CrossBow

Shopify app? I ordered from AtariXP directly on the web and did so as Guest as I usually do. I rarely create accounts for stuff like this. So I got the notification about games shipping soon to my email I used when I placed my order.

I didn't receive an email stating my order had shipped, but I did receive an email last week from AtariXP stating that orders would begin shipping soon. But if I do get a specific one for my order of games, I'll update here.

Well, it is looking much better now and has much better video output to boot!

So is the owner. I'm surprised that the initial mod work that had been done, didn't cause more issues. But even in that pic I posted showing the old mod board in place, you can see that something doesn't look quite right with the cartridge slot on the far left side there. I just didn't notice it until I was pouring over the thing trying to diagnose what the issue was.

I'm not going to provide a ton of pics on this one because it just isn't needed. But I had been fighting with a 7800 that I've been servicing for a total of just over 12 hours in trying to figure out why it would only play 7800 games? If you put in a 2600 game, it would only give a black screen and not much else. If I put in my Plus+ cart, I could barely make out the plus cart logo on the screen as it would flicker all over. This told me that the 7800 was in fact switching over to 2600 mode properly or at least would appear to be in order for the plus cart to start loading up. But as you can see the picture is not correct and what you can't see in this static photo is that the image would only blink in and out quickly for me to see this. It took some doing to capture this frame on my PVM to show it. I first replaced some of the 3906 transistors that sit above the MARIA IC chip as I had one in the past with a similar issue and one of those had been the culprit. In the end, I ended up replacing all of the transistors on this board along with trying alternate ICs from my working test spares to isolate the issue. Nothing worked and I was about to toss in the towel and tell the owner that it would forever have to be a 7800 only console. Then in checking some traces (suspecting a bad trace somewhere), I happened to touch my meter probes to two of the pins on the cartridge port and was surprised when the metered 'beeped' at me?! None of those cartridge pin fingers should be touching unless a cartridge inserted is causing a connection to do so. In looking further, I could see a dull looking color in the bottom of the far left side of the 7800 cartridge slot. I thought it was paint because it was so flat and kinda dirty looking. I cleaned and cleaned with 99% IPA and contact cleaner and whatever it was just would not clean out of the slot. Eventually I use a sharp larger end of my soldering boring tool to poke and scrape and it came loose. After some mangling with my tweezers I managed to pull this out of the cartridge slot... It looks like a blob of solder, but in fact it is foil tape?! It is very similar to the tape used on the 2600 switches from Atari as part of the ESD protective measures. It is all twisted up here because of my scraping on it with my tool and using the tweezers to pull it out. But yes, this little bit of foil tape had gotten into the slot at some point in time (Prior to it being send to me), and was the issue. Removing it, removed the short on the cartridge pins and 2600 games now come up and work properly again. The reason 7800 games would work, is because when you inserted a 7800 cartridge into the slot, it would push the pins back enough to NOT make contact with the foil tape. But with out a 7800 cartridge inserted, the pins were all grounding out. This was confusing the 7800 and so it wasn't really switching fully to 2600 mode as it should have been. Basically, it was running 2600 code in 7800 mode so the clock signals were all out of whack as a result. This is why the video output was all goofed up. So the lesson here, is that you always need to check power first when encountering issues with a console, but be sure to look into the cartridge slots for any foreign debris as well. BTW... when the console first arrived to me, this is what I found inside. It came to me in power on but otherwise non working condition. I wonder why?

Just wanted to give those that might be curious, an idea on part of what my project has been lately that has taken up much of my time as of late. These photos show 13 different 2600s that I recently serviced and installed UAVs into along with all the needed AV jacks installed as required by the client. An no...these do NOT have two sets of audio outputs. The red/white on the left rear next to the 4-pin s-video mini din, is actually separate chroma/luma connections. This is handy for connecting to older monitors that only had RCA jacks for s-video connections. The yellow & white/red on the right rear are the composite and dual mono audio outputs. I figured the easiest way to keep it separated given the RCA colors I can get, would have been to keep the s-video all one side and the rest to the other. Most of these consoles are revision 13 with a few 12s, 14, and even one revision 16 in there. UAVs install pretty much in the same manner regardless of revision with the only difference being a few changes on where some of the video signals are tapped from due to changes in the PCB trace designs. Last is a pic of 1 of a few 7800s that are also part of this project. The first 7800 is essentially done minus the av jacks and wiring for it. But this is essentially what a 'works' upgraded 7800 from the ITC looks like these days. It has new front panel switches, new capacitors, a new dc-dc switching regulator in place of the linear voltage regulator, a Kiloparsec BIOS upgrade, and a UAV installed on top of one of my mount boards I designed a few months back.

The UAV is only more complicated in some installs compared to others. The normal process for a sixer and other consoles with the 4050 buffer on them, is to install the UAV onto a socket that you either replace the 4050 with, or in the case of the sixers you have to solder the socket to the top of the 4050 IC. The 4050 in the sixers also controls part of the fire button trigger signals so it is critical in these older 2600s to keep it in circuit. The point being, you can purchase predone plug in versions of the UAV. (They cost more of course), but then you only have to solder in the socket and then just plug the UAV into the socket and run your output wires. As for the quality of the output. The composite output is more consistent and of a better quality than most of the other composite only kits I've seen. The s-video is where the UAV really shines. However, the UAV was originally designed for the 8-bit computer line and as such, the color output from the UAV on the 2600 and 7800 isn't quite 100% accurate. But most people are not going to notice this. An example is that that some shades of green will appear much darker through the UAV than normal. A really good example of this, is the game Pitfall! where the tree trunks are a brown color through RF and most other kits but due to how the colors are handled and processed through the UAV, the tree trunks look more black. A small price to pay. I also make the argument that using the plug in version isn't as friendly because you still have to set the jumpers to the right position and can be goofed up, plus the extra cost I'm not sure saves me that much more time compared to just soldering in a few wires and having more flexibility in how I install it. I do use the KIT version for the 5200 installs as that does save quite a bit of time. But I purchase the DIY kit vs predone as I only use the socket, PCB interconnect header pins, and the terminal block for the output wiring. I do NOT install the jumper header block as it is MUCH easier to just solder a few jumper leads to create the jumpers I need vs all 20 of the tiny pins for the header block. The point of the header block is to allow you to swap the UAV into other consoles, but I'm not likely to do that. Removing it and reinstalling it just weakens the socket connections so I just buy them and keep them in the consoles I set them up for. The UAV really isn't that difficult to install. The easiest mistake I see made (Because I still do it myself from time to time), is soldering the wrong wire from the UAV to the resistors or soldering the wiring on he UAV to the outside vias vs the inside vias as they could be marked a little better to let people know. Even just putting small circles around the vias as silkscreen would help with that. But I can't make design changes to the UAV.

The process to install the UAV into a heavy or light sixer is pretty well known and documented. In summary you basically set the jumpers on the UAV for the 2600 setup and then solder a socket ontop of the 4050 IC chip and header pins into the UAV and plug it into the socket. Job done... However, there is a caveat to this method that doesn't become apparently until you find yourself moving consoles around a lot. And when I mean moving the consoles, I mean as in them being packed up, stacked up, put away into storage, shipped about...etc. Or let us say...for convention use. What happens is that all the jostling and movement of the console overtime will cause the UAV to walk about of the socket and come loose. Once this happens, the socket is essentially worn out and it will have more often. The solution is to direct wire solder in the UAV to alternate points and then affix the UAV in a way that isn't as likely to come loose over time. The solution I came up with recently, was to use the empty space on the PCB where originally Atari had planned to install a built in game on the console. There is space and markings where a 4k ROM would have been installed on the sixer PCBs for this purpose that was never used. So that provides a nice flat area to attach the UAV with double adhesive tape or what I use which, is 3M Dual Lock fasteners. Basically plastic industrial grade velcro like reels that can hold up to 10LBs of weights supposedly before coming separated. More then enough for a little ole UAV. The adhesive that is used on the Dual Lock stuff is also crazy strong if you clean the surface well before hand. To attach to the UAV is trickier because the UAV doesn't have a smooth surface on it that is really large enough. This is due to the UAV having components installed on both sides of the PCB, plus the wiring etc that is also needed. To help get around this, I've been buying 3/4" shrink tubing that I can get very cheaply locally and sliding it over the UAV after my initial wiring to it is done to provide me with a much smoother and consistent surface area for the other dual lock velcro to attach to. This install required the use of the basic version of the UAV that doesn't require jumpers to be set as it is all direct wire. The wiring on the sixer might not be consistent across the heavy and light as I only had this heavy on hand currently. But it turns out that 4 of the 5 connections needed for the UAV can actually be wired and soldered to empty unused vias on the main board. Even better, is that these alternate vias (I think they were test points), are very close to where the UAV sits and provides some pretty direct runs keeping everything nice and tidy. The pic below shows three unused vias right in a line above the disc capacitor marked as C210 on the board. From left to right these vias connect to TIA pins 2,7, and 8. If you look at C210, you will see an unused solder pad directly right of it. It is between the markings for C210 and R208. That is where you can tap audio from as it is directly connected to pins 12 & 13 off the TIA. You will see another unused via just off to the side of R214 below. That connects directly to TIA pin 5. Finally, you need a connection for the TIA color signal. That can be had easily from soldering a wire to the right leg of R212 as oriented in this picture below. Now, something to keep in mind is that on these older 2600s and on later 4 switchers, (possibly the jrs?). Atari would add in an 800ish Ω resistor to help with color saturation. However, this resistor will cause the colors to look way off in most cases through the UAV and has to be removed from the circuit. It is located essentially between the pin 6 and 9 positions below the TIA chip on the main board at location R213. What I usually do is to just de-solder and lift the right leg of this resistor as that is also tied directly to pin 9 of the TIA. So you could use this solder pad for the color signal as well but it would require a longer wire to route down there. Power and ground can be had from several places. I ended up using one of the unused vias for the non-existent 4k ROM for ground. Power was possible from here also, but would have been in the way of my UAV board installing nice so I took the +5v off the bottom leg of R207 just left of where I placed the UAV. Again these points were chosen to keep all wiring to short runs. Shorter wires help with minimizing signal loss and keeping the UAV board in place over time. And that is pretty much it. I should also mention that if wire length isn't a concern, then with the exception of audio and the power and ground connections, all of the other points mentioned can also be tapped from the resistor legs mounted below the TIA. I don't recall which is which right now, but I know that all of the TIA connections can be had from them also. Just requires longer wires to route around the TIA to those resistors. It is also possible to mount the UAV on the bottom of the pcb using strong double adhesive tape and then just solder the wires directly to the legs of the TIA. But you would have to make sure you are using the basic version of the UAVs for such an install and it would require likely drilling a hole on the side of the RF housing box for your output wires to come through. You will see in the overview pic below of the UAV installed, that my output wires go under the cartridge slot and out the back. That is because the housing has some thin slot openings on the top and bottom allowing wiring to come through. It might require having to file the metal down a bit to opening the gap but might not require it depending on how the housing for the 2600 was done. I might create an install video that essentially tries to cover UAV installs in the sixers and 4 switch units in the future as a single all in one video. While solder points are varied across the different revisions of the console, there is enough similarity that I think a single install video with pauses and different sections for the different revisions is possible. Have to think about that...

I tested the crap outta this game. It was fun to find all the initial exploits that of course were removed from the final version of the game. As an example, in earlier builds of the game, it was possible to get the wizard boss stuck on his tree in the center of his arena screen and then use the lightning to take him out since the lightning had the ability to go through obstacles to take out enemies. So I used it to stay safe on the other side of walls and the like. I believe in the end the lightning was made to be much less effective through walls and a second tree was added to the center of the arena to prevent the wizard boss from getting stuck and so you couldn't spam him with lightning through the obstacle. Fun game but after playing it so much during testing I did get burnt out a bit on it and haven't played it as much since.

I don't own this one from Kristoff, but I do own Vector Pilot and Vector Patrol and they are amazing games on the Vectrex!

6 months? Nah... I should be able to get back to offering normal services again not long after PRGE.

I bought this kit a few months back as a pre-order and had to wait since I wanted a different colored shell. But the kit allows you to use a donor GBA mainboard from a standard GBA and essentially turn it into a small console to play your games on a modern big screen display using an SNES controller. Here are thoughts on this: The small ribbon cable that has to be soldered to the GBA CPU is tricky and requires a lot of patience to get soldered into place. The pitch of the soldering is quite fine and I had to use my 10x loupe to verify the connections and check for and remove any bridges I found (There were quite a few). The ribbon cable is designed and marked to help you line everything up. It has a nice center GND you solder down at the corner of the CPU to help anchor the ribbon in place. There are also markings showing where pin 1 and pin 127 should be lined up. However, the first time I tried this, I actually had the left hand side of the ribbon where pin 127 is one pin off. Due to the way this ribbon is designed it is possible to have one side perfectly lined up but the other side be too high or too low allowing for a 1 pin offset as I had initially. No damage done as it just meant my controls weren't working initially. But it did require me to carefully undo and remove the ribbon completely so I could clean up everything, re-align it and do it again. This picture below is of the final and successful placement of the ribbon on the CPU. The kit comes with a 3d printed case shell. You can choose from the colors they already have on hand and available if you are in a hurry or you can specify the color you want. I do have to complain about this part because they don't list all the colors in their order page and only stated that with a custom color, you specify. However, there isn't a comment section or anything in which to specify this?! What I did and apparently this worked, was when I made my payment via PayPal for the kit, I specified that I waned a purple case shell if possible otherwise red would be good. But again, they didn't have a list of the colors they can do anywhere so I was guessing they could accommodate my choice. They did as do have a purple case shell for my kit. The fitment of the case was great as it initially arrives already pieced together without the screws in its own bag. However, once everything was assembled I found quite a few issues. For one, the GBA mainboard doesn't line up flush with the edges of the case shell so everything is recessed inward about a 1mm or so. This isn't a huge problem, but it doesn't look as finished as it could. The holes on the inside for screwing everything down into place doesn't allow for any adjustment so it is what it is. I also found that the openings for the ports on the back are a tad on the too small side of things. But since it doesn't sit flush anyway, this doesn't matter that much. It did come with two power buttons I can choose from. A grey solid printed button, or a white semi translucent one. I chose the white hoping it would allow the LED on the GBHD board to shine through. Spoiler...it doesn't. However, the main GBHD FPGA board does seem to sit more flush with the front side of the case so there is that. The sticker comes in the kit and is an optional thing you can apply. I sprayed off the top of the case with some 99% IPA to make sure it was a clean surface before applying the sticker on mine. I think I got it lined up pretty well for eyeballing it. So...what about the output and overall thoughts? To sum up...it is outstanding! The way the kit works is that the GBA main board is only used to provide the logic for reading the game and handling the controls. The LCD driver on the GBA main board is what is providing the video output to the GBHD FPGA board that provides the final output. As a result, you remove the battery terminals and the speaker off the GBA main board as they are NOT needed and take up additional space. In fact, on some of the other GBA console kits, you have to make sure to put the GBA power switch in the on position, but because of the way this kit work, it is providing voltage directly to the CPU when you power it on. As such, the power switch and volume wheel have no use or function anymore since all of that is bypassed. In fact, the audio comes straight off the CPU pins and is handled by the GBHD board itself. In a nutshell the GBHD FPGA board is really doing the heavy lifting for the video/audio output and as the interface for the controller input on the front. Audio is an issue for some as I've been told it isn't compatible with all setups. This is because the audio appears to be handled as PCM analog through the HDMI and I guess newer TVs and AV receivers don't support that? My AV receiver in the game room is 10 years old and not only does it support PCM audio, but supports up to 96khz PCM so I had NO issues with this on my AV setup. Once installed, the kit allows you to pull up a simple to use OSD for changing a few things on the video display. It defaults to output at 720p and this is really the most compatible and best looking option as it provides about a 4x scaling from the GBAs original resolution. It has different modes to control the aspect of the image from proper integer scaling (Default) to stretching to fit your widescreen or a setting of in between with a little stretching and some minor borders around the edge. It has an option to compensate for overscan and this was needed on my TV in the lab area but not required on my main TV in the game room. You can also choose what color you want the border to be if you so desire. There are options for LCD grid like effects and scanlines. These look okay but I'm not a fan of either when playing on my big screens. There is also some filters but I honestly think they made the output look worse on my modern TVs. My guess is they are there to help provide a better look if you use this with other equipment to play on a CRT but that is just a guess. My kit came with Firmware v4 pre-loaded and apparently was assembled back in June of this 2022. I do see via where something like a jtag header could be soldered in but do NOT see or know of a way to update the firmware in the future. It might be possible this is something that could be implemented in the future using flash carts? But that is only speculation. How does it look? Well here is a quick 1min video of it in action with the game Iridion II since I had that handy for testing. I used my phone to get this so it isn't direct capture but you get the idea.

Couldn't help it... I was trying to take a break from the iron for a few days after a lot of work I've been doing lately, but wanted to see this in action so... I did this last night. I will provide more thoughts on it in a blog but here is some pics and a quick video: Front and Back of the completed kit: There is only a little bit of soldering involved, but it requires lots of flux and patience as it requires soldering to very fine pitch pins off the GBA CPU directly. My first attempt the controls weren't working. Found out I had soldered the ribbon cable 1 pin off on the left side of the CPU and had to undo and remove it, re-align it, and solder it back down. And of course a quick 1min video when I was testing it all put together on one of my test TVs in the lab area:

Here are few recent pickups for me.... First is that I've had the game for at least a month now but hadn't posted any pics of it. However, the CD with the alternate soundtrack on it I just got late last week in the mail. If you didn't know, the game supports the ability to play back music from music CDs if you have a SegaCD attached and working. So having this awesome alternate soundtrack from Anders Jensen is really the best version of the game you can play currently. At least, until the even more awesome Pokey enabled 7800 version is released at PRGE! I mentioned this in another thread here not too long ago but finally received it in the mail today. I don't know when I will have time to put this together, but I will be sure to give my thoughts on it when I do! Last for now is that I have to state just how impressed I am with this release! I ordered this back in Nov of last year from Castlemania games but it did arrive late last week and it is crazy impressive! This is the game Gaiares which, was re-issued as a special set of which several places were selling it. Compared to most releases like this, it was a bargain at just under $70 shipped. The game comes with a t-shirt like from the original ad back in the day that you specify the size you want, it comes with a reversible insert on the clamshell with either the original US release artwork or much better Japanese artwork etc. Here are individual pics of this great re-issue. The cartridge is actually a transparent smoke colored shell with a foil label featuring the JPN artwork once again and is overall very high quality. Pics can't do the foil justice. The clamshell features a slip cover that is actually very detailed again with the JPN artwork on it but also with raised relief on it?! Again, the picture doesn't capture this. The back of the slip cover features several screenshots from the in game cutscenes and they are printed in very high detail on the back. They are also raised relief on these individual shots?! This pic kinda shows that with how you can see the slight shadowing off the edges of the pictures etc. So yeah overall just a very impressive re-issue for this great shooter on the Genesis. I own the original as a loose cart only so getting it in this official reissue as a new complete package is awesome!

One recent pickup that isn't gaming related recently is this: I've not put it together as again, I have no where for it to go. But there wasn't anyway I was going to let this set get past me. Here are few more pics of the box as aside from that 90 years of play bit in the corner, they pretty much nailed the classic space box look from the late 70s early 80s.

Curious how many of the pieces have actual printing on them vs stickers? I was shocked when I found out that the new Galaxy Explorer is all printed pieces with not a single sticker in use. But this set I'm guessing will have a lot of stickers as I just can't see them printing all of the designs seen onto the bricks. That would make them crazy unique to this set and LEGO don't typically do that. I just couldn't bring myself to spend the money, especially when I really don't have anywhere for it to go.

Did he explain what the VR is for? Again, there is only +5 coming off the controller port in the first place? Does this VR regulator +5 down to +3? That would make sense if the parts used are only 3v parts? I just can't imagine there is enough omph through the +5 on the controller ports to power a VR?

Yeah... good point @Atari 5200 Guy about the regulator? The ports only provide +5 to begin with so I can't see how that regulator would be doing anything?

Here is the official website for Printerboy's console covers currently. Looks like 5200 covers are there again. I think I only purchased his PS3, PS4 Pro, SNESjr, and Zelda Wii-U console covers. https://printerboy.net/category/dustcover/atari/

Pretty sure that is a printerboy cover he has there. I've got a few of them but still prefer my covers done my Barb that adorn most of my consoles. I only have printerboy covers for the ones that Barb didn't offer a cover for and isn't likely to in the future.

Sadly I no longer have any of my original sets from when I was a kid. However, my step-dad asked me multiple times to come and pick them up way back when. If you look closely at the top first pic between the Falcon and the Robie House you will see a small 80s era space ship that is mainly white with grey and has he blue canopy for the cockpit? That is a design from the original classic Starfleet Voyager set that was released in the early 80s. I actually had that set when I was kid and kept the box an everything back then. But... again I never retrieved it from my Dad's so the one in my current collection is another one that I got CIB about 10 years ago. To my surprise I was able to remember how I build that ship again from when I was kid from the original set. It is actually a copy of one of the alternate ships they have as only a picture on the back of the box as a guide to use. I've added some pieces to it since but yeah. That is the oldest one there and most like what I had as a kid. Anyway, there are a few other LEGO creations scattered about the house but the top of my computer desk is where the bulk of them sit.

I posted this over on a similar thread at AA yesterday, but thought I would share it here too. This is where the bulk of my LEGO sets I do have put together are located. This is actually along the top of a long executive credenza made back in the 80s that I use as my computer desk center. Some Hotwheels and Transformers in these pics but yeah... no room for something as large as this 2600 LEGO set I'm afraid. I also have the large R2-D2 set that sits on a shelf that wasn't shown in the pic but yeah... no room!!!

I'm not a prime member, but Amazon has one of their very large distro warehouses just a hour or so from where I live. There is also another large distro facility in a suburb town right next to my city. Point is, I just placed an order for some things middle of last week, and they all arrived Saturday just 3 days later. Because of similar experiences like this in the past, I've not really seen the need to become a prime member LOL!

To be fair..the other sets I have still in the box is the Saturn V, The ISS, and my most recent pickup.. the Tallneck set from the game Horizon Zero Dawn.

So as the title states, I'm temporarily suspending my console services for repairs, refurbs, and upgrades until about the fall timeframe. This is to ensure I have plenty of time to work on a large project that has a strict timeline. Anyone that has already sent their systems to me will still receive their service requests and will take priority to get them done quickly. But for others, I'd rather hold off and have them wait because I'm not comfortable with my client's systems sitting at the ITC for what could be a few months. I do apologize for those that might have been holding off and wanting services done, but rest assured I will be able to provide services again in a few months to the general public. Thank you for your understanding and if you have any questions, do feel free to contact me. -J. Hardesty Ivory Tower Collections