37 replies to this topic

[Miss 2600]

Master Phruby, on Sun Jan 22, 2012 10:09 AM, said:

Quote from my son as he starts up his first Atari 2600 game ever: "Wow that loads so fast!!!"

That's awesome!

[Sean39]

Hi Everyone
I would really not worry to much. I am in my mid 40's and these things have been going for along time. I also have the First Version of Atari Pong
Released in 1975 under Sears name Tele games. Very low Serial number only 60,186 in the box still with the 1975 batteries not even open.
The game system even says Atari on the Power switch.
This thing still loads up very fast and works Great. Which it is older than the Atari 2600. I also have the Atari Pong under their name in 1976
that machine still works also.

My father worked for Atari Corp many years ago,and from what I could from him the cartridges will last forever if kept out of extream heat.
Also just taking good care of them. Now on carts like Nintendo has that have batteries in them. Well just change the batteries out.

I have one Nintendo Cart made back in 1990. Now 22 years old. I thought to open it an check the battery. it had a 3 voly Lithium type battery inside.
Well I measure it with a volt meter. It read 3.02 volts..Now it been 22 years and that battery still read good. I just closed the Cartridge back up ,
and told my daugher who I had late in life.Have fun playing the game it is still good. Now on the carts that have a save funtion where they have
stop saving. Open them up and change out the battery. they still sell those lithium battery that are in Nintendo carts.
Atari carts if any are around still only used 2 AA batteries. Really easy to change them out. By the way Atari Cartridges use NIcad type,so
they a rechargable batteries.
So your Atari cartridge may still save because the batteries may still take on a charge if not change them out.
Do so because you do not want them leaking inside your Cartridges that will end their life really fast. If you do not know how to do it
there are alot of game places that can do it for you.
Or get someone you trust on This website you trust to change out your batteries on your cartridges.

Anyways the games will out live us.


Thanks
Sean

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Master Phruby, on Sun Jan 22, 2012 10:09 AM, said:

Quote from my son as he starts up his first Atari 2600 game ever: "Wow that loads so fast!!!"

That would make a good quote for an Atari 2600 T-Shirt.

[Asaki]

Sean39, on Fri Jan 20, 2012 9:21 PM, said:

Keep them out of the extream heat. Like excessive sunlight has damaged more electronics than I can count.

I had bought a bunch of 2600 carts from someone here, and they sat in my mailbox for too long before I found them. Yars wound up DOA =( Maze Craze had a weird multicolor flashing intro before starting up normally, but everything else was okay.

[Master Phruby]

You can clean the contacts on Yars. It should come back. Maze Craze sounds like it is running correctly. The weird multicolor flashing is the Atari drawing the new maze behind the scenes.

[Animan]

5-11under, on Fri Jan 20, 2012 7:22 PM, said:

Animan, on Fri Jan 20, 2012 6:33 PM, said:

Well, if anything, the 2600 and it's games will probably outlive the current-gen systems (except the Wii).

Why do you say that, about the Wii, that is?

The Wii is built like a friggin' tank. Even while it's on, it can survive a 3 ft. tall drop onto solid concrete... And still be running after the impact.

I saw this happen to a friend's Wii with my own eyes.

Edited by Animan, Mon Jan 23, 2012 1:46 PM.

[moycon]

Animan, on Mon Jan 23, 2012 1:45 PM, said:

Even while it's on, it can survive a 3 ft. tall drop onto solid concrete... And still be running after the impact.

I think the fact that it is a disk based system means by default it isn't going to last longer than an Atari 2600. Besides something you do manually (moving the switches), the Atari has no moving parts.
Moving parts = eventually wears out.

[Asaki]

Master Phruby, on Mon Jan 23, 2012 8:36 AM, said:

You can clean the contacts on Yars. It should come back.

Oh, believe me, I already tried that. I even opened it up and took an eraser to the contacts, no dice.

So now not only does it not work, but it's got a nice hole in the label!

Master Phruby, on Mon Jan 23, 2012 8:36 AM, said:

Maze Craze sounds like it is running correctly. The weird multicolor flashing is the Atari drawing the new maze behind the scenes.

I've never seen it do that in emulation or on the Flashback 2.0.

Edited by Asaki, Tue Jan 24, 2012 6:42 AM.

[HammR25]

Obligatory reference to the Mayan calendar making this thread irrelevant.

[Master Phruby]

Asaki, on Tue Jan 24, 2012 6:42 AM, said:

Master Phruby, on Mon Jan 23, 2012 8:36 AM, said:

Maze Craze sounds like it is running correctly. The weird multicolor flashing is the Atari drawing the new maze behind the scenes.

I've never seen it do that in emulation or on the Flashback 2.0.

Flashback 2 is probably using a newer version of the game. I just ran it on Stella and it did the multicolor flashing before the maze was shown.

[Asaki]

Hmm, okay.

[toymailman]

Sean39, on Sat Jan 21, 2012 11:13 AM, said:

I have been getting my Capacitors from www.mouser.com

They have a great catalog full of capacitors. also antique electronic supplies sell even the new type capacitors.
The even give a write up on each company capacitors so you know which ones are the high quality type.
Prices reflect this also on the better brands.

http://www.tubesandmore.com/


This is their website above

Anyways this has alway been a good brand for capacitors

sprague

Anyways when you get to the site on the left side is a menu just click on capacitors.

I hope this helps out some.

What have you found to be the best type of capacitor? I know "best" can sometimes be subjective, but I am interested in quality (reliable and durable). Maybe there are two answers.

1) Best type of cap if money was no object, and
2) Best type of cap if money is an object (ie. value / bang for buck).

Thanks!

[theloon]

I've got a big collection of carts that my Retrode simply will not dump properly. Hopefully someone will reinvent the wheel and make yet another cart dumper specifically for the Atari 2600. Someday all we will have are our ROM dumps and emulators. Right now I just have the emulators and homebrew.