Things NOT to do

[FireTiger]

Things not to do to your best loved 7800...

 

1)

Full compatablity test with M-network type carts where you have to hold them in with one hand and play with the oter to see if the board is compatable.... you might screw up the cart. (or at least I did no idea how though -kool aid man, the graphics glitch on the 5200 adaptor and the 7800 the same way, theres a part of the horozontal screan displaied vertical (the fence) and nothing happens...need to try on a 2600 still -any sugestions?)

 

2)

Go swimming with it, the bathing suits will fall off and your best beloved atari 7800 will be embarrassed.

 

3)

Use it for a hockey puck in elephant hockey, elephants don't ice skate well and there are not enough fights to entertain your best beloved 7800.

 

4)

Use the bottom of the plastic shell as a soup dish, it has holes in it and that would be messy.

 

5)

Use the top of the plastic shell as a soup dish, it has holes in it and that would gum up the buttons.

 

6)

Use it as a shelf, your best beloved 7800's top is angled -idot.

 

 

...(any others )

[Bruce Tomlin]

M-Network cards apparently don't have very strong plastic to help force the board DOWN. If this breaks, you will have to repair the cart. Open it up (see those clips where the Intellivision part connects to the 2600 end?) and stuff something into the Intellivision part that is big enough and strong enough to push the board into the slot. Reassemble. Profit.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Also, don't forget that you have to flip the player one difficulty switch for Kool Aid man. It has an undocumented "Pause" and if you have the switch already set, then you will get the problem described above.

[MattG/Snyper2099]

Don't forget trying to ramming certain Tigervision titles into it. Some don't fit cause of those damned platic tabs.

[Nukey Shay]

Nope...it still isn't working.  Maybe you shouldn't have poured that cup of washing up liquid into it?

 

 

It says right in the manual..."ensure that your video unit is clean and free from dust"!

 

 

Yeah, but it don't say ensure the machine is full of washing up liquid!

 

 

No, but it doesn't say to ensure that it isn't full of washing up liquid!

 

 

Well, it wouldn't would it! I mean, it doesn't say ensure you don't chop up your video machine with an axe, put all the bits in a plastic bag, and bung 'em down the lavatory!

 

 

Doesn't it?  Maybe that's what's going wrong!

[FireTiger]

LOL @ above post

 

oooohhh. you were right about kool aid man thanxs

 

so my 7800 works on

 

Choplifter (7800)

Food Fight (7800)

Robot Tank (2600 activision)

Decathalon (2600 Activision)

Kool Aid Man (M-network 2600)

Dark Chambers (2600)

 

anything else I should try?

[candiru]

so my 7800 works on  

 

Choplifter (7800)

Food Fight (7800)

Robot Tank (2600 activision)

Decathalon (2600 Activision)

Kool Aid Man (M-network 2600)

Dark Chambers (2600)

 

anything else I should try?

 

So far I think you've named a good chunk of the incompatibility offenders. The only other ones I can think of that I've seen mentioned that sometimes have problems are Space Shuttle, Time Pilot, Pitfall II, Secret Quest, and the Supercharger. I've seen some mentions that a 7800 can potentially fry a supercharger so maybe do a little more research before you try that one.

 

If you're so inclined, one thing you can do is open it up to see what date is stamped on the internals of your 7800. You should be able to find some information on this by searching something like "board revision" on the 7800 forum. I think there's a thread or 2 about where to find the date and how to interpret it.

[FireTiger]

Its the one my parrents boght when they first came out, they had one 2600 skipped the 5200 and got a 7800. No expansion hole on the shell:

 

Secreat Quest, Space Shuttle, and Pitfall II all work fine...I have an unmod supercharger but need more info first.

 

Don't own Time Pilot

 

My shell's info

 

Serial # 72R4BR(space)A3(space) (85 stamped in blue)(space) 5066694

 

My insides! (ewwwwww)

 

compleatly covered by r/f shield... except a big capasitor on the upper right hand side. Seems to have a 0 ohm resister positioned funny(sticking up)... (looking inot the cartslot...not opening up the r/f shield to look at the soder side of the board at this point.

 

 

 

Opened before (yes)

Why?

to see if I could tell why my 7800 plaied choptlifter (7800) without problems but the one I just got would only play for a while then glitchup, switched shell tops so that the newer top was on the better insides, cause a button fix this way (pause was not pressing well).

[mvigor]

a 0 ohm resistor

 

???

[candiru]

The funny thing about the 7800s is that you can't go 100% by the information on the shell and whether or not it has an external expansion port. Some of the late release 7800s have earlier versions of the boards inside. I have 3 7800s and outwardly they are all the last version released, but they play all the "problem" games I've tried. I don't have Kool-Aid Man or a Supercharger to test with, but so far everything has worked fine.

[FireTiger]

There's a mod a person can due to a 7800, using a 0 (zero) ohm resister which for all the electricity cares is a wire, just packaged into a resistor shpe and size. its very light tan with a single band on it, it is shown is Schell's modification page for use with the original cuttle cart. When I glanced at the board it looked like there was one of these, but I know I was the first to open it, btw mom&dad said they got it the first christmas it was out.

 

 

http://www.schells.com/7800mod.shtml <-linky to picture/mod