17 replies to this topic

[gooch3008]

Hello all, I am kinda new to the site. (mostly lurked, but my faith in the DigitalPress forums has been eroding....)

Anyways, I have a 7800 that was originally my fathers' but he mailed it along with a handful of games and two 7800 paddles to me after I got into video game collecting. It is in great shape, looks fantastic for its age. My dad either lost or just forgot to send the power/av cables with it, and it really would not have mattered since the RF thingy got ripped out or broken off the back of the console. I have looked into getting it repaired or modded (longhorn mod looks awesome!) but the price is just prohibitive for a part of my collection that I really would not play very much and is more of a sentimental piece to me. So, I am asking for a bit of advice from the community as far as what I should do with this puppy.

It means alot to me, but as it is now its a pretty paper weight and not much use for gaming.
I am very much an amateur with electronics and not confident at all in my skills past very basic soldering.
What are my options for getting this thing playable again? What would you guys/gals do?
Are there replacement RF connectors that I could solder back to the board so I could play again once I got a power adapter for it?

I would like to either sell it for what I could get for it, sell the paddles or trade this stuff, or find a busted up 7800 I could use for parts. I feel bad for the poor thing. It just wants to be played!

Edited by gooch3008, Mon Jan 31, 2011 4:29 AM.

[GroovyBee]

Can you take a close up and in focus picture of the damage?

[gooch3008]

sure thing! I will post it as soon as I get home.

[Rybags]

I got a 7800 with RF connector missing back last year.

You have to desolder the shielding, easiest to use a larger chisel type iron there in combo with a sucker, then do the remainder with wick and change to a finer tip iron for the last of it.

Depending on the model you have you might also have to desolder a small board with several pins in a row.

All up easily a couple of hours work.

You might find it easier to just do an S-Video mod to the machine, way better and you'd never want to return to RF.

[Deteacher]

And to add to what Rybags was saying the S-Video Mod is a relatively easy mod to install. The directions from Longhorn are very easy to follow. What's more is that the solder job isn't that hard. This mod was my first real soldering experience and I had very little trouble installing it. If I can do it, anyone can.

Go with the S-Video Mod. You'll never look back.

[gooch3008]

testing attach feature for my photos, will probably edit this if it doesnt work.








The silver strip across the front looks like crap, but thats because the plastic film is still on it!

Man, I feel so bad for it.

[GroovyBee]

Thanks for the pictures. The RF is toast! An AV modification is your only hope of getting that machine going relatively easily.

[Rybags]

Do you have a photo of motherboard top with shielding removed?

That way someone should be able to tell you how much trouble fixing the RF will be.

[gooch3008]

Crap.

Well, what is it worth for sale as a parts or future modded system??? Think anyone would buy or trade for this stuff??

I HAD been thinking of getting that longhorn mod and a power cord, and mailing it back to my dad with a copy of Galaga (his favorite old atari game) and some other carts..... Hrrrm....

[gooch3008]

Rybags, on Mon Jan 31, 2011 7:08 AM, said:

Do you have a photo of motherboard top with shielding removed?

That way someone should be able to tell you how much trouble fixing the RF will be.

Do I just have to remove the big top shield to get that shot?

[Rybags]

That's right... IIRC just bending a few of the tabs is all that's needed, simple job.

There's different motherboard revisions and pretty sure all have differences in where/how components are mounted within the video circuit.

[GroovyBee]

gooch3008, on Mon Jan 31, 2011 7:09 AM, said:

Well, what is it worth for sale as a parts or future modded system??? Think anyone would buy or trade for this stuff??

Unless the broken system has something noteworthy to collectors the purchaser of it still has to do the ground work to fix the unit. Personally I wouldn't expect to get all that much for it in a trade or an open sale.

Quote

I HAD been thinking of getting that longhorn mod and a power cord, and mailing it back to my dad with a copy of Galaga (his favorite old atari game) and some other carts..... Hrrrm....

There are alternate solutions to the Longhorn AV mod. A quick search of the forums should show other possibilities. It depends on your soldering skill at the end of the day.

[Rybags]

Sally CPU useful in 7800 and XL/XE computer - probably a touch under $10.
Maria - probably a little more.
TIA - probably somewhat less.

The thing is that it'll be likely that at least 2, probably all, of them will be soldered in. Fixing the RF requires slightly less skill and probably less time than desoldering those ICs in reusable condition.

[Deteacher]

gooch3008, on Mon Jan 31, 2011 7:09 AM, said:

Crap.

Well, what is it worth for sale as a parts or future modded system??? Think anyone would buy or trade for this stuff??

I HAD been thinking of getting that longhorn mod and a power cord, and mailing it back to my dad with a copy of Galaga (his favorite old atari game) and some other carts..... Hrrrm....

I guess that depends on what you want in trade and if people have what you want and are willing to trade for it?

Are you looking for anything in particular?

[gooch3008]

UPDATE. I went to a thrift store this morning and whats that in the "showcase" glass case???? A large plastic tub with a piece of tape on the side that says "ATARI 7800 + 19 GAMES $50.00" I tested it on a TV they had in the back and played Berzerk! SOLD. It also came with 6 controllers!



So, now I have 1 complete system, one busted RF system, 4 of the long paddles, 2 of the short fat paddles, and two of the square ones with the longer joysticks! What crazy freakin luck! I am updating my for sale/trade thread with some of this stuff. I think I will hang on to a few paddles but the others are up for trade/sale. Also, if anyone wants my busted one I'll let it go for very cheap or if anyone wants to trade some low $ game for it that would do too.

Games that came with it are:
Berzerk
Pac-man
Bowling
Megamania
Combat
E.T.
Missile Command
Video Olympics
Pole Position 2
Pitfall
Centipede
Haunted House
Defender
Video Pinball
Donkey Kong x 2
Home Run
Carnival
Mrs. Pac-man

Also, thanks for the quick and informative replies to my thread, I am honestly surprised how noobie friendly this forum is.

[GroovyBee]

Good find. Welcome to the working 7800 club . When the AA store comes back online you can start adding some 2600 and 7800 homebrew titles to your collection (if homebrew is your thing). Most homebrew has the ROM image available so you can try before you buy in the 2600 or 7800 emulators.

[the.golden.ax]

I could use the broken unit for my 25th project. It would live again.

AX

[save2600]

That's incredible you found another 7800 so quick!

But the fact the RCA plug is broken off the RF unit doesn't mean you'd "have" to do an A/V mod. For a quick and dirty scenario, you could have simply soldered an RCA cable directly to the leads inside the box. Sure, your 7800 would be more like a 2600 with it's RF tether, but who cares. And a generic power adapter too could have been soldered directly to the board in the same fashion. Moot points now, but for someone else that'd like to salvage the board on the cheap - it's an option anyway.