Do Game Boy cartridge casings discolor over time?

[Leo_A]

Pulled my collection out today for the first time in a year or more and noticed that several of my used cartridges are starting to look pretty awful besides the labels that still look pristine.

All my new games look fine, but since I didn't start buying Game Boy games until about 1996 or so, I guess that makes sense where as something like my used Super Mario Land cartridge might date back to 1989.

[camarotuner]

Pulled my collection out today for the first time in a year or more and noticed that several of my used cartridges are starting to look pretty awful besides the labels that still look pristine.

All my new games look fine, but since I didn't start buying Game Boy games until about 1996 or so, I guess that makes sense where as something like my used Super Mario Land cartridge might date back to 1989.

Short answer, yes. Longer answer, if we look at the long-term viability of some of the older systems now (see all the discolored SNES/SFC systems? yeesh) but at the same time major discoloring to things like the NES is much more obscure when compared to SNES. So my best guess is everyone has a different "recipe" for plastic and that some of them just weren't meant to live forever. Some types of plastic or products seem to be cracking/breaking or discoloring over time while others aren't effected at all. So yes I have seen lots of GB games discoloring in the same manner as SNES/SFC. I'm guessing just like the rest of them there won't be much we can do to prevent it.

[greedostick]

Ditto, I have a bunch of games and they do. It's just something a collector has to deal with. You can retro-brite them, but it only works for a short time.