4bit atari synth!!!

[playthatbeat]

http://qotile.net/synth.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-LgXaiXJeg

Initially, this looks and sounds very cool.. the 4bit grind is something else! Sorely tempted.. There are multiple Atari 2600 + 2 numeric controllers + audio output modded to 1/4 inch jack on ebay for < $200 including shipping at the moment..

MUST.... RESIST.... MUST.......... NOT...... BUY.....

[playthatbeat]

flash cart for 2600

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1gDlu9nMrs

[playthatbeat]

Currently, atari 2600 on ebay start at 9.99 inc a game or 2 and a controller - hundreds of them in the USA, But any PAL or NTSC machine will do - thats Japan, EUrope, UK USA, S.America etc. Just avoid French SECAM machines as they are unmoddable and won't work unless you have an oldschool french TV to go with it - one that does Secam on UHF...

If you have to get one from the USA, the 100v PSU is useless in EU, but you can use any 9v 'wall wart' powersupply for it, best use a meaty one minimum 500 ma, but be aware an american 2600 will need a mod from here: http://www.8bitdomain.com/products.php?id=3 to give it decent composite video / S-vhs minidin video output - then you can use it on any modern tv with quite pleasing clarity.. It will still be an NTSC machine though.. You may get it to work using ur tv on UHF, but i doubt it..

If you have a European/UK/Irish (PAL) Atari, and think the quality on UHF sucks balls, you can still upgrade it to clean audio & video out, just get the right version of the A/V mod for PAL, 4 or 6 switch..

Now, the fun bit for us: http://highlyliquid.com/kits/midi2600/

The lads at highly liquid now do a range of cool MIDI to [whatever] converter boards - have a browse if you are a mad scientist with a musical requirement for a world domination caper.

So, have we got that? crock-of-shit old console - probably lurking in an attic near you as you read this, couple of boards off teh webz, homebrew synthcart = midi 4-bit DESTRUCTIONIZER!!

Eat shit 8-bit scene, you have been enuffed!!!!!!

[brain]

FUCK THATS KILLER: I WANT!

[playthatbeat]

i know where there are 2 old 'woody' ataris.. goin' scabbin' 2moro.. gots to have me a PAL one to go with the NTSC one recently aquired..

What? BRING TEH NOISE YOUSAY?

[-=GoD=-]

BALLS!! the PAL 2600 6-button with ET cart and joysticks i knew the location of has turned out to be a fail.. Thrown out long ago.. meh.. so, i have ordered an NTSC machine & synthcart from Trey, and will fit a Highly liquid midi kit and 8-bitdomain AV out kit when it arrives..

The Highly liquid kit looks mad - you basicly tap the switches on the unit with it, and use midi to control them.. so, im thinking the mod on its own in a box, feeding jack sockets would make a very cool midi to trigger unit on it's own!! i could use it to build my upcoming ANALOGUE DRUM KIT OF DEATH, which will enuf all others with it's awesome powers of analogue nonsense..

[Rikand]

have me an atari 2600 at home that I hook up to the TV from time to time for a laugh. You're not getting it!

[playthatbeat]

Meh! Rik - You need to get a synthcart and make a bleep epic!!!

for those who want to try an atari 2600, visit the stella distro point and download the one correct for your system: http://stella.sourceforge.net/downloads.html

then either use the opera browser, or your favorite torrent proggy to get this bundle of roms: http://www.mininova.org/get/2138248

you can download the rom for the SYNTHCART fro the author's website listed above, and it DOES WORK perfectly.. If you record the sound it makes, you in essence have the above project, in software, For free.. If you can capture the audio internally, then it's pretty much the best quality you could hope for..

Of coarse, it's not the same as jamming with your VCS-AXE, but hey, love that noise

Edit: you don't NEED the rom torrent to run the synthcart rom - it's just so you can play games on the emulator.. either way, the stella emulator needs ROMs to work, so have them unzipped into a folder somewhere (they are .bin files) and within stella, go to that folder and select the rom to start it.. easy peasy.

[playthatbeat]

Update:

Machine hasn't arrived from Trey, but he says it was shipped on friday, so next week hopefully..

The HIGHLY LIQUID interface is here, and i have decided to build it into a seperate box with minijack outs for all the triggers and it's own 5v PSU, and either 'modularise' the Atari with lots of sockets for the input triggers, or make a snake with minijacks to Atari Joystick plugs.. This is so i can use the Interface on it's own as a MIDI drum-trigger that turns midi notes into gates, as i'm always short of them..

The 8bitdomain.com AV out kit isn't here, nor have i got any reply from them after ordering one, so i have been looking at various mods for atari 2600 composite video out with this page having the nicest amplified/video driver circut designs, and clear details of how the STELLA chip outputs video. It suggests you can make a S-VHS lead, or combine the signals to make composite video out. I think the combination of the signals from the chip, with pots inline to adjust stuff would be the way to go.

But, it seems the 'dirty' output mod for video is very simple, and can be made 'tunable' with the addition of some pots inline/instead of the resistors at the tappoints shown in the attached piccy.. I might be going for this, since accurate colour reproduction is not that important to me, i just want to see whats what..

[playthatbeat]

Another 'simple' mod is here: http://forums.benheck.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1151
uses nothing but a 22k resistor, 2 1k pots and some time..

This is the clear bang-for-buck winner mod when you check out all the mods compared side-by side.. an excellent comparison of all the available mods is here: http://www.cheeptech.com/2600mods/2600mods.html

You can clearly see S-VHS out is the way to go for quality, with some amplification to boot, as championed By Chris Wilkson on his CyberTech mod board. This was apparently available on www.atari2600.com at one stage, but it's now not available anymore..

So, this leaves only one alternative, and thats the benheck mod.. this is the one i will be doing, since 8bitdomain.com are not answering emails, and the site appears to be (c)2006...

EDIT: some bad vibes about 8bitdomain.com here: http://www.atariage.com/forums/lofiv...hp/t87227.html - i did the undo with PayPal, got the refund.. In the same batch of emails re: the refund, 8bitdomain reply'd to me, but of coarse, it's all too late for that now.. ah well..

Also: The same guys at cheeptech also have overlays for the controllers used for the SYNTHCART http://www.cheeptech.com/files/synth...rd_overlay.pdf

[playthatbeat]

AT LAST!!

Someone selling a mod kit who has been seen on the scene within the last year..

http://www.longhornengineer.com/Videomods/Videomods

Get it into you!!!! Kit for ~$20 !!!!!!

Excellent guide to installing here: http://www.longhornengineer.com/Videomods/6switchNTSC

First i have seen with things like guides for holes and blah.. FU*K YEAH!!!!

Also: feeds Stereo Audio out!!! This is the mod of the gods.. and the price is right.

[playthatbeat]

Got my machine this week.. It's a 6-button SEARS clone.. I wasnt happy with the work done by trey - the audio out was tapped pre-modulator and sent to a 1/4inch jack at the rear, so i removed that and went directly to the STELLA chip and lifted pins 12 & 13 for stereo audio out..

i used the audio section of the diagram for the longhornengineer mod to make the output mod, which is like this http://www94.pair.com/jsoper/2600_stereo.html

- you take the pinouts 12 & 13 from the TIA chip, and a 5v from pin 7 of the joystick port,
feeding the 5v thru 1.8k resistors into a cable from the TIA pins pre a 1uF capacitor to the + of ur output socket.. The - for the output jacks can be got by running a lead to the metal shielding around the motherboard as it's earthed. I used minijack sockets, so i can patch it into the modular easily.

                                   +10uF
TIA12<----------------------------|(-------------->Audio R+
                      |                         
           1.8K    |                         
        |--/\/\/------'                    
5v --|                             
        |--/\/\/------,                          
           1.8K    |                         
                      |            +10uF     
TIA13<----------------------------|(-------------->Audio L+

The resulting audio is loud, and you get the percussion on one output, the synth on the other output!!!

I will start using this in the studio next week.. I have decided to build the Highly liquid midi kit into a lovely aluminium box i ordered on ebay from china (9.99!) and make a loom with 9pin D-shaped serial leads and ports so i can trigger the atari via midi if i want, but more importantly, use the box as a drumtrigger from midi tool for my upcoming DRUMS OF DEATH rack!!

Next todo: build the composite and S-VHS output mod - parts are here, and i'm gonna do the build next week. All based around the clever FMS6400 chip which amplifies the signals needed for Composite or S-VHS out.. Look at the diagram and suggested circut to power and make it work - dead handy eh!!!???!??!

[playthatbeat]

So.. did the mod - using the seperate diagram for the audio mod in the longhornengineer schematics, i soldered a few resistors and caps up dirty-style, wrapped them in shrink-tube and got the Audiomod going, then made a version of the Longhornengineer Video mod on Stripboard.. Behold extra shit on the rear after it all:

And the mod on 2 bits of stripboard sitting on some packing foam to the right & 5v feed taken from the regulator on the left to power it all

The only bitch was getting the tiny SMD videoamp mounted on the stripboard - i wonder do they do a larger sized one? I bent up the 2 pins needing 5v, and soldered a bar across them to tap onto with the 5v line, the other legs all hit tracks well.. Oh yeah, this had to happen on the track side of the board..

I Tapped the underside of the SIA ship with Lan cable and passed it thru a hole in the shield..

But i grabbed the audio from the pins on the SIA itself, lifted out of the socket and tapped off to screw-blocks for ease of fiddle, and less pulling-of-the-pins DURING messing.. Block held in place by velcro for added pointlessness.. Tapped pins are in shrink-tube..

A also replaced the Regulator (+5v one) and the cap above it for a nice posh Black one.. Mmmm.. Black.. And i snipped the 4 hard 'legs' into the modulator after finding stuff on them with the multimeter and scope, also: they were there to be snipped.

So now i have Bangaroo audio out on 2 minijacks, S-VHS out and Composite out and can play my slightly-faster NTSC games in comfort and safety, and avail of loud, clean and seperated audio for SYNTHCART..

One weird thing, SYNTHCART itself doesn't look good on an LCD monitor, it's Interlaced or something, a bit garbled, but you DO get a glimpse of the proper fonts as it boots.. Haven't tried it yet on a Capture card or a Projector.. Ah well, more fun..

So, would i recommed this way of modding a VCS? Fu*k no. It took ages and is (as you can see) a mess. But in the absense of an available 'just wire me and snip some shit' mod, if you like a puzzle and can solder without loosing your fingerprints/and eye, then get some stripboard and that FMS6400 chip (check the attached docs for an example circuit) and follow the teachings of the longhorn engineer, he bullshittith not, and will surely lead you to awesome AV fun.

[Deedo08]

Hahaha

have me an atari 2600 at home that I hook up to the TV from time to time for a laugh. You're not getting it!

The atari must take a look rnd the atic 4 mine....use 2 have a deadly olympics game

[playthatbeat]

DO IT!!!! there is even a special IRELAND ONLY version of the atari sold by Peats Wholesale in the 80's!!! Also: PAL units are slightly cooler then NTSC units since there were less of them..

FIND< FIX< PLAY< WIN.....