Atari Flashback 2 hack

XDelusion · Post by **XDelusion** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 4:51 am

WOW!

http://www.atarimuseum.com/fb2hacks/index.htm

This allows you to adapt it to use carts...

Smiley · Post by **Smiley** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 12:39 pm

I prefer using the original console...

arrowhead · Post by **arrowhead** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 5:03 pm

Smiley wrote:I prefer using the original console...

Why? Is it that you cant solder? Or is it that you dont like the composite video you get with the flashback? The fact you can use original controllers? Or is it that they actually made the flashback with all of the solder points printed on the board so modders and atari lovers could hack in a cart port or portableize it?

Strapping Scherzo · Post by **Strapping Scherzo** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 5:24 pm

el atari me pone caliente!

MetaFox · Post by **MetaFox** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 7:07 pm

XDelusion wrote:WOW!

http://www.atarimuseum.com/fb2hacks/index.htm

This allows you to adapt it to use carts...

Yeah. That's the main reason I got the Atari Flashback 2.

And the Commodore DTV.

I'll be picking up a Radica Genesis for that reason too.

I enjoy little projects such as these.

Smiley · Post by **Smiley** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 11:04 pm

arrowhead wrote:
Smiley wrote:I prefer using the original console...
Why? Is it that you cant solder? Or is it that you dont like the composite video you get with the flashback? The fact you can use original controllers? Or is it that they actually made the flashback with all of the solder points printed on the board so modders and atari lovers could hack in a cart port or portableize it?

No, I've done several projects involving soldering...I guess I just don't see the point in buying something new when one can obviously perform a composite mod/and portabilize the original...

ETR · Post by **ETR** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 1:18 am

Smiley wrote:
arrowhead wrote:
Smiley wrote:I prefer using the original console...
Why? Is it that you cant solder? Or is it that you dont like the composite video you get with the flashback? The fact you can use original controllers? Or is it that they actually made the flashback with all of the solder points printed on the board so modders and atari lovers could hack in a cart port or portableize it?
No, I've done several projects involving soldering...I guess I just don't see the point in buying something new when one can obviously perform a composite mod/and portabilize the original...

I dare you to make an Atari 2600 with composite as small as you can make one of these. The point is that it's a cool hack, not for you to find another place to brag about how old school you are.

We just got them in for christmas, so I'm gonna take a look at how much it'll cost me on my discount.

Post by **Quzar** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 4:15 am

Smiley wrote:
arrowhead wrote:
Smiley wrote:I prefer using the original console...
Why? Is it that you cant solder? Or is it that you dont like the composite video you get with the flashback? The fact you can use original controllers? Or is it that they actually made the flashback with all of the solder points printed on the board so modders and atari lovers could hack in a cart port or portableize it?
No, I've done several projects involving soldering...I guess I just don't see the point in buying something new when one can obviously perform a composite mod/and portabilize the original...

now you're just lying over your head. it is impossibly hard to portablize the original. all the attempts i have seen have been using the atari jr, which is much smaller.

MetaFox · Post by **MetaFox** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 8:18 am

Quzar wrote:now you're just lying over your head. it is impossibly hard to portablize the original. all the attempts i have seen have been using the atari jr, which is much smaller.

I hate to be a spoil bug, but that's not entirely true. While your first comment is true - the original six switch Atari 2600 VCS is impossible to portablize, the more common Atari 2600 4-switch is the model that everyone uses for their portables.

There's a lot of extra space on the board, so it's easy to hack up, and it uses standard chips to which it's easy to solder wires.

Post by **Quzar** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 9:36 am

all portables i've ever seen, or at least the well made ones were based on the atari jr. and that both the six and 4 switch ones were much much harder than a simple solder job to portablize.

MetaFox · Post by **MetaFox** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 10:07 am

Quzar wrote:all portables i've ever seen, or at least the well made ones were based on the atari jr. and that both the six and 4 switch ones were much much harder than a simple solder job to portablize.

All of Benjamin Heckendorn's portables and the portables that are made using his book are made with the Atari 2600 4-switch.

I'm sure there are some people that have made portables with the Atari 2600 Junior (and possibly even the Atari 2600 VCS 6-switch - so my "impossible" comment is probably going to come back to haunt me as nothing is impossible), but I haven't seen them (or at least I don't remember seeing them).

XDelusion · Post by **XDelusion** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 5:50 pm

For musical purposes I prefer the original for it's retro sound chip:

http://www.atariage.com/store/product_i ... cts_id=101

Also for those of you looking for a 2600 Flash cart of sorts...

http://www.schells.com/cuttlecart.shtml

So does the Flashback 2 use original Joysticks, or is it incompatable like the 1st Flashback?

Metafox, thankx for mentioning other systems that have been hacked, this:

http://www.64hdd.com/projects/hardware/c64-dtv64.html

is awsome!

MetaFox · Post by **MetaFox** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 8:43 pm

XDelusion wrote:So does the Flashback 2 use original Joysticks, or is it incompatable like the 1st Flashback?

The joysticks that are included look like the originals, but the control is tighter than the original. I find this better, but a lot of people prefer the originals over the new ones in the Flashback. You can connect the originals to the Flashback, but some people have found that the controllers don't fit snugly into the machine, so they had to stuff the area around the plastic and the ports (I've never had that problem personally).

I almost picked up a Radica Genesis controller today, but it was 5:30AM on Black Friday (I wanted to check it out due to curiosity), so I didn't even bother. The lines at the checkout counters were insane.

EDIT: So much for the importance of waking up early on Black Friday. All three items I wanted to pick up at 5:30AM but didn't were still there at 12AM on Saturday, and still marked at the sale price. So, I now have three systems I need to hack one day (the Atari Flashback 2, the Commodore CTV, and the Radica Sega Genesis PlayTV).

XDelusion · Post by **XDelusion** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 1:20 am

The controls are TIGHTER? NO WAY! Man my Atari joysticks have always seemed tight, I'd hate to imagine what "tighter" would be like.

MetaFox · Post by **MetaFox** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 1:43 am

Oh, and there's a bunch of paddle games hidden in the flashback 2, which you can connect original paddles to if you have them.

The design of Flashback 2 was overseen by the head of the Atari Preservation Society, so it's safe to say the unit does do justice to the original.

Though, there are two revisions of the flashback 2 (And it's impossible to tell which one you have until you open it). One is missing voice synthesis (as heard in quadrun), the other has the voice synthesis but has severe scrolling problems.

I have the revision without the voice synthesis, and I like it a lot - the loss of a rarely used feature such as voice synthesis isn't that big of a deal to me - everything else seems spot-on.

As far as I know, there were plans to fix both of those problems, so there might even be a third revision out by now.

The Flashback 3 will be coming out in a year or two, and will tackle the Atari 8-bit line (either the 5200 or the computers, or a conglomerate of both), so I'm looking forward to that.

Atari Flashback 2 hack

Atari Flashback 2 hack

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