Interesting 2600 console

[Marco(2)]

A little while ago I won a weird 2600 clone on Ebay. As with many interesting 2600 items, it comes from Australia. I just couldn't resist when I saw the auction's pictures

 

 

 

 

Today the unit arrived and - indeed - it's a very cool console. It's defenitely a work of dedication and care. I mean, just look at that box!

 

But its looks aren't the only cool feature of this console. When I examined it more carefully, I discovered something very unusual: this console has expansion ports!

 

There is one big 2-sided 30-pin pcb, as well as two (in and out) ports for a tape recorder.

 

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to open up the unit (some weird screws in there). The manual doesn't mention either of these ports, so that isn't of any help either.

 

Anyone have any idea what this could be? My guess is this console is based on a home computer or something, and they just didn't bother to remove these ports. Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

 

My dear friend Manu (Aulis) Pärssinen found two sites that have pics and some info on this console, but nothing on the ports:

 

site #1 - it comes under another name too!

site #2 - it was sold in Poland also?!

 

Cheers,

 

Marco

 

[ 11-09-2001: Message edited by: Marco ]

[slapdash]

Ya lucky *******! I've been looking for an Amigo for a while now. It's neat!

[Genki]

Interesting.. Unusual... Maybe you can show me that strange looking screw and I'll see if it's something that I might have that I could loan to you? I have a number of screw drivers and bits that most have never heard of or ever seen.

 

Another unusual 2600 console clone, one that I've been looking to get is the blue and white console that looks like Japanese Famicom system.

[Atarinvader]

This a completly wild guess, but maybe, it could be a composite / RGB connection. Having a variety of different outputs on there so you can buy the cabels to hook it up.

[Marco(2)]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Russ Perry Jr:

Ya lucky *******! I've been looking for an Amigo for a while now. It's neat!

---

 

Hi Russ,

 

Do you know anything more about this console, or its ports?

 

Cheers,

 

Marco

[Eckhard Stolberg]

There is a German advertizement for the BitCorp Amigo as well as some homecomputers based on console systems at the 8bit-museum (chose Werbung/Übersicht/Bit Corporation). The Bit60 looks pretty much like the Amigo with a keyboard, so maybe your theory about the expansion ports being a leftover from the conversion is correct.

 

 

Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

[Marco(2)]

Wow man, this is very interesting stuff!

 

I need to find more of those Bit computers!

 

Cheers,

 

Marco

[slapdash]

Sorry Marco, no, don't know anything more about it, just that I saw pix of the Amigo somewhere and sure want it. Or the Bit60 computer.

[weaselbrains]

I was looking for previous posts about the Amigo console and I found this old thread.

 

Did anybody find out what type of computer this connects to?

 

I remember seeing an Amigo for auction a while back and I think they said it could be connected to an Apple II. I could be totally wrong about this though.

 

Marco, could you please tell me what type of power supply this console takes? I have two Amigos but I think I blew one of them up by using the wrong power supply, so I don't want to repeat that mistake.

 

mitchell

[jahfish]

i've seen those variing from 20-100$ on ebay ... a few pop up here and there on ebay.

 

this one looks like a pirate of the amigo (guessing the bitCorp model was done first).

 

nice box

[weaselbrains]

quote

this one looks like a pirate of the amigo (guessing the bitCorp model was done first).

 

I wouldn't be surprised if there's a more direct link between BitCorp and Computec.

 

This console looks identical to the BitCorp Amigo except for the badge on the top that says computec and the label above the ports on the back.

 

Also the font that 'computec' is written is the same as the font used for 'bit corporation' on the sticker on the bottom of my Amigo.

 

I think it would be pretty coincidental that Marco's console would just happen to come with a game made by BitCorp.

 

My guess is that BitCorp changed its name to Computec. Maybe they used the computec brand name for hardware and continued making software under the BitCorp brand name.

 

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

 

Also, does anyone know anything about other computec products? I know I have seen computec joysticks before.

 

mitchell

[sdstuff64]

wow i'll have to keep my eyes open for one of those

[Cropsy]

Computec products were extremely common when I was growing up in country Victoria. My local KMart had lots of different Computec products. I have a feeling that Computec may have been KMart's own brand for various techy equipment.

 

They were always priced at the lower end of the price spectrum. I remember seeing floppy disks (5.25 and 3.5), disk boxes, joysticks, alarm clocks and phones among other things.

 

I think they were basically rebadged other peoples products. By the large quantity of items they made I doubt they had any relationship with Bit other than rebadging one of their products.

[jahfish]

probably the same than with the UNIMEX and the SPECTRAVIDEO compumate.

 

here it was just a sticker on top of spectravision's logo, while their logo was still showing on the cart and underneath the keyboard ....