Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!nrl-cmf!ames!pacbell!att-ih!ihnp4!ihlpm!njd
From: njd@ihlpm.ATT.COM (DiMasi)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: Dig Dug
Message-ID: <1745@ihlpm.ATT.COM>
Date: 10 Mar 88 23:46:12 GMT
References: <705@ndsuvax.UUCP> <907@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois
Lines: 25
Keywords: Bad Cartrige?
Summary: Bad cartridge or computer problem?

In article <907@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu>, sullivan@marge.math.binghamton.edu (fred sullivan) writes:
> In article <705@ndsuvax.UUCP> ncperson@ndsuvax.UUCP (Brett Person) writes:
> >A few years ago I bought a dig dug cart. for my 800. The game would play 
> >fine for aehile, and then syddenly lock. ...
> 
> I had the same problem with Star Raiders.  Like you, I got a replacement
> which did the same thing.  Also an 800.  No idea what the problem is.

A few years ago, less than a year after I got my 800, I had a similar
problem with Star Raiders.  Later (after I had the machine about a year)
it would often lock up on other programs, and even not come up at all
(I would just see a green screen).  I took the machine to a local "authorized
Atari service center" (Rex TV Repair), but they couldn't find the problem.
At that time, Atari operated their own service center somewhere north of
where I live around here (Rolling Meadows?).  They _did_ find and fix the
problem (bad OS chip or some other bad chip... can't remember now).
It seems that when chips start going bad, they will work OK until they
warm up some, and then start doing strange things, or just stop working
altogether.  I still have the same Star Raiders cart, and it still works
(2 Atari 8-bit machines later!).

Nick DiMasi
Uni'q Digital Technologies (Fox Valley Software subsidiary;
   ^          working as a contractor at AT&T Bell Labs in Naperville, IL)
(  | this is an accent mark, supposed to replace the dot over the 'i')