nesmaniac

I got her buttoned up and happy to say all working perfectly. Hopefully this might help someone else in the future if by chance (probably 1 in a million) their 2600 only plays frogger. Having a ceramic cap bad and not being able to see it was difficult enough to discover but then after fixing it and still not all games working and discovering another bad cap (reset cap 4.7uf apollo) which appears to be necessary for games like Pac Man to work. After replacing it all worked and for good measure I replaced the 4.7uf apollo that is the RF filtering cap from my understanding. I figured it was probably not going to perform well since the reset one was bad. Only thing is I didn't have a 35V rated cap so I used 25V caps for the 4.7 because I see no harm since system runs off 5V and even tops coming in to the regulator is 11.5 Volts or there abouts. I think atari used 35v because that's what they had and going higher don't matter on the volts. I switched chips out so much thinking it might be a chip seat issue that I think I have chips from a six switch unit in there now on possibly all 3 IC's but it's performing great so I'm not going to mess with switching them out I'll leave them be. I'm just glad to have this beauty resurrected from what would have probably been an atari graveyard. Thanks for all the information guys this site rules.

I replaced the blown .1Z 25T 12V ceramic cap with a 104Z which I read is 0.1 uf and other games would play but pacman, combat, spiderman, etc would still not work. I decided to replace the C201 reset cap which is 4.7 uf and 35v but I did not have anything but 4.7 in 25v so I put it in and tested and finally pacman worked, combat, spiderman, etc...So now my question is should I order a 35v or just stick with the 25v one since all is working? I think I'll replace the other 4.7 because I have another cap but it too is 25v but I believe the one by the RF is lower volt rating anyways. I think that replacing is might clear the picture up a bit what do you all think. Happy I got it working I guess the problem was actually 2 problems which made figuring it out that much more difficult. That blown cap was impossible to see until bending it over so always look close at all caps I guess is the lesson learned here. Thanks for all the information it's been very helpful you all are awesome! May the atari force be with you!

After reading your post I decided to have another look at it. I read about frogger and then that led me to reading about super chip games like Millipede. I thought well if the game has 128K built onboard then it might work and I dug out and cleaned a copy and bingo it works perfectly. So this led me to taking the riot chip out to check it all good and continuity all check ok. I had flashlight looking close at the socket and saw a ceramic disc cap that looked a bit weird like it was swollen at bottom, I then saw that after bending it over it was blown in two. It's to the left of the IC chips and marked .1 z 25T 12V. I've searched all my old parts for that cap and cannot find one. I was reading a post from 3 year ago a guy had the same cap he needed for a 2600 and he could not find one online but someone told him a 0.1 uf cap is the same. I have several cylinder caps so I can probably find one of those but my question is will it work? I don't want to mess anything else up. Do I have to have 12v or will a higher voltage one work like 25v or 50v? I'm hoping this fixes it once I get a replacement.

Most of the time just a black screen but sometimes a screen with audio stuck tune and vertical colored lines usually on the sides. Games fire straight up in another 2600 from same time period even. I hit reset on some of the games trying that after loading them and the black screen shows line of static you know because reset is recognized and working. I'm new to atari repairs but the riot chip is the shortest chip in the middle correct? I know the TIA is the bottom chip that's the first I tried replacing thinking that would fix it. What's the chip closest to the cartridge port I never hear much about it? At any rate I switched all the working chips in another unit to this one still the same and the chips from this one works in the other so I've ruled out the actual chips. Has to be something stupidly simple I would think since frogger plays perfectly fine and especially since it did work the game combat everytime at first and one time it played others as well. That leads me to think something went bad like a diode or cap which for whatever reason frogger don't need. I have to figure frogger's board difference out I think in order to figure out what that game don't need from the motherboard that others do. Thanks for the input every bit is taken into thought that is for sure.

Yeah I checked the edge of each pin going into IC with continuity tester and placed other on bottom chip socket solder and all had continuity and switched out all 3 IC's with others confirmed working in other ataris. I thought for sure that one of those chips would be the logical issue especially considering it worked other games one time but stopped shortly after. It's just really odd and all the caps look fine and I really don't see how cap could be necessary for all these other games other than frogger. As I stated combat was working fine at first it seemed as if when I tried other games it stopped previous working ones from working other than pacman. Next step is to try to find info on how frogger might operate differently than all these other atari carts and go from there.

If you want a bit better picture get rid of the switch box and get a simple RF cylinder with the 2 screw tabs and screw a RF-F adapter onto the end and then your atari plug will run straight to that giving the best picture possible. Those switch boxes suck I stopped using them years ago after finding out about the simpler hookup method. Plus it makes hooking other systems up a breeze just switching out the one plug.

I tried q bert, amidar, and spiderman non of those work either. Sure has me bummfuzzled. Frogger plays perfect got up to like 1200 points no issue. Other games work fine in other console. Board appears new and atari appears new as well as controllers so I think it had an issue from the start and got put up in the closet and forgotten about until I bought it on ebay 40 years later. What is really strange is at one point it was working other games and at first combat worked no issues but then not even it would work. Ms. Pacman worked temporarily as well but nothing since so I'm thinking it has to be a cap somewhere that all games require to be functioning other than frogger for some reason, or possibly a resistor or transistor I just don't know at this point. I really want to revive this mint atari if at all possible.

Thanks for the info. I have q bert and I think amidar that I will have to try. If they work then definitely onto something.

I have checked the solder joints with continuity tester on each side of all 3 IC chips and all test ok. The cartridge slot pins all look fine as does the solder joints as it's hard to get to those with the tester. I've not tried any other parker bros games any suggestions on ones I might should try that might share something in common with froggers board? If I can figure out froggers pins that are used that would narrow it down a bit. I cannot find anywhere else online of any atari only capable of playing frogger. If I figure it out maybe it would enlighten many to a new troubleshooting solution to other problems.

Hi everyone. I'm at my wits end here so I thought maybe someone here could help. Frogger is the only game that works in my 2600 4 switch Rev 13. I've cleaned contacts and tested pacman, combat, Ms. Pacman, etc... in other 2600's all work fine. Actually Combat was working but mysteriously stopped. Another time Ms. Pacman worked but stopped and now frogger is all it will play and works everytime. System looks brand new inside and out. I took the 3 IC chips from older six switch atari switching out the TIA first, Then the Riot, and the one closes to cart connector still no dice. I then dug another old Rev 14 4 switch out and confirmed it working and switched each chip out with it until all 3 from it was in the frogger only unit and still frogger only. Does this make any sense? I put 3 chips back in the working Rev 14 and the Color on Frogger and other games is off like in FRogger the area around the edge of the screen is Blue where as it should be green so not sure what's up with that either so now basically I'm trying to figure out 2 different issues with 2 different 2600's. I've reseated the chips a few times and have pretty much ruled them out since I've tried 3 different chips in the system and the other one works with them (albeit color issue) so what the heck gives here?

I picked a 1200xl up yesterday along with a 1050 floppy drive as well as some cool atari computer booklets. The serial number is 72R DA 7000 183 and the sticker I can see inside the underside says april 29 1983 B. I've collected old computers and game systems for 12 years now and I was happy I picked this unit up after seeing they are kind of scarce. I didn't get no hookups and almost passed on it but the 7000 serial number just kept telling me to go back and get it. I'm a sucker for neat serial numbers.