games in the cold

[Six Switch]

i never thought of this much until the other day.i had a box of snes games coming in the mail,and by the time i got home from school and work the box had been on my doorstep for a good few hours.the games were a little cold,but warmed up after a litle bit and of course worked fine.

just wondering,if games are left outside when it is cooooold for a while,will anything happen to them?

maybe this is a dumb question,i have just never seen it talked about and it poped into my little head.

[Arcade Antics]

just wondering,if games are left outside when it is cooooold for a while,will anything happen to them?
No.

[Damaramu]

It's really heat and moisture that will kill your games more than anything.

[Ed Oscuro]

I suppose if you left them out in bitter cold (especially arcade boards, after running) brittle connections could break after a while...probably not a concern for cartridge games, though.

[Corsican]

It's really heat and moisture that will kill your games more than anything.

Yes, if you have them very cold. Then they are in a warm area soon after, moisture may build and then let the problems begin.

[Austin]

I believe there was a classic RGVC thread about a guy who tried to destroy a Combat cartridge... I'm pretty sure one of his tests was freezing the game, and I believe it still played.

[Xexyz]

During my "I hate N64 with a passion" phase, I left my games for the system out in my garage for two years. They still play perfect, but due to the constant cold/warm climate changes in the spring & fall, the exposed metal around the cart contacts on some of the games has rust corrosion.

[Jumpman Jr.]

The only thing I think that matters is arcade cabinets. I remember I got one delivered to my house (in freakishly cold weather) and I was told not to turn it on until it was inside in the warmth for a couple hours.
Never had any problems when it came to games though.

[goatdan]

If you get a box of games that was outside in the cold -- In Milwaukee it has been 1 degree lately and I've been getting TONS of stuff for this huge GOAT Store update I've been spending all of my free time doing -- the only thing that you need to do is not start them up immediately. CD games will fog up, which won't hurt anything, but the quick change between totally cold and running hot chips on cartridges can cause things to crack and die.

Arcade machines are okay outside as long as you don't start them right away. One of my friends who has about 40 pinball machines keeps about 10 in his unheated garage all winter, and he has told me he never had a problem with them. I have a Kangaroo awaiting delivery into my basement, and I'm not even worried about it in my parents garage.

[TurboGenesis]

Here is my story:
Back in 1989 my friend came over with Zelda II. It was January and he had walked over. we were outdoors for a while as my sister was playing Super Mario. Well the game sat outdoors for about a half hour and when we went inside the first thing we did was put the frozen Zelda II in the NES and well the picture was messed up. Did the old blow trick and it still didn't work. This went on for about 10 minutes or so then I decided to try another game. Same thing. I ended up trying all my games and the picture was all scrambled though the game would play and the music was fine. Anyways my point is that it is beleived that the frozen game fried my system. Had to go and buy another NES. The Zelda II game still worked but my NES was dead. Also, I still have this broken NES today.

So the moral of my story is let your games warm up before you pop them in your console.

[jcheatle]

I can't really comment on your question, unfortunately... but I do have a related destroying games story.

I actually have the exact date from the pictures... on March 18, 2001, a boring Sunday in Bradford, PA, my friends and I decided to maim games in various possible ways, then see if they'd play. Our stock consisted entirely of SMB / DH carts from Funcoland... 9 cents apiece at the time!

Anyway, we did a number of "scientific tests". We played baseball with one until it smashed into about 15 pieces. I think we attempted to freeze one with a CO2 canister, but that failed miserably. Drove over one with a car, sent one through a washing machine cycle... my favorite was the one we doused in lighter fluid and set ablaze. Coincidentally, my avatar is the "after" pic. We had to cut away the plastic that melted, reshaped and hardened, but it worked.

In fact, they all worked, proving that unless you specifically go after the ROM chip, NES games are indestructible.

But as for your original question... ummm.... :/

[Arcade Antics]

The only thing I think that matters is arcade cabinets. I remember I got one delivered to my house (in freakishly cold weather) and I was told not to turn it on until it was inside in the warmth for a couple hours.
Yup - otherwise you run the risk of popping the tube. If you've ever splashed cold water on a hot light bulb by mistake, that's what could happen if you turn on a cold coin-op without letting it warm up to room temp first. But bigger. :)

[smork]

Cold won't kill equipment -- but as everybody mentions, not letting things warm up will.

I've spent alot of time working in the Arctic in the winter. Last year we shipped a bunch of electronics: an old P3 Dell, 2 Dell Xeon Linux PCs, 3 LCD monitors, 2 IBM 3592 tape drives, 1 500Gb USB drive... and my Gamecube.

When I got up to the Arctic all our stuff was sitting in the boxes, outside. It'd been sitting there for 3 days, at least, and the temps were hanging near -40. We brought it all inside, took em out of the boxes, let em warm to room temps, hooked it all up -- worked like a champ. If sitting in the arctic outside for 3 days didn't kill the stuff, I think it's safe to say your SNES games are OK in "normal" cold weather.

[Slate]

To the main question: No. Letting games sit in the cold will not mess them up. But let them get to room temperature first.

[Haoie]

I recall CDs being able to warp under high heat. But I don't believe it's possible to freeze any CD to the point of say, instant shattering. Who'd want to anyway?

[Sylentwulf]

Only thing with CD's getting VERY cold is the any slight bend whatsoever will shatter them. Usuaully you actually have to try pretty hard to break a cd, but if it's frozen, a slight bend can crackle the top layer like nothing.

[poloplayr]

I once left Summer Games out in the cold - it turned into Winter Games.

[Flack]

I keep a lot of my games stored out in my garage. During the winter if I grab one from outside to play, I'll pop it in the microwave for 8-10 seconds on high. It's enough to warm the chips up but not melt the plastic. I've also been known to use my oven. I had mixed results using metal cookie trays, but now I use a baking stone. Not only do the games warm up evenly now, but while playing them my systems give off the scent of whatever I last cooked on the baking stone!

(No, not really.)

[Ed Oscuro]

Coming to a theater near you: "Flack reenacts the Pizza Francize Scene from Snow Crash"

[swlovinist]

In extreme cases, you do not want any of your carts to be in contact with direct sunlight, moisture, heat, or cold. With that being said, I have picked up the most abused carts at open flea marts only to find out that they work perfectly fine. Gosh I love cart format!