Altered Beast MD2 any known problems?

[S3M]

Pick up a nice, good condition copy of Altered Beast yesterday. Yeah I know it's not the greatest game every made

Problem is it's refusing to load on my MD2, having given it a good clean with a cotton bud.

So I was wondering if the game had any know problems with a MD2, MegaCD2 or 32X?

Otherwise I'll have to assume it's my first ever dead cartridge? Unless anyone has some sure fire cleaning tips but it seem doubt full as the cart connectors are fairly clean, not like some games I've had.

Also when I had a CD in the MegaCD the MD was picking up the cart in the slot, but all I get is a black screen after the Sega licence message.

[Blast Hardbody]

I tested my cart with a MD1, MD2, and a MD2 connnected to a Mega CD II and it worked fine.

You probably just have a faulty cart.

[samanosuke]

Problem is it's refusing to load on my MD2, having given it a good clean with a cotton bud.

You'll need more than just a cotton bud to clean away the sh*t inside an Altered Beast cartridge. Good on your MD2 for telling you where to poke it when you tried playing the game!

[S3M]

You'll need more than just a cotton bud to clean away the sh*t inside an Altered Beast cartridge. Good on your MD2 for telling you where to poke it when you tried playing the game!

Indeed all to true, sadly it does let me play Altered Beast on the Classic Collection, but all is forgiven as that also contains Gunstar Heroes.

As you can tell I'm not too fussed about it not working, as if I every go crazy and decide I want to play AB I can play it on that instead. Collection piece only now I feel.

[chaoticjelly]

There is a 47uF 16V radial electrolytic capacitor inside all Megadrive cartridges, the time is now coming when these are drying out.

I think that the power to the cartridge mask ROM goes through said capacitor, so.. dried electrolytic capacitor, or poorly functioning capacitor = no power to mask ROM = no game loading up.

I had Sonic the Hedgehog and Streets of Rage cartridges exhibiting the same symptom, and the fault was indeed the capacitor as tested with an ESR meter and by the cartridge working when it was replaced.

These are some of the older Megadrive games, so this would link in with the dry capacitor problem, Altered Beast is also an older Megadrive game.

Dead easy to fix, I was going to make some sort of guide but haven't had the time.

[Yakumo]

So why did Sega use these capacitors? I mean, older systems that used carts seem to not suffer from this problem.

Yakumo

[chaoticjelly]

Well the quality does vary between manufacturer, Japanese capacitors tend to be the best, I can't remember the brand of the ones in Megadrive cartridges off hand, I think they may be Japanese, but not the best brand.. i.e. Nichicon are supposed to be very good..

Take the surface mount electrolytics in Game Gear, PC Engine GT, PC Engine Duo (original), pretty much all of those are failing or failed now..

Also, when electrolytic capacitors do not have a charge passed through them for a long time, the degradation is accelerated.. i.e. if you have a cart sitting in an attic for many years, unplayed, the electrolytic capacitor would be more likely to fail..

I still have the Sonic the Hedgehog MD cartridge in my workshop.. awaiting a little video tutorial perhaps

[chaoticjelly]

Oh, and I guess Sega never really thought people would keep and play their cartridges for so many years! Hence the design with a finite-life part

[mmmonkey]

Crikey, there's good timing. I read this thread earlier, then decided to test the MD that arrived in the post today and Streets of Rage II wouldn't work. Popped it open and the capacitor barely soldered on, the negative side had the tiniest spot of solder on it.

Resoldered it and away we go!

Cheers
Pete

[S3M]

Cheers chaoticjelly.

Truth be told I'm not that great with a solder iron, so I may just save all my duff carts then pay for someone to fi them at some point in the future.

Am I right in saying you need a special screw driver to open a MD cart?

Glad to know it can be fixed however.

[Yakumo]

Aw man, this is really ****ty news for collectors. So it looks like we'll all have to be opening out older carts in the future to replace these capacitors.

Yakumo

[Hohum]

Presumably you can replace the electrolytic capacitor with a solid state equivalent, which should last significantly longer?

[chaoticjelly]

Am I right in saying you need a special screw driver to open a MD cart?

Yeah, you need a 4.5mm gamebit, they can be found in the hex-bit type which quite a few screwdrivers use nowadays i.e. not a screwdriver in itself, but just a replaceable bit for a screwdriver that you already have with a hexagonal shank and magnetic inner..

Aw man, this is really ****ty news for collectors. So it looks like we'll all have to be opening out older carts in the future to replace these capacitors.

Indeed.. especially for Japanese MD collectors.. the cartridge label wraps around the cart, and the seam to open the cart is underneath the label

Strange though, I have a massive SMS collection, and never experienced a duff cart, and they are mostly all older than Megadrive carts!

I had a blue-box game off eBay years ago which didn't work (the first cart I ever had that didn't..) I'm thinking it was probably the cap in that since no amount of cleaning would fix it either.. I still have it somewhere.

Presumably you can replace the electrolytic capacitor with a solid state equivalent, which should last significantly longer?

Yeah I don't see why not, some motherboard manufacturers are using solid capacitors in their higher-end boards.

The cost is quite a lot more though, electrolytic = 3p as opposed to solid aluminium = around 60p

Overkill IMO, though definitely worth it for a Japanese cart if you can manage to get that label off and back on in one piece

[usman]

That my cartridges are dying thus makes me feel my own age

Surely some intrepid soul will come up with some way to get around the wraparound Japanese MD labels...

[vertigo]

Must be why my Alex Kidd In The Enchanted Castle and Grind Stormer carts don't work even though they've had a damn good clean. Thanks for this info.
Re the gamebit: It's the same one that opens a SNES/N64.