Thank you for clarifying that. Is it just pure coincidence these two issues happened at once? I feel foolish seeking out an additional matching PCB if it's something simpler. Wompa.
I ended up cleaning the I/O & reflowing solder to fix the issue. It's been working reliably for several months, but ever since this original I/O issue popped up, link play has stopped. Ever since then, the two sides will not link - LINK MALFUNCTION 2. According to the manual, this has to do with...
While constantly refreshing & commenting as (what I believed to be) first, I still lost to other people who just happened to hit send sooner. It's a TOUGH system to win in, but I can't really imagine a better one. Pins are gonna be insane - I'm using a computer for that one lol.
Still crying...
Following this thread in case any more pop up for sale. Been looking for a backup for 7 years so far. I would be open to helping pay for a Raspberry Pi edition of it if it comes to that.