Bit/Software Rot

You should only be concerned if you leave your carts in the wettest, hottest place possible. I had bit rot happen to me once because I was a retarded teenager and thought it would be a good idea to store my vidya floppies in the garage during a hot, damp, summer.

carts will outlive us all.

>>3726602
I sincerely doubt that.

>>3726602

This. Keep in mind these things were made in the 90's when companies actually expected and planned for people to play these forever and not just throw them away in a few years.

>>3726602
If you take really good care of them, yes.

>>3726604
If well stored, they very might.

>on ebay

>"n64 game"
>24,000 results

>"n64 game not working"
>24 results

Hmmmm.

>>3726625
That's because only literal retards try to sell broken games on ebay and openly admit they don't work.

>>3726625
>n64 games are the only cart games

wew.

I live in a very hot place and have a couple of loose carts, how should I store them?

>>3726632
Even better

>the last home console released to use cartridges

>>3726717

Heat is not a problem, humidity is.

>>3726727
This place is very humid too.

>>3726614
>companies actually expected and planned for people to play these forever
Pffffhahaha

How do you explain save batteries then? It's not like everyone could replace them. Those "gamebit" screwdrivers for opening old Nintendo and Sega carts were pretty difficult for the general public to get until the late 2000s. They couldn't possibly have predicted that.

>>3726721
>until the Switch

>>3726767
switch isn't even technically a home console, it's a tablet with a tv dock

>>3726769
A dock that has a rather powerful secondary GPU in it.

>>3726765

You can still play the game just fine with a dead battery.

>>3726628
only an idiot would sell broken stuff and lie
hell, your going to be paying for shipping both ways if you do that on eBay

>>3726785
there's no proof of this

>>3726765
>were pretty difficult for the general public to get until the late 2000s.
Top kek kiddo.

>>3726580
>bit rot
>mask ROM
lol ok

>>3726826
I bought a 4.5mm gamebit off eBay in 2008. At the time they didn't go by the name "gamebit" so it was difficult to locate - I only found it because someone pointed out that one was up for auction on a forum I browsed at the time. I ended up in a bit of a bidding war over it, too. I'd say it's probably accurate.

>>3726849
You really don't know how these things were opened in 90s? You don't need certified epic retro gamebit (tm).

>>3726849
Melt the back of a pen, press into cart, wait until cool, impromptu "gamebit".

>>3727032
Where the hell am I suppose to get a pen?

>>3726620
I'm not sure you realize how extremely young that anon is. Someone who's 12 today will probably live to 120+

Many EPROMs that were programmed decades ago still function fine despite having much shorter data retention ratings than MASK ROMs. And EPROMs can be easily reprogrammed if/when they lose their data, assuming that said data has been copied and stored elsewhere (see: MAME).

The big problem is for undumped games/prototypes, where the only copies are on EPROM carts or old CD-Rs. Even then, if they are stored away from sunlight and not in a hot shed or something (and in the case of EPROMs aren't exposed to improper voltages or electric shocks), most of those are probably still working just fine. Basically, I would say that, today, the highest risk games are games stored on EPROMs, not retail games. And besides, if a retail game bites the dust, who cares.

>>3727106
>Someone who's 12 today will probably live to 120+

Yeah, if they are rich.

>>3726794
We will find out on Friday, hopefully. Nervous.

>>3726580
>Are our vidya just doomed?
We have almost all ROM images and EEPROM burners can be bought

>>3726728
Chuck 'em in an airtight tupperware/storage container.

Alternatively, you could keep them in a humidor. I used to keep my gameboy and games in an old humidor that was given to me in a trade. Not that I did it to purposely preserve anything, but it looked stylish.

>>3727028
Either my brother or myself clearly opened our old SNES at some point. I went to take it apart to clean it recently and found that all of the safety screws had been replaced by regular philips heads, long long ago, I assume, since I certainly don't remember doing it.

>>3726580
>Software Rot
>cart boards open to the environment
Sounds like you might be retarded. But hey. At least you can tell your mom you got a post on the fourth channel.

We have roms. The actual cards are no longer necessary. Get over it.

>>3728060
>we are underage ignorant fools
Not all of us kiddo

Is a shoebox a viable place to store carts?

>>3726580
That's a problem if you collect prototypes and why you should dump them for yourself.

>>3726580
Every cd will stop working because of scratches before cartridges begin to stop working because of bitrot.

>>3726785
It doesn't. The tablet underclocks itself by 70% when it isn't docked.

>>3730003
Realistically it's not that bad believe it or not. A cardboard box will absorb and evaporate moisture more effectively than the electronics (this is why games dropped in their boxes especially with their manuals fate better) and the condition of the shoe box over time can indicate the environmental conditions of where you have it sitting.

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I can still pop in Colecovision carts I buy from garage sales and they still run

Like one of the anon's said

The carts will outlive us all, light memory (CDs) on the other hand........................

>>3730134
When are CD's due to expire. I know some of the Sega CD/Saturn/Dreamcast are already beginning to rot. I read once they were manufactured differently than PS, apparently of lower quality, more susceptible to rot

>>3730141
Not so much rot.

Light memory has a lifespan of 50 to 75 years depending on the quality of the burn and disc

Already a lot of CDs that were burned during the early days of the CD-R burner in 1998-1999 don't work today due to the low quality design and product

Granted a most retail and professional grade CDs still work today but within the next 10-15 years, a lot of those late 80s/early 90s discs will begin to stop working.

Read up on it, it's an interesting read. It seems magnetic memory (found in floppy disks and Famicom Disc system carts) have a longer lifespan of 100 years.

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>>3730220

>Read this post
>Dig up folder of tons of episodes I burned of anime in late 90s
>Discs don't read anymore

Holy shit!

>>3730220
CDs will last ages. You're talking about CD-Rs. Floppies have a a shorter lifespan the more they're used. I've had ones go bad in a year or two.

>>3730491
I have 17 year old CD-R of windows 2000 that still works

>>3730554
I've a 33yo pancreas and still works

>>3730560
That's what you think, fatso

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>>3730609

>>3730554
That's impressive. Especially the part where it's wasn't even released 17 years ago. Impressive even if it's only 16 and a half years old.

>>3730560
I have a 47 year old liver that still works. How is a mystery.

>>3731374
It's 2017 idiot you know what he meant
>Heh oops looks it didn't come out in 2000, 17 years before this year
>guess this idiot doesn't remember the exact release date of all windows versions
>This guy must be a lying fucker because who wouldn't remember the release date of Windows 2000?

>>3726849
I got those around that time.
My dad worked in electronics so he told me to look up security screws or something and I found a bunch. Thats the name ive been using every time I buy a weird looking screwdriver for shit like my Xbox controllers. I remember I ended up buying a set that had a screwdriver and a hollow shaft and this little case of like maybe 20 different security screw tips. Worked for everything I had.

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>>3731454
Top kek kid. He knows I know what he meant. That's why he didn't sperg out like you.

>>3732054
>I-I was only prentending to be retarded!

>>3730220

Burned =/= Pressed

The ones that seem to spoil fast are always burns, that at the end of the day rely on light induced "stains" in the substrate.

High quality pressed CD's, when handled properly, can last as long as any magnetic media.

With that said, the drivers are a different story.

>>3732724
>i'm not pretending

>>3726580
>Sooo... Bit rot.. How concerned should one be about software deterioration on older vidya? Is there any real way to protect cart boards open to the environment?

Dumping the roms and whatnot, 80-90 videogame systems were treated as toys, and the manufacture quality of these systems reflect that, all these games are going bad, it's going to take decades still, but they will. The only thing we can do is make sure all the carts are dumped right and hoard all the design documentation available to make sure we can build spares.

Old systems like the nes or atari... there will outlive us because they are well documented, people can make their own replacements for ULA's and such (look al the c64 SID chip) and easy to fix but all the ones from late 90 onwards will die thanks to microscopic hairline cracks on PCB tracks and custom SMD ICs dying without replacement available.