rednakes1

Interesting, I'll try to give that a shot in the future. I did order a 4-pole TRRS jack and cable recently so I'll give that a try as well. I think my biggest issue right now is that vertical line in Ms Pacman during audio; I don't notice it happen in other games right now (although I thought it did, I may have been mistaken). I think the bleeding problem is most annoying in Jr Pacman only, and I can live with the small bleeding in other games that I've tried so far

Okay I'm talking to myself I wonder if the Ms Pacman video issue shown in my previous post is caused by DC offset (noise) on the audio line? Someone in another thread a few months ago had a similar issue in a different game and said that disconnecting the mod's audio wire stopped the vertical line from appearing at the center - So the sound had caused it.. Maybe a capacitor is needed in the connection, right before the audio line is tapped to the output jacks? Based on the 2600 schematic (attached) the audio for the mod is connected at the junction of R206 and C208, which is shown at the right side of the pic (R206 is the 18K resistor). Instead of this location, how about connecting the wire after the 820 pF capacitor, before it feeds to R209 (1.8K resistor on the left)? Also note that the transistor shown in the schematic was already removed for the mod. Can someone perhaps comment on this? Maybe I'm talking nonsense.

I would guess the shipping would be about $20 US at least? I don't mind spending that much. It would be good to see if anyone else is closer.

Did you ever manage to fix this issue? I see the same problem on my 4-switch woody with the same mod kit you used, when playing Ms. Pacman. When sound plays or when a new turn begins, a white or faint vertical line flickers down the middle of the screen. EDIT: Maybe you can try this, put a 1uF capacitor before you grab the audio from R206 (I haven't tried this): http://atariage.com/forums/topic/139777-simple-2600-audio-mod/?p=1690158

Here's the vertical flickering line I see occasionally when playing Ms Pacman now. It happens usually when the audio is playing or right when a new turn starts. EDIT: It's the line down the middle

Hi, I messed up the bottom half of my 4-switcher woody console. Anyone have this part available?

Seems like it In the meantime I've contacted the seller of the mod for help. I found a similar thread to this one, here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/254792-atari-2600-composite-av-mod-help/ He had success with 2 of 3 systems.

This is the first one I've ever done on a 2600. I did one on a Colecovision and it worked out great, using same cable and TV.

I double-checked the resistors on the mod board, and they are placed in the correct spots (2.2K and 3.3K). Can't think of anything else. I did notice I have a ground wire going to the RF connector which has become loose, but when it's held in place there's no improvement. I'll re-solder it tonight but I doubt that's a factor.

Just tried it during my lunch break. No, removing C215 doesn't help. Still getting the ghosting/bleeding. I'm seeing faint vertical bars all across the screen now but that may just be coincidence or some kind of interference on my CRT TV.

Is there any reason to remove R222 (15K resistor)? I noticed a couple of guides where they removed it along with C215.

Yeah it's a Rev 13 board ... BTW if you have a spare bottom casing for a 4-switch, let me know, I messed up the drilling on mine and had to re-drill because the holes were too close (that's what I get for printing the template from Longhorn Engineer site and not measuring on my own).

Thanks, I do see C215. I'll try it tonight. I'll attach a photo for reference, just to show my wiring in that region.

I did desolder the pins off the main board but then got impatient and cut off the RF circuit board. Oh well.

Do you know of an effective way to remove the RF box? I tried to desolder it but it is very difficult. Not sure if it matters anyway since it's disconnected from the 5 pins.

Here's an attachment showing the colour bleed problem I'm talking about, as seen in Jr. Pacman. I did try changing the A/V cables and tried a different TV input but that made no difference.

Ugh... I'm starting to regret doing a composite mod on my 4-switch woody 2600. I installed the kit from vintagegamingandmore.com (the two resistors and one transistor), but the colours bleed, and in certain games like Ms. Pacman the audio causes a faint wavy vertical line down the center of the screen to appear. I've tried searching old posts but there doesn't seem to be a solution to my problem. I adjusted the colour potentiometer but that doesn't stop the colour bleed. This is very obvious in Jr. Pacman and also the tank in Battlezone. I didn't have these issues with the RF connection. Any help? EDIT: None of my TVs support S-Video so an S-Video mod is out of the question. Also I didn't remove the big shiny RF box but I did remove the little board attached to it (which had the pins attached to the main board).

I haven't considered using a USB adapter but I've read on these forums about people having paddle issues with the Stella emulator. Nonetheless, I'd rather have the real Atari and play in front of a TV just like I did as a kid.

Last weekend while I was browsing through a retro game store, I started wondering which systems would be worth to buy and which would be better to just emulate. I'm not a hardcore collector, as I just want to enjoy the games without breaking the bank. So I'm looking at this from an economical (and space-saving) standpoint. I don't want to collect every single system and game or flash cart. However, I want to ensure the emulation is close enough to the real thing so that I don't have issues with gameplay. Here's what I have considered so far: - Sega Master System - recently sold mine on eBay. Emulation on RetroPie and on my PS Vita is very good (FM sound is also supported). I don't need the Sega 3D glasses or Light Phaser for my gaming needs. I'll stick to emulation. - Sega Genesis - while I haven't played a lot of games on this platform, emulation on my PS Vita and RetroPie is pretty good for games like Golden Axe 1-3. Not sure how other games are. Sega CD seems to emulate properly on my Vita after I converted one of my CD games to BIN/CUE format. - NES - emulation has always been good. There are always so many NES consoles available for sale - not sure if worth buying. - SNES - emulation is hit and miss. Occasionally I see games that don't work properly (slowdowns or don't start). - PS1 - emulation on computer is very good (I also have an original PS3 and fat PS2 that are backwards compatible with PS1 games). - I recently purchased an Atari 2600 + Harmony cart so that I can enjoy the full range of games. The main reason I did not go for emulation is that I use the paddle and racing controllers and I don't feel emulation can match the full control. Plus, nostalgia - I recently purchased a Colecovision + AtariMax cart. Having the numeric keypad controller along with the keypad overlays for several games is a requirement for me. I have occasional issues with certain games in emulation. Also, nostalgia... - N64 - not sure how well it is emulated Opinions? Has anyone decided to buy the actual hardware only because the emulation was not up to your standards?

Are you sure it's the caps? I thought they mainly had to do with the screen dimness and audio issues. I do have replacement caps just in case.

I recently fixed up the screen of an original Game Boy (DMG-01) by using the "soldering iron method" below the LCD panel to remove the vertical lines on the LCD. It started to work fine again. However, about a week later, the screen suddenly became blank except for one vertical line on the left of the screen (see pic). With the contrast turned all the way up the screen was all black with no missing lines - which should be fine. So I used my soldering iron anyway to smooth out the traces on the LCD again - there seemed to be a few lines on the left side that were flickering as I ran across them, but they got fixed up till they went away. However, when I tried playing again I still got the blank screen with vertical line, and the screen was still all black with the contrast turned up. Anything else I should try to this unit before I give up? BTW the sound is still there and the buttons seem to function.

Saw it at the Chapters store here in Canada. Price was $52 CDN for hardcover (cheaper online). Book looks great, it's not just artwork, it includes stories and old advertisements, photos of prototypes, etc. Will be a fun read once I get it. :-)

Thanks, yeah I'm sure someone had thought of it before. I've only seen threads with the normal panel-mounted LED and the one where the LED was actually drilled into the switch knob itself - which is pretty clever but I'd be scared to do it myself. This mod of mine doesn't show the actual LED through the gap for the switch; all you see is a bright red light. EDIT: Did a Google image search and looks like bradd1978 had though of this too: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/209603-fsft-atari-2600-vader-with-led-mod/

Thank you, I probably got the systems mixed up! Sorry, I was only about 5 or 6 From the videos I watched of Parsec, that seems to be the one. The one I remember had the status text showing at the bottom too.

When I was a small kid there was a boy who used to always bring his Intellivision to parties. So I'm pretty sure this game was on Intellivision, and it was similar to Defender, but if you shot too many times at once your ship would overheat and blow up. Anyone know what the title of this game would be?