jpedpilot Posted July 8, 2003 Share Posted July 8, 2003 Newbie question... Have my 2600, my games and my reciever.. How can I make this work....?? what cables, cords etc to I need.... Any advice please.. I wanna ROCK my den....!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeerGnome Posted July 9, 2003 Share Posted July 9, 2003 lets see.. an unmodified 2600.. hook your RF switch into the antenna in of a VCR, prefibaly a Hi-fi VCR. next you run the two RCA audio outs of the VCR into the Auxilery input of stereo reciever.. tune VCR to channel three.. power up everything.. and now you should have big booming Atari blipping goodness. of course.. you could also do the AV mod on your atari, and completly bypass the RF switch and signal and run directly with the RCA in's and outs like say a playstation. now the atari is not a stereo device persay.. but there are two audio channels implemented in programing.. this gives some interesting aural effects, just keep in mind.. they're not intentional. However some homebrews like skeleton actually take advantage of this programing quirk for "true" stereo.. like the approaching footsteps of your enimy is actually directional and with the stereo mod you can actually use the sound to anticipate and react.. the synth cart is a music machine that releys heavily on a stereo mod hope all that helps ya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Room 34 Posted July 9, 2003 Share Posted July 9, 2003 On top of Gnome's suggestions, I'd add that if you're a musician, you should consider running the signal through a stereo phaser effect or something so that you actually get stereo! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsoper Posted July 9, 2003 Share Posted July 9, 2003 Do you want mono or stereo? The video mod info in the 2600 faq tells how to do mono. For stereo search www.deja.com for 2600 stereo alan watkins clone Tia (sorry for not posting it, my cut and paste utility is acting up today). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpedpilot Posted July 9, 2003 Author Share Posted July 9, 2003 actually, I just have a cheap stereo reciever with the basic 5 small speaker setup. I'm just looking to hook up the 2600 into my reciever to get the maximum sound effect - not from the TV speakers, but from the surround speakers... I'm don't really need the total effect, just want to maximize the experience with what I already have - minus a few cables/cords... Feed me more info! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Room 34 Posted July 9, 2003 Share Posted July 9, 2003 The thing here is that the 2600 only produces mono audio, so it doesn't matter how many speakers you have... you're not going to get an actual "stereo" (or "surround") effect unless you do some kind of processing on the signal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpedpilot Posted July 9, 2003 Author Share Posted July 9, 2003 I'm not looking for the stereo or mono effect - just deeper sound from my 5 speakers home theater system. Can I replace the RF cord with a Red/Yellow/White RCA type cord??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsoper Posted July 9, 2003 Share Posted July 9, 2003 The thing here is that the 2600 only produces mono audio, so it doesn't matter how many speakers you have... you're not going to get an actual "stereo" (or "surround") effect unless you do some kind of processing on the signal. If you modify the motherboard so TIA pins 12 and 13 are not shorted together, you will get two channel sound (stereo for purposes of this discussion). If you only want mono (one rca jack) then look into the FAQ video mods. BTW, you can even get three channel sound from an intellivision. The colecovision and 5200 are mono though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsoper Posted July 9, 2003 Share Posted July 9, 2003 Oh yeah, you can also connect the standard atari cable to the RF in (antenna in) input of your vcr (see how-to section of atari age), then connect the audio out jack to a stereo input. There may be some quality loss doing this. And a 2600 or 7800 will not sound great cranked up high anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Room 34 Posted July 9, 2003 Share Posted July 9, 2003 If you modify the motherboard so TIA pins 12 and 13 are not shorted together, you will get two channel sound (stereo for purposes of this discussion). OK... well just to be clear to anyone who isn't following this, it's two channels, but it's the exact same audio signal through both, so it's not really "stereo"... it's just the mono signal through both speakers instead of just one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpedpilot Posted July 9, 2003 Author Share Posted July 9, 2003 I already have a Audio/Video Switchbox With RF Modulator with multiple input and outputs.. Can I simply plug the RFw/ coaxial adapter into the Modulator and Have S-Video run to the TV and RCA audio run to the Reciever for sound?? or just plug the coaxial from the atari directly into the reciever? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Room 34 Posted July 9, 2003 Share Posted July 9, 2003 The output from the modulator should work. I have never seen a receiver that has coaxial input. Are you sure you're not talking about RCA connectors? (If so, the RCA connector coming from the VCS is a composite video/audio signal and cannot go directly to a receiver.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsoper Posted July 9, 2003 Share Posted July 9, 2003 If you modify the motherboard so TIA pins 12 and 13 are not shorted together, you will get two channel sound (stereo for purposes of this discussion). OK... well just to be clear to anyone who isn't following this, it's two channels, but it's the exact same audio signal through both, so it's not really "stereo"... it's just the mono signal through both speakers instead of just one. NO NO NO! These are two separate audio channels. With Pitfall II, one as that continuous beat, the other has all the other sound effects. With Combat, the right tank sounds are outputed on one pin, the left tank on the other. You must believe Daniel-san. Breathe in breathe out. Wax on, wax off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spirantho Posted July 9, 2003 Share Posted July 9, 2003 ... unless it's a PAL Atari 2600, as the PAL TIA only has one audio output pin it seems. Just thought I'd mention it. :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Mitchell Posted July 9, 2003 Share Posted July 9, 2003 Well If you pick the audio off the RF, you may get a RF hum. But if you do the TIA pin 12/13 modification for two audio channel out .. you can get very clear audio and some cool sound effects. The best left /right sounds are from the early two player games like Combat, Indy 500, Target Fun, etc. Cool stereo sound effects can be heard from Turmoil and Skeleton. Then there is the Synthcart too! Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA Here is the mod: From: khorton@tech.iupui.edu (Kevin Horton) Date: 21 Jan 1996 02:20:11 GMT Also, it's confirmed: You *can* get stereo out of a 2600!!! Both sound channels exit the TIA seperately. To get two seperate audio outputs from a 2600: Lift pins #12 and #13. Tie each to 5V through a 2K resistor. Attach two .1uf caps to the two joins formed by the pin and resistor. Attach two audio cables to the free ends of the caps and ground the shields of the audio cables. I suggest adding a switch to short the two pins together (that's what was done in the 2600) for mono sound. You'll need mono for things like Pitfall ][, unless you like your music in one side and all the sound FX in the other! :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Room 34 Posted July 9, 2003 Share Posted July 9, 2003 If you modify the motherboard so TIA pins 12 and 13 are not shorted together, you will get two channel sound (stereo for purposes of this discussion). OK... well just to be clear to anyone who isn't following this, it's two channels, but it's the exact same audio signal through both, so it's not really "stereo"... it's just the mono signal through both speakers instead of just one. NO NO NO! These are two separate audio channels. With Pitfall II, one as that continuous beat, the other has all the other sound effects. With Combat, the right tank sounds are outputed on one pin, the left tank on the other. You must believe Daniel-san. Breathe in breathe out. Wax on, wax off. So what are you saying, the mod actually splits the signals from the two tone generators in the audio chip? I haven't done any mods... all I am saying is that the default audio you get coming out on the composite output from the unit is mono and there's no way to split the signal at that point unless you run it through some kind of processor. I wouldn't know if there's some way to split the audio signal into distinct channels before the composite output signal is generated... but I am dubious. Are you yanking my chain? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Room 34 Posted July 9, 2003 Share Posted July 9, 2003 Clarification of my own point: Processing the signal after it comes out can make a stereo signal, i.e. with a chorus effect or something, but it won't actually split the audio into separate distinct channels. ...And I would've just edited the post... but editing takes SOOOO long on these forums that Safari usually times out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpedpilot Posted July 9, 2003 Author Share Posted July 9, 2003 Whoa! you guys are going way too far in depth for me! I simply took my atari w/ coaxial RF adapter and plugged it into my reciever (it does have a coaxial input) and ran the video out to the TV via the RCA yellow cord... Not too much of a audio 'hum' - only when turned up too far. I'm not yet at the point where I'll take apart the box!! But thanks for the feedback... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricBall Posted July 9, 2003 Share Posted July 9, 2003 Clarification of my own point: Processing the signal after it comes out can make a stereo signal, i.e. with a chorus effect or something, but it won't actually split the audio into separate distinct channels. Let me see if I can explain this simply: The TIA in the 2600 (and 7800) has two independent audio channels each with volume, waveform and frequency controls. The output of each channel is a separate pin on the TIA. On the 2600 motherboard, the two pins are electrically connected before they are modulated into the RF video signal. So if you are using the RF output, you only get mono sound. The typical 2600 A/V mod, the audio signal is tapped on the motherboard, so again you get mono sound. However, if you disconnect the two pins on the TIA from the motherboard and tap them directly you get the two channels separately. For some games the two channels are used to generate a true stereo sound (e.g. Skeleton plays same sound but different volume from the two channels). Other games use the two channels in a similar but distinctive (e.g. Combat has a channel assigned to each player) or related (e.g. Synthcart) fashion. Finally, many games use the two channels very differently (e.g. Pitfall 2 has music on one, SFX on the other), so will sound "strange" when in stereo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Room 34 Posted July 9, 2003 Share Posted July 9, 2003 OK... got it. But for the average Joe Schmo like me who destroys everything in sight the moment he touches a soldering iron, mono is the only plausible option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MegaManFan Posted July 9, 2003 Share Posted July 9, 2003 Amen to that. The only way I'd have a stereo mod was if somebody made one and sold it to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surfnmadness Posted July 10, 2003 Share Posted July 10, 2003 Geez, can you imagine that rubberband noise of pac-man in 5.1 surround sound. NITEMARES could not be far off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkarner Posted July 10, 2003 Share Posted July 10, 2003 Most TVs now have audio output. So just connect the game system to the TV and connect the TV's audio output to your receiver/amp. And most TVs that have audio output also let you turn off the TV's internal speakers. I do this with all my game systems. Of course with the 2600 it's just mono sound, but it's BIG mono sound. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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