CaptainBreakout Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 I recently purchased a River Raid II that has something wrong with it. The rom is unstable and glitchy. It takes several power cycles before the screen stops rolling and glitching out. Cleaned contacts and checked for any obvious bad solder joints. No dice. I figure the rom might have bit rot. If I leave the rom on long enough, it stabalizes to the point where the game is actually playable. Eventually huge fields of pink start to blink on the screen and then the screen rolls tho. So anyway, looks like the rom, or however the way the chip bankswitches, is bad. That's my guess tho... As much as I love Atari games my electronics background is more with pinball and arcade cabinets. Ive never repaired a 2600 game before beyond cleaning it. So yeah... Any suggestions on where to go from here? Should I get a new board made somewhere (where?), or maybe desolder and flash a new chip... And if so, what chip? The shell is still fine except for the screwholes I punched in the label (but since this a very late Activision game the label graphics are lackluster enough so the puncture wounds don't really take anything away from it). Please help if you know of such things. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 What model Atari are you trying to play it on? A handful of late games from Activision are known to be flaky with certain consoles... namely 6-switch 2600's and some 7800's. Though a fix by adding a resistor on the PCB of the console has been discovered: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/232964-stay-frosty-2-doesnt-work-on-six-switchers/page-5?hl=%2Bstay+%2Bfrosty+%2Bfix&do=findComment&comment=3653093 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bah Posted February 24, 2018 Share Posted February 24, 2018 Activision boards are on the thin side. If your system has 30 years of use and the contacts are dirty on your console or they are slightly bent away from the board, you might have a marginal electrical contact. I have cleaned the console contacts with a thin strip of cloth stretched over a credit card and dampened with alcohol. slide it in and out a few times, Be careful not to have strings or lint get caught in the slot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imstarryeyed Posted February 24, 2018 Share Posted February 24, 2018 I don't want to dampen the spirit of repair, but in my videogame store whenever I open up a really dead atari cart and give it a good clean for the 4th or 5th time; I find 3/4 of the time the chip is just may be dead. I have gone as far to de-solder the chip and re-solder it onto another similar board to rule out the board, but I have found it only worked very rarely. If all else fails after giving the board a good clean, you may want to look under a magfiying glass and look for loose joints and reflow those. I do hope you can fix that great game, and I wish you the best of luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainBreakout Posted February 24, 2018 Author Share Posted February 24, 2018 Thanks for the suggestions and insight. I'll try reflowing the soldier. I have doubts that it's the 6-switch mod, but I could be wrong. I'll look into that too. Never heard of it before. This console had played everything I've thrown at it so far... Hmmm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bfstats Posted February 24, 2018 Share Posted February 24, 2018 http://atariage.com/forums/topic/210176-river-raid-ii-is-not-working/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainBreakout Posted February 24, 2018 Author Share Posted February 24, 2018 Wow! The mod did it! Thank you guys SOOO much for the assistance! I am so thankful for this community. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted February 24, 2018 Share Posted February 24, 2018 You're welcome, please drive thru! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dphirschler Posted March 3, 2018 Share Posted March 3, 2018 Wow! The mod did it! Thank you guys SOOO much for the assistance! I am so thankful for this community. What mod. I haven't seen anyone suggest a mod yet. Are you talking about re-flowing the solder? Darryl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainBreakout Posted March 3, 2018 Author Share Posted March 3, 2018 What mod. I haven't seen anyone suggest a mod yet. Are you talking about re-flowing the solder? Darryl Post #2 above from save2600. The link leads to info about the mod. Simplest mod I've ever done (unless you count filing down the cart slot of my Genesis to fit Mega Drive game circa 1992). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dphirschler Posted March 5, 2018 Share Posted March 5, 2018 Thank! I see it now. I am blind. Darryl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsteakraw Posted March 5, 2018 Share Posted March 5, 2018 Try WD-40 and rub out the contacts with an Eraser. Then clean the contacts with alcohol and a qtip and dry with a dry qtip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Innit Posted March 5, 2018 Share Posted March 5, 2018 Try WD-40 and rub out the contacts with an Eraser. Then clean the contacts with alcohol and a qtip and dry with a dry qtip. Um, did you read post #7 ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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