7800 prototype board...

[geneb]

I've got what I've been told is an Atari 7800 prototype board.  From photos I've seen of production boards, it appears to be a 7800 of *some kind*.

 

I'm looking to put a reasonable value on this thing as I've no clue what it's worth.

 

Photos:

Unit with RF shield in place:

 

Board:

 

Thanks folks.

 

g.

[Tempest]

Well according to that sticker it was part of the initial pilot run of 7800 boards.  The actual production took place in El Paso I think, so I'm not sure what to make of it.  What does that other sticker say?  It's probably a prototype BIOS eprom.

[gambler172]

Just now, Tempest said:

Well according to that sticker it was part of the initial pilot run of 7800 boards.  The actual production took place in El Paso I think, so I'm not sure what to make of it.  What does that other sticker say?  It's probably a prototype BIOS eprom.

Oh...i have several bios proto roms ?

[nick3092]

9 minutes ago, Tempest said:

Well according to that sticker it was part of the initial pilot run of 7800 boards.  The actual production took place in El Paso I think, so I'm not sure what to make of it.  What does that other sticker say?  It's probably a prototype BIOS eprom.

Looks like it says "new sync 4/29/84 E8FA"

[CPUWIZ]

Looks like a normal original production board with a development BIOS in place, notice the hacked in CE inverter.

 

I just recently posted a pic of mine, which I modified a lot more than this.

 

EDIT:

 

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Maria and 6502 appear to be soldered to the board vs in sockets? Or is that angle and lighting making it look like that?

[+Mitch]

I have one very similar to that with the same type of Bios setup.

 

Mitch

[CPUWIZ]

1 hour ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

Maria and 6502 appear to be soldered to the board vs in sockets? Or is that angle and lighting making it look like that?

 

They are socketed, it's the angle.  The pic is big, BTW.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

25 minutes ago, CPUWIZ said:

 

They are socketed, it's the angle.  The pic is big, BTW.

At the time I posted that, I was on my phone and the pic wasn't that big then. Actually it isn't that big a pic. When I click on it it takes me to an imagur site and it only blows up to about 720p on my monitor here?

 

If I download it would it be larger resolution then? I'd like a larger pic of it as it looks like a fully populated PCB? Pretty much all of them including the early released '84 units have a few components that were never installed for one reason or another. Mainly banded caps I think.

 

 

[+DrVenkman]

It looks a lot like my AT-84 production unit except for three things:

 

1) the BIOS widgetry (though mine also has a 28-pin socket for the BIOS chip itself)

2) the yellow "Sunnyvale Pilot" sticker

3) the gooey-looking flux residue on the top side of each component through hole; it almost looks like someone has reflowed all the old solder from the top-side. 

[CPUWIZ]

2 hours ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

If I download it would it be larger resolution then?

 

 

[+-^CrossBow^-]

1 hour ago, CPUWIZ said:

 

 

Yeap, I only get the full size if I right click on it from the Imgur website and save it locally to my computer. Clicking on it to blow it up within chrome it never gets any larger than the viewing size of my monitor.

 

The flux that DrVenkman mentions I've seen on lots of boards including actual sold production 7800s. Wonder why it doesn't have a cartridge sleeve?

 

 

 

[CPUWIZ]

2 hours ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

Clicking on it to blow it up within chrome it never gets any larger than the viewing size of my monitor.

 

FWIW, I was using the latest Firefox on a Mac.

[+Mitch]

Here's mine. I got it from Curt several years back.

 

Mitch

 

 

[+-^CrossBow^-]

7 hours ago, Mitch said:

Here's mine. I got it from Curt several years back.

 

Mitch

 

 

Very cool Mitch! Yours is also fully populated with components. I wonder why some were removed on the actual released units? Found to be redundant and not needed? Hmm...

 

Here is a stupid question...

 

I've noticed under some of the ICs and you can see this at the top of the main +5 and GND rails along the center just under the cartridge sleeve. There are what appear to be different initials all over the board as the abbreviations don't match up with those of the actual data lines they sit next to. So I've wondered if these are the initials of different people from GCC involved in the 7800 development?