Melted ColecoVision Cartridge Still Works (Sort of)

Some of the ColecoVision cartridges that came out of my house fire are so disfigured I can’t even tell what they are. This one was melted into a solid lump with a copy of Donkey Kong Junior, with only a scrap of label showing. Getting the PCB out took leverage, a rotary saw, a cutting disc and a lot of patience, and the board turned out to be swollen from heat and water. Does a melted cartridge still work? Sort of. This video was supported by PCBWay.

This is my second fire-damaged cartridge rescue, after my copy of Carnival, and it has a very different outcome. A third, an Activision game, followed, along with more ColecoVision fire rescues in later videos.

Separating the fused cartridges

The house reached temperatures over 300°C. On the bench I had Donkey Kong Junior, an unlabelled mystery cart, and today’s subject, which from the partial label looked like it might be an Epyx game. The Donkey Kong Junior connectors looked much better; it was probably at the bottom of the pile and shielded from the heat. Today’s cart wasn’t so lucky, and one side of its PCB was visibly swollen from heat and water damage. That’s a really bad sign.

Hands got me nowhere, so I tried leverage. The first angle failed, but coming in from the side gave a satisfying crack, separating Donkey Kong Junior (one for another time) and revealing the answer: Pit Stop, the racing game by Epyx.

Two ColecoVision cartridges melted and fused together after a house fire — Pit Stop, fused to a copy of Donkey Kong Junior

Cutting the PCB out of melted plastic

Pulling away the easier bits of shell showed soot all over the PCB. I used a rotary saw blade on my multi-tool, going slowly to avoid melting the plastic further. The smell it gives off is the smell of my burned-out house, and it brought back some nasty memories, but curiosity won over grief.

The blade kept snagging, I think on the metal screws. The screws themselves were melted into their posts and wouldn’t turn, so I cut around the posts on both sides, careful not to plunge deep enough to kill the PCB. The plastic stayed rock solid, and my pliers’ jaws wouldn’t fit around it. Picking at strips from the back, I found the shell had melted onto the IC pins (and I added a small scratch to the board, sorry).

My theory was that the embedded screws were reinforcing the whole lump, so after melting away a big lump that stopped the cart sitting flat, I went at the screws with a cutting disc, wearing eye protection. That did it: the plastic weakened, and nibbling at the exposed weak points with pliers finally freed the board.

Cutting melted plastic away from a fire damaged Epyx Pit Stop ColecoVision cartridge with a rotary tool — Slow, stinky work cutting the shell away

Cleaning the edge connector fingers

Some of the connection fingers were damaged, though mainly a ground, but the bigger problem was the PCB swelling at one end. I cleaned it anyway, using isopropyl alcohol to help break down the greasy soot. Soot from a fire is deposited at hundreds of degrees, so it melts into the surface, and IPA couldn’t shift what was pitted into the fingers (we lost a little more of that earth finger along the way).

So I used a fibreglass pencil, whose abrasive strands simply wear the surface down. It’s an extreme fix for edge fingers, but these were desperate times. Keep the fibres off your skin, as they act like super splinters. It left the fingers gleaming.

Did it work?

Sort of. As feared, the swollen board would only go into the ColecoVision at an angle, but it went in. I powered on, and incredibly, Pit Stop burst into life. That’s actually a bit annoying: if it had been dead, I could have abandoned it. I tried it briefly despite my terrible, unrepaired controllers.

Fire damaged Epyx Pit Stop PCB inserted at an angle in a ColecoVision, with the game running on screen — The swollen board only fits at an angle, but Pit Stop runs

Now I think the chips need rescuing, perhaps onto a new PCB in a new shell. But I’m torn. Is a new PCB a step too far? Is it still the same cartridge with a new board and shell? Was this a win or a failure? Let me know what you think in the YouTube comments.

Another survivor from the same fire: restoring a soot-damaged Intellivision. For a different kind of cartridge slot rescue, see repairing an Atari Jaguar with a broken cartridge slot.