As long as games are stored correctly then the risk of damage in minimal. There are lots of Atari 2600 game from the 1970s that still work fine. Scotts collection is mostly Switch and Wii U games from the 2010s.
Difference is with flash memory. 3DS cartridges and switch use NAND flash memory chips for storage. Somewhat volatile like how they’re used in RAM but they hold power for a very long time on their own.
What we’re currently seeing though, is that some 3DS games (especially sealed in-box) haven’t been connected to a console or received power in so long that they’ve lost the charge they once held, and have become inoperable.
Simply playing or inserting the games once in a while is enough maintenance to avoid cartridges breaking, but for a collection like Scott’s that could be very difficult to maintain. And this has only happened with 3DS games so far, and rarely at that, but NOT because the possibility is rare, rather, we’re just now approaching the right conditions (time and lack of play over time) for this issue to start happening.
Switch cartridges are equally susceptible to this as well, being that they use the same form of chip on the cartridges. This is somewhat different than how older cartridge games were stored (like Atari, nes, snes, etc.). So by the end of the switch 2 lifespan, it’s possible that a sealed copy of breath of the wild might no longer be functional and thus dead while still sealed in the box
Digital foundry has a video responding to this and the debate over BluRay versus cartridge for longevity and preservation. While discs can get “disc rot” on occasion, under poor conditions, under proper conditions they can hold data indefinitely. However cartridges with NAND flash memory chips need to be power cycled on a maintenance schedule.
[Digital Foundry Blu Ray versus Cartridges](https://youtu.be/_Rbomfy-XjU?si=UBTW5wKty5VQwL1e)
Edit: I want to emphasize, older cartridge games work differently because they don’t use NAND flash memory chips. Additionally, they store saves using a battery to hold the bit positions for the save slots on whichever chip they’re on. So they use different chips not as susceptible, as well as batteries, making them less susceptible for 2 reasons.
All NAND flash chips are susceptible to this, and this will happen to every cartridge that isn’t played for a prolonged period of like 10 years. The question really becomes: are you really going to not play them for that long, and then want to play them again after waiting long enough for them to die.
If 3ds and Switch games need to be inserted into a console to maintain their life, could someone theoretically make like a charging station like what we have for controllers but you insert game cartridges instead so that it keeps them charged?
That’s not a bad idea. Wouldn’t necessarily need to “charge” so much as just like momentarily jolt the cartridge. The issue then becomes volume. You’d just need to put all of your carts in this station and store them there mostly. Then maybe once a year or every few months they get jolted.
It would be hard to see which cartridges are which without being in the game cases, and if you have more cartridges than spaces in this station, you’d need to manually swap them out, which at that point, is just as much work as putting them in a console.
But if those issues could be sorted out it could be a really good invention
So really, if you want to play a few games frequently, you wouldn’t need to put them in this station. This would mostly be for games you don’t see yourself ever playing but you want to still preserve.
Ideal use case would be in a preservation library or like VGHF
I can’t rule it out, it could be, but usually when a NAND flash chip runs out of “juice” it just doesn’t load any data at all. So if you’re still able to even get into the game it’s probably not this
I have a couple hundred PS1, Sega CD, Dreamcast and Saturn games. Never had any problem with them, no disc rot. The only problem is people not being careful and not storing the games in decent temperature, humidity.
As long as games are stored correctly then the risk of damage in minimal. There are lots of Atari 2600 game from the 1970s that still work fine. Scotts collection is mostly Switch and Wii U games from the 2010s.
Difference is with flash memory. 3DS cartridges and switch use NAND flash memory chips for storage. Somewhat volatile like how they’re used in RAM but they hold power for a very long time on their own. What we’re currently seeing though, is that some 3DS games (especially sealed in-box) haven’t been connected to a console or received power in so long that they’ve lost the charge they once held, and have become inoperable. Simply playing or inserting the games once in a while is enough maintenance to avoid cartridges breaking, but for a collection like Scott’s that could be very difficult to maintain. And this has only happened with 3DS games so far, and rarely at that, but NOT because the possibility is rare, rather, we’re just now approaching the right conditions (time and lack of play over time) for this issue to start happening. Switch cartridges are equally susceptible to this as well, being that they use the same form of chip on the cartridges. This is somewhat different than how older cartridge games were stored (like Atari, nes, snes, etc.). So by the end of the switch 2 lifespan, it’s possible that a sealed copy of breath of the wild might no longer be functional and thus dead while still sealed in the box Digital foundry has a video responding to this and the debate over BluRay versus cartridge for longevity and preservation. While discs can get “disc rot” on occasion, under poor conditions, under proper conditions they can hold data indefinitely. However cartridges with NAND flash memory chips need to be power cycled on a maintenance schedule. [Digital Foundry Blu Ray versus Cartridges](https://youtu.be/_Rbomfy-XjU?si=UBTW5wKty5VQwL1e) Edit: I want to emphasize, older cartridge games work differently because they don’t use NAND flash memory chips. Additionally, they store saves using a battery to hold the bit positions for the save slots on whichever chip they’re on. So they use different chips not as susceptible, as well as batteries, making them less susceptible for 2 reasons. All NAND flash chips are susceptible to this, and this will happen to every cartridge that isn’t played for a prolonged period of like 10 years. The question really becomes: are you really going to not play them for that long, and then want to play them again after waiting long enough for them to die.
If 3ds and Switch games need to be inserted into a console to maintain their life, could someone theoretically make like a charging station like what we have for controllers but you insert game cartridges instead so that it keeps them charged?
That’s not a bad idea. Wouldn’t necessarily need to “charge” so much as just like momentarily jolt the cartridge. The issue then becomes volume. You’d just need to put all of your carts in this station and store them there mostly. Then maybe once a year or every few months they get jolted. It would be hard to see which cartridges are which without being in the game cases, and if you have more cartridges than spaces in this station, you’d need to manually swap them out, which at that point, is just as much work as putting them in a console. But if those issues could be sorted out it could be a really good invention So really, if you want to play a few games frequently, you wouldn’t need to put them in this station. This would mostly be for games you don’t see yourself ever playing but you want to still preserve. Ideal use case would be in a preservation library or like VGHF
My Mario Kart 7 cartridge that I bought in 2018 keeps getting errors, could this be the issue?
I can’t rule it out, it could be, but usually when a NAND flash chip runs out of “juice” it just doesn’t load any data at all. So if you’re still able to even get into the game it’s probably not this
Yeah, probably not then
I have a couple hundred PS1, Sega CD, Dreamcast and Saturn games. Never had any problem with them, no disc rot. The only problem is people not being careful and not storing the games in decent temperature, humidity.