Atari 65XE computer that is very unstable

[LaunderMan2008]

Just wanted to clarify, only ballblazer and commando contain the POKEY, not centipede, missile command, asteroids deluxe or gauntlet as mentioned in the Wikipedia article

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/POKEY

[Beeblebrox]

8 minutes ago, LaunderMan2008 said:

Just wanted to clarify, only ballblazer and commando contain the POKEY, not centipede, missile command, asteroids deluxe or gauntlet as mentioned in the Wikipedia article

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/POKEY

For the Atari 7800 console (so nothing to do with the Atari 8 bit computer line), the game carts Hatrick (and Hockey game), Commando, and Ballblazer have an exta pokey chip inside them. But they aren't cheap carts. The Pokey chip inside is the same chip as used in the Atari 8-bit home computers, but that is where it ends. The carts themselves only work with the Atari 7800.

 

Atari 7800 Commando cart on Ebay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/116035042432?

 

Ain't cheap

 

 

Edited January 11 by Beeblebrox

[LaunderMan2008]

Does this one contain a POKEY, I would feel guilty about opening it and ripping it’s heart out and leaving the boxes (I’d never throw away the boxes or manuals, I’d try to sell them if I was desperate for space).

 

I could put the box, manual and empty husk of a cartridge on my retro gaming shelf along with my other boxes for accessories.

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/276265843177?hash=item4052ba39e9%3Ag%3A6oUAAOSwCkxk9RGm&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4DawLYQN94C3dO8XKMjhHbL1LQHAOLcLWQ%2Fm254vIOUK6Bcfa%2Bsb8HEHYX2nngIxm8oyg6vvQ33WwWJlARONNSJCvQGbcGNJwqfmwCooYbCr7TPkDxKIXkQL7VwoXvxn0jGK1MbL8DenXzx%2FAHnfsRrc%2Fzhmiun4Rm8Zn%2F26Qu2vJfBF40DQLkgGjp3WAg%2FNs%2B3x7%2BfF0Lm5Qlhx0Ti46ybbqFi2Bpa8n8QBjAwonecdq0nNv7uTarR2KLr5Rb2EAnOLfvbf61vr%2FYvuVEHnK0oc6BS2tuL2%2BUOVeP%2FgeYWO|tkp%3ABk9SR-bstaCfYw&LH_BIN=1

[Beeblebrox]

6 minutes ago, LaunderMan2008 said:

Does this one contain a POKEY, I would feel guilty about opening it and ripping it’s heart out and leaving the boxes (I’d never throw away the boxes or manuals, I’d try to sell them if I was desperate for space).

 

I could put the box, manual and empty husk of a cartridge on my retro gaming shelf along with my other boxes for accessories.

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/276265843177?hash=item4052ba39e9%3Ag%3A6oUAAOSwCkxk9RGm&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4DawLYQN94C3dO8XKMjhHbL1LQHAOLcLWQ%2Fm254vIOUK6Bcfa%2Bsb8HEHYX2nngIxm8oyg6vvQ33WwWJlARONNSJCvQGbcGNJwqfmwCooYbCr7TPkDxKIXkQL7VwoXvxn0jGK1MbL8DenXzx%2FAHnfsRrc%2Fzhmiun4Rm8Zn%2F26Qu2vJfBF40DQLkgGjp3WAg%2FNs%2B3x7%2BfF0Lm5Qlhx0Ti46ybbqFi2Bpa8n8QBjAwonecdq0nNv7uTarR2KLr5Rb2EAnOLfvbf61vr%2FYvuVEHnK0oc6BS2tuL2%2BUOVeP%2FgeYWO|tkp%3ABk9SR-bstaCfYw&LH_BIN=1

very good price. Yes, it should have the pokey chip.

It's worth getting as not much to lose. 

 

EDIT: Hold fire - actually reading this, confusingly, it appears only 7800 allblazer has the pokey!!!:

 

 

Edited January 11 by Beeblebrox

[LaunderMan2008]

Thank you, will be ordering soon as well as getting a socket  

 

If I could give more than one thanks (trophy) I would  

 

How do you give reputation or score, if it is possible?

[LaunderMan2008]

Thankfully I procrastinate on orders so I didn’t fire prematurely.

 

How do you give reputation, you have been very helpful as well as TGB1718.

[Beeblebrox]

10 minutes ago, LaunderMan2008 said:

Thankfully I procrastinate on orders so I didn’t fire prematurely.

 

How do you give reputation, you have been very helpful as well as TGB1718.

thanks. Not sure. Pleasure to help a fellow Atarian.

[woj]

Just hit the heart / thanks button at the bottom of the posts that you like.

 

Re POKEYs, I was in need for a couple (literally) for my stereo boards, I was patiently and perodically checking eBay and hit a chance one day of two NOS ones in one package. The total was ~200 USD including shipping over the pond to EU, so a lot to be honest, but at least now I can't complain about being short on POKEYs. But just to be clear, it was a couple of months of (sporadic) hunting.

Edited January 11 by woj

[LaunderMan2008]

Once I do order a new POKEY I will put it in and test the computer out, if all goes to plan I can order belts and try fixing the cassette deck because I have tapes and one of them has already been recorded onto by my music teacher from an Atari loading video.

 

Is this of high enough quality to properly load a game from a real tape once I have established everything else is working.

 

 

[LaunderMan2008]

I have liked all of @Beeblebrox and @TGB1718 posts so you should see a skyrocket in your reputations.

 

Thank you again 🏆 

[Beeblebrox]

7 minutes ago, LaunderMan2008 said:

I have liked all of @Beeblebrox and @TGB1718 posts so you should see a skyrocket in your reputations.

 

Thank you again 🏆 

Anytime

 

I am off to test my latest two Atari Joystick aquisitions:

 

Quickjoy jetfighter joystick:

 

 

and (so looking forward to this one in particular) the Sureshot:

 

 

A quality joystick with microswitches is the difference between playing a game once or twice and giving up, and playing it for hours to then keep coming back.

Edited January 11 by Beeblebrox

[LaunderMan2008]

My joystick also feels like it has quality switches in there and it does diagonal movement as well.

 

I’ll be off to search for computers, chips or cartridges, I’ll hold off on ordering until you are double sure it has the fabled chip inside  

[LaunderMan2008]

I have found a Ballblazer as part of an Atari bundle.

I have 2 ways of getting the Ballblazer,

 

1: offer the seller £15-20 for the game and say that is almost half of the price of your Atari bundle.

 

2: offer the seller £40, if not accepted, buy anyways and sell the Atari 7800 + it’s games for the price I bought it at and keep the Ballblazer for free.

 

Which way would be better for acquiring Ballblazer?

 

https://en-gb.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1371988156744752/?ref=search&referral_code=null&referral_story_type=post

[Beeblebrox]

1 hour ago, LaunderMan2008 said:

I have found a Ballblazer as part of an Atari bundle.

I have 2 ways of getting the Ballblazer,

 

1: offer the seller £15-20 for the game and say that is almost half of the price of your Atari bundle.

 

2: offer the seller £40, if not accepted, buy anyways and sell the Atari 7800 + it’s games for the price I bought it at and keep the Ballblazer for free.

 

Which way would be better for acquiring Ballblazer?

 

https://en-gb.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1371988156744752/?ref=search&referral_code=null&referral_story_type=post

£50 is a total bargain for all that. I've seen them go with 3 x bog standard 7800 games for £100!!  If you offer £40 you'll likely loose out. I'd just buy it. You'll more than recoup your money back.

[LaunderMan2008]

With your evaluation, how much would this lot be minus the Ballblazer to sell it, I don’t think pricecharting goes that far back to Atari games.

 

The listing was made 11 weeks ago, so I am surprised about your response and that no one bought it in that time.

 

I will try to play Ballblazer to enjoy it before yoinking the POKEY from it, a bit of respect for the devs of the game as they worked hard to make the game only to be disrespected by people destroying lots of games for the POKEY.

[Beeblebrox]

1 hour ago, LaunderMan2008 said:

With your evaluation, how much would this lot be minus the Ballblazer to sell it, I don’t think pricecharting goes that far back to Atari games.

 

The listing was made 11 weeks ago, so I am surprised about your response and that no one bought it in that time.

 

I will try to play Ballblazer to enjoy it before yoinking the POKEY from it, a bit of respect for the devs of the game as they worked hard to make the game only to be disrespected by people destroying lots of games for the POKEY.

On ebay, which has a massive reach, you'll often see an untested 7800 with perhaps 1 x controller and *maybe* 1 x cart for £50-70. So this lot, with tons of games, including high demand classic titles like Ballblazer, by contrast is a bargain. Even if you just sold the other games off for between £5 and £15 pounds each, at £50 you'd make your money back easy, and then some.

 

Bottom line, it's a bargain IMHO. Since you are buying mainly for the pokey it's a no brainer. You'll pay £40-60 or a working pokey chip alone. Might be steep, but that is what I've seen them up for over the last year or so. 

 

FYI I bought an untested, unboxed 7800 with a an original psu, and 2 x controllers for £50 + postage earlier last year. The main reason for it was I wanted the two controllers.

 

No idea why this one on facebook hasn't sold, but maybe it's because it's facebook marketplace, more localised or less coverage than ebay?!?!  I've never ever been on Facebook - managed to avoid it.

 

Edit: See my point about listed 7800 on Ebay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/139971/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=atari+7800

 

Some of these prices of obviously stupidly high (some being £350-400!!). 

 

And sure, just because someone advertises a 7800 for, say, a more respectable £80 on Ebay, that of course doesn't necessarily mean it'll sell for that. But generally what the current prices highlights for me at least, is your Facebook bundle is more than worth the risk at £50.

Edited January 12 by Beeblebrox

[LaunderMan2008]

I got the SDrive Max to load for a little bit and I am not sure if it’s the POKEY because the joystick works again and the tape loads but I got a little hiccup where the computer loaded at a lower pitch.

 

The computer could break again and I would be back where I was after the pot adjustment.

 

The image looks perfect with the pot adjustment.

 

 

 

 

[LaunderMan2008]

I haven’t ordered yet because I found out the Atari crashes when the gray connector is plugged in.

 

When the black connector is the only one plugged in, the joystick works.

 

Still wondering about the tape loading, one day it will work and on another it doesn’t work and when I try to boot to floppy drive menu on SDrive Max, it just boots to basic.

 

Wonder why joysticks came with 2 plugs, possibly for 2 player games to pass the joystick on to 2up when 1up dies.

 

Edited January 12 by LaunderMan2008

[woj]

Regarding POKEYs, I have just seen on FB that Lotharek will soon have FPGA replacements.

[Beeblebrox]

18 hours ago, LaunderMan2008 said:

I haven’t ordered yet because I found out the Atari crashes when the gray connector is plugged in.

 

When the black connector is the only one plugged in, the joystick works.

 

Still wondering about the tape loading, one day it will work and on another it doesn’t work and when I try to boot to floppy drive menu on SDrive Max, it just boots to basic.

 

Wonder why joysticks came with 2 plugs, possibly for 2 player games to pass the joystick on to 2up when 1up dies.

 

Not sure what joystick this is? As mentioned earlier in this thread, if you aren't using an Atari joystick or one with an Atari 8 bit selector, there might be a voltage issue. Certain control pads from other systems have the voltage on other pins. 

 

I vaguely recall having an Atari joystick with two plugs. Can't recall why the two were needed as we are taking 30years ago. 

 

I think given you aren't getting the raspberry pollling sound (often called the Atari fart), when you turn on the XE,  and SIO activity crashes, then so do joystick operations, pokey is failing almost certainly. 

 

 

[LaunderMan2008]

My dad procrastinated again!

 

I will try to order tomorrow and see if I can convince my dad to do one simple task.

[_The Doctor__]

I have seen a cord like that before as it was hacked to work in a game console/sega/Atari, if you plug both in you can short and damage your atari. Don't plug the wrong one in or both at the same time!!!

Edited January 14 by _The Doctor__

[LaunderMan2008]

Mum’s texted the seller, I will report back when seller has texted back, bought the Atari 7800 or not bought it.

 

I will buy the 40 pin socket when I am sure the Atari 7800 is purchased.

 

If I have recouped my money back for the games on the Atari 7800, I might keep the console for free or a major discount.

[Aesthetic Debris]

On 1/12/2024 at 8:41 PM, LaunderMan2008 said:

I haven’t ordered yet because I found out the Atari crashes when the gray connector is plugged in.

 

When the black connector is the only one plugged in, the joystick works.

 

Still wondering about the tape loading, one day it will work and on another it doesn’t work and when I try to boot to floppy drive menu on SDrive Max, it just boots to basic.

 

Wonder why joysticks came with 2 plugs, possibly for 2 player games to pass the joystick on to 2up when 1up dies.

 

It's a Sinclair thing.

 

Old ZX Spectrum's typically used an Atari compatible pinout (as lots of machines did) when Amstrad took over and produced the +2 and above models they rewired the joystick ports for pretty much no reason at all (other than to try and sell their own joysticks).

 

Given the Sinclair machines were very popular in the UK, joystick manufacturers often included a little adapter extension to the cable and typically coloured it grey (because the original Sinclair+2 was grey). And that looks like what you have their, so you can just ignore the grey wire and use only the black plug.

[manterola]

On 1/10/2024 at 6:28 PM, LaunderMan2008 said:

Image of ram self test results on image 2

Sorry, but it looks to me that the first thing to do is dealing with the RAM. Most of the symptoms sound like RAM problems. Unfortunately, it is not fun to desolder those 8 chips, and even worst when it is a 65XE and that PCB....

Edited January 15 by manterola