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Activision and Parker Brothers Cartridge Fix


djsky717

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Have you guys noticed some games by Activision and Parker Brothers wouldn't play despite cleaning the metal contacts?

 

In my collection I had about 10 of these third party games that wouldn't play. Then I noticed they would play if I pulled the cart slightly out of the console. Which led me to believe that these third party cartridges were manufactured slightly off from Atari's design parameters/standards. Essentially the metal contacts of these third party carts were just a hair too low for the reader.

 

So I raised the metal contacts by performing the following (see attached photos):

 

1. Heat up the cart label with a hair dryer to loosen the adhesive.

2. Carefully peel back the label until screws are exposed.

3. Unscrew, then open the cart and remove the PCB.

4. Scrape off about 2-3 mm of the green conformal coating to expose more of the metal contacts (clean the contacts while you're at it).

5. Put everything back in reverse order. (Tip: reheat the label to reactivate the adhesive).

 

Now 10 out of 10 work! Hope this helps.

 

 

 

 

IMG-9931.jpg

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Neotokeo, I'm currently at my electronic workshop tonight and luckily I have some opened consoles and stuff to take photos.

 

In the photo on the left is one of the cart readers in situ, where the outer curve is designed to touch the metal contact of the game cart when inserted.

 

In the photo on the right is a mock up of the scenario where I previously mentioned that the metal contacts of some third party carts were just a hair too low for the reader.

 

Notice the curve of the reader is trying to read the very top of the metal contact, and if you push the cart too far into the console, the reader will miss the contact by just a hair and then goes into the conformal coating area which is a non-conductive dielectric substance. This is why scraping away this coating will fix this issue.

 

Sorry I probably put in too much info, but hopefully this will help clarify any confusion. Let me know if you have any more questions!

 

 

IMG-9702-2.jpg

Edited by djsky717
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It appears there may be 3 factors.

 

First is due to the design/etching of the PCB from the beginning. They made the length of the metal contacts just a hair too short (not sure why, maybe they were basing it off an early reader design spec before it got changed? See my second factor for details). Hence my solution to lengthen them by scrapping off some the coating to expose more of the metal contacts. I literally had more than 10 of these 3rd party carts that wouldn't play, and they happened to be all Activision and Parker Brother carts. They wouldn't play when pushed all the way into the console, but they played after I slightly pulled them out...a dead giveaway of a mismatched height/length between the reader and the cart's metal contacts. That's how I came up with the fix. After doing this, every one of those affected carts starting playing perfectly again.

 

Second is I noticed it might depend on the console. I have more than 15 consoles (my avatar pic is my collection). As you probably know, not all consoles have the same reader designs/manufacturer. There were several different suppliers of the reader used in the production of the consoles across different plants in Sunnyvale and overseas, and my guess is either some suppliers made their readers slightly off from Atari's design specs, or there were more than 1 design spec floating around and Activision/Parker Bros. may have referenced only one of them when designing the PCB.

 

Lastly, over time after years of wear and tear, the metal would get worn down just a tiny bit, but enough to cross over the failure threshold when combined with the other 2 factors.

Edited by djsky717
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18 hours ago, djsky717 said:

Neotokeo, I'm currently at my electronic workshop tonight and luckily I have some opened consoles and stuff to take photos.

 

In the photo on the left is one of the cart readers in situ, where the outer curve is designed to touch the metal contact of the game cart when inserted.

 

In the photo on the right is a mock up of the scenario where I previously mentioned that the metal contacts of some third party carts were just a hair too low for the reader.

 

Notice the curve of the reader is trying to read the very top of the metal contact, and if you push the cart too far into the console, the reader will miss the contact by just a hair and then goes into the conformal coating area which is a non-conductive dielectric substance. This is why scraping away this coating will fix this issue.

 

Sorry I probably put in too much info, but hopefully this will help clarify any confusion. Let me know if you have any more questions!

 

 

IMG-9702-2.jpg

Answered my question. I didn't realize what you were saying until you showed the new photos. Great detective work!!

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1 hour ago, Asaki said:

Probably. It's supposed to be a bigger issue on Heavy Sixers, isn't it? I know mine has issues with Barnstorming and Keystone Kapers.

You're probably right. I didn't get a chance to test Barnstorming and Keystone Kapers on my Heavy Sixer, but those 2 titles were among the games exhibiting this issue on my Taiwan 4-switch Woody and Vader while it played fine on my Sunnyvale 4-switch and my Hong Kong Light Sixer. I already did the scrapping fix on my 3rd party carts so there's no way to go back to test for failure on my Heavy Sixer. Anyway thanks for your input. Are you planning on addressing the issue on those games?

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Makes sense, you can see on the initial cart post where your scraping the green layer off, and the remaining green layer is scuffed by the systems contact.

 

Some of the original Parker and Activision carts had a sponge to substitute the carts dust cover, and I imagine that kept the carts pushed out a bit, though those sponges have long since deteriorated. Originally with the sponge, I imagine they met system requirements, but their just slightly off when it goes missing.

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I had a similar issue with telegames carts only to find the solder points were globbed all over the place. You would think this sort of thibg would have rendered the game useless from day one as sometimes these blobs cross pins touching eachother. Yet the cart worked in the past and it is not like the temperature in my house can heat solder. I still have no idea how this is possible.

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  • 4 months later...
  • 2 years later...

Just seen this post and one thing I would mention is that scraping away the solder resist coating can potentially become problematic over time.

If the PCB tacks were tin plated before the solder resist was added you will probably get away with it if you did not also scrape off the tinning, if not then the exposed copper of the tracks will eventually oxidise, turning green with Verdigris resulting in poor contact.

 

Consequently, while not cheap you may want to consider investing in PCB repair pen as they contain conductive paint and use it to cover the exposed copper to prevent (or at least slow down) any oxidisation. The pens do not last very long as they sort of dry out/the filling solidifies after a while so to get the most from them it would be better to a batch of cartridges at one time if you can.

You could try using them directly by drawing it on top of the end of the PCB contact to ensure connection and then up on top of the solder resist instead of scraping it off first, I don't recall trying that myself so it may not adhere to the solder resist very well.

You could also use it refresh the surface of worn PCB contacts, but it is not really meant for that so how long it would last with regular insertion and removal is unknown.      

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  • 6 months later...

I cut some pieces of foam (with slots for the contacts and the plastic guides) and inserted them into the carts so that the carts can’t be fully inserted, and that’s working pretty well. Some are Activision carts are still a little iffy on my 2600+ but others that rarely worked before now work every time with the foam inserted.

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What’s ironic about this is that Activision literally sold their first 2600 game releases with actual foam inserts included inside the cartridges. It’s pretty much an admittance or realization of having made a manufacturing mistake.

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