Help with Atari 800 xl Please :)

[Dawgchyper91]

I recently received an atari 800 xl from a friend with 2 games; Donkey kong and star raiders. Whenever I insert the cartridge and turn on the computer it just says "Ready". Is there anything that I have to type to run the game? Please help me as I really want to play this thing badly! Thank you for all who help

 

[ahm]

No, when you power on, it should run the cartridge automatically.

The cartridge might be dirty. Clean the edge connector with a little rubbing alcohol on the end of a cotton swab.

 

[Dawgchyper91]

Hey Ahm,

Fortunately I have already cleaned the pins, and yes there was quite a bit of dirt. But once I connected back in, it still went to the blue screen that said "Ready". I have tried the donkey kong as well as the star raiders. Im just not exactly sure whats going on

 

[ahm]

Well, it's possible, though not very likely, that both carts are bad.
Do you know anyone else with an 8-bit Atari you can try them on?

 

[NathanAllan]

Did you also clean up the cart slot? That can get dirty and oxidized, too. Give that a good cleaning and then check what happens. You carts could still be bad, so cleaning that will tell you more.