Banquo
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Posts posted by Banquo
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I just discovered that the audio input on the monitor is completely shorted, zero ohms. That can't be right can it? I'm glad I didn't fry my Atari's audio circuit by connecting it up to it. I desoldered the audio jack to make sure the problem wasn't in it but it was still shorted. That probably explains the buzzing. I wonder where the problem is, bad capacitor maybe?
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Thanks, I am using the cable I was previously using on a different TV with the 800 so it's good, and I also tested the Amdek monitor with another audio source but got nothing, not even a crackle. From the loud buzzing I'm afraid some component has gone bad. I also tested plugging in some headphones to the front jack but all they do is buzz too. I have an old pair of yellowed PC speakers that I guess I'll just have to use with it but it's really disappointing.
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I just got this monitor for my 800 and I'm also getting no sound at all, just a loud buzzing sound when the volume is up. I wonder if this is due to the grounding problem that someone mentioned. Unfortunately I don't have a mono adapter to test it with at the moment but I'm hoping it's as simple as getting one to fix it. I tried pushing the stereo plug I have in only part way and still got nothing but buzzing so I'm a bit worried. I wonder why they didn't just use a normal RCA jack for the audio.
Edit: I took the back off and connected my audio directly to the wires, nothing. All I get is the buzz sound, so I don't know what to do now.
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Yeah, I'll believe it when I read an official statement. It's not the real Atari anyway, just Infogrames with the Atari brand slapped on it.
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On 5/3/2021 at 7:38 PM, Keatah said:
Permit me to rephrase some of that.
A physical computer or accessory is the end embodiment of a concept. Doesn't matter what it's for, to make money, to better the world, to complete a task, to entertain. Whatever.
It's very easy to get engrossed in the idea. Completely lost and absorbed in the possibilities. That's a fun thing to do whether you realize it or not. And as green kids back in the day, we had ample time and magazines to feed that. And with things tech there's always something new around the corner. So it even satisfies curiosity and discovery and learning. 3 powerful things.
So. Once a piece of vintage hardware is purchased, it's entirely possible it can immediately fulfill all that, particularly if said piece of vintage has evolved into some modern-day equivalent. All without spending huge amounts of time.
Currently I'm on a modem kick, soon to gravitate back into graphics. But am I going to splurge on modems on eBay? Not likely. But I will have fun reading some documentation and articles and advertisements from back in the day.
Will I go on a BBS calling spree? Not likely either. I may power up the external USR and fart around with the AT command set or something. Whatever. I can reminisce and continue learning something just be reading something I hadn't read before.
Maybe that's what's going on with the Kaypro thing?
I'm glad I always kept all my old computer junk. I still have my USR V.Everything external modem which makes it extra special because it is not only a vintage modem but my modem, the one I used back in the late 90s when 56k was the cutting edge. Yeah if I got something like a Kaypro II I'm sure I would load up some old word processors with the idea that I'm actually going to do productive things with it. Play some text adventures and join a BBS, but it would be just like when I got my Atari 800 online. I signed up for a BBS and spent a few weeks checking in every day and posting messages and then I just got bored of it. It's nostalgic for a while and fun to learn old stuff but the modern internet is much more entertaining.
Old computers and consoles feels kind of like Pokemon; I want to collect them all but once I have them they're just cluttering up the place and taking up space. Retro stuff is way too expensive now anyway but it's still fun to window shop on eBay and look at all the photos of cool stuff I'll never have. ?
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I'm fairly sure the TRS-80 Model III was the first computer I ever saw or used, there being several in the library of my elementary school. I wish I could say that was when I fell in love with computers but as I recall I didn't really have much interest in them at all at the time; they were just another machine they had at school for us to do boring lessons on. They sometimes let us play Space Invaders so I knew they had games, but the idea of having a computer at home never occurred to me any more than having a mimeograph machine. I wouldn't be introduced to home computers until my aunt got a Zenith 286 PC.
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Unfortunately it isn't mine, just one I found a picture of. I'd love to see inside it also; that seems like a huge amount of memory for a TI-99.
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I've never seen this before, it looks like it's printed right on the case. I assume this is a third party modification and not an official model.
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If you just want to test it to see if the console works any RCA cable will do, but ideally you need a shielded RF cable like the one from the Atari 2600 to get the best picture, otherwise you will have snowy picture due to interference. Atariage sells shielded cables and the F adapters if you don't have any but I imagine you can buy them almost anywhere that sells electronics. https://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=941
I recommend testing the Colecovision's power brick before you plug it into the console to make sure it is outputting the appropriate voltages.
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Thanks, I enjoyed the video. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Star Trek - The Promethean Prophecy were the first two adventure games I can remember playing. It was at a friend's house on his father's IBM PC. I didn't realize it was released on the TI-99/4A though but I guess it was available on pretty much every computer there ever was. I have a boxed copy of it for my Atari 800.
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2 minutes ago, zzip said:
Ok that was around the time my college gave me an IBM 5150 because it was so outdated, so makes sense
When you said they got PS/2s, I assumed it was 80s, and I think there were a good number of kids in the 80s who would have gladly taken a free Apple II because our families couldn't afford them.
I maybe misremembering about them being PS/2s, I'm not sure exactly what they were other than they were IBMs and they came with both Windows 3.1 and OS/2 preinstalled.
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Mine doesn't go back very far, sadly I missed out on the whole BBS era. I was running Windows 98 on my very first PC when we finally got the internet. My first modem was the crappy internal winmodem in my Compaq Presario, but I soon upgraded it to my second and final modem, a US Robotics Courier V.Everything 56k external. I still have that modem out in storage. A few years after that our ISP started offering DSL and that was the end of my dial-up era.
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3 hours ago, zzip said:
What year was this that nobody would take a free Apple II?
Around 94 I think is when they replaced them. I don't believe any of my friends cared much about computers. They were all about Nintendo and Sega consoles, and the people that did have computers at home were probably using Windows PCs by that time and maybe thought of the Apple II as worthless outdated junk; they just weren't old enough yet for anyone to be nostalgic for them. That and the fact that they didn't really advertise to anyone that they were getting rid of them other than piling them out in the parking lot and putting up signs for the students to read. If it had at least been in the newspaper I'm sure more people would have taken them.
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In elementary school we had TRS-80 Model 4s in the library. I wasn't really interested in computers at the time, they were just those machines at school they made you do work on. When I started high school they originally had Apple IIs (I don't remember which model exactly) but midway through they all got upgraded to IBM PS/2s. What makes me really sad is they tried to give away all those Apple II computers and no one wanted them, not even me at the time. I'm guessing most of them ended up going to the dump.
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For me it is basically anything vintage. It doesn't matter if it's the Atari 2600 heavy sixer I wanted for so long, the 1200XL I drooled over for years, the mint condition NES I finally found at Goodwill, my Intellivision, TI-99/4A, the 486 DX/2 computer I built a few years ago, etc. All of these are things I spent years looking at pictures of online, searching eBay day after day, thinking how badly I wanted them. What happened when I got them though? I played with them for a few days and then they went in a shelf to gather dust or packed up in their box and shoved under the bed or in a closet. I keep wondering why I wanted these things so much when once I got them I never even look at them let alone turn them on. Just yesterday I was on eBay looking at a Kaypro II thinking "If only I had that..." I think I enjoy wanting things and trying to find them more than actually owning them. ?
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5 hours ago, TapperP said:
Errr.... That's pretty horrid.
I remember I was really worried when I bought mine if it would arrive intact, the 400 and 800 cases are extremely brittle now. Fortunately it arrived safely.
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This is something I've been curious about for a while. In some games like Burgertime the game's music constantly cuts off and restarts every time a sound effect plays, like when you're walking over a bun, which is rather annoying. Other games like Frogger have no background music at all, probably to avoid that problem I'm guessing. However the Colecovision has no trouble playing both sound effects and music simultaneously in these same games. Doesn't the TI-99/4A and the Colecovision use the same sound chip though? I was just wondering what the limitation with the TI was.
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Success! Thank you guys so much, that was exactly the problem. I held it in front of my little space heater for a few minutes to warm it up and used a thin card to slowly work the mylar loose from the board; it took about ten minutes. The screw holes were the worst spots but I eventually got it all loose without damaging any traces. The worst area was the finger connectors, some of the conductive stuff lifted off and I was really worried about that being a problem. I've read about people using silver paint but I wonder if cutting thin strips of conductive copper tape would work better? I don't have any of that stuff at the moment so I figured I'd just try it as is and see if it worked. I cleaned the board and laid the mylar back down. Then I cut a piece of electrical tape and put it down over the finger connectors to give it a little more thickness for the keyboard frame to press down on. Plugged it in and wow, every key works perfectly now! I hope it will last but I may eventually buy one of those new mylar sheets for it. That white coating Mitsumi put on them is awful but I guess it seemed like a good idea at the time.
I'm really thrilled to have it all working now, everything else is in perfect condition. I've always thought the 1200XL was one of the most beautiful computers from the time. ?
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Most of the keys on my 1200XL would not work, so I took it apart and when I tried just plugging in the board without the keys on top I found the same thing as the OP said. When I pressed the contacts with my finger every single key worked perfectly, just the slightest touch. Put it back together and they stopped working. It seemed really puzzling but it makes sense now that the springs just aren't pressing down hard enough anymore. I'm actually disappointed about that because it sounds like a nightmare trying to take out every spring and stretching them out. Do the new mylars from Best Electronics work ok even with weak springs? That would be a much easier fix, though a bit expensive.
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It's interesting but it just doesn't look right to me. I think the membrane keyboard looks much better on the 400, if I need to do any typing I use the 800 anyway.
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I just came here looking for this very thing, thank you! ?
I recently bought my first Model 100 on a whim since it was really cheap; super clean, no yellowing and looks nearly unused. However after it runs for a few minutes the display starts to flicker in and out. Searching online for the symptoms I found that failing capacitors were the likely culprit, and on opening it up I found at least one cap that appears to have started leaking. So I figured the best thing to do is just change them all. I also happened to have a new 6.3v NiCad battery that I bought for an old 486 motherboard but never used so I put that in earlier today. The old one was looking a little crusty around the edges so I got it out of there before it starts leaking too. Hopefully the cap kit will solve the rest of the issues. I dread changing those small ones though, they're so tiny!
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That's a different auction, when one ends eBay says "We found something similar" and shows you another one. Unbelievably the $750 one actually sold. ($500 is crazy too).
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I was browsing sold listings and spotted this, I'm at a complete loss. What was the buyer thinking?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Commodore-64-Personal-Computer-Mint-In-Box-Complete-/253857439360
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The VCS heavy sixer had been my dream console. The first 2600 I ever played was my uncle's 4-switch Vader in the early 80s and I finally got a light sixer of my very own a few years ago which was pretty nice, but this is the model that I've always wanted. I'm so happy to finally own one, and everything on it works like new.
NTSC/PAL/Sears/Special: NTSC
Serial # (Ex: #54035V or #007649): 43519N
MFG Location (Sunnyvale, Taiwan): Sunnyvale
(Owner/AA Member), Banquo
(Location= City, State, Country): Kentucky, USA
A/B Channel Slot (Yes/No): Yes
A/B Channel Switch (Yes/No): No
Functional (Yes/No): Yes
Previous Owner: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯The only thing that made me really sad was when I got it home and discovered that heavy sixers will not fit properly in the 2600 travel case.
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Amdek Color-I No Sound
in Atari 8-Bit Computers
Posted · Edited by Banquo
That's what I was thinking but I got a chance to sit down and mess with it today, unplugged the audio input jack from the board and checked and it was still shorted, turns out it is the jack itself so I was wrong the other day. I tried connecting an audio source straight to the board bypassing the jack and still got nothing. I'm thinking the shorted jack must have burned out something in the audio circuit. I don't know enough about it to go any farther so I'll just let it be and use external speakers.