Bobby Nelson

When it’s ready for sale count me in!

Bought a 7800 game from him. It’s perfect, shipped fast, fair price, just a perfect transaction! Thanks a million!!!

Thank you!!

Yeah that’s the one! Honestly couldn’t remember the name for a moment! Awesome, now to order a copy to call my very own!

This game isn't in the Atariage store right? I think I found someone in Wisconsin that sells this cartridge but I want to make sure if that's the only last before I order a copy. 🙂

Just an update for those finding this later. Here is a link to McMaster Carr to get the knobs if you can't find them anywhere else: https://www.mcmaster.com/6046k35 Also here is a pic from my ACE hardware store with their barcode etc. If you'd like to see if your local ACE hardware can order them for you. (1-1/4" diameter, 5/16-18 thread.)

Here is another option for the proper knobs. Shipping might get ya a bit if you're only buying two but these are what you're looking for: https://www.mcmaster.com/6046k35

YAY!!!!

I went to get the link and suddenly the amazon page says “currently unavailable” ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ other folks must have grabbed them. But if you do a google search for “hillman 55410 knob” you should find some results.

I got a switch from Jesse for my Colecovision restoration and shipping was super fast, the switch was perfect, and his help, advice, and after-sale support are top notch. Don't hesitate to do business with him!

Purchased a PC Engine from him early April of 2020. He went the extra mile to make sure I got exactly what I wanted, pricing was very fair, shipping was immediate (even amid the corona virus pandemic), packing was top notch, and I'm very VERY pleased with my purchase. OH and fantastic communication as well!

I’m not one of the original pre-orders but whenever the XM becomes available for general purchase I’ll be there, ready to buy one!

This sounds amazing!!!!! Just out of curiosity are the music and sprites just for fun/testing/experiments OR is there a 7800 release of Bubble Bobble in the works?

It's funny you posted this because over the past few days I've been thinking "what games would be perfect for the 7800 with its superior sprite-handling capabilities?". I'm no programmer so all I'm basing this on is "hey I guess the 7800 is really good at handling a lot of sprites"...and I recall seeing the demo with all of the balls bouncing around the screen.... Qix is one of the games that came to mind. The other one was Bubble Bobble since you have the 1-2 main characters, all of the enemies, and then the bajillion bubbles on the screen at any given time.

My power supplies (for basically any console) measure voltages higher than what is spec'd. A 10 volt supply will measure 12-13 volts when it isn't under a load. I'm not an electrical engineer or anything but if your supply is measuring the exact correct voltages when no load is applied then it might be dropping...but if the voltages were too low I'd think the system just wouldn't work at all. I can't see how a slightly lower voltage would only introduce noise/fuzz into the video signal and nothing more. But as you said, this power supply works with another colecovision so that's a tricky one! Maybe post a picture of what the screen looks like so we can get a visual representation of this?

So the picture was fuzzy before any mods were done, and it’s still fuzzy? Are you using the original RF output or are you using a composite (or other) AV mod?

Here’s mine. As I’m sure you can guess, it has the expansion port.

Also thanks for the kind words everyone! Happy to be here and happy to be back in the Atari club! Now to order some homebrew games!!!!

You got it! https://m.markertek.com/product/30-712-bk/3-5mm-4-conductor-trrs-chassis-mount-snap-in-jack-black?ne_ppc_id=1817008688&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIwNSjsqmR6AIVieNkCh0ZZQIYEAQYCSABEgLggPD_BwE#ath Also get yourself a reamer: https://www.harborfreight.com/t-handle-reamer-66936.html I guess the plastic n the 7800 is brittle so drilling a small hole and then reaming it to size is the way to go. 🙂 The plastic case is a little thick so you’ll have to clip a little bit off of the little “wings” for the jack to stay put. Get yourself a couple extras as you might be like me and accidentally clip too much off. (Whoops!)

Thanks!! Yup I posted this on RetroGamesFan. 🙂 Here is a link to the knobs: https://www.hillmangroup.com/us/en/Fastening-Solutions/Specialty/Household/Knobs-%26-Handles/Ball-Knob-(1-1-4"-Diameter-x-1-2"-Height-with-5-16"-18-Female-Thread)/p/550KB66 You can get a 2-pack on amazon for a few cents less than what I paid locally (well as long as you get free shipping). The plastic on the joystick post is soft enough that the brass insert of the knob will cut the threads. You just need to apply some force AND adjust the tilt of the knob as you go (slowly) to make sure it goes on straight. It’s easier than I make it sound. Makes a world of difference!

Here's a story of redemption to warm your hearts. Back in October (2019) I was browsing a local online auction company's website and saw a lot listed as a "Calecovision". The first 2 pics are from that auction site. You can get an idea of the very poor, filthy state this thing was in. I never had a Colecovision so wasn't sure if I'd be interested but I threw a bid on it and as luck would have it, I won. It had been sitting since then but a few weeks ago I felt it was time to dig into this thing! The next photos depict the condition it was in and also show some before and after pics. Every nook and cranny of this system was caked in layers of dust, dirt, and grime. It took HOURS to deep clean it. Note the pic showing how filthy the keypads were (before and after comparison) All in all here's what I did: -Disassemble and deep clean everywhere inside and out. -New electrolytic capacitors. -Installed a "no-delay" bios chip (allows me to skip the 12 second colecovision intro screen if I so choose) -Installed a composite AV mod and also installed a TRRS jack for composite output. (I like the TRRS jack method better than having 3 RCA jacks) -Attached heat sinks to the 8 ram chips that tend to run hot. -Attached anti-static mod boards to the bottoms of the controller connector ports (the Colecovision has no provisions to protect against static on the controller inputs and that can fry the controller interface chips) -Removed the original power switch and installed a nice upgrade switch. (Shout out to Crossbow! Thanks Jesse!!!) - Removed the somewhat awkward joystick "discs" and installed arcade-style ball tips to the controllers. (sourced locally from ACE hardware) - Deep cleaned the controllers including flushing the buttons with contact cleaner, cleaning the joystick contacts, and soldering all connections (ditching those janky crimp-end connectors). -The original power supply works fine but I also bought one of the Col USB power supplies. When all was said and done this refurb took between 10-12 hours in total but now this old Colecovision is better than new and as you can see by the last two photos, it's looking great and works beautifully! I've already picked up a few home-brews (I'm LOVING PACAR) and am hooked on Colecovision! Some might think I'm crazy, but I love the original controllers. I'm sure that the ball knob tips and the fact that everything is cleaned and working like new doesn't hurt but I find they are responsive and feel nice. Thanks for looking/reading along everyone!!

Growing up we initially had a 2600, but when that died my folks bought us (my 3 brothers and me) a 7800...most likely since we already had the 2600 games. Years ago one of my brothers took it aaaannnnnd the rest of us have never seen it since, SO about a month ago I saw a 7800 with games and some controllers on the local craigslist and when we struck a deal at $40 I figured it was time to add a 7800 back into my life, and my retro gaming collection. When I got it I hooked it up just to make sure it was alive. I did get confirmation of life but the rf modulator was really on the fritz (The output jack was LOOSE and corroded..see photo) so signal quality was...well you can see in the photo. No matter....rf was going away anyhow.... This weekend it was time to dig into this one so I gave it a thorough cleaning, replaced the electrolytic caps, installed a UAV rev D board, and mounted a TRRS jack on the back. (Personal preference but I like the minimalistic and tidy install of the TRRS jack versus having 3 Y,W,R RCA jacks) Special thanks go out to Crossbow who helped me trouble shoot a few issues when I had connected a couple things wrong (Thanks again Jesse!) but last night I was finally able to get it all buttoned up. I don't have any Tvs with S-video so composite is my go-to. I must say I'm loving the quality of the video from the UAV! Also this was the first time I have played Atari with a Genesis controller...and it's life changing! LOL If only we hand known when we were kids....the hours spent using those terrible 7800 joysticks!

My oldest brother won a 2600 in Scouts back in the early 80s. We played that growing up and then it died. (Knowing what we know now about Atari...it could have been that the power supply died but regardless the 2600 went bye bye). Since we already had a bunch of 2600 games our parents decided to get us a 7800 since it would play the old games. We were now in the Nintendo era and I was enamored by the NES...but we had an Atari and according to my parents "that's good enough". They didn't understand at all that there was any difference between them. We ended up with a COUPLE 7800 games but otherwise the 7800 was only there to play all of our 2600 games. I've recently bought both a 2600 and a 7800 for my collection and while there are a few original games I'll be picking up my main interest in having these consoles now is for the homebrew games that can demonstrate what they were capable of.

I recently refurbished my CV and installed the boards that Crossbow mentions! They're not expensive and are a nice "insurance policy"

On Amazon you can get a 2-pack of them for a few cents less than I paid at Ace hardware...well as long as you don't have to pay shipping.