Any hope of repairing old cartidges?

[ajsracket]

I purchased a lot of atari 5200 games from someone who had them in a garage for about 20 years. Some of the games have heavy corrosion on the game contacts. I have tried rubbing alcohol, goo gone, and other cleaners to no effect. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'd hate to see the games go into the trash.

[emwearz]

Fine sand paper, don't go over board but you should be able to buff them back to being usable.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

A clean large pink eraser. Seriously. I wrote a tutorial on the subject.

http://satoshimatrix.wordpress.com/2010 ... -contacts/

[Hobie-wan]

Instead of sand paper, use the green side of a scrubby sponge. Only lightly dampen it if needed to fit it in the cart end. I had a Frogger cart that looked pretty ugly on the pins and I got it working with using a sponge to remove the bad, then contact cleaner (or alcohol in a pinch) on q-tips to finish up.

Atari branded carts will have the guard but if you push a screwdriver or pencil in the 2 small slots you can push the guard back. If the carts are really bad they might need to be opened to clean properly. Unfortunately the screws are under the label. Peeling the label up or making a hole to get to the screws and fix them is preferable to throwing them away though.

[ajsracket]

Thank you for the suggestions, please keep them coming. I will try the ones you have said. Thank you

[Ziggy]

If it comes down to it, please don't throw them in the trash. Some one will be willing to take them off your hands for the cost of shipping, I'm sure.

[CRTGAMER]

If it comes down to it, please don't throw them in the trash. Some one will be willing to take them off your hands for the cost of shipping, I'm sure.

Agree, looking for a green Bob cart myself.

[Dakinggamer87]

I hope you can get them working hate to see carts thrown away..

[ajsracket]

Here is the list of current casualties, the atari brand ones seem to be fine due to the game contacts being covered, and the three sega games (star trek, buck rodgers, and congo bongo) are ok.

The problem is the activision and parker brothers ones....dreadnaught factor, h.e.r.o., pitfall 2, decathalon, and kaboom. From parker - james bond, star wars arcade, super cobra, popeye, frogger, gyruss, qbert, and super cobra.

So i can play half of the games, i had the joysticks restored. The console is the later 2 port version, and works good. Although I had to remove the metal sheilding off the mother board it was rusted as @@@@.

Thank you for the advise, maybe this weekend i'll try some of the ideas you sent in. Hope something works. Thanks again.

by the way, does anyone know an emulator that runs on windows vista to play 5200 games? I have tried a few off atari age and emulator zone with no luck. And m.e.s.s. is just that, a mess that doesn't work!

[CRTGAMER]

A great haul! Waiting for your Reply when you discover twinstick capability of Robotron and Space Dungeon. Say is there a green labeled cart anywhere in that collection?