My old NES

[Moo Cow]

It broke a long while ago, and about two or three months ago I decided to take it apart and found a spider and web inside of it.
It was kinda interesting.
I told the guy who worked at the flea market and sold video games the story, and he said he used to have a television that would occasionally stop working and make a strange sound. He called in a guy to look at it, and they found some bug inside of it (I'm just guessing it's a june bug because my Uncle Ronny told me how he used to electricute them).
Just thought I'd share this story.
Anyone else have anything like it?

[Sothy]

Worked at a video game store for many moons.

Saw systems FULL of cockroach shells and cockroach feces lotsa times.

Had a n64 with an ant nest in the power supply slot.

Once found a roach "the marijuana kind" In a cartridge slot too if that counts.

[Moo Cow]

Had a n64 with an ant nest in the power supply slot.
Holy shit! Finding the weed inside of it sounded cool, but an ant nest in the power supply slot?
Any clue how that works?

[smork]

Yeah, I used to get all sorts of fucked up computers when i worked at Best Buy. Lots of roach farms... Had one woman who brought in her pc with a bad floppy drive -- I took one look at it and saw pen parts sticking out of it. She, unsurprisingly, told me she had small children.

Sorta the opposite of this, but also when i worked at Best Buy we had a problem with people busting open our pc cases when we weren't looking and stealing the CPUs. Not the motherboards -- just the CPU. Nobody ever caught -- I'm convinced it was an inside job. It happened all the time!

Several years ago in my current job I had to work with some magnetic tapes that had spent a few weeks buried under mud from a river during a monsoon. Probably recovered 50% of the data off them, which is a minor miracle. mud+magnetic tapes = bad shit.

[Moo Cow]

hmmm...a few days ago I DID see a roach near the computer...

SIDENOTE: we're a clean house, we only see a roach about once a year.

[smork]

Yeah, but they like warm places -- so if you got any at all, it's a good chance they could be in the electronics.

Reminds me -- I was at a shop this weekend that had a boxed Game Gear. I asked to see it, and when they opened the box there were 3 dead roaches and a whole ton of roach shit in it. They didn't even blink or say anything -- and they wanted $50 for it. I said "No-o-o-o-oooo...."

[Moo Cow]

Reminds me -- I was at a shop this weekend that had a boxed Game Gear. I asked to see it, and when they opened the box there were 3 dead roaches and a whole ton of roach shit in it. They didn't even blink or say anything -- and they wanted $50 for it. I said "No-o-o-o-oooo...."

Oh come on, that's a great deal! Three dead roaches and a ton of shit for only fifty bucks? So what if there's a gamegear on it, you can throw that away.

[Steven]

this is a disturbing topic O_O

Now you see why I keep all game systems OUT of my room. ;)

I can see a sick Twilight Zone episode about a video game freak and his 20-something systems in his room one dark stormy night...

well, sweet dreams now...

[Pantechnicon]

Got a hold of this nasty old Colecovision once. The controllers - controllers, mind you - were full of dead ants.

I get a lot of buggage in my Room of Doom during the warm months, since it's adjacent to the garage. And on more than one occasion I've had to pluck a dead non-cannabis roach out of the cart slots of some of the systems sitting on lower shelves.

I also had a mouse try to set up house in my MAME cab. He didn't last long. One night, knowing he was in the cab, I stayed up with my pellet gun and waited for him to come out. That wasn't pretty...:2gunfire:. Fortunately but for a couple of turds there was no damage inside the machine.

[Jehuty]

Once when I bought a pile of boxed master system games at a market and took them home. I opened them up to clean the pins and one of the carts had a nest a freakin Redbacks, which two got on my hand and scared the crap out of me, thankfully I got them off quick smart without getting bitten and squashed them.

Check wikipedia about the redback, it's kinda like the black widow.

[Ed Oscuro]

Keep your shit off the floor.

Oh, I actually have a Genesis 2...or a couple...sitting on the floor of my basement, but I always raise it up before turning it on. All my computers are lifted off the floor, too.

[EricRyan34]

yuck, nice topic however

[blue lander]

I once found an Atari 5200 with a bunch of grass clippings and a dead cricket inside it. I assume it spent some time outside or in a garage.

[DeputyMoniker]

I've never had this problem but I have to tell you it wont leave my mind any time soon. I'm extremely afraid of spiders. Once when I was a kid I got into the bathtub and looked up at the ceiling. I saw a big spider up there. Since then I have never gotten into a shower without first checking the cealing. I repair PCs for a living & sometimes I get a PC from the ghetto, it'll be all nasty & dirty and I'm afraid I'll now have to inspect it for spider webs before I open it up.
Completely unrelated: I'm building a file server for a business pretty soon. The place is in the middle of nowhere & its an old building. To run the cables I'll have to lift the floorboards and crawl around down there. I'm afraid I'll see a spider down there so I'm trying to come up with an excuse for why I cant run the cables under the floor, or why it's better to run them over head. Just the thought of a spider getting on me is enough to make me sweat. I dont want them hearing me under the floor crying.

[DeuZZ]

Hey DeputyMoniker, it often helps to confront your fears. I was really afraid of snails when I was younger. Then one day I thought "Hey, they are just small snails" and I stomped one with my foot and I was like "Terminated" :P

After that I had no fear of snails anymore.

Maybe you can start small with a plastic toy spider?

[DKTheArcadeRat]

I've never had this problem but I have to tell you it wont leave my mind any time soon. I'm extremely afraid of spiders. Once when I was a kid I got into the bathtub and looked up at the ceiling. I saw a big spider up there. Since then I have never gotten into a shower without first checking the cealing. I repair PCs for a living & sometimes I get a PC from the ghetto, it'll be all nasty & dirty and I'm afraid I'll now have to inspect it for spider webs before I open it up.
Completely unrelated: I'm building a file server for a business pretty soon. The place is in the middle of nowhere & its an old building. To run the cables I'll have to lift the floorboards and crawl around down there. I'm afraid I'll see a spider down there so I'm trying to come up with an excuse for why I cant run the cables under the floor, or why it's better to run them over head. Just the thought of a spider getting on me is enough to make me sweat. I dont want them hearing me under the floor crying.

It won't help conquer your fears but couldn't you hire someone to do the work for you?

[MichaeltheGreat]

This post over at nesdev is my favorite thing in a nes:

http://nesdev.parodius.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=1211

[Push Upstairs]

Just reminds me of the time i bought that Gamecube *INFESTED* with roaches. There was like 3-4 different species of insects living in that thing.


Sadly the Gamecube passed on, but i think it took the bugs with it.

[DeputyMoniker]

Blah blah blah

It won't help conquer your fears but couldn't you hire someone to do the work for you?

Yeah but I wouldn't know where to find someone & I need the money too. I already pitched the wireless idea but they weren't interested. :P


Hey DeputyMoniker, it often helps to confront your fears. (...) Maybe you can start small with a plastic toy spider?

Negative. I ain't confrontin' nuthin'.
What eats spiders? Do cats? I'm alergic to cats but I could take some medication for that. I could travel with an army of cats.
Speaking of medication, maybe I could take a Xanax before I go. I have a couple pre-Navy buddies who are still alive...maybe one of them could find one for me. LOL

[GetImOliver]

This has to be one of the best topics ever XD

[-SuperYoshi-]

This thread is really starting to scare the hell out of me. I have a LARGE phobia of any kind of insect.

[Slate]

Once i got a broken gamegear, opened it up and there was a small dead spider in it by one of the buttons.

Another time i bought several boxes of games without first looking to see what type of condition they were in, mostly bad conditioned ones with green oxidized contacts. :puke:

One of the games didn't work (Actually almost none of them worked but i got them all to work except for this one) And i opened it up, dead bugs in it and the thing was rusted inside.

Thank god i get most of my stuff from goodwills, after it has been through the goodwill donation processing place.

[Truffle]

My vectrex had a spiders web in the cart slot! :D
It was just daddy-long-leg webs though, and the spider was long gone.
I let those guys live in my house though, since they cant bite through human skin, but kill black widows!

Ive also found a jumping spider in an NES cart(i think)once.
Not to mention the endless loads of cockroache corpses... :/ Nasty bastards.

:D Heres an idea! Open up your stuff and REALLY clean it.
Even clean looking consoles hide some foul little secrets...

eew.

[Moo Cow]

I never knew cockroaches were so common in games and such...and inside of computers...it makes me kind of paranoid looking at my computer...heh, sorta reminds me of Creepshow, with the guy who killed all the roaches, and in the end they busted out of him... :eek 2:

[Amy Rose]

My Dreamcast smelt a little, so I asked my ex to open it and clean it for me some time last year. I was a little apprehensive about touching it myself, since I found it in a box on the side of a road when I was out walking.

Cockroach nest. :( It was disgusting. I had to leave the room before I threw up. Some of them were still alive, but most were dead and there was roach poop everywhere. ERGH. I keep it in the DC box one of my friends gave me now, and keep it rolled up in plastic. Gross, gross, gross.

[evil_genius]

I'll trade you a SMB/DH cart for the ants.

[cyberfluxor]

Sorta the opposite of this, but also when i worked at Best Buy we had a problem with people busting open our pc cases when we weren't looking and stealing the CPUs. Not the motherboards -- just the CPU. Nobody ever caught -- I'm convinced it was an inside job. It happened all the time!

LOL That's great. It's sad and pathetic, but funny as hell.


It was just daddy-long-leg webs though, and the spider was long gone.
I let those guys live in my house though, since they cant bite through human skin, but kill black widows!

And it's a good thing they can't get past our skin! Their venom can kill a person easily, and actually they are one of the most poisonous insects (because they aren't really spiders).


I once found an Atari 5200 with a bunch of grass clippings and a dead cricket inside it. I assume it spent some time outside or in a garage.

I think they were using the 5200 as a cage and apparently they forgot to give their cricket water. Sad sad story.


Can't claim I've had any experiences like most of these with dead creatures and wierd webs of crap lurking inside cases. My biggest problem are dust bunnies that would clog your nose AFTER it's been compressed lie all over the bottoms of my computers. I do though get some old systems from my brother at times that wants me to fix them up and get running. Most of the time they are rusty (really bad; don't know where in the hell they stored them) with huge dust balls and rotting of curcuit boards. It is a real turn off and makes me want to chuck the damn things out the window when they look so freaking ugly.

But back so to topic, maybe I should open up a few of my systems and see if any needs some cleaning, which I'm sure they do really bad. If anything amazing is found (like a Bio Force Ape proto) I'll respond with another post for everyone to know about it and it's mysteries.