Why don´t many Bomb carts work ???

[Lord-Chaos]

You know Bomb carts are not really rare in PAL countries.But it´s annoying that lots of the Bomb carts you find don´t work anymore.

 

You can clean them , you can try them on different consoles - nothing happens.

 

What´s the reason of this ? Cheap parts ? Bitrot ?

 

 

I mean I had ATARI carts that were under water , in sunlight for long time , in dirty cellars , etc. - and they still work.It takes a lot more effort to destroy a cart made by ATARI than a Bomb cart ...

 

Thimo

[Godzilla]

I guess bomb had a company name and image to live up (or down?) to

[Nukey Shay]

I'm guessing that the Rom chips weren't manufactured/installed in a very pure environment

 

What do Bomb carts use? Eproms, dips, or blobs?

[CPUWIZ]

They use 2332 Mask ROM's, maybe a cheap manufacturer.

[Nukey Shay]

Perhaps the silicon wafers used were less than perfect in those?

[Pitfall Harry]

I'd be more suspicious of the board assembly process. Perhaps Bomb skimped more than most on the solder to save production costs. If you go too easy on the solder the solder joints could crack and fail from repeated mechanical shocks from everyday handling.

 

 

Ben

[CPUWIZ]

I'd be more suspicious of the board assembly process.  Perhaps Bomb skimped more than most on the solder to save production costs.  If you go too easy on the solder the solder joints could crack and fail from repeated mechanical shocks from everyday handling.

 

 

Ben

 

Although that is a good theory, I have pulled and resoldered these before and it didn't make any difference.