My New Toy

[11up]

11up here again, I just recently got an Atari 2600 from a friend. (He didn't want it anymore and it didn't work anyway) But I managed to fix it, apparently the switch was loose and the 7805 transistor on the switch board wasn't screwed down to the heat-sink, on top of the Atari being dirty inside and out. I cleaned it up and everything and nearly died laughing when Pacman came on the screen. From then on it really grew on me. It's a 6 switch Atari made on June 24, 1978, according to the paper taped to the main board's shield.

I've really grown to like this thing, and decided to look for mods I could do to it here. I bumped into a sticky in this forum with a bunch of tutorials, including the composite mod, which I did as you can see in the pic. Man, the picture is way clearer (and a more convenient video source) than using the crappy old RF box, and by doing this mod saved me a lot of money in replacing it. Thank you HK-47 for posting that tutorial up.
To get a better Atari experience on the Dreamcast, I figured out how the Atari controllers work, (I got a real kick out of how simple the Atari sticks are. I have the pinouts if anyone wants me to post'em up here) and rigged a simple lan adapter for it using a printer plug to use on my DC controller. Now I don't have to destroy one of these rare controllers to rig up to the Dreamcast I plan on making an adapter that will allow me to plug up an NES pad I rigged a lan plug to into the Atari.

I plan on adding an internal battery to it and everything when I get the time. I have a few questions to ask though. Is there any other mods I can do to it any of you guys have done? Is there a way to open up the Atari carts? Much of the games I play on the Atari are very clear, but Asteroids acts a little fuzzy on the left side of the screen when I hit the fire button. I think the cart's connectors are dirty, but I can't quite open it without cracking it in half.
That's all I got for now, later guys.

[bicostp]

2600 carts are easy to get into. There's a Phillips head screw hidden under the label on most of them. (You'll feel a bump or indentation somewhere near the middle of the label.)

Use a sharp X-Acto knife to make a plus-sign-shaped cut over this, then gently use the knife to peel back the little tabs you made. (Don't fold them back too hard or you'll make lines.) It helps to make the cuts a little longer than the screw area. Now you can take a regular screwdriver and unscrew it. There's a couple springs inside that are part of the door system. Be careful to remember how these go back together. Now you should be able to take the circuit board out and clean the contacts. (Just use 91% rubbing alcohol, a pencil eraser, or if the situation is really desperate some very fine sandpaper.

When you go to put the cart back together, screw the screw back down and carefully fold the tabs back where they belong. (You may have to curl them back a little before you put the screw back so they don't get caught underneath it.)

The cartridge should work properly now, and the label shouldn't be too worse for wear. (I've had to clean some of my carts before, and this method does the least damage. Of course some of them look like someone just jabbed a screwdriver right through the label... There's even a couple with replacement screws with washers and protruding heads. )

[11up]

I really appreciate your help bicostp , thanks a million. I just got the Asteroids cart cleaned up, and man,
it was pretty rusty, I'm still shock it actually worked up until now. Here's a pic of it next to a 'Healthy'
looking cart, it's Combat.

After sanding off the rust and rubbing the dirt off the tabs with an eraser. It looks and plays like new!
No more fuzzy image.


I did have some 91% alcohol, but the eraser alone does the job nicely, like it did on the NES carts I cleaned a month back.
I'm afraid to use strong stuff like that on a game cart. The Atari carts are hard to put back together, that spring
isn't easy to work with. But this is still easier than trying to open up an NES cartridge, I nearly destroyed Rad Racer
and Zelda trying to get them open, but it was all worth it. Thank you so much for your help, I was tempted to just
destroy my Combat cart just to see how I could safely go about cracking open all of the other carts.