2600jr- Issues with adjusting right color

[Sid]

Hi,

 

I have issues with getting the right color in my Atari 2600jr. I'm adjusting the potentiometer for the color and I get different colors, all except the right one. I have used Pac man for adjusting the color but I can't get the blue color in the game. I also tried other games but have the same issue with the blue color. The console is composite modified but I had the issue even with coaxial cable.The picture is perfect but wrong color.  Any ideas of what could be the issue here?

 

Thanks.

[Mockduck]

No, sorry. I personally tend to use Pitfall! for my color comparison as I just know the colors well enough. Maybe try a different cart and see if that helps tune in the blue.

[+DrVenkman]

Couple questions: 

1) What kind of display are you using? The VCS/2600 TIA was intended for analog TV signals and CRT displays; modern flat-panel TVs have a different color gamut than the originals and while you can get close, there are just some hues that won't ever look the same as the originals. So that means if you optimize for one game, it might look off or incorrect with another. Depends on the game and which colors/hues it uses.

 

2) Are you changes consistent? In other words, if you tweak the color pot and play the game, then turn the system off, if you turn it back on the next day and let it warm up, will it give you the same color or has the color drifted? If so, you might have a bad color pot.

 

3) After the console warms up for 5-10 minutes, do the colors still drift? If so, you might have a failing voltage regulator.

 

4) Do you have an SD card like a Harmony or PlusCart? If so, try loading up a color bar generator program or a color test program that will generate shades of red/gree/blue/white/black to adjust your display and console. If you can't get THOSE right, you might very well have a bad or failing TIA chip. I ran into something similar on one of my 4-switch Woody machines. Games ran and played great but I noticed the colors seemed off, and when I tried an Activision title like Chopper Command, the "sunset" sky colors and Activision logo were completely wrong. Swapped the TIA and all was perfect.

[Sid]

Thank's for your replies. I have tried different catridges but still the same issue with the colors. I use CRT and the colors does not change if I play for a long time or if I had it turned off. Unfortunately I don't have an SD card to test the color. I guess I would also need an adapter to the SD card to be able to use it? Any ideas where these could be found?

 

I wonder if the issue could be that the color potentiometer could be bad? Since when I turn the potentiometer clockwise I furst get black and white color then in the middle I get colors and then again black and white. After this the picture gets noisy.

 

I'm not very familiar with Atari yet, but trying to learn ?

[Mockduck]

You say it is composite modded, sounds like the issue is a problem with the wiring maybe, not getting one of the three colors. I've never had any interest in modding a console, so unfortunately can't help there.