RF Generation Message Board

In this Thread i would like you to post your methods of cleaning all those dirty old games, systems, controllers, etc.  you continue to buy at yard sales and flea markets
Let us Know how you make your Stuff shine after being covered for years with grime

Tell us how you clean off:
Permanent Marker
Years of Dirt build up
Old Stickers and tape
Anything That you have had trouble with in the past

(Im Especially having trouble getting old tape off of Boxes and Lables because i dont want to wear any of the lables off- that happened to me with an N64 game)

 

Here are some of my Tricks:

1. I use rubbing alcohol on pretty much anything plastic to get mostly the dirt out
    (don't use Rubbing Alcohol on plastic with any kind of coating on it because it will most likely rub it off)
2. I like to use Q-Tips for those hard to reach places like grooves
3. I like to use Goo-Gone Gel for the sticky stuff on plastic but i noticed that it leaves a oil film so i just wipe it off with rubbing alcohol
4. Step 3 works really well with those annoying video store lables after you pull it off and it leaves that silver crap


*Try at your own risk

Basically, I use rubbing alcohol and a rag for 99% of my stuff. It works perfect on surfaces like plastic but also on most most glossy game labels. But too much on a glossy label or any on a flat label could ruin it. The alcohol will take care of some permanent marker depending on what the surface is, things like the clear plastic on DVD cases will come off easily, but porous plastic like NES carts, it won't get it all off.

Getting stuff of cardboard boxes is tricky and usually impossible. If it's a new sticker, it should just peel off slowly. But residue will be nearly impossible to remove without damaging the box.

If I get a really dirty system that I can take apart easily (NES, 2600, etc) I'll take the electronics out and wash it in the sink with dish soap. Soap and water will make it shine like new.

This is what I do:

Permanent Marker: can't get it off, so I tend to not buy games who are marked :P
Years of Dirt build up: bit of water & soap on a cloth can work miracles and can make smelly games fresh again.
Old stickers and tape: when these are on plastic (cartridges, modern boxes, ...) they are no problem. If they don't come off in one go, white spirit. On the other
                                    hand when they are on labels or old boxes I usually avoid trying to get them off.

Something else I do is I clean the contacts of cartridges with cotton swabs (I know I'm cool 8))

oh I forgot to say I use my goo gone trick to get permanent marker off
(it works really well, it gets about 99.9% of the marker off plastic)

For NES games in general, after I clean them out with Q-tips and alchol (CLEVER!) I usually use a toothpick or needle to clean off any cotton that gets stuck on the contacts. After I do this, the games are like new.

Here's my trick for cleaning dirty game items:

Don't buy dirty games or hardware.

 ;)

It's a lot easier when you skip over anything that's not complete in box because it doesn't have people's various crud and life cheese all over it. :P

Hehe, we're not all that rich to buy only the best offers of every game ;)

And for some of us (me included) the supply in our area just isn't big enough to be picky, otherwise we could end up buying nothing :)

Gotta agree with Sirgin here.  Not enough people around here get rid of video game stuff (or buy them in the first place) so I can't pick and choose.  If I see a game, I'm gonna pick it up.
Most things can be cleaned to tip-top condition, anyway.  I know my TurboGrafx-16 was a very dirty and unsightly mess when I first picked it up, but I've cleaned it so that it looks like new again (except for what appears to be spots on the logo that aren't coming off, but I'm ok with that)

Also, CIB stuff is relatively rare around here.  The only ones I see at all, really, are Genesis clamshells.  I've never seen any CIB NES, SNES, or N64 games, for instance.  If I passed over them, I'd have no NES or SNES games right now and only a few Genesis games.

Ah, that takes all the fun out of it. I love getting dirty, nasty looking stuff and turning it in to something that looks new. At least as long as the crud comes off easily, rental stickers and good permanent marker are never fun though.

All good stuff thus far (especially Tan's  ;) ).

Some more info in the following article:

http://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/art-cleaning.htm

I rarely spend more than $10 on a CIB game, $5 most of the time. You just have to have patience and persistence to be able to pass over games until you find a copy in the condition you want it in. That's from someone who hasn't seen games for many popular systems in the wild in his area since they were still sold in stores. 

Then again I set the same standard for buying games that I use for books, movies, music or anything else. If I have to clean some one else's grime and dirt off something, I sure as hell don't want to be paying good money for that privilege.  :P

You're lucky. CIB games are not available here in my area. There are no garage sales, no thrift shops or any of those type of shops specialised in second hand games. I'm happy when I can get hold of a couple of cartridges at a flea market ;)

From what I've seen here, I starting to get the feeling there really is a big difference in finding second hand games in North America and in Europe. You guys have it much easier :)

When I was in the UK a couple of years ago though, I took a look in a random game shop and was amazed at the offer of older games in there. I still remember seeing a boxed Final Fantasy III for the SNES. This was before I was into collecting though, otherwise I would've bought some games there :P Until this day, I've never seen a games store with that amount of used games here in Belgium.

Pretty much the only way to get CIB games for me is eBay. And that's not that cheap, unless you buy in bulk. €4-5 for a cartridge only game is pretty normal in Belgium, and added to that are the port costs.

I once tried using a Mr.Clean Magic Eraser on a SNES game I bought. It got a lot of the permanet marker off but also stipped some of the original color off the lable. Needless to say I only use it on the plastic parts now.

Well to be fair, I don't have expensive taste in games either. Nothing I play is really rare.

Half of my stuff came from online transactions. Even stuff like Saturn/SegaCD/Jag/Commodore/TG16/Atari etc are pretty much non-existent here, it was the same 5 years ago too. Hell I'm lucky I even found a Dreamcast. :P

On topic, as far as hardware cleaning goes, make canned air your new best friend. Beng able to clean the internals of electronics with minimal physical contact could save you a lot of headaches.

Many people tend to forget that static electricity can build up and you could potentially damage delicate parts. Wouldn't hurt to pick up an anti-static bracelet or anti-static gloves for electronic repair, they only cost a few bucks.

That's true, but I read somewhere it's also safe when you "ground" yourself, for example, holding on to a radiator or something.

A painted radiator may not neccessarily do the trick either. So many variables if your trying to improvise on something like humidity or material. You may even find some items you think are safe are making it worse, or forget that once you touch the doorknob on your way into the room you've gained static once again.

Would you really want to damage an expensive investment by being lazy or too cheap to spend $5 to do it right? Believe me, electronics like PC parts etc. don't ship in anti-static bags for no reason and any reputable repair person will have several proper forms of grounding at their disposal. Game hardware have delicate parts and motherboards too, you should treat them like you would a desktop PC your working on. ;)

another think you can do to get sticky price stickers or tape off of things is to use a hair dryer so that it heats up the sticky stuff on the tag

it makes it much easier to get off

Does anyone have any tips for getting large amounts of sticker off of a disc.
Would the hair dryer or Goo-gone be useful in that case or would they damage the disc? Thanks guys.

im not sure if that would work
i would try it on a crappy disc first to see if i damages it

A hairdryer would definitely warp the disc and make it unusable. Goo-gone sounds the best sort of thing to use. I don't think we have it over here but I've heard it's good.

I think so too. If the disc you're talking about has a full print on it I think it'll be able to take it.

Sometimes I clean disks with alot of fingerprints and stuff with some water and a cloth on the data side...I've never broken a disk by doing that so removing sticker on the label-side should definitely be doable. :)

If you or your wife/girlfriend/roommate whatever has fingernail polish remover, try that. I've used it to remove black permanent marker off of discs even when they have printed topsides that have rough textures. If it's safe enough to put on the tips of your fingers you can put it on plastic. Something in it's chemical makeup makes it work better than standard rubbing alcohol. I imagine it works as well for cartridges and clamshell cases as well.

Thanks for the tips guys!!

I thought I would let you guys know I finally found the courage (and an easily replaceable game) to test the hair dryer to get stickers off of a card board box...... and it worked flawlessly. I used it on three seperate boxes a GBA box with EB games stickers, a PS2 box with EB games stickers and an N64 box that had a rental store sticker on it for at least 5 years. All three boxes look amazing now. Even the N64 one doesnt look like it ever had a sticker on it.

I've got some carts that have stickers over the game label, so i'll let you guys know if I have any luck removing stickers from labels using this method.

PS - Thanks again guys I'm totally pysched!!!

Awesome! I'm glad it worked out. :)

BABY WIPES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have found that baby wipes are an EXCELLENT way to clean dirty NES, SNES, N64 Carts.

There are numerous brands of wipes, you need to find a brand that is soft and thin.

"Parent's Choice" Real cloth wipes "Sensitive"  WORK GREAT

You just need a dry dish towel or paper towell to dry it afterwards.

Haha, awesome tip albeit a bit funny :D

Not funny at all. I have use baby wipes for 4 years now.

I have a newly acquired black Wii with some scuffing/light scratching.  Anyone ever use something like this on one:

http://www.meguiarsdirect.com/detail/MEG+G10307

I have some and was going to see if it helped but haven't yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z7rBxRgrbk

This method seems to work pretty well for Muzz.  Hes a good guy, if you have any questions he'll normally answer them.

Another decent video ruined by crappy music.  I'd rather listen to silence than some of the crap I've heard people use.  I also didn't actually notice that he said which compound he used this time.

I discovered to my delight that this is true for the labels as well. At least with SNES and NES labels, which have a protective coating, you can apply gently (using not very much, either) and with a little patience it removes most of it. Can't really even tell they were marked at a glance.

Hey now!

Be sure to take special care if you're cleaning the surfaces of old consoles with alcohol-based cleaners:

[img width=607 height=385]http://www.mediafire.com/conv/5dba4e2d83c6ff843d3910cff93f53840a7401a831ab717fbb940e1a822c2b036g.jpg[/img]

Be sure to give wide berth to any printed-on logos or graphics, as they might get dissolved by the cleaner, like what happened to the SEGA logo on my Type 2 Genesis shown above.

Thank you for your attention.

Hey now!

Be sure you take the the Genesis model 2 apart by removing the four Phillip Head screws at the bottom. Remember righty tighty, lefty loosy when ya turn the screws.

Simply take the top shell and clean that puppy with soap and water using a non-abrasive sponge. Just use a bristle cleaner to clean the vents, since they get packed with dust. No alcohol needed here. Let it dry before re-assembling.

If ya got the guts like I do you can take a dab of WD-40 and spray it on a lint-free rag, or a paper towel if you wish, just simply wipe that puppy down lightly, you don't need to apply a lot of pressure. It will leave a beautiful shine, like waxing a car. And this shine lasts a very, very long time.

To answer your questions, no it will not feel greasy, it will not cause harm to your system, and the smell be it very light will go away after a day or two. Trust me it makes your system look freaking amazing, almost like new.

[img width=700 height=525]http://i1077.photobucket.com/albums/w462/RazorKnuckles/zag003.jpg[/img]

Thank you for your attention.  ::)

Hey, I used to have a type 2 genesis console just like that one.

It even had the same faded SEGA logo on it and everything.

Small world, huh?

^ Thats weird. Umm really they do look the same. Almost exactly the same...

So are you telling me......Sega produced a variation Genesis with a faded logo?

^ Glad you pointed that out. Gonna have to look into that :laugh:

Um... ya think we should break the news to him? Or should we trust him to figure it out on his own?

What news?! Sega is still making these and I can get one too? This rocks!




Wait a minute.....are you two.......in on this somehow? I know.....hmmmmm.....you....are.....THE SAME PERSON!!!!!

Short, simple and to the point. We traded consoles.

The end.

But do let me know what you think about the Genesis model 1 I'm sending to you. I did the same thing cleaning wise to your model 2 and I want to hear your input about how it looks too you.  

Aw, WEAK, dude! We coulda drawn this out for several more posts, and really left him hangin'!

What kinda sad excuse for a prankster are you, anyhow?


Will do.

'Late

' Late

^ And I just realized this is one of the more serious threads and I was derailing it, something I try not to do. For some reason I thought I was in one of the threads that is more laid back and we can joke about things. You two just bring out the funny I guess.

You know, "Zignatch & Knuckles" has a real ring to it... I smell a Kickstarter.

Yeah, well I'm smelling an infringement lawsuit.

And the last thing I wanna do-- if I can help it-- is line some skeevy shyster's pockets.


Well if you must know, here's how it looks:

[img width=700 height=510]http://www.mediafire.com/conv/5c8ec711d3c21b9e3424ce0f9192ec054f7b2c31d7ade00e7a9db1a398e616bd6g.jpg[/img]

I must say, it looks pretty neat. And the remaining WD-40 odor is actually kinda pleasant.

BTW I tried to get a lens-flare effect-- 'cuz lens-flare makes everything super-awesome-- but to no avail.

On another note: good God, that is one pale forearm. That's predominantly Irish heritage for ya, with a little hillbilly thrown in for good measure.

^ Glad to see you got it. The un-removable scuff really show their shine at that angle.

Hey I'm 1/4 Irish, cheers!

Yeah, well I'm 1/2 Michigander (my dad's side). Big whoop...

I'm 1/2 umm, Kentucky'in. However you put that. May fit in with your hillbilly side you have. I had family in San Diego California so that means... nothing, as far as heritage.  

I have to say that you are a really funny writer 'Norch. Your posts always make me chuckle. That and how I can expect another profile pick every other day.

I love the 'Norch, We have the same weird minds. Who wants too be 'Normal' anyways?

I discovered that packing tape will help lift the sticker goo off of plastic surfaces (carts, jewel cases, dvd style cases) that gets left behind sometimes after removing the paper portion of the stickers.  I just take a piece of packing tape and press it onto the sticky residue, and pull it off quickly/sharply.   Because of the the packing tape being stickier more often than not, it lifts the goo right off the plastic.   Not advisable for anything on labels or cardboard that you wish to remain intact.

Couple of the stores around here use these God awful stickers that seem to be impervious to most common removal methods and I end up having to soak the paper off with alcohol, and then use the packing tape to lift off the sticker goo.  *grumbles*