Atari 2600 VCS Romscanner System Expander

(Marjac - 1981)

The Romscanner system expander for the Atari 2600 allowed you to have up to ten game cartridges available to you to play at a simple touch of a button. When you selected a game to play the system would automatically reset and load your game in a matter of seconds. This was an amazing development at the time... not only was it faster and less hassle than switching out game cartridges, but it resulted in less wear and tear on both the game cartridges and the cartridge port on your Atari 2600.

Two support legs that rested under your Atari console held the Romscanner into place, and a flexible connector plugged into the game cartridge port, so setup couldn't be easier. The unit was powered by the game cartridge port, so no extra wires were there to clutter up your livingroom.

Pressing a button for the desired game would instantly start loading that game and have it available in a second or two. The only two drawbacks to this system are that some odd shaped cartridges (like the Xonox games) do not fit in the Romscanner and when you want to play a standard game not loaded in the Romscanner, you would have to remove one of the other games and replace it with the desired game. This was a little more difficult than putting it directly into your Atari VCS especially if you are swapping out a game in the middle.

Overall this is a great addition to any Atari 2600 system and it's overall design should be applauded.

Basic system specifications for the Atari 2600 Marjac Romscanner system expander are listed below.

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