Reproduction Atari Boards from Original Films

atariscott

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What's the interest in reproduction Atari boards, in the same format as the originals? These boards would be created from the original films, and they would be very close to the originals in appearance. They would use all of the original TTL components, so they would be easy to repair. Possibly with all IC's being socketed for easy chip replacement.

I have films for quite a few of the original boards, including Major Havoc & adapter boards, Audio Reg I, II, III, Asteroids, Tempest, Missile Command, Battlezone, Centipede, Cloak and Dagger, Star Wars, lots of 70's black and white boards, etc, etc, etc. There are films for almost every board produced, and even a few prototypes.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fatscottphoto/sets/72157624397132456/

There are 4 screens in each set. Front, Back, Drill and Silkscreen. You are looking at Missile Command.
 
What's the interest in reproduction Atari boards, in the same format as the originals? These boards would be created from the original films, and they would be very close to the originals in appearance. They would use all of the original TTL components, so they would be easy to repair. Possibly with all IC's being socketed for easy chip replacement.

I have films for quite a few of the original boards, including Major Havoc & adapter boards, Audio Reg I, II, III, Asteroids, Tempest, Missile Command, Battlezone, Centipede, Cloak and Dagger, Star Wars, lots of 70's black and white boards, etc, etc, etc. There are films for almost every board produced, and even a few prototypes.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fatscottphoto/sets/72157624397132456/

There are 4 screens in each set. Front, Back, Drill and Silkscreen. You are looking at Missile Command.


I would be very interested in gettting back up boards for my atari vectors. :cool:

Do you have a rough idea would it cost for a board? Lunar lander? Tempest? Red Baron?
 
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I would be very interested in gettting back up boards for my atari vectors. :cool:

About how much would it cost for a board? Lunar lander?

Hard to say at this point. Probably at least $150 but probably closer to $225. That'
s only a guess, as it may be $500 for all I know. Just wondering if there is enough interest to even bother. Is the interest only in the rare stuff? Quantum, Major Havoc, I,Robot, Lunar Lander, Star Wars?

The main benefits would be better quality sockets and recent date code parts. Boards with custom chips may be an issue. Finding vintage RAM will also be a problem for some boards. I have 100's of different custom chips, but not enough to stuff 20 boards. AVG's are in low supply, POKEYS need to be pulled from Ball Blazer carts.
 
Make brand-new working Pole Position II boardsets for under $200 and you'd get my business...
 
Make brand-new working Pole Position II boardsets for under $200 and you'd get my business...

I think someone would have to engineer all of the mistakes of that board design to make it work. They would also have to find a source for all those custom (shitty) Namco chips made out of 'Tarnishtonium'
 
Hard to say at this point. Probably at least $150 but probably closer to $225. That'
s only a guess, as it may be $500 for all I know. Just wondering if there is enough interest to even bother. Is the interest only in the rare stuff? Quantum, Major Havoc, I,Robot, Lunar Lander, Star Wars?

The main benefits would be better quality sockets and recent date code parts. Boards with custom chips may be an issue. Finding vintage RAM will also be a problem for some boards. I have 100's of different custom chips, but not enough to stuff 20 boards. AVG's are in low supply, POKEYS need to be pulled from Ball Blazer carts.

In the 150-225 range I would be interested in multiple boards. :cool:
 
I think the interest generated would be based on price.
Do you have estimates on how much it would cost for 1, 10, 20+???

No estimates at all. I'm just checking to see if there is even enough interest to waste any time getting real estimates. Also checking to see which games may warrant new boards.
 
No estimates at all. I'm just checking to see if there is even enough interest to waste any time getting real estimates. Also checking to see which games may warrant new boards.

I know I would really be interested in a Red Baron.
 
If the price is good, I'd be interested in Centipede, Asteroids Deluxe, Asteroids, and Tempest, at least. Maybe more.
 
What's the interest in reproduction Atari boards, in the same format as the originals? These boards would be created from the original films, and they would be very close to the originals in appearance. They would use all of the original TTL components, so they would be easy to repair. Possibly with all IC's being socketed for easy chip replacement.

I have films for quite a few of the original boards, including Major Havoc & adapter boards, Audio Reg I, II, III, Asteroids, Tempest, Missile Command, Battlezone, Centipede, Cloak and Dagger, Star Wars, lots of 70's black and white boards, etc, etc, etc. There are films for almost every board produced, and even a few prototypes.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fatscottphoto/sets/72157624397132456/

There are 4 screens in each set. Front, Back, Drill and Silkscreen. You are looking at Missile Command.


#1. Does ownership of the films actually convey the rights to make new boards (Yeah, I know, not like Atari still exists to care, but it's still a valid question).

#2. Boards that big will NOT be cheap to make, in reasonable size quantities... it's hard to find a (reasonably priced) fab that'll do bigger than 12x14 or so, and that's simply not big enough to do atari.

#3. Socketing everything would be a downright bad idea... that'll just lead to reliability problems down the road -- pcb technology has improved sufficiently that removing parts from modern boards isn't as 'dangerous' as removing parts from 30-year old boards (w/ no top soldermask to hold traces down).

#4. The boards really should be (at least) redesigned to use single RAMs/ROMs for reliability... but even if you got those scanned into gerber, mucking around with gerbers outside of a real PCB program kinda sucks. Redesigning the vector output section with currently available parts instead of DACs that have been obsolete for years would make sense too.
 
#4. The boards really should be (at least) redesigned to use single RAMs/ROMs for reliability... but even if you got those scanned into gerber, mucking around with gerbers outside of a real PCB program kinda sucks. Redesigning the vector output section with currently available parts instead of DACs that have been obsolete for years would make sense too.

That would make a lot of people REALLY happy, especially with some of the hopelessly flawed designs (cough cough... POLE POSITION!) and games that use painfully exotic parts.

I almost wonder if by the time you're done it would make more sense just to redesign some of the boards from scratch in smaller size and to use modern, more reliable components then sell them ready to have people program their own EPROMs and plug them in? A major undertaking to say the least, but it would be awesome to see some of the rarer and/or least reliable games get some much needed hardware updatings, ESPECIALLY the vectors! Ultimately that may be the only way some of these games will survive in the long term, eventually those outdated components will become so scarce that nobody will be able to afford to replace them, if they can even be found at all.

Any chance of releasing high-res scans of some of the films to the public?

Addendum: Want an idea of the potential value of some of those boardsets might be? I recently saw an untested/as-is boardset for I-Robot go for over $420 on Ebay, and the same kind of deal with a Major Havoc for about $270+
 
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People don't want to pay $200+ for working boards now. And i doubt it would cost effective to make a board like Centipede. They are too cheap and easy to get. I doubt anyone would pay over 125 even if it was new. The boards that now sell for 175+ would be the best candidates imho.
 
People don't want to pay $200+ for working boards now. And i doubt it would cost effective to make a board like Centipede. They are too cheap and easy to get. I doubt anyone would pay over 125 even if it was new. The boards that now sell for 175+ would be the best candidates imho.

Exactly, it would only be worth it for the extremely rare and expensive sets like Quantum, I-Robot and such. I wonder how Tempest would sell? It's not quite rare but there are a ton of converted cabs available just waiting to be de-converted, but then again finding monitors would certainly be an issue.
 
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I just want to say that the mere fact that the films still exist is incredible! I love threads like this, where someone pulls something rare or unknown out of thin air!
 
I think a totally redesigned "multi" board would be more beneficial if it's possible. What I mean is like a single generic board that would run all Atari vectors with just flipping some dip switches and using the original game ROMS. The same would also go for a universal raster board, something like the Alltek MPU board.
 
Everyone screams Major Havoc but when my board was listed for $250 it's not like everyone was jumping on it. A Tempest board took a long time to sell at $160. My Lunar Lander board finally sold after awhile for $225. I am wondering what makes people think even the rare ones will be hot sellers.
 
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