Can bitrot cause ingame bugs ?

[Lord-Chaos]

I have several carts that have EPROMs on the PCBs and have ingame bugs.

 

For example a "Quest for Quintana Roo" that crashes when you press "Select" button , another copy with graphics bugs and another one with a score - bug (but still playable).

 

Or a "Kung Fu Superkicks" that crashes while fighting, a "Bump n Jump" that crashes when moving and several others.

 

These games have the same bugs on all my systems , so I think it's bitrot OR they were programmed with the bugs.

 

Is bitrot a danger for carts using EPROMs or is it more likely that these carts always had the bugs, you know Telegames quality control isn't that great and they often used old, used EPROMs in their carts (if you open one, you may see it).

 

Thimo

[Thomas Jentzsch]

That sounds like bitrot. A few bits (or maybe just one) inside the EPROMs have changed their value, causing the CPU to do something unexpected.

 

If you monitor those carts over the next months (years?), they might crash earlier, because of more bitrot.

[MattyXB]

I have an Open Sesam game, were I die when I walk, everytime. But only on the Atari 2600 VCS Jr. Version. As I have try it on Atari 7800 it has work great.

Or its was the other way, that I die on the Atari 7800 and on the Jr it has work. Not sure anymore. But on one I die on the other it work.

 

So maybe sometimes only problems with the consoles.

 

I own too Raiders of the Lost Ark (NTSC Prototype), which not work on the Jr. console. On the 6-switch it work great or the Atari 7800 when I not wrong.