thegamezmaster Posted March 20, 2014 Share Posted March 20, 2014 Got 2 myself. One's dead and the other just shows a grey screen with blocks. Tried what I know to fix, no luck. Any ideas? Got a bunch of cib games that I would love to try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serious Posted March 20, 2014 Share Posted March 20, 2014 Got 2 myself. One's dead and the other just shows a grey screen with blocks. Tried what I know to fix, no luck. Any ideas? Got a bunch of cib games that I would love to try. Were they like this when you got them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegamezmaster Posted March 21, 2014 Share Posted March 21, 2014 Yup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SabertoothRetro Posted March 21, 2014 Share Posted March 21, 2014 I'm just a few days in on my Odyssey 2 and haven't worked through all of my games yet. Of the ones that I've played, the two K.C. games, UFO!, Attack of the Time Lord! and Freedom Fighters! have been the most fun. A few early observations: - It seems like most of the games reset after the loss of one life. I haven't played an O2 since I was 8 or 9 and at that age I didn't notice the lack of multiple player lives and a game over screen. Was it always this way? - Generally, the scores are low compared to the arcades and other consoles of the day. - The games share some graphical elements. For example, the player controlled cannons in Alien Invaders! and Attack of the Time Lord! are similar. The same is true for the "planets" in Invaders from Hyperspace! and the segments of the Draterpillar in K.C. - The graphics are sharp and bright. - The controllers rock! I wish they were detachable but they feel extremely responsive and sturdy. If I decide to get into O2 seriously, I may pick up the earlier unit with silver controllers. A big thumbs up! Overall I'm happy with my O2 so far. I'll try to sample the rest of the games from my 17 game lot this weekend. Of my cousin's games all of those years ago I remember liking bowling and Demon Attack the best. Neither of these came with my unit but I look forward to finding them. I also want to try one or two of the board game hybrids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+wongojack Posted March 21, 2014 Share Posted March 21, 2014 Got 2 myself. One's dead and the other just shows a grey screen with blocks. Tried what I know to fix, no luck. Any ideas? Got a bunch of cib games that I would love to try. Well, I'm too lazy to look up some of your history to figure out what level of troubleshooting you normally try, so I'll just tell you what I would do here using knowledge of other systems. I think I'd focus on understanding if the power is working on the one that is "dead." When you take off the case, does the power cable look like it is connected? Can you read voltage on the power in and out of the voltage regulator(s). Compare whatever voltage readings you get to the unit that gives you just blocks and see if there is a difference. After that you may be able to isolate a part that isn't working and replace it either from mr grey n blocky or just from off the shelf parts. Just blocks could be a problem with one of the actual chips or maybe some logic problem thrown off by a bad resistor or other basic part. Does anything look burned or broken on the motherboard? Does comparing the two boards reveal any big differences? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+LS650 Posted March 21, 2014 Share Posted March 21, 2014 The games share some graphical elements. For example, the player controlled cannons in Alien Invaders! and Attack of the Time Lord! are similar. This is because the O2 had 64 predefined characters built into it. Those include the walking men, letters, numbers, etc. You can see all 24 here: http://www.coprolite.com/art42.html The O2 also had a neat trick of only displaying the bottom rows of a character. For example, the "flying saucers" in UFO! and Attack of the Timelord are actually the bottom half of the boat character. The mushroom-shaped cannons in Alien Invaders! are the bottom half of the tree character. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyHW Posted March 21, 2014 Share Posted March 21, 2014 Don't know too much about Odyssey2 but K.C. Munchkin is a better Pac-Man than 2600 Pac-Man for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serious Posted March 21, 2014 Share Posted March 21, 2014 Yup. Cool. Glad to hear you didn't leave them sitting in your garage for years. This seems to have happened to about a third of the consoles I've acquired as parts of big lots. I like Wongojack's suggestions. Swapping your power supplies is a great place to start. I'm wondering if you're using a Voice module? If so, the standard O2 power supplies often don't do well with them. Magnavox shipped a replacement power supply with the Voice that isn't the cube-ish shape of the standard ones. Also, corrosion on the cartridge edge connectors might cause something like this, but my assumption is that you tried multiple carts already. It is possible that there is something in the cartridge port on the console. But listen to Wongojack before you listen to me on this. I'm making stabs in the dark compared to his insight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serious Posted March 21, 2014 Share Posted March 21, 2014 - It seems like most of the games reset after the loss of one life. I haven't played an O2 since I was 8 or 9 and at that age I didn't notice the lack of multiple player lives and a game over screen. Was it always this way? Yes, this is the norm. I like it. Turtles and Demon Attack are two notable games that give you extra lives. - Generally, the scores are low compared to the arcades and other consoles of the day. Yep. Some games are similar to early 2 player 2600 games from the 70s, where it is a race to 10 or something like that. On the more arcade style games, the high score and player name display consumes much of the screen space that could otherwise be used for your score [/score] - The graphics are sharp and bright. - The controllers rock! I wish they were detachable but they feel extremely responsive and sturdy. If I decide to get into O2 seriously, I may pick up the earlier unit with silver controllers. A big thumbs up! Yep. I love the graphics and the controllers. I used to hate the standard Atari controllers when I was a kid because I was used to arcade controls and the O2 joysticks, and the Atari CX40 seemed dinky in comparison. There are O2 consoles with detachable controllers, but they are less common. I believe you can still replace the controllers on your version by opening the case, if needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seob Posted March 21, 2014 Share Posted March 21, 2014 It's not very difficult to fit the o2 with detachable controllers. It will requier soldering. You can even make the joystick and port atari compatible so you can use the o2 joysticks on a atari Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegamezmaster Posted March 21, 2014 Share Posted March 21, 2014 Thanks for the suggestions on what to try. One thing I did notice are the two power supplies are rated a little different. As far as skill I'd say a little above beginner. Have trouble reading schematics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegamezmaster Posted March 21, 2014 Share Posted March 21, 2014 Forgot, all components look ok. Resoldered the cart connector and didn't see any bad solder joints or cracks in traces. One board has shields soldered all over stuff and the other didn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtshark7 Posted March 22, 2014 Share Posted March 22, 2014 thegamezmaster: On the dead one...did you take the 'working' power supply from the one that displays grey blocks to see if it will power up? The console with the grey blocks "this is usually garbage data that starts when you turn it on without a game inserted" try using contract cleaner and alcohol on the motherboard to clean out and dust or dirt that might be on the unit...also use the q tip with alcohol on the cartridge connector to clean them out as well....also clean the game carts with alcohol swab as well...and see if that will get that unit back to working order. To test power...here is where you can find +5VDC: Finding a place to tap GND and +5VDC off of the Odyssey2 board to power the video amp is easy. GND can be found all over the place, especially in the area of the board shown at left; just pick a good spot attached somewhere to the ground plane. +5V can be had at the decoupling capacitor attached to pin 16 of either of the two 16-pin TTL chips. In retrospect, I think I could've also tapped power right off of the 3-pin connector that fed power and signal to the RF modulator – but at the time, I didn't have a schematic to follow, so it seemed best to pick off power from someplace I was sure of. 7400-series TTL chips in DIP packaging are always a good place to start looking for +5V and GND traces, since almost all of them (with very few exceptions) have their power pins in the same locations: if it's a 14-pin DIP, GND will be on pin 7, +5V on pin 14; for a 16-pin DIP, GND = pin 7, +5V = pin 16... and so on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 I just bought an Odyssey² lot, including a console with detachable controllers and a couple of games. It will be the first Odyssey² that I've seen in close to thirty years: my family got one as a free gift for viewing one of those timeshare presentations back in the 80s (my folks dragged all five of us kids along so they would want to give us our gifts and get rid of us faster!), but it only came with the pack-in games and our interest in it didn't last long. We didn't have the means to acquire more games at the time, so I missed out on the good ones like K.C. Munchkin!, Quest for the Rings, UFO!, etc. All of those are included in the lot, so I'll finally be filling a long-standing gap in my collection! 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+LS650 Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 Congrats jaybird - I hope you enjoy it! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozyr Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 Nice topic! The amount of quality games for the O2 by the homebrew (Indie) community keeps growing. The list pointed out by Serious is maintained by myself on the VP/O2 forum, along with the instructions site listed a few posts back too (that is a bit dated, but still there). As the new owner of Packrat Video Games, LLC (yes, I'm the guy who bought it from Jarett), we got our old games still available, and new ones coming up soon - O2/VP and 2600 (and more later in the year too). Always been a fan of the O2/VP, every since I had one in 1981. The graphics cam be cruder than some systems from the times, but the games are great (a good many of them), and I still think they look good onscreen anyway. The recent influx of home-brews shows now signs of slowing down, and the quality of some of those games are very, very good. There are at least 13 games so far coming out in 2014 alone (and that is a true fact). As Serious pointed out too, I love the O2 joysticks, always have. And love that there is not any flicker in the O2 games (not that I'm saying anything bad about other systems). And current programmers are pushing the limits of the system, more and more. Just love it! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegamezmaster Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 (edited) Thanks to all for the info! I'll check things out when I have time and post results. Skills are limited. On the power supplies, the dead unit with shields over everything came with one that's rated 11.5 VAC 400mh measures about 13.4 VAC and the one that came CIB and no shields and shows blocks is rated at 12 VAC 600mh measures 12.5 VAC. Just thought I'd mention. Not sure which one goes with what. Anyway thanks again! Edited March 23, 2014 by thegamezmaster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boxpressed Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 Congrats. If you got the silver detachable joysticks, you'll want to open up the console and replace the RF cord with the proprietary tip (unless you want to use the switchbox). The RF quality is superb on the O2. Save the old cord, though. You can use it to connect the original 1972 Odyssey to a TV without a switchbox. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegamezmaster Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 Sorry for repost but wanted to add what I've done. Thanks to all for the info! I have cleaned the cart connector and resoldered it to the pcb and cleaned all games with no luck just blocks. I'll check things out when I have time and post results. Skills are limited but trying to learn more. On the power supplies, the dead unit with shields over everything came with one that's rated 11.5 VAC 400mh measures about 13.4 VAC and the one that came CIB and no shields and shows blocks is rated at 12 VAC 600mh measures 12.5 VAC. Just thought I'd mention. Not sure which one goes with what. Anyway thanks again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+slx Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 I had a Videopac 7000 before my Atari and soon found it to be inferior to the VCS my best friend got at the same time. He simply had the better games. I did like UFO, Smithereens and the Reversi game and found "take the money" interesting if not very replayable. UFO would amass nice high scores on its own if you just left it alone... Much cooler looking console than the 2600. Maybe it was quite a bit of 'luck' that the design choices made for the VCS which was originally designed for a much more limited selection of games turned out to be more flexible than anticipated/intended while the choices made for the O2 just did not allow that many variations. I do remember cycling to the nearest dealer on Dec 27th to buy the games I actually wanted as my dad had either got some he considered good/educational or was too late shopping before Christmas. Sold mine to a schoolmate for the price I had payed for maybe 2 cartridges to get money for 8-bit stuff (my first pack of discs cost as much as three O2 carts...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted March 29, 2014 Share Posted March 29, 2014 Congrats jaybird - I hope you enjoy it! Thanks! The Odyssey² lot arrived earlier today, and I'm pleased that everything was in good working condition! The controllers and some of the cartridges needed cleaning, but that's to be expected. I'm especially surprised by the high quality of the RF video output: I've got it running through a VCR to my Commodore 1702, and it looks so good that I don't see the need to install a composite mod. I got a kick out of seeing the pack-in games (Speedway, Spin-Out, and Crypto-Logic) again after so many years; they're pretty underwhelming games, but I remember putting hours into them when I owned my first Odyssey². K.C. Munchkin is a fun little game, one that I would have loved to have back then, but I haven't tried very many of the others yet. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rotgut Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 I love the Odyssey 2 so much I program homebrew games for it. Graphically speaking, it is IMO better than the Atari 2600 because it can display four sprites and a dozen characters at a time. Awesome! Which games have you created? There are aspects that are inferior to the 2600 though: 1 audio channel and less flexibility with sprite design. I had both systems as a kid, loved them both. Hell, I still love them. There are pluses and minuses for every system. Just sayin'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 I have an O2 myself, but only three pathetic little games. (K.C. Munchkin!, Alien Invaders - PLUS! and UFO!) I'd like to get AMOK! or something else, but I honestly have not turned the thing on in at least 6 months, so have a hard time justifying the expense when my other classic system hoovers up all available cash. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nutsy Doodleheimer Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 I bought myself an Odyssey 2 off Craigslist this past September. It was the console and 14 game carts including KC Munchkin, KC's Krazy Chase, UFO, and Alien Invaders Plus to name a few. Got it all for $40. I cleaned up the system inside and out it's now in pristine conditio. Only problem was that I needed to replace both the controllers as they were the hard wired ones. Just paid shipping thanks from a couple members here. I do not regret buying an Odyssey 2 at all. Such a fun system with a great library. Pick Axe Pete is next on my list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rotgut Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 One great way to soil yourself is to forget just HOW LOUD THE SELECT GAME bleep is when alone in the house. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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