The GHZ Forum

Why do all surviving Super NES's and Famicoms look like they've been peed on?

For years I thought that was a south Louisiana thing. But evidently it's a global epidemic.

I've come to two possible conclusions:
1) There's some chemical reaction in the plastic that causes the molding to become yellow and discolored with age.
2) At some point when I wasn't paying attention, it became vogue to urinate on Super NES's.

My initial reaction would be to favor the former explanation, but if that's indeed the case, it means there are no pristine, cool gray Supers left anywhere on the planet. We're probably already at a point where all current and future generations just assume that Supers were always pee-pee green. This is quite distressing and causes me to favor the latter explanation.


So, I would now like to pose a question to all of you: were you, at any point in history, in the habit of tinkling on your Super? Please say yes.

I think it's more of a reaction to light exposure. If you bought a Super and kept it in its box it should still me mint... grey.

Perhaps people took them into the shower and thus ended up peeing on them there.

A friend of mine looked into this recently (possibly wanting to do some research before he accused me of pissing on my Dreamcast), it turns out there's a chemical used in a lot of console manufacturing as a fire retardant that causes this yellowing over time. Darker consoles aren't effected by it because of stronger pigment underneath. Here's an informative link on the subject, and another with some experiences from people who were successfully able to de-pissify their consoles with a hydrogen peroxide bath. (Gotta be willing to take the whole thing apart for that, though)

http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/189
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?p=458725#post458725

Incidentally, the Super Nintendo I bought on eBay this past summer is gray, so yeah, not every SNES is victim to the pissification.

G.Silver wrote:A friend of mine looked into this recently (possibly wanting to do some research before he accused me of pissing on my Dreamcast), it turns out there's a chemical used in a lot of console manufacturing as a fire retardant that causes this yellowing over time. Darker consoles aren't effected by it because of stronger pigment underneath. Here's an informative link on the subject, and another with some experiences from people who were successfully able to de-pissify their consoles with a hydrogen peroxide bath. (Gotta be willing to take the whole thing apart for that, though)

http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/189
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?p=458725#post458725

That was an incredibly interesting and educational read. Thanks!

Did anyone else came into this thread thinking it would be about Super Sonic being yellow?

G.Silver wrote:...it turns out there's a chemical used in a lot of console manufacturing as a fire retardant that causes this yellowing over time.

Are gaming systems normally so flammable?

Dude, it's an electric device. It malfunctions, catches fire from the inside, and then spreads out to the rest of your house. The fire retardant is there so you only have to buy one of them anew.

Excellent, this is exactly what I was looking for.

It seems like I haven't seen the issue with other consoles as much as the Super. You can still find Famicoms and PC Engines that retain most of their youthful beauty, but I've yet to see a pristine Super in the field, and there's (by far) a greater abundance of them than anything else. (I do have one pristine gray Super Fami controller which I bought on that merit alone.)

So, as long as all hope is not lost, then.


I've never seen a yellowed Dreamcast. Are you sure you didn't pee on it?

I've had my Super sealed away for years, so whenever I take it out for a quick play it's crisp and cool gray.

GOOD GOD DON'T PLAY IT THEN, YOU FOOL

Go buy a nasty yellow one for $10 if you want to use it, damn you!

You now how long it's been since I last took it out?

These days I use ZSNES with a controller converter for all my playing needs. :P

And here was me thinking this thread would be about The Incredibles watersports porn.

Hey Rob-bert, you should threaten GG! by saying you'll keep using your fresh Super until he buys you one

I have two SNESes and one is yellowed and the other is pristine.

I only have one SNES and it never yellowed on me.