Glitchy screenshots on the 2600...

[Army Of 2600]

...I can't get enough of them. Activision games seem to glitch the most. Sometimes the random glitches and noises are funner than the actual game. Anyone else like these? Show me your glitch pictures!

[The Eyeball Mural]

*bumpworthy*

[+SpiceWare]

Clean the contacts on your cartridges using qtips and rubbing alcohol.

 

Activision also used slightly thinner circuit boards, which results in the now well used cartridge ports not making as good a connection.

[BigO]

I don't see these glitches except on the rare occasion that I try a new game I haven't cleaned.

 

I suppose for those of a more artistic bent, somebody could build a socket extension that disconnects data or address pins to (re)create glitches.

 

The op might also be interested in the concept of "frying" the 2600.

[Army Of 2600]

Now THAT would be awesome!

[rgr1973]

I bought a copy of Frostbite at a flea market years ago, and it does stuff like that all the time. I've cleaned it dozens of times over probably, but still the same thing. If I fiddle with it enough, it will play.

[godzillajoe]

That 3rd one is pretty cool.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Those signals are definitely not created by the cart (it would be cool if we could do that), so cleaning won't help much. I suppose the signal is distorted on its way from the console to the TV. Maybe replacing the cable with a better quality one (better shielded, with ferrite bead) will help.

[BigO]

Are you saying that all of those images are due strictly to RF/video distortion?

 

I think it would help to see a picture of the full screen, but that looks like stuff I've seen when the cartridge doesn't read correctly. Somebody was playing with feeding random bit patterns to the 2600 as program code. I don't remember what the results looked like.

Edited October 19, 2014 by BigO

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Nope. They are coming from various analog (console, cable, TV) sources. But they are definitely not code (= digital) related .

[rgr1973]

Those signals are definitely not created by the cart (it would be cool if we could do that), so cleaning won't help much. I suppose the signal is distorted on its way from the console to the TV. Maybe replacing the cable with a better quality one (better shielded, with ferrite bead) will help.

I'm not trying to argue, but yes, it IS something to do with the cart. I've saw it for the 30+ years I've been playing it, almost the same screen shots he posted. You take the cart out, blow in it or clean it, and it disappears. It is nothing at all to do with interference.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Without a cart there is no signal which can be distorted. Of course they disappear then.

[+SpiceWare]

I get odd images w/out a cart plugged in:

 

 

 

 

 

Not getting a picture is probably related to the age of the TV being used - "newer" sets tend to show a blue screen if they're not receiving a valid signal.

Edited October 19, 2014 by SpiceWare

[Army Of 2600]

I buy my games used wherever I can and play them on an old box console. I rarely clean the games. The glitches come from the cartridges themselves and make sweet patterns and sounds if no game is placed in it. I am not as concerned with the science of it as much as I just enjoy the randomness of the colors.

 

[BigO]

 

I buy my games used wherever I can and play them on an old box console. I rarely clean the games. The glitches come from the cartridges themselves and make sweet patterns and sounds if no game is placed in it. I am not as concerned with the science of it as much as I just enjoy the randomness of the colors.

Heh. Yes, you would be among "those of a more artistic bent" to whom I referred earlier.

 

For some reason, your comment brought to mind an old movie quote, "When we fire it, it makes... pretty pictures."

[Mr SQL]

I get odd images w/out a cart plugged in:

 

no cart 1.jpg

 

no cart 2.jpg

 

no cart 3.jpg

 

 

Not getting a picture is probably related to the age of the TV being used - "newer" sets tend to show a blue screen if they're not receiving a valid signal.

Yes the sets emulating NTSC often do this as a "feature". Can't play Video Chess and enjoy the colour sequences between moves or hear the sound in Voice Enhanced Berserk on them! The voice in Frantic still works fine though

[Bryan]

Without a cart there is no signal which can be distorted. Of course they disappear then.

 

The 2600 is just as much turned and generating a signal with or without a cart. The only difference is that the 6507 doesn't have a valid program to run so you generally only see the effect of whatever the start-up contents of the TIA registers are (vertical bars). If the pattern is wildly changing then the 6507 is performing some random operations generated by a floating bus. But a TIA with 5V on it is generating a video signal in some sense.

 

If a cartridge is installed and you get weird patterns, then one or more signals are not making contact giving you pseudo-random code until you lock up the CPU. Some of the patterns may look impossible but remember that random register updates can affect both the H and V sync timing on TIA causing the TV to go bonkers.

Edited October 20, 2014 by Bryan

[Gorfy]

This is a nifty thread. I hope it keeps going........

[Gorfy]

Here are a few good, albeit more minimalistic, examples fro my sea of dead carts......

 

 

The last one demonstrates the "venetian blind effect"

[Army Of 2600]

Thanks to the poorly manufactured Activision games Sky Jinks and Barn Storming for these...

[Nesbroslash]

Activision also used slightly thinner circuit boards, which results in the now well used cartridge ports not making as good a connection.

 

That's actually a relief to hear. I always just thought all the Activision carts I got were half-dead or something, since I have to adjust them to play.

 

Anyways, I have a cartridge of Bump and Jump that refuses to ever work and just makes some weird distorted noise and pixelly junk. I'll have to post some pics or a video when I get home.

[The Eyeball Mural]

When I was a young Atarian in the early and mid 1980's my friends and I really enjoyed glitching Atari 2600 games by flipping the power toggle rapidly until the desired result appeared on the TV. Many glitches induced like that are playable, with deformed sprites and deranged playfields. Plus glitch screens are fun to look at!

[Mef]

Really liked the thread, so I tried to glitch my games as well. Not by wiggling the carts, nor messing around with the power button, but instead used my 128-in-1 multicart and just briefly pushed the bank selection diswitches at random while a game was playing.

 

Results were really funny: begining with garbled sprites and playfield, thru complete nonsense (which mostly made my TV lose the picture after a while, damn digital crap), to some unexpected ones, like the last 3 pics.

 

In Encounter at L-5 I got "You Win" in the score counter, in Seahawk I got the player sprite expand like four times horizontally but the game kept working ok other than that and finally - I managed to get Megamania bottom bar appear on one screen with PacMan maze.

 

Shame I didn't have any CRT at hand, but at least LCD was easy to photograph without getting out of sync with the shutter (horizontal bars, pulsing brightness, etc.), and I could just shoot with my phone.

 

Enjoy!

 

[Tempest]

Encounter at L-5 has a victory screen? How do you get that aside from frying?

[Army Of 2600]

That Ice Hockey glitch is rad.