I just cleaned my small collection of games, except for one.  As you can see in the picture below, there is some sort of hard plasticy glue substance over the screws in the back.  They are there to prevent tampering (it was originally a rental game).  Anyone have any idea on how to remove it?  I've already tried melting it by heating up a needle and applying it to the...substance, but to no avail.  Somebody suggested I try using suction to pull it out, but I don't think it will work.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c375/Cinder6/Scewlock.jpg

It looks like it isn't in too tight, but it seems stuck in fast.

Honestly, I don't really care if the back piece of the cartridge gets too messed up, as I can just get a copy of SMB/Duck Hunt for $0.97, but I would prefer not to break it.

Thanks for any help.

Oh, and yeah, this is my first post here.

hey whats up! welcome to the boards!  :D

My suggestion would be try to use some paint thinner. That works on anything. but be very very careful with it and dont use a ton of it. Because it can melt the texture on your cart. but i believe it should probably work if it is a type of glue. just dab some on a q tip and try it that way. Also you can get thinner at like NAPA or a paint store, or somewhere similar to that.

hope it works :-)

Thanks for the welcome.

I tried nail polish thinner (it's what I found first, heh), to no avail.  I even let it sit a while.  The stuff might be a tiny bit more brittle than before, but not significantly.  I'll try paint thinner later, if there is any difference, but I expect the result to be the same.  Thanks for the idea, though.

Get a gimlet of some kind - an eyelet screw or whatever - that you can grip and screw into the stuff. This will do one of two things - either shatter it (if it's already brittle) or give you some sort of grip with which to pull the whole cork out. So to speak.

Get a small drill bit and drill it out.  If you get the right size, the cart should just pop open after it is drilled, just be sure to not apply to much pressure and go all the way through the cart.
~~NGD

Is it glue gun glue?  Does it have that rubbery feel to it?  If so, you can probably find some way to heat it to the point that it melts.  You might even get the point of a hot glue gun in there...  

You may also be able to wedge a small flat head screwdriver bewteen the substance and the plastic and dig it out.  If it's rubbery, it will probably come in one piece and just scratch the plastic a tiny bit!  

I've tried heating it up with a needle that I held over a flame (I don't have a hot glue gun, or at least I don't know where one is), though a larger surface area than a broad needle might have better results.  It feels more hard than rubbery, and scratches a bit when I gouge it.

I'll try the gimlet later today.  The drillbit will probably be my last-ditch effort.  In theory, it shouldn't hurt the front piece of the cartridge, right?

As long as you stop when you hit plastic....

If you're drilling and planning on ruining the back of the game, you might as well get a bigger bit and just drill out a circle in the plastic.  The screw and the glue and the screw hold will still be there but if you drill all three (or 5), then the back will come off.  Then just turn each screw hole out with the screw.  I'm not talking about a hollow hole drilling bit, but any bit bigger than the hole will do this for you.  Does that make sense?

If it was an important game (what game is this by the way?), I would be worried about doing damage to the front part of the cart by drilling too far if I were just trying to drill out the screw.

It's funny, I recently bought two carts that ended up being rentals and have the same type of substance over the screws, but in a very bright pink color...heheh.  

Did you make sure the nail polish remover had acetone in it?  Most removers now are non-acetone, but you need one with the acetone in it.  That should dissolve model airplane glue or most other types of glues.

Worse: It's epoxy, which is virtually impossible to dissolve.   In that case, probably best to just drill.  If you get lucky, you can drill through a tiny bit of the epoxy and it will break it into pieces that can be removed.