how do you preserve your consoles?

[Hatta]

Why dust? I just keep a cart in my consoles so the contacts keep clean. Hasn't been a problem yet, and uh, a lot of smoking goes on in my game room.

[TEKTORO]

I have all my systems hooked up in two rooms in my house.The living room houses my 360,xbox,ps2 and GCN on my LCD.My bedroom houses in its area a NES,snes,saturn,CDX,ps1 and tg16/cd on 20" crt.Ideally if Im not lazy I like to keep up with dusting and cleaning every other week or so and maybe an indirect blast of air to certain vents.

If your looking to store maybe put them in a bag then a box taped up in a safe non moist area?

[CRTGAMER]

Why dust? I just keep a cart in my consoles so the contacts keep clean. Hasn't been a problem yet, and uh, a lot of smoking goes on in my game room.

Not sure if that is a good idea. The console contacts are spring loaded, with a cart permanent plugged in the "spring" is always compressed. The metal prongs may not quite spring back all the way if left squeezed for a very long time. If a port is exposed you could leave a cart dropped in but not inserted into the contacts.

All my consoles are hooked up, three switch boxes to augment the TV inputs. I would hate having to setup a different console just to play a different game. Its bad for the cables anyways, especially fragile SVideo cables. Maybe a game might not be played because of the hassle of swapping all the cords?

@ [korn16ftl3] - What is with your posts? Hard to read with no caps or periods.

[Hatta]

The console contacts are spring loaded, with a cart permanent plugged in the "spring" is always compressed. The metal prongs may not quite spring back all the way if left squeezed for a very long time.

Metal doesn't permanently deform until you reach a threshold level of stress. The displacement of the pins on any well designed cart slot should be in the elastic range, where it will return to its normal shape when the cart is removed. This doesn't apply to the NES connector of course, but any typical cartridge connector should be safe.

[CRTGAMER]

The console contacts are spring loaded, with a cart permanent plugged in the "spring" is always compressed. The metal prongs may not quite spring back all the way if left squeezed for a very long time.

Metal doesn't permanently deform until you reach a threshold level of stress. The displacement of the pins on any well designed cart slot should be in the elastic range, where it will return to its normal shape when the cart is removed. This doesn't apply to the NES connector of course, but any typical cartridge connector should be safe.

Still, why take a chance? The rest of my Quote:

If a port is exposed you could leave a cart dropped in but not inserted into the contacts.

[AppleQueso]

Each console of mine is in its own plastic tub. It's a bit of a pain taking everything out to hook them up when I want to use them, but it keeps them nice and dust-free.

I may do something like drilling holes in the back of the tubs and running the av and power cables through them to keep them all hooked up at once or something.

[Czernobog]

I have all of mine hooked up to two TVs (one CRT and one LCD) and I dust them regularly. Occasionally if one of the consoles seems like it's having any minor issues I'll give it a more thorough cleaning.

[wip3outguy7]

I have all of my consoles hooked up at all times, too. Though I only have around 7. I keep unused controllers in a pair of covered plastic bins from Ikea. If I have controllers lying around for longer than a day (not playing those consoles), I will loosely wrap the cables and put them back in the bin to prevent dust build up. I dust my consoles once every other week. I probably should dust them more often.

[BoneSnapDeez]

People who do have all their consoles hooked up, how did you do it? Do you have a massive TV stand and component switcher box?

[o.pwuaioc]

People who do have all their consoles hooked up, how did you do it? Do you have a massive TV stand and component switcher box?

I'll just link you to mine. http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... 35#p501235

No component, but I do have a PS2/XBOX/GCN s-video/composite cable that I use with all of the systems except Genesis and NES.