CrossBow

I would like to provide an update on this. I've had a chance to use my ADuo a bit more since installing the jail break and overall things are good. That is...except for the CD games. Pretty much every CD game I've loaded up from the SD will play fine for about 20min or so. And then all of sudden I will start to get some severe audio stuttering. When this happens the game will also show some slight hesitation and performance issues. Sometimes, the issue will correct itself, say when something changes and requires the game music to change tracks. But usually when this happens, there will come a point not too long after where the game just freezes and I have no choice but to quite the game and restart it. Analogue have released new FW for the ADuo that now has the save state support in it. I'm hoping that can be implemented into the jail break FW soon so that at least I can save state my CD games when playing them periodically so if lockups like this occur, I've not wasted 40min of game play in the process.

I basically did the same thing but it was due to small issues with the earlier Avox+ units vs not wanting to flip the switches. I modified the earlier one to correct for the issue and that made it Atari only at that point so the newer one I bought about 2 years back is to be used more for my Vectrex.

I ended up just using a Genesis extension cable that I trimmed the end of it so that it would fit into the ports. This way, I can use it with my Vectrex and my 7800 equally with the Avox+

I've installed the FM upgrade board 4 times now into a few different SMS NTSC consoles now and something that I tend to always forget, is that the official instructions for installing the board has a few mistakes in it. One of those mistakes is a pretty big one that I've mentioned to Tim Worthington a few times but it never seems to get fixed in his guide. That step is regarding the process for getting the region switch working on NTSC consoles. Now the steps listed I'm sure are accurate for PAL versions of the console, but 3 different model 1 and one model 2 unit I've installed the kit into all required the same thing to get it working. The specific step to install the region switch wire states to solder a wire from the IORQ pin off the FM board and to isolate and solder the same signal pin on the 2516 IC chip in the console. This chip is the IO Gate array IC btw. The docs state this is pin 19 on that IC and that is a correct statement. However, removing this pin from circuit on the NTSC consoles will prevent the SMS from booting at all. Just a black screen when powering on the console. Attaching the region switch wire to that pin while isolate does nothing. The pin you want to attach to instead on that IC is actually Pin 23. It is listed as the KillGa pin and I assume has something to do with a halt or reset. In some models of the SMS pin 23 isn't attached to anything. But on the NTSC systems it is part of the circuit. So, you have to either cut the trace to this pin or lift the pin from the board to isolate it and then install the IORQ wire from the FM board to pin 23. This will correctly allow switching the region on the SMS. The region switch isn't dynamic so you have to either reset the game after switching, or power the SMS off and then back on for the region switch setting to take effect. Here is a picture of the wire I'm talking about attached to a lifted pin23 off the IC I did the other night as an example. Here is the IORQ pad the other end of the wire attaches to on the current and latest version of the FM board upgrades. Depending on the version of the FM you have, this pad has changed places but it is always labeled the same. In the pic below is the yellow wire soldered on the upper left section. So if you ever install one of these or possibly have one installed and hadn't gotten the region switching working on your NTSC console, now you know why and how to correct for it. BTW the switch is advised because it allows you to select between US/PSG audio, US/FM audio, and JPN/FM audio settings. There are 2 games known that require the JPN/FM setting in order for them to work with the main one being Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap here in the US (Wonder Boy II in JPN).

Well, it isn't the first time his albums have worked that way. But even his gameboy music album he released several years ago I believe auto transitions to the next song. But, his CD based TG-16 album he released last year I think it was? I believe it does the same thing where it just stays on the same song until you use your controller to move it to the next track. His last Genesis cartridge release titled as 'Decoder' is the same way, but it makes since there because you are reading a graphic novel along the way so the music tracks change as you change the scene reading the story. BTW...the above video was captured directly off my Jaguar through RGB. But as my capture device doesn't like anything above 2x scaling from the OSSC, it doesn't look quite as good or sharp as it normally can when I'm able to use 5x normally. But this is pretty typical of all of my RGB consoles. This is why my s-video output systems tend to look sharper to my eyes, because those go through the extron and are output at 480P. That in turn at 2x scaling means the output is 960P to my TV while the 240P stuff via RGB is only at 480P on the final output.

This finally arrived from Hamburg Germany in the mail yesterday! I really enjoy these niche music album on cartridge formats and have most of Remute's releases from the past. But this is the first time he released something for an Atari system so I had to get it. And for those curious, there is a brief 1 min video of the cartridge in action. My only very minor complaint about this particular release, is that the audio seems a tad lower quality as compared to what I've heard a Jaguar able to do. Tempest 2k is a prime example of this. And the fact that the songs do not change over to the next track automatically. Whichever song you choose to start playing, just auto loops as many Amiga like module files did back in the day. So as a result to listen to something else, you have to go back to the playlist menu and then choose another song. Although, you can also hot select a song from the keypad directly if you know what the track# is you want to play. Still, it would have been nice if it did go onto the next song on its own so the cart could be inserted and just left to play in the background.

That is awesome! I have a few of those games, but many of mine are loose carts only. Although I did recently pick up a nicer condition CIB of Clean Sweep so I guess I have another one to add to my trade and for sale pile now. Vectrex games are really fun to play and the conversions done for it still feel like they have that arcade quality to them. Even on the games that weren't originally vector based. Narzod is the newest game I was able to pick up for my Veccy collection a few months back.

Alex, I tested my Avox+ and SNES2Atari adapter and didn't encounter any issues on my primary 7800. But, to be on the safe side. I did cut all the traces to the channel select switch and run new wire from the pause board and back to the RIOT to a slightly modified channel select switch to allow me to turn that pause line on/off just in case. It would be better if I could find switches just like those used originally but with longer switches so they can poke through the back of the shell better. Currently I've been reforming the pins on the bottom and using the front set of vias closest to the edge of the board to mount standard difficult/channel select switches. I did it on both my main 7800 and on an extra in the lab that I actually sold last night in a record 20min time. Anyway, thank you again for that suggestion!

Wow, all excellent info! Thanks! Well in my case, I believe I still have my channel select switch in place on my console and since I removed the RF from it over a year ago to add in the audio input jack, seems as good an option for making it useful again as possible? I will reform the leads on it a bit so I can try and move it further back a tiny bit to make it easier to reach.

I wasn't aware of the AtariVox functions being affected by this? I will have to give that try as one of the other many mods on my 7800 is an Audio input jack that I plug my AtariVox into to be mixed within the console and come out with the rest of the audio so I don't have to connect it to separate external speakers. But the reason I use Up+Dn is not just because this pause kit also does, but because I originally years ago was using the Left+right combo and the Harmony cart did NOT care for it at all. I do have a diode pair inside my controllers to isolate the signals from each other independently, but the actual SMS kits only use a pair of 220ohm resistors off the inputs. As for the driving controller and trackballs? I own them, but I never use them on my 7800 as I just don't play any games that use them.

This is something I've messed with on and off again over the years. After I discovered the controller pause modification you can do on the Sega Master System, it got me to thinking if something similar was possible on the 7800. And yes, it totally is as similar to the SMS, the pause line on the 7800 is always active and only when pulled low to ground does it trigger the pause. So I had played with it a bit using home made perfboard setups etc. But it wasn't really as useful or needed on the 7800 as it is on the SMS so I hadn't really invested much into it. For those that might not be aware, the Master System also uses a 2-button controller like the 7800, but the SMS also has a pause button on the console itself just like the 7800. The difference it that many SMS games actually use the pause on the console as a 3rd button to pull up inventory or stats..etc. in quite a few games. As a result, playing those games can be a bother when you have to get up and press the pause on your console each time you want to access those extra functions in the game. So naturally a modification for the SMS was going to come about to allow a person to add a 3rd button to their controller and along with a simple logic circuit in the console, you can make impossible controller combinations trigger functions inside the system. In the case of the SMS it is using an extra button to trigger either an Left+Right direction combo, or Up+Down depending on how you wire it up. That in turn is fed to a logic OR gate so that when you press that button on the controller it sends that impossible combination to the chip and that in turn will trigger the reset function. The 7800 sharing essentially the same setup here can also be done in the same manner. However, due to the 2600 and 7800 internal logic regarding the paddles controllers; you can't use the Left+Right combo because it will confuse the console and sometimes thing paddles are plugged in. But aside from that, it is the same. Consoles Unleashed in the UK sells a lot of excellent quality modification and upgrade kits for various consoles. One of those they have the most kits for, is the Sega Master System. They provide their own pause button modification kit that is really well made and looks nice. Well, I ordered up a few several weeks back and got them in yesterday. I immediately went to work on installing one into my personal 7800 as I have 2 controllers that I've modified in the past to be able to use this setup. Here is what that looks like: As you can see it is a tiny PCB that will fit in lots of places on the 7800 main board. Again, it is designed for the SMS but will work just as well in the 7800. In the pic above you can see that I'm getting power and ground from the bypass cap just to the right of the 6502. The Player 1 Up and Dn connections are at the top of those two resistors right next to that cap. So you have half of what you need right there in that spot. Above is where the rest of the connections in my setup are going. The small blue wire that runs by itself to that single point below the RIOT IC is the reset trigger. This is an unused via that is present on every single 7800 main board revision I've see and always in this same spot. I assume it was there for testing but is also makes a great place to attach the PB pad from that board to trigger the pause function. The other two blue wires are going into cleaned out unused vias so they pass back down on the bottom of the board to attach to a similar set of resistors for the player 2 Up and Down connections. I did it this way because I didn't want to trim the RF shielding. The resistors are outside of the shielding for the player 2 controller port next to the Reset switch. And this is where the two wires come back through to the bottom of the PCB to attach to the resistors mentioned above. BTW, the Up and Down combo wiring attaches to Pins 1 and 2 on the controller ports. And that's it! Now with this in place, I can use my modified controllers to remote activate the pause on the 7800 console from either controller port. One thing to mention about using this kit from Console's Unleashed... You have to wire both controller ports! The reason is because instead of using an OR logic in this setup, they are using a NOR logic chip. As a result, the controller ports are always registering high. If you don't connect up the second set of wires, then the logic on the pause board in the kit ends up triggering the pause constantly. It needs to see that +5 from the port pins in order to maintain the logic. So if you only wanted one port to activate this, you need to use a different logic IC. Also, the kits from consoles unleashed has extra stuff I don't normally need as it comes with additional small PCBs to mount a 3rd button to and provide as a template to drill the hole into your SMS controllers for mounting it. An excellent touch to be sure, but I don't like the SMS control pads compared to other controllers and wouldn't be using them on a 7800 anyway. But they aren't that expensive and I might need those boards in the future so who knows? I might go into details on what is required on the controller side someday for this modification to work as there is work required in the controllers. I think I've covered it elsewhere online but might do that as a follow up someday. Here is a link to Consoles Unleashed in the UK and again, they have some excellent quality kits on hand to help modders and tech with making their projects look that more professional and easier to install. https://www.consolesunleashed.com/

Hmmm... I'm pretty sure what they are showing is just the 2600+ main logic rockchip board that they have stuck into that section. So I'm guessing that is what they are doing is designing the same thing onto an even smaller PCB setup.

Okay...was curious because the AV upgrades on the CV and Intelly similar to the VCS adapter on the 5200, will kill that functionality. On the Intelly and CV you can only use the 2600 adapters if you leave the RF modulators in place and if you want improved picture output with those modules, then you have to use a separate AV upgrade board that feeds off the RF signal in order to use them in that way. It is the one main caveat of most AV upgrades in these consoles. But then I'm of the opinion that it would be cheaper to get a dedicated 2600 for that use vs the add on modules that may or may not be completely compatible with everything.

Lance, The reason I don't ask for all of their stuff is because it simply increases the shipping cost too much. Power supplies add quite a bit of weight in many cases and with shipping being what it is today, each pound adds up. I get what you are saying, but in most cases, I've done some troubleshooting with my clients ahead of time to make sure something simply like a bad PSU or controller isn't to blame first. Here is a such an example that happened last night in fact: Had someone reach out to me through my FB profile for my ITC services. It was recommended they reach out to me to look at having their LCD replaced in their Lynx console so they wanted to know how much that would cost etc. With some questions, I asked why they wanted a new screen. And they stated because their original wasn't showing anything head on and you could only just make out the image when viewed from an extreme angle so they were looking to one of the newer screens installed etc. I asked them if anything changed when using the contrast wheel on the system... and they came back about 30min later stating they completely forgot that wheel was there and it was looking like it did originally again and thanked me for my time. I was happy to do that and while I could have insisted they get a new LCD still, it was only being suggested because they thought their screen wasn't working. It was and now they can play it as they wish. I would like to think that actions like that, will have them remember me when they might be in actual need of my services in the future so again, I try and make sure the simple stuff has been tried first for my clients before they send it all my way.

How often do you actually use that and your other models to play 2600 games on non Atari platforms? I only ask because most of the AV upgrades on these consoles negate the use of these add-on devices since none of them use the actual graphics and logic hardware inside their parent console.

There is a dedicated blanking pin on the Maria. However, the odd bit is that the pin is only attached to the expansion port bus and doesn't seem to go into anything else within the video circuit. But obviously that isn't the case or there are additional signals being provided by the Maria that effected this that weren't working. It wouldn't have surprised me if this was always an issue with this 7800 that again, just wasn't really discovered. When playing on a consumer level CRT, that extra info was likely in the overscan and just wasn't noticed.