How much do you care?

Hello Tempers!

With winter around the corner, you might be getting ready to face the cold or if you are lucky enough to dwell in the south hemisphere, then I bet you can’t wait for summer. Either way, video games and their great community and media will provide you good company. But how much do you care about them?

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Well, to play video games, you need to have a console to play them and one that works. And for that, a minimum amount of caring is required. Granted, you might not be able to avoid the yellowing of some of your retro consoles but the least you could do is dust your console off, avoid dropping it or abstain from poking the lens. I remember being constantly being reminded of the latter by my cousins when playing the PSX. Thankfully now those console-making companies provide some ‘How-tos’ about console maintenance. Do you do as much?

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However, sometimes considering circumstances those extra care can’t be applied. For instance, I’ve recently been travelling and won’t be home for quite some time, so to keep my consoles from becoming dust boxes, I’ve packed them in… well… boxes. And whenever my travel, I bring my faithful handhelds and really I’m not sure about their safety/handling in the plane's cargo hold. So I always carry them in my hand luggage, packed within their carry cases and of course, charged.

Good! You now have a clean and working console. What about their games? They need some maintenance too! You might have already been faced with the dying batteries of your older Nintendo cartridges but the internet has nice enough users to guide you to change them. Well, you might also have mistakenly been blowing on your cartridges thinking it’d get them to play. Oh and take care not to scratch your video game disks, especially the underside. Just saying! :)

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If you are here then you know that video games are not just about their consoles and games. There’s a whole community and associated media based around our favorite hobby. They feed us with news from the gaming world and also provide opportunities to meet new people. Which sources are you favorites? And how much do you care about them? Are you a faithful subscriber to a Youtube channel, watching all of its videos and participating in the comments? Or do you rather enjoy reading gaming-related articles, be it in magazines or websites and subscribe or sign-up for them? Such ways of showing your appreciation to the work of those people is definitely an encouragement. But whether on this website and its forums or other similar sites, be cool and play it nice. It helps to be friendly! Nobody’s getting anywhere by being arrogant and/or mean.

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Now Tempers, how do you take care of this hobby of yours? Do you clean your consoles on a regular basis? Or just when the dust accumulates? Or better yet, does your Mum do it for you? Or any other extra tip you might have for giving our consoles an everlasting shine? And for your gaming-related magazines, do you let them pile up or dust them off every so often? Let us know about them all in the comments!
 

vayanui8

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I keep all my stuff in very good condition. Dust has never really been a big issue for me so I cant say Ive ever really had to dust my systems. The game cases unfortunately haven't had as good of a history, with many of the older ones getting scratched over time. However, I've been going out of my way to keep an eye on the cases now and all of them I have gotten in the past year and a half or so is as good as the day I bought it.
 

GamerzHell9137

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Nowadays i'm mainly playing on PC. Its fast, its easy but sometimes a bit stressful. I do like tweaking and getting the max possible of the hardware I have, and its fun to see all of those projects that optimize games or make the experience even better! The PC Mod community sure is awesome. Anyways, about the topic, yes I clean my PC. I was cleaning the inside of the PC WRONG until last month. Thought collecting dust with a vacuum cleaner was a smart idea lol
Every month or so i'm cleaning stuff from the HDD and defragmentate it to get max speed, cleaning the GPU and checking the internals in general. I've got a new case for the PC which had a fan in front and bought another one which I've set in the back of the case for better air circulation. I've invested in a good PSU like a year or so ago and got my GTX 960 last month (Its a blast playing with the beast :D ).
Next things on my radar are a new CPU,Mobo and RAM which will take a while to buy.
And no mom help lol, if she knew how to do PC stuff i'd gladly let her do it but she's having issues using a toaster let alone any other electric appliance. The help i'm getting is either from Google or from fellow tempers.
And I haven't ever read gaming magazines (maybe only once) but I do like reading articles like these on temp and I check Siliconera for gaming news in general (Heard that Gematsu's main focus is Japanese games so I guess i'll migrate there soon)

Anyways thanks for writing these articles Prans. I think they pretty fit the Gbatemp community! Its nice to discuss about stuff like these and I really don't know any place that does them. I was kinda loosing my Temper(lolpuns) but your and Chavosaur's articles really brought it back. I hope you both continue on writing these because I think they are pretty good for the community.
 

Tom Bombadildo

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I usually clean up the consoles that I have out and am using around once a month or so, though if they're not too dusty I'll just skip it. I always clean my PC then as well, though I don't think I've ever really bothered to clean my 2 monitors, the screen on my older one has some spots that could be cleaned up.

Whatever I have boxed up make no difference to me though.

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Via recruitment. We had an application process up back in July, which only lasted a week. If we ever have another "recruitment drive", which probably won't be any time soon, you'll see a thread for it on the front page with more information.
 
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BurningDesire

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I usually clean up the consoles that I have out and am using around once a month or so, though if they're not too dusty I'll just skip it. I always clean my PC then as well, though I don't think I've ever really bothered to clean my 2 monitors, the screen on my older one has some spots that could be cleaned up.

Whatever I have boxed up make no difference to me though.


Via recruitment. We had an application process up back in July, which only lasted a week. If we ever have another "recruitment drive", which probably won't be any time soon, you'll see a thread for it on the front page with more information.
Okay, thanks for the reply!
 
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weavile001

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I usually clean/dust off my 3DS and Vita when i'm going to play on them , which is at least 2 times per day.....
the same for home consoles but i usually play on them on the Weekend.

As for the PC, i regularly clean the fuck out of it so it won't stutter/ stop /freeze or worse when i'm playing.
 
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Catastrophic

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I clean hardware when I notice a lot of dust, wash my hands beforehand if they are greasy or dirty and take good care of hardware overall. People have a rather varied opinion on this I've noticed. Whenever I visit my cousin's house, his controllers are almost always glazed with dirt and dust.
 
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sarkwalvein

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Old device were made of very different qualities, and you can see that in how they unexpectedly still work (or not) after some decades of unattended sleep.
I had a C64 stored in the attic, for... let me think... at least 14 years without turning it on, I plugged it in worked as new... The shit must have top quality capacitors.
Then I had an old Megadrive, stored for less than ten years, turn it on, it all works, but for some reason the controller ports just don't work, no matter what you connect, no controls.
I had a PS1, stored for 3 or 4 years, sometimes it boots, but it never reads even one fucking CD. Something similar happened with a PS2... Optic drives just die easily...
 
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DinohScene

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Everytime I purchase a retro game, I clean it.
I always keep them neatly stored, same for me other games.

I take really good care of them, I hate it when they break.
Consoles with fans in them I also regularly disassemble them, cleaning them.
 

Ericzander

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Good discussion topic!

Okay so personally, I get attached to the games and not the consoles. I own a SNES, N64, Gamecube, and a handful of other old consoles but I can guarantee that none of them will ever be turned on again because of how easily I can emulate all of the games on my PC using any number of controllers. My fiance on the other hand... She's a bother when it comes to that :) She's not a gamer at all. In the slightest. But she has a super soft spot for Son--2D Sonic. Classic Sonic.

But, she refuses to play it on an emulator. I bought a Genesis controller, loaded up the emulator through my PC, hid it behind the TV, and let her play. After halfway through the first level she couldn't do it because it didn't "feel" right. But when we got ahold of a Genesis and the physical game, she played it into the night. It's a thought process that I really don't understand, but I'm okay with it because for that short time... She was a gamer!
 
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Social_Outlaw

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I take care of all my Consoles, I enjoy them breathing and not panicking everytime I play a very demanding game, It's a habit now, I want to keep my Console's as long as possible. I don't let nobody touch my consoles unless I'm there I want have a collection of Consoles once I'm settled :)
 
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Foxi4

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I care for mine more than the average mortal, I would say. It started innocently enough with a few consoles that I treated as appliances, but now that I have a rather sizable collection, they're all on display, periodically cleaned thoroughly even when unused and kept in very neat order. I don't think I've had a single console or accessory fail since mid 1990'ies, which is a good track record, I think.
 
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If I get and used game, it becomes like new. Just saying.

Buut talking about dust... Whenever I feel like playing retro, I first have to clean any dirt/dust that has accumulated.
Which is a lot. :glare:

As for keeping up with videogames info... This site, no? :D
 

breaktemp

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Man...I sort of feel out of place here >_<"

I have never cleaned a console or a game cart for that matter.

Hmm...my consoles have never shown any problems.

Though I usually try to keep food/liquids away from them at all times.

I do care a lot about my hobby...but as an adult, I just don't have much time to sit down an play like I use to.
 

ironmaster49

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I clean my consoles time to time, every few days.
And yes, i feel summer is coming, its spring cleaning time now. Southern Hemisphere has opposite seasons so summer is coming for me and those in the southern hemisphere
 
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