WTF Happened to my Genesis game!!!?!?!?!

[Martin]

WEll a few days ago I was playingf Soliel on my genesis... then suddenly it froze.. I took the cartridge out and cleaned the connectors put it back in.. and it froze again.
It always feezes at exactly the same spot (It never usedto do this... :blink: )
So I opened the cart up and had a look inside.. there doesnt appear to be any damnage whatso-ever. :unsure:  :blink:
Erm... so how did the cart's rom corrupt itself?
and is it possible to just flash the game onto the cart's rom?

[Vertigo]

It's a long shot but seeing as you've already cleaned the connectors (you did remove the innards from the plastic case and clean the whole thing properly, right?), is Soleil a battery-backed game? If so, try changing the battery coz funny voltages might be doing silly things to it at some point. Long shot as I say.
Also, are you using the cart in its native territory and speed or are you running it switched up to 60Hz or whatever? You can get software errors sometimes depending if you're not running it at its right speed.
Weird that it should freeze at the same point each time though. I guess if you had a way to dump the ROM from the cartridge you could CRC check the entire thing and compare it to a known good dump to see if it's become corrupted, but that's not usually workable.

[Guest]

The only thing that could corrupt a rom is pretty much UV light and physical damage. Do you rip this game in and out of that slot a lot? Look at the connectors, do they look worn? What version of the genesis are you using, what power supply are you using?

[Martin]

The only thing that could corrupt a rom is pretty much UV light and physical damage. Do you rip this game in and out of that slot a lot? Look at the connectors, do they look worn? What version of the genesis are you using, what power supply are you using?

/im using a pal genesis (mega drive) and a pal copy of soleil.
Im using a standard mega drive power supply.
I also tested it on my Mega Drive II and the same thing happens. :angry:  

[NFG]

The only thing that could corrupt a rom is pretty much UV light and physical damage.

This will only affect EPROMS with a little window in the chip.  Since these are more expensive than one-time programmable PROMs they were rarely, if ever, used for commercial releases.  Therefor it is unlikely to be relevant in this case.

There's almost a 100% chance the failure of the game is because of a physical malfunction; since you've tried the game on two machines we can safely say the cartridge is at fault.  Corrupt save-RAM is one possibility as Vertigo mentioned.  One thing I like to do is be really brutal when cleaning the teeth of a cartridge.  Fine-grit sandpaper (like that suitable for sanding fingernails) works wonders when scrubbed horizontally along the teeth of the cart.  This creates a very rough surface when inserting and removing the cartridge, creating a super connection.  Don't sand too far!   Just rough 'em up and see if that helps.  

[Martin]

Ok Will do.
Thanks Alot
And if that doesnt work... then I must be jinxed  :rolleyes:  :angry: lol

[Martin]

Well.. I tested the batterey that's in the cartridge.. it appears to be fully charged >_<


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Okay.. I think the ram chip in the cart that holds the game save must have corrupted or something.. all I did was take the batterey out... and put it back in and it worked!
all is well now *floats up to heaven on a cloud* :rolleyes: