Intellivision damaged cartridge, how to fix?

[anny84]

My uncle gives me an Intellivision cartridge of "Donkey Kong Jr." but it doesn't work correctly.

I cleaned a lot but nothing goes better so I do think it's definitely damaged.

 

Where the trouble is? The chip? Is it replaceable with a socket so I can put a 16k Eprom programmed with game?

 

Thanks for help in advance.

Anny

[DontCareAnymore]

My uncle gives me an Intellivision cartridge of "Donkey Kong Jr." but it doesn't work correctly.

I cleaned a lot but nothing goes better so I do think it's definitely damaged.

 

Where the trouble is? The chip? Is it replaceable with a socket so I can put a 16k Eprom programmed with game?

 

Thanks for help in advance.

Anny

 

Ahhhh.... this takes me back.

 

Reading your post, I just had a a hazy recollection of issues with Coleco-made intellivision carts pop into my head. Seems like you'd plug 'em in and often get a black screen, and you'd have to switch the whole thing off and reseat the cart and try it again. I know I had it with Donkey Kong and I think Carnival. Once it got going it was fine but often it took a few attempts, at least for me.

 

I don't recall it ever happening with any other company's Intellivision carts.

 

What does your cart do when you plug it in and turn it on?

[anny84]

My uncle gives me an Intellivision cartridge of "Donkey Kong Jr." but it doesn't work correctly.

I cleaned a lot but nothing goes better so I do think it's definitely damaged.

 

Where the trouble is? The chip? Is it replaceable with a socket so I can put a 16k Eprom programmed with game?

 

Thanks for help in advance.

Anny

 

Ahhhh.... this takes me back.

 

Reading your post, I just had a a hazy recollection of issues with Coleco-made intellivision carts pop into my head. Seems like you'd plug 'em in and often get a black screen, and you'd have to switch the whole thing off and reseat the cart and try it again. I know I had it with Donkey Kong and I think Carnival. Once it got going it was fine but often it took a few attempts, at least for me.

 

I don't recall it ever happening with any other company's Intellivision carts.

 

What does your cart do when you plug it in and turn it on?

 

Hi,

as I remind (I tried it some time ago), the game totally garbles itself after the initial choice menu. Unlike other games in my collection, a console reset was not enough. I've other Coleco games, but they work fine.

 

Since I was enough used to "clean" game cartridges, I don't think it's a dirty trouble.

 

By reading your misadventure with Coleco cartridges, I guess: is maybe a compatibility trouble with some Intellivision board version?

 

Anny

[iratanam]

My uncle gives me an Intellivision cartridge of "Donkey Kong Jr." but it doesn't work correctly.

I cleaned a lot but nothing goes better so I do think it's definitely damaged.

 

Where the trouble is? The chip? Is it replaceable with a socket so I can put a 16k Eprom programmed with game?

 

Thanks for help in advance.

Anny

 

Ahhhh.... this takes me back.

 

Reading your post, I just had a a hazy recollection of issues with Coleco-made intellivision carts pop into my head. Seems like you'd plug 'em in and often get a black screen, and you'd have to switch the whole thing off and reseat the cart and try it again. I know I had it with Donkey Kong and I think Carnival. Once it got going it was fine but often it took a few attempts, at least for me.

 

I don't recall it ever happening with any other company's Intellivision carts.

 

What does your cart do when you plug it in and turn it on?

 

Hi,

as I remind (I tried it some time ago), the game totally garbles itself after the initial choice menu. Unlike other games in my collection, a console reset was not enough. I've other Coleco games, but they work fine.

 

Since I was enough used to "clean" game cartridges, I don't think it's a dirty trouble.

 

By reading your misadventure with Coleco cartridges, I guess: is maybe a compatibility trouble with some Intellivision board version?

 

Anny

 

I've had some do that Anny, I took them apart and use just the board you can move them around better to get them working that way, just don't do any rare carts that way

[Bruce Tomlin]

My uncle gives me an Intellivision cartridge of "Donkey Kong Jr." but it doesn't work correctly.

I cleaned a lot but nothing goes better so I do think it's definitely damaged.

 

Where the trouble is? The chip? Is it replaceable with a socket so I can put a 16k Eprom programmed with game?

 

Thanks for help in advance.

Anny

Are you using an Intellivision II? There were a few games incompatible with it and this may be one of them.

 

And you're not likely to be able to do an EPROM swap for Intellivision games because they used a weird 10-bit bus, meaning a pair of EPROMs would have been required.

[cschell]

Are you using an Intellivision II? There were a few games incompatible with it and this may be one of them.

 

And you're not likely to be able to do an EPROM swap for Intellivision games because they used a weird 10-bit bus, meaning a pair of EPROMs would have been required.

 

It's a 16-bit multiplexed address and data bus. (The games of the day only used 10-bits though as it was cheaper.) So you'd need two eproms, a 16-bit latch and a bunch of decode logic.

[anny84]

My uncle gives me an Intellivision cartridge of "Donkey Kong Jr." but it doesn't work correctly.

I cleaned a lot but nothing goes better so I do think it's definitely damaged.

 

Where the trouble is? The chip? Is it replaceable with a socket so I can put a 16k Eprom programmed with game?

 

Thanks for help in advance.

Anny

Are you using an Intellivision II? There were a few games incompatible with it and this may be one of them.

 

And you're not likely to be able to do an EPROM swap for Intellivision games because they used a weird 10-bit bus, meaning a pair of EPROMs would have been required.

 

I'm not using an Intellivision II sorry... just a PAL European Intellivision, maybe it could be incompatible too, like the Intv II.

I will follow everybody's tips as soon as possible and I will try to revive the cartridge if I can.

 

Cheers

Anny

Edited April 29, 2008 by anny84

[intvnut]

I'm not using an Intellivision II sorry... just a PAL European Intellivision, maybe it could be incompatible too, like the Intv II.

I will follow everybody's tips as soon as possible and I will try to revive the cartridge if I can.

 

Cheers

Anny

 

I don't think there's a compatibility problem with the PAL Intellivision. I just tried an experiment in an emulator and it seemed to work fine.

 

If it's getting to the title screen but not much further, then maybe one of the upper address/data pins is dirty. Judging by the memory map, I'd suggest giving extra attention to DB10 through DB13 when cleaning the card edge. The following diagram should help:

 

 

This is the bottom (aka solder side) view.

Edited May 1, 2008 by intvnut