Plug N' Play TV Games modding?

[Zambaku]

A while ago I saw one of those Plug N' Play TV Games in the shape of an Atari 2600 controller with a few games built into it and actually thought it was a really neat idea, and began to wonder if it would be possible to get a flash drive on it or something and put some atari 2600 roms there. Has anyone ever done anything like this?

[raindog]

If I'm not mistaken, all of the ones that actually look like Atari 2600 joysticks are really NES-clone-on-a-chip devices to which the games have been ported (though I haven't managed to come by any of the ROMs and have never taken mine apart to look into dumping it.) I think the only one with a 2600-on-a-chip setup is the Flashback 2, which has been modded but isn't all built into the joystick.

[TwinChargers]

Its already been done more or less for the Genesis-

 

Plug-N-Play with SD slot

 

If it can be done for the Genesis, I'm sure it could be done for any console. I'm sure that there are tons of legal loop-holes with something like this, which is possibly why it isn't as widely accepted, but it is possible.

[raindog]

The difference is, there have been Chinese NES-on-a-chip and Genesis-on-a-chip devices for over a decade, cheap and readily available for inclusion in DVD players, knockoff game consoles and the like. There are also any number of emulators for low-end RISC chips of the sort used in iPod knockoffs, some plug-n-play devices, etc., which are delivered in firmware and can't be distinguished from the slightly-off systems on a chip without taking them apart.

 

On the other hand, the only commercially available 2600-on-a-chip that I know of is the Flashback 2, and I'm gonna guess Curt and company are not offering their design to every electronics manufacturer in the world.

[onmode-ky]

While it is true that the plug-n-play Atari joystick TV Game systems from Jakks Pacific are not binary-compatible with the 2600 (and thus incapable of running any ROMs you might try), I don't believe they are NES-on-a-chip systems, either. I've been trying to research this for a while, with no definite results, but best guess is that they are running on early Winbond or Sunplus processors, possibly 65816-compatible ones, judging from two old forum postings which, unfortunately, did not cite sources or provide any further detail. One claimed Winbond, while the other claimed 65816-compatible Sunplus (I also note that the only Winbond processors I know of that are designed for plug-n-play game uses are also 65816-compatible). I tried to locate any of the developers who worked on the Atari joystick TV Game, but DC Studios closed a few years ago. There is a Facebook group called "Survivors of DC Studios," seemingly filled with people quite upset at what was done to them by upper management, but when I looked, the group did not seem to be active. Besides, I have no Facebook account. If anyone out there who does wants to try to see if any members of that group remember what hardware was used in the Activision and Atari TV Games, please do, and then please report your findings to us.

 

If you're curious about what CPUs are in plug-n-play games, I keep a list of everything I know in the first post of the Comprehensive Plug-and-Play Listing topic. Depending on your aesthetic sensibilities, the same information may be easier to read at my plug-n-play information site; just watch out for the ads.

 

onmode-ky

[raindog]

Wow, 65816-compatible, huh? Surprised there are no SNES plug-n-play devices, at that rate.

[Retro Rogue]

On the other hand, the only commercially available 2600-on-a-chip that I know of is the Flashback 2, and I'm gonna guess Curt and company are not offering their design to every electronics manufacturer in the world.

 

That's not to say we wouldn't work with an electronics manufacturer for including the chip in their device. We were doing that with a portable DVD player at one point the year before last. If anybody contacts us wanting to use it, we'll certainly work with them.

[Chuck D. Head]

 

 

If you're curious about what CPUs are in plug-n-play games, I keep a list of everything I know in the first post of the Comprehensive Plug-and-Play Listing topic. Depending on your aesthetic sensibilities, the same information may be easier to read at my plug-n-play information site; just watch out for the ads.

 

onmode-ky

 

Thanks for the links; there is a metric crap-ton of info there. Even if it is a little hard to view, it will help me a lot with my plug and play collecting. Morgan

[nathanallan]

A neat *new* idea would to have a PCI embeddable plug'n'play game for a PC. Imagine: Install this card, it has two joystick ports on the back of it, feeds into the video of the computer and you play your game of choice on the PC, right there.

 

Brings me back to the Sega Tera Drive. I still want one and would trade two CD-i's for it.

[raindog]

A neat *new* idea would to have a PCI embeddable plug'n'play game for a PC. Imagine: Install this card, it has two joystick ports on the back of it, feeds into the video of the computer and you play your game of choice on the PC, right there.

 

They were selling Frogger USB drives a few years ago that contained an emulated Frogger for Windows. I think that's how "plug'n'play" retro games are going to be done from now on, if they're done at all. Notebooks are a lot more popular than anything with a full-size PCI slot now.

 

But I made a CD once with MAME, Stella and some other emulators and an auto-running, no-install Windows front end, and if you put it in a PC at boot, it would boot a minimal Linux distro with the same games. It ought to be possible to do the same thing with a USB keychain drive now. I mean, yeah, you could put one of these systems on a chip on a USB2 device with breakout dongles for the joysticks and feed the video and audio over USB2, but at that point it seems to me the emulator would be just as good for any system but the ones with funky controllers (Intellivision, for example).

[awace]

A neat *new* idea would to have a PCI embeddable plug'n'play game for a PC. Imagine: Install this card, it has two joystick ports on the back of it, feeds into the video of the computer and you play your game of choice on the PC, right there.

 

They were selling Frogger USB drives a few years ago that contained an emulated Frogger for Windows. I think that's how "plug'n'play" retro games are going to be done from now on, if they're done at all. Notebooks are a lot more popular than anything with a full-size PCI slot now.

 

But I made a CD once with MAME, Stella and some other emulators and an auto-running, no-install Windows front end, and if you put it in a PC at boot, it would boot a minimal Linux distro with the same games. It ought to be possible to do the same thing with a USB keychain drive now. I mean, yeah, you could put one of these systems on a chip on a USB2 device with breakout dongles for the joysticks and feed the video and audio over USB2, but at that point it seems to me the emulator would be just as good for any system but the ones with funky controllers (Intellivision, for example).

I did that w a amd k6II 350Mhz and a vga to tv scan box I used 1152x864 on the vga to composite out external TVVIEW box witch was cool then i loaded from a compact flash to IDE pcb and loaded freedos and a pci soundblaster dos driver!!! took 2 week to find driver on internet and a nother 3 week to get driver to work in dos!! lame anyway it worked then i finnaly got mame dos v0.67 to load

C:\mame\mame.exe c:\mame\mspacman mspacman -skip_disclaimer -skip_gameinfo -soundcard 1 -noscanlines -double -cheat

and after a LONG long long time cause I was using wrong motherboard It finally loaded mame mspacman fullscreen w no scanlines and cheats loaded I finnaly ripped it out and put it back to space invaders I had a tv in side my sitdown space invaders cabinet in witch I could load that cpact flash to ide drive into mspacman or just load windows of a normal drive and had it hooked to internet using a network cable then I decided to rip it apart but before i did that I hooked a paddle plug play to it and it was cool I had to use rf modulator cause this tv had ch3 only and if no video or audio in and i could not find a way to get it into the tv no cga or video in I only got ch3 to work but that was ok since I got no interferance on ch3 anyway this was before the loss of analog tv signals and since we had ch2 and ch4 to worry about I was happy it did work ok ALSO I modded the single plug play paddle atari paddle to accept REAL ATARI PADDLES I ripped the fire button off then on pcb board on Atari plug play paddle there is a ntsc jumper and a two player jumper and there is a plaCE TO solder real paddles onto existing paddle and add a extra paddle for player two and even though the menu is for 1 player and lies you can actually if you change jumper from one player to 2 player (BLACK 0 ohm reistor jumper) move from 1p to 2pl then add real paddles and modify real paddles to switch direction and wire differnt but almost then same the wiper is reversed so you have to reverse side they solder to other lug on opposite side then it is same as atari games then you can play two player game simultaioinsly but remember if you use old paddles make shure they are tough and not brittle cauase i showed off the two player paddle to my brother when i got done modding it and he pushed hard on the paddle and the fire button broke and the bottom came off luckally

I had a lot of spare paddle parts around and fixed it I snipped the original 1 player built in paddle knob on the plug play box so there was a notch in the paddle wheel plastic knob so you could not move it any more cause it was unhooked anyway! then i took it apart and noticed it was only a 500K ohm paddle pot anyway witch pissed me off since Atari paddles are 1meg ohm to give full range and more senitivity 500K is only half and would run short faster than 1meg ohm witch would give more play and be easyer to use anyway, then I tried it out and it worked .. ALSO HOW COME NINTENDO DONT SUE jakks cause of the nes on chip for all atari plug play witch flashback uses for its menu selection I wonder if nintendo dont care aslong as a REAL nintendo game is not used but you would think the nes it self would be © unless it was licenced In witch either way I dont care but am curiouss weather NES nintendo knows about nes on chip in plug play devices or are they letting it slide only to crush atari flashback II version II after it comes out just to rub it in cause nintendo sucks like that anyway I hope that does NOT happen and am hoping someone at BASIC FUN would make a joystick or paddle with REAL pokey chip and all 3 Atari 2600 chips on it NO NO NO NO NO NO 7800 chips if you want a 7800 play emulation there was not many carts and the joysticks sucked all 7800 sucked and sucks I hated 7800 it was a JACK TRAMIAL crock to make atari come out w to many devices to run them into the ground ,, .. IF we are going to get a real system worth buying lets get a flashback that has a SD or compact flash slot in it that way we can pick SD menu w joystick then get a menu and pick any rom they would not be in .zip format and would have to be in .bin format but still would not beable to play PITFALL II unless they HAD Activision licence in witch it would be in the main menu as pitfall II w 2nd 800 level like the caverns of mars game is a combination of 800/2600 and has better graphics cause of the nes on chip thing then you could have flashback II ver II with memstick hole and cart mod still on pcb but you would not need cart MOD but if wanted you could do a mod but the switch would be easyer and you would need two single pole single throw one on one off or on off other on to select built in games and could still scratch a old color/bw switch off foil pattern on original 2600 pcb and use it for selecting built in and cart mode on flashback II ver 1 rev? anyway then could use mem stick to run roms or youre own homebrew w out having to make homebrew carts ruineing pacman or other original atari carts and you could instead load them off mem stick and use a old 2600 case witch has fried 2600 and you could take chips and every thing exept for 7805 or 740t 5v v regulator cap and dioeds and then scratch b/w switch foil all off then same with the ch3/ch4 or ch2 or ch3 switch depending on witch rf mod it had then you could since the flashback II has composite video out anyway you could just use ch3 switch for b/w switch and the b/w switch for built in / cart mode since its a single throw double pole switch w two in one switches in one switch even though atari only used both switches as 1 jumper to gnd to turn on color or off but if you scratch foil off completely and use jumpers in a opposite kiddy corner pattern the top of one side and the exact opposite on the other side of the switch the bottom would be gnded then the other when one is on the other is off meaning when up posistion the top left side is shorted to gnd and the right bottom side is unshorted to ground .. as whell as when its down the top left side is unhooked from ground and the bottom right side is shorted to ground then all you have to do is pick spot on flashback II and swap if wrong its like having two switches or jumpers where one is on when the other is off..

changing from A10 on built in memmory and a10 pin 6 on external cartridge .. so please NOTE power to REAL Atari cartridge is always on when power pack is hooked unless when you turn off it does not run power to flashback II like mine does althouhg the voltage regulator is always powered up when plugged in to a REAL 2600 mother board cause it was belived that All power packs would blow up w out load and they would burn a winding out if no load was hooked to transfomer but thats only for CENTER TAP transformers made for zenith tv descramblers that had that problem cause they hummed and had a resonant frequency that would with out a load on the centertap would burn them selfs out either blowing a fuse or a winding not a fire hazard but would blow transformer up if not loaded ATARI POWER PACKS DONT HAVE THAT PROBLEM!!! at least I havent had that problem but it is for this reason I think the original 2600 had power going to the dioeds and capacitor and the voltage regulator all the time when plugged in and the power switch took the regulated 5v output after the cap and the dioed and switched the 5v on and off but did not cut power going into the voltage regulator thats why my dad always SAID 1st turn the Atari OFF then do not unplug power pack transformer from the ATARI but unplug it from the wall!!!!!!!!!!! then if you want to kill left over power in atari this is not nessisary unless you plan to work on pcb unplug power pack from jack on atari then turn atari on to see 1 second of power kill off from capacitor then you can clip a ground clip on the ground plane and then work on pcb then scratch all wires foil connections going to cart slot on said 2600 witch is dead and youre going to do flashback II mod cart mod to and scratch all cart slot foil patterns off you will have to unsolder cart slot connector from pcb to scratch top side be carefull not to ruin hole threw as this holds flashback II wires to cart slot connections and scratch away from actuall hole threw but make shure all connections to cart slot go no ware exept to them selfs then you can wire a 40 pin ide cable to the atari cart slot connections on old 2600 pcb if there is extra wire pull it off ribbon cable and keep for joystick wires then scratch p1 p2 joystick connections form foil the same way you might have to unsolder these too to get to all connections you have to unhook and scratch off pcb foil to allow connection to flashback II joystick inputs I found it easyer to just leave the flashback II joystick ports soldered on the original flashback pcb on and just add wires to old 2600 pcb then scratch a/b switches for p1 p2 off original 2600 old pcb and take one side according to witch one needed to gnd apororaite side to gnd when on a or b i cant remember but you will figure this out then hook to a b p2 p1 wires gnd anywhere!! then hook ch3 ch4 switch to b/w jumper where b/w switch hooked on original flashback console case was to ch3 switch on 2600 old pcb switch a 4 switch works better for this mod since the ch3 switch is on same plane as a/b switches and is not underneeth inside case where its hard to get to .. then take youre crappyiest 2600 case and use this or if youre into looks use the best one of youre 4 switchers remember the bottom piece would not make mutch difference in this because noone looks at the bottom piece they look at the top and the wood grain but if you are into really cool looking case mods then use youre best 2600 case then run video/audio wires out back threw rf hold witch can be snipped a little bigger to allow a rca to fit threw or you can unsolder but why then secure in rf wire pinch spots if possible and tie wrap to something that wont break then make shure you STEAL the RF modulator for repair of other 2600 since the flashback II wont use or need rf modulator and has composite out already you can remove RF mod WITCH is not same as a zenith cable box rf modulator witch takes composite video and sound and makes ch3 but the ATARI RF mod took chroma lumina or luma and sound and color composite all at the same time and made ch3 out of it not the same as zenith normal rf modulator so keep the original 2600 modulator for repair of any 2600's you might pick up on eb_Y or other auction site or gsale or any cool place that still has atari then take a semi big sandwitch zip lock type bag and once all works seal leaving wires for joy port cart slot and video/power and all other to come out of bag then put flashback II into bag so it wont short out on original 2600 pcb parts and put it on parts side of 2600 behind cart slot twords you when cart hole slot is at top put flashback under this benieth console but remove the rf cage since the flashback II has composite video it doesnt need rf cage for ch2 ch3 ch4 cause its COMPOSITE not RF! then it will fit perfectly inside a old 2600 that has bad chips or someting major blown then you can reuse pcb and switches for flashback and the b/w color switch is cool cause its two switches in one and at top of one wilst bottom of other side of same switch is other switch you can select built in memmory and cartridge with the b/w switch and use the channel selector switch on 4 switch machine to change b/w color mode on flashback II I have done this and it worked great and I think its better that I used a old 2600 cause A flashback II case would have probably overheated and would not have the correct power requirements to run the cartridge memmory and probably blow its power pack up fast since its only 300ma or something whimpy like that where the 2600 original one is like 500ma a 1/2 amp and has plenty of power exact amprage needed to run 2600 cart since thats what atari used and since it was 1978 you know its enough power! I also found in a keychain asteroids version there is a test jumper spot and pal/ntsc jumper but no other jumpers although I did once take a gemstick and wire it to a keychain and had it so the keychain witch stick broke on had real joystick hooked to it and it worked great and was easyer to use too! .. anyway enough ranting im tired and have stayed up past my bed time and am tired grammer sucks and no punctioation . but hey there is really no way to mod a plug play exept the flashback II since the flashback II was designed to be hacked then other ones are just epoxy blobs over the builtinto the motherboard chip witch makes it impossible to get to the rom and they probably dont want you to get to the rom but the game key probably would allow some kind of hacking cause the game key is a rom chip cart. so you would think a rom game key would load into a flashback II as nes on chip but no cause the nes on chip menu on flashback II is to select memmory lines on a10 on built in memmory address ranges not to run game cause game is built in and its then menu but a game key pcb might be hacked to run hacked game key or mabie a atari but since youcant get into the pcb chip on the board witch is covered w black epoxy blob keeping you from getting to wires I would give up on modding flashback devices to adding battery eliminator wires to a 5v power pack and running long wires to power and video/sound otherwise there seems to be no hack avalible untill someone figures out how to remove epoxy blob and access chip to dump it it would be easyer to hack a nes on chip super joy III joystick to run a atari flashback II on a custom cart w custom operating system and have custom multi in one cart w flashback II games on it as whell as a nother one that would load youre games but it would say adventure but load a nother 4k game in same address or just make a new menu w youre games and have that menu on same multi chip like multi cdrom/music cdrom data track0 is not audio and roms are after the nes on chip game selection menu rom so in a sence the flashback II is a nes on chip that selects a emulation menu witch is its own game then once you select game it loads game into nother rom space and then runs a emulation file on nes but uses special stella like sound but its not exactly same sound as pokey chip so if they do a flashback II ver II or flashback III w sd slot they should remove the crappy nes on chip crock and make a game system that just has all three atari2600 chips minitureized including all resistors and composite mod and stereo with jumper for mono then you have a harminy like chip for built in roms then youre roms go on sd stick or cart slot witch just has wires to cart slot and ONE jumper on or off for built in or cart or sd slot is part of built in menu you select rom from built in Sd memmory or youre sd stick and led would say reading red then when done turn green to let you know its done reading sd card.. then you could load sd card into nvram and remove and turn off and roms would stay then flashback III could have cart slot too but you only select one jumper on or off to pick carts or built in memmory but would have to turn off and back on to switch between built in sd or built in rom or sd ram and then would have to power off to select cart slot and if cart slot picked it would light up yellow led then when cart in green led light then you could use cart slot and power off then on and it would switch modes to use external cart making any cart interferance you could see when playing built in games would turn off power to cart slot so it would not cause interferance to games then if you switch to cart slot mode yellow light would light and you switch switch to on then yellow led would switch from yellow to orange then when you power off and back on w external cart switch on that led would be orange for a second then turn green showing rom load not power and this way you could have sd rom in nvram and cart loaded into ram and once loaded you could remove cart and run all roms on and in ram nvram w out sd cart or cart..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I nother words it would sound like a pain in the Butt to mod a plug play device..

[nathanallan]

dude, paragraphs please. I couldn't follow that whole thought, but the first six or so lines sounded really interesting.

[keilbaca]

I opened the 2 player Atari paddle controller plug n play to hope to see if I could add a 3rd and 4th paddle controller... but I was unable to

 

I always wanted to turn the latest Namco stick that has 12 games in it into a mini arcade, and the joystick will be changeable from 4 way to 8 way for the appropriate games.

[awace]

Sorry about the long rant I was up all night that night and didnt filter my thoughts BOY I CAN RANT

[OldAtarian]

A neat *new* idea would to have a PCI embeddable plug'n'play game for a PC. Imagine: Install this card, it has two joystick ports on the back of it, feeds into the video of the computer and you play your game of choice on the PC, right there.

 

They were selling Frogger USB drives a few years ago that contained an emulated Frogger for Windows. I think that's how "plug'n'play" retro games are going to be done from now on, if they're done at all. Notebooks are a lot more popular than anything with a full-size PCI slot now.

 

But I made a CD once with MAME, Stella and some other emulators and an auto-running, no-install Windows front end, and if you put it in a PC at boot, it would boot a minimal Linux distro with the same games. It ought to be possible to do the same thing with a USB keychain drive now. I mean, yeah, you could put one of these systems on a chip on a USB2 device with breakout dongles for the joysticks and feed the video and audio over USB2, but at that point it seems to me the emulator would be just as good for any system but the ones with funky controllers (Intellivision, for example).

I did that w a amd k6II 350Mhz and a vga to tv scan box I used 1152x864 on the vga to composite out external TVVIEW box witch was cool then i loaded from a compact flash to IDE pcb and loaded freedos and a pci soundblaster dos driver!!! took 2 week to find driver on internet and a nother 3 week to get driver to work in dos!! lame anyway it worked then i finnaly got mame dos v0.67 to load

C:\mame\mame.exe c:\mame\mspacman mspacman -skip_disclaimer -skip_gameinfo -soundcard 1 -noscanlines -double -cheat

and after a LONG long long time cause I was using wrong motherboard It finally loaded mame mspacman fullscreen w no scanlines and cheats loaded I finnaly ripped it out and put it back to space invaders I had a tv in side my sitdown space invaders cabinet in witch I could load that cpact flash to ide drive into mspacman or just load windows of a normal drive and had it hooked to internet using a network cable then I decided to rip it apart but before i did that I hooked a paddle plug play to it and it was cool I had to use rf modulator cause this tv had ch3 only and if no video or audio in and i could not find a way to get it into the tv no cga or video in I only got ch3 to work but that was ok since I got no interferance on ch3 anyway this was before the loss of analog tv signals and since we had ch2 and ch4 to worry about I was happy it did work ok ALSO I modded the single plug play paddle atari paddle to accept REAL ATARI PADDLES I ripped the fire button off then on pcb board on Atari plug play paddle there is a ntsc jumper and a two player jumper and there is a plaCE TO solder real paddles onto existing paddle and add a extra paddle for player two and even though the menu is for 1 player and lies you can actually if you change jumper from one player to 2 player (BLACK 0 ohm reistor jumper) move from 1p to 2pl then add real paddles and modify real paddles to switch direction and wire differnt but almost then same the wiper is reversed so you have to reverse side they solder to other lug on opposite side then it is same as atari games then you can play two player game simultaioinsly but remember if you use old paddles make shure they are tough and not brittle cauase i showed off the two player paddle to my brother when i got done modding it and he pushed hard on the paddle and the fire button broke and the bottom came off luckally

I had a lot of spare paddle parts around and fixed it I snipped the original 1 player built in paddle knob on the plug play box so there was a notch in the paddle wheel plastic knob so you could not move it any more cause it was unhooked anyway! then i took it apart and noticed it was only a 500K ohm paddle pot anyway witch pissed me off since Atari paddles are 1meg ohm to give full range and more senitivity 500K is only half and would run short faster than 1meg ohm witch would give more play and be easyer to use anyway, then I tried it out and it worked .. ALSO HOW COME NINTENDO DONT SUE jakks cause of the nes on chip for all atari plug play witch flashback uses for its menu selection I wonder if nintendo dont care aslong as a REAL nintendo game is not used but you would think the nes it self would be © unless it was licenced In witch either way I dont care but am curiouss weather NES nintendo knows about nes on chip in plug play devices or are they letting it slide only to crush atari flashback II version II after it comes out just to rub it in cause nintendo sucks like that anyway I hope that does NOT happen and am hoping someone at BASIC FUN would make a joystick or paddle with REAL pokey chip and all 3 Atari 2600 chips on it NO NO NO NO NO NO 7800 chips if you want a 7800 play emulation there was not many carts and the joysticks sucked all 7800 sucked and sucks I hated 7800 it was a JACK TRAMIAL crock to make atari come out w to many devices to run them into the ground ,, .. IF we are going to get a real system worth buying lets get a flashback that has a SD or compact flash slot in it that way we can pick SD menu w joystick then get a menu and pick any rom they would not be in .zip format and would have to be in .bin format but still would not beable to play PITFALL II unless they HAD Activision licence in witch it would be in the main menu as pitfall II w 2nd 800 level like the caverns of mars game is a combination of 800/2600 and has better graphics cause of the nes on chip thing then you could have flashback II ver II with memstick hole and cart mod still on pcb but you would not need cart MOD but if wanted you could do a mod but the switch would be easyer and you would need two single pole single throw one on one off or on off other on to select built in games and could still scratch a old color/bw switch off foil pattern on original 2600 pcb and use it for selecting built in and cart mode on flashback II ver 1 rev? anyway then could use mem stick to run roms or youre own homebrew w out having to make homebrew carts ruineing pacman or other original atari carts and you could instead load them off mem stick and use a old 2600 case witch has fried 2600 and you could take chips and every thing exept for 7805 or 740t 5v v regulator cap and dioeds and then scratch b/w switch foil all off then same with the ch3/ch4 or ch2 or ch3 switch depending on witch rf mod it had then you could since the flashback II has composite video out anyway you could just use ch3 switch for b/w switch and the b/w switch for built in / cart mode since its a single throw double pole switch w two in one switches in one switch even though atari only used both switches as 1 jumper to gnd to turn on color or off but if you scratch foil off completely and use jumpers in a opposite kiddy corner pattern the top of one side and the exact opposite on the other side of the switch the bottom would be gnded then the other when one is on the other is off meaning when up posistion the top left side is shorted to gnd and the right bottom side is unshorted to ground .. as whell as when its down the top left side is unhooked from ground and the bottom right side is shorted to ground then all you have to do is pick spot on flashback II and swap if wrong its like having two switches or jumpers where one is on when the other is off..

changing from A10 on built in memmory and a10 pin 6 on external cartridge .. so please NOTE power to REAL Atari cartridge is always on when power pack is hooked unless when you turn off it does not run power to flashback II like mine does althouhg the voltage regulator is always powered up when plugged in to a REAL 2600 mother board cause it was belived that All power packs would blow up w out load and they would burn a winding out if no load was hooked to transfomer but thats only for CENTER TAP transformers made for zenith tv descramblers that had that problem cause they hummed and had a resonant frequency that would with out a load on the centertap would burn them selfs out either blowing a fuse or a winding not a fire hazard but would blow transformer up if not loaded ATARI POWER PACKS DONT HAVE THAT PROBLEM!!! at least I havent had that problem but it is for this reason I think the original 2600 had power going to the dioeds and capacitor and the voltage regulator all the time when plugged in and the power switch took the regulated 5v output after the cap and the dioed and switched the 5v on and off but did not cut power going into the voltage regulator thats why my dad always SAID 1st turn the Atari OFF then do not unplug power pack transformer from the ATARI but unplug it from the wall!!!!!!!!!!! then if you want to kill left over power in atari this is not nessisary unless you plan to work on pcb unplug power pack from jack on atari then turn atari on to see 1 second of power kill off from capacitor then you can clip a ground clip on the ground plane and then work on pcb then scratch all wires foil connections going to cart slot on said 2600 witch is dead and youre going to do flashback II mod cart mod to and scratch all cart slot foil patterns off you will have to unsolder cart slot connector from pcb to scratch top side be carefull not to ruin hole threw as this holds flashback II wires to cart slot connections and scratch away from actuall hole threw but make shure all connections to cart slot go no ware exept to them selfs then you can wire a 40 pin ide cable to the atari cart slot connections on old 2600 pcb if there is extra wire pull it off ribbon cable and keep for joystick wires then scratch p1 p2 joystick connections form foil the same way you might have to unsolder these too to get to all connections you have to unhook and scratch off pcb foil to allow connection to flashback II joystick inputs I found it easyer to just leave the flashback II joystick ports soldered on the original flashback pcb on and just add wires to old 2600 pcb then scratch a/b switches for p1 p2 off original 2600 old pcb and take one side according to witch one needed to gnd apororaite side to gnd when on a or b i cant remember but you will figure this out then hook to a b p2 p1 wires gnd anywhere!! then hook ch3 ch4 switch to b/w jumper where b/w switch hooked on original flashback console case was to ch3 switch on 2600 old pcb switch a 4 switch works better for this mod since the ch3 switch is on same plane as a/b switches and is not underneeth inside case where its hard to get to .. then take youre crappyiest 2600 case and use this or if youre into looks use the best one of youre 4 switchers remember the bottom piece would not make mutch difference in this because noone looks at the bottom piece they look at the top and the wood grain but if you are into really cool looking case mods then use youre best 2600 case then run video/audio wires out back threw rf hold witch can be snipped a little bigger to allow a rca to fit threw or you can unsolder but why then secure in rf wire pinch spots if possible and tie wrap to something that wont break then make shure you STEAL the RF modulator for repair of other 2600 since the flashback II wont use or need rf modulator and has composite out already you can remove RF mod WITCH is not same as a zenith cable box rf modulator witch takes composite video and sound and makes ch3 but the ATARI RF mod took chroma lumina or luma and sound and color composite all at the same time and made ch3 out of it not the same as zenith normal rf modulator so keep the original 2600 modulator for repair of any 2600's you might pick up on eb_Y or other auction site or gsale or any cool place that still has atari then take a semi big sandwitch zip lock type bag and once all works seal leaving wires for joy port cart slot and video/power and all other to come out of bag then put flashback II into bag so it wont short out on original 2600 pcb parts and put it on parts side of 2600 behind cart slot twords you when cart hole slot is at top put flashback under this benieth console but remove the rf cage since the flashback II has composite video it doesnt need rf cage for ch2 ch3 ch4 cause its COMPOSITE not RF! then it will fit perfectly inside a old 2600 that has bad chips or someting major blown then you can reuse pcb and switches for flashback and the b/w color switch is cool cause its two switches in one and at top of one wilst bottom of other side of same switch is other switch you can select built in memmory and cartridge with the b/w switch and use the channel selector switch on 4 switch machine to change b/w color mode on flashback II I have done this and it worked great and I think its better that I used a old 2600 cause A flashback II case would have probably overheated and would not have the correct power requirements to run the cartridge memmory and probably blow its power pack up fast since its only 300ma or something whimpy like that where the 2600 original one is like 500ma a 1/2 amp and has plenty of power exact amprage needed to run 2600 cart since thats what atari used and since it was 1978 you know its enough power! I also found in a keychain asteroids version there is a test jumper spot and pal/ntsc jumper but no other jumpers although I did once take a gemstick and wire it to a keychain and had it so the keychain witch stick broke on had real joystick hooked to it and it worked great and was easyer to use too! .. anyway enough ranting im tired and have stayed up past my bed time and am tired grammer sucks and no punctioation . but hey there is really no way to mod a plug play exept the flashback II since the flashback II was designed to be hacked then other ones are just epoxy blobs over the builtinto the motherboard chip witch makes it impossible to get to the rom and they probably dont want you to get to the rom but the game key probably would allow some kind of hacking cause the game key is a rom chip cart. so you would think a rom game key would load into a flashback II as nes on chip but no cause the nes on chip menu on flashback II is to select memmory lines on a10 on built in memmory address ranges not to run game cause game is built in and its then menu but a game key pcb might be hacked to run hacked game key or mabie a atari but since youcant get into the pcb chip on the board witch is covered w black epoxy blob keeping you from getting to wires I would give up on modding flashback devices to adding battery eliminator wires to a 5v power pack and running long wires to power and video/sound otherwise there seems to be no hack avalible untill someone figures out how to remove epoxy blob and access chip to dump it it would be easyer to hack a nes on chip super joy III joystick to run a atari flashback II on a custom cart w custom operating system and have custom multi in one cart w flashback II games on it as whell as a nother one that would load youre games but it would say adventure but load a nother 4k game in same address or just make a new menu w youre games and have that menu on same multi chip like multi cdrom/music cdrom data track0 is not audio and roms are after the nes on chip game selection menu rom so in a sence the flashback II is a nes on chip that selects a emulation menu witch is its own game then once you select game it loads game into nother rom space and then runs a emulation file on nes but uses special stella like sound but its not exactly same sound as pokey chip so if they do a flashback II ver II or flashback III w sd slot they should remove the crappy nes on chip crock and make a game system that just has all three atari2600 chips minitureized including all resistors and composite mod and stereo with jumper for mono then you have a harminy like chip for built in roms then youre roms go on sd stick or cart slot witch just has wires to cart slot and ONE jumper on or off for built in or cart or sd slot is part of built in menu you select rom from built in Sd memmory or youre sd stick and led would say reading red then when done turn green to let you know its done reading sd card.. then you could load sd card into nvram and remove and turn off and roms would stay then flashback III could have cart slot too but you only select one jumper on or off to pick carts or built in memmory but would have to turn off and back on to switch between built in sd or built in rom or sd ram and then would have to power off to select cart slot and if cart slot picked it would light up yellow led then when cart in green led light then you could use cart slot and power off then on and it would switch modes to use external cart making any cart interferance you could see when playing built in games would turn off power to cart slot so it would not cause interferance to games then if you switch to cart slot mode yellow light would light and you switch switch to on then yellow led would switch from yellow to orange then when you power off and back on w external cart switch on that led would be orange for a second then turn green showing rom load not power and this way you could have sd rom in nvram and cart loaded into ram and once loaded you could remove cart and run all roms on and in ram nvram w out sd cart or cart..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I nother words it would sound like a pain in the Butt to mod a plug play device..

 

Did anybody actually take the time to wade through all that?

[nathanallan]

awace, yep, that was a heckuva rant and still can't read it after several tries.

[unhuman]

awace, yep, that was a heckuva rant and still can't read it after several tries.

 

Gave up too... I think I hurt myself.

[S1500]

In his defense, he's a nice guy in person.Met him once. Not sure about the crack'-smokin posts he makes on here though.

[nathanallan]

I bet he's really cool in real life. But I just can't go through all that.

[Retro Rogue]

All I got out of it was something about band camp.