Epic Battle with a BROKEN Philips G7000 Videopac Computer (Magnavox Odyssey 2)

I struggled!!! This Philips Videopac Magnavox (insert random names to make them sell better in different countries) didn't work, I thought it might be an easy fix as as I was the first one to attempt to repair it...I was wrong. Will My Mate Vince win or will the 1978 Philips G7000 win, let battle commence.
Remember that this is just for entertainment and I am not an expert in these repairs. The processes in the video may not be the best way, the correct way or the safest way to fix these things. I do love fault finding and trying to fix broken things, so I hope that comes across in these videos.
Many thanks, Vince.

[@devttyUSB0]

Ayyyy! There it is!!! The epic MMV "YESSSS!!!! YES! YES! YESSSSS!!!!!!" - i was muttering "it's gonna be one of those ceramic caps shorted to ground", but no! Fantastic fix. So glad it worked out!!

[@techfixuk]

SPOILER

[@cheapasstech]

Tantalum?

[@mopagemo]

As always, love the dedication to figuring out the fault. No one else would go to these lengths.

[@AbdullaSulaimani]

Of course; it's not humanly possible duh!!

[@danielbancroft5624]

Great stuff Vince what a roller coaster 😊

[@stevenfromleicester2529]

Vince you really should give yourself a bit more credit. When you say your not an expert in the repairs your doing yourself a very big disservice. Keep up the great videos and excellent repairs .

[@brutlern]

Movie length video. Noyce.

[@AcornElectron]

You’d better fluffing fix it! If not, send it over here and I’ll fix it. I don’t hold any affiliation with Philips but I’ll be damned if a G7000 goes down. I’ll edit later when I have seen it play out 😂. Don’t even know if you fixed it or not.

[@viniciusfonseca9264]

Vince, ALWAYS install sockets when testing chips on Ataris or Odysseys, you're driving yourself crazy soldering and dessoldering repeatedly! (also risking destroying vias and pads in the process). Good find!

[@roberttco1]

Regarding the 63v caps. Given where they are I suspect they will never see that much voltage. You can measure across them to verify but I’d think they are power smoothing caps placed around the board. When this thing was made there wasn’t the vast selection of components we ave today and they may have just been commodity ones used in all sorts of circuits- basically they were common and inexpensive.

[@KAPTKipper]

You should Never insert or remove ROM cartridges from a console while it is on. The Chip date code seem to be 1983 - 22nd week and earlier. So it was made no earlier than July 1983

[@chrisprobert6]

I don't reckon it's all that bad, to do that. The high volts induced can remove a lot of oxide , and expose many weakness'$.

[@BuyitFixit]

Nice one Vince 👍 Well done on repairing it. Perhaps it might have been quicker looking at the circuit diagram you showed at the start of the video to trace where the cartridge slot pins went? At least you got there in the end. Well done 🙂👍 I think it should be switched off before removing or inserting the cartridges, and that could be the cause of the problem.

[@ernestpenfold4316]

Maybe get some chip sockets so if you need to keep swapping chips you don't run the risk of damaging the tracks on the board with too much soldering/desoldering.

[@Cazon1]

He’s back again! ❤

[@6581punk]

Great industrial design there, putting the enter key next to the reset argh. There's definitely different versions, mine has an external PSU and plugin joysticks.

[@krahwinkel9503]

That was the very first video game console I used to play with. Quite warm memories...

[@mch2007uk]

I was made in 1978 😅😂

[@samuelfielder]

A marathon effort - well done. I don't think you needed to worry about the electrolytic capacitor voltage spec, because you only had 5 volts going into the board and there was no obvious boost converter on the board. I think your scope ought to have a mode in which it automatically chooses the best parameters to show whatever waveform you're looking at.

[@Boogie_the_cat]

I grew up with a Texas Instruments console before my Sega. It had a game called Hunt the Wumpus. Nice retro find, Vince.

[@El-Ritmo]

I saw a feature-length new MMV video, and let out a very Vince-like “YES!”, got a coffee and some snacks and settled down for some guaranteed relaxation and entertainment. Thoroughly enjoyed the video, Vince, thank you - the fault-finding, reasoning by thinking out loud, and then the perseverance make your videos consistently rewarding and interesting.

[@raysmancave1]

We bought one of these from Tandys. The salesman stated that it was way more powerful than the Atari 2500 plus they stated that within the next few months they guarantee more games than the Atari. So he talked us into buying it. Since new it froze, the games wouldn't play smoothly, the graphics were a lot worse than the Atari. Within a month we sold it and bought an Atari 2600 The Atari lasted quite a few years. BTW We had a computer shop not that far from our house where you could hire catridges for £1 per week.

[@hadesmcc]

Nice one! This felt kind of similar to my repair of the childhood ZX Spectrum 2+. It turned out to be some faulty memory chips to get it to work and then I had an issue with colours, turned out to be a solder blob too. I accidentally bridged 2 pins of the ULA. Fortunately, in my case and in yours, that didn't cause further issues.

[@meetoo594]

I got given one of these in the 80s, it was unused in a loft even back then. Mine had removable joysticks and a power switch iirc. There was a great space shooter that used the character blocks in rom to construct tie fighter looking enemies you shot at with a crosshair.

[@Bargeral]

I had one of these, branded as a Magnavox "Odyssey 2" state side. Games were rubbish. I was bedazzled by the "Quest for the Rings" game which had a board game / video game cross over element.

[@DannyAckermans]

At first glance, when you said it freezes up, I immediately thought of a time clock or clock circuit chip. Could've looked into that. Find the clock chip? Haven't seen the whole video while typing this comment.

[@darrenyoung5099]

Hi Vince just a little note check the power supply 5 volt ply or 2.or 3 amp because if not giving a enough power to run the chip, it could not load the game maybe just thought good luck. Hope you get it working.

[@6581punk]

Chips can fail due to oxidisation on the chip die. Gaps where the legs poke through the moulded plastic/resin package can sometimes exist due to poor packaging leading to oxidisation. But also sticking things in the loft is the worst thing you can do for electronics. The heat extremities, heat in the summer and cold of winter. If you'd installed sockets then changing chips would be easier. Always put a socket in place when removing a chip.

[@willproctor7301]

I had the wooden effect 2400? version. Played a game called terra hawx to death it was amazing.

[@andrasszabo7386]

Nice game consoles, Vince :) from now on I am going to look for it on our local flea market. Once I did not buy its predecessor for 5 euros, and I still regret it. By the way, I think you should socket every chip you remove/replace.

[@davesdigitaldomain]

enjoyed the video. instead of using an oscilloscope to check the power supply ripple you can simply put your multimeter into AC mode to check the AC ripple, On a 5 V rail it should be less than 10 to 20 millivolts approximately, switch mode power supply may have more ripple but not much more.

[@jcsalgueiro]

In Brazil they put a on/off switch to the right of the cartridge slot. I still have may Odyssey2 packed away.

[@fatboyGdoubleE]

Vince please could you fix my ps3 please, my nephew switched off the plug and now it’s bricked 😢

[@guilhermephsor]

I think you could use a torch on the other side of the board to help tracing (fiberglass PCBs are kind of transparent, you could se the traces on the other side)

[@FiveStringCommando]

I had a game for one of these units that was hidden in a lot of Atari 2600 games that I bought from eBay. It collected dust on my shelf for a long time, but I eventually gave it to the guy that I always talk to at the local game store for them to stick it on the shelf as a conversation starter. If I had known you were going to come across one of these, I would’ve sent it to you from across the pond. Too late now. Sorry, mate.

[@teknikal6969]

Much more persistence than me, good fix. Reminds me of the first computer I ever used a Sinclair Zx81 same kind of keyboard it was awful.

[@AcornElectron]

Not going to lie Vince, I have a lot of these games and I’ve never taken one apart. Really good video, informative on stuff I should know. Fixed a fair few of these and honestly never had to split a cart.

[@Dariath4K]

Hey, I got in early. Going to watch it now, but love your stuff. And I enjoy how tight the repairs community is.

[@jasonakamrdaddy5433]

Really enjoyed it vince.... Thought it was a gonner....

[@mrjsv4935]

Very cool item and repair. I remember a classmate at school had this console before he got Commodore 64. I don't remember anymore what games he had, but this console looks so unique it's easy to remember, even it's something like 40 years ago. I think my neighbour also had this console briefly, before he got Spectravideo (328 if I recall correctly), and later Commodore 64.

[@carstenjunge1327]

I had one of those: You set the TV, it will say Select Game on the TV. You push the red reset followed by 1 or whatever is stated.

[@gregdowle695]

Nice video got abit bord in the middle but a very successful fix. I jump for joy a little bit at the end just a little.😊

[@colinboneham7387]

Hold ya horses Henry, I ain’t seen one of them in donkeys years, I was 11 wen it was released, only saw them in shop windows (like Dixons etc), never had one myself.

[@TechGorilla1987]

The Odyssey 2 was my very first 'game' console. There was a cartridge that let you do B.A.S.I.C. programming but that keyboard was abysmal! I got it in 79 or 80 (12yo) while living in Hawaii.

[@100tinsoldiers]

Love the longer videos like this with lots of fault finding, superb outcome.

[@terryroxburgh3276]

Wouldn't this item use leaded solder anyway considering the age? I don't know when lead free solder became the norm!

[@gerrymichaud3851]

The memory game reminds me of the American game show Concentration. I used to watch it a lot when I was young.

[@rc6133]

anybody else look to see how much time is left in the video at the "I think I've fixed it" parts?

[@TD75]

Oh wow. This console brings back memories. I played Monkeyshine and UFO every day after school. It was the most exciting time of my life when we got this for Christmas.

[@FelinoAnticomunista]

Cheers from Chile. I enjoy a lot your videos and every day I understand more and more english speech with this

[@robindickinson5376]

Excellent detective work! The 1:38 just flew by - well done!!!

[@rarecraftsman]

And another great video Vince! Somehow you’ve inspired me to include old, unwanted or broken items into my own projects. Absolute legend Thank you!

[@SCOTT-JASONGAMING]

Vince do a profit or loss series with joey does tech and the coder... set a spend limit per item after 10 items see who has the most profit and then each of you donate the profit to the charity of the winners choosing

[@lukedavis436]

I saved one of these from E-waste, unfortunately I couldn't figure it out and gave it to a friend of mine who knows more about this era, I'll stick to my 2000s era stuff.

[@Quicksilveraus]

brah its almost old as me 76 , love ya chan mate , love it when get giddy and go "Result"

[@batwillow]

I was glued to watching this and hoping it would work ! Well done you and I smiled at the end with your result

[@hadesmcc]

Half-way through the video, this feels like it's a memory issue.

[@CasualSpud]

I'll bet the troubleshooting and repair is more fun than the games... not a bad thing

[@jrsc01.]

I love this channel! - didn't even know this existed either, loved seeing new things come to be fixed also, but just love the dedication to fault finding Vince.

[@ericbechler9903]

Have to be not so smart to leave any electronic device plugged in while working on it 😀

[@TD75]

I think I had same inverter chip fail on my NES Advantage

[@timd1833]

Wish you had shown the faulty circuits on the schematic.

[@jonathanmartin3375]

Great work. This one was an odyssey, but you persisted!

[@Stbh0]

I did enjoy that repair all these vintage consoles are getting more and more rare

[@MrMan-f9c]

That takes me back ,the kids were obsessed with the Terrrahawks game on it

[@customcutters]

try not grind metal parts over the top of the board mate x

[@TheScoob71]

What great memories we got one of these for Christmas 🎄 😊

[@svandenhurck]

Everyone needs more Epic Vince in their life.

[@daves_channel1491]

Epic My Mate Vince! Epic - well done excellent.

[@chrismifsud7154]

I'm at 15 minutes...... I'm going to take a wild guess here (without having gone past 15 minutes) that unplugging the keyboard and powering on the console it won't be frozen.

[@chrismifsud7154]

Guess I was wrong. It was a FANTASTIC video and an AMAZING fix. I really enjoyed it.

[@carllockpick6179]

Hi mate, where did you get your work mat from ?

[@Project0-944]

Looking forward to this one :)

[@Rony_Hassan]

Thank you for uploading ❤❤❤

[@mrsketch3715]

They don't make them like they used to

[@Tim_3100]

Ooh cool vince going old skool again love it!

[@mancavehobbies6213]

Awesome i have one of these and love it.

[@Cha-chingWV]

My Mate Vince The Movie

[@tall-jv4wo]

Nice one that was...

[@lenniegodber7805]

Same age as me Old device

[@danpedersen55]

What a great battle 🙂👍

[@thedude8046]

Cool, i had that one.

[@RBRetroBunker]

Nice one had one as a child

[@mbob4337]

"The next da-day"

[@jasonisringhouse3486]

Bravo Lord Vince

[@2009numan]

the intel 8048 is the actual cpu Vince

[@309electronics5]

If you watch further, he litteraly has it on paper

[@andymouse]

Awesome !

[@astorMorisson]

Please always discharge the power supply caps first everytime you unplug the device. Those can give you a nasty sting.

[@user-GayAlienStar]

Good vid My brother and me had a Philips G7000 Videopac .