Q about SNES repro cartridges - and other misc SNES things

Delicieuxz · April 7, 2021

They cost a lot less than original copies of games, while some look identical to the originals on the outside. Looking on the inside, at least the one I saw the inside of, they also look just like the originals.

I think this is a reproduction cartridge:

And this is an original of the same game:

Is there no benefit, mechanically, functionally, sound-wise, and posterity-of-use-wise, to having an original cartridge over a reproduction?

Edit:

I've looked at some more repos, and seen they can have different internal builds.

I also came across this post:

Quote

Beware of cheap reproduction cartridges. They may appear to work fine, but they often directly expose 3.3 volt flash chips to the console's 5 volt power supply, which adds additional strain to both the cartridge (produces a lot of extra heat) and the console (cartridge draws much more current than it was designed to supply).

This will not instantly fry your console, but it will shorten the lifespan by wearing out the electrical components much sooner. That's why you see lots of people say cheap repro carts work fine even when they're damaging their consoles, because the failures are far enough in the future that they either haven't experienced such a failure yet, or when a failure did later occur, it was long enough down the road that they didn't associate it to their use of cheap repro carts.

It is possible to design good reproduction carts. There are a few ways to do this: use 5 volt flash (which is very rare and was never available in large storage capacities), use level translators between the console and the flash chips, or use 5v EEPROMs instead of flash chips.

It's hard to tell you right off the bat which ones are safe and which ones aren't. RetroCircuits uses EEPROMs and should be safe. Random aliexpress carts are probably not safe.

For more information (albeit very technical) on the general subject:

https://db-electronics.ca/2017/07/05/the-dangers-of-3-3v-flash-in-retro-consoles/