Arrived Friday 17th November, broken 18th. :(

[JetmanUK]

Amazon delivered my 2600 Plus yesterday, all was well. Wonderful unboxing experience, great nostalgia.

 

I tested around 20 old cartridges (I cleaned them all first) and all but four worked. The four that did not work received some extra cleaning and two worked fine, one is a little temperamental and just one is dead...

 

However, when I played the temperamental one today, Enduro, I found it took more attempts to work. I seemed to have to push and hold the cartridge whilst it was being read. The same thing with Ms Pacman (previously worked fine), it needed a little hold, firmly in place and pushed back towards the top of the console slightly. It worked ok then.

 

I thought, let's play the ten in one cart games I haven't tried yet, well, none of them will load! Black screen or flashing colours,not one loads. I then thought, let's puts a cart in that has worked flawlessly,so I grabbed Combat... I got the same thing, blank or colours. Now in all cases it's saying it's loaded the game but I get nowhere.

 

What's happening here? I assume the connection between the cart and the console is fine as the games as 'loading'. Why has the 10 in 1 gone bad? Have I introduced dirt into the consoles slot? 

 

I've not tried any other games, affraid the console is breaking them, is that possible? Is Combat dead too? So many questions and I am kinda scared to potentially kill any more carts. 

 

Any ideas people? Gutted. 

 

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Could be anything. 

 

It is always a good idea to clean old carts before using them. Maybe you could try to clean the cartridge slot.

[Sean_1970]

Thinking I should get some alcohol myself for this purpose - I assume that’s the stuff to use with a cotton swab? Not sure how to clean the Atari 1st party carts that have the wee plate hiding the contacts though. 
 

I’ve had a few that failed to load initially, but rather than hold them down, which didn’t occur to me, I “rocked” them in from left to right and that seemed to do the trick. I recall doing this on my original 2600 back in the day as well, but so far most of the old carts I picked up on holiday in Chicago work fine.

 

I wonder if it’s the holding down bit might have done something, though given you say it completes loading I’d think it would either work or not work. Could be you’re hitting some kind of bug? I think I’ve seen reports of Enduro not working %100. I have copy of that I’ve not tried myself yet, so I’ll throw the dice and see what happens….

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I will get my 2600+ next week, then I will give it a try myself. It might be that the dumper is buggy, but without hacking the console and trying to extract the dumped ROM, this is hard to verify.

 

Enduro works without problem in Stella, so the bug has to be somewhere else.

[JetmanUK]

32 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Could be anything. 

 

It is always a good idea to clean old carts before using them. Maybe you could try to clean the cartridge slot.

I'd taken a look at the slot and with my phone's camera, zoomed right in. Looks clean in there. I guess my main question right now is could the console break my cartridges? Million dollar question, I'm not willing to put another cartridge in, I've actually started a return with Amazon, replacement arrives tomorrow. 

Edited November 18, 2023 by JetmanUK

[Sean_1970]

I can confirm I’m seeing the same issue after playing Enduro on mine. Checked the connectors with a torch before plugging it in and they looked clean, but took me three tries to get it to load. I played a full game (placed 43rd, as I’m sure you want to know) and then tried Demon Attack and I got it to load initially, but elements were flashing on and off before the screen faded to black. Tried power off/on again and it went to black after an initial flickering. Finally powered off and re-seated the cart and the attract mode is running fine. Maybe the build of Stella they’re running isn’t vanilla?

 

Both carts are NTSC for what that’s worth.

Edited November 18, 2023 by Sean_1970

[+bent_pin]

@Ben from Plaion looks like there's an Enduroance issue.

[Sean_1970]

Right, trying Enduro again after playing Demon Attack and initial load failed, cart re-seat and jumbled video in the top third of the screen with stuttering audio. Flipped power switch and getting the same with different jumbled video elements and different stuttering. Third and fourth reseat of cart gets load failed, sixth one is fine (59th this time). After that I plugged in Defender and it was fine.

 

My takeaway is possibly this machine doesn’t like Enduro that much or maybe my cart is on the way out. I don’t feel like there’s a risk that Enduro will physically break my machine though. I love that game so I’ll keep playing it and just put up with having multiple tries to get it to work I guess?

[Alarm]

24 minutes ago, Sean_1970 said:

Thinking I should get some alcohol myself for this purpose - I assume that’s the stuff to use with a cotton swab? Not sure how to clean the Atari 1st party carts that have the wee plate hiding the contacts though. 

I've been using some isopropyl alcohol (also known as IPA, not the pale ale), 99%.  Use a small flathead screwdriver and push through one of the holes in the panel that covers the contacts, and a finger to push down the other side of the panel.  This should release the mechanism and you can keep it in place with your finger and use the other hand to clean the contacts.

[Sean_1970]

1 minute ago, Alarm said:

I've been using some isopropyl alcohol (also known as IPA, not the pale ale), 99%.  Use a small flathead screwdriver and push through one of the holes in the panel that covers the contacts, and a finger to push down the other side of the panel.  This should release the mechanism and you can keep it in place with your finger and use the other hand to clean the contacts.

Thanks much for that, I figured there was a simple trick 😊

 

I’m sure I can get the right stuff at Boots (chemist) tomorrow.

 

I hope the OP persists though. The glitching I saw cleared up with a power off and a cart re-seat. I can’t imagine this machine could physically hurt a cart unless there was a foreign object in the slot.

[Alarm]

I've been told Boots no longer sell it (as 'rubbing alcohol') because some customers were drinking it.  Worth a try though.  I bought some from Amazon.  I just tried Enduro and had two scrambled pictures then it worked on the third try.  From memory, this is normal behaviour, I'm fairly sure this happened on my VCS with some carts.  

 

What is weird for me is my PAL copy of Demon Attack.  When it does load, around a quarter of the screen is out of view.  I cannot view my ship nor the area that should be underneath it, rending it unplayable.

[Sean_1970]

33 minutes ago, Alarm said:

I've been told Boots no longer sell it (as 'rubbing alcohol') because some customers were drinking it.  Worth a try though.  I bought some from Amazon.  I just tried Enduro and had two scrambled pictures then it worked on the third try.  From memory, this is normal behaviour, I'm fairly sure this happened on my VCS with some carts.  

 

What is weird for me is my PAL copy of Demon Attack.  When it does load, around a quarter of the screen is out of view.  I cannot view my ship nor the area that should be underneath it, rending it unplayable.

Hmm, maybe I’ll have luck at Sainsbury’s? Otherwise Amazon it is!

 

I’ve seen elsewhere in the PAL colour thread some stuff around display issues too, so you might want to report that as people are trying to make the case for a fix.

[+bent_pin]

36 minutes ago, Alarm said:

I've been told Boots no longer sell it (as 'rubbing alcohol') because some customers were drinking it.

That's a great way to get poisoned. 

[Alarm]

I'm making a mental note of things to log: so far Demon Attack cut-off screen (could be PAL only?) and no blending of graphics in Tower Toppler 7800.

[Sean_1970]

1 hour ago, Alarm said:

I'm making a mental note of things to log: so far Demon Attack cut-off screen (could be PAL only?) and no blending of graphics in Tower Toppler 7800.

I have an NTSC Demon Attack and that looked normal, so probably safe to say you’re experiencing a PAL issue.

[+jeremiahjt]

In my experience, Activision can have some of the most finicky carts, even with an original system.  I wonder if that is causing some of the the problems.  In an original system, you get the many various non-working screens, but maybe in the 2600+ you get a bad dump or something.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

4 hours ago, jeremiahjt said:

In my experience, Activision can have some of the most finicky carts, even with an original system.  I wonder if that is causing some of the the problems.  In an original system, you get the many various non-working screens, but maybe in the 2600+ you get a bad dump or something.

Yes, there has been talk about this. IIRC the board is slightly thinner, which could lead to contact problems.

[JetmanUK]

 

 

 

   

9 hours ago, Sean_1970 said:

Thanks much for that, I figured there was a simple trick 😊

 

I’m sure I can get the right stuff at Boots (chemist) tomorrow.

 

I hope the OP persists though. The glitching I saw cleared up with a power off and a cart re-seat. I can’t imagine this machine could physically hurt a cart unless there was a foreign object in the slot.

Sunday update. I tries Enduro, it worked first time. I tried the 10 in 1 cart, not a single game will work, multiple attempts. The cart has somehow gone bad. Tried Combat. Also does not work. Not trying another cart as I do t trust this unit at all. Will try my now perhaps bad combat on the new console when it arrives. I assume it could not damage the new console? 

[CPUWIZ]

The 10 in 1 cart is bad and if Enduro works, Combat won't be damaging the console.  Getting a new unit is probably overkill, but I guess they won't just replace the cart.

[CPUWIZ]

My guess is, Atari went with their own cartridge design, instead of using our proven tested circuit board designs, which have been running on unimaginable amounts of ancient 2600's and above.

 

EDIT: If these boards are failing out of the factory, I hate to think about them being compatible with original units.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

41 minutes ago, CPUWIZ said:

My guess is, Atari went with their own cartridge design, instead of using our proven tested circuit board designs, which have been running on unimaginable amounts of ancient 2600's and above.

I am not 100% convinced the 10 in 1 is bad, because Combat is not working too. I still tend toward a cart slot contact problem. 

 

@Sean_1970 Do you have a chance to try the cart on a real 2600 console?

[JetmanUK]

55 minutes ago, CPUWIZ said:

The 10 in 1 cart is bad and if Enduro works, Combat won't be damaging the console.  Getting a new unit is probably overkill, but I guess they won't just replace the cart.

My thoughts exactly, even if the console was fine the cart was a pack in item so it's all gotta go back. 

[fluxit]

1 hour ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Yes, there has been talk about this. IIRC the board is slightly thinner, which could lead to contact problems.

Having just retensioned the slot contacts on my 'new' Coleco Gemini, I've come to the conclusion that the Activision cart problem is more than just thinner PCBs(though some are definitely thinner than Atari's.)  I believe that Activision carts tend to have inferior contacts on them as well.

[Sean_1970]

2 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

I am not 100% convinced the 10 in 1 is bad, because Combat is not working too. I still tend toward a cart slot contact problem. 

 

@Sean_1970 Do you have a chance to try the cart on a real 2600 console?

I’m afraid not. Until the 2600+ I had no Atari consoles. Only picked up armloads of carts on holiday in October because I was getting this machine. I’m going to try to score some alcohol to clean contacts with today. Lot of my carts were had for bargain prices (I feared a price hike due to the 2600+ release), so I expect some will need some TLC 😊

[Sean_1970]

2 hours ago, JetmanUK said:

My thoughts exactly, even if the console was fine the cart was a pack in item so it's all gotta go back. 

I just realised I’ve been so focused on my used carts I haven’t even tried the ten-in-one yet! Might play some Dodge ‘Em before I head out to dodge real cars on the way to the shops 😉