Please help me figure out the 5200 color circuit

[Ransom]

I recently bought Joust for the 5200. I popped it in, and..ut oh! The platforms are green! Wait..no...they're amber. Huh!

 

After some investigation (carefully viewing different games & the CPS diags cart, trying different TVs, power supplies, and motherboards), I came to the conclusion that both my motherboards have the same failure.

 

I posted about it in another thread, and Prodos8 mentioned having the same thing happen. Hmm. Maybe this normal? A quirky thing built into the 5200?

 

So -- my question for you is, when you pop the Joust cartridge in the 5200, do the platforms start out one color, and then change to another within a few minutes?

 

(If you don't have Joust, you can also test it on Gremlins by looking at the hair of your character; that too will shift, either from green to brown or from brown to red, depending on how your color pot is set.)

[GroovyBee]

I'd also like to know if it did it back in the day (when it was new) or is it a symptom of the machine's age?

[Charlie_]

I had a 2 port that was so bad, It started in black and white. As it warmed up the colors came in and it was fine.

I swapped a chip (forget the one)from a junk system and that fixed it.

 

Still, both my 4 port and 2 port noticeably warm up and the colors change as it does.

The 1st Castle in Adventure 2 is very green on a cold 5200. Its yellow green on a warmed up 5200. :-)

[Ransom]

According to Brad @ BEST Electronics, the color change during warm-up is actually normal for 5200s!

[cybercylon]

I've never noticed this, but thanks. Crap.... if it is true, now I will. It's like that slightly bright or dim spot on an LCD panel you never noticed until someone points it out. Then your eyes focus on it and it bugs you.

Edited January 20, 2010 by cybercylon

[Ransom]

LOL...sorry for ruining it for you. It's really not noticeable in most games. Especially the early ones, like Galaxian, Star Raiders, Space Invaders, etc. Joust happens to use the shifting color a lot. And Realsports Tennis is very vulnerable to the color shift as well. A few others I've noticed small areas of colors that shift. But for most games, it's not noticeable at all to me.