[NioZero]

Some time ago I purchased an used Sonic SPinball for my Genesis. But when I try to play it on the console the game doesn't works... The first Sega message appears, but then only black screen.. So I suppose it was broken

Some time later I bought another used copy of the same game, but neither worked...

I asked my father who knows about electrical stuff and he opened the cartridge to find anything suspicious but he found nothing.

Maybe is Bad luck or maybe has something to do with the console, but other games works without problem and only happens with this game in particular..

don't know if useful, but for the record, my console version is the genesis 2. Anyone knows something?

[Billy]

Have you had the chance to try either copy in a different console?

[NioZero]

not yet, but if I have the chance I will comment

[muteKi]

My go-to response when this happens to games I own (even on initial arrival like in the mail) is to get a q-tip and use it to rub some isopropyl alcohol on the pins at the bottom of the cartridge. This has worked almost every time for me.

[Aerosol]

I thought pure isopropyl was bad for the copper? Like you were supposed to mix it with something?

[.Luke]

I've never heard of isopropyl before, but 91% rubbing alcohol usually does the trick for all my cartridges, (91% because it shouldn't have too much water in it. Works great for removing marker writings from thrift store purchases in one swipe as well.) and in the case of the NES cart reader pins, dish washing liquid with a tooth brush, and letting it air dry on a towel after rinsing.

Some people swear by Windex or window cleaners for cart pins too, so whichever floats your boat, really, but in my experience, rubbing alcohol needs less elbow grease. Cleaning carts isn't rocket science compared to disc media. (So many things you can and can't use to clean a CD!)

[Eric Wright]

Alcohol is discouraged because it supposedly deteriorates the fiberglass circuitboard material, not necessarily the contacts themselves... but I don't know, because I've always used Windex myself :P


And maybe there's some kind of region problem? Your little profile box says you're from Chile; are you using an official, local version of the game, or an import/pirate? Like Billy said, try it in another machine first...

[Toasty]

I have some Sonic 1 cartridges that do this exact thing. Never before have I had a broken Genesis cartridge that does exactly what you're describing until I bought a used model 1 that included Sonic 1. Then, when I bought a second copy to replace it, that didn't work either. Two of the same games that have the exact same problem and I've never had another game burn out on me! Don't know why this happened, I just assume both were faulty. I have another Sonic 1 game that DOES work (infact I have two) so I'm betting it really is just bad luck.

I water my alcohol down, btw.

This post has been edited by Toasty: 07 October 2013 - 02:17 PM

[.Luke]

I never heard of that happening before, whoa. O: I'm glad I don't need infrequent cleaning on my carts, if rubbing alcohol has a chance of damaging the fiberglass. (It's been a couple years since I last needed to clean any of my GBA games, they still start up without a fuss.) Most electronics will survive if exposed to liquid, even a PC motherboard, as long as it's not turned on and receiving power, so watering the alcohol down doesn't sound harmful, if the cart is allowed to dry first.

And that's a good point, Eric. Imports will only get to the SEGA screen, although you would see some warning about region lock after that. I'm not sure if this applies to Megadrive games as much as it does the SEGA CD system.

_{EDIT : Got ninja'd}

This post has been edited by .Luke: 07 October 2013 - 02:42 PM