Intellivision II issues

[Smatchmo]

I bought an Intellivision II recently and it works great (sorta), the controllers function satisfactorily, and it came with a number of mostly common (but complete) games.

But there's a problem.

 

Of the 28 inty games I own, only 8 fully work (4 Imagic titles, both copies of Burgertime, Masters/Universe, DK jr.), 4 don't seem to have any life, and the rest, those common red/blue labeled carts, wouldn't go past the intro screen no matter what I do. I've opened the console and some of the games (not all because I don't have a tri screw bit that fits) and gave 'em a good thorough cleaning, but still, the majority of my Intellivision games freeze on the intro screen.

 

Are all those game forever lost? Des my Intellivision II just hate red & blue label games?

Is... *sniff* is there something wrong my Intellivision?

Edited November 5, 2009 by Smatchmo

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

I bought an Intellivision II recently and it works great (sorta), the controllers function satisfactorily, and it came with a number of mostly common (but complete) games.

But there's a problem.

 

Of the 28 inty games I own, only 8 fully work (4 Imagic titles, both copies of Burgertime, Masters/Universe, DK jr.), 4 don't seem to have any life, and the rest, those common red/blue labeled carts, wouldn't go past the intro screen no matter what I do. I've opened the console and some of the games (not all because I don't have a tri screw bit that fits) and gave 'em a good thorough cleaning, but still, the majority of my Intellivision games freeze on the intro screen.

 

Are all those game forever lost? Des my Intellivision II just hate red & blue label games?

Is... *sniff* is there something wrong my Intellivision?

 

This might sound weird but worth a shot.............

 

Try this with one of the non working games. Obviously you insert the cart all the way firmly in right? Try pulling it back slightly in the slot before switching on, also try various levels of insertion (this sounds so wrong) but anyways I have found this works sometimes..........

[+save2600]

Failing a real good non-invasive cleaning, worth a shot to LIGHTLY sand the contacts with a super fine grit sandpaper. Oh and that silly tri-screw thing... you can still unscrew those with a very small screwdriver (jewelers for instance) whose blade just barely fits inside the screw. Taking the game fully apart will allow for better cleaning. Sandpaper or not.

 

Rare is the cartridge that cannot be resurrected. 99.9% of the time, ultra dirty contacts are just to blame.

Edited November 5, 2009 by save2600

[accousticguitar]

I take the carts apart (when possible) and use a pencil eraser to clean the contacts.

[Smatchmo]

This might sound weird but worth a shot.............

 

Try this with one of the non working games. Obviously you insert the cart all the way firmly in right? Try pulling it back slightly in the slot before switching on, also try various levels of insertion (this sounds so wrong) but anyways I have found this works sometimes..........

 

As a Neo Geo Pocket Color owner, I am well trained in the art of sliding carts in juuuuuuust right and wiggling 'em to where they can be read. That's not working for my Intellivision.

 

 

Failing a real good non-invasive cleaning, worth a shot to LIGHTLY sand the contacts with a super fine grit sandpaper. Oh and that silly tri-screw thing... you can still unscrew those with a very small screwdriver (jewelers for instance) whose blade just barely fits inside the screw. Taking the game fully apart will allow for better cleaning. Sandpaper or not.

 

Yeah, resorting to sandpaper is what I figured I'd have to do but wasn't sure.

I mean, the console clearly works and most of the non-working games will at least load up the title screen, so I took that as a good sign about the salvageability of the title screen carts.

 

I've got a few common doubles I can practice on to see if/how it works.

 

Rare is the cartridge that cannot be resurrected. 99.9% of the time, ultra dirty contacts are just to blame.

 

This will be my mantra the next time I clean my inty preciouses .

 

Thanks for the responses, all.

[Smatchmo]

Cleaining didn't help. I got a package of 6 inty games today from a fellow collector who assured me they worked, tried 'em out, and 5 of the 6 froze on the title screen again. So I figure it's gotta be a problem with one or some of the individual pin connectors; either one of the pins that are unnecessary for the currently working games but vital for the title screen games is hella dirty or possibly bent/broken.

 

I guess an easy way to find out is to compare the connector layout on the Masters of the Universe board with one of the title screen carts & see what's different.

Has anyone had any experience like this?

[Almost Rice]

The 3rd party games may have been made incompatible by the changes in the II. Can you try any of them on an original Intellivision?

[Smatchmo]

The 3rd party games may have been made incompatible by the changes in the II. Can you try any of them on an original Intellivision?

 

I don't have an original Intellivision to try the game out on.

 

Carts that work:

• Demon Attack (3rd party)
• Micro surgeon (3rd party)
• Beauty and the Beast (3rd party)
• Atlantis (3rd party) (3rd party)
• Donkey Kong jr. (3rd party)
• Burgertime (x2)
• Masters of the Universe(x2)

Carts that stop on title screen:

• Q*bert (both copies, 3rd party)
• Pitfall (3rd party)
• Star Wars: Empire (plays intro music along with title screen, 3rd party)
• Golf
• AD&D Tarmin
• Space Armada
• Space Battle
• Armor Battle
• Golf
• Maze-A-Tron
• Astrosmash
• B17 Bomber
• Poker & Blackjack (both copies)
• Triple Action
• Lock N Chase
• Night Stalker
• Mr Basic Meets Bits & Bytes

And a few just won't work period.

 

I can't explain it. I've tried lightly sanding a few carts, but to no avail. I opened the baby up, check the contacts, saw nothing bent or broken.

If the console is broken, it wouldn't be able to play anything, right? And yet it has no problem loading & playing those 9 carts flawlessly.

 

I think it's a problem with the 44-pin connector, but wtf do I know?

Edited November 8, 2009 by Smatchmo

[Smatchmo]

I couldn't figure out the problem so I bought another Inty II lot, and also in the lot was an Intellivision II owner's manual. In the Troubleshooting Checklist section towards the back of the owner's manual, there's a section "Screen shows only game title" and the recommendations all pointed to the controllers as most likely being the chief culprit.

 

My new Inty II worked fine, so I unplugged its controllers and plugged them into my old "broken" Inty II and.... success!!!

Bad controllers were causing the problem.

 

Now I just gotta get a working pair of replacement controllers (or try fixing the faulty ones).