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Solaris Cartridge Does Not Fit


bluejay

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I recently got a Solaris cartridge for my Heavy Sixer and found out it barely fits. If I shove it in with force, it goes in and plays well, but it is kinda painful to get it back out. Do all the "modern" red label cartridges don't fit in old heavy sixers? (All my other cartridges are text, picture, Activision, etc.) Will playing it damage my Atari and/or the cartridge? Should I keep it in my shelf until I get a 2600 jr or something?

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It's not just the red label games but pretty much any game manufactured by Atari Corp. has a hard time fitting in the six-switch systems. The cart plastic is slightly thicker than most other games so that's why you practically have to use a mallet to get them in. Worst that'll happen is you'll get a light scuff on the cart but you won't seriously damage anything.

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Same with my Light Sixer and later games like Radar Lock. Rather than force the issue I'll play them with a Harmony Cart.

 

My copy of Solaris fits OK though.

 

I just tested my copy in my Tele-Games Heavy Sixer and it's the same - very tight fit. It fits a bit better in my daily-driver 4-Switch Woody, and ironically, fits just about perfectly in my 7800.

Edited by DrVenkman
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It's the Tramiel effect.  Redesign everything that works perfectly but only cheaper and not to proper specs based on the original and properly functional designed models.  Same thing with the 7800 early version of that console that have the expansion port where the fit cartridges well (for the most part except on some rare and not widely used non standard 2600 cartridge shell designs), but after the Tramiel el cheapo redesign even 7800 cartridges barely fit into the console and even including ones that did fit fine in the older model of the console.  I get redesings happen on all consoles throughout their life cycles to reduce cost, parts change due to EOL components or cheaper more efficient replacements, and maybe to introduce some enhancements over the original specs, but with the Tramel's it was the opposite (take things away and make it less than technically advanced than the original and with design flaws on what they decided to keep).  It was like a bad joke with them and then you realize that there is truly was no QA process or standard of excellence under their management (mismanagement is probably an more accurate term) and that the only thing that Jack Tramiel cared about was pinching pennies at the to the tune of cutting corners.

 

The Tramiel motto on desing and function in short is no one will notice or care how screwed up it is because they will buy our products because it has the brand of the Atari label (knowing most fans still had the visions of the Atari of Nolan Bushnell's genius & magical innovation in their heads as opposed to the Atari of an delusional & incompetent old greed miester that then owned the company and would eventually run the company out of business).

Edited by Tidus79001
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1 hour ago, CMR said:

I had similar problems with my 7800.  I wound up dremeling out the plastic guide piece to get carts to fit easier.

Yeah, my original 7800 that I had as kid didn't have that issue (it was a early modeldthat had the expansion port).  I ended up selling that console, but years later end up getting another 7800 for retro gaming and found out about this tight cartridge slot problem.  Researched the issue and found out that this was due to the piss poor redesigns implemented by the Tramiels.  I then sought out an early model 7800 with expansion port to replace the Tramiel crap model 7800 console and lo and behold all my cartridges that didn't fit in the Tramiel el cheapo special fit nicely in the 7800 that was designed to the pre -Tramiel Atari original specs for the console.

Edited by Tidus79001
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I found out what the problem was; it's too thick! I tried inserting it kinda lopsided, and the cart didn't fit at all. I don't think I can really "grind" the cart in the back so it would fit; I don't think it's really worth it when I can just shove it in my colecovision em1. *I also found out my coleco donkey kong cart is kinda stiff, although not as much as the solaris cart.

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