WTB Atari Disco Monitor Chassis

Yeah. At this point, I just want to play I, Robot so I'm going the GO7 route, but I'm going out of my way to make sure that this GO7 stuff doesn't modify the disco frame/tube/yoke in any way and I can pop a disco right back in.

If I were to get another chassis, it's my hope that I'll be able to better determine what happened to mine. I suspect at this point it might be one of the weird internal flyback diodes marginally failing, but that's just a speculation. Even one where the flyback was known dead might be helpful... If I transplanted my flyback and it does the same thing on another chassis, I'd know for sure that was the issue. But I'd prefer a working one :)

When it worked, it was the nicest picture out of any monitor I have. If I could fix it on my own I would (and I'm not going to give up either. Now that I know I can use the G07 on the disco frame, the reverse should be true. So maybe I can prod it on the bench.)

Still, would like to find another chassis if I can and keep this thing going. If they're really so hated, send them to the Retrobotics home for weird monitors 😉
 
Last edited:
The point of the OP's request is to preserve an original monitor.

There's a difference between wanting to preserve the originality of something for the fun and the challenge of preservation, versus 'just making the game work' by whatever you can hack together.

Props to 64B1T for pursuing the former.

Bump for a Disco chassis.

No need to come in and translate what "the point" of the OP is. I get it. He wants to fix his Disco monitor - that's cool. I never would have even mentioned the G07, but the fact of the matter is he was clearly willing to try other things when he started to experiment with a K4900.

Not sure what "hacking" you're referring to when it's just swapping a chassis. Man, if that's considered "hacking something together" then I'm quite the hacker. All of the buttons and joysticks that have been replaced... damn!

Nothing wrong with wanting to preserve an original piece of hardware. But there's also nothing wrong with wanting a working game you can play.

Like I said before to the OP, good luck in your search. I hope you get your game working the way you want.
 
Last edited:
Yeah. At this point, I just want to play I, Robot so I'm going the GO7 route, but I'm going out of my way to make sure that this GO7 stuff doesn't modify the disco frame/tube/yoke in any way and I can pop a disco right back in.

If I were to get another chassis, it's my hope that I'll be able to better determine what happened to mine. I suspect at this point it might be one of the weird internal flyback diodes marginally failing, but that's just a speculation. Even one where the flyback was known dead might be helpful... If I transplanted my flyback and it does the same thing on another chassis, I'd know for sure that was the issue. But I'd prefer a working one :)

When it worked, it was the nicest picture out of any monitor I have. If I could fix it on my own I would (and I'm not going to give up either. Now that I know I can use the G07 on the disco frame, the reverse should be true. So maybe I can prod it on the bench.)

Still, would like to find another chassis if I can and keep this thing going. If they're really so hated, send them to the Retrobotics home for weird monitors 😉

Well, there you go. Best of luck!

For what it's worth, after repairing the Disco chassis that was in @CarrieZ 's I, Robot for about the third time (you can probably find my old threads), I decided to measure the yoke. It was then that I decided to experiment a little and discovered the G07 compatibility. Like you, it was easy to keep things neat and easily reversable in case I ever wanted to use the Disco chassis as a backup.
 
No need to come in and translate what "the point" of the OP is. I get it. He wants to fix his Disco monitor - that's cool. I never would have even mentioned the G07, but the fact of the matter is he was clearly willing to try other things when he started to experiment with a K4900.

Not sure what "hacking" you're referring to when it's just swapping a chassis. Man, if that's considering "hacking something together" then I'm quite the hacker. All of the buttons and joysticks that have been replaced... damn!

Nothing wrong with wanting to preserve an original piece of hardware. But there's also nothing wrong with wanting a working game you can play.

Like I said before to the OP, good luck in your search. I hope you get your game working the way you want.


Frankensteining parts together 'just to make it work' is hacky.

OP said he wanted an original chassis. I'm not sure what's so hard to understand about that.
 
LOL dude... did you even read my entire response? For that matter, did you even read the OPs latest post or the post from his other thread I linked? As I've said multiple times, I get that he wants to use the Disco chassis. That's cool. But he also wants a working game he can play NOW while he troubleshoots and hunts for another Disco chassis. I'm not sure what's so hard to understand about that.

I unfortunately don't own any three pot 4900 chassis to try this with. Only four and five pots. But in any case it ran long enough that the tube is definitely getting ruled good here. If the image was good enough I would have left it as is for now.

Yeah. At this point, I just want to play I, Robot so I'm going the GO7 route, but I'm going out of my way to make sure that this GO7 stuff doesn't modify the disco frame/tube/yoke in any way and I can pop a disco right back in.

If everyone listened to the righteous, dogmatic approach that you preach, there would be far more unplayable games out there. And there would be far less creative and innovative solutions being shared. For the record, the OP wouldn't even have a playable I, Robot right now. I guess he's just supposed to leave the game alone while he waits indefinitely for a replacement chassis or gets his original fixed?

It's one thing to encourage preservation and repair of original hardware. It's another to condemn and shame any other solution that doesn't abide by what you'd do. Get off your high horse. Swapping a chassis (or even an entire monitor) isn't the same as throwing in an LCD. It's not destroying anything original, and it shouldn't be treated the same. It's not even close or in the same ballpark. You know better. Shame on you.
 
Oh wait...


Yeah, sorry for even mentioning the G07 compatibility.
 
Oh wait...


Yeah, sorry for even mentioning the G07 compatibility.


Hacking something together, and then leaving the original boards in the bottom of the cabinet so you can say 'LoOk, i'M PrEsErViNg iT' is a lazy excuse that gets used far too often.

The OP spent an entire thread trying to figure out how to repair the Disco, for the sake of preserving a monitor. The point of this thread is to get a specific chassis, that might even help him repair the other one. And then we all might actually learn something.

If you want a G07 in your cabinet, pull the whole monitor and install a fucking G07. But hacking shit together because you 'want to be done with it and not look back' is HACKY.

I know this because I deal with other people's hackery regularly. People think just because they got something working, they're done, and how they did it doesn't matter. But you don't think about the next guy, who is going to need to figure out WTF you did the next time it breaks. And that can be 6 months from now, or decades from now, when you're dead and all of your shit gets sold to someone else, and the knowledge of what you did to the cab gets lost.

What happens when that monitor breaks again, after the OP is done owning it? Someone has to figure out what hackery was done, in addition to whatever actually is wrong. And it won't be obvious if what's wrong is due to the hacks, or some other normal failure, which makes troubleshooting a lot more difficult.

Or what happens when that chassis unknowingly ends up back in a G07 at some point, and the width is way off. Someone will waste a lot of time looking for something that isn't obvious, because they don't know to look for it.

Today's repair people ARE the next guy. And with every repair I do, I'm always thinking of the 'next' next guy. Being a good steward of these games not only includes getting them working, but doing what you can to think about the FUTURE of the game, and making it easy for the next person to work on it, whether that's 5, 10 or 50 years from now. THAT'S why good repair practices are important.

I don't fault Liam here, he's new and doing his best to learn. Good on him. But shame on anyone who has been around this hobby long enough to know better, and encourages hacky practices.

Sorry if you don't like my opinion. You aren't going to change it.
 
Hacking something together, and then leaving the original boards in the bottom of the cabinet so you can say 'LoOk, i'M PrEsErViNg iT' is a lazy excuse that gets used far too often.

The OP spent an entire thread trying to figure out how to repair the Disco, for the sake of preserving a monitor. The point of this thread is to get a specific chassis, that might even help him repair the other one. And then we all might actually learn something.
And even more in DMs ;-;

It really is a very resilient monitor against any and all attempts to fix it.
If you want a G07 in your cabinet, pull the whole monitor and install a fucking G07. But hacking shit together because you 'want to be done with it and not look back' is HACKY.

I know this because I deal with other people's hackery regularly. People think just because they got something working, they're done, and how they did it doesn't matter. But you don't think about the next guy, who is going to need to figure out WTF you did the next time it breaks. And that can be 6 months from now, or decades from now, when you're dead and all of your shit gets sold to someone else, and the knowledge of what you did to the cab gets lost.
The next guy can be me too! I often scratch my head at the weird shit that past me does that I have to unfuck.

What happens when that monitor breaks again, after the OP is done owning it?
I'm taking this damn cabinet to my grave. It's not getting the best of me!

Someone has to figure out what hackery was done, in addition to whatever actually is wrong. And it won't be obvious if what's wrong is due to the hacks, or some other normal failure, which makes troubleshooting a lot more difficult.

Or what happens when that chassis unknowingly ends up back in a G07 at some point, and the width is way off. Someone will waste a lot of time looking for something that isn't obvious, because they don't know to look for it.
Maybe I should put a label on the chassis. "This has been extremely fucked with."

Today's repair people ARE the next guy. And with every repair I do, I'm always thinking of the 'next' next guy. Being a good steward of these games not only includes getting them working, but doing what you can to think about the FUTURE of the game, and making it easy for the next person to work on it, whether that's 5, 10 or 50 years from now. THAT'S why good repair practices are important.

I don't fault Liam here, he's new and doing his best to learn. Good on him. But shame on anyone who has been around this hobby long enough to know better, and encourages hacky practices.
Man I've been here four years, how long until I'm not the new guy? lol

Bumpin' Disco
 
Hacking something together, and then leaving the original boards in the bottom of the cabinet so you can say 'LoOk, i'M PrEsErViNg iT' is a lazy excuse that gets used far too often.

The OP spent an entire thread trying to figure out how to repair the Disco, for the sake of preserving a monitor. The point of this thread is to get a specific chassis, that might even help him repair the other one. And then we all might actually learn something.

If you want a G07 in your cabinet, pull the whole monitor and install a fucking G07. But hacking shit together because you 'want to be done with it and not look back' is HACKY.

I know this because I deal with other people's hackery regularly. People think just because they got something working, they're done, and how they did it doesn't matter. But you don't think about the next guy, who is going to need to figure out WTF you did the next time it breaks. And that can be 6 months from now, or decades from now, when you're dead and all of your shit gets sold to someone else, and the knowledge of what you did to the cab gets lost.

What happens when that monitor breaks again, after the OP is done owning it? Someone has to figure out what hackery was done, in addition to whatever actually is wrong. And it won't be obvious if what's wrong is due to the hacks, or some other normal failure, which makes troubleshooting a lot more difficult.

Or what happens when that chassis unknowingly ends up back in a G07 at some point, and the width is way off. Someone will waste a lot of time looking for something that isn't obvious, because they don't know to look for it.

Today's repair people ARE the next guy. And with every repair I do, I'm always thinking of the 'next' next guy. Being a good steward of these games not only includes getting them working, but doing what you can to think about the FUTURE of the game, and making it easy for the next person to work on it, whether that's 5, 10 or 50 years from now. THAT'S why good repair practices are important.

I don't fault Liam here, he's new and doing his best to learn. Good on him. But shame on anyone who has been around this hobby long enough to know better, and encourages hacky practices.

Sorry if you don't like my opinion. You aren't going to change it.

Well it's clear that you don't understand what a drop-in tube or chassis is. You also seem to believe changing a width cap (which is part of monitor 101) is too cumbersome for the "next guy" to figure out. Makes sense why you think everything is hackery. I'm guessing you also poo-poo any form of tube swapping. I know the type. You're right, it'd be a waste of time trying to change the opinion of someone so set in their way. That we can agree on.

As my last bump for the Disco, I'll just say to the OP, good luck in your search. I'm glad you are able to play your I,Robot in the meantime!

Looks great, bro. Have fun with it.
 
Last edited:
I've been here since 2019 and I still get called a "young'n" for being 25.
That being said, have I passed noob status, yet? I'm curious to know.
 
no promises but i think i have a disco chassis i will dig around for it. i dug it out of a buddies scrap pile a few years ago he said it was outside in the weather for about a year its free + shipping if i find it
That would be incredible thank you!
 
I'm pretty sure it looks just like this one I remember seeing that big red fly back and I think it's labeled Atari color rasta
 

Attachments

  • $_1.jpeg
    $_1.jpeg
    31.5 KB · Views: 8
Photos
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20250728_073814181.jpg
    IMG_20250728_073814181.jpg
    359.7 KB · Views: 12
  • IMG_20250728_073933169_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20250728_073933169_HDR.jpg
    222.1 KB · Views: 13
  • IMG_20250728_073939795.jpg
    IMG_20250728_073939795.jpg
    287.2 KB · Views: 13
  • IMG_20250728_073944396_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20250728_073944396_HDR.jpg
    296.2 KB · Views: 12
That's an amplifone Raster. Firefox, TX-1, and some Crystal Castles machines used these.

My Firefox has one as well, but the Flyback blew, so its running with a K7000 flyback.

That one looks like a different revision than mine, it's missing the PLL PCB. It looks like they integrated that circuit into the right side of the PCB, so this must be a later one. I haven't seen one like that before. Interesting.

1000001533.jpg

Here's a shot of my Disco. Sorry for not including it earlier. From what I understand, this was Atari's second attempt at an "in house" Monitor, even though it was contracted out. Didn't seem any more successful than the first..
 
Last edited:
That's an amplifone Raster. Firefox, TX-1, and some Crystal Castles machines used these.

My Firefox has one as well, but the Flyback blew, so its running with a K7000 flyback.

That one looks like a different revision than mine, it's missing the PLL PCB. It looks like they integrated that circuit into the right side of the PCB, so this must be a later one. I haven't seen one like that before. Interesting.

View attachment 836027

Here's a shot of my Disco. Sorry for not including it earlier. From what I understand, this was Atari's second attempt at an "in house" Monitor, even though it was contracted out. Didn't seem any more successful than the first..
Those double heat sync and colored knobs look really familiar to me. I will have to see how hard it is to get to the trailer with chassis in it.
 
Back
Top Bottom