Cleaning and testing your Games/Collection. When, and how?

[goldenpp72 | 1,234]

8 hours ago, LeatherRebel5150 said:

How do/would you handle a situation where you found out it wasn’t working or was a fake game? Seems like you would be out of some money with that method 

I have a pretty good eye for spotting fakes since I have been collecting 14 years or so, however it's a mixture. Many of the things I bought were bought during their relevance in an actual retail store, for other things, if the exterior cart/box/manual are clearly real, then the chances of the inner cart being fake are slim when it comes to NES/SNES/etc games, but anything worth any reasonable amount of money I validate the best I can by opening the carts and testing them. There is an odd blend when it comes to counterfeits because 'common games' were often faked in their actual era in various countries, with some of them being pretty convincing, where as the more expensive games by todays standard were usually not faked back then, but faked using modern methods which are quite easy to identify. Recently, I had a legitimate Flintstones GB cart sent to me in what I believe was a Taiwanese reproduction box and manual, the seller was in disbelief but I was able to use group validation to confirm what I believed to be true, unfortunately for him many of his titles suffered this fate due to whatever region he came from. 

What I can say is that I know every Game Boy game I own for example, has an authentic box, cart shell, and manual, and every somewhat expensive game had the inner cart checked for any obvious signs of being fake. Unfortunately, not all systems have databases to cross compare cartridges, so you just have to do your best to know how to spot the signs.

I can't assure that no single item in my collection is fake, but buying CIB is definitely an automatic deterrent to counterfeit items, I have spotted maybe 30 or so fake items over the course of collecting, and have been going through methods to validate more and more by console and so far, nothing has slipped by.

Edited December 14, 2022 by goldenpp72

[LeatherRebel5150 | 1,056]

3 hours ago, goldenpp72 said:

I have a pretty good eye for spotting fakes since I have been collecting 14 years or so, however it's a mixture. Many of the things I bought were bought during their relevance in an actual retail store, for other things, if the exterior cart/box/manual are clearly real, then the chances of the inner cart being fake are slim when it comes to NES/SNES/etc games, but anything worth any reasonable amount of money I validate the best I can by opening the carts and testing them. There is an odd blend when it comes to counterfeits because 'common games' were often faked in their actual era in various countries, with some of them being pretty convincing, where as the more expensive games by todays standard were usually not faked back then, but faked using modern methods which are quite easy to identify. Recently, I had a legitimate Flintstones GB cart sent to me in what I believe was a Taiwanese reproduction box and manual, the seller was in disbelief but I was able to use group validation to confirm what I believed to be true, unfortunately for him many of his titles suffered this fate due to whatever region he came from. 

What I can say is that I know every Game Boy game I own for example, has an authentic box, cart shell, and manual, and every somewhat expensive game had the inner cart checked for any obvious signs of being fake. Unfortunately, not all systems have databases to cross compare cartridges, so you just have to do your best to know how to spot the signs.

I can't assure that no single item in my collection is fake, but buying CIB is definitely an automatic deterrent to counterfeit items, I have spotted maybe 30 or so fake items over the course of collecting, and have been going through methods to validate more and more by console and so far, nothing has slipped by.

How about disc games and whether or not they work, if you collect disc based stuff? Personally I don’t for the very reason they may not work

[goldenpp72 | 1,234]

38 minutes ago, LeatherRebel5150 said:

How about disc games and whether or not they work, if you collect disc based stuff? Personally I don’t for the very reason they may not work

Disc based stuff there isn't much point in 'testing', even if they start fine, they may run into various issues as you go, basically if the cosmetic condition is good and I see no signs of disc rot, I just operate that they are likely fine because in reality, some disc will simply fail even if they look pristine, it's just a very real thing people have to accept. Unless you're willing to essentially play through every single game entirely anyways, at least with cart based titles, simply having them boot for a moment is usually sufficient if they are genuine. 

The reality is when someone sells you a tested disc, they usually just mean they let it run for a bit and maybe even hit various points in an attract mode, and did not notice any issues, but you might play your 80 hour JRPG and end up hitting a snag later in as well, I figure I won't worry about that until I actually go to play the games fully, and if not, ignorance is bliss since I don't intend to sell this stuff.

I own about 3000 disc titles, so I can basically assume at least a couple have some kind of issues I won't be aware of, but it is what it is. There is also the variable of aging original hardware, replica replacement parts, etc. Many people are using non original hardware to repair/modify original hardware to get things to work, but between that, age, etc, some original hardware will run a game perfectly and other hardware might hit problems using the same disc, it really is just something you have to be willing to understand. I'm currently struggling because my Duo isn't reading some disc correctly, but other things run them alright, so yeah.

Thankfully in my case, with a few exceptions I actually never paid a lot for disc based titles because I got most of them out of the way a long, long time ago. I did sink some big bucks into a few TG disc, and I think a few odd ones here or there, but really nothing too horrifying cost wise, you only are seeing a lot of those systems explode in recent times, but I thankfully finished my goals there a long time ago. If I were just beginning now, I don't think I'd be willing to sink the money these disc run for, but because I got 95 percent of them pretty cost effective, I have peace.

Edited December 15, 2022 by goldenpp72

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

@goldenpp72 you can live happily with the thought that even in the case that you had a disc that was so bad from damage or rot it didn’t work, “disc only” games drive a far less premium than a “cart only”. Or you could send it to @Pats1717 because he has a disc fixing machine. 

 

Actually, lets get @Pats1717 opinion on disc based  collection reconditioning. Do you see a lot of badly scratched discs that you can get to work with your machine? Would you have an estimated success rate? 

[AirVillain | 490]

5 hours ago, captmorgandrinker said:

It's just a very odd place to randomly be.   There's nothing around there but farms, that Wal-Mart, a Best Buy that is the last to run out of hot ticket items, and formerly a hockey team.

I guess it's a good go to for Best Buy at least.... or farmers. 

[goldenpp72 | 1,234]

42 minutes ago, MrWunderful said:

@goldenpp72 you can live happily with the thought that even in the case that you had a disc that was so bad from damage or rot it didn’t work, “disc only” games drive a far less premium than a “cart only”. Or you could send it to @Pats1717 because he has a disc fixing machine. 

 

Actually, lets get @Pats1717 opinion on disc based  collection reconditioning. Do you see a lot of badly scratched discs that you can get to work with your machine? Would you have an estimated success rate? 

I actually recently procured a fantastic disc repair machine that I'm going to use to repair/clean any games I deem will need it, it's essentially in the upper tier of what a consumer can achieve in terms of both repair and having a more proper looking finish, as it were. With that said, even a game that looks flawless and has never been resurfaced, can still be damaged in ways there is no way to repair, or in ways that will differ in terms of response from machine to machine. I think most disc collectors make peace with this aspect pretty early on in turn, but it will take me months to go through and repair any disc that I have since it's a bit over 3000 disc, but I suspect I won't need to work on more than 700 or so at all.. Hopefully. I plan to offload the machine once I'm finished with it since I don't collect disc anymore though, so hopefully it will help someone else down the line. I put in some photos, it's unique in that it has a pad that helps remove the 'swirls' often left, or at least diminish them significantly.

Before Buff

Post buff prior to polishing

Post polishing

Before

After buff/polish

Tedious, but cool all around!

Edited December 15, 2022 by goldenpp72

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

@goldenpp72 damn thats outstanding. I wouldn’t be worried lol. But damn, 3000 disc games is crazy. At least they take up less space. 

[phart010 | 1,707]

You can do a hash validation (checksum) for cd’s.

Basically using an algorithm, you can take any file with known data integrity (perfect game cd data) and reduce a scan of the entire file data into a short sequence of characters. Then you do the same with a scan of your cd data. If both of the resulting strings of characters are an exact match (if both checksums match) then youll know your cd has data integrity. If it doesn’t match, either some of the bits are being missed due scratches, rot, or it’s possible your game cd is a different revision of the game code

Edited December 19, 2022 by phart010

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

Speaking of cleaning, I just finished the clean and test of my entire Game gear collection. 224 as of right now. It took quite a bit of time to:

1) clean pcb with qtip

2)wipe down with damp cloth/ take off any stickers

3) test that game boots and plays within (2) insertions—- if not——-

4) open cart up, polish with brasso and re-clean. Out of the 40 or so that didn't work within (2) insertions, all worked after pin polish on first boot. 

here is a boring photo of all of them in the perfect storage cases:

Super happy to be done, and verify that every game works.  Looking forward to be able to grab games whenever I want and just throw them in.

Not shown, but I also cleaned 160 of the clear factory cases. I used oxy clean and dish soap.  That was a shit ton of work too, and the water that came off them was disgusting!

No wonder game stores always have a musk about them lol

 

 

 

 

 

[RH | 4,915]

Well, this is shaping up to be a month of necro-bumps for me, but I'm in need of advice.

Typically I'll buy games that appear in good shape but might need a generous-wipe down and possibly have labels that I can now get off with simple n-Heptane.  However, I just picked up a lot that looked a little dingy but now that it's arrived, eck... these carts are dirty!

These are Game Gear carts, and I'm not afraid of cleaning the plastic parts as I have a good technic for that.  However, these labels have a dried on grime.  I don't think it's stained the labels, but I want to get it off.  The best approach is to probably spray them with some solution that dissolves typical grime that doesn't break down paper or adhesive on the back side.  I'm sure these exists because conservators use this. 

This lot is almost junk to me if I can't clean these.  I've decided to not look for perfection as I collect GG games, but I have my limits.  Has anyone found a good way to clean matte and gloss labels without damaging them?  Note this stuff isn't ink.  They just look like that've sat in a place like a garage workshop, in the open air for ages, but out of sunlight so they aren't faded.  I think they are salvageable with the right tools.

[GPX | 1,370]

On 2/10/2024 at 2:11 AM, RH said:

Well, this is shaping up to be a month of necro-bumps for me, but I'm in need of advice.

Typically I'll buy games that appear in good shape but might need a generous-wipe down and possibly have labels that I can now get off with simple n-Heptane.  However, I just picked up a lot that looked a little dingy but now that it's arrived, eck... these carts are dirty!

These are Game Gear carts, and I'm not afraid of cleaning the plastic parts as I have a good technic for that.  However, these labels have a dried on grime.  I don't think it's stained the labels, but I want to get it off.  The best approach is to probably spray them with some solution that dissolves typical grime that doesn't break down paper or adhesive on the back side.  I'm sure these exists because conservators use this. 

This lot is almost junk to me if I can't clean these.  I've decided to not look for perfection as I collect GG games, but I have my limits.  Has anyone found a good way to clean matte and gloss labels without damaging them?  Note this stuff isn't ink.  They just look like that've sat in a place like a garage workshop, in the open air for ages, but out of sunlight so they aren't faded.  I think they are salvageable with the right tools.

It’s hard to picture the grime/label arrangement to give a proper advice. Maybe pics could help. Have you tried a slightly wet tissue with a gentle rub of the grime?

[RH | 4,915]

1 hour ago, GPX said:

It’s hard to picture the grime/label arrangement to give a proper advice. Maybe pics could help. Have you tried a slightly wet tissue with a gentle rub of the grime?

I’m about to go o. A trip with my wife.  I’ll try to take some photos when I get back.  I have not tried water because I wanted to wait and see if anyone knew of any special solvents or whatever that won’t damage the paper.

A little water is usually fine if it’s a gloss label but some of these are matte and immediately wick even a little bit of water, which causes obvious discoloration.