Atari 2600 question (Need help)

[dougal]

Ok, first up i have 2 Atari 2600's. One of them is the old wood version (4 switches) and the other is the newer 2600 Jr model.

The problem: Whilst the 2600 Jr gives me a perfect display on my modern Plasma TV the older wood 2600 gives a horrible display which seems to improve (but still nowhere near as nice as the Jr) after it has been on for a few minutes, or sometimes by moving the wires of fiddling with the power cable or the switches.

I am using the same power supply for both machines, so it can't be a faulty power supply.

Any ideas? Maybe its just too old for the TV?

Loose connection?

Faulty capacitor or resistor? (hence it needing to be switched on for a few minutes)

Any ideas?

[dougal]

It's sort of temperamental.  It's been on now for about 20 minutes and the display is near perfect.

[dougal]

I think for now ill leave it as it is. After about 15 minutes the picture / sound is pretty decent.

Maybe one day ill take a look at replacing some caps. Will take a look at some Atari forums for info.

[dougal]

How does your 2600 handle regular TVs?  Have you thought about a 7800?  I keep my 2600's around (a reall 2600 and a Sears Tele-Games) for neat-sake.  I picked up a 7800 inexpensively several years back and did my own S-Video hack on it.  Same with my 5200.  The 7800 will play 2600 games just fine, and the games made specifically for it are really nice.

Thing is i would want it PAL which i dont think was ever released. Only NTSC. Ok my Plasma works with PAL and also NTSC, but i have an old late 70s early 80s TV which only supports PAL.