How often are games failing to load?

[Pac-Man Senior]

I'm still lucky with my 41 yo Atari 2600, despite still using rf output. I have an eye on the 2600+ maybe for a later purchase but I don't understand why modern hardware can be so volatile or moody (sorry if the wording is not correct, I'm from Germany). I haven't cleaned my cartridges for over 40 years and there is no problem with the 41 yo cartridge slot. Whenever I start one of my games the game is there. This failing issue sounds not very nice in my ears. I'm very thankful for reports like this and hope that Atari can do something about it in the coming upgrades. 

[Gamma Ray]

I gave my carts a cleaning a couple months ago. I used Deoxit D5 and a toothbrush. Carts usually start fine on the 2600+. I only saw loading failed one time. There have been two or three times when there was no loading failed message, but I got a black screen after the Atari logo went away. It was nothing turning the console off, pulling the cart out, putting it back in, and trying again couldn't fix.

[tradyblix]

2 hours ago, Pac-Man Senior said:

I'm still lucky with my 41 yo Atari 2600, despite still using rf output. I have an eye on the 2600+ maybe for a later purchase but I don't understand why modern hardware can be so volatile or moody (sorry if the wording is not correct, I'm from Germany). I haven't cleaned my cartridges for over 40 years and there is no problem with the 41 yo cartridge slot. Whenever I start one of my games the game is there. This failing issue sounds not very nice in my ears. I'm very thankful for reports like this and hope that Atari can do something about it in the coming upgrades. 

They changed the cart slot to be wider because some games on 2600 had issues. 

 

Not sure if that's the root cause, or a combo of that and dumper code, or even just dumper code alone, but it's not the same process or the same slot. 

Edited December 18, 2023 by tradyblix

[MittyOz]

I've bought a few old carts recently and many of them didn't load on first try, but this was due to the contacts needing cleaning.  Once I did that, everything is fine.  Strangely 40 year old carts aren't always in the best condition.  And yes I had the same issue on the 2600+ and an original console.  Every cart I have now works.

[tradyblix]

On 12/18/2023 at 9:59 PM, MittyOz said:

I've bought a few old carts recently and many of them didn't load on first try, but this was due to the contacts needing cleaning.  Once I did that, everything is fine.  Strangely 40 year old carts aren't always in the best condition.  And yes I had the same issue on the 2600+ and an original console.  Every cart I have now works.

It's definitely more than the cards being dirty but I kind of have had the same experience where they have less problems after you've inserted them a few times and or cleaned them.

I got one of those cool cart cleaning cards that somebody else mentioned in here a few weeks ago and it's pretty good in terms of cleaning stuff up

[JetmanUK]

I've found the Activision games to be more temperamental, as other have said too. A few carts arrived from eBay yesterday and all three that were Activision were real pains to get working. 

 

Whenever I buy old carts the first thing I always do is clean them. Last night all the other carts worked fine, the Acti ones, well, dead. A second clean, dead, a third clean, two worked, a fourth clean... Finally all working!

 

From my experience they can appear very clean and still not work, further scrubbing on them and they eventually come round and work first time.  The only exception I have to that is that troublesome Acti cart, Fishing Derby, it does work, but seems to need a little wiggle, I've heard this is due to a thinner circuit board, perhaps my Fishing Derby is worn too. I'll give it another clean to give it it's best chance. 

 

EDIT - The troublesome carts didn't work ok my Woody at first either.

Edited December 20, 2023 by JetmanUK
Woody

[MysticSword]

I'm finding the Activision and Coleco game cartridges for the 2600+ the most fussy to try and load and work. A couple (Such as Sea Quest, Carnival and Smurf Rescue) I'm still not able to get working yet; either it fails to load, or sometimes it goes to a screen of random colors bars and a sound tone, or sometimes just goes to a black screen. I'll see about soon trying to clean them, yet again, in hopes I can get them to work.