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As I've said in my status, I'm working on assembling a vintage Atari 7800 game system.

 

There were a few places at Retrocon selling vintage game consoles and games, and one had a bare bones 7800 - no cables or controllers - for $15. I made an offer and got it for $10, figuring it wouldn't be much of a risk at that price. Since the 7800 is backwards compatible with the 2800, I'd be able to play the games I grew up with!

 

I picked up a pair of 2600 joysticks at the convention, but hadn't gone any further with trying to get this thing running until last week. Other expenses took priority.

 

Anyway, last week I decided to see if I'd gotten a working system or a cool retro paperweight. I ordered a power adapter, cable and an adapter to connect the video cable to the coax input on a modern HDTV.

 

Saturday the power cable and coax adapter came. I managed to dig up a compatible video cable from my parts stash as well. (The video cable is supposed to ship this week.)

 

I assembled everything, connected the 7800 to my 19" HDTV and powered it up. Power LED came on, and the static on the cable input was replaced with a blank screen! So far so good!

 

Now I'm waiting for a couple games I ordered to really test this old man out! Pitfall and Ms Pac Man (2600 version).

 

By the end of the week I'll hopefully be enjoying some true classic gaming! And once I know it works, I'll get some 7800 games as well.

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Will probably be of interest to you...

 

http://www.8-bitcentral.com/blog/2013/7800xm.html

 

:)

The 7800 ProSystem was supposed to be the *third leg* in a console triple-play by ATARI (the original video game system - later rebadged to the 2600 - and the 5200 SuperSystem were the other two legs), and was also planned to share some peripherals with the ATARI 800XL computer.

 

I had never seen a working example of the ProSystem (even in a retailer display).

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The 7800 ProSystem was supposed to be the *third leg* in a console triple-play by ATARI (the original video game system - later rebadged to the 2600 - and the 5200 SuperSystem were the other two legs), and was also planned to share some peripherals with the ATARI 800XL computer.

 

I had never seen a working example of the ProSystem (even in a retailer display).

 

If all goes well, I'll post some pictures. I could post pictures of my little test run. I didn't think a lit LED and blank screen were interesting enough, though.

Cool. Have fun with it.

 

I have this one:

 

 

640px-Atari-400-Comp.jpg

 

but I don't have CRT TV anymore.. 

 

What kind of output does that have? Would an adapter to a coax input work, like it seems to on the 7800 (so far)?

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...

 

What kind of output does that have? Would an adapter to a coax input work, like it seems to on the 7800 (so far)?

 

I am not sure I will look in the box and see. I think it's using the coax just like cable coax for the cable TV in the 80's.

 

I will update this when I get back from the box.

 

Edit:

 

It's using RF video cable...

 

I will look at the back of the plasma and see if it works later today.

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Well, the Pitfall cart and backup video cable both arrived last night. Hooked up the system, put in the game, powered it up . . . and just noise on screen. I connected the backup video cable. Same result.

 

I'm expecting Ms. Pacman soon. If that one doesn't play, then I'd say my super-expensive $10 game system isn't working. In that case I'll see if I can grab another one someplace else. Given the age of the system and low price I paid, I'm not too upset about it.

 

I won't deny that I'm disappointed, though. :(

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I am an Atari die-hard fan.  Wish I can re-build an Atari PC for fun... I do have some Atari games but mostly for the computer not the Atari console games.... would be so much fun if I live near you guys... would be an awesome project :)

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Update:

 

Ms Pacman arrived today, so I gave her a try. The system works. So I tried the Pitfall cartridge again, and it worked too! Turns out I was pushing the Pitfall cart in too deep. In my defense, I haven't handled an Atari system in nearly 30 years. :laugh:

 

Oddly, it works fine attached to my little 19 inch TV in my bedroom, but not to the big 42 incher. Oh well. Maybe there's a setting on the big TV I need to adjust.

 

Now the question is: do I play or do I do the sensible thing and go to bed? (It's nearly 1 AM here!)

 

post-62779-0-80694300-1415425838.jpg

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You KNOW you want to play. Ahh the memories ... :D

 

[EDIT] Watch out for burn-in on modern LCD and Plasma screens. Change the input every 30 minutes or so to refresh the pixels, I've had problems with old NES systems doing that to LCD's.

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You KNOW you want to play. Ahh the memories ... :D

 

[EDIT] Watch out for burn-in on modern LCD and Plasma screens. Change the input every 30 minutes or so to refresh the pixels, I've had problems with old NES systems doing that to LCD's.

 

Thanks for the warning!

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You KNOW you want to play. Ahh the memories ... :D

 

[EDIT] Watch out for burn-in on modern LCD and Plasma screens. Change the input every 30 minutes or so to refresh the pixels, I've had problems with old NES systems doing that to LCD's.

 

If they have only 1 TV .. then they should watch out for..

 

Otherwise, if they have extra TV for gaming, then they don't have to watch out for.. which they don't care.

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Nothing to it. Safe retro gaming = happy retro gaming. I hate nasty surprises like those, and I was very unhappy when that happened to me. It was an older (2009) LCD, so maybe something has changed with the newer designs, but probably not so be cautious.

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Nothing to it. Safe retro gaming = happy retro gaming. I hate nasty surprises like those, and I was very unhappy when that happened to me. It was an older (2009) LCD, so maybe something has changed with the newer designs, but probably not so be cautious.

 

I understand..

 

Some of the TVs have 'anti-burn' feature which prevents from image burn in.

 

Some people don't read the manual that comes with the TV... about how to take care of the TV without any image burn-in.  Which they come home and plug it in and watch/play without realizing about image burn. 

 

Had a roommate that he left TV on all day... and he always leave TV on when leaving the house... I told him to turn it off and he said Naw it's ok..  but he came home and noticed the bad image burn... it won't come off at all..   He was soo upset about it...  I said to him, I told you so.

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Yep. I still have that TV. The image is still there to this day on that one as well. It can happen in as little as 45 minutes. You pause your game to make dinner, come back, presto -- you've got a permanant momento of the day you decided to do some retro gaming. ;)

 

Always read the manuals, they can save you a world of frustration.

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I think recall reading a year or two ago about someplace that was refurbishing vintage consoles and then upgrading the output stages with HDMI/DVI modules so they could interface with modern equipment without problems. I might be wrong .. let me Google it and see.

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Nice, I am using Maximus Arcade (Front End) with a X-Arcade joystick on a stand with 2 barstools.

 

I have it setup with all ROMs for Atari 1200, 2400, 4800, 7600, Turbo Graphix 16, Sega Master System, Sega Genesis, Sega Game Gear, Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Gameboy Advanced, MAME (Arcade) and also this Pinball thing that runs on Steam (Via batch file) I probably left out a system or two in there. The system is running on an Optiplex 745 Small Form Factor Core 2 Duo 2.4GHZ and 4GB of ram. 32 Inch LED Color TV via HDMI mounted to wall.

 

But if anyone is interested, links:

 

http://www.maximus-arcade.com/

http://www.xgaming.com/

http://www.xgaming.com/support/questions/102/Maximus+Arcade+Frontend+and+the+X-Arcade

 

I do however also have a working SNES with about 40 games hooked up to it, nothing beats those SNES controllers :)

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And that, my friends, is dedication to retro gaming. Thumbs up to you, Xendrome .. with all those games, I don't know if you have thumbs left to reciprocate. :lol:

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Still have my Atari 7800 in the original box, along with probably 2 dozen games in storage. Many more 2600 games, also Atari computer game carts and 5200 carts.

 

Also have my 5200 and Atari 130XE computer, along with dot matrix printer, high density floppy disk drive, 1200 baud modem. AFAIK everything still works.

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I'm still getting lots of interference on the 42" Panasonic. I picked up an RF interference trap to see if it might help. Unfortunately it didn't - no improvement. I might try ordering an RF filter off Amazon, but that might not be functionally any different from the "trap" I got at Radio Shack.

 

The problem might be environmental - the 42" TV is located right next to the wireless router and my AT&T Microcell (I get no cell phone signal at home, so I set up my own). Its very likely that one or both of these radios are causing the interference, and the 19"is far enough away for the broadcasts to not noticeably interfere.

 

Since the 7800 works perfectly fine on my 19" TV, I might be better off putting the money toward a couple more games rather than trying to get the 7800 working on the big screen.

 

I'm thinking of getting Donkey Kong, and the 7800 version of Ms. Pacman, since at times the ghosts are almost invisible on the 2600 version.

 

Any recommendations? I'm in the market for both 2600 and 7800 games.

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I'm still getting lots of interference on the 42" Panasonic. I picked up an RF interference trap to see if it might help. Unfortunately it didn't - no improvement. I might try ordering an RF filter off Amazon, but that might not be functionally any different from the "trap" I got at Radio Shack.

 

The problem might be environmental - the 42" TV is located right next to the wireless router and my AT&T Microcell (I get no cell phone signal at home, so I set up my own). Its very likely that one or both of these radios are causing the interference, and the 19"is far enough away for the broadcasts to not noticeably interfere.

 

Since the 7800 works perfectly fine on my 19" TV, I might be better off putting the money toward a couple more games rather than trying to get the 7800 working on the big screen.

 

I'm thinking of getting Donkey Kong, and the 7800 version of Ms. Pacman, since at times the ghosts are almost invisible on the 2600 version.

 

Any recommendations? I'm in the market for both 2600 and 7800 games.

 

Ms. Pac was great on the 7800. So was Centipede and Asteroids. Joust, Galaga, and Dig Dug are faithful arcade adaptions. Xevious is TOUGH but also faithful..these days we take the "Continue" function for granted. Run out of lives on Xevious? Good luck!

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