Activision Carts

[OscarGungan]

I bought a few old Activision Carts and noticed they don’t fit in the 2600+ as tight as the other cartridges and they take some fiddling to get them to load. Atari, Imagic and M Network fit better and load up right away. Is this a common issue with Activision? I’m wondering if they need some maintenance beyond cleaning.  

[Glorkbot]

I haven't noticed that with the Activision carts I have. It's possible they're not as tight, but I really haven't noticed at all...and they've all loaded easily after cleaning.

[MysticSword]

They can be fussy to get working. If you've not done it yet, I'd suggest giving the contacts a good cleaning as well which might help. Good luck.

[OscarGungan]

I did use alcohol with q tips on them and they work a bit better. I’ve been thinking of buying repro labels for them and using that as excuse once the old label is off to open them up and see if anything is going on inside. 
 

[Sean_1970]

6 hours ago, OscarGungan said:

I bought a few old Activision Carts and noticed they don’t fit in the 2600+ as tight as the other cartridges and they take some fiddling to get them to load. Atari, Imagic and M Network fit better and load up right away. Is this a common issue with Activision? I’m wondering if they need some maintenance beyond cleaning.  

I’ve seen someone say that the Activision PCBs are thinner and can recall sometimes needing re-seating back in the day. The 2600+ cartridge slot may be a wee bit wider as well exacerbating this? For mine they just needed a good clean (sometimes two - you think you got it all, but the swab is still grey a second time), but still need a re-seat sometimes 🤷‍♂️

[OscarGungan]

3 hours ago, Sean_1970 said:

I’ve seen someone say that the Activision PCBs are thinner and can recall sometimes needing re-seating back in the day. The 2600+ cartridge slot may be a wee bit wider as well exacerbating this? For mine they just needed a good clean (sometimes two - you think you got it all, but the swab is still grey a second time), but still need a re-seat sometimes 🤷‍♂️

When you say reseating, do you mean opening the cart up and making sure the board is seated inside properly?

[Spanner]

I noticed some cards(3rd party) are slightly bigger and some are slightly smaller, if a card wiggles in the slot I put a bit of cardboard under it, I used the carboard from a Micro SD card(Kingston) it has the right thickness to stop it wiggling...  and keeps the card at the right angle, you could use carboard from a cereal packet too and double it so the carboard is thinker, it needs to be stiff.

Edited January 6 by Spanner

[Glorkbot]

13 minutes ago, OscarGungan said:

When you say reseating, do you mean opening the cart up and making sure the board is seated inside properly?

I think he means just taking the cart out of the 2600+ and putting it back in. Now that I think of it, I did have to do that with one of my Activision games to get it to load.

 

The board really doesn’t need to be in a cart at all to work. I took apart my copy of Laser Blast as a teenager, to prove to my friends that they are not “tapes”. You can take the caseless board and plug it in and play…but it’s pretty hard to get it lined up properly.
 

So, I guess if the board was really loose inside the case, maybe you’d have trouble lining the pins up when you plugged it in.

[DEANJIMMY]

32 minutes ago, OscarGungan said:

When you say reseating, do you mean opening the cart up and making sure the board is seated inside properly?

Reseating in the slot of the 2600+ 

I insert it slowly with both hands to feel how it slides in and they work most of the time right away.

If loading fails, I usually insert it again (hot swap!) or I just pull it a little bit and it loads. Pushing it left or right is an option too.

 

I never power off the console but do hot swap.

How ever, if I get garbled pokey music on a 7800 game, power off helps.

 

Opening the cart makes no sense with Activision carts. They can be moved inside of the slot in right position.

My Juno First worked only once when tried 50 times.

There it might help to remove the case, so I could move it better in correct position but that is just a guess and I do not want to damage the label.

 

And finally, the 7800 carts sit tight and therefore work 97% on first try, Activision carts after good cleaning max 77%

Edited January 6 by DEANJIMMY

[Sean_1970]

10 minutes ago, DEANJIMMY said:

Reseating in the slot of the 2600+ 

I insert it slowly with both hands to feel how it slides in and they work most of the time right away.

If loading fails, I usually insert it again (hot swap!) or I just pull it a little bit and it loads. Pushing it left or right is an option too.

 

I never power off the console but do hot swap.

How ever, if I get garbled pokey music on a 7800 game, power off helps.

 

Opening the cart makes no sense with Activision carts. They can be moved inside of the slot in right position.

My Juno First worked only once when tried 50 times.

There it might help to remove the case, so I could move it better in correct position but that is just a guess and I do not want to damage the label.

 

And finally, the 7800 carts sit tight and therefore work 97% on first try, Activision carts after good cleaning max 77%

Yeah that’s what I meant. When I had loads of issues (prior to cleaning) I would also try “rocking” the cart into the slot: starting with one edge and pressing it into place. I can also recall slight downward pressure on the cart after inserting whilst turning it on - not like you’re trying to push the cart in more, but like you’re trying to get the contacts to touch the lower part of the slot. Not something I do with this machine and carts that are 40-years-old, mind!

[scifidude79]

This is common with any console that uses cartridges. I remember having to take out and reinsert cartridges from time to time on my old Atari consoles when I had them. I own various NTSC Activision cartridges and I find that they all work after a good cleaning. Sure, sometime I have to re-seat them, but I have to do that with some of the Atari first party cartridges. I also find that sometimes older cartridges need "woken up." If it's something that hasn't been played in a while, it will sometime take a few times of reinserting the cartridge to make it work. It's like the chips on the board need to warm up after being dormant for a long stretch. But, everything I've put into my 2600+ has worked eventually, with liberal amounts of cleaning and a good deal of patience.

[Brad_from_the_80s]

I absolutely would NOT bother opening Activision carts.  About half of mine are temperamental like this in the 2600+, and in the original hardware is what many people tell me.  Other than make sure they are clean, all you can do is try re-inserting/titling/rocking the difficult ones.  ALL of mine actually work, some just need fidgeting with to get them to load.  The only carts I consistently see these issues with are Activision.

[Sean_1970]

4 hours ago, Brad_from_the_80s said:

I absolutely would NOT bother opening Activision carts.  About half of mine are temperamental like this in the 2600+, and in the original hardware is what many people tell me.  Other than make sure they are clean, all you can do is try re-inserting/titling/rocking the difficult ones.  ALL of mine actually work, some just need fidgeting with to get them to load.  The only carts I consistently see these issues with are Activision.

Ironically the best third party games and the worst third party carts 😁

[Alex_813]

6 hours ago, Brad_from_the_80s said:

I absolutely would NOT bother opening Activision carts.  About half of mine are temperamental like this in the 2600+, and in the original hardware is what many people tell me.  Other than make sure they are clean, all you can do is try re-inserting/titling/rocking the difficult ones.  ALL of mine actually work, some just need fidgeting with to get them to load.  The only carts I consistently see these issues with are Activision.

Same here. I've tested over a hundred carts here so far, and Activision carts are a crapshoot. Most other carts are mostly instant boot after a cleaning from sitting in milk crates for the last 25 years. Pitfall was so bad, I almost wrote it off as dead. It wouldn't boot on my original 4 switch either. It eventually did boot on the Plus though, and played fine once it loaded.

[JetmanUK]

1 hour ago, Sean_1970 said:

Ironically the best third party games and the worst third party carts 😁

I was thinking this myself! Best cartridge shell, yep, best use of the machine, yep, terrible skinny circuit boards, seems like it. 🤣

 

I've got a couple that are tricky, Stampede especially, but as everyone is saying, clean clean and clean again, then keep trying. They come to life! I've only had two dead carts in total. One Activision (skiing?), it arrived from eBay rattling and DOA and one was Nexar from my loft. 

Edited January 6 by JetmanUK

[tradyblix]

On 1/5/2024 at 9:02 PM, OscarGungan said:

I bought a few old Activision Carts and noticed they don’t fit in the 2600+ as tight as the other cartridges and they take some fiddling to get them to load. Atari, Imagic and M Network fit better and load up right away. Is this a common issue with Activision? I’m wondering if they need some maintenance beyond cleaning.  

Yes it's a common issue. I freaking detest activision carts now for this reason, even if it's partly the 2600+ issue as well.

 

Nothing worse than futzing around trying to get it to load. 

Edited January 8 by tradyblix

[Jstick]

Relevant thread with a possible fix:

 

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/311158-activision-and-parker-brothers-cartridge-fix/

[JetmanUK]

18 minutes ago, Jstick said:

Relevant thread with a possible fix:

 

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/311158-activision-and-parker-brothers-cartridge-fix/

Thanks for linking this, if I get any really stubborn carts I will attack the cart accordingly.

[Glorkbot]

2 hours ago, Jstick said:

Relevant thread with a possible fix:

 

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/311158-activision-and-parker-brothers-cartridge-fix/

This is really good information, and super interesting. But wouldn’t it be a lot easier to just not fully insert the cart? I guess it would eliminate any frustrating futzing you’d have to do to properly seat the cart when you play…but it’s a lot of work to get there especially if you have a lot of carts. And, like, from a museum or collector’s standpoint…would alterations like this be considered “damage”?

 

I guess one could also alter the 2600+’s cartridge slot so that carts can’t be inserted quite as far, lol.

Edited January 8 by Glorkbot

[DEANJIMMY]

1 hour ago, Glorkbot said:

 But wouldn’t it be a lot easier to just not fully insert the cart?

 

That's what I do and it allways worked for my Activision carts, for my Empire Strikes Back cart (Parker) and for my silver TELEGAMES carts like Space Attack (all PAL).

When I insert them with both hands to not push the cart in too far, it usually works on first try.

 

The 2600 Jr has got a different slot where the carts don't go in so deep and all these carts work there without any issue but sometimes give trouble in my 7800, which has got a similar slot to the 2600+, as it plays both types of games too.

[Glorkbot]

2 minutes ago, DEANJIMMY said:

The 2600 Jr has got a different slot where the carts don't go in so deep and all these carts work there without any issue

Okay, then my idea of altering the 2600+ cartridge slot so carts don't go in as deep isn't such a silly idea after all.  It seems preferable to altering the boards by scraping off their conformal coating.

 

[marmaliser]

13 minutes ago, Glorkbot said:

Okay, then my idea of altering the 2600+ cartridge slot so carts don't go in as deep isn't such a silly idea after all.  It seems preferable to altering the boards by scraping off their conformal coating.

 

Or introduce the foam that some early activision carts used to have.  I had to make one to get an Enduro cart working. Foam inserts

Edited January 8 by marmaliser

[Laladien]

4 hours ago, Jstick said:

Relevant thread with a possible fix:

 

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/311158-activision-and-parker-brothers-cartridge-fix/

This worked on two of the games I’ve got. The rest seem to work well, but a few are just finicky. 

I’ve noticed this one a few Parker Brothers games, we will. If I don’t seat the game just right, it won’t run - and I know it’s not an issue with oxidation issue, as I cleaned them well. LOL

[ChrisKewl]

Wonder if those who don't like taking apart their cartridges if the Lock-On 2600 would work on these carts? @Albert want to test that?

[AtariBrian]

I clean my Activision carts a few times and when I put the cart in, I only go in about half-way or most of the way in. Turn on the system and usually the abrasion of doing that works. I do it a few times and it almost always works. After I get them to work, then putting them in all the way usually works with no problems after that. Make sure that while cleaning the board, clean the board all the way down to the bottom. Very rarely I try and try and finally have to resort to deoxIT and that does the trick also.