Atari 5200 Guy

Yes. My wife and I still have and regularly use VHS. I have had no bad experiences with VHS other than playing a tape so much they wear out. I also don't mind having to rewind tapes. I'm use to that. But I only use the VCR to rewind my tapes because when VCRs and VHS was in its prime my family members on my dad's side recorded tons of shows off cable TV. By the time VHS phased out my grandmother had over 400 tapes and my aunt had almost 700, each with at least three or more movies and other programs on them. All of them had commercials cut out of them. They also invested in some prerecorded tapes but not as much. We all invested in those tape rewinders but overtime those started pulling the tape off the take up reel when the tape reached the end. I fixed the tapes but suggested leaving the rewinding to the VCR. I mean the machines have circuits that protect the tape. A VCR should never tug on a tape when it reaches the end. That's what the clear leaders are for. Today we still use them. I still have them because of the Disney movies. I have too many movies on VHS that is hard to find on other formats. The quality got better as technology advanced for the machines and TVs. My JVC looks really good paired up with a late model flat tube CRT TV. Those lines are from the camera, not the VCR...but the quality is there.

To be quite honest...I like XBOX. I have original XBOX, two 360 models, and a XBOX One. They are nice to have but just look at everything you have to have just to use them. Both the 360 and One rely on the internet. Xbox One can't even be setup without the internet. Any digital games bought, using either machine, will either not play or revert back to demo mode if they can't contact XBOX Live to verify ownership. I understand why to a point but its also a headache. With an Atari or older machine that has no internet abilities its a whole lot easier. Simply plug and play. If you own a copy of a game title you can play it, if not then you can't. And that's saying a lot from me because I do like Xbox, especially the original Xbox, but I don't like the added monthly expense that comes with them just to use them.

I have to admit that when the 1997 Titanic came out I was very excited...but only for my interest in the ship. If the film was spot on accurate then the ship details they recreated showed just how massive and beautiful the Titanic really was. I would have enjoyed the movie more if Hollywood would have kept the love story out of it. I do feel that part of the story took away from Titanic's story. It was called Titanic after all, not Romeo and Juliette. I believe the Internet Archive has some Titanic stuff including early movies. I think.

Man. You remind me of myself when I was 16, except I had moved on to the NES, SMS and 7800. You have a very impressive collection for your age (no pun intended). Even 16 year old me would have been wowed by your collection. I'm 46, have an impressive collection myself, but am amazed at how a 16 year old is that into the old Atari stuff. And into vinyl, too? You mention being able to talk us older gen folk that lived through it. You do realize that you are also living through it? Even if it is used stuff, the ambition and passion is there. You are really no different than the rest of us who did get to experience it.

Well...the board I had tried was an AMD board, 128 MB of RAM, 20 GB HDD, and I used the built in video but Windows 98 did not like the SATA drives (couldn't see the hard drive or optical drive) so I couldn't access format.com or Windows setup and Windows 7 I think laughed at the RAM size. I have no XP install disks. So...I'll have to try something else.

I've saved a few old motherboards from the dumpster I would enjoy turning into a MAME machine. Probably ME and XP era?? I'm not sure. One is AMD and the other is Intel. It would be neat to see if they will fire up. One, though, I have to finish removing all the AGP port pins because someone, before throwing it away, ripped the port off but left the pins behind. It will still work once those have been removed. Both have built in video. This might be double the fun!

I had it lol. Wasn't bad really but more text than graphics.

Awww, man. That's sad. He will be missed. Awesome actor and the voice of the dragon in Dragon heart.

Well, I finally got the other CRT setup without getting it fixed. I can deal with it but after playing F-Zero on it I can tell the vertical section of the circuits has an issue. I'm just not sure where. The ship that comes down from the top when entering the pits comes up from the bottom of those lines on the Toshiba. Its a weird thing to see but cool to see at the same time. This is a much needed upgrade. Any who...here is it partially setup. I've still got a lot of organizing to do and there are some things that I'm going to have to consider parting with that are not being used...mostly old PCs that don't work anymore, there is one TI computer I never use nor have interest in, and we have videos, VHS and DVDs, that we simply don't watch any more. Disney movies stay and I think we are going to go through and pick out some movies to keep. The rest are most likely going. I'm just not sure yet. I also am going to have to make custom shelves out of plastic crates to hold all my Atari games and some hardware.

I know Colecovision had a game called K-Tel Rock n Roll something.

The nice thing about K-Tel albums are you can just let em play. There is enough variety on those that you rarely have to skip a song. Most original artist albums I have just for one or two songs. There are very few albums I like from beginning to end but those are either music from the original motion pictures or greatest hits albums. With K-Tel I can just starter an album a enjoy. They make for great background music while playing card games with family and friends. If you are hunting might I suggest Discogs? Its a great way to track your collection, research what all is out there, and find used records for cheap. Sadly, most vinyl albums never made it over to the digital age. Who knows, just like your 7800, you may discover something new. Oh and for the record I can only recall two albums I enjoy from beginning to end. Crisis? What Crisis? and Breakfast in America...both from Supertramp. If you have never heard them before YouTube them. If you have seen any Amazon commercials with singing boxes then you would know Give A Little Bit. Others include Its Raining Again, Another Man's Woman, Goodbye Stranger, and Take The Long Way Home. Very unique, creative, and original music...the likes of which this world may not hear ever again.

Haha. I have a variant of that I found local but it was made in Canada. Yours is the one I've been hunting for. Here...see for yourself. See...yours has Beautiful Sunday on it where as mine doesn't... And that's one reason I'm after the USA version of this album. I love K-Tel as much as I love Atari so anytime I see that unmistakable logo on an album I make sure the album is in there and I bring them home. Over the years our K-Tel collection has grown but there are still some I'm after. And yes...Mr. Manilow is there for a reason. It too is a K-Tel album. See for yourself.

Ghost Manor wasn't too bad. I have that Xonox double. I tried to enjoy Spike's Peak but it expects way to much from the player.

I have to agree although I didn't mind Touchdown Football. Its OK but nothing to write home about. There's LOTS of games the 7800 needs...and not just sports games. That system was tossed against a giant that had games galore. If Atari would have taken the 7800 more seriously it could have possibly gave the NES great competition. On a side note, take a good look at that 2700 case. Yep...that carried over to the 7800. If you were to take the 7800 apart you'd see holes on the underside of the top shell where the 2700's buttons would go. They are covered up by the 7800's chrome strip but still there. Pretty neat, huh?

Who here remembers vinyl records/albums? Who remembers K-Tel? For those who don't know here's a bit of a summed up history. Music. Before cellphones and music compressed so much you could fit almost an entire library of music on those phones music came on pressed disc made out of vinyl. And before the Now series of music compilations there was a company before them that did the same thing known as K-Tel. K-Tel made music compilations on 33 1/3 albums, cassettes, and 8-tracks. The did try to make the transition to CDs but didn't last long once CDs were introduced. Ah...good old K-Tel. If you wanted the latest hits but couldn't afford to grab every single or all the original artist's album releases you grabbed a K-Tel album. These discs contained anywhere between 12 to 20 songs in both rock and country genres. They were very popular items. Sometimes they had that one song you never heard before that was also really good...yet could not be found anywhere else. Once I had finished finally setting up my TT I began going through my K-Tel collection. Look what I found inside of one of them. Advertisements for the double ender 2600 games. I thought you guys would enjoy seeing this. Oh...and... ..my TT. Technics direct drive semi automatic. About as old as me and still ready to rock. So...if you have one spin it while playing Atari. You might just surprise yourself.

Sony invented BETA to compete against VHS. BETA had better quality but VHS could hold more recording time. Thus VHS won the war and Sony gave up BETA and went the VHS route. So your Zenith Beta machine might have been a rebranded Sony BETA machine which means Zenith paid a license to Sony to use the technology. It was a common business practice. A similar thing happened in Japan to bring a vinyl videodisc made in Japan by JVC to American shores but JVC got cold feet at the last minute and just did a Japan only release. That way of doing business still continues today.

I half expected to see some Sony ICs in this unit but there were none. What was by JVC was audio circuits and speakers and they made high end audio gear. Orion was a brand I associated as a cheap brand only found at Walmart in my hometown. They were OK but just basic stuff. I was surprised to see a flat tube made by them because every Orion TV I seen didn't have that. I've not got everything set up yet but when I do I'll post pics. I have a cheap programmable remote I'm going to try to use to gain access to the menu system and see what all I can adjust. I didn't find any burned out or bulging parts. I checked all caps for leaks. Everything seemed OK. Then again if one part is bad it will be like finding a needle in a haystack. I have a feeling it might be a transistor and finding those to be bad is not an easy task.

I found out what the weird jack is on the back. Its a service port.

Here you go. It has another input up front with a headphone jack, too. The rear has a really weird connector I've never seen before. And here you go. On a side note, this TV is a mixed breed. It says Toshiba but only one processor in the TV is Toshiba branded. The tube was made by Orion (remember them?), the DVD player by Sanyo who in 2002 was a respected brand that did make quality products. That's who made my other CRT that I absolutely love to use. The yoke attached to the tube has JVC on it. Other processors in the TV are also branded Orion or JVC. Everything works in this unit but that top of the screen. The image is not altered by those lines but it does seem to be struggling with something.

There were two small pots where one was for vertical position. The other was on the power circuit and just said B+. The flyback transformer had the usual two for focus and screen adjustments. Nothing made any difference. However, I did clean it up and even with the screen being like is I can live with it.

Well, I couldn't figure it out but it doesn't appear to affect the image too bad.

Here's the other item. And its sturdy. I wasn't going to take it but once I looked at it I seen a lot of gaming potential.

Well. I had an interesting find today while taking out the trash. I don't normally dumpster dive very often because I don't want to bring bugs into my home but there was two items in there that looked to be OK. I only got a pic of one right now...I'll get a pic of the other in a bit. Its a 2002 Toshiba 20" with a built in DVD player. I've tested it and, while it works, it has a few problems I'm hoping I can resolve. My main concern is the tube because the image information is about 1/3 down from the top but the image quality was clear and bright and appeared normal otherwise. I'm hoping I can find a vertical hold adjustment to correct it. I also need to find out what is keeping the power button from working. I'll write my diary on it as usual and I will get pics of the other item once I clean it up. I really hope I can fix this because these old tube TVs work best with retro gaming gear but are really hard to find these day in good condition.

I'll try to play. I can only use my tablet at the moment. The only problem with that is I have no camera to take pics with and screenshots won't work.