Issues with Pac-Man on Atarimax multicart, why?

[BIGHMW]

I have a little problem, and it stems on my 2-port 5200 with my Atarimax (my second) multicart with the ROMs of Pac-Man, Pac-Man Plus, and Hangly-Man, they all have an issue in which Pac-Man himself, is displayed on them, but when I play the Pac-Man cartridge, Pac-Man seems all fine and dandy, as you can see in these photos in which I took of my 39" Insignia monitor, I can't be either the ROMs or the multicart, as it has happened on both multicarts i have owned and all the different ROMs I have tried all ended up doing the same thing, can someone here help??? Here are the pics to explain what I have to put up with:

 

First, Pac-Man:

 

 

 

next, Pac-Man Plus:

 

 

 

 

....and Hangly-Man:

 

 

 

...and now, here is my Pac-Man cartridge which runs fine and displays him as normal as he always should:

 

 

 

Now with that submitted, is there something wrong with my system, I was going to perhaps have @atari-dna do some work on her to not only address this serious issue but also to perhaps remove the hard-wired RF cable and replace it with a chassis-mounted single RCA jack wired into the circuitry where the RF cable once was wired into so I can then use any length of detachable RCA-based RF cord (I look to get a single 12-15-foot-long RCA-to-RCA cord I intend to interchange between my 4 systems so I can park the console in use on my TV tray while using the controller in my hand while still having the console in front of me to reboot the system in order to change games or functions on games on the multicart) needed for my RF-to-HDMI interface I use with my 4 game systems, and before I send her in to have those things done, I need to know the display issues involved in there photos, I tried multiple ROMs of each and had 2 Atarimax carts and know it's not either one of them, so what is it, is it how my 5200 reads ROMs as opposed to carts???

Edited December 1, 2020 by BIGHMW

[Giltygear]

"What I have to put up with..."

 

So its not the fact that youre playing it in 16:9  that bothers you, but the 1 pixel imperfection on Pacman?

[+-^CrossBow^-]

That is also a pretty decent RF picture you're getting from that 5200 as I've seen much worse!

 

[Atari Nut]

Did you try it without the RF-to-HDMI interface?  Also, I would consider getting an extension RCA cable instead of modifying the system.

[BIGHMW]

14 minutes ago, Atari Nut said:

Did you try it without the RF-to-HDMI interface?  Also, I would consider getting an extension RCA cable instead of modifying the system.

It even did that with the RF hooked up directly to the TV antenna input itself and also to the antenna input of the VCR so its not that.

[BIGHMW]

41 minutes ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

That is also a pretty decent RF picture you're getting from that 5200 as I've seen much worse!

 

It also depends on what cord you use, I most recently switched cords with my 65XE (2 6-foot thin-gauge audio cords connected with a RCA dual-ended coupler to make a 12-foot cable) and it made a not-so great difference so the quality and grade of the cord matters as well. This one I currently use on it is not-so shielded with my 65XE as opposed to the ones I used before (2 shorter-but shielded RF cords supplied with my 7800 and 65XE systems combined). As for the one on the 5200 it is the stock one that is currently on it.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

4 minutes ago, BIGHMW said:

It also depends on what cord you use, I most recently switched cords with my 65XE (2 6-foot thin-gauge audio cords connected with a RCA dual-ended coupler to make a 12-foot cable) and it made a not-so great difference so the quality and grade of the cord matters as well. This one I currently use on it is not-so shielded with my 65XE as opposed to the ones I used before (2 shorter-but shielded RF cords supplied with my 7800 and 65XE systems combined). As for the one on the 5200 it is the stock one that is currently on it.

I understand that, I was just making an observation that your 5200 on that TV appears to produce a very decent RF signal and if you brought the aspect ration back to properly 4:3 on it, it might look even sharper to an extent. But you stated you have an Insignia brand? Nothing wrong with those, but I don't believe those give you an aspect option on their digital inputs. I know the one I had for awhile in my game room didn't allow for this and the HDMI input was always stretched to 16:9. I do have the option to change this on my current TV.

 

 

[BIGHMW]

BTW, my RF-to-HDMI interface also has an option to view your picture in 4:3 ratio as well as 16:9 so to answer that question on whether 16:9 bothers me or not, in which it does not but for those for whom it does the RF-to-HDMI interface offers an on-remote 4:3 option as well (just press 4:3 on the remote to view that way with left and right bars like on the Flashback 9.

[BIGHMW]

2 minutes ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

I understand that, I was just making an observation that your 5200 on that TV appears to produce a very decent RF signal and if you brought the aspect ration back to properly 4:3 on it, it might look even sharper to an extent. But you stated you have an Insignia brand? Nothing wrong with those, but I don't believe those give you an aspect option on their digital inputs. I know the one I had for awhile in my game room didn't allow for this and the HDMI input was always stretched to 16:9. I do have the option to change this on my current TV.

 

 

I don't use the TV's own antenna input at all, I found a much less quality RF picture from it, a little more blurred and not as good, I like to go through my RF-to-HDMI interface hooked up to my Sony STR-DH590 Home Theater receiver, then the HDMI output from it hooked up to the TV's HDMI input.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

6 minutes ago, BIGHMW said:

I don't use the TV's own antenna input at all, I found a much less quality RF picture from it, a little more blurred and not as good, I like to go through my RF-to-HDMI interface hooked up to my Sony STR-DH590 Home Theater receiver, then the HDMI output from it hooked up to the TV's HDMI input.

Again, I understand and I figured that. That is why I made the comment about my older Insignia not allowing me to change my aspect ratio to 4:3 on digital input sources. Didn't know if your would allow it or not or if newer models from Insignia supported it.

 

NM I guess...

 

[BIGHMW]

The interface will allow that, maybe the TV might not have one onboard it but my RF-to-HDMI interface does have a 4:3 option on the remote so you can still retro-game to that true old-school 4:3 configuration if you want to like on the Flashback 9.

[Atari Nut]

Here's a thread with someone else having a graphic glitch with Pac-Man using an AtariMax cart.  

 

Can anyone help me fix grapthic issue on the atarimax sd5200 - Atari 5200 - AtariAge Forums

 

 

Edited December 1, 2020 by Atari Nut