Should I get a new Atari 2600? What options do I have?

[+atari2600land]

So whenever I turn on my Atari 2600 and try to unplug the joystick, the game shuts itself off even though the power switch is on "on". Since I am attempting to make a homebrew game using a keyboard and the Harmony is incompatible with keyboards (I tried it and the screens automatically kept changing for no good reason), I have to turn on the console, select my game with a joystick, then unplug the joystick and plug in the keyboard. So when I go to do that, 99% of the time it shuts off. Is there a solution to this, like a newly-made Atari 2600 that has a cartridge slot AND you can put in the controller of your choice?

[Thomas Jentzsch]

A quick workaround would be to put joystick and one keyboard in different ports. Or do you need both keyboards?

[+littaum]

Do you have any sort of 9 pin adapter cables so you are not plugging the joystick/keypad straight into the Atari?  I am wondering if plugging in the keypad is causing some sort of electrical issue going straight into the Atari.  When I developed my Keypad game, I had to do something similar as you are doing - select the game with the joystick, but when I unplug the joystick and plug in the keypad it was in effect pressing random buttons and auto-started the game.  Once it was plugged in I had to use my own internal controls to migrate back to the opening menu.

 

As Thomas alludes to, one possibility during development is to read the keypad from the 2nd controller port, so that you can leave the joystick plugged into the first port.

 

[+atari2600land]

I forgot my Atari 7800 can play 2600 games. But I still need to switch between the joystick and keyboard.

 

I'm thinking the same thing littaum is: plugging in the keypad is causing my 2600 to shut off. But I guess I'll make my 7800 my new goto for testing 2600 keyboard games.

[kermit73]

Can you name your rom autorom.bin (I think this is the correct file name) and put it in the root directory?  I think this bypasses the Harmony menu loads your game automatically?

 

 

[+LS650]

17 hours ago, kermit73 said:

Can you name your rom autorom.bin 

Nope, you must load a single ROM using the Developer tab in the Harmony loading software:

 

 

[BigO]

Conceptually, an old school "DB-9" A-B switchbox seems like it would do the job nicely.

I see such switchboxes at thrift stores occasionally, but it's been a while since I have seen one.

 

Looks like they're available on Amazon and eBay for around $35. 

 

I was thinking about a "Y-cable", but I imagine that the Harmony would see what it thinks are paddle inputs from the keypad controller.

 

Though still requiring the tedious controller switching, I agree that a 9 pin extension cable would be a reasonable way to avoid repeatedly applying force to the frail 2600 controller port.

(I'd really want to fix whatever's going on with that port, but that's not everyone's cup of tea.)