How do you play carts that won't open the 2600's dust cover?

[Hannacek]

I have a bunch of games that won't open the dust cover on the 2600 because the tabs have broken off, or the tabs won't open it for some other reason.

 

 

All of the early 2600 games have a proper dust cover mechanism that mates very well to the 2600 to open the dust cover on the system and the cartridge. However, later cartridge releases from the 80's don't have a dust cover (they wanted to save money) but they still have the plastic rods to open the dust cover on the console. But many of my games have the tabs broken off.

 

 

Does anyone have a good solution to this problem?

 

[+save2600]

Open up your 2600, dismantle the cartridge port assembly and remove the black plastic piece that covers (covers partially is more like it) the slot.

[Keatah]

Have you done that without desoldering the connector? If so, how?

[roadrunner]

Take the game apart and take out the dust cover.

[Nukey Shay]

^ The system itself has it's own cover. As mentioned, many carts do not have dust covers...but still have posts to trigger the system's cover. Either remove the system cover or switch cart shells. Jamming something into the tabs would be a problem when using carts that have existing posts or covers.

[+thegoldenband]

I think I've used a Q-Tip -- or maybe half a Q-Tip, i.e. the plastic part -- to fix this situation on at least 1-2 occasions.

[zylon]

If the cart port is clean, you can just lean the system back and it will slide open. Sometimes a little tap on the back helps.

[+SpiceWare]

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/159879-difficult-carts-on-your-sixer-this-might-help

[Hannacek]

It's not worth the risk to desolder the cart slot if that is the only way to remove the dust cover. Even though I know how to solder quite well, I always avoid desoldering old pcbs unless absolutely necessary, because it is so easy to lift the pads, ruin traces, or otherwise damage old boards.

I only have a few carts that don't have the tabs and won't play, so It's not a big deal.

While tipping the console will solve the problem, its too much trouble when I can just use my Harmony cart. It looks like they used a Combat or Pacman cart to make my Harmony, so I have no problems with it.

Edited April 2, 2016 by Hannacek

[Schizophretard]

I have a bunch of games that won't open the dust cover on the 2600 because the tabs have broken off, or the tabs won't open it for some other reason.

 

 

All of the early 2600 games have a proper dust cover mechanism that mates very well to the 2600 to open the dust cover on the system and the cartridge. However, later cartridge releases from the 80's don't have a dust cover (they wanted to save money) but they still have the plastic rods to open the dust cover on the console. But many of my games have the tabs broken off.

 

 

Does anyone have a good solution to this problem?

 

 

Do you have at least two of them with only one tab? If so then break them off and insert them into the cartridge port for which ever sides a cart is lacking them.