Guess what's in the box?

[HigashiJun]

Woo hoo !

New fun expected soon.

[rubber_jonnie]

Woo hoo !

New fun expected soon.

I found a matching PSU, not sure if it was for a 1027 printer or a 1050 drive, or maybe even a 400, but it works great:

IMG20250227222215.jpg (155 KiB) Viewed 421 times

Checked the RAM and it has 16KB and the basic cart works just great:

IMG20250227221150.jpg (112.67 KiB) Viewed 421 times

And some carts to test it:

IMG20250227221252.jpg (113.36 KiB) Viewed 421 times

IMG20250227221327.jpg (163.46 KiB) Viewed 421 times

And last but by no means least, here it is with it's much smaller relative

IMG20250227221856.jpg (225.67 KiB) Viewed 421 times

Once the weather gets better i.e not raining and cold, I'll put the case out in the garden in a nice warm hydrogen peroxide bath, as the brown is just a bit too brown.

Otherwise everything works, so next up I need to find some extra RAM for it. I'm shocked how good the image is over RF, it's rather better than I expected, though my baseline was 600/800XLs, which didn't have great RF.

Aside from a RAM upgrade I think I'll leave it stock. Maybe a video out upgrade perhaps.

The only repair it really needs right now is the metal shield inside the lid which has become detached. Other than that it's a really solid machine.

[HigashiJun]

@rubber_jonnie

Good news !

Glad to know that no much work is needed on this newcomer.

[rubber_jonnie]

@rubber_jonnie

Good news !

Glad to know that no much work is needed on this newcomer.

Indeed

[PhilC]

@rubber_jonnie just so you know, I cleaned all sockets with electrical contact cleaner and reseated the chips and the only other thing it needed was the variable inductor on the modulator adjusting.

It really is a good picture on the RF, better than my 800 but I use comp video lead on that anyway.

[rubber_jonnie]

@rubber_jonnie just so you know, I cleaned all sockets with electrical contact cleaner and reseated the chips and the only other thing it needed was the variable inductor on the modulator adjusting.

It really is a good picture on the RF, better than my 800 but I use comp video lead on that anyway.

Thanks for all the preventative maintenance

Quite impressed TBH, one of the better RF signals for sure.

Was it you and I that were discussing 'Attract mode'? Well the 400 does have it:

Star Raiders II when booted:

IMG20250227221327.jpg (163.46 KiB) Viewed 400 times

And when 'Attract mode' kicks in:

IMG20250228093239.jpg (234.77 KiB) Viewed 400 times

So the 400 definitely has it, and I'd bet the 800 does too as everything else I have (600XL, 2x800XL, 65XE, XEGS) all have it too.

[PhilC]

@rubber_jonnie yes we were. I'll have to dig out the 800 and try it over the weekend.

[rubber_jonnie]

@rubber_jonnie yes we were. I'll have to dig out the 800 and try it over the weekend.

[rubber_jonnie]

OK, so I couldn't help myself and I did what any self respecting retro nut and collector did, and took the 400 apart

IMG20250301123406.jpg (349.54 KiB) Viewed 358 times

I always like to inspect any machine I get and it's interesting seeing the architecture of the 400 when compared to the later machines.

The metal plate is reattached to the cartridge door now too I need to look for a RAM upgrade now.

[rubber_jonnie]

OK, so the memory upgrade is ordered, but I expect it'll be a while as it's coming from the US. I did plump for the 1056K board that gives 48KB of standard RAM plus a 1008KB Axlon upgrade.

A bit over the top but I only want to do this once

Next up I need to look up video output options.