AgentOrange96

January 11

The Atari is back in the states and worked first try! Thank you very much @Ben from Plaion!

I'll make a follow up video this weekend as I think it's important. If there are any updates on what was defective on the original board and/or any comment on process improvements, I'd be more happy to include that as well.

Mostly I hope fewer people run into this issue going forward and that when people do, they're taken seriously rather than dismissed by other customers/community members. (I haven't seen Atari or Plaion act dismissive)

I'll post an update once I have a new video upload. Again, thank you Ben and thank you to everyone else who has been supportive or constructively critical.

December 24, 2023

5 hours ago, KainXavier said:

Are you shopping somewhere other than eBay and Etsy? Most of the 7800 games I come across run ~$30 and that's for cartridge only. The only ones that tend to be cheaper are Pole Position II, One-on-One Basketball, and Xevious.

Edit: There's also Best Electronics, which is significantly cheaper, but it also depends on what games you're looking for. (That said, I love Bradley's selection of Lynx games!)

Ah, Etsy, where you can buy a Sunnyvale made four switcher for the low price of only $500...

I've found that local junk shops/flea markets sometimes have good prices. Others don't. I think many sellers act like vintage = rare.

Also, I've never bought games from Best, but based on my other purchases I could definitely see that being a good option. Bradley is quite a character, but he's friendly, extremely knowledgeable and his prices are solid.

December 24, 2023

I've seen more of a circle jerk about how perfect this system is than anything else. Mine showed up defective, my video documenting this got posted here and I got bullied for having a negative experience and documenting it. I saw others who had the same experience as me on Reddit got the same treatment and my post there even got removed for violating a rule it didn't even violate.

Meanwhile I posted my other video here that was extremely positive toward the system from a hardware perspective (couldn't test software because defective) and very in depth, and no one gave a fuck about it. When I get my system back fixed and provide a very likely extremely positive update, unfortunately I doubt anyone will care about it either.

I think people just latch on to any criticism as a personal attack. And that's what gets their attention, rather than the flood of praise. It's been kinda a creepy vibe, NGL.

Also I should note that, as someone who was involved in criticism, while I'd not been active on the forum for a long time, I was not at all new here, nor at all new to the 2600.

December 19, 2023

My two cents on the power situation here is that while I actually don't take issue with phones not shipping with charging bricks anymore, I do feel the 2600+ probably should have.

In the case of a phone, the idea is that you're probably replacing your old phone. Therefore, when you stopped using your old phone, its charger was freed up for you to allocate to your new phone. Not including one will typically reduce waste and clutter, which is good.

However, the 2600+ isn't typically replacing anything. And if it is, it's probably something with a 3.5mm phono jack for power. No power supply was freed up for you to allocate to it. Therefore, I don't think the same arguments for not including one apply.

Of course many will have extras laying around. I do. For me it's no big deal. But I do think including one would have been the better choice.

December 19, 2023

4 hours ago, Ben from Plaion said:

I will send the machine back now in the New Year.

Thank you! I look forward to it!

And for anyone wondering, this delay in shipping was a request on my part in DMs.

December 19, 2023

12 hours ago, Ben from Plaion said:

4 screws holding the machine together were not factory tight.

Yes, in my second video where I do a hardware overview I open the system up. I note that it is after I've learned the system is faulty. (I wanted to make sure it was clear that this was not related, especially per warranty laws here) As I've mentioned before, I'm very impressed with it from a hardware perspective.

12 hours ago, Ben from Plaion said:

Reflashing the machine didnt help which points toward a hardware malfunction.

I'm putting my money on a faulty RAM chip or Dumper chip

If so, it sounds like perhaps another supplier that might want to look into that. Being in the semiconductor industry relating to QA, that one hits close to home. While I do not know if/how Plaion tests each board (I hope so) or what complexities relate to that, I know semiconductors typically each get tested before shipping out. So this could point to an issue in a supplier's processes.

On this subject, the paper note that's usually taped to the inside of an original 2600 is apparently the QA results. Their process for checking each board sounds quite manual compared to what I'm used to on the CPU side of things.

Thank you very much for looking into this and fixing it. I do really appreciate it! This whole experience has been a great display of good will and dedication to quality from Ben/Plaion, and that's super cool! I do hope getting the board back helps with investigating and preventing future issues.

I'll be quite busy for the holiday season, and it'll probably be a while before I'm able to validate anything, but I will commit to providing an update here as well as on YouTube when I get the system back and get a chance to try it out for a bit. Thanks again!

December 12, 2023

2 hours ago, scifidude79 said:

Yeah, that's honestly not something I would think about. When I watch YouTube, it's channels where people try to create content that people will enjoy and/or find informative, not just creating videos trying to beat the algorithm. The channels I watch usually have subscriber counts in the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or millions because they've earned it. I do occasionally watch videos on small channels where people are actually trying to create good content, though. It depends on the content.

This was a short video I made off the cuff while working on a legitimate high-effort video about the 2600+. (Which is linked in a previous comment here)
Midway through filming the other video, I tried to use the 2600+ and it didn't work at all. I looked online and saw others with the same issue who were never taken seriously and hadn't provided any demonstration of what exactly was going on. I also found the fact that when it did finally work, it'd immediately freeze anyway mildly amusing, so I played into it and created this spur of the moment video.

I feel like a broken record saying the same thing over and over here since I've already explained this several times here.

Just now, Mockduck said:

I think the only real issue with the video is the title, which seems to state that the "2600+ is bad" when the actual content of the video shows a very singular experience rather than an indication of the product as a whole. I mean, I'm sorry your unit lost the couple percent failure rate lottery, but it happens, and that's why there's a replacement process. But that doesn't mean the 2600+ is bad.

Critiquing the title in this way I can respect. I've admitted it's clickbaity. I don't plan to change it outright, however I will likely add a note in the title and thumbnail once I feel confident this issue is resolved fully. (Not just for me, but going forward)

I will stand by that this is not a very singular experience. As I've linked to earlier, this has affected other customers. However, I am confident that this is now on the radar for the appropriate people and that my example will be used to further look into this issue and prevent it.

My other video is a very stark contrast to this one as it's mostly me being impressed with the 2600+, though obviously there is no play-testing in it given the situation. I am committed to making at least one more video about this once I have the system back and functional.

December 11, 2023

1 hour ago, Loccy said:

I think you you just have a dodgy 10-in-1 cartridge rather than a dodgy 2600+.

How does the 4-in-1 fare on the 2600+ (rather than the Vader)?

4-in-1 does not work in 2600+. I was trying to explain that I validated the 4-in-1 worked on the old 2600 but was still failing to work in the 2600+. I may not have been clear enough in my wording there.

December 11, 2023

I have an update. Last night I said I'd fix the power supply issue on my Darth Vader and check the 10-in-1 cartridge on it. Since I'd had issues getting it to fit in the posted video.

I have done so. The 3.5mm plug I used on my power supply was cheap so I just needed to splash some solder on some formerly crimped parts. I got the 10-in-1 cart into the Darth Vader and it didn't work at all. I tried the first three games and just a black screen on all of them. So this is actually a worse result than I got on the 2600+ where eventually it at least showed the start of Adventure (Very crisply I might add) before freezing. I double checked the Darth Vader worked with a Breakout cartridge, and then switched to the 4-in-1 cartridge (which happens to be set to Breakout as well). The 4-in-1 works on the Darth Vader.

I then hooked the 2600+ up and put in the 4-in-1. I wish I had good news here, but sadly I do not. It's still mostly getting stuck on the Atari splash screen before even trying to load. (~75%) It got stuck a couple times trying to load, (~15%) and then once it did load I got a black screen. (~8%) Occasionally it doesn't even make it to the Atari logo and powers on to a black screen. (~2%)

After this I tried cleaning the contacts on the system and on the cartridge with 91% IPA. No change. I really wanted to see it at least get one game going. But I guess it's not meant to be. (At least not yet) I've genuinely put in a good faith effort to try an make it work.

I've gotten in contact with Ben as he requested earlier in this thread. It seems they plan to debug and repair it. It sounds like they test units that are RMA'd if I read correctly earlier. So maybe this isn't much different than had I RMA'd it through Atari. I don't know. Had the future FW update not fixed it, I would have gone the regulsr RMA route. But I feel good knowing it will be investigated and repaired rather than discarded as waste, with investigation hopefully leading to fewer RMA's and less waste in the future.

Thanks again everyone! I'll update here as necessary.

December 11, 2023

18 minutes ago, 82-T/A said:

Once in a while, they'll throw you a bone and one of your videos will be wildly popular, even if there's no reason for it to be.

Literally a video of my old Acer booting Windows and Linux side by side is by far my top video and while I made it for fun, the reality is that's sooo boring!

19 minutes ago, 82-T/A said:

At least nothing that people would have strong opinions on where they might irrationally hate you for holding an opinion on something.

That's a good idea. I'd personally never post anything controversial or that may upset anyone. 👼

21 minutes ago, 82-T/A said:

Oddly enough, almost all of them are How-To videos, with the rest of the top 15 being specific watches that were popular (all newer watches). I also don't use deceptive thumbnails with hot girls or anything on them. Usually just a picture of the watch with a relevant background.

That's kind of cool, it seems like maybe people want to get into it themselves or have something they need/want to fix. In other words, you're probably helping people.

23 minutes ago, 82-T/A said:

such as, you see a lot of car repair shops that have a YouTube channel, or a plumber who shows you some of the worst jobs he's had to do, etc.

True! These are a lot of the best ones. These people are experts in their crafts and give insight you don't get to see often. They're often good examples of making the viewer interested too! I do watch some car repair videos, but that's an interest of mine. But I also watch HydroNYC's plumbing videos and I don't care a ton about plumbing. Or there's some truck driver who has been posting videos about his experiences recently which is fascinating.

December 11, 2023

28 minutes ago, sramirez2008 said:

My S/N is 55098 (received mine a couple of days ago) and all of the carts that I've tested so far have worked each and every time that I have loaded them. FWIW, I'm powering the unit via my TV's USB port.

55 minutes ago, AgentOrange96 said:

Yoo that's BAD! RIP Sony's bottom line back in the day.

Okay, but to respond, that should not be the standard, and I highly doubt it is. Plus as others have implied I should have done, most people keep quiet about it and just do a return. So we can't expect reports to be equal to actual fallout.

My S/N is the new highscore on AtariAge. If we assume 55k units sold (higher than mine) and only the three reported faults, that's a 0.005% fallout for this issue. (Or 50 dead per million) The real number will be higher, and there may be other issues I'm unaware of.

This doesn't seem like a high percentage at face value, but it's going to depend on quality standards. This being a consumer gaming product (something I'm admittedly used to dealing with) that standard will be more relaxed than say if it were critical infrastructure or life saving equipment where lives are on the line. Overall, I'm glad though to see quality is being taken seriously and that this does matter to the team.

Welp, my comment didn't age well. @sramirez2008 is the high score on AtariAge! Mine is 53928

I was going off another thread where someone said mine was the new highest they'd seen. But you have me beat by a lot!

December 11, 2023

1 minute ago, 82-T/A said:

I'm not trashing you... but I think it's important for people to understand the intent here since everyone was asking why you didn't just return it. We live in a new world today, and most of us are in our 40s and don't really understand the "put your life on the internet" perspective.

I have two channels that are monetized (neither of which have my face), and a third one I'm working on for my daughter. Getting to that point (at least on YouTube) is absolutely hard... I have a full time job, a family, and doing it all while getting another Masters degree. Video editing itself is not hard per se, just really, really, time consuming... and that's assuming your software works perfectly... which NERO does not. The cost rarely outweighs the benefit... so when creating a channel, you have to weigh the time / expense / benefit.

I'll give an example of one of my channels, but don't feel like advertising it so I won't post it here. I used to do watch repair as a hobby. I'd buy "lots" of broken / random watches in boxes off eBay. I'd sort out all the vintage mechanical Swiss, German, French, and US watches, and then repair them while filming it. This served two purposes... I could turn a $1 watch into a $75-$700 watch on eBay with usually not much more than 2 hours of time and $20-50 in parts. But then I had complete videos of them, mostly complete which required me only to narrate. I'd then included these videos with my eBay account so the people interested in the watches could see the restoration process and know they were getting what I said they were getting. But this also worked to piggy-back off each other... it brought views to my watches I was selling from YouTube, and views and subscribers from eBay to the videos I was creating. It took a little over a year and a few months, but I ended up with all the requirements and now I get $150 a month check from YouTube on that channel... haha... which is almost nothing. But I haven't posted a video in 9 months, and I still get it every month. So it's something. It's more frustrating than anything though during tax time because it's considered a side hustle.

Anyway, it's fine... people can do what they want, I just thought it was obvious and figured people weren't getting it.

That's fair. I'd agree it seems like most people don't seem to understand why I'd post a video rather than just quietly do an RMA.
In this case, as I mentioned before, it was a bit of a combination of things. I was already making a video. I saw others weren't taken seriously when they reported similar issues, and I found the failure mode almost comical. It finally loads the game but then immediately freezes anyway. So it seemed worth making a video about. But yeah, I think there's a generational difference in thought processes. I'm among the very youngest millennials.

Honestly props to you for getting your channels to that point! That definitely shows effort! Especially with what else you have going on. Getting $150/mo does go to show how insane it is when people can make their entire living off of YouTube. I think a lot of people aspire to that, but it's not easy. Obviously third party sponsors play a big role here.

Since I'm not making money, I'm using free software. The last program I tried completely butchered my video on export. I've just tried CapCut for desktop which worked well though for my needs. I'd prefer to use something FOSS that works well, but I haven't played around enough to know what's good. I'll probably just stick to CapCut since it works for now.

I've seen a few watch restoration channels! It's funny, because with the right presentation, you can get people interested who may otherwise not be. I wear smart watches. Before that I wore a Casio digital watch. But seeing how they're put together and worked on is just so cool! Especially when the presenter shows their passion and expertise. Maybe I've even seen your channel, who knows? (I'd definitely be interested to.)
But yeah, that's a solid system you had set up there. It also not only adds value to the watch in that the customer knows it's done right, but also in that the watch now comes with a tangible story. I wouldn't be surprised to learn your customers are sharing your videos around of their watches!

Anyway, I appreciate your insight!

December 11, 2023

1 hour ago, xeex said:

Your serial (53928) is a new high score. (Mine is 53388.)

These higher serial systems contain new I/O board revisions that differ from earlier models in a few ways. For example, the ribbon cable interconnects run out the bottom of board now instead of the top.

Early I/O boards are marked PCB01-120723.

Mine (and yours, I assume) are PCB01-090923.

Thanks for the teardown.

Aw sweet, time to put my initials down! xD
And that's interesting information, I guess some optimizations were made which is neat.

35 minutes ago, Ben from Plaion said:

Any new subsequent manufacturing have the new dates printed on them in the correct DDMMYY format, for the high US numbers these were in an additional manufacture run hence the different dates.

PCB01 is the IO board

PCB02 is the mainboard

PCB03 is left side lever PCB

PCB04 is the right side lever PCB

I recall being asked what I wanted the PCBs to be labelled as. I could of put my name on them - imagine 'BEN15C00L'. But no I just fired back to make them PCB01 to 04 and put the manufacture date on as a suffix.

Heres a couple of pictures of an early prototype PCBs I dug our the other day vs launch day PCBs

This is really cool to see! It looks like even before the ribbon cable switched sides it was originally a pin-header. It's interesting to see what remained the same and what differed, because there's a good amount of both there.

I see the original cartridge connector looks like an off-the-shelf component. Whereas the final product has what looks like a custom part which is neat!

December 11, 2023

2 hours ago, 82-T/A said:

I think everyone is missing the obvious... the point isn't about whether or not this 2600+ failed, but how many views, clicks, and conversions he could get on his video to help him get to the point where he can monetize. I looked quickly at his channel, and he has a couple of other channels he created recently... one focusing on automotive videos, etc. When you see people creating separate YouTube channels for distinct "lines" of interest... and they have everything filled out as if you're going to the channel for content, then the intent is usually because he has dreams of creating a YouTube channel with which to live the life of Justin Beiber, Lauren Z-Side, and Mr. Beast.

Not making fun... but just emphasizing that while your average person would e-mail Atari support, he's doing this.

I admit the video is click-baity. It's not even the only one that's a little click-baity. I do enjoy having people watch the videos I make as I put effort into some of them. However, if you look at the upload times, you will see none of these channels are getting "professional YouTuber" attention.
Editing videos is a pain, that's why you'll see some one-shot take videos such as the one this thread is about and others where I literally just paused recording and restarted to avoid actual editing. People think full time YouTube is easy and do dream of becoming a professional YouTuber or just disrespect them for it, but it's real work.

If it were easy, then yeah maybe I'd give my channels a bit more attention and try that life. But it's not and I've known that for years. Rather I make videos when I get an idea in my head that I want to do and I have the time/motivation to actually do it. (Which isn't often.) I do not expect to ever make a cent off of YouTube.

Multiple channels is because I have some projects I want to document eventually, and I figured it'd make more sense to have a high level split for my automotive and electronics projects (two of my big hobbies) while letting the rest continue to fall into my main.

Hopefully this makes my thoughts and intentions clear. Not that it matters a whole ton, but whatever.

December 11, 2023

1 hour ago, CapitanClassic said:

That's a strange concern. Other users have reported issues, but what percentage of 2600+ systems would you expect to be dead on arrival?

The first batch of PS2 systems had a failure rate of about 2%. With 500,000 shipping to the USA, that means approximately 10,000 broken PS2 systems shipped that first Christmas. Have you seen 200+ videos/posts of people complaining that their 2600+ was DOA?

Yoo that's BAD! RIP Sony's bottom line back in the day.

Okay, but to respond, that should not be the standard, and I highly doubt it is. Plus as others have implied I should have done, most people keep quiet about it and just do a return. So we can't expect reports to be equal to actual fallout.

My S/N is the new highscore on AtariAge. If we assume 55k units sold (higher than mine) and only the three reported faults, that's a 0.005% fallout for this issue. (Or 50 dead per million) The real number will be higher, and there may be other issues I'm unaware of.

This doesn't seem like a high percentage at face value, but it's going to depend on quality standards. This being a consumer gaming product (something I'm admittedly used to dealing with) that standard will be more relaxed than say if it were critical infrastructure or life saving equipment where lives are on the line. Overall, I'm glad though to see quality is being taken seriously and that this does matter to the team.

December 11, 2023

4 hours ago, Ben from Plaion said:

If you'd be so kind I'd like to see this machine and get the factory to look at it and provide a report back. I'll arrange pick up and courier back. Anything faulty will be replaced.

DM me to arrange if you want me to look at it.

36 minutes ago, Ben from Plaion said:

We want as close to zero failures, because its a massive hit to the bottom line when people return things. Its the biggest thing I watch post launch after sell through figures. I pull returned machines out from retailers as soon as they are reported and test them. Of course normally 90% of returns are perfectly fine and we'll either give them away or dispose of them - this absolutely kills me. "Oh Amazon were so good with my return - they just refunded me straight away", yeah that refund is debited back to the manufacturer - the manufacturer/supplier always loses out.

Anyway @AgentOrange96 be good to see your machine, diagnose whats happened. Fix it and put this whole sorry episode to bed.

Hello Ben,
That works for me. Given the posts I linked in my first comment on this thread, I wanted to make sure this got the proper attention such that the quality overall can be improved. Your ask to have the factory look at it implies a desire to learn and presumably adjust processes as needed. I appreciate that a ton!

I also appreciate the fact that you mention fixing it and replacing anything that's faulty rather than just wholesale replacement. I think we need more of that in the world.

I definitely empathize on the RMA front. I tend to work with early RMA's for products I work on, and while it's hard to fully 1000% test a CPU, often we are unable to find anything wrong with it. Other times we'll find something like thermal grease on the pins/pads and it works fine after cleaning that off. Of course some do come back faulty, and we figure out if/how our processes need to adjust.

Anyway, thank you very much for responding and being open to getting to the bottom of this. I'm excited to properly put the hardware to the test and I'm hopeful this will strengthen the product as a whole! I can get in touch via DM's for details you might need. Again, thank you!

December 11, 2023

Hello all,

I know others have already done teardowns and comparisons with other systems on YouTube, but since my other video about this system was already posted here anyway, I figured I'd post this much more positive video myself:

For some context, I was in a late batch of pre-orders, so I only just received mine yesterday. I had purposely avoided looking at any videos or discussion about the 2600+ after they got into the hands of customers as I wanted to be able to create this comparison with fresh eyes.

Since creating this video today, I've seen that others have already beaten me to the punch with their own great videos on this system. Not a surprise at all given how passionate Atari nerds are, but I'll definitely be catching up on those in the coming days! xD

Unfortunately, like a few other people's system, mine is DOA, but that didn't stop me from getting a good look at the hardware. Since I already have my main 2600 HDMI modded and loaded with a Harmony Cart, I did mostly purchase this to examine it out of pure Atari geekiness. So it's not the end of the world, but I do hope to get a resolution on that and create an update video on it at a later date.

Anyway, I'll officially release the video tomorrow, but you all can get a sneak peak! I hope you all enjoy my commentary, and thank you so much!

December 11, 2023

4 minutes ago, John Stamos Mullet said:

Maybe the offputting sarcastic tone is the reason you only have 4 subscribers on YouTube.

just a thought.

That is 100% irrelevant to anything discussed here. In reality, I know you bring this up because you are salty about me correcting you about another comment. Even more so than I am about my 2600+ not working.

For context though, it's a small channel I made as an offshoot of another small channel. I make content for both very rarely and I do it for fun. Subscriber count doesn't matter.

I understand that I made a snarky reply to someone calling me stupid behind my back which isn't particularly constructive. But overall I'm not inclined to continue this subthread with you after this reply I'm writing now. I feel doing so will just lead to a thread full of bullshit rather than any productive resolution to this issue.

December 11, 2023

3 minutes ago, John Stamos Mullet said:

He wasn’t talking about you, unless this is an E. king sock puppet burner account.

E. King posted my video. That comment was discussing the comments section on the YouTube video, which is my YouTube video. Thus they were talking about me.

I got a good laugh out of opening a thread here though to see myself getting called stupid. I thought it'd be funny to reply because it's like yo I'm here I see yah. xD

December 11, 2023

On 10/14/2022 at 6:51 AM, llabnip said:

Well... not too bad of a necro-bump!

After 2 years and more than 350 development hours, I've just released version 5.6 of StellaDS (based on the original Alek Maul 1.1 version).

It's 250% faster across the board - just about every bank switching scheme is supported with the exception of CDFJ/CFFJ+ and BUS. It also adds in SaveKey support, all the popular controller types and high-score saving. I just added the DPC+ emulation with a streamlined Thumbulator... the poor DS is absolutely maxed out with not a spare CPU cycle in sight... but it will run most DPC+ games full speed on the DSi. One notable holdout is Space Rocks which runs about 54 fps though but is still quite enjoyable.

As always, you can find the newest release here: https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/StellaDS

Many thanks to Stephen and the entire Stella team past and present for their amazing work of which this is based. I apologize for any butchering of the code during optimization ... the original DS runs at 67MHz and some sacrifices had to be made

I have not logged into here for a hot minute. Dude, thank you so much! I'mma be putting this on my DSi shortly! Crazy to come back to a whole thread here.

Finally, I'll be able to play 1 Monster Truck vs 61 Children 2600 on the DSi!
Seriously, great work!

December 11, 2023

1 hour ago, ls650 said:

Not the sharpest knife in the drawer, that one.

Aw thanks! That's so sweet! ❤️

December 11, 2023

Hello all, this is my video. Let me address some things I'm seeing here. And if anyone has the golden ticket for getting it to work, I'd be super appreciative!

First, I'd like to state that I received this unit yesterday as I was in a late batch of pre-orders it seems. I was working on another video with my initial thoughts when I ran into that problem.

The video will be officially published tomorrow, but here's a sneak preview for the AtariAge community:

You will see in the attached video, I noted the 1A power requirement on the bottom. I used a 2.4A power brick since I had one convenient. I also tried a few others to no avail. Oddly, my OnePlus charger will not power it at all. Anyway, it's not a power issue.
I did try cleaning the contacts on the cartridge and on the system itself to no avail. Those of you asking me to try a real Atari 2600, I do with a real Atari 2600 cartridge in the originally linked video at the end of it.
The 10-in-1 and 4-in-1 cartridges don't fit well in a real 2600, I believe due to the dust-shield pins not being the same. However, I've since found that you can make it work. Unfortunately, shortly after that video, I ran into an issue with my real 2600's power supply (It was already being finicky, which is why it's off screen in the video) I need to remedy tomorrow. I'll test the 10-in-1 after I get that fixed. But please keep in mind that the other cartridge that worked in the old 2600 (and is thus a known good) did not work in the 2600+.

I am very aware that rejects happen. This relates directly to my job. I am an SLT engineer at a prominent CPU company. I am responsible for test programs that we use to test every CPU we sell in real systems. While we strive for a low dead parts per million (DPPM) count, shit happens.

Here's my concern, mine is ~50K serial number, and I received mine quite late. I am not the only one with this issue, and these users reported their issues much earlier than me: (Meaning, an even lower count of units had sold by this point)

- /u/ReviewRude5413's defective Atari 2600+ on Reddit

- /u/Positive-Election-67's defective Atari 2600+ on Reddit

Given this, I suspect a relatively high DPPM on this product, indicating a quality issue. This implies that they aren't properly testing their full systems before shipping or they are severely lacking in coverage. Either way, this should be addressed.

Per why I haven't RMA'd it yet, I just got it yesterday and only opened it today. I was in the middle of making the video I linked. I've read that there is a pending firmware update, and I'd like to see if that fixes it. (Or if there's an original FW file I can flash, I'd love to try that.) We have way too much ewaste in the world, so if I can get this one working, that's better than getting a replacement and having this one scrapped if the only thing wrong with it happens to be firmware.

Also, I'd like to note that there is absolutely no support information for the Atari 2600+ on the Atari website.

Lastly, I would like to touch on my reasoning for posting this video in the first place. They are two-fold.

1. The linked posts describe the issue. People dismiss it as dirty cartridges or slots. Here is documented proof of the issue along with a clear visual on what the symptoms are.

2. In my opinion, the attitude I display here is mildly amusing. I could have made the video matter of fact, but that'd be boring. Instead I opted to share the pain in a sarcastic tone for entertainment purposes. You will note a very different demeanor about this whole thing in the video I linked.

If anyone has any ideas, I'm all ears. Otherwise I'll keep you posted. Thanks!

-AgentOrange96

July 7, 2021

I bought a heavy sixer with the description that the left controller port did not work. I figured it'd be easy. Probably a cracked solder joint on the left controller port.
When it arrived, I found that someone else had already replaced the left controller port. (And they did a nasty job, but they probably didn't have a good iron.)

Also of note, they'd bodged pin 8 to a ground connection.

All pins had continuity to the board. So it seemed like this wasn't my issue. Though I did clean up the soldering job as best I could.

I checked the resistance to the TIA. It was correct. So not that.

I swapped the TIA with that from my trusty darth vader. Both TIAs worked in the vader, neither worked in the heavy sixer. So that ruled out the TIA.

I checked the capacitors be seeing if I got a short. I saw a high resistance but not open. Ahah!

So, I replaced the caps on that side, and... still nothing. Also, the old caps checked out just fine (actually slightly better than the replacements) on my capacitor tester.

Well, what else could it be? That's the entire line validated from the controller port to the TIA. So upon googling, I finally came across this thread. Pin 7!

I checked continuity with pin 7 on the right controller port to 5V, and it was good! But pin 7 on the left controller port did not have continuity.

So, I ran a bodge wire from pin 7 on the left port over to a trace that came off pin 7 on the right port. AND IT WORKED!
This thread also explains the bodge wire on pin 8.

So thank you very much! Another heavy sixer is fully functional thanks to your troubleshooting over half a decade ago!

December 19, 2019

Over the summer, I'd hacked my DSi and among other things installed StellaDS. It hasn't been updated since 2012 and I've noticed a couple of improvements that could be made.

First, it seems like it runs slow. I tried the Mr. Caterpillar demo, which due to my NTSC VCS, I don't really get to fully experience. (Plus the video signal cuts out on occasion) However, on StellaDS it seems very slow. I don't think it's the difference between 50Hz/60Hz, but then I really can't say for sure. I'm used to running on the wrong hardware after all.

Second, and this is more a concern for me, is the ability to play DPC+ games. I've used this for both homebrews I've worked on, and am kind of disappointed to find that this version of Stella doesn't support it. (From what I understand, this requires emulation of the micro-controller in the Harmony Cart, which modern Stella does.)

I'm wondering then if anyone knows where to find source code or better yet, but much less likely, a version of StellaDS that's been updated more recently than 2012. Otherwise, I'd also be interested to hear anyone's thoughts. I'm not expecting too much, but I figured it's worth posting. Thanks!

July 27, 2017

Why not clowns or barrels?

Score by how many you jump.

Scoring by how many kids you jump is a planned feature whenever I get around to re-making the PC version. Although, I'm using the score actually to give the directions in the Atari version with a custom score font, since I didn't put in a real score system.

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Posts posted by AgentOrange96