Activision cartridges prone to failure

[+nanochess]

I've got recently a number of Activision cartridges and has surprised me that tend to fail in a great number.

 

The first one was Pitfall II - Lost Caverns, it failed after a few seconds, I did cleaning of contacts with cotton and alcohol and it still failed, but I noted that the case is made of soft plastic and though it has screws it can be opened using some thick things at the sides without disrupting label or removing screws.

 

I used two thick USB memories as claws and I extracted the PCB from the inside, I noted that there was somekind of grease over it. I rubbed it generously with alcohol, dryed it with cotton, and it worked just fine

 

Recently I got Zenji and H.E.R.O. NIB and guess what, both didn't worked.

 

I applied same trick and managed to get them to working state

 

I'm sharing this just in case someone has this same problem with Activision cartridges.

 

I'm thinking that the automatic mount line of cartridges PCB used some kind of solder paste and with enough time it becomes conductive and makes the cartridge to fail.

 

I have also two non-working Coleco cartridges but these are impossible to open because them are made of rigid plastic, so the only way is to remove label and I don't want to do it because the label is in excellent state.

[digress]

Dude!, You just made my day. I just got a bunch of Activision carts including keystone kapers & 2 Pitfall 2's that don't work. It was weird that out of a large lot of coleco games only the activision games didn't work. I shall try your trick tonight and report back. O also got an illusions cart that seems to not be working but I really don't want to ruin the label.

Edited April 14, 2013 by digress

[sqoon]

I don't know if Activision games are more prone to failure than any others, but can attest that the only VCS game in my decades-old collection that has ever failed was a Pitfall II cart about 15 years back. I have hundreds of games and that is the only one that ever failed.

[+Psionic]

I pulled a faulty River Raid cartridge from a sealed box several years back that turned out to have a bad solder point.

[digress]

So anyone want a slightly broken/ destroyed pitfall II cart?

 

..

 

Nah it worked. I didn't break anything and now I have a working pitfall II cart. But It's not for the faint of heart pull the pcb out between the plastic.

 

I now have a working pitfall II cartridge. But I'm not convinced it had anything to do with cleaning it with alcohol. . I think because the cart isn't screwed to the cart it shifts around a bit and is difficult to align with the colecovision cart slot.

 

Taking it out and putting it back in may have corrected that.

 

I'll have to try another.

[digress]

So without disassembling any other cartridges I proceeded to test

 

Another pitfall II That wasn't working yesterday,

Riverraid That wasn't working yesterday,

Keystone kapers That wasn't working yesterday,

HERO That wasn't working yesterday,

and Another Hero That wasn't working yesterday,

 

Keeping in mind that the pcb shifts around a bit in these since there is no screw holding it in place as I discovered thanks to this experiement.

 

I tried inserting these while maintaining pressure on the cart and... They all work now. They can be more difficult to get aligned correctly than the other carts. I think the pcb is just moving around. I didn't notice any gunk on the pcb I extracted though I cleaned it anyways.

 

Now my evolution cart still won't work. Sad.

 

Update.. I just went and played Evolution for the first time ever apparently in an emulator.

 

WTF . How did that get released. Maybe the cart commited suicide to keep anyone from knowing the truth.

Edited April 14, 2013 by digress

[+nanochess]

Nah it worked. I didn't break anything and now I have a working pitfall II cart. But It's not for the faint of heart pull the pcb out between the plastic.

Haha, it requires a lot of effort to pull out the PCB without the plastic bitting your fingers

 

Amazingly the plastic doesn't breaks and the screws don't jump by the air

 

I'm glad you could make your Activision carts to work.

 

I tested PCBs directly (both H.E.R.O and Zenji without case) in my Colecovision and them didn't work until I cleaned them.

[Rik]

I have that problem with 2600 Pitfall 2. Activision used pretty thin boards which seem to not make a tight contact. I just wiggle the games a bit and they work fine. And i make sure i don't move or accidently hit the console while playing.