Encryptor Board...

From: Sam Ismail <dastar_at_crl.com>
Date: Sun Jun 29 18:14:24 1997

On Sun, 29 Jun 1997, Larry Anderson & Diane Hare wrote:

> > Also have these:
> >
> > the Encryptor, Jones Futura Corporation, Model ENC 100-1
> >
> > California Computer Systems, Model 2832 [has this big, black 3"x3" square
> > and 3/8" thick block of resin on it, have no idea what it's hiding]
>
> I was reading in the Atari Game Systems FAQ that the 7800 carts are
> encrypted with a special encryption and only those encrypted games get
> access to the 7800's advanced video resources (otherwise it just gets
> 2600 resources)... This was a measure by Atari to make sure to get a
> share of the profits from 3rd party game developers. There could be a
> slight possibility this is an encryption unit for the 7800 game
> system...

Also, I would think Atari would make their own encryption hardware rather
than using a (somewhat) commonly available encryption board. Who knows,
I guess I'll just have to crack this interesting mystery.

BTW I uncovered another Trace Memory Interface Card hiding underneath some
front covers in another box, so that makes two of those. This card has
the two 6402 chips on it. I looked closer and it also has baud rate DIP
switches for setting the baud rate up to 38,400bps for each serial port.
Looks like this thing dumped debug information, probably about the 6502
Processor card, onto a terminal.

Sam
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Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
Received on Sun Jun 29 1997 - 18:14:24 BST