atari 2600 Archives - The Silicon Underground

Cleaning NES games and consoles

Dave Farquhar — Sun, 15 Jul 2018 11:00:15 +0000

Anyone old enough to have played with an original Nintendo NES knows the problem: You plug in the cartridge, turn on the system, and get a blank screen and the power light blinks at you. The schoolyard fix is to take

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Coleco Gemini: An Atari 2600 clone from 1983

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 31 Jul 2017 11:00:54 +0000

I spotted it on page 597 of the 1983 Sears Christmas catalog. “Two big names play the same games,” the headline boasted. Next to the venerable Atari 2600, Sears presented the Coleco Gemini video game system, an Atari 2600 clone.

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What is a game cartridge?

Dave Farquhar — Tue, 13 Jun 2017 11:00:57 +0000

What is a game cartridge? If you’re asking, you must not have grown up in the 1980s. But that’s OK. We’re happy to share our generation’s fun with you. A game cartridge is a plastic case containing a circuit board,

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Atari 2600 power supply specs

Dave Farquhar — Tue, 30 May 2017 11:00:18 +0000

The Atari 2600 power supply wasn’t as durable as the rest of the Atari 2600, which is nearly bulletproof. By far the most common issue with the Atari 2600 is a dead AC adapter. Fortunately, a suitable Atari 2600 AC

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The Atari 2600 CPU: The MOS 6507

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 29 May 2017 11:00:40 +0000

The Atari 2600 CPU was a nondescript MOS 6507 chip. Neither Intel nor Motorola had a CPU chip in the early 1970s that could meet Atari’s price point. MOS Technology didn’t have one either, but they asked Atari what they

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How to connect a Commodore VIC-20 to a TV

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 23 Nov 2015 12:00:51 +0000

Connecting old computers and consoles to not-as-old televisions is frequently a challenge. Sadly, the VIC-20, Commodore’s runaway bestseller from 1982, is no exception to that. Here’s how to connect a Commodore VIC-20 to a TV. Unfortunately, there are fewer options

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The Logitech F310 on Retropie

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 17 Jul 2014 11:00:27 +0000

I went looking for a reliable, modern controller to use on my Retropie setup. I eventually settled on a Logitech F310, betting the Logitech F310 on Retropie would make a nice combination based on my experience with other Logitech peripherals in regards to

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How thousands of Atari cartridges ended up in the desert

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 28 Apr 2014 11:00:42 +0000

The famous story of Atari burying millions of dollars of unsold videogame cartridges, including the infamous E.T. cartridge, is no longer just a legend–it’s been confirmed. How they got there was mostly a misunderstanding of the nascent business. E.T. was

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The trade off of fidelity and convenience in marketing, and how it doomed my favorite company

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 11:00:35 +0000

I’m reading a book called Trade-Off, by former USA Today technology columnist Kevin Maney. It’s primarily a marketing book. Maney argues that all products are a balance of fidelity and convenience, and highly favor one or the other. He additionally

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Putting right E.T. for the Atari 2600

Dave Farquhar — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 22:18:36 +0000

Hacking vintage video games has been a popular trend this year, so I suppose it was only a matter of time before I saw this: A hobbyist spent a few weeks this year fixing the infamous E.T. cartridge for the

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