Sabertooth

@Sabertooth I was just about to ask @Video 61 a similar question. Lance has told me before that he saw sales figures for Jaguar games, and I think it was Fight for Life or Ultra Vortek had only manufactured, or only sold somewhere around 6,000 cartridges. I see in his Blog post Lance is talking about faxes from 1985-1990, mainly 2600/7800 and 8-Bit computers, with the Lynx towards the end. I think we all have a sense that the Jaguar was likely a different story with numbers closer to what Lance was talking about with Activision. Makes me wonder if Atari made any money on the Jaguar at all. 

Thanks for sharing these fantastic insights! I wonder if the 100k rule held true for Atari under Sam during the Jaguar's run? With such a limited installed user base, that's nearly a 70 percent attach rate for each sold out title based on 150,000 Jaguars sold during its commercial life. I've read AVP was the best seller at 85K.

@Video 61 This is really good advice for indie developers and the entire homebrew market - especially right now as we move toward an unknown future. I hope everyone developing new games for retro platforms will give your Blog a read. Including the most loved homebrew guys, and new Atari themselves.
"Those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it."
Lance, I said in your status update that this is an epic win for the entire Atari community - worldwide - to have you Blogging. I've known a number of people who worked at Atari, both under Warner and under Tramiel - programmers, execs, MBA types, designers - but none of them in that building were ever on the ground selling Atari games and systems at a retail level, let alone still doing it today after almost 40 years. You have such a unique story and experience - so much knowledge and stories and legends - that all needs to be shared.
I'm so grateful you're here posting and interacting with the community. Atari users worldwide will benefit from this, and I will make sure that these Blogs and your knowledge stays online and gets passed on long after we're all gone. We're all so glad you're here doing this 

Okay, as I stated. Here is what it all looks like complete now.
 
 
Here is the wiring that has been done on the original AV jacks. I still need to wipe out the interior a bit to try and clean it a bit more but you get the idea on at least how the wiring on it is now. This is the overall wiring inside.

And here is a close up of the AV jacks with the new wiring in place. Hopefully this looks more cleaned up compared to before?

And I did manage to get pics of another console done in the same manner so you can see what I initially start off dealing with.

Once the wiring was removed off the TIA and the TIA itself was removed from the main board, this is what I'm left looking at.

I was able to straighten the legs back into shape but one of the legs is broken off a bit and shorter than the others. This is pin 12 which is part of the TIA audio but enough remains to allow it to still work.

But at least for now, this 2600 is alive and well again and ready for many more years of active gaming!
 

Very cool!

It looks really nice.  And fun. 

I love seeing all of your picks.  I would have put the PC Engine in my list but I have yet to obtain one. I kept my list strictly consoles.  No handhelds, no computer systems.  That's why you don't see Lynx or A8s on my list.  I also had to own what I was putting on the list.  With that said, and because I am planning to save handhelds and computers for another list, I didn't put down the 800.  While similar to me the A8 line and 5200 are different because of how they were marketed.  You can program a computer and do many things with them besides play games.  You can only play games on the 5200.  That explains where my thoughts were when making my list.
The NES I hold dear to my heart because I was in junior high and high school when it was going strong.  Instead of getting drunk and getting into trouble like they were I stayed home, in my room, playing Nintendo.  I didn't want to do anything else.  I socialized at school, pretty much kept to myself at home.  The NES kept me out of trouble, off the streets, and safe at home.  It also encouraged my reading with the Nintendo Power mags.
I hope others will chime in. I'd like to see how other members rank their favorites.

Always great to see a Top 10 post!
1. Atari Jaguar: This was the system that got me back into gaming in 1994 and rekindled my love for Atari.
2. SEGA Saturn: Once Atari Corporation gave up the ghost and ended support for the Jaguar, I picked another winner! Honestly, I love Sega's exclusive content and the Saturn library is the pinnacle 90s arcade machine!
3. COLECO Gemini: My first love, this 2600 clone had a small form factor, came with Donkey Kong and Mousetrap packed in, and sported some of the best controllers of the era.
4. SEGA Dreamcast: The short-lived Dreamcast arguably kicked off modern gaming and has an incredible library of games. This is peak SEGA. Too bad it didn't ship with a DVD player...
5. Atari 7800: When I stated collecting in 2010 or so, I became aware of the 2600 and 7800 hhomebrew communities.  Instead of picking up both consoles, I started with the 7800 due to its backwards compatibility with the 2600. The homebrews are fantastic, but the original retail titles have some of the best home ports of 80s arcade games around.
6. NES: I don't have much to say here except that this is the system that saved console gaming in North America and changed everything.  Childhood memories of playing Mario, Mega Man, Contra, Ikari Warriors, Castlevania and others will be with me forever.
7. Playstation 4 (PRO): I love where Sony has taken the PS4. So many great first party exclusives, PSVR and great third-party games make this my favorite of the last generation.
8. Atari VCS (2020): Controversial? The VCS has been my most played system since I got it last March ('21). I love the form factor, the flexibility to operate it as a PC, and the Classic Controller. The game library is a mix of retro classics and modern indie titles that I’ve really enjoyed. The ability to game stream XBOX Game Cloud, Stadia, Luna and GeForce Now means I have easy access to modern AAA. It's also a very capable emulation box. Whether support dries up or not, this Swiss army knife of gaming consoles will continue to have a home in my set-up.
9. Atari Lynx: The first color handheld and a tremendous effort from Atari. The Lynx library is so strong and easily collectible. A winner.
10. EVERCADE VS: What Blaze has done with the Evercade has been utterly fantastic. The curated collections are interesting, priced right and look great on a shelf. I loved the Evercade handheld and the VS improves on nearly every front. Recommended for any retro gamer.
 

Always great to see a Top 10 post!
1. Atari Jaguar: This was the system that got me back into gaming in 1994 and rekindled my love for Atari.
2. SEGA Saturn: Once Atari Corporation gave up the ghost and ended support for the Jaguar, I picked another winner! Honestly, I love Sega's exclusive content and the Saturn library is the pinnacle 90s arcade machine!
3. COLECO Gemini: My first love, this 2600 clone had a small form factor, came with Donkey Kong and Mousetrap packed in, and sported some of the best controllers of the era.
4. SEGA Dreamcast: The short-lived Dreamcast arguably kicked off modern gaming and has an incredible library of games. This is peak SEGA. Too bad it didn't ship with a DVD player...
5. Atari 7800: When I stated collecting in 2010 or so, I became aware of the 2600 and 7800 hhomebrew communities.  Instead of picking up both consoles, I started with the 7800 due to its backwards compatibility with the 2600. The homebrews are fantastic, but the original retail titles have some of the best home ports of 80s arcade games around.
6. NES: I don't have much to say here except that this is the system that saved console gaming in North America and changed everything.  Childhood memories of playing Mario, Mega Man, Contra, Ikari Warriors, Castlevania and others will be with me forever.
7. Playstation 4 (PRO): I love where Sony has taken the PS4. So many great first party exclusives, PSVR and great third-party games make this my favorite of the last generation.
8. Atari VCS (2020): Controversial? The VCS has been my most played system since I got it last March ('21). I love the form factor, the flexibility to operate it as a PC, and the Classic Controller. The game library is a mix of retro classics and modern indie titles that I’ve really enjoyed. The ability to game stream XBOX Game Cloud, Stadia, Luna and GeForce Now means I have easy access to modern AAA. It's also a very capable emulation box. Whether support dries up or not, this Swiss army knife of gaming consoles will continue to have a home in my set-up.
9. Atari Lynx: The first color handheld and a tremendous effort from Atari. The Lynx library is so strong and easily collectible. A winner.
10. EVERCADE VS: What Blaze has done with the Evercade has been utterly fantastic. The curated collections are interesting, priced right and look great on a shelf. I loved the Evercade handheld and the VS improves on nearly every front. Recommended for any retro gamer.
 

Oooh, this is a fun post.  Very nicely done.  I'm leaving portables off this list.

Here is mine off the top of my head. 
Atari 2600 (7800)
The 2600 is my all-time favorite.  But why not choose the 7800 instead, which is really 2 consoles in 1?
  Atari 800XL
I grew up with one and adore it.  I still use it!  I didn't include a 5200 in my list because this is essentially the same.
  Sony PS2
One of my all-time favorites due to the huge and varied library. 
  Nintendo Wii
Again, 2 consoles in 1 with the Gamecube compatibility. 
  Nintendo NES
  Vectrex
  Sony PS
So many good memories with this.  I can't leave it off.
  Virtual Boy
Truly underrated.  They should have called it "3D Boy" as that's what it does. 
  Nintendo SNES
  TurboGrafx 16
I love this thing and enjoy every game I've tried.  

This is so cool and remarkable that so much time later we are still learning about who made these games.

I would encourage @MaximumRD and @Sabertooth to consider using RSS to syndicate their Atari I/O Blogs also. Their content is top-notch and we are proud to host it.

Hi @CrossBow,
RSS is a simple web feed that lets users and apps syndicate Blog posts in a standard format. Using an RSS feed is an easy way to export/import a Blog into news aggregators and other websites. This means you can build your Blog one place and it will automatically feed elsewhere if you configure it to do so.
You can build your Atari I/O Blog and use RSS to feed it to your Atari Age Blog (and other Blog sites!) so it can appear across multiple websites at once. You do this by configuring your other blogs to import an RSS feed, and pasting your URL to your Atari I/O Blog as the source.
Your Atari I/O Blog RSS feed URL is: https://forums.atari.io/blogs/blog/rss/22-itc-chronicles-stories-from-the-ivory-tower-collections/?member=1&key=07b209807b79c676392a74af9cea1ef1
You can find your RSS feed by click on the little orange RSS icon on the bottom right of your Blog’s homepage. It looks like this:

 
 
Additionally, you can import your existing Atari Age blog posts! You can do this by following a few easy steps:
1 Go to your Atari I/O Blog homepage here:
 
2 Click on the “MANAGE BLOG” dropdown menu on the right. It looks like this:

 
3 Select “ATOM / RSS IMPORT”
4 Enable RSS Import
5 Paste your Atari Age Blog RSS feed URL into the URL box. It looks like this:

 
6 Click the black “SAVE” Button
 
NOTE: Your Atari Age Blog RSS feed URL is: https://atariage.com/forums/blogs/blog/rss/841-the-ivory-tower-collections-7800s/
 
Do this and you should be all set! We are happy to do this for you if you request.
We think your blogs and your videos are valuable to our community. You have a great wealth of knowledge  to share and I personally have enjoyed your content recently. If there’s anything we can do to help you please let us know.
- Justin
 
 

I've never figured out the RSS thing so I would need some explanation and assistance on how that is done exactly?
 

Enjoyed this blog entry greatly. You can always export this blog elsewhere, and import your AA blog entries here using RSS. Terrific post.

Let's make it happen @Justin!

@Sabertooth Sounds great! I'll get it set up, and it'll be your show to run. If there were enough people in here with the VCS, the club could have its own "Recharged Squad Challenges" etc. It would be the place to be for the VCS

Hi @Justin - Count me in! Sounds like a cool idea.

@Sabertooth We have a new section in the forums for Clubs that could be really cool. They act like mini-forums within the forums and give Members the chance to have their own Club space for a specific topic. I'd like to create an "Atari VCS Club" in our new Clubs area in the forums. Would you like to be in charge of it? The new VCS seems like a lot of fun and I've been enjoying your Blog entries about the new games.

The three multicarts I have are:
A Jay Smith 72 in 1 dated 2008 that came with the Vectrex when I bought it. The VecMulti, which uses an SD card and is probably the best thing available since you can add new ROM files. Jason Kopp's multicart, which is really good for having so many games embedded, and he only charges $20 + shipping for them.  The ultimate bargain.  It also has an LED on the cart, which is a nice feature.  The buzz off kit is better than I imagined it would be.  It not only eliminated the headache-inducing buzz, but also the slightly pulsating graphics.  I didn't realize how noticeable that was until it's gone.  What a difference.  It looks more like an arcade machine than ever now.  I've gotten a lot of negative comments about having the buzz-off installed ("It's not a Vectrex without the buzz"), but I disagree wholeheartedly.  HUGE improvement.

I will look for and try Vector Pilot and Vector Patrol as I haven't seen those.  Thank you for the suggestions.  My favorite is probably Armor Attack.
 

I think those that complain about removing it, are those that grew up with the console. I personally didn't even know the Vectrex ever existed until I got back into classic gaming in the early 2000s. I don't recall commercials or ever seeing one on display when I was a boy so for me I have no nostalgia towards the console. As a result the buzz was a pita to me.
One disadvantage.. yes there is one, to removing the buzz, is that some demos relied on the way that buzz was generated for sound. As a result the demo for Bad Apple has barely audible audio. No amount of volume adjustment or other fixes I've tried works to correct for this. Also the buzz-off didn't totally remove the buzz in my unit as there is still a tiny bit there, However, it is only audible through the internal speaker as the VAT captured audio does not have any buzz from it. 
I also own three mutlicarts:
- VecMulti 
- Jason's Kopps Multicart that I received in November (about a year after I ordered it LOL) and...
- a VecFever... The VecFever might be my favorite with the additional games it game with and the ability to run modified Vector arcade MAME roms through it and on the Vectrex.
Although the PiTrex project has supplanted the VecFever in many regards. Additionally there is a VecFever II that has the ability to play rom images of much larger size and internal storage but I'm good with the seemingly unobtainium one I own.
 

@RickR, 100%! I really dig the look.  Asteroids and Black Widow work particularly well since the originals were vector based.

$10 is a steal in my opinion. I've  got several hours in on each of these so the value for money is there. And - like the originals - I come back for a quick play to best my high-score.
I'm really the most curious about Breakout: Recharged. Will it be like Arkanoid? Like Super Breakout? Will it be like the Amico version? It's the first non-shooter in the series. If they nail that, it will be four for four (excluding Missile Command).
If you haven't seen it yet, I recommend the Recharged Podcast hosted by Atari's producer and lead developer Adamvision. They definitely have a passion for gaming and Atari's IP that was probably missing from Atari for awhile.
 

It's a definite revamp on the vector graphics in the 1979 version of Asteroids. I like it, too. :O)

$10 is a steal in my opinion. I've  got several hours in on each of these so the value for money is there. And - like the originals - I come back for a quick play to best my high-score.
I'm really the most curious about Breakout: Recharged. Will it be like Arkanoid? Like Super Breakout? Will it be like the Amico version? It's the first non-shooter in the series. If they nail that, it will be four for four (excluding Missile Command).
If you haven't seen it yet, I recommend the Recharged Podcast hosted by Atari's producer and lead developer Adamvision. They definitely have a passion for gaming and Atari's IP that was probably missing from Atari for awhile.