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Getting a 5200 cart working?


Dauber

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So....as you probably remember, I'm a 5200 noob, just got my first 5200 two weeks ago.

 

Went back to the store and got a few games, including Pengo....and it won't run. :( As soon as I put Pengo in, the console turns itself on to a solid green screen. I cleaned the contacts, still no better. It only does this with Pengo; all my other 5200 games work fine.

 

Anything else I should do besides clean the contacts? (Used alcohol, same way I got a lot of thought-dead 2600 carts back up and running.)

 

Also...I do remember when the dude was scanning the cartridges at the checkout counter he dropped one on the floor, and this might have been it...

 

Or is Pengo one of those games that has the occasional compatibility issue with a 2-port system???

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No Pengo compatibility issues exist (at least, not that I'm aware of!)

 

A solid green screen probably means that there isn't a good connection being made (it's the same thing you'd get with no cart inserted at all.) Try inserting just the bare circuit board in the slot, and see if that works. (To open up a 5200 cart, remove the screw in the back. Expose the connection by pushing up on the cart door and hold the cart door up. Then press hard on the edges of the cart until it pops open.)

 

If it works with just the bare circuit board, you'll need to insert something between the top of the cart and the small plastic tab that holds the circuit board down. With just that tiny bit of additional pressure, the cart should work fine.

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Sorry to hear it! Strangely, I also have a non-working Pengo cart - mine does do the Atari logo screen, with scrambled text, followed by an ugly crash. Bought a 2nd Pengo cart, and it works fine.

 

One other possibility... Could one of the contacts be chipped off? Had this happen to a Missile Command cart... Added a tiny dab of solder to it and it started working again.

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I checked the contacts -- especially because since I got a new soldering iron for Christmas I've been LOOKING for things to solder. :) They all look good and solid on there. I really think it's basically a result of the dude dropping the cart on the (hard) floor as I was making my purchase...

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How does the label look? Sometimes I save dead carts with nice labels and swap the boards in them. Also, I try to keep a dust cart for several of my older systems. It's just a board less cart I can drop into the slot to protect it from dust. Live Nintendo 64 carts work well for this on the 5200, but they just look wrong.

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Arright...just a quick update...

 

Between my wife and me, we have one car. The reason we have one car between us is, well, because partly we have THAT kind of income, and also because we have lots of mass transit....but my wife takes the car to work because there's no decent way to get to where she works via mass transit.

 

So...one day last week because my wife had to go to a workshop that actually was reachable via mass transit, she left the car at home. So I took the car over to Videogames Etc., Sean Kelly's store outside of the city. And there he had a Pengo cart for actually a couple of bucks cheaper than the dead one I got at People Play Games. Cool! So, I bought that during my mini-spree...because I remember that the Pengo cart I bought at PPG was the only one I saw.

 

Later that day I went over to PPG with the dead cart and receipt...and what I didn't know was that they had an extra Pengo in the back that hand't been put in with the regular stock yet, so as per store policy, they swapped out the dead cart with the working one...which means I now have TWO Pengos...heh...and I think next time I'll get to go to Videogames Etc. the return policy will have expired...

 

Ah well...

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Arright...just a quick update...

 

Between my wife and me, we have one car. The reason we have one car between us is, well, because partly we have THAT kind of income, and also because we have lots of mass transit....but my wife takes the car to work because there's no decent way to get to where she works via mass transit.

 

So...one day last week because my wife had to go to a workshop that actually was reachable via mass transit, she left the car at home. So I took the car over to Videogames Etc., Sean Kelly's store outside of the city. And there he had a Pengo cart for actually a couple of bucks cheaper than the dead one I got at People Play Games. Cool! So, I bought that during my mini-spree...because I remember that the Pengo cart I bought at PPG was the only one I saw.

 

Later that day I went over to PPG with the dead cart and receipt...and what I didn't know was that they had an extra Pengo in the back that hand't been put in with the regular stock yet, so as per store policy, they swapped out the dead cart with the working one...which means I now have TWO Pengos...heh...and I think next time I'll get to go to Videogames Etc. the return policy will have expired...

 

Ah well...

 

So do both work??

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Yeah, Pengo is a fun little game. Make sure you read the instructions somewhere - I played the game for the 5200 HSC without knowing that lining up 3 indestructable blocks nets lots of points!

 

Yeah, that's the key to the game! For maximum points, line them up in a way so they aren't all touching a wall.

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