Atari Reconditioned 2600 Video Game System!  This is the Original / First 6 Switch Version 2600 System Atari Made!  All Reconditioned 2600 Consoles are Circa Atari 1980 - 1984 Vintage.  All Best’s Reconditioned Atari 2600/2600A systems are reconditioned with New Atari OEM Factory Replacement Parts and Tested and Burned in, using Atari 2600 Factory Diagnostic Equipment and comes with the same Atari 90 day Warranty as when they were first released.  Each Reconditioned Atari 2600 System comes with the 2600 Main Console, one Atari CX24 Joystick, New U.S. 110 Volt Atari 2600 Power Adapter, New Upgraded Atari R.F. Cable, New Atari Universal Cable Ready TV Switch Box,  New Owners Manual and New Atari CX2649 Asteroids Cartridge with 66 Game Variations!  CB103086 $89.95

Atari Reconditioned 2600 Video Game System, Heavy Version (1st 2600 made in Sunnyvale CA) This is the Original / First 6 Switch Version thick case 2600 System Atari Made!  All Reconditioned 2600 Consoles are Circa Atari 1978 - 1980 Vintage.  All Best’s Reconditioned Atari 2600/2600A systems are reconditioned with New Atari OEM Factory Replacement Parts and Tested and Burned in, using Atari 2600 Factory Diagnostic Equipment and comes with the same Atari 90 day Warranty as when they were first released.  Each Reconditioned Atari 2600 System comes with the 2600 Main Console, one CX24 Joystick, New U.S. 110 Volt Atari 2600 Power Adapter, New Upgraded Atari R.F. Cable, New Atari Universal Cable Ready TV Switch Box, New Owners Manual and New Atari CX2649 Asteroids Cartridge with 66 Game Variations! CB103086H $109.95

Atari Reconditioned 2600A Video Game System! This is the Second Generation Atari 4 Switch 2600A System!  All Best’s Reconditioned Atari 2600A systems are reconditioned with New Atari OEM Factory Replacement Parts and Tested and Burned in, using Atari 2600 Factory Diagnostic Equipment and have New Protective Atari Static switch Strips (which most of the reconditioned Atari 2600A's on the Internet Do Not have or are damaged in the reconditioning process) installed.  Each Reconditioned Atari 2600A System comes with the 2600A Main Console, one Atari CX24 Joystick, New U.S. 110 Volt Atari 2600 Power Adapter, New Upgraded Atari R.F. Cable, New Atari Universal Cable Ready TV Switch Box, New Owners Manual and New Atari CX2649 Asteroids Cartridge with 66 Game Variations and comes with the same Atari 90 day Warranty as when they were first released! CB102441 $89.95

Atari Reconditioned 2600A Dark Vader version (all black) Video Game System! This is the Second / Last Generation Atari 4 Switch 2600A System made!  All Best’s Reconditioned Atari 2600A systems are reconditioned with New Atari OEM Factory Replacement Parts and Tested and Burned in, using Atari 2600 Factory Diagnostic Equipment and comes with the same Atari 90 day Warranty as when they were first released.  Each Reconditioned Atari 2600A System comes with the 2600A Main Console, one Atari CX24 Joystick, New U.S. 110 Volt Atari 2600 Power Adapter, New Upgraded Atari R.F. Cable, New Atari Universal Cable Ready TV Switch Box, New Owners Manual and New Atari CX2649 Asteroids Cartridge with 66 Game Variations! CB103086V $94.95

Brand New Custom Atari Dust covers for the Atari 2600 / 2600A Consoles.  These Translucent see thru Dust covers, have a tailored fit with reinforced edging around the base.  CB103121 $12.95

New in the box Atari 2600Jr. Console with 1 Atari CX40 Joystick.  Comes with US / NTSC 2600 Jr. Console, CX40 Atari Joystick, Upgraded Atari RF cable, Atari Universal Cable Ready TV switch box, Atari US 2600 Power Supply and Atari 2600Jr. Owners Manual.   5 Atari 2600 Jr's left in stock Only!  Limit one per Customer!

$125

For the first time in 22+ years, Brand New Custom made Atari Dust covers for the Atari 2600Jr Consoles.  These Translucent see thru Dust covers, have a tailored fit with reinforced edging around the base and Custom tapered fit.  CB103123 $12.95

Best Electronics Special Buy!

A lot of the Atari 2600/7800 Game Consoles that were released in Europe came with an Atari 32 in 1 Game Cartridge. Yes! 32 full blown, 2600 Games on one Atari Game Cartridge. Here is a list of the Atari and Atari Licensed PAL 2600 games on this 32 in 1 cartridge: Air-Sea Battle, Ant Party, Basketball, Blackjack, Bowling, Boxing, Video Checkers, Combat, Fishing, Fishing Derby, Flag Capture, Football, Freeway, Freeway Rabbit, Fun with Numbers, Golf, Homerun, Human Cannonball, Laser Blast, Miniature Golf, Outlaw, Othello, Skiing, Sky Diver, Slot Machine, Slot Racers, Space War, Stampede, Surround, Tennis, 3D Tic-Tac-Toe and UFO.  32, Atari Joystick and Paddle 2600 Games with a Total of 281+ Game variations on one Atari made Cartridge. The way you access each different game, is to insert the Atari 32 in 1 cartridge into your 2600 or 7800 console and turn it on for the first 2600 Game, then off and on for the next game and so on.

32 in 1 Atari 2600 Cartridge $32

Atari 2600 Game Cartridges as of 3-21-07

Limited supply on some 2600 Titles, some titles only one is in stock, sold on a first come first serve basis!  We suggest when placing orders for 2600 Cartridges, you always have a 2nd and 3rd choice of the same dollar Value 2600 Game Cartridge listed, in case your 1st choice has sold out. This allows us to process your order faster and Not have to issue Credits, Refund checks or try to contact you by phone or E-Mail.

Atari Titles (Boxed)

Dig Dug, Real Sport Football, Real Sports Volleyball, Warloards, Yars Revenge $9.95 ea.

Basketball, Battlezone, Berzerk, Brain Games, Circus Atari, Cookie Monster Munch, Crossbow, Crystal Castles, Defender II, Desert Falcon, Football, Galaxian, Joust, Jungle Hunt, Kangaroo, Mario Bros., Midnight Magic, Millipede, Missile Command, Moon Patrol, M.S. Pac Man, Pac Man Jr., Pole Position, Real Sports Baseball, Real Sports Boxing, Real Sports Soccer, Real Sports Tennis, Solaris, Sprint Master, Super Baseball, Super Breakout, Super Football, Venture $12 ea.    Air Sea Battle, Asteroids, Big Bird Egg Catch, Centipede, Donkey Kong, Taz, Mouse Trap, Off the Wall, Qbert $15 ea.   Demons to Diamonds, Doge'em, Donkey Kong Jr., Orthello, Star Raiders with Special Controller Package, Stargate, Sorcerer's Apprentice, Space Invaders $18 ea.     Secret Quest, TNT BMX Air Master and Just like the Atari Arcade Version Road Runner $38 ea.

Non Atari Titles (Boxed)

Space Attack $9.95   Enduro, Ice Hockey, Sea Hawk, Star Voyager, Task Force $12.95 ea.    Burger Time, Commando, Cruise Missile, Dark Caverns, Frogger, GI Joe: Cobra Strike, Karate, Tutankham $15 ea.   Demon Attack, , Reactor, River Raid I, Pete Rose Baseball, Skiing, Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back, Skateboarding $20 ea. Cross Force, Spiderman, TomCat F14 $25 ea.   Double Dragon, Pitfall II, River Raid II $29.95 ea.

Non Atari PAL Titles (Boxed) Absolute’s Title Match Pro Wrestling $10  CA Games, Commando, Rampage, TomCat F- 14 $15 ea.  

Non Atari Titles Loose Cartridges (No Instructions) Winter Games and Tennis $6 ea.

Atari Loose Cartridges (No Instructions)

Air Sea Battle, Asteroids, Berzerk, Circus Atari, Combat, Defender, Dodg'em, ET, Football, Jungle Hunt, Moon Patrol, Mouse Trap, Night Driver, Othello, Pac Man, Phoenix, Outlaw, Space Attack, Space War, Street Racer, Super Breakout, Surround, Vanguard, Venture,  Warlords, Yars' Revenge  All at $5 ea.

Basketball, Brain Games, Breakout, Blackjack, Canyon Bomber, Crystal Castles, Crossbow, Desert Falcon, Galaxian, Golf, Human Cannonball, Kangaroo, Midnight Magic, Millipede, Pac Man Jr., Peles Soccer / Championship Soccer, Pole Position, Real Sports Baseball, Real Sports Boxing, Real Sports Football, Real Sports Tennis, Real Sports Volleyball, Solaris, Sorcerer's Apprentice, Super Baseball, Super Football, Sword Quest Fireworld $6 ea.   Battlezone, Hunt & Score, Ms. Pac Man, Mouse Trap, Q Bert $7 ea.   Centipede, Donkey Kong Jr., Haunted House,  Mazecraze, M.S. Pac Man, Mouse Trap, Skydiver, Space Invaders, Video Olympics (with Atari Pong game) $9.95 ea.   Basic Math, Basic Programming, Hangman, Miniature Golf, Star Ship, Slot Machine, Superman  $12 ea.   Flag Capture $14.95

Other Atari Titles (Cartridge only /May have different factory label or no label, No Instructions)

These Atari Game cartridges are built up (hand assembled) from our Atari inventory of 30,000 to 50,000 2600 Atari Game I.C.s we have in stock.  Many of these older Classic 2600 Titles are Virtually Impossible to find nowadays by 2600 Collectors. 

Adventure, Alpha Beam Ernie, Backgammon, Basketball, Bowling, Concentration, Golf, Haunted House, Math Grand Prix, Maze Craze, Phoenix, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Slot Racers, Star Ship, Stellar Trak (Sears release), 3D Tic-Tac-Toe, Superman, Sword Quest Earthworld, Video Chess, Video Pinball, Volleyball All at $10 ea.

Text Version Instructions for above hand assembled 2600 cartridges (except titles in Green) $2 ea.

PAL Versions Battlezone, Centipede,Chess, Jungle Hunt, Kangaroo, M.S. Pac Man, Pole Position, Raider of the Lost Ark, R S Tennis, Space Invaders $10 ea.

New 2600 Service! Some 313 different Text Version (typed) Game Instructions for 2600 Cartridges are Now Available, E-Mail for Titles $3 ea.  

2600 News Flash 2-24-08

Best Electronics buy's out one of the largest Collection of 2600 Cartridges we have Ever seen! One of our Atari Dealers decided to retire after 16+ years Selling (and Collecting) Atari 2600 Games at his Local Store and Flea markets in his area! Many of the 3,100+ Atari and Non Atari titles we bought, we have only heard about in the last 15+ years in business, But have Never seen! Because most of the loose 2600 Game cartridges on this list were out in the Sun for years (6 to 15), just about all of the cartridge Labels on the 2600 cartridges are in Good to Fair and Poor Shape (noted with a (G)(F)(P) after the title), some even maybe missing the end labels! All of these Atari 2600 Collector Series Game Cartridges work and are Perfect for the Atari 2600 Collector who wants to fill in his 2600 Collection with the missing Cartridges you have been Searching for Years and Years and could Not seem to find at a Reasonable Price!  When ordering any of these Special Buy 2600 Cartridges, Please put the (F) or (P) past the Game Title with the price, this will help us to differentiate between our standard 2600 inventory and this Special Buy Group.

Atari/Sears Titles (Loose)

Alpha Beam with Ernie(F), Circus Atari(P), Demons to Diamonds (F to P), Berzerk(P), Home Run Baseball(P), Vanguard(P) $3 ea.   Crystal Castles(P), Sears Defender(P), Human Cannonball (F to P), Kagnaroo(P), Missle Command(P), Math Grand Prix(P), Raiders of the Lost Ark(P), Star Raiders(P), Sears Target Fun(P), Yars Revenge(P) $4 ea.  Sword Quest Earthworld(P), 3-D Tic-Tic-Toe(P), Maze Craze(P), Boxing(P) $5 ea.   Sears Outer Space(P) $8  Sears Baseball(P) Absolute (Loose) State Boarding(P) $10   Adventure(P) $12

Activision (Loose) (All Carts have adhesive spots showing thru the label, faded to very faded or Missing end labels)  Barnstorming(P), Dragster(P), Enduro(P),Freeway(P), Ice Hockey(P), Laser Blast(P), Robot Tank(P), Skiing(P), Stampede(P), Tennis(P) $4 ea.  Atlantis (F to G), Sky Jinks(P), Spider Fighter(P),Chopper Command(P), Robert Tank)(P), Grand Prix(P) $6 ea.

Apollo (Loose) Space Cavern(P) $6

CBS Electronics/Video (Loose) Gorf(P), Solar Fox(P), Wizard of Wor(P) $6 ea.

20th Century Fox (Loose) Cosmic Creep(P), Mash(P), Turmoil(P), $6 ea.

Coleco (Loose) Donkey Kong(F to P) $4 Carnival(P), Mouse Trap,Venture(P), Donkey Kong Junior(G) $6 ea.

Coleco Zaxxon(P) $20

Date Age (Loose) Warp Lock(P) $5

Epyx (Loose) Winter Games(P) $10 ea.

IMagic (Loose) Cosmic Ark(F), Riddle of the Sphinx(F), Star Voyager(F) $4 ea.   Fire Fighter(F),Trick Shot(F) $6 ea.   Demon Attack(F), Atlantis(F), Dragon Fire(F), $10 ea.   Solar Storm(F) $15

Mattel (Loose) Space Attack(F to P), Super Challenge Baseball(P), SuperChallenge Football(P) $4 ea Air Raiders(F), Astroblast(F to P), Lock n' Chase(P), Bump and Jump (P) $5 each Armor Ambush(F), $8 each

Mythicon (loose) FireFly(P) $6

Parker Bros. (Loose) Frogger(P to F to G) $4 - $7  Qbert(P), Reactor(P to G) $4 ea.   GI Joe(P),The Empire Strikes Back(P) , Tutankham(P) $6 ea.   Spiderman(no label) $7

SpectraVision (Loose) Gangsteralley(P) $8

U.S. Games (Loose)  Gopher(F) $10 ea.

Vidtec (Loose) Space Jockey(F) $4  Sneak in Peek(F), Word Zapper(F) $7 ea.

Another 2600 Special Buy! New in the shrunk wrapped boxes, Starpath/Arcadia Games!  Suicide Mission (Cass.) $10 Fireball (Cass) $15

Best Atari Tech Tip: Faulty Game Cartridges?

How you can salvage questionable Atari Game Cartridges.

Over the years we have had a lot of inquires, phone calls and E-Mails from Atari Owners saying they are having problems with their Atari Game system or Atari Computer system and their Game Cartridges.  This Best Tech tip is based on 20+ years of experience with Game Cartridge problems and thousands of responses to Atari Cartridge Owners.

Typical Comments / Symptoms:

We put the Atari Game Cartridge into our Atari console and when we turn it on we get a black screen only.

The Atari Game Cartridge seems to work fine, but when we touch the Game Cartridge (or slightly move the console) the game stops, glitches or locks up.

The Atari Game Cartridge seems to play fine until a certain time has passes, we reach a certain level or point in the game and the game stops, glitches or locks up.

Most of our Atari Game Cartridges work fine but some seem to have problems.

We put in the Atari Game Cartridge and get funny Screen Colors (Solid screen Colors or distorted Screen displays) or funny Sounds out only. 

All of the above Atari Cartridge problems can be caused by many different reasons on an Atari consoles and Computers.  Some of them are:

  Dirty Cartridge Edge card connectors within the Atari Game Cartridge.

Dirty Cartridge female connector within the Atari Console or Computer.

Damaged (bent), Worn out, Corroded or Dirty Cartridge female connectors on the consoles.

Bad Game ROM (Chip) inside the Cartridge.

Bad Cartridge Printed Circuit board inside the Atari Cartridge. 

This Best Atari Tech Tip will explain how the average person can try to fix Atari Cartridge problems with common Items, Tools and Supplies most households have.  The Skill level to try to fix these Atari Game Cartridge problems is Basic and Most people should be able to correct these problems.

History and General Information

Atari 2600, 5200 and 7800 Game Cartridges and Many Atari Computer Cartridges are anywhere from 15 to 20+ years old now.  The 2600 Series Game cartridge are some of the Oldest ones made!

All of the Atari and other manufactures Game Cartridges of this era contain a small Printed Circuit Board with a Game chip (ROM, Read Only Memory Chip) Soldered into this small Printed Circuit board.  To Interface this Atari Game Cartridge chip / board inside the Game Cartridge to the outside world (connect it up to the Atari Console) all of these small printed Game internal Circuit boards have little fingers or small plated contact areas (top and bottom sides of the printed circuit board) along one end of the internal printed Circuit board. 

Some 20+ years ago, the Printed Circuit board industry was relatively new.  The mass produced Printed Circuit board industry went thru a big Learning curve.  Early Atari and other third party Game Cartridge manufactures first used Tin Plated (sliver looking) edge card fingers.  These Tin plated fingers were found to cause Major problems with the Game cartridges and other computer applications Atari and manufactures found out latter.

The Major problem with these Tin plated contacts, was they would Oxidize or Corrode very easily and not allow proper contact between the Game Cartridge and mating female connector inside the Atari Console.  Thus causing the Game Cartridge to fail or eventually go bad. 

Old Atari Techs knew about this problem and would use a pencil eraser tip to rub / clean this oxidized contacts when they went bad.  Another Trick / Technique Atari and other 3 party manufactures used to try and fix this problem was to coat the Tin plated (and some gold plated contacts too) contacts / edge card connectors with a conductive protective Grease.   This fix seemed to work for a little while but end up turning into a 15 to 20 year old Ticking Time Boom!   Using these early version Atari Game Cartridges, this Conductive Grease was spread to Game Cartridge mating female connectors and other Game Cartridges that people had in their Atari collection.  We have found these Conductive Greases, would attract Dust, Dirt and other foreign materials to these game cartridge Tin and Gold plated contacts.  In a good percentage of cases, this 10 to 20 year old Conductive Grease and Foreign Materials mixture would turn into a solid Non Conducting (sometimes a Very hard) coating, which the normal self-wiping gold contacts of the Mating female Game cartridge connector inside the Atari console could not clean off the Game cartridge internal PCB edge card fingers, when it was inserted into the console.

 When Atari and other third party Manufactures switched over to Gold Plated edge card connectors Most of the above Oxidizing and Corrosion problems went away or it seemed to.

Atari made Game Cartridges with Gold plated contacts seem to be very well manufactured.  But some manufactures like Parker Bros, Activision and others have had some other problems with their gold plated game cartridge edge card connectors over the years.  It seems that during the Gold Plating process, that some of the chemicals required for the Gold plating process would be absorbed by the printed circuit boards themselves.  Years and years latter, many of these harsh / acid type of plating chemicals would leach out of the printed circuit boards onto the Gold edge card contacts, forming a solid and sometimes a Very hard coating over the Gold contacts.  This coating is usually Green, Tan or Black / Brown in color. 

We have seen this leaching out problem show up in Brand New (20+ year ago) factory shrunk wrapped sealed New Parker Bros and Activision game cartridges!

Now if you used your Atari Game Cartridges all of the time for the last 20+ years, the normal inserting and removing of Game cartridge from your Atari console would wipe off these coatings before they could harden.   But if you have a 12 to 20+ year old Game Cartridge that has not been used for years, there is a Very good chance the Gold / Tin plated contacts have some type of Coating / Corrosion on them. 

Materials Required: 

White paper towels

Isopropyl Alcohol (rubbing Alcohol)

Small Paper Clip or small straight blade screwdriver

Acetone cleaner (fingernail Polish remover)

Small amount of fine Steal Wool, # 0 or # 00 grade (Second choice, a 3M Scotch Bright pot / pan cleaning pad)

Optional: 

Small Magnifying Glass

Small Flashlight

Small fine pencil type art paint brush or used Toothbrush

Skill Level Required:  

Basic

Time Required Per Cartridge: 

3 to 10 Minutes, first time 

Precautions:

 The following cleaning procedures should NOT be done on days / locations where high Static discharges (Example: Walk across a room and get zapped when you touch a door knob) can occur.  If you walk across a rug or room where there is high Static electricity, you can short this built up static electricity charge in your body across the Game cartridge Gold Edge card connectors when you touch them to clean them and blow up the Game ROM inside the Game Cartridge!  

First Procedure: 

First there are two basic Atari or third party manufactured Game cartridge styles.  One’s with exposed (you can see inside the game cartridge) edge card Gold or tin plated contacts and others that have hidden (sliding in collapsing protective plastic panel) Contacts.   Most of the older type of Atari made Game Cartridges have this sliding protective dust cover Mechanism.  To defeat this Atari protective dust mechanism, first turn the game cartridge end you normally insert into the game console toward you.  Inside Atari game cartridge end you will see three thin rectangular closed slots.  One short slot, one long slot one in the middle and another short slot on the other end.  The long rectangular slot is where the internal Game Cartridge edge card connector / fingers comes out when this dust control panel collapses into the game cartridge.  The other two smaller rectangular slots are part of the game cartridge internal Dust cover mechanism and when activated, cause the sliding dust cover panel to collapse into the Atari Game Cartridge.

Insert a small paper clip or small straight blade screwdriver blade into either the left or right small thin rectangular openings on the end of the game cartridge.  With a little light pressure, push in the paper clip into either one of the small left or right rectangular slots until you see the long thin rectangular opening in the middle, open up.  With a little applied pressure, push on the whole black internal plastic panel with the three rectangular slots and you will find that this sliding plastic panel with collapse into the game cartridge, thus exposing the gold or tin edge card connectors on the internal Game ROM PCB board.  During the edge card cleaning processes below, you can keep a finger (or small Screwdriver) inside the cartridge to prevent this sliding protective dust cover panel from snapping / popping closed or hold pressure on the outside of the top and bottom of the game cartridge cases over the collapsed dust cover Mechanism panel. 

First / Easy Clean Method 

Get a white paper towel and soak a small end of it in Isopropyl rubbing alcohol. Clean (wipe or scrub hard) the top and bottom sides of the gold plated contacts with the rubbing alcohol soaked paper towel with a small finger tip. Try to clean all of the exposed Gold / Tin plated finger surface areas, especially along the front edge of this PCB board were the gold contacts touch the mating female Game console connector.  As you are cleaning the Gold plated fingers/contacts, you should see a green, tan or black residue come off onto the white paper towel.  Keep cleaning / scrubbing (changing and resoaking clean sections of the paper towel) the top and bottom Gold contacts until nothing comes off onto the white paper towel.  If the Gold contacts look very clean with no residue left on them, then Test the game Cartridge you just cleaned.  If your cleaned Game Cartridge now works fine then stop at this first cleaning procedure.  If you can still see residue left on the Gold plating or still have Cartridge problems, then proceed to the next level cleaning process below.

Second Clean Method

Using a new white paper towel, put a Very Very small amount of Acetone (Finger nail paint remover) on the paper towel and VERY VERY carefully clean the Gold / Tin plated Contacts top and bottom.  BUT do not get the Acetone on the black / brown plastic game cartridge inside the case.  If the Acetone comes in contact with black / brown plastic game cartridge, in most cases it will melt or damage the black / brown plastic cartridge case. 

After you have carefully cleaned the Gold contacts with the Acetone and nothing more comes off onto the paper towels, before you insert the cleaned cartridge into the Atari console to test it, wash / clean the gold contacts one or more times with a separate clean paper towel soaked with alcohol to clean off any Acetone residue.  Again retest the Cleaned Game Cartridge. 

           Third / Final Clean Method

If you are still having cartridge problems after the Acetone cleaning then as a Last Resort, next try cleaning the Top and Bottom Gold / Tin Contacts with a fine #0 or #00 Steel wool.  This is best done with the Gold or Tin edge card side of the game cartridge facing the ground or over a trash container.  (Note:  It is possible to sand off the thin Gold / Tin Plating (expose the Copper plating under the plating) on the Game Cartridge contacts with enough sanding / cleaning with Steel wool.  So you should only use light pressure when cleaning with Steel wool and only sand / clean with a couple of light passes only).  After you have cleaned the Gold / Tin contacts with the Steel wool, try to blow / brush / wipe out any fine Steel wool hairs that break off during the cleaning / sanding operation and drop into the inside of the Game cartridge.  Also make sure all of the loose fine hairs of the Steel wool are completely removed from the Gold / Tin Contacts on the Game cartridge before you insert them into the console.  A final wipe of the gold contacts with a clean paper towel soaked with alcohol would be a good idea (inspect the white paper towel, if you find strands of Steal wool on the paper towel, keep cleaning with clean sections of the alcohol soaked paper towel until no Steel wool strands show up).  If all of the Steel wool strands are not removed from the Gold / Tin plated Contacts or surrounding areas inside the cartridge, you may find that any Steel wool strands left, eventually may short across the Gold / Tin edge card connectors and damage the Atari console or short out the Game ROM inside the cartridge when it is powered up.

Retest your cleaned Game Cartridge.

If this third and final cleaning method for a single Atari Game cartridges does not work, but the other cleaned ones do work fine, then consider that Cartridge ROM chip or PCB board inside bad. 
 

If you still have Cartridge problems with all of your Cleaned Game Cartridges, you can also use a small magnifying glass and inspect the Mating female connector on the Atari console for dirty, damaged contacts or foreign materials inside the connector.  Most of the Atari consoles mating female cartridge connectors have the same type of sliding internal plastic panel protecting the female connector.  Use the same paper clip method for opening up the protective sliding inner plastic panel as above with the game cartridge instructions above.  If you have a very tiny pencil tip paintbrush or old toothbrush, you can also try to clean the mating female cartridge connector with alcohol on the Atari game console.  Make sure you blow / dry out any Alcohol that has collected inside the bottom of the Female game cartridge connector and on the Gold plated contacts on the Game Console / Computer BEFORE you insert a cleaned Game Cartridge and power up.  The Acetone and Steel wool cleaning on the Female console connector is not recommend because of the size of the mating small connector opening and the close proximity of the black plastic casing around the Female mating game cartridge connector. 

If the Mating female Cartridge connector looks clean, then the problem may not be a female cartridge connector / Game Cartridge Edge card connector problem, but an electronic internal problem within the Atari console. 

Also remember that just cleaning one questionable / troublesome Game Cartridge in all of the old game cartridges that work OK, is not a good Idea.  The other Old working game cartridges in your collection may still transfer dirt, old Grease or foreign materials to other cleaned Plated edge card connectors Via the Mating female console connector, thus setting the stage for other old working Game Cartridges to go bad.  So it is best to always clean all of your Old game cartridge PCB edges at the same time.

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Copyright © 2002 Best Electronics

Best Electronics in the Atari business since February 1, 1984.

This page Last modified: April 21, 2008

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