Why are so many Duos missing the HuCard cover?

[Mobius]

Okay, dumb question time... I'd say a third to half of the Duos I see in person or on eBay are missing the cover to the HuCard slot (especially loose systems).  Did people take these off on purpose back in the day, or something?  They don't seem that fragile, I can't imagine them breaking that easily.

[bust3dstr8]

A lot of them where probally removed to use some sort of region adaptor.

[Joe Redifer]

I always wondered that myself.  I never see NES's with missing cart doors.

[Sinistron]

yeah the purple barney converters will only work on duos with the cart door ripped off.

[nat]

It's such a shame that had to happen.

Duos look so sleek with the door in place. When the door is missing it completely changes the look of the console.

[Joe Redifer]

yeah the purple barney converters will only work on duos with the cart door ripped off.

Are you sure?  I removed the entire purple shell from my "Barney" converter and I think we even took the door off and the damn thing still didn't fit in a Duo.  Perhaps I am remembering incorrectly, though.

[Tatsujin]

that damn cover is quite fragile! the holdingclip breaks easily at the one side and then goes lost, while putting it somewhere else.

[ApolloBoy]

I always wondered that myself.  I never see NES's with missing cart doors.

Never? I see NESes with missing cart doors all the time on eBay.

[Mobius]

I always wondered that myself.  I never see NES's with missing cart doors.

Never? I see NESes with missing cart doors all the time on eBay.

I have never seen this!

Converters make some sense, but I find it hard to believe that many duo owners would have one.

[Turbo D]

It comes off very easily. I bumped mine on accident once while changing hucards and it came off! It wasn't broken though, so I simply snapped it back into place.

[ApolloBoy]

I always wondered that myself.  I never see NES's with missing cart doors.

Never? I see NESes with missing cart doors all the time on eBay.

I have never seen this!

If you browse around eBay, you'll notice that there's a number of NESes missing the cart door. I'm pretty sure that if you put enough pressure on it, it would simply snap off.

[SignOfZeta]

I have never seen this!

Converters make some sense, but I find it hard to believe that many duo owners would have one.

I think every person I've ever known with a Duo has had a converter. Even I have one. Everyone I know bought a Turbo Duo because of all the cool games featured in EGM and such...games that ended up never coming to the US, so importing eventually ensued. Importing is expensive, but the price of PC Engine games was cheaper than import SFC games by $40 or more, and if you could afford a Duo (three times the price of a SNES) then you could probably afford import games for it. Furthermore, even though people pay shit-loads of money for these converters now, they were often free with a game in the early 90s. They are just cheap pieces of crap after all.

As for the door; removing it won't allow the TV Game Computer Cartridge Converter (aka: Barney) to fit. It has to be physically hacked to pieces. It fits in an Express, PCE core (all three), or a TG-16 no problem. The door does get knocked off pretty easily, but it also snaps back into place pretty easily providing you didn't snap it.

[Necromancer]

It's such a shame that had to happen.

Duos look so sleek with the door in place. When the door is missing it completely changes the look of the console.

Indeed; the combination of careless oafs and semi-fragile covers was bound to end badly.  That seemingly minor change really ruins the look, much like an open door on a PC-FX or 'cube controllers connected to a Wii.

[nat]

Careless oafs should be banned from buying video game consoles.

[ApolloBoy]

Careless oafs should be banned from buying video game consoles.

Indeed, it'll make things better for us collectors down the road.