Game Cleaning

If you look through the internet for the best method of cleaning your games, you find a lot of ideas. Some people say to use Q-tips. Some same you can use an eraser. Someone even uses a rough brillo pad thing to scrape the games into shininess. The one that made the most sense to me was using metal polish on the connector's and so far it does seem to get an incredible amount of black off the connector's. Who knows how this will work out five years from now, but nobody thinks this will totally destroy the cart the way using an abrasive or or other things that common sense or the warning sticker on the back says not to use.
Anyways, at a local large flea market type thing, I found someone selling NES games and pretty good prices. He had them shrinkwrapped to keep them clean since he said he took them apart and cleaned them. Great, I thought, saves me the trouble. But of course I had to test this to see how he cleaned or if he even cleaned and I have to say he cleaned the plastic parts pretty well, but when the connector's were polished, they were just as dirty as most anything else I've found so far.

So far I have had fun seeing the boards in the games. My biggest board is Castlevania 3.


The strangest one so far is the Super Mario/Duck Hunt/Track Meet cart.


Here is a pic of my system for the record.

Filthy Mach Rider

Having given up on making a Gamebit, I ordered one. Until then I have a few cartridges I can open with a flathead screwdriver. One such cartridge is Mach Rider.

Just look at this game. Who knows what various misfortunes must have befell this game, but as you can see it took it on the jaw, and took it hard.
The flash really brings out the dirt that is deeply ingrained in the plastic of the cartridge.







Then there is the insides. Click that and look at the disgusting mess of splatters. It's like someone splattered tar inside the cartridge opening. It doesn't look like it, but the black goo just wiped right off. I was very surprised how well this thing cleaned up, but there still is something wrong with the plastic part. I can only think that someone found this game on the side of the road or perhaps it spent a few days in a desert. The NES should arrive tomorrow, but until then I want to complain about my local sources for NES games. The first place is a store in the mall that sells new and older video games. Their NES collection isn't that great. They also have to look up every game for a price. Legend of Zelda? $30. You can't get a game for less than $5 in there. The other place in town is a used sporting goods store which also are more expensive than ebay. Either way, ebay is sadly the best option for now. Hopefully I uncover something else.

The Gamebit

So one thing I want to do to the games I get is clean them. Why? Why not? Naturally Nintendo doesn't use screws, but instead uses some round screwhead that requires a gamebit for your screwdriver. I feel enterprising so let's see if we can make something that will do the trick before waiting on some more mail.
After searching the always helpful and reliable internet, I found that some say you can melt hard plastic and press it onto the screw, thus making a gamebit substitute. The game I chose to attempt this with was the great Anticipation. This is a game I have never played but always saw at the rental store and thought, "What the hell? What kind of game is that? Do I play as adult with glasses?" This copy seems to have been owned by a rental store in New York, making it more cultured than I am by default. I plan to let you know how the game is in the future, but for now, let's get to work. First I tried a golf tee, which turned out to be too soft a plastic to turn the screw. The I tried a black pen, the kind that write almost like markers. Once again, this plastic grinded away the shape that was somewhat there. Finally, I tried a clear plastic pen, which was the closest to what the site I saw recommended. This pen was a joke. It turned into a blob on contact. Here are the results.

My lighter skills are terrible at this point in my life. I am going to retry this with the exact pen they used, but I predict dismal results.

Here is the site with the instructions.

The Beginning . . .

Recently I've noticed how much I dislike most modern games. So much so I began to wonder if I can even consider myself a gamer anymore. I didn't know if it was the games or I'm just too old. I'm 28. Then I started watching the Angry Video Game nerd. This was the answer, NES. With this in mind, I began looking into getting an NES again. Ebay was the most reasonable place and I picked one up with 4 games for around fifty bucks. Supposedly the internal connector has been replaced, but we'll see. It should arrive this week.
The goal of my blog is to add something extra to my new hobby. I plan to get at least 1 NES game per week for the year and write up something about each one. Let's see how this goes. I can only hope I don't get disinterested, but who knows.