Hello. I would like to know your opinion about a simple question about cartridges. Once I am trying to get all everdrives for my console collection, what is the safest way to preserve the console: - keep the cartridge always connected - remove it every time I stop to play For me, looks like the best option is to keep connected, but I would like to know your opinion.
I guess you could say the connectors scratch against each other every time you remove the cartridge so there would be less damage if you don't remove it. I've never heard of a cart not working because of that though.
I keep mine plugged in all the time. But I'd say for long term storage, I'd pull them out. I don't want the tension to loosen up on the contacts.
Few people know this (who reads the manual??) but e.g. the SNES cart slot is designed for 50 insertions over the course of its lifetime. Because it's expected you(r parents) only buy a handful of games a year, so more isn't necessary. OK, back to being serious though: Don't worry, taking a cart out or just leaving it in won't make much of a difference either way. Unless there's sth weird involved like the NES' Game Genie PCB being thicker than normal game carts', thus (over time permanently) deforming the connector - but the Everdrives aren't known for that. Tbh I'd worry more (but still very little) about potential voltage spikes each time you have to reset the console to make the ED save (necessary on some platforms).
Haha 50 insertions for the snes? Even with only a handful of games, my childhood friends and I would probably do 50 insertions in a 3 month period. SNES still works. I stored my atari jaguar for a couple of years (unused during that time) with a cartridge in the slot. When I dusted it off, I think the cartridge slot pins had loosened and weren't making as snug a contact, as it was rarer for games to boot correctly, and pushing on the cartridge at an angle helped it boot. On the other hand, I've since gotten a jaguar CD, which basically connects to the jaguar with the cartridge slot, and I've had it plugged in for years without an issue (in fact I'm hesitant to remove it because, back when I was first connecting it to the system, it was temporamental and took many many tries for it to get recognized by the jaguar.)
