dgrubb

@ dgrubb
 
I know, what you mean with your thoughts about AvP. But compare Cybermorph on cartridge with Battlemorph on CD and you know, what i mean.
And i like Cybermorph very much!

Thank you for bumping this.  I have an Amiga now, but wasn't sure which games I should focus on. 

I was a big Amiga fan in the late 90s, right after Commodore imploded and PCs took over the world entirely. As this was prior to the retro-scene explosion old Amiga kit was perceived as worthless and very easy to find at car boot sales, junk shops and the like for next to nothing. Consequently, I was able to get my hands on a bunch of 500s, 500+s, a 600 and a 1200 (sadly, sold off when I moved to the US).

Stunning machines, even back then. True pre-emptive multitasking OS on a consumer mid-80s machine was practically unheard of, for instance.
 
My favourites, in no particular order:
 
Syndicate
Civilization
Worms
Zool
Ruff N' Tumble
Elite (and its sequel, Frontier)
Alien Breed
Secret of Monkey Island II
Beneath a Steel Sky
Historyline

I usually keep mine at around 350C, and even that may be a little high for the older solder alloys used in the late-70s.
 
 
This is sound advice, especially with the anxiety this has been causing you recently.

I usually keep mine at around 350C, and even that may be a little high for the older solder alloys used in the late-70s.
 
 
This is sound advice, especially with the anxiety this has been causing you recently.

Thanks for the advice guys. I do have a Hakko soldering station with digital controls. What is the temperature in Celcius I should set it at? And you're right I probably did have the iron on too long on some of those spots. A solder sucker wasn't working so I tried desoldering braid after applying some liquid flux to the board. I was still having trouble for some reason. My station was set to 600C I believe. The tip was tinned and working but I still had a hard time removing some of those solder points. Some came quick, others didn't. You can probably tell the ones I struggled with

Forgot to add a few more things about this.
 
when you do get those traces repaired if any are broken, then the areas where you scraped off the solder mask, you need to use some clear nail polish or super clue to coat over the exposed traces. If you don't you leave the copper open to corrosion and that will lead to more issues down the line. I actually just use a thin coat of solder ontop of exposed traces as long as there isn't a risk of anything shorting across it. 
 
Anytime you are de-soldering something and you remove the solder and it doesn't come free easily, you need to add more solder and try and remove it again. For really stubborn old joints I usually add a bit of solder to the top and bottom of board where the component goes through to make sure it all mixes in well before I try and remove it.
 
De-soldering ICs isn't the easiest thing so these things happen. Just be patient and methodical about it and you will get better over time. For practice, pick up old electronics from computer stores tossing out stuff that aren't recycling it properly, or hit up your local thrift stores for cheap older electronics like old radios and the like that obviously look like they won't work for a couple of bucks. Good way to get the experience you need without feeling bad about butchering it up, and you will likely salvage some parts you might just need in the future.
 
Also this is what I do to fix these old ribbon cables that start to come apart. And you really should replace it or do something about it, because the inner traces could potentially short against each other if you were to bump it while it was on. There is voltage in those traces going to the main logic in the fear cage box that it hides in. Funny thing here is that I actually machine pin headers for this. Also this repair was on an Intellivision I fixed for someone else as they had hosed up the ribbon cable pretty badly in trying to do their own repairs.
 

Ouch, the poor board! Don't worry though, nothing a little TLC won't take care of.
 
A few comments:
 
1) Despite the scratches on the soldermask I think the traces beneath are still intact, although it's hard to tell with some of the light glare. Do a continuity test to make sure. If you're feeling a bit brave there are compounds you can get for filling in soldermask pretty cheaply.
 
2) Do you have a temperature control on your soldering iron? A lot of the grunginess looks like burning from excess heat, possibly from the iron being applied for too long. Aside from the aesthetics this can be a bit of a concern because too much heat will remove the solder pads from the board, which is a very tricky thing to repair. Make sure you're using a solder tip which you're comfortable controlling the amount of heat transfer so you're not having to apply it for too long. On these older boards the solder alloy has a lower melting point than modern solder (more lead ) so a soft touch is all you need.
 
3) When you remount the chips use a socket mount instead. That way if you do make a mistake you you're only risking a cheap 50c part and make repairs down the line easier when you need to swap ICs in and out.
 
4) You should probably clean those pads with a touch of alcohol, to get some of the burn smear off, and then re-tin each pad (make sure you're using flux!) before attempting to solder onto them again. Also, a touch of flux on your solder braid will work wonders too.
 
5) Regarding the holes with legs still stuck: there's still solder inside the hole which is just enough to keep it stuck. Don't force it! Turn the board on its side, apply heat gently from one side and just push through something like a resistor leg from the other side to eject the fragment.
 
6) As I think about the last point it also occurs that you may not have good lighting and magnification available? Both will save you a lot of hassle as you'll see things you wouldn't otherwise.

Yes! At work I'm right in the middle of producing a small batch of our upcoming product for a customer pilot and you wouldn't believe the issues we're having with static. Even just leaving exposed boards out on a table is a bad idea as the AC is pushing dry air around them. I've had to order special anti-static storage bags to house the boards until the cases arrive.

Carpet and cold dry temperatures, yeah there is not a day that goes by I am not get strong static shocks, all I can say is I ground myself by touching the wall before I touch anything that matters to me including my wife lol. 

What dgrubb said. Also if you aren't already, you need to actually add a bit of fresh solder to a joint before trying to remove it. This helps breakdown the corrosion on the old solder that can make it holds it shape a bit more than you want and not make it wet properly for removal. Also you will need to get a basic meter and check the continuity between those pins and where the traces look to go on the next nearest component. If any are broken, you can use speaker wire a.k.a. kynar wire to solder to the pad where the trace is suppose to go to and to the leg of the component that it came from. I've had to do this a few times when corrosion from old batteries or when a solder pad has come loose on me while working on stuff. 
 
I will say that a decent de-soldering station is a must for anyone that will be doing lots of this kind of work. I didn't use one of years and when I finally got one for father's day several years back, well...it has made a HUGE world of difference!

Ouch, the poor board! Don't worry though, nothing a little TLC won't take care of.
 
A few comments:
 
1) Despite the scratches on the soldermask I think the traces beneath are still intact, although it's hard to tell with some of the light glare. Do a continuity test to make sure. If you're feeling a bit brave there are compounds you can get for filling in soldermask pretty cheaply.
 
2) Do you have a temperature control on your soldering iron? A lot of the grunginess looks like burning from excess heat, possibly from the iron being applied for too long. Aside from the aesthetics this can be a bit of a concern because too much heat will remove the solder pads from the board, which is a very tricky thing to repair. Make sure you're using a solder tip which you're comfortable controlling the amount of heat transfer so you're not having to apply it for too long. On these older boards the solder alloy has a lower melting point than modern solder (more lead ) so a soft touch is all you need.
 
3) When you remount the chips use a socket mount instead. That way if you do make a mistake you you're only risking a cheap 50c part and make repairs down the line easier when you need to swap ICs in and out.
 
4) You should probably clean those pads with a touch of alcohol, to get some of the burn smear off, and then re-tin each pad (make sure you're using flux!) before attempting to solder onto them again. Also, a touch of flux on your solder braid will work wonders too.
 
5) Regarding the holes with legs still stuck: there's still solder inside the hole which is just enough to keep it stuck. Don't force it! Turn the board on its side, apply heat gently from one side and just push through something like a resistor leg from the other side to eject the fragment.
 
6) As I think about the last point it also occurs that you may not have good lighting and magnification available? Both will save you a lot of hassle as you'll see things you wouldn't otherwise.

A special THANK YOU to everyone here   

This is very likely. The main reason for the multiplexer chips on the 5200 dying as well as the main controller chips for the colecovision controllers dying is due to static. The act of plugging in the controllers, can cause a static discharge from your skin on your fingers to the pins on the controllers. This is why the 4 switch 2600s have that foil tape between the switches and grounded to the RF shielding enclosure. I believe there is also a service bulletin for the 2600 where field repair techs were supposed to install diodes off a controller pin to ground to prevent damage to the TIA via static discharge. It was because of static from people just touching the switches and while plugging in controllers. If you're going to be working on electronics and especially anything older than the past decade, you need to have a static wrist strap that at minimum is attached to the ground on the system you are working on. Ideally you are supposed to be attached to an isolated ground just to make absolutely sure, but yes, if you notice in my videos and especially my latest one, I use a static wrist strap to prevent potential for ESD damage to occur.

Yes! At work I'm right in the middle of producing a small batch of our upcoming product for a customer pilot and you wouldn't believe the issues we're having with static. Even just leaving exposed boards out on a table is a bad idea as the AC is pushing dry air around them. I've had to order special anti-static storage bags to house the boards until the cases arrive.

Well try not to get too stressed over it, after all we ARE dealing with some 30+ year old systems now and it is not always easily to pinpoint exactly what the issues are. IC's, solder joints and PSU's have served for many years and prone to failures. That said as well, I turned 50 TODAY and I am definitely at a different place, I always been a tinkerer, one to experiment but I think I am past most of that now, not saying I WONT do anymore of it but I think I like the idea of just enjoying and expanding on areas of my collection that currently work well. I don't think I want to get too much beyond more "creative" type modding like maybe painting a case that has sever yellowing or something, I think anything more serious I just want to phase out and pass on to those who are more likely and better equipped to restore and satisfy people who enjoy repairing more.  
 
Anyway Atarileaf if I may say you brought ME and I am sure many with your retro videos for years, do what makes you happy, just be patient and think it through before doing anything to drastic, you don't owe anyone anything so do what you need to to ensure your enjoyment of the hobby! 

In addition to what others have stated above...I'd add the following.  Most of these things we play with aren't terribly valuable.  For example, they made MILLIONS of Atari 2600's, and you can find one working for $30.  They do break, and if they aren't fixable, then you have spare parts for the next time or for a friend that needs parts.  I say use em and have fun.  If they break, they break.  Save up if you must and buy a replacement. 
 
That being said, I've been known to sell of the stuff I'm afraid to touch for the reasons you mention.  Example:  Milton Bradley Microvision.  They cost a lot, aren't really that fun, and will almost certainly break at some point.  No fun?  SOLD. 
 
Some expensive stuff I love.  I play it.  Even if it may break.  Vectrex and Virtual Boy are my examples here.  I play them.  I love them.  If they break...well, at least I had fun with them.
 
And more:  Most of the stuff you end up trying to fix is broken to begin with, so don't stress out if you fail in your attempt.  It's OK.  It's replaceable.  You learned for the next time.  Not really related, but it reminds me of CPR training...the first thing they teach you is that a person that's stopped breathing is dead.  Don't be afraid to attempt CPR because you can't do more harm to the person. 
 
We are all friends here.  If you need something, ask.  I try to help in repairs whenever I can, or in providing cheap parts if I have them.  Or even replacement consoles if I know someone is going to keep and play them. 
 
It's ok, too, to take short breaks from the hobby.  But like all things in life, don't let it be due to fear.  Life is too short to worry about "stuff". 
 
And one final little tiny bit of advice -- I always use a surge suppressor with my consoles.  Just a tiny bit of insurance against power spikes. 

Big fan of your channel BTW. 
 
I'm mostly concerned about Atari's as they're my primary love. It seems I'm having bad luck the last year of so with chips or parts dying like IC's getting fried, ram or other chips on 800XL's going, buttons on 7800 consoles or XEGS's, etc.
 
I'm wondering if it's me who's causing the problem, especially now. My gameroom is carpet, I shuffle around in socks and it's winter with cold dry air. I wonder if I should being wearing an antistatic wrist strap or something when I touch consoles. Maybe that's what happened yesterday when I apparently killed a chip or chips in a six switch I was working on. Maybe I killed it with static electricity. 
 
On a side note, the Keystone Kapers I was using to test the RF picture with is also dead from what happened. A previously working copy absolutely will not work on any other 2600 I've tried it on no matter how much I clean it. I've never heard of a game frying from a console dying but I have no other explanation.

I've been blogging my progress on building a USB adapter for the Atari Jaguar controller: http://forums.atari.io/index.php/blog/13-hacking-with-atari/
 
Once finished I posted about it in the Jaguar Code & Dev Facebook group and got enough positive response about making a batch to set up a Kickstarter campaign. It'll run until March 1st and I'm only one more pledge away from reaching the break even point where it becomes worth it to order components.
 
For many of you who own full Jaguar setups it's a little redundant, but it's been very useful for enabling better play with emulators. It's also kind of fun to be able to just chuck a controller in my laptop bag and play while traveling.
 
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1620728577/jaguar-usb-tap

A whole year! I can get a lot done in that kind of time.
Get some Jaguar code up and running, first rB+ and then maybe a little native assembler. Take on another hardware project, possibly something which interfaces directly with the Jaguar. Finish up my 2600 in an SoC emulator. It's largely complete, but I need a chip fast enough and with the right peripheral interfaces to run the emulator and keep up with NTSC pixel clock timings. There's a few candidate chips I'm looking at with some new Nucleo dev boards coming out this month which I'll pick up soon. Experiment with Rust as a language for writing perfomant emulators in. Actually play a game.

My biggest goal for this year is to fix my consoles instead of breaking them. 

A whole year! I can get a lot done in that kind of time.
Get some Jaguar code up and running, first rB+ and then maybe a little native assembler. Take on another hardware project, possibly something which interfaces directly with the Jaguar. Finish up my 2600 in an SoC emulator. It's largely complete, but I need a chip fast enough and with the right peripheral interfaces to run the emulator and keep up with NTSC pixel clock timings. There's a few candidate chips I'm looking at with some new Nucleo dev boards coming out this month which I'll pick up soon. Experiment with Rust as a language for writing perfomant emulators in. Actually play a game.

You can verify the ribbon cable with the continuity check setting on a multimeter and test each line in turn while giving the cable a bit of a wiggle. While you're at it you should then test continuity between power and ground rails, to ensure there are no shorts present, and then power it on and check your voltages on power rails and on pin at various chips.

I've been blogging my progress on building a USB adapter for the Atari Jaguar controller: http://forums.atari.io/index.php/blog/13-hacking-with-atari/
 
Once finished I posted about it in the Jaguar Code & Dev Facebook group and got enough positive response about making a batch to set up a Kickstarter campaign. It'll run until March 1st and I'm only one more pledge away from reaching the break even point where it becomes worth it to order components.
 
For many of you who own full Jaguar setups it's a little redundant, but it's been very useful for enabling better play with emulators. It's also kind of fun to be able to just chuck a controller in my laptop bag and play while traveling.
 
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1620728577/jaguar-usb-tap

Superb work! It's great to see old hardware receive so much love.
 
 
Interesting point about fidelity here. Eyes change enormously over the course of adulthood, losing the ability to discern as much detail and colour luminance. By restoring it to your memory (which, being human, I presume, is somewhat less than perfect anyway) it's possible you're actually over-compensating and making the colours brighter than they really were.