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I recently purchased FFIII on eBay and the cart is in great cosmetic condition. The pins also look very clean. I put it in my SNES and everything worked fine until about the third battle. At that point it would present some graphical issues with the enemy sprites and then freeze after the battle. I tried it a few more time and got the same issue. I've had similar issues with some , but not every, other, less expensive games but assumed it was an issue with those carts. I cleaned my pins very well with the official SNES cleaning kit, but noticed some of the pins didn't look perfectly aligned. I then figured if replace the pin connector with one from an old SNES whose motherboard died. The newly replaced pin connector looked to be in perfect condition. I reassembled the system and put in FFIII but encountered the same issue two more times. Any suggestions on what the issue may be or the next step in troubleshooting? I'm not opposed to buying a new SNES (of course would prefer not to) but I'm not sure if the issue is with the system or the game. If it is the game, I'd want to touch base with the seller ASAP to see if I could return it. Thanks!

It sounds more like a problem with the game itself; I would expect the glitching earlier if it was a pin problem. If you have the right tool available you could try opening it up and seeing if maybe this is a repro cart rather than original.

How would I be able to tell if it is a repro (yes I have the tools)? Also I should note that the game came with various saves still on it, so someone at some time was able to get farther on it.

If it was a repro it should be fairly obvious; there will be some wires soldered around the ROM chips because the pinout on the native Nintendo ROMs are different from the industry standard for EPROMs. Another thing that would be worth trying is trying out those saves on there and do several battles to see what happens.

Ok, I opened the game up and it definitely looks legit. I also tried loading other saves and they appear to have the same issue.. I can get through a fight or two then I get to a fight where the sprites are messed up (they almost appear to be swaps for other non-enemy sprites). After that battle it would just freeze.

Well, i would say it is some of the ROMs on the board.
Look for some cut traces or corrosion on the pins.

If at all possible, you really ought to try the game on another SNES to confirm that it is not the system. Not all games use hardware in the same way.

I wonder if the realm sketch glitch can mess up a game to the point where it doesn't operate? (you'd think deleting the save would fix it, but I have an old sega RPG that had messed up dungeon graphics even after deleting the saves until I forced a complete wipe of the saved games by putting it in and out of the system a couple times while it was on (I know, I should have just desoldered the battery).

I actually have a FFIII cart (without shell) that has a cracked board. The previous owner must have had something fall on it causing the middle plastic post of the cart shell to apply great pressure to the middle of the board. Several leads got cracked in the process and would be a nightmare to try to reconnect.
I'm sure the ram chips are still good.

If worst comes to worst (and if it is really the ram chips), maybe a working game could be made out of it.

Probably more work than it's worth, but it is so sad when an epically great game dies.

nightrnr wrote:Several leads got cracked in the process and would be a nightmare to try to reconnect.
I'm sure the ram chips are still good.

All of the traces on a SNES board are on one side or the other, none are sandwiched inside layers. If all of the chips and such are fine, then it would take a little time, but shouldn't be too hard to jumper things.

Hobie-wan wrote:

nightrnr wrote:Several leads got cracked in the process and would be a nightmare to try to reconnect.
I'm sure the ram chips are still good.

All of the traces on a SNES board are on one side or the other, none are sandwiched inside layers. If all of the chips and such are fine, then it would take a little time, but shouldn't be too hard to jumper things.

The board got seriously CRACKED: as in I tried to pop the crack back in place and made it 10 times worse (and it's still out of place ). There is no saving this board; it may as well be broken in half. I think there are over 30 leads cut and the crack is in constant danger of expanding any time I touch it. I could post picks if desired, but my camera battery is dead ATM.

Yes, it is possible and I do appreciate the suggestion. You could theoretically even wire all the ram chips, sram, cap, etc. together and then wire everything to the contacts. But it's way more work than it's worth (not to mention beyond my skill level) and I have 2 other working copies of the game.

I don't even have the shell anymore because a friend wanted it. I didn't pay for the game either (it was given to me broken), so it's no real loss on my end, just the tragedy of a legendary game biting the dust.

So get it to someone who wants to make the Frankenstein gamble.