The POWER of VCS

[The Night Phantom]

Tonight I decided to play some Space Invaders, so I hooked the VCS up to the TV, set the TV to channel 3, inserted the cartridge, plugged in a joystick, flipped the console’s power switch to “on”...and watched as Space Invaders appeared on screen for a split second before being replaced by video snow. My mind raced. Was the console broken? Was the power switch loose? Had I accidentally dislodged the power cord?

 

And then I realized...I hadn’t even plugged the power supply in. Yet the VCS had come on, for a moment. Such is the mighty power of Atari 2600.

[Turnspike]

Kinda reminds me of Superman III, when that supercomputer finds its own source of power after the creator pulls its plug. Maybe your console is keeping cockroaches alive inside the case and using them as batteries (ala The Matrix). Of course, it cant let you know that, and maybe you won't notice that little slip-up from tonight. Maybe you will just shrug it off as if there was a small charge inside the board from the last time you played. Meanwhile your console is active throughout the night, harnessing the power of even more cockroaches, and planning your demise.

[StanJr]

ITS ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Don't go to sleep, the VCS is watching you!!!!!

[Stella'sGhost]

That is kooky.

[Stella'sGhost]

That is kooky.

[Lumpbucket]

And then I realized...I hadn’t even plugged the power supply in.  Yet the VCS had come on, for a moment.  Such is the mighty power of Atari 2600.

 

Or, such is the mighty power of capacitors

[mvigor]

The little orange LED that tells me that my computer's 21 inch montior is not receiving a video signal will stay on for hours after I've removed the source of power.

[Cupcakus]

Open your VCS and look at the capacitor attached to the power lead... It looks like it could power new york city...

 

It's like a stick of dynamite :-).... well OK it's not that big I guess.

[Turnspike]

Cockroaches I say......cockroaches. I don't know how many 2600 consoles I have brought home from a flea market that I have had to clean little roach corpses from. Those poor systems probably lasted a few months on them before they tapped out. I bet even the Orkin man keeps a 2600 Jr. under the seat for emergencys, because he knows that the inaudible hum of a VCS-2600 lures roaches like ebay lures suckers.

[CrazyImpmon]

@cupcakus:

 

I think I can do something about that. I have an old cap that I fished out of a dead PET. It's about 5" in length, 2" in diameter and holds a whopping 23 farad (23,000,00o uF)

 

If this monster's still good I could charge it up and then play the VCS without external powerr for possibly a few minutes or so. The 2600 I have shows a 2200uF so my cap is about 10,500 times more capacity, or roughly 3 hours for VCS.