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Rikki & Vikki Glitch Fix




Rikki & Vikki is heralded as a monumental achievement with Atari 7800 hardware, because of it's incredible graphics, sound, cut scenes, boss battles, original gameplay and depth. It's a modern marvel... as far as Atari 7800 games go, at least. But it isn't perfect, apparently.

There seems to be a gamebreaking glitch that arises in some consoles from time to time. Randomly and without warning, Rikki and/or Vikki may get to a point where they cannot pick up the blocks in the game, and for anyone that knows anything about this title, that is a fun-time killer... kinda like getting into a car crash going to Disneyworld. This problem also arises in other 2 player 7800 games like Xenophobe and Rampage, but thankfully there is an easy fix. Again, this is not a programming problem, but an Atari 7800 problem. Here's Penguinet's TailChao with the simple fix:

TailChao-
Rikki & Vikki allows the use of either controller port to move your character when playing as Rikki or Vikki Alone. While this usually doesn't cause any issues, some owners may experience ghost button presses similar to the ones in Xenophobe and Rampage. These can be mitigated by having two-button controllers connected to both ports when playing. If you have an AtariVox connected, try removing it.

Specifically, the problem is caused by the absence of two pulldown resistors in each ProLine or ProPad or Non-Wrist-Damaging-Compatible-Input-Device. So you should have two of these plugged into both ports, and nope a CX-40 won't do - two ports, two plugged in controllers, each with two buttons (2-2-2). Of course, if this doesn't solve the issue then something else might be drifting out of spec in your console. These things are gonna hit forty years old soon, and some maintenance might be required.