Old Vintage Computing Research

The 21st century direct-to-TV game console: a dirt-cheap toy dragging poor ports of cherished games to a more downmarket age. If you couldn't afford the real device, your alternative was these inexpensive, inadequate facsimiles faithful only to one's gauzy recollection. As their chipsets are generally grossly underpowered and optimized solely for cost, the vast majority didn't even try to run the original games precisely as they were, and the quality of the resulting rewrites sometimes showed their software to be as rushed as the hardware. (Even today, where true emulators are more plentiful, the SoCs these devices use often still require compromise.) There were certainly standouts that are practical miniatures of the original systems, notably the Commodore 64 Direct-to-TV and Atari Flashback 2, but the remainder during their zenith in the early 2000s were more like this Intellivision and two Atari 2600 imposters, playing uneven resurrections on unrelated silicon. But it turns out these three (and others) have something in common besides the bargain bin: they're all derived from our favourite chip, the 6502. In fact, the two Atari imposters even embed the 6502's 16-bit descendant, the 65816. How do we know this? Rampant speculation, foggy memory, datasheets and vidcaps — and taking them apart, of course.

This is hardly exhaustive, but I promised a list of amperage, voltage and polarity for the wallwarts with my classic game consoles here. I've included both the AC adapter's nominal rating and measured voltage with no load to give you an idea of tolerances, keeping in mind that electronics do age. However, please note that using this list is completely at your own risk: I take no responsibility for frying your machine if you wire it wrong or I measured it wrong. If the machine is highly valuable and it takes batteries, maybe you should just use batteries instead of taking a (small) chance on my competency. Last updated 22 January 2023

• Allied Leisure Name of the Game (Electro-Mech Co. #1076): 5.5mm/2.1mm barrel jack, tip positive. This thing is a liar: the casing says 7.8V 30mA nominal, but I got a straight-up 6V on the multimeter. Works with both the Name of the Game I (A-100) and II (A-300).

• Atari Pong Battery Eliminator (part# 4720/model# 4-0033-2): 1/8" TRS (3.5mm mono headphone) jack, tip positive, nominal 5.5V 100mA, measured 5.8V. However, 6V should be just fine, since it takes a total of 6 volts in batteries. Should work with all Atari Pong consoles (I use it with my Ultra Pong Doubles).

• Atari VCS/Atari 2600 (part# C016353): 1/8" TRS (3.5mm mono headphone) jack, tip positive, nominal 9V 500mA, measured 14V. Advertised as compatible with Atari Video Pinball, Atari Stunt Cycle and Atari Tank II. Also works for the CX-2000 if you have one. ;)

• Bally Astrocade. This is not detachable unless it was secondarily detached. Reading off my working wallwart, "blk-red grn-wht 85mA, 10.8VAC red-grn 1A, 7.5VAC." I'm not chopping it off to test it!

• Coleco Telstar (model# 6041): 1/8" TRS (3.5mm mono headphone) jack, tip positive, nominal 9V 200mA, measured 10.6V. I use this very adapter with my Telstar Arcade and Telstar Gemini, but the box says it works for the entire Coleco Telstar range.

• Commodore Type 708 AC Adaptor: 1/8" TRS (3.5mm mono headphone) jack, tip positive, nominal 6V 250mA, measured 6.7V. This was sold for the Commodore TV Game 3000H but should work with the TV Game 2000K.

• Magnavox Odyssey 3000 (model# AH9026BK01): 2.5mm TRS (mono headphone) jack, tip positive, nominal 9V 100mA, measured 9.8V. I'm told this will work for most of the other Magnavox Odyssey series except the Odyssey² and Odyssey 4000, and the Philips Odyssey 2001 and 2100 (and naturally any of the Videopacs).

• Radofin SC8000 (model# 9100): 2.5mm TRS (mono headphone) jack, tip positive, nominal 9V 100mA, measured 10.1V. Likely works for other Radofin consoles like the SC4000.