Prosystemsearch Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 It certainly wasn't impossible for them to do that for the 2nd or 3rd batch of 7800s! Why have it only FR compatible?? The fact that the 7800 only had RF was at least to me, a big deterrent to many would-be 7800 buyers, right next to the refusal to release the joypad to North America! :mad: :mad: :-o Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prosystemsearch Posted June 29, 2014 Author Share Posted June 29, 2014 Typo on the topic header! OOPS!! :-o Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prosystemsearch Posted June 29, 2014 Author Share Posted June 29, 2014 Hmmm... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariLeaf Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 Those sons of bitches! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atarian63 Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 I bought one from best electronics that was based on an actual mod from Atari (according to Brad), so.. they must have had it planned or as an upgrade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7800 Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 Why didn't Atari put A/V ports on the later 7800s? 1- It would have brought the cost up. 2- It would have brought the cost up. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iesposta Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 When the 7800 was designed, early 80's, the market still had late 1970's TV's. Groovy! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gorfcadet Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 AV wasn't standard in most systems of the time. Many TVs didn't even have those ports in the early to mid-eighties. The RCA port was popularized by the VCR during this time for home video applications. RCA outs weren't common until the 16-bit era. The Turbografx needed a bulky add on just to get RCA out connectors. The SEGA Genesis offered them as a secondary purchase though they did start including them in later revisions. Nintendo was the first console maker in the US to include the RCA cables as a standard way of connecting their systems. Yes, Atari was being cheap, but... most of America at the time was still using the little rabbit ear connector screws to hook up stuff to their tvs. Not every tv even had coax inputs, let alone them fancy RCA jacks. The rise of cable tv and video rentals were what pushed tv makers to add those connectors, but not by the time the 7800 was designed. My Commodore 64 even hooked up to my tv using little tuning fork rf switcher and that was a freaking computer! Ah, the good old days! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2600 Forever Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 Why did the original PlayStation not have HDMI out? 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bennybingo Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 Why did the chicken cross the road? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariLeaf Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 Why didn't the chicken have AV outputs ??? All chickens should be rendered in 4K. Goddamn standard def poultry!!! :mad: :mad: :mad: 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bennybingo Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 Why didn't the chicken have AV outputs ??? All chickens should be rendered in 4K. Goddamn standard def poultry!!! :mad: :mad: :mad: It's all Shatner's fault... …I like turtles. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinks Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 I love Rf!! Its true classic bitch..if ya cant rememeber rabbit ears your too young to understand! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lynxpro Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 (edited) It is a valid point. Atari Corp did revise the 7800 several times; they could've made an AV upgrade to match what the NES offered standard in 1985. They could've also released the High Score Cartridge, the ProLine Joystick Coupler, more cartridges with a POKEY or better audio chip, the 7800 Keyboard, the AtariLab cartridge for the 7800, the 7800 Light Gun, paid GCC to finish the GUMBY audio chip, hired the former Atari Inc Advanced Research engineers to finish the AMY audio chip that could've been used in 7800 games as well as in A8 and ST computers, licensed the Atari Games/Tengen library sooner, etc etc etc. But...they didn't. Oh, they could've offered an auto switching RF modulator - like the NES - that didn't require plugging into a power supply like the 5200, but they didn't bother to do so until the release of the Jaguar and only after lots of us protested against their original plan to bundle the Jaguar with a manual switch RF modulator for a console released in 1993. They were cheap, plain and simple. Edited June 29, 2014 by Lynxpro 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+frankodragon Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prosystemsearch Posted June 29, 2014 Author Share Posted June 29, 2014 Why did the original PlayStation not have HDMI out? Hello there friend of Bennybingo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 Perhaps a more pressing issue: Why didn't Atari just include the freakking Pokey chip into the 7800? While I don't mind the TIA sound, in the mid-to-late 80s the iconic grungy sound was already low tech. It just wreaked of 2600. Much better had they just thrown a Pokey chip in the system. Then games could use the Pokey chip for polyphonic background music, and the TIA for sound effects. Currently few to nill 7800 titles have really decent soundtracks due to the TIA shortcomings. 7800 could then have actually not sounded like a total flop compared with the SMS and NES in the audio department. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldSchoolRetroGamer Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 Perhaps a more pressing issue: Why didn't Atari just include the freakking Pokey chip into the 7800? While I don't mind the TIA sound, in the mid-to-late 80s the iconic grungy sound was already low tech. It just wreaked of 2600. Much better had they just thrown a Pokey chip in the system. Then games could use the Pokey chip for polyphonic background music, and the TIA for sound effects. Currently few to nill 7800 titles have really decent soundtracks due to the TIA shortcomings. 7800 could then have actually not sounded like a total flop compared with the SMS and NES in the audio department. It's been discussed many times now, they were keeping the cost of the console down as much as possible......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldSchoolRetroGamer Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 It certainly wasn't impossible for them to do that for the 2nd or 3rd batch of 7800s! Why have it only FR compatible?? The fact that the 7800 only had RF was at least to me, a big deterrent to many would-be 7800 buyers, right next to the refusal to release the joypad to North America! :mad: :mad: :-o 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoulBlazer Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 It's been discussed many times now, they were keeping the cost of the console down as much as possible......... The 'cheapness' of Atari in the 7800 days is the same reason the Lynx and Jag failed later on. You can't half-ass a console or handheld release. Even in the late 80's and 90's, if you wanted to release one, you'd better be prepared to spend millions on it. Hell, Microsoft lost HUNDREDS of millions of dollars to break into the console market. And it's why Sega is a game publisher/maker these days only. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 How many dollars would a Pokey chip have added to a console during the mid 80s? 5200 had one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roland p Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 There was a French 7800 with RGB Scart (Peritel). It probably was composite/svideo converted to rgb. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 How many dollars would a Pokey chip have added to a console during the mid 80s? 5200 had one. If literally a penny can be saved by using a different, possibly inferior, type of screw, then a company will do it since that's money saved over potentially millions of units. It only has to make sense to those holding the purse strings. With that said, I think not having the POKEY built into the 7800 was a criminal omission. You generally don't want to go backwards in tech specs when you release a new console, but Atari managed to accomplish that feat. As for the RF only thing, I can't imagine even one sale being lost to it not doing composite. It just wasn't an issue at the time. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7800 Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 This thread is already becoming another "7800 vs. the competition" thread. LOL! You can never have too many of those. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walter_J64bit Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 Atari didn't brake way from the RF out, they have them on the Jag too. You would think Atari would had droped the RF out just to be cheap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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