"flicking" power switch- dangerous?

[jlh2600]

Certain games you get advantages when you flick the power switch off and on. Is this damaging in any way to the console, and is that just a glitch or designed intentionally?

[Spirantho]

Certain games you get advantages when you flick the power switch off and on. Is this damaging in any way to the console, and is that just a glitch or designed intentionally?

 

"Frying" as it's called is a Bad Idea... at least if you want your console to have a long and healthy life.

 

You're not going to blow up an Atari just by power cycling very quickly, but the wear and tear on electronic components isn't in keeping them running, it's in turning them on or off, kind of like a light bulb, and rapid cycling of the power is the worst way of doing it - it's not what the components were designed for so you may well get power spikes or something.

 

At least, that's what I've always been told. Personally I don't risk it.

[minorleagueguy]

...I agree, why trash a perfectly good console?

 

minorleagueguy

[+Random Terrain]

Stella emulates frying (Backspace), so now you don't have to abuse your Atari. Seems like the double shots in Space Invaders is still safe to do though, since there is no flicking of switches.

[Mindfield]

I did it quite a bit back in the day when I "discovered" it. I think I tried it on pretty much every game I had just to see what frying it would do. (I didn't know it was a known phenomenon back then, much less what it was called) Some games produced pretty fascinating effects. Most of them were mildly interesting but largely useless.