Does humidity damage cart-based games?

[GameNinja]

I have been wondering this for awhile. If it is damaging, what would you reccomend that I do to keep my carts in good condition?

(the search is down and google didn't help, I apologize if this has been discussed before or is just common knowledge)

thanks

[rbudrick]

Yes humidity does damage games and game related things.

I've received many games for NES and even more for Atari 2600 with corroded contacts. The worst cases were Brazilian Atari 2600 games. Many times the manufacturing processes were very cheaply done with no gold plating on the contacts, so corrosion was even worse. Plus, Brazil being a very humid environment, well, it's just a bad combination.

However, common sense should tell us all not to put your electronics related stuff in a wet environment. Or an extremely dry one either.

What type of area do you live in?

-Rob

[GameNinja]

Yes humidity does damage games and game related things.

I've received many games for NES and even more for Atari 2600 with corroded contacts. The worst cases were Brazilian Atari 2600 games. Many times the manufacturing processes were very cheaply done with no gold plating on the contacts, so corrosion was even worse. Plus, Brazil being a very humid environment, well, it's just a bad combination.

However, common sense should tell us all not to put your electronics related stuff in a wet environment. Or an extremely dry one either.

What type of area do you live in?

-Rob

A very humid one (Florida)

[rbudrick]

Ok. Well, do you best to keep them dry and out of the elements and I would imagine you'd be ok. For all I know every Brazilian gamer stores their games in buckets of water, but that would only be a guess. I'm pretty sure I've gotten games from FL and never had a problem.

I suppose if you wanted to get super nerdy about it your room of doom could have some sort of humidity sensor you could monitor. Maybe a dehumidifier.

-Rob

[rbudrick]

Ok. Well, do you best to keep them dry and out of the elements and I would imagine you'd be ok. For all I know every Brazilian gamer stores their games in buckets of water, but that would only be a guess. I'm pretty sure I've gotten games from FL and never had a problem.

I suppose if you wanted to get super nerdy about it your room of doom could have some sort of humidity sensor you could monitor. Maybe a dehumidifier.

-Rob