Eets Alive! 2600 composite success.

[AtariKari]

Hi -

 

After taking a forced hiatus from working on the project, last night I tried running my 2600 Junior (Atari Age composite video modded) through a VCR to see if it boosted the video signal, as had been suggested earlier. Success! The picture is wonderful, and tonight I'll tweak the color pot to get it perfect. I highly recommed this mod to anyone with a system, period.

 

If anyone would like some very rudimentary guidance on newbie soldering for this project, I'd be happy to help. Actually, I may try Heckerdorn's hack just to see what it does to the signal. That will have to wait till the weekend, tho.

 

My next stab may be to extend the joystick ports to the front of the machine and glue them there. I'm assuming this is simply a matter of getting a pair of 9-pin cords from Radio Shack, but am open to any more elaborate projects.

 

My remote 2600 controllers should be here tommorrow, putting the final icing on the cake, so to speak. Life is good. Thanks for the help, all!

 

Mike

[+johnnywc]

I did Ben's composite mod to my atari 4 switch and the picture and sound are both excellent, although there are a few issues:

 

1) there seems to be a ghosting effect on some images; a white outline appears on many objects that are being displayed. not sure why...

2) when playing on my big screen tv, every minute or so it will display "Input 3" on the upper right hand corner as if it doesn't detect a video signal. very annoying.

 

I assume that 2 (and possibly 1) could be fixed by amplifying the video signal. My question is: do you have to do this through a VCR? Does anyone know of an actual circuit or video booster that can be purchased from Radio Shack? I would like to have the booster permanently in the Atari if possible. Any ideas?

 

Thanks,

[AtariKari]

You could try this:

 

Atari Age video boost

 

Please let me know if this works. I'd like to take a stab at it just because...

[liveinabin]

Sorry to be the token foreigner, but does anyone know a good way to comp mod a PAL system?

By the way, well done on completing your mod, you're a braver man than I

God bless you and all who sail in you!

[AtariKari]

Thanks, man! It's not really that difficult...aw, shucks...really. The first time I did it, I used a bit of wire from a nearby basket, and my old record player cables. 20 min, assuming I knew how to solder as consistently as I do now.

 

Dunno about the PAL mod. It would _seem_ to me that the composite mod just redirects what is already coming out of the system. As such, it'd work on a PAL system, provided you could locate the chroma/luma locations...But, I really have NO idea and all this is speculation in the hopes someone else gets it to work. It is truly worth the effort!

[yellowdragon]

I tried doing this once on a 4 switch Atari and while everything seemed to work ok, some games like Super Breakout had invisible side barriers. All I could see was the wall and the paddle and the ball. Of course all I did was route the wires from the proper spots so maybe the other methods work better. Will have to try this again.

 

Yellowdragon