Anyone had problems with carts?

[SoulBlazer]

In my twenty or so years of playing video games, I've never ONCE had a cart that would'nt work fine after a cleaning. Well, maybe I just found one.

I've had awfull luck buying things off of EBay these last few months -- maybe I should just give it up for good.

I recently won this auction:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=27240&item=3017446362&rd=1

Payment was sent by PayPal. I got the game last week, but was so busy with school and everything else I just put it away, left positive feedback, and assumed it was allright since the game was in the box.

I tried it today, and would'nt you know, it did'nt work!

I debated over how I should contact the seller and finally settled on this e-mail:

"I'm sorry for not doing this eariler, but I just now, today, finally had a chance to sit down and check out the Zaxxon 2000 game I got from you last week from your EBay auction. I'm afraid the game does'nt work. It either won't start up at all, or locks when you try to hit Start on the main menu, or allows you to play a little bit and then starts showing screens of garbage. I've cleaned the game and my 32X, and confirmed my system was working allright by playing other 32X games on it.

I'll be more then glad to return the game to you so you can test it out yourself. I'm more then happy to wait for a refund until you've had a chance to confirm the problem."

Anyone else ever seen a non working cart?

[Mr-E_MaN]

I've had Sega carts do that but never a nintendo cart. It must be something with the parts sega uses.




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WOW 300th post

[ventrra]

I've had Sega carts do that but never a nintendo cart. It must be something with the parts sega uses.

I have a Super Mario/Duck Hunt cart right now that doesn't work after extensive cleaning. In fact, I've run across several games from many different systems that were non-functional. I think that it's just the "luck of the draw" whether a game cartridge is likely to be good or not.

[Gamereviewgod]

I have 2 Knuckles Chaotix carts for the 32X that are worthless. I've cleaned, opened, and tried them on 2 different consoles to no avail.

[maxlords]

I have a copy of Grind Stormer that I've done everything I can think of to...totally dead. Only cart I've ever had die..but it does happen.

[kainemaxwell]

Most my NES games refuse to work for me, but work dandy on my friend's system.

[Arqueologia_Digital]

A lot of times NES carts doesn´t work >:( , it´s a shit

[Mayhem]

I've had a C64 Donkey Kong cart be dead right out of the shrinkwrapped box. And a couple others I got have not worked despite copious cleaning. Apart from that, nearly all have been fine...

[Ruudos]

all my carts work. I've bought carts that didn't work according to sellers, and when I got them, and cleaned them, they worked! Best of it that the games were cheap too (one of them being the Super Mario Family multi-cart).

[Scoots]

Some tips on getting stubborn carts to work here: http://www.fatmangames.com/News/NewsViewer.asp?newsid=243

For the guy who said he can't play his NES games, but they work fine at his friends', you need to replace your 72-pin connector

[dreamcaster]

The only cart that ever fouled up on me was my original GoldenEye 007 that a bought brand new os so many years ago. The game was working fine up until about Jungle - but then refused to save my data. You could complete the levels afterwords, but as soon as you turned the power off, it was back to jungle.

Of Nintendo happily replaced the cart with out a problem!

[Tempest]

I have 2 Knuckles Chaotix carts for the 32X that are worthless. I've cleaned, opened, and tried them on 2 different consoles to no avail.

My Knuckles Chaotix cart was iffy. Sometimes it would work just fine, and other times it wouldn't work at all. I think it may have been overheating my 32X somehow.

I also had a Friday the 13th cart die for my NES. I know what you're all going to say, that I was better off, but I liked that game!

The Mountain King and Tunnel Runner carts I had as a kid for the 2600 are dead now. I think it's that RAM Plus thing.

Tempest

[Eternal Champion]

I've had used SNES carts that were in shit shape that didn't work...I had the grey Gauntlet cart for NES. Anyone who's ever played for a minute knows that it can be infuriating. I threw it at the wall, then it was dead after that.
I also had a friend's gold Zelda. After a while, I would load it, and the title screen would blink on and off. The old crappy NES pin-connector? The cart? Needed cleaning? Who knows...at that time, I didn't pay much attention to that stuff...I thought maybe it was the lithium battery...WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A CART'S LITHIUM BATTERY GOES???

My point: WHY do carts die? Is it the cart circuitry, the pin-connector in the console getting testy, or something else in the cart??
ANY TECHS OUT THERE???

[NvrMore]

My point: WHY do carts die? Is it the cart circuitry, the pin-connector in the console getting testy, or something else in the cart??

Moisture, prolonged exposure to heat (e.g. left next to radiator or in direct sunlight), prolonged exposure to certain frequently used electrical equipment (e.g. equipment with static or similar electrical or magnetic discharge such as TVs).

It takes a lot to hurt most carts, few things (apart from the obvious) can cause immediate damage to them , but generally if they've been left in undesirable conditions for long periods of time they eventually start suffering for it and this is usually made worse if the cart has been knocked about enough to weaken the case joins.

[rbudrick]

I've had 1 Genesis (thunderforce 3) and 5 VCS games die on me. 2 of the VCS games were brazilian and had eproms in them, so I'm assuming they suffered bit rot and were exposed to a fair amount of moisture. The other 3 vcs were just regular american carts (I think one was towering inferno)

The Genesis cart dies from frying my system like a 2600 (pulling game in and out). Yes, this allows you to cheat on some genesis games.

Alas, the cart died, but it was a rental :D

-Rob

[Ruudos]

I remember now that my Unirally broken was broken, it just didn't work well. I lent it for a week or something longer to my cousin and when I got it back it didn't work. Well I send it away, and got it back fixed. Strange.

[Felixthegamer]

I had a SMB 3 not work for NES and two Atari 2600 carts not work. other then that, I have never had a problem.

[Dobie]

I have an NES X-men cart that was DOA. I still hang on to it though, on the hope that I may get it to work someday.

On the other side of the coin, I left a couple of GBA games in some cargo pants last year--they went through the wash, and then were subjected to my oven of a dryer. The labels came out a bit worn, and I thought for sure they were dead. Nope. Work like a charm. :D

[BIGMIKE]

i have two games that wont work, mouse trap for 2600 and Pool of Radiance
for the NES. i bought the Pool of Radiance from EB or Babbages. under $7 or something. the cart is in perfect shape, label all clean and clear. didn't even try it out when i got home. just put it in the collection. few weeks later i wanted to pop it in. popped it in and loaded up just fine. went to do the character or whatever ya have to do to get in the game and the game locks up every time. so mad, oh well, it's almost summer and i am on a huge video game shopping spree as it is.

[zektor]

All the time I have been collecting carts (20+ years) I have only had two not work at all. One was a Golden Axe for the Genesis. Dunno, got it from some kid down the block with a bunch of other games, and no matter how well I cleaned it I just got a black screen. The otehr was a copy of Dragonfire I got off ebay awhile back. For some reason it didn't work. No problem however, since I got it in a lot and I already had two other copies :) Two in two decades is not bad at ALL.

[ubersaurus]

I've had a Dark Cavern game for the atari 2600 refuse to work on my consoles. Any of them.

[Videogamerdaryll]

I have only one cart that will not work no matter what.
It's a Atari 2600 Mrs. Pac man...cart..
I got it in great condition..but I can't figure on why it wont work..and it bugs the crap out of me.
I don't need it since I have several others..iIwould just like to know what went wrong with this paricular cart.

[Tempest]

Actually the more I think about it I also had a Gangster Alley cart die on me (which sucked because I loved that game) and Coconuts for the 2600. I always stored them in a clean dry place so I have no idea why they up and died on me. All I can think is maybe a power spike from the 2600.

Tempest