Atari 2600 restoration Part 1

Brutus442

Brutus442

Member (SA)
I managed to get not one but two Atari 2600's (neither working) and decided to relive my youth by trying to restore at least one of them. The 1st was a "Light 6'er" model as it's called and the other is the 4 switch 'Vader" edition. The Light 6'er model was the one I had as a kid so I set out to fix it first.
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Won't power up, dirty and scuffed up. Needs some TLC
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Cleaned it up and found the power issue(s) Faulty voltage regulator and DC jack
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It's birthday is arriving soon lol
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Ordered a whole rebuild kit with a new regulator and a new DC jack.
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Re-assembly (post cleaning) complete after a quick test for operation
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Put the unit together and then moved on to the cosmetics of both the 2600 and the slew of games I bought from a used game store....We'll save that for tomorrow. Enjoy!
 
floyd

floyd

Boomus Fidelis
Nice work.
It's amazing they still make parts for these things .
Nothing more nostalgic than the sound effects of vintage video games. Too bad I'm such a sore loser when it comes to video games my strategy for victory is to destroy the machines themselves thus achieve victory lol. Those damn space invaders never took into account the power of the sledge hammer lol.
 
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Tinman

Tinman

Member (SA)
I also had the Light "6'er" (I didn't know they had a nickname).
If I remember correctly, back in the day, my power switch went out and I replaced it with one of the difficulty switches.
I thought I replaced the caps but I have to take it back apart and verify what I did to it and what's good and what's bad.
Hopefully you get both up and running.
How are you connecting it/them to your TV?
 
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Fatdog

Fatdog

Well-Known Member
Staff member
I'm surprised by how little technology went into those machines. My Atari provided years of entertainment when I was a kid. River Raid, Pitfall (1 & 2), and Adventure were my favorite games.
 
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Brutus442

Brutus442

Member (SA)
Fatdog said:
I'm surprised by how little technology went into those machines. My Atari provided years of entertainment when I was a kid. River Raid, Pitfall (1 & 2), and Adventure were my favorite games.
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I have to agree with you Fatdog. I had Pitfall, Space Invaders, Asteroids and Pac Man, but Pitfall was a classic!

I was lucky to get a collection of these games including River Raid from a nearby used game vendor.
 
Brutus442

Brutus442

Member (SA)
Netsurfer_x1 said:
If you have not done so, reflow and/or resolder the power switch as well. The contant stress on the solder joints (due to power on/power off cycling) will cause those to fail as well.

Ask how I know!
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You bring up a good point! I have to reopen the unit anyway to put in a composite TV adaptor, so its probably a wise move to follow your advice!
 
Brutus442

Brutus442

Member (SA)
Tinman said:
I also had the Light "6'er" (I didn't know they had a nickname).
If I remember correctly, back in the day, my power switch went out and I replaced it with one of the difficulty switches.
I thought I replaced the caps but I have to take it back apart and verify what I did to it and what's good and what's bad.
Hopefully you get both up and running.
How are you connecting it/them to your TV?
Click to expand...
I started by finding this adaptor on Amazon
RCA.jpg
but the picture/ sound is not the greatest especially with RF interference. I did purchase a composite adaptor, but have yet to install it
 
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floyd

floyd

Boomus Fidelis
Brutus442 said:
Floyd! You know having wired controllers is probably the best thing invented for short fused gamers like us! We don't need to keep drywall/ plaster repair putty on hand! lol
Click to expand...
Yeah I limit the destruction to the machines themselves. If I can . usually I take more damage in cuts and scratches than its worth lol. Plus having to clean up the mess.
 
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Tinman

Tinman

Member (SA)
The best was playing Atari basketball.
I could never beat it so I figured out that by turning it's difficulty to A, it moved slower than me on B (I think A was the more difficult setting).
That thing used to get pissed after I'd get up by a certain amount of points and it would literally flip out and the guy would go back and forth really fast.
I didn't like to cheat but that was great.
 
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