My 1989 Game Boy busted out on me :(

[Flake]

Pretty sure that all original gameboys are sold "As is" these days, lol.

But to emphasize what everyone else is saying: Your gameboy (and maybe carts) are not connecting correctly. The little copper stripes you see inside the cartridge pair up with copper stripes inside the gameboy. Over time, dirt and grit get pushed into the gameboy and can get in the way of operation.

What you're seeing, the Nintendo logo, is kind of like a checksum of sorts. The system starts and electrical signals flow from the system into the cartridge and then back down into the system with information for the CPU to interpret. Without a correct connection, the system detects an error and instead of trying to start up with a game session that is doomed to crash, will instead reject input and display a garbled Nintendo logo to you.

The "1989" gameboy model you are referring to is an absolute beast. In my experience, the screen will break and the buttons will need to be replaced long before the cartridge slot wears down - your machine (and cartridges) almost certainly just needs a good cleaning.

[Gunstar Green]

The guy who runs the local game shop always shows me the neatest stuff he gets in because he knows I appreciate it. He once got an original Gameboy that was pretty much put into a case and then tossed into storage. It was spotless. He kept that beauty for himself though.

[HailToApples]

I should probably add here that it crashed while playing Tetris. When it did, the symbols were jarbled for a millisecond and then it went to the little black line that's there and then dissapears when you turn the gameboy off. But here, it was there until I actually did turn it off. This copy of Tetris crashed before, but it was on my gameboy color, and when it did, the screen just froze. I hope I didn't do anything to my gameboy.

Also, has anyone ever had battery leakage problems with the gameboy? I have kind of a phobia of them happening

[BRIK]

If batteries ever leak in any device, the leakage can be cleaned up with vinegar and q-tips quite easily.

[Teh Lurv]

If you're getting a corrupted logo, the Gameboy is detecting the cart, but one or more pins aren't making good contact with the Gameboy. Similiar to how a NES game can boot with garbled graphics if a few pins are dirty.

You should try giving the cart connector a through cleaning. Grab yourself a can of Deoxit from your local electronics store and try spraying a little on the connector if rubbing alcohol and q-tips aren't doing the job.