River Raid Cart Issue

[acidbottle]

Hope someone out there can help with this issue, cant be the only one!

 

I have recently snagged this ver of River Raid Atari 2600 VCS River Raid : scans, dump, download, screenshots, ads, videos, catalog, instructions, roms (atarimania.com)

 

It's a re-release budget variant I'm led to believe but no matter. 

 

The issue is the cart does not fit into the 2600+ cart slot! With some unnatural force it kind of went in, then quickly realised it had pushed the pcb out of shape, had to pull it straight again. No other cart I have does this, for the records it has kind of rubber prongs either side of the pins, but i must say that the pcb itself does not look centred, like its a bit lower down the cart slot. The cart itself is immaculate, looks barely used!

Edited August 13 by acidbottle

[DEANJIMMY]

I have a few of these carts, most are fine but Tomcat and River Raid II are a bit tricky.

Same apllies to my Commando 7800 PAL and Pitfall2 NTSC and a few Taiwan/Quelle carts.

Manufacturing tolerance...

 

If I put one hand on the top of the cart and push, I feel pushing the socket away and sometimes the carts don't load.

 

I use two hands and hold the cart very low and close the connector and insert them very gently with some left and right wiggle.

Then it works fine.

 

@Ben from Plaion This applies to the prototype too but only to very few carts and most of them having similar mechanical issues in my real 7800!

Not sure how to have more than the two screws which hold the board and when I pulled out my non loading cart, everything jumped back in place.

Edited August 13 by DEANJIMMY

[acidbottle]

Ah okay, cheers DEANJIMMY, at least am not going insane which is of some reassurance!

 

Will try and gently maneuver the cart in place, it certainly feels a bit oversized, almost not for atari 2600 at all lol 

[DEANJIMMY]

15 minutes ago, acidbottle said:

Ah okay, cheers DEANJIMMY, at least am not going insane which is of some reassurance!

 

Will try and gently maneuver the cart in place, it certainly feels a bit oversized, almost not for atari 2600 at all lol 

Yep, look a my Quelle cart... it was too big for my original Scart 7800 console slot and I was much younger and not full of wisedom, so I had to tape it afterwards😅

So, it is not specific to the 2600+ but still not nice...

[+Fred_M]

2 hours ago, acidbottle said:

Hope someone out there can help with this issue, cant be the only one!

 

I have recently snagged this ver of River Raid Atari 2600 VCS River Raid : scans, dump, download, screenshots, ads, videos, catalog, instructions, roms (atarimania.com)

 

It's a re-release budget variant I'm led to believe but no matter. 

 

The issue is the cart does not fit into the 2600+ cart slot! With some unnatural force it kind of went in, then quickly realised it had pushed the pcb out of shape, had to pull it straight again. No other cart I have does this, for the records it has kind of rubber prongs either side of the pins, but i must say that the pcb itself does not look centred, like its a bit lower down the cart slot. The cart itself is immaculate, looks barely used!

The rerelease shell of the activision cartridges is not too big, but is too thin and cheap. The PCB inside is held in place by some flimsy plastic tabs inside and gets loose very easily. For me it helps a lot when I "squeeze" the cartridge a bit when I push it in the 2600+. Thumb in the center of the label and index finger in the center of the backside. Put some pressure on the shell while putting it in the cartridge slot.

[JetmanUK]

Those horrible almost-rubbery-they-are-that-soft plastic shells used on the later Activision games are awful. I find that the issue is often the bendy prongs may be slightly out of alignment. Just horrible shells, how much did Acti save using these? Was it really worth it? I guess it was to them at the time, but yeah, they are crap.

Edited August 13 by JetmanUK

[Ben from Plaion]

19 minutes ago, JetmanUK said:

Those horrible almost-rubbery-they-are-that-soft plastic shells used on the later Activision games are awful. I find that the issue is often the bendy prongs may be slightly out of alignment. Just horrible shells, how much did Acti save using these? Was it really worth it? I guess it was to them at the time, but yeah, they are crap.

Quite unbelievable those one piece soft plastic Activision shells.

 

Same with some of the PCBs and of course the criminal act of printing one colour labels.

 

Who knows though if the ROI was worth it.

[tradyblix]

There was a guy on here that was selling, and could make more, of his "Lock-on" style 2600 adapter. Look for Lock on or something in the forums. I think he called it that. 

 

I don't have this issue on any of my games. But I thought about getting it because also, it reduces wear on the 2600 cart port. 

[Brad_from_the_80s]

I have a blue label copy.  Fits fine without issue, but the cart is exactly like any other old Activision cart.

[acidbottle]

On 8/13/2024 at 11:43 AM, Fred_M said:

The rerelease shell of the activision cartridges is not too big, but is too thin and cheap. The PCB inside is held in place by some flimsy plastic tabs inside and gets loose very easily. For me it helps a lot when I "squeeze" the cartridge a bit when I push it in the 2600+. Thumb in the center of the label and index finger in the center of the backside. Put some pressure on the shell while putting it in the cartridge slot.

Forgot to mention, this actually did the trick, so appreciate the tip!

 

[+Fred_M]

1 hour ago, acidbottle said:

Forgot to mention, this actually did the trick, so appreciate the tip!

 

Great to hear it works for you too 👍