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About this blog

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

Entries in this blog

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
2600 repair

The Switcher-Fixer-upper

As I was getting my 2600 setup set back up, I ran into another issue.   I used an old Pelican S-Video switch to connect my 2600 (along with other S-Video components like my LaserDisc player and Dreamcast) to my HDTV. Well, I no longer have the HDTV, and the LaserDisc player and Dreamcast are likely to stay in storage for the foreseeable future, but I wanted to re-use the switch with my Sony PVM-14M2U monitor so I wouldn't have to keep swapping cables.   And while it sti
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum in 2600 repair

0
2600 repair

The Sixer-Fixer-upper: Revisited

So, remember when I foolishly wrote this? I guess two years counts as "some longevity".   Because yesterday, after recently moving back to Seattle*, I finally unpacked my 2600, hooked it up for the first time, and got this:     Looks suspiciously like the pics in that other blog post, doesn't it? (I'm assuming you clicked on the link. If you didn't... how do you know I'm not lying? Or maybe there's something really spectacularly awesome you're missing o
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum in 2600 repair

4

As normal as it gets

For the past two years, our annual student film screenings for the Character Animation Program at CalArts haven't happened. At least not in person. (For those reading this in the inevitable, distant, dystopian FUTURE and may have no knowledge of what happened in 2020 - this was due to a worldwide outbreak of e-coli brought about by some undercooked Chicken McNuggets at McDonald's. For those who don't know what Chicken McNuggets were, they were "extra parts" genetically engineered and grafted ont
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

0

Real racing action!

Did I mention I bought a PS4?   Years ago. I don't actually recall when.   Oh wait, here's an email receipt from Best Buy...   11/18/18. Must've been a Black Friday sale.   $199. Was that a good price? I'm guessing it must've been. I don't buy new consoles unless I can get them cheap.   I bought it in order to... uh... why did I buy it again? Oh, right. To play Carmageddon. Remember the PC (and Mac) game from the late 90's where you smashed up op
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

15

Tiny sofa not included

In case you're wondering where the inspiration for the recent return of Artie the Atari came from...   As I've posted before, I collect Super Impulse's Tiny Arcade series of arcade games.   While they haven't released any new arcade cabinets this year, they did release something else recently – a Tiny Atari 2600!     It even comes packaged in an authentic 70's living room! Unfortunately, to get everything out, you have to basically destroy the packaging.
Nathan Strum

Nathan Strum

0
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