Got that 32in1 with other stuff (and boy, if it sucks!)

[highinfidelity]

I'm one of those who had the good'ol Combat cart with his VCS back in the days. So, no nostalgic effect here: I got the famous 32 in 1 cart together with other stuff lately, and decided to give it a try in my thirties.

 

I've heard it came together with the Jrs in Europe, but how is that possible? I mean: I can't believe how crappy it is. Was the cart made under Atari control at all? It's the worst piece of junk ever. Look at those awful clones: there are basically two "Freeway"s and two "fishing derby"s there... Yes, nice to have two times the same game And look at that! It's so blatant that those fishing Ds are an NTSC ripoff that it's almost an offense to sell that in Europe. And they're by Activision: couldn't they just grab the PAL version? And what a smart idea to pack up Baseball and Football and send'em to UK

 

WTF? Did the guys in Sunnyvale know what was going on at all?

[Thomas Jentzsch]

WTF? Did the guys in Sunnyvale know what was going on at all?

I don't thinks so. Most games in the cart are definitely based on NTSC versions (see CloneSpy) and not on the official PAL releases. So IMO someone hacked (sometimes: tried to hack) NTSC games into PAL and put them on a multicart. IIRC those carts where coming from Australia.

[Pixellated Ghost]

On the other hand I have a 128 in 1 that is a mixture of PAL and NTSC. No Combat on it though. It has some surprisingly rare stuff on it as well. Not that some of the rare stuff on it is good, though I did find a few gems. It was complete with the box and the (badly translated) game list.

[highinfidelity]

On the other hand I have a 128 in 1 that is a mixture of PAL and NTSC.

Anther well-done work, then!

 

Talking of that: do you remember some titles of the PAL rare games that you've find entertaining as well? That's interesting, because many of the rare games went rare just because they were awful...

[Pixellated Ghost]

The only one that comes to mind is one of my favorites, which is also on this thing... Ski Hunt.

[Saikyo]

So there were NTSC games placed in the 32 in 1?

 

Now I know why Boxing kept turning black and white! I thought my cart was faulty!

[Whisper]

Fishing Derby won't run right on my TV either. Very strange, it keeps flickering between color and b/w.

[highinfidelity]

That may be a benefit, though. If you could only see that purple sea, you'd hope you never got cash to switch to color TV.

[BigFairy321]

fishing derby works fine on my pal atari and 32in 1 cart..........

 

[Pac-Man Senior]

20 years later I want to come back to this crazy cartridge. Despite it's bad reputation I was curious how it works on my original Atari 2600 and on the 2600+. Recently I bought this pal cartridge on a retro flea market. After testing most of the games I've mixed feelings about it. The grab bag like mechanism of the game selection is interesting. In Germany we call it "Wundertüte". You never now which of the 32 games you'll get next. I was prepared for that kind of experience. All of the games seem to be pal region concerning frequency. The 2600+ with the experemental firmware detects all 32 games as 50hz. But the colors!?! Wow, what the hell were the creators of this cart doing? I'm speaking about the color experience on original pal hardware and on the 2600+. Some really funny examples: The trees in Skiing are blue. The face of the man in Bowling is green. Math is in black & white. The court in Tennis is more US Open than Wimbledon. And so on. They included this cartridge with the Atari 2600 Jr. in Europe? Wow. Not the best marketing in my opinion. I have no idea how you can copy games in the 80ies and take one half from ntsc (colors) and the other half (frequency) from pal. But there is one point that irritates me more than the color topic: Whenever I put this cart in my original Atari the RF quality is very poor - in all games. If I switch back to one of my normal 4K carts everything is fine concerning image / RF quality. I don't know the reason but I even noticed this phenomenon on original hardware a bit with these dip switch cartridges Atari is selling today with the 2600+ and the new paddles.

 

But finally let me say something positive: There are some games in this cart that have original colors as far as I remember these games for region pal / Europe. For example Othello. And all games are perfectly playable on the new 2600+. Ultimately, I don't regret having bought this interesting old cart.

[+x=usr(1536)]

2 hours ago, Pac-Man Senior said:

You never now which of the 32 games you'll get next.

Interesting - on the one that I had (which was bundled with the PAL 2600 I owned before moving to the US), the games would cycle through in a set order; this sequence may even have been mentioned in the manual.  My memory's a bit hazy on this one, though.

2 hours ago, Pac-Man Senior said:

But the colors!?! Wow, what the hell were the creators of this cart doing?

Everything looked fine on my machine, as far as I can remember.

2 hours ago, Pac-Man Senior said:

Whenever I put this cart in my original Atari the RF quality is very poor - in all games.

Perhaps you have a cartridge that isn't 100% functional, the power supply or voltage regulator has an issue, or there's something else going on with the system that causes it to not like it.  Can't recall ever having had problems like that with mine.

[Pac-Man Senior]

@x=usr(1536) That's interesting to hear. The cartridge might be a bit broken. The system cannot be the problem because I have two old Ataris (4 switch and Jr.) and two different power bricks. The RF and color phenomenon is noticable on both. Concerning the game rotation: I will check it again with all games. Before writing this I started my 2600+ and the first game was Freeway (not the clone with the rabbit). I powered on and off and saw Tennis. I'm sure that one day I saw Miniature Golf first and Othello second. My system was off power for more than a day. So I don't think the cart was able to remember the rotation progress. I bought the original "manual" (a 40x40cm peace of paper) too but it doesn't provide any information about the game selection or rotation. What I can say is that Freeway and Tennis don't stand side by side in this manual. The order of game titles and descriptions in this manual is very wild, not alphabetical. BTW: The cartridge is made in China and the manual printed in Taiwan. This cartridge is really mysterious and interesting. 

Edited March 9 by Pac-Man Senior
Golf instead of Gold

[Pitfall Harry]

I think it's important to judge the 32 in 1 Game cartridge, as you should ALL Atari 2600 games (and that goes for books, songs, movies, and many other forms of art too),  with an understanding of the time in which it was released.  In 1988, putting 32 games on a single cartridge, with no ugly switches on it piercing through the label, was a pretty neat trick. Many of the chosen games are quite good, and it's quite convenient to have immediate access to them without the need to dig for individual game cartridges to swap in and out.

 

And where the heck else am I going to get my hands on a game like Ant Party so cheaply?

 

 

-Ben

[+x=usr(1536)]

@Pac-Man Senior: you may want to take a look at the following video:

 

 

While the title doesn't suggest that it may be related to the problems you're running into, there's a lot of useful info about the cartridge hardware in there.  Bits that may be relevant: the capacitors inside the cartridge, how they relate to the counter function that handles cycling through the games, and disassembly of the cartridge itself.

[Pac-Man Senior]

@x=usr(1536) Very interesting video! Thanks. I hope I really understand: The 4K memory steps of the rotation are fixed and it's the capacitor that can store - like a pointer -  the position for a long time even without connection to a power source so that it only seems to be random based. I will have an eye on my cart to find out if that's the way it is. After watching the video I'm a bit depressed not being able to solder properly. I surely would ruin the cartridge in less than two minutes.

[+x=usr(1536)]

15 minutes ago, Pac-Man Senior said:

@x=usr(1536) Very interesting video! Thanks. I hope I really understand: The 4K memory steps of the rotation are fixed and it's the capacitor that can store - like a pointer -  the position for a long time even without connection to a power source so that it only seems to be random based.

 

Pretty much  Two small details: the memory steps are 2K on an unmodified cartridge, and the capacitors allow the counter IC to retain its position in the rotation (like a pointer).

15 minutes ago, Pac-Man Senior said:

I will have an eye on my cart to find out if that's the way it is.

If it is, it could explain the poor RF output when it's inserted.  

15 minutes ago, Pac-Man Senior said:

After watching the video I'm a bit depressed not being able to solder properly. I surely would ruin the cartridge in less than two minutes.

Practice on a few junk common PC parts first, then open it up  Removing the label in one piece looks to be the worst part.