quickly off and running. I beat it easily the first time, but then my older brother tried the difficulty switches, and it was like a whole different game. My older brother never cared much for Atari or video games in general, but whenever I'd happen upon him playing my Atari, it was always Space Attack (even though I eventually had dozens of games) on the difficult settings. His goal was to beat it without losing a life, which, to my knowledge, he never did. I never did either until a few years ago. He got a kick out of it when I linked him to the .

I've been meaning to for a long time, but I don't have a 2600 trackball controller, and I don't think the one in my Missile Command arcade machine would play nice with my 2600. I have played Missile Command TB in Stella with a mouse though, which is fun, though the mouse sensitivity setting doesn't seem to have any effect. I would like to slow the cursor movement down some relative to the distance the mouse is moved, for more precision. The sensitivity setting has an effect for paddle games I've tried such as Super Breakout.

"We were still new at doing advanced arcade ports to the VCS . There was Space Invaders and Asteroids; both of those used their own color schemes and Asteroids looked and played different from the arcade. I wanted to add more color to the maze instead of black and blue, so I chose the colors." - Tod Frye http://ataribook.com/book/what-are-the-real-facts-behind-pac-mans-development/ As for the part about the space games, I've heard that before too, but it seems to have been pretty well debunked in this thread. Here are a couple key posts: And:

Yes, Space Invaders, Missile Command, and Asteroids all have good gameplay; they are among my favorite 2600 games. Missile Command is my favorite 2600 game; I own an original Missile Command arcade machine, but I play the 2600 version more often. Plus, with Missile Command, I don't know of any changes which were needless / done on a whim, given its 4K size. I do wish they would have included true analog trackball support though, but only if the standard joystick support was retained as well. I don't like the idea of having it be 100% tied to a bulky controller that was never included with the Atari 2600, but it is a nice option to have. Also, regardless of how many ports got needlessly screwed up back then, it doesn't make it a good thing. By definition, a port should strive for as much accuracy as possible. The more you stray from that goal, the more it becomes a personal interpretation rather than a port.

The color scheme change had nothing to do with memory and other resources; from what I've read, it was simply because Frye thought the arcade color scheme was "boring". As for the maze layout, I don't see how making it like the arcade version would have required more memory/resources. Maybe making it have the outlined look would have required more resources, but simply rearranging those solid block walls that he used into a pattern like / more like the arcade shouldn't have been a problem.

But the latter group wouldn't have complained about a correct color scheme and maze layout. When you have two target audiences for a game, one that wants accuracy, and the other which doesn't care either way, go for the accuracy, because then you please both groups, rather than disappointing one of the groups. As for Ms. Pac-Man, it wasn't a port of Pac-Man, it was a sequel, so of course it should be different. Didn't the 5200 and/or the Atari 8-bit computer version of Pac-Man come out at around the same time? Those didn't go for an altered maze layout or color scheme. As for Asteroids, at least it still had a black background. Making an Atari 2600 game actually look like vector graphics is obviously impossible (thick, jagged outlines don't look anything like thin, razor-straight lines), and color was a big deal back then; B&W was the domain of the outdated Pong consoles of the time, and I can see it being perceived as a step backwards, perhaps even generating angry calls from people thinking their Atari was broken because Asteroids wasn't showing up in color. Another one that they needlessly changed was Space Invaders. That one should have looked like Nukey Shay's hack from day one, instead of using ugly colors and a pointlessly restyled tank (which looks like a crude chess pawn) and aliens.