Atari Touch Me

[Level42]

I just receive a little gem I always wanted to own in the collection. It’s Atari’s handheld version of Touch Me. Regretfully it is completely dead. I hope it’s a simple issue with the battery connector so I want to have a look inside but before I damage the old plastic case, does anybody know how this is supposed to be opened ?

 

[wildstar1063]

I don't have one, but I looked around on YouTube and found this picture of one already disassembled, the guy that made the video is not really showcasing the hardware but the fact that it has a PIC 16 microcontroller, Which he is trying to write code for. The picture might give you some ideas though.

 

I don't ever remember seeing these, did it come before or after the Simon?

 

Edited August 18, 2019 by wildstar1063

[Isaiah Austin]

1 hour ago, wildstar1063 said:

I don't ever remember seeing these, did it come before or after the Simon?

The Atari Touch Me handhelds came out after the Simon did. I hope that Level42 can get his fixed! 

Edited August 18, 2019 by Isaiah Austin

[Level42]

Yes the Atari Handheld Touch Me was sold after Simon BUT the idea for Simon was stolen by Ralph Baer from Atari’s arcade version of a Touch Me. So the original idea will always be Atari’s however, Ralph did improve it by using color lights and more pleasant sounds.

 

thanks for posting about that video and indeed I had already seen it while searching but regretfully it doesn’t give a clue about how to open it without damaging it.

 

luckily, I already found the problem. The battery connector was simply bad, a common issue I believe. This one looks like poorly resoldered. Maybe a battery had been leaking although I see no evidence of that.

Anyway I spliced a new connector into the original wires and it works fine now, but I’d still like to open it to solder the wires properly to the PCB.

[mutterminder]

I have recently acquired and Atari Touch Me which looks pretty good but unfortunately it is dead.  It wasn't too hard to open, it is held together with molded plastic tabs.  I opened it with a plastic spudger without too much difficulty. I have already checked for obvious burned or leaky components, but none were apparent. I also checked the power, it is getting through the power jack to the switch PCB.  Does anybody know were I can find a schematic for this thing?  It's not very complicated as there is only one IC a bunch of resistors, four LEDs,  the LED display and a couple of transistors. If the one IC has failed, I guess it's done for - the part is marked C10745, I assume that this is some proprietary Atari part, as I was unable to locate a datasheet for it.

Edited February 27 by mutterminder