gulag picture radio Posted April 17, 2003 Share Posted April 17, 2003 I don't mean showroom new, I mean unusually dingy or disgusting. When I find consoles they are usually quite dusty, the dust bunnies that populated the innards scared off long ago by dust rhinos. No big deal. What I'm talking about is when you find a console that's so disgusting that you almost leave it behind, wondering who the hell had the brass to put a pricetag on something that is obviously a goner. Commonly I find consoles (and Casio keyboards) covered in a mystery brown goo. I figure that it's finger gunk combined with Coke spills. The worst ever was when I found a ColecoVision with a car's tire tread marks all over it. I had to buy it to see if it worked, and it fired up first time. Most all of the consoles that I've bought in rough shape have worked fine (except old style NES which stop working the minute someone somewhere in the world opens a door - damn they're finicky!). In thr future I don't think that it will be so easy to rescue Playstations and GameCubes and whatnot due to their sensitive moving parts. I'd be curious to hear if any of you have bought consoles in downright comical shape. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sku_u Posted April 17, 2003 Share Posted April 17, 2003 I once cleaned an old beehive out of a console Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krytol Posted April 17, 2003 Share Posted April 17, 2003 I found an Atari jr. with the aforementioned goo, many scrapes, and a foot-sized dent in the middle. Also, the tabs that push the dust covers on the Atari carts were snapped off. I bought it. It worked. O/T: I'm currently restoring a Sequential Circuits Prelude that I found at a garage sale that had scrapes, dents, rust, and a key snapped off! It works except for 2 dead keys. I opened it and found what looked like pounds of dust, dirt and bugs. But the price was right - five bucks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MGSnake15 Posted April 17, 2003 Share Posted April 17, 2003 I bought some drum hardware off ebay and it was the nastiest stuff i've ever seen... I dont even want to know what the seller did to it before i got it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krytol Posted April 17, 2003 Share Posted April 17, 2003 I wish I'd saved this one Street Racer cart I found that had been extensively chewed by a dog - just so I could take a picture! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buck Posted April 17, 2003 Share Posted April 17, 2003 Ahh yes.... Interesting topic. I have recoverd a ColecoVision in a form of Disarray. (<---Hmmm Cool name for a band..) I found it at a Disabled American Vets Thrift store. By looking it at, I'd say that it spent it's life in a mechanics shop or garage. It smelled really oily and was mighty grimey. And no, I don't have a console sniffing fetish. But the worst condition was the Atari that was still a part of our family. The first Atari I ever played! My uncle had an Atari that we kept out at our lake cabin. As the years went by, it was forgotten. When I got back into Atari, I set out on the search... I discovered it in the tin storage shed shed with the doors rusted off. It was in the bottom of an old cabinet drawer that mice had made their home in. The smell was horrible! There was shredded EVERYTHING all over it! Not to mention the layers of droppings and, I assume, dried mouse urine. Next to it was Space Invaders and ET. I was able to salvage Space Invaders, but ET was beyond salvation. To make a long story less long, I opened the console, cleaned it out and used a big can of pledge and other cleaners to get it respectable. And it still works!!! Umm... anybody wanna buy an Atari? Ha-Ha-Ha! Sorry This is my first and you never forget your first! Bye Buck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Witchfynde Posted April 17, 2003 Share Posted April 17, 2003 Ahh yes.... Interesting topic. I have recoverd a ColecoVision in a form of Disarray. (<---Hmmm Cool name for a band..) Disarray IS a band! Don't have any weird console stories though, sorry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buck Posted April 17, 2003 Share Posted April 17, 2003 Ahh yes.... Interesting topic. I have recoverd a ColecoVision in a form of Disarray. (<---Hmmm Cool name for a band..) Disarray IS a band! Don't have any weird console stories though, sorry. see? I was right! Now I have to find out what they play! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gulag picture radio Posted April 17, 2003 Author Share Posted April 17, 2003 I once found a big silver Casio keyboard at a thrift. there was no where to test it, but it had full sized keys so I really wanted it. There was no price and when I got to the register the lady said $45. I puffed a big cloud of dust off it and tilted it to one side so whe could hear all the rattling inside and looked at her. "How about $10?" she asked. "How about $2.50" was my answer. It worked. I got it home and all that ratlling was caused by a nickel and a lego piece inside. So in theory, the keyboard cost $2.45 minus whatever a single Lego piece goes for. Actually I put a lot of work into fixing it up, and it is one of my favorite keyboards. There is jus so much about it that's wrong that I love it. I also have a video of Vince Clark from Erasure using it onstage - can't go wrong there. And... er... (how do I get back on topic?) um... I bought a C64 the same day that smelled bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krytol Posted April 18, 2003 Share Posted April 18, 2003 but ET was beyond salvation. sniff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buck Posted April 18, 2003 Share Posted April 18, 2003 but ET was beyond salvation. sniff But not for lack of trying!! When the sliding piece that protects the PCB is stuck because of mouse "refuse" its time to quit! Yeeesch!! Buck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian R. Posted April 18, 2003 Share Posted April 18, 2003 Almost all of my Atari consoles had something odd about 'em when I found 'em. First 2600 - had been kept in a run down shed for how knows how long. A six toggle. Full of dirt, dead bugs, all sorts of crud. Cleaned it up and it worked like brand new. 7800 - found it with a pebble wedged in the cartridge port. Popped it out and it worked fine. 5200 - At a run down flea market, at the bottom of a stack of boxes under a record player. Cleaned up beautifully. It now has a place of honor on my coffee table, protected with a dust cover when not in use. Went from trash to treasure. XEGS - Found at an outdoor flea market. Pretty dirty. Wasn't sure how much would actually come off. Got it home, and all the grime washed away. Looks like new. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariDude Posted April 18, 2003 Share Posted April 18, 2003 Actually it seems just about all the games systems that I find at flea markets and thrift stores are like that. I usually don't even consider buying them because I worry that I will take it home and find out that it does not work. Nice to know that some systems can take a beating and still work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Witchfynde Posted April 18, 2003 Share Posted April 18, 2003 Ahh yes.... Interesting topic. I have recoverd a ColecoVision in a form of Disarray. (<---Hmmm Cool name for a band..) Disarray IS a band! Don't have any weird console stories though, sorry. see? I was right! Now I have to find out what they play! Heavy metal! They're from Tennessee or Kentucky or somewheres, and after a lot of people started saying "Skynyrd!" to them, they did a heavy metal cover of "Free Bird". Anyway, the closest I can come to a console story is when the very first Funcoland opened here in Houston, and one of the guys there said they had horror stories about working at a Blockbuster before Funco, where they would find Cheetos and stuff ground into cartridges. (shudders) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starcade Posted April 18, 2003 Share Posted April 18, 2003 Yes actualy, I found a N64 in (pardon my french), shitty ass condition, it had yellow pait on it!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MegaManFan Posted April 18, 2003 Share Posted April 18, 2003 I bought a Nova Blast for Intellivision just this week with the brown goo, and haven't got around to cleaning and testing it yet. I figured hey what the hell, it was only 25 cents! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The MilkMan Posted April 18, 2003 Share Posted April 18, 2003 what about carts? I'll let the pic tell the story... btw, the console I purchased (which this cart was part of) was equally nasty. Even the joysticks and weird dead bugs in them. The whole lot smelt of urine. I know, more than you needed to know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ussexplorer Posted April 18, 2003 Share Posted April 18, 2003 I purchased a colleco vision that was dirt covered, dust bunnies. Probably in somebodies garage. So I decided to test the unit before cleaning. Unit worked just fine. Then I cleaned the unit and killed it. Best looking shiney case for a dead console. Also pulled a Sega Genesis 2nd release out of a trash bin with controller for parts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candiru Posted April 18, 2003 Share Posted April 18, 2003 Last weekend at a flea market I passed on a $20 NES that had a cracked case, 10 years worth of dust, and a sticker on it that said "works good." Yeah, I bet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svenski Posted April 18, 2003 Share Posted April 18, 2003 Worst condition stuff I've seen so far was 2 Atari 65XE's I bought as part of a bundle, cheap on ebay. The seller said, and I quote "a bit grubby but fully working". Luckily the bundle had some gems in it so I wasn't too bothered if one or 2 items were faulty. The first 65XE worked but had been the victim of passive chain-smoking or something, either that or it was radioactive. I swear it almost glowed when I turned off the lights. It had lots of dust and general muck on it but cleaned up ok apart from the yellowing. I call this 65 XE Marvin. The second was filthy. It was covered in bits of someone's dinner, muck, crayon, bogeys, dust etc. The keyboard looked like someone had sat on it. I call this 65 XE Frank. Frank fired up ok, the keyboard was a mess but at least he was worth cleaning up. Put it this way, there was that much crap all over the case (must have been there for years) that when it was cleaned it was like new, no sign of ageing or yellowing whatsoever. Inside, the shielding was covered in grease (don't ask me how it got in there) but that cleaned up ok. Because Frank now looked almost like new, he ended up with Marvin's keyboard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bcostin Posted April 18, 2003 Share Posted April 18, 2003 I found a ColecoVision at a yard sale that was covered in dust, grime, and some kind of spilled adhesive. It was in a big, ragged cardboard box buried under a tangle of speaker wire and other junk. I bought the whole box for $5. When I got it home I found that box also contained the steering wheel controller, the VCS adapter, a few cartriges and manuals, and a set of Wico bat-handle joysticks. Once I got it all cleaned up it worked great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A2600 Posted April 18, 2003 Share Posted April 18, 2003 well my 5200 was missing the flip lif almost gone silver tab but with a bit of eginuity it was goot to go just need damn new controllers and a switchbox (it was a trade) the guy said it was mint and good never heard of him again!1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian R. Posted April 18, 2003 Share Posted April 18, 2003 That XE Game System I found at that outdoor flea market looked really bad. I had never heard of it before - I was hoping to find a 5200 there, not an XEGS. I wasn't sure if it would work, but I took a chance and it really paid off. The worst cart I ever came across was covered inside and out with mold. It was nasty. I cleaned it heavily, and it worked just fine. I think it turned out to be Activision Tennis. I had to make my own label for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariDude Posted April 18, 2003 Share Posted April 18, 2003 Well you have got to give credit to these early companies. They built their systems like tanks to be able to work after such abuse. I don't the current set of consoles would survive such treatment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buck Posted April 18, 2003 Share Posted April 18, 2003 Well you have got to give credit to these early companies. They built their systems like tanks to be able to work after such abuse. I don't the current set of consoles would survive such treatment. I don't see how most of them could - being disc based vs. cart based. The little optical laser thingy(highly technical term) would not be able to take hardly any abuse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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