ATARI Flashback with NO DISPLAY - Can I REPAIR it?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 พ.ค. 2023
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Hi, in this video I attempt to fix an Atari Flashback console which doesn't display on the TV. It was sent in by Lee who has sent in quite a few items over the years. Can it be fixed and work as intended once again? Let's find out.
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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
Have no clue what your talking about. But absolutely fascinating watching how you get a dead piece of electronics back to life. Love it.
I personally love that you're getting back to your roots with fixing game consoles... Keep em' coming 👍
Despite not having any knowledge of electronics, i really enjoy watching your fix it videos.
I love how Vince gets excited when things go to plan :)
"I hate not having a positive outcome on a video if possible"
What a legend we are watching folks!😍🥰
/L
Keep smashing out the repair video's Vince! I thoroughly enjoy them! keep up the good work! 👍🏻
The very first console I ever touched. My cousin owned one and I could play for 20 minutes at a time in my local electronics store. It led to a life long obsession with computers that turned into a career. Love the channel sir 🥰😁🤩
I’m so happy to see more fix videos Vince. Interesting item, but those black blob chips look so tricky to work with.
Good job Vince. Glad to see your experience and skills get better and better
Hey Vince, fun fact: The original Atari Flashback is actually a Famiclone :) Companies in China and Taiwan have been making clone NES chips for so long that it was actually cheaper for them to reprogram all of the games to run on NES than it would have been to use a modern chip or try and clone the Atari hardware.
I am assuming the hardware you have is the Famiclone version and not the later ones that do actually emulate/clone the Atari hardware, but that might be hasty. If I'm correct, the blobtop you have on that little carrier board is the ROM chip that stores all the built-in games.
I actually have a cheap bootleg cart that uses the same mapper and ROM chip as well. Unfortunately there is no modern equivalent of the ROM that can be purchased that will drop right in :/ The closest one would have been a 27C320 but there are none available anywhere in the correct package. You would have to bodge in a pair of 27C160s with the right logic to switch between them. 27C322 wouldn't work as it doesn't support byte access.
Wonder if those bridged jumper pads on that chip board is for selecting different games/roms. Maybe the Famiclone is still in there - Ive taken apart stuff before where you get different languages or sound effects by making or breaking those solder links.
yeah, was hoping this was the Flashback 2, actual 2600 on a chip but sadly no its the lame first one :(
I lucked into a Centipede arcade cabinet a few years back. Still brings a smile to my face when I turn it on.
I admire your dogged determination, well done Vince. 👌
Well done Vince ! a lot of work went into that and it paid off ! good job 😊
Been following you for ages and this is the first time I recall seeing your face. What a reveal :D
Vince the king of consoles, nice fix Vince, well spotted and thanks for the upload 😊
Very cool! 🎉 great job Vince. Also cool to see inside a blob, many times I been tempted to crack one open.
What a battle! Nicely done Vince 👍
Thank Garth 😎
Congratulations on the repair.. Proof that persistence really does pay off..Well that and buying another one to use for parts helps. Just something I remembered when playing Centipede.. the Spider will never double back on itself, so if you miss it, don't chase after it. It's best to let it go off the screen!
Great video Vince! Thank you for showing the inside of a blob chip!
Nice fix :) Never got Atari consoles myself but have some old Atari games downloaded in my PS3 in the Atari Anniversary Edition Redux (PS1), which includes Centipede, Pong and for example Asteroids.
The Mini C-64 is my only "modern retro" device, bought it in 2018, so far has been working fine. My original Commodore 64 C in the 80's blew it's power supply right after warranty expired :D
Another excellent video, and always love seeing the games from my childhood. Would love to see some work on a C64 one day ;)
I'd love to do a C64 also, I've looked a few times on eBay and I don't see any faulty ones. I do have a Spectrum 48k to look at though 👍👍👍
@@Mymatevince Get on it Vince! I love a good Spectrum being brought back to life!
Great fix. Thank you for the good entertainment.
Nothing like a good fix to actually make 40 year old games fun again.
Great Video Vince, That blob chip you ground away looks like some kind of eprom or flash memory from the layout of the die. I wonder if it's possible to use one a smd one of the footprint. I also noticed on the one you were soldering in had a mark of WE which could be Write Enable and 8b and 16b which looked like a jumper for 8 or 16bit access. Keep up the great work 👍 Also it's called a trackball 😂😂
Thanks Mick. Trackball...Yes that's the one 😂👍👍👍
That was fun Vince. Thanks
Haha. Nice to see the old mug! Collectors item now! Really interesting little console
Yes, a very rare mug, like the MMV Rolls Royce mugs. Only a few sold worldwide, never to be sold again 😥 One day I will look back at this era and gasp at the way I was nonchalantly drinking from it. I'm holding onto it Kip to fund my retirement. I have your toothbrush as well!!!! 😂👍
@@Mymatevince haha.. that last sentence makes you sound like a mental fan of mine.. 😂😂
@@kiphakes 😂😂😂
If you want to see actual bond wires take a classic UV EPROM chip and look closely through its windows. Bond wires are clearly visible there.
Back to back uploads? You’re spoiling us Vince!
Those darned chips!!! Nice work though Vince!
Thanks Chris 👍👍
great job Vince!
Great job, Vince.
The atari flashback 9 (and above) are great because they have an SD card slot and hdmi out. I've had success and failures in trying to fix a few of them, but I never investigated the blob chip.....
Takes me back Vince !!!
You could also use soldering paste Vince 😊
Great videos this is rare flashback indeed
Don’t plug it in, first thing done. Let’s plug it in. 😂 good ol’ Vince. Triggers me so bad… 😅
@29:54 - That blob chip you soldered on to the good machines is labeled 3.3V on the right side of that board in this shot.
great video, thanks
I had an 800 XL as a kid . Great memories
Good job mate 👍
Vince , these are simply called COB Chips, (Chip On Board)
Because it is physical wires from the chip to the board, a potting compound is blobbed over the chip to support the wires from vibration or strain.
The resin is blobbed on the chip, then placed in an oven for 4 hours to harden.
Unlike the chips nowadays, COBs were time consuming to make back in the day
I wonder how many cents they are saving by skipping the chip packaging .. must be a whole tenth of a cent or so 🙄
Nice repair vid. 👍
Yeah! Haha. Fantastic mend. To think how exciting it used to be to watch blocky graphics popping around on the TV. I remember typing in values to get characters to come up on the TV with our old spectrum. I think poking numbers into memory. The clever crowd could do it in machine code and ruled the programming scene and were often only teenagers.
I'd still replace that lead with a proper 9V one. That 7805 is going to get really hot at 18V.
Hi Vince, just my 5 cents here - I suggest you get a proper 9V adapter there. The 7805 can handle the 35V input but it also needs a proper heatsink for that and here is none.
Love these videos, trained as an electronics engineer but don't use it, became a Technical Specialist in IT instead
Nice fix Vince, how is the car coming along? Ready for the MOT?
I didn't realize that those blob chips were on their own separate boards at first until I saw you desolder them! I thought they were soldered directly to the main board. Really cool that you actually CAN remove and replace them and still keep the main board intact. Well done, Vince! I was feeling your anxiety when the power light wasn't going on after all your work. Glad you figured it out! We've all been THERE before numerous times, but the feeling is great when you get it all figured out and working once again! 👍👍
@22:00 I’m 90% sure the fault would have been the soldered bridges between the main to sub board, those are prone to cracking, especially as it got worse when you tried soldering them, I think if you had persevered with those connections you would have got it working.
I agree with this. It's quite unlikely that the connections to the die would go bad in a simple device like this that is stationary.
Thanks Scott. Maybe, looking through the microscope they all looked ok, but it is easy to miss a crack especially with all the reflections from the lights 👍👍
Any more car videos? I love the car restoration vids.
Винс крутой) так ковырять эту атари) молодец 👍
I was on tenterhooks when you went to test and then the second time too. Good job it was only that you forgot to plug in the power adaptor! 😂
The weird thing about this original Atari Flashback, is that it isn't actually an Atari in any way, shape or form. the company that was licensed by Atari to make it was led by Curt Vendel (who was an original Atari employee), and they were given a very short amount of time to produce the machine for the xmas market. so the simplest solution was to make a Nes-on-a_chip solution, port the games to it quickly, and bung it in a replica 7800 case. If you tried plugging the Flashback's controllers into a real Atari 7800 (cos they're quite a nice size and comfortable to hold), they won't work, as they're basically NES controllers with an Atari plug.
However, the Flashback was quite a big seller for Atari, so they went ahead with the Flashback 2. This time, Curt Vendel made sure he was able to spend more time on it, and produced a replica 2600 that was actually an Atari 2600-on-a-chip. He also included instructions for adding a cartridge slot to add the ability to load real Atari 2600 cartridge games. You can also plug in paddle controllers, and unlock some paddle games. They followed this up with the Flashback 2+, which has some minor differences, but every Flashback since then has been produced by AT Games, and is some sort of Arm-based emulator.
Atari have now produced the Atari 2600+, which is basically, a 7800 in a 2600 case, with HDMI output, and compatibility with both the 2600 and 7800.
What's the music during timelapse? Really nice song. Cheers for the great content. Always entertaining.
A word about the controller, the originals were horrible right out of the box, so I'm not surprised that you find the Flashback ones annoying as well.
There was another Atari console between the 2600 and 7800: the 5200.
It only lasted 2 years and sold way less than the 2600. They don't look to be too expensive as parts, at least states side.
What. A. ROLLERCOASTER! Good job there.
My ol' mum working at the Times had to review the Pong machine and then a weirdly branded Ingersoll Rand VCS in a plain brown cardboard package but inside was the original VCS sans any Atari logo'ing and the awesome Space Invader's cart and the excited Smartie joystick of course. Brother and I became gods with the VCS, suddenly we were uber popular until me dad threw his dummy out the pram and banned all our new mates leading to some proper bashings in the playground :( Only one shop in London sold the games in Holborn and the prices were absurdly high til me mum cultivated a couple of US contacts over at the embassy who managed to get us a couple more games.
It says a lot about the QC and quality of a product when the DC output is labelled as 9v and yet its outputting 18v. Sure its fine for most modern stuff since they have regulation built in but if someone grabbed that to use on an old device thinking it was a 9v output it would almost certainly kill it.
I would imagine it's not actually supposed to be 18v, I had a 9v that was doing 12v, it's likely just a failing cap or something. If this was from 2004, that would put it in the age of bad caps, like you get on the original xbox and such too.
You’ve got one of those nice buttery voices. That’s why I like you.
I dont know if you still check these comments but I'd like to ask, what is the name of that blue electronic work matt you are using and where might i find one for myself? Looks like something i could use to keep my own repairs organized 😅 im working on an Atari flashback 3 myself and thats why i found your video. Very well put together video, so you got another sub and like 🎉 keep it up man 👍
Thank you. If you type 'soldering mat' into eBay or Amazon you will see them or 'silicone soldering mat' 👍👍👍
@@Mymatevince Thank you so much man, I really appreciate it 😃
So... you wacked the bal around. Not what i expected on a repair video, but here we are ;)
Love Centipede and I'm old and it's a " Blob chip " !!.....cheers RIP Calculon
The Atari 7800 was 2600 compatible too. The Atari 5200 was not. They had weird multi-function joysticks. IMO 7805 with 18V is too much - the extra power is converted to heat. 8 or 9 V is more norm.
This is the first version of the Atari 'Flashback', and there were some odd choices that happened. First of all, it's not emulating games or anything...the guts are basically a NES-on-a-chip/Famiclone (just like most of the other XXXX-in-1 cheapo systems where there are like 10 NES games with repeating 100 times throughout the menu), and the 'Atari' games are just re-creations made for the NES/Famicom hardware, and so the accuracy is all over the place vs. the original games. Second, they designed the shell after the Atari 7800, a system that wayyy less people would recognize at a glance, so that was cutting out even more potential based-on-nostalgia buyers. (Also, *ugh* at the flared-legs Atari logo from this era :P...but that's just me)
Luckily it sold enough that the Flashback 2 happened, which _was_ styled after an Atari VCS/2600, and the guts were basically a modern 'Atari-2600-on-a-chip' that's runs the original game ROMs. The designer of both put _so_ much thoughtful work into making the 2's hardware faithful that the circuit board lists what you need to hook up in order to add an actual cartridge port to play physical games carts on it.
RIP Curt Vendel
Atari board work . . .i subscribed.
I'd try to apply some heat to the chip, using hot air station before completely destructing semi-working asic. Checking traces continuity around the problematic area also is not bad idea.
Purely the leads.. Result!
We have the 2600 version Flashback Atari. We used to have a 7800 with games but we gave it to an upstairs neighbour girl since we weren't using it. Have a 2600 but no cartridges and a 5200 with a cartridge but we haven't been able to get it playing. Oh, well...
Watching some of that gameplay and it looks-a lichen you got hosed with 2600 games in a 7800 form factor
Is it a 'genuine' flashback unit? Or do clones of this exist like the Snes classic clones? Just really surprised by the blob chips
These L7805 voltage regulators are least efficient, nowadays you'll see less and less of them. Instead there are MOSFETs which are more efficient but you need a coil and a cap, and or you can use what's called a dc to dc buck converter which has all of it and is super cheap ;) if you'd buy up to 3A. I'm building now 400W one :D, but still not too dear ;). Will be videos about it for sure. Have my transformer already made.
AWESOME
What little grinding tool is it you have at 21:57 ?
Vince the "scary bear curtain pattern" did anyone else see it? lol 7;39
18:30 Yeah, thought it'd turn out to be the ROM because of the spotty output. I'm not sure what the pinout is, or if its even possible on this model, but some of those flashback consoles could be modded so you could wire in an original atari cartridge slot, replacing the onboard games
You looked up the maximum input voltage of the 7805 voltage regulator and concluded from that that the power supply providing double the stated input voltage would be safe to use. This is not a safe assumption to make. To drop the voltage a linear regulator like the 7805 disperses the excess power as heat and can get quite hot. Hot enough it can cook and destroy itself if the circuit draws sufficient current. In this example here the regulator was used without a heat sink, which strongly limits the amount of current the circuit can draw and by going from 9V to 18V input you effectively tripled the amount of power the regulator has to disperse as heat.
A true 7805 has built-in thermal protection, so it shouldn't completely fry itself from heat--the output will just drop and eventually shut off completely. However, the thermal protection does kick in at a pretty high temperature so you're not doing any favors to the system by letting it reach that.
@@rfmerrill True. Though I wouldn't rely on this thermal protection working all too well with modern Chinese-sourced 7805s.
I LOVE ATARI
Early Atari games were so simple that they were named after very broad concepts like "Car" or "War".
Atari 2600, Atari 5200 and Atari 7800 were the main gaming systems..then of course the Atari Jaguar later on and the current Atari VCS system.
Dont forget the lynx, best handheld by quite a margin on launch. Developed by some of the original Amiga team as well.
Sweet
Looks like the Flash memory which you replaced and the jumper might be a selector for the software. Maybe that thing becomes a different device with a different jumper?
Good old atari the nostalgia even though its on a classic & not the full fat atari
I just saw one of these today at a Half-Price Books.
Hi Vince , have been an avid follower since the Bronze Age. A little known channel that I also have been following since inception, is Hasseb Electronics. This guy is the epitome of “the internet of everyday use cases… and I will fix it”. Would love for you to give him a plug? Like you, this guy is awesome.
I agree that some people do expect too much from this type of cheap retro mini console, but this version of Flashback (there's loads of them) is a particularly poor one. The joysticks also snap incredibly easily.
I haven't watched it until the end yet, but at 20:25 at the first resolder you solded 2 pins together...
22:17 why didn’t you re address the soldering you did before grinding the blob? Something changed and could be a stubborn solder joint between the 2 boards still?
where you buying low melt solder? Thx
In centipede why the speed is a bit slow? Is it because it's pal version, 50hz?
For a moment there I thought you were going to flash... back... an Atari.
😂
The machine to get is the Ryzen powered Atari, hybrid games player plus fairly decent PC all in a box.
Hey Vince, what’s the name of the song and artist in the video, thanks.
Enjoyed "ATTACK OF THE BLOB!!"
I have one of these but the menu is different, its just got blue `buttons` for each game rather than the stacked game and console graphics on this one so maybe I have an earlier version. Its absolutely identical in all other aspects. It uses a nes on a chip and the games arnt emulated but recreated iirc.
you have great taste in music :) . I cant find this song though :(
Mr Blobby wants a go at fixing it 😂😂😂
If the reg. is a 7805 be sure to jam in a TSR-1 2450.
What's up with the Rolls?
Sorry Vince, I don't make it easy! ... Well done
You certainly don't Lee 😂👍😎
Maybe that BlobChip is an EEPROM that you can copy to a standard DIP EEPROM... Maybe some one in the web has a dump from that chip