The preservation of cartridge based games.

[Dragon Mech]

one sec, just gotta grab another root beer.............okay .

Hello to everyone.

This topic will (hopfully) help with the preservation of your cartridge based games.
About 4 days ago i draged out my NES (yay!) but i spent 30 minutes cleaning the contacts on the games.
so as i was leading mario to yet another theatrical death, i was thinking about how the contacts looked. i noticed that there were wear markes from multiple insertions and extractions of the cartridge.i began think about how old the game was and the fact that it has lasted this long. i mean the game is as old as i am and it still works. i figured that the chips and the program would last longer than the contacts so, i decided to either slow or stop the wear on the contacts.i realized that i had only two options, hardwire the cart to the mainboard of the NES or. coat the contacts of the cart with solder. i decided to coat the contacts with solder.

here is what you will need to try this yourself:
A soldering iron, the smaller the tip the better.
Some 60/40 acidcore (self cleaning) solder.this kind of solder has hollow core that is filled with a paste that both cleans and fluxes the surface when heated by the soldering iron.
Any cartridge based game, i STRONGLY suggest that you try this on a spare cart that you don't mind messing up first to get some practice as this will require near perfection.
Some way to secure the circuit board while you work.
A way to remove the screw(s), i did this on a super mario bros NES cart that had screws with flat head slots in them but depending on the age of the cart and the system you may need to modify an old screw driver or buy one that will fit the screw or, you can just bust the cart open (please don't).
Something to smooth/remove the excess solder, i used a narrow flat-head screw driver but you should find what ever works for you but it must be made of metal.
A steady hand and tons of time and patients.

now to take care of the liabilty and legal stuff.
I am not in any way responsable for ANY damages or injuries that you may suffer while preforming this mod.
if you are not sure that you can do this mod safely DON'T DO IT!!!!
this mod uses a soldering iron which gets very hot.please be very careful when useing it.

now that that's over with we can now get started
There won't be any pictures because i don't have a camera.
The trick with this mod is to use as little solder as possible and to make it as smooth and thin as possible.

first,remove the screw(s) that hold the cartridge closed.if you are doing this mod with a GB,GBC or a GBA cart,the front part of the case slides down and lifts up after the screw is removed.next, clean the contacts on the cart. i know i said you should use an acid core solder but the cleaner that the contacts are,the better the solder will stick to the contact. now,secure the circuit board in what ever way works for you but it must be flat.be sure to avoid puting pressure on the chips if you can but if you can't, try to be as gentle as possible.okay now for the fun part, heat a contact with the soldering iron.this should take no more than 10 seconds. if it takes longer than 15 seconds, you may not have it pluged in or turned on .
next, with the soldering iron still on the contact,put a little solder on the tip of the soldering iron making sure that the solder is also touching the contact.wait for 5to 7 seconds for the acid core to clean/flux the contact and then slowly drag the iron over the contact making sure to completly coat the contact.
now, useing which ever tool you chose for this part of the mod, reheat the solder on the contact and when the solder gets soft use the smoothing tool to remove the execces solder and smooth out the thin layer thats left making sure that it is as thin and smooth as possible. the reason you only want a thin layer of solder is because by adding the solder to the contacts you are incressing the thickness of the contact. so the thinner the layer of solder the better.now that you've gotten a contact done you can do the rest the same way but be carefull,when i did this i had some trouble with the solder bleeding to the previous contact so have some patience.

i had at tough time with this mod because i wasn't sure about how to go about it so if anyone finds a better way of doing this mod feel free to post it. after i got done i had to file down my solder because i had to many lumps and rough spots but it worked. i hope you have better luck than i had

have fun .

[Hot Trout]

Good post and a good idea for people to refurb old carts. Can I suggest that some pictures would really help this otherwise excellent post.

Thank you.

[Dragon Mech]

i'll try to get some pictures this weekend. also, i would like to hear from anyone that has tried this mod.
please post your comments to this topic so that everyone can benifit from it.

[stinow]

Hi there Dragon Mech!

Thanks first of all for the guide. It's seems like a great idea to preserve some well played games.
I've got the idea after your manual, that it might also be possible to to do the NES / SNES slot.

You can order a replacement cartridge slot for a few bucks, but you might be able to pull of this same trick on your slot and use if forever

[JAHGoVeg]

Fooooorreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[Dragon Mech]

it's not possible to coat the slot contacts with solder because of two things. 1: the contacts are to close together and the solder would stick to more than one contact. 2: the tip of a soldering iron won't fit in to the slot. also, this mod can be used on memory cards. i should have the pictures up on sunday and i know that they will help alot. i am looking forward to reading posts from people who have tried this mod.i think i'm geting goosebumps!

[Dragon Mech]

Hello ladies,gentlemen and the google ad bot standing in the corner (yeah i see you there!).
what you have been waiting for has finaly arrived! i have a few pictures of my mod. i couldn't take any of me soldering or smoothing the solder because i was useing a smart phone camera and couldn't take a photo and work at the same time.i do however, have a before and after photos. i will try to be a bit clearer about the process in this post.

ok for the first photos, i will show you the two types of screws that you will see on nes carts.
remember, this mod can be done on ANY cartridge based games and other "card" based media.

[img]C:\Documents%20and%20Settings\Administrator\My%20Documents\screw_type1.jpg[/img]
notice that this screw has a circle in the middle and a slot that a flat head screwdriver can fit in to.

[img]C:\Documents%20and%20Settings\Administrator\My%20Documents\screw_type2.jpg[/img]
you will find that alot of nes cartridges have this type of screw. you may have to modify a screwdriver to fit this screw if you can't find a screwdriver online.

[img]C:\Documents%20and%20Settings\Administrator\My%20Documents\A_THING_OF_BEAUTY.jpg[/img]
if your planing on doing this mod on an nes cart, please note that there arn't a whole lot of places for a clamp (or whatever your gonna use) to hold on to the circuit board.

[img]C:\Documents%20and%20Settings\Administrator\My%20Documents\clamp.jpg[/img]
this is what i used to secure the circuit board. on the bottom is a transformer from a powerful late '80s
stereo system and on the top is a transformer from an apple imagewritter II printer. if you are only able to hold the board by the chips, please be very careful as to much pressure will damage the chips.

[img]C:\Documents%20and%20Settings\Administrator\My%20Documents\smoothing_tool.jpg[/img]
i found that useing a blade from a utility knife works best fore the job of smoothing the solder.

[img]C:\Documents%20and%20Settings\Administrator\My%20Documents\before_level.jpg[/img]
this is what the contact should look like after you aply the solder to it. remember to use as little as possible.
the less you use means the less you have to clean off.

[img]C:\Documents%20and%20Settings\Administrator\My%20Documents\after_level.jpg[/img]
i wish i could have taken photos of the smoothing process but i couldn't do that and smooth at the sametime, sorry. now place the blade at either the top or the bottom of the row of contacts. it's ok for the blade to touch the other contacts because the contacts will set the final thickness of the solder. now place the soldering iron on the contact,making sure that it is touching the blade too. now as soon as all of the solder is soft move the blade and the iron across the contact,scraping the excess solder off of the contact.
it maybe necessary to repeat this step going back and forth a couple of times to get the solder smooth.
you will have to clean the blade after every pass as some of the solder and flux will stick to the blade and you will have to remove any excess solder from the tip of the soldering iron too.
i hope that these pictures have helped you understand what your going for when you do this mod yourself.
if you have any questions, please post them to this topic and i will try to help you as best as i can.
now go forth and enjoy the fruits of your labor! . oh and HT, please defrag the forum because i triped over some stray data packets on the way here .

[Dragon Mech]

OH CRAP!! the photos didn't load. will someone help me post the pictures. please!!!

[crustyasp46]

OH CRAP!! the photos didn't load. will someone help me post the pictures. please!!!

To upload go to the bottom of your post page, and click on the upload attachementand then go to the file/ picture you wish to download and just follow the instructions, once downloaded place inline where you want the picture. Good luck.

[Dragon Mech]

i'm sorry for the foul up everyone. thanks to crustyasp46, i'm able to post these pictures. i'm posting them in the exact same order that they would have been in my previous post.
thank you all for beind patient with me in the posting of these picters.

screw type 1

screw type 2

basic NES cartridge curcuit board
(see if you can guess which game this is by useing the code on the chips )

my imporvised clamp

the smoothing tool i prefer

ok, i have to split this post in to two part so that i can get the last two photos uploaded "one moment please while i transfer your call."