My bro broke my mint Atari--need some help

[Dolt]

So my little brother (OK, he's 30 these days) comes over last night before the Oscars and says 'hey, let's play some Atari.' So I pull out my 2nd favorite console (the first favorite, my H6er, lives in its box, period). This second favorite is in beautiful, minty condition because it lived in a TV repair shop's basement in a plastic bag for 25 years until I got my hands on it. There's no grime, no dust, the console switches are still shiny and gorgeous, there's a tiny bit of wear in the cart slot, and that's it. I mean, it's beautiful. And I pointed that out to my bro, 'cause I'm a nerd and it's cool to have a virtually brand-new 2600 to play on.

 

Well, he #$%&ing broke my Atari, man.

 

When my two-month old daughter loudly called me out of the room for a few minutes, my brother decided to try a different game, and couldn't quite get it to go into the slot. So he pushed as hard as he could until he heard a big -SNAP!- Heck, I even heard it from the other room. The game in question was Combat, so I wish the snap was the cart breaking--it wouldn't have been easy to replace. But no; instead, it was (as best I can tell) one of the tabs inside the cart slot that raise the gate, exposing the contacts. Now the gate won't raise and I'm screwed.

 

While I could theoretically swap out the innards of the 2600 with another unit, like the Vader I have on the shelf, it just wouldn't be the same--the switches would be tarnished, the cart slot would be all scratched up and it just wouldn't feel right.

 

So, can anyone tell me how to get into that cart slot so that I can try and crazy glue the tab back together? I'd really appreciate it. All I ask is that you remeber that I'm as non-technical as they come, so spell it out like you were explaining it to Bush. Thanks![/i]

[maibock]

Was a thorough ass-kicking in order?

[Dolt]

Only if I wanted to get my ass kicked.

 

Nah, he felt really bad, so I played it off saying not to worry and that I could fix it. I pulled the grungy Vader off the shelf and we kept playing. I mean, how often as an adult do I get to play two-player games anymore?

 

Still sucks about the mint 2600 though.

[hex65000]

Can you take a picture of the problem? I'm just not totally visualizing everything.

 

Hex.

[ Brakes are for slow people... ]

[vb_master]

So wait... the tabs on the Combat cart broke off and got stuck in the console, and the gate won't close on the Atari (or raise on the Combat). Can I see some pics?

[jeepnut24]

Post up a pic of the broken part. Im having a hard time visuallizing the problem..

[keilbaca]

I think if you just open it up, you can dig the broken tab out of the inside. Or, you can just crazy glue the gate open

[Dolt]

I can't really take a photo--I mean I could, but you wouldn't see anything. Best I can tell, when you put a cart in, the tabs on the cart push some small plastic tab/levers inside the slot upwards so that the tab/levers in turn pull open the gate. My brother broke one of the tab/levers inside. To take this apart, I'd have to break open the metal box that the cart slot is attached to, and that means ripping up some important-looking metal strips/tape of some sort. So, before I go hog wild, I wanted to see if anyone could recommend to me how to open it, etc.

[ZylonBane]

Be sure to let your brother know that several dozen people around the world are now convinced that he's a moron.

[Mindfield]

Sounds like either,

 

A) One of the posts on the Combat cart broke off and became lodged in the tab slot on the console. While this keeps the gate open, it prevents carts from being inserted.

B) One of the tabs on the gate itself broke off. This will make it difficult for carts to open the gate because they'd be trying to push it open from only one side, which means it's going to be opening at an angle and thus, will probably get stuck.

 

The solution to A isn't that difficult; you'd have to open it up and remove the offending post. It's a little involved, but not that hard.

 

The solution to B is to replace the cart slot shroud from another unit. This is about as involved as the solution to A, except doubly so since you'll have to follow more or less the same procedure for both units.

[Tsukasa]

I removed the dust flap from mine so I could play my eprom carts. I just removed the cover and the heavy metal shielding, on the bottom of the board there are 2 little holes that you can stick a screwdriver through at an angle to unscrew the 2 screws that hold the dust flap and shroud on.

[Dolt]

Much to my surprise, I managed to get the shielding off. However, instead of holes that lead to tiny screws holding the sheath on, I find small 'click into place'-type tabs (circled in the photo below). I tried prying the sheath off for half an hour, but something else is also holding the sheath in place. When the 'click into place'-type tabs are shoved all the way through their holes, the sheath doesn't budge an inch.

Can anyone tell me what I should try to do next?

[D.Yancey]

Have you tried to insert any other carts. Maybe it is only the cart broken. Try one without a dust cover like an Activision cart or a late model Atari cart. Nothing appears to be broken on your cart slot on the VCS unless it is part of the cart stuck deep down inside. I would think your would be able to see it though. Maybe some compressed air would unlodge it and you could get it out.

[Dolt]

What's broken is that the gate won't go up when you put a cart in--whatever triggers it to go up has been broken inside the cart sleeve. It's open in that photo because if I hold it upside down, gravity just naturally makes it slide open.

 

So, can anyone tell me how to get the sleeve off at this point? It won't budge no matter what I do.

[A.J. Franzman]

Looks like you have a Rev 14 board just like mine. The cart port must be unsoldered before you can remove it by releasing the 2 catches. You can buy replacement cart ports from Best Electronics, they have both styles (this is the straight one).

 

BTW, there is nothing obviously wrong in your pictures, but they are too small to really make out the details. When the gate is closed, you should see 2 little "ramps" through the smaller holes at the ends of the cart slot - these are a form of cam that opens the slot gate when the tabs in the cart push on them. They are not clearly visible in your photo. When the gate is open, you should be able to see through those same 2 smaller holes, all the way down to the green circuit board. If it's solid black in there, then something (probably a cart tab) is stuck in there, which you might be able to remove by inserting something into it for a handle, like a tiny drill bit or a piece of hot wire. It sounds like something is definitely broken or jammed - the dust gate is supposed to close under spring pressure, not just gravity. Another possibility is that one or both of the cams have broken off the gate, which could be fixed by removing the cart port then taking all of the gate/cam piece(s) out.

[Dolt]

Bingo--that's exactly what I've been trying to describe, but I didn't have the terminology to do so. One of the cams broke (I believe it's the right-side cam). Given that gravity will open and close the gate now, I'm suspecting the cam broke and the broken piece got into the spring or something like that. Well, I can't unsolder stuff (anything I've ever done with a soldering gun looks like a Henry Moore sculpture), so I'll just settle for tipping the 2600 backwards when I need to pop in a cart. Thanks for the insight (and vocabulary).

[Tsukasa]

Sorry, I thought he had a light-sixer... The method I used worked on my sears light-sixer.