Atarileaf

I will be honest and state that I've not installed a UAV onto a 2600 yet. But others have and stated it looks great. As for how much simpler, I'm not entirely sure. I can tell you that the UAV is a replacement encoder, so as such you still have to wire all the needed lines to the UAV board for it to process that video correctly. But yes, if you only need composite output from the UAV, then you would only need two wires from the output side of the UAV. Composite and ground.
 
The UAV does NOT handle audio though, so that has to be done separately. Bryan (Who makes the UAV), also created an audio amp replacement board that is very easy to install. But sadly when I checked with him on this, he stated he didn't have any made up and not making more because I believe he plans to incorporate the audio into the newer revision of UAV he is also working on.
 
I hope that on the resistors you "removed" that didn't completely remove them? All that is needed is to simply cut one of the legs off the resistors to disable them from the circuit. This way if you need them back in place (Like would be needed when putting in other mods that require them or if you wish to take it back to stock condition), then you only have to apply a small dollop of solder to the leg you cut and you have it repaired back in circuit again.

I've gone from a couple of dozen systems and a couple thousand games to 4 systems (2600/7800/Atari 8-bit/NES) and 1 handheld (GBA SP) and about 150 games give or take.
 
Atari 2600 - 50 games + 6 homebrews
Atari 7800 - 15 games + 3 homebrews
Atari XL/XE - 32 games
NES - 25 games
Famicom - 5 games
Gameboy - 8 games
SNES - 3 games + 1 homebrew
Genesis - 4 games
 
I got rid of all my Genesis and SNES consoles and just use a Retron 5 for those games. It didn't seem worth it to keep those consoles for a tiny amount of games I had for them. My collection is now back to when I first started in 2009 and was what I intended - to collect for the 3 Atari systems and some NES and just games I actually play. I no longer own games and systems that just sit on a shelf. I'm at the point now where I don't actually view it as a video game collection and just the systems and games of my youth that I still enjoy playing.
 
As for what I use to track my collection (even though I don't think it's necessary because of its small size) is the database at VGcollect.com
 
I haven't found a decent app for the older systems but I don't actively look for them so if there's a mobile app that works well and looks good for systems like the 2600 or NES let me know and I'll check it out.

I thought it was mentioned that they would not, which is unfortunate if true. Indy 500 is a fantastic 2 player game.

More info here and a demo of the games I've gotten to work on it.
 
https://youtu.be/Zlva0b7ZiRk?list=PLypzYHeVZt9mmepsDRL-2oBIemEfp0XdC

Another great find. Now i have a saturn game for my saturn i just got a couple weeks ago. Im happy too i thought id have to get a game off eBay. I never find saturn games in the wild.
 
Gamegear games. Ninja Gaiden, shinobi, and castle of illusions staring mickey mouse

Saturday i went to 3 different goodwills and found these all these mario wii games. One of the mario karts has no game in it, but they let me have it for free. Anyone nned a case for mario kart?

What a day!
 
I had the day off work, so I did a little thrift store shopping.
 
I found some CIB Intellivision games, one loose Pac Man, a Wii game for $0.75 and a PS2 game for $1.  And a Gremlins DVD.

 
I also got a very nice 19" monitor for my wife's PC.  I know what you're thinking...cheap SOB won't buy his wife a new monitor.  But here's the thing -- if I did, she'd get really mad at me because her old 15" square one was "just fine".  This one was only $7.50, so I don't think she'll be too mad.  Plus built in speakers makes her desk a little neater.  

 
Finally, a pair of all-black Converse Chuck 2's.  Now normally, I don't even look at shoes at Goodwill because "ewwww" to used shoes.  But these ones were on a display shelf, my size, and they look brand new.  No wear at all on the inside heel, or the soles that I could see.  I don't think they even make Chuck 2's anymore.  Too bad, because they are a lot more comfortable that the originals.  $15.

 
 

http://members.tcq.net/video61/helicommander.html
 
 
thanks for looking.
 
lance
www.atarisales.com

http://members.tcq.net/video61/putt18.html
 
thanks for looking,
 
lance
www.atarisales.com

Thanks crossbow. I gotta leave but here are a couple quick pics. The perf board is glued down so it may be hard to access without doing more damage. The other pic is the 3 composite connectors and the way they are soldered

Again the fact that the image changes at all when you touch or move the wires, is sure proof there is a loose connection. Or..worse...there could be a break in the wiring within the insulation itself. But i'm inclined to think that one of the connections and most likely the video connection on the perfboard is the one to be looking at first.
 
I do use solid core wire...sometimes. But if you plan to service the system much in the future, then it is best to use a larger gauge stranded copper wire instead to give yourself more flexibility. Or...like I do, I actually use header pins and connectors so that I can quickly unplug stuff to work on it. Because of that, I do use thin solid core kynar wire for connections that won't need to be moved around, and always make sure that my power and ground wire is thick gauge for best connections. Also important to run the video and power separate if at all possible in that I keep their wiring away from each other to prevent any noise that way. Although it isn't such an issue with DC voltages like it would be with AC voltage. That is the other reason I try and attach my video ground off the same gound as the TIA. If you just use the ground around the edge of the PCB, you do stand a risk of some non filtered noise running along that plane. Also not a bad idea to keep the ground separate from the audio and video since the audio actually uses AC voltage signals. 
 
The other more expensive option (and the one I would actually choose...) would be to rip that out and install a UAV in it instead.

Thanks I will try that. Hopefully tomorrow night. I was supposed to work on it a couple nights ago but I've been swamped with work and other family responsibilities that's kept me from working on the mod. I still want to post a video of what it's doing when I fiddle with the wires and show the solder points better

I did one of these mods for StormSurge last year, but the mod was a bit different and used thick wiring. if I remember correctly, I had to remove a resistor along with the transistor. I know mods vary but if I can find that manual you might try removing a resistor.
 
I agree with others...the RF shield should have stayed. It doesn't take much to interfere with a VCS signal. Try a different power outlet as well that is not shared with any high power devices like a TV or A/C unit. Lamps can mess with them as well.

RECENT RETRON '77 NEWS - 
 
I am happy with this and definitely looking more forward to this than the "AtariBox  "
 
UPDATE ON RETRON 77 by the developer, Dr. Andrew Steel, at Hyperkin:
05/07/2018   "Hi Everyone!   First of all, our apologies for the delay and silence on our part. It's been a long wait, and we truly appreciate your support, as well as all the suggestions and ideas. The final hardware has been finally approved and submitted to mass-production, so it's not going to be a long wait from now on.   We hope for the Retron 77 to be a good product; now it's time to answer your questions, and to say clearly what it is (and what it's not).   Second of all, yes - we indeed licensed a very early version of Stella, but as many people here on this thread mentioned, re-inventing the wheel would be simply pointless, same as reaching out to every single contributor. That is why the R77 is going to be released as an open-source system with its source codes available for the community. Certainly, it comes with a stable and fully functional core that you won't need to tinker with, but if tinkering is your game, then we encourage you to do so. It comes with a nice yet simple GUI.   We heard your thoughts on the amount of money that thing should cost, and of course we understand that it cannot be too much. We aim for this system to be affordable, and while I cannot tell you the MSRP just yet (it will soon be officially announced), we are being realistic and community-friendly. We know how much the Harmony cartridge alone costs, and we hope for this system to be not very far from that. Also, we expect to open pre-orders soon.   As we promised, it comes with all the necessary switches. So if you want to toggle difficulty for both players, game mode, color and black-and-white picture, screen aspect ratio, quick-save and quick-load your game - all that is readily available. There is also a glitch switch that was added just for fun (you can change its purpose if you are familiar with coding).   The system will ship with our new joystick controller which those of you who came to E3 last year had liked a lot. There will be an interesting extra feature for the left-handed people (or the right-handed people who want a challenge) - another Fire button. Certainly, other standard joysticks (like our Cirka controller for example) are also supported, as well as Genesis/MD gamepads. Standard paddle controllers are supported as well. On the top of that, we have another interesting controller that we expect to release at the same time or shortly after the system: it's a combo gamepad that has a little paddle built into it. We went through a lot of prototypes, including a few things suggested in this thread, and decided to go with this option. It has a toggle switch to enable left-handed mode as well.   Certainly, there are many obscure controllers out there, but the system will not support any other types of peripherals out of the box. Again, in an equation where cost and development time (already long enough) are the main variables, we believe this to be a reasonable compromise...   The system takes standard cartridges (all those we tested with my guests at last year's E3 and a few more types). Since it's an open-source system, we thought it would be a good idea to equip it with an SD card slot to make it easier for homebrew developers to get on board. That SD card will also conveniently contain the operating system (and Stella) for easy testing. We decided to drop Harmony support in favor of the SD card because supporting it requires some higher-end hardware, and we believe its homebrew functionality is basically replicated with the SD card.   If you are a developer and you want your game to be included with the system (of course with proper credit given to you or your studio in the EULA file) - please reach out to our R&D team (developer@hyperkin.com) or me directly on Linkedin. Depending on how this goes, we might offer limited amount of devkits to a selected number of developers.   It supports hot-swapping cartridges (you won't have to power down the system to change your games). Save files are good for keeping high scores or getting to see just how crazy some games like Missile Command get past a seven-digit score.   So basically, we wanted this system to be a convenient way to play games off cartridges, with common controllers on an HD TV. It's homebrew- and community-friendly. It's not the ultimate all-in-one answer to just any request, yet it's a good way to put your games collection into some good use, and to preserve the legacy by introducing our kids to what we used to play back in the days.   With all that said, we at Hyperkin and me personally want to thank everyone on this thread. Your support has made this project possible.   Yours truly,   Dr. Andrew Steel   "Standard cartridges" means 4k/8k/16k games. There may be exceptions because our supply of cartridges is somewhat limited.  "Homebrew support" means the system will play .bin files placed on the SD card.   The older version of Stella will not be used. We are fully aware of its limitations; that's basically why in spite of paying for that earlier version, we decided to go open-source with this project, and use a more recent version, and to share the source codes with the community."  

I've used those same micro-switches to replace the ridiculous vinyl reset/select switches on the 2600 jr. 

Console5.com also has replacement dome switches are supposed to be superior to the originals. I know they offer not only the standard 3 leg version, but also a 4 leg version that can be used and I believe that one is better if only because the extra leg provides an extra support stress location for the button when it is depressed and helps to even that out more. I've also used them to great success in replacing the original dome contact switch on the Intellivision reset. Only since the originals were press fit into slots along the side of the reset contact point, i will use the 4 leg versions of the dome contacts and actually tack-solder the leg ends onto the ground points around the reset area. 

you can post a score here or two , I also posted in the "scoreboard" ( hmmmmmmm can't find scoreboard score )
 
anyways I got plenty of nerd for spreading around

I regret not getting in on this. It's my favorite 2600 game and when I get in that zone I can do pretty well. I'll try to get in on the next Atari HS challenge.

The sent you the headphones to help inspire you to get a haircut, so they fit better 

Been to long, I decided to do this MOSTLY to let my youtube subscribers know I am still alive lol. Otherwise silly, off the top of my head rambling unscripted, you know, the usual.   
 
   
 
Surprise package I should've expected.
 
 

I regret not getting in on this. It's my favorite 2600 game and when I get in that zone I can do pretty well. I'll try to get in on the next Atari HS challenge.

Worst damage that Frying would do is just wear out the switch that much quicker. All you are actually doing is changing starting registers that the game relies on for proper gameplay. So when you fry you modify these starting points in the code and that is what causes the games to freak out.
 
You can fry Adventure and discover the Warren Robinett room that way. Also possible to do it using the bridge on the bottom screen of the maze area, but you will get stuck permanently in the room doing this. Funny thing is I never figured out that it actually spelled anything as a kid. Wasn't until I was much older and discovered the old 2600 Nexus and IRC chats etc that I even knew that was a hidden room. I just mistook it for glitched graphics because I did something not expected similar to frying would do. 

My first suggestion would be to try a different composite cable-set.
 
That is a weird one. Please let us know if you solve it.

Since you said it only happens on some homebrews, I'm inclined to agree with your guess about the lack of shielding inside the homebrew carts. Could be they are picking up something in the RF range that is causing the video interference. 
 
have you tried to move the console around or perhaps other crazy stuff like tilt it on its side with a game in it and such to see if you can make those lines more around and change? If you can, that confirms it is outside RF causing an issue.
 
Also was the RF shield removed from the 2600 when it was modded? I always..ALWAYS tried to keep the RF shield in place as the RF modulator isn't the only thing to get affected by unwanted RF noise. Even the newer mod boards can be affected by outside RF radiation.
 
Although we don't use analog over the air signals anymore or RF modulators, we actually use more RF in the world today and all around us than we ever have before. Bluetooth, your Wi-Fi in your house..etc..all exist in the RF ranges. Even your cell phone, that is why we had to get rid of the old analog signals, because we needed them for other stuff. It is also why many of the older consoles tend to look even more on modern displays. Newer displays do NOT have the filters and such in them that our old TVs did to help filter that crap out of the video signal.

The PS2 is a great investment. For a popular console it is also very much undervalued with games starting at $2 for some popular titles. If you get one I would suggest either model but I am partial to the original over the slim. Titles I would suggest are Final Fantasy X, Gran Turismo 3 Apex, Dynasty Warriors (any one in the series), Burnout Revenge. And whatever you do pick up at least two memory cards as some games can fill one up quick.  
Another great undervalued system is the original XBOX. There are many games for it that are underpriced that it blows my mind. Solid console with good controllers and great games as well. If you are going to get a PS2 then consider the XBOX as well since both have great exclusives (beyond Halo) that should not be missed. Also, identical third-party titles you might find play better on one console than the other. And with XBOX you don't need a memory card.
 
Just throwing this out there...check with Lukie Games for games but I would suggest if money is an issue to find the systems elsewhere as they can be pricey there.
 
https://www.lukiegames.com/playstation
 
https://www.lukiegames.com/microsoft-xbox-cat