Do you know what I loved about the old Woody? It could display a true rainbow 🌈 of colours. Ok the sprites were chunky and fat but the colours were incredible. The old Speccy was 8 colour & the C64 16 colours. Jay Miner designed a chip that could display what felt like thousands of colours. Incredible. You turned it on and your eyes were instantly blessed. I loved that machine. I play emulators but somehow it isn't the same.
Yep, the Atari 2600 has a 128 color palette and since the display was drawn on the fly, you could use programming tricks to get a little more out of the display than what the hardware was designed for.
The shields were required by American law back then. The Atari machines went above and beyond to make sure they met regulations, like the opposite of C64s where they tried to put as less shielding on as possible to just meet regulations, culminating in the infamous "cardboard covered in a bit of tinfoil" jobbies. It's also why the only shielding on a Spectrum is on the RF modulator. And man, that multicart looks like something I could manage to slap together. Have vague memories of being really young(I mean a pre-schooler here) in the '80s and having great fun on one of these before we got the C64. Combat(Tank in particular) and Defender were definite favourites.
IIRC the regulations softened a bit by the time the Commodore 64 came out? I also read it may have been Commodore told FCC they are designed to work with monitors instead of TVs.
@@richy69ify Nah, Commodore were just doing everything they could to reduce the shielding. The regulations were pretty much "must be shielded with specified metals"(likely aluminium) and Commodore just started coating cardboard in one of the specified metals and went "well, it's shielded by metal". The rules were changed not long after, so maybe they just passed it anyways.
Good to see another VCS saved. I got the "Harmony Encore" cartridge for mine just this week (A delayed Christmas present. Thanks Australia Post for adding 2 weeks to delivery time). I went with the "dangling cables" solution, mostly because I also modded mine for SVideo rather than Composite. There are some ripper games for the old beast 🙂
Atari were forced to use those metal bunkers due to very tough FCC RF leakage regulations. This put their 8-bit computers at a disadvantage when the price war started and new competitors appeared around 1982, hence the cheaper XL range appeared.
Good interesting video. I still wonder though why NOBODY remembers to use shielded cables when moving audio and video signals around, since unshielded ones will be prone to all kind of electrical interferences which will therefore result in audio/video noise.
Had a bike similar to the Chopper you showed. I mostly remember that shifter it had. Which I thought was really RADICAL!! ... er.. um... Until I accidentally ran the bike into a garage door front tire first. Which had me sliding forward... into that shifter..... yeah, it hit where you think it did.... OW.... I still remember that pain... OW... Thanx for reminding me... ;-(
Unless you work inside a powersupply or insect zapper you dont have to worry about caps being charged or not. Too low voltage to do give any shocks, and they are likely discharged fast anyway.
MC14050 A hex non inverting buffer. Not sure why they needed only 6 buffers? The Data bus is 8 bit and the address bus is 13 bits? There is a schematic floating around the internet that would probably identify what it’s connected to.
Getting Shacky with it in '23... That multicart solution is an interesting little board, but most of the modern homebrew probably won't fit. I do need to get myself an SD solution for my 2600.
@6:27 -- It's amazing to think about; but in 2023, aluminum... and even actual wood (how about solid plastic?) are more expensive resources than what would have likely been an entire room of compute power circa 1979... 🤯
Wow - any chance you can link to the purchases you made for this video please? I've got the exact same 2600 my brother and myself had as kids and I'd love to add this composite mod and make the multicart thing and surprise him.
You're quite right... Grifter beats Chopper hands down... no contest. But I'm really not so sure about changing mica caps no electrolyte in there to leak out???
I live in the US and I've had bunches of these apart and NONE of them had that design here. They are just one circuit board no aluminum block. That must be a European thing.. I had bunches back in the 80's i took apart i should say.
You're young then. That's the exact model I had in 1978, and still have sitting on the shelf by my TV, The design switched to the 4 switch model in the early 1980's. as a cost reduction.
what always puzzled me is why did they put that colour/wb button it looked the same on both tv types was just a waste of time i think Atari did it as an after thought
A great video but why replace parts that have worked well for years and will keep working for may more to come? It is like a retro community disease and only the more knowledgable people out there know different.
No. Capacitors are a wear item, and even though they may seem to be working, a 40 year old electrolytic capacitor is a ticking timebomb. Even though the ESR may be low and the capacitance checks out on a meter, unless you have a way to test it up to it's rated voltage, you have no idea if it's got breakdown. There's no problem replacing them on an otherwise working machine. The problem comes in replacing them in an attempt to shotgun problems when troubleshooting.
It's 2023, and you still have the best intro music (and I'm subscribed to just about every retro channel 😊)
Happy 2023 everyone 🎉
Why doesn't your channel have WAAAAY more subscribers? I love your content!
Thanks! I guess I’m not everyone’s cup of tea :) But I’m VERY grateful to those who do subscribe :)
@@TheRetroShack I like tea but I didn't notice this relation before,
If you like tea, no doubt you'll like this channel 😁👍
Patience young padawan. ;-)
Always share the video,s and we can get more people to subscribe .
Do you know what I loved about the old Woody? It could display a true rainbow 🌈 of colours. Ok the sprites were chunky and fat but the colours were incredible. The old Speccy was 8 colour & the C64 16 colours. Jay Miner designed a chip that could display what felt like thousands of colours. Incredible. You turned it on and your eyes were instantly blessed. I loved that machine. I play emulators but somehow it isn't the same.
Yep, the Atari 2600 has a 128 color palette and since the display was drawn on the fly, you could use programming tricks to get a little more out of the display than what the hardware was designed for.
The shields were required by American law back then. The Atari machines went above and beyond to make sure they met regulations, like the opposite of C64s where they tried to put as less shielding on as possible to just meet regulations, culminating in the infamous "cardboard covered in a bit of tinfoil" jobbies. It's also why the only shielding on a Spectrum is on the RF modulator.
And man, that multicart looks like something I could manage to slap together. Have vague memories of being really young(I mean a pre-schooler here) in the '80s and having great fun on one of these before we got the C64. Combat(Tank in particular) and Defender were definite favourites.
IIRC the regulations softened a bit by the time the Commodore 64 came out? I also read it may have been Commodore told FCC they are designed to work with monitors instead of TVs.
@@richy69ify Nah, Commodore were just doing everything they could to reduce the shielding.
The regulations were pretty much "must be shielded with specified metals"(likely aluminium) and Commodore just started coating cardboard in one of the specified metals and went "well, it's shielded by metal". The rules were changed not long after, so maybe they just passed it anyways.
I usually reflow the power supply barrel jack which often has cracked solder joints since it’s a stress point
You can get "binary coded rotary switches" that would make for a nice upgrade for that dipswitch.
The "variable resistor" (L201) that you removed is actually a variable inductor, but other than that, this was a jolly good video, thanks!
Tidy job. Always good to see an Atari getting some love.
The gripshift gears were brilliant on the Grifter. The Chopper was horrible to ride in comparison. Another great vid 👍
It's always nice to see ATARI 2600 in good shape,
The most loved gaming console ever made (at least this is what I think)
Thanks
Good to see another VCS saved. I got the "Harmony Encore" cartridge for mine just this week (A delayed Christmas present. Thanks Australia Post for adding 2 weeks to delivery time). I went with the "dangling cables" solution, mostly because I also modded mine for SVideo rather than Composite. There are some ripper games for the old beast 🙂
The correct cleaning music is of course ultrasonic.
It’s just amazing how good the video quality is with the mod.
Atari were forced to use those metal bunkers due to very tough FCC RF leakage regulations. This put their 8-bit computers at a disadvantage when the price war started and new competitors appeared around 1982, hence the cheaper XL range appeared.
Good interesting video. I still wonder though why NOBODY remembers to use shielded cables when moving audio and video signals around, since unshielded ones will be prone to all kind of electrical interferences which will therefore result in audio/video noise.
Had a bike similar to the Chopper you showed. I mostly remember that shifter it had. Which I thought was really RADICAL!! ... er.. um...
Until I accidentally ran the bike into a garage door front tire first. Which had me sliding forward... into that shifter..... yeah, it hit where you think it did....
OW.... I still remember that pain... OW...
Thanx for reminding me... ;-(
I turned 18... legal drinking age on the same day this VCS was made! 🤣NOICE!
Unless you work inside a powersupply or insect zapper you dont have to worry about caps being charged or not. Too low voltage to do give any shocks, and they are likely discharged fast anyway.
“Bob’s your auntie’s live-in lover”. That made me laugh 😅. Nice upgrade to the VCS. Did you consider doing an S-Video mod instead of the composite?
If I ever got to a point where I could collect classic consoles and mod them for video output upgrades, I'd probably be a DVI-or-bust kind of guy.
15:17 can see your case is still wet from washing. Do not rush things with vintage equipment.
I beg to differ - the Commando was the best bike of the 80s.
protip - solder the shortest height components first, like resistors.
MC14050
A hex non inverting buffer.
Not sure why they needed only 6 buffers? The Data bus is 8 bit and the address bus is 13 bits?
There is a schematic floating around the internet that would probably identify what it’s connected to.
My guy, I was rockin' a garnet red Schwin Stingray. C'mon now! :) Love this video!
Nice video! I don't think that's a variable resistor. It looks like an inductor to me.
Getting Shacky with it in '23... That multicart solution is an interesting little board, but most of the modern homebrew probably won't fit. I do need to get myself an SD solution for my 2600.
@6:27 -- It's amazing to think about; but in 2023, aluminum... and even actual wood (how about solid plastic?) are more expensive resources than what would have likely been an entire room of compute power circa 1979... 🤯
Rally Grifter was sooo heavy!
Wow - any chance you can link to the purchases you made for this video please? I've got the exact same 2600 my brother and myself had as kids and I'd love to add this composite mod and make the multicart thing and surprise him.
You're quite right... Grifter beats Chopper hands down... no contest. But I'm really not so sure about changing mica caps no electrolyte in there to leak out???
So, does that make Bob my uncle? Or just the postman? ;)
Hi can you link me to the Minipro you use, i see a new black version now, i guess that will work fine for this?
I live in the US and I've had bunches of these apart and NONE of them had that design here. They are just one circuit board no aluminum block. That must be a European thing.. I had bunches back in the 80's i took apart i should say.
You're young then. That's the exact model I had in 1978, and still have sitting on the shelf by my TV, The design switched to the 4 switch model in the early 1980's. as a cost reduction.
I had a Grifter XL - awful bike. They were so heavy I think they must have been made out of lead!
what always puzzled me is why did they put that colour/wb button it looked the same on both tv types was just a waste of time i think Atari did it as an after thought
Link for the AV board you used?
Does the Atari have s-video out?
A great video but why replace parts that have worked well for years and will keep working for may more to come? It is like a retro community disease and only the more knowledgable people out there know different.
No. Capacitors are a wear item, and even though they may seem to be working, a 40 year old electrolytic capacitor is a ticking timebomb. Even though the ESR may be low and the capacitance checks out on a meter, unless you have a way to test it up to it's rated voltage, you have no idea if it's got breakdown.
There's no problem replacing them on an otherwise working machine. The problem comes in replacing them in an attempt to shotgun problems when troubleshooting.