Public Service Announcement

[NFG]

Just a word of warning to everyone who, like me, has stuff.  Specifically, Sega stuff.  More specifically, Sega Virtua Sticks.

They are plotting revenge for years of abuse, neglect, and/or  love and care.  The rubber feet on the base can rot away turning into sticky piles of rubberized tar, a gluey substance not unlike death itself.  Impossible to cure, and worth avoiding.

It happens to old floppy drives - the rubber just gives up the ghost and decomposes, fouling mechanisms and generally being bad (Famicom drives are bad for this, as are MSX drives).  Please see the picture below.  Note the red line indicating where the pad used to be - it slid in a slow-motion high-viscosity movement comparable to glacial movement.  Also note the impression left on it by the point of my screwdriver.  And whatever it was sitting on.

Perhaps Japan's humidity is to blame - perhaps not.  Be warned, it could happen to you!



Lawrence.