Hey, SnesGAF. Not sure if this is the right place to put this, but I could use some help.
I've been experiencing these weirdass visual glitches with SNES games that, while they don't typically cause crashes, are still really distracting regardless and I've been continually attempting to be rid of them. They're a little hard to describe and I don't have any pictures/video footage with me at the moment, but probably the best example is how in Kirby Super Star whenever Kirby runs there's a weird morphing white box below to the right. I was wondering if this was because I left the games exposed to dust (dumb, I know), but lately I've been turning my mind around that.
I've done all the recommended solutions from cleaning the cartridge contacts with Q-tips/rubbing alcohol and the console slots with credit cards/cardboard and nothing works. I recently read that if none of the above is working, the video RAM chip inside of the console may be to blame. After purchasing A Link to the Past last year, I think this may be the case since the game only started acting up only a couple of weeks after it arrived.
So...I suppose what I'm asking here is not just an answer to the above, but how common of an issue this is. As a budding collector, I'm concerned about purchasing further games due to what happened with ALTTP. At the very least, this has taught me to get into the habit of cleaning the cartridges.
I'm guessing purchasing a new SNES would be worth less than the hassle of repairing the RAM chip or w/e, yet similar issues have been plaguing my N64 and when I purchased two separate replacements (along with more copies of SM64), the same exact issues were present. Is this some epidemic I'm not aware of or something? lol