Atari 2600 Video Issues

[mattylaid]

My Atari 2600 seems to send a signal to my TV but the screen is either black or it's a fuzzy/distorted version. The only way I can get anything to show up on the screen is to repeatedly flip the power switch and the game select button doesn't seem to work.The games show different patterns but the patterns are quite consistent amongst one game. I'm using a VHF to coax to connect to the TV. Thanks in advance for the help!

[fiddlepaddle]

Pics? How is it connected to TV? What kind of TV? How are you tuning? Which game(s) are you trying? Did you clean the cart connectors?

[godzillajoe]

Is it set to the right channel? There's a switch on the back that you can select channel 3 or 4. Or maybe 2 and 3. Forget exactly which one. Might be different depending on which country you're in.

 

But it looks something like this

 

http://yesterbits.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/cx2600-channel-select.jpg

 

Might be worth checking out.

[7800]

VHF to coax? Sounds like an older CRT tv. AWESOME! That's the way to play Atari.

 

Sounds like it could be a bad matching transformer or you just need to fiddle with the TV controls and fine tune channel 3.

[HardZero]

I've had the same problem with my 2600 as well. When I plug a cart in and turn it on, the screen displays glitchy graphics, if it displays at all. It is pretty consistent with what stuff it displays and it varies from cart to cart. Also using VHF to coax. I have some vids of me playing around with the swtiches to make the screen do weird stuff somewhere on my phone. I could put them on Youtube if anyone would be interested. I'll dig the 2600 out and try fiddling with the TV controls and see if that works and report back here when I do.

[freewheel]

OMG Rowsdower!