How do I run an Atari 2600 of batteries?

It's actually very easy to run an Atari 2600 off batteries. BUT FIRST to bore you to death, here's a short run-down on the way the 2600 uses power...

An Atari 2600 has a power regulating transistor inside it. (It's the black thing in the lower left hand corner of the circuit board on the 4-switch and Junior models. In the 6-switch, it's on the circuit board that's not encased with metal) Basically what the transistor does is take anything over 5 volts and knocks it down to 5 volts. The power plug on an Atari sends 9 volts DC into the Atari. But when it goes through the transistor, it gets knocked down to 5 volts.

If you try to bypass this transistor, you may very well fry your Atari!

What does this mean to you? Well, you don't HAVE to put 9 volts into the Atari. (something I didn't realize with the original VCSp). You can put anything above 5 volts into it. 5 AA batteries equals 7.5 volts (1.5 volts each * 5) so that would work well. Try to keep it above 7 volts if you can. (However, don't hook a car battery up to it, that would literally be overkill. Plus too heavy) 4 or 5 D's (same guy who invented brassieres musta invented batteries too) would probably work, but I've never tried it. If anything, they would last longer than the AA's would.

You can buy a 1/8 inch mini-jack at Radio Shack and use it as such:

Hook the center post of the connector up to the POSITIVE (also called ANODE!) terminal of whatever battery you're using. Then attach the outer ring of the connector to the NEGATIVE (sometimes called CATHODE!) terminal of the battery. Plug the power plug into the Atari as you always did, and switch the sucker on. Boom! You're in business. You might want to get one of those battery pack things at Radio Shack, you know, the kind that hold 4 batteries that make one unit. (like a Gameboy).

If you want to chop off the portion of board that has the power jack input, don't despair! You can hook power up directly to the regulator.

Here's the 7805 transistor. I have labeled where to hook up the + and - of your battery supply. I labeled it 9, but remember you can put in less. I also labeled the OUT pin of the transistor as +5. That's what gets sent to the Atari circuitry. You could TRY hooking up 5 volts to that spot and the other end to ground (bypassing the transistor altogether) but I'm not sure what would happen. Oh, you'll also notice that this transistor thing gets HOT. Don't worry, it's supposed to. Cook an egg or something.