Hey guys My AES collection is slowly growing, and since I am planing to buy some of the expensives games soon, I was wondering for how long could we expect these cartridge to work? All my games are stored in plastic bags, away from any sources of cold or heat.
No one can say for sure. If you treat them well and don't subject them to extreme temperatures, direct sunlight, or physical damage you can assume they will last atleast 30 years from when they were made just judging by other cartridges like from the NES (1985, it is now 2011, 26 Years, close to 30 years and they still work) but it's likely longer than that. You shouldn't have to worry about these cartridges breaking or failing until you start seeing older cartridges having problems. You may have a problem with a cartridge in the future that may just be that a capacitor or some other generic part needs to be replaced and then it will work again. In short, I would not worry about the lifespan of your cartridges provided you treat them with care. But do consider what you spend your money on and why. NeoGeo AES is very expensive for most games. MVS is much cheaper. But you have your own reasons for whatever you buy, just be sure you are happy with whatever you collect.
A few AES carts contain EPROM or flash since the mask ROMs were produced before the AES code was finished or had bugs that needed fixing. Portions of these ROMs will become corrupt with age (unless reprogrammed), and this can happen within the next 10 years. Games containing 100% mask ROMs are stable indefinitely because their memory state isn't contingent on trapped charge (which very very slowly leaks away), but they may still break down due to changes in electrical characteristics from stress/use or in chemistry from age. Mask ROM games used lightly should last 30+ more years, the same as any integrated circuit, including the ICs in the console itself.
