Found a dirt cheap Atari on Craigslist and thought I'd clean/fix it up so my kids could play the first games I did when I was 5-6years old. So far it's been a big hit! I replaced all commonly failed parts and added composite video out so it would work with modern TV's. I did bust out the CRT so they could experience it in all it's 1980's glory.
Restored an old Atari 2600
- Thread starter jayjr1105
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Well done, sir!
This brings back memories. There was a strange family that lived a few doors down from me growing up. My parents warned me to not go into their house trick or treating and we should probably skip the house all together. My father didn't give me many warnings so this stuck with me. It was a mother, father, and son. The father was a creep. Looked mean. The son was older than me and a little mentally challenged and weighed about 110 at 5'8". After the father died, my friend and I used to go over there and play his Atari. Fun times. Then we'd go in the basement and play table tennis. The guy was really good at table tennis. The whole house had a musty smell and was scary and full of junk. He had a poodle dog that was nice once it got to know you. Then he found a stray on the mean streets and brought that home. That dog was scary. It loved him and it was ready to attack anyone that looked at him sideways.
He found some Vietnamese boat people and brought them into his house. He drove around in a passenger van with like 500,000 miles on it. Told me that he replaced the radiator 6 times so far. He got a job at our school and walked around with a cane. Except I knew it wasn't just a cane. There was a big sword in it that he'd pull out of the sheath and laugh maniacally. He bought a Trans-Am for one of the boat people but the Vietnamese guy couldn't figure out how to drive a stick shift so he dropped an AT into it. I remember helping him and he had to change out the drive shaft to fit the new tranny. It was a lot of work. His van broke down and walking was his mode of transportation. Sadly, he was struck by a car and severely injured. After the hospital, he was moved to a rehab facility where he was murdered by some other indigent patient.
Oh, but the Atari was fun. Do your kids like it? Your son looks a little dubious.
He found some Vietnamese boat people and brought them into his house. He drove around in a passenger van with like 500,000 miles on it. Told me that he replaced the radiator 6 times so far. He got a job at our school and walked around with a cane. Except I knew it wasn't just a cane. There was a big sword in it that he'd pull out of the sheath and laugh maniacally. He bought a Trans-Am for one of the boat people but the Vietnamese guy couldn't figure out how to drive a stick shift so he dropped an AT into it. I remember helping him and he had to change out the drive shaft to fit the new tranny. It was a lot of work. His van broke down and walking was his mode of transportation. Sadly, he was struck by a car and severely injured. After the hospital, he was moved to a rehab facility where he was murdered by some other indigent patient.
Oh, but the Atari was fun. Do your kids like it? Your son looks a little dubious.
I've been inside several versions of the Atari 2600, and they "value engineered" them to reduce the cost with each new version.
Yep, each revision got more and more corners cut. For the most part they all work just about the same and there were no performance differences at least to the naked eye. In the late 80's they even consolidated the 3 primary chips (RIOT, TIA, CPU) to a single chip. Would love to get my hands on one of those. They are rare.
This "Vader" console is light as a feather compared to early six switchers but I like the all black look.
Video Olympics, Atari wouldn't dare call it pong after they already sold everyone a standalone pong console also this first "video game crash," was because every company under the sun tried releasing a pong consoleGood job! My sons were crazy over their 2600 back in the day. Late 70’s? They would wake us up playing “pong” early on Saturday mornings. They’re now 49 and 45 years old.
Brings back memories, we got one of the originals back in '78 or '79. Many hours of individual & family fun.
Now I have a full size arcade emulator running RetroPie, runs all the arcade classics and emulates 2600 too. I've played some of the classics like Combat & Adventure.
Now I have a full size arcade emulator running RetroPie, runs all the arcade classics and emulates 2600 too. I've played some of the classics like Combat & Adventure.
I played a different game and always took Hurricane Hank.
Frogger - nice. Broke a joystick on Starship commader or some such. Was at a buddy and he would not have me back for months.
Good times. Make sure to get in some sessions. Good soldering as well
. Broke a joystick on Starship commader or some such. Was at a buddy and he would not have me back for months.Good times. Make sure to get in some sessions. Good soldering as well
Very cool! Wife got me one of those "retro" machines that tried to mimic the Atari, we played "Combat" and a few others on it. Then her aunt was cleaning out her house and found her old, authentic Atari 2600, along with cartridges and joysticks. Haunted House, Yar's revenge, Pitfall Pac Man, oh yeah, there some good ones in there. Back in my youth, a friend had an Atari, and he had the much-maligned E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial. Not surprisingly, we found it rather lame.
My folks gave me our old Commodore 64 a couple years ago. I had to replace the power supply, and apparently the VIC II chip was having problems, but found a replacement VIC and it's working great now. Even the old, clunky 1541 floppy was still chunking away and managed to load the old games off the floppies. Even found editions of "Compute!'s Gazette" scanned in online, and keyed in some games that I had lost from years ago. Ah, memories!
My folks gave me our old Commodore 64 a couple years ago. I had to replace the power supply, and apparently the VIC II chip was having problems, but found a replacement VIC and it's working great now. Even the old, clunky 1541 floppy was still chunking away and managed to load the old games off the floppies. Even found editions of "Compute!'s Gazette" scanned in online, and keyed in some games that I had lost from years ago. Ah, memories!
Interested to hear more about these "boat people"
What made them "boat people"?
Do you have any pics/reference materials to share with us?
After the fall of Saigon in 1975, there was an exodus of Vietnamese by 1979 that didn't want to live under communist leaders and they fled by the thousands. The way it was explained to me back in 1979 was that the boat had to anchor a little ways off shore in the deeper waters and people had to swim, wade, or take a smaller boat to the larger boat/ship that would bring them to a more enlightened part of the world. You're not taking much with you when you have to travel that way.
How the End of the Vietnam War Led to a Refugee Crisis | HISTORY
The fall of Saigon in April 1975 marked the close of the war, but also the beginning of one of the largest and longest refugee crises in history.
www.history.com
Back in the day, I use to repair those units as a side job.
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1) Never Never Never pull the power connection from the unit while the wall wart is plugged into the wall or insert that connector into the unit while the wall wart is plugged into the wall. The only safe way to not damage the wall wart is to first put the connection from it into the unit while the wall wart is not plugged into the AC power. The connector is not the correct style for power. It is a cheaper connector that is normally used for audio. And it will short out for a very brief amount of time sometimes while being inserted or removed. And it can and eventually will blow out the diode in the wall wart or the transformer in it if inserted or removed with power on. It was very common for the wall wart to blow out because of this design flaw, and people inserting or removing the connection while the wall wart was plugged in.
2) The cartridge socket pins are poorly soldered into the back of the PC board. And it is very common for one of those many connections to break loose either by the solder joint going bad, or the trace on the board braking loose from the board and cracking and loosing connetion.
Insert and remove the game cartridges gently EVERY SINGLE TIME. And even that might not be enough to stop it from breaking.
3) These units were made very cheap on the inside. For a long life from it, treat it gently, and it would be a good idea to keep it in a well-ventilated place when being used so the electronics inside of it stay cool.
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I fixed many of those back in the day. There are other things on them that also go bad. Never inserting or removing the power plug of the unit while the wall wart is powered up and treating them gentle and having them in a well-ventilated place when use is about the only things you can do to increase the life of them.
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1) Never Never Never pull the power connection from the unit while the wall wart is plugged into the wall or insert that connector into the unit while the wall wart is plugged into the wall. The only safe way to not damage the wall wart is to first put the connection from it into the unit while the wall wart is not plugged into the AC power. The connector is not the correct style for power. It is a cheaper connector that is normally used for audio. And it will short out for a very brief amount of time sometimes while being inserted or removed. And it can and eventually will blow out the diode in the wall wart or the transformer in it if inserted or removed with power on. It was very common for the wall wart to blow out because of this design flaw, and people inserting or removing the connection while the wall wart was plugged in.
2) The cartridge socket pins are poorly soldered into the back of the PC board. And it is very common for one of those many connections to break loose either by the solder joint going bad, or the trace on the board braking loose from the board and cracking and loosing connetion.
Insert and remove the game cartridges gently EVERY SINGLE TIME. And even that might not be enough to stop it from breaking.
3) These units were made very cheap on the inside. For a long life from it, treat it gently, and it would be a good idea to keep it in a well-ventilated place when being used so the electronics inside of it stay cool.
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I fixed many of those back in the day. There are other things on them that also go bad. Never inserting or removing the power plug of the unit while the wall wart is powered up and treating them gentle and having them in a well-ventilated place when use is about the only things you can do to increase the life of them.
Grew up with an Atari, as well! Pitfall and Asteroids were two of my favorites. Funny how there was a Color / B&W switch. I guess it wouldn't work right if it was on 'Color' using a B&W TV? You'd think it would still come in, just as B&W by default!
If there were two adjacent objects on the screen, different colors but same luminance, they would be indistinguishable on a B&W TV. So the switch probably tells the program to use different luminance to avoid this problem.
It's been decades since I played an Atari 2600, but I used it with a B&W TV and as I recall if it was set for "color" some of the graphics didn't show up right on the B&W TV. Things that should have been different shades were the same.
Nice job! I've got these games I'd send you for the cost of shipping. Can't test them. Don't know if they work or not?
