31 replies to this topic

[CastleofIllusion]

Just like the title says, what do you do with your dead carts?

[Ransom]

I save 'em up and send 'em to Al.

[CastleofIllusion]

For what?

[Deteacher]

Store credit!    Gut 'em, remove the labels and ship them to him for homebrews and he'll give you store credit.

[CastleofIllusion]

Cool, now if you don't mind me asking, who is Al?

[save2600]

Albert owns the site and runs the AA store.

[Frostbite Bailey]

Make them live again

[Cebus Capucinis]

Crush them and snort them.

[thegoldenband]

Well, I generally get them stuffed, after a proper interval of course.  Then when I can make time, during the afternoon, I dress them up, arrange them neatly around a round table, and we have tea, play cards, and read poetry to each other.  Schnookums is the best poet, he has a deep soul.  Then at night, well...

Oh, wait -- dead carts?  Never mind, then.  Sorry.

[save2600]

Cebus Capucinis, on Fri Mar 2, 2012 7:29 PM, said:

Crush them and snort them.

That would give the definition of "blow" whole new meaning.

...2600 Pac-Man just blows!  ...and how.    

[bennybingo]

I used to give them a proper burial in the backyard....now I just have them cremated. I keep them in the urn I found while playing haunted house:



As you can see, I still haven't finished the game!

[Matthew]

Put them on ebay as "untested".


That was a bad joke. I have bought quite a few dead carts off ebay, I smash dead carts to pieces so that no one will ever feel the disappointment I felt.

1)Solaris (did not work)
2)Ghost busters (game would crash when I went back to headquarters).
3)Frankenstein (did not work, sold as untested)

this was all in the past 3-6 mths.

Because of the age of the games(30+ years), if they arrive broken, I just accept it gracefully.
By smashing them!.

[fiddlepaddle]

I put them in my "maybe someday I'll try and clean them even better" box.

[Amstari]

Al was asking for carts recently: http://www.atariage....800-cartridges/

If they are in good condition he can use them for homebrew carts. http://atariage.com/...oduct_list&c=24

[ham]

How common are dead carts?  So far all the carts I bought off ebay, craigslist, local game stores, etc. have worked.  I had a bunch of carts that wouldn't work initially, but worked after a cleaning or two.

[the.golden.ax]

Box of crap

[CastleofIllusion]

ham, on Sun Mar 4, 2012 5:04 PM, said:

How common are dead carts?  So far all the carts I bought off ebay, craigslist, local game stores, etc. have worked.  I had a bunch of carts that wouldn't work initially, but worked after a cleaning or two.

Lets put it this way, Out of the 150 carts I got, I have 4 dead ones.

[zylon]

I just throw 'em in a box and send them to Al. 3rd party titles just get tossed or shot. Usually shot.

[thegoldenband]

Let's see, over the years I've had:

- four Intellivision carts I thought were dead, but one of those worked in someone else's system -- jury's out on the other three;
- two dead Genesis carts, one of which I gave to someone who also couldn't get it to work;
- two dead 7800 carts, neither of which boot no matter what I try;
- one dead C64 cart, which turned out to have damage to the traces and was repaired;
- one dead NES cart, which I sold to someone on AA for super-cheap (it was a rare-ish cart) in the mutual hope that they might get it working;
- and one dead CoCo cart, though it possibly wasn't dead but just needed a cleaning (this was when I was younger and didn't know any better).

I think that's all of them.  Oddly I don't think I've ever had a dead VCS cart (despite having hundreds pass through my hands), nor a dead SNES cart.  Just about every shell can be used for something, though.

[Master Phruby]

I'm putting in the secret landfill right next to all the E.T. carts.

[ham]

CastleofIllusion, on Sun Mar 4, 2012 8:19 PM, said:

ham, on Sun Mar 4, 2012 5:04 PM, said:

How common are dead carts?  So far all the carts I bought off ebay, craigslist, local game stores, etc. have worked.  I had a bunch of carts that wouldn't work initially, but worked after a cleaning or two.

Lets put it this way, Out of the 150 carts I got, I have 4 dead ones.

k, thanks.  It looks like dead carts are kind of rare, but I'll probably get one sooner or later.

[Atari2600Lives]

I have just been real lucky but in over 30 years collecting (on and off) and hundreds if not a thousand+  carts I have messed with , I have never run into a dead Atari 2600 cart that at some point I did not get working again with proper time and cleaning.

Edited by Atari2600Lives, Mon Mar 5, 2012 1:09 PM.

[godzillajoe]

Swallow them whole, with beer

[FireStar]

Use their carcasses to decorate my desk. (They're also handy for cleaning cartridge slots!)

[jhd]

Give them to your favourite local thrift shop to sell for an inflated price.

(For the record, I've only ever had 1 dead 2600 cart and 1 dead Coco cart.)