I Bought 10 BROKEN Nintendo Games - Let's Fix Them!
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- čas přidán 30. 11. 2023
- I Bought 10 BROKEN Nintendo Games - Let's Fix Them! I bought all these game cartridges for $200 from Goodwill so I could take them apart and see if I can get them all working. Of course I'll be cleaning lots of dirty pins and taking care of some corrosion. I'll also be cleaning a "mystery substance" off one circuit board. And then testing to see if they are all working.
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Should have showed them not working before "fixing" them
With the 3DS/NDS carts, you can use a wooden tooth pick with IPA to clean the contacts.
Would you be willing to disclose where you get ds's from? I fully understand if not
hey man do you have any ps5 scuf controllers for sale?
5:34 triggered me so bad when u were testing the wrong one lmao
I love watching people I don't know fixing stuff I know nothing about!!
To be fair even though you consider it not as exciting since it’s mainly cleaning - it’s still interesting to see what people consider broken and how easy it is to fix them.
Might lead to a few more people trying to fix their own cartridges or picking up some good deals on retro games that just need a bit of IPA
On the Gameshark I would super glue it, let the glue dry then bolster the areas that need support with UV resin. I use this often at work for small parts.
I love that you take so much e-waste and old classic games and make them usable. It's like preserving history.
unfortunately there is still too much ewaste, video games are getting recycled for the collective nostalgia but I have been to a lot of swap meets and the amount of electronic stuff that will go to a landfill or a under developed country is astonishing
I like how you're thinking "I hope there's something majorly wrong with these games".
The rest of us are just crossing our fingers hoping to see a logo. 😂😂
This Video inspired me to take another look at my non functional Diddy Kong Racing Cartridge. While cleaning it I spottet a solder point that didn't have any material on it. So I took my soldering iron and fixed this. Now I have a fully functional Game :D Bought it at a flea market for 7 Euros so good deal In the long run I guess.
Love it! Nice work!
Thanks for teaching people how to handle these retro games. Not many people have the knowledge. You also make it pretty simple to understand.
Playing the Star theme for checking the pins was a nice touch.
If you edit that again and find a loose one, I instantly think of a death/lost life sound effect for that problem.
A normal toothbrush is also very good at cleaning the contacts on 3ds games. At least it’s something I have had great success with. A stiff bristle brush seems to be just abrasive enough to get most corrosion off using nothing but alcohol.
That’s Brasso in Super Mario 64. It’s abrasive and they probably used it regularly which is why it took off the gold plating and caked up on the inside.
Brasso is usually a little yellower, maybe Silvo or toothpaste?
ya It looks like Brasso
@@ianburkard there are different kinds for stovetops, brass, etc
100% brasso, pretty widely used too, I even used it to refurb carts like this years ago. Seems like whoever was using it didn't bother to clean it off afterwards, which imo causes damage long term.
@@paulghignon4092 There is a cover that the PCB extends through with the exposed contacts. Brasso gets pushed up through the cover where it can’t be cleaned without disassembling the cart. Too bad it doesn’t just evaporate like isopropyl alcohol.
@TronicsFix the GameShark should be repairable with a paper clip made out of metal and a solder iron. Just bend a few "waves" into the paper clip and melt it into the plastic where the cracks are with the solder iron. I already repaired a few things made out of plastic which weren't glueable.
“84 hours… that’s a lot”
Them are ROOKIE numbers 😂
7:30 that "sw" written on the Donkey Kong cartridge... Try some isopropyl alcohol to remove it. Fun fact: the only thing that makes permanent marker permanent is the the solvent is alcohol and not water. 💖🌞🌵😷
Back in the day, we really got quality products for our money, not like the trash we have today...
For the game genie I would use UV resin to fix and reinforce the sides of the broken plastic, it would work wonders if there is enough space for a little reinforcement
I used to always blow into the cartridge 😂
Lol, that usually worked!
😂😂😂
Its always a treat when you fix old stuff
Yeah, I enjoy it too!
YOOO STOP IT that club overlay had me craxking up
7:40 holy crap that transition is soooooo smooth ! Right hand so on point between the 2 shots it almost looks like a glitch
Love the classic Mario music while checking the pins good touch. I think your doing a great job on your videos 👍
I used to use pencil erasers on dirty contacts, and they seem to do quite a decent job rubbing off the oxidation. Works great on RAM modules. Ever tried that?
He has in past videos.
Yep, tried it. Works good but I do like De Ox It better
Erasers are great if you're looking for a chemical free alternative, but they never get as far down as chemicals do. That's mostly due to microscopic scratches that the eraser can't reach.
I read years ago--- take this with a grain of salt because I didn't check--- that "rubber" got it's name because the first use of it was in erasers... and only erasers because "vulcanization" had not yet been invented. So evidently what we now call erasers were called "rubbers." And rubber alone wasn't especially good even for that. So... pumice was added! Abrasive stuff from volcanoes. Now I'm talking about those erasers that come attached to wooden pencils, of a bandaid-like skin-color color. More modern erasers don't seem to have the pumice. And that's the moral of this story: You should pick erasers for cleaning electronics in the same way that you would select one grade of sandpaper out of several available.
@@moc5541 I fact checked this, and seems correct from a cursory glance.
I don't think it would have made a difference with getting the 3DS cart working but they do make pointy tipped qtips. I have a pack of bamboo ones from Amazon and they are awesome!
It's kind of wild that Goodwill sold what they thought were broken games for $200, when the potential profit if they're all working is like $35.
thats goodwill for you now days their a reseller no longer a donation place for poor people
20:35 you can use a har nylon brush (in hardware stores they're labeled as wheel cleaning brushes or break cleaning brushes) to get corrosion of. I've used that on many project of mine though not as tiny as circuit boards.
I've heard people have used gun cleaning brushes as well on computer motherboards (at least, I heard about it from The House of Moth channel). I haven't tried it myself, but it seems to work well for that
I think i have hundreds of cartridges and only a single one was unrepairable (defective ROM chip). The others mostly just needed cleaning and one needed a trace repaired, but that was it. This video is a good showcase that most of the time, a cartridge isn't broken, it's just dirty.
To clean the pins of a DS/3DS cart, I take a cotton swab and pull some of the cotton at the tip up from the swab, then twist it into a little point that fits down between the bars well.
Was taking a sip of my drink when you said unless somebody blows into the cartridge spit my drink out laughing remembering how many times as a kid I would turn red in the face trying to use that technique.
Playstation portal teardown pls 🙏 I want to see how easy is to fix analog sticks
My ocd kicks in aggressively every time you poke the cartridges with your metal picking tool 😂😆. I have to laugh at myself for it. I still enjoy the repair and cleaning videos you do.
You should know that those cartridges were never broken at the first place... their seller didnt have the console to test them; Nintendo cartridges are immortal.
Everytime he says "this corrosion", I immediately have the Sisters Of Mercy stuck in my head 😅
Hey hey hey a-hey now now-now now.
This channel inspired me to learn how to repair my things (mice, keyboard, headphones etc) maybe about 3-4 years ago, instead of throwing them away or keeping them in a closet. I'm not anywhere near your level but I really appreciate these videos.
The white powder is dried Brasso, Brightboy or whatever metal polish they decided to use. I know this because I had to tell my local game shop to stop using it. It will always creep past the case and into the inside. Funny enough I told them to use that Deoxit D100L like you have there. Read the bottle. It says to leave a thin layer on. It will protect from future oxidation and will not damage plastic or metal. Also, please stop using the magic eraser. A Q-tip is plenty with Deoxit. It melts oxidation away. Very little effort is needed. I can't imagine repairing electronics without it. Seriously magical stuff. Ever struggle with the xbox one controllers that have d-pads that rapid press? Not even 99% IPA could get the pads clean enough to stop it. Only Deoxit has solved literally any and all connectivity issues I have had repairing hundreds upon hundreds of consoles, controllers and games.
Doh, at 5:28 I noticed you were testing the wrong solder joint. lol
Lol
Isn't it ironic that the label in the back specifically tells you not to clean with "alcohol" and/or other such solvents...
I believe back in the day it was because over the counter alcohol was typically 70% rubbing. Isopropyl alcohol is more available today and that's most effective for cleaning electronics without causing risk of corrosion from water.
@@oOignignoktOo1Rubbing alcohol is isopropyl alcohol.
What’s even more ironic is that the Official Nintendo Cleaning Kit for the NES tells you to use distilled water first then 50/50 “distilled water and isopropyl” if that doesn’t work. Most people didn’t even know what that meant back then and they couldn’t just look it up online. “Where do I get this ‘isopropyl’ stuff?” Guess it was harder to notice the contradiction too. ;)
Supposedly the warning against cleaning with alcohol was because Nintendo was concerned about children and safety, and not because of alcohol being ineffective.
A great way to get those stripped screws off with minimal damage is to fill the screw hole with solder. Then press the bit against the solder and heat it up so the bit slips in. I let it harden and and pull the bit out and it literally rebuilds the screw hole. Super easy to remove afterwards.
Ocarina of Time may still need a battery.
Should have tested some of them first to see what was actually a repair vs a misdiagnosis as broken.
I've found that for cleaning old ENIG or HASL contacts like on game carts (cheaper tin colored or gold contacts without the conductor trace sticking out at the bottom), that a simple white pencil eraser works great. It's non-destructive to the plating treatment and removes all but the worst of grime. You can get away with Magic Eraser on Hard Gold contacts like on the NES carts, but the pencil eraser works great too. You may also want to lay down some fresh conformal coating, or even nail polish on the corroded lines. Atmospheric humidity WILL degrade the exposed copper over time.
Watching you turn on that TMNT SNES game really hit long lost memories of playing that game with old friends. Thank you.
Don’t forget to enter the menu on ocarina of time. I’ve had a yellow bar and black screen. Had to really clean the crap out of the cart and replace the battery. Also clean the contacts.
Hi, thanks for videos. For gameshark i think you can use a small piece of fiberglass cloth an epoxy it on each side, it should hold veey well.
Great videos recently, I esp. liked the Dreamcast colab videos.
Absolutely loved taking cartridges apart as a kid lol this video is very nostalgic.. kinda wished I'd kept all my old gaming stuff from the 80's/90's had sooooo many from almost all consoles.
I think it would be interesting to see you giving a try on the Gameshark adaptador, great video tho
Indeed. I fixed the connector on a Mega Memory Card which uses the exact same design for the shell and connector but my issue was a mangled pin. It seems they used a different kind of plastic to make it clear on the GameShark which must be why it cracked. In my case I had to relocate an unused pin (Audio In).
I use a fiberglass pen on 3ds and ds carts. Gets in there really easily and it’s not too abrasive. I find it to be a much more effective solution than q tips or cotton swabs.
@tronicsfix a fiberglass pen is great for cleaning the pins on a ds and 3ds game. The strands of the fiberglass goes in-between the raised guides.
I refreshed thinking its time for a video and it said uploaded 5 seconds ago, wow.
The white stuff is Brasso residue. It's an abrasive brass polisher that leaves a residue if it's not cleaned up properly. A better alternative is Brite Boy.
So satisfying to watch you fix these games, I wish I knew how to do the same. 👍
I understand that testing the games ahead of time maybe boring... But you could test them and tell us that you did... here's the reason... We want to know if the people who sold the broken objects, tested them before selling or just put some stuff together to sell without testing. If they do, there's hope for us novices to get something and immediately turn it around (with some minor cleaning) for profit. I watch your videos for the hope for the positive out come in every phase of this process... Including buying a broken object and getting something that works! That's why there's at least one comment in every video: did you test it beforehand. Sending lots of love 💖 from sunny 🌞 Arizona 🌵. Take care of yourself and each other 😷.
some of the 3ds era pokemon games had issues with cold solder joints meaning you have to open the shell up to fix those ones, it was initially thought to be dying chips, but found to not be the case
What I use for my small boards, is a baby sized all steel AIPIO ultrasonic which is quite powerful for its size and has a useful degas function not seen on many USC's, I use a good electronics safe solution added to distilled water and every time a dirty cruddy board goes in, pristine board comes out. I paid £20 for the machine off Ali and it just tears through grime, oil, dirt, corrosion but doesn't destroy soft stuff.
Gold plated contacts pretty much can't tarnish. If there is grime and dirt on them it will be easily removed. No need to start rubbing away gold.
What can happen is tin-smear which then oxidizes and leaves tin oxide. This non conductive material can be mechanically pressed into the gold but should be possible to clean off.
Wish you attempted the GameShark! Would have been neat to see it under the microscope and all. Some wires from a donor cartridge to see if it even booted at all. Lots of neat stuff to try.
Worth the time for resell? Probably not. Would be good content, though.
Yeah, actually the GameShark was the only really interesting thing in the bunch. All the rest was not broken, just dirty. Wouldn't call that 'repair' tbh.
You can try solvent bonding that crack in the game shark slot. Get some acetone or MEK, dip in something thin like a toothpick or small metal tube like what's on the deoxit bottle. Then run the drops along the crack (not too much but wet crack faces) and squeeze it firmly for a few hours. With rubber bands for example.
If it's the right kind of plastic (ABS, ASA, acrylic) and you do it right, it'll be as strong as new.
Hello hello! I have started watching your videos lately and it's begun to inspire me to want to try to repair game cartridges. I was wondering though if you have a link of some sort to the type of wire you use to solder traces on the boards. It looks like some sort of blue wire. I really appreciate your time and thank you very much for the videos
Maybe plastic epoxy putty would work for the game shark issue. It molds to the shape you need and adheres to the plastic so you would have to be careful to stay clear of the connections and clamp it back down into place as the putty adheres, but then it might be strong enough to hold it's shape.
I love watching stuff on how to fix video games and love stuff on how to fix video game systems.
0:18 such detailed Warranty Voids and precautions that I wonder how many 80's child though those were challenging instruction to destroy cartridges... I don't remember having read any of them as a child... they were precious objects for me as my friends as I remember but what a fear to have such wide variety of bully or experiments to be done... thanks to emulation and preservation... surviving the 80s as a human being or a material thing, was not as easy as it can ressemble...
Good job, I love fixing carts myself. I got a tournament fighters I fixed as well haha! I swapped boards w a nice Bulls vs Blazers for that one, but the original cart is in dead condition. Sucks bc you wanna put a nice label on it, but you also don't want to contribute to the fake stuff out there.
Also, It's actually kinda insane what prices for broken games go for on ebay sometimes. People want stuff to fix, to make content, to resell or collect, or to just learn to fix on themselves etc. I've seen people basically pay pricecharting prices for broken games as long as the shells are looking nice. Freaking nuts haha, but I love it.
I love what you're doing. I bet you've fixed a Grindstormer in your day. You got a sub from me!
dang, it was pin cleaning, the experience, for this video. Haha. Nothing real interesting, but oh well, that just means you're buying smart lots. Nice fixin
dude just wanted to say thank you that method for cleaning ds carts just fixed my childhood copy of pokemon diamond which was my first pokemon game and has been not working for a long time
as always great video!
The problem with the OG NES is the pivot load mechanism. Normal edge connector slots rub as you insert the cart which keeps them clean but the NES pivot doesn't do that.
Cleaning those seem so satisfying
DeOxit does make a specific formulation for cleaning gold plated connectors.
Cartridges are great for 'repairs'. So often faulty games (or even consoles) are perfectly fine and just needed the pins/contacts cleaned.
I recently transplanted a board from a generic USB SNES controller into the shell of a Hyperkin USB SNES controller using nothing but a screwdriver and hot glue. It worked beautifully
Nice touch with the Star sound! 🤣
Man, my goodwills and other shops like that never have anything game related anymore, or if they do they jack up the price, working or not. The other downside is that most of these places have employees who snag up the stuff before it ever hits the floor:(
The white dried out residue looks a lot like Belgom Chroom polish which I've seen people use.
For the DS game you could also have used isopropyl alcohol together with a toothbrush to clean the contacts.
Actually a very interesting video! Please do more of these.
"Unless people are blowing into their cartridges" *80s me slowly removes cart from lips.
Moisture usually doesn't get into these things... unless you blow into the cartridge... LOL
the game shark is an easy fix, just put a little foamstrip above the slot, so when you put the housing on it again, the pressure puts it down again.
For cleaning pads, I highly recommend the extendable fiberglass brushes. I use them often for repairs that gives them a nice polish. You do need to use a light touch on them because a hard scrub can eventually start sanding off the copper.
I also want to add that a little harder scrub will take off loose solder-mask to see the traces, but you can touch them up with a conformal coating pen.
So glad you are saving stuff that would go in the trash and giving them a new life.
That Christmas t-shirt ha ha 😄
Have you tested the games before attempting the repairs? I´d expect quite a few to work even before cleaning.
You can try to fix the gameshark by mixing Styrofoam with superglue like loctite to make quick cement like substance! once applied it will harden in seconds... you can then simply file off the extra bits
1:11 my friend, you just made a thirst trap for a circuit board.
TMNT Tournament Fighters was fantastic!! Lots of hours spent on that one!
If you just have deoxid, you probably can leave it on. But when you have some copper dust mixed into it (because you used an abrasive), then you should clean it off.
Have you ever attempted to replate worn-out gold-plated contacts? Looking at some protocols online, it seems like it should be within reach of the hobbyist, if fiddly.
I have to go open up my n64 and SNES and clean them along with the games. It's been 30+ years...
Once I got a copy of Kirby's Dream Land that was not working. I opened it and saw a layer of what I assume was grape soda under the board on the back half of the cartridge shell. After some cleaning it somehow worked.
FWIW, believe the instructions for d100 do say to remove after applying/cleaning. D5 (the spray can deoxit) you can leave on.
Man, I bought Legend Of Mana for SNES from my local game shop and it wouldn’t work. Opened it up, corosion and red stuff everywhere. Resistor was completely broken in half but still in the board and the entire board was just covered in random corrosion. Really sucked, I was looking forward to playing it for the first time
Love the NES👍 i remember having a expansion cartridge with 15 games on it. You had to plug any game into it for it to work. The only problem was it stuck out and was easily hit.
I only have eyes for two NES games, one being SMB3 just spent so many weeks of my life taming that one including going round the worlds with full P wing racks after completion to find all the secrets. The other is a rare one, Solstice... incredibly complex game with awesome graphics and a busting soundtrack, oh yeah baby :)
Thanks for outbidding me 😂😂 love the video and content!
Lol, sorry about that.
15:55 If the head of the screw is rounded, put a rubber band between the head and the screwdriver to give you more friction and it will open better.
I bet you could 3D print a pin assembly for that Gameshark if you wanted.
10:26
My favorite nintendo console XD
THE NINTENDO ENTERTAINMENT *BOY*
The ice blue N64 console ist a beauty!
look at all that corrosion from decades of humid breath and spit on cartridge pins
Game Shark? Could you just slap some thin adhesive foam stripping on the inside of the case to keep the break from splitting when the cart is installed?
Or even better, adhere it along the break.
About the Gameshark....maybe you can put something in the case...close it...and maybe that push the broken plastic down so the pins make contact again....
I had a crazy theory for cleaning 3ds games, can you buy a port on its own saves using a working consoles port and will be easier to clean the ports pins after.
I think it's a good idea, yeah. Would prevent wearing the contacts out in the actual 3ds.