Got some NES cleaner
That Weiman's stuff really is great. I used a spare Ice Hockey for my guinea pig to see if it indeed was all it was cracked up to be. Well, it's definitely clean on the inside.
Too bad my copy of Air Fortress is still glitchy with further cleaning having been done...
Make sure to wash your hands if you get any stuff on them.
Too bad my copy of Air Fortress is still glitchy with further cleaning having been done...
Make sure to wash your hands if you get any stuff on them.
Comments
I use that cleaning method too, Parpunk. Seems to be the best way.
Weimans is like gold. Go buy some now if you don't have it yet. You won't regret it.
Looks like I started a trend, LOL -- that stuff works miracles. I've had one bottle and it's lasted me over a year now. I've cleaned several thousand games with a single $5 purchase. Not too shabby!
Only cost me $3.87 (sans tax) or so.
While I was at Walmart I got some mailers and the DVD set of Ghostbusters 1 and 2. It was a decent purchase all around!
-Dain
Is this stuff available in Canada? I've looked at a few places but haven't seen it.
Do they have Wal Marts in your town in Canada?
Oh, and Dain: I looked at the receipt again. $3.57! An extra 30 cents savings!
-Dain
~~NGD
~~NGD
With this stuff I wonder if I can just reach up and in and clean the Tengen carts' contacts that way.
despite tons of cleanings. The glitches just come in clearer.
LOL
Sorry to hear that man. Are there scratches on the connectors? What happens when you play with the orientation of the cart within the system? I've found I can get glitches to appear and disappear just by sliding the cart laterally, positioning it at an angle, keeping it partway pulled out. You know, all those date tricks.
Edit: Sivak - This is how I've cleaned every cartridge I've ever played traded or sold. I've never had a problem, never had a complaint. I don't think it's essential to open any game to give it a proper cleaning. Some people like to open it and mess inside, but I find that I not only get a better grip on the game (I have big hands, no innuendo I just do hehe) and although all the gook may not come off on the first application, enough does that it plays on any well-kept NES. It's all in the technique, applying just the right pressure with your q-tip, rotating it as you scrub and using just the right amount of cleaner. I also polish with the clean end of the swab afterwards to get any extra cleaner off and grab the last bits of moisture and dirt.
I picked up a handful of games that looked like they'd lived in a sandbox for the last decade, needless to say cleaning fluid was not up to the task. So I opened up the catridges and brush cleaned the connectors with the Dremel and it worked like magic.
Also, if you're seeing problems based on the lateral position of the cart, make sure you're 72 pin connector is tight. There used to be a nice online guide about opening the control deck and using a tiny screw driver to bend the connectors into a tighter configuration. This as well, works wonders, but you won't have to push games down in the toaster NES anymore, most of the time.
-Nathan
I wrote a lengthy explanation somewhere else in time, but the residual static charge on your cart contacts attracts these particulates slightly. When you're inserting or removing a cartridge you stir the dust up, and so even if you store your games in dust sleeves over time they'll get accumulation. That's why only sucky CIB games don't have it...the good ones got play and even though they were kept well, the "damage" was done when you were screwing around with it.
It sticks because dust is oily; after the charge dissipates the crud adheres, dehydrates and forms a crust. Over time and many plays it builds up, and can scratch/rub off on your NES connectors as well.
It obviously gets worse when you leave them out in the open air, that is why some are so much worse than others, and some only have it bad on one side (duh!).
A patina only really forms when clean copper is exposed to the elements for long periods of time. This could happen over, say, 20 years if a cartridge is kept in a humid environment, if the user continuously blew on it to "get it to work," used water to clean the contacts and let it dry on them rather than using a dry instrument to wipe them off...or so-forth. But the dust crust actually protects the copper from oxidizing otherwise, so cartridges with gook all over them actually clean up very nicely (they look like new).
Weimans is ONLY:
Alcohol
Detergent
and that's about it. The alcohol is the medium to carry the detergent. It gets the gook "wetter" and dilutes the detergent. It's quick-drying which is why you'll notice the crust forms so quickly if you don't get it all off what you're cleaning. Windex uses alcohol to prevent streaking.
Detergent you can read about here at wikipedia where they tell you all about the miracle of surfactants (that's where Surf got its name from).
Anyways it's detergent. You're using soap in solution on your cartridges. It just happens to be a great inexpensive mixture in a convenient bottle, that has alcohol pre-mixed so that no skanky residue is left after you're done cleaning.
That said, some people have allergies to certain detergents...
and rubbing alcohol (isopropyl) is a mild solvent that can damage skin with prolonged exposure. It "defats" cell membranes and they can slough off.
Chances are any sort of sensation you feel if you get some stuff on your skin is a combination of things. The crust drys, contracts and pinches your skin as the alcohol evaporates. This evaporation also causes a loss of heat from your skin. These combine to make you itch. It's natural, your mind subconsciously triggers the itch/scratch reflex because these symptoms imitate a bug bite sensation.
You probably aren't "feeling" defatting. It affects skin cells, not nerve endings.
Weiman's...well, I tried it...still doesn't beat eraser, but it works okay. If you think about it, it's the 80's solution. They had three kinds:
1. Detergent based cleaner
2. Alcohol based cleaner
3. Slight Dust Brushing (Nintendo - you're cleaner was simply ridiculous and quite possibly the worst cleaning system in the world)
It combines the two best cleaning solutions of the 80's into one.
Thanks,
Chris
Is it any good?
Ebay Link
Until now I've used a pcb cleaner that smells sitrus, I even used it to remove som pen marks on the cart without any problems.
Weiman just got the dirtiest game I've ever seen clean. I had a duplicate Super Mario Kart, and holy crap I couldn't even SEE the connectors. It just just a pile of gunk. It took a razor to chisel most of it off, and multiple weiman's applications. Then some eraser, then some rubbing alcohol for the shine. I was forced to scrape the connectors, but I brought it back from the dead!