Leaving a cart in your game system will damage one or both, fact or fiction?

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Originally Posted by 17daysolderthannes

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Originally Posted by FoxHound

Your systems will lose their virgin feel..

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mine haven't...

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Yeah, mine neither, the SNES any my Genesis are pretty tight, both tight enough to lift the console up by the cart, almost enough with the Sega CD attached for the Genesis. (not that anyone should do that) My genesis (pre tmss) also seems to be more resistant to freezing/crashing from bumping the console/cart.

The N64 isn't tight like that though (easily insert/remove carts single handed), but it's always been that way, not a result of wear.

To answer the original quesiton:

I've been leaving carts in my Model 1 (No High Definition Graphics Claim) for over 20 years. Right now I have Eternal Champions sitting in there. Not because it needs to be in there but because it looks BAD ASS in there.

This topic has me curious as to what type of metal was used in the fabrication of Beggar Prince/Legend of Wucrap/Pier Solar. :lol:

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Originally Posted by Knuckle Duster

This topic has me curious as to what type of metal was used in the fabrication of Beggar Prince/Legend of Wucrap/Pier Solar. :lol:

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The vast majority of PCBs are copper-clad, so it's probably not going to be a problem. I don't think I've EVER seen an aluminum clad PCB. Edges might get coated with a metal to help improve contact or impede corrosion, but that's only on expensive stuff. You won't find gold edged Beggar Prince carts out there. :D

Now, the cart port connectors can be various metals, but tend to be copper knowing that carts are also going to be copper. You want to match what the majority of them will be. Kool kitty mentioned aluminum contacts in a port connector, and that would be bad if most of your carts are copper. It's ESPECIALLY bad while the unit is ON as that's running power through most of the lines, thus exacerbating the problem. It would be better on such a system to leave the system off with a cart in than to play it with a cart in! :daze:

I'm not positive that the Toaster NES has aluminum pins, but whatever it does use looks like aluminum and doesn't apear to be plated. (I suppose it could be a copper alloy with a white luster, like copper-nickel aloys do) I kind of doubt that though, aluminum seems th emost logical conclusion, andwould certainly explain part of the NES's unreliability.

I see silver plated copper fairly often, like on the expansion connector on the Genesis (at leas on my model 1), gold occasionally, though sometimes shiny copper is hard to distinish from gold (mainly on carts and such where the viewing angle is limited without lookin at the bare PCB)
Silver would make th emost sense though, the best electrical conductivity and less electrical potential difference to copper, not to mention being a lot cheaper than gold. The main advantage of gold of course being resistance to oxidation, though the only thing silver generally has an issue with is tarnishing from sulfur. (still a lot better than copper though)
Aluminum can even have some corrosion advantages over copper, mainly in the way it usually corrodes (just building up a thicker oxide layer until it becomes non-conductive -inless it's exposed to certain corrosive chemicals) so it won't tend to get the corrosion junk copper (or plated steel) surfaces sometimes get. (if stored improperly, allowing moisture to deposit, or from leaky batteries in a battery holder)

For cart connectors aluminum is probably just more of a pain though, particularly with the dissimilar metal corrosion, but the NES exacerbates this by having the connector difficult to reach for cleaning, not to mention an odd arrangement of the pins due to the ZIF mechanism. (making it somewhat difficult to clean th eupper pins even when the connector is removed)

I doubt it's aluminum - probably tin or tin/copper alloy. That's more common in the electronics world.

Yeah, thainking on it more that makes more sense, particularly with the other end of the connector attaching to th emain PCB via a similar board connector as the cart end. (so any corrosion would take place there as well)

I should check agan and see if it really isn't just silver plated copper, but I didn't notice any copper showing when I polished it. (again, it could be a silver toned copper alloy)

You know, depending on the frequency of use, isn't removing and inserting games just as bad?

With gameboys (gb, gbc and gba) it actually recommends leaving a game cart in there, so it doesn't get dust the pins I guess.
Of course tho the genesis has the flaps so dust wouldnt go in without a cart.
Only way I can see it ebin bad is if you maybe cleaned it with rubbin alcohol didnt wait for it to dry all the way and left it in there for a while.

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Originally Posted by EddieJ1984

With gameboys (gb, gbc and gba) it actually recommends leaving a game cart in there, so it doesn't get dust the pins I guess.
Of course tho the genesis has the flaps so dust wouldnt go in without a cart.
Only way I can see it ebin bad is if you maybe cleaned it with rubbin alcohol didnt wait for it to dry all the way and left it in there for a while.

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rubbing alcohol evaporates anyway, it would be gone long before corrosion could happen. Think of all of the arcade boards that use a similar types of connection methods (particularly the Neo Geo MVS) that go for years with the cart in the slot? Those arcades aren't air tight and are rarely opened up and dusted. The enemy is moisture and dirt, cart in or cart out...well...and general system abuse from ripping carts out or shoving them in at bad angles.

Yeah, it's probably BETTER to keep the cart in there than it is to put it in, play it, then take it out. Dust is less likely to get in and mess things up, and like others said stuff won't get scratched up.

Especially with handhelds, the supposed Nintendo take on it is to keep a game in your Game Boy or DS system at all times so dirt and dust won't get in and mess with the internal hardware.

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Originally Posted by Baloo

Yeah, it's probably BETTER to keep the cart in there than it is to put it in, play it, then take it out. Dust is less likely to get in and mess things up, and like others said stuff won't get scratched up.

Especially with handhelds, the supposed Nintendo take on it is to keep a game in your Game Boy or DS system at all times so dirt and dust won't get in and mess with the internal hardware.

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Yep, and the manual for my Majesco Game Gear recommends keeping a game in there for the same reason. :nod:

I generally go by:

- No dust cover/lid = leave game in it.
- otherwise; don't.

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Originally Posted by Allan

I generally go by:

- No dust cover/lid = leave game in it.
- otherwise; don't.

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are people ever going to listen to the guy that has taken classes that almost exclusively deal with the properties of materials under stress? REMOVING GAMES IS UNNECESSARY AND IS MORE LIKELY TO DAMAGE THE CONNECTOR THAN LEAVING IT IN.

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I've e-mailed both Nintendo and SEGA today. SEGA didn't have much to say (probably no one left over there that worked when they made consoles :p) but here's what Nintendo had to say:

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Hello,



Our stance is when not playing a game, please remove the game from the system. Please let us know if we can be of any further assistance.



Sincerely,


XXXX XXXXXXXX
Nintendo of America Inc.

Nintendo's home page: http://www.nintendo.com/

Power Line (Automated Product Info): (425) 885-7529

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