-^CrossBow^-

I got my loopback board from Best Electronics several years ago. At the time they only had the 4 port version available but if you remove the top cover on the 2 port units, the 4 port loopback can still be used without issue. The instructions for calibration are in the 5200 service manuals. What I basically have found is that with the loopback board plugged in, I go into the calibration portion of the controller test where it shows the values in real time and then adjust the pokey until the values read within the service manual +/- a few. Even calibrated to the service manual specs, I've still found that the controller pots themselves might need to be adjusted before all games work properly. If I can get Bounty Bob to move left and right and up and down without too much issue, then I can pretty sure that the controller and system are calibrated correctly to each other. But that is another important thing to note here. When you adjust the console to factory, that doesn't mean that every controller themselves will just work and most of them have to be adjusted separately by forcing the trimmer arms on the pots beyond where they are pressed onto the shafts a smidgen to have them match up to the expected readings. But yes, look to the service manuals on how to do this. There are also eyeball methods other use like adjusting the trimmer until the crosshair in missile command is centered as an example.

I just received in that cheap scart to HDMI upscaler/converter in the mail yesterday so I will be @the_crayon_king's and @YannAros's kits another try with my Sears SVA possibly today to see if I can get more stable video from them. I wasn't able to get anything from Crayon's kit at all with my OSSC setup, but one thing I didn't try as I don't have a way to do it currently, was to try and run the RGB straight through my Extron as I don't have any RGB BNC cables for that though I can get them. But as the converter was cheap, I will give that a shot and see if that gives me better results and report back.

Well that isn't my work as I've never installed the LHE mod into a client's 7800 only my own. Having said that, that is basically how I install my AV jacks on all the 7800s I do. It isn't the easiest place as there is just less than an inch of space to work with in there and it does require using only that type of S-vid jack and making sure the RCAs have short tabs on the back of them as well. On the gold plated ones, I have to cut the center tabs on them as they stick back too far. But yes, this is one of the best places to install them. Here is my latest 7800 I just did this past weekend as an example:

Well is now a bad time to discuss the fact that it is possible in some cases to defeat monsters through the walls on the screen? It seems to be easier to do when you are to the right of the wall and the monster is on the left and as far as I know, this is only possible with the sword in hand. While the sword sprite and animation isn't possible when up against a wall. It does appear that the sword is still working as I was able to kill enemies through the wall. Spiders and mummies being easy given that they home in on the player sprite and don't have know better enough to try and go around the wall sections.

To answer your question. Yes you can use the 5200 pokey for the DF or concerto flash carts. The pokey from Atari is all the same in the 8-bit computers, 5200, 7800 games, and arcade machines.

That new last room was a right bear to figure out! Really liking the changes made. As usual Vlad... another hit on your hands.

Okay, so after playing this on my DF cart there are a few changes to what I stated above when playing through JS7800. - I was NOT able to get the spiders to take gold as they did the one time through JS7800 so this might have been some odd fluke thing? - The grave stones do disappear but only once you have cleared that screen of all monsters. If you just pause with them still present, then the grave stone remains. Walk off screen and back on provided there are still monsters there and it will still remain. But if you clear out all of the monsters in that room and then pause the game or leave the room and come back, the grave stone is no longer there. So it only disappears once all monsters are cleared from that room. The colors on my actual 7800 and LCD look quite a bit different in places and the tentacle already seems to have more a purple look to him. Likewise the actual monk dude you play as seem to have more of a burgundy robe with purple highlight on the edge vs Red/Blue. I've adjusted a ton of times on my 7800 and colors just never seem to be right either way. Likely a result of the UAV composite/svid similar to what we see with Tower Toppler and Commando in combination with LCD panels.

No the resistor is usually installed either on the composite mod board along the video out and ground out connections, or I've also seen other modders install it on the actual video rca jack itself across the center and ground there. If you look at the fist pick in the thread you can see the 75Ω across the Vid-O (Video out) and GND connection on the right of the board.

Corrosion/time...etc. The trimmer is just a variable resistor so over time corrosion can build up on them and cause the values to go out of whack. In some cases you only need to turn the wheel back and forth a few times to get that initial layer back in shape again. I tend to spritz with a little contact cleaner and then move the wheels fully back and forth a few times to be sure. I use the colorbar generator to get the color lined back up again using a CRT, but in a pinch Pitfall! is good to use as well since you know how that should look and can get a good gauge of color adjustment from that game alone. But the thing is, the composite mod is only amplifying the composite signal that is being sent to the RF modulator. So if you are getting black and white, it is either the color wheel is out of whack or something else along the line of the color signal from Pin#9 off the TIA not making its way to the rest of the circuit.

If you are only getting black and white with a composite install in place, then I would start with the color trimmer first. The color wheel adjustment is that black or white colored flat disc just to the left of the RF shielding box. Usually measure about an inch in diameter so you really can't miss it.

No I meant the gravestones. I was playing JS7800 and was able to reproduce it all the time. The Stone would be in the center of the screen and I would touch it as the wizard and nothing happens (Expected since I'm not dead/ghosted). Leave the room and come back to it and the grave stone is no longer on the screen. If I'm on the screen with the grave stone and then pause to bring up the map screen, and unpause to get back to the game screen, the grave stone was no longer present on the screen. So yes I would say this is a bug as well then if they aren't meant to randomize their locations from visit to visit on the screen. I forgot to mention that I do like the magic gates that limit you to stay put in the room for a bit to deal with the monsters before opening. That is a good way to keep the player engaged in taking them out and actually getting some treasure that the monsters might leave behind (yellow gems thus far?). Otherwise, a person will be tempted to just blow through screen to screen until they finally find the exit to the next map. I need to put this back on my DF cart and play on actual hardware to see if the grave stone issue is an emulation issue or actual?

If you are talking about reusing the RCA from the RF modulator, sure that is possible. Just make sure to disconnect the center wire from the modulator output on the center post and put your audio out onto it instead. And due to the years, it wouldn't be a bad idea to apply some fresh solder to the back of the RF out RCA jack inside the RF box to make sure it stays in place and has a good connection to ground still.

Did you mean component or did you mean to say composite? If you have a component mod, I'm not familiar with that one but I suspect it would use Tim's RGB board kit? Weren't there some issues with earlier done RGB 2600s lately that required something to be repaired? I recall James' 2600 was looked at and fixed by Nathan not that long ago and I had someone reach out to me last night asking about their RGB 2600 that is just displaying what looks like a sync issue on their PVM when trying to use it now?

I just played a bit of this and there are three things I wanted to mention, two of which I believe are bugs. - Where is the sound? Didn't we have some audio when shooting and hitting enemies before? - The grave stones don't stay on the screens? Specifically I find on and noticed that if I pause on that screen and then un-pause, the grave stone is no longer on the screen? Same with moving off the screen to a different one and then coming back the grave stone is no longer there? Shouldn't they be static? - I've seen two of the green spiders now take the treasure when moving over it? Is that normal behaviour? Will keep playing a bit more but there are a few things I want to mention that I'm really liking as well! - Those monster sprites are really nice and varied - The tentacle monster is excellent! but...make him a bit more purple in color? hehe - I like how the monsters are limited by the barriers same as the player - It is really cool how the monsters (Especially the mummies) just kind of meander around the screen until you get a bit closer to them or shoot them and then they go aggro! I'm a fan of these exploration and casual games like this as well as platformers so I'm watching this one closely to see how it develops and thank you!

Well, my memory is likely wrong, but I know that in 4th grade, we had one computer at the back of the room that we only did a few activities with. I can't recall what it was, but it was likely a Vic-20. I do remember playing a game briefly on it that loaded from a cassette and was kinda like a text/graphical adventure game. Didn't really start to learn computers until Middle school where in 6th grade we had a room full of Apple IIe, with dual disk drives and color Amdek monitors. That was my introduction to Sierra adventure games. The class was only learning basic and we had most of that done before the end of the year, so like the last 2 months of school we just all sat around playing King's Quest II, Space Quest I, and Police Quest. The Teacher had made pirate copies of all the games hence why so many of us could play at the same time. He also had Leisure Suit Larry as well and a few of the students did manage to wrangle that from him to play a bit but it was on the hush hush. High school was kinda a shock as we only had two computer courses that were available. Basic computing was once again learning basic only this time the lab was full of TRS-80 model 3 units with dual built in disk drives and black and white monitors? It really felt like a step down from the Apple's I originally learned basic from a few years prior and this was in the early 90s! But the other course was about word processing and data entry. That class focused on Word Perfect and Lotus 1-2-3. In that classroom the lab was full of IBM XTs with dual floppy drives and IBM CGA monitors. About the only game we played in that class was Wheel of Fortune when we were done with the required formula data entry for the day. Needless to say, when my family and I bought our first actual computer, it was a considerable step up from what my school had available at the time. My 286-16mhz bought back in '89 ran circles around the stuff I was having to learn from in school. Although in my senior year, the drafting class was able to get funding to purchase two decent 386s with math co in them so we could actually play with AutoCad and render stuff.

Hadn't though of the sixers being an issue but I could see that. You will need to use a controller extension cable. I use one I picked up from Console5 a few years ago with mine and it seems to work fine. https://console5.com/store/atari-sega-commodore-6-1-8m-joystick-controller-extension-cable-cord.html

Just ordered the kit version, thanks for making these available!

Just put my order in thanks! I also have a pre-order for one with Packrat but hadn't heard anything more on it aside from my pre-order auto email.

It is a lot of fun and I think there are more ways to shave even more time on some of the screens but haven't been daring enough to try hehe.

This is a blast! This is my current high score on the latest build on norm difficulty. I've not tried easy as normal was what you started with. But this looks to be as high as I can get currently as I've scored this 3x in a row now. So...lets see those high marks!

I just looked at the pics of your main board. Yours has the extra timing circuit but I disabled it. Your 7800 appears to be an early made '87 unit. It has the expansion port and the second 3904 transistor near the crystal that I usually only find on early '84 made units. So yes yours is a bid odd. But it also has the extra timing circuit which again, I disabled. And you are correct in that even with that circuit disabled, 2600 Dark Chambers still works on yours. Although I would suspect that 2600 Kung Fu Master might not.

I have a few come to me with complaints of the picture being a too dark on LCDs as opposed to CRTs and removing the 75k off the video/gnd output has taken care of it. I understand why it is there, but it seems most displays seem to compensate without it fine and in many cases, better.

I've managed 340 for a score so far. Only bug I've seen and it could be an emulation thing. Sometimes just when I get to the exit, I will see the CLEAR for a frame or 2 where the exist is before it is shown in the middle of the screen. Otherwise like all your other games, this is damn addictive stuff!

Yes I know this. My understanding is that most of todays console games are coded for 60fps or really close to operation. At least it seems that is the case with most of the PS5 games. So if that was the only target they are going for, it wouldn't make much sense to get a display that is over that is all I meant. I know all about tearing and I live with it constantly on my PC as I have a first generation 4K monitor that can only do 60hz. However my video card can go way above that on frames of course. But if I enable v-sync then the entire experience becomes laggy with movements etc. So I leave v-sync off and live with the tears. Again, I'm used to it as I've played that way for as long as I can remember in regards to PC games.

T10 connects directly to the main IC in the system. While the schematics are fuzzy, it looks like pin 40 on the large IC 315-5536. So if you can locate that pin, see if there might be other places along the trace from it with possible places to attach.