I've bought a fairly cheap Atari 2600 Darth Vader console with a broken AV/S-Video mod. The housing was a little bit dirty and on the back there were some connectors I personally don't like. But for the money it was a quite fair deal as the price was worth alone the cables (including AV/Scart connector and a good shielded S-Video cable).

So the first action was to open the console and check that all parts are right seated prior to switch them on. Then I connected the console with the TV set (AV only as my TV lacks S-Video connectivity at all) and was surprised how bad the picture in black/white was. After a while I found the problem by a broken cable and even after repair it looked quite ugly. A little bit blured and not really sharp. Ghosting lines on left and right of an object. A quick search in the internet revealed the mod was from a famous workshop website.

The picture above demonstrates how the mod was installed. The scary connectors on the back under tons of clue. the big shielding in front which is quite useless if only on one side. Some kind of helpless effort in my opinion.

Sadly the HF modulator was removed which is part of the instruction but totally unrequired if using a good mod. I will try to find another one to "complete" the console. The worsest thing ever was the bend of the TIA pins. Real stupid to bend them instead of using an additional socket for a few cents.

So first action was to cut the traces away, desolder the TIA pins and bend the shielding back to original position. It was a huge effort required to remove the tons of clue on the back. Finally I made it and after using some plastic clue to close the holes on the back I was quite happy there was no other damage during my efforts. I decided to solder blank wire to the TIA pins,  plugging one end to the empty socket and solder the other to the bend pins. Then adding an isolation on top. The risk of breaking them by trying to re-bend them was fairly high!

On the picture the new state after removing the mod entirely. Fixed back side, removed scratches from the cartridge port and also the switches are now shining in silver again. I never saw such a destructive mod: holes in the back, tons of clue and finally the TIA pin bend!

I then added my own mod with Stereo Surround and AV video output. tomorrow I will add the new converter board to implement AV Plus output (for best AV-picture ever on Atari 2600 consoles). The delivery from china arrived a few days ago so I have now plenty of video processors in stock to complete all open mods.

the video cable contains a SCART connector on it's other end as there is nearly no TV available anymore offering standard composite connectors. A red shining power led was added to the on/off switch with a short reflector bar so the color is shining like a borg drone 😉