I got my TV Boy III (TVB3) this weekend from Firebox.com. I am also fortunate to own a NTSC TVBoy (TVB) as well to compare. The following is a comparison of the two.

I ordered the TVB3 shortly after news about it appeared on the 2600 Nexus web site - it is now called www.atariage.com I ordered through the Firebox.com website and was emailed a very courteous note from Matt a couple of days later that my order would be a little late as they were lagging behind in their receiving dept. No problem. The price was 29.99 (pounds) and 18 (pounds) for shipping. Of course all this was after I got permission from my understanding spouse, that I must have the latest and greatest Atari technology, no matter how dated it was.

The TVB3 is very cool looking. The artwork on the packaging is identical to the artwork on my TVB package, however, I notice that NICS electronics (the makers of the TVB) is nowhere to be found on the packaging. It is very small package, the size of a PSX controller, and follows the trend of the day to package everything in a clear-translucent case. The unit is very light and contains no RF output. That's right, this baby comes with an A/V cable that has standard RCA jacks and a SCART connector. I was excited about this as I knew I could plug it into my Commodore Amiga Monitor. I was very happy that the auto sync capability worked (the TVB3 is a PAL-SEACAM unit) on my Commodore monitor, however, the picture was black & white. I could do nothing about it. I attempted several adjustments, and came to the conclusion, that it simply will not provide color on an NTSC monitor. I even tried my newly acquired PS One monitor from Interact (it has external A/V inputs) and it gave me the same results, no color, darn... there went my hopes for a totally portable Atari...

The menu system is identical to the NTSC TVB I have. I haven't verified the games yet, but the game list looks the same as well. My TVB has an extra joy port to plug an extra joystick in. This feature is missing on the TVB3. One other thing I noticed is, that the TVB3 takes 3 AA batteries and has a port for a 6 volt DC adapter (which didn't come with it). Strangely, the power switch has settings for both battery and power supply to accommodate power from either source. My TVB has a single power switch, but also requires 4 AA batteries and it came with a 6 Volt adapter.

So is this unit worth it? Well, yes and no. If you are like me and have to own every 2600 accessory ever made on the planet, then this is for you. It is one of the coolest Atari units I have ever seen. Unless you have access to PAL monitors and/or TVs the lack of NTSC compatibility will limit your gameplay to B&W at best. However, if you are planning on making a portable, this is the place to start. Its small packaging and A/V capability is a big head start on making a portable. I would even go so far as to say that if you had some expertise in electronics (which I do not), it probably wouldn't be to hard to modify it to play on NTCS sets. It may be possible (this is a big maybe) to replace the games with NTSC versions or completely different games all together.