Which games go bad the most often?

[Gregory DG]

Geez, I think about 50% of my Activision games are bad... What's up with that? Even my original Pitfall II I bought when I was a kid isn't working... Activision must have had some cheap manufacturing standards!

[Nukey Shay]

Can't be cheaper than Dud...I mean Bomb carts...those are griped about often.

[CPUWIZ]

Can't be cheaper than Dud...I mean Bomb carts...those are griped about often.

 

Yup, those and XONOX.

[sku_u]

I've had tons of bad luck with INTV/Mnetwork carts. I had 9 non-working Space Attacks at one point.

 

I've had bad luck with Activision carts too. Specifically Fishing Derby.

 

*Knocks on Wood* never had a dead double ender yet. I had one where the Artillery Duel was scrolling, but after a good cleaning and rubbing of the contacts, it actually works again

[godsey1]

I had a weird situation a few month's back. I was selling 2 Atari 2600's with 20 games each. I cleaned both systems and all of the games. I hook one Atari up to the TV and stared testing. Out of the 40 games, about 10 or 15 wouldn't play on the system, then I hook the other system up and tested all of the games. About the same results, about 10 or 15 games didn't play on it. What I found out was, some of the games would play on one system, but not the other. I ended up with the carts with the system that they worked with. Everything turned out great. Has anyone else had a simular situation?

Tony

[CPUWIZ]

I have observed that exact problem with a couple of Jr.'s before. It is very odd.

[Christophero Sly]

I always find that Activision carts fresh from the wild need the most help, but I've always been able to get them working after a good cleaning. In my experience, Mnetwork carts suffer most often from physical damage. Ultimately, I end up with more dead Atari carts than any other type.

[IceCold]

CPUWIZ & Godsey1 - I'm having the same situation with a 4 switch woodgrain 2600 I have right now. It just does not want to play my Activision games(ones that work in all my other systems...), it's very strange. It seems to have troubles with activision games and paddle games, I need to do some more testing of it.

[sku_u]

I have a couple of old six switches. 1 will not play any Activision games unless I plug them in through the game brain. Another will not play any of the early text label early version games which is odd since it came out around the same time as those games.

[Pixellated Ghost]

I'd say in my case any that have the pc board's edge connector exposed. A shot of Progold G5 and a few insertions/removals cures it.

[Cassidy Nolen]

I have observed that exact problem with a couple of Jr.'s before. It is very odd.

 

Me too! I have two long rainbows that are the strangest things on earth. I had a batch of games I was sure were duds. Turned out to be only on that system. Then I tested them on another long rainbow, worked for a while then the same thing.

 

Lots of graphic glitches (castles were "inside out" on Warlords, and the ball would get "stuck'. The 2600 I took to Philly would work for about 30 minutes, then need to be off for a while to straighten out the onscreen junk.

 

Wierd indeed. I thought it was just me....

 

Cassidy

[Inky]

Pac-Man goes bad quite a bit.. Granted, that's after you smash it against the wall.

[snorlaxnut]

I have a pitfall cart that makes a bad noise when I turn the system on. But then I turn the Atari off, take out the cart, put it back in, flip the switch on and the game works fine.

[DeV0]

Activision carts seem to go bad for me, Only though on the junior machines. I found this trick to work , I just slide the cart in and then pull it out a millimetre or 2, seems to do it.

[Geeknout]

Ive only had one cart that was dead beyond cleaning, an Imagic Star Voyager.

[Albert]

I seem to remember reading that Activision's PCBs are a touch thinner than Atari's. This would make them more susceptible to failing, especially if they are dirty. But I may be misremembering this, can someone verify this for me?

 

..Al

[Tempest]

The only carts I've had die on me are:

 

Telesys: Coconuts

CBS: Mountain King, Tunnel Runner

Spectravision: Gangster Alley

 

And those were all back when they came out. Of course I haven't tested every game in my collection in a long while.

 

Tempest

[ventrra]

Most of the games I've had go bad were ones from Apollo Games. For some reason, my copy of Infiltrate (NIB) didn't work right out of the box (so to speak) on any version of the 2600.

[san-d-2000]

Videogems carts often stop working, which is a drama considering how rare they are

 

-Sandy

[tillenterprises]

I've only ever had one cart that didn't work after cleaning the PCB pin connectors with a cotton swab and rubbing alcohol. Try that- I bet they will work fine after that.

[Ranthulfr]

It took me a few tries to get my Pitfall II (new in box) to work. Turn Atari off, remove game, insert game, turn Atari on...

[MattG/Snyper2099]

I thought I should post the dead carts I've found in this thread:

 

1 Berzerk

1 Carnival

1 Gremlins

1 Challenge of Nexar

1 Pitfall 2 (I fried this one myself so it doesn't really count)

 

I've gone through about 2,000 carts over the years and that's not a bad ratio of good to bad carts in my opinion.

 

Also, I'm a freak and test all my carts on new years day every year. I also test my trade bin around this same time each year. This year, I didn't find any dead out of the 460 in my collection or the 150 or so in my trade bin.

 

I also agree that BOMB carts are total peices of crapola. I think I'm quite lucky that the Z-tack I have still works.

 

MattG.

[MegaManFan]

I've only had a few things be absolutely unsalvageable. Usually they turn out to be run of the mill or slightly uncommon (from Space Invaders to M*A*S*H) but I got burned on a dead Shootin' Gallery at the con last weekend and the seller skipped town before the Sunday morning opening of the show and I couldn't return it or get a refund.

[tkarner]

I've had only two cartridges ever fail, both were Mnetwork Space Attack.

Coincidence?

 

My Starpath cassettes are getting increasingly stubborn with age

but I guess that's to be expected.

 

Thomas

[Joel D. Park]

I get a few "Officially" bad carts.

Most carts just need a cleaning.. (I've gotten great deals on Non-Working activision carts just to find out they just needed cleaned. )

 

My most hurtful bad cart was Subterranea, it was part of a lot and really the only cart I needed from the lot. The cart had actually been opened when I got it but it was all together. The circut board looked like the foil was lifting on the back, so I de-soldered the chip and attached it to a new Demon Attack board, it still didn't work (I may have gotten it reversed or something though, It was kind of a slop job.) If anyone would like to try and fix the cart, I could probably mail it for like 1.50 or so.

 

I got another Subterranea so I don't really need it. It would be great for a rarity like that to get working again.