I have ongoing problems with people putting unrecyclable crap in my recycling bin every week. Even when I only put it out real late at night, some bastards sneak out and fill it with non-recyclable shit I have to remove - if I happen to see it, and I probably don't half the time.

This week I came home from pub trivia to find the bin crammed full of decrepit electronic gear. Acres of ethernet cables, a dusty router, RCA cables etc. And amidst that, a SNES and a pile of cartridges.

When I saw the lone SNES, I didn't pause too much, but after I found the carts as well, I gathered them all up. I've never even owned a SNES. I brought it inside, sorted it out. The only thing missing was the AC adaptor. I have one of the correct voltage, but lower than needed ampage.

The regular output cable seems to be screwed. It was putting a fraction of warbled image signal to the TV, but I could hear the sound a bit. Clearly the console itself was running, though. There was also a 'multiout' cable, running via a regular antenna connection. I couldn't find the channel, but there was a separate socket on this for picture only. I assume you'd use this to play a multiplayer game with 2 TVS, getting sound from only one?

Anyway, the picture cable from the multiout gave a decent picture. It's basically 80% there. There are a couple of warbly bands in the pic, and I don't know if that's the cable, or something in the console that's old and frazzled. I also don't know if running it at below recommended ampage could affect that, or is bad for it. I didn't run it for too long, but it was too tempting to not try it a bit.

I've got about 10 games, including Super Mario Kart, Donkey Kong Country, F Zero, Zelda_ Link to the past, Star Wars, The Lion King.

For anyone who's got an old SNES - do you know if the video hardware is prone to going out with age? Should I expect a better picture (from an old console which has clearly been used a ton, and also been thrown in a garbage bin eventually...) Any advice or observations in general would be appreciated.