kencrisis Posted January 15, 2005 Share Posted January 15, 2005 My new Starfire cart just started acting oddly tonight. After playing about 10 games, I hit level 3 on a game and my shots became wide bars. Then the enemy shots became squares, then the enemies became big squares. Has anyone had a problem like this? I made sure the cart was inserted firmly, I tried out other carts (no problems), I let my 2600 rest for about an hour, and still I have this problem. It seems pretty erratic ... suddenly my shots will return to normal for a little while then go back to being bars. Sometimes I can play to level 3 or 4 with no problems, but sometimes the weird graphics show up right away on level one. Sometimes there are normal looking enemies in the same screen with ones that are just squares. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gateway Posted January 15, 2005 Share Posted January 15, 2005 Yep, I've seen this before. I remember when I was playing a marathon run of this game to try and qualify for a patch. It started to act in the way you described. I don't know if this is unique to Starfire or what. My Atari probably got hot like you were suggesting I remember I unplugged the hot Atari and plugged in my other 2600 and the game returned to normal. I haven't had a problem since I now use this 2600 instead of the first 2600 which I believe needs to be fixed sooner or later. So I assume it may have something to do with your 2600, though I can't guarantee that is the problem since it has been a while since I've played Starfire or have played one game for an extended period of time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cybergoth Posted January 15, 2005 Share Posted January 15, 2005 Hi there! Uihjah, sounds weird. Might indeed be some heat or power supply problem. Can you try another console Ken? Greetings, Manuel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanJr Posted January 15, 2005 Share Posted January 15, 2005 never had this problem, and I play A LOT of Star Fire. I am using a Heavy 6-er if that helps? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kencrisis Posted January 16, 2005 Author Share Posted January 16, 2005 Well, I just had another opportunity to try this again tonight and ran into the same problems. I played about 6 games without incident, then things went all buggy as described before. Unfortunately, I don't have another console to try this out on (I'm using a Vader), and all my other games work perfectly on it. Gateway, what type of console were you using when you saw this problem? If anyone has any other ideas, I'd really appreciate it. But at this point, I think I'll have to live with playing a few games and then calling it quits. I don't think I could justify to my wife buying another console just to see if one game works better on it. A real bummer too, because this is one of the games that I'd really like to put some time into. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gateway Posted January 16, 2005 Share Posted January 16, 2005 Well, I just played a few rounds of Starfire on the console that gave me problems last time, to try to get the symptoms to reappear, but nothing yet. Both my consoles are 4 switchers woodgrain. The problems appeared before while using my 4 switcher that says it was manufactured in Taiwan, serial number prefix begins with 812 etc. I'm also using an older gray power supply with the red and black striped cord. The switchplate has dark orange trim, if any of that info helps. My other 2600, that's displayed none of these symptoms while playing Starfire, has light orange trim woodgrain and says manufactered by Atari: Sunnyvale, CA, serial number prefix: 427 etc. I'm using a standard black power supply with it. I'm guessing there's something about how Starfire was programmed that it acts this way when played on an overheated or problematic Atari(assuming that it gets overheated ) IIRC, gameplay and collision detection was unaffected when the screen behaved like you've described, but it was annoying when it does that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cybergoth Posted January 16, 2005 Share Posted January 16, 2005 Hi there! I don't think I could justify to my wife buying another console just to see if one game works better on it. Maybe you could at least try just another power supply? Greetings, Manuel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted January 16, 2005 Share Posted January 16, 2005 Maybe you could at least try just another power supply? Yup, sounds like a weak power supply. Maybe kencrisis could also try other bankswitching games and see if the problem repeats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esc Posted January 17, 2005 Share Posted January 17, 2005 It also could be the TIA chip going bad. One of my units displays crazy graphics, missing letters/scores etc. on the screen. Replacing the TIA fixes the problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Player Posted January 17, 2005 Share Posted January 17, 2005 My vote is for the power supply. I had the same problems with Thrust+ until I switched the power supply. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kencrisis Posted January 17, 2005 Author Share Posted January 17, 2005 Thanks for all the input -- really appreaciate it. I'll look into replacing the power supply this week, and see where that gets me. Hopefully I can fit it in between work and being totally sick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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