My teacher's (dreadful) Super Nintendo

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SomeGuyWithASega
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My teacher's (dreadful) Super Nintendo

Post#1 » Sat Feb 17, 2018 8:47 pm

Where do I start? Well, I can say that the title is lying a bit; I'm not in any of this teacher's classes, but I do know him well from the "game days" he holds every Fridays, where he turns the classroom into a game hangout room where people can play either a Wii or an Xbox 360. He has two TVs in the room, one HDTV for his Switch occasionally, and a Sony Trinitron for the Xbox. The Wii is the big attraction to the students there, and gets hooked into the projector to be shown on a grand scale in "crisp" 480i video. When the Switch isn't there, I take over with one of my retro game systems, most recently the NES, and previously the Sega Genesis, Dreamcast and Saturn.

He does have a few other systems, including a PS1 and PS2, but the one I'd like to focus on is the Super Nintendo.

The first glimpse I got at the SNES was when he was pulling out his Switch from one of the cupboards, where he had mistaken the SNES for the Switch and quickly put it back. It didn't look to be in very good shape, but all I could tell was that the plastic had turned yellow. Mustard yellow. I didn't get to take any pictures of it, so I'll try to describe the condition of it later on.

If you didn't know, Nintendo used a special type of plastic to enclose early SNES models that was designed to be flame retardant. This caused a side effect of the plastic turning brittle and obtaining a yellow hue when exposed to any kind of UV light. This happens to most other white consoles as well, like the Japanese Model 2 Saturn and Sega Dreamcast.

This Friday, I didn't feel like hooking up the NES again, so I asked if I could hook up his SNES, which he was very accepting of. Unfortunately, when I got the console, my reaction wasn't far off from this:

Image

It was probably the worst conditioned console I had ever seen in person. Not only was it mustard yellow, but there was dirt and grime in every imaginable spot, crevasse and opening on the console. The controllers were yellow too, and the buttons were also filled with dirt and felt squishy and unresponsive.

But the saddest part was the fact that the video output it used was...RF.
No, I'm just kidding. The actual saddest, but best part, were the games. In this day and age with prices skyrocketing for the most well-known SNES games, he has a pretty stellar collection. Pretty much every first-party heavy hitter was in his collection; Super Mario World, Yoshi's Island, Super Mario All-Stars, DKC 1 & 2, Super Mario Kart, LoZ: A Link to the Past, StarFox, and even $200+ games like Earthbound! So what's the catch?

The games were in horrible condition too. Every single contact point in every cartridge was filled with dust and hair built up from decades of love and dedication, but also decades of mistreatment. Yes, even Earthbound.

Despite these warnings, I got the console hooked up and tried Super Mario World. It worked...kind of. The picture was incredibly grainy, the controller ports didn't work until I blew into them, and the controllers themselves felt and performed terribly. No other game I tried worked, so I put it back in the bag and hooked up my NES again instead and played some Tetris.

As a retro game collector, it makes me very sad that these systems have not been tended to or taken care of in any way, shape or form. I'll have to look out for another SNES to use with these games and possibly my own, or try to fix his if he'll allow me to, because this is just unacceptable.

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HuntrRose
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Re: My teacher's (dreadful) Super Nintendo

Post#2 » Sat Feb 17, 2018 8:55 pm

how do you mistake a snes for a switch?

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SomeGuyWithASega
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Re: My teacher's (dreadful) Super Nintendo

Post#3 » Sat Feb 17, 2018 8:58 pm

HuntrRose wrote:how do you mistake a snes for a switch?


He didn't remember which bag the Switch was in and accidentally grabbed the bag with the SNES in it.

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The-Amazing-Mr_V
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Re: My teacher's (dreadful) Super Nintendo

Post#4 » Sun Feb 18, 2018 5:47 am

I know my snes is very yellow from my childhood sitting by my tv by the window but at least I keep it clean.

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HuntrRose
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Re: My teacher's (dreadful) Super Nintendo

Post#5 » Sun Feb 18, 2018 10:29 am

my snes is not yellowed.. because its hardly ever been out of the box.. lol

not a huge snes fan.. probably my least favorite of all the consoles I own.. Im just not into it...

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SomeGuyWithASega
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Re: My teacher's (dreadful) Super Nintendo

Post#6 » Sun Feb 18, 2018 1:15 pm

@The-Amazing-Mr_V: That's good. It is quite a pain to deyellow it, but it's something that you may have to do in the future to prevent the plastic from falling apart.

@HuntrRose: I like a few games on it (SMW, F-Zero, DKC, etc), but for the most part I like the Genesis more. I also prefer the Genesis' soundchip over the SNES.

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Nz17
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Re: My teacher's (dreadful) Super Nintendo

Post#7 » Sun Feb 18, 2018 4:31 pm

For the yellowing of any console's plastics (or any other plastics for that matter):
  1. First apply Retr0bright gel. [ http://www.retr0bright.com/make.html ]
  2. Apply UV lighting to let the gel carry out its work.
  3. Finish it with an oxygen-proof, UV-resistant plastic coating or two to prevent it from turning yellow again.

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The-Amazing-Mr_V
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Re: My teacher's (dreadful) Super Nintendo

Post#8 » Sun Feb 18, 2018 5:53 pm

SomeGuyWithASega wrote:@The-Amazing-Mr_V: That's good. It is quite a pain to deyellow it, but it's something that you may have to do in the future to prevent the plastic from falling apart.


It has All ready started falling apart. But I was able to by a parts snes with a good shell. Just never swapped cases yet as I don't play it much.

1nick9
Anarki
Posts: 87

Re: My teacher's (dreadful) Super Nintendo

Post#9 » Sun Feb 18, 2018 7:17 pm

heh i was upgrading my snes while ago from superigr to uigr..... snapped one of the ppu pins u have to lift for 50/60hz switching..... was so shattered as it was my console from a kid and first console my parents (mostly my mum) ever let me have....

but i got lucky, it was the pin on the out side not middle. so spent bout 30mins with a hobby knife cutting down the ic till had some meat for the leg. didnt get much as they are fine pins. put abit of double sided tape on top n soldered a 30awg kynar wire in place..... it didnt have much to bond to, any movement n it'd snap the join. so got it settled on double sided tape n joined. gave it quick test making sure not to move it any, worked. then d/c the console n hot glued down on top of that wire at the join to cut down ic.... ,that was 3yrs ago and im still enjoying my childhood snes now with the cool addon of sd2snes......

i could have always used a different snes but was determined to fix the 1st console i'd ever owned. plus in au snes are dear, round 100aud give or take so was another reason wanted to fix it.

AnonymousIdeas
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Posts: 3

Re: My teacher's (dreadful) Super Nintendo

Post#10 » Sun Jul 28, 2019 10:00 pm

my teacher had like 2 n64s set up for smash tournaments, and I thought even them being a bit worn was bad.

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