how to take apart a 2600 cart?

[kevin242]

I just got a few new carts (well new to me!) in the mail today. One of

them (missle command) refuses to work on my 2600. Nothing happens

when I pop it in, it's as if there is no cart in the slot. Aside from not

working the cart seems to be in near mint condiition. I was thinking

maybe it is messed up inside and If I take it apart I could maybe re align

something or whatever to get it to work.

 

Any easy way to pry these suckers apart? Also, I dont really want to

mess up the stickers (since they look so good compared to most of my

2600 carts) but I will if necessary. My main goal is to play Missle

Command. Any advice taking these apart would be appreciated.

 

One other thing, I have a White Carnival cart, and it works fine until

you clear maybe 4 or 5 screens then it freezes!? This seems to happen

around the same place every time. What the hell could cause this?

Another whacky cartridge is River Raid, it plays fine but then randomly

will just cut out and the 2600 will act as thouugh I pulled the cart out.

What can cause these symptoms? BTW I have 2 2600 (one heavy sixer

and reg tawain 6 switch) and the symptoms are the same on both, so

I know it's not the VCS.

 

 

 

 

 

thanks

 

kevin

[Philflound]

You don't take it apart. Take a small scissor and slide it in one of the slots on the side of the cartridge protector. This will unlock the protector to expose the board. Hold it open and try cleaning it with diluted rubbing alcohol with water and q-tip. Or if it looks dirty, some people suggest using a pencil eraser. If you have one of those cartridge cleaner kits, that will do too.

 

Clean the others too. Though sometimes carts will be defective. From the 3000+ cartridges I've come across, I think I could not get about 10 to work no matter what I did.

 

Phil

[Mindfield]

Why dilute the alcohol? I always use straight isopropyl alcohol. It dries quickly that way. :-)

 

Anyway, yeah... dirty contacts will be the culprit 99.9% of the time. I've only come across maybe 2-3 genuinely dead carts that simply wouldn't come to life no matter what I tried. For the rest, the pencil eraser or alcohol will do the trick just about every time.