A working Bally Astrocade - escaped from North America!

[glazball]

We can agree we are all passionate about this great console!

 

CatPix understands what he owns and what to tell collectors and what to tell non-collectors, but when you tell him he has a Bally Professional Arcade when he has an Astrovision Inc. model ABA-1000-2 Astrovision Arcade with a Bally Professional Arcade cover that makes me want to correct you.

I agree, it's easy to get passionate about this console. It has certainly become one of my favorites! Such a powerful, underappreciated console.

 

CatPix, it looks like you and I have the same model, technically an "Astrovision Arcade" with a reused Bally Professional Arcade cover. I just call it Bally Professional Arcade and when searching for info, use "Astrocade." It is unfortunate that you often see the term "Bally Astrocade" used which is wholly incorrect, but catching up on the histories of these companies and the system is part of the magic, for me.

 

I too am looking forward to Ken Lill's UltiMultiCart which should be here soon. It could possibly be his last one available??

 

Also, I don't want to jinx myself but my BPA has run wonderfully with no problems yet. I bought a flat laptop cooler just for the system and haven't really used it for too long in one stretch. I read about your performance test, boxpressed, and part of me wants to push the system to test it out, the other part of me wants to just leave it alone and not ever stress it! It's truly a special system and I want it to last me for a long time.

[CatPix]

I did the test and I got it working multiple times, and sometime in-between the game would glitch and freeze, so I'd say that there is probably a small timeframe where the chips run hot enough to interrupt normal gameplay but not enough to permanently damage the chips.

 

I'm peeking around with electronicians to find a more reliable power source - one that would allow to add small coolings fans inside the case for an invisible modding.

It's not easy thing tho - the simplest seems to bypass all the filtering part of the console and to directly feed the console with standard 12V, +5V and -5V (a power supply that would also be working for the Colecovision, BTW... How awesome does it sounds when you can use a more common plaftorm hardware for your less know one?)

 

The problem being that this mean modding. whereas just replacing the power brick was more plug'n'play. But heh. That's the kind of mod you do once and last forever.

[glazball]

Well, let us know what luck you have. I'm always leery of modding a system, especially a system as hard to find (in any condition) as a BPA. Perhaps you can find a good solution for cooling, but you certainly don't want to introduce any new potential problems.