Pitfall II Not Working?

[INTVCruise]

Hello everyone, I've read that Pitfall I has some problems on 2 port 5200 consoles but wasn't sure about the second game. I have a copy of Pitfall II that has a glitched enemy on the second screen and glitched water and rocks on the 3rd screen. The rest of the game seems to be fine after that other than the game crashes quite a bit randomly to a black screen while the music keeps playing. It never happens in the same spot, sometimes a few seconds after turning the consoles on, sometimes after 1 minute. Does anyone know if the game has issues running on 2 port 5200's? I've tried two Atari 5200's and both have the exact same issue. Here are some pictures of what happens... 

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Exact same issues on two different 5200s?

 

Normally I would say this is indicative of a dirty cartridge contact pins and the cart and the cartridge port on the console likely need a good alcohol bath. But you have it happening on two different consoles so that pretty much isolates the issue to the cartridge itself. Make sure to give it a good clean on the contact pins to see if anything changes. Otherwise, it could be a bad cartridge. My guess if it is the cartridge is that there is a cold solder joint on one of the pins from the ROM chip or a broken trace on the cart PCB somewhere.

 

[INTVCruise]

10 minutes ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

Exact same issues on two different 5200s?

 

Normally I would say this is indicative of a dirty cartridge contact pins and the cart and the cartridge port on the console likely need a good alcohol bath. But you have it happening on two different consoles so that pretty much isolates the issue to the cartridge itself. Make sure to give it a good clean on the contact pins to see if anything changes. Otherwise, it could be a bad cartridge. My guess if it is the cartridge is that there is a cold solder joint on one of the pins from the ROM chip or a broken trace on the cart PCB somewhere.

 

I did just manage to open it up without damaging the label, tried reflowing all of the solder points to see if there was a cold solder joint and check continuity for all traces but seems like the rom chip is the problem as it behaves in the exact same manner.  

[jaybird3rd]

Unfortunately, the Activision 5200 cartridges have a few problems that I've seen many times.  The card edge contacts seem to corrode worse than most cartridges of the same age, and the cartridge board is just a bit too short, so it doesn't sit deeply enough in the cartridge port.  You really have to scrub those boards clean to get a good, reliable connection, and they'll probably require regular cleaning thereafter; with only the very tips of the contacts making a physical connection with the pins in the cartridge port, it doesn't take much dirt to prevent good contact.

[INTVCruise]

49 minutes ago, jaybird3rd said:

Unfortunately, the Activision 5200 cartridges have a few problems that I've seen many times.  The card edge contacts seem to corrode worse than most cartridges of the same age, and the cartridge board is just a bit too short, so it doesn't sit deeply enough in the cartridge port.  You really have to scrub those boards clean to get a good, reliable connection, and they'll probably require regular cleaning thereafter; with only the very tips of the contacts making a physical connection with the pins in the cartridge port, it doesn't take much dirt to prevent good contact.

I did try cleaning it a handful of times and inserting it without the cartridge shell as far as it would go but the corruption is still the same on those two screens. Could cleaning it some more fix it you think. I do know that every activision game on the 5200 I have does take multiple times to get it to read but this one doesn't seem to change at all other than sometimes the corrupted graphics flicker but don't correct themselves. 

Edited March 19, 2021 by INTVCruise

[jaybird3rd]

Another cleaning certainly couldn't hurt, but it could be that this particular cartridge is simply too damaged or corroded.  I've had a few of those, too.

 

(This reminds me that I've been intending to design some new replacement Activision 5200 cartridge boards to correct these issues.  I need to get to work on that, because I'd like to have them for some of my own cartridges.)

[AtariBrian]

Activision carts are a pain. If I have cleaned the contacts several times I then use Deoxit then I use 91 percent again. Make sure when using a q-tip that you use alot of force and speed. Almost like trying to start a fire ? It has worked several times for me. On a side note, when trying this with Activision carts on a 2600 after cleaning them over and over again with no results I find this works. I put the cart in about half way and turn the power on and if no result I try it again and go a bit past half way and so on. Most of the time I get carts that I would normally throw out working!!!

[jaybird3rd]

On 3/19/2021 at 1:39 PM, AtariBrian said:

Activision carts are a pain. If I have cleaned the contacts several times I then use Deoxit then I use 91 percent again. Make sure when using a q-tip that you use alot of force and speed. Almost like trying to start a fire ? It has worked several times for me. On a side note, when trying this with Activision carts on a 2600 after cleaning them over and over again with no results I find this works. I put the cart in about half way and turn the power on and if no result I try it again and go a bit past half way and so on. Most of the time I get carts that I would normally throw out working!!!

I mentioned earlier that I was thinking of designing a new printed circuit board for Activision 5200 cartridges, one which I hope will solve these kinds of problems.  I drew it up over the weekend and have just sent it off for prototyping.  I made it just a little bit longer than the originals so that it will sit deeper in the cartridge slot for more secure contact, and as a newly-manufactured board, it won't have the same corrosion problems as the originals.  I should be getting my first prototype in about two weeks!

 

(EDIT 5/13/2021: See my post below for the completed cartridge boards!)

[AtariBrian]

Awesome, will keep an eye on this. Thanks for that!!

[roadrunner]

On 3/19/2021 at 11:36 AM, INTVCruise said:

Hello everyone, I've read that Pitfall I has some problems on 2 port 5200 consoles but wasn't sure about the second game. I have a copy of Pitfall II that has a glitched enemy on the second screen and glitched water and rocks on the 3rd screen. The rest of the game seems to be fine after that other than the game crashes quite a bit randomly to a black screen while the music keeps playing. It never happens in the same spot, sometimes a few seconds after turning the consoles on, sometimes after 1 minute. Does anyone know if the game has issues running on 2 port 5200's? I've tried two Atari 5200's and both have the exact same issue. Here are some pictures of what happens... 

 

 

 

 

Maybe try folding up a piece of paper after you insert the cart and shove it between the cart and slot so the cart is tight.

 

[INTVCruise]

2 hours ago, roadrunner said:

Maybe try folding up a piece of paper after you insert the cart and shove it between the cart and slot so the cart is tight.

 

I ended up just returning it to the store actually. I did try all of the tricks like getting it centered in the game slot etc, even 3 different Atari 5200 consoles and all gave the same error in the exact same spot.

[0078265317]

22 hours ago, INTVCruise said:

I ended up just returning it to the store actually. I did try all of the tricks like getting it centered in the game slot etc, even 3 different Atari 5200 consoles and all gave the same error in the exact same spot.

How odd 3 different systems same thing.  Ebay another copy and see if it does the same thing. 

[AtariBrian]

22 hours ago, INTVCruise said:

I ended up just returning it to the store actually. I did try all of the tricks like getting it centered in the game slot etc, even 3 different Atari 5200 consoles and all gave the same error in the exact same spot.

Did you try using Deoxit? That also works great.

[jaybird3rd]

On 3/24/2021 at 5:44 PM, AtariBrian said:

Awesome, will keep an eye on this. Thanks for that!!

Well, the new boards are (finally!) finished, tested, and working perfectly!  It will be very satisfying to rebuild my Activision cartridges with these.

 

 

(I've created a Marketplace thread for anyone who's interested in ordering, so see the first post in that thread for more information!)