Restoring 12 Faulty Gameboy Games

Comment down below how many you think I'll fix out of 12 before watching the video :)

Joey you didnt blow on the cartridge, you forgot how to fix all of them easily

I like that you're trying to fix something a bit different, I'm definitely appreciative of the variety

Broken traces along where the shell touches the PCB is a very common issue. A dry pencil eraser is one of the best tools for cleaning the pins. You can also use a rubber polishing bit for a dremel without the dremel. Also, if the battery is so dead it starts acting like a resistor, that can cause the cart to fail. Considering the age of these games, all of those batteries should be replaced.

Here's the names of the games I could find:
0:29 Pachi-slot Kids 2
0:59 Unknown white cartridge - possibly a GB Memory Cartridge (cartridges for the game rewriting service "NINTENDO POWER" developed by Nintendo)
5:07 Dragon Quest Monsters Terry no Wonderland
6:44 Bomber Boy
8:25 Kenyuu Densetsu Yaiba
9:39 Game Boy Wars
12:03 Shikakui Atama o Maru Kusuru: Sansuu Battle-Hen
13:02 The King of Fighters '95
17:07 Shinkenzemi Chuugaku Kouza - Chuu 2 Eigo (or one in the series) - educational science game for the WonderSwan Color
17:25 Unknown grey game
18:29 Ganbare Goemon: Sarawareta Ebisumaru
21:04 Doraemon 2 - Animal Wakusei Densetsu
Unfortunately, my last night's comment providing the names and links to websites for some of the more curious ones got deleted, hopefully this one's okay.

the hitomi cartridge has the same width and cartridge pin out as a game gear cart so it might be for that, the fighting game is King of Fighters 95, also buffing the pins to an even shine and removing the corrosion is easy to do with melamine foam (magic eraser) and alcohol. great work joey! :D

On the last game that you put into a new shell there was a broken pin next to the ones that where scratched.
I was just up on the top of it, really hard to see, but it was a small rip, you can see it if you pause on 24:27, it’s the last scratched trace on the right, the one that barely has a scratch.
Really good episode 😊

future reference, reflow all chips on a gameboy game they tend to come loose for some strange reason

Came straight from mymatevince's electric toothbrush fix video to joey on retro gaming

you should do more broken games as its quite interesting and fun to watch

This time on Joey Cleans Tech lol. As always a great Video JDT

Bit of variety keeps things spicy!
Maybe I should send you a broken ZX Spectrum. 😂

17:19 - that's a Benesse Pocket Challenge W game, which is an educational game. I believe it translates to something along the lines of "Shinken Zemi Junior High School Course Junior High School Science Pack".

Good to see a different kind of video! I love watching you fix stuff, but was starting to get tired of all the Switches and PS5s.

The white game does look like a "Nintendo Power Cart". You can rewrite them using a GBxCart RW. It's fun finding working ones and see what was the last game someone put on there when the kiosks were active in the 90s.

really appreciate that you got actual faulty carts and were honest about the non-working ones. There's so many fake restoration videos on youtube so it's nice to see a legit one.
0:19 from left to right I see: Pachislot, Bomberman, Dragon Quest Monsters, a Nintendo Power rewritable, no label, head improval battle, GB Wars, Yaiba, Goemon, Doraemon, Benesse Pocket cart (educational handheld) and King of Fighters 95

Quick tip: you should never put a bad condition game in your gameboy without cleaning the contacts first. Through the scraping of the game boy contacts, you will get the dirt and rust particles in your game card reader reducing its overall success rate in reading games. And its definitely harder to clean the gameboy cartridge reader than a cartridge.
Nice video though, i like seeing old stuff being repaired even if there is 0 market value for it.

Thank you Joey, I like your content SO MUCH!!

5:02 possible damaged trace. Could just be a blob of something on the PCB trace.

Dip a pink eraser in ipa and scrub those pins on the carts it cleans it the best, i don't use any other method and all of my games play first try every time.

Tip an old timer showed me - regular A4 office printer paper is pretty good at cleaning oxidation off pads like that. It's actually mildly abrasive, just enough to remove the oxide layer without doing any damage. Just rub it on the pads as if it was sandpaper.
Sounds silly but definitely works!

Awesome, Joey. You did great on those games. I want more videos like these. Cheers from Brazil

Nice video, Joey :)
I don't know if Magic Eraser is available in the UK.
That usually helps with cleaning the pads more easily.

Broken traces are sometimes not really good to see, so it's best to test every single one for continuety. Thank you for the good entertainment.

bro doesnt know king of fighters 😭☠️
much love, joe ❤

I think that green cart is for the Benesse pocket challenge handheld. There are a couple of versions, but one has carts that look like that.

Joey would you perhaps sell the ones that you couldn't fix ? I would love to have replacment parts. Cheers

even if the pins are solid a good reflow never hurts it may be cracked solder underneath

Yep capacitors... The symbol above them and the label C1 are the giveaways

Yeah like everyone else said use eraser magic eraser or a cleaning pen like a fiberglass pen and deoxit to clean contacts, and also make sure you do continuity tests between the end of each contact and chips connection to make sure the traces are all working

9 out of 12 is my bet. Good luck!

Never forget always check all the legs on all the chips

0:59 Nice find! That would be the re-flashable GB Memory cart. People in Japan could bring them to a machine at the Lawson convenience store chain and pay money to get new games flashed onto the cartridge. The board is completely different from the other Gameboy carts, and it's a very cool specimen. If you can fix it you'll find out what game (or games!) the previous owner had put on.

Zedlabz amongst others sell replacement cart shells, not sure on stickers for them though

Wait is that white cartrdige one of the GB Power cartrdiges where you could download games onto the cartrdige ?

Fiberglass pens with IPA work wonders for cleaning corrosion off game cartridge contacts.

@StezStixFix had a similar video and he found a lot of them just had old solder joints

1st one you need to tin the gold pads on the bottom.. they are too worn to make a solid connection. the plastic of the case also rubs on them and can create small cracks in the pads

wish you'd been able to figure out some of the more challenging ones as I have a similar hard to solve issue with a copy of Tetris (Japanese version). I picked it up for $10 Australian and so far all I've got is my money's worth in soldering practice. Trying to figure out how I can prove if its a dead chip or not.

After looking into older cartridge games I was surprised how many fake ones are out there

Gameboy game #3 is Dragon Quest Monsters. The Dragon Quest and Dragon Quest Monsters series rival Pokemon in popularity in Japan. Dragon Quest V's monster taming feature can be thought of as Pokemon's grandfather in many ways, and likely inspired many of the mechanics in the original Pokemon Red and Green versions. Really cool bit of history on that cart.

Some of those looked like “official” releases. I say that with heavy sarcasm. I wouldn’t have wasted time trying to fix those tbh because even collectors might pass them by.

Pencil eraser was a savior back in the day

The batteries that are low could cause save memory to be corrupted. Depending on how the game is written, that could result in the game checking for corruption, figuring out something is wrong and not starting. Taking the battery off and replacing it in theory could set the save game memory to a "regular" empty state. I personally would not condemn a game before having replaced the battery. The one game with the deep scratch on the contacts might have the ridges on the scratch push the game reader pins out and prevent proper contact. Maybe get the ridges down so the chances of the reader making good contact bigger?

Deoxit and Magic Eraser is the way to go here Joey.

You could do with a Gameboy Breakout / Passthrough Cartridge so that you could check the data and address lines with a scope!

I believe those last 2 games were Legend of the Mystical Ninja. I've only played them on SNES, but they're great.

Pencil rubber is great for cleaning them. Also I tend to clean any new games before putting them in one of my consoles so the dirt doesn't get transfered to the console pins. Doesn't make a good video if you fix them before testing though haha

Should have a P.O. Box to get some try repairs of stuff people no longer want

It's a shame Game Boy Wars couldn't be fixed, there were a bunch of games we never got before we were allowed to have Advance Wars in English.

I know that this is Not really your Thing, but I freaking LOVE fixing Videos of old Video Games. Please, if you ever feel the urge to do so again, do it!
Maybe there are NES/SNES or even N64 Games in need of fixing?

wished you were able to fix that copy of Bomber Boy, since that's the first ever Bomberman game in the series to feature a battle mode
even has a remake of the Famicom/NES game too

Could get 5 or 10 bucks for Dragon Quest Monsters. That's a pretty fun game. Though you'd probably need to sell it in Japan lol

Just did a lil' google picture translate and the sticker on the hitomi cartridge translates to this: "Hitomi Pocket Challenge - Shinkenzemi Junior High School Course - Junior High School Science Pack - Benesse". If the other comment down here is true I take it it's some kind of educational exercise game for the game gear? Considering mcdonalds japan did employee training with a nintendo DS i'm not totally surprised.
It's weird to try and figure out the value of something like that but maybe it's good?

the 2nd to last gameboy game, is based on an anime that started in the 70s and still running on and off today and most of the early stuff is also lost media. today they are only making movies

yo joey, for a video, you should get a broken gameboy, get it working, and mod the crap out of it.

Magic eraser works well for cleaning pads.

Looked like a Game Gear game possibly. They had that bump at the top and were wider.

I really had an "itch" for a new video 🤣🤣👍💪

The King of Fighters, Goemon, Doraemon....all great games

9! Also, peas!

Should really give all the chips a nice reflow.

That second last game is Doraemon. Never played it but I know the character.

Last one its Doraemon!! Well known in Spain, one of our regional tv channel uses to show this series since 2005!
Gg Joey

I'm sure it has been said, but the green game looks like a gamegear game

How come you don't know King Of Fighters, Joey? 😱

Joey, I have a PS5 that needs repairing if you are interested?

16k views?! Bet you’re glad you quit you’re day job! Smashing it.

Im sure you can buy replacement PCB’s and just move the chips over to salvage a game from PCB damage

I love Gameboy game repairs, too bad that the only fixable ones are usually Japanese lots

The game you said has a pokemon like menu is a Dragon Quest Monsters game.

bruh, get some 1500 grit sandpaper or emery boards to clean contacts

16:11 King Of Fighters 95

no. 3 dragon quest monster
no. 9 box say science for junior high school ... not a game more like a e-dictionary expantion
no. 11 Mystical Ninja Goemon (Ganbare Goemon: Sarawareta Ebisumaru!)
no. 12 Doraemon 2 Animal planet (Doraemon 2 Animal Wakusei). it's base on Doraemon movie

In my experience repairing Gameboy games, it’s 99% of the time dirty or broken/cold solder joints on the chips. Just touch everything with an iron and it should work.

The game with 95 on it is king of fighters

There's no Doraemon on that part of the world?

Those arent capacitors theyre resistors and the different colour lines tells you the resistance

I don't believe you don't know anything about these when you went straight for the loose legs.

use a pencil eraser to clean the pins

reflow all chips on a gameboy game that some times fixes it.They come lose over time.

20 quid for that load of rubbish lol . Guessing u not trying to make any money on them lol
But as always enjoy watching and seeing how many u could working
Keep making the great vids joey
Guessing u fix 7

Give us a Chair-Cam too

5

youve been mostly finessed and paid way to much but interesting video

Last game is Doraemon

you should just reflow all the chips on all the games.

Hopefully you paid $20 for the fun of trying to fix those and not to resell. Those games are not worth the cost of the pstage.

Cart 2 doesn't look right. Either a fake or one of those 40 in 1 games.

If you want a challenge. Go online and buy custom PCBs for game boy games. Say for instance like on the one that's completely bubbled up. Transplant all of the components onto that board. Just for the giggles and for the challenge

Joey get a fibreglass pen for those contacts, the proper tool for the job

Actually, that's where you're wrong. Several Gameboy games require the battery in order to boot just to let you know.

Please change your cloves, they are very dirty and distracting

Joey my face isn’t feeling welcome again. 😢

These contacts would be worth cleaning with very fine sandpaper....

7/12

Those blue things at the top of the boards you kept calling caps are resistors. 👍

Japanese games? My guess is you won't even know they're fixed unless you have a japanese console

Most of the time Japanese games won't work in regular games boys unless u have the game boy that plays all country content