It's not piracy if you already own the game. A better comparison would be burning a CD for yourself so you don't damage your original. Or putting your music on an mp3 player.
@Ay Even if it is piracy if Nintendo is stupid enough to not offer their games for sale on a modern system I have a Pi that can run it for free 🤷♂️ And no, their Online service doesn't count. Not about to give themva single cent for peer-to-peer multiplayer and to 'rent' the games I want to buy.
definitely something is very wrong with the WiiU itself because the original Wii also uses NAND flash and mine I got in 2006 worked perfectly after sitting in a drawer for nearly 10 years, also I've never heard of this issue with the Wii
Yeah I was gonna say. The wii works no problem. But I also don't think this is a across the board issue either. I haven't touched my wii u in years...yet I tried it out the other day and it works just fine. So really don't think it's a across the board thing.
@@packers12to80 from what I could tell, it's stemming from a bad batch of Samsung eMMC chips used in (supposedly) Wii Us manufactured at the start of the console's lifespan
That's why I haven't and will never have any remorse of "pirating" or dumping a game I bought a physical version of, since all of them , even CD's, will be unusable at some point.
@@Billy_Souls It can't never be stealing if he has already paid for the game. Read again, he has not said anything about download pirates copies of games that he never bought, he explicitly mention games he already legally bought.
Why does it matter? For me, I don’t feel much remorse for pirating a bunch of games that I actually don’t own, why? Because I buy physically and used physical game sales do nothing for the company. I do however feel remorse for the hundreds and thousands of people spending 1000s of their hard earned money on these games when the alternative is honestly just as quick if not quicker than sitting through 100s of game downloads. You don’t need to buy everything because they have already been preserved online. But don’t get angry at people for doing it. We have more important things to spend our money on. Perhaps it’s just justification for wasting tons of money on decade old games that will inevitably be repackaged/resold for a premium price… it’s not all one-sided.
Mask ROM is still very much possible these days. Its extremely simple to design over NAND, BUT off the shelf options tend to be cheaper... even if Nintendo went with something like fuse blown EPROM which would require a device to do a forever burn in of the rom at factory. There are also different flash types, lots of people who like to make repro's specially older repros still use the NOR Flash format which is in cases more durable than its NAND sibling. NOR is even preferred in industrial equipment and computer motherboard bios ROMs. But capacity may be an issue with NOR.
Mask ROMs had also one huge advantage. It was much faster than RAM back then with much lower latency. The biggest problem in the 80's was that RAM wasn't fast enough to transfer frame buffer data to CRT display. In other words RAM couldn't keep up with electron beam of CRT display. This is why 8-bit and 16-bit computers had limited colors or other limitations. 1987 VGA had 256 KB of video RAM, but it allowed linear addressing just for 64 KB modes, because it saved the frame buffer to all 4 chips and read them in parallel. NES, SNES and other ROM based consoles had no such issues. Consoles in general had very little RAM. NES had 2 KB, while C64 had 64 KB. SNES had 256 KB while Amigas had 1+ MB of RAM and 4 MB of RAM become a minimum requirement on PC really soon. ROM would simply act as a next-gen RAM allowing operations that were impossible on computers. This is why Nintendo decided to use cartridges in N64. Many later games stored uncompressed textures on N64 cartridge since it was the only method to get highly detailed textures on this console. N64 had RAM with huge latency that made it almost unusable for texturing. Later, RAM speeds improved to the point that there was no benefit of using ROMs and cartridge based systems switched to flash storage.
Thanks for the informative video. It seems NAND flash degrades in two ways. The charge it holds slowly dies (requiring you to use it occasionally), but also it has a limited number of read/write cycles. So not only does time do the job, it seems reading/writing accelerates the loss/error rate. Switch games seem to use Macronix hybrid flash XtraROM, which according to their marketing could last as long as 20 years at 85°C. However that's at the long end and with high temperature. How that plays out in the real world is anyone's guess. I had no idea games after the n64/GBA era would degrade like this. Gives a whole new meaning to emulation. So much for buying switch games physical so I could play them in 20-30 years if I wanted to... Guess I'll have to start backing up Roms
I think the 20 years at 85c figure would mean that under bad conditions it would last 20 years. Under real conditions it should last longer. As long as a switch game is turned on once a decade the charge gates should be fine.
@@nirgunawish What do you mean? A hard drive will preserve data many decades longer than a flash based cart or ssd. Having the rom files is the best way forward as far as I can tell
The thing about flash is just powering the chip isn't usually enough to "recharge" the leaky memory. You usually have to force the memory controller to read every byte so it can run ecc and rewrite bad bits (well actually blocks). But this also wears the flash. Flash just isn't optimal for long term storage.
This is why i still use USB HDD for backup and they are only connected when used. This way they lasts for decades. I even have HDD's from 1990's that still work, but is only useful for retro due to low storage space of 1.GB etc. Back in 1990's Tape Streamers were popular on PC, so i have over 25 x 250.MB tapes which i will probably never check again...
the error correction re-writes won't degrade it appreciably, it would take thousands of re-writes to damage it in any real way, and with a proper flash chip these cells hold data for 20-30 years, so they'll outlast your entire lifetime if you have the means to refresh them. I think a hacked console ripping the game would be sufficient to "read" every cell and refresh them manually every 10 years. Having a collection like this means you need to do periodic maintenance if you want it to last long-term.
I read one person say actually using the chip for an hour should be enough to force the chip to rewrite or check all bits. Not sure if that is true though.
Your reproductions (SNES, Gameboy) are unlikely to use NAND flash. They probably use NOR flashrom. Sometimes hand made reproductions might use EPROM or EEPROM. But Parallel NAND flash I don't believe is very common in the sizes for old games like that. And the memory needs to be a parallel memory and not serial for those systems. The failing Wii-U could be related to defective flash memory used. It may not have been outright defective so it passed QA, but it's actual service life may have been shortened by undetected defects. Or as I believe you suggested, poor software could have a bug causing issues. MaskROMs are great, but there is a big startup investment. To be worth it you need to be able to sell a fairly large quantity of units. Reproduction runs, licensed or not, may not be able to reach the numbers to warrant a MaskROM production. Also if any modifications are made or it's a brand new creation and a bug is discovered then those MaskROMs are junk if the bug is serious. With programmable memory you could recall units and reprogram the chips. There is atleast one NES game that had a bug in the MaskROM which in order to not throw away probably thousands of MaskROMs they added essentially a mini game genie to patch the ROM in real time to get around the bug. I wish I remembered what game it was, but it has happened. One last thing with MaskROMs sometimes they do appear to die. But I've seen cases where you can get them working again sometimes by adding an external resistor to the affected signal line. It just depends how exactly it has failed. But they do tend to be very reliable.
I've made some gba games, and repro gameboy cartridges on the market mainly consist of a NOR flash chip + a CPLD and sometimes an sram chip. In fact, some people in Asia making pirated copies of games hack code onto roms to write save data to an unused address range of the nor flash chip itself rather than to sram, so that they can save money by not putting a battery on the pcb. This of course degrades the repeatedly erased sector of the nor flash faster than usual.
@@evanbowman4065 It's mainly the Pokémon romhacks that writes it's save in the NOR chip instead. Dumping the save in these types of ROMs is a different story compared to traditional ones.
@@rijjhb9467 Are you sure? If indeed the NAND became corrupt, then how could it have the instructions to boot and reflash from a thumb drive or whatever backup device used? While it's a potential fix, I haven't read anything about using a NAND backup to bring a WU back from death failing NAND. The Wii had NAND you could corrupt and potentially revive using a backup; however, I haven't read anything that doing so for WU is going to work for this problem.
Thank you my good sir for giving us not so fine-technical knowing people some very good informations and explanation on this reported issue. It is very scary for a Wii U owner who have a lot of games and files stored on the system. This was straight to the point, and without being a cheap click bait. You gained another subscriber, Sir!
I actually think its a issue we do *need* to worry about. This might be a way for Nintendo to implement "planned obsolescence" in their games and consoles to make us have to purchase the same thing again and again. I want quality when I purchase something. I do not want to think about my items degrading and being useless after 10 - 15 years. We are doing us a huge disservice if we do not hold large brand accountable for problems like these. It's now we need to speak up and demand better construction.
I completely agree with you. WTF. It is also very concerning that “not being worried” because we still get 10-20 years is BS. It damn near excepting of this new turn.
Really wish the people who whine about piracy could hear this message. I ain't too concerned about losing my games, I can get them back as long as people have a will and a way. I will never bow to the copyright law when it comes to my old games
Not for nothing, but you don't have to worry about digital games 'degrading'. Digital does have its own 'anti consumer' flaws, but degradation at least isn't one of them.
Thanks for the very informative video. It happened to my Wii U. I turned it on after not using it for one or two years and it started updating, but then an error code appeared and it still does. Asked Nintendo about repairing it, which is a service still available in my country, I sent my console to the repair service but they asked me 200 Euros. I would buy a used one, which is much much cheaper, but it's unfortunately fairly hard to find one that isn't very scratched. Since mine is in good condition, I also thought to buy one and then put the outer shell of mine on it, but turns out they used small thin flimsy vinyl adhesive squares to cover the screws, instead of plastic lids, therefore if you open a Wii U, those thin squares have to be removed first, and by removing them, you unavoidably ruin them. Even tried to see on the internet if someone sells replacements, but there's nobody. Therefore I can only: 1- Stick with my broken Wii U 2- Replace my Wii U with a scratched one 3- Replace my Wii U with another one and mount its shell on it, but the resulting console will have the screws visibles, with no vynil covers I wouldn't mind that much, but the fact is that it's a limited collector's edition of Zelda Wind Waker, therefore having it estetically compromised would damage its value.
Fire Emblem Fates carts are dying. I have like encountered two of them dead in both Conquest and Birthright. I have also seen some reddit posts regarding this.
Wii U stop working because they know that they're among the worst consoles ever manufactured, so they try to off themselves in order to get thrown in the landfill where they belong. Thus ending the nightmare of mediocrity for good.🤣
Great video. So my question is: what kind of precautionary and preventative action can current Wii U owners take? Should it be powered every so often? Should it be played periodically (eg once a year)? Is there some kind of test to see if its a vulnerable model? Some specific guidance would be really helpful here. I love my console and want it to remain functional as long as possible.
I would like an answer to this too from knowledgeable people. Many are just repeating the same thing, but nothing as to the best way to prevent it from people with the knowledge.
Same here. My WiiU still works, I bought a hard drive for it and bought some games last year before the e shop close. But I want to know about how often I should maintain it.
Yep some specific details and instructions on how to identify if you have a vulnerable model, and what to do to minimise the risk of this happening, would be extremely helpful. My Wii U seems to be ok, for now. I already dig it out every 6 months to charge up the game pad and keep the battery going as long as possible. I’ll keep doing that, and at the same time I’ll now power up the console. No idea if that will help!
@@jonathan2950 I do that too. I have a few Wii U's, and I went thru them this week, charged up the gamepad, and played a stint on Mario Kart 8, that was the quickest. But I don't know if that prevents the corruption.
I had my Wii U unplugged in a box for around 8 years while moving and when I returned it to the shelf was able to continue Mario 64 like it was never off. Shame to hear that this is a problem some have, I certainly love mine
Seems to be the same in SEGA Saturn collecting circles, regarding things like disc rot and laser disc readers breaking down. I got my Saturn and a couple games from a guy who left it in a shed since 1998 with no climate control or anything, and it still works perfectly. I hear horror stories from people who do everything to keep their system and games in pristine condition, but face these problems that have never been an issue for me.
Doesn't the Switch hold the save files in the switch's own memory at least compared to having the game cart keep it? At least that way the save data could be potentially safe if stored elsewhere, like Sony did for its handhelds and the PS3 and beyond line of consoles.
I can not stress this enough how soothing and relaxing it is to hear someone speak calmly and directly to the point about a topic without forced jokes, adhd body language, crappy sponsor transitions and so on! This is what youtube used to be and should return to (let me at least dream a little bit) Thank you Cellcade !!! (Subbed)
Indeed idc what people say or think youtube was never meant to be a "career" or primary means of income . Used to be done for the passion just because, money truly is the root of all evil and destroys creativity
This makes me wonder how feasible it would be now that we're just over a decade out from the Wii U launch, could a replacement NAND flash chip be parodied to allow for a significant upgrade to the system storage? For example, could there be a replacement NAND that could give us 512GB or even 1TB of internal storage for the console?
Well most SSD's get there mass storage by pairing many chips together. I think 512 GB chips are still really expensive. And a 1TB most definitely is. I am always amazed at what the modding community does. So I would not count them out. But most likely no. It would just be more simple and easy to mod it to use an external drive with USB like the Wii was.
@Cellcade I'm thinking more long term. If the NAND that Nintendo used in the Wii U was lower quality, could it be replaced with the same size chip with larger capacity to extend the life of the console?
@@cascadepinball In Spawn Wave's recent video, he showed there was someone who soldered an SD card to his Wii U and that replaced his NAND. It looks like crap and most people probably won't want to do exactly what he did, but apparently it _is_ possible.
Leaking memory.... Uhhhg. What an absolutely childish "mistake" (business decision). ROMS are excellent for small amounts of quick access read data. But there was no way the WiiU was gonna use ROM
I better start playing my 100+ Switch games soon before they become unplayable..Is making collecting physical date pointless now and a waste of money since the new stuff was actually not made to last too long. Companies should make quality stuff. Those Switch games ain't cheap to buy.
Newer consuls always fill it’s just how they are. It’s either battery leaking or memory failing or something else but it’s all done purposely. Companies do it on purpose to make their product stop working after a certain amount of time PlayStation does it Xbox does it Nintendo doesn’t they all do it and they’ve all said they’ve done it before
By the time your Switch games start to fail, probably there won't be any functional Switch out there. As phones, the Switch was made as a disposable console due to the internal battery and the lack of an easy replacement process. Backups and emulation will keep the Switch games alive or probably a new Nintendo console retrocompatible with Switch games. This is the main reason for me to not collect physical Switch games.
so how does one prevent their games from becoming corrupt? would booting the games up every now and then for x amount of minutes re energize these memory cells? or is it a matter of time. as nothing last forever of course in the end.
I believe the nand chips on earlier consoles had a bug, and probably more susceptible to degradation. Can't find anything official. You would think Nintendo would care about their past products, but they don't.
Vita memory cards are also very problematic, which I always thought is because the NAND tech in them isn't very good, and probably the way Vita accesses the memory is also very particular and prone to misreadings. Almost always bringing Vita out of storage and palying the OG cards, I have to let it sit for a while, make attmepts to read the memory card and get "game couldn't be read", until after a while I guess it somehow pushes the charge BACK onto the degrading memory, so correct ones and zeros are once again read AS ones and zeros.
64gb vita cards are beyond notorious for their failure rates, 32gb too but to a lesser degree. I'm hearing more and more about the game cards failing too these days, what a shame.
I’m a Vita collector. I’m seriously starting to regret it. if all my games end up losing charge (even if they’ve never been played), I won’t be able to sell them and make my money I’ve spent back. Theres no way I’ll be able to play over 100 Vita games within the next 10-20 years. I have spent thousands on a glorified paperweight. It’s so obvious that Sony intended for the Vita to have a short lifespan, along with Nintendo and the WiiU. Shame on them, they don’t care about consumers. Also, shame on collectors. YOU ARE WASTING YOUR MONEY COLLECTING FOR MODERN CONSOLES. It’s only sustainable to collect for retro consoles at this point.
@@aqua-technic That truly sucks. Imagine PSP UMDs outliving the Vita cards. When the Vita came out, I just...never got one. I couldn't put my finger on it. I bought the 3DS the year prior and certainly got the PSP shortly after release. Looking back, Sony actually killed it with the PSP. It had a web browser, visualised MP3 player, photo viewer, internet radio, MP4/UMD movies, and so many different games ranging from full blown console-like experiences to the smallest mini indie games, and I had a BLAST with it. Bewilders me to this day how the Vita was treated like it was...
Everything physical degrades. My Sega Saturn games that lived in a non-climate controlled house all have disc rot. It's just the reality of the world, I've embraced emulation and digital backups, personally.
Thanks everyone for the feedback. This really is a small issue most of you don't need to worry to much about. I though I made that clear. But if not I am sorry. I have also learned so much from all of you. So I learned from Dakota J in the comments that there is fuse blown EPROM's that last far longer. And maybe the switch is using those for there game carts. But I did see this as a interesting jumping off point talking about memory types and games preservation. I tend to focus around video games console and arcade, and pinball. So I hope you guys enjoy that as well. Thanks for giving the channel a shot. Even if its does not end up being you're thing.
Thank you for that. I still persist to people when I can in real life and in cyberspace to always back up your stuff in case something happens to consoles like the Wii U. Even more so, now that we are 20 days away from the eshop closing for good for the Wii U and 3DS. After they go away, only homebrew is the way to go to access games. Unless Nintendo has a better way for us to enjoy 3DS games.
@@leon4000 The only issue is that it's really hard to make a good backup of your hacked Wii-U's external Hard drive at least compared to a hacked regular Wii. They used a custom formatted file system with the Wii U that isn't readable on the PC. On the original Wii you could just use a standard file system and see the .wbfs files on there and simply back it up on any PC. On the Wii-U, you have to go through its own slow menu to make a duplicate and the backup takes forever. If you don't have the original .WUP files anymore for your WiiU games it's a pain. On the 3DS, it's also pretty easy to keep backups of the original CIA files that you can easily reinstall on a hacked 3DS, or use the conversion tool to decrypt them to 3DS files that can be played on the Citra emulator.
I really appreciate the way you broke those all down, and now are responding in the comments to address any tweaks and corrections that are needed. It's great to be sharing knowledge of how to preserve these games!
I would guess that Nintento didn't engineer Wii U's file system with potential corruptions in mind, or didn't implement it very well. PC operating systems usually have the ability to recover from small corruptions(CHKDSK on Windows, fsck on UNIX-like systems).
@@Null_Experis Wii U does have ability to boot recovery image from SD card instead of NAND flash from what I've heard, so yes, I think service center can repair it.
Sounds like back in the day when Flash Drives became more mainstream some manuals actually said you must plug it in periodically to avoid the NAND degrading.
Data rotting in optical media, NAND chips dying, games that are broken on launch so you're "forced to upgrade" if you want to have a chance of a (not guaranteed) decent experience... Nobody told me the future of videogames was going to be so sinister.
Dude thanks for the info I am so glad I have my Wii U plugged in the guest room of my house and connected to a PC Monitor and play it some days from ever dieing and have Breath of the Wild on it which Im so glad I can play it more since its not hogging my other TVs with my other consoles. If I had it stashed in a closet and found out, it was bricked I would been so pissed. Still use my Wii U till this day glad I bought it back in 2016 and not day one.
Nintendo went cheap and this is the result. Nintendo doesn't care, as long as it lasts during the life of the console generation plus the warranty period of the last console made. And there no support from Nintendo afterwards, they wash their hands of it. They want you to buy new stuff.
I discovered old Game boy cartridges, been put away since....1995. All my saved games are still there, I was amazed. It was like opening a time capsule...
So as long as we turn it on once in a while it should be good? I unboxed mine over the holidays to play some Metroid Prime Trilogy after not being used in, like two years, and it booted up fine.
@@cascadepinball Ok. I'm gonna go ahead and unbox it this weekend and play some Wind Waker, SMG 2, and Prime 2 as well since I just got done with Prime Remastered.
Nice video. Thanks for the heads-up. What I would have liked to know: Is there a way to prevent this, like plugging it in in more regular cycles like every year or so?
I bought the GameCube new. I have a couple of WiiU's bought secondhand. I certainly will not be buying any new Nintendo. GameCube was the last. They are not a company I would give my money to. They treat customers with contempt.
I tried to play my wii u again recently to find it has been bricked and will not even power on when ac is plugged in. Is this NAND issue the same as that or possibly the cause?
No this seems to be more a issues with it being in storage. And still effecting very low numbers. This could just be a random bad run of NAND Flash. Till we get more info we won't know for sure.
1.6 Xboxes can actually have a similar issue because they don't use a TSOP memory chip for the BIOS and that chip can go bad and brick the system. I can't remember what type of memory it is, but only the 1.6 has it. Luckily you can fix it with a mod chip install haha
Wow! Thanks a lot for the info, I own (2) copies of XBOX 1.6b (2005) NTSC systems so that`s definitely good to know! Unless it only applies to 1.6 and not the 1.6b? That would surprise me.
@@oldschoolandretrogamers it applies to all 1.6 revision consoles. It's not super common right now, but that chip will eventually go bad just like nand flash.
@@legoboy-ox2kx Thank you as well for specifying this, I really appreciate. Hope it won't happen too soon though, I'll keep my fingers crossed. He he...
The reality is that nothing lasts forever. Hardware dies, physical media dies. It's ironic that so many people buy their games physically with the expectation that they will always be able to play them, yet don't take precautions beyond that. So their hardware degrades without maintenance and eventually dies, and/or their physical media degrades and dies. And unfortunately, even with maintenance, this only delays the inevitable. If you have any games, you can not be sure they will last forever if you have no backups. That's why there's so much effort to create digital files of games, because digital files can be copied to different storage media, and it can be uploaded to some server on the internet. But there's often more that needs to be preserved than just the disc or cart data, but also updates and dlc. When the servers for the Switch is shut down, some games will be unplayable if the data hasn't already been downloaded. For instance the US cartridge of FFX and FFX-2 only includes FFX, so if the servers are shut down, then you wouldn't be able to play that game and FFX-2 requires FFX to be inserted to work, so if the cartriidge died, both games would be unplayabble. And with consoles, emulation plays the largest part in preserving those games. This can be software run on another operating system, or even fpga chips programmed to emulate specific hardware. Right now, the best thing you can do for the Wii U is to make regular backups of it's nand. If it gets corrupted, it might be possible to bring it back to life, even if for a bit by flashing the backup to it though you would need hardware to do that. Even if you don't have the skills or hardware to flash it, it could still come in handy as you could find somebody willing to do it for you. And of course, backup all of your media as well. I realize that this might take up quite a bit of space, but hard drives are fairly cheap and you should be able to store quite a few games on them. Ideally, you want more than one backup too.
You are right, but some media/formats last a lot more than others. Most of Atari/NES cartridges are still working, even those with battery powered saves, like Legend of Zelda.
This is the basics of electronics in a nutshell. You cannot prevent electronics from dying, only delay it with good maintainance. There's problems with both physical copies and digital downloads but also for "renting" services (Switch Online). Nothing will last forever. We don't know if the physical Switch games will last for 20, 30, 40 or 80 years in a good environment. Only time will tell. And yes! It's both about the games and the consoles. Just look at the disc reader inside Wii. My disc reader got "that problem" so I could not play any of my ~15 games. I had the options to get the reader fixed/replaced or buy a used Wii and I bought a used Wii because it was only slightly more expensive. So my advice is really to take good care of your consoles, cables, add-ons and games. But even if you make backups you need to verify that the backups are working. It feels so sad to talk about these things but it's important.
@@Juanknes Yeah, some media does last a lot longer. On really old cartridges, you do need to replace the battery from time to time or it can't save. It still isn't a guarantee though that things will still work. Even if you have plenty of time to back them up, I'd still recommend doing so because other things can die on them. Atari and Nes roms take up practically no space digitally so if you are able to back them up, do it, and save those backups in as many places as you can. If you have no issue with downloading off the internet, this might be overkill, but a lot of people don't want to do that so making proper backups would be a good idea. And in terms of game preservation, the more dumps that are out there, the better. If taken care of properly, physical media can last a long time, but no matter what it will die, while properly backed up digital media can be kept alive forever. And the older the game, the smaller they tend to be, so space is far less of a concern for them. If backed up to multiple storage devices, the chances you lose access to it is incredibly slim. If uploaded to the internet, the chances become practically nonexistent.
@@cjeelde Yep, the disk drives on those older consoles do tend to give out over time, especially if you play a lot on them. Besides replacing the drive though, some people give them more life by giving them the ability to read digital backups. So like for the wii, with homebrew you can read games off of sd cards and usb drives. With digital backups, there are tools and resources to verify if a backup is good. Redump is one of those resources. Also consider whether you want archival quality dumps or what your use case is. Dolphin can turn full ISO dumps into rvz files, which is considered archival quality because it can be turned back into a 1:1 dump and are playable in dolphin. But RVZ files cannot be played on hardware. Most wii dumps will come in either full 1:1 ISO files, or wbfs files, which are playable on hardware and I have never heard of them having issues, but are not archival-quality (mainly because they remove the update partition) if that is something you want. Personally, I don't see the problem in keeping both RVZ and wbfs. The former is small, and archival-quality so they can be used for proper backups, and wbfs files can be used on the wii itself and means you can store more wii games on a smaller hard drive, and since you would want multiple backups anyway for longevity, that is what I do.
Nand flash should be banned as cells could simply degrade overtime ,why did nintendo as well as many homebrewers just decided to put their games on nand roms rather then on mask roms??? Sure it might be cheaper but consider those consequences you will run into later on, Am personally very surprised that switch games uses nand rom rather then mask roms wich is a shame because that means that data could be lost forever within 20/30 years,this can lead to permanent game lose with copies no longer existing anymore,i consider those nand roms as suicide roms that’s like storing games on cartride with a suicide battery in it sothat once that battery runs out of power,your game data will be lost for good, If i was nintendo ,just ban nand chips and go back to mask chips because this is something worrying😭😭
On the handheld side of things, Gameboy, GBC and GBA games are mask ROM, DS and 3DS are NAND flash. In general if it's mask ROM, the game's product code is stamped on the chip inside the cartridge, while NAND flash chips will just have a standard part number from whatever company they bought the empty chips from.
The mask ROM chips have a game product code on the label because they cannot be erased/reprogrammed and are manufactured specifically for the customer (e.g. Nintendo).
So, if the issue is them not being used for a long time, would just periodically plugging in your Wii U and booting it help prevent this? Same with the Switch game cards, is using them enough to keep the charge going, or does it just degrade regardless?
Could not hurt. But I just read in the comments of people being away for as little as a month and it happening. I say just check it once a year. I do that with my consoles anyway.
Nice, I never knew the actual difference between flash types. It's odd, because I literally just hooked up my Wii U again after years of having it shoved in a closet, probably about a week ago, and it still works great. Not sure if I'm lucky or just knocking on wood.
Because it isn't true. If this was true why is there no videos of owners having these issues on RU-vid? They're articles talking about it how funny that they're all recent there's no five or six year old articles talking about it. I feel this is a scare tactic just for clicks. Also wouldn't the original Wii would suffer that fate as well yet no videos about that one same goes with the 3DS..
@@Imaminimonstertruck Its not wide spread. Only very few people are having issues with it. I just thought It be a good in roads to talking about the different rom types. The the numbers its effecting is very few.
@@Imaminimonstertruck the Wii u had a tragic install base, and the switch has been out for 6 full years. Exactly how many people do you think are booting up their Wii U right now if it's been sitting in the closet for over half a decade?
When you unplug any electrical device, it retains an electric charge for some time, the time of which changes depending on the circuit design of the device.
They are machines designed to be used. Machines that don't get used often have more problems than if they were used from time to time. The internal components are designed to run some kind of mechanism, including circuits.
Not even though if you have a SHVC_CPU_01 model SNES the CPUs on those are failing left and right. Later models and SNES jr's are still reliable and we have capable FPGA clones once they do.
@@chronology556 1chip SNES should be later ones the earlier ones had a detachable sound board. Those earlier ones are nowadays more prone to CPU failure. I had my SHVC_CPU_01 die on me back in 2018 I got 26 years of service out of it though so while bummed it lived a long life.
I feel sadly in a sense that is true. Or more so the big publishers are not selling games to our age group anymore. I would say there are still people that care to create great experiences within the gaming industry. The team behind games like Live A Live, Octropath. Then there are indies like Inti Creates, Trubute, and Super Giant Games. I would say it takes more effort to find these games and developers that are still making stuff for our demographic.
@@cascadepinball Obviously there are always masterpieces, Hollywood has a few decent movies with some value, but it's not the same output. Cultures wane, and have revivals ofc, so eventually gaming will come back but for now it's a bit of a sleeping dog.
Some older cartridges like the NES use EPROM which is erased by UV light. I don't know if Gameboy Color games use EPROM as these could degrade with their transparent cartridges unless they put a UV protective coating on them.
EPROMs need a pretty intense UV light to be erased. People have done experiments leaving a EPROM in a sunny window for years and the data was still fine. Regardless, usually when installed in a product, the manufacturer would put a label sticker over the chip’s window that will block the light sufficiently.
Really well explained. I've my Wii, not a Wii U since 2007 and never has stopped working since then, I'm kind afraid now. I've backup my NAND in case of anything.
It's not a big deal if a older console gets bricked anymore, because Wii U, PS3, Xbox 360 and Switch among others runs at 4K/60 on PC and you can use any console controller ever made.
Never have I rushed over to turn a console in my life than I did after watching this lol It would suck to lose all those games and save data. So the idea is to always leave the console plugged in and turn on once a week to avoid memory corruption or all nand flash items prone to bricking no matter what you do?
I have copies of the The Avenging Spirit reproductions and they were not cheap. Thank you for pointing out that these limited edition copies may have a shorter than expected lifespan.
Great video! I like the idea of at least getting the discussion going on this sorta thing, and if there are any types of media or hardware that is susceptible it would be good to know which ones. Subbed, like your channel!
