Soak this thing in vinegar and then clean it up with IPA and a soft bristle tooth brush. I’m interested to see how deep the damage goes. You’ll need to solder that battery off before you do anything though.
Don’t think so…Some pins from the MBC5 chip are corroded away (on the bottom side), I would personally try to salvage the ROM chip and solder it on a donor pcb.
Any board that has the MBC5 chip and a battery will do. There are lots of empy repoduction pcb's for sale, but then you still have to source a MBC5 from some donor cart, game is irrelevant.
Yall offering fixes he’s using eBay just ask for a refund and return the pos. Who wants to invest all that work into saving something this fucked when it’s returnable.
Got a 100% refund btw. I'm still stuck with the cartridge tho 😭 I just recently purchased a soldering iron so I plan on learning with some junk before attempting a battery removal + soak in IPA
You got a full refund and got to keep that cartridge? That’s an awesome deal as this can likely be salvaged. I’ve cleaned up some carts in similar condition and they work fine. You’d be shocked at how resilient these boards are.
eBay tends to do that if the seller is unresponsive and uncooperative. I got that with a fake copy of Pokémon gold, got my money back but I'm stuck with the cart because the seller never gave me a return label
Sellers can also choose this option since iirc they not only have to pay back any shipping you paid but pay the shipping for you to send it back. Depending on how valuable the item is there isn't much point in getting it back to sell it again. I once bought a broken Wiiu gamepad because it was in really good visual condition for £20 but when I got it, it looked like someone had dragged it across some concrete. Refunded it and eBay never told me to return it or provided me with a return code
Pick up a multimeter also! You can easily check for broken traces and if chip pins are no longer making contact! Multimeters can be super cheap (under 10 bucks) and have loads of other uses
You could swap the rom chip to another board, but that would be hard for a beginner. Soldering wires to bypass corrosion was easier for me when I was starting out
The question is whether the game works? If it does then you might be in luck. Get some white vinegar to clean the corrosion then use high % ipa to clean the vinegar off. I guess you might want to put something on after to protect the board if traces are looking exposed. I guess something like conformal coating would be the official thing to use but I've heard of people using nail varnish as a budget solution.
I didn't intend to slide this into my console but if I clean the pins I guess it couldn't hurt to check. I always open my games after purchasing to inspect authenticity + condition, so it was out of the question until now. Brb
I do this kind of repair regularly and I would definitely advice you against working on this as your first project. Take it aside and pick it back up once you have some experience.
Fortunately enough it's pretty easy to do batteries, so hopefully that'll keep practice nice and quick for you. I'd suggest investing in some ceramic tweezers if you haven't got any, just in the odd chance something bridges across any metal tweezers.
So you got cool project for free!? I’m actually envious. Even if I want to pay for dead electronics, people are asking for 80% of perfectly working one…
I'm not defending clear scammers, but this could just as easily be someone who found a box of old games in the attic and decided to sell them.
It's not impossible that the game still works but just doesn't save. So maybe they just listed it as working but not saving?
You can't assume everyone is out to scam you. Sometimes people just don't know how badly something can be damaged... the game clearly isn't pristine on the outside, so it's not like they were trying to sell a re-shelled game with a new label.
It was listed as untested and in storage for years, so it was a gamble. Other times, it's severe neglect that the seller didn't know about. The common denominator is that they don't open or test the game before selling
Especially with older electronics. With retro gaming, pretty much anything in the cartridge console era time frame is going to be relatively easily fixable given even a minor bit of time and effort, short of something that's literally been in an "act of God" type situation, and some Gameboys have proven even that's not enough to kill them (there's a Gameboy on display somewhere that went through a bombing or house fire or something that still works normally).
As was mentioned below, you can soak it, then clean it with a soft toothbrush. If that fails, there are other things that can be done to save it, so long as the main chip is working. I've seen folks range from using a donor board to even making their own through companies who make PCBs, and seeing as this is a desirable cart, it might be worth trying if all else fails.
Unfortunately most sellers won't accept a return if they can't immediately resell it, so I got a full refund without sending back. This is funny enough the 2nd time in a row I've gotten a corroded cartridge so from here on I'll just have to ask every seller for a pic of the board 🤦🏻♂️
This is exactly what goes through my head lol unfortunately the last time this happened to me with a copy of Castlevania, the board was thoroughly toast and required a chip swap to a donor board (-_-メ)
Battery leakage can turn into some crazy colors after a long time. This has likely been there for a decade or 2 at least. Seen some similar colors on a dmg that had so much leakage the heat sink was corroding away too.
If the seller says it was tested and working I call bs on that claim, but anything is possible if there's no bad traces.
I seen the listing. was clearly listed as untested. THis was a gamble from the get go but no. The buyer used “the buyer protection” card and got their money back plus kept the cart. Its just this buyer doing a shady move IMO.
Yeah thd keeping it part is off to me. Even in this state Id have sent it back, unless the seller was adamant about not wanting it back.
Ive personally only had that happen with a 8$ ps2 game that didnt work but tbh it probably cost that seller around 8$ to send back at the time. Even then I still made sure like 5 times the guy didnt want it back
No. It said untested. They didn't open the cartridge. They couldn't test it because they no longer had a Gameboy.
Why do you assume scam from anyone here? How would that work exactly? We see the pcb here. It's clearly corroded. The seller didn't check for that even said it was in storage and wasted opened up or tested. It's an honest mistake a lot of people make. No need to create drama about it.
You're right, sorry about that. Edited the comment to direct the message. That one user made a couple other comments trying to insinuate I scammed the seller on purpose, even after stating the situation. Not sure what their issue is
With the benefit of hindsight, maybe 'been in storage for many years' + 'dont have a gameboy to test" should've raised an eyebrow but the price + 100% positive rating steered me into adding it to cart 🤦🏻♂️ I was geeked too tbh
Yeah I'd wager most people selling their old stuff probably wouldn't think to open it up and even many that would might not have the bit for it. They would likely just list based on the outside condition which doesn't look the worst.
Hit the nail on the head, they mentioned they didn't have a security bit to check and issued a refund before I could even process it myself, seemed like a genuine mistake
Tagging u/jrharbort because I’ve seen them salvage far worse than this. As others above have stated, thorough cleaning and battery removal would be first steps. Once you have a clean board, you can check the condition of contacts and traces. Worst case, the chips could probably be transplanted to a donor board. Anything to add u/jrharbort?
That seems salvagable. Don't soak it into vinegar, but get a donor board (some cheap GB cart that has the same mapper, MBC5, and amount of RAM), remove Mask ROM from this board, clean it precisely and solder it to the donor board.
IPA - no. Vinegar... it could cause a reaction if there's corrosion or battery acid under the Mask ROM and damage the ROM physically (like pull some pins legs of the chip). If that happens, it's game over.
More importantly, it won't help putting that board in vinegar - the MBC5 mapper is already shorted/legs blown. It was inserted into the console while shorted by the corrosion and that caused that burn mark on the upper left (bottom pins of the MBC5). That board just has too many issues. Moving Mask ROM to a donor board is the best choice here.
Board swap the rom. 10 minute job if you’ve got a compatible board. You’ll be messing around with traces for ages, and it’ll look naff if you ever try and resell otherwise.
It would be fixable without a donor board, but will require likely several bodge wires. You would have to desolder the battery, soak it in vinegar, then rinse thoroughly before you can determine how extensive the damage is.
OP, do you live in Canada? I'd be willing to take a look at it for you. Otherwise, I'm always happy to offer help here or through DMs.
I had something exactly like this happen to me. The seller made ridiculous claims about me losing its value by opening it, eBay sided with me almost immediately. File a claim and send it back, don't clean it or do anything else
I seen the listing. i find it incredibly mean to get that refunded And not return the game. It had gamble written all over it. Plus with some work it is likely salvageable. Its what im always worried about selling on ebay. Someone scamming the seller. Seen too many shady “buyers” and then the sellers have very little protection of their own.
Somehow I'm mean because the seller didn't want the cartridge back? For context, the seller issued a refund as I was processing a return, adding photos and description when I got the email. Along with the refund , they stated " I dont want the cartridge if it looks like that". To be clear, I'd rather the damn thing work than to go through the effort of making it work. I'm only here as a last resort because I'm stuck with it
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u/ultrafop May 09 '26 edited May 09 '26
Soak this thing in vinegar and then clean it up with IPA and a soft bristle tooth brush. I’m interested to see how deep the damage goes. You’ll need to solder that battery off before you do anything though.