A.J. Franzman

Looks like you have a Rev 14 board just like mine. The cart port must be unsoldered before you can remove it by releasing the 2 catches. You can buy replacement cart ports from Best Electronics, they have both styles (this is the straight one). BTW, there is nothing obviously wrong in your pictures, but they are too small to really make out the details. When the gate is closed, you should see 2 little "ramps" through the smaller holes at the ends of the cart slot - these are a form of cam that opens the slot gate when the tabs in the cart push on them. They are not clearly visible in your photo. When the gate is open, you should be able to see through those same 2 smaller holes, all the way down to the green circuit board. If it's solid black in there, then something (probably a cart tab) is stuck in there, which you might be able to remove by inserting something into it for a handle, like a tiny drill bit or a piece of hot wire. It sounds like something is definitely broken or jammed - the dust gate is supposed to close under spring pressure, not just gravity. Another possibility is that one or both of the cams have broken off the gate, which could be fixed by removing the cart port then taking all of the gate/cam piece(s) out.

It sounds like you didn't really mean "regardless of system", maybe you should have said "on certain systems". I think lots of people have turned over 2600 Asteroids, and I've seen people play 30 minute+ games of arcade Asteroids. I know that's not "beating" the game, but for any arcade game that's a really long time for 25 cents. I have beaten Impossible Mission myself several times on the Commodore 64.

A friend had one of those "back in the day" that the ball broke off of the lower end of the stick, you could have made one good one from the parts of yours and that one, but unfortunately I'm sure it's been in a landfill for about 15-20 years by now... If you're feeling ambitious, the one you have would be the perfect excuse to make an improved version like I always wanted - with the 8 directions going into the corners of an octagon, instead of the 4 primary directions being the flat sides of a square (which leads to inadvertent diagonal moves during especially hectic action). I already made an improvement which works well with both the Slik Stik and the TAC-2: have you noticed that sometimes the fire button washer does not make full contact across both sides needed to complete the circuit? Move one wire from one of the bottom contacts to the bottom of the spring (you may need to notch the plastic spring guide sleeve), and jumper a wire between the two bottom contacts. Now you'll find that fire button much more reliable, since it only needs to hit either base contact, not both!

That would be correct. Also, there is a style of 2nd-person perspective fiction books called "gamebooks" perhaps best represented by the children's "Choose Your Own Adventure" series. These were some of my faves back in the early '80s, sort of a hard-copy form of interactive fiction (compare to Infocom games, i.e. Zork, etc.) They were branching stories in which, after the main introductory section, the reader was given a set of choices after every page or two. Here's a style example- ... the monster charges you! Do you: A. Throw your spear at the monster? Turn to page 15. B. Run away from the monster? Turn to page 46. C. Hide behind the large boulder? Turn to page 27. D. Stand your ground? Turn to page 34. Turning to page 34: You stand your ground, spear firmly in hand, and grimace menacingly at the beast, hoping that displaying a lack of fear will convince the creature that you're not something it can intimidate. Unfortunately for you, this monster doesn't seem to have the intelligence to recognize a strong and determined opponent; it takes no notice of your confidence and lowers its head, striking you full in the chest and hurling you from the cliff... THE END Return to page 5 and start again. A bit of web searching may find you many of these books reproduced online as hyperlinked stories.

Don't forget that Stunt Cycle was also an early video arcade game (gameplay and look just about the same as the home console unit).

Not exactly a pattern, but a small number of brand names, and a few games with special properties. If there's an actual pattern there, it doesn't reveal itself or have meaning to me. I don't see that it does. Rather obvious, but my every attempt to apply it has failed.

Cute, but what the $%#& does this have to do with the Atari 2600? Mods please move to General Chat.

I wanted to slap myself after someone told me what slice #4 is, it's the first game I had guessed that it might be, and I had looked at it over and over for several days but not matched it up to the game art properly! Of course, now that I know what all the games are, I still can't get the right answer... looks like part 5 will be the end of the line for me unless there's another hint coming. Oh well.

Bait! Water Polo Inka Dinka Doo Fnord Ocean Livin' Feeding Frenzy Marco Pollock Fins!

Seven Deadly Seas Mr. Limpet's Nightmare

Fish Dinner Blue Plate Special Chase the Chumwagon

As a fairly new-bie, I don't think it's too unfair to say that the last game name I found was unexpected; I wasn't even aware that it had been made into a 2600 game. I did have to resort to going through the rarity guide game by game to find it. The same method hasn't worked for puzzle #5 though. I just don't have the patience to study every box, cart, and manual image in there to try to find what title slice #4 represents - I already tried all those that seemed likely, and many that didn't, without finding a match.

Surprising to me as a new collector, I have a few items (label variations) not yet listed/pictured in the 2600 Rarity Guide. I couldn't find anything on this site that says how to submit new scans, etc. except an old thread where you said you were way behind in posting material that you already had (are you caught up yet?), and the sticky thread in this forum about posting game descriptions. SO, do you not want any new scans right now, or if you do, can you tell us how to go about sending them (should we email you first, or what?) and such things as what size/resolution you want, etc.

You can check the wall wart the same way you check a 9-volt battery - plug it into the wall and touch the plug that goes in the console to your tongue; if it tingles strongly, it's good.

For me it has to be both nostalgia and fun, because I'm getting the carts to play (see link in my sig), about 1/3 to 1/2 of my wanted list are games that I or my friends had and I remember enjoying. Most of the rest I found online in various "best 2600 games" lists.

First, you should follow the link from the main page of that site to Ben's NEW site http://benheck.com/. Second, you should post this question in the Atari 2600 Forum there, where you're likely to get the answer much faster.

Did somebody say "barbaric"? Why not just pound on it with a big rock?... (where's the "caveman" smiley when you need it? ) Seriously, if anyone thought flux fumes were bad, cooking the board itself can't be better! And all those microscopic droplets of lead solder that are going to spray everywhere, yeesh! I will admit that some flux fumes really are nasty , but that was mostly ended by about 10 years before the 2600 came out.

Tsk, tsk. Shouldn't be hotlinking... Your second link doesn't work for that very reason. Here's a link that works: http://vidgame.net/ATARI/sixer.htm

That is weird! If it's for the Dutch market, why is "Made in Japan" in English???

PM on the way.

Heh, that reminds me, I used to play my 2600 through the stereo speakers in the family room "back in the day" - we had a TV with audio out (used a RCA "Y" adapter to the stereo), but I think the screen was only 25" or so. Did the same thing in my room with the Commodore 64, man I thought that was awesome!

Label stock: definitely inkjet, matte or glossy finish doesn't matter - since it's a repro label, I would probably protect it with self-adhesive laminating film after printing anyway. If you could provide matching pre-cut laminating film, that would be sweet! Price: a 4-label sheet for $1.25 sounds pretty good. Templates: I don't know if templates on disk or paper would be needed (maybe make them optional), but downloadable templates would be nice. Other types: definitely Activision!

Me too, but I've learned a lot already. Well if it was really new in a sealed box, they must be the right ones! The earliest paddle controllers did not have the word "paddle" on them, they had the Atari (or Sears) logo instead, but as a previous poster said, not all heavy sixers came with the early style controllers. I think all boxed systems did only come with 1 pair of paddle controllers though. The earliest joysticks (CX-10) have a different feel since they are spring-loaded, some of them have a metal hex disc on the top of the the stick saying "Atari" (or "Sears") (even the ones without the hex disc still have a recess for it molded into the top of the rubber boot), and the screw heads on the bottom are set in very shallow compared to the later sticks. If the screws are tight and you can touch (or almost touch) the top of the screw with the tip of your little finger, it's the early style.

You left out the part about trying all the titles, in the case(s) where you picked game(s) with more than one name.

For a fair comparison, screenshots should be made close to the same size!