For a long time now I’ve been the owner of a SNES, sadly my particular console was abandoned when the Playstation came around since then its been out of use.

The other day dusted it off and tried it out, sadly no luck the black screen of death stared back at me from my TV. I then went to the internet and tried to find some way of getting it to work – it was suggested using rubbing alcohol, or surgical spirit on cotton buds would do the trick.

So a cleaned console and cartridges later and still no luck the black screen of death was still there, it was at this point I realised my old friend was for the chop. I was kinda sad that I hadn’t looked after it better but it seems that after feeling no power surge or regular use the SNES had given up the ghost. Some sites say that the Nintendo’s CIC chip can sometimes give way due to age and lack of regular gameplay and that was probably it.

The patents for the SNES, NES and Sega Genesis have all expired which means that knock off consoles that play Nintendo games are now produced legally. They’re easy to get hold of relatively inexpensive and the key thing being that they’re new – even if you do buy a second hand SNES console its difficult to know if it’s actually gonna work until you get it home and test it out.

The lure of new equipment was too tantalising and so I decided to buy one called ‘Retro Duo’. So far I haven’t read any reviews of buyers in the UK who’ve had them imported however they do play SNES, NES and Famicom games. Hopefully my collection of SNES games will live again for the Retro Duo.

If its one thing I have learnt then its to keep those games and consoles clean! Also regular use helps to keep them fighting fit. Seeing as how the Retro Duo can play NES games it’ll also open up a new world of gaming to me that I previously didn’t have and I’ll also be able to go back and buy all those games I couldn’t afford when I was a kid.

It is strange the amount of feeling we attach to inanimate objects but sadly the day has come for me to bin my SNES hopefully you looked after yours better than I did.

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