Was this old warning true? [Can you damage a console this way?]

[cityside75]

I remember way back when the Atari reigned supreme, people used to warn never to turn on a system without a cartridge in the slot. I think it may have even been warned in the instructions of my old Intellivision.

It used to be a common belief at least among my group of friends that if you left a system on without a cartridge in it, the console was certain to have something horrible happen to it. Looking back on this now, though, I can't recall anyone ever actually having a console break for a reason related to this.

I was working on my in-laws NES the other day, and was checking something and flipping it on and off without a cartridge in it, and it got me pondering this...

Anybody remember this/see a problem because of it?

[Lord007]

I remember way back when the Atari reigned supreme, people used to warn never to turn on a system without a cartridge in the slot. I think it may have even been warned in the instructions of my old Intellivision.

It used to be a common belief at least among my group of friends that if you left a system on without a cartridge in it, the console was certain to have something horrible happen to it. Looking back on this now, though, I can't recall anyone ever actually having a console break for a reason related to this.

I was working on my in-laws NES the other day, and was checking something and flipping it on and off without a cartridge in it, and it got me pondering this...

Anybody remember this/see a problem because of it?

I'd also like to know...Now that I'm older and wiser I'm not so sure if there would be any damage. But if I see a buddy of mine turn on the Genny or something without a cart in, I still feel that need to turn it off quick...

[Bratwurst]

Nah, the key thing is to avoid sticking a cartridge in the unit while the power's on. That'll fry the game or the system, potentially.

By itself, the cartridge port is just in a floating state when electricity's flowing through it.

[Daniel Thomas]

So what you're saying is, that's the time to pour in the maple syrup. Snap, crackle, pop!

[jokerama]

I will say no...but if you pour a little syrup on your cartridges you cant go wrong...

[spider-man]

I once had a dream (when I was a kid), where I had to eat my collection of games, due to them being so tasty. I woke thinking WTF just happened, needless to say, its was quite a weird dream

[James]

I've heard this warning before as well and from what I can tell it's complete hooplaw, so there's no need to worry.

[DynastyLawyer]

Yeah. I love that stuff. Atom Bomb set to go off when you turn on the console without a game in it. Got it.

That said, it should be procedure to actually put in a game before you turn on your game-playing console.

[pineapplehead2]

I don't know if it will damage it because when you put a cart in and it doesnt work (NES Blinking screen for example) it just the same as turnning it on with out a game in it because the system is not reading it.

[James]

I don't know if it will damage it because when you put a cart in and it doesnt work (NES Blinking screen for example) it just the same as turnning it on with out a game in it because the system is not reading it.

Most people don't know this but the NES’s blinking is actually caused by a security system within the NES itself. Inside the NES attached to pin 4 I think is a special program checker, inside each cartridge attached to the adjacent pin is a program chip which communicates with the NES. This chip has a special Nintendo program written on it. If one side can't communicate with the other the NES will repeatedly reset itself until you realign the cart and reset the console. This mechanism can also easily be removed by simply cutting the wire attached to the board. I haven't done this to any of my NES's because I don't like the mutilation of old intact consoles. You may have noticed that newer model NES's don't work with Camerica and other 3rd party unlicensed carts because they wrote their own code to communicate with the NES and Nintendo found a way around this. Unlicensed carts don't work in my original NES at all because it was a late model but they do work in my other 2 NES's which are early models. Tengen actually stole the Nintendo executable code off one of these chips and put it in their cartridges which is why all Tengen released unlicensed carts work in all NES models. Tengen was also sued by Nintendo over this and had to award Nintendo $250,000,000 USD in damages or something like that. The Famicom's in Japan don't have this lockout chip which is why you need a special chip built onto the adapter card you have to run the Famicom games through in order for them to work on a NES.

[Vroomfunkel]

The warning is probably just a way of making sure that people don't accidentally put carts into the machine while it is switched on - after all, if you never switch it on without a cart in, you can't accidentally insert one, unless you take the first one out while the machine is on - in which case you've probably already done the damage that they are trying to avoid.

Re: Tengen / Nintendo .. I somehow doubt the figure of 250 million bucks ... that would be instant bankruptcy in those days (probably these days too!)

Vroomfunkel

[crazyjackcsa]

When the Sega CD came out I stopped believeing in that old rule. I mean you have to turn the Genny in without a game in it!

[Jorpho]

Wasn't there some odd infinite-lives cheat for Strider (Genesis) that involved switching on the Genny with Altered Beast inside, pulling it out and putting in the Strider cartridge? (I forget the details, but it was apparently reproducable.)

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Wasn't there some odd infinite-lives cheat for Strider (Genesis) that involved switching on the Genny with Altered Beast inside, pulling it out and putting in the Strider cartridge? (I forget the details, but it was apparently reproducable.)

There were more than a few Genesis launch, and early wave titles that involved hot-swapping between games to get strange cheats ...

I remember Last Battle had some kind of infinite lives reward ... does anybody have a complete list of those "cartridge swap" tricks for the Genesis?

[rbudrick]

There were more than a few Genesis launch, and early wave titles that involved hot-swapping between games to get strange cheats ...

I remember Last Battle had some kind of infinite lives reward ... does anybody have a complete list of those "cartridge swap" tricks for the Genesis?

Great idea, Frankie...I can't believe no one has ever brought these tricks up before. I remember reading about them in mags and saying, "WTF!? Who the hell figured this shit out!" It became only slightly clearer when I realized that the games it works on don't require you put in specific other games first...just use the same cart.

I'll add one:

Last Battle:
Everyone knows you can continue in Last Battle if you've made it past stage 1. You just hold ABC and hit start. A Stage Select appears allowing you to continue. To make the Stage Select appear without playing a single level, pull out the cart while the system is on and put it back in. Hit reset, then hold ABC at the title screen. It may take a few tries, but the Stage Select should appear.

I don't remember what the Thunder Force II one does (invincibility or unlimited lives or something, I think). Anyone wanna tell us that one?

-Rob

[Blitzwing256]

just a note about why these tricks work

when the genesis is reset its not a full hard reboot of the system, when you first turn the system on with a game it sets certain options in memory, when you hit reset those options like lives stage etcetc stay the same, so when you pull a game out with the power on and hit reset its not clearing the ram properly hence why most of the sega brand games have glitched out options. you'll note it only works on games with changeable options or "cheats" that require certain conditions to be made (like moon walker and last battle's stage selects)

a few of the more fun things you can do include getting dificulties on streets of rage 1 and 2 that just don't exist, super hard ones or insanely easy ones where mr X has less then half an energy meeter or where y.signal has 4 stars of life.

thunderforce 2:
you can get 255 lives,

altered beast:
you can mess with all the options in the 3 secret options,
inculding getting glitced out transformations that most likely will freeze the game


strider:
infinate lives

moonwalker:
stage select and invicinbility sometimes

revenge of shinobi:
unlimted lives and odd numbers of shurikens.
(you can also sometimes get the japanese title screen as well)

thunderforce 3:
you can mess up the high score (woo?)

eswat:
infinate lives

Streets of rage:
infinate lives, and new dificulites

Streets of rage 2:
infinate lives, new dificulty levels.
one thing i remeber is if you go to the options and hit left in most of these games you can change the messed up options a bit, if you hit right you tend to reset things to the default.

super thunderblade:
infinate lives

Space harrier 2:
infinate lives

Mystic defender:
start with other "spells" and I believe a level select.

i've never had last battle so I havn't been able to test that game out myself.

aside from sor1 and 2 you'll note most of those games are original release games

i've also been told you can't do it on some of the later genesis systems as they fixed the ram "bug" i've only ever had the release model so I havn't tested that theory.

[Jorpho]

when the genesis is reset its not a full hard reboot of the system, when you first turn the system on with a game it sets certain options in memory, when you hit reset those options like lives stage etcetc stay the same, so when you pull a game out with the power on and hit reset its not clearing the ram properly hence why most of the sega brand games have glitched out options. you'll note it only works on games with changeable options or "cheats" that require certain conditions to be made (like moon walker and last battle's stage selects)

Ah, that must be why you can get the best ending in Sonic 1 by accessing the Bonus Stage in the Stage Select repeatedly before starting a new game (or selecting the final stage).

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Great idea, Frankie...I can't believe no one has ever brought these tricks up before. I remember reading about them in mags and saying, "WTF!? Who the hell figured this shit out!" It became only slightly clearer when I realized that the games it works on don't require you put in specific other games first...just use the same cart.

I'll add one:

Last Battle:
Everyone knows you can continue in Last Battle if you've made it past stage 1. You just hold ABC and hit start. A Stage Select appears allowing you to continue. To make the Stage Select appear without playing a single level, pull out the cart while the system is on and put it back in. Hit reset, then hold ABC at the title screen. It may take a few tries, but the Stage Select should appear.

I don't remember what the Thunder Force II one does (invincibility or unlimited lives or something, I think). Anyone wanna tell us that one?

-Rob

Really? You could get it to work by ripping the same cart out and putting it back in?

I thought you needed to use a specific cart like Altered Beast or Revenge of Shinobi FIRST and then swap in the cart that you wanted to do the specific trick to.

If you could do it by just ripping and re-inserting the SAME game that's pretty cool!

[Blitzwing256]

you get better effects from games that have more options like altered beast and sor, but some of the glitches work with the same game

[pineapplehead2]

so you can take out a genny game with the system still on?