Atari 2600 Project

Cystic Fibrosis Summer Camp '94: Charley and Jesse

July 1989 was my 2^nd year attending Cystic Fibrosis (CF) summer camp in Dowling, MI (outside of Battle Creek) and that’s when I met my 20 year old friend Charley. I was 10. Charley had been attending camp a few years prior to 1989 and we continued going until camp folded in 1996. Charley and I kept in contact through the years. In 1994 he sent me an Atlas book (still have it, looks new), because he knew I was taking Geography class my Freshman year in high school and figured I could use it. Charley worked at a map store in St. Louis, MO, where he and his family lived while attending local college. I received a B semester grade in Geography. Charley was proud.

No matter how busy Charley was, we kept in contact via postal mail and e-mail. There were summers that he didn’t attend camp, because of work or school, and I always understood. He was bummed when he couldn’t attend.

Through the years, my friend lived everywhere (laughs), in St. Louis, San Francisco, CA, Ames, IA (Graduate school- Iowa State University), Cleveland, OH, Minneapolis, MN, and his last residence was Omaha, NE, where he moved back home to live out his final months. Charley’s profession was a banker at KeyBank (Cleveland, OH) and later at U.S. Bank in Minneapolis, MN.

Charley died from CF on May 11^th 2007 at age 38. Through his death (years later) I’d meet his Mom, Alice, who I’ve known for 6 years. We connected quickly. I told her all the times I spent with Charley, the letters, and the things we had in common.

Last month she learned that I liked the Atari 2600 game console via my e-mail signature, when I noted that it was the 40^th anniversary (back in September) of the Atari 2600 system. She told me she still had Charley’s game system in the closet, where it had been for the past 25+ years. She asked if I’d like to have it? It could’ve been a rock that Charley had, I still would’ve said yes.

Atari 2600 Box (front)

Alice sent Charley’s Atari my way. I was hoping it worked, or I was going to have to do some repairs. I couldn’t believe that Alice still had Charley’s Atari in its original box. After waiting a week (had to order a part for it to hookup to a modern HD TV) I plugged it in and it worked. Alice sent along three games that Charley had, and would eventually send three more. I was waiting for fuzzies and lines to appear on the TV, being that Charley’s system was 36 years old. The picture was clear. If it wasn't, I would’ve had to order a radio frequency (RF) interference filter. I didn’t have to.

Charley's Atari 2600 (before) right out of the box

With accessing what parts I needed to order (and waiting for those parts) it took 29 days to make Charley’s Atari 2600 look new again. I replaced and restored a few things and made it shine…once again.

Charley's Atari 2600 (after) w/ new orange trim and shine

Below details everything that I did to Charley’s Atari 2600 to partially restore it. To see everything I worked on, please click on the link.

- Atari 2600 (CX-40) joystick –

* Washed washable parts w/ soap and water via toothbrush, soaked in vinegar

* Restored printed circuit board (PCB) due to worn contacts. Replaced w/ gold PCB board

* Replaced red (fire) button due to bottom nipple (worn) not touching the contact on new Board

* Replaced spring inside red (fire) button due to dark coloring caused by age

* Replaced white joystick handle (under the black joystick boot cover) due to two cracks

* Replaced black joystick boot due to age

* Replaced top cover due to 75% of paint coming off due to age

* Joystick had 65% of its function. Now has 100%

- Atari 2600 Top Case -

* Washed top case and faceplate in soap & water via toothbrush

* Painted trim (orange) on faceplate, lost 80% of its original paint due to age

* Mixed Acrylic Cadmium Orange Hue and Burnt Umber to get desired color

* Applied paint to Craft foam sheets and gently pressed front faceplate down on paint w/ painters tape for protection, let dry for 24 hours

* Applied a touch (little) of Pledge to top case and front for moderate shine

- Atari 2600 Bottom Case -

* Washed bottom case by hand with soap and water

* Fixed Atari Super Service (repair) sticker that was peeling off w/ multi-purpose adhesive spray, applied w/ q-tip

- Atari 2600 (Switchboard) Inside -

* Cleaned switchboard with compressed air

* Cleaned switchboard with 71% alcohol pads, let dry for 10 minutes

* Cleaned inside switches (Power (On/Off), TV Type (color b-w), Left Difficulty (a b),

Right Difficulty (a b), Game Select, and Game Reset with 91% rubbing alcohol w/ q-tip

* Cleaned metal Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) shield case w/ 71% alcohol pads, let dry for 10 minutes

- Atari 2600 Motherboard -

* Cleaned motherboard with compressed air

* Made sure all (4) chips were clean and secured in place

* Accessed ribbon cable from the switchboard to the motherboard

- Atari 2600 Cartridge Connector -

* Cleaned cartridge connector where the game cartridge slides into the Atari 2600

* Cleaned contacts w/ craft foam sheet (inserted) and 91% rubbing alcohol, dry for 10 minutes

- MISC -

* Purchased Gold Plated RCA Female to Coax (male) Adapter to work with modern TV

* Replaced radio frequency (RF) cable with gold plated RCA stereo cable (goes from Atari to TV) for better secured connection, kept original RF cable for backup

* Replaced Atari 2600 power adapter due to age of original, which was very dry

* Cleaned all game cartridge plated contacts with Brasso & q-tips

* Cleaned all game cartridge plated contacts w/ 91% rubbing alcohol & q-tips to get Brasso off, dry for 5 minutes

- Atari 2600 Paddles -

* Charley never used the paddles, they look new

- Charley’s Atari 2600 Games - I Purchased Donkey Kong

* Top row, left to right: Combat (1977), Frogger (1982), Superman (1979), Donkey Kong (1982), SeaQuest (1983), Missile Command (1981), and Defender (1981) 

Video Game History

 Atari 2600 Commercial (Dec 17th 1977)

Video games have always been apart of my life, a window to an imaginary world. The first video game console that I played was the Atari 2600, which made its debut in 1977 and discontinued in 1992. I didn't own an Atari 2600, but had played one over at my older cousin's house and really enjoyed it. My favorite game for the Atari 2600 is Pitfall! (1982) by AcTiVision. The video game I hated for the Atari 2600 was Superman (1978) by Atari, Inc., because it was so annoying. You can find it on YouTube. That game about blew my ear drums to pieces. I also enjoyed Ice Hockey (1981) by AcTiVision, Galaxian (1983) by Midway and Breakout (1978) by Atari, Inc. for the Atari 2600.

 Pitfall! Commercial (1982)

Christmas of 1985 I received my first video game system, which was the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), (control deck) which came out on my 7th birthday on October 18th 1985. At the time Super Mario Bros. (1985) didn't come with the control deck (some systems did), thus you had to purchase the game separately. 

If the weather was icky, my Dad and I would play for hours on the weekends. The video game was something I had never seen before, especially the color and graphics being much better (as they should) than the Atari 2600. The first three games that I had for the NES were Super Mario Bros., Tiger-Heli (1987) and The Legend of Zelda (1986). The first and last game, along with Tetris (1989), are my favorite games for the NES. Tetris originally came out in 1984, but 1989 on the NES. My least favorite game on the NES is The Adventures of Bayou Billy (1989), that game is crazy tough.

I also had the Power Pad, which debuted in 1988. We later returned it to the store because we had issues with the connectors on the pad. I also had the NES Zapper, which was bought separately in order to play Duck Hunt (1985) among other games that included having the zapper.

I had my NES for 7 years from 1985-1992. Like others, my NES games stopped reading and the 'red flash' syndrome took over my NES. I had always cleaned my games and kept them dust free inside those NES plastic cases (last image in this blog). Years later (more like 25) I find out that it wasn't my games, but the console itself. The 72-pin connector (has 72 metal pins) needed to be cleaned, along with the connectors inside the NES, which only required a Phillips screwdriver to take apart the system. We didn't know anything about cleaning the inside of a game console back in 1992. The NES will forever be my favorite gaming console.

I was 14 years old and into my teen years. I was looking at a Sega Genesis system instead of Nintendo's Super Nintendo (SNES), which was released in 1991 (U.S.A.). Sega was more targeted toward teenagers while SNES was targeted toward kids, like the NES. I'm not sure if I received it on my birthday or Christmas, but I did get a Sega Genesis Model 2 in 1993. I liked the look of the model 2 better than the original model of the Sega Genesis (here), which was released in 1989. Later a model 3 was released, which was quite small for the time.

Sega Genesis model 1 (original) commercial

I didn't have a lot of games for the Sega Genesis, but I did have one game that caused a lot of controversy and that was Mortal Kombat (1992) by Acclaim Entertainment, which caused the development of a rating system for video games in September 1994 due to the violence and blood (Mortal Kombat) in video games. Nintendo released Mortal Kombat as well, but replaced the blood in the game with sweat. You can guess which game sold better on which system. Sega. That being said, Sega developed the famous 'blood code', that would let the gamer punch in a code and blood would appear in the game. This was Sega's way around the controversy and still able to sell the game. Mortal Kombat is my favorite game for the Sega Genesis.

I also had Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (1992), which came with the system. I've never been a huge Sonic fan. I also had NBA Jam (1993), which was a fun game. It's hard to believe I only had three games for the system for the next 4 years. I'm not sure what happened to my Sega Genesis, but I decided to purchase a Nintendo 64 (N64), and while some might wonder how the name came about, it's because the system had a 64-bit processing unit. The original NES only had 8. The N64 came out in 1996, but I purchased mine in 1997.

Nintendo 64 Commercial

After 4 years of having my Sega Genesis, I decided to go back to Nintendo, because I was interested in Madden Football 64 (1997), which was sold exclusively for the N64. I had a few games for the system. My top three favorite are The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998), Madden NFL '99 (1998), and WWF No Mercy (2000). I didn't own any Super Mario Bros. games, mostly because I was more into the teenage video games at this point in my life. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is my favorite game for the N64.

I was excited back in 2001 when Microsoft came out with their first game console called the XBOX (2001). The built was simple. A big box with a huge black X on top of the console. It was larger than my previous system (N64), but I liked the design, though, it was quite heavy. This was the first console I purchased that used CD discs instead of cartridges like the NES, Sega Genesis, and N64 had.

I decided to give my younger cousin my N64 and purchased an XBOX in 2002. I had a lot of games for the system, but my three favorite are Medal of Honor: Frontline (2002), Medal of Honor: Rising Sun (2003), and Batman Begins (2005).

The artwork for the box is unique, as it's the first gaming system that I had that the console wasn't shown on the front. 

Original XBOX console (image)

My favorite game for the original XBOX is Medal of Honor: Frontline (2002). It's my 3rd favorite game of all time. It's an amazing game and the music is breathtaking. I actually have the soundtrack for the game. Michael Giacchino and the Northwest Sinfonia in Seattle did a marvelous job. The soundtrack for the game was recorded in the Spring of 2001.

My XBOX went dead in 2008, thus I had it for 6 years (2002-2008). It could've been something simple as the power supply, which would've been easy to fix. Instead, I purchased an XBOX 360, which came out in 2005. I purchased the premium package (60 GB) and by this time all the kinks were out of the XBOX 360 consoles, at least most.

This is the system that I currently have and just recently replaced the entire DVD drive after having the console for 9 years. It might be time to upgrade to the XBOX One S. ::chuckles:: The XBOX 360 is my 2nd favorite video game system, next to the NES.

Like the original XBOX, the XBOX 360 doesn't show the game system on the front box. This was the first game system that I was able to get onto the Internet and XBOX Live with. It reminded me of the days of the Atari 2600, but with the 2600 you could actually play video games at home, and not just at the arcade anymore. The 360 was just something new to me, especially being able to have Internet access. You could with the original XBOX, but you had to hook it up directly to a modem/router via an ethernet cable, there was no WiFi on the system.

I stuck with Microsoft because I never had any issues with my original XBOX (until it went dead 6 years later), so I chose to stay with them.

The 360 is the longest game console that I've ever had (9 yrs). I opened it up last year to clean out all the dust inside, which was very little, including both fans. One year later (as mentioned above) my DVD drive started acting up. I found out it wasn't the laser, just the drive itself, even though the DVD tray worked fine, the laser wasn't reading the games, which my games are spotless and still look new. $35.00 later and learning how to solder, I got my 360 working again.

I have a lot of games for the 360, but my three favorites are Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009), Medal of Honor: Airborne (2007), and Madden '09 (2008). Batman: Arkham Asylum is my favorite on the system.

My favorite game system of all time is the original NES along with my favorite video game being Super Mario Bros. for the NES. My least favorite video game is definitely Superman (1978) for the Atari 2600.

You've been warned.

Games In Photo: 

Super Mario Bros. (1985), Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988), Super Mario Bros. 3 (1990), and Tiger-Heli (1987)