Atari 2600 - I wanna get this to work

[ryanawilkes]

I an trying to get my atari 'woody' 2600 to work. I hope someone can let me know exactly what is required to get one of these working. I have the 'ingersoll' mains adaptor (which I think is an original adaptor) There is also a TV aerial coming from the 2600. I have connected the aerial port into the TV and put the AC adaptor into the back of the 2600 (between joystick ports) but nothing seems to happen. I am guessing something has blown or the adaptor doesnt work.

MY MAIN QUESTION IS, IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE THAT IS REQUIRED TO GET THE ATARI 2600 TO WORK? I can accept if something has blown but am on the verge of buying the same thing from ebay and wanna be sure first.

I NEED AN EXPERT TO HELP ME OUT. THANKS FOR ANY SUGGESTIONS.

[vb_master]

Do you have a game inserted, the TV on channel 3 or 4, and is the the Atari on?

[Ze_ro]

There is also a TV aerial coming from the 2600.  I have connected the aerial port into the TV

 

The hole you plugged it into didn't happen to be yellow, did it? With a similar pair of red and white holes next to it? If so, then you hooked it up wrong. You need to get an RF switch. It's a metal box with a black switch on it... Radio Shack sells them for a couple of bucks (Warning: Do NOT try to use RF switches from newer systems like the NES! The automatic switches don't work with older systems like the 2600). You plug the 2600's antenna wire into that, as well as your own antenna/cable connection, and plug the switch itself into the cable line of the TV (This should be a big round coaxial port on modern TV's).

 

Alternatively, you could buy one of these RCA to coaxial converters from AtariAge... although using one of these might make it difficult to switch between playing games and watching TV.

 

As a third alternative, if you're handy with a soldering iron, you can open up the Atari itself and modify it to provide composite output (the three yellow, red and white cables) or S-Video output. This is probably getting a little too complicated though.

 

--Zero

[ryanawilkes]

I dont seem to be getting power to the atari though. I have put a game in, switched the power on but there is no noise and no picture.

The port at the back of the atrai is not yellow. The port says "power input" over the top and on each side is the l/h and r/h joystick port. This is at the back of the atari. I will take some pics later and post these, it does seem that I need to ensure the ac adaptor is working first. If I post the pictures on here later it should maybe make sense to you then. Thanks for your help so far!

[bjk7382]

You atari could be working, you just can't see anything on the screen, either because it is on the wrong channel, or you don't have a switchbox and you are just sticking it in the video rca jack (which won't work)

 

You need to make sure the system is hooked up to the tv correctly (with a tv/game switchbox into the RF coaxial input)

[ryanawilkes]

I have the pics attached. Please let me know if I need anything in addition. Thanks again for any help provided!!!!

[ryanawilkes]

I didnt relaise the piucs were gonna be so big, sorry about that. As you can see on the last pic, there is a standard tv aerial port that comes from the atari, this goes straight into the tv. I get the impression that this needs to go through the adaptor you are talking about. Is this correct?

[ryanawilkes]

I got it working! thanks for everyones help!!

[Ze_ro]

What turned out to be the problem?

 

--Zero

[ryanawilkes]

Slightly embarassing actually. The atari was working fine all I had to do was tune it into the TV. I had my doubts about using the adaptor part that I was recommended to get as the lead from my atari had the aerial end to it so it fitted straight into my tv. I guess this is not a standard feature and was modified. The atari doesnt make any noise at all and as it hadnt been used for years I was assuming it wouldnt work. I was more than chuffed to see BREAKOUT appear on the TV though. Just gotta add to my collection now, Id like to purchase just the original box and packaging alone now but guess this is near impossible.....

[liveinabin]

Ah. You were being given information on how to get a US system working here. I don't think anyone else knows that Burton is in England. Luckily, my mum grew up there (and I'm from Stafford - not a million miles away)

 

Anyway, welcome to Atari:) Now that you've got it working, what are you playing?

[ryanawilkes]

yeah didnt realise this was a US site too. Got 5 or 6 games and just wanna add to the collection and get the box, games case etc...

[Ze_ro]

Ah.  You were being given information on how to get a US system working here.  I don't think anyone else knows that Burton is in England.

I figured as much when I saw that his power supplies were for 240V outlets (Although I didn't know where Burton was)... Is it common for British systems to have a coaxial output like that? Or do they usually use the same RCA jacks as North American systems?

 

--Zero