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Why Your SNES Turned Yellow
If, back in the day, you ever wondered why your old Super Nintendo tended to discolor, your curiosity will now be sated. Via Ars Technica's Opposable Thumbs blog, an article on the Vintage Computing and Gaming site which explains the mysteries of plastic discoloration. From the article: "Since ... different batches of plastics had ... different aging results ... then there must have been a difference of additives between them. Perhaps in one of the production runs of plastic, they didn't get the catalyst or flame retardant mixture quite right and more residues were left over in the top half's plastic batch, thus causing it to degrade more rapidly over time. And by the time Nintendo produced the later runs of Super Nintendos, they had perfected the manufacturing process of their plastic, meaning that those later models aren't as susceptible to oxidation as the earlier models are."
Now if someone can explain why my Megadrive turned yellow?!
Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and stupid comments are intentional.
Same thing happened to the analogue controller on the top of the nunchuk. After about two hours playing Zelda, I noticed that it had turned bright yellow.
I guess that explains why my old monitors turned that ugly yellow... thanks.
They did this too. -Fortunately- I painted mine and now it looks worse than it would have done should it have turned yellow :)
EWW!
It's turned all boxy and the buttons have turned purple too!
In Soviet Russia, plastic urinates on you!
My skin is turning yellow.....
Odd thing is that I stopped playing Nintendo around the time I turned 19.
Never play chicken with a passive aggressive.
Well my SNES is still gray. You would think this would be more prevalent. Ive got a lot of old plastic stuff, some faded, but none change colors.
Libertarian Leaning Political Discussion Forum.
You get the same with a huge number of materials; the problem is that the additives don't complement each other well: if you want flame retardant, you get something that oxidises with light more easily. If you want super-white white, then the damn thing melts if vaguely near a flame. I had to do some research on this about a year ago - it's even worse with fabrics. I think there may be more expensive materials that balance the two better - but then you add expense to the case. You can have superwhite and then top it off with a layer of something tough and clear, but then you need to bind the two materials and create extra manufacturing cost from having thinner slices and having to put them together. Or - like the current trend - you can pick a colour that's not such a pain in the ass.
Browsing with +2 to insightful posts and a higher threshold makes the average post seen seem a lot more ingenious
If you have a "happy mac" (128/512/SE/Classic), the same thing happens to them, including the keyboard and mouse.
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The SNES turning yellow was a huge technological leap for Nintendo.
My old NES just decomposed - I kept it in the attic for a couple of years, but the day i went up there to get it, there was nothing nothing left but a pile of dirt. The only thing unaffected by the decay was the golden finish on my Zelda 2 cartridge.
I'm told that the wii has nuclear decay, now that's progress.
Cigarette smoke turns more things yellow than just your lungs.
I noticed a while back that (amongst other things) my Atari 800XL (not my photo) had yellowed badly, but that the 1050 disk drive (again, not mine), which was part of the same bundle and appeared to use the same beige plastic still looked "as new". I doubt varying exposure to daylight could account for all of this.
Interestingly, my year-old keyboard has a white plastic case and keys. However, plastics that appear identical to the naked eye, aren't always so similar when viewed with IR.
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My Acer Travelmate is starting to fade where my wrists lean on the space infront of the keyboard. You'd figure they'd think about these things.
Read the article. It's not cigarette smoke; no-one in my family smoked, and my computer actually yellowed more after it was packed away. Similarly, the floppy disk drive which appeared identical and was exposed to near-identical conditions hasn't yellowed.
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... I bought myself a Super Famicom with a converter instead.
The same thing happened to SNES cartidges. They were made out of two pieces of plastic that clipped together. Many of my older cartidges have one yellow half and one half that still looks normal, propbably because they were made out of two different batches of the plastic.
Coca-Cola, sometimes War.
1.Things turn yellow
2.Users get annoyed
3.??
4. Profit!!!
Seriously though, things turning yellow leads to higher replacement rate I believe. Coupled with lower manufacturing costs...
Where is that guy who'd die defending what I had to say when I need him?
Don't eat yellow SNES.
I never got to see my SNES turn yellow because I painted it red and black (controllers also) and drew a crude iguana on it. I had to do it because there were a lot of Nintendos getting stolen back then. I had to make mine stand out.
My snes turned a yellowish huge to though, i think that was because of heavy smoking because it smells as if one of those plastic additives was tobacco.
"And by the time Nintendo produced the later runs of Super Nintendos, they had perfected the manufacturing process of their plastic, meaning that those later models aren't as susceptible to oxidation as the earlier models are."
That's odd. Of the 2 SNES consoles I own, the early one (purchased near original system launch, still has the cart locking mechanism via power switch) is the original color. The other I have was purchased years later, and was manufactured years later (lacks cart lock mechanism) - it has yellowed quite a bit, although not as severe as shown in the pics.
He really liked admired Mario?
I didn't know it was caused by the plastic degrading. I thought it was because my mother-in-law smoked like a chimney. So why did the wallpaper turn yellow too?
My Sega Dreamcast turned yellow too. It caught a bit of sun light daily, and it happened slowly.
The article mentions sunlight as a culprit.
While I stayed in smaller accommodation for a year and a bit, I did the sensible thing and packed all my model planes away in their original packaging - clear plastic tray with a clear plastic lid, inside a thick cardboard box, in a cupboard that no sunlight was getting into. When I came to unpack them, I discovered that the tails of two planes had yellowed - as had the clear plastic in their boxes. Definitely not sunlight in that case; you'd think the manufacturer would've been a bit more careful about their choice of plastic.
I have a mouse at work I brought from home, and about 60% of the silver paint has worn off. It worn off right where my palm & fingers touch it. There's a small spot underneath the big button where my thumb touches, totally dull gray.
Does this mean I have to turn my ZSNES yellow too, to be compatible?
PHOTO HERE
Now if someone could just explain why Rush concert tshirts always shrink.
Nothing ages as badly as keyboards and mice. Not only do they get that yellow aging funk described in the article but they also have your bacteria, skin oil, worn keys, coffee spills, crumbs, etc. After 5 years they start to resemble archeological artifacts. Get an old keyboard that was used by a guy with a beard and you'll really cringe.
This article doesn't explain why snow turns yellow though.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
This is a silly, silly, little article. What's next? Why last years' newspaper turned yellow, Why my bananas turned black or Why the copper roof turned green.
Is why you had to blow on the carts to get them to read.
Half of writing history is hiding the truth.