Atari 2600 Cart Cleanliness

[pacmanhat]

I've been looking around for a copy of Pitfall for a while now, and it seems like every single one I find looks like it's covered in grease or other gunk. The same seems to be true for Enduro, which has a similar cart (Greenish). Is there something up with these carts that makes them really hard to find in good shape (besides age of course), or am I just unlucky?

[Jibbajaba]

I've been looking around for a copy of Pitfall for a while now, and it seems like every single one I find looks like it's covered in grease or other gunk. The same seems to be true for Enduro, which has a similar cart (Greenish). Is there something up with these carts that makes them really hard to find in good shape (besides age of course), or am I just unlucky?

Do a search, either here or on Google, for "Actiplaque".

It's the glue soaking through the paper label. Hmm, this would be a good KB article...

Chris

[Arcade Antics]

It's common to all Activision carts, this "Actiplaque," as it's often referred to. It's caused by the glue they used, not much you can do about it except get lucky and find the 1 relatively clean cart out of every 20.

The plaque also shows up on other manufacturer labels, but it's most common on the Activision games.

[digitalpress]

At least I've been able to find Pitfall's and Enduro's without acti-plaque. The one game I have not had any luck with is Crackpots, which seems to have had the worst glue production in the lot. I even bought a sealed one about five years ago and the cart looked like crap. Check yours out, you'll see what I mean.

[s1lence]

Actiplaque is so evil to activision games. I finally got a copy of pitfall with out it. I think it also has something to do with the paper that they used.

[Emily]

Wow I never knew that. Ill have to keep my eyes open now for activision games with nice labels. What a shame...

[oesiii]

I have a few sealed new Activision games, Pitfall included. I haven't had the nerve to see how bad the actiplaque can be behind the seal on any of them :)

[PDorr3]

Heh learned something new today. I just always thought that atari carts were filthy because of their age. No wonder basicaly every one of my carts is drop dead ugly. Like emily I will now be on the lookout for cleansliness!