After watching the video above I am almost positive that NES cartridges will be sitting side by side with cockroaches watching the world burn as nuclear war destroys the rest of us. Blogger Rinry was inspired by a Japanese video to see just how tough NES cartridges actually are. She put a few cartridges of Super Mario Bros. through a variety of tests to see if they'd play.
I'll leave the outcomes for you to find out by watching the video, but needles to say, these things are some strong pieces of plastic. In case you're worried about the poor games and their wasted potential after being destroyed, don't be. Rinry has kept them all in her game collection. They may be damaged and look like crap, but they're still loved. All the same, try to keep any NES cartridges away from your computer screen while watching the video as it can get pretty brutal and they might become upset.
Matthew Razak is Destructoid's Associate editor and co-founder of film site Flixist. He began as community member "cowzilla" and was since sequestered to write brainy features material. He lives in Los Angeles with his beautiful wife.
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the fireworks and drill tests were stupid. There's not enough heat from those dinky showers to damage anything... maybe just singe the contacts. And drilling holes? Let me purposefully keep drilling until I hit a trace or puncture an IC. That's not really something that could ever accidentally happen
Just keep in mind that by the end of the 16 Bit era, cartridge games cost $80.00 or more. There's plenty of reasons why the industry switched to optical media.
@Paul Soth: Wait wait wait.... $80 plus? Negative. Maybe if it came packaged with something, but I usually paid $50 to $60 and often I bought them on launch day.
The NES really is tough. My NES catridges all work perfectly, even after accidentally keeping one outside on a boiling summer day. My Xbox 360 games? So much as pick one up wrong and get your fingerprints on it and errors all over the place.
Only thing that I've seen kill these things in a natural way is when someone just leaves the contacts to rot and rust in high humidity homes and weather-bound sheds / garages. But that video was pretty good.... but maybe cause her voice was hypnotic haha.
i didn't realize how much plastic, and how little electronics the cartridges really are. did you notice that the electronic board took up maybe a 1/5th of the entire piece of plastic?! no wonder if you drilled holes up by the label it did jack shit. also, i work with electronics, and i use isopropyl alchohol to clean off things like thermal grease, which dries clear and quick. i'm not sure the difference between that and rubbing alchohol, but i bet if she used the jim bean it woulda eff'd it up
Interesting video. I love how the only thing that made it stop working was actually drilling a hole through the circuit board, and even that didn't work right away.
The point wasn't to see if it could handle accidents and stuff, it was to see just how much they could take. no, drilling holes through games doesn't just accidentally happen, but this was a test to see how much a cartridge could take.
It didn't help that the rest of the experiments seemed like things that could accidentally happen though.
No, prices did indeed get that high. Sega themselves admit that Phantasy Star IV cost nearly $100 at launch. And here's an inane review of Mortal Kombat from the October 3, 1993 issue of Entertainment Weekly: http://www.kidfenris.com/ewkombat.png
You'll note that in the first paragraph, it lists that the SNES version would cost up to $79.99 and the Genesis up to $74.99.
Hostel: NES
That was totally awesome!
I always knew those sons a bitches were durable as all hell! I still have every one of my NES games and yes, each of them work perfectly, considering what they've been though over the years. Amazing. Only, it's difficult to get them to play in anything besides a top loader. =/
The video speaks the damn truth. Twenty years from now I doubt my Wii will be able to read discs, yet many an NES will still be able to do it with ease. I mean, my Wii and PS3 have, each, already been sent in for costly repairs. Lame.
Long live the NES! <3
No, it would be Pssthree if you were to do that but there is a pattern in language where people make words out of acronyms if they have the suitable vowels.
D.A.R.P.A.
N.A.T.O.
S.C.U.B.A.
A.I.D.S
P.I.N
M.A.C
Whatever you prefer to say. Over here I've never heard anyone pronounce the letters. I prefer to say a single syllable rather than three as it makes my conversation feel more fluid.
I'm pretty sure optical discs could withstand some of those conditions, although i haven't tested it myself i don't see freezing a disc or even submersing it in alcohol as that damaging.
Also, games may be playable to a certain extent but may fail after playing to a certain level or may lose saved games. Optical media doesn't seem like it will be around for much longer anyway, digital distribution seems like the direction things are going, for video games anyway.
rinry is in cahoots with gonintendo.com. you guys should take the time to mention the origin of content like this. seeing as you are friendly with the site.
I dunno, i had more problems with nes then i do with my playstations. I had a NES, SNES & a original playstation die on me. But then they were experimenting on the games not the system. Try dropping or running over a NES console. Something would definatly not go right after that. And taking care of cds/dvds/blurays are not that hard. Keep them in the case & don't scratch them. Every last game i have works just fine =).
I definetly LOLed at the shot of the 'Disc Read Error' Wii screen... that actually happened to mine after last thanksgiving vacation... worst of all it was right around when I finally got new smb, so I had to wait till I could ship my wii off and get it fixed before I could play it again :(
I'm sure if I dug out my NES and games it'd more than likely still work.
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Contest:
8:00 AM on 01.10.2010
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More tests are needed methinks...
Also
So if you find an En-Ee-Es game on the ground pick it up and take it home. Ahh that sounds so cute. :)
By the way, scratched discs are the bane of my existence.
BRING BACK CARTRIDGES!
Also
So if you find an En-Ee-Es game on the ground pick it up and take it home. Ahh that sounds so cute. :)"
Let me guess, you are one of the 5 people that called it a "ness".
Its a N.E.S. a Nintendo Entertainment Center.
Also, the Angry Video Game Nerd actually drilled a hole through a cartridge and it still worked... I guess you've really got to try to kill them.
The point wasn't to see if it could handle accidents and stuff, it was to see just how much they could take. no, drilling holes through games doesn't just accidentally happen, but this was a test to see how much a cartridge could take.
It didn't help that the rest of the experiments seemed like things that could accidentally happen though.
No, prices did indeed get that high. Sega themselves admit that Phantasy Star IV cost nearly $100 at launch. And here's an inane review of Mortal Kombat from the October 3, 1993 issue of Entertainment Weekly: http://www.kidfenris.com/ewkombat.png
You'll note that in the first paragraph, it lists that the SNES version would cost up to $79.99 and the Genesis up to $74.99.
That was totally awesome!
I always knew those sons a bitches were durable as all hell! I still have every one of my NES games and yes, each of them work perfectly, considering what they've been though over the years. Amazing. Only, it's difficult to get them to play in anything besides a top loader. =/
The video speaks the damn truth. Twenty years from now I doubt my Wii will be able to read discs, yet many an NES will still be able to do it with ease. I mean, my Wii and PS3 have, each, already been sent in for costly repairs. Lame.
Long live the NES! <3
The framerate was weird, maybe the ink took more time to get to the screen... or somethin'
D.A.R.P.A.
N.A.T.O.
S.C.U.B.A.
A.I.D.S
P.I.N
M.A.C
Whatever you prefer to say. Over here I've never heard anyone pronounce the letters. I prefer to say a single syllable rather than three as it makes my conversation feel more fluid.
Also, games may be playable to a certain extent but may fail after playing to a certain level or may lose saved games. Optical media doesn't seem like it will be around for much longer anyway, digital distribution seems like the direction things are going, for video games anyway.
I'm sure if I dug out my NES and games it'd more than likely still work.
*sigh*