Replacement cartridge PCB?

[CommodoreDecker]

Hi! I recently won an A7800 with a bunch of games. Most games work, especially after card edge cleaning, but I noticed one game (RealSports Baseball) had its corner prongs broken off. I've not yet tested the game but with those 8 pins missing I doubt it's going to work.  Peeping through the opening, I see two chips soldered on - those are easily de-soldered and removed. Are there replacement PCBs available or should I just buy a different cart?

 

Thanks!

[+save2600]

Sounds really weird. I'd just buy another RS Baseball cart (they're cheap enough) or better yet, skip it altogether.

[carlsson]

Yeah, with a sales value of $1-5 on eBay I would not bother desoldering anything even if I had a spare PCB.

[CommodoreDecker]

RS Baseball not being entirely fun, then? LOL.  I've not ever played it but might get it for a complete working collection.

 

All the other carts that came with it just needed cleaning - they must have been storied in a dusty garage; they all had varying amounts of gray matter on the contacts and they either loaded and worked off the bat, didn't load at all (screen distortion), or loaded then froze after the ATARI logo went away (or after a few seconds into gameplay, making me think the 7800 itself is probably just fine - or if anything could benefit from some cleaning of its cartridge socket.  Pole Position II was running flawlessly for several minutes without any issues, unlike the other carts I had tested - unless that one is less hardware intensive than, say, Galaga or Joust. If it is a 7800 motherboard issue, just resocketing the chips will probably be sufficient and I'll double check the power brick for voltage issues too.

 

I still can't believe the 7800's chips are for the most part soldered and not socketed (I'll be adding a composite mod soon and noticed, RF is uuuuugly though in 1990 I thought everything was sharp, ha!), or that the thing did so much with only 4KB of RAM (or the 2600 with it's 1/8KB for that matter)

[+Mitch]

From your description it sounds like the 2600 version of RS Baseball.

 

Mitch

[CommodoreDecker]

That is possible. I noticed the label had a poke where the screw is.  I've yet to open it to confirm if it is the 2600 version or if it was the 7800 version with ends torn off. The PCB does look angled at each side as expected of a 2600 cart but the edges look very rough, making me believe they got removed.

 

It's the only cartridge that hadn't responded to cleaning, but to be honest I'd laugh with appreciation if it were the 2600 edition stuck in there as opposed to damage.

 

I'll keep the cart either way; there's a story to it somewhere, somehow, that not even Leonard Nimoy could find if he were in search of it...

[+save2600]

Post some pics. Bet one of us can solve the mystery but quick!

[Jinks]

If 2600 rs basball. Just throw it out if not working. You tube it and your will know why.