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I got a bit interested into light gun games and coding lately. So I had a look at the two existing Atari 2600 games (Sentinel and Shooting Arcade) and the discussion about it. Also looked at Eckhard Stolberg's guntest code. But before I can start coding anything, I obviously need a light gun. It seems that the Atari light guns are not very precise (maybe the existing detection code is bad too), many people suggest using a Sega light gun or the one from Best Electronics instead. I could not find how to order one from Best, so I wonder if I should buy a Sega one. But that one would have to be modded for Atari compatibility. Seems quite simple, but my soldering skills are not existing. Is there maybe an adapted I could buy? I have some ideas how to improve precision over the existing code. Probably the existing games could be hacked. And maybe some interest for making a new game (before all CRTs are gone) could be created.

As anyone who has an Atari 600XL knows it only came with 16k. Good enough to run game cartridges but nothing else. Atari's solution was this little device that attached to the BUS adapter on the back. the Atari 1064. These are rather impossible to get a hold of these days (in fact I had a hard time just finding a picture) so the current procedure to up the memory is adding the memory internally. There are several ways of doing this, lotharek.pl/ has a nifty little chip that just installs under the 6502. Easy and not all that expensive (except the shipping). Another way which is harder is to install the 64k chips and slightly modify the motherboard. No easy here. Bending up pins off chips and soldering wires to them. The pathway of the true geek (who doesn't have much money as this cost only $7.00 shipped). Legal: I am not a professional but have had years of experience with computers. Still, use these instructions at your own peril. I assume no responsibility. STEP 1.) Put on a stax of wax (or MP3 player) with your favorite music. Mine is Episodes 1-6 of Star Wars by John Williams. I made it to Episode 3 before I had finished. Step 2.) Everything else. My tools; screwdriver, needle nose pliers, chip puller, small wire cutters, wire stripper, helping hand and solder station. My pile of notes and pictures: Now the Atari 600XL has 4 bolts holding the back cover along the edges. unscrew these and gentle remove the top since the top is attached to the motherboard via the, very delicate, keyboard cable. If you still have the metal shielding over the motherboard remove it via the bolts along the edge. I had previously removed mine and stored it. I, personally, find no reason to have it on the motherboard but it's up to you if you want to return the shield after the installation. Now disconnect the keyboard ribbon cable. The keyboard cable is attached to an edge card that is slotted into the motherboard. GENTLY rock the edge card out of the socket pulling on the edge card NOT THE RIBBON till the edge card comes loose. On to the main attraction, the motherboard and the chips. First is to remove the 2 x 16k chips and replace with the 2 new 64k chips. Chip location is U12 and U11. The location is noted on my note of the chip locations. NOTE: use a chip puller to keep from damaging the chips or the socket in removal. Here is a picture of one of the 16k chips is still in the clutches of the puller. Below is my map of the motherboard. I have marked the location of the chips on the map. See where the RAM chips are that need to be replaced. And another note: I got lucky in that all my chips were socket-ed. Yours may not in which case you will have to de-solder each chip. Unless you are a pro I would go with lotharek.pl/ solution (mentioned above) which is much easier. Desoldering a chip, unless you know what you are doing, always runs the risk of frying it. Now you can test the 600XL. The memory will still show as 16k (if you hook up the keyboard which I didn't) as you haven't setup the matrix yet. But you will be able to see if maybe you have a bad chip before you go further. Now comes the time that tries men's souls, pulling the support chips and soldering wires on the legs. The below map shows the location of the chips to pull and the wires to solder. I started with pulling up U5. This chip you bend up pin 3 (see mark) and solder on a wire to it. First thing is to prepare the wire by brazing the end and putting the shrink wrap on. below picture. This and next picture you see where I bent up pin 3 that I had pre-marked on the chip before pulling the chip. I pre-marked the pins on all the chips before I pulled them so that I would have no confusion of which pin is which compared to the picture. Also note the slight kink bend I put in the chip leg. this is to ensure the leg, which is much too long, doesn't accidentally touch the other chip when installed. I also cleaned the leg with alcohol to be sure to get a good solder. This is after I soldered on the wire and wrapped the leg in shrink wrap. When soldering the leg be sure to work as fast as possible. Too much heat on the chip can fry it. If you have a problem soldering on the wire take a break and let the chip cool before you try again. Oh, I forgot to take a picture of this but I held the chip with in the jaws of the helping hand to steady the solder. Next, carefully, reinsert the chip back into the socket. be sure all pins are in the slot except the one that is bent with the wire attached. Here is U5 and U6 both done. On U6 you bend up pin 10 and attach the wire just like the previous one. Now solder the two wires to the motherboard. U5 goes to the leftmost-C location (see above map) and U6 goes to the rightmost-J location. I just put a dot of solder on the spots then soldered on the wires into that dot. be careful NOT to let the solder bleed over into the other solder point or on one the traces on the board. on to the next and final chip mod modding the chip U16 pin8 (above picture. finished product, yes getting ahead of myself but picture of step went bad). Same as the other two, bend out straight. I this case no need for kink. Now the wire from U16 goes to resistor R36. Clip or un-solder the one end of the resistor. This is the end you solder/attach to the wire from U16. I clipped the resistor in the the below picture then bent it straight and soldered the wire to it (again see above picture of finished process). This is a picture of the resistor that U16 is being soldered to. Now it's ready to close up and test. Attach the keyboard back by putting the slotted connector back into it's slot, gently. Close up the 600XL and screw back in the 4 screws. Attach a power a sully and monitor cable and run ?FRE(0) which should now show 37902 and run the built in memory self test. You are all done. Rejoice and be glad as your 600XL now has as much memory as it's snotty big brother the 800XL. That is, if you didn't screw anything up.

Lately I have been finding new power supplies for XL and XEs on eBay that looked a lot like a 5 volt power supply with just a new 7 pin head. As anyone who has ever had an Atari XL knows the power supplies for the XL weren't all that reliable and even though the power supply I have for my 600XL was working I thought I would build another on using current technology like the ones I have been seeing on eBay and make the old one a spare. SO that is what I did and this is how I did it. Legal: I am not a professional but have had years of experience with computers. Still, use these instructions at your own peril. I assume no responsibility. Note: use this information only if you know what you are doing. Get the polarity wrong and you could BLOW YOUR COMPUTER. So always, check, check and check. The power supply plug on the XL line attaches by a 7 pin DIN plug. looking down at the plug the left 3 pins are negative and on the right 3 pins are positive. the bottom pin is nul and not connected to anything. But, on my 600XL, only 1 pin on each side need power. So the 2nd pin from top on left got negative and the 2nd from the top right got positive. All the other pins don't need to be powered even though the Atari power supply does power them. (I assume the 800XL is the same but since I have not tested one test, test, test. ) 7 pin DINS are hard to find and expensive. So, since only 1 pin on each side needs power I used a 5 pin DIN which is easier to find and cheaper and it fits. NOTE: It was pointed out that the monitor port ALSO uses a 5 pin on the 800XL which I had forgot about since the US 600XL only has a RF connector. IF you use a 5 PIN for power be sure NOT to plug the power into the monitor port by mistake. Bad things will happen if you do, very bad. Here are the specs for my power supply OUT is 5 volt, 2 amp. The Atari power supply was 1.5 amp so I wouldn't go any lower than that. The Actual 600XL draws 800mA but you might need the extra amps for SIO port devices (such as Fuqinet) that draw their power from the computer. Oh, and if you are wondering where the power supply came from it was an old power supply for a powered USB hub. Using an old USB powered hub I knew the power was steady and filtered. Using just an old phone charger might not work as well as it could introduce interference or power fluctuations. So check it out before you commit. Here is what the plug end looks like. Pin 2nd from top left is the negative, pin 2nd from top right is the positive. all other pins are un-powered. Here is the finished item. As I said before, test, test, test and double check yourself before you attach it to the Atari. If the polarity is wrong it could brick your computer. After I attached the power supply I ran a stress test of a little program and then the builtin Atari check program in a loop for quite a while. It held up fine.

Does it increase the value of an Intellivision if you composite mod it? Or do people prefer it kept in it's original condition? I just got a bunch of old Intellivision 1s from a second hand store and I'm wondering if composite modding them would increase or decrease their value.

Since i came across the Paddle for the Atari Portable by Lovablechevy: i had the Idea for a Usb Paddle for the Legit 2017 Atari Flashback Portable i have the following ingredients: that Atari Paddle Thingy from Basic fun (without the Docking Station) and a mini usb (USB B) game controller for the Handheld Famiclones from the Flea Market (Model JD-2008) in the Attachment is a picture of Both Ingredients. is it possible to make such a thing? may i get a guide to do this?

I'm so...SO happy right now. I've had this project on the backburner for over half a year, and tonight I finally got around to modding & wiring the components and mounting everything on a "test control panel". I'm happy to report: I've successfully modded an NES-04 controller into an arcade stick. Tested it with Contra, and it works perfectly. Sanwa joystick, Suzo-Happ buttons, Cherry microswitches, if anyone's curious. I'll update this thread from time to time with updates on the control panel/body design and build.

Adding a game to the Flashback 8 HD Some prerequisites: in this example I'm adding the Double Dragon Arcade ROM from KevinMos3 ( Available at http://atariage.com/forums/topic/154984-hack-project-thread-galaxian-arcade-double-dragon-xenophobe-etc/ ; also note that there is a very nice label he created you have to have added the USB connector the Flashback Android Debugger Bridge (ADB) a bit of patience First a walkthrough ... There are two key items to remember during this mod: - the "all-games.ini" file contains the list of the games that the Flashback will display in its menu. It also contain instructions and tells the device what ROM file to load. You will find that file under "/system/atgames/all-games.ini" - the actual games (and the menu images) are all stored in "/system/atgames/Atari" Step 1: Plug in your Flashback to your computer Use your USB cable and make sure that the Flashback adapter is plugged in. Turn on the device. Step 2. Launching ADB You need to run the DOS command prompt from Windows. I usually run under "administrator mode", but it doesn't seem to be a requirement. Step 3. Connecting to the Flashback Navigate to the folder where the ADB has been extracted; in my case, I kept it simple and it sits in "C:\adb\platform-tools" Type in "adb devices" It will find your Flashback and get it ready to be used. Step 4. Let's Explore This step is optional, but type in "adb root". This will give you higher privileges in case you run across any files you need. I suggest not to delete or modify anything unless you know what you're doing and/or made a backup. Type in "adb shell", that will basically log us into the Flashback device and see the internal folder structure. Use "ls" or "ls -l" to list all the files/folders The Flashback installation is under "/system/atgames"; you can use "cd /system" or "cd /system/atgames" to move onto those folders You see the "all-games.ini" file. Keep this one in mind, this is the most important file for this mod. You can see the "Atari" folder. Let's navigate by using "cd Atari" and then listing the files: You will see all the files with .a26 or a26.png. The ROM files are your usual ROM files with the .A26 extension; the respective .A26.PNG are the images for each game. Another interesting location is the "app" folder; use "cd /system/app" . You can see the Frogger and Space Invaders Android APK files. It seems that these two are special cases and don't invoke the ROM files in the "/system/atgames/Atari" . Type in "exit" to get out of the Flashback shell. So now you know the basics How to Add a Game For this exercise I have copied the DD.A26 and DD.A26.png files into my ADB folder at C:\adb\platform-tools. You can place them anywhere, but I decided to keep things simple and reduce the amount of typing. So let's continue where left off. The main thing we're going to do is to pull down the important all-games.ini file. In the command prompt type in "adb pull /system/atgames/all-games.ini" . This will copy the file into your ADB folder on your computer. MAKE A COPY OF THIS FILE!!! You may need to restore your set-up in case something goes wrong. If you open the file (in notepad for example) you will see something like: The format is somewhat self-explanatory. You have the name of the game within square brackets, followed by the ROM file location ("File="), "Platform" tells you what grouping on the Main Menu it should add it to (only "Atari" and "Activision" have sub-menus). Then you have the description and the instructions. Here's an example: [Double Dragon] File=atgames/Atari/DD.a26 Platform=ActivisionGenre=Arcade Description=Double Dragon Arcade Mod!! Note= \test for atari 2600 games. While we're here, let's take a look at the image files; let's pull a file for the Wizard game; "adb pull /system/atgames/Atari/Wizard.a26.png". It's a 214x300 PNG file. I created my Double Dragon PNG file based on KevinMos3's label he provided. Let's copy our Double Dragon ROM onto the Flashback. First of all, we need to add an entry in the all-games.ini file for Double Dragon: I have the ROM and image file sitting in ADB folder: We need to run these commands as root as we need to temporarily change permissions on folders so that we can upload files. Run "adb root" Next we will alter the permission of the "/system" folder. I tried just targeting "/system/atgames" but kept getting an error. So I copied a page from the Genesis Flashback mod. Run "adb shell mount -o rw,remount,rw /system" Next we're uploading (and overwriting the existing) all-games.ini; enter"adb push all-games.ini /system/atgames" And next we're uploading the ROM and image into the Atari folder: "adb push DD.a26 /system/atgames/Atari" "adb push DD.a26.png /system/atgames/Atari" Now, turn your Flashback device off and back on again. You should see the Double Dragon ROM in the menu now! You can basically add a bunch more games. The odd thing is that the PNG file is not displaying. Strangely enough it does not seem to get saved into the Atari folder. Not sure what the issue is. I will have to do more investigation. Updates: 1. I have been able to add 56 games so far to the Flashback. 2. The PNG files needs to have 24-bit colour depth. My original file was 32-bit. 3. Pitfall II does not work. 4. Looking at the Flashback APK file, it appears we have some hard-coded values for Frogger (and Space Invaders). Even Frogger II goes to the quasi-arcade version. 5. the All-games.ini is finicky, make sure you had linefeed/carriage return after each item for the game; Platform, Genre, etc. Notepad mangles this. Notepad++ is a good option.

i have read instructions on how to mod one, but i don't have the tools to do it. can anyone post a link (a working one) where i can buy an atari flashback that is already modded?

I forgot to label these when I got them in the mail. I'm sure they are for a classic system, but I'm not sure which.

I don't know is I'm in the right forum but... I was installing the SMPS Player mod for Sonic & knucles collections by the instructions (without the HQ mod) but all seems quiet but the sfx (when I switch back the .dlls it seems to play fine, so the sound is on). P.S. I would ask on "sonic retro" but its pointless to make a forum account just to ask one question (I've done it before and now I'm bocked out of the raspberry pi forums because I forgot my username and password).

I thought i figured out the layout but now im not 100%. I have the directions working but the fire buttons dont. I know i have to cut the one trace goes between the two buttons but and im looking at the pin out and doesnt look i need to have the orange wire hooked up but if i do someone correct me. As of right now i have both Red and Yellow with the two resistors from the 7800 then linked into the diode then diode to ground. If you need pics i can take pics of the circuit but can someone please advice on what i need to do to get the two buttons working on the 7800. Sources i was using:

Hello! For those who didn't know, there is a Gamecube mod available to allow for video output superior to composite without paying for the ridiculously low quantity and overpriced component cable. I won't go into all the details, but basically someone dumped the information off of the fancy component cable and it's conversion chip that is in it. The information is freely available to read and use. Here's a link to the Github if you want to read more. You can find a couple different people showing the results on Youtube, and I'd like to say it just looks AMAZING via an HDMI cable. There's one example below of the amazing results but a not very amazing installation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyYyQy3oTPY&t=51s There are a couple people working on this project in various fashions, and there are a few major services to get this mod done, but they aren't looking overly healthy right now. BadAssConsoles has a preorder bit that's been up for around a year or so now, and he doesn't update consistently and has recently changed opinion from an internal mod to an external adapter. He's doing great work and all, but there's no real idea of when it'll get finished up. There is also VideoGamePerfection in the UK. They don't have nearly as ambitious a project going for this, but they're also so backed up on preorders that they have a waiting list for their waiting list. There's a few odd modders I've seen around that have their own plans in production, but there's not a good list to choose from of people to do it. Overall, I'm greatly interested in the mod. It offers HDMI for one of my favorite systems that doesn't have a great selection of options, and much like the N64, it doesn't really look great on HDTV via S-Video... Even through the Framemeister. With all this being stated and said, is there anybody who could possibly do this mod for me? I'd be willing to pay all the expenses needed and provide all the parts. I just don't feel confident in my soldering ability. I mean... I managed to replaced a power port on a couple SNES. That's about it. Here's the links below of some details plus the parts needed. (In case someone is interested in this for themselves and whatnot) Pluto FPGA Board - The circuit board that makes the magic happen! The one you'll want is the Pluto IIx . The site even sells some preprogrammed with the software. 3D Printable HDMI Mount - Link to the files for 3D printing a fancy plastic mount. Not required at all, but it looks really nice paired with the board. The Mod Details - The direct details to the mod itself on Github. Has anybody else been watching this?

So this is a simple thing, yet I still need help. The LED for my 7800 has burned out. Id like to replace it with a modern blue one (im tired of red), its a new millenia, its getting updated So im at a loss to find out just what voltage of LED I need for this. If anyone knowns what the on/off buttons LED voltage is, please let me know. Thanks for all your help.

Does anyone know if the Intellivision RGB kits are available for purchase anywhere? I tried IMing Juice2839 to inquire about them, but apparently his account was banned.

So im bored, wanting to make an arcade style controller for my TI. I have an old (broken) NES advantage arcade controller hanging around. It went through a flood and never worked after that. Why not rewire it to work for my TI? I should be able to locate what pins do what on a TI controller, then use those to hook up to the Advantage. I dont THINK it should be too tough What do you all think?

Hi Atariage I found this mod on atarimuseum: http://atarimuseum.com/fb2hacks/ You have probably all heard about it before, but it allows an atari flashback 2 to play 2600 cartridges. My first question is: Is it possible to perform this mod on the flashback 4? I prefer the 4, since it has rca output, more built in games and wireless controller options. However, since i am not a modder, i would like to know if someone in here would be willing to mod the console for me, and what would you charge for it? - Buying a new console on ebay(i have already found a few). - Mod the console. - and send it to me(i live in Denmark). I will of course pay for console, shipping, materials and work hours(through paypal). P.S. Sorry for my potentially horrendous english, but as i stated before i am danish - so english is not my vernacular.

So ive recently picked up at Atari 400 computer, all stock. I will max out the ram, add composite video in the future, but for now I want to do something with the joystick. Ive seen modded nes controllers (using stock atari joystick cords) that worked on nintendos. So I assume that I can do the same mod, or a similar one, so that i can use a nintendo controller to play games with. Does anyone know if this would work, or have seen it done? I know some people love the old joysticks, but to me they were always a pain.

I'm unable to find the answers to these two items, probably due to some failure on my part. I've found mention of these mods, or occasionally a link to a dead external site, but I haven't found the step-by-step handholding that I need to get them done. I've recently composite modded my 7800. I notice that the Pokey audio level is significantly lower than non-Pokey. I'm pulling Pokey from the top pin of C10, next to the channel select switch, and it's wired it directly to my audio output jacks. What do I need to do to fix my audio level issues? I also have a 7800 that is not compatible with Supercharger (it seems to go into a reset loop). I've heard mention of a simple mod to fix this, but could not find it. How is this done, and could I get a link to it? Are there any down sides to this modification?

So I FINALLY decided to jump into the ColecoVision scene recently, along with a million other AA members, lol and purchased a modded console off of Todd. As I was reading the reviews I couldn't help but notice how everyone praised the Pause mod that Todd does. I find it kinda silly how I have and installed the Pause mod one of my my 2600s and I <3 it! However, I never hear anyone praise CPUWIZ on his Pause mod? Does anyone besides me that has the pause mod like theirs? Of course it drives me CRAZY when I switch my Atari 2600's around and play on my H6'er that isn't modded and the phone rings, lol.