Atari 2600/7800 cartridge case

[OldGuru]

Hi,

Does anybody knows what is the reason for the 2 plastic pins that are part of the case and are coming next to the PCB?

Are they essential?

Are there productions runs of cartridges that did not have these 2 plastic pins?

 

Thank you in advance,

OG.

[CrazyImpmon]

It's there because in some older 2600 models there's a retractable dust flap in the cart port. The prong there is what opens the dust flap. Not used on 7800.

 

I don't think there is any 2600 cart produced without some type of prong.

[Happy_Dude]

that dust guard was a briliant idea!

i wonder why some dont have one.

cost reduction most probably.

[CrazyImpmon]

Probably the cost thing. Some later 2600 and just about all jr's don't use dust flap. AFAIK 7800 don't use any either probably because it's already too complicated in the cart port having both 2600 and 7800 support.

 

Many other console uses the flap but not inside the cart slot. Rather the flap's covering the whole cart slot. Colecovision, SNES, Genesis, etc. Console with cart port on the side (Intellivision and Vectrx) and portable console don't use flaps.

[Raijin Z]

Tandy CoCo2 has a cart slot flap too. Dunno if it's really useful. All of the Commodore 64s I have, have bare cart slots. They all work fine though. I guess dust was only a big problem to more recent systems.

[Happy_Dude]

I just cheked and your absolutly right.

I thought you where talking about the dust flap on the carts.

whats the deal with them?

[OldGuru]

Thanks for the information so far,

Can anybody point me to a picture of that dust flap on the 2600 system?

 

Thanks again,

OG

[CrazyImpmon]

Tandy CoCo2 has a cart slot flap too. Dunno if it's really useful. All of the Commodore 64s I have, have bare cart slots. They all work fine though. I guess dust was only a big problem to more recent systems.

 

I don't think dust buildup was an issue for C64 because the cart port doesn't face up (like Intelly). TI-99/4A did have dust flap even though the cart port is horizontal as well yet most of the failure with that port is weak support. (inserting & removing carts will cause the connector to break off the board or so I heard)

 

I just cheked and your absolutly right.

I thought you where talking about the dust flap on the carts. icon_confused.gif

whats the deal with them?

 

Had to be the most useless design as it's much easier to clean the cart contact free of dust and AFAIK it's the only 3 non computer based system that uses dust cover built on the cart. (Fairchild Channel F & 5200 being the other) Withthe dust flap, cleaning the dirty contact's a major PITA as you have to manually open the shutter and push the shield back to expose the contacts.