What is that 'Grandma's Basement' Smell, and how do I get rid of it?

[tappybot]

Bought a junk Famicom the other week, and I haven't gotten around to cleaning it yet..

I've been airing it outside for about a week now, and it still has that strong musty smell of grandma's basement...
Is this caused by mold?  I'm considering cracking it open and spraying the internals down with alcohol or something.....

What have you guys done about strongly scented items? 

[Frank_fjs]

One method I've used to eliminate the smell of cigarette smoke or bleach is to grab a solid cardboard box, place any offending items in there with a cup of vinegar and a cup of bi-carb soda, seal the box up air tight and leave it for a day or two. It sounds odd but it really does the trick, the vinegar and bi-carb absorb all the nastiness.

[Yelir]

One method I've used to eliminate the smell of cigarette smoke or bleach is to grab a solid cardboard box, place any offending items in there with a cup of vinegar and a cup of bi-carb soda, seal the box up air tight and leave it for a day or two. It sounds odd but it really does the trick, the vinegar and bi-carb absorb all the nastiness.

Do you think closing up the system in an empty fridge with some baking soda would do the trick as well (albeit longer)?

[untinip]

One method I've used to eliminate the smell of cigarette smoke or bleach is to grab a solid cardboard box, place any offending items in there with a cup of vinegar and a cup of bi-carb soda, seal the box up air tight and leave it for a day or two. It sounds odd but it really does the trick, the vinegar and bi-carb absorb all the nastiness.

Sounds interesting! Do you mix the vinegar and the bi-carb or do you have them in separate bowls?

[Frank_fjs]

Separate containers.

It does work, and although the hardware might have a faint smell of vinegar initially this goes away on its own after a short time.

[Parodius Duh]

if its spotted mold on or in the system then throw the thing out immediately as it infects plastics (especially ABS plastics, which famicom and nes carts, etc. are made from) and will ruin your carts if they are even close to the thing. This happened to a friend of mines NES collection, he had one game on his shelf that had a little spot mold on it, spread like a virus across a bunch of his games, including some rarities too.

[Phosphora]

Separate containers.

It does work, and although the hardware might have a faint smell of vinegar initially this goes away on its own after a short time.

I second this method. Might I also add that after the baking soda and vinegar treatment that a few molecular sieves will take care of any vinegar odors. You can get these sieves out of pretty much any new shoe box.