Repairing intellivision cartridges?

[8bitwidgets.com]

Hi everyone.  I own a handful of games that actually work but only like 1 out of let's say 20-30 attempts..  so the good news is that the data appears to be in tact it's just the information to/from the cart is bad..  none of the pins actually look bad.. maybe some minor wear but nothing screaming bad.. 

 

I wonder if there might be new pcbs people are making maybe to transfer the chips?  I may experiment on one and try and retouch all the contacts in case maybe there's some cold solder joint somewhere..  I do know though not all pcbs were the same.  i've seen resistors in some games while others don't appear to have that requirement. 

 

I really hate to throw these games away if they can be fixed.   seeing that they play fine is why i am hopeful..  I've cleaned them well with deoxit and opened them up to inspect them as well as my untrained eye can see.  

 

 

 

Thanks,

Caleb

[mr_me]

People here have been throwing out cartridge PCBs to use the shells for homebrews.  They could easily replace your PCBs.

[BSRSteve]

13 minutes ago, mr_me said:

People here have been throwing out cartridge PCBs to use the shells for homebrews.  They could easily replace your PCBs.

That does depend on which games they are...... 

[+JasonlikesINTV]

A few years back at PRGE  I saw a large box of PCBs in the trash/recycling on Sunday after the show.  No one wanted them due to either lack of room in cars/luggage or not wanting to pay for shipping home.  Thousands have been sacrificed for homebrews.  If anything, they're should be a shell shortage, not a pcb shortage.

 

At least Rev had the good sense to document pcb variations ?

[8bitwidgets.com]

yea thanks for bringing up the homebrew point.. i do home to eventually make some games for it so that's cool, but yea i still want to get the two games i bought to work (anything close to reliably) because the drive back to return them is not worth it..    i have a pitfall, checkers, chess, horse racing, and a few others...  some of these games i already have replaced but chess and checkers were only $9 between them and they are much more expensive on ebay atm..  they already don't work so I'm going to tinker and see if the chips can make better contact..  the main issue i fear is that maybe it's the "teeth" themselves that contact with the 

 

as for the shell shortage, no one has ever looked into producing new carts?  i do not know about manufacturing, but i wonder what, say a run of 1,000 new clone cartridges would be?  

 

as to the pcb question, so it sounds like the answer is they have been made before, but no one carries intellivision pcbs on a regular basis to restore old carts?  i haven't looked closely enough but i believe i have seen at least some variation from game to game which makes a universal pcb no bueno.. 

Edited August 7, 2021 by Caleb Garner

[mr_me]

1 hour ago, BSRSteve said:

That does depend on which games they are...... 

Would he be able to swap his chess roms on to a poker & blackjack pcb?

 

Edit:

Bad example, forgot about the ram.  In general, can roms be swapped between PCBs.

Edited August 7, 2021 by mr_me

[8bitwidgets.com]

which one has ram?  chess?  i imagine it might need it to help calculate the moves..  or blackjack has ram in it?   

 

in your experience would you say the failures are due mostly to the teeth being worn (even if only slightly) vs the traces and contacts to the chips themselves failing?  

 

my plan is to take a soldering iron to all of the pins and basically just touch up the solder on each to see if that makes any difference..  

[mr_me]

I have s couple cartridges that are a bit finicky.  I figure it's the contact with the slot in the console.  If I pull the cartridge back so the slot grabs the cartridge closer to the edge, they work reliably.

[8bitwidgets.com]

yea i just really don't like the constant on/offing of the intellivision itself.. feels like i'm subjecting the electronics to these repeated on and offs..  this is a big reason i want an LTO.. plug it in and done. 

[+JasonlikesINTV]

I'm sure you already tried this, but definitely clean your carts as best you can.  That can definitely improve reliability.  If you're seeing issues on carts regularly, consider cleaning your Intellivision console's pins.  To save on wear with repeated inserting, consider buying a cheap Intellivoice.  You can leave it plugged in and insert the carts into it.  Also, once the LTO Flash is available again, buy one if you don't already have one.  You can load all your games and leave it plugged in all the time.

 

Regarding your finicky PCBs, if you can't get Checkers and Chess to work, send me a PM.  I know I have a spare Checkers PCB you can have for free.  I might have Chess too.

[8bitwidgets.com]

@JasonlikesINTV thanks for those tips.  I do have an intellivoice for this reason as well as of course having the voice support!  

 

I did give them a good cleaning and while cleaning the pins of the system would be good 

 

yea i think i got on the list yesterday so i hope to be part of the next batch of LTO which is exactly like i have on all my other cart systems..  this was the last system that needed a multicart.   

 

Thanks so much about the offer.  let me see what i can do first.  Also now that i'm on the LTO list. I can be more patient..  the most important thing for me is the inserts which i'm grateful i have.   

[8bitwidgets.com]

So I did go back down and look at things closer.  I had cleaned the port of the intellivoice and sears intellivision before, but noticed using a cartridge cleaning kit i'd gotten since that cleaning and found a bit more funk was coming off..   it seems like all the carts are working BUT I have noticed that the chess game in particular and i think checkers to a lesser extent has to be inserted pushing the cartridge in pushing it as far right as possible.. if it goes in leaning to the left the cart fails..  

So I think I'm good for now.. I'm on the LTO backorder list now and was told realistically six months.. so in the meantime i'll enjoy the cartridges I have.  

 

Looking at the chess cartridge, i'm just wondering if there's a way to restore worn pins without replacing the whole thing?  is there some plating or something that can be done to effectively return the full continuity of the pins?  in my case it's subtle wear.. not like a pin is clearly eroded away.. just signs of some of the copper worn down.