Atari paddle and joystick keychains, that plug into a TV!

Includes Atari 2600, Nintendo 8-bit, Sega Master System, MSX and more!

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SpongeBuell
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Post by SpongeBuell »

As cool as it is, I think it belongs in our own little ol' Atari section.
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im_an_alien
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Post by im_an_alien »

That makes sense, although now no one will notice my post because it's on page 1 :P
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Sparkfist
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Post by Sparkfist »

im_an_alien wrote:That makes sense, although now no one will notice my post because it's on page 1 :P
That's not true I read the first page. There cool little gadget. You could throw quite a few of those into just about anything like a Gameboy. It'd be interesting to see if they are NOAC, if they are well a nice thing, but if they do have a chance of being AOAC that's even better.

Nice find.
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tom61
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Post by tom61 »

Sorry for not replying earlier, I've been busy with work and school.

Loup is correct, I got these at Wal-Mart.

There seems to be a concensus that these are not AOACs. Check out this thread: http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.ph ... opic=92582

The thread says 'NOAC' a lot, but Curt, who designed the FlashBack 2 and other units, was orginally working on these, and at one point he mentions the specification "...changing the entire cpu design to their own CPU...". So, I'm not really sure either way.


I've put disassembly pics on Flickr:
http://flickr.com/photos/tom61/227866483/ Side view of paddle and cable.
http://flickr.com/photos/tom61/227866502/ Bottom view of paddle

http://flickr.com/photos/tom61/227875154/ Inside paddle. I couldn't get the cap off, and the potentiometer seems to be soldered in to where it keeps the plastic top attached to the board, so this is as far as I've disassembled it so far.

Inside 'cheater box':
http://flickr.com/photos/tom61/227866485/
http://flickr.com/photos/tom61/227866488/
http://flickr.com/photos/tom61/227866494/
http://flickr.com/photos/tom61/227866498/

Hacking potential:
A smaller cable and battery pack should be very easy, as there isn't any active components inside. If it can take 6Volts, rigging it to run off button cell batteries should be entirely doable.

I need to take a look inside again, as there were a couple of small ICs hidden under the capacitors. Maybe we'll get lucky and one of them is a EEPROM of some sort, though it's more likely that they deal with power regulation.

Wiring a cart slot, if it is indeed a NOAC, seems to be a no-go, as there is just one gloptop. Having only one gloptop means that the ROM is likely intergrated and that means no solder points to get at for wiring a cart slot, unless they were generous and decided to add points for some odd reason.
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Post by gannon »

Yep, originally higher quality and using the AOAC, but the company went on the cheap instead and used crap NOACs. That's what the gist is it seems.
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Post by legoboy »

zagalo
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Post by zagalo »

i could not find them at walmart. what section is it at.
tom61
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Post by tom61 »

The one I got them had them in the 'novelty' section by the toys.
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