Where vintage games are restored one cartridge at a time

Interesting article came up in Mashable about Gamestop's retrogaming initiative/operation.

The article itself is short and not that interesting in terms of reading, but the pictures are pretty cool, they have a warehouse with 20 people working on fixing/restoring consoles, games and accessories.



Link below has the article and more pictures:
http://mashable.com/2015/07/16/vintage-video-games-restoration/

 

So they are actually refurbishing these.

Also that top PS1 looks so yellow.

 

I'm surprised it looks like they are putting some effort into it. I wonder what they pay these people and the extent of what they do.

 

I was surprised as well, I would just imagine they barely tested and repacked the stuff, but it looks otherwise.

 

It won't last long, they'll realise they're wasting their time.

 

I'm a little skeptical as well. It does look like they have quite a bit of overhead with this. I guess we'll see how long they can keep this up. Although I wouldn't mind working somewhere like that.

 

Now that is the Gamestop you want to dumpster dive.

 

That's their refurb center in Dallas (or the Dallas area), it's where they send all the stuff that needs to be refurbed (like last year they did a big thing about taking RROD'd 360s, those got sent there).

I do have issues with how well they'll fix the stuff, especially since older systems (especially the NES) are super finicky, so it could work when they test it, then not work when someone opens it up.

 

Apparently they don't really do a deep clean of the stuff. Did anybody see the NES controller pic? It was just cosmetic! I would just take the thing apart, scrub the plastic parts, clean the pcb with alcohol, and replace the pads.

I wonder how far do they go regarding the Sega Genesis units. The biggest problems with the model 1s are the capacitors. The model 2s have problems with the power jack. I guess the time and effort cleaning and fixing them aren't really worth it. It takes me an hour and a half to recap a Genesis with a moderate tools. I doubt Gamestop would invest in specialized tools. Though props to them for buying the Wiha German screwdrivers.

 

I'm really happy they are fixing and conserving PlayStation's. <3
So I wish them all the best and no negativity.

Edit; god damn... that is my dream workplace. I'm drooling right now, I'd be set for life to work on repairing PS1's ... *drools*

 

They took in Japanese DC games? I just looked through the pictures again and noticed it (the game that said Mega Drive is probably just the Winter Olympics 92 game, which was PAL and NTSC compatible, my copy says Mega Drive on it).

 

Looks like it - the game in that photo is Power Stone, which as far as I know would only boot on a Japanese DC.

 

When they took the game in they probably had no idea it was an import. Then when it doesn't work they'll probably assume it's broken or defective. Years ago I got a good deal on Rockman X3 for PS1 because the guy selling it thought it was broken because it wouldn't boot on his system. So a lot of people have no idea about regional lockouts because they've never dealt with imports.

 

PAL games always have the possibility for some sweet 50 FPS and massive borders action, though.

 

But...it has Japanese on the side, and probably on the back too (I don't have a Japanese copy of Power Stone, but I'm just gonna guess).

 

They only clean the units, don't know for sure about the inside, i pressume they use compressed air to remove dust. I doubt that they took apart every unit to clean just the bottom. As you can see on the workbench of each employee there are brushes, screwdrivers, towel (Electrostatic charges? Doesn't matter!) and the blue-electic juice that they use to scrub everything!

It's a good effort (if they don't charge an arm and a leg) but cheating death is an exaggeration.
Also, dudeeeeeeeeeee that red velvet thing is not appropriate for a work place like this.

 

at least they will not finish in trash

 

Lets not forget when gamestop got out of the retro gaming business many years ago, they had all their stock they couldn't sell destroyed by their employees.

 

Exactly what materials do and don't potentially harbour static electric, please? I know that paper doesn't (or at least I assume it doesn't, since it's what I've always seen recommended, and I've never had an item suffer due to static when I've put it on to paper), but what else is there?

 

The basic answer is that anything that's a good insulator will tend to generate static, and the better an insulator it is the more it will do so. In normal humidity conditions, paper is pretty good, since it has enough leakage to prevent static buildup but is sufficiently high resistance not to adversely affect the operation the circuit. The typical pink and blue static bags have a resistance of many gigohms, but this is still low enough to drain away static. For comparison the resistance of the black conductive plastic bags might be a few k, and hence you don't want to put an operating board on top of one.