Chaotic Grill not working properly on Harmony Encore, other issues

[BIGHMW]

You know, Chaotic Grill for the 2600 has been one of my favorite 2600 titles for quite a long time, but, ever since I got my new Insignia composite-to-HDMI converter, she no longer plays properly on my Harmony Encore, in which I just had replaced just a month or two ago. First, after hooking up my new converter, the music soundtrack, went out on it, the program was fine before that, worked on my old Flashback 9, worked on RF, worked on composite hooked directly to my TV, worked on my RetroTink 2x Mini, but not my Insignia for some reason.

 

So, I tried her back on my RetroTink, and same thing, no soundtrack music, all the other sound effects but no music, but then, the music started kicking in again during a death sequence. thinking it may be some contact issues with my cart, I blew on them, and that did the trick. Switched back in the Insignia, and it worked fine with it.

 

Now, I got home from work, plugged in my Harmony to my 2600 Jr., dialed in Chaotic Grill, back to the no soundtrack music, then tried to reload the game on the SD card, and now, no in-game audio, and now, the burger pieces do not even recognize that Peter Pepper walked over them. Also, another issue, Pac-Man Arcade plays too fast (the program worked before) and also, the menu now has a color shifting routine I have never seen before on any Harmony cart I have owned and before today it was always static. Is there a makfunction going on with my cart, as I am not very happy right about now and with no car for me to go anywhere now I am shot to shit with nothing right now as my 7800 in which I just got repaired has a bad OEM power supply and I'm still waiting on my AtariGuide adapter to come in on eBay probably tomorrow or Saturday, so is it anything with my cart or does it need a re-flashing with new firmware??? And if so how do I do that, I am mostly computer illiterate when it comes to that part.

[BIGHMW]

Tried reloading Chaotic Grill from another folder into my 2600 base camp folder I use for my Harmony, same issues on that game, also, same issues with the scrolling color shifting on my Insignia converter, so, I decided to retry my RetroTink, same issues there too, same scrolling color shifting on the menu, also no in-game audio on Chaotic Grill, and no detection whenever Peter Pepper steps over a burger piece, possibly a malfunctioning Harmony Encore cart, I DO NOT WANT TO GO BACK TO MY FLASHBACK 9!!!

[BIGHMW]

Problem solved!!!

 

I tested my Harmony Encore cart on my 2600 adapter on my 5200, all games worked fine, including Chaotic Grill!!!

 

Then I thought, maybe it's one of my RCA-to-HDMI converters, and so I decided to finally test my AV-modded 2600 Jr. with the av cord directly hooked up to the composite jacks of my Insignia TV....

 

FINAL DIAGNOSIS:

 

Issues involving my circuitry of my AV-modded 2600 Jr., it's a good thing I saved the RF circuit that originally came in my Short Rainbow 2600 Jr and so I will swap it back in there tonight and have someone look into what is wrong with my TRRS-modded circuit board to see what has been causing all of this mess because we have now gone through all of this trouble but yes I am proud to say that it is only an issue with the AV-modded board and not the cart nor the program!!!

[BIGHMW]

Looked further after swapping out the AV circuit with the original RF circuit, same result, same BS on Chaotic Grill, tried another RF board, same shit, scrolling color shift on menu, same issues on Chaotic Grill on ALL THREE circuit boards on my 2600 Jrs, but yet my VCS adapter on my 5200 has no issues, I even went out of my way to make sure the ribbon on all three lids that attaches to the reset and select buttons was firmly attached to each of the circuit boards of my Jrs and tried all three lids and yes they were, same shit.

 

Somehow my Harmony Encore is having issues with all three of my 2600 Jrs including both RF boards and my AV-modded board but yet works on my VCS adapter on my 5200. I don't know who to have look into it but there's something suspicious about my 2600 Jrs as everything's fine on my 2600 adapter on my 5200.

[BIGHMW]

FINALLY SOLVED THE PROBLEM!!!

 

I tired a different version of Chaotic Grill and got the same result, I had the lid on my AV-modded unit but noticed on the internals that the TV mode was switched to B/W, and so I switched it to COLOR and rebooted the 2600 Jr. with the Harmony Encore hooked up and..... VOILA!!!

 

Color-shifting in menu mode..... GONE!!!

 

Chaotic Grill, both the 11/28/2022 and 11/19/2022 versions...... worked PERFECT!!! HAPPY CAMPER NOW!!! HAPPY GAMING EVERYBODY!!!

 

Now I know why she did work on my VCS adapter on my 5200 and not on my Jr., the TV switch on my Jr. was in B&W rather than in color, the 5200 does not have such an animal (no color/B&W switch).

 

Put back in the screws and now I'm off to get her a mono (TS) 3.5 mm extension cord for the new slim-fit AC adapter I got for her last Saturday and a PVC-enclosed TRRS 3.5 mm extension cord for the TRRS AV cord on her (both 10 feet long to go with their native 3-foot length).