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Yellowing old consoles - The Solution.

P

Paskil

Member
I don't know if this makes a difference, but would this only work on matte type surfaces and not glossy?

Edit: Regardless, this is awesome and I definitely have some shopping to do.
 
D.Lo

D.Lo

Member
KojiKnight said:
I think we got the information from the same forum.
Click to expand...
A quick google has just shown me it might have been Atari Age? Still, no-one has documented this method it seems, just mentioned it works.
When I started, I wasn't even sure I had the right ingredient, as my bottle didn't say 'developer'. So I risked a SNES controller to try ;)

Paskil said:
I don't know if this makes a difference, but would this only work on matte type surfaces and not glossy?
Click to expand...
It works on Wii Remotes, for example (well, I did a nunchuck - but it was with liquid peroxide).
 
P

Peagles

Member
Just wanna give a big thanks to OP for mentioning this in another retro thread. I had tried the liquid hydrogen peroxide method (with oxy added) before with dismal results and was gutted because the hydrogen peroxide was kinda expensive. Thanks to D.Lo I grabbed two litre tubs of this creme for half the price it cost me for a litre of hydrogen peroxide and I only have to use a tiny bit of it in comparison!

I'm in the process of restoring a seriously yellow US SNES so will post some photos tonight, but only if I get some sun today!
 
M

Merriweather

Member
My apartment building caught fire a couple weeks ago and all our rescued belongings wound up in a friends yard for a day or 2 drying out in the sun. As a result, my white Dual Shock 3 looks pretty yellow and gross now. I've been looking around for replacement DS3 shells but I may try this instead.
 
J

Jomjom

Banned
My analog sticks on my Wii controllers turned yellow. The kind that are kind of rubbery. Can I do this with that or will it melt the stick?
 
A

Anung

Un Rama
Nice! My Gamecube/pad/memorycard has this real bad.

BYtcTfoIUAAFYlE.jpg:large
 
M

Mellahan

Concerned about dinosaur erection.
Anyone have any tips on Wii/Wii U analog stick yellowing?

I remember trying something on a Nunchuk a few years ago... but it turned it pink.
 
L

LamerDeluxe

Member
D.Lo said:
A quick google has just shown me it might have been Atari Age?
Click to expand...

Atari Age is where I must have read about it, I read the Lynx section there every now and then.

It was cool reading the original retrobright discovery thread (IIRC it was at an Amiga forum?) where someone came up with the initial idea and someone else later on explained the chemical process behind it. The cream makes the whole thing so much easier.
 
S

SigSig

Member
Wow, the pics in the OP make it seem like one of those magic all purpose cleaner TV ads :D
bookmarked for future use, thanks!
 
P

Peagles

Member
Damn, it worked great on everything except the purple power and reset buttons on my SNES. Now they're all marbled and cloudy looking :(

Will put some progress pics up in the morning.
 
U

Ultima_5

Member
Peagles said:
Damn, it worked great on everything except the purple power and reset buttons on my SNES. Now they're all marbled and cloudy looking :(

Will put some progress pics up in the morning.
Click to expand...

you should have probably taken apart your controller. like in the op
 
G

Ghudda

Neo Member
I did this recently with my PC Engine CD-Rom 2 although I used liquid peroxide instead of the cream and it worked great. Living in an apartment and getting no direct sunlight on my balcony, it was impractical to use the sunlight to treat it so I, instead, used an Exo Terra Compact Incandescent reptile lamp that I got from petsmart. I left the parts under the lamp for about 24 hours total and it came out great.

If anyone wants more info on the process, let me know.

(click to enlarge)
 
J

jholmes

Member
I have a super yellowed SNES but when I took it apart a while back to mod it for SFC games, I saw one of the case screws was originally screwed in at an angle, stuck in the plastic and part of the case snapped off with it. I got it back together fine but I'm a bit wary of opening it back up again.
 
G

Ghudda

Neo Member
jholmes said:
I have a super yellowed SNES but when I took it apart a while back to mod it for SFC games, I saw one of the case screws was originally screwed in at an angle, stuck in the plastic and part of the case snapped off with it. I got it back together fine but I'm a bit wary of opening it back up again.
Click to expand...

I had a similar thing happen to my top loader NES. Sometimes the plastic just get's brittle over time. Super Glue fixed it right up, though.
 
P

Peagles

Member
Gunsmithx said:
Find a way to avoid it in the future or just luck of the draw?
Click to expand...

I read on another forum that you can try plastic wrap over it to stop it drying out. I was thinking of trying another treatment with it covered in creme and submerged in water.

Reading others' experiences with bloom it does seem to be luck of the draw even when people have used precautions though.

Actually now that I look at the systems some of them are a little bloomy too. They're still a bit yellow but further treatment will apparently just worsen the bloom. Wish I hadn't done so many systems at once, I was trying to take advantage of a rare sunny day in spring. Oh well :(

Luckily they're all loose spares, probably wouldn't risk this on any of my CIB stuff.
 
V

vipermk2

Neo Member
LamerDeluxe said:
Atari Age is where I must have read about it, I read the Lynx section there every now and then.

It was cool reading the original retrobright discovery thread (IIRC it was at an Amiga forum?) where someone came up with the initial idea and someone else later on explained the chemical process behind it. The cream makes the whole thing so much easier.
Click to expand...

Yeah defo remember reading it from the Amiga forum. I am tempted to use this to restore my vintage unused nike trainers but dont know it this product is universal or just works on plastics?
Heres the pitfalls of the retr0bright formula that you might get:
http://retr0bright.wikispaces.com/Problems+and+Pitfalls

Thanks OP for sharing :)
 
J

jholmes

Member
Ghudda said:
I had a similar thing happen to my top loader NES. Sometimes the plastic just get's brittle over time. Super Glue fixed it right up, though.
Click to expand...

Super glue's no good -- the screw is deep into part of the casing at a hard angle to the point I can't get at it at all, so if I glued the shard back to the rest of the case it would for sure never come back apart again.

Living Proof said:
I know a lot of people make jokes about Kotaku writers sitting around and f5'ing Neogaf all day for news, but sometimes that feels pretty damned accurate.
Click to expand...

In Kotaku's defence, this topic is interesting and the thread isn't even getting much attention on the board.
 
M

Mr Git

Member
This is great, will try it on my SNES this week. Some of the yellowing it likely down to nicotine as well as age, hopefully it'll come off.
 
D

Dai101

Banned
jholmes said:
In Kotaku's defence, this topic is interesting and the thread isn't even getting much attention on the board.
Click to expand...

Well, 90% of the gaming side is bitch and console wars. Once in a while a thread like this comes and is lost in that bickering.
 
JP

JP

Member
Really good results. A word of caution though, hydrogen peroxide does this by actually dissolving plastic.
 
D.Lo

D.Lo

Member
JP said:
Really good results. A word of caution though, hydrogen peroxide does this by actually dissolving plastic.
Click to expand...
As far as I'm aware, that's completely incorrect. And it certainly does not seem to work that way.

speedlolita said:
Does this stop the plastic being brittle too, in the case of the SNES?
Click to expand...
The brittleness seems to be either illusionary, or a separate breakdown.

Yes sometimes they are more brittle, and this doesn't stop that. But sometimes you think they're brittle, when they are not, it's just psychological because it's yellow. I did a SNES controller like that.

Peagles said:
Umm I wasn't doing a controller, I was doing a console, and it was taken apart. The result I got is called blooming, just bad luck and conditions I guess.
Click to expand...
That sucks man. I got that from the liquid once, try washing well in metho/alcohol. I've never done 'light' coloured colours though, so no idea how they work.
 
P

Peagles

Member
D.Lo said:
As far as I'm aware, that's completely incorrect. And it certainly does not seem to work that way.

The brittleness seems to be either illusionary, or a separate breakdown.

Yes sometimes they are more brittle, and this doesn't stop that. But sometimes you think they're brittle, when they are not, it's just psychological because it's yellow. I did a SNES controller like that.

That sucks man. I got that from the liquid once, try washing well in metho/alcohol. I've never done 'light' coloured colours though, so no idea how they work.
Click to expand...

Yeh, it's not biggie to be honest. The PAL SNESs and SFCs turned out awesome, it's just the US SNES that gave me trouble. Now I just have tie dyed looking purple buttons haha!
 
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