End of the Year Brag

[Originally posted to rec.games.video.classic.]

Inspired by the story here of the thrifts overflowing with last minute tax write-offs, I visited a few in my area today.  While none seemed to be overflowing, I was pleasantly surprised to find some stuff. It's been a long time since I've found so much new stuff at once! (And it's been a couple weeks since I've done a proper thrift shop run.)

At the first stop I picked up a hard cover copy of the 1986 edition of the Guiness Book of World Records for $1.  This is the last edition to contain video game world records.  (And they'd only started in 1984.)  Off-topic, I also picked up DragonLance Chronicles vol. 4: Dragons of Summer Flame.  I enjoyed the original DL books back in high school, and this is by the same authors.  I'm sure it'll be worth the 50 cents I paid. 8)

The second stop was the highlight of the trip.  First I see two stacks of boxed Intellivision games behind the cash register.  But there's not an employee in sight!  @!#?@!  I managed to restrain myself and check the rest of the store.  First thing I find is two set of Pac-Man twin sheets for $3.99 each.  The total is two fitted sheets, two flat sheets, and three pillow cases.  This works out fine since I found a set of just the fitted and flat sheet in this same store some months ago.  Once my son's out of his crib, he'll have plenty of Pac-Man sheets. 8)

Darn right, "colors may vary"!

In the board games, I found a Pac-Man puzzle.  It's not a jigsaw puzzle, but more of a logic puzzle.  Take the 12 pieces and fit them in the four Pac-Man shaped slots in the tray.  Then move them to the three circular (Pac-Man with his mouth closed, it says) slots.  The box is in so-so shape, but all the pieces are there.  I wonder if I can still write to the address given for the solution? 8)  Oh, yeah, the box says "colors may vary," and they weren't kidding.  The box has yellow Pac-Man with a blue tray.  I got blue Pac-Men with a yellow tray.

Okay, now I'm back up front and ask one of the two salesladies (Where were they when I came in?) to show me the old games.  Most of the games had overlays and instructions, but I'm short on money.  At 99 cents each, I pick out the ten I don't think I have.  I forgot my list, as always, and don't want to pull it out right in front of the cashier any way.  I told her I'd have to dig out my Intellivision. What I mean is that my room is one big heap o' stuff right now, but of course she thinks I put it away in the attic or something.  Who am I to correct her?  Here's what I got:

• B-17 Bomber         
• BurgerTime          
• NFL Football        
• Tron Maze-A-Tron    
• Space Spartans
• Vectron
• Happy Trails (Activision)
• Carnival (Coleco)
• Beauty & the Beast (Imagic)
• White Water! (Imagic)

It turns out I already have Football, Maze-A-Tron, and Space Spartans. I also already have BurgerTime, but not with the box.  I left a dozen or more games there.  All common, but maybe I should go back. After tax, I spent a total of almost $21.

The next two stops yield nothing.  In fact, one seems to be trying to empty some parts of the store in some sort of clean up effort.  They did have two Champion Joysticks for the SNES, but at $10 each I'll pass.  (They're large, arcade quality joysticks.)  Besides, I already have one.

I'm late getting back to work, but there's really nothing for me to do this week anyway, so I make one more stop.  For 25 cents, I get the original, black cover version of How to Win at Nintendo by Jeff Rovin.  I've probably got half a dozen red cover versions, but this is the first black one I've found.  It's a shame thrifting isn't always like this any more.

[I'm not sure what the first stop was, but it was probably the Goodwill on University Dr. I think the second was Value Village on N. Memorial Parkway. The next two were probably the Breaking Free Rescue Mission Thrift Store, also on N. Memorial Parkway, and the Salvation Army around the corner on Oakwood Ave. I have no idea what the last stop would have been. Unless it was the short-lived store I've forgotten the name of on Oakwood on the other side of Memorial Parkway.

Today (2018), only the Value Village and Salvation Army stores are still there. Goodwill moved to Whitesburg Dr. and if Breaking Free is still around, I don't know where.

Today I'm kicking myself for not getting those SNES joysticks. They sell for a lot more than $10 today. And apparently they were made locally.]

CVG 101: Cleaning Your Cartridges (originally for Classic Gamer Magazine)

[Classic Gamer Magazine introduction. This article originally appeared in CGM volume 1, #2 (winter 1999–2000). This is the article as I submitted it and may not exactly match what was published.]

Finally, after months of searching, you find a new and sought after cartridge for your collection. You take it home, plug it in your system, and . . . nothing! The game appears to be dead. Maybe it’s just dusty. You take it out, blow on it, and try again. Still nothing. Your sense of euphoria has been dashed by a cruel jest of the fates. Or maybe not . . . .

Just like everything else, cartridges get dirty over time. How dirty depends mainly on the environment they’re kept in, but you probably only care whether they work or not.Well, first let me suggest that you clean all the carts you find, because some of the dirt on the contacts is going to stay in your console’s cartridge slot. Using only clean cartridges will help prolong your system’s life. (Think of it as "safe sex" for your video game system(s).)

Before I proceed, I must say that neither I nor Classic Gamer Magazine take any responsibility for any damage you might do to your cartridges following any of the advice below. Although the techniques described work for most people, I can’t guarantee that something totally weird won’t happen when you try them, so please don’t blame me.

Okay, the first rule of cart cleaning is don’t blow into them! Although I don’t know of any studies that prove it, the conventional wisdom is that all you’re doing is blowing moisture right on to the contacts, which will only make them corrode faster. Although it may seem that you’re blowing the dust out of them and making a cartridge that didn’t work a second ago work now, it was probably just the fact that you reseated the contacts by taking it out and putting it back in. If you must blow into them, try using a can of compressed air from your local electronics store. This is exactly what those cans were created for.

There is a better, more thorough way, although it’s not as fast. First, go to your local pharmacy and buy some cotton swabs and a small bottle of isopropyl alcohol. The higher the percentage of alcohol, the better. The rest of the solution is water, you see. Alcohol evaporates quickly, but as you know, water doesn’t. Water causes corrosion, so the less, the better.

As you probably guessed by now, simply take a cotton swab and dip it in the alcohol. Then rub it up and down along the contacts. You will probably be surprised by how black the swab becomes. Now whatever you do, don’t dip it back in the alcohol because then you’ll just contaminate it. You can, however, rotate the swab to a clean area as you rub. You’ll end up with three or four "sides" to your swab. While I’m at it, I also clean the inside of the cartridge around the contacts so the dust there doesn’t settle back on them. Finally, make sure you wait until the alcohol has evaporated and the contacts are dry before plugging it in!

Oh, but you can’t get to the contacts because there’s just more black plastic on that end? Okay, then that’s probably an Atari-made Atari 2600 cart. If you look closely, you’ll see two tabs sticking out at each end next to a "hole." Take something like a nail file or knife and carefully poke it into one of those holes. You should see the "door" on the long slot in the middle slide up. Now simply push back on the entire black cover and the contacts should be exposed.

At this point, most cartridges will work if they didn’t already. Occasionally you have a stubborn one with harsher corrosion that won’t clean off with this technique. Now you have to bring in the big gun: a pencil eraser. Simply rub the eraser up and down on the contacts. This goes with the "grain" of the contacts from their many insertions into and removals from consoles. Don’t over rub, as the eraser can actually remove the conductive coating of the contact. Once you do that, your cartridge will no longer work no matter how much you clean it.

You might have problems getting the eraser to the contacts. William Cassidy once suggested cutting a slice of eraser and gluing it to a Popsicle stick. If that doesn’t work, you can try taking the casing off the cartridge to better get at the contacts. Many systems’ cartridges are held together with a screw under the label. This can lead to a dilemma if the label is in excellent shape. Do you want a beautiful looking cartridge or one that works?

There are a few options. You can use a utility knife to cut a small X over the screw, carefully peel the label back, and then fold it back down when done. You might also try removing the label (or peeling it back enough to get to the screw) and then re-applying it. If you do this, try heating the label with a hair dryer. This usually loosens the glue so that you can keep the label in good condition if you’re careful.


As time goes on, more and more cartridges will go "bad," when actually they’re just dirty. Keeping your cartridges, and thus your system, clean will increase their lifetime. And hopefully you’ll get a lifetime’s worth of play out of them as well.

Postscript (June 2013)

The date for this article is taken from the day Cav said he was going to start mailing out copies of the issue to subscribers. The issue's theme was video games and movies, but cleaning cartridges was the topic stuck in my head, so I went with that. CVG 101 was the kind of column that didn't necessarily have to follow each issue's theme. Also, if you have copies of CGM, you'll note that first issue had a header proclaiming the article part of "Lee's Classic Corner." I asked Cav to ditch that after the first issue and he did.