SNES Game Freezes at Same Spot

My SNES has been solid for over 20 years. A friend of mine brought a game over recently, however, called "Big Sky Trooper". Although my friend insists the game works fine on his system, it always freezes at the exact same spot when I try to play it on my system. It stands to reason it'd be an issue with the SNES itself, so I tested a few of my other games just to see if they'd work.

I tested "Final Fantasy 2", "Final Fantasy 3", "Stunt Race FX", "Illusion of Gaia" and "Donkey Kong Country 2". All seemed to work fine except "Illusion of Gaia", which sadly wouldn't boot at all.

So my SNES isn't broken--it'll still play many games. Has anyone had anything similar happen or have an idea what the issue might be as far as why "Big Sky Trooper" might work on my friend's SNES but freezes at the same point every time on mine?

 

By "freezes", I mean the screen goes all black, the controls are non-responsive, and the audio seems to continue for a while but doesn't sound quite right (best way I can describe it).

 

What are you doing in that game before and when it freezes?

 

So 2 games aren't working on your console?
If you have a flash cart, try running the hardware test rom.

 

Interesting, I'd also recommend a flash cart (if you've got one, just to rule it out). I had a little bit of a poke around on the regular internet and found this, which might mean there are issues with certain SNES board revisions perhaps. Would be interesting if you have a 1CHIP and your friend doesn't have a 1CHIP, for example. Just another line of thought to go on.

If you don't want to open your SNES, grab the serial numbers and we can check them to see where they might lie, provided the innards of your friends console haven't been changed over time. Report back and we'll have a look!

And if you could mention where it freezes, we could try and replicate it perhaps? If it's early enough in the game!

 

Thank you for all the thoughtful replies so far.

The game freezes in two places I've found...both very early. The first is on the "Lucas Arts" screen when you first turn on the game...a few eyeballs appear, then the music changes and an alien slug thing (?) appears and starts floating around. After he floats around for a few seconds, the screen goes black. I think this happens just as text is supposed to start appearing on the screen based on the audio and based on what the game is supposed to do at this point.

If I bypass that screen and go to the title screen, I can start a new game. Once I pass the three "tests", something comes down from the ceiling and touches my character's head. The game's supposed to make a sound effect here and my character's supposed to transform. Instead, I hear the sound effect and continued music, but again the screen goes dark.

I will try to get the serial number of my friend's SNES--mine is UN21907228.

 

I'm not too fancy in SNES hardware but in general these kinda problems can be linked back to dirtied contacts and the like. clean contacts on the cartridge and the console's cartridge slot (for the cartridge slot, use a credit card or anything shaped like one plus a fine lens cleaning cloth and dampen it slightly, and while holding the cloth tightly to he card, slide it in and out of the cart slot like you would do any game, no wiggling or anything of the sort. just insert and pull out a few times, and use a can of compressed air for the rest. (the instructions come from link83 on this thread http://assemblergames.com/l/threads/how-to-clean-the-snes-cartridge-slot.23463/ )

I wish I could help more but I don't know the inner workings of the snes' hardware enough to make a safe diagnostic.

 

A mate of mine used to run a used games/consoles market stall, and he said it was amazing the variety of problems that could be caused by nothing more than dirty contacts between the cartridge and console.

 

Yes, the cartridge slot could stand to be cleaned. I'll have to pick up a couple things after work today and see if that helps.

In case anyone's still interested, the serial number of my friend's SNES is UN16580560.

 

I cleaned my copy of Illusion of Gaia and my SNES using isopropyl alcohol. For the SNES, I used the 'credit card' method outlined by link83 as suggested.

Although I did get a lot of gunk/hair out of the cartridge slot, I don't seem to have done any good (or harm) so far.

Illusion of Gaia and Big Sky Trooper both work fine on my friend's console (with my tv, ac adapter, and s-video/audio cables), but have shown no improvement on my console. Final Fantasy 3 still works fine (it's the only other game I tested tonight), but perhaps I just need to do a better job of cleaning...I'll try again tomorrow.

 

Can you open the console and take some pics?

 

I don't yet have a bit I can use to get in--will have one within a couple days. Maybe I need to do some cleaning there too. It still seems weird to me that most games seem to play fine, but it's not a problem with the games alone since they work fine on my friend's system (with my tv, ac adapter, and s-video/audio cables, so I wouldn't think it's any of the external connections).

 

Depends on the flashcart you use..
On SD2SNES a problem has been recently reported, the electronic test of the SNES test program and burn-in ver1.03 fails half the time because of the IGRs. The test is guaranteed with an older firmware though or if you disable IGRs..

 

Thanks for all your help. I decided to get another system from eBay, and it works just fine. Interestingly, cenofett at this forum had a similar problem to mine a while back:

http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=8&threadid=62497

Cenofett also had issues with Secret of Mana...when I tried my copy of the game sure enough I was having the same symptoms as cenofett.

 

Ok well having two systems isn't that bad. Your old system can still play some games I guess..