R.I.P. Sonic The Hedgehog 2

[SuperMonacoGP]

I bought some games off Ebay and a Mega Drive a few weeks back and at first most of the games wouldn't work, but I remembered from when I was a kid that you have to blow them and wipe where the metal connectors are at the bottom of the cart. They usually gather dust and need cleaning, I cleaned them all and they all work perfectly now

I'm glad you got Sonic 2 working again.

[Chris]

Blowing on the game just corrodes the connectors from the moisture in your breath. Rubbing alcohol and a Q-tip work the best for me.
I have 3 Genesis games that I beleive are truly dead. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers:The Movie, Gauntlet IV and Streets of Rage. All were given to me.

[Mark Robert]

It seems like Genesis carts are more sensitive to dust and build-up. Almost all the SNES carts I buy work straight away without any cleaning needed whatsoever. The Genesis games I buy including the boxed ones about half the time don't work unless cleaned first with alcohol along the connectors.

[johnnyb]

Blowing on the game just corrodes the connectors from the moisture in your breath. Rubbing alcohol and a Q-tip work the best for me.
I have 3 Genesis games that I beleive are truly dead. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers:The Movie, Gauntlet IV and Streets of Rage. All were given to me.

You have been done a favour with the power rangers, but you need to breath life into the others!

[Baloo]

It seems like Genesis carts are more sensitive to dust and build-up. Almost all the SNES carts I buy work straight away without any cleaning needed whatsoever. The Genesis games I buy including the boxed ones about half the time don't work unless cleaned first with alcohol along the connectors.

Now, I've always had it the other way around most of the time, but neither carts for either system give me much trouble.

NES is a different story though...

[kool kitty89]

I highly suggest disabling the NES lockout chip, it's simple and pretty much fool proof. (it's about as difficult as changing the 72 pin connector)
If your contacts are in good shape (or well cleaned, same for cartridges), it will solve virtually all the problems. (it is the direct cause of the "blinking" problem)

Problems with graphic garbage, no start-up at all (with a black, or pastel -pink/green/blue) screen, are pure connection problems and will not be affected. (this requires cleaning the cartridge, or cleaning/polishing or replacing the 72-pin connector)

[muchomojo]

Maybe I'm just lucky, but out of the 300 or so carts I've picked up in the last couple years all of them have worked except for a couple of 2600 carts. I think I had a SNES cart with a dead battery too. Some of them were absolutely filthy also, I just keep cleaning them until they work.

[Chris]

You have been done a favour with the power rangers, but you need to breath life into the others!

HA HA HA !

[gamegenie]

I had issues like that with Sonic 2 on my Genesis 2, and a lot of my 32X games but not anymore, perhaps you need to clean the cart.

[jesus.arnold]

I actually bought my first seemingly proper dead Mega Drive cartridge last week

and to make it worse it was Gain Ground which I have wanted to get back for a while cos I had it when I was a kid.

The game absolutely will not start up at all, I ended up replacing the Resistor and Capacitor just in case too (i've heard that replacing the capacitor will usually fix carts that are totally dead) but no luck at all unfotunately.

Meh, maybe I'll just buy an over priced copy off Ebay (when they actually have some on there, only import versions at the moment)