Life expectancy of a HU card ?

[rodek]

Does anybody know if there is a "Digital Rot" with a Hu Card?
I have heard of flash drives dying (I have serval and have never experienced it). CD's last 50-100 years..
What about our aging Cards ?  Would be a shame if all our cards end up blank !! 

What are your thoughts.?

[Marll]

Hard to say, if well cared for I'd say that the lifespan should be pretty long. I've had quite a few of my HuCards for 20+ years and still work perfectly, and there are still a ton Atari 2600 games that work just fine out there.

[NecroPhile]

They're non-volatile memory (unlike flash drives which die from repeated read/write cycles, not just from age), so they should theoretically last 'forever'.  Forever is an awful long time though, so they'll eventually fail when the materials themselves start to break down (or obviously sooner if they're abused), but that'll be long after you meat sacks are all dead.

[MottZilla]

HuCards are not like Flash or EPROM. There is a "Mask" created and used at the factory to make a solid circuit of the ROM data. This is very stable. Chances are the metal contacts on the HuCard or the Plastic case will fail before the integrated circuit fails.

[Arkhan Asylum]

THEY ARE IMMORTAL. BASTARDS.

[TheClash603]

Hu Cards are built to last.

My Apple II C+ floppy disks on the other hand? 

[Lilgrafx]

The truth is they sprinkled magical pixie dust over all th hu cards before they released them so they cant die

[MotherGunner]

Lol great thread.

[blueraven]

Longer than a SanDisk Flash Drive.

[Mathius]

One of us should preserve some hueys and systems in some sort of stasis, or clean room. That way an advanced civilization in the future can discover them and get their obey on.

[Arkhan Asylum]

One of us should preserve some hueys and systems in some sort of stasis, or clean room. That way an advanced civilization in the future can discover them and get their obey on.

Why?  The advanced civilization time traveled here to bestow it on us in the first place.

[csgx1]

I was kind of wondering this as well after I came across this ebay auction...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260719895025

Is it truly a dead Hu card or they possibly didn't put the Super Grafx in the correct mode when testing it? 

[RR1980]

yeah isn't it fairly rare for hucards to become completely defective? out of the 100+ hucards I have played I have ever only had a couple that needed a few tries before the game would load properly but never a hucard that's completely unplayable.

[SignOfZeta]

One of us should preserve some hueys and systems in some sort of stasis, or clean room. That way an advanced civilization in the future can discover them and get their obey on.

Why?  The advanced civilization time traveled here to bestow it on us in the first place.

OH SHIIIIIIIIIT!

Anyway, yeah, they'll outlast us. No worries.

[Arkhan Asylum]

I was kind of wondering this as well after I came across this ebay auction...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260719895025

Is it truly a dead Hu card or they possibly didn't put the Super Grafx in the correct mode when testing it?   

 

I have ONE dead HuCard.

StreetFighter 2 whateverthefuck edition for PCE.

It don't worky.  I dunno why.  I got it for free from RisingStuff.  Thats probably why it was free

[Tatsujin]

Thats probably why it was free

anyway, and as already mentioned above, hucards are mask roms and those are the most soild possible. absolutely not comparable with magnetic or static storage media. but if even an eeprom has a life span of about 15~20 years already, i guess a mask rom will last at least 40+. and yes, the game may break much earlier due to other reasons than a bit-rot in the silicon layer.

[OldRover]

I've owned hundreds of hucards over the years and have only ever had problems with two of them... a dodgy copy of Neutopia and a seemingly nonworking System Card 2.0. The Neutopia worked but sometimes it had to be inserted several times first. Never did get that system card to work... or at least I don't think I did. It seems that there's more chance of the leads deteriorating than the ROM failing.

[TheClash603]

The real question is how much is a non-working Magical Chase going to be worth in 100 years?

[Mathius]

The real question is how much is a non-working Magical Chase going to be worth in 100 years?

One million dollars

[SignOfZeta]

In 100 years? Probably not very much. There might be two millionaire wackos willing to pay huge money for it, but there will be hundreds of copies laying around still so they won't have to. Nobody is going to give a shit about 16-bit in 100 years. Maybe some really obscure cultists, but not enough people to keep the prices high.

[henrycsc]

I have about a dozen dead hueys.  I've asked for them from some of the larger vendors that test their games.

Most were obviously abused in their lives, and may never work again.

You guys pointed me to the eraser trick that actually saved 2 of the dead ones.  If cleaning the contacts with something like naptha doesn't work, you can try rubbing a pencil eraser to clean the contacts.  Who knows, it may make a dead Daimakaimura work again - or not, depending on the problem. 

/eraserf.jpg

I have also tried surgery - to remove the actual circuit to clean the contacts inside - only as a LAST resort.  I've never had luck with this, but here are some pics of the surgery.

/pa150780.jpg
/pa150783.jpg



I'm curious what all everyone has tried with the dead hueys and what you have had success with.


One of my Screwyhueys is a copy of PC Genjin 2 - it works, but the video is entirely messed up.  You can control the blob PC Genjin moving around the screen and make out colors and movement of some of the other graphics.  It's very strange - yet kinda cool that the game actually is responsive and plays the audio just fine.  If you had all of the levels memorized, you might be able to beat it.  Now that would be a contest!
/pa150798.jpg

[Tatsujin]

what is that mex 1020 screen?

[SignOfZeta]

what is that mex 1020 screen?

Yeah, no kidding. It seems to have a denim bezel!

[rodek]

Looks like a 5" or 6" portable dvd screen. ? ?

[henrycsc]

It is, its a portable 5" screen - my tester setup next to the computer.

[Tatsujin]

yeah, but the scanlines are looking amazing

[Sparky]

henry that is funny as i have a huey that does the same... check it out

Its just a regular Bonk that took a trip by mail to a buddy of mine and tadaaaa!!......must have been dropped hard as extreme impacts can really f@ck these hues up i am guessing

This has happened to me twice, sent a perfectly good working hue to "Sinstron" and it was DOA, he tried everything and i got him to send it back and had no luck either, so be gentle with them hueys for turbo sake <<cradles soldier blade in his arms>>

[henrycsc]

PC Genjin 1 - Special Edition (über RAER!)

[Tatsujin]

BONK IN LSD WORLD

[blueraven]

The real question is how much is a non-working Magical Chase going to be worth in 100 years?

$30. People will realize its mediocrity and laugh their asses off at people putting the down payment on their condo up for the game.

[esteban]

At least you can clearly see the number of remaining lives:

/pa150798.jpg

...otherwise, it would frustrating to play the game in such a garbled state.

[Arkhan Asylum]

The life hearts look like those candy valentine hearts now, lol!

[Tatsujin]

/iconmrgreen.gif

[rodek]

Talkin about killin cards.... I have always wondered if these "sleeves" we are putting our cards in are bad ?
Such as build up a static charge and fry the contacts on the cards?

Or am I being paranoid? 

[nat]

I'm pretty sure that NEC was smart enough not to ship the cartridges in sleeves that were conductive.

[SignOfZeta]

Talkin about killin cards.... I have always wondered if these "sleeves" we are putting our cards in are bad ?
Such as build up a static charge and fry the contacts on the cards?

Or am I being paranoid? 

As has been said, HuCards are really really reliable. If the sleeves did any damage someone would have seen it by now.