Rescued a Top Loader Yesterday

[SwampFox56]

Well, today I was taking some of my useless junk (old furniture, ect...) to the dump. I got there, I pulled in, and I parked.

I then proceeded to take my trash bags out of the back of my car, and brought them to the trash compacting area.

I was looking around, when out of the corner of my eye, I see an NES top loader just sitting on a pile of junk waiting to be trash compacted.

I nearly peed my pants! I asked the dump worker if I could take it home, but he said that once it was in the dump, and dropped off, it was government property, and was going to be compacted, and then metaled down for scrap metal

I told him that I collect video games as a hobby, and this would complete my collection (well not really, but I said that to see if he would let me take it anyways)

He then said that it really wasn't his choice, and that if I wanted to get rid of my old furniture, metal cabinet, and other things, to go put the wood in the wood pile, the metal in the metal pile, and any other stuff in the misc pile.

So I went over and started to put my stuff down. I noticed that he wasn't looking and thought that I should maybe just grab it and put it under my shirt. I also thought that, that would be the wrong thing to do, and that I shouldn't "steal" from the government.

I then decided against my better judgement, and slipped it under my shirt.

I put my stuff down quickly, and hurried back to my car. I pulled it out from underneath my shirt, and realized that this was probably one of the best looking (meaning in the best shape I have ever seen) Top Loader I have ever seen!

I felt a little guilty about steal it at first, but the feeling pasted, and I realized that the real crime would have been to melt such a beautiful piece of hardware down.



Since this was yesterday. I gave it to a very good friend of mine, who is great at soldering, and asked him to do the A/V mod on my console.

I should get it back from him tomorrow, and I will post pics when I get it back

 

[commodorejohn]

Oh, now that's just sick At least the recycle center in my area is happy to let me sort through their stuff rather than inexorably consign everything to meltdown doom...

 

[keropi]

better saved than destroyed...

 

[r0jaws]

Yes it is a shame that this happens all over quite regularly. I imagine even a PPC has at some point met this fate.
At least you managed to save this one, I hope you enjoy it.

 

[mjnurney]

Shhhhh i did the same!

The last time I went to the recycle center their was a 1950s bakerlite tv in the corner , being scrapped .. I wanted to take it but it got buried by other tv's but I managed to liberated a Dell pc , fully working but windows xp crashes! F10 restored it in about 15 mins and it's perfect !!

 

[Geraldine]

A great story, and yes you did perhaps not the legal thing but the right thing. After all, there is a good chance that one day someone will miss having this console, will regret throwing it out. You cant do anything about that except enjoy it for what it is and preserve it for the future

 

[jvdbossc]

I just take stuff like that without asking, since the guy is paid to say it is not allowed.. I cannot imagine they call police over some waste...

 

[tokyoracer]

My local dump sadly has been totally renovated. It's impossible to pick through stuff since the building you drive into (yes it's indoors!) is raised and you chuck your stuff though rubber flaps and about 20 feet down or so are the containers. =/
It's restricted too since health and safety and all that crap.

 

[highlandcattle]

The guys at my dump are cool about it they just don't care. I will never find any cool computer stuff though. Once I was building a soapbox racer. And to of those guys really helped me out collect good wheels and stuff for my soapbox

 

[Buzzfuzz]

Ha ha :-D , I had a similar experience a week ago, well not a NES toploader.

But I was with my dad at the local dump, and in the container where they keep pc's and stuff I started to look around a bit.
Found a few AGP cards, a 80GB IBM Deskstar, a good PIII and last but not least, an E1200 dual Celeron on an Asus P5PL2-E and it worked!
I haven't tested the rest, but I'm sure it will work.

I have seen lots of PII/III's and even some Pentium 4's now, but never a modern dual core!
Ok, noted it's one of the slowest dual cores, but hey, I still have an Asus GTS 250 gathering dust, so put that in there, into another case (one it's in is pretty damaged), and then install an OEM XP which I still have and I have a good machine for doing SCSI prep work.

 

[Jumping Anaconda]

I posted the other week about a trip to a local dump in an affluent area where people were throwing away what looked like perfectly good machines, and some classic amps. There was even some JBL ghost speakers in there. If I had not been on a very definite junk reduction policy I would have come away with much more than I took. I would have had no problem walking away with it. The workers don't care and the small electronics section backs onto a wall with not cameras. When I have space I shall go back there and find myself new stereo and speakers, and some Amigas. Hopefully...

 

[scrappysphinx]

at my local recycling centre they put all electronic stuff to one side in a shed. You can then look through but they sell you the stuff at £5 per piece. Down right cheeky flogging me something that has been dumped! They don't even test them.

 

[rkauer]

An horror story, then.

I know my college use to have FIVE A2000 units (all fully upgraded: toaster, GVP Impact +16Mb, SCSI HD, broad cast boards, TBC, dual floppy), then after I get my degree I tried to contact the IT management asking for the possibility of purchasing the computers.

Her answer simply horrified me to the bones: "as nobody used those computers for almost two years we decide to sell they for the weight price to an enterprise who grind old boards to add as concrete charge".

I think I never swear someone so bad!issed::stick::slap

 

[AmiNeo]

:nuts:

 

[RedDaemonFox]

yeah I have been guilty of swiping from a computer recycler, mostly A4000T and A3000 parts, chips, disk/IDE boards etc. Now, though I get stuff for great prices from a computer consultant in town.

 

[Harrison]

Never had much luck finding retro stuff at our local centres. The Chichester one is meant to me one of the most state of the art in the country. You tip your general household waste through rubber flaps into a building with a 20 foot drop, where bull dozers and buckets move it around and put it into the automated processing centre, so no hope getting anything back from that. There is however separate sections for other items such as electricals, monitors and TVs, bikes, cardboard etc... but there are loads of workers all watching you and it is impossible to look through anything.

They also have a guy camping out at the side of the main parking line with a white van who grabs everything he thinks looks good, so there is little chance of getting anything.

The dump near my parents used to have a hut where they put all the electrical and other stuff that looked worth saving and you could look through it and take staff. But they just had a refurbishment and got rid of that. Now there is a 40 foot container where it all goes and last time I helped my Dad take stuff up there the workers were all new, replacing the relaxed and carefree ones with efficient, trained and by the book ones, so no hope there either now.

 

[Skellionz]

and i thought you meant the crap band