Colecovision Expansion #1 -> Standalone 2600

Paul Slocum · November 17, 2002

I was thinking it might be easy to convert a Colecovision 2600 adapter into a standalone 2600 since it's got a 2600 inside. It's really small and doesn't have an RF modulator and would make a cool portable. But it looks like it's not so easy. I did some research and it looks like there are (at least) two problems that make it a difficult project:

1) It doesn't appear to have a system clock on-board. The clock line from the Colecovision is connected and is probably just divided by 3 to get 1.19Mhz. So you'd have to add a clock generator which is a bit more work than I was hoping for.

2) It doesn't just use GND and +5v. It's connected to GND, +5v, -5v, and +12v. Unless there's an easy way to remove the requirement for all these, the power would be a pain to provide (especially from a battery).

Has anyone else tried this, done any research on it, or have any ideas?

-Paul