"FRYING" and the glitching effects in 2600 games.

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

This was done by either flicking you 2600 power switch on and off rapidly or sometimes merely inserting or removing a cartridge with the power on, weird glitches and effects caused by power fluctuations. I was reminded of this after just watching this video by no swear gamer on youtube.

 

https://youtu.be/F4Zb-rFPu2I

 

lol, for better or worse I use to FRY my 2600 games continuously back in the day, honestly was not even aware of the term frying, thought it was a silly thing I discovered myself, no doubt many thought that. In Firefighter I think it was called? Got my fireman stuck in the building with no victims to rescue, you could get some odd effects flicking the power switch. Used to get similar effects on Colecovision running a butter knife along the terminals of the expansion port...now THAT might have just been me.

Edited April 29, 2018 by OldSchoolRetroGamer

[+Random Terrain]

Never did it, never wanted to. If the Atari 2600 would have had a Game Genie like the NES had years later, I would have used that. Cheating can be fun, but risking damage to my cartridges and my Atari isn't.

[Foxsolo2000]

Was it ever proved that it damaged either the cart or the system? I remember in the Atari news letter they warned it could damage the system with repeated frying but was that a real possibility? I did it for years and so no ill effects.

[atarifan88]

 

Used to get similar effects on Colecovision running a butter knife along the terminals of the expansion port...now THAT might have just been me.

 

 

Don't know why you would ever want to do such a thing to an Atari or Colecovision and risk doing damage to it. But hey, knock yourself out!

[Osgeld]

I dont see how it can hurt it other than physical wear and tear on the switch

[Rom Collector]

I used to unplug the 1/8" AC adapter plug slightly, and lightly tap it.

I did this quite a bit, and it eventually started to wear out the jack to the point I didn't have unplug the plug slightly anymore.

I would just tap the plug as is.

[slamthedoor]

I dont see how it can hurt it other than physical wear and tear on the switch

That's exactly right. Happened to my sixer back in the day because I was fascinated by the weird effects of frying. Broke the power switch so had to take it to an authorized Atari repair shop.

 

I don't recall anything that good ever coming from frying. I can't remember even playing a game for very long in a fried state. Sometimes the system would just make a weird sound. Still, I was a kid, so I fried frequently anyway just to see what would happen.

 

Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk

[edladdin]

I never did this either for fear of ruining my gear. The only specific play benefit Ive ever heard of is with Space Invaders, where frying will consistently give you double firepower.

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

OK so the next dozen posts do not go on replaying how foolish this practice is. FYI I GET IT. As I stated right in my original post "for better or worse", also I never made ANY claim about it being in anyway "beneficial" to gameplay, no it was just curiosity about the odd effects or results whether it was just weird colors / glitched graphics / invisible enemies etc. Like how you could just enter random codes in a game shark or game genie and notice odd / bizarre results.

I liked it because it could make for interesting results especially in games that I had pretty much conquered and otherwise just were not as interesting anymore.

I was well aware of the risk and chances I took with my consoles "What? If I broke my console as a kid my parents would not buy a knew one, I would never risk that" well true, intentionally rapidly flicking the on / off switch or inserting carts rapidly while power was on probably was not the greatest thing for the life of the console or games but that said I was pretty much under the same restrictions, I did not have much and if I broke something it was unlikely it would have been replaced but I just could not help myself, heck I took apart most of my toys through childhood and definitely through my young teens which later evolved to my electronics etc. I just had to find out what made things tick and I rarely regretted it, not to say I didn't occasionally break something, some things I reassembled but though they worked again were never quite "right" but I felt I learned a lot and the tinkering was entertainment in itself. Maybe I was just a weird kid.

OF COURSE on that note for those collectors who might not want to attempt "frying" on an original console apparently it is possible to recreate

the effect using the Stella 2600 emulator so nothing is at risk.

OK NOW that we have covered the obvious that it was risky and possibly foolish it was still something that took place whether always intentional or not since it is a known thing hence the term "frying" and the examples that could be found all over the internet in forums / videos etc, would be great if we could get past that now and I would be interested to hear anyone else willing to share their own experiences or results doing it. MUCH APPRECIATED It was stupid and dumb and entertaining fun for an easily amused idiot like myself, now lets move on. THANKS.

 

Edited April 30, 2018 by OldSchoolRetroGamer

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

I used to unplug the 1/8" AC adapter plug slightly, and lightly tap it.

I did this quite a bit, and it eventually started to wear out the jack to the point I didn't have unplug the plug slightly anymore.

I would just tap the plug as is.

That was definitively another method I recall doing.

[Rom Collector]

The only specific play benefit Ive ever heard of is with Space Invaders, where frying will consistently give you double firepower.

 

You don't need to glitch the system for that. Just hold down the reset button while powering the system up.

[Rom Collector]

 

I liked it because it could make for interesting results especially in games that I had pretty much conquered and otherwise just were not as interesting anymore.

Ditto.

Because of "frying" I found the secret message in Adventure before I ever heard the term Easter egg...

I thought I was a friggin' genius for discovering this on my own. I was about 13 or so, and I didn't care (enough) if it hurt my system. I was a young boy, and tended to be hard on my toys anyway.

[zzip]

My friends and I did this all the time. We didn't know it was called 'frying' as far as we knew, we were the only ones who knew about it.

 

One of our favorites to fry was Adventure. You'd get interesting mazes, and sometimes you'd find a frozen bat that didn't move.

[+Spriggy]

Was going to post this text file I had laying around, but VG has already highlighted it here on AA a few years ago.

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/225643-atari-btech/

Edited April 30, 2018 by spriggamortis

[edladdin]

 

You don't need to glitch the system for that. Just hold down the reset button while powering the system up.

 

No kidding! Wow, after all these years, TIL about Space Invaders.

[johnnye79]

You call it frying, I used to call this making Frogger have the weird stage. I would flick the on and off button until the background was like blue instead of black and things like that.

[eegad]

The only game I remember frying was Asteroids. I mostly thought Atari did a decent cart of the game, and I played it a lot, but I always thought the multi-colored asteroids looked silly. Then one day I accidentally tapped the power switch and fried the game... Only to find that all asteroids were white. After that I often played the fried, white-only asteroids.