In todays video, watch me try and fix a broken Sega Mega Drive / Genesis game.
DISCLAIMER: Please do not take this video as a tutorial / advice. I'm not an expert, this is just my hobby :)
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/ karilawler
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This is great content! Fantastic to see younger people (not just middle-aged blokes) taking an interest in retro gear, electronics, taking things apart, and fixing them. Brilliant.
Yeah. we are already at 40-55 years old :D
Very refreshing.
@@atab4275Do we know each other? How did you know my age 😂?
Yeah, as much as I enjoy watching people in my age group discuss the stuff we grew up with, I love when younger people take up the torch, it's how these games will really survive the test of time.
No surprise really, all the people I know for a long time young or old get fed up by the market and get into old games or just quit. With other words in a era where modern day gaming is dead, thanks to online locking, microtransactions, dlc, halfbaked releases unfinished games, corporate greed and incompetence there is no other way just to either go back to retro games that are actual games or just quit and move on. I usually now just restore or clean some consoles while a friend mods them all for the young people and that is it, 99% of us who use to game quit gaming. I plan on revisiting some of the old games again but it's not going to be any time soon. I am set, it's been anough.
Refreshing to see a video that just gets straight into it without several minutes of intro logos and waffle :)
It’s because she’s not American
@@toysintheattic2664 not that americans don't have very interesting channels, but yeah, i get what you are saying... 😄
My new favorite retro gaming KZheadr!
That’s because she is hot!
@@aaronvogt335 has to be. Sure can't be because of the deep amount of content LMAO
@@user-ds5cd3wp4l This YT channel's first upload was 3 weeks ago, my dude. The amount of try-hard men that just immediately start clocking small content creators is wild. We get it man, you're really, really cool.
Great job fixing this. Something to consider to repair that PCB is to create a new PCB based on the old one. Sites like EasyEDA make it pretty easy to create simple PCBs like the one you showed.
I was thinking the PCB design might be available to download somewhere already, then send that to a PCB fabricator
@@NeigeFraiche Great idea. It would make it much easier. I wouldn't be surprised if it's out there.
Or you can just buy a reproduction PCB that's already made.
This channel is knocking it out the park, keep up the good work and the solid video production and this channel will grow in no time
Nice work on this repair! You should definitely try to fix the cracked one...just make sure to film a video trying to fix it!
Sadly, Sega games don't need the perfect amount of thermal paste.
This is an awesome series! I hope you do more! I recently started finding old, broken games on Ebay as well and it's been a fun journey to get some of my favourite, childhood games back and running.
A brummie lass😊 I'm a retro guy, & I cannot recall ever coming across a cracked or snapped cartridge PCB even when I worked at a gameshop! Sure I've repaired PCB's with worn & broken tracers & blown capacitors & reflowed solder joints, & I have replaced spent SRAM button batteries but never have I seen physically cracked PCB's nor that I ever wanted to!😅 When cleaning the PCB contact pins, rub up & down on each pin instead of how you, & many others I've seen do, I see it as bad practice because micro strands of cotton could become snagged on rough edges, then when you insert the cartridge into the Mega Drive, the snagged cotton could creat a short accross pins, or the cotton could stick inside the Mega Drive's cartridge slot which may interfere with the proper operation between cartridge & console. No matter how unlikely this is to happen through normal use, the risk factor is always present.
brummie?? 😂
Hi Kari, just found your channel yesterday - I watched the Sinclair ZX Spectrum programming video and subbed after that - Didn't realise you've only got 4 videos - I'm sure your channel will grow fast! I played many a Mega Drive game back in the early 90s - mainly at my neighbour's house until I got my own Mega Drive II in 1998 - It was great to see you repair that game with such care and precision - I've never actually seen inside a Mega Drive cartridge until now - thank you and keep up the great content!
Thank you for making this channel, I hope to see many more videos from you. I love learning about all the ins and outs of old games, and your videos have already taught me more tangible bits than many other (retro) gaming youtubers
Ahh 20 seconds in and the memory of popping open a case with the cartridge and manual (in my case it was a Sega Master System 2) just came flooding back. DVD's and downloading games just don't feel the same. Glorious! (Thank you!)
20 years old seems so long ago. I’m loving this channel. First video recommended by KZhead, loving the repair station. If I’m honest I never learned to solder.
What a gorgeous and practical looking soldering station! I especially like the cleaning sponge compartment
Hi Kari, Great video 👍Welcome to the retro community 😀It is so good to see someone younger with such passion about older consoles and computer, looking forward to some more content from you.
welcome to KZhead Kari. just four video's old and allready such a great followers list. You are goeing to kick it very far. your first vid popped up right away in my algoritm. and I subbed right away, not even realising You just started. You are a pro. I am really interested to see what your line up of computers is. and Your further retro interests. keep up the good work.
Cool, I didn't recognize the game at first but when you played it I vaguely remembered seeing it in a Sega magazine back in the day. Good job fixing it.
Just discovered your channel. Nice fix on the Mega Drive cart. Looking forward to more retro repair vids 👌
What game did you kill to fix it lol... just curious?
You brought back a lot of memories with this game. Good luck fixing it!!
The number on the top right of the PCB might be the PCB part number and the stamped value might be the PCB Assembly (PCBA) part number which would consider the ROM as well. So your PCB is probably the same part even if it's from a different run. That might be a handy way to start a database if they don't exist already. Thanks for keeping the editing and story-telling efficient. I prefer the straightforward discussion and presentation of the techniques and problem solving process.
Very late to the party, but you are doing an excellent job! One thing that you missed (and this is to help out whomever reads this comment as well) is that both the chip and the board are marked for the chips correct orientation. If you look on top of the chip you will see that there is a shiny indent in the center of one side. That is called the "notch". If you look at the drawing of the chip directly on the board, you will see that there is a little u shaped "notch" on one side of the drawing. The notches should always be on the same side. Check out 4:20 in the video. Notch is located on board on the left side. You have the two green via's and then notch is just to the right of them. Hope this helps when looking at boards in the future. It is always of the upmost importance to have them match, otherwise power could enter where it isnt supposed to and blow the chip!
Great video! I think the small cartridge PCBs with the single large rom chip are oddly beautiful.
I love Comic Zone.... so unique and so well done. GEMS didn't even hold it back...the music was solid in spite of it. Cool stuff!
Hi Kari, Love your content so far! Looking forward to seeing much more!
So satisfying to see tech being repaired, looking forward to more!
Great video again, Kari, and congrats to your growing channel! Well deserved! And this time you also put some gameplay at the end :) You could have soldered a socket into the donorboard to have have the chips easy swappable!
Oh dang very nice :O the board seems relatively simple, you might be able to just solder wires to the various components without having to clue the board though that'll make it all rattly
I don't like that the algorithm took so long to finally show me one of your videos. Good job on finding the matching donor board. Keep going 💪🏼 Sincerely, your new Subscriber 😁👍🏽
Damn this is top tier content! Great stuff keep it up Kari 😊 subscribed
ah nice!! another repair channel, also funny... on almost every youtube channel i've seen, there is that SAME desoldering gun that i also use (for hobby).. i'm extra happy to have one now because i know it's a good unit... and good job on repairing that game!! ;)
Which gun is it? Does it go "moo" when heard at normal speed?
The ZD915 "moo gun" is very common indeed.. and it's very good for the price
How have I only just found your channel. Awesome content!
I would’ve used a few jumper wires since I don’t have a stack of donor boards, but loved your video, hope you put out a lot more repair videos
Just found your channel. Plus Comic Zone is so great and underrated :)
Howard Drowsin's sound track is awesome as well!
Enjoying your videos so far. Keep it up!
I seen some beyond repaired game cartridges. But never seen one where it's broken in 3 pieces like that. Strewth! Glad you been able to repair it with a donor PCB board for it. Phenomenal video and repair work herem. 👌🏻👍🏻
This is techincal and informative. Really great job! Yay for a chunky PCB!
Fascinating video. What an amazing way to transition scenes this game has!
Need someone like Kari in my Life both of us work with electronics, i love this Job
Watching soldering in videos like this is actually something I enjoy. It's a form of ASMR I guess.
So I shouldn’t fear adding more in my videos? To me it’s so dull to watch 😂 so in my last “building a zx” I only focussed on the complex usb interface 😂
@@CallousCoder I like doing soldering myself too, although I can imagine if it were a job it could lose its edge after years of it! 😁
You really need the solder fumes for the proper experience. 😊
@@EgoShredder lol 😜 I just replied to the lady that she can drag solder the pins. It’s a process I came up with in 1993 when as an intern I had to assembly all the cards for the Dutch open tower telescope. They all had 2 times 60 or so pin back plane connectors. Several 68000 CPUs and I was getting so bored. That I started to experiment as to how I could speed up that tedium 🤣 But I still find it very zen and relaxing these days. Especially smd soldering. As I don’t need to flip the board and wrangle either leads. 😃
Nerds are cool
We certainly are. At least, my wife thinks so 😂
Woot
And this one is cute.
That was nice to watch something and someone different, I'll check out your other videos.
Comic Zone was one of my favourite Sega games growing up! Good times great vid!
damn this channel is such a gem pls don't stop :)
You very quick started with your channel :) You have very big subscribes this impressive
Too brave to do all this work, I always suffer when I need to fix or work with electrics circuits. Great job.
This was great, and grats on a first try! I keep wanting to go back and watch your back catalogue.. but then I see there's just a few vids, and that makes me all the more excited to see what's next!
Nice work and you have a great channel! Those ROM pcb’s were mostly simple two layer designs. Most times I can fix them by bridging the cracked traces with very small wire soldered in place. Then a bit of Silicon RTV sealant will hold the board together if the cracks are in a non-structural area. Many times I don’t have spares so the original needs to be fixed.
This is clean and nicely edited video ❤
Awesome video! Years ago before KZhead and before there were cheap PCB services, I etched my own PCB by masking the traces and using an acid to dissolve the excess copper. I designed the layout in Adobe Illustrator, then printed the circuit in reverse using a laser printer. To transfer it, you simply lay the paper onto the board and iron it, until eventually the toner ink sticks, then soak it to carefully remove the paper 😂 It work but a very nerve racking process. My PCB was for an Atari 800xl that I converted into a PC keyboard 😀 I feel guilty for doing it now I've watched so many repair videos 😢 but it's very retro and could be plugged into an fpga 😀 I'd recommend a site like PCB Way, especially if it's double sided. Look forward to seeing you try a repair!
So good to see a lady that is fan of Sega and being able to repair a cartridge! I subscribe!
Yeah, a real female for once that's into this stuff. Not a bait-and-switch "female" like it usually is 🙄
Keep up with this amazing job. Maybe I'm getting old, but I love to see young people into retro tech
Great content, keep up the awesome retro work !
Nice fix, because it's the most practical way of doing it. I would have spent hours trying to patch the original PCB, but this is a better solution (which is doable, but hell to do, been there, lol). Subbed
If it helps anyone who comes across snapped or cracked PCBs and doesn't have something like a donor board, I tend to go for resin or a decent glue to fix the board then use copper tape bolstered by solder to remake the traces. With smaller cracks, just patch wires should work fine, but if you have a full break and need something a bit more robust long term, this method works well. And for cleaning pins on carts I always use a stiff pencil eraser (one of those more abrasive feeling ones tend to be the best) followed by isoprop. This really works well if there's some oxidization that might be a bit stubborn, especially if you pick up a cart that's older and maybe hasn't been used for ages.
Nice coincidence, I finished the game a few days ago. Pretty challenging game and one of my childhood favourites!
British retro repair KZheadr! As a 48 year old fellow brit who remembers the retro stuff from new, I'm subscribing😂
Good rescue of a great game! Looking forward to future videos!
Hiya new to Ur channel the megadrive was always my fav when I was younger than was awsome you got that game working but changing the chip to another board
Somebody close to my age that loves what I love. Keep it up!
i have a NOW TV box with a screaching fan and after watching your vids i thought sod it, i will have a go at repairing it. I removed the fan, cleaned it up, reinstalled everything and bingo, good as new. you have saved me at least £70 buying a new one. i am now looking round the house seeing what else i can fix hahaha.
Great video. Makes things easier when you have the right kit to do the work.
I repair my cartridges, consoles and computers myself too! Great content! Hello from Brazil!
Someone seemed angry not to win and then smashed the cartridge. Great work, Kari 🚀
More likely it was left on a floor and stood on!
I used to love playing wonderboy on my megadrive as a kid. Good memories
Great video! Also as a 90's kid I play his game and I think is one of the bests of Sega
Awesome video. Please do a video of you fixing the board and perhaps placing the Comix Zone ROM back over on it.
It's all refreshing to find an interesting and genuine you tube channel
Great job. I've never played Comix Zone but always wanted to.
Nice work! Glad to see other young people being interested in retro and not just guys lmao
I used to play this game a lot when I was a kid. Super difficult but also a lot of fun and it has a very unique style
Ace! Definitely going to dig out my old consoles next time I’m at mums hahah!
The music at the end of the video is the soundtrack to my life.❤
After repairing countless of those, I can probably share my own experiences here. First, you can replace the cap, I rarely saw a faulty one, but they are quite old already. More importantly, when putting back the screws, rotate them counterclockwise until they naturally fall back into their original thread. This will allow you to tighten them up without damaging the plastic enclosure. If the original thread is used they go back totally effortless, otherwise you will notice that additional pressure is required. Finally, if you repair carts with batteries in the future, it works very well to solder a battery enclosure to them, so you can replace it if needed. There are a few compatible models on Ebay. Cheers!
This is the content I've been looking for!
Would be interesting to see the results in terms of repairability of the PCB. Nice job with swapping out the chip.
You got so many Hand skills, amazing!
I like the irony that you are a lot younger than me but are very interested in tech that is a lot older than I am.
Playing that game is harder than fixing it :) Good job btw.
Found my Toejam and Earl cart, but cannot find my old GENESIS. Hope it pops up soon. Great video’
I can now tick off my bucket list I've seen someone take apart a copy of Comix Zone and restore it back to working order. Nice! 👍
Four videos in and you've already got 12K+ subs, chalk up another! :)
Really nice job with the swap!
I lovely satisfying video for a lazy Easter Sunday afternoon.
Well done! Nicely explained and executed! 😁👍
Loved the open shots. This girl is incredible!
Good job! Keep going with the good content!
Love the content matey, keep it up.
*For anyone who is hard-up to fix a broken or cracked PCB, it is insanely easy. Use SUPER GLUE or GORILLA GLUE to bond the broken pieces together again. Once it is dried and set, sand off the green resin on the contact traces where the cracks are. Then, use silver epoxy to rebuild the cracks between each contact trace. (Keep the contact traces spearate).* *BOOM!! Done!! Easy as pie.* 👍
It is safer to connect each track by soldering and copper wire.
@@malus1367 When I fixed some cracked traces on the PCB from a $5 "for parts" SNES controller, the simplest solution was just to scrape off the solder mask around the crack with a pick and bridge it with a blob of solder.
Three videos and 10k subs! you're clearly blessed by KZhead
pretty girl doing legit nerdy things.....instant success.
@@JimmyRussle for some guys it's foreplay to what they do later tonight and they don't even have to feel guilty about it ;D
Gotta find your niche
She's cute, British accent, good at soldering and fixing things, is it really some miracle?
@@IM1deadMONEY looks like German accent 🤔
It blows my mind there are people out there younger than myself that are enthusiastic about retro games and I grew up with 8 bit and 16 bit gaming.
I love these new videos, did you have a channel prior to this? :)
Its great seeing someone who looks old enough to be my daughter knowing more about repairing Mega Drive carts than i do Their is hope for this generation yet 😂
Great video, never knew that SEGA assembled games in the UK
Glad to see people doing what i was doing back in the 80s as a little kid
I subscribed because she can fix video games, is wearing a Sonic shirt, and her voice is awesome.
I had a similar issue, many years ago, but instead of a game cartridge it was an Acorn Atom computer, and the motherboard was cracked almost in half. Half a tube of Superglue and about half a million tiny wire links later, i was left with a working computer. Good luck with the cartridge. I'm sure you'll be able to fix it. 🙂
Dang it! I was hoping for a cracked board repair too. 😢 no matter, great video.
Top tier repar job! I have a smd cart broken the opposite way on that it's the rom itself which is corrupted. It loads and then crashes after a short time. Funny thing is that sometimes it loads the pal version and somethimes the ntsc-j. It's Gauntlet and I read that it's to do with the cheap chips that they used in that specific megadrive release.
I don't have instagram but holy....i see an atari ST and bitmap bros on there so I subbed here instantly. My uncle bought me an Atari ST for my 12th birthday like decades ago lol, I was so thrilled and still have it, with hundreds of boxed games! Love the music at the end. Tiger tracks - Lexica. If anyone's wondering.
Great work I am sure you will be able to fix the broken board.