Printable View
I've got games that are really old, and some that are pretty valuable as well, I don't want battery acid leaking all over them and destroying them.
I'm planning on replacing all of my N64, SNES, and Sega Genesis games, how should I go about doing this? Is it worth it to pay extra to grab batteries with the tabs on them? Anyone know of a good place to buy them?
Most games use a lithium coin cell, which is far less prone to leaking than the earlier ni-cad rechargeables. Not to say that it can't happen, but it happens a lot less often. But if you'd like to have working game saves, by all means, replace them.
You'll need a set of gamebits to open the cartridges with. Ebay sells them. You'll also need a soldering iron, solder, etc. And yes, it's absolutely worth it to buy the batteries with tabs. It's bloody awful to solder to a battery without a tab.
I have all the tools required and am in Vancouver if you give up and want someone else to do it. Just bring me the games and the batteries and I'll throw them in.
Edit: Not all games use the same size cells, so you might want to look up/take apart the games first to see what you'll need. Also, a few games have enough room inside to mount a coin cell holder for easy future replacements, but a lot don't.
It's much less likely to happen with low power consumption environments like with an SRAM chip...
Jax covered the basics though.
(Knock on wood), but very few of my games have yet to have their batteries die (mostly handheld games that that -Yoshi's Island is the only home console game that it's happened to so far).
All our NES and SNES B-SRAM saves still work, and N64, and the few Genesis games I have with saves too.
As for leaking, it really shouldn't be an issue. It's very unlikely to happen, and even if it does, it's even less likely to actual damage anything. (it would have to come close to exploding and smearing the contents on the exposed contacts of the board/IC rather than just slightly leaking and -maybe- corroding the battery contacts)
Yea, there really is nothing to worry about, I don't think I've even heard of a case were a battery in a game leaked, nevermind destroyed it.Quote:
Originally Posted by kool kitty89
I have games that are almost 30 years old, still haven't had that happen.
indeed, the backup batts on both of my NES ZELDA carts are still perfectly functional to this day!!
in fact, strangely enough, the only single cart i've ever had a battery failure on, to this very day, is my US copy of "SECRET OF MANA"
http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/l...placement2.jpg
http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/l...eplacement.jpg
as you can see, i nabbed the coin-cell holder off an old PC motherboard and grafted it to the MANA PCB so i can simply and easily replace batteries as necessary.
i intend to replace this with a complete JPN copy as soon as i can, and i suppose it'll be prudent to perform this operation on it as well...
http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/l...enDensetsu.jpg
So far, most of my games still save. The only 2 games I have that don't save are both SNES games, "Super Mario World", and "Paladin's Quest". When I opened Super Mario World, the battery wasn't even soldered on anymore, and was rolling around in the case, something must have popped it off. When I opened up Paladin's Quest, the battery was covered in rust. I own Secret of Mana, and it still saves so far.
I ruined a Super Punchout cart trying to solder the battery on... held the soldering iron too long on the battery and it exploded onto the cart. I absolutely 100% agree with everyone here saying placing a cell-holder is the way to go. Alternatively, if you have terrible soldering skill, you could try electrical tape to keep it in place... but really, the cell-holder is the best option.
The only game I have where my battery has died, is FF 3(aka FF 6), which Isn't too shocking if you knew how many hours I put into the game over the years(luckily the pretty perfect remake of FF 6 in FF Anthology came out about the time the battery died=great timing),
What is shocking however, is that my original DW 3's battery is still working perfectly, and I put a hell of a lot more time into that game, then I did FF 3. I'm too scared to play my DW 3 game anymore(I have a godly save file with an insane amount of super rare items on it), as it would really suck if I lost my save file.
Hopefully you were wearing some safety goggles or something. :(Quote:
Originally Posted by TheSonicRetard
Yeah, that wouldn't be good, him being temporarily deaf is bad enough, but to be both deaf and blind, I don't even want to think about it. But I suppose that there would be one upside, you'd be a "Pinball Wizard".Quote:
Originally Posted by Guntz
It's good to know that the the batteries are unlikely to leak and cause dammage, it's something I have wondered about from time to time.
For the record though, all of my games still save.
I've never personally had an issue, but here's a Legend of Zelda NES cart I got from my local thrift:
http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6046/6...cc14346a_z.jpg
Legend of Zelda NES PCB Front Damaged by xelement5x, on Flickr
http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6034/6...67a4fbc8_z.jpg
Legend of Zelda NES PCB Back Damaged by xelement5x, on Flickr
Pretty nasty and wouldn't actually start at all, I did a thorough cleaning on it though and was able to get it chugging though. The worst part was that the corrosion from what I'm assuming the battering leaking actually at through the leads on one component. Here's the final shot of it after the whole thing was cleaned up:
http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6051/6...8ff8542b_z.jpg
Legend of Zelda NES PCB Front; Fixed! by xelement5x, on Flickr
That looks like more than just a leaky battery . . . more like something else (water or worse) got into the cart at some point. (and probably caused the corrosion to the battery as well -which probably eventually led to it leaking and exacerbating the whole problem)Quote:
Originally Posted by xelement5x
Was there any external signs of water damage on the cart?
well that looks weird. you must have replaced the original screws with some philips head screwsQuote:
Originally Posted by Tasuke