Reassembling an Atari cartridge

[David Betz]

Thanks very much for your help!

David

On Mar 7, 2008, at 11:32 AM, Curt @ Atari Museum wrote:

> Hi David,
>
>  The chip side always faces the back of the cartridge (on the  
> 400/800/XL "Brown" carts the chips will face outward with the back  
> metal cover removed.)   On the grey "XE" cartridges, same deal, you  
> will place the PCB onto the label side with the chips facing you and  
> then place the back cover over them.
>
>  The PCB's themselves are generic, though interestingly enough,  
> almost all Atariwriter wordprocessor and Atari Tennis games are on  
> Red PCB's and most others are on green.   The only way to know the  
> game is the know the numbering codes of the chips, I've been  
> compiling such a list for a couple of years, the revisions are  
> sometimes a little overwhelming.)
>
>  Simple rule of them on the carts, chips always face AWAY from you  
> when plugged into a 400/800, 600/800XL and XE GS machines and face  
> DOWN on the 1200XL and 65XE/130XE machines.
>
>
>
> Curt
>
>
>
> David Betz wrote:
>> Well, I did something really stupid this time. I had an old Atari  
>> 800 cartridge that had lost its label. I figured that maybe  
>> something inside would tell me what kind of cartridge it was so I  
>> took it apart. First, there was no marking on the PC board that  
>> gave any clue as to what cartridge it was. But worse, I didn't pay  
>> enough attention to the original orientation of the PC board inside  
>> the plastic housing so I don't know how to put it together again.  
>> The circuit board has a big blob of glue on the top of what I  
>> assume is a ROM chip. Does that side of the PC board face the side  
>> of the plastic housing with the screw or the other side? To make  
>> matters worse, I *found* the label for the cartridge at the bottom  
>> of my box of old Atari stuff so I didn't really need to take the  
>> cartridge apart after all. Can anyone give me some advice about how  
>> to reassemble the cartridge with the circuit board in the correct  
>> orientation?
>>
>> Thanks!
>> David
>>
>>