Hey everybody,
So I'm obviously new around here and will definitely be needing to get a bunch of education from you all as I try to get everything I have in working order.
My family had an Atari 1200XL when I was a kid, but by the time I was probably around 13 it ended up in a box and there it sat. On a trip back to my parents house a few months ago I manage to dig the boxes out and took them back to my place. I think I'm still missing one box of stuff, but I found three of them.
I know the 1200XL needs help. It's got a blown PCB trace on the back, and the power switch legs somehow got soldered together. It looks like someone tried to repair it at some point, but they did a horrible job, but that's something I can fix pretty easily. I'm not sure how it got in this state, I remember it working the last time I used it, but regardless, this is the state it's in now and I need to fix it.
However there's some other things I definitely need some guidance on. First off, does anyone have a parts 1200XL that I could buy the port/cartridge cover off of? Or at the very least, one I could rent for a few weeks so I can CAD out the design so I can 3D Print one for myself? I'm not sure where the cover would have gone from mine, but I guess whoever took this apart misplaced it, so I need to get another one. Or is anyone aware if someone has designed that part?
I also am curious what I need to do on the video side to get this thing sending out video once I get the power circuit fixed.
Let me be clear about one thing though, I've read through a bunch of threads on here and I know there's a lot of people that go into extensive modifications of thier systems. I don't want to do that. Maybe if I picked up another used model at some point I'd want to do all the fancy things to it, but at least right now all I want to do is getting it back in functional status... even if that means the colors are meh and its not as clear of an image as it could be. I want it to be as close to authentic as possible... warts and all.
I have a Commodore 1701 or 1702 monitor (not sure which exact model), so I'm thinking of using that for the Atari, but I'm not sure what else I'd need. I do have some switch boxes but idk if they'll be useful with the 1200XL and that monitor. If I really need to, I can go find an old TV and use it... again I'm aiming for authentic... not plugging it into my modern flat panel TV. Maybe in a few years I'll want to do that, but right now I want it to be period accurate.
I took pics of everything that I found. There should be a 1025 Printer somewhere, because I have the manual for it, but it's not in the boxes I found. There should be more old games as well, that's why I think there's still another box somewhere I haven't found.
These pics were taken right as I pulled things out, so they're dusty, dirty, etc. I do plan on slowly cleaning everything up, but I wanted to catalog everything in its current condition before I started doing anything with any of it.
https://www.pixl.photography/Atari-1200XL-Hardware
https://www.pixl.photography/Atari-Software/