RickR

A quick trip on a beautiful Saturday to the Evergreen Air Museum in McMinnville Oregon.  It's about an hour drive from my home.  This museum is most famous for housing the giant WWII Howard Hughes "Spruce Goose".  I assure you, it is huge. 
Also a picture of the author on Atari Day with an Atari shirt, relaxing in an old airline seat, a delicious lunch at a place that serves sandwiches on fresh-made bread, a sweet late 60's Ford Falcon I spotted in a parking lot, and our current sweet ride too, which looked nice in the sun. 

A quick trip on a beautiful Saturday to the Evergreen Air Museum in McMinnville Oregon.  It's about an hour drive from my home.  This museum is most famous for housing the giant WWII Howard Hughes "Spruce Goose".  I assure you, it is huge. 
Also a picture of the author on Atari Day with an Atari shirt, relaxing in an old airline seat, a delicious lunch at a place that serves sandwiches on fresh-made bread, a sweet late 60's Ford Falcon I spotted in a parking lot, and our current sweet ride too, which looked nice in the sun. 

A quick trip on a beautiful Saturday to the Evergreen Air Museum in McMinnville Oregon.  It's about an hour drive from my home.  This museum is most famous for housing the giant WWII Howard Hughes "Spruce Goose".  I assure you, it is huge. 
Also a picture of the author on Atari Day with an Atari shirt, relaxing in an old airline seat, a delicious lunch at a place that serves sandwiches on fresh-made bread, a sweet late 60's Ford Falcon I spotted in a parking lot, and our current sweet ride too, which looked nice in the sun. 

A quick trip on a beautiful Saturday to the Evergreen Air Museum in McMinnville Oregon.  It's about an hour drive from my home.  This museum is most famous for housing the giant WWII Howard Hughes "Spruce Goose".  I assure you, it is huge. 
Also a picture of the author on Atari Day with an Atari shirt, relaxing in an old airline seat, a delicious lunch at a place that serves sandwiches on fresh-made bread, a sweet late 60's Ford Falcon I spotted in a parking lot, and our current sweet ride too, which looked nice in the sun. 

A quick trip on a beautiful Saturday to the Evergreen Air Museum in McMinnville Oregon.  It's about an hour drive from my home.  This museum is most famous for housing the giant WWII Howard Hughes "Spruce Goose".  I assure you, it is huge. 
Also a picture of the author on Atari Day with an Atari shirt, relaxing in an old airline seat, a delicious lunch at a place that serves sandwiches on fresh-made bread, a sweet late 60's Ford Falcon I spotted in a parking lot, and our current sweet ride too, which looked nice in the sun. 

The other day, I was cleaning out drawers upstairs, which were full of our kids' school stuff.  Old papers and art and various supplies and books..  Out came this purple box, which I assumed was a pencil box. 

But when I opened it, nope!  It's a Nyko Gamoboy game case.  And that writing on it?  That's my wife's handwriting.  It all came flooding back to me like a sharp zoom!  My oldest child's first game system was a Gameboy Color.  We learned pretty quickly that if he took it to a friends home or on vacation, he could potentially lose or leave behind a game.  So this was the solution.  Just make sure each game is in the case before you leave.

Anyway, the memories here, probably only valid to myself, my wife, and probably our now-grown-up son, are priceless.  My next step is to find those old original games (I hope we still have them) and put them in the right slots.  Then this becomes a most prominent piece of my Gameboy collection.
 
 
 

The other day, I was cleaning out drawers upstairs, which were full of our kids' school stuff.  Old papers and art and various supplies and books..  Out came this purple box, which I assumed was a pencil box. 

But when I opened it, nope!  It's a Nyko Gamoboy game case.  And that writing on it?  That's my wife's handwriting.  It all came flooding back to me like a sharp zoom!  My oldest child's first game system was a Gameboy Color.  We learned pretty quickly that if he took it to a friends home or on vacation, he could potentially lose or leave behind a game.  So this was the solution.  Just make sure each game is in the case before you leave.

Anyway, the memories here, probably only valid to myself, my wife, and probably our now-grown-up son, are priceless.  My next step is to find those old original games (I hope we still have them) and put them in the right slots.  Then this becomes a most prominent piece of my Gameboy collection.
 
 
 

The other day, I was cleaning out drawers upstairs, which were full of our kids' school stuff.  Old papers and art and various supplies and books..  Out came this purple box, which I assumed was a pencil box. 

But when I opened it, nope!  It's a Nyko Gamoboy game case.  And that writing on it?  That's my wife's handwriting.  It all came flooding back to me like a sharp zoom!  My oldest child's first game system was a Gameboy Color.  We learned pretty quickly that if he took it to a friends home or on vacation, he could potentially lose or leave behind a game.  So this was the solution.  Just make sure each game is in the case before you leave.

Anyway, the memories here, probably only valid to myself, my wife, and probably our now-grown-up son, are priceless.  My next step is to find those old original games (I hope we still have them) and put them in the right slots.  Then this becomes a most prominent piece of my Gameboy collection.
 
 
 

Hi and welcome to Lance’s Laboratory! This is the second entry of what will be my personal blog, sharing small slices of life with you from within my Lab.
For those of you who are just getting to know me for the first time, my name is Lance Ringquist, I’m from Minnesota, and for nearly 40 years I’ve been in the Atari business operating Video 61, one of the last surviving original retail Atari distributors. We started in the video business as a local chain of video rental stores serving the Twin Cities area with locations along U.S. Highway 61, the road that musician Bob Dylan referred to in the album and song Highway 61 Revisited. I also love classic "Drive-In" movies and spending time with my family and friends at my cabin up north.
For decades I’ve gotten to know you guys as my customers and friends, buying, selling and remanufacturing Atari systems, games, software, and computers, and developing my own line of Atari-compatible Video 61 games and controllers. I’m still in my Lab working away dreaming up new creations and shipping off new original Atari products, and I thought after all these years of being in the Atari community it was time to start sharing tidbits of Atari memories and Minnesota life with you here on my blog. To old friends and new, WELCOME!
This is my first BIG Blog post, and I wanted to talk about an interesting bit of Atari history that still applies today and can be helpful to homebrewers and independent developers like me:
To remain profitable if you don’t have the buying power that Atari did themselves you have to look at alternative ways of packing your products.
 

 

 
Having been in the Atari business for decades and running Video 61 as an independent company for nearly 40 years, I began selling Atari products in my video store when Warner still ran Atari. Once Atari got back on their feet during the Tramiel era, I became an officially authorized Atari distributor and service provider. In that time I’ve seen things in the World of Atari that you couldn’t begin to imagine. I’ve had good conversations with Jack Tramiel, I’ve had inside information on the development of games and products which Atari never released, I’ve talked with other 3rd party publishers, I’ve seen absolutely insane things happen in the world of Atari - I’ve even received death threats over this stuff. I’ve survived it all and lived to tell the story.
All through Atari’s history, smaller 3rd party game publishers came up with alternative methods for packing their products. Did you know it was common at the time for many 3rd Party Atari developers to release game cartridges, floppies, and other accessories in simple “budget” packaging such as clear inexpensive clamshell cases and plastic baggies? Some publishers even just shrink-wrapped the floppy disk and documents! (Examples are shown below, and in my Atari I/O photo gallery). Unique, alternative packaging kept costs low for the buyer, while keeping the games profitable enough for the small developers to stay in business and continue publishing Atari games and software.
 

 
The way to get the costs down is to make things in quantity. It's the same idea as shopping at Sam's Club or Costco: the more you buy the less it cost per item. Retail boxes, glossy cartridge labels and colorful instruction manuals cost much less per game when you’re manufacturing 100,000 of them at a time, as Jack Tramiel's Atari did. BUT - when you’re making 10 to 20 games at a time as an independent developer, glossy packaging drives the price up significantly. The developer pays more and you pay more. This is one reason why you see the new Atari charging upwards of $99 per Atari XP 2600 cartridge, and why many new homebrew and independently released cartridges cost so much to buy while the developer makes such little profit on their work.
When Atari was still in business, during the Tramiel era, Atari would regularly provide me with inside information and Atari’s sales history. Beginning in 1985, Atari would fax me their sales history numbers for video game hardware and software and continued to do so until around 1990. These faxes were HUGE. I still have them after all these years, although the faxes are now yellowed and almost impossible to read.
 
 

"Like Jack Tramiel, independent Atari game developers and homebrewers have to weigh costs and pricing, and understand that some games sell well, some so so, and some hardly at all."
- Lance
 
 
The sales figures provided in the fax covered the product lines for Atari 2600, Atari 7800, Atari XEGS, and I think the Atari Lynx. For each Atari game, I was able to clearly see how many were manufactured and how many were sold. This gave me a big picture understanding of what things looked like at Atari, and just how big of a slice of the video game market Atari still had going into the 1990s. 
People have no idea just how big a piece of the video game industry Atari still had in the late 1980s, in the midst of Nintendo dominating the market and Sega making moves. It was still a big slice of the pie, and certainly enough to make money. Between the Atari 2600, Atari 7800, Atari XE and everything else, Atari often had a bigger chuck of the video game market than Sega did with the Sega Master System.
 
Jack Tramiel discussing "Business is War" at Commodore and Atari
 
What I learned from the insider info on Atari sales figures, and through my conversations with Jack Tramiel, was that Atari had a very lean business model that “spread risk” over many games, and to publish a game with a fancy box, slick labels and docs, Atari had to order 100,000 units of a game to get good enough pricing to make a profit on a title.
But there was a problem. Not all titles sold well! Jack Tramiel wanted to get pricing down low enough for each game, so that in case one game did not sell very well, the risk would be spread around different games, so that the successful games would more than make up for any financial loss from games that did not sell.
Like Jack Tramiel, independent Atari game developers and homebrewers (both then and now) have to weigh costs and pricing, and understand that some games sell well, some so so, and some hardly at all. So you need to spread the risks out to make a profit. Do you grasp that concept? Your winners cover your losses.
 

 
So for Atari to be profitable with the XEGS, which used very good packaging in the iconic “blue tile” boxes, and to cover the cost of materials and the cartridge itself, Atari put out around 30-35 new titles for the XE. That meant to get good pricing, spread risk, and make a profit, Atari had to order over 3 million+ units of video game cartridges for the XEGS.
Take for example Necromancer, a video game for the Atari XEGS. Atari manufactured a standard order of 100,000 units of Necromancer, and ended up with around 50,000 units left because the game didn’t sell very well. On the other hand, Atari XE games like Crystal Castles, Airball and others were almost completely sold out.
The idea was to spread risk - to create different games for different genres. Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket, instead spread them around! If you create too much of the same thing - the same world, the same ideas, the same game - it may sell out or it may flop. Infinite diversity in games leads to infinite success.
This is one reason why you see some independent developers and homebrewers struggling. Some of them focus all of their time and attention,  years even, developing a single game, a passion project. Often it will come in an expensive box with glossy label and colorful instructions, all put together by hand. Other developers work on multiple games at once, and work hard to keep manufacturing costs down, and passing those savings on to both the customer and to themselves.
 

 

 
Say what you will about Jack Tramiel, but he understood this simple concept. Atari would release a few games at a time, each in a batch of 100,000, and the successful games would cover any shortfall of the less successful games. Atari would order 100,000 games at a time - enough to keep the manufacturing cost low on slick docs, a nice box with that beautiful Atari XE blue box artwork, and a glossy label, which was something the Atari 7800 didn’t always benefit from. If the game sold well, another order of 100,000 games could be manufactured, should Atari believe there was enough excitement about the game to sell out a second batch.
A similar story was unfolding at Activision in the late 1980s. After the video game crash Activision was a much different company than it had been during the Atari 2600 boom, when Activision saw incredible success with games like Pitfall! and River Raid. Yet they survived the crash and lived to fight another day. Now Microsoft is buying them. By the time Jack Tramiel was running Atari, Activision (and their sister company Absolute) was a much leaner operation. I used to speak with the Activision guys often, and developed a pretty clear understanding of their sales history numbers for Atari systems, and how they ran their business.
 

 
Activision was smaller, and did their ordering 10,000 games at a time. To make a good enough profit, Activision and Absolute needed to sell all 10,000 units to justify a reorder of the game. The first order of 10,000 games sold would break even, and Activision/Absolute would recoup all of their money put into the development and manufacturing of the game. Then, if the game was successful, Activision would order another 10,000 units and suddenly that game would become pretty profitable! However, they told me that only one of their Atari games was able to surpass 10,000 units, which was Title Match Pro Wrestling, and that was a reason why they pulled out of the Atari market. Yet Jack Tramiel was able to sell out quite a few of their video game titles at 100,000. Even with games at the end like Alien Brigade for the Atari 7800, they were able to sell all 100,000 out, and this was with Jack not only not supporting the system properly, but competing against himself with the Atari XE.
There was a reason why so many 3rd party Atari developers released games in alternative “budget” packaging like clamshells, zip lock baggies, and even just shrink wrapped the disk and docs without a box. Because if you cannot attain the high number of sales per unit as Atari still could, you could not get the price per cartridge down low enough to be profitable. This meant finding creative ways to cut back on packaging, and just about every 3rd party company did just that. Broderbund, Adventure International, Epyx, Sierra Online, Datasoft, S.S.I., as well as many others sold games with limited “budget” packaging.
Those 3rd parties made up sales volume with budget packaging, cartridge labels and instructions, because they did not have the customer base Atari still did at that point.
 

 
The new Atari charges a lot for their line of limited run "Atari XP" games for the 2600, many of them are priced at $99. I’m betting its because they use fancy boxes, instructions and "labels". But they do not have the same Atari market that Jack had in the 1980s-1990s, thus much smaller sales volumes and the inability to order a large enough quantity to bring the price down. The Atari XP program harkens back to APX: The Atari Program Exchange and is meant as a gift to the Atari community, and not focused solely on being a profitable, but it's not likely that Atari wants to lose money either.
So when it comes to passion projects like the “Atari XP” games, the new Atari has to cover their costs and hope for a profit. To do this they have to charge a lot more for their games due to much smaller sales volumes. That’s a pretty big risk for the new Atari, and a pretty big expense that gets passed onto you, the customer.
In the 1990s, some classic video game collectors called me a liar for pointing this out, and insisted that game companies like S.S.I., Epyx, Sierra Online, Datasoft, and many other well known (and not so well known) companies never offered their games in clamshells, zip lock baggies, and other forms of budget packaging to be able to offer their software at prices people could afford.
In this blog post you will see lots of pictures I recently took of my own inventory, showing  just that: actual software releases from said companies and more, in alternative budget packaging. I’ve never received an apology from those who were so quick to berate me and call me a liar for being so kind as to explain the truth. Today is their chance.
- Lance  
 
SEE MORE PHOTOS IN MY PHOTO ALBUM:
 
 

I have had this game called Crossbow in my collection for a while now.  It is for the XE computers.  Tonight, I played it for the first time.  Keep in mind that I have never played this game before let alone heard of it. How did I do?  I got 478,000 points.  I have no clue if that is good or bad because it doesn't take long to start racking up points in this game.

Did I enjoy the game?  Oh yes!  I even played a second game but did not do as well.  I have yet to discover how to reach the Evil Master.  But I have to admit that this is a really nice piece of software.  The graphics look really good, especially the environments.  The sounds are good and I swear the friends dying is almost digitized.
I believe this is one of the most active light gun games I have ever played on any console.  Well...almost.  Gumshoe on the NES required a lot of trigger pulling as well but on the Atari this one is easily one of the more trigger-happy games on the system.  That I'm aware of.  One characteristic aspect if the game that I find a bit odd is the cartridge design.  I use to seeing the small gray ribbed edges.  The Crossbow cartridge is different.  Then again it might have done that way because of the XE computers and where their cartridge slots are.  I use an XEGS so I tend to forget about the XE computer design.

Regardless of the cartridge design it is probably one of the best light gun games on the system.  Im glad to have it.  Y'all need to play this one.

I received an A1 series 7800 main board in the mail recently where the owner stated it was working properly but was missing a pause button for some reason. Well, when I receive a 7800 system for services, one of the things I do is to pull up a test utility without any controllers plugged in. The reason for this is to ensure that the system controller ports are working properly.
But you ask... "How does not having any controllers plugged in, help to know if the ports are working properly?" Excellent question!
You see the TIA controls the trigger functions of the joysticks and depending on the mode the console is loaded up in, the components in use differ a little. But here was the issue with this one that might help explain things a little better...
The issue was after powering it up without a controller plugged, it the menu selector of the utility kept selecting the first option, exiting, entering...exiting over and over. This behavior was as if the fire button was being held down. But without a controller plugged in?! Quickly using the select and reset buttons on the console I was able to get into the controller test screen and this screen was telling me that not ONLY was the first fire button being pressed, but both fire buttons were showing as being pressed down. It was showing the same behavior on controller port 2 as well. 
Then I plug in an actual controller and.... it stops auto selecting options and now shows the fire buttons aren't being pressed. Pressing the fire buttons would activate normally. In other words with a controller plugged in, the console seems to work exactly as it should. But that doesn't mean there wasn't a problem here because technically without a controller plugged in, it shouldn't read anything at all. Plugging a controller into port 2, would also remove the condition on port 2 and make everything appear to be fine. So what is going on?
It turns out that the 7800 is pretty sensitive to the readings it gets from the controller ports and any deviation beyond a certain point will confuse the console. To correct the issue on this 7800 I had to replace at least 2 components and also replaced a 3rd for good measure. The main culprit was unfortunately the TIA chip. Yeap... I replaced the TIA because in most trigger issues the TIA is my first item to blame and usually that is correct, but it didn't solve everything in this case. I did confirm the TIA was faulty using my chip testing as it was showing an immediate fault with the Inputs and audio portions of the chip. Replacing the TIA solved half the issue. Basically controller port 1 was working properly now, but I was still getting errant trigger readings from port 2? This ended up being due to a marginal resistor located at R35. There is a pair of them that control each of the port readings in 2600 mode that each measure 220Ω. The one at R35 was only measuring 217Ω and while that should have been good enough, it was causing odd triggering issues. When I removed R35 from circuit, then the 7800 port 2 buttons were now working properly but of course, no fire button action in 2600 mode testing. So I replaced the resistor with a used one from another 7800 donor board. This replacement measures 221Ω and is much closer to the 220 reading than the original. Installed it, and sure enough everything is working properly again. There is also a 3906 transistor in this mix and it was also replaced out as they are cheap to have on hand and I've a few. But the two main issues were the TIA and this slightly out of spec drifted resistor at R35. Here is a pic of the console where I've outlined the components mentioned.

The 'Tower' was without power most of last week due to powerful storms on Father's day. As a result it put me behind a bit on console services and projects. Well last night as I've been working kinda constantly on console stuff to try and get caught up, I took a break and decided to do something I'd been meaning to try and implement for a while now.
I'm sure many of you here are aware of the Atari Vox? In summary it is a small device that plugs into controller port 2 on the 2600 or 7800 systems to allow you to save game scores and can also provide a means for speech to be played back in games that support it. Very cool device but it has one annoying thing about it. That is the fact that the audio from the Avox is separate from the rest of the system so you either have to plug in a set of external speakers or as I had been doing, I would use a 1/8" to RCA cable and plug one of the RCA jacks into one channel (usually the right) on my AV receiver audio input and the 7800 audio out in the other channel. Or, you have to use an external audio mixer to combine the two into one. None of that is really elegant so I thought of a simpler way to go about it. I'm sure you can see where this might be going?
So the 7800 especially is a little unique in that it was designed to make sure of an external audio input from the cartridge port. Typically POKEY enhanced games use this for audio. The basic mixing for this in the console is to tie the TIA audio coming in internally from the console's TIA chip and the POKEY audio from the external cartridge audio input line with different resistors for each to balance their signal so that one doesn't overpower the other. Well, why not simply add in a third audio line into that mix with a resistor to also bring it down in level?
That is exactly what I did as is demonstrated in this video...
 
I have some pics I can provide for those interested but in a nutshell I installed a separate 3.5mm audio jack along the back of this test 7800 I have in the ITC lab and instead of if providing audio output, it is used as an audio input and is part of the mix along with the external audio and internal TIA audio. This allows for all three to be used at once and have all the audio could out through my normal audio output RCAs I have installed on the console. 
No separate speakers...not Atari audio from just the Left with the AVox speed only on the right. It is all properly mixed together in dual mono as I would prefer. I will next do the same on my actual daily driver 7800 where this would be used most, but I'm glad to have it on my lab 7800 as well. The way this was done, should also be possible on a 2600 and I might very well explore that on a 2600jr I also have in the lab. 
I know this isn't the first time something like this has been done as I've seen other projects where owners have embedded the AVox completely into their consoles and then with a lot of wiring, use a switch to enable/disable the Avox as needed. But I was looking for a more simpler solution that would still allow the AVox to be used with multiple consoles and not be gutted and dedicated inside a single system and yet still easy to use without a lot of extra wire and mess. One small headphone to headphone patch cable is all that is needed now for this when I want to use my Avox.
For those that might want to try this on their own, know that a limiting resistor is needed as running the audio output straight in from the AVox is likely to sound messed up/distorted and would cause audio cut off on other audio sources trying to play at the same time. I used an 8k resistor in my test here but I think anything between 6.8k - 10k would suffice. I would also start with your volume pot on the AVox set to about the 1/3 volume level and then play a game that uses both speech and other audio at once to dial in the volume on the Avox until you are happy with it all.
 

So over the past few months, I've been trying to find ways of making the RCA jacks that I install into consoles more secure so they don't free spin over time. What I've been doing in the past that actually works 90% of the time far as I know...is that instead of using the small lock ring washer that typically comes with RCA jacks, I use inner star washers of the right diameter to do the same thing, but with more points of contact to lock into the plastic. It also has the advantage of holding the securing nut in place tighter as well since the inner teeth of the washers are present on both sides of the washer. From there, I've used light amounts of epoxy to help hold the securing nuts fast in place as well. 
This has worked well for years but recently I did have some consoles start to come back where one or more of the RCAs had still somehow managed to work loose over time. So this got me to wondering if there were other methods I could employ. 
Enter the idea to use Loctite or something similar... Hang tight...there is some history I have to talk about first and a lot of details to follow. Grab a snack and drink and settle in...
Now there are two types of loctite that you can get for threading applications. One is the red colored stuff and is essentially permanent in that it is very very difficult to remove nuts off their threads if that stuff is used. The other is the blue kind that still allows the parts to be separated (Although not nearly as easily as without...). So I decided to try the blue stuff.
Now I will say that sure enough the blue loctite holds really well. It basically is a liquid that once exposed to air begins to congeal and turn into a rubber like substance. As a result, it acts as filler between the threads of the nut and the jacks you are securing together. It does still come undone but requires a lot more force to do so and actually squeaks while you remove the parts after it has cured. So it does its job... but... there is also a warning on the package that I did read but didn't think would be an issue in this case.
The warning says not to use with plastic threaded parts. So I assume this meant not to use it with plastic bolt/nuts sets commonly made of Teflon and the like. Well... I'm here to tell you that isn't the only issue.
Over a month ago, I installed a UAV into an 800xl. The owner requested I install a separate standard 4pin s-video jack in the opening that the RF modulator used to occupy as the opening is nearly the exact size needed for one style of s-video jacks I have on hand. But they also wanted a pair of RCAs for audio to be installed. They didn't want to purchase an Atari monitor cable specific for this hence the request for separate jacks. So I drilled in the needed holes and got the jacks line up great! To install them, I used a bit of the loctite on the threads of the RCA jacks and proceeded to tighten everything up as normal. I then set the case shell down for about an hour while I recapped the main board and did other things. When I picked up the bottom shell housing I was horrified to see that a long crack had formed between the two RCAs that ran beyond top to bottom of the shell?! I removed the RCAs and discovered that around the holes where the jacks had been installed, there were small spider cracks around the openings and the plastic appeared to be much more brittle than I remembered? So I cleaned everything up and applied some epoxy across the cracks on the inside of the case shell to restrengthen the area and prevent any further cracks from occuring. I let it cure for about 2 days before reinstalling the RCA jacks. This time as they already had the loctite on them, I didn't apply anymore and just had to crank down a bit more to tighten them back up. This time I left them a little more loose than normal and then applied more expoxy over everything to make sure it all held tight. And this worked fine as expected.
My thinking at that time was that I had simply tightened the nuts on the RCA jacks too much and it caused stress fracturing in the plastic that spread out. Didn't think much of it beyond that.
Last night while working on a 5200 (A console I've done this work on a LOT of times), I drilled in the holes on the expansion plate as normal using a template I've had for years now. Installed the RCAs and again used some loctite on the threads to secure them nicely in place and then set it aside for about 30min while doing other things. I picked it back up to solder the wiring to it and again was horrified to see a crack had formed vertically between two of the RCA jacks?! I was like, what the heck?! I've done a lot of these 5200s and the expansion plate has never done this before? When I started to remove the RCAs to inspect, the entire thing just started to crumble in my hands like dirt. Sure enough the entire plate had become super brittle and was falling apart in my hands?! At this point I was pretty sure I knew what was happening and decided to test on another piece of similar plastic. Scratched it to expose the inner plastic and applied a little loctite. Yeap... that little piece of plastic became a brittle mess within about 15min of application.
So.. the lesson here is that Loctite chemically reacts with ABS plastics and causes the ABS to breakdown at a molecular level in a very similar fashion to that of gallium when put in contact with scratched aluminum. Going forward, I'm just going to have to stick with my star lock washers and epoxy it seems...
 

Seems to be lately that I'm getting in more and more Intellivision consoles that all arrive with the same similar condition. Basically what most might call a black screen when powering on the console but it is more like a dark grey screen with a few lines along the bottom of the screen of even lighter grey. Pressing the reset button does produce a full black screen that will flicker and come back to the same dark grey screen or sometimes it might do something different like an all fuscia colored screen or yellow for instance.
In all cases, it basically means that some IC chip or component in the chain of the IC logic has failed and the Intellivision isn't able to boot up properly as a result. You can pretty accurately simulate the effect by simply powering on the console with out a cartridge. Same thing will happen when you pull one of the main ICs out of the console.
But how to troubleshoot it and fix it? Well, honestly the service manual for the model II actually has a decent flowchart but even that still doesn't quite cover everything. So I wanted to share my experience on what I now basically do whenever I encounter this condition:
- First is to absolutely verify that all the voltages are present to the main logic board. The service manual will have you test the voltages on the power supply board internally sure, but you can have a bad connection on the ribbon cable to the main board causing voltage to not make it to the main board properly.
- If the voltages check out, then the first actual component to swap out is usually the STIC IC chip (Standard Television Interface Chip). It is one of the several large 40pin ICs that exists in both model 1 and model 2 consoles. Near as I can tell their aren't any differences between the ICs of those two models with the exception that the STIC on the model 1 has a heatsink attached and the model 2s don't. But they can be swapped interchangeably. Although the heatsink on the model 1 STIC will prevent the top case from closing properly on the model 2 console. So you have to be sure the chip is bad as you have to solder it directly to the board for it to all fit.
- If that fails, then I usually will try and swap out the CPU IC next. Although honestly the CPU seems to be a tank in the Intellivision. 
- Next up on the model 1 consoles is to look at replacing the pair of 3906 transistors that stand up off the board in the area just above where the CPU sits. Can't really miss it as they get so hot that the board is usually discolored around their solder points. But again, as they get really hot, they do burn out.
- From here I then grab my frequency counter and verify that I have a proper master clock signal all the way to the cartridge port using Pin 10 to test that signal. Though rare, I have had a crystal that was bad in one and a bad variable capacitor C2 in another that I found by checking the master clock frequency.
- From here it gets much less straight forward and will require having to break out an O'scope to start looking for various signal waveforms as per the service manual to try and help isolate which component might be at fault. 
Now in not so common fixes I've done to correct for this same issue.. or corrupted graphics.
The cartridge port...yeap. The games themselves complete some of the signals in the logic so if a game isn't present or the port has bad connections and isn't making good contact with the game cartridge, you will get the same black screen (dark grey) screen condition
And I've also had the Hi and Lo graphics rams cause a similar issue although in the cases of those chips going bad, the games will usually load up but look like they are missing sprite data in a way that looks like how NES games look with a bad 72-pin connector where the you have lines of missing graphics or corruption on the screen. Depending on the when the Intellivison was made, it might have a pair of 3539 ICs located in the upper left of the main board with the orientation of the cartridge slot on the center right. They are labeled U7 and U8 on both model 1 and model 2 consoles. At some point a main board design was made and they might have a pair of 2114 ICs there instead. All of the model 2 units have 2114s for the Hi and Lo video RAM and it is located in the lower left portion of the main board on the model 2. 
So... there you go. A few things to check out in the case of a black screen non-working Intellivision console. I will say that while more complex in components and IC chips, the model 1 units seem to be a bit more robust in regards to operational use vs the model 2. However, the model 2 cleaned up the power delivery quite a bit and tend to usually have a better RF output while being a little simpler on the inside component wise.
 

My first 7800 was received in the early 1990s...long after the company stopped making them.  What games I got with it was pretty much all I ended up with.  I admit I had mixed feelings about the system because I wanted to like it, I wanted to enjoy the games, but the controllers were keeping me from doing so.  Often times I forced myself to play it, enduring hand cramps for a couple of hours, just to play it.  The only game I found I liked using the joystick on was Ms. Pac-Man. That's it. So I played that one the most only because it didn't hurt my hands as bad.  And no matter what anyone says...Atari systems before the Lynx and Jaguar, had a sound that is unique to an Atari. I know that doesn't make sense to most but that sound is, in its own way, attractive.  More attention getting than some others.
Today I have a Frankenstein 7800 in need of a shell with a self-made A/V mod. I try very hard to maintain an original spec integrity with all my systems but this 7800 just wasn't having it.  My library of games is sitting at a lovely 20 games whereas my first library didn't even reach 10 games.  But those system and games came from 3 family members I miss dearly.  What I have now has replaced those initial games plus games I never seen before on the 7800. I am missing Ballblazer, however, which I once thought was a 7800 exclusive title.  Boy was I wrong.
For fun I thought I would tell what 7800 games have become my favorites over the years.  The 7800 has come very close to replacing my 5200 as number 1 console but not yet...even if it is getting more attention than my 5200.  Anyway...here is my list.  No particular order.
Asteroids - Asteroids just simply looks stunning on the 7800 and I feel is easily one of the best games on the console.  The visuals are stunning and greatly enhanced by the random atmospheric sounds combined with the fire shots and rock explosions going off in the forefront.  Add a second player for some interesting competition or work together to last as long as possible.  It really is interesting how a simple.game has a lot to offer.  This one is my top favorite.
  Dark Chambers - I am guessing this was suppose to be the 7800's answer for a Gauntlet clone? Maybe trying to compete with Zelda (yeah, right)?  Either way I enjoy the game as it is a nice break from the single screen arcade games once in a while.  It's fun to explore the levels, too.
  Ms. Pac-Man - I have to admit for having only 2 sound channels this game sounds really good. It plays better than the 5200/A8 ports as well.  Everything loved about the Queen of Video Games is here right down to the intermissions.  Another personal top favorite.  This one gets played as much as Asteroids...and, yes, I still use the standard 7800 joystick on this one.
  Xevious - a weird vertical scrolling shooter that I never understood.  However it was one of the initial titles I ended up with and did try to enjoy.  I own this same game on the Famicom and must say that I like the 7800 version better.  It just looks more eye pleasing.  Also, the 7800 version is a bit more forgiving. I really like the fact I have one button for both guns and bombs.  Both versions are fun but I would give the win to the 7800 on this one.  Nicely done, Atari.
  Commando - I don't care for the NES version but play the heck out of the 7800 version.  It is amazing how different these 2 really are. The 7800 feels closer to the arcade to me. I thought the title screen, however, was a bit much but that's a minor thing.  At least even that is more detailed than the other one. 
  Donkey Kong - I'm ashamed to admit I am not a huge fan of DK but I am a lesser fan of DK JR.  However something about playing DK on the 7800 is just pure enjoyment.  I know Atari licensed it from Nintendo, and I know the 7800 trying to compete with the NES just wasn't happening, but to me this was Atari slapping Nintendo in the face.  I only seen 3 of the four mazes present in the 7800 port but those are faithfully present here.  Some arcade animations are missing but, hey, it's still Donkey Kong. Who doesn't like that great big ape?  I didn't at one time but I do now.
  Ballblazer - Across all three Atari platforms this title was on are identical.  Granted the XE and 5200 versions have a little extra but the heart of the game remains unchanged. I found this one addictive.
  Galaga - I'm more of a Galaxian fan but when it comes to the 7800 Galaga fills the bill. I have to admit that the 7800 version is nicely done and I prefer these sounds over the arcade sounds.  This is a 7800 exclusive as no other Atari consoles ever got this game.  Not officially anyway.
  Pole Position II - This pack-in game was a wise choice. Its four tracks helped keep this game from getting boring too quickly. So pick your track and get ready for a race...the Atari way.

Received my BBPro 7800 adapter today and we have some really good things and some not so good that I'm hoping can be worked out in time.

- First the good, is that the menu of course is easy to navigate working in the same manner
- This might be the fastest loading flash cart for the 7800 with the exception of the older Mateos cart
- Plays the many of the original released games without issues including both Commando and BallBlazer with properly balanced and proper sounding Pokey audio! Nice!

Now for the issues I've encountered...
- None of the 2600 roms I've tied to load up will work. What happens is that the 7800 resets after selecting the game and then essentially crashes. Now, I actually have a modified BIOS installed into my 7800 that was developed by Pac-Man Plus (Bob D.) and RevEng that plays the Kiloparsec build in 7800 game when it doesn't detect a cartridge installed. However, in the case of the BBPro, whenever I try to load up any 2600 game or some of the more recent 7800 home brew releases, it will default to the Kiloparsec built in game.
- Some of the more recent 7800 home brews that I've been testing, will load up, but the audio isn't quite right on their POKEY sounds and the graphics glitch quite a bit with horizontal flickery lines.
- One of the home brew games I have is E.X.O. in its full ready to be released form. It is a 512kb game but it doesn't load and causes the 7800 to load up the Kiloparsec built in game in my console again.
- Doesn't seem to support Pokey at $450 or $800 which are somewhat newer implementations of Pokey addressing. So it seems it only supports Pokey at $4000and $8000 is my guess?

Here is the list of original released titles I've had trouble getting to load up. These were all taken using Trebor's rom pack"
- Ace of Aces will load up but no audio and corrupted graphics
- Basketbrawl just gives a black screen and seems to lock up the BBPro since the button won't respond and requires a power cycle of the console
- Choplifter works but has minor graphic glitching with horizonal lines across the top of the image. Seems to play normal otherwise
- Double Dragon doesn't load up
- F-18 Loads up but with corrupted graphics on title screen and then locks up after selecting a mission
- Fatal Run starts up but then locks up to black screen when the demo starts or when trying to start a game
- Fight Night stars up but the menus have corrupted text and game play graphics
- Ikari Warriors starts up but with game play graphics corruption
- Mat Mania Challenge will start but player sprites are corrupted
- Mean 18 has corrupted game graphics and not really playable
- Meltdown will give a black screen when trying to load
- Midnight Mutants gives a black screen when trying to load just like Meltdown
- Moto Psycho starts but player graphics are corrupted
- Ninja Golf starts up but main player graphics are missing in the middle of the game play field and graphics corruptions in the map in the lower left
- Planet Smashers - starts up but sprite graphics are corrupted
- Rampage won't start, black screen
- Scrapyard Dog doesn't start, black screen
- Summer Games is playable but has flickery white lines on the screen only during the opening ceremonies
- Touchdown Football will start up but then black screen when pressing reset to start the game
- Winter Games works but has the same glitching horizontal flickering lines during the opening ceremony
- Xenophobe, doesn't start, black screen
So that is currently how my testing went last night with the new adapter. One of the main issues I see mainstream with the adapter, is the requirement of an additional reset wire that has to be installed using a clip off pin 13 of the 4013 IC inside the console, and then routed back out so you can plug it into the cartridge adapter. Many of Evie's adapters use and require this so it isn't new or unique to the 7800 adapter. But, I also don't see many folks willing to open up their consoles and remove the RF shielding to attach the wire and then figure out how to route it externally. Nor would they be okay with a wire dangling from their console in order to the use the BBPro. If you never planned to remove it it wouldn't be that big a deal, but then that kills the multi system aspect of having it in the first place. Evie is going to look more into trying to find ways to not require this wire, but in its current state, the adapter and the BBPro won't even load up without it attached.
So, work to be done with it still for sure and this adapter appears to be a bit more wip still compared to the others I've gotten. But, Evie has always shown strong commitment to supporting her products and in likely short time, she will have quite a few of these issues resolved. I'll be sure to update as she updates the adapter.

Won't got into too many details on this other than to state up front, that I try to be as transparent as possible with the work and services I provide. As a consequence of this, mistakes can and will happen. It is just a matter of when. One such big mistake happen to me this week while installing a very expensive DCDigital setup into a clients Dreamcast. I actually had the main installation done and was ready to test. However, in order for a DC to boot up, it requires that the cooling fan and GDRom drive be installed etc. So you kinda have to put it all back together in order to test an install like this.
Well I put in a few of the screws in various places to hold things down into place and then proceeded to fire up and test the DC. I got a power light and the controller and VMU beeped. But...nothing else. No drive spin up and nothing on the screen. No signal even being detected. And not just from the new HDMI output but nothing from the analog video side either! I quickly turned it off and tore the console back apart to see what was going on. I removed the DCDigtal setup and tested again. Same thing...nothing.
It was when I started to do the sniff test to see if anything had burned out that I found it... and what I found horrified me! What did I find? Well...this...

The picture above shows at least 5 and likely 6 traces between the SH4 CPU and the GPU that were now torn and broken. How? Well notice the pattern of the tears in the traces and how it cuts into the PCB a little?
Yeap... that was done by a screw. It seems that even though I had carefully laid out the screws so that I knew what went to where, I mixed up the three longer screws used to hold the main board and shielding together along the back of the system, with the three shorter screws used to secure the GDRom in place. And because of that, the screw twisted down into the main board causing the damage you see above.
The other spot to the left where you see exposed copper is where I was trying to solder small kynar wire to repair these broken traces. But... no luck as the traces are just too small for the wiring I have on hand. And the large ICs on the DC are BGA type meaning Ball Grid Array. They are essentially surface mounted ICs with all of the contact points existing under the chip package so you can't just solder to pins or something on the bottom.
This required replacing out the main board in this particular case and provided a lesson I'm not likely to forget going forward to always be mindful and double or triple check your work and assembly process. 
And with that, the owner of this DC will soon be able to play their games again in wonderful HDMI output directly from the dreamcast in the very near future. According to the picture below, the self test fully passed on the replacement main board. The red spots are in fact little hearts that appear when everything is good. You get an X when things fail in the self test.

I had a blog entry a little while ago about the desire to set up a machine to run my old collection of DOS and CD-ROM games.  I successfully set up a Win 7 laptop, but hinted at something better....

Well, here we go.  It's a Gateway Profile 4 all-in-one with a built-in LCD screen.  Windows XP, Pentium 4 (single core), 1GB DDR memory, 40GB HD.  Built in speakers, modem, network, DVD drive, etc.  It needed a bit of repair, but I got it up and working.
I tried DOOM and DOOM2 first, and they both had issues with the integrated sound card.  Very choppy sound.  I loaded up DOSBox, and that problem was solved.  So I'm very happy.  This is going to be a really cool way to enjoy this project. 
The machine has an integrated NVidia based video card, so I'll see if the 3D games of the time work next.  Maybe Quake?  We shall see.
 

I originally did most of the work on this 5200 about 8 years ago. It was also one of the first projects I did and to be honest, the wiring work inside wasn't that great. For some time I had wanted to redo it all similar to how I redid my 7800 about a year ago but just never got around to it. Well, now that I have a new BackBit Pro flash cartridge and it was designed to allow resets back to the game menu, I felt it was time to perform a small modification to allow this function of my BackBit Pro to work and also decided it was time to redo the wiring work and give my 5200 a much needed bath.
So first I will share some old pics of when I first AV upgraded the console. The wiring wasn't that bad I guess but it was before I was using better quality wire and wasn't using connectors so it was all tethered down. Also, not long after this was first done, the s-video jack kept coming loose on me so I had to hot glue it into place. No pics of that hot snot but suffice to say it was pretty ugly. 

 
Here is another shot showing how all the wiring was done originally in this setup. 

 
All of the wiring was completely redone with better quality wire and using install methods that I've been using on client consoles for the past 5 years. 

Some of the wiring was to redo the power and ground wiring as I now have it attached to the main power and ground rails that run along the middle of the board. As a result they are much shorter than they were previously. All the of the video output wiring was redone with a connector added in the middle to allow for easier removal of the main board in the future for servicing if needed. A connector was also added to the power modification wiring on the bottom side as well. 

 
A new s-video jack was installed as the original was in pretty bad shape from coming loose over the years and the hot glue just had to go. I used my dremel to rough up the area around the s-video jack and shave off a little bit of shell material so that I could install a new s-video jack and have the back nut actually secure it into place properly. Last to ensure it stays put, some epoxy was added around the s-video jack and securing nut. Audio wiring was redone as well and cleaned up.
Finally a small bit of wire was added on the bottom side of the PCB that attaches the reset line for the system to an unused pin on the cartridge port. The BackBit Pro flash cart is designed to take advantage of this and with this wire in place, I can now use the reset button on the cartridge to take me back to the game selection menu. This is a feature that is sorely missing on the AtariMax carts as they require hard powering the 5200 console to get back to your game menu selection. 

 
At the end, I finally gave the case shells a much needed bath as it had been at least a decade since this 5200 had been cleaned. It was getting pretty dusty in those vent slots and just looking a bit dull. Now this 5200 is working better than before and ready to provide some more 5200 gaming for many more years!

A quickie game review by RickR.  I'm having some fun going through the old PC CD games I've kept over the years.
Game:  Hot Wheels Stunt Track Driver 2

My Take:
It's a very simple racing game with an interesting use of FMV technology.  The game uses FMV movies for the track footage with a 3D car rendered on top of that.  It works surprisingly well!  There are plenty of tracks.  But the game is meant more for kids and isn't very challenging.  I like the ability to do "stunts" while in the air.  I also like that the game is quick and simple to play.  But overall, this isn't a game I'll go back to much.
It's a Windows-based game, released in 2000.  It works just fine natively on my Windows 7 laptop.
Also, I found an LGR review of the game after playing, which was fun to watch.
 

JETBOARD JOUST (VCS)
Published 2021 (Freedom Games)
Developer: BitBull
Retail: $9.99
Ever since Eugene Jarvis and Williams Electronics unleashed Defender on unsuspecting arcades in 1980, there have been countless sequels, send-ups, hacks and tributes to the game.  With a rare exception, these tend to fall short of the high-water mark set by the original. Jetboard Joust by indie developer BitBull is one such exception.  The game takes the foundational elements of Jarvis’ classic and adds branching pathways, an intriguing upgrade system and fun joust mechanic to create an excellent modern arcade game. I enjoy Jetboard Joust so thoroughly that I’m naming it my 2021 Game of the Year!
Jetboard Joust is available on multiple platforms, including Atari VCS, Steam, Epic and the Nintendo Switch. 
Let’s take a look at the Atari VCS version of the game!


 
TAKE CONTROL
In Jetboard Joust, you use the VCS Modern Controller (or third-part gamepad) to guide Super Jetboy through 5 multi-level worlds, protecting helpless citizens - heretofore known as "little dudes" - from the ravages of evil mutant invaders! If one of the little dudes is picked up by a mutant, you will need to zip across the screen to free it before its kidnapped and becomes a super charged mutant baddie that you'll need to destroy.  Essentially, destroy everything that moves.  As you destroy enemies, you'll pick up drops consisting of health, ammo and coins.  Its a tried and true premise to be sure.  And while this game will be instantly familiar to many, it adds enough style, humor and variety to keep it fresh.  These include a cool Joust attack, randomly generated level maps, a deep equipment upgrade system and more.
The "Joust" in Jetboard Joust is a special attack that propels your jetboard through multiple enemies.  This is great to use to get out of a jam or clear a group of baddies. Lower level enemies will be obliterated and higher level enemies will take significant damage. Plus, you're temporarily invincible when the joust is employed.  Be warned, there are a limited number of jousts available.  These can be replenished by picking up drops.  You can also add to your joust capacity as you build your capabilities. 
Jetboard Joust features a wide variety of weapons.  This includes your base weapon (a gun) and several special weapons that are picked up along the way.  These come in a wide variety from lightning, to a gravity hammer to a giant circular saw (the Shredder), and everything in between.  Some weapons are more effective than others on different enemies, so it makes sense to keep a variety in your arsenal.  Weapons can be upgraded or repaired throughout the game.  Keeping your weapons in good condition maintains their effectiveness and increases ammo drops. With a click of the trigger, you can switch between your primary gun and a special weapon.  You'll only be able to carry one special weapon at a time.  The other special weapons that you've collected will be scattered across the playfield.  If you want to switch special weapons mid-level, you'll need to find and pick-up another one.  Special weapons have limited ammo so you'll want to use them wisely.  Ammo can be replenished by picking up ammo drops. 

Upgrading equipment is a crucial element to success in Jetboard Joust and there are multiple ways to accomplish this.  Players may opt to use the store in-between levels to upgrade their jetsuit, jetboard or weapons.  The cost of doing so can be high.  Fortunately, you can sell off weapons to raise precious coinage.  Alternatively, you can select a route that leads to weapons pick-ups, equipment upgrades, repair, and hidden treasure.  However, to access these upgrades you'll need to summon a guardian - as sort of end level boss.  Only upon defeating the guardian will you gain access to the special item on that level.  Summoning a guardian is completely optional and some are much harder than others.  You will not know exactly who is showing up until after the summoning.  Its a nice bit of risk vs. reward that breaks up the standard level clearing action. Choose your path wisely to outfit Super Jetboy with the equipment needed to take out the end of world bosses!

Another reason to save coinage is to continue a game.  If you happen to die and have no emergency jetsuits, you'll be given the opportunity to purchase a continue using available treasure.  If you have enough, you can continue the game.  If not, it's game over! The costs of continues raises as you progress.  If you don't have enough money in the bank, you can restart the game with the teleports unlocked to choose where you start.  Picking up lost jetsuits from an earlier play through will allow you to recover some coin.  This helps make your loss in a previous run slightly less stinging.
 
SOUND & VISION
The graphics in Jetboard Joust are highly stylized.  The playfield is populated by colorful cities, exploding pixels, glitch-like background animations and a large variety of aliens.  The color palette changes from level to level.  Sometimes they look a bit muted, and other times they pop.  Everything is alien.  Some of the aliens recall sea creatures, others look robotic or insectoid.  I really enjoy seeing the different enemy types as the game progresses.  Animations are constant, chaotic and wonderful. Screenshake and pixel explosions abound and really add to the frenzied vibe of the game.  Sound is equally fitting.  The in-game music is catchy, if a bit repetitive.  The background noises and explosions are satisfying and include an audible alert for abducted little dudes, and an affected electro synth sound that recalls the noise Defender makes at the start of each level.  Overall the art style and audio are effective in defining Jetboard Joust and give the game a character all its own.

 
CREATURE COMFORTS
Jetboard Joust adds in-game achievements.  There are 12 pages in all, with a wide variety of achievements to attain. Achievements are somewhat rare on the VCS, so this is a welcome inclusion.  There is also an in-game high score entry system.  Both the achievements and the high score entry add to the replay value of the game.


 
OVERALL
Jetboard Joust takes a familiar formula and successfully layers on modern gaming elements, combined with a distinctive art style and frenetic action to create a superb arcade experience.  Importantly, it's SUPER FUN! If I had a place to insert quarters in my VCS, I would have spent well over the $9.99 cost of entry. Retro arcade fans and modern indie gamers alike will find a lot to enjoy.  Recommended on any platform!
Have you tried Jetboard Joust on the VCS or another platform?  What do you think of the game?  What's your 2021 Game of The Year? Let us know in the comments below!

P.S. One of the things that I’ve enjoyed most about the Atari VCS experience is that the relatively small library with its focus on curated indie games has led me to play titles I might have otherwise ignored.  These games are often lost in the noise on large platforms and ecosystems. Were it not for the VCS, I would have missed out entirely on this excellent title.  
 
 
 
 

I had a blog entry a little while ago about the desire to set up a machine to run my old collection of DOS and CD-ROM games.  I successfully set up a Win 7 laptop, but hinted at something better....

Well, here we go.  It's a Gateway Profile 4 all-in-one with a built-in LCD screen.  Windows XP, Pentium 4 (single core), 1GB DDR memory, 40GB HD.  Built in speakers, modem, network, DVD drive, etc.  It needed a bit of repair, but I got it up and working.
I tried DOOM and DOOM2 first, and they both had issues with the integrated sound card.  Very choppy sound.  I loaded up DOSBox, and that problem was solved.  So I'm very happy.  This is going to be a really cool way to enjoy this project. 
The machine has an integrated NVidia based video card, so I'll see if the 3D games of the time work next.  Maybe Quake?  We shall see.
 

Another day, another hare-brained project.
I've gotten the urge to play the multitude of old PC games from the 80's -> 00's.  Think Doom, Quake, King's Quest, etc.  I kept almost all of those games, especially if they were CD based.  What I've found is that they mostly don't work on a Windows 10 PC without some help from DOSBox or D-fend.  My idea was to set aside an old laptop exclusively for this purpose. 
A friend gave me an old Dell laptop.  It's a 2010 model and has Windows 7 installed.  Core 2 Duo.  Shockingly, the Dell support site has XP drivers for this thing.  Should I load XP?  I may, but for now, I'm going to give Win 7 a try.  As I recall, it has a "compatibility mode". 
First try was for DOOM and DOOM 2.  Those are DOS based.  I loaded DOSBox and it works!  Easy.  Sound and graphics are fine.  I'm happy!  I'll keep going and report progress with other games as I go.
 
 

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. 

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.
 

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?

After all the life changes happening as of late I finally managed to sit down and play a video game on real hardware.  I decided to hook up my STe and the game I picked to play was Lotus Turbo Challenge.  Granted I have not seen this game since the Genesis days so it was nice to see it again.  

The first thing I noticed were the graphics. To me they seemed to be better than those on the Genesis but on par with those IBM PCs equipped with EGA graphics adapters.  Those were the good ol' days.  Every screen pays tribute to the exotic Lotus sports car.  Screens detail exterior and interior designs and features, there's a 360 degree rotating render of the car, and power house tech sheets for you car buffs.  At its roots, however, LETC is a basic and simple racing game.
The objective is really simple...place 10th or better to advance to the next race.  Should you cross the finish line in 11th place or higher then the game ends.  Do not pass GO, do not collect $200. Lotus on the ST I believe has nine tracks to race on with pit row.  It offers split screen racing for two players to have fun.  The game offers multiple music tracks to listen to while racing or you can simply turn them off.  The beginning of each track has information about that track including lane closures and pit requirements.

The visuals of Lotus are very impressive in my opinion and remind me a lot of how Top Gear on the Super Nintendo looked like.  The controls are simple to use with a couple of control options to choose from and is controlled by a joystick.
Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge became an instant hit then and it is easy to see why.  It's a nicely made racing game that is easy to pick up and play for one or two people.  Searching EBay for physical copies turned up very little.  Only a few were available from outside the USA.  Prices ranged from $16 to $115 at the time I did a search.  For STe owners this game got a recent upgrade in graphics and sounds and is available on Atari Mania.  This one is a classic!  So grab a buddy and lay asphalt.