I have been thinking about that over and over for some time and since i am not technically experienced i would like your help, guys.... Is it possible that in some years the cardridges we have for all our consoles will be ruined? Time wears everthing isn't that right? For example some games after many years have save issues because of the internal battery. Can't the battery liquid possibly stain the chips and eventually ruin them? Will we be able to play the games we grew up with on their original platforms when we are on the pension and are old enough to leave this world? Sorry about these random thoughts but i HAVE to know about the durability of the cardridges its an issue that has always been troubling me.
Just think about it like this. By the time all our carts stop working, they won't be ours anymore.. hint hint .
Yea, that's the only thing I really worry about any more. Especially older NES games like Zelda. I know you can replace them, but it's a pain, and I'd rather play a digital version like that found on Virtual Console.
The batteries seem to mysteriously last far longer in game carts than they do in any other application. 20 years+ seems to be no problem. And they aren't hard to replace at all as long as you go about it the right way, i.e buy your CR20302 batteries with solder tabs on them, and have a gamebit tool to open the carts with security screws. Some commercial games (not just prototype games) use erasebale programmable chips in them, and eventually these will lose their data. But the timescale for that is debateable, plenty of examples around of 30 year old carts with eproms that still work. Amstrad GX4000 carts all use eraseable roms, at least one megadrive game does too. Normal carts with mask roms will last hundreds of years, who knows perhaps thousands if looked after. If you leave them in damp conditions then the metal components on the boards can rust, and resistors and capacitors on the boards can die over time but these are replaceable anyway. If you want something to worry about then think about this - in say 20 years time will you even be able to get a TV that accepts a video signal from an old console. When all TV's sold are Super Ultra HD, completely wireless, float in the air by themselves and are as thick as a human hair!
I don't worry about that. You can always use a converter or scaler. Problematic could be game consoles which output RF only. However systems like the Atari 2600 can be modified for Composite output. And I don't think that Composite Video will be stripped so soon, because a lot of cheap electronic products use it and will use it in the future.
Game carts are great, they can be abused, thrown around, left in fairly dusty conditions, etc and still work fine. Obviously the enemy as with any electronics is humidity.
You think companies didn't bother putting in a battery compartment in cartridges for cost and safety reasons?
normal ROMs (OTP, not PROM or EPROM or E²PROM) have a MTBF of about 20 years guaranted. above that, anything can happen and it mostly depends of how one takes care of it (gen. threatment, ESD, storage, humidity, dirt, oxidation..). in the good case it can last up to 40 years and even more. but as it is with everything in our world, things start to decompose, some faster some slower, same as people can get only 60 yrs and others 120+ years old.
Thank you guys for your interesting answers! I am feeling better now that i know how to make my games live longer
