Atari VCS

The Atari 2600. My first console, and the one I always go back too. My first recollection of the Atari VCS was playing it at a distant relative of my dad’s, somewhere in the East End of London. I remember the woodgrain console, and Combat and Outlaw, but not a lot else. I do know that I wanted one though! Fast forward a few years. I must have been 10ish, so around 1984? I’d bugged my mum for what seemed like forever for one, and finally, she relented! I was now the happy owner of a shiny black Vader 2600, which came bundled with Pac-Man. 

I caned that thing. I do wish I’d taken more care of the box and paperwork, but back in those days it was a toy and they weren’t necessary (unless you count using the box inner to record high scores of course). More importantly though, I did take care of the console and games, and although didn’t keep the game boxes, I did purchase some covers for them. There were quite a few in the end! Even mum joined in and enjoyed the odd game or two (I remember she really liked Keystone Kapers). I honestly can’t remember my first game, but I remember having Frogger, Outlaw, Air Sea Battle and Combat (which I bought off a kid at school), and playing the hell out of Star Wars: Death Star Battle.  At some point the Vader started to play up a bit (didn’t understand about cleaning contacts in those days!) and I purchased, from the Friday Ad, a boxed 6 switch woody, which was also played to death. Finally, my last ‘back in the day’ purchase was a 2600 Jnr (long rainbow) from the Index catalogue (remember them?). I was absolutely amazed that you could get 32 … yes 32 … games on one cart. A Harmony cart back then would have blown my tiny little mind!

I then acquired an Acorn Electron, and subsequent computers, and the Atari stuff was boxed up and forgotten about … until mum died in 2002, and we cleared the house. By this time I had my own place, so the consoles came out of the loft and home with me, and the carts were banished to the garage. Mothballed but not forgotten.


A few years ago I decided to go through the stuff, and it really reignited my love for this little console. This was probably NOT a good thing, as with the advent of eBay, boot sales and retro gaming markets and shops, weird and wonderful games were never easier (and cheaper, to be honest!) to obtain. 

I also obtained a few more console variations: four switch woody, short rainbow and vader jnrs, and an NTSC Sears Tele-Games console, as well as a couple of cheap and unloved boot sale duplicates (always good candidates for AV modding for daily driving). One of my best Christmas presents ever came from my husband – a Harmony cartridge, so I could play every game going in both PAL and NTSC format, as well as all the amazing homebrew that is still being produced, even to this day. I also acquired some of the more unusual peripherals from back in the day: Wireless joysticks (crap), a Compumate (crap but fun), and a Rom Scanner (good in the day, looks cool now, but a bit redundant with a Harmony cart). 


One thing had always eluded me though .. a heavy sixer console. These were the first generation consoles, produced for one year only (1977) and, as the name suggests, they are heavier than the subsequent consoles due to a thicker plastic base. They were available in PAL, NTSC and Sears NTSC flavours, but all commanded a high price. With the explosion in interest in the retro gaming scene, it was becoming increasingly unlikely that I’d ever find one ‘in the wild’ at a reasonable price (because the seller didn’t know what it was).

Cut to January 2023. Having an Atari 2600 browse on eBay, as I occasionally do. Saw an advert. For a CX-2600. Just a CX-2600. But was it? There was one crappy photo of a dirty looking console on the listing, and an even worse description ‘Good working order, postage 24’. That was it. I zoomed in and yes, this definitely looked like a heavy sixer. I put a watch on it and hoped nobody else had noticed it. The console was located in the states, so with postage and VAT (ugh) I couldn’t afford £££ (or $$$) for the console itself. After a very tense week, and an even tenser 30 minutes when others started bidding on MY console, I finally won a heavy sixer!

So now I have to wait. Constantly checking the shipping updates WILL NOT make it arrive any quicker, or stop Evri (aka Hermes) losing it, if that’s its fate. In the meantime, I have contented myself by reading up on the H6er. Looking at the picture, mine also has the original CX-10 joysticks, paddles and driving controller. What an amazing bonus! You can tell the latter by the labels ... instead of saying ‘driving’ and ‘paddle’, they have the Atari logo instead. You can tell the former by the missing word ‘top’ from the rim on the top edge. They also have a little ridge on the top of the stick, where, it seems, little Atari logo disks once lived. Hmmm … if this thing does arrive, we’ll have to see what we can do about that, won’t we? Also looks to have the original grey power supply. 


So ... cut to 10th February .... I have a box! The predicted arrival date was around 22nd February, so I'm amazed (and VERY excited) that it's here so early. 

Opening the box is like some bizarre  lucky dip ...

And I feel I was VERY lucky indeed! Whilst the console was dirty, and has a few marks, it's still in really good condition. With regards to the controllers, I'd go as far as to say that they were near mint. Even the screws holding them together look brand new. Here's a closer look at the contents: 

The console

Cleaned up lovely! Few very minor scuffs on the woodgrain, but it is over 40 years old.  No chips in the shell, but as is often the case there is some paint worn away on the [correct H6er] bezel. It's no biggie! 

The joysticks

Two original CX-10 joysticks, with remarkable paintwork, and totally un-chewed rubber sleeves. They're so clicky! 

The paddles

As these say 'Atari' as opposed to 'Paddle' on them, I've no reason to believe these aren't the original ones that came with the unit

The driving controllers

Same as the paddles, these say 'Atari' as opposed to 'Driving' on them, so again no reason to believe these aren't the original ones that came with the unit

So, going forward? Well, firstly I'll need to test everything. The controllers I can test immediately using my NTSC Sears machine (current daily driver), but the console itself will have to wait until I can get it AV modded. Don't shoot me, this will be completely reversible if needed, but will also allow me to use the machine as intended - I didn't buy it to sit on a shelf gathering dust - for starters, I don't really have shelves, secondly, I already have plenty of dust gathered everywhere else!

So, it’s here, it looks great, but does it work? Well yes and no. We bodged a connection up and the console works brilliantly (picture here is a bit rubbish due to phone/CRT TV). Phew. Because it was a temporary bodge, we will still need to AV mod it so we can use it without taking it to bits and jamming a screw between the modulator cable and shielding, but it’s great to know it does work. Can’t wait to play it ‘properly’. Took the opportunity to clean it a bit more whilst the cover was off.

 

The paddles also work. The joysticks – not such good news. Both have issues, either with fire or a direction or two, although taking one to bits and directly pressing the connectors on the board, it worked perfectly (didn’t try the other) so we will need to work on these. I’m hopeful though. Still need to try out the driving controllers.

 

So, as we needed to take it apart anyway, I also checked to see whether we did have a genuine H6er board in there, or whether it one was one of the later consoles fitted with a light sixer board. Not that it really matters of course, but I was really pleased to find that it is an early heavy sixer board, with the finned heat sink on the left, very thick switch pads (which hadn’t disintegrated like the thinner ones tend to do), green and white stripey cable and metal ‘wings’ on the select and reset switches. We’ve not yet disassembled it enough to look at the board itself, but I’m sure that will happen at some point. A Twitter user has informed me that as my serial number ends in H, my machine was manufactured in November 1977, which isn't bad considering the first consoles were released in September 1977. 

Yay! So, Tony has managed to fix one of the joysticks, and almost fix the second. Basically they needed a good clean with some contact cleaner and a fibreglass brush. The second one travels without any human input, so we still need to look at that.

 Below are some pictures of the insides - but there's lots more of a comparable stick on this thread, if that's what floats your boat!

So,  now they're working, it's time to finish them off! These discs are just laminated prints I mocked up, but they look the part (without deceiving anyone) and finish the sticks off nicely I think.  I was going to get them printed on a thin aluminium sheet (there are photo sites that do this) but to be honest I think I'll 'stick' with these for now. 

Next job ... AV modding the console ... watch this space!

So, in the end I just couldn't bear to have it AV modded. Its just such an original machine it would be criminal to mess with it (even though there was never a plan to hack the case, I didn't want to mess with it's insides either). But what to do? I didn't buy it to be a door stop. A quick Google led me to this site, which gave me some hope that there might be an alternative to the AV mod. The only trouble is, the article was written in 2015. Are these boxes still available?  Well the answer is yes, believe it or not, Ali Express still sell the boxes! 

So a box was duly purchased, and I'm so glad to report it works. RF in, VGA out to our flat screen TV. Did take a bit of tweaking to get it up and running though. The picture isn't perfect, but its more than acceptable, and definitely usable without any issues. At the end of the day, I have plenty of other 2600 consoles to choose from if I want a perfect picture! 

Below are some screen shots (bear in mind these are taken with a phone (from a slightly wonky angle!), not a screen capture device): 

Aardvark

Halloween

Pitfall

Seaquest

Other sites: