CrossBow

Strangely I've NOT gotten any notices about the manuals. Only the notice that my carts had shipped and been delivered. Nothing since. It isn't that big a deal but I did already replace the carts with the new ones that work and have the originals boxed back up an labeled ready to send back to Atari XP in Philly. I'm kinda surprised there are folks that don't plan to send their originals back as they feel it is part of the story and collection of the games? Funny to hear these same folks get bent out of shape about the games now working and demanding Atari fix the issue and then also feel okay with keeping the buggered carts? I hope that Atari XP has their card info on file and charges those folks for at least the cost of the replacements and shipping. If they had given the option, that is one thing, but they specifically ask in the emails that we return the originals, and there is a letter in the box with the replacements asking again to send back the originals. The recycle process is likely nothing more than gutting them open to reuse the shells in future releases and I think that is fine. The current Atari and their smaller companies they are working with, do at least appear to be trying and I can give them credit for that and I feel we can all do a small part to help. If they want the originals that don't work sent back, then I say do it. They provided better looking and working replacements, with some extra goodies we didn't have to pay for. The cost of the non working and ugly labeled originals they sent us going back to them, is a cost I'm happy to pay.

It will be worth the wait once you get them. Wait and see... I've also heard that some folks have gotten notice about replacement manuals on the way too. I'm assuming to correct for the missing section that exists in at least the Aquaventure manual?

Welcome Steve! It is a quiet corner here, but it is full of quality and that is what matters most!

I've heard of quite a few people still having lock issues and such with Yars' Return. I've not had any lockups, but I have had several odd glitches occur with mine that I do feel affect the game play. The worst of them is that it is very easy for Yar to just teleport through the walls protecting the quotile and I end up being trapped in the center with him. Yar doesn't die unless the quotile goes into his spinning launch mode. But it does make you have to scramble to start shooting quickly to get yourself out of the trapped area. This issue is made worse on levels with the moving blocks naturally. Another thing I don't understand about the game, is why there is a need for the blocks along the top protecting the quotile? It isn't like you can shot the zorlon cannon in an up/down fashion anyway, so yeah... I do not understand the reason for them.

The Ti version of Microsurgeon has speech as well and was one of the reasons I wanted a Ti since I'm a fan of the Intellivision version of that game as well.

TBA's 32k sidecar also is large enough to allow a TIPI install at a future time should one want to. So... again it is very likely something I'm going to look into and if someone at PRGE is selling them, that is most likely when I will pick one up.

Won't lie, I had to google that name to understand. I've never read Agatha Christie so I wasn't getting the reference at first. And I'm just following the footsteps of the actual greats... those who actually engineered and designed these wondrous machines from our youth that helped fuel our imaginations in a way that only this new medium at the time could.

Nice! sounds like there will be quite a few options for those interested in the Ti. Brewing Academy will also be present with a booth. I confirmed this just last week with Marlin as he and I are working on some new additions for the 7800 UAV stuff. Hopefully there is news on that soon.

I've done a video on something similar to this but here is a rundown on what I was encountering: A 5200 sent in for services had a note stating that top fire button wouldn't work on the console. This is an issue I've run into before and in fact have created a video on it. It can be due to the controller having a broken trace of course on the flex circuit inside it. But... it can also very well be due to a faulty 4052 MUX chip inside the console located at U13 or A13 depending on the age of when your 5200 was made. Well, that was indeed the same issue with this 5200. But after replacing that and confirming the top fire button was now functional again, I then used my port loopback tester board with the diagnostics and was surprised when a slew of other errors came across indicating issues with the keypad. I then used a different program for just testing the controllers and sure enough, whenever you put a controller into port 2 and pressed the pause button, it would call the entire aux buttons to register all at once on both controller 2 and port 1 even though a controller wasn't plugged into port 1?! So that meant Start, Pause, and Reset were all registering at the same time. I later found out that when pressing the 4,5, or 6 buttons that it would also register ever single keypad button in that same column to also register. Obviously that wasn't going to do! In testing the other ports, I found out that port 4 suffered similar issues but only the keypad section was messed up in that pressing 1,2, or 3 would cause all the keys on those columns to register at once. Very odd. Diagnostics told me it was a keypad issue so that was good. I then went to the service manual proceeded to follow the flowcharts for what might be the issue. My 'hunch' was that one more of the other 4052s was having issues. However, the flowchart kept pointing me to either a faulty GTIA (Which does handle some of the keypad controls), bad GTIA socket, or a bad 7400 chip near the RAM section. So I tried replacements GTIAs and 74ls00 chips with no change. The flowcharts have you using an O'scope to check for activity on the various triggers lines and such. Well, I was seeing activity or pulsed indicating polling that the console is doing to check for buttons being pressed, but I was seeing something else odd as well. I was seeing what would appear to be ghost pulses between the normal square wave I should be seeing. I proceeded to then use my multi-meter and checked all of the connection points from the GTIA to the passive components to the MUX chips to the controller ports looking for any shorts or broken traces. Everything was checking out... After hours of checking everything the flowcharts and schematics were telling me and nothing else to go on, I decided to something I should have done in the first place. Guess what that was? I removed each of the 4052 MUX chips (Kinda a PITA since these were all soldered to the board and not in sockets). And checked each one of them in my Bitback chip tester pro. Sure enough, I found another failed 4052 at position U12 about middle of the board just ahead of the controller ports. After installing all new sockets and putting in the original 4052s that passed and replacing U12. Finally the controllers were working proplery again and the controller loop board was passing the diagnostics! The moral here is that people are SO quick to blame the controllers on the 5200 for their woes. The reality, is that the 4052 MUX chips are very prone to ESD failure and fail they do...often. Especially the RCA branded ones. Next time you have controllers issue with your 5200. Don't just assume that controller is a POS and blanket blame it. Have the console checked out to be sure it isn't something internal causing an issue. The pic below shows the two 4052 MUX chips I had to replace to get this fully working again. They have little silver dots on them to indicate I replaced them and to make where pin 1 is. Again, they are highly prone to failure so if you own a 5200, best to have a full set of these on hand just in case. They are cheap ICs so it is good insurance to have on hand. In this case I have small stash of OEM RCA ones that have tested good that I've pulled from other dead 5200s over the years. I suspect in the past that U10's 4052 was changed out in the past as it was already in a socket and had a different lot number on it from the others.

Thanks for this! I do have a finalgrom but do not have any mem expansion on my Ti. I don't plan to ever have a full setup for anything other than gaming so the RAM only cart seems like the best deal for me. I think The Brewing Academy offers a 32k expansion as well...let me check again real quick... Yeap...here it is. About the same cost although the TBA version apparently requires you to power the 32x sidecar externally if you plan to use this in conjunction with a speech module? The one you posted doesn't seem to require this and might not be usable with the speech module attached as well? Seems the speech module doesn't provide power through and that is the reason for this. https://thebrewingacademy.com/collections/ti-99-4a/products/ti-99-4a-32k-external-expansion

Okay, as I stated. Here is what it all looks like complete now. Here is the wiring that has been done on the original AV jacks. I still need to wipe out the interior a bit to try and clean it a bit more but you get the idea on at least how the wiring on it is now. This is the overall wiring inside. And here is a close up of the AV jacks with the new wiring in place. Hopefully this looks more cleaned up compared to before? And I did manage to get pics of another console done in the same manner so you can see what I initially start off dealing with. Once the wiring was removed off the TIA and the TIA itself was removed from the main board, this is what I'm left looking at. I was able to straighten the legs back into shape but one of the legs is broken off a bit and shorter than the others. This is pin 12 which is part of the TIA audio but enough remains to allow it to still work. But at least for now, this 2600 is alive and well again and ready for many more years of active gaming!

As part of a large project I've been working on for over a month now, one of the situations I encounter is when a console is sent in for services that has already had another tech's hands inside it. In most cases, it might be simple repairs like replacing an IC chip or some capacitors. But now and again, I get a console sent to me that I don't always know what to expect. In those cases, there can be undesired surprises waiting for me. Here is a 2600 that I would like to show as an example of what I'm talking about. I don't know whom originally did this work. But I will sum up what you are looking at. It appears this console was previously upgraded using one of the Low Budget AV upgrade boards for the 2600. I've not seen the results of this board in action myself and in fact this one arrived in non working condition with video sync issues and obvious missing colors on the screen. What you can't see and I should have taken a picture of, is that the wiring on the AV board in the bottom of the picture above that is nearest to the main board, actually attaches to pins off the TIA chip. However a few of these wires had broken loose from their solder joints on the TIA pins. The pins were pulled out of the socket and then soldered to the legs. However, some of the connections had broken loose because honestly, network twisted pair wire isn't that great for point to point solder work and doesn't take solder that well. But this meant I had to remove the wiring completely (Was going to anyway), and clean and reset the pins on the TIA. The original socket was also pretty messed up with some melt marks on it and even some solder that had dropped into the socket in a few places. The socket was replaced and the TIA seated back in once the legs were carefully put back into position and cleaned up. Here is how the TIA looks now. It is the large bottom IC in this pic. It was also semi messy near the AV output jacks. I'm reusing the jacks in this project, but removed all of the wiring and most of the hot glue that had been used to try and keep everything more secured. Here is what that looked like. I've already removed the hot glue that was scattered about on the jacks and removed all of this wiring. The AV jacks will be removed minus the s-video 4-pin on the right there and star lock washers added to ensure a snug and tight fit. All new wiring will be ran to these jacks and routed back to the newly installed UAV that is replacing the original AV board setup. Here is the UAV in place and burn in testing being done using temporary wire harnesses that made up years ago. This 2600 should be finished up later this evening. I will try and update with a picture of the new wiring in place once it is fully completed.

Yeah but I figured the standard 4k release would be around a bit longer. I was wrong... very very wrong. Same thing happened with the Dune Steelbook version. I always get steelbooks whenever possible and didn't think to pre-order it because I didn't think it would be in such demand. Yeah... that didn't work out either LOL!

@TrekMD Nice work! I just wanted the 4k directors cut of the Motion Picture...but naturally it is sold out everywhere and being scalped on the bay and amazon already. So... I've had to settle for the standard blu-ray release of the directors cut. I was able to get Wrath of Kahn in 4k though and that is my favorite one of the original movies anyway.

When you think about...it is likely the cheapest solution overall because then they aren't actually out of the cost of the hardware at least. Yes they are having to spend more to have more carts made of games they already paid to release. But... at least they can reuse the hardware and just slap new labels onto the carts once done. So they are only out the labor spent to assemble them initially and the shipping. Still a big chunk of coin I'm sure, but they also just got hardware stock back in hand they don't have to have made up either.

I imagine that AtariXP plans to receive the hosed up ones...make sure the PCBs are flipped right way around, and then likely sell them off cheap as cart only fire sale items. But that is only my guess. So if they have some returned that owners already corrected, then hopefully they check them ahead of time before assembling. Another thought I had, is that they could just wipe the PCB contents, and use them for the other releases. That way, the only have to put them into the newer shells. Unless they do decide to offer SE releases for Warlords and stuff. Then they just reload the PCB with whatever game they want on it, and apply a new label to the cartridge.

Except you can't because it states they are wanting the original carts returned and providing a return shipping label in the process. So they are sending replacements and want the original carts back. Therefore, it does in essense make owning one of the original messed up carts now somewhat collectable since the question will be whom is actually willing to return their originals back to AtariXP? What will AtariXP do to those that decide to not send them back the originals? I assume they would charge for the replacements using whatever payment information they have on file for when the purchases were first made? But then, what if those people have changed bank accounts or the CCs they used are no longer valid? Hmmm?

Very cool! I've never been able to get my hands on the Sierra 3D Mini-golf or their Pinball games. But I do own Outpost. Sadly it is a very finicky game to get working these days and I've never managed to get it working on anything later than Win98. Even the various compatibility modes would just cause the app to crash on any other OS I've tried over the years so I've honestly never been able to play my CIB copy of the game LOL!

@Sabertooth That does look really good! I'd be concerned over time though of that paint on the cart getting scratched off over time. I've heard some reports of these carts being quite tight to fit in some consoles and as usual, 7800s. I can't vouch for this as my carts are still backwards on the PCB side so I'm using an extension to play them. But yeah, I could see at least the Atari logo over time easily getting scratched away.

Well, I might just use my heatgun on low heat to lift the labels and reverse the PCBs myself. And the labels are really poor looking compared to what we are used to from recent releases from AtariAge. Mine all have a very soft and semi washed out look to them with a lamination like effect on them that isn't the normal gloss we are used to. I do like that the boxes are standard Atari box sizes though because they do fit correctly in my box protectors.

Mine arrived a bit ago as well. I immediately opened them because the shrink wrap is so tight it was already starting to show bowing in all three boxes with two of them already having holes forming in the shrink due to stressing. So you really need to remove that shrink wrap unless you want the boxes crushing themselves badly over time. And yes... the PCBs are flipped around wrong inside the carts...

If they do that, I will be more inclined to actually try lifting the labels on the initial ones I get to fix them. Speaking of, I got my ship notification over the weekend and another notice that they are supposed to be delivered today. So I will find out soon. It seems the labels come up pretty easily with a hairdryer.

Same... so it looks like it was probably every single one of the SE carts has those PCBs in backwards. I still think they give an option to just ship out replacement labels so that we can crack em open ourselves to swap them right side round when we do get them. It would be the most cost effective solution for them. Although I'm sure they are likely going to just send out replacement carts to cover all the bases.

Still no notice of mine specific order being shipped. But as I also go SE releases I expect all three of mine to not work. From what I've seen on FB this morning, it seems all copies of the SE games have the PCB in backwards because the same fab house was putting together both editions. But because the LEs have the special cases and their labels are facing the players, the fab house thought it was the same for the SE releases. At least, that is the rumor/theory going around and it makes sense. If mine arrive and don't work, I do actually have a way to play them strangely enough. Since the carts can't be taken apart without possible damage to the labels, I can actually use my old 7800 high score cart to play these, because it is just an exposed cart port that sticks out the top. That would allow me to easily plug the carts in backwards to test. I have to defeat the dust doors to do it, but a clipped cotton bud is all I need for that. Will have to let everyone here know once mine come in. I do think that the cheapest solution for AtariXP is to just send out replacement labels to everyone affected so that those affected can just open the cart up and flip the PCB around and apply a new label.

My emails came from Atarixp support and not shopify. However, they have made changes since I placed my original order because the link in my original confirmation email for the order status, comes up to a dead link now. So .... who knows?!