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I spent years cleaning my retro consoles wrong - cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol were ruining the labels
Picked up a beat up SNES at a thrift store last month and noticed the previous owner scrubbed the cartridge label clean off. Then it hit me that all those YouTube guides telling you to use alcohol are actually stripping the print over time. Anyone else switch to just compressed air and a soft brush?
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campbell.robin1mo ago
My buddy Mike ruined a copy of Chrono Trigger that way. He was just trying to clean the contacts and now the label's all smudged and peeling at the top. He sticks to canned air and a toothbrush now too.
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colemartinez1mo ago
Oh, I actually gotta disagree a bit! A gentle q-tip with 90%+ alcohol has never damaged any of my labels (you just gotta be careful around the edges).
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