Tips on cleaning dirt and grime off NES & SNES

I was rummaging through my backroom today, and I found an old box my aunt had given me for Christmas some years back, containing an NES, an SNES, and several games for them.

It made me remember why I had forgotten about them: they are literally brown and caked with filth, she had bought them at a farm.

Both systems are completely covered in this crap, top to bottom. I don't want to damage them, what's the best possible way to clean them? Especially the connectors, they're what worry me.

 

Disassemble the console and give the plastic parts a wash in the sink, like you're doing the dishes (use dish soap, a soft sponge and a toothbrush). For the connectors, you'll probably need to remove the dust with a vacuum cleaner with a plastic tip attached. To clean the contacts themselves, tightly stretch a cloth that's been dipped in isopropyl alcohol around a plastic card and insert it into the connector slot a few times. In most cases though, it's the connector on the games themselves that's dirty, not the console. Give these a rub with a cotton tip that's been dipped in isopropyl alcohol.

 

For the plastic shell/case of the systems, take them off and wash them out in a bath tub or sink. Connecters you'll need a crappy shirt you don't wear/use but still CLEAN and a plastic card, such as a credit card or gift card, deep a good sum of rubbing alcohol onto the shirt and wrap the card inside the shirt around the part you have applied the rubbing alcohol onto. The just take the card and go in and out of the connectors with it.

 

Foaming cleaner is great stuff. You can wash plastics if you want, but be careful what products you use. Washing-up liquid should be OK, but some cleaners will react with plastics - check first.