Tengen After Burner looks like this...

[85Collector | 8]

Hey folks, I've had a copy of Tengen After Burner (black Tengen-style cart, don't recall if they made a different version) and the game boots up and plays but it has severe graphical glitches. I've cleaned it pretty thoroughly and over the years it always displays exactly the same way. Does someone know if this is a known defect with Tengen carts? Should I just throw this away?

[austin532 | 470]

No, don't throw it away. Sometimes it takes more than isopropyl alcohol to get the contacts clean. Could also be from a bad trace, bad chip, bad system.

Are you using an original NES? Have you tried the game on another system?

[85Collector | 8]

1 hour ago, austin532 said:

No, don't throw it away. Sometimes it takes more than isopropyl alcohol to get the contacts clean. Could also be from a bad trace, bad chip, bad system.

Are you using an original NES? Have you tried the game on another system?

I think I've only tried it on my NES clone, (FC Twin), but I recall looking up whether this game has clone-system emulation problems and not finding it on one of those lists. 

I was going to open it up, but I was afraid of breaking it, and never looked up how to open a Tengen cart. I assume it can be done without cracking them?

[austin532 | 470]

Try it on an original NES first. Tengen games use torx screws and there is one hidden underneath the back label.

[Tanooki | 5,256]

FC twins aren't the best.

Try and real system.  And if it eats it on there, you got little to lose as it's a cheap game.  I'd pop it open, get some magic eraser and 91% alcohol and go to town on the pins.  I bet it starts to turn gray which means you didn't get it clean enough.  If that fails...your call.  Fine grit sand paper, or give up, either way what's there to lose?

[85Collector | 8]

Oh sure, I'll try a deeper clean on it. I was just wondering if I was seeing a known defect specific to this game. Sounds like probably not. I have seen other games behave this way but have always been able to get them 100% with just the qtip and alcohol (sometimes a rubber eraser too - the Magic Eraser is a good tip I have not come across before!)

[austin532 | 470]

Do not use sandpaper! That will not only damage the pins but the traces as well. Use at least 91% iso (99% is better) and keep cleaning the pins until the q-tips are spotless. If it still doesn't work try an original system. If somehow it still doesn't work and you don't want it, I'll take it off your hands.

[Tanooki | 5,256]

I was half kidding about the sand paper, half not.  It is the absolute end of the line last resort between throwing it in the trash and using it.  Yeah it'll tear up the pins quite a lot scraping away layer after layer.  I've done it on two utterly dead games before as the pins were rotted, the last one was maybe 5 years ago on a battle toads that had various shades of rust to green on there.  Every other method I tried failed, and I was like screw it, and used a little sandpaper sponge thing I had and went to town on it until I got the green and rust off, it worked.  It looked shiny but very horizontally err resurfaced.   It was that or the garbage heap.

[austin532 | 470]

It works but greatly degrades the life of the cart as bare copper oxidizes faster. As a last resort and I mean VERY last resort maybe...but that's after using a multimeter, 99% Iso, eraser, Briteboy, reflowing the pins, and a fiberglass pen and still get no results.

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

27 minutes ago, austin532 said:

It works but greatly degrades the life of the cart as bare copper oxidizes faster. As a last resort and I mean VERY last resort maybe...but that's after using a multimeter, 99% Iso, eraser, Briteboy, reflowing the pins, and a fiberglass pen and still get no results.

I agree that it should be a last resort method, but hey, sometimes it comes down to the last resort.  As for the oxidation problem, has anybody ever tried using an electroplating setup to put metal back onto the pins?  I tend to watch a lot of toy related videos and a couple of folks who do terrific restoration work have added electroplating baths to their setups.  I believe zinc is what's normally used to plate the items in need of repair/restoration, but know I've heard of other folks using other metals to do so.  In that vein, would there really be anything stopping someone from taking a couple of hours and doing a light re-plating of copper, nickel, brass, whatever, over the top of exposed pins which have had a damaged/oxidized/otherwise non-conductive surface removed?  Food for thought for helping preserve those carts that folks just don't want to let go of.