Atari 7800 expansion bay port HELP

[Draikar]

Any one have a photo of the Atari 7800 expansion bay port and info where it was located on the Atari 7800 system, any info about this as where it was located or any info about it at all would be helpful for me an Atari fan and new collator

[+Mitch]

Any one have a photo of the Atari 7800 expansion bay port and info where it was located on the Atari 7800 system, any info about this as where it was located or any info about it at all would be helpful for me an Atari fan and new collator

 

If your 7800 has one it would be on the left side and clearly labeled.

It was designed for an unreleased laserdisc add-on. Atari dropped it on later 7800s because the laserdisc player project was cancelled.

 

Mitch

[oesii]

Here's a pic:

 

[Bruce Tomlin]

Unfortunately, the only thing the expansion port "expands" is the analog A/V circuitry. And (if I recall correctly), it's mostly an A/V input. No S-video or RGB mods from that port.

[Mot]

Here is a link: http://cat.asw.cz/~kubecj/7800exp.htm

[Draikar]

Thanks for the info !

It helped me out big time.

[candiru]

Any one have a photo of the Atari 7800 expansion bay port and info where it was located on the Atari 7800 system, any info about this as where it was located or any info about it at all would be helpful for me an Atari fan and new collator

 

If your 7800 has one it would be on the left side and clearly labeled.

It was designed for an unreleased laserdisc add-on. Atari dropped it on later 7800s because the laserdisc player project was cancelled.

 

Mitch

 

I thought I'd heard something like this before, but never saw much else about it. So this was really going to be a full-fledged laserdisc player, as in big-as-a-record-album laserdiscs? Are there any prototypes known to exist?

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Basically what was going to happen was that Atari was going to create a way for a basic LD player to interface to the 7800. Most of the game would actually be played from the LD unit itself with the 7800's graphics chips simply outputing all the video and audio. I thought I basically understood it that the 7800 would probably not have any logics really being used, and would really only be used as a large RF output device for the LD player.

 

[Tempest]

I thought I basically understood it that the 7800 would probably not have any logics really being used, and would really only be used as a large RF output device for the LD player.

 

I wonder if they would use it to overlay the score and other "changing" on screen information? That information doesn't require hi-res graphics. The Laseractive does something similar to this.

 

Tempest

[Mot]

I thought I basically understood it that the 7800 would probably not have any logics really being used, and would really only be used as a large RF output device for the LD player.

 

I wonder if they would use it to overlay the score and other "changing" on screen information? That information doesn't require hi-res graphics. The Laseractive does something similar to this.

 

Tempest

 

This makes me think of the arcade game Fire Fox that had sky seens from the video disk and the computer put the game part on top (F-15's).

 

Do you think that this is what they were thinking?

[Tempest]

Probably. It would make sense. Every laserdisc game has some sort of overlayed graphics like that.

 

Tempest

[+Mitch]

I think Dragon's Lair is the game I heard as being planned for the laserdisc player.

 

Mitch

[Classic Pac]

I had some dealings with Atari back in the late 80s. I was told they also had in the works a disc drive and a driving controller like the one for Colecovision.

[kheffington]

I have one of the 7800s with the expansion port. I also have one without the expansion port.

 

I recently opened up the 7800 without the expansion port to tune the video signal. It also had the expansion port inside, just not cut out in the case for it. Is this usual?

[+Mitch]

I have one of the 7800s with the expansion port.  I also have one without the expansion port.

 

I recently opened up the 7800 without the expansion port to tune the video signal.  It also had the expansion port inside, just not cut out in the case for it.  Is this usual?

 

Not really, does it have the actual expansion connector or just the spot on the board for it?

 

Mitch

[kheffington]

 

Not really, does it have the actual expansion connector or just the spot on the board for it?

 

Mitch

 

It has the expansion connector.