Retro Surround Sound?!

[retromod]

ok I dropped the internal loudspeakers for the Stormtrooper and Droid edition. It costs a lot of efforts to get the loudspeakers integrated as the Darth Vader suffers from having the right holes in the chassis. So offering that for 6-Switch Woodgrains is the better choice.

But instead you will get a pause function which can be activated via (unmodified) Joysticks. On the back is a switch with the following positions: Pause, Disable, Joystick enable. Pause halts the CPU until you siwtch to Disable again. If Joystick Mode is enabled and you push both buttons on the joystick it halts the console. Pushing it again continues gameplay. I will finally use the same circuit as for Coleco Vision which allows to pause if you hit the reset button, additional hit continue the game and pushing the button for a while resets the console. No additional drills, no search on the back during gameplay.....

Due to the long list of collector orders I'll bet there will be an Atari 2600jr Droid series as well ;-)

[zapiy]

Is the site up and running yet and have you had many orders?

[retromod]

Is the site up and running yet and have you had many orders?

I'm currently working on the PCB of the Intellivision AV Mod after fixing the quality issues of previous mods, next are the PCB's for the new pause circuit boards. I'm also planning to redesign all mods to follow a modular concept. Smaller PCB's are hooked via one bus interface so it's easier to produce and to reduce stock and options available (so you have one module with Stereo/Surround, one for AV, one for RGB, one for pause etc and if customer order I simple hook them together via standard connector. 

The website mainpages are complete but the single mod descriptions and technical information requires to be transferred into the right layout. Hopefully I'm able to complete that within the next weeks.

There are ongoing contract discussions with resellers so if these mods are available for the public and not for collectors only (as there are many orders) depends on the outcome. If there is green light I'm able to start production within a week as all parts are in stock and final design considerations and questions are answered (like refurbished silver switches with colored top according to the edition etc.).

I'm the only one able to offer that kind of mods so my experience is even the "haters" of these mods buy them silently by wife or 2nd ebay account as done before. If I ask them why they bash me for that officially and buy them silently they only answer they are still "collectors". That's why I started to reject selling to those people anyway.

[zapiy]

Modular is defintely the way to go if you can get that to work easily enough..

[retromod]

sure a small common backplane on top of each module handles requires signals, some signals are shared between the modules. Using a standard connector with about 10 pins on both sides of each modul allow to connect them easily. Important is only the size but as I use dual layer PCB's for complex one it is quite easy to implement. Each module has about 2 inch by 1-2 inches in size.

[retromod]

Pause mod tested, instead of using a large number of components to get it running I decided to use a MCU for about $1 which saves tons of resistors, logic and timer IC's. And the good news is it simplifies the PCB and makes it very very small. So it is able to switch video AND audio off (to activate tv screensaver), switches the LED color to show pause mode activation and total cost is about $5. I'm able to use it for Coleco as well with a small firmware change. On Atari it activates it by holding both joystick buttons for about 2 seconds.

Another idea is for Coleco to use the keyboard like Intellvision do. By pushing two  buttons at the same time on the numeric input field the pause will be activated. I will test, this simplifies it on Coleco as well because there is no need anymore to modify the reset button nor adding additional switches simple hook to the joystick circuit lines.

I've also started to modify one of my woodgrains for internal stereo loudspeakers. The loudspeakers fits perfectly into the existing locations. It has also a silver cartridge slot and the switches on top are completely refurbished shining in silver again. Together with the backlight power led in yellow it looks great. Sound is awesome because you have now a small surround sound experience like the gamecube do (with my stereo surround sound board of course). Together with the above pause mod the best retro gaming experience ever (ok my RGB mod is still missing....)

[TrekMD]

Cool about the  internal stereo speakers!  Wasn't that an original idea Atari had for the console?

[retromod]

Cool about the  internal stereo speakers!  Wasn't that an original idea Atari had for the console?

Yes the first version had it until they used the tv loudspeaker.

[TrekMD]

Cool about the  internal stereo speakers!  Wasn't that an original idea Atari had for the console?

Yes the first version had it until they used the tv loudspeaker.

 

[retromod]

Meanwhile a user posted in atariage some pictures of a stereo/surround mod. This console is one of the red one delivered from me to a friend of him. I've told his friend that this mod itself is not from me only the circuit is mine (not the pcb either). But it seems atariage users blamed me again for the design despite this information. The circuit protection was identified as "Burn" (funny isn't it). No one word about sound quality pure pictures and some not so nice wordings. As another user posted private data i will assign my lawyer soon as I must protect my family from such "crazy" people ignoring facts and posting lies. Some atariage members are motivated like retrofan to post the link across the internet, luckily he is a german  guy so under german law.

I also sent an e-mail to atariage owner and editors telling them that posting personal information is not according to law and guide lines of the site itself. Weird no moderator has delete it, not to mention the 4-letter words and names I got. Law seems to be different for some people...special on the atariage platform. Interesting that nearly any posting from newbies are lead to agressive and negative influenced feedback. There was someone asking for a programmer and it was bashed for that.... 

Attached pictures of pcb's I made... completely different to the one posted.

[TrekMD]

That sounds like a mess.  Hopefully things can be resolved.

[retromod]

That sounds like a mess.  Hopefully things can be resolved.

thanks I hope, too. It seems some people act under anonymous protection of nicknames and believe the internet is without any rules or laws. There seems no limit to blame people also some kind of helpless regarding their own members. 

Thanks to mr oldretroschool for his 4-letter wordings and attitude which allows me now to set atariage on  the blacklist for all companies which are part of our system (about 2000 customers around the world including many big usa companies with several hundred or thousend employees). This blocking is active until the added url containing the abuse content is deleted for a while. As in correlation with the conducts we all love and normally sign.   

[retromod]

I visited local police department today to get the address of these people blaming me all the time with lies. As this is under law and a serious thread cfinally people involved agreed to remove the posts and to correct the content on atariage.

Atariage seems to be the nucleus for the origin which is explainable as most members have their business relations on the platform so that kind of mods may risk their business, only a guess. They also spotted about this forum here and seems to believe atariage is THE forum for whatever in the world.... well lets wait and see what happens 

[retromod]

As many people asked for:

Q: How is the Stereo Signal created if the console delivers only mono?
A: I pick up the mono signal, run it through an analog-digital unit and then using clever algorithm to move and manipulate the tone to different channels and finally you have the impression of stereo and surround. It is Microchip based so able to use always the latest firmware. Previous attempts with dedicated audioprocessors were not good enough and flexible.

Q: is it true Stereo/Surround?
A: no it can't be as the console is not designed for but it improves sound to a level you never heard before. there are many people which tells me it is not a problem to design a similar solution... well people have tried it and some specialist from Abbuc told me they failed a while ago. There were many approaches - I reviewed them one by one as my first approach was also in the same direction with the same bad result. There are better solution out there but the price is 10 times higher instead of a few bucks. So even if people steal my design it can't be copied as the firmware can't be extracted from the MCU. Same for my new pause mod which offers far more features and technology than any other solution.

Q: where can I get this mod?
A: soon on several retailers or if you win an auction on ebay. there are also selected (german) modders who bought a license. this should also ensure quality and always latest version including low prices as the final PCB's are manufactured in china.

Q: what are the future plannings?
A: There will be a larger quantity of the "Droid Edition" in red, blue, green housing the latest and greatest version of the audio and video mods together with the Atari 2600 Woodgrain Special Edition delivering a far superior audio experience by a modified version of the mod and internal loudspeakers. This mod will have additional logic to track the player position and output sound from the left or right side depending on that position. A first prototype PCB is currently in production and requires testing.

After that I plan another edition with nice coloring containing the (long awaited) RGB mod together with an improved audio mod. For that I may switch to SMD production which reduces the costs significantly.

My stock is full of refurbished Atari Homecomputers (bleeched with my own process, backlighted keyboards) waiting for this combined PCB, too. So together with an OSD (on screen display menu) I plan to revive the Atari Homecomputer scene delivering the best audio and video experience for Atari devices. As regulation department restricts the possibilities without certification and registration I must ensure I'm on the legal "side" all the time so can't implement additional goodies.

[retromod]

As someone took over my account and stole some information about the surround sound mod (I'll guess it was another modder offering at ebay) I must put some pressure on my new Surround Sound V2.0 mod including the new object tracking technology. This allow real surround sound as it tracks the objects on screen and alter the sound depending on the object position. First device fitted with that new technology will be the Atari 2600 Woodgrain Special Edition housing 2 loudspeakers and latest pause mod (joystick driven).