Water damaged games

[bALEXc 1]

Years ago I purchased an Earthworm Jim Genesis cart from a flee market and I am positive it has water damage due to a damaged label and rusted metal parts inside the board. The game still functions but can it damage the system itself?

[Sumez 2,292]

Technically a damaged cartridge can damage the system, but as long as it's currently dry, it sounds very unlikely that should happen from just rusted parts. I'd be sure to clean the contacts before inserting it into the console's connector though.

Try opening the cartridge and inspecting the PCB to see if anything looks suspicious.

[bALEXc 1]

I already did. The PCB has been dry for years and the rust is attached to the capacitor. I already cleaned the contacts and the game works fine but I am concerned about damaging the system. I think I read somewhere that a water damaged cartridge may overheat the system.

Edited October 15, 2020 by bALEXc

[MrPeaPod 121]

I bought a lot of super Nintendo games that looked to have been submerged in water for a good part of its life. After cleaning the rust and changing some capacitors that had fallen off, the games played fine. I've been playing that lot of games for 5 plus years and it hasn't affected my console negatively yet