Stuff and Things.

[rubber_jonnie]

I stumbled on this whilst perusing eBay the other day:

Screenshot 2025-10-28 at 11.12.02.png

And being a sucker for a lame duck, I bought it for less that £40. It won't be here for a while, another wekk, maybe 10 days as it's coming from Japan, but I shall be doing a write up once it gets here :)

[HigashiJun]

Oooh ! Nice and quite cheap for something coming from Japan.

You should also get the Twin version:

Twin.jpg

;)

[rubber_jonnie]

Oooh ! Nice and quite cheap for something coming from Japan.

You should also get the Twin version:


Twin.jpg


;)

In truth I've tried, but the prices went up a bit too high. Will try again at some point.

[rubber_jonnie]

Also just arrived:

IMG20251121154924.jpg

Non working so needs fixing up :)

[rubber_jonnie]

Last arrival of the day:

IMG20251121210031.jpg

And the box was not crushed this time :)

Very nice new version of Pacman for the 7800 and plus consoles.

[rubber_jonnie]

It's nice to have a choice:

IMG20251122114230.jpg

[rubber_jonnie]

So I pulled the TI-51-III apart today and wow, it's a super minimal design.

Aside from the keyboard, there is just the one IC:

IMG20251122141320.jpg

To which the display is attached to. Date of manufacture is the middle of 1978!!!

The main problem I have is this though:

IMG20251122123111.jpg

It's the internal battery case and completely empty. It's supposed to be a NiCad battery but it's cells have clearly long been removed. There are no markings at all on the battery case or on the calculator and the charger is gone too.

I'm therefore stumped about what voltage to give it. The battery case takes 3 AA batteries so 4.5v seemed a reasonable place to start, but that doesn't work and power is getting to the IC.

The thing is, most calculators from this time period that I encountered were 9v, but I've not yet been able to find a data sheet for the TMC1503NL that runs the show and that make me reluctant to try 9v.

Better get my Google Fu going and try to find that datasheet.

[rubber_jonnie]

Still trying to find out info on the TMC1503NL, but in the meantime I managed to snag some Atari 800 spares for a decent price off eBay:

Screenshot 2025-11-25 at 12.02.07.png

Nice to have spares for these things, they are really quite tough to get hold of and prices are usually silly.

I also may be able to make a working machine since I already have RAM/ROM and a CPU board from when I upgraded both my 400 and 800.

[rubber_jonnie]

I decided after getting Pacman Double Feature (An excellent version of Pacman BTW) that I'd get an early Xmas present of the remaining 3 carts from the Atari Hi-Score collection.

IMG20251127090509.jpg

All games I love and work brilliantly on the 2600+/7800+/7800. I'm loving the fact that real carts that work on original systems are available now, and in some cases enhanced.

The packaging, cart and included manual are all really nostalgic, and for me it makes me wonder how badly Atari handled the 7800 at the time for it to fail so badly, it's a superb console.

Happily the carts were packaged properly, so no crushed boxes this time :)

[rubber_jonnie]

Well the Atari 800 has arrived - at least most of the parts to make one when put together with my stash of CPU, ROM and RAM cards:

IMG20251129161912.jpg

The plan is to get it up and running over time as a standard machine, so not modded like the 800 I already have, so I at least have parts if mine dies. Of course it might be cool to have a naked one running for CL5, so that's a thought...

Custom ICs are still required, however I might be able to borrow them from one of my existing machines for now whilst I source replacements. The CPU on these is a standard 6502, not the custom Sally from the XL series and beyond, and I have spares of those.