Retron 77

[Howard_Casto]

You guys see this?

https://www.engadget.com/2017/06/13/atari-2600-retron-77/

I was all in until they mentioned the 80 dollar price tag.  Let me get this straight, a console that's less sophisticated and much less popular costs 40 dollars MORE than the retron 1 hd?  Also it doesn't play 7800 games, which seems to be an obviously dumb move.  If you make a 7800 clone 2600 games automatically work, so why wouldn't you?

This coupled with the ataribox teaser makes me wonder if people are losing their minds in the gaming industry. 

[pbj]

"Atari 2600 fans get the revival console they deserve"

 

The one you want?  Forget it.

[ChadTower]

And the sad part is that they're not replacing a dead console like the NES.  It's damn near impossible to find a reliable NES now.  Even the top loaders are crap now.   A 2600 that still works? That's not too hard to find and you won't pay $80 for it.

[Howard_Casto]

No offense, but you must live in bizarro world or something Chad.  A nes is virtually bulletproof except for the cart connector (5 min bending the pins out or a 10 dollar replacement part).  VCS's on the other hand are at the age to where the caps and resistors are at their limit... it's why most people play on the 7800 at this point. 

That isn't to say that you can't still find a working 2600, you can fairly easily, but they are just now starting to fail while the nes consoles are going strong mostly due to the fact that they are slightly newer.  They are both fairly robust units, but comparing one to the other.....

If anything though a 2600 clone is more needed than a nes.  At least the nes does composite out, which is the bare minimum you need to connect to a modern tv.  The 2600 looks like utter garbage on a lcd tv and that's even compared to the rather lousy nes composite output. 

[ChadTower]

Back when I was doing console repairs I went through probably 75 NES.  They were a total pain in the ass to get back to 100% reliable.  Swap the connector, mod the 10nes, nope.  Still only like 50%.  Recap the power supply, maybe 75%.  I'm not sure I ever got one back to 100% reliable (first time every time) in all of those instances.  Not once.


People claim they can do it but I've never seen a 'refurbed' NES that worked like new.  I bought quite a few of those, too, to see what people were doing to them.  Everybody would get it back to 'good enough' and call that a win.  It's not.

[Howard_Casto]

The only thing I've ever had to do is take it apart and clean all the connectors and make sure that every single game in my library has clean connectors.  Every NES I've gotten works fine.  If you are really having trouble you can disable the lockout chip, but I've never had any need. 

[pbj]

I'm with chad on this one.  God bless my ancestral top loader and Famicom mini.

[Laythe]

Only one way to settle this, obviously.

Chad, you have to wager a nice car that Howard can't start his refurbished NES on the first cartridge insert 10 times in a row; if he fails, we chop off his little finger...