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Atari 7800 in 2026: The Complete Buying and Setup Guide
NTSC or PAL, which revision, which controller, RF or HDMI, flash or originals — and what to pay. The complete 2026 guide to buying and setting up an Atari 7800.
Author: Hank Mercer
Hardware desk. If it has a cartridge slot, an FPGA board or a weird controller, Hank has opened it up and put it back together — usually better. Writes the gear reviews and hardware spotlights.
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MARIA vs the PPU: Inside the 7800’s Graphics Chip
Display lists versus tiles, dozens of objects versus eight sprites a line: how GCC’s MARIA chip argued with Nintendo’s PPU — and why her road not taken still matters.
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Atari 5200 in 2026: The Complete Buying and Setup Guide
Four-port or two, switchbox traps, controller solutions, multicarts and what to pay: everything you need to buy and set up a 5200 today.
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Big Box, Bigger Ideas: Inside the 5200’s Hardware
A computer in a wedge: ANTIC, GTIA and POKEY, four ports and two, the Trak-Ball, and the infamous switchbox. Inside the SuperSystem’s hardware.
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Atari 400/800 in 2026: The Complete Buying and Setup Guide
Which model to buy, what to pay, the power supply to replace on day one, and the FujiNet that changes everything: a complete 2026 path into the Atari 8-bit family.
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From 400 to 800XL: The Atari 8-Bit Hardware Family Tree
One architecture, thirteen years, a forest of cases: the 400, 800, XL and XE machines that shared three custom chips and kept every promise Atari made in 1979.
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3DO in 2026: The Complete Buying and Collecting Guide
Which model, which ODE, which pads, what to pay and how regions work: the complete 2026 guide to buying a 3DO and building its library in the right order.
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One Console, Three Badges: The 3DO Hardware Family
Panasonic’s FZ-1 and FZ-10, GoldStar’s challenger and Sanyo’s Japan-only TRY: how one licensed standard became a family of very different machines.
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PlayStation 3 in 2026: The Complete Buying and Setup Guide
Fat, Slim and Super Slim explained — including the backwards-compatible CECHA/CECHB grails — plus storage upgrades, controller traps and the games to buy first.
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Virtual Boy in 2026: The Complete Buying and Collecting Guide
How to buy a Virtual Boy that actually works in 2026: the display fault to check, the stand, the games that matter, flash carts, emulation — and what it should all cost you in patience, if not money.