segaatarifan

Well I ended up being right about the problem being the reset switch. I can play my games as long as I hold the reset switch down... which is not desirable Blah.

Hmm. I'm starting to think it's the reset switch that's screwed up. Now that I think about it, the games are playing like someone is hitting the reset switch repeatedly. For instance, in Centipede and Demon Attack, I can usually move for about 2 seconds, but then get immediately "warped" back to the middle of the screen where the game starts. In Ms. Pac-Man and Spider-Man, the melody that plays at the beginning keeps stopping and restarting over and over. A couple of times the melody finished and I was allowed to play, but hitting the "select" or "reset" switch, or turning the system on and back off messes everything up again. And a few times in River Raid, I was able to play for a few seconds, only to be taken back to the the start of the game repeatedly. Is it possible that it's the switches that are messed up?

I bought two games today - River Raid and Spider-Man. Spider-Man was super dirty, it had cobwebs around the contacts - but I cleaned it well (or so I thought) and put it in my system. The picture showed up, but the little tune that starts up when you turn on the game played halfway and kept looping. Sometimes the it would get "further" in the melody before stuttering and looping again. I just thought... well, maybe I finally got a game that won't work, I'll try to clean it again and try it again later. But then, I put in River Raid, and the game starts up and shows the picture but won't play. At this point I'm thinking I have two cartridges that might I might have some trouble getting to work. At this point I decide to move on and play one of my carts that I know works as I had played it just a couple of days ago... but once again, I have the same problem, the game starts up and hangs, freezes, and stutters. I then freak out and try all of my carts - and they're all doing the same thing! So obviously, something is wrong with my Atari 2600. I then try blowing into the cartridge slot on the system - and one of my games worked! I played it for a bit but when I tried to use the "select" switch to change the game mode, the game started hanging and freezing again and hasn't worked since. Maybe that Spider-Man cartridge dirtied up my cart slot? I tried cleaning it by inserting a cartridge with rubbing alcohol on the contacts repeatedly but that didn't work. I really hope my Atari 2600 isn't toast. Anyone got any ideas?

Maybe it's the best FB and yeah there's actual 2600 hardware in the thing but for some reason it doesn't work well with my TV. I have a somewhat new giant HD TV, and ironically, the original 2600 works better with it than the FB2. On the FB2, the color is overly bright and saturated. The colors are darker on the 2600 and it's a lot easier on my eyes. Also, the image produced by the FB2 seems to... flicker and shift around a bit. The picture is perfectly stable on the original 2600, however. The picture coming from the original 2600 also fills my screen (and doesn't look noticeably stretched), but on the FB it's a smaller picture in the middle of my TV screen. I get that the games are in a low resolution, but I still prefer my screen filled. It's funny because I read that the Flashback systems are supposed to work better with modern TVs than the original console. For me, this made a huge difference when it comes to enjoying the games. I didn't play my FB2 much, but I am addicted now that I have a real 2600. However, it just might be my set up and I have read reviews that this console plays the games perfectly.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'm thinking part of the reason now is that I was playing games with crappy controls. The two games I felt like control was unresponsive were Pac-Man and Berzerk. But I went to the retro game store and got Demon Attack and Missile Command and both play beautifully (with the flashback controller). I may consider picking up a Genesis controller, and I already have a set of paddle controllers, too so maybe I should look for some paddle controller games.

So finally after years of thinking about it I bought a 2600 today. The console itself is in pristine condition, so I'm happy about that, but both joysticks it came with seem to be worn out because they're not very responsive (although one is a better than the other). Fortunately, I have a flashback system, so I decided to try to see if the controllers that came with that system work... and they do, and they are a lot more responsive but still leave a lot to be desired. My question is -- are my flashback controllers is good is it is going to get? Should I try to find an original controller in better condition or is there a good 3rd party controller I could get that might be better?