my dead copy of Fast Eddie (pics for the curious inside)

[Kulp]

so I've only had 3 dead 2600 games since I first started collecting...

oddly enough 2 of which being Mountain King (which I've both since turned into geocaches, so they're gone)

and the 3rd being Fast Eddie.

 

That being said, I've only ever opened up 3 2600 games...

Not sure if this is normal, or if this is what caused the game to be non-working...

but there is a metal cover over (sorry, not very technical here) part of the chip..

Now, I wouldn't say it's oxidizing/getting rusty..

But it's definitely lost a good portion of its "shine"

The metal piece just looks old.

 

I tried everything...

and by everything, I mean lots of q-tips and rubbing alcohol over the whole chip, several times...

that's about the extent of my knowledge and what I can do.

 

anyone got a diagnosis as to why it doesn't work? (I bought it used and it never worked while I owned it)

Ideas of what to do with it? (now that it's been opened and the end label has been ripped due to that, and obviously the screw hole now)

 

pics:

http://i48.tinypic.com/24g4u4g.jpg

http://i49.tinypic.com/25tvn9u.jpg

http://i49.tinypic.com/2z7n0c4.jpg

http://i50.tinypic.com/14pclj.jpg

http://i50.tinypic.com/2wphvn5.jpg

http://i48.tinypic.com/2qvh0mx.jpg

[shadow460]

Remove the circuit board and use the empty cart as a dust shield for your 2600's cart slot. I have a dead Beany Bopper i use for that exact purpose.

[gorfcadet]

Have you tried it on another vcs? I know that sounds silly, but I have a copy of Mega Man X that will not work on my snes model 1 at all, but will work on my mini for some odd reason.

[nanochess]

Have you tried to clean with cotton and alcohol all the PCB including the pins of the chip? I made one Pitfall II cartridge to work this way, it had some kind of grease.

[Tempest]

Oddly enough I only had two games die on me as a kid: Mountain King and Tunnel Runner. I always assumed that the RAM Plus boards that CBS used were either just dodgy or really susceptible to static electricity shocks or something like that.

[robertski]

Well, I have two dead carts here, The most unfortunate loss is Tron deadly disks,

I like that game.. You could try another machine, especially a Heavy Sixer, before

you declare it dead.. I remember this one time(at band camp - KA-CHING), I bought a Sega Genesis, and one cartridge..

 

The one cartridge I bought was known not to work with that particular machine, and I thought

the machine was bad.. I think I gave it away, only to find it was a good machine later, so you never know..

[shadow460]

Well, I have two dead carts here, The most unfortunate loss is Tron deadly disks,

I like that game.. You could try another machine, especially a Heavy Sixer, before

you declare it dead..

 

You might try cemeting the board in place in that Tron cartridge. Sometimes M Network boards come loose and move around a little in the cartridge, making them nearly impossible to get working.

[Keatah]

Well, the contacts look like there's off-center wear.. So that would make sense.

[Philflound]

I have several dead carts. Run across them once in awhile. Probably somewhere in the 1 in 100 to 1 in 125 chance of having a dead one. It used to be rarer, but since I've acquired so many games over the years, I've come across more than normal. Though I test them on a 7800, so I won't throw them away just in case it's because of the 7800. Eventually I'm going to hook a 2600 up to sell and test the game on that system then.

 

Phil

[+frankodragon]

If you have a digital multimeter, check the continuity in the contacts. From the looks of it, it could be that scratch on the bottom of the board http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=25tvn9u&s=6

[Kulp]

If you have a digital multimeter, check the continuity in the contacts. From the looks of it, it could be that scratch on the bottom of the board http://tinypic.com/v...pic=25tvn9u&s=6

I don't have one of those, but thanks for the reply, I honestly didn't notice that scratch :/

 

Oddly enough I only had two games die on me as a kid: Mountain King and Tunnel Runner. I always assumed that the RAM Plus boards that CBS used were either just dodgy or really susceptible to static electricity shocks or something like that.

There HAS to be something wrong with them, I just picked up my 3rd broken copy of Mountain King. SO UPSET! I'm going to return it though, still looking for a working Mountain King though... found my working replacement for Fast Eddie already.

 

Remove the circuit board and use the empty cart as a dust shield for your 2600's cart slot. I have a dead Beany Bopper i use for that exact purpose.

Awesome suggestion! I might do that... but I'm also contemplating using the cart as another geocache.

 

Have you tried it on another vcs? I know that sounds silly, but I have a copy of Mega Man X that will not work on my snes model 1 at all, but will work on my mini for some odd reason.

 

only 4-switch woody's... that's all I have access to right now :/ 2 different ones, both = fail.

 

 

 

 

now all I'm wondering about is if like half the Mountain King's in existence are broken!? I know my friend just bought one and it works fine on his Atari 2600 Jr.

....just angers me a little... must...find..a...working...one....

[shadow460]

There's a chance that at least one of those Mountain King carts has a good RAM chip and another has a good ROM IC. It's just be a matter of mixing and matching them to find out. Sometimes there's a filter cap on the board, but if that's shot, they're easy to get. That said, I've never opened Tunnel Runner or Mountain King, so I'm not sure if that's all there is or if they have other stuff besides RAM and ROM chips packed in there.

[chas10e]

If you have a digital multimeter, check the continuity in the contacts. From the looks of it, it could be that scratch on the bottom of the board http://tinypic.com/v...pic=25tvn9u&s=6

 

is it possible a multimeter with a 9v battery can damage a good IC chip checking for continuity ?

 

I have had a few dead carts come up & getting pretty good @ removing labels with a hair dryer ... I put the labels on wax paper in the hopes I will be re-applying to a repaired cart ...

 

I have had a few carts where q-tipping didn't work , but dis-assembling & using "Wrights Copper Cleaner" got rid of a thick film of stuff thats almost ipossible to see with assembled cart

 

Elmers rubber cement to re-apply label after cleaning both label & cart ... cement applied to both label & cart as well.

 

my latest dead cart is Coleco's "Carnival" ... haz a capacitor in it ... think I need to get a cap tester for fun

[shadow460]

Good luck with Carnival. Those Coleco labels are cheap and like to separate when removed.

 

The cap is a simple filter cap.