BROKEN 1980s CBS ColecoVision Home Video Game Console - Trying to FIX
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.ย. 2021
- Hi, here we are trying to fix a broken unusual early 1980s video game console called the ColecoVision. This one was sent in by Mike from 1upGamingLimited over on eBay and it has an unusual fault. When it arrived to me it was not displaying any picture, but when Mike tested it, it was producing a horrible hissing sound.
Can it be fixed and work again like it did in the 1980s.
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Remember that this is just for entertainment and I am not an expert in these repairs. The processes in the video may not be the best way, the correct way or the safest way to fix these things. I do love fault finding and trying to fix broken things, so I hope that comes across in this 'Trying to FIX' series. Many thanks, Vince. - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
I love watching this because I just realized I enjoyed watching my dad do this when I was young. I finally bought my first multimeter and I'm going to be using my dad's soldering iron and solder for projects around the house. This is awesome.
It's very interesting to see the insides of one of these CBS models for the first time. I was surprised to see that RF modulator situated where it was when the U.S. Colecovision has it on the main board. The CBS models came out a year after the ColecoVision was released in North America, so it would seem that they made some significant changes along the left hand side of the board to make it easier to accommodate different modulators for PAL and SECAM.
That odd solder mask was common back in those days, it didn't change over time, it looked like that the day it was manufactured.
Greetings from California USA . I bought a COLECO Vision game console system back in 1983 . I still have it . Donkey Kong came came with my system as a combo package. I then bought Donkey Kong Jr , Gorf , Rocky wich was based on Sly Stallone's Rocky movie when he fights Mr. T . Rocky came with a pair of 'SUPER CONTROLLERS " . I then bought Baseball . The expansion module on the COLECO game console, you could connect CLOECO'S ADAM which was a separate computer with key board and all. That is why the power supply on the COLECO Vision is huge. It would power accessories like the ADAM computer and what ever would come in the future . By the way...back in the day most game cartridges were basically versions of arcade games . Gorf , Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr are examples of arcade games for home console game cartridges . Of course the graphics and game play were not exactly the same as the original arcade versions but they were still fun to play with .
I don't think you can get away with the "I don't know what i'm doing" card anymore Vince, we're watching a pro at work these days. Always a pleasure and always an inspiration! Thank you!
Haha, thanks Wayne! I'm sure the beauty of editing makes me look better than I am. Still plenty of burning boards, and not having a clue about components left in me just yet. Appreciate the kind words though 👍👍🍻
@@Mymatevince Maybe it's like FFMpeg command line switches, even the pros have no idea what they're doing ;)
Love your videos.
Your Son is a talented artist!!! Those "bumpy" traces -its from where the board was wave soldered, or dipped into solder. You got uneven solder on the larger areas as it cooled - common to see on older computers and stuff from that era. Lovely fix =D Video and sound is great =D
Nice one Chris, I knew you would have the answer on the bumpy creased tracks. I will pass on the praise to Ben, he loves me telling him about the nice comments. Cheers mate 👍😀
Thx for this i had assumed it was the PCB coating/mask.
@@Mymatevince Vince, i don't think that is easy to fix it
A lot of old arcade boards have the same "wrinkly" solder. First time I saw it, I thought it must be fragile. Later learned otherwise
@@Mymatevince The slug that you retrieved probably belonged where you took it from, just someone had overtweaked it and broke it. You can get pastic trimmer tools to adjust those inductors without your body and the metal in the tool that you use throwing off the adjustment. They can be VERY finicky. Well done on the fix and your son has some good talent there. Also, I was shocked you hadn't come across Gorf in vintage computers or in the arcades. It was a big deal when it was new as it could even SPEAK to you in the arcade! How cool was that? One of the first, if not the first, arcade machines with speech synthesis.
Just bought my first Colecovision console myself. Now I got the real thing and not just the AT Games Flashback system.
Loved this video.
Why do we enjoy watching you fix things from when we were the little? Probably for me is that you actually fix things. I just carry out their death sentence! I'll look through some of my old electronics and see about sending them to you! Great video and channel, glad I found it!!
Even unfinished wow!!! Help keep his interest in his gifts…and help him grow them…I bet you’re an amazing father…good man Vince…thanks for the hours and hours of entertainment!
The basic hardware specs of the ColecoVision (Z80 CPU, TMS9918 graphics chip and SN76489 sound chip) were also used by Sega for their SG-1000 (which wasn't released in the Western world), and then although the Master System and Game Gear upgraded the graphics chip, they continued to use the Z80 CPU and SN76489-based sound core, which were even both put in the Mega Drive as its secondary processor and sound generator alongside the 68000 and YM2612!
Most tunable coils of that era had ferrite slugs in them. These are quite fragile and brittle. Often once set up in the factory they had hot wax put on to fix them in place. This or just using the wrong tool can cause the core to break if attempted to be turned. Such 'twiddly bits' are often a magnet to young inquiring minds (I broke a lot in radio's etc. as a kid). My guess would be someone played with the trimmers, some broke, a brass screw was substituted for one and whatever was in the other just fell out. Great diagnosis to find the issue pretty quick.
Thanks Mike 👍
So are those things adjustable inductors?
I love your videos. You are clearly not a trained technician, but your logical thinking always gets you in the right direction. Kudos from Belgium!
Brand new ASTEC UM1286 modulators are available to buy for around £15 and will come tuned for video and audio ready to solder. Would have kept it original and gave you a lot less hassle. However, it was a well presented video and you used your skills nicely to diagnose and remedy the problem to get a fix. ON to the next one!!
This was my first ever console as a kid growing up and my neighbour also had one and we used to share each others games, There used to be plastic cards which slid into the controllers for use with certain games.
I find it amusing how even early on it becomes obvious a composite mod will fix it, lol. Its nice to know you can try and fix it but not NEED to.
Love this system. My uncle had it with a massive collection of games, which he gave me when we moved away in the late 90’s. Space Fury is really fun, Looping, Smurfs, Ladybug, Cabbage Patch kids Adventures in the park, are some of my favorite to play, may have missed a few as I have not played it in years.
A man fixing old electronic products while giving updates on his son's dog portrait? I'm in.
I had one of these back in '84 when I lived in LA. Been a gamer ever since.
Thanks for the memories Vince! A friend had the Colecovision when I was in middle school and we loved to go to his house to play. I think the console may have come with Donkey Kong. Some games came with flat plastic inserts to go under the frame around the number pads on the controllers. The inserts had icons or pictures for various commands associated with that particular game.
Thanks Mike, I did see a slot on the side of the controllers and I was wondering. Sounds very similar to the Atari Jaguar controllers with the button overlay. Nice one 👍👍
My mate had one of these back in the day, he rented it from Radio Rentals
This may be my favorite bit from any of your videos, at 30:42 where you explain your schematic and show how you did it.
Cheers Garth 😎
Haha its funny when you say you have no clue about electronics and then show us a diagram on how you connected the cables.. this was some advanced next level thing.. respect
Your son has some skills! Coming from an illustrator and graphic designer. Keep up the good work Vince!
Great job! An AV mod is usually the way to go with these old consoles, unless you're an avid collector and really want to keep them mint. I've done some Atari 2600 systems that way. The added transistor is basically amplifying the video signal as this is normally done inside the modulator. The rippling on the PCB I've encountered in an old Atari 400 computer. It's harmless, but scary if you don't know what it is. BTW, your son is very talented indeed. Amazing work!
I’ve got a couple of these, one new old stock, something special when released back in the day. Nice to see you working one one.
I'm from the states and I had one of these as a boy. Absolutely love to see you enjoying it these many later. Great video Vince!
Takes you right back to the 80s in an instant
Great work Vince.
I've been looking at buying a faulty Colecovision for a while with the intention of doing the Ben Heck mod. I'm so glad you did this as didn't think about the NTSC difference on the RF modulator. Great fix and I think it will be a good long term fix.
You make art with solder your son with paint, awesome. It's an artists household.
Nicely repaired Vince. I love the Colecovision, it was so far ahead at the time. King of the consoles
I got one of these systems from a relative when I was a kid in 2000 and I loved it. It was stolen though. My older brother had the Atari 2600 at the time, but the ColecoVision's graphics and gameplay were MUCH better. Even my mom was addicted to the game "Mouse Trap." Always said I'd get another one eventually.
What a treat to watch after a long day at work
Great video Vince. Plenty of good troubleshooting tips in here.
You inspired me to dig mine out of storage. Never been able to get it working.
Turns out the power supply is knackered.
I really enjoyed watching this fix, what a very interesting console. I have never owned one, but I think it's an impressive console. Fantastic fix.
amazing work, great diagnostics, perfect mod. Congratulations on another great video.
Great repair, Vince! Moving over to composite was certain the best solution since RF never looks as good! If you want to get fancy you could add composite plugs so you don't have to drag the big cable around!
It's amazing just how detrimental RF was to the sound quality( not to mention the video quality.) Glad to see you go direct A/V. Made a big difference all around.
oh wow, the memories.. This was my first ever console. I'm not sure if they were more common here (Argentina) or how my parents got it on the first place, but I have great memories of playing this when I was a little kid. Great content as usual, Vince
My friend I had one of these in the early 80s. I had the Atari 2600. Whenever we would switch games on the ColecoVision, we would have to slide a new card over the controller for a new button alignment.
It is awsome to see you do a great job of keeping that masterpiece working!! Thank you!
Thanks Anders 👍👍👍
The painting is very good what a little artist you have there. I think i remember that console a friend of mine had one not seen one in years
That was such a good fix, I had an Atari, with ping pong etc, no colour and no varied sounds, then my sister had a Commodore 64, I never got into gaming. I do love those retro games now though. Lovely Mr Vince 🤗
Thank you Dorian 👍👍
Only the rich the kids had a Coleco in the UK, all the rest of us had our Ataris! Great job on the composite mod though Vince, looks ace.
And the rest of the rest of us had a ZX 81.
I was so poor in the US, I had to pretend to want to go spend time with other kids just to play their old Ataris. We were all too poor to afford the Colecovision.
Great work. I love the Colecovision, some fantastic arcade ports on it. One of the few consoles I need for my collection. Picture looks ace with that mod.
My memories of playing that very game on this exact system came back to me like it was yesterday seeing and hearing this. I would have been playing it back in 1983. I remember the slots in the coleco for heat exhaust being big enough to fit pennies, because I stuffed mine full of them. I broke everything as a kid for some reason.
Good job Vince!! We had this system as kids
It's a lovely looking bit of kit. Oh, and I loved Gorf bitd.
Great video Vince! Try some IPA & a wet wipe to get rid of the varnish on the top of the case 👍🏻
You can't adjust those slugs with a metal screwdriver, it will affect the tuning. They make special plastic drivers to tune slugs. :) Great job on the conversion!
I never had one as a kid but my uncle did. Sure does bring back a lot of memories. I think my favorite was the super action controllers for baseball and boxing. Was absolutely the coolest thing at the time.
a mod is still a fix to me if at the end a broken item starts working again. Great
job VInce Love the videos
I know it's called a "resto-mod" when it comes to cars, but I'm not sure about electronics.
I owned a Colecovision, new, with all the accessories. Haven't thought about it in years. It was a good game system, which could also double as a home computer.
Absolutely awesome love old retro consoles from my era great mod to get it fully working excellent video vince 😀
It's totally normal for older PCBs to have that rippling on parts of some larger traces (apparently due to the process of the plating). It's quite disturbing when you first come across a system that has it, especially one that is currently not working right 😮
Thanks Garth, yes, very disturbing. At least I know for next time 👍👍👍
@@Mymatevince The rippling on older Boards occurs during the tin plating / wave solder process that was used at the time. It is nothing to be concerned with.
i love the painting he will probably put in background on the marks, love your vids thanks mate
Love you fixing vintage gaming stuff
Nice save Vince. I have a ColecoVison on the shelf, and it's noisy too. I may just do this conversion to it, and return it to the game store that sent it in.
My reaction when I saw this video in my TH-cam feed: "Oooooooohhhh My Mate VINCE is doing a compyuter veedeeoooooo"
...I just woke up and I couldn't words good lol
great video, thanks Vince
I had one of these back in the 80's, Gorf was one of the best games!
Finding an RF modulator should not be too hard, but as it works fine via the composite mod, I would not bother.
awesome fault finding again Vince and a nice mod done really well :)
this brings back memories i had one of those when i was a kid nice job vince
Absolutely great Video! Been hoping you would do a ColecoVision. I have 2 of them and they are my favorite system
Those astec Modulators were user in home computers in the day, the version you have there had sound but ther was a cheaper version didnt. Most people would just do the composide mod you have done in the version of the mod for the spectrum computer there are 3 different options to get the video signal looking better. There are more modern modulators that you can buy NOS that are left over from VCR production in Europe that are a different shape and need an Ardunio because they are controlled with I2C but with analogue TV being dead most people wouldnt bother. The wrinkly pcb traces were common on cheaply made pcbs of the time.
I had one of these second hand about 20 years ago with the Atari convertor that i bought at a car boot with lots of boxed games but sold it on ebay as about 30 lots:) As a Sinclair collector i would sell on ebay retro stuff that turned up to raise funds to buy Sinclair stuff instead.
I will cry 🥺 because i really really appreciate you Vince and i really love your videos
Great video, I'd love one of these systems, very advanced for their time.
So this is where you hang out when I'm snowed under and not putting stuff out :) Hope you are well
@@RetroTechRepair Ha! That is so strange, I literally just checked your uploads as I thought you had been quiet and maybe I'd missed one. All good thanks, looking forward to your next video when you get the time 👍
Good job Vince!
The wealthy kid over the road had one of these when i was young, i was so jealous. Great fix!
All of those broken parts in the RF modulator are variable inductors. It is very clear someone was previously in there "fixing" it. It's a very common problem with people who unwittingly use metal screwdrivers to adjust these things. The cores are pressed ferrite iron (very often), and they are fragile and will break apart into tiny pieces if you use a metal tool.
What a lovely looking console 😍 Ben's artwork is looking great too! Gotta make sure he finishes it! 😁
Nice one Steve, It's getting there now. Another couple of weeks and I think he will actually finish this one 👍👍🐶
I loved my ColecoVision except blowing into the cartridge before inserting. Almost bought the Personal Computer Expansion that plugs into the expansion slot, but since my next door neighbor was a RadioShack store owner, bought a Tandy 1000 instead.
Well done Vince love the videos keep them coming.
Oh i want this video game console 😂 Great video Vince. I really enjoyed the video.
In the states this system was great back in the day. Had an Atari 2600, and then was a big step up. Games like Miner 2049, Donkey Kong & Donkey Kong Junior. I think back fondly on this system. Got a notification on this and when I saw a Colecovision had to watch it. :)
For half the video, I'm just shouting "Dude... what are you doing. Rip the RF modulator out and throw it away!"
The transistor mod you did for the video port looks really close to the Atari 2600/7800 AV mod.
Though with that fragile install (no circuit board, and it's just flapping in the wind), I would pot it in epoxy to create some mechanical stability.
I also wouldn't have embedded the AV cables, but just installed a TRRS 3.5mm jack.
It uses similar chips as an early MSX machine. One of my favorites. Pepper II, QBerts Cubes, Venture, Burgertime, Jumpman Junior, 2001 Space Odyssey, Frogger, Ladybug, Choplifter, Centipede, Frenzy, HERO, Mousetrap, Jungle Hunt, Blackjack, Oil's Well, Mr Do, Omega Race, Spy Hunter, Tapper, Threshold (from Sierra On-Line!) are all fun games.
Super work, that looks fantastic :)
Thanks Mike, it's a beauty!
Good luck with rf VOODOO. The broken part is a coil the broken stuff is ferrite. And the missing screw is another ferrite " slug". These are critical to the rf tunning and audio sub channel......good luck...maybe convert to composite output?
Never had one, but I’ve played one a few times. When I was a kid, my mum and dad used to go to the cash and carry , Makro. Makro is a trade only shop (you have to join, and to join, have to prove you own or manage a business).
Not sure about now, but in the 80s, they used to have two halves. There was a cash and carry, and a sort of department store.
The department store went downhill (IMO) but in the early 80s had an excellent computing department which sold all sorts of computers and consoles. Including the Aquarius, Ti99 4/a, the complete Atari and Commodore range, the Osbourne 1, the Intellivision and the Colecovision.
Of course, that wasn’t all at once, the range changed over the years.
And yes, they did have one of pretty much every device set up so you could try it..
Really nice hack Vince. Congrats! 🙂
ACTUALLY this video game console is FANTASTIC
Great video as always and looks better with the mod you did. I am sure the ferrite screw was from the big metal can and not the other where it was missing.
Wow your wee man has got a talent there alright mate,you should get him onto the TH-cam and do timelapses if him doing the paintings,next banksy in the making
Brilliant that you made it work ...I used to collect old games consoles had BBC s commodores amigas zxspectrums and lots more sadly sold them got a few joy sticks left and a few power supplies I once got given a skip full of BBC computers a local school was upgrading aaah happy days makes me wish I had kept a few old games 😁
That type of system is about my level of gaming. Again nice video, keep up the good work.
Vince, based on the circuit diagram I think a neater solution for the composite mod might have been to build a small strip board module with the three RCA plugs on and just use the wires that attached to the old RF modulator circuit board. You had the ground and the leg you lifted on the transistor only went to he RF modulator board connection so you could have left all that intact, changed to one resistor that you needed to change and then built it all on a strip board with jacks so the composite cable didn’t need to be hard wired in and could be changed as needed. Granted your mod works, but I think it would have been neater to leave the unit largely untouched with just the resistor and potentially a 5v feed wire added in to go onto the strip board. Just a thought :) good video though, great to see these things saved for future use rather than just binned.
Amazing job!
Great video, thanks.
I grew up in Reading, Berkshire, in which Woodley is a suburb of. I had no idea that there was a video game shop there!
Those are tuning coils and the "slug" or center portion affects the resonant frequency of the coil. Any conductive material affects the tuning, but ferrous material works better. If there's a slug of magnetic or diamagnetic material in the original design then substitution of a less magnetically permeable material will shift the frequency outside component specifications. Those circuits are very sensitive to frequency as NTSC timings are in the mhz range.
Not just NTSC but PAL both around 8 MHz. But the R F out is 450, MHz ( UHF ) in europe
I just finished up tuning an old CRT for an 80's era CNC machine and was thinking of this video as I worked on it. If you are tuning one of those coils, you have to use something non magnetic to do the tuning. A metal screw driver will affect the setting drastically. This is why many TVs and monitors of that era had little plastic adjusting tools mounted inside their cases. As Tiporari said, they are very sensitive.
Had one.. Was good for the day.... Had the turbo steering wheel and accelerator pedal that came with the
game turbo , good consol.
I remember Christmas day having to put plugs on my electrical products!
Another great fix!
Still have my Colecovision from circa 1984. The trick to climbing ladders faster in Donkey Kong is to start climbing then let go of up and immediately press up again. Almost like a double tap.
Another great video Vince. great analytical trouble shooting. I actually have a spare Colecovision Modulator board. I did a Coleco early on on my channel and it had modulator problems too, in my case seems a good cleaning fixed it, I think modern TVs expect more precise RF signals from modern electronics. Older kit was more accepting of imperfections, that could be what prompted someone to twiddle in the first place... for me that seldom goes well. I ended up with the modulator as I eventually did the gamesx mod and removed the modulator, it worked for me, but it could be luck. I think your circuit wasn't too much different, perhaps using the TV as ground and not using the 75ohm impedance match. I don't think it will damage console. As others have said the rippling of the PCB is normal, graphite slugs suck and a plastic screwdriver is the way to tweak them. Love seeing your sons pics, very gifted. Another great video mate.
Nice one Roger, cheers for the info 👍👍👍👍
Great video mate
I had one of these when I was a kid. For what it was, it was pretty good.
This was the second console I ever got my hands on to play. I had an Odyssey II and hadn't seen an Atari yet.
Cool, I haven't seen one of those since the early 80's. One of the officers I hired for the PD had one, I used to drop by for coffee and we would put on a game and pass the time of day. My favorite on that platform was Burgertime they had a wonderful version of that classic, I have yet to see anything that would outclass that system. Intelivision came close but I didn't care much for the joypad system they had.
I admire you for persevering with the RF modulator, and of course it is someone else's console, but my first thought when I pick up a retro console to refurbish is where are the A/V signals coming from and how do we get to the source? Great vid :)
hey bud thank you for fixing this legend, l never had one but do remember playing Donkey Kong in the old arcades so big thanks bud