My particular nostalgia gaming fixation is rechargeable batteries, of the AA or AAA variety. I have memories of going to my grandparents’ house in Iowa every summer with just a Game Boy to keep me company. And my grandparents, now dearly departed, bless their hearts, likely influenced by their own Great Depression era childhood, preferred rechargeable batteries. I have many a memory of carefully minding my batteries and swapping them in and out of the charger as a kid to get my game on.
It was from this mindset that a few weeks ago, I impulsively bought ten rechargeable batteries and two chargers at a garage sale. They were a package deal for a few bucks, and I hadn’t even tried to use rechargeable batteries since I was a kid. So, I was excited to give them a try and did so the very next day when I went on a hike, enjoying the new spring weather with my ModRetro Chromatic powered by rechargeable batteries, just like my Game Boy was back in the day.
Well, long story short, there was a reason I, and for that matter most people, don’t use rechargeable AA batteries anymore. Most modern devices have their own batteries. In general, battery life is much better than it was thirty years ago, so when AA batteries are needed, non-rechargeables are fine. And this last one isn’t about AAs in particular but definitely applies to any old batteries purchased for pocket change at a garage sale. They leak.
I’m writing this embarrassing story of my own stupidity partially just to warn you to check your old battery powered devices if you haven’t recently, since there’s a good chance that they’ve gone bad over years and might, um, explode. PSP batteries are especially notorious for this. I had direct experience with a WiiU Gamepad doing this in recent years, even if I stopped it before the situation got that dire. So, mind your batteries for leaks. Go on, take a minute to check, it’s better than the alternative.
But I also wanted to briefly discuss what happened when I discussed the issue with ModRetro. The short of it is, my Chromatic wasn’t playing sound anymore. Not through the speakers, nor through the headphones, which puzzled me because it implied a firmware issue, and updating didn’t fix it, is why I reached out to ModRetro. After some back and forth, including documentation of my device’s issues, we finally concluded that the issue was somehow caused by a battery leak. I still don’t quite understand how, as the Chromatic was fully functional aside from the sound issue.
I was as transparent with ModRetro about my stupidity as I’m being with you now. So, it was a bit of a surprise to me when they offered to replace my unit, if I mailed my defective one to them. I know what you’re thinking. Was this just special treatment, because I write for Old School Gamer Magazine? To which my answer is, I can’t rule it out. I used my real name when contacting customer service, but not my work e-mail, and I was careful not to give them any information which would unambiguously identify who I was.
If I absolutely had to guess, I’d say no, because I hinted that I would rather have a different color Chromatic than the one my ex picked, but they sent me another Inferno, probably because sending an identical unit is the policy, not that this happens very often. I had to ask them whether they also wanted the original box and ModRetro Tetris back. They thanked me and confirmed that yes, this would be their preference since they would be sending a new retail unit as a replacement.
It probably helped that I was polite and courteous, which is always good practice with customer service. They responded in kind and were quite prompt and professional. Anyway, the main takeaway here is, to please please please mind your batteries and don’t damage your devices for no reason through failing to appreciate that batteries are fickle and destructive. Even the Chromatic, which I find to be a very sturdy device, is vulnerable to a leaky battery. Granting all that though, if you do mess up and damage your Chromatic like I did, ModRetro will likely be accommodating and understanding.
I’d like to think that as we speak, their engineers are poring over my old Chromatic, trying to figure out how a battery leak could break the sound and only the sound. In any case, I’m comforted that it’s in good hands. Now if you’ll excuse me, I really ought to check some of my other batteries.
The post How I broke my Chromatic and ModRetro fixed it appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.
