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Soon to be a new 7800 owner -- finally!


alucardX

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On 5/13/2022 at 9:47 AM, alucardX said:

When I say horrible, I mean so much snow it is unplayable horrible. I used an RF switch from and NES and actually produced a playable picture.

I definitely recommend getting it modded for s-video or at least composite. You'll certainly appreciate the difference. I have s-video in mine, and it's perfectly crisp on a Sony Trinitron. As good as emulation (well, better, because it's real).

 

The homebrews are definitely where it's at (and remember you can play all the 2600 goodness on it, too), but there are some official releases worth getting. IMO, these are the must-haves:

 

Centipede

Dig Dug

Food Fight

Galaga

Joust

Pole Position II

Robotron: 2084

 

Some will add others I'm not personally fond of (Ninja Golf is always a favorite for how crazy it is).

 

There are too many homebrews to recommend, though, and none that I've purchased so far I've regretted, so you'll not likely go wrong.

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The funny thing is I've probably had a dozen Pole Position II carts over the years because they keep getting thrown into Atari lots, but of course now that I actually have a 7800 I sold them all. :) However, it has only taken about a week and less than $50 to get five boxed games and a couple of carts. Best Electronics' $8 dented box sale for the win!

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Got a bunch more stuff by this point, cheap and easy to collect the basics. Seems to be lots of new stock boxed still around at a good price as well, which is nice. Last thought probably from me for the thread: Wish I'd done this years ago! Loving the 7800 as a 7800 and 2600. Very nice. The Best Electronics upgraded 7800 stick is nicer than the standard and totally usable long-term. Still some design issues inherant, however.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 5/15/2022 at 7:15 AM, alucardX said:

 

So far I have Xevious, Pole Position, Centipede and Hat Trick.

Xevious: 8,5/ 10

Pole Position 2: 7,5/10

Centipede: … never played the arcade, but probably 9/10 if you want a 8-bit home-console version…

Hat Trick: … collect it untii it becomes so rare you can sell it for profit…

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Of course, if you’ve gotten (yourself) into 7800-collecting through having the VCS, you probable there have many of more technically advanced games.

 

Dependent on what types of games you enjoy, and how much money you can afford on getting real hardware games, I think the following are cool stuff (in no particular order):

 

(Originals)

- Commando

- Ballblazer

- Tower Toppler

- F-18 Hornet (but you have to enjoy technical games as this a sort of ‘simulator’, with high precision everything)

- Mario Bros

- Dig Dug 

- Ikari Warriors

- Galaga

- Robotron 2084

- Rampage

- Midnight Mutants (unless its now on the VCS)

- Joust

- Donkey Kong Jr.

- Impossible Mission (updated version as to be win-able)

- Mean 18 (maybe…, people say its good for its time, I can hardly do one single move correctly)

- Xenophobe (…maybe… runs and plays smoothly, but somewhat samey backdrops, and minimum of sound-effects - I guess … In Space No One Can Hear …anything but dull sounds and cosmically bad music … which will make you Scream when you hear it time number … well 2 or if you’d happen to be a particular badass of a person, you may endure 3-4 times… then you’ll scream…

but hey, again …it plays well…)

- Crossbow (maybe, if you’re into really oldschool light-gun/crosshairs-shooters)

- Choplifter - short but fun

- Super Skateboardin’

 

 

—-

Prototypes/Unreleased Originals

- Sirius

- Plutos

- Klax

 

Homebrews:

- Bentley Bears Crystal Castle

- Donkey Kong PK (all 4 levels + pokey sound)

- Pac Man Collection

- Froggie (Frogger - but this time with an entirely different name)

- Baby Pac Man 

- Pac Man Jr.

- Rikki and Vikki… if, - yes there are ifs… - your lucky enough to find a copy on ebay … and in addition can afford like 800$ (!!!!!) for a game… 

 

 

- - -

I also find Double Dragon and Kung Fu Master kinda old-school-charming, but they’re not regarded as really good games… In Double Dragon ‘punching’ almost doesn’t work, so you literally have to kick your way throughout the levels, and in Kung Fu Master… you can only jump directly upward…no sideway-jump, no flykicks… making the action become stiff… 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Giles N
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Another new 7800 owner here! I recently acquired the console from a friend a few days ago and it seems to have had some work done to it over the years, S/Video and AV. I went to set up the console over the weekend but unfortunately I didn’t have the correct PSU and I couldn’t find one on eBay so I’ve had to desolder the old psu connector this evening and replace  it with a barrel jack socket to accept a Genesis PSU for now. The console is in very good condition just needs a dust/polish. I’m looking forward to collecting for it and trying out the Homebrew games. 97D700E2-3A16-458A-81E1-8B1C5D93775A.thumb.jpeg.d0bc0c08a8ec4062e2ea7258fabe0e48.jpeg

1D404C78-63C3-445F-9BCF-7C86E7D82EC9.jpeg

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7 minutes ago, Atari_JaguarVCS said:

Another new 7800 owner here! I recently acquired the console from a friend a few days ago and it seems to have had some work done to it over the years, S/Video and AV. I went to set up the console over the weekend but unfortunately I didn’t have the correct PSU and I couldn’t find one on eBay so I’ve had to desolder the old psu connector this evening and replace  it with a barrel jack socket to accept a Genesis PSU for now. The console is in very good condition just needs a dust/polish. I’m looking forward to collecting for it and trying out the Homebrew games. 97D700E2-3A16-458A-81E1-8B1C5D93775A.thumb.jpeg.d0bc0c08a8ec4062e2ea7258fabe0e48.jpeg

1D404C78-63C3-445F-9BCF-7C86E7D82EC9.jpeg

Congrats…

 

Gotten any games yet…?

 

European model, or modded…?

 

 

Edited by Giles N
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7 minutes ago, Atari_JaguarVCS said:

Thank you. At the moment i only have Dark Chambers and Asteroids for it but I’m planning on picking up some games on eBay and actually have a few bids in on some at the moment. It’s a PAL UK model. 

Yeah, it looked very much European.

 

The good with that, is that some titles are much easier to obtain for somewhat reasonable price: Commando, Ballblazer and many others.

 

Whats not so good is that you cannot play Rampage and Robotron 2084 on it; they are ntsc-only.

 

If you buy games here at AA, you may want to check that the games you order are set to PAL or that they’re universal as to region…

 

Edited by Giles N
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Congrats!  To Everyone around that got a 7800!!!

 

To me it's kind of like if ya bought a DeLorean and someone had done an engine swap already to make it better than it was when it was new.   This console really is better the second time around!

 

If you get one now,  you can play all The 2600 games including Homebrews, hacks and whatever fits on your Harmony Cart;  You can A/V/S-Video mod it for new and old TVs.   Plus, you can buy original games and Homebrews and maybe get a Multicart...I have a Dragonfly,  and if he can ever make more I Highly recommend one!!  Also check out Edladdin Controllers!

 

Hope everyone enjoys the dickens out of their 7800s!   :)

 

 

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22 minutes ago, Giles N said:

Yeah, it looked very much European.

 

The good with that, is that some titles are much easier to obtain for somewhat reasonable price: Commando, Ballblazer and many others.

 

Whats not so good is that you cannot play Rampage and Robotron 2084 on it; they are ntsc-only.

 

If you buy games here at AA, you may want to check that the games you order are set to PAL or that they’re universal as to region…

 

Thanks for the heads up on that! Interesting. I will definitely check for compatibility when purchasing aftermarket games. I may end up purchasing an NTSC 7800 at some point if one becomes available. 

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  • 1 month later...
On 5/13/2022 at 2:14 PM, -^CrossBow^- said:

Usually using those auto switch boxes that were for the Master system and NES will not work properly on the older Atari consoles. Best RF picture is to use a good quality coax type cable and plug it directly into the coax antenna input on your TV. 

 

 

On 5/14/2022 at 1:57 PM, sixersfan105 said:

@alucardX sounds like the switchbox that came with the 7800 is shot. And yes, definitely steer clear of the auto-switching switchboxes as @-^CrossBow^- mentioned. You've definitely got the right idea with the f-type RF adapter. Hopefully that will do the trick.

 

Btw, I'm assuming that the TV you're using plays nicely with consoles hooked up via RF, right? Because not all do. 

I just bought the phono to f connector from the Atari Age store. The picture is not perfect but it is soooooo much better. Now to get some better controllers.

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On 6/12/2022 at 7:13 PM, Atari_JaguarVCS said:

Thanks for the heads up on that! Interesting. I will definitely check for compatibility when purchasing aftermarket games. I may end up purchasing an NTSC 7800 at some point if one becomes available. 

Looking at the pics of yours it seems to have the LHE mod installed. How do I know that? Because of the red button you got there under the left lip of the console. That button turns off the color signal from the 2600 side of thing that would cause interference patterns when playing 7800 games. So... a button was installed to kill the color signal when playing 7800 games. If your 2600 games come up in black and white...press the button.

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27 minutes ago, mimo said:

I could never get the LHE mod working on a PAL system 

Well, I don't know what else it could be but the LHE with that button installed on it? Were any other s-video AV upgrades available prior to the LHE that might have required disabling the TIA color burst? Unless that button is for something completely different.

 

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I honestly couldn’t tell you what the red button does on my 7800, I’ve only played 7800 games on this console so far but I’ll try a 2600 game at some point and see if the button pauses the game or does anything to the picture quality. I’ve since picked up another x2 7800 consoles for my collection and some more games and accessories so my collection is growing since I last posted. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 5/6/2022 at 5:31 PM, alucardX said:

I just ordered a 7800 on ebay and am VERY excited. I have wanted one of these for years and will finally be able to experience the real deal! I've been a Jag owner for a long time but this will be a whole new adventure.

 

Woohoo, congrats!!

 

I felt just like that in 1990 too, though I bought one used from the local Atari club (which still exists in MN, cool!) as eBay didn't exist yet...  I later sold it to pay for new equipment to stay current with computer technology, and fast forward what feels like a few centuries and I bought one recently with modification to allow hookup to composite TV (I really should try to augment it for S-Video, like my 5200 has, as it's got a much cleaner signal...)

 

Lots of good games exist, though thanks to Nintendo's contracts the 7800 ended up not getting as many games at the time...  plenty of solid homebrews exist that take advantage of the hardware...  I still remember back then why Atari was re-releasing the arcade classics and not having as many new titles out...

 

Robotron 2084 never looked better, save for the original arcade itself.

Asteroids was very nicely done indeed. Great conversion...

Ms Pac-Man is always a go-to.

Dig Dug looks fantastic, but the carryover of the 2600's sound clobbers it.

Ditto for Donkey Kong.

 

 

 

On 5/13/2022 at 4:47 AM, Cobra Kai said:

It does help. It also helps to hook it up to a CRT as opposed to a newer LCD.

 

I use a composite->HDMI converter to a LCD set.  I'm not keen on the lack of deinterlacing, but the display isn't ugly.  Looks worse for 2600 titles like Yar's Revenge and Defender, but not so much as to be unplayable...

Edited by CommodoreDecker
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