Atarileaf

Top 10 AMIGA games. Well, certainly such lists are subjective and I am not saying all or any were exclusives, indeed some may have been better or more popular elsewhere but my fond memories of them originated on AMIGA so simply I will name 10 games that I highly enjoyed going back to those may years ago when I had original Amiga hardware. I will go with - 
 
1. Lemmings
2. Stunt car Racer
3. SkidMarks 
4. Turrican
5. The Chaos Engine
6. Battle Squadron
7. Zany Golf
8. Zenon II Megablast
9. The Secret of Monkey Island
10. Flashback
 
To be clear, this was literally the first things that sprang to mind off the top of my head and could likely change dramatically from moment to moment and I could literally think of dozens if not hundreds more and that is not even including various PD / Shareware / Demos and well if I am honest tons and tons of pirated titles I traded for back in the day. Was such a wonderful platform.

Well I'm out ----- " Participants must send the box out within 3 days of getting it"
My day job has be traveling all over the USA and Canada Monday through Thursday usually

I have a feeling you'll have the right fruits by the time the February 26th deadline rolls around 

I'm in Canada 
 
Plus I don't think I have enough fruit yet

The desoldering guns are the best way to go but unless you use them a lot I can't justify the expense. RickR is correct that it seems like you need the iron really hot for desoldering braid. I normally prefer solder suckers but these tiny solder points on IC's that are so close together seem impossible to suck up.

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

Here's a glimpse at a few of my goals in no particular order:
 
Integrate a beautiful new chat room into the forums where we can host fun new events Grow our membership New contests in the forums More attention to the Blog, publish member submissions more quickly Build up excitement for the Atari I/O Retro Junk Box My new home arcade needs arcade games! I'd like to get a few. RoadBlasters, Outrun, and Crystal Castles on my list. Relaunch my YouTube Channel. Develop new content. Atari I/O After Hours Podcast Do more with Danisen League (2-player challenges, best of 3 wins), simplify and make easy for everybody to play Achieve a new world record for Outrun in the arcades Complete my journey through Neutopia on TurboGrafx-16 and begin Neutopia 2 Expand my TurboGrafx collection, particularly Super CD games Find a like-new, recapped TurboExpress McWill LCD screen upgrade to Atari Lynx Get my hands on an Analogue Super Nt (https://www.analogue.co/pages/super-nt/) Atari I/O T-Shirts and more  
I'll be fortunate to accomplish 3 of these goals this year.

The last scene had me screaming "yes" at the TV repeatedly, rewinding and rewatching.  I will admit to have gotten teary eyed.  LOL  I can't believe we have to wait almost a year for the next season! I did cancel my CBS All Access subscription since Discovery was the only reason I had it.  I will join again when Discovery returns. 

I hope this becomes something. Either way this is very exciting!
 

After unpopular demand, the long-awaited episode 30 is out! In this belated episode, we take out our frustrations on useless megastars, questionable AtariAge users, and rocket hijackers. Happy Mardi Gras!
 
http://homebrew78.fab4it.com/media/hbh_episode_030.mp3

Static for sure can cause damage. I'd also check voltages on the power adapters you are using. If your 800XL has a "ingot" power supply, throw it out! Those things can fry the computer.

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll have to invest in an anti static wrist strap before i continue working on these systems for sure

That last shot made me actually stand up and cheer the way I do when my Leafs score a goal

Your videos are great.  I just subscribed. 
 
I had the pleasure of playing Draconian at a gaming show, and I was astounded.  Especially the speech.  Holy moly, it's even more impressive than the homebrew version of Bosconian for the Atari 8-bit computers. 
 
And I'm glad you are here too. 

Thanks for making me feel so welcome, it is quite a bit like that old youtube crew of years past. That small intimate group that I enjoyed talking and sharing with back then. I'm glad I finally joined

Me too Atarileaf, so glad you're here! Now we can start posting videos with open-tags for other members in the forum 

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

600c is too hot for most board work. I usually have my Hakko 936 set between 350 - 400c for most work. On the Colecovision I actually keep it at 280 - 300 thereabouts. The CV uses a lot of leaded solder and is melts easier. Unfortunately, so do the contact pads and traces...
 
I will occasionally put the iron at around 700 - 750 if I have to solder something on a large trace that is likely ground. That is because the larger the surface area you are attaching to, the more heat is needed since the larger area will 'sink' the heat away and prevent the solder from sticking to the pads where it is needed.
 
One way you know you iron is likely too hot, is when the solder sticks to the iron more than it will what the solder should be adhering to.

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

Thanks for making me feel so welcome, it is quite a bit like that old youtube crew of years past. That small intimate group that I enjoyed talking and sharing with back then. I'm glad I finally joined

Always great and fun videos from AtariLeaf ! 

Hey guys, I can personally attest to Atarileaf's channel and to how great a guy he is to follow. I've been watching his videos since 2010 and have always enjoyed his channel. Atarileaf, along with MaximumRD and myself were kind of part of a group of guys on YouTube about eight years ago when YouTube was a smaller, friendlier place, and you could easily send PMs between members and post "open tag" videos and tag your friends to respond. None of our channels reached the height of channels like AVGN or Gamester81, but that was kind of the point wasn't it? It was a really nice community of some really cool people who genuinely loved classic gaming - and making YouTube videos!
 
People sometimes ask me "Why the need for another Atari site?" Probably the biggest inspiration for building this site came from being part of that old YouTube community that Atarileaf and MaximumRD were a part of, being there for that, being in a smaller group of friendly faces, and then having Google effectively pull that away from us, when they removed PM functionality from YouTube and pushed us all into using G+. After that happened, everything became monetized, things got serious, it just wasn't the same. I wanted to build something to recreate that little community. That's a big reason why I've always tried to incorporate YouTube creators and podcasts into the forums, create this "YouTube Community" forum and try to go the extra mile to promote our member's YouTube channels. YouTube, podcast, and other content creators are a big part of what keeps the conversation going and the hobby moving along. People put lots of work into videos and podcasts and I hope we're doing some small part to help share their content with the world.
 
I really liked the reviews you posted Atarileaf! I didn't make the connection between The Last Jedi and The Dreadnaught Factor until I saw your video. And Draconian is fantastic! They did a tremendous job on Draconian, it's a great port of Bosconian for the 2600. The scrolling is beautiful and everything came out absolutely awesome. Definitely one of my top Atari 2600 homebrews of all time.

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

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

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