NES owners, and to a lesser extent, SNES owners, and owners of other classic consoles!

Just wanted to ask you - out of curiosity - do your consoles and cartridges still work?

How long have you owned them, and what did you do make sure they stayed in proper working order?

And, did you save the packaging and manuals that your games came with?

Again, just curious to know how long these things last!

Me, I made a point of lancing my NES just right when it seemed like it glitched up as a matter of habit; my SNES, I sold in 2000/2001, and that thing never glitched up! Neither did my N64, come to think of it...

Gave away my NES a few years ago, but it was still working then. I could tell that the spring mechanism was on its last legs, though. And, of course, the cartridges always needed a good blow (insert joke here).

My SNES sadly suffers from discoloration, but still works despite gathering dust. Haven't tried all of my cartridges, but my SimCity's battery appears to be dead. I'm honestly kinda scared to test some my games out. I'd rather be blissfully unaware of whether the battery backups are still working.

I dunno if it counts as a classic console yet, but my original-flavor PlayStation is in horrible shape. The center spindle is almost broken, and I sometimes have trouble even opening the lid. Most of my game discs are in pretty good condition, but some of the ones I bought used are scratched up beyond belief.

And yeah, I saved everything that came with my games. I'm still upset that my friend that I lent DKC 2 to returned it with the box torn to shreds.

Yes. I've had some issues with SNES carts keeping saved data before, but I don't really remove carts from a system until I'm completely done playing a game anyway. All else fails, I can always have the battery inside replaced.

My NES and games I've only had for a year - purchased them second hand. The SNES and some of its games (Mega Man X, X2, Super Metroid) I've had since 1993. I don't think I did anything too special in their care; didn't use them as coasters, etc.

No, those boxes just couldn't stand up to when you're young and just want to play the game, an age when you're not really thinking about them being anykind of long term collectible. It this reason that I personally don't make a big deal about cart games having the box/manuals like I do CD based games. CD based games started coming around when I was older and kept things more together and I expect them to be more complete when I purchase them.

The carts aren't the reason a NES fails to play most games until you screw with them a ton; the pin set wears out. If you take a NES apart you'll see that the pin set can actually be removed from the motherboard. The NES I have had the pin set replaced and BAM! games work on the first freakin' shot and you don't have to worry about the games crapping out on you once you get into them.

Personally, I think a lot of this has to do with the pin set, it's probably better in those systems.

My NES is in my parents' attic, but I can picture it with ease: Megaman 2 in the cartridge slot with Sesame Street ABC's and 123's wedged in on top to keep it from popping out. Aside from the faulty spring mechanism, it still worked great. It's hard to recognize that it's nineteen years old...

The Super NES resides with me right alongside its modern-day console brethren, and I'm proud and relieved to say it has still managed to stave off discoloration--perhaps due to its being shielded from harsh light by a dust cover, but I read that the discoloration phenomenon was not caused solely by light exposure, so who knows . Last I checked--between six months and a year ago--many of my games with battery saves still retained decade-old memory. Despite the convenience and greater compliance with modern televisions that Super NES Virtual Console titles offer, I cannot bring myself to purchases them because I already have the real deal.

I still have all the manuals--the more creatively composed of which are noticeably more worn due to my frequent reading of them--but the boxes are long gone. Before my penchant for collecting too on an added dimension of being concerned about condition, I had cut the front covers of the boxes and lined my bedroom wall-to-wall with them. Knowing me, I probably have those front cover cutouts stashed somewhere.

My NES was my first console - I received it for Christmas in 1989 and it still works great. If a cartridge is particularly dirty it may take a few tries, but that's the fault of the lockout chip, not a defect. Besides, my games are always clean

Over the years since then, I've acquired a Turbo-Grafx 16, SNES, Genesis, JVC X'Eye (licensed clone of a Genesis with an integrated Sega CD), 32X, Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, Gamecube, PlayStation, PS3, Game Boy, Game Boy Color and DS. The only ones that don't still work are the 32X (notoriously unreliable - I threw it away) and the PS - the spindle slowly chipped away to nothing, and my attempt to replace it was never quite right. It now seems to have quit outputting any video at all. Also, the L shoulder button on my DS broke before it was even a year old. I blame the Castlevania games.

I used to do the same. I tried saving all my NES boxes at first, but they quickly started taking up space I didn't have.

Actually, if your ever going to invest in NES I would suggest the late-era top-load remodel. I got one of these recently and it's just a lot easier to get games to turn over than it is in the original NES. The only drawback I can think of is the game genie might not fit into the port - I'll have to double check that at some point.

I recommend against the top loader, as it's RF-only and that's dumb. However, if you can get the Japanese version (the AV Famicom), or are talented enough to hack RCA output onto a top loader (I think there are instructions around NESdev somewhere), then knock yourself out.

Didn't notice that, then again I'm using the RF since I'm still using an old analog set. I know things usually look better through AV but it's nice having the NES through the RF so my two AV slots are free for other systems/DVD player.

These days, you should be able to get a NES/SNES combo unit for a somewhat reasonable price ($50 or less).

If you go with one of those bootleg units, you should be warned that they often don't work with certain NES mappers or SNES expansion chips (Super FX, etc).