mksmith

Well this has come a surprise over the past 6 months. Earlier this year I picked up a C64 and 1541 II off eBay having started watching a number of retro videos in the period proceeding that purchase. All of a sudden I was back into my youth playing some classic games from the past - much to the probable annoyance of my wife and kids (I'd previously planned and built an Arcade cabinet [Nintendo - Donkey Kong] over a 10 year period so just another thing to clog up the house) though my son seemed to appreciate a game of Wizball. Not long after for some reason I started searching for some Atari 2600s to 'do up' ie clean, re-cap and sell (profit, any profit pfft!). So now 6 months later having spent a (fair) bit of money (this hobby isn't cheap in Australia) I still have 3 2600jrs each with a least one joystick and 1 to 3 games ready to sell all nicely presented in a box. I've certainly enjoyed the process of buying, cleaning and learning to solder and repair and have even got pretty good at doing it. During this I thought hey lets get one for myself - so I picked up a Vadar and modded it for RGB output (tried a 3rd part one which output was average - so I built one myself in the end). Now this was early on and my soldering skills nearly killed it but I persevered and it's now working quite nicely (also got some joystick parts for Bests and fully restored). Next up I wanted more so I then picked up a light sixer which was sold as not working. Replaced the power socket which got it working and then cleaned up some rough soldering around the switches eventually finding the RIOT was faulty also. Replaced that with a spare I had and now working nicely. Then for some reason on my final testing I must have shorted the joystick and nothing on the left was working arrrr. So my first post here asked for some help and eventually socketed the 4050 and unsoldered/re-soldered the joystick port and we are back up and running. The kids will not appreciated the history of such a beast but looking forward to opening my Christmas present shortly! Anyway, been a long time coder of games [remakes of stuff I love generally] using products such as Amos, BlitzBasic (all forms), Monkey etc as well as VB.Net which I've built a commercial product for my business (since seen the light and now coding a redo in c#). So hey I'd love to learn to do some stuff for the 2600!! So the last couple of weeks I've tried to plug away in assembly picking up bits and pieces but really going nowhere. So on the weekend I started looking at batariBasic and I've got to say for getting up and running very quickly this is a great tool. I've got a game I recently came across on the PC (and also the c64) which is simple but a bit of fun - so armed with batariBasic within a day I've got a little man running around animated and so forth. So (hopefully) going forward I want to remake this game on the Atari and maybe some others. The key will be finishing and not abandoning - fingers crossed! Wish me luck!

Great thanks Random Terrain!

Hi everyone, Interested in doing some programming for the 2600 - would this be considered the recommended version of batariBasic to use? I've been trying to get some understanding of assembly but I've got a lot more experience with over the years with Basic (Amos, BlitzBasic, Monkey, Vb.Net etc). Wanting to see if I can get my idea started. Thanks.

Hi, Moving onto my next change (previous issue here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/285092-light-sixer-left-joystick-issue/)- the Zener Diode protection. Looking through the Service Guide Atari offered a direct replacement part CA018263 replacing C236 and C237. Now looking through the forums it is suggested to solder directly onto Pin 6 of the joystick and the opposite side to the nearest ground plane. This is obviously using potentially newer components (as noted at Console 5): http://atariage.com/forums/topic/172562-replaced-riot-other-maintenance-while-i-am-in-there/?p=2138298 http://atariage.com/forums/topic/241317-improved-color-for-your-4-switch-woody-a-public-service-bulletin/?p=3776501 https://console5.com/store/atari-2600-total-refresh-kit-new-capacitors.html Can someone please help confirm the actual parts no's and required configuration to make sure I get this one right? Thanks!

Update: Finally sorted! Removed and cleaned Joy 1 pins etc, re-attached and we are now working again! Hooray! Now onto the next thing of installing the Static Modification Zener Diodes and trying to clean up the output which is has some blueish lines down the screen. Would prefer not to mod this one but one thing at a time! Thanks for the help above too!

Finally got a chance to spend some time on this. So i've replaced the 4050 with a new one (and socketed it) and still no change. I've now plugged in an open joystick in and tested continuity directly off the joystick connection pads to the RIOT and 4050. With the RIOT both the direction pin and direction pressed respond on ground? correctly (pins 8-15). With the 4050 I did discover that Joy2 responds on pin 7 and pin 8 ground when button pressed whist Joy1 responds on pin 9 but not pin 8 ground here (is that correct??) Thinking I have a short or faulty capacitor somewhere? l think i'll remove the joystick port and/or start replacing parts.

Thanks SignGuy81 will try that next. Just rebuilt 2 joysticks and both definitely work in the right port.

Hi, I've done a continuity check on all pins from the connector to the board - everything is still connected correctly, also no bent or misaligned pins. I've also followed each (specified) pin on the board down to the Riot and 4050 [Pin 8] and that gave me continuity. When I do an Oms (resistance??) check it eventually settles down to 000.1 on my multimeter. Have yet to change-out the 4050 IC. Would any have any further suggestions I could try? Thanks.

Thanks Thanks will check that out!

Hi everyone, Recently picked up an Atari 2600 light sixer. Had a few issues to solve (power jack, reset switch and cleanup of some heavy prior soldering on other switches) but eventually also found a faulty RIOT chip so replaced that and everything was working great. As I was about to finalise my testing the left joystick partially popped out and I pushed it back-in. Now the left joystick (and button) does not respond at all but the right joystick (and button) is totally fine. I've tested the RIOT and TIA in my Vadar and everything is all good. I also replaced C236 (220pf 50v capacitor) based on some discussion here http://atariage.com/forums/topic/269595-right-joystick-port-always-firing-light-sixer/ and still no go. Others have mentioned replacing the 4050 IC (http://atariage.com/forums/topic/173081-light-sixer-issues/?p=2146573) but wanted to see if anyone had any thoughts before I proceed (newish to multimeters thus haven't yet tested things like continuity but there appears to be 5v on some of the pins I did in a quick check). Kicking myself but I guess it would have happened eventually. Thanks!