16th July 2017, 10:37 PM
As systems get older they start to break down, and the 2600 (and 7800) are no exceptions...
First I got a 2600, 4-switch, back in I forget when, the early '10s I believe. It never worked (no picture or sound, only static), though it did get me this power supply I'm finally using. It was a bundle too, so it also got be several controllers and a bunch of games.
Then I got the 7800 a couple of years after that, which was pretty cool for a year or more until the power button stopped working. That is a fixable problem if you have a replacement and know how to solder, but as I don't I've been stuck... and with how they are going up in value as you say, I haven't wanted to buy another one when the problem could just recur!
Then I think it was sometime last year (or maybe a bit before that) I got an Atari 2600 adapter for the 5200... but it doesn't work either, in the weirdest ways. There must be something really wrong with one of the chips, because while it will turn on, it has crazy graphical corruption, wrong colors on the screen all the time, sprite doubling, tripling, or quadrupling (and yes all of these duplicate sprites will move together and all are "your sprite" so you just die immediately because of how crazy big a target you are), and more... it's interesting stuff, but not really usable.
After that I kind of gave up until now, and stuck with just the 5200 as far as Atari goes, which works just fine, occasional controller issues aside. I wasn't sure if I wanted another 2600 adapter for the 5200; they are handy due to how it saves space, but kind of wobbly in the 5200 and doesn't play 7800 games, so it's not ideal. And both the 7800 and 2600 5200 adapter don't have the color / B&W switch, which makes several games (Secret Quest and Riddle of the Sphinx, for example) semi-unplayable; this is a good part of why I got this system, not just to have one that works but to have something with the color / B&W switch that works. And as for a 7800, I really should get mine fixed, I just doubt I could do it myself so I've never tried (not that I have a replacement switch anyway...).
So yeah, I was just trying a bunch of the Atari games I've bought over the past few years but haven't really played. Secret Quest might be my favorite, on first impressions.
First I got a 2600, 4-switch, back in I forget when, the early '10s I believe. It never worked (no picture or sound, only static), though it did get me this power supply I'm finally using. It was a bundle too, so it also got be several controllers and a bunch of games.
Then I got the 7800 a couple of years after that, which was pretty cool for a year or more until the power button stopped working. That is a fixable problem if you have a replacement and know how to solder, but as I don't I've been stuck... and with how they are going up in value as you say, I haven't wanted to buy another one when the problem could just recur!
Then I think it was sometime last year (or maybe a bit before that) I got an Atari 2600 adapter for the 5200... but it doesn't work either, in the weirdest ways. There must be something really wrong with one of the chips, because while it will turn on, it has crazy graphical corruption, wrong colors on the screen all the time, sprite doubling, tripling, or quadrupling (and yes all of these duplicate sprites will move together and all are "your sprite" so you just die immediately because of how crazy big a target you are), and more... it's interesting stuff, but not really usable.
After that I kind of gave up until now, and stuck with just the 5200 as far as Atari goes, which works just fine, occasional controller issues aside. I wasn't sure if I wanted another 2600 adapter for the 5200; they are handy due to how it saves space, but kind of wobbly in the 5200 and doesn't play 7800 games, so it's not ideal. And both the 7800 and 2600 5200 adapter don't have the color / B&W switch, which makes several games (Secret Quest and Riddle of the Sphinx, for example) semi-unplayable; this is a good part of why I got this system, not just to have one that works but to have something with the color / B&W switch that works. And as for a 7800, I really should get mine fixed, I just doubt I could do it myself so I've never tried (not that I have a replacement switch anyway...).
So yeah, I was just trying a bunch of the Atari games I've bought over the past few years but haven't really played. Secret Quest might be my favorite, on first impressions.