Variable Signal Strength?

[Bucket Brigadier]

Good Evening,

 

It's been a while since I've posted, glad to see the place still going strong! I had a few questions about signal strength with different games for the Atari VCS, but first, here's a bit of the background:

 

I'm running a heavy six connected to a modern LCD TV through a set of coaxial splitters (I've got four systems running across three A/B splitters through the coax input). Almost all of my games run absolutely fine even travelling through two (VCS to splitter to splitter to TV), however, four games in my inventory (Midnight Magic, Dodge 'Em, Circus Atari and Demons to Diamonds) will not produce a signal strong enough for the TV to "lock on." Even if I unplug the other game consoles & splitters, and run the VCS directly to the TV, the image of the game runs grayed-out in the background, slowly and constantly cycling up, as if the vertical hold were broken (and modern TV's don't have a vertical hold knob on them, so I can't adjust that). Over this, the TV displays its "No Signal" box. If I could talk TV, I'd tell it "You've got the picture right there, work harder!" but sadly, that isn't an option. I have tried multiple cartridges, but none of the aforementioned games will work with my TV, regardless of which cart I use.

 

I did check for solutions here using the search function, but those that I've tried (such as powering on the Atari, then the TV, adjusting TV settings, and plugging the Atari directly into the TV) have not worked. If memory serves, early on with this TV, Dodge 'Em worked. Of note, my VCS was built before the channel selector switch was added, so I can't go to channel 2, either.

 

So, my questions are:

 

1. Do certain games "tell" the Atari to produce a weaker signal?

 

2. If not, is there potentially a problem with my VCS? (I'm not thinking so, given that the other 90 some games I have don't have this problem)

 

3. If anyone has experienced this before, is there a workaround? If it involves buying a CRT TV, I might just do that...

 

4. I saw something about an RF Amplifier. Has anyone tried/had success with one of these?

 

Thanks for any replies!

 

Cheers,

"BB"

[kskunk]

You're right about it being a vertical hold issue. 2600 games can't change signal strength, but they can alter the vertical timing to be non-standard. CRTs were very forgiving about that, but modern digital equipment isn't. You might find some TVs or converters are more forgiving than others.

 

- KS

[Bucket Brigadier]

KS,

 

Understood, thanks very much for the reply! Looks like I might have to go find an old TV...

 

Cheers.

[BigO]

I've played Circus on my LCD (60" Sharp Aquos) with the 2600 connected to the RF/tuner input. The only problem I had was too much delay for it to be really playable.

I have an old analog "demodulator" (tuner) with video out and with it the delay problem was better, but still some noticeable lag.

 

I say all that to say this: even if you do have an LCD TV that will display Circus with a steady picture, get a CRT TV anyway.

[Bucket Brigadier]

Hey, all,

 

Just to let you know, I got a 13" CRT TV and lo and behold, the four games with the vertical hold problem work fine! Looks like the problem was most likely with the modern TV's ability to deal with the vertical timing. I will say this, my LCD does a surprisingly good job countering lag (Kaboom! is quite playable on it), but I doubt anything will match the CRT with the Atari hooked up to it. All of my high scores were done on CRT TV's, and I'm glad I dropped a few bucks on one.

 

Cheers,

-"BB"