I looked up this Retrobright formula this morning and it looks promising. That said, I'm hoping I can find all these chemical products easily.
I looked up this Retrobright formula this morning and it looks promising. That said, I'm hoping I can find all these chemical products easily.
Yeah, the controller ports on mine are beginning to yellow too. What I'm really wondering about, though, is the slightly different shades of gray between the top and bottom halves of the console (bottom being darker than the top) - what is this caused by? I'm also wondering if those who had their system yellow can confirm/deny that something like this was a 'symptom' of the eventual yellowing.Originally Posted by Leo_Ames
I'll post some pictures tomorrow if it'll help.
My original model SNES hasn't discolored, it has Eject written in white on the Eject button. I bought it at a used game shop some time in the Early 2000's so I don't know how late of a release it was.
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I didn't know about the eject button difference. There's one that has it engraved, and one that has it printed?
Does this difference determine whether the SNES has the cart locking mechanism too?
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Sunlight has nothing to do with the yellowing process going on with things like the SuperNes and most older computer hardware. Plenty of people have reported it happening to items in their original packaging stored away, happening to the plastic from the inside as well as the exterior while if you broke the plastic it's still normal inside, etc.
It's the fire retardant causing it.
I always assumed so. But I can't give a definitive answer.
I don't know so I couldn't say. I only own two SuperNes consoles, my original and one of the redesigned models in the last day's of the console's lifespan to act as a spare. So I haven't experienced it first hand beyond the discoloration of the controller port area.
But your hypothesis seems to make sense if it wasn't always that way if you're the original owner of it. If you just picked it up and are wondering if it's going to start yellowing due to what you've noticed, I wouldn't worry. It could just as easily be that both halves of your console are from different manufacturing runs which could account for the slight variation in the coloring of both halves.
Last edited by Leo_A; 06-29-2012 at 01:12 AM.
Sunlight plays a very significant role in the oxidation of old hardware, especially the white, off-white, cream, and Oxford Grey (Super NES) that was used up so commonly up until the mid '90's.
Nintendo's official explanation is this:
The Super NES, as well as our other systems, are made with a plastic containing flame-retardant chemicals to meet safety guidelines. Over time, the plastic will age and discolor both because of these chemicals as well as from the normal heat generated from the product or exposure to light. Because of the light color of the plastic of the SNES and NES, this discoloration is more easily seen than with other darker plastics such as on the N64 and the Nintendo GameCube.
Nintendo experimented with different UV dyes during the production run of the SNES and NES, which is why the top half of one system may be yellowed (but not the bottom half) or the controller port (but not the main body of the console).
My theory, and I base this on my experience working for DuPont for six years, is that when the SNES launched, it had a stable dye coat. This is evidenced by the majority of launch-day and early run consoles that seem to not have the yellowing issue.
Then, when Nintendo dropped the price on the SNES, I theorize that they experimented with a cheaper dye, hence the majority of middle-run consoles that seem to yellow the most.
Then, when they realized that the cheap dye was not stable, they went back to the original coating, which would explain why the majority of later-run SNES consoles do not exhibit yellowing all over. Being that some controller ports or bottom halves yellow (but not the entire system) leads me to believe that the early and latter batches of the middle run were comprised of materials that came from all over the factory; some had the good dye and some had the bad dye.
The SNES has several strikes against it. First, the console itself is made of ABS plastic, which does not reflect UV rays as good as most polymers, which over time can make it brittle if stored in direct sunlight.
Second, Nintendo used bottom of the barrel, cheap-as-can-be chemicals when coating their consoles. They were built as inexpensively as possible, and it (literally) shows on the discolored units.
Third, getting back to the chemicals, Nintendo used an industrial grade flame retardant on the SNES, which is not stable on plastic at high temperatures. The heat generated from the SNES is enough in itself to start the oxidation process, which is what actually turns the plastic yellow.
So, sunlight, heat, air, tobacco use, etc- none of these by themselves are likely to cause the system to yellow, but taken all together you have a recipe for yellow plastic.
Unfortunately, there's not really anything you can do about it. If it's going to yellow, it's going to yellow. If it's not, it's not. I think that if you have one in your possession right now, whatever yellowing it presently displays is probably going to be the extent of the damage from here on out; if there's no yellowing on it now, it probably won't yellow in the future. You can try to slow the process by not letting the console get too hot (keeping it off of carpet is a must) and by not letting the sun shine directly on it. Tobacco smoke is even less likely to yellow it, but it may give it a dull brown sheen.
This link explains things in more detail:
http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/189
I'm not the original owner of the console, so I'm not sure how it looked back in the 90's. I'm leaning towards it being a production run thing (I think you see the problem of one half being darker than another with a lot of SNES game carts, too, so maybe this is the exact same issue). Here are some pics of my SNES so you can see what I'm talking about:
Front
Side
Controller port
As you can see, the bottom isn't really yellowing (I'm assuming that the top half is closer to the color of the original SNES), but it's still somewhat noticeable.
Dude, I'd call that SNES perfect coloring! That's barely any discoloration. Just don't leave it in the sunlight.
Second, because you're EJECT button's lettering is part of the mold, you have a later model 1 SNES, which usually don't yellow. They might loose color in the plastic, like your controller ports, over time.
I've yet to see a later run SNES that went yellow. The early/middle run units had EJECT printed on the button in white, and weighed about twice as much as the later ones. I had a "middle" one, bought in 1992, that the top yellowed bad. I did the "Retro-Brite" treatment, but messed it up a little. I had a later run SNES that broke, so I swapped the top halves (plastic shell) only. Bottoms are not interchangeable exactly, because the boards had screw columns of different heights.
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Here is a picture of my SNES
http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/7776/snesnoy.jpg
Some parts are darker than others but no yellowing.
What's up with islands? Get more land.
What's up with deserts? Get less sand.
Upon further investigation prompted by this thread, it appears the SNES console currently in my possession is a later model with the molded "Eject" button, and not the console I purchased on launch day.
My brother took possession of the console in the late 90s when I was in college. I recovered it in 2005 - sometime in the intervening years he must have "swapped" it with another SNES console for some reason.
I still have the original instruction manual and poster that came with the launch console which clearly shows "Eject" printed in white on the lever.
My console looks pretty much identical to the photos posted by adsfgk.
August 13th was launch day?!?! That was my birthday. I didn't get one till X-Mas... My parents have some explaining to do.
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Is that the Super NES I sold a few months back? If so, I can give a bit more details on its life:
The system was a Christmas present in 1993, and had the then-new Super Mario All-Stars as a bonus cart (IIRC, this point was emblazoned with a sticker on the front of the standard Super NES box). The reason I sold the system and traded up to a Super Famicom was solely because of the controller ports, which were/are starting to show signs of yellowing. I never really noticed a difference between the top and bottom halves, in part because the expansion covers match the bottom perfectly in terms of color.
For the last 6 years of its life with me, it received no sunlight due to thick curtains to keep out the oppressive afternoon sunlight. Before then, it received indirect sunlight when the weather permitted. No smokers in the house(s), and the temperature was as regulated as can be in Vegas.
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