View Full Version : What is this thing?
NES_Rules
09-24-2006, 12:23 PM
At the flea market today, I saw a pong unit for $2 but I didn't buy it because the Video cale was different from anything I've seen before and didn't think it would work with any of my TVs. It was something with "Wizard" in the name, I forget the whole thing. But it had 4 different games, with a switch to select the games. They were tennis, hockey and 2 other things. Anybody kno what it may be? Is it valuable?
Flack
09-24-2006, 12:27 PM
A "Wonder Wizard", perhaps?
http://www.pong-story.com/wwizard.htm
NES_Rules
09-24-2006, 12:33 PM
A "Wonder Wizard", perhaps?
http://www.pong-story.com/wwizard.htm
Yeah, that's it. But this one is all plastic, and is a yellowish color.
Towlie2110
09-24-2006, 12:58 PM
Generally, if theres somthing Ive never seen before for under 2 dollars. Im buying it
NeoSNightmarE
09-24-2006, 03:36 PM
Generally, if theres somthing Ive never seen before for under 2 dollars. Im buying it
All I can say to that, is x2 because like, it's two bucks, and at a flea market, how much could you REALLY lose out of it, and if nothing else, you get to kill some time frustrated with whatever it was that you purchased, good times...good times.
50TBRD
09-24-2006, 05:17 PM
I don't know anything about the Wonder Wizard but I know what he's talking about with the TV hook-up that he's never seen. What he's talking about is UHF. Now a days we only know coaxial/s video/component conection. UHF hasn't been used in years. I honestly don't know if you can still use something that utilizes UHF. I don't know how expensive or difficult it would be to get somthing that changes it over to coaxial like most TVs use or component like some use. Anybody know?
Here's a drawing of what it used to look like though its been a number of years since I've seen a TV with it and I was very young. It went out like Tube TVs.
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j5/50TBRD/UHF.jpg
50TBRD
09-24-2006, 05:19 PM
You put the prongs under the the screws. It was a pain and a lot of times the prongs would come loose.
ganondorf
09-24-2006, 05:38 PM
You put the prongs under the the screws. It was a pain and a lot of times the prongs would come loose.
I have some old crap like that, I hate it.
InsaneDavid
09-24-2006, 05:58 PM
That's why god invented the ohm converter (http://ts.smoothcorp.com/cj/cornerhardware/153535.jpg).
Charlesaway
09-24-2006, 06:34 PM
That's why god invented the ohm converter (http://ts.smoothcorp.com/cj/cornerhardware/153535.jpg).
Just as he says. You can get them here:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062054&cp=&origkw=ohm+converter&kw=ohm+converter&parentPage=search
but to be honest I'd look around a few dollar stores first. I know back in Canada you can find them in the dollar store all the time, usually 2 for a buck.
This kind is also fairly common:
http://www.mpja.com/pictures/4256.jpg
rbudrick
09-24-2006, 08:46 PM
Well you'd need the opposite of that one.
-Rob
NES_Rules
09-24-2006, 09:33 PM
I don't know anything about the Wonder Wizard but I know what he's talking about with the TV hook-up that he's never seen. What he's talking about is UHF. Now a days we only know coaxial/s video/component conection. UHF hasn't been used in years. I honestly don't know if you can still use something that utilizes UHF. I don't know how expensive or difficult it would be to get somthing that changes it over to coaxial like most TVs use or component like some use. Anybody know?
Here's a drawing of what it used to look like though its been a number of years since I've seen a TV with it and I was very young. It went out like Tube TVs.
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j5/50TBRD/UHF.jpg
Now that you mention the UHF, it was that. But the prong part was busted off, which is why I didn't recognize it.
NES_Rules
09-24-2006, 09:34 PM
Generally, if theres somthing Ive never seen before for under 2 dollars. Im buying it
Normaly I would too, but it raind earlier that morning and I could tell the guy just left it in the rain. And it was really dirty.
50TBRD
09-25-2006, 07:22 AM
I have a question. Why would they still sell them and why are they so common in the wild from what everyone tells me? Especially, why would Radio Shack sell them. Am I right in assuming that nothing current is sold with UHF? I can understand certain VG related circles selling them.
Pantechnicon
09-25-2006, 09:15 AM
I have a question. Why would they still sell them and why are they so common in the wild from what everyone tells me? Especially, why would Radio Shack sell them. Am I right in assuming that nothing current is sold with UHF? I can understand certain VG related circles selling them.
I would guess they're common in the wild proportional to the number of old televisions one finds out there. Such adapters are probably dangling off the backs of old sets in droves.
Remember that there are a lot of devices one can hook to a television set including game consoles, VCR/DVD's, camcorders and just plain old-fashioned aerial antennas. Lots of different devices, lots of different types televisions.
It's not that newer televisions are sold without UHF. It's a matter of how these frequencies are accessed. Modern sets all have built-in digital tuners, but by default these still seek the channel freqs between the same established ranges that VHF and UHF always exist on.
Now that I think about it, I do a see a good number of televisions manufactured today that still use mechanical tuners. They're generally the portable ones, such as those cheap black and whites on sees at Walgreens or small color LCD portables. Conceivably someone will want to hook his X-Box up to a 5-inch black and white. I don't think the adapter market is going anywhere soon.
Well you'd need the opposite of that one.
-Rob
They aren't directional. You can cut the terminals off the new one (I would hack an old consoles wiring) and twist them around the original.
You wold then need a short coax jumper to reach the input of the threaded VHF input of a newer TV.
NES_Rules
10-10-2006, 02:44 PM
Well, I went back Sunday and got the Wonder Wizard for $1. But I don't think the connector is a UHF after all. I'm trying to get a picture up.
NES_Rules
10-10-2006, 02:55 PM
Ok, here's a picture of the connector http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/Mike_2_0_0_6/connector.jpg
Phosphor Dot Fossils
10-10-2006, 03:31 PM
Looks like an Odyssey 300. If you have an older model Odyssey2, you can plug it into that switchbox.
rbudrick
10-10-2006, 06:27 PM
Well you'd need the opposite of that one.
-Rob
They aren't directional. You can cut the terminals off the new one (I would hack an old consoles wiring) and twist them around the original.
You wold then need a short coax jumper to reach the input of the threaded VHF input of a newer TV.
I'm not talking about direction. I'm talking male vs. female F type and screws vs. prongs.
-Rob
boatofcar
10-10-2006, 07:23 PM
What you need be one of these:
http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/7145/img00031dw2.jpg
The Shawn
10-11-2006, 08:57 AM
Heh..heh... It's amusing to see some of the younger guys around here talk about UHF/VHF switches like it's some long lost knowledge, (No offence intended). Man I feel old :(
Everything had those slide switches when I was a kid. I think even our first VCR did. Before coaxial was popular.
Anyway's I have a bunch of adapters and and an extra switch you could prob. strip and splice that together to get it working if you want them.
NES_Rules
10-12-2006, 06:40 PM
Well, I got it working. I cut the straight piece of a safety pin and shoved it in the connector and placed the other end in the hole on the coaxial on the TV. And it worked, so I got a coaxial connector and taped it to the original connector so that I could screw it to the TV and amazingly it worked.
Also on a side note, the Wonder Wizard came with an extra AC adapter and at first I thought nothing of it until I realized it output 9VDC, the same as my Atari Video Pinball that came with a broken AC adapter. I haven't tried it out yet but the plugs looked to be the same. But if all else fails I could just splice the old connector to the new AC adpater.