Vintage consoles are beloved by collectors for many reasons; for some, it's down to pure nostalgia and the belief that games really were better back then, and for others it's the iconic designs and familiar controllers. Another reason cartridge-based retro systems are so appealing is their robust nature; they can withstand much more punishment than more recent disc-based machines.
As if you need proof of this fact, check out the video above. It comes from Japan-based retro gaming expert Luke Morse, who was sent a NES console and some games that had been found slowly "rotting" to pieces in a barn in Kentucky. Exposed to the elements and covered in dirt, grime and even insects, these items seemed totally beyond repair - but Morse loves a challenge and after many hours of work managed to get both the games and the NES working again.
It just goes to show that you should never bin your old systems, even if they appear to be faulty and beyond hope - there could be life left in them yet.
Comments 38
I've replaced pin connectors in a half a dozen supposedly broken NES consoles over the years and successfully got them working again. Most NES units that are considered to be broken just have dirty or corroded pin connectors. It's a simple fix.
Awesome
IT'S ALIVE...!!
Great start to the video, I can't wait to see the rest. Love stuff like this.
They made those things to last back in the day!
Funny coincidence to see this pop up here: I just watched this on YouTube yesterday, and then I sent it to @NEStalgia...
I was so relieved when he cleaned up the fat dead spider remnants from the Zelda II cartridge pins at 13:00.
I watched bit of this a couple of days ago. Any time a game system is restored or repaired, I consider it tje feel-good story of the year, to put it in Hollywood terms.
I do love how robust the old systems were. A shame the NES had such a weakness in the pin connector in the first place.
Ha ha, I like how there was somebody's old Link to the Past saves on the cartridge. I wonder if the people are still around somewhere. Wish I could have kept all my old stuff, but I wasn't a rich kid and needed to make trades and sell stuff.
@SKTTR
I'm in Kentucky. The spiders, man. If I smash a spider with a shoe it should die. But no, there are beasts here that when you smash them, stuff squirts out.... and THEN they run away. No. Just no.
Nice to see that it got saved!
Nice work. I have revived a few consoles and handhelds myself but none quite this bad!
@speedracer216
If that's how spiders are there, then I'm never going there. Same reason I avoid Australia.
Spiders are the worst.
With a few very rare exceptions, I could never imagine storing ANY electronic entertainment components in a barn.
i never bin my old systems anyway, still got my original NES from 1988 although i put it back in the box not leave it in a barn
@Luna_110: To be fair, many spiders here (I don't live in Kentucky, but I'm fairly close) don't get that large, other than a few exceptions (like Wolf Spiders). Even fewer are poisonous enough to pose a genuine danger to humans unless you're extremely allergic to their venom.
I could go on, but I have a feeling you would react similar to a friend of mine....Some Zelda games are a bit hard for him.
@Tyranexx
Let's just say I hate the boss of the Temple of Time in Twilight Princess with all my soul. In general, Skulltulas in Tp are horrible and my favorite way of getting rid of them is with bomb arrows.
Yeah, I have a bit of a phobia.
@Luna_110: Yeah, he's not too fond of Skulltulas in any of the games they appear in. He said the boss in TP's Temple of Time wasn't too bad since you could easily maintain your distance (and smashing it repeatedly probably helped, I'm sure). As big of a Zelda fan that he is, he still hasn't finished Skyward Sword because of the first temple.
I personally don't mind spiders, but in general all bugs die if they enter my house. I do tolerate a few of our eight-legged friends in my garage, though. They're quite useful in keeping everything else out.
This is a pretty common thing in the Southern/Eastern states and Midwest states, instead of completely destroying old houses or trailers, most families after building a real house leave the old where it is or move it into the woods. This old buildings are used as guest cabins or just as clubhouses for the children, until they grow out of it then usually stuff like old T.Vs or videogame console, or even a pool table are left to rot, that or they don't know the value of said object and just throw it away. This is why it's really easy to find a Switch here in the south because the entertainment priorities are not in videogames but in sports.
They don't make them like they used to...
@0upshroom7 very true, though would disagree on Switch being easy to find...I'm a little south of Kentucky and haven't really seen one since my launch preorder.
@BlueKnight07 I live in Texas, there's not many but every other store that sells tech I've seen has at least one grey system, it's wether or not said systems is on layaway and the employees are to lazy to set them aside is the problem, one day my Walmart had 4, 1 neon 3 gray I actually had to call a friend up so he could get one, the next two days they were gone, he managed to get Neon, but we actually had to wait 40 mins for customer service to check if it was reserved, if it's reserved IT REALLY SHOULDN'T BE BEHIND GLASS FOR ALL TO SEE, my Walmarts business practices have always been shady
@0upshroom7 Oh? Situation really is better down there lol. Tennessee and Virginia for me. If I thought I got one and it was reserved, I would be mad.
All the old consoles were made from indestructible Nintendium.
@Yas
Better known as ABS.
That was fantastic. I only watched it to see if I could gain anything extra from this guy.
I'm proud to say I did.
@ZeldaToThePast that's the exact reason I don't have my 8 and 16 bit systems. Back then I had to trade stuff in to get newer games and systems. Now I keep everything but back then I didn't have the luxury to do so.
@speedracer216 If you think that's bad, you should live in Texas. the tiny spiders here are nothing compared to our hand-sized roaches. My dad has an infestation of them at his house and is so cheap he refuses to call a better exterminator or just move away. The worst part is that THEY CAN FLY.
thats how they do it up in kentucky
I foolishly left my Atari 2600 light sixer in a storage shed for 20 years. At some point, the end of the RF cable got ripped off, but it just plugs in inside the unit. Once I replaced that, it works fine.
@Luna_110 I have INTENSE arachnophobia (like at a crippling level) but honestly Twilight Princess was one of the few that didn't trigger it much for me. I think part of the reason is I got to literally smash it with a giant statue (both satisfying and the character can keep their distance while doing it) - Ocarina was worse for me, the skulltulas there are just... shudders
Actually, for spiders in a video game, the top two worst for me was Xenoblade Chronicles (there's a couple instances with giant spiders crawling out of nowhere, when it happened on the top of a building my friend who was playing through it with me can attest I literally bolted and jumped off the entire building, that was a nope) and Monster Hunter 4: Ultimate (the nerscylla is... no... no... AND WHY IN GOGS NAME WHEN IT DIES DOES IT HAVE TO CONTINUE TWITCHING, STOP THAT, I CARVE THE BODY WITH MY EYES CLOSED BECAUSE IT MAKES MY SKIN CRAWL)...
@3dsgeek333 roaches don't even bother me, there could be a human sized roach and it wouldn't phase me. Spiders though...
@Yas pretty much. Heck even the later Nintendo consoles I've found pretty durable.
I remembered an article in a Nintendo Power about someone who lost their GBC in an oil drum and found it years later and it still worked (other than some of the screen was hard to see because of oil behind it). I was a clumsy kid and all of my handhelds fell onto surfaces like concrete plenty, they still work perfectly even today. Numerous youtubes of various consoles and handhelds undergoing various tests like drops from heights, the Nintendo products usually fair much better than the others. I watched one where a pissed gamer ran over their DS phat with their pickup truck... one hinge broke but it still turned on just fine. Heck, at a friend house back in the day we were playing his GameCube, Smash Bros Melee, and someone accidentally pulled on their controller and the entire console tumbled off the shelf to the ground - it was about 4 or 5 feet up, and the ground was not carpeted, it was concrete. We immediately were shocked and paused the game to make sure it was okay. Yes, we PAUSED, as in the game kept going without skipping a beat. The system was just fine. I sometimes wonder if Nintendo hardware is made from the same material as Nokia phones.
The sooner we get all consoles away from rotating media the better. Optical drives are typically the fail point for most legacy devices and once the supply of replacment drives is gone they'll become incredibly difficult to fix.
@speedracer216 When I lived in Florida I stomped on a huge spider in my garage, and after I lifted my foot up a bunch of smaller spiders spread out in every direction. I still get chills.
This video made me realize that I never actually played The Adventure of Link.
I ought to. It might be the black sheep of the family, but it looks like a good challenge and a grand adventure.
@ShadJV There's no way you are a mere mortal! What sorcery is this?
I replaced the PIN connector in my NES and after that, not a single game ever worked in my NES ever again.
@BlueKnight07 I live in Central KY and have never seen a Switch for sale or a NES Classic Mini.
Good stuff. Cartridge based systems have the best system life compared to the disc based systems. Disc readers are fragile and PS1, SEGA CD, SEGA Saturn games are now starting to get disc rotting. Cartridges are lasting the test of time.
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