Universal adapter

[blue6demon]

Anyone out there ever tried one of those universal AC adapter ? Looks pretty practical, the only thing i wonder about is the polarity that can be reversed and the 300 mA current. I don't want to blow up my games !!!
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[Rik]

Current is never a problem, the game will pull what it needs. So the worst that would happen is if the game needs 500 mA and your adapter is only 100, it might burn out the adapter. The adapter I use is rated at 1000mA, and I've run almost every game I have on it.

Voltage and polarity are the important ones. Voltage should match the batteries (unless the game specifically says something else).

The main problem is polarity. What I've noticed is that MOST of the time, it's center-pole positive (although I have found that reversed on a few games). Also, in general, once you find the polarity of one game, most of the games from that manufacturer will be the same. You can check the website, sometimes I've put what the polarity is for a game, but not on too many of them (it is something I want to add for every game though, if you have a game, and you know what it is for certain, let me know...). (Also, if I have the manual online, check that, sometimes they will list the voltage requirements of the game there...)

If you have a rare game and don't want to risk damaging it, you can open it up and see what battery terminal connects to the center pole of the adapter plug. The only other thing you can do is guess, hook it up, turn on the game. If you don't get a response from the game INSTANTLY, turn it off as fast as possible. It's risky, but it usually takes a second or two to burn out the transisitor, so you have enough time to turn it off. (Again, I would never do that with a rare/expensive game.)

All that aside, the universal adapters work great. I have one with removable plugs, and also one of the original Coleco ones that I use on almost all of my games when I'm playing around with them...

If it's for a game I have, let me know. If I can get to it (read: if it's not buried in storage), I can figure out what the proper voltage settings should be...

Rik

[blue6demon]

As usual very good info Rik ! I bought a 300 mA one, as for voltage it's pretty easy to figure out, the only ones i see that could be troublesome are the ones taking 2 - 9 volts batteries since the adaptor goes to 12 volts max. They will probably lack power so they wont power up i guess.

Now polarity will be the small challenge and since i don't have very expensive games i'll do some tests and share the results

Thanks again Rik !
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[blue6demon]

Ok i made some tests, the Entex, Mattel, Atari (Touch me),Invicta (Master mind), Parker Brothers games have positive polarity, and the Tomytronics (Tron) and Epoch (Dracula) games that i have tested have negative polarity.

As for Tandy it depends on the games, for example a Zackman has negative polarity and Fire Away 1000 has Positive, depending on the original manufacturer.

All the games that i tested use the added voltage from the batteries, no exception so far !
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[blue6demon]

Tell me Rik, or anyone else, the Mattel World Championship Football has a adapter plug, but in my game it does not work, and the instruction book doesn't even mention it... have you tried yours ?

I wonder if it even can work, those triangle Mattel screws are quite annoying... wish i could find a screwdriver for those !!!
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[Neil UK]

I've just tried out my Championship Football and I'm gald to say that the adapter plug seems to work fine on mine. I set it to 9v and (I think) Positive polarity. You change the polarity on the adapter I used by changing which way around a 2 pin plug is in the adaptors cable. It worked when the pins were set to + next to + and o next to o. I originally tried the game set to +o and +o with no ill effects I'm glad to say.

At the risk of pointing out the obvious, did you move the switch at the bottom of the game? I didn't notice this was there at first

Have you read the section in the FAQ on these screws? It might work for you.

"Ever try to get a Mattel game open? Not easy, eh? Well, try this: Get a 2mm Allen
Wrench, and that should fit just perfectly, allowing you to open most of these games! Also, a
T7 Torx wrench will work as well, but be careful turning, if the screw is tight, it will
probably just strip it. Give it a try and let me know what you find. I've recently discovered
that there are at least two different sizes of these triangle screws. It seems older games had
one about half the size of the ones the 2mm Allen will fit in. Here's the best solution I've
found: get a normal Allen wrench that will just fit over the entire triangle (so you can't see it
at all), then get a Dremel tool (or other grinding tool), and gently grind down every other
edge of the Allen until you have a nice triangle. It should be close, if not perfect for the
Mattel screws (fine tune as necessary). You don't want to be too loose, or it may just strip
the screws, but if you make it just right, it will never damage the screws and you can take
them out as often as you want. I've also found that Popular Mechanics brand sheet metal
screws #SM-35 (available at Wal-Mart) make perfect replacements for these screws if you
want to replace them with normal Phillips head screws."

Neil.

[blue6demon]

Thanks Neil ! I'll try to find an alan key to fit in it, not sure if i have metric keys, worst case worst i'll go buy one... I'll do some more tests with the adapter plug if i don't see any problem inside the game.

And yeah i did try the switch , but the adapter plug i used was not very tight... i have 6 different models and none seems to fit perfectly.
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Keep on playing... no matter what !