It’s not new. It’s not fancy. But it is Clean! The Atari 2600 was a childhood dream for many, initially called the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS). However you remember it, the Atari 2600 was an amazing console, hundreds of games all of which are unique in their own right. Some better than others. One problem with playing retro consoles today is that the video output standards have changed, and so it is very hard to find a TV or monitor that you can play your retro console on. The Atari 2600 is no exception with its RF output that can only be played if you have a VCR, an old TV or a special converter box. Enter the CleanComp from Six. This internal hardware mod allows you to leave your Atari completely stock without the need to remove a single component, keeping your original console... well, original! A few solder pads later, and an off-the-shelf RCA cable soldered to the CleanComp and you have yourself a fully composite and S-Video output Atari 2600. It’s that easy. Bypassing all of the component and RF modulation circuit on the 2600 and instead tapping directly into the TIA chip then recomposing a new, clean composite signal from the luma, sync and chroma outputs, you can be guaranteed the absolute best video signal quality. With adjustable saturation/noise control to fine-tune that composite and S-Video specifically for your TV (as they all had slightly different standards and levels back then), will get you the perfect color and brightness reproduction as you remember it back in the 80's. Supporting both PAL and NTSC consoles, stereo audio, and adjustable saturation the CleanComp is the easiest and cleanest composite mod on the market. We recommend our composite bare wire, S-Video bare wire, or combined lead (Included) . On our S-Video cables the green wire is S-Video Y (Luma), and the blue wire is C (Chroma). Install video found on youtube.com/retrosix Photos in listing are of a photo of a modern TFT playing Pitfall, and then the rest are from a cheap composite capture card to PC to capture images. As you can see even through cheap capture devices the images appear nice and clean. Version 1.0 Release Notes This product is still in continued development and the more feedback we receive the more support and improvements we can add. It is at the stage that is should be cleaner and sharper than any other mod out there already, and below are a list of known improvements we are working on for the next version. 1. LUMA0 is still much more delayed than LUMA1/2. Visually you won't notice much of anything, but it does mean I have had to over-dampen the luma to compensate the mixing of the LUMA pins together. This causes slightly softer edges than could be achieved. Plan to fix with a larger LUMA delay circuit. 2. Using switch mode power supplies (instead of transformer based) will introduce 2MHz visual noise all over the image. Not sure if this is normal with RF and other mods, but plan to find a way to filter the system/CleanComp next version. So use high quality/original transformer based power supplies for now. 3. Chroma merges into SYNC rise, causing a slight sync undershoot. This doesn't seem to visually effect anything but I will remove the sync tip undershoot next version with faster transistors. RetroTink Warning If you are using a RetroTink some are known to add jailbars and checkerboards to composite and S-Video due to their own PCB adding clock noise to the image. Use a real monitor/device that supports S-Video, or a OSSC with the composite add-on for perfect results.
