Retro games publisher Limited Run Games has responded to a report that claimed it sold NES game cartridges that could damage consoles. The company said that the report was accurate, blamed the problem on a change in supplier, and apologized for the issue.
Earlier this week, Time Extension published a report that included quotes from retro game fan Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso, who accused Limited Run Games of selling classic NES games in 3.3V cartridges, which don’t match the 5V NES consoles that play them. According to Gutiérrez Hermoso, this means that parts on the board draw power from incorrect signals that will eventually damage both the cart and the NES itself. The two games that he identified as suffering from this problem are Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland and PioPow.
In a statement provided to Eurogamer, a Limited Run Games spokesperson confirmed the charges in the report, stating in part: “Upon learning about this issue from our community, we immediately began investigating and can confirm that due to an issue with voltage regulation, there is a small chance that prolonged use of these titles could result in damage to either the cartridge or the console hardware.”
The company further said that the manufacturer behind these carts had only worked on a “very small handful of titles” for Limited Run Games, and that the company is looking into their previous output to detect other potential problems. In the meantime, Limited Run promised to send replacement cartridges to purchasers and offered refunds as an alternative option as well.