atari 2600 jr compatibility?

[flammingcowz]

I'm thinking of buying an atari 2600. Would spending $50 for a Jr. be a better deal than spending over $100 for an original (EDIT: I see they have 4-switch 2600's for $60 at atari2600.com)? Or does the Jr. have horrible compatibility?

Edited February 23, 2008 by flammingcowz

[+Psionic]

...spending over $100 for an original? Or does the Jr. have horrible compatibility?

You can get "an original" for a lot less than $100...and the Jr. has no real compatibility issues (that I know of).

Edited February 23, 2008 by PingvinBlueJeans

[CrazyChris]

If your into buying homebrew games I'd go with an original 2600, because it will

be more compatible.

 

I've had bad experiences with the Jr.

 

Chris

Edited February 23, 2008 by CrazyChris

[tyranthraxus]

The Jr. is awesome! I got rid of my 6 switch in favour of the sleek little 2600 Jr. Also in its favour is that all the Jr.

models are going to be newer than the others, an important factor with aging electronic gadgets. Yeah there are a few issues

with a couple games but almost all the games work on it (at least all the ones worth playing) and if you got to the point where you had many of the games that don't suit the machine you are probably such an avid collector that you would have all the various 2600 incarnations anyway.

[Derek]

I bought my Junior for $5.99 and tax at Value Village. I think it had a tv/game switch, power supply and one joystick, all stapled inside a plasic bag. The loose woodgrain 2600's appeared on the shelf for $2.99, a couple bucks more bagged with a power supply or joystick or both. My first Atari 2600 was found at the yearly two baseball field plus sized "flea market' in Sussex, New Brunswick, I really had to keep a poker face on as they had seven games with it, a couple rare ones, power supply, two joysticks and a tv/game switch. $7 for the lot I had looked seemingly everywhere up till then. My point is, there was a window where they appeared in the mid 90's, to the point where I stopped buying $3 backup woodgrain's, then it stopped, and I haven't seen one since. A window of them appearing in your area could happen for no reason, or never at all. Obviously deals like that are never going to appear on E-Bay.

 

Anyway, the junior is compact, works well, and I have had trouble only with some Activision carts fitting in too loosely, and either not working or turning into the vertical yellow lines and that awful malfunction noise that goes along with it, but since this is all old, second, third? hand stuff, one really can't complain.

 

A Coleco with the Atari expansion module, that's a hard find as well, but it works. A 7800 will play all the good 2600 carts, and you can use the 2600 joystick, which is less annoying than the 7800 stick, which with the buttons on the side is so tiring. Try playing Asteroids with it. Your hand will be aching in no time.

 

Anyway, keep looking for any 2600. I bought the only Junior that I ever saw, so an old style woodgrain 2600 is your best bet.

[accousticguitar]

I like my Jr. better than the original since the rf wire unplugs and I can plug the adapter directly into it to run shielded coax all the way to the tv.

[ataridave]

What Atari 2600 games are incompatible with the Jr.???

[+Psionic]

What Atari 2600 games are incompatible with the Jr.???

I had said above that the Jr. has "no real compatibility issues" (i.e. no serious incompatibilities in general) but perhaps I should've clarified that a bit. There are a handful of minor incompatibilities, based on which version of the TIA chip your particular system contains. It's all pretty much explained here.

[ataridave]

I had said above that the Jr. has "no real compatibility issues" (i.e. no serious incompatibilities in general) but perhaps I should've clarified that a bit. There are a handful of minor incompatibilities, based on which version of the TIA chip your particular system contains. It's all pretty much explained here.

 

Thanks for the link! So, what's the best model of 2600 to get for compatibility?

[+Psionic]

Thanks for the link! So, what's the best model of 2600 to get for compatibility?

Pretty much any 4-switch model is probably the best. The 6-switch and Junior models are the ones that most commonly have issues, but even with those it's only about a dozen or so games (out of 600 or so) that you'll experience any problems.

[ataridave]

Pretty much any 4-switch model is probably the best. The 6-switch and Junior models are the ones that most commonly have issues, but even with those it's only about a dozen or so games (out of 600 or so) that you'll experience any problems.

 

OK. What about the newer Atari 2600 homebrew games? I just played the demo of Stay Frosty 2, and I really loved it.

[maiki]

Currently I don't remember any homebrew game that would have any issues. There was a demo (Polish?) a while ago that did not display some effects right, because of the particular version of TIA (my Jr. is the latest one from 90s). That demo was probably developed using just an emulator by somebody who was a total newcomer to the Atari 2600. Very few older games have slight gfx issues here and there, not many of them, off the top of my head: Spider Fighter, Polaris, Thunderground... all that I reported were fixed by Omegamatrix so in the end... my Junior does not have any games issues at all (I am using Harmony C.)...

Edited December 28, 2013 by maiki

[ataridave]

Currently I don't remember any homebrew game that would have any issues. There was a demo (Polish?) a while ago that did not display some effects right, because of the particular version of TIA (my Jr. is the latest one from 90s). That demo was probably developed using just an emulator by somebody who was a total newcomer to the Atari 2600. Very few older games have slight gfx issues here and there, not many of them, off the top of my head: Spider Fighter, Polaris, Thunderground... all that I reported were fixed by Omegamatrix so in the end... my Junior does not have any games issues at all (I am using Harmony C.)...

 

Good to hear! I just bought an Atari 2600 Jr. on Ebay!

[+Psionic]

OK. What about the newer Atari 2600 homebrew games? I just played the demo of Stay Frosty 2, and I really loved it.

I just tried the demo of Stay Frosty 2 on my 2600 Jr. for about 10 minutes and didn't notice any problems.

 

Good to hear! I just bought an Atari 2600 Jr. on Ebay!

Unless you've got your heart set on playing Kool-Aid Man, you should be fine.

[ataridave]

I just tried the demo of Stay Frosty 2 on my 2600 Jr. for about 10 minutes and didn't notice any problems.

 

 

Unless you've got your heart set on playing Kool-Aid Man, you should be fine.

 

Good news! What about Activision games? I don't care about any of their sports titles, but I love games like Crackpots, Chopper Command, and both River Raid games.

[+Psionic]

Good news! What about Activision games? I don't care about any of their sports titles, but I love games like Crackpots, Chopper Command, and both River Raid games.

Those will all work fine on a 2600 Jr.

 

River Raid II often has issues with 6-switch models but works fine on later consoles.

[Bixler]

Just picked up my first Atari 2600 (a Junior model), so I'm glad to hear there aren't any major compatibility issues. I'm planning on ordering a metric crapton of hombrews in the future from the AA store.

[Mr SQL]

Pretty much any 4-switch model is probably the best. The 6-switch and Junior models are the ones that most commonly have issues, but even with those it's only about a dozen or so games (out of 600 or so) that you'll experience any problems.

 

 

OK. What about the newer Atari 2600 homebrew games? I just played the demo of Stay Frosty 2, and I really loved it.

Some of the new homebrews with artifact colours, like KC Monster Maze display best on the 4-switch model, showing lighting and shadow on the characters, but you will still see some artifacting on the maze walls with the Jr and the 6-switch

[TheGameCollector]

I like my Jr. better than the original since the rf wire unplugs and I can plug the adapter directly into it to run shielded coax all the way to the tv.

 

Actually the wire unplugs on the older 2600 and VCS models as well. You just have to unscrew the shell of the system to get to it is all. I found that out when trying to repair a console I found at a thrift store which had the outer end of its cord cut off. I went ahead and soldered the wire to a new plug anyway as not to waste the cord and because I wanted to keep what I learned in electronics class fresh in my mind.