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calico1997

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Illinois
  • Interests
    Pinball, Classic Arcades, Classic Home Video Gaming
  • Currently Playing
    Bally Astrocade
  • Playing Next
    Odyssey 2

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  1. I'm really bummed out to learn the Flashback X coming out has no SD slot. I just downloaded the manual for it and no mention of SD, so it's not there. Did someone say there's still a way to load ROMs on it? How?? Ok...Bill just explained to me how. With a Y usb cable and some PC command lines. Not easy but doable. Thanks Bill!
  2. Wow, nice to see there's already a procedure for this. But it's a lot more than popping in an SD card. Thanks for all the great information Sir!
  3. I'm really bummed out to learn the Flashback X coming out has no SD slot. I just downloaded the manual for it and no mention of SD, so it's not there. Did someone say there's still a way to load ROMs on it? How?? AtariFlashbackXManual.pdf
  4. So I noticed the Atari Flashback X is now up on the Atgames web site. I assume it will be on the market around November 15th 2019. While I love that they finally made a mini console that actually looks right, it appears from the owners manual that there is no longer an SD card slide like on the Flashback 9, meaning no way to run additional ROMs on it. Bummer! (pardon me if this is already mentioned in another thread somewhere) AtariFlashbackXManual.pdf
  5. Hello, I would like to buy three Vectrex Overlays if available: Pole Position, Solar Quest, and Rip Off. Could I order these and have the shipping combined to save shipping cost? Thank you! Dan Rosen Lake in the Hills, IL rosendan@hotmail.com
  6. Correction - the video mod is for Composite Video, not Component Video. Sorry for stating this incorrectly.
  7. Hi there Bally Astrocade Fans! I recently got some of the very last of the special custom devices from the famous Ken Lill, pretty much the world's authority on Astrocade. Ken is apparently not producing many more of his upgrade devices for personal reasons. I bought all his mods last year. I have for sale two items. One is the Lil White Ram 32k expander for Astrocade that lets you play all the expanded memory games and enables all sorts of cool programming. The other mod is his very special component video adapter kit that eliminates most of the RF noise of a switchbox and gives you probably the best video you're going to get from an Astrocade. If you'd like to buy these, let me know. They were not inexpensive and were very difficult to obtain. Note: use of these mods require some good technical proficiency. Please message me if interested. http://www.ballyalley.com/documentation/misc_hardware_docs/Lil_White_RAM/Lil_White_RAM.html
  8. Last pictures showing room temp, temp without fans, and temp with fans running for about 1 hour.
  9. Okay so I got my Bally Arcade from an eBay seller. Very nice condition, works great, low use. I am COMPLETELY new to the whole Bally Arcade / Astrocade thing, so excuse me for saying anything that is really old news or flat out wrong. Based on the feedback of several people, here's what I did (with some pictures to follow): opened up the unit per the Bally Fun and Brains service guide for replacing the main board, did only steps 1,2,3, & 4. made a template of 1/4" circles spaced 1" apart in a sort of grid pattern using MS PowerPoint drilled holes in the bottom of the console case - note - should drill from the outside toward inside. I tried at first drilling from the inside toward outside and it was fracturing the plastic badly! cleaned up all the drill holes. set up a "Tree New Bee" laptop cooling pad, $20 from Amazon. It runs on a 5V USB plug and I set it next to my HDTV that has a USB jack on it. It runs whenever the tv is on and is very quiet. put the Bally back together. I did not remove any RF shielding since many people report this can suddenly kill the device for one reason or another. I also removed the data port "plug panel" on the back of the console since it is easy to remove and provides a large open air hole directly to the main board. put the unit on the new laptop cooling pad. used a digital thermometer - not a scientific test but at least this shows something - the starting room temp was 72F inserted the thermometer probe carefully into the dataport on the back of the console. I carefully put it BETWEEN the fish paper and the inside of the RF shield (lower panel). This places the probe near the center of the console between the board and the shielding. True, it is not really checking the temperature of CPU or RAM which surely gets really hot. Just checking the general air temperature. Anyhow it is at least some sort of a test. ran the Bally on Scribble, 0 players for 1 hour with cooling fans off. The air temp at thetest spot was 90F. Not that hot, but shows it is getting warm in there. turned on the cooling fans and temperature soon dropped to 77F, just a little above room temp. Based on this, I would say that drilling the holes in the bottom case and adding the laptop cooling table does indeed cool the lower RF shield panel and even the air between the lower panel and the main board. An additional observation is that the cassette rack on the top of the Bally has small vents in it that are directly above the main board. But if you have the clear plastic cover on, there's again even less air cooling. I would suggest keeping the clear plastic cover off the top of the machine while it is in use for maximum ability of the heat to escape out the top.
  10. Got the cooling table and the fans are very quite. (4) of them. They run off a 5vdc usb power supply - which happens to be an available socket on my HDTV. I will probably shoot a youtube video of this table with the Bally on it and will post a link in a few days. I might also insert a digital temperature probe against the RF shield and take some before and after temp readings.
  11. I appreciate everyone's feedback. I guess if the machine works currently and I don't over heat it on carpet or run it a long time, that may be safer than removing the shielding and taking a chance on messing things up. One thought - If all the metal shielding prevents air flow no matter what, then it would also mean that running the machine on a carpet makes no difference. But clearly everyone says not to do that, so one would think air flow does play a role. I went ahead and got a $20 laptop cooling table from Amazon that has 4 fans runing @ 1200 rpm. It looks neat and couldn't hurt - only help. Even if I'm just cooling the shielding, that's something helpful. I may end up pulling the bottom plastic off the console and drilling more air vent holes into it. http://www.amazon.com/Tree-New-Bee-Cooling-15-6/dp/B016PMVM7Q/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00&linkCode=ll1&tag=atariage&linkId=4b1b6442b57d888b0d8d26023bf653fc
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