Resurrecting old monsters in my Mad Scientist Laboratory...

I just spent 3 or 4 hours in my garage/makeshift workshop/quasi-evil Mad Scientist Laboratory working on a few old/broken game systems. I am happy to report that I managed to resurrect 3 of them: A Super NES that I took apart to Retrobright the case, an Atari 2600 Light Sixer and a Grape colored Game Boy Color. Yes, 'Grape' was the name that Nintendo used for the GBC that was purple.

I tried 2 different Retrobright methods on the shell of the SNES a few weeks ago. First, the submersion method and then the method with a paste/cream slathered on the shell and wrapped with clear saran wrap. It didn't completely return to the original grey color, but it looks a LOT better than it did at the start.

Here's 2 pictures of the SNES shell compared to another SNES console that DIDN'T need the Retrobright treatment:

This was after the Submersion method. The top came out fine, the bottom didn't.

Here's the shell put back together. I used the cream method on it the next day.
Now, both pieces look the same and are very close to the original grey color.
Most would not notice a difference between consoles at a casual glance.

Reassembling that SNES was a bit of an annoyance, because of the spring mechanism on the eject button. I've never known ANYONE to actually use that eject button, but it has to be there. Otherwise, there's a gaping hole in the case. Not good. Thankfully though, it was nothing that a little patience and a pair of needle-nose pliers couldn't handle.

The GBC was having issues with the face buttons not working at all. As I suspected, the contacts just needed some HEAVY cleaning with electrical contact cleaner and Q-Tips. 10 minutes worth of work and it was back in business.

The 2600 was a bit more work. It had the right player difficulty, game select and game reset switches broken off in an unfortunate accident. However, I managed to get a dead SEARS Tele-Games Light Sixer a few weeks ago in an estate sale. That console donated its switches to the Atari-branded Light Sixer. My trusty pair of needle-nose pliers really came in handy on this one with those springs and metal pieces. It took a while because of the small parts involved (and my lack of experience working on this console design), but I was successful. Yay!

Here's a picture of all 3 consoles that have been brought back to life today...

So much 8 and 16-Bit glory in one picture...

I learned quite a bit about the Atari 2600's design today. The most surprising thing is how they handled the RF cable. I thought it would have been soldered to the logic board. However, I was completely wrong. Turns out there's a standard RF jack on the motherboard. The cable is just a regular RF cable plugging into regular RF jacks. That's actually a smart choice on Atari's part. It makes replacing busted cables insanely easy and cheap. It's also a LOT less work that has to be done in manufacturing and design. Bravo, Atari!

Also, I found out why that SEARS Light Sixer was dead. The AC Adapter jack came loose from the logic board. So, all I need are some replacement switches and a few minutes with the soldering iron. Then, that spare parts donor can also (probably) come back to life. I really do enjoy electronic repair. I have a whole box full of broken/dead game hardware. It has a little of everything inside too. Game Boy, Game Boy Advance SP, Game Gear, Super NES, Genesis, PS1, Jaguar, a Pong box and controllers for numerous platforms. Fixing them all (if it's possible) is going to be fun. :)

- Lord Publius