Such a cool old console! Might have to try to get this working at some point. Especially now that you did the hard part of getting those screws out, lol

@Flourbag

5 ай бұрын

Another great collaboration idea!

@atomicforcegaming2867

5 ай бұрын

All it needs is the perfect amount of thermal paste. xD

@andychamplin

2 күн бұрын

I would say replace the capacitors because as old as this is any one of them could be bad. If it turns out to be the chip I would consult Adrian Black from Adrian's Digital Basement on KZread to take a look at this since this is his field of expertise.

This is the first game i played and, at 75, I'm still playing games. My favorites now are Animal Crossing and Zelda Tears of the Kingdom. Although, there are several others i like to play.

@RestorishOfficial

4 ай бұрын

I didn't know that this was the first game you played! Thanks for the comment Mom :)

The fix for the display is typically easy... Tune to channel four. If that does not work, adjust the horizontal on the television. We used to have the same issue back in the early 1980s when putting the Atari on different televisions.

@RemoWilliams1227

4 ай бұрын

Shit I remember that, my friend had a vcs back then that only worked on channel 4 for some reason.

I would hit up Adrian's Digital Basement. He does a lot of old school repairs. The desync on the monitor to me looks like a signaling issue. I would try to evaluate the CAPS and maybe replace the crystal oscillator. You can check the signaling with an oscilloscope, but I wouldn't know what to look for. Tantalim capacitors are notorious for going bad.

@dave_jones

5 ай бұрын

This. Any one of those tantalum capacitors could be gone, at nearly 50 years old it’s likely many are bad.

Thanks for posting this video, this takes me back to around 1977, when my 2 best friends Brian & Jon Fuller had this exact same pong system/console. When their dad bought it for them, I would come over and head to their father's Den, cause that's where he kept it, all 3 of us would play for hour's, or until we got bored, then we went outside to play. I was 6, my friends Brian and Jon were 7, and 3 in 1977, man those were great time's

I'd double check all the capacitors and see if you can get replacement chips. I just repaired a 2600 with a bad riot chip. They should have refurbishment kits on Console 5 for some of the most common components that fail. Replace those first. Then try the chips

@RobertGuido

2 ай бұрын

Yeah I would replace all of those electrolyte capacitors, in fact I'll be doing that soon to mine I got some axial Caps to match the originals with maybe even slightly higher specifications. I mean the components in these were great and they've been going strong for 40 some years but I think it's a great idea just to throw those out to help the chips and some of the other permanent components run clean and smooth

I would check that large axial capacitor. The other smaller caps don't normally fail owing to their composition. That large cap though could be problematic.

@RobertGuido

2 ай бұрын

I agree the small caps generally don't go bad, but if you're going to crank it open you might as well replace all the electrolyte caps. I mean it's not going to take away from the value if you put a new one in.

Don't worry mate. Looks like Petey has a spare eyes in his shelf

As others have said, check all capacitors. If you can get new ones, replace them. 50 year old solder is likely to have cracks. Reflowing or replacing solder is one of the first things I do with old broken electronics. Free. Easy. Rarely works but when it does you feel like a genius.

Beautiful pink gloves there 😂I don't blame you for wearing them though as that thing is frikkin gross! A tiny dash of baby oil on a microfiber cloth can work wonders on old plastics.

Very cool! Loved the field trip and the peak into a truly vintage console.

Heya. I really enjoy watching your videos! I think your narration after the fact is absolutely fab! You're a solid video make well done. Alas I have no suggestions for the pong unit. Look forward to the next one. Cheers from Toronto. Peter

@RestorishOfficial

5 ай бұрын

Thanks for your kind and encouraging words!

Beautiful Console.

To me it looks like the vertical sync adjustment is off. there are two potentiometers on the main PCB i'd try to adjust them one after the other, to see if the picture stabilizes. This reminds me of my first "Telegame". It was a bit later than this version and a cheap knockoff but i was really fascinated by it. Thanks for showing us this early "specimen" ^_^

@valdecirteixeirayt

5 ай бұрын

Maybe the vertical adjust on the TV...?

oh yay, tri-groove, havent seen one of those in awhile, ive actually got a screw driver bit for those, had to make it myself but it works

Now you're kind of inspiring me to go back and look at a Super pawn I've got I've got one that works and one not so much. I'll see if I can find any faults with the one I have that could maybe help with the repair of this one if you decide to go back to it

hey bud when you took it apart the chip was sticking up from the socket maybe have a look there

I would use the cotton round wipes. They are thin and they can be put between the grooves easily with a screwdriver to get the dirt out with isopropyl alcohol. That is my recommendation. They also work better on larger surfaces than the cotton bugs do

I thought it looked like the tracking was off slightly on the telly.

@valdecirteixeirayt

5 ай бұрын

I think the same! The problem is the TV, not the Game itself.

My stories I fixed one of these as a kid in the '80s I got for a dollar at a yard sale. I don't have an engineer mind but, I would definitely check the power cord & video cord to make sure they're no cramps in the signals are going through. I would go back and change all the electrolyte capacitors. This looks like it's either the main chip has gone corrupt, but more likely there's something screwy in the video line. Again just look for anything visual You might have to get a magnifying glass to see if you can find a cold solder joint. I feel this is definitely fixable

Hopefully you get it working sometime soon

I laughed about 2 seconds sooner on the perfect removal of that nut 😁 My story about Pong is not that special. I live in Eastern Europe and at some point I realized I played Pong around 1986, but I only came to that conclusion after seeing a documentary about Atari. I never thought about Pong and that time when I was quite little, but old enough to be able to play it for very long periods of time at my mother's workplace (she used to work in the computing center of a large manufacturer at the time). Coincidentally that is also the time I kind of fell in love with computing and computers. PS: love your videos and the extremely good vibes I am getting when watching them.

@RestorishOfficial

5 ай бұрын

Thank you so much for the awesome comment and personal story! I love it!

@MihaiTrica

5 ай бұрын

@@RestorishOfficial sorry for the typo, I meant sooner. Dang that autocorrect 😁 My story about Pong is a little special because I can now say I played Pong on original hardware (or on comparable hardware for the time).

8:38 Good old isopropyl alcohol alcohol.

@RestorishOfficial

5 ай бұрын

lol

So basically he's just cleaning the thing and then passing the repairs off to someone else LOL

Have you tried using a soft bristle tooth brush for pcb flux? The brush doesn't leave cotton strands. Desiccant can help dry hard to reach places.

@RestorishOfficial

5 ай бұрын

Good idea

Did you check all the solder joints on the opposite side to make sure there's nothing cracked or falling apart🤔🤔🤔

Great system! I never played the original Atari version, but we had a clone around 1981 and I was floored at being able to control stuff ON THE TV!!! I would have been 7 at the time. My Aunt found the old system in her house after all these years and gave it to me! I need to clean it up and test it out. Mine suffers from cord melt! For some reason when you wrap the cord around the plastic it seems to have melting into it. I noticed you had some marks around the base of yours too. How were you hooking it up to the TV?

@RestorishOfficial

5 ай бұрын

An adapter for the original cable to coax. Same as used on the Atari 2600 I recently did.

Tell Peter to put on some safety goggles for the love of god!

@RestorishOfficial

4 ай бұрын

lol

At 19:15, you have it on channel 3 I was going to recommend trying channel 4. But then on the second try at 20:29 you had channel 4. So I'm not sure what happened there. Sometimes those RF adapters had a switch to select one or the other in case there was interference from local TV channels.

@RestorishOfficial

5 ай бұрын

Yeah I had switched it to try that between takes

I tried to protect the stickers especially on arcade and Atari components. Kind of do the same thing just kind of get it wet and brush off the dirt. No reason to go gung-ho on it

the ic looks like it has a dark pin, top row, 4 down... Maybe a part of the issue ?

Please do restoration videos of old laptops too...😅

you can try changing thr channel to chanel 4 that might work

Phillips?

Hey I have some old wet ps4 that were left out n the Gerage u Wana try cleaning them.i sent Steve a email to see if he could fix um.

The Atari 2600 with 4 switches is available as a new version.

So I have a proposal for you / steve on a very rare console I would LOVE to get working again but would need some extra help from you guys (experts) is there a way to email you a proposal I have for a video ?

@RestorishOfficial

5 ай бұрын

You can reach out to us on the TronicsFix website here tronicsfix.com/pages/contact

@zincmann

5 ай бұрын

Thank you @@RestorishOfficial I just did that. I am sure you will both know its me by the mentioning of what it is. Thanks again!

I know this is way too obvious but I don’t see anyone else saying it. The TV is tuned correctly right? The way the picture is nearly there but not quite is exactly how old TVs used to work with things like the Sega Genesis when on RF. AV cables spoil us these days. No tuning? Revolutionary!

@RestorishOfficial

5 ай бұрын

I tested the tv with an Atari 2600 using the same cable and connector, so I don’t think that is the issue. Good idea though!

@sdjmchattie

5 ай бұрын

Ok if you don’t think the TV tuning is off (older US TVs may tune differently to the UK ones) there are also adjusters inside the Super Pong to alter the RF feed. I think it’s one you can access before the metal plate came off. Looks like a small flat head screw. Speak to Steve before adjusting them as I’m guessing a bit! It might alter the tuning enough to get a clean picture.

You couldve taken the on off switch out it was just two screws in the back no plastic holds i can see Atleast

Your IPA dispenser says “Isopropyl alcohol alcohol”

@RestorishOfficial

4 ай бұрын

lol

The first thing I'd check is the capacitors. But if Steve looked at it already, I'm guessing he would have said the same thing.

@RestorishOfficial

5 ай бұрын

I assume so, but I’ll ask him about this

i had the original pong

17:08 that's a screw tho. lol, just giving you a hard time. 😅

Come on no eye protection! 😳

@adamsmith3564

5 ай бұрын

Not sure what you mean. I saw clear squinting. That’s perfect eye protection.

@RestorishOfficial

5 ай бұрын

😆

Try replacing all the capacitors, they will be 40+ years old.

I would just make my own tool and never think about it again....

@RestorishOfficial

5 ай бұрын

I considered doing that as well. Was actually the first thing I suggested to Petey but he wanted to try getting the screws out with these other methods. I saw somewhere where somebody melted the shell of a big pen and stuck it on the screw to attach it and provide something to grab to provide torque.

Your soldering tip is a bit too fat for a rough action like soldering such a big cable to another 🙂. But nice video, thank you!

@Tronicsfix

5 ай бұрын

Actually, these types of soldering jobs require a large tip just to get the joint hot enough. Since he's soldering the wire to a large piece of metal that soaks up a lot of heat it needs to be a large tip in order to produce enough heat to make a nice strong joint. A small tip in this situation would likely not produce enough heat and would likely create a cold solder joint that would either fail right away or fail in the future.

First