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About this blog

Mostly Atari-related projects, and other ramblings. Home of the Artie the Atari comic strip.

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7800 repair

The 7800 Mod Mess Mixup Fixup - pt. 7

A friend and I decided to check out a place the other night that reportedly had classic arcade games: Let's Play Cafe in Monroe, WA. Admission was $20 and everything was set to free-play. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of actual classic arcade games they had there - most of which actually worked!   I played: Joust, Defender, Robotron: 2084 (all three part of a Williams multi-game cabinet), Qix (which had a slightly wonky joystick), Gorf (very reassuring to see that we nailed
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum in 7800 repair

17
7800 repair

The 7800 Mod Mess Mixup Fixup - pt. 6

Get comfy! These next two entries are going to be a bit on the long side.   There's some saying in some profession or something somewhere where they say something like, "the first rule of whatever is to do no harm". Or something.   This poor 7800 has been through enough grief without incurring any more damage. But as they say, "You can't break any eggs without making an omelette". Or something.   As I was cleaning up the case of the 7800, I decided to try to polish
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum in 7800 repair

4
7800 repair

The 7800 Mod Mess Mixup Fixup - pt. 5

Well, this blog entry just about ended very differently.   But it's all-good now.   So close to the finish line... just a couple more things to do after this. But first, here's where we're at now.   When we last left this poor, abused 7800, I was about to install a UAV mod, using one of -^CrossBow^-'s 7800 UAV Mount Boards.    First - I need to install the wires (or a header, but in this case, wires). I soldered the first one, then held each successive wire in place
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum in 7800 repair

6
7800 repair

The 7800 Mod Mess Mixup Fixup - pt. 4

So... the 7800 isn't back to "working" yet, although I have made some progress. In the sense that "I've spent more money on it" and "I took it more apart".   Let's look at the pretty pictures! Here are some fresh parts from Mouser: I may not use the RCA jacks... I'm more inclined to use the short "pigtail" type cables I used on my own 2600 as well as John's. You just plug them into your monitor's (or AV system's) cables using barrel connectors, saving wear-and-tear on 40-year
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum in 7800 repair

4
7800 repair

The 7800 Mod Mess Mixup Fixup - pt. 3

When we last left the 7800 Mod Mess Mixup Fixup™, alex_79 helpfully suggested: We'll get back to the transistors in a minute. Meanwhile, I decided to rip out the HDMI "mod" as a first step, because: 1) It's horrible, and 2) I did find a short between ground and the composite video output that I traced back to that mess. I didn't take pics of the process, suffice to say it involved cutting wires, desoldering and re-soldering, chewing through a glued-down HDMI connector with side-cutters, a
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum in 7800 repair

3
7800 repair

The 7800 Mod Mess Mixup Fixup - pt. 2

So when we last left "John's" 7800 , I still needed to test the audio, and look into the joystick problem.   To hear audio on my Sony monitor, I have to munge any stereo signals together into mono (each input has only a single audio connector). Since this 7800 has a stereo mod (or two audio outputs anyway), I needed such an adapter. My other two inputs on the monitor already have adapter cables plugged into them that I made, but now I'm using the third input, and I want to minimize ca
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum in 7800 repair

2
7800 repair

The 7800 Mod Mess Mixup Fixup - pt. 1

The 7800 really needs a nickname. The 2600 has several: Heavy Sixer, Vader, Jr., etc.   The 5200 is... uh... the Boat Anchor? Well, we'll go with that for now. But the 7800? As far as I know, it never got a nickname.   So I'm going to bestow one upon it: The Wedge.   It's cool. It's hip. It's trendy. And I'm sure that nothing ever nicknamed The Wedge ever had any bad connotations whatsoever.     Anyway, it's time to 7800-up my blog with my next fixit proje
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum in 7800 repair

2
7800 repair

Doin' the Hacky POKEY

Some time ago, I was planning to order a Concerto cart for my 7800.   I didn't have a POKEY to install in it, but figured I'd either order one from Best, or wait until the HOKEY was available to order the Concerto.   Around that same time, James mangled the daylights out of a POKEY, trying to remove it from a poor, unsuspecting Ballblazer cart. I offered to attempt to fix it, if he wanted to send it to me. So he did, presuming it to be DOA anyway (he subsequently bought a rep
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum in 7800 repair

4
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