Cleaning NES games - interesting technique...

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Cleaning NES games - interesting technique...

Post by No Carrier »

Check it out:

http://users.zoominternet.net/~sgazi/cl ... clean.html

Anyone ever try this? I tried it on a couple very dirty games and the results were amazing.

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Post by Celius »

I've never tried that before, but it does sound like it'd work quite well.

I actually fold a standard post-it note in half 4 times one way, pretty much till you can't fold it in half anymore, then I fold it in half 1 time the other way. Do mind you, I don't have the sticky side out. I hold the two ends of the sticky note in one hand, and I place the folded part in between the pins and the plastic, then I swipe the sticky note back and forth really fast. The sticky note comes out FILTHY! So it gets a lot off, I guess. Does that make any sense? It's kind of hard to explain without showing you.
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Post by No Carrier »

Yeah, it makes sense. You should invest in some of those NES sized bits - they are worth it. Once you open the cart you can clean it a lot easier. I've heard of people using erasers as well. However, the above method that I mentioned has yielded the best results.

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Post by Celius »

I wouldn't be surprised if it did, beings as it's like a metal cleaner. But I don't like dealing with that stuff sometimes, and I don't exactly have too much access to that in such a small town as the one I live in. And I have sticky notes everywhere, so I just use those. I'd like to try that method sometime. I've actually heard of that before. But do you think that it should be used with all NES games in a collection?

EDIT: Yeah, also, I do have a 3.8mm gamebit. It was so hard to find one for some reason. I had to get it from an online store in hong kong. Just like the honey bee adapter, I can't find one anywhere.
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Post by No Carrier »

Celius wrote:I wouldn't be surprised if it did, beings as it's like a metal cleaner. But I don't like dealing with that stuff sometimes, and I don't exactly have too much access to that in such a small town as the one I live in. And I have sticky notes everywhere, so I just use those. I'd like to try that method sometime. I've actually heard of that before. But do you think that it should be used with all NES games in a collection?
I just cleaned some more games tonight. I don't notice any of the color fading on the connectors, and the games work just fine. I think it's best to wait until it dries, then polish it off again to get it all off. It is scary - the cloth I used to clean them comes out black. The only place I've seen this stuff for sale is WalMart - and I'd imagine they have one somewhere near you!

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Post by Quietust »

Actually, that sort of metal polish is BAD for NES cartridges, since it will completely destroy the gold plating on the cart edge and make it more susceptible to corrosion. It may look nice and shiny right after you clean it, but you'll find that you need to clean it a LOT more often than you needed to previously.
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Post by No Carrier »

Quietust wrote:Actually, that sort of metal polish is BAD for NES cartridges, since it will completely destroy the gold plating on the cart edge and make it more susceptible to corrosion. It may look nice and shiny right after you clean it, but you'll find that you need to clean it a LOT more often than you needed to previously.
Well I'm glad I know that now.. before I ran through most of my collection. I was hoping someone with some more experience would chime in. Is there any safe types of polish that will work well? Before this I always used alcohol, water and Q-tips - and I guess I might go back to that!

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Post by Celius »

I can't use q-tips and alchohol, it doesn't get any dirt off. My sticky note method actually gets quite a bit off, because it's a good size, and it is pressing hard against the pins, so as it goes by, it picks up alot of dirt. I'll take a pic of a dirty sticky note sometime. That sounds really funny, but I want to show you all how much dirt it gets off. I tried rubbing alchohol and q-tips, and it just got tiny strands of cotton stuck under the pins. That was bad. Didn't get like any dirt off.
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Post by Hamburglar »

I'll stick with the old q-tip cleaning method. Which works pretty damn good, besides the other way seems like to much of a pain in the ass. And I really don't think aluminum polish would be that good for a game.
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Post by Bregalad »

I have some silver polish at home. Would it work ? Silver is close to gold, and it may most probably not destroy the gold plating.
I have a special connector-cleaner bomb and it work pretty fine.
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Post by Memblers »

They make contact cleaner for gold plating (I'm not sure exactly if it's a lubricant, cleaner, or both). I would've got some, but it's like $30 or so for a can of it. I guess that wouldn't be too bad if it would last a long time. I forgot what it's called now though.
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Post by dXtr »

I usually - when I've just bought a new nes game - take some of ear cleaning things like this:
http://www.hotelamenity.com/english/img ... m/o/28.jpg

and drown them in some of that alcohol (or what ever it is) that you get with cleaning-kits for vhs tapes. and rub the ear cleaning thingy against the contact until they are clean. I don't know if this is any dangerous for the contacts (I hope not =/ ), but it makes the cart clean :)
Sorry for misspellings, I'm from Sweden ^^
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Post by Quietust »

dXtr wrote:I usually - when I've just bought a new nes game - take some of ear cleaning things like this:
http://www.hotelamenity.com/english/img ... m/o/28.jpg

and drown them in some of that alcohol (or what ever it is) that you get with cleaning-kits for vhs tapes. and rub the ear cleaning thingy against the contact until they are clean.
That's pretty much the "proper" way of cleaning cartridges - cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol. The problem is that some metal polishes can be abrasive and strip the (incredibly thin) gold plating off of the cart edge, making it far more susceptible to corrosion.
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Post by Bregalad »

Yeah, copper looks as shiny than gold when non-corrosed nor oxyded, but copper is much weak against corrosion.
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