A question about the Arcade Card Duo

mj9123456 · 12/09/2015, 07:10 PM

Is there any harm in leaving it in the slot of my PC Engine Duo while playing CD games that don't use it?

blueraven · 12/09/2015, 07:13 PM

It's a RAM expansion, so I would say no. It actually helps "speed up" some games.

Pokun · 12/09/2015, 07:26 PM

It's just the System Card v3 with RAM, so it should work like one of those for games that doesn't use the extra RAM. And since v3 is backwards compatible with CD ROM² games, those CDs should normally work like normal too.

SignOfZeta · 12/09/2015, 08:19 PM

Speak for yourself. I went through multiple Arcade Card Duos before I realized that running them with Super CDs was killing them. One got so hot it burned down my fucking HOUSE!

Do NOT leave that thing in there unless you are playing an ARCADE CARD GAME. Seriously.

Especially if you are playing Dragon Knight II. That's the one that took my fucking house.

I've campaigned to sticky all my threads warning people of this, INCLUDING THIS ONE, but for some reason the mods just delete them. I can believe this isn't talked about more often.

Digi.k · 12/09/2015, 08:35 PM

Quote from: SignOfZeta on 12/09/2015, 08:19 PMSpeak for yourself. I went through multiple Arcade Card Duos before I realized that running them with Super CDs was killing them. One got so hot it burned down my fucking HOUSE!

Do NOT leave that thing in there unless you are playing an ARCADE CARD GAME. Seriously.

Especially if you are playing Dragon Knight II. That's the one that took my fucking house.

I've campaigned to sticky all my threads warning people of this, INCLUDING THIS ONE, but for some reason the mods just delete them. I can believe this isn't talked about more often.

Holy crap I will try and keep this in mind when I eventually get the arcade pro card...

TurboXray · 12/09/2015, 08:44 PM

He's messing with you.

I had a bad/defective "Pro" card that would cause random problems with SCD games, because they actually always mapped in SCD ram and rom, and ignoring the stuff in the system itself. I played SCD games much more than ACD games, so it took a while to figure this out. My Duo card has no such problems.

SignOfZeta · 12/09/2015, 08:46 PM

As much as I love PC Engine, if one burned down my house you'd never see me on this forum again.

mj9123456 · 12/09/2015, 08:55 PM

Thanks everyone.

SamIAm · 12/09/2015, 09:18 PM

The Arcade Card Duo has a lot of adhesive inside of it that has a way of leaking out when it gets warm. Run your fingertips over the pins on the card before and after several hours of play and cleaning to see what I mean. For the sake of keeping your system's internals clean, and also to possibly prevent the card from eventually falling apart, it might be wise to leave the card out when you aren't using it. However, since nobody seems to have experienced real trouble due to this, it's probably OK not to worry about it.

wilykat · 12/09/2015, 10:50 PM

Just don't try playing Altered Beast on any Arcade versions. If you do, tentacles will pop out of the card, grab you, and stuff you in the game, where you'd be damned to play Altered Beast for eternity. You will go insane in just a few seconds, try imaging being stuck in the crappy game for eternity. You'd end up worse than Hannibal, Alex DeLarge, and Joker (Dark Knight) combined.

(ps and that shitty game only works on 1.0 card)

Trenton_net · 12/10/2015, 03:38 PM

In my personal (and humble) opinion, you shouldn't leave cards in the card slot that you are not actively using for some purpose. The reason being, the pins in your cartridge port are being flexed in order to make contact with your HuCard. Over time, if you leave it long enough, it is conceivable that the pins may start to retain that flex memory. That potentially means you may have trouble getting them to connect with HuCards in the future.

Of course, this is a very unlikely scenario, but it is still possible. Which is why I personally don't do it.

Digi.k · 12/10/2015, 05:07 PM

Quote from: SamIAm on 12/09/2015, 09:18 PMThe Arcade Card Duo has a lot of adhesive inside of it that has a way of leaking out when it gets warm. Run your fingertips over the pins on the card before and after several hours of play and cleaning to see what I mean. For the sake of keeping your system's internals clean, and also to possibly prevent the card from eventually falling apart, it might be wise to leave the card out when you aren't using it. However, since nobody seems to have experienced real trouble due to this, it's probably OK not to worry about it.

Does this also apply to standard system cards prior to the arcade? As I tend to leave the system card in when not playing, heck going to take it out now....

SignOfZeta · 12/10/2015, 06:13 PM

Don't worry about it. You can't beat entropy. If you leave it in, the pins lose tension. If you are constantly inserting and remove cards you wear out the pins just the same. If you leave them in at least the pins won't oxidize at the point where they contact...just play games, man. Seriously.

blueraven · 12/20/2015, 01:21 AM

Quote from: SignOfZeta on 12/10/2015, 06:13 PMDon't worry about it. You can't beat entropy. If you leave it in, the pins lose tension. If you are constantly inserting and remove cards you wear out the pins just the same. If you leave them in at least the pins won't oxidize at the point where they contact...just play games, man. Seriously.

Well put. Six of one, half-dozen of the other.