CrossBow

Jag repro carts are a thing... I 'might' have one as an example so that I could see what the buzz was about for a particular game and wanted to play it on actual hardware.
 

There was a guy that ran an arcade repair business from his home. He had an airplane hangar on his property that was filled...FILLED with different arcade cabs along with some classic cars scattered in there. It was so full you had to climb up and over some of the machines to get to and see stuff in the back. But again...aircraft hangar so it wasn't exactly climate controlled. And even when I was visited him and saw this nearly 20 years ago, many of the cabs were already too far gone to be saved but he wouldn't get rid of them. 
He eventually left the business and moved away and I have NO idea what happened to it all because his property was bought just over 10 years ago and a housing edition built right up next to it. I think his house is still there but shows nature having taken it over and the hangar I believe was torn down. As it is private property I've never ventured onto it to see.
 

I've seen pics of groups of cabs left outside of building to just rot from the elements. And in the worst cases, I've seen photos of actual arcade guys that still operate machines and routes that have posted pics of bonfires they have built with cabs that weren't making them anymore money and they weren't willing to sell the cabs for cheap to get rid of them so... burn them instead. 
 
 

I've seen pics of groups of cabs left outside of building to just rot from the elements. And in the worst cases, I've seen photos of actual arcade guys that still operate machines and routes that have posted pics of bonfires they have built with cabs that weren't making them anymore money and they weren't willing to sell the cabs for cheap to get rid of them so... burn them instead. 
 
 

I've seen pics of groups of cabs left outside of building to just rot from the elements. And in the worst cases, I've seen photos of actual arcade guys that still operate machines and routes that have posted pics of bonfires they have built with cabs that weren't making them anymore money and they weren't willing to sell the cabs for cheap to get rid of them so... burn them instead. 
 
 

I've seen pics of groups of cabs left outside of building to just rot from the elements. And in the worst cases, I've seen photos of actual arcade guys that still operate machines and routes that have posted pics of bonfires they have built with cabs that weren't making them anymore money and they weren't willing to sell the cabs for cheap to get rid of them so... burn them instead. 
 
 

Jag repro carts are a thing... I 'might' have one as an example so that I could see what the buzz was about for a particular game and wanted to play it on actual hardware.
 

Jag repro carts are a thing... I 'might' have one as an example so that I could see what the buzz was about for a particular game and wanted to play it on actual hardware.
 

Got these two yesterday at Hallmark...

As there can be some confusion on how to install the UAV into a 4-switch NTSC 2600 console due to the variants that exist, I thought I would try and collate all of the basic information needed for installing the UAV into these model 2600s. While the different revisions do have some slight changes between them, in all cases the area where to get the signals needed for the UAV to work are located in the same basic locations. This is is not a comprehensive guide but more of a quick reference for those that already know how to open up the 2600 and are semi familiar with the layout inside of the 4-switch NTSC consoles.
 
UAV (Ultimate Atari Video) Layout:-
The UAV has basically remained the same on its design and layout since around 2017 when the current revision D was released. I only use the basic UAV board in all of my installs as I find that easier to wire to and provides me in more flexibility overall. Below is a diagram showing you the spots on the UAV you need to be concerned with on NTSC 2600 Installations. In all installs, the UAV will need to have power, ground, color signal, and a few other video signals provided to it for it to function properly. Take NOTE that you attach the signal wires for S, 1, 2, & 3 along the center and smaller vias on the UAV. If you have a pre-built UAV with a header block soldered here, just solder wiring to the tops of the header pins to make it easier.

 
Different revisions:-
The 4-switch NTSC consoles come in revisions starting with rev12 and ending up with rev17 that I've seen personally. Meaning there are variants in between but the good news is that there are really only about 3 different layouts for the components between all of these revisions in the area that we are concerned with for the UAV. Look around the top of the main board to see which Revision of the board you have so that you know which of the sections below to refer to for your UAV install.
 
 
Power, Ground and Audio:-
All revisions of the 4-switch NTSC consoles share the same points for power, ground, and audio that can be used for UAV installations. While the top board trace layouts look different in the areas below and the location of the RF output RCA jack is in different spots, the actual points are the same and in the same locations. I've provided pictures that show how this area is on the Rev 12 - 14 and Rev 16 & 17 models below.
 
 
Revision 12 & 13 NTSC TIA signal locations for UAV:-
The revision 12 and 13 NTSC consoles is pretty straightforward as the signals are all in a line from the main resistor section just to the right of the TIA chip. The signals for S, 1, 2, 3, & Co In are shown below. 

 
Revision 14 NTSC TIA signal locations for UAV:-
The revision 14 NTSC console layout is similar to the earlier revisions with the only change being where you grab the signal for connection 2 to the UAV. The signal points for S, 1, 2, 3, and Co In are shown below.

 
Revision 16 - 17 NTSC TIA signal locations for UAV:-
The revision 16 & 17 NTSC consoles have their signals in the same location as the Rev14 show above, with the one change being an extra 820Ω resistor that was added to the board layout that has to be disconnected from the circuit. This resistor is located directly right of the TIA and is marked as R234, although you cannot see the silkscreen indicating this until you lift the resistor out of place.  If you do not disable this resistor, you will end up with incorrect color hues on all colors from the UAV that cannot be adjusted out with the color trimmer. You can either clip the leg of the resistor, de-solder it, or remove the resistor completely. The signal points for S, 1, 2, 3, and Co In are shown in the picture below. The picture shows an alternate location for the S signal, but you can also get it from the same location as the Rev 14 in most cases.

 
UAV output colors appear horribly off kilter?
As mentioned in the Rev 16 & 17 section, there is an extra resistor on the main board that has to be disabled. While this resistor doesn't have a dedicated location on the earlier revision 4-switch NTSC consoles, it was sometimes added from the factory and therefore bodged into place. Look the presence of this resistor either on the bottom of the main board attached to pins 6 and 9 of the TIA chip, or possibly soldered on the top component side next to the TIA socket. In these cases, it is easiest to just clip the resistor on one leg to disable it without fully removing it. You might want to add shrink tubing or some other way to insulate the lifted/cut leg of the resistor so it can't short against anything.
 
UAV output wiring:-
The output side of the UAV is along the same point that you attached the TIA color signal wire to. All of your output signal jacks will require a connection for the signal output and also ground. What I usually do in my installs is to run a shared ground wire for both audio and composite video from the ground pin near the composite output on the UAV. I then run another second shared ground for the chroma and luma outputs for s-video using the ground pin between Co In and chroma out on the UAV outputs. The diagram below shows the S-video connections on the female s-video as viewed from the front of the s-video jack.

 
What about that blue box thing on the UAV, what is that for? :-
The blue box near the output side on the UAV is a trimmer adjustment for changing the way color artifacting looks through composite output. However, this trimmer has no impact when used on the 2600 console as it was mainly put into place for using the UAV on the Atari 8-bit computers where more games used NTSC artifacting.

I concur on this. I was looking online at other picstures of the super pong output and it appears that on CRTs it isn't nearly as saturated and blown out on the colors as what is shown above. That said, I did find another picture of the output on an LCD and it was similar to what the OP is getting. So my guess on this is that at least through RF, the signal for the colors is just going overboard on a modern display. Possible this might clear up and look closer to what you get on a CRT if you run it through a VCR and then use the composite output on the VCR to the TV or perhaps get the pong unit composite upgraded. Although that isn't something I'm versed in but I know it can be done.
 

As there can be some confusion on how to install the UAV into a 4-switch NTSC 2600 console due to the variants that exist, I thought I would try and collate all of the basic information needed for installing the UAV into these model 2600s. While the different revisions do have some slight changes between them, in all cases the area where to get the signals needed for the UAV to work are located in the same basic locations. This is is not a comprehensive guide but more of a quick reference for those that already know how to open up the 2600 and are semi familiar with the layout inside of the 4-switch NTSC consoles.
 
UAV (Ultimate Atari Video) Layout:-
The UAV has basically remained the same on its design and layout since around 2017 when the current revision D was released. I only use the basic UAV board in all of my installs as I find that easier to wire to and provides me in more flexibility overall. Below is a diagram showing you the spots on the UAV you need to be concerned with on NTSC 2600 Installations. In all installs, the UAV will need to have power, ground, color signal, and a few other video signals provided to it for it to function properly. Take NOTE that you attach the signal wires for S, 1, 2, & 3 along the center and smaller vias on the UAV. If you have a pre-built UAV with a header block soldered here, just solder wiring to the tops of the header pins to make it easier.

 
Different revisions:-
The 4-switch NTSC consoles come in revisions starting with rev12 and ending up with rev17 that I've seen personally. Meaning there are variants in between but the good news is that there are really only about 3 different layouts for the components between all of these revisions in the area that we are concerned with for the UAV. Look around the top of the main board to see which Revision of the board you have so that you know which of the sections below to refer to for your UAV install.
 
 
Power, Ground and Audio:-
All revisions of the 4-switch NTSC consoles share the same points for power, ground, and audio that can be used for UAV installations. While the top board trace layouts look different in the areas below and the location of the RF output RCA jack is in different spots, the actual points are the same and in the same locations. I've provided pictures that show how this area is on the Rev 12 - 14 and Rev 16 & 17 models below.
 
 
Revision 12 & 13 NTSC TIA signal locations for UAV:-
The revision 12 and 13 NTSC consoles is pretty straightforward as the signals are all in a line from the main resistor section just to the right of the TIA chip. The signals for S, 1, 2, 3, & Co In are shown below. 

 
Revision 14 NTSC TIA signal locations for UAV:-
The revision 14 NTSC console layout is similar to the earlier revisions with the only change being where you grab the signal for connection 2 to the UAV. The signal points for S, 1, 2, 3, and Co In are shown below.

 
Revision 16 - 17 NTSC TIA signal locations for UAV:-
The revision 16 & 17 NTSC consoles have their signals in the same location as the Rev14 show above, with the one change being an extra 820Ω resistor that was added to the board layout that has to be disconnected from the circuit. This resistor is located directly right of the TIA and is marked as R234, although you cannot see the silkscreen indicating this until you lift the resistor out of place.  If you do not disable this resistor, you will end up with incorrect color hues on all colors from the UAV that cannot be adjusted out with the color trimmer. You can either clip the leg of the resistor, de-solder it, or remove the resistor completely. The signal points for S, 1, 2, 3, and Co In are shown in the picture below. The picture shows an alternate location for the S signal, but you can also get it from the same location as the Rev 14 in most cases.

 
UAV output colors appear horribly off kilter?
As mentioned in the Rev 16 & 17 section, there is an extra resistor on the main board that has to be disabled. While this resistor doesn't have a dedicated location on the earlier revision 4-switch NTSC consoles, it was sometimes added from the factory and therefore bodged into place. Look the presence of this resistor either on the bottom of the main board attached to pins 6 and 9 of the TIA chip, or possibly soldered on the top component side next to the TIA socket. In these cases, it is easiest to just clip the resistor on one leg to disable it without fully removing it. You might want to add shrink tubing or some other way to insulate the lifted/cut leg of the resistor so it can't short against anything.
 
UAV output wiring:-
The output side of the UAV is along the same point that you attached the TIA color signal wire to. All of your output signal jacks will require a connection for the signal output and also ground. What I usually do in my installs is to run a shared ground wire for both audio and composite video from the ground pin near the composite output on the UAV. I then run another second shared ground for the chroma and luma outputs for s-video using the ground pin between Co In and chroma out on the UAV outputs. The diagram below shows the S-video connections on the female s-video as viewed from the front of the s-video jack.

 
What about that blue box thing on the UAV, what is that for? :-
The blue box near the output side on the UAV is a trimmer adjustment for changing the way color artifacting looks through composite output. However, this trimmer has no impact when used on the 2600 console as it was mainly put into place for using the UAV on the Atari 8-bit computers where more games used NTSC artifacting.

As there can be some confusion on how to install the UAV into a 4-switch NTSC 2600 console due to the variants that exist, I thought I would try and collate all of the basic information needed for installing the UAV into these model 2600s. While the different revisions do have some slight changes between them, in all cases the area where to get the signals needed for the UAV to work are located in the same basic locations. This is is not a comprehensive guide but more of a quick reference for those that already know how to open up the 2600 and are semi familiar with the layout inside of the 4-switch NTSC consoles.
 
UAV (Ultimate Atari Video) Layout:-
The UAV has basically remained the same on its design and layout since around 2017 when the current revision D was released. I only use the basic UAV board in all of my installs as I find that easier to wire to and provides me in more flexibility overall. Below is a diagram showing you the spots on the UAV you need to be concerned with on NTSC 2600 Installations. In all installs, the UAV will need to have power, ground, color signal, and a few other video signals provided to it for it to function properly. Take NOTE that you attach the signal wires for S, 1, 2, & 3 along the center and smaller vias on the UAV. If you have a pre-built UAV with a header block soldered here, just solder wiring to the tops of the header pins to make it easier.

 
Different revisions:-
The 4-switch NTSC consoles come in revisions starting with rev12 and ending up with rev17 that I've seen personally. Meaning there are variants in between but the good news is that there are really only about 3 different layouts for the components between all of these revisions in the area that we are concerned with for the UAV. Look around the top of the main board to see which Revision of the board you have so that you know which of the sections below to refer to for your UAV install.
 
 
Power, Ground and Audio:-
All revisions of the 4-switch NTSC consoles share the same points for power, ground, and audio that can be used for UAV installations. While the top board trace layouts look different in the areas below and the location of the RF output RCA jack is in different spots, the actual points are the same and in the same locations. I've provided pictures that show how this area is on the Rev 12 - 14 and Rev 16 & 17 models below.
 
 
Revision 12 & 13 NTSC TIA signal locations for UAV:-
The revision 12 and 13 NTSC consoles is pretty straightforward as the signals are all in a line from the main resistor section just to the right of the TIA chip. The signals for S, 1, 2, 3, & Co In are shown below. 

 
Revision 14 NTSC TIA signal locations for UAV:-
The revision 14 NTSC console layout is similar to the earlier revisions with the only change being where you grab the signal for connection 2 to the UAV. The signal points for S, 1, 2, 3, and Co In are shown below.

 
Revision 16 - 17 NTSC TIA signal locations for UAV:-
The revision 16 & 17 NTSC consoles have their signals in the same location as the Rev14 show above, with the one change being an extra 820Ω resistor that was added to the board layout that has to be disconnected from the circuit. This resistor is located directly right of the TIA and is marked as R234, although you cannot see the silkscreen indicating this until you lift the resistor out of place.  If you do not disable this resistor, you will end up with incorrect color hues on all colors from the UAV that cannot be adjusted out with the color trimmer. You can either clip the leg of the resistor, de-solder it, or remove the resistor completely. The signal points for S, 1, 2, 3, and Co In are shown in the picture below. The picture shows an alternate location for the S signal, but you can also get it from the same location as the Rev 14 in most cases.

 
UAV output colors appear horribly off kilter?
As mentioned in the Rev 16 & 17 section, there is an extra resistor on the main board that has to be disabled. While this resistor doesn't have a dedicated location on the earlier revision 4-switch NTSC consoles, it was sometimes added from the factory and therefore bodged into place. Look the presence of this resistor either on the bottom of the main board attached to pins 6 and 9 of the TIA chip, or possibly soldered on the top component side next to the TIA socket. In these cases, it is easiest to just clip the resistor on one leg to disable it without fully removing it. You might want to add shrink tubing or some other way to insulate the lifted/cut leg of the resistor so it can't short against anything.
 
UAV output wiring:-
The output side of the UAV is along the same point that you attached the TIA color signal wire to. All of your output signal jacks will require a connection for the signal output and also ground. What I usually do in my installs is to run a shared ground wire for both audio and composite video from the ground pin near the composite output on the UAV. I then run another second shared ground for the chroma and luma outputs for s-video using the ground pin between Co In and chroma out on the UAV outputs. The diagram below shows the S-video connections on the female s-video as viewed from the front of the s-video jack.

 
What about that blue box thing on the UAV, what is that for? :-
The blue box near the output side on the UAV is a trimmer adjustment for changing the way color artifacting looks through composite output. However, this trimmer has no impact when used on the 2600 console as it was mainly put into place for using the UAV on the Atari 8-bit computers where more games used NTSC artifacting.

The super pong units look like that normally? They have the different colors on different sides of the screen like you are showing.
 

I worked with Bob (PacManPlus) to get that done for Al. He supplied the special 3D printed case shell and I swapped everything into it with a UAV + mount board setup. He was showing Bob's games on it throughout the show. But that case is a one off special done for Al and AtariAge. I have a similar case shell with black bottom and red top with the Atari 7800 logo in the middle in black.
It also has Bob's Kiloparsec BIOS installed as well. The one I have is my lab test unit. But the shell was designed with AV upgrades in place as it already has nicely centered holes for RCAs and the half moon hole for the s-video jacks I use.
 

Easy...
Rebrand the channel as suggested, but you...yourself... you keep your identity as the 7800 Pro Gamer. So basically you introduce things as..
"Welcome to the Atari Network I'm the 7800 Pro Gamer...."
 

Well as everyone else is showing pics, I guess I better add some for what I was talking about or else it didn't happen right?
Here is a pic of my 2600 Parker protos for Star Wars:TAG (WIP), and what appears to be release candidate 1 for Gyruss. I've had these dumped and ST:TAG is different from the released games while Gyruss appears to be the exact same as the released game. Still I got these in the early '00s through Yahoo auctions back when that was still a thing.

 
As the labels are really hard to read now after over 40 years here are some zoomed in closeups with flash to make it easier to read the little label stickers on them. Starting with Gryuss...

Here is Star Wars:TAG and you can see it says WIP on the sticker indicating it isn't the final version and again, dumping it has shown differences in the game play slightly.

 
Here is a pic of the table top VFD games I mentioned. This isn't all that I own but are the ones that took me the longest to find for a good price.

 
And there here is a pic of the VCS emulator for the Jaguar that Bryan Edwaard wrote while working for Temporary Sanity Designs back in July 1995 along with photocopies of the ROM Release Form and a letter that talks about what might have been and ultimately didn't happen.

 
Oh..and I thought I would toss this in for good measure...

 

I don't have much in the way of coolest items in my collection, at least regarding rarity or uniqueness. But I do have some.
First is the stuff I asked Howard Scott Warshaw to sign at Free Play Florida last year.
Also, I have this prototype, or possibly loaner cart, of Ningen Heike: Dead Fox (aka Code Name: Viper) for the Famicom. Haven't been able to track down too much info on it.

Well as everyone else is showing pics, I guess I better add some for what I was talking about or else it didn't happen right?
Here is a pic of my 2600 Parker protos for Star Wars:TAG (WIP), and what appears to be release candidate 1 for Gyruss. I've had these dumped and ST:TAG is different from the released games while Gyruss appears to be the exact same as the released game. Still I got these in the early '00s through Yahoo auctions back when that was still a thing.

 
As the labels are really hard to read now after over 40 years here are some zoomed in closeups with flash to make it easier to read the little label stickers on them. Starting with Gryuss...

Here is Star Wars:TAG and you can see it says WIP on the sticker indicating it isn't the final version and again, dumping it has shown differences in the game play slightly.

 
Here is a pic of the table top VFD games I mentioned. This isn't all that I own but are the ones that took me the longest to find for a good price.

 
And there here is a pic of the VCS emulator for the Jaguar that Bryan Edwaard wrote while working for Temporary Sanity Designs back in July 1995 along with photocopies of the ROM Release Form and a letter that talks about what might have been and ultimately didn't happen.

 
Oh..and I thought I would toss this in for good measure...

 

Just adding ball tops to the controllers is enough to make them much more usable at that point! Highly recommended as I didn't care for the OG feel either.

Just adding ball tops to the controllers is enough to make them much more usable at that point! Highly recommended as I didn't care for the OG feel either.

Just adding ball tops to the controllers is enough to make them much more usable at that point! Highly recommended as I didn't care for the OG feel either.

Just adding ball tops to the controllers is enough to make them much more usable at that point! Highly recommended as I didn't care for the OG feel either.

Just adding ball tops to the controllers is enough to make them much more usable at that point! Highly recommended as I didn't care for the OG feel either.

Been wanting this one in the collection for a very long time.  It is just the disc and front manual but the disc is in good condition and I'm happy to have this regardless.