EDIT: SIGH. Opera messed me up, I thought I posted in the main forum. Can a mod move this thread to 2600 General? THANKS.
My parents surprised me with a new LED TV (replacing my 20 year old CRT monster, thanks!) and an AC adaptor for my Atari 2600! Finally, I can dust it off and start playing again! Then I realized how poorly I treated my stuff when I was a teenager, and I'm starting to clean everything up (cleaning paddle pots, joysticks, console, etc)
This might turn into a "help me fix it" thread, but I don't care. I have two 2600s, both from Pizitz department store. one was a unit behind glass (so it wasn't touched), the other was an open unit that has "DEMO UNIT" red sticker. It also has red paint instead of orange, although I think that's typical from the Taiwan factory units.
Anyway, the first 2600 I have (the open one) has a very finicky power switch. it was switched on and off every day for months in a store full of grubby-handed kids, so I'm amazed it's held up this much. It's also the one I ripped all the shielding off to replace it once (and cut myself BADLY doing so).
The second 2600 is the dream unit, not a scratch, or a problem... EXCEPT some weird ghosting. I expect it's always been this way, but certain colors (like blue) will ghost really bad. Yars revenge title screen on boot is really mushy looking, but everything else is fine. Is this just NTSC being an abomination to the planet, or is this something I can fix? I think it might be a number of things, from my old Computer/Antenna switchbox to the fact that this thing is 5 years older than I am. I want to be sure that I'm not missing anything.
Note that this is the ONLY problem with the unit. there is no static in the signal whatsoever, not even an occasional stray white dot.
My parents surprised me with a new LED TV (replacing my 20 year old CRT monster, thanks!) and an AC adaptor for my Atari 2600! Finally, I can dust it off and start playing again! Then I realized how poorly I treated my stuff when I was a teenager, and I'm starting to clean everything up (cleaning paddle pots, joysticks, console, etc)
This might turn into a "help me fix it" thread, but I don't care. I have two 2600s, both from Pizitz department store. one was a unit behind glass (so it wasn't touched), the other was an open unit that has "DEMO UNIT" red sticker. It also has red paint instead of orange, although I think that's typical from the Taiwan factory units.
Anyway, the first 2600 I have (the open one) has a very finicky power switch. it was switched on and off every day for months in a store full of grubby-handed kids, so I'm amazed it's held up this much. It's also the one I ripped all the shielding off to replace it once (and cut myself BADLY doing so).
The second 2600 is the dream unit, not a scratch, or a problem... EXCEPT some weird ghosting. I expect it's always been this way, but certain colors (like blue) will ghost really bad. Yars revenge title screen on boot is really mushy looking, but everything else is fine. Is this just NTSC being an abomination to the planet, or is this something I can fix? I think it might be a number of things, from my old Computer/Antenna switchbox to the fact that this thing is 5 years older than I am. I want to be sure that I'm not missing anything.
Note that this is the ONLY problem with the unit. there is no static in the signal whatsoever, not even an occasional stray white dot.