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Help a newbie out!


Casey1334

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Hello folks!

 

At the beginning of the month I found a sweet deal at the Flea Market. My girlfriends uncle sells collectable toys such as transformers and the like as well as old games. He sold me an Atari 2600 with games and paddles for 25 dollars. It even comes with one of the storage units that can hold the games and manuals. I got a very sweet deal on this thing and even found a receipt in here for a transaction on brand new atari games from back in the early 80s! (Will post photos if you guys would like me to!)

 

I all ready own an Atari 7800 and being born in 1988 and having older step brothers I was able to spend some of my early youth enjoying the Arcade/SNES/Genesis era. It's been my dream to own an Atari 2600 and actually play one.

 

I had to buy a RF converter from radio shack to get my Atari 7800 to work on a TV and I figured I could do the same with my 2600 but I found that the thing only works with UHF based Televisions from the 1970s and 1980s. As cool as it would be to still have one of those bad boys lying around, i have to accept that its 2014. I don't have an HDTV I have a basic "Boob-Tube" as my buddies like to call it. But I do have that weird UHF cable box thingy that the Atari 2600 came with. I'm sure you guys at Atari age get asked this plenty of times, but what would I need to procure to hook this up to a TV from the 1990s or modern age without modding my Atari 2600?

 

 

Secondly? How do I know it works? There is no power light unlike the 7800 and I can't tell if it even works. Does it make a whirring noise? Does it do anything when powered on to let you confirm it works? Or will I not know until I get it properly set up? Either way, at least I have my bad-boy 7800.

 

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to ask this in the 2600 forum but since I'm writing this all out, I'll ask anyway and one of the mods can just edit the post if I happen to be breaking a rule,

 

How many "Super Carts" were released for the 7800? I'm enjoying Ballbalzer a great deal. I managed to find some sealed 7800 games (with dents on the boxes so they were not necessarily brand new) for 8 dollars a piece at my local hobby shop. They were ballblazer, Centipede, Ms. Pac Man and Asteroids. Two of them came with these awesome posters!

 

I plan on visiting the hobby shop today to see what else they got. mostly 2600 stuff but 7800 carts really tickle my fancy.

Let me know what your reccomendations are! (Looking to buy Midnight Mutants at some point!)

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There are connectors out there to hook them up to cable ready TV's, such as: http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?p=WMXFMR&d=Perfect-Vision-Push-On-75-to-300-ohm-Transformer-(PVAB10)&utm_campaign=base&utm_medium=organic&utm_source=google_base

 

This will allow you to connect the switchbox to any TV without screw terminals, including some HDTV's with an analog-capable (pre-2009 made in particular, but not exclusively) tuner in them.

 

It will make no noise and as you noted has no LED or anything, but when on Channel 2 or 3 it should do at least something once hooked up, black screen when powered, game screen, whatever.

 

Not sure on the super game labeled carts on the 7800. I think it was more of a marketing ploy than anything else; not necessarily anything different about those carts overall.

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I think I'll keep the switchbox for old time's sake. It says "computer on it". I can only imagine what type of Computers back than used UHF input.

 

I'll post some more photos here in a second. I think someone around here will want to see this vintage receipt. I'm sure of it. <3

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Yeah, really. But than again, it was 1982 and games were still fairly new. I don't think anyone back than knew what games to buy and what to avoid. It's interesting none the less to see how consumers were picking and choosing their carts. I have another receipt from target but it doesn't list what was bought.

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I think I'll keep the switchbox for old time's sake. It says "computer on it". I can only imagine what type of Computers back than used UHF input.

 

I'll post some more photos here in a second. I think someone around here will want to see this vintage receipt. I'm sure of it. <3

 

Just to be the overcorrecting nerd on the thread. The 2600 IS a computer.

 

Enjoyed seeing the receipt.

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Congratulations on your atari purchase. Thanks for sharing all of the additional information. The receipt was very interesting. Tennis, Golf, Bowling and Bridge. I'm willing to bet you have an atari that was owned by an adult, maybe even a senior citizen :)

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I think I'll keep the switchbox for old time's sake. It says "computer on it". I can only imagine what type of Computers back than used UHF input.

 

I'll post some more photos here in a second. I think someone around here will want to see this vintage receipt. I'm sure of it. <3

Sure you can use that, but connecting without it, (with the adapter piece I showed in my post), gives a much better picture.

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Just got back from the Hobby Shop.

 

Here are today's pick-ups. All games cost $1 - $3 each!

 

Xevious - Atari 7800

Pole Position II - Atari 7800 (Very common, I know)

 

And some 2600 titles

 

Defender

Crystal Castles

Asteroids (Much prefer the 7800 port)

21 Video Olympics

Swordquest - Earthworld

 

and

StarMaster

 

Star Master, disappointed me. I tried all four modes on it and I just float out into the ether and nothing happens.

No ships to shoot at or anything. Maybe I just don't know how to play it.

 

All were loose carts by the way.

Edited by Casey1334
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I got the impression that you were from the US. In the US, the 2600 worked on the VHF band.

UHF is the channels 14 - 83 that had to be tuned with a separate tuner on the old-timey TV's.

 

RF (Radio Frequency) is the general term that more or less describes the frequencies you'd receive using some sort of antenna.

Typically people say RF to differentiate from baseband composite video or component video or similar sort of "non-antenna" type of input.

 

 

 

Welcome to AtariAge, btw.

Edited by BigO
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2600 Asteriods: Only play 10, 12, 14, or 16 - single player, or 43, 45, 47, or 49 - 2 player.

Those have shields and Asteriods that move the most arcade-like.

Difference is extra life at 5, 10, 20, or none.

 

Just recently got Video Olympics because there are 4-player paddle games on it.

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Starmaster used the b/w switch on console to switch to galaxy map ... fly to a quadrent where teh bad guys are @ ;)

 

http://atariage.com/manual_thumbs.html?SoftwareLabelID=507

 

many games aren't always intuitive diG through hobby shops manuals also ... kind of nice to have them in hand

 

Star Raiders it pretty much the same game as Starmaster but requires an additional keypad

 

congrats on your new purchase \o/

Edited by chas10e
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