Creative Uses for Obsolete EA Sports Titles?

[tubeway]

Old EA Sports games. You know what I'm talking about. They clutter up ebay and thrift stores when you're searching for games, and they NEVER seem to go away. They just sit there for months, or sensuously work their way into used game lots that you buy, and then you're forced to take on the responsibility of shuffling them to yet another home. I can't get away from them. They're everywhere, and they're only getting stronger in numbers. We have to do something and quick, or they're going to take over!

That said, what can we do to get rid of these things? I already reuse what packaging I can (Genesis and PS2 boxes, SNES cardboard inserts, etc), but what the hell do we do with all the actual games? Are there any homebrew folks that can reuse the plastic casings for the cartridges? What about the circuit boards? I suppose the disc-based titles have some really tiny market value, but it's only a matter of time before they're worthless as well. I can only hope that one day we have EA Sports recycling bins next to our bottle and can bins to deal with this. Maybe EA sports titles will have Cash Redemption Value, and you'll see homeless people going through dumpsters, looking for EA games to recycle. Sigh.

[DigitalSpace]

We have to do something and quick, or they're going to take over!

After reading that, this came to mind:

1) Get a bunch of EA Genesis carts
2) Arrange them to look like Space Invaders aliens
3) Take photos and post them on the internet

(I'm sure the yellow tabs and cart labels will make it look a little odd, but hey, it's an idea.)

[Gameguy]

I guess you could make repros of It Came From the Desert, it was supposed to be released from EA before it got scrapped.

There are people who want sports games though, no need to trash the carts.

[The 1 2 P]

We have to do something and quick, or they're going to take over!

Take all the EA sports games you get and start building a bridge to nowhere.

[Icarus Moonsight]

Clay pigeons? PULL!
Paper weights? Meh...
Street hockey puck? Game on!
My personal favorite, impromptu ninja stars!

[otoko]

My personal favorite, impromptu ninja stars!

http://www.madeofwin.com/mow_ntro.jpg

Edit: I guess I should make a suggestion...

I KNOW!

You could fasten them together and make yourself a wall cover.

[G-Boobie]

I'd use them as filler in my garbage can personally.

[Icarus Moonsight]

I have one more... You know the classic 'house of cards'? Well, how about a house of carts? See if your design/building technique can enable your structure to triumph over it's own tremendous weight of sucktitude. Remember, the triangle is natures strongest simple structure... and your stuck working with shitty squares that can't even stack up much with any amount of stability. Surely a challenge worth undertaking. Best part is, even with purchasing your 'blocks' individually, it's still cheaper than LEGOS! :D

Master a design then take the build outdoors where you'll have access to wonderful demolition methods such as Godzilla Attack! (while fun, at first, you'll soon realize you look like a special ed student off his meds and throwing a fit), GI Joe suicide bomber (requires M-80 firework, a bit of tape and an action figure... bonus points for using a girls doll, while she watches, crying...), simulated napalm and flame throwers (gel fuel or diesel and laundry detergent, can of Aqua Net and a Bic), or even a micro-scale nuclear blast (half stick of TNT). Yeah, I just want to play with fire and blow something up! LOL

[walrusmonger]

Get an old sweatshirt/sweatpants and hot glue all of the carts to them so you can make a suit of earmor, then have local kids shoot you with bbs or throw rocks at you. You can even glue them to a helment and paint the two over your eyes red so you can pretend to be a robot from terminator (you can also spray paint the carts silver if you want to get the full effect).

[sidnotcrazy]

Great Thread

I would say save them for homebrews, if that is an option. I know I have several myself. Does Shaq Fu count? If so I got several copies. One day someoene will slap me for keeping them, but in my heart I know that Shaq would want me to keep them. lol

[SnowKitty]

i gutted a copy of madden 93 for snes so i could use the lockout chip in my tototek flashcart

[GnawRadar]

Start using them randomly around your house. Use the discs as coasters, the carts as paperweights, or to level a wobbly chair. Depending on how many you have you can start to make a piece of furniture similar to the famicom-cart throne at Super Potato in Japan, but you could start on your very own crappy sports game toilet!

[kaedesdisciple]

1. string a bunch of discs together
2. attach them with a belt buckle
3. slap some designer-sounding name on them
???
Profit!

[krooper13]

How about the Indiana Jones idea; bury them and it a thousand years they might be worth something, I wish I could be around for the great E.T archeological dig, they could be the Terracotta army of our time!

[mailman187666]

there are plenty of uses for them. Some more silly than others, but if you really want to use them for something.

1. Obviously repro/homebrews
2. help insulate your garage/attic
3. If you have a newer gen console that sits on a carpet, use them to prop them up from the carpet so it has better air flow.
4. gut them for the empty cases/inserts
5. give them away to little neighborhood kids if they have old systems for some reason laying around. They probably wouldn't care/know about value or it being obsolete.
6. play a prank on a freind on a present giving holiday with a stack of old carts/cds of the games.
7. paintball guns, bb guns, pellet guns, real guns target practice (I've used other weird things for paintball and bb guns).
8. use them to weigh down your truck/car in the snowy weather
9. dowse the contacts with rubbing alcohol to clean the system its meant for by inserting and removing the cart while it has the alcohol on it.
10. build a damn dog house.

[bangtango]

Just use them to "pad" a Genesis or SNES lot like everyone else on Ebay.

A Genesis being sold with 35 EA or Sega Sports games can still be listed on Ebay with a header of "Genesis lot with 35 games", regardless of how little the individual games might be worth. If the buyer isn't smart enough to look over the list of games closely and consider how much value they really add to the lot, then that is their problem.

[sidnotcrazy]

Depending on how many you have you can start to make a piece of furniture similar to the famicom-cart throne at Super Potato in Japan,

That is so cool. Do you have a pic of this chair? I have heard of the Super Potato, and man ever new detail I hear they just become more and more awesome!

[Fuyukaze]

Dominos is always fun. Just line up a couple thousand of em and knock em down. Or you could paint the non labeled parts of the cart sign some name on them and number them how ever many you want and call em a limited edition release. That should get collectors interests for it.

[swlovinist]

Make a custom shelving unit to hold all worthy Sega Genesis games.

Use a deck of cards to glue one card per cart and then play "EA Sports Holdem"

I would personally use them to make repro unreleased EA games that were not sports.

[GnawRadar]

That is so cool. Do you have a pic of this chair? I have heard of the Super Potato, and man ever new detail I hear they just become more and more awesome!

This isn't me but this a picture of the throne:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2102/2483123208_4e6b954107.jpg?v=0

[Kitsune Sniper]

Great Thread

I would say save them for homebrews, if that is an option. I know I have several myself. Does Shaq Fu count? If so I got several copies. One day someoene will slap me for keeping them, but in my heart I know that Shaq would want me to keep them. lol

You know, some people complain that people sacrifice good games in order to make repro carts.

I'm sure these same people won't mind if one of the gazillion copies of Madden gets recycled this way. :)

[Bratwurst]

Homebrewin' isn't really an option unless you want the carts to look like ass with the yellow tab on the side with 'EA' molded on it. I stay away from them. The circuit boards inside tend to be non-standard too.

[jb143]

Lots of good ideas so far. As much as I hate to see games get destroyed, in this case I make an exception. Obviously repros and homebrew games. Door stops and propping windows open also comes to mind. Use the boards for soldering practice. You can use the cases for electronics projects.

Also for the boards...something like this comes to mind.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2376/2450886540_53694f09bc.jpg?v=0

[Gameguy]

Homebrewin' isn't really an option unless you want the carts to look like ass with the yellow tab on the side with 'EA' molded on it. I stay away from them. The circuit boards inside tend to be non-standard too.
That's kind of the point with It Came From the Desert, it was supposed to be released by EA so I'd want it to look correct, an EA game in an EA case. Though I suppose the circuit boards could be a problem for homebrew, since they're non-standard.

[sidnotcrazy]

This isn't me but this a picture of the throne:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2102/2483123208_4e6b954107.jpg?v=0

Thanks GnawRadar. Its more beautiful than I can possible imagine. I usually don't go for wrecking cartridges, but man that is full of awesomeness, and makes my nerdy heart skip a beat.

[Tupin]

I personally would use them for soldering practice, is there even a way to get it open without breaking the tab?

Oh, and make a Super Potato chair out of them when you get enough.

[Steve W]

I wonder how many of those Famicom carts are pirates...

I was thinking the same thing, build a piece of furniture out of them to go in your Room of Doom. Or sell the piece on eBay and let someone else have fun with it.

[The 1 2 P]

You could also start a huge treasure chest hunt on the internet where the contestants would actually have to get off their ass, get in their car and drive to specific locations to locate clues. Little does the winner know that the final X that marks the spot on the map leads to a treasure trove chest of sunken booty.....873 Madden 1995-2007 carts and cds. And to make it worse, they would be located in the dumpster area of MacDonalds. To make the whole thing look professional, there would be a message on the box that says: "A winner is you!!!"

[ryborg]

This might sound crazy but I still play mine.

[Bratwurst]

That's kind of the point with It Came From the Desert, it was supposed to be released by EA so I'd want it to look correct, an EA game in an EA case. Though I suppose the circuit boards could be a problem for homebrew, since they're non-standard.

I didn't think of that, makes sense.

When I say non-standard I meant that EA produced their own cartridges and sometimes the board layout is different than what Sega manufactured. At some point Acclaim was doing it too, more trouble than they're worth to get an eprom to load on them.

[fairyland]

You can sell them to the guy at the flea market that has piles and piles of last gen sports for $15.00 a pop. He must know something that we don't as he always has an impressive selection of several hundred in stock every week for the past 10 or so years. ;)

Seriously though, I personally would love to own one each of the baseball games bought at around $1.00 or $2.00 each, but I am never that lucky. (PM me anyone who has last gen baseball ones to ditch on me cheap). I can get football, basketball and even hockey ones that cheap at garage sales but never baseball, which is sad, as I love baseball but not the other sports at all.

I wonder what the UK members here see over there? Millions of British League Soccer ones no doubt. We can start a cultural exchange program and ship off our crap US football ones for their crap UK football (soccer) ones. Then we can insult one another about what real "football" is all about.

[Tupin]

You can sell them to the guy at the flea market that has piles and piles of last gen sports for $15.00 a pop. He must know something that we don't as he always has an impressive selection of several hundred in stock every week for the past 10 or so years. ;)

Seriously though, I personally would love to own one each of the baseball games bought at around $1.00 or $2.00 each, but I am never that lucky. (PM me anyone who has last gen baseball ones to ditch on me cheap). I can get football, basketball and even hockey ones that cheap at garage sales but never baseball, which is sad, as I love baseball but not the other sports at all.

I wonder what the UK members here see over there? Millions of British League Soccer ones no doubt. We can start a cultural exchange program and ship off our crap US football ones for their crap UK football (soccer) ones. Then we can insult one another about what real "football" is all about.
Very interesting idea. Any Brits want Joe Montana Football or several copies of Madden '94 for a Sensible Soccer? LOL

Too bad about the format differences, though.

[Sabz5150]

How do you get these carts open? More specifically, how do you get those funky screws out without tearing up the cartridge?

[Chainclaw]

You ever see Ducktales? Instead of a swimming pool full of gold coins, swimming pool full of Madden carts.

[MASTERWEEDO]

How do you get these carts open? More specifically, how do you get those funky screws out without tearing up the cartridge?


They make gamebitsfor the security screws, check around they're all over.

[Sabz5150]

They make gamebitsfor the security screws, check around they're all over.

Games made by EA are different. I've never found the bit to open them.

[Bratwurst]

Games made by EA are different. I've never found the bit to open them.

If they're the star shaped heads with a post in the center you need a security torx #10, most tamper proof bit sets have them.

[StakeRaiser]

Take them all to the Digital Press store

I'm sure Joe will give you .01 for each one

UNDERWEAR + ???????? = PROFITZ OMG!!!!!