Why are NES carts always so dirty?

[substantial_snake]

Every single time a thread pops up like this I am reminded of a friend's little brother.

We used to hang out and play at his house all the time and his little brother had this gameboy pocket (i think blue) that he played with everywhere. He took it everywhere with him and being the little kid that he was at the time he never wiped his nose, with a bit running out seemingly all the time. Well over time it seemed like his poor poor GB Pocket became the receptacle for all of his dried crusty snot he wiped on everything..ever so slowly building up a persistent glaze on this gameboy. At one point I had seen it outta his hands and nearly puked at how much "crud" was lining that damn thing and now I think of all the little kids just like my friends kid brother who do the exact same thing at the exact same age with all of the classic consoles, games, and accessories we all cherish...which are now affordable at cheap prices on ebay or at your local flea market.

And then I break out the rubbing alcohol and scrub down all of my used "good" condition merchandise while throwing up a little in the inside.

[Duke.Togo]

You mean you buy a game that is only in "acceptable" condition and then shine it up and it's now in "very good" condition? (I was wondering about that myself, doing that).

Yes. I've picked up several local lots that the games were ugly looking to begin with, and after a thorough cleaning look great. I don't turn away this stuff since you can negotiate a low price for it and use it for trades/sales. A lot of dirty carts will clean up very well if you take the time to do the job thoroughly.

[ccovell]

... it's easy to understand why people would throw out boxes. Cool cover art or not, people see it just as disposable packaging.

...inserts, etc. all got tossed, being viewed just as useless as the plastic wrap that covered the box.

SpaceHarrier, you're not wrong in your generalizations. Look at the above quote; it's a generalization too. "people see it just as" and "being viewed as" means it's a number of people, hence, cultural (or at least in a large group around Aussie), meaning many of us Westerners view too many things as disposable and do not treat our stuff with care.

It is a cultural thing. Japanese people are anal about cleanliness, paperwork, etc. No harm in saying it.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Atari carts are the ones that get me. The labels, sheesh! They all look like they were soaked in grease.

For the most part, the glue/adhesive that was used on many of those labels at a manufacturing level has had a natural reaction over the course of time that causes damage similar to what you describe that's beyond our control.

Depending on the storage situation, either it dries up and becomes non-adhesive or it bleeds through the labels.

NES games, not so much if at all. Dirty/damaged carts/labels are typically user-error.

[Rickstilwell1]

If everybody had the special gamebit screwdriver needed to open up the games, they would never be so dirty, but almost nobody has one. Only people like us have them or even know they exist for public use.

[Dire 51]

I've watched quite a few youtube videos of second-hand shopping in japanese electronics stores and the quality far exceeds the finds here. Surely kids there play games too, but I didn't see the kind of filth overall that games here suffer through. I'm not just talking Super Potato, but more generalized stores like the Super Hard Off chain which carries everything under the sun. I had heard others generalize that in japan they tend to take better care of their stuff, and from what I've seen, it appears to be so.

You should see some of the Famicom games I've received. It took quite some time to get them to play properly - the Q-tips I used would come out absolutely black on the first several swipes, and some of them still need to be cleaned repeatedly to get them to work consistently. The cart exteriors were noticeably dirty too. And it wasn't just one or two games, quite a few of them were in that shape. It made me wonder exactly what they were doing over there with these games.

Anyway, regarding keeping boxes: I didn't really start doing that until I got my first NES in '89. Before that, I used to take my Atari boxes, cut them up, and make poster collages out of the box art, which were then hung on the walls in my room. I regret doing that now, but at the time I looked at them as being disposable.

[Doonzmore]

On a related note as a Gamecube collector what annoys the hell out of me is inserts with stains on them. Do people use the cases as coasters or something?

[8bitgamer]

In my experience going to garage sales, etc., I've noticed that NES games tend to be dirtier, grimier, slimier, etc. than SMS, Atari, Genesis, etc. Not exactly sure why.

[Aussie2B]

SpaceHarrier, you're not wrong in your generalizations. Look at the above quote; it's a generalization too. "people see it just as" and "being viewed as" means it's a number of people, hence, cultural (or at least in a large group around Aussie), meaning many of us Westerners view too many things as disposable and do not treat our stuff with care.

It is a cultural thing. Japanese people are anal about cleanliness, paperwork, etc. No harm in saying it.

Last time I made the argument that games in Japan tend to be cleaner or more often complete, everybody ganged up on me with stories about all the dirty stuff they've gotten from Japan and how everything reeks of smoke. The only truly safe generalization I would make there is that Japanese sellers that export their games to Western customers (on eBay and the like) tend to pick the cream of the crop to sell. If you compare Japan Yahoo auctions (generally only for Japanese people, with a a lot of small-time sellers just clearing space as opposed to stores) to eBay auctions for Japanese stuff, you'll definitely see a lot more loose and beat up stuff on Yahoo auctions.

And again, I wouldn't equate viewing packaging as disposable to not caring about your things. People are SUPPOSED to view some things as disposable, otherwise you end up as a hoarder, not throwing away anything. I can't imagine anyone here keeps EVERY bit of paper and plastic from the non-food/hygiene products they buy. As a collector, do I wish more people kept the boxes for their NES, SNES, etc. games? Of course, but I don't think there was anything WRONG with them throwing away a box, that it automatically implies that they don't value their possessions. I don't know about you guys, but I've bought plenty of loose carts that were in fabulous shape.

At the end of the day, we should blame the publishers for producing packaging that would be viewed as disposable (and encouraged to be disposed of) instead of making cases that clearly have a purpose and should be saved. Games that came in plastic cases, like Genesis games, are far more often complete. If someone throws away a plastic case like that or, even worse, a jewel case for a disc-based game, then, yeah, you can call him a nimrod for not valuing his things and throwing away something that serves a legitimate purpose.

[stalepie]

And again, I wouldn't equate viewing packaging as disposable to not caring about your things. People are SUPPOSED to view some things as disposable, otherwise you end up as a hoarder, not throwing away anything. I can't imagine anyone here keeps EVERY bit of paper and plastic from the non-food/hygiene products they buy. As a collector, do I wish more people kept the boxes for their NES, SNES, etc. games? Of course, but I don't think there was anything WRONG with them throwing away a box, that it automatically implies that they don't value their possessions. I don't know about you guys, but I've bought plenty of loose carts that were in fabulous shape.

At the end of the day, we should blame the publishers for producing packaging that would be viewed as disposable (and encouraged to be disposed of) instead of making cases that clearly have a purpose and should be saved. Games that came in plastic cases, like Genesis games, are far more often complete. If someone throws away a plastic case like that or, even worse, a jewel case for a disc-based game, then, yeah, you can call him a nimrod for not valuing his things and throwing away something that serves a legitimate purpose.

That's the way I view it too. People have different amounts of space, as well, some living in small houses or apartments, or with a lot of other people, or they have a different emphasis on possessions -- they may not want to have all those big boxes, especially if they're flimsy cardboard, like old PC games.

Others have a tendency to break because of their design, like Saturn and Sega CD cases. If you have a broken one, and you already have other means of storing CDs (your own jewel cases, sleeves, cases) then throwing away a case to one of those games is no big deal, especially if you saw no value in the art or manual.

[stalepie]

In my experience going to garage sales, etc., I've noticed that NES games tend to be dirtier, grimier, slimier, etc. than SMS, Atari, Genesis, etc. Not exactly sure why.

That's what I was thinking too, but haven't had much experience with Atari carts. I just notice thought that Genesis carts DO tend to be dirtier than SNES ones. Did they sell to lower-income families? (Sorry if that's offensive -- I was a Genesis fan as a kid and had upper-middle class background... but I remember SNES being more expensive and seemingly richer families getting them first).

Maybe it was just due to the culture of time, the rad 80s We just didn't take things like NES games that seriously. So many of them were bad and we were always blowing on them to get them to work.

[Duke.Togo]

I'd also say that a very large amount of NES games were rentals opposed to Atari and SMS. Rentals are naturally going to have a rougher life. When I was young there was only one place in town that rented SMS games and none that rented 2600, 5200, or 7800.

[The 1 2 P]

I actually like cleaning Nes carts and other old cart based games. But I too have come across some that even the one-two punch of rubbing alcohol and goo-be-gone couldn't fix. I usually pass on those entirely now but if it's an in demand title thats only a dollar I might take a chance on it.