Globtop carts, 3.3V or 5V? clones vs original hardware, preserving rare games

Started by prince tomato, January 18, 2017, 12:30:00 pm

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prince tomato

hello again friendly folks from the Famicomworld,
i have a question that has been mulling around in the foggy depths of my mind for a while now,
and if anyone knows the answer,
i am bound to find that here,
so here it is:

globtop carts, although less preferable than PCB's with real chips, are in some cases the only way to play certain games from the 90's, because they simply were never produced on carts with real chips.
most notably, some NT, Hosenkan and Hummer Team games.
i have seen some crazy rare carts die out of the blue, with no visible damage (no corrosion on the pins, all traces intact) and apart from first hand experience i have anekdotal examples of games like E.H.Y's Toy Story that stopped working for no apparent reason, which makes it very frustrating,
as these games are not easily replaced.

now here is my thesis:
could it be that these globtop carts are actually made to be played on (NOAC) clones, which often only put 3.3volts on the cart, and as a result, could it be that original hardware (which puts 5volts on the cart if i'm not mistaken) actually kills these globtops over time?

i am wondering if this could be the case,
and if anything could be done to prevent this, because from a preservation point of view, this is potentially disastrous.
there is a small handfull of games that are only available on globtop carts, and which are absurdly rare already,
games like Final Fight 3, King Of Fighters '96, Toy Story, and a couple of other games are a very dear part of my collection,
and i'd like to have them working for as long as physically possible, as i am sure many other proud abd blessed owners do.

so if anyone knows more about this, please do share,
if not for my sake, then surely for other collectors.
i am curious to hear your theories and thoughts on the subject.

FAMICOM_87

it will surprise you, but glob-tops can handle even 9V/10V .I realized that when i bypassed not working 7805 regulator from NOAC clone with universal AC-DC adapter with changeable volts because I have not replacement  at that time. it was normal old transformer type , and when you thinks you are using 5 V you actually is may be on 9 or so Volts  ! Believe me I tried some cartridges  :redcart: clob-tops and normal ICs ones and everything worked, that was before I realized this thing about Volts!  :fire:

prince tomato

thanks for that Famicom_87,
that is very interesting indeed.
so, what actually happens to those gloptops when they die?
they apparently don't fry or overcook from the voltage they are exposed to, so what could be the reason these carts die so frequently?