Soon to be a new 7800 owner -- finally!

[alucardX]

I just ordered a 7800 on ebay and am VERY excited. I have wanted one of these for years and will finally be able to experience the real deal! I've been a Jag owner for a long time but this will be a whole new adventure.

[Cousin Vinnie]

My favorite system! I hope you enjoy it

[alucardX]

6 minutes ago, Cousin Vinnie said:

My favorite system! I hope you enjoy it

Thank you, I'm really looking forward to it.

[+sramirez2008]

@alucard Welcome to the club.  With all of the Homebrew activity, you couldn’t have chosen a better time to get in.

[Cobra Kai]

Sweet, congratulations on a solid purchase! It's such a perfect system for arcade style quick games. I've always loved my 7800, I bought it at Montgomery Ward when it was sitting in the case beside TG-16, and Genesis. I still play it regularly, and yes the homebrews are among the best of any homebrews on any system out there (maybe THE best), but I still like the original catalog too. 

 

You're going to have a good time, no question about it.

[alucardX]

1 hour ago, sramirez2008 said:

@alucard Welcome to the club.  With all of the Homebrew activity, you couldn’t have chosen a better time to get in.

Thank you very much @sramirez2008. I'm excited to start playing and enjoying this machine.

35 minutes ago, Cobra Kai said:

Sweet, congratulations on a solid purchase! It's such a perfect system for arcade style quick games. I've always loved my 7800, I bought it at Montgomery Ward when it was sitting in the case beside TG-16, and Genesis. I still play it regularly, and yes the homebrews are among the best of any homebrews on any system out there (maybe THE best), but I still like the original catalog too. 

 

You're going to have a good time, no question about it.

I've noticed some of the homebrews being announced and things are looking really good.

[Mockduck]

I too have joined the 7800 club. Discovering and playing 7800 games on the new Atari VCS got me interested despite me not having any personal history with the 7800. I missed out back in the day, I bet I would have liked it more than the NES.

[Cobra Kai]

It's the Pro System. For Pros like us!

[+sixersfan105]

Welcome to the 7800 Club, @alucardX and @Mockduck! The 7800 is one of my favorite systems, and as you can tell from my signature, I have a ton! Oh cool, Mockduck, your 7800 owner's manual is the original style but your console box is the later (more common) style. Gotta love Atari using whatever stock they had on hand! Out of the two games pictured there, One on One is pretty fun but Karateka borders on unplayable due to a very poor control scheme. If you get tired of using the "Painline" controllers, I highly recommend @RetroGameBoyz's NES-style gamepads available here. If you're looking for more 7800 games, Best Electronics is a great place to get them for decent prices, especially their "Dented Can Sale" where you can get NIB but "dented" copies of Galaga, Ms. Pac-Man, Robotron and Xevious for $8 each if you buy all four!

[Mockduck]

3 hours ago, sixersfan105 said:

Welcome to the 7800 Club, @alucardX and @Mockduck! The 7800 is one of my favorite systems, and as you can tell from my signature, I have a ton! Oh cool, Mockduck, your 7800 owner's manual is the original style but your console box is the later (more common) style. Gotta love Atari using whatever stock they had on hand! Out of the two games pictured there, One on One is pretty fun but Karateka borders on unplayable due to a very poor control scheme. If you get tired of using the "Painline" controllers, I highly recommend @RetroGameBoyz's NES-style gamepads available here. If you're looking for more 7800 games, Best Electronics is a great place to get them for decent prices, especially their "Dented Can Sale" where you can get NIB but "dented" copies of Galaga, Ms. Pac-Man, Robotron and Xevious for $8 each if you buy all four!

I am a Karateka player from way back in the day on the Apple IIe; it was one of the things that tipped me over to getting this bundle. Yeah, controls aren't great, but I've been able to make it work. Also played a ton of One on One on the IIe, while different looking both versions play the same, which is nice. The 7800 has a lot of great games on it! Good ports of big games of the era.

[+sixersfan105]

8 minutes ago, Mockduck said:

I am a Karateka player from way back in the day on the Apple IIe; it was one of the things that tipped me over to getting this bundle. Yeah, controls aren't great, but I've been able to make it work. Also played a ton of One on One on the IIe, while different looking both versions play the same, which is nice. The 7800 has a lot of great games on it! Good ports of big games of the era.

Ah ok, glad to hear re Karateka. Interestingly, the controls on the Atari XE port are much better. Yes, the 7800 has some great ports! I do wonder if POKEY implementation into the console (instead of individual game cartridges, which very few developers went for) would have led to more groundbreaking games and a bigger market share for the system at the time. Of course, these days, the 7800 homebrew scene is booming and one of the best in the retro scene, in my opinion! I may have an extra 7800 game or two laying around - feel free to PM me if you're interested and I'll see what I've got (would gladly pass along at below the going rate).

[Mockduck]

14 minutes ago, sixersfan105 said:

Ah ok, glad to hear re Karateka. Interestingly, the controls on the Atari XE port are much better. Yes, the 7800 has some great ports! I do wonder if POKEY implementation into the console (instead of individual game cartridges, which very few developers went for) would have led to more groundbreaking games and a bigger market share for the system at the time. Of course, these days, the 7800 homebrew scene is booming and one of the best in the retro scene, in my opinion! I may have an extra 7800 game or two laying around - feel free to PM me if you're interested and I'll see what I've got (would gladly pass along at below the going rate).

Sounds good! I've been on the lookout for an inexpensive bundle of the most common games.

[alucardX]

8 hours ago, sixersfan105 said:

Welcome to the 7800 Club, @alucardX and @Mockduck! The 7800 is one of my favorite systems, and as you can tell from my signature, I have a ton! Oh cool, Mockduck, your 7800 owner's manual is the original style but your console box is the later (more common) style. Gotta love Atari using whatever stock they had on hand! Out of the two games pictured there, One on One is pretty fun but Karateka borders on unplayable due to a very poor control scheme. If you get tired of using the "Painline" controllers, I highly recommend @RetroGameBoyz's NES-style gamepads available here. If you're looking for more 7800 games, Best Electronics is a great place to get them for decent prices, especially their "Dented Can Sale" where you can get NIB but "dented" copies of Galaga, Ms. Pac-Man, Robotron and Xevious for $8 each if you buy all four!

Thank you for the tip on the controllers and where to get games!

[jeremiahjt]

47 minutes ago, alucardX said:

Thank you for the tip on the controllers and where to get games!

And where to get controllers too. If you want to play with an original controller, buying the Best Electronics improved CX-24 ProLine and CX-78 JoyPad are the best bets. Of course plenty of heathens, I mean non-purists, I mean fellow gamers will use other methods. Just remember if you are using a Genesis controller plugged straight into the ProSystem, games that require two buttons will be unplayable.

[edweird13]

There is also the Seagull adapter from edladin.

https://edladdin.com/Seagull-78-Controller-Adapter-v20-ec-2-001b.htm

[jerseystyle]

On 5/6/2022 at 3:31 PM, alucardX said:

I just ordered a 7800 on ebay and am VERY excited. I have wanted one of these for years and will finally be able to experience the real deal! I've been a Jag owner for a long time but this will be a whole new adventure.

Congrats man! Been my go to favorite system since I got it in 87. Great stuff. 

[Gunther]

On 5/11/2022 at 1:20 AM, alucardX said:

Thank you for the tip on the controllers and where to get games!

The in-development, Wolf Adapator by Danjovic, will let you use Jag and S.N.E.S controllers (all buttons') on the 7800 (and 2600).

 

[alucardX]

I just received my system with box and four games. Everything powers on and plays but the picture is horrible. I am going to get an rf-f connector over the weekend and bypass the rf switchbox to see if that helps.

 

Here is the box, sorry the image is sideways.

 

[Cobra Kai]

6 hours ago, alucardX said:

I just received my system with box and four games. Everything powers on and plays but the picture is horrible. I am going to get an rf-f connector over the weekend and bypass the rf switchbox to see if that helps.

It does help. It also helps to hook it up to a CRT as opposed to a newer LCD.

[alucardX]

4 hours ago, Cobra Kai said:

It does help. It also helps to hook it up to a CRT as opposed to a newer LCD.

When I say horrible, I mean so much snow it is unplayable horrible. I used an RF switch from and NES and actually produced a playable picture.

Edited May 13, 2022 by alucardX
typo

[+-^CrossBow^-]

26 minutes ago, alucardX said:

When I say horrible, I mean so much snow it is unplayable horrible. I used an RF switch from and NES and actually produced a playable picture.

Usually using those auto switch boxes that were for the Master system and NES will not work properly on the older Atari consoles. Best RF picture is to use a good quality coax type cable and plug it directly into the coax antenna input on your TV. 

 

[+sixersfan105]

@alucardX sounds like the switchbox that came with the 7800 is shot. And yes, definitely steer clear of the auto-switching switchboxes as @-^CrossBow^- mentioned. You've definitely got the right idea with the f-type RF adapter. Hopefully that will do the trick.

 

Btw, I'm assuming that the TV you're using plays nicely with consoles hooked up via RF, right? Because not all do. 

[+karri]

I have an old Philips 32" flat PAL TV and it was not able to find the channel automatically. By manually tuning the 7800 was just at the start of the frequency band 55.75MHz. Fine tuning it manually later produced a very nice picture.

[Giles N]

I use CRT tv’s for my 5200, 7800, Master System, NES and Megadrive-32-X… just more like the real deal… just my opinion though…

 

—

I have one 14’’ NTSC, one 19-20(?)’’ PAL, and one 13’’ PAL/NTSC-combo

 

—

okey, they’ve got some age, particularily noticable as to sound, but overall… much easier to use… easier all-sorts-of-plug-ins, softer - more organic pictures, no lag…

… really old-school… but gets things going, and fairly well so … (could just need some better CRT-units, but goodness, I’m not made of money…)

 

- - -

 

Anyway, @alucardX, which games have you got so far…?

Edited May 14, 2022 by Giles N

[+sramirez2008]

@alucardX You may want to follow this thread concerning the latest 7800 Flash Cart.