I'm new to this hobby and was wondering how common screen burn is? Is there anything that can be done to get rid of it? Should I buy games with burn or try to find them without? Any info is apprciated.
Pretty common. Cant do much to get rid of. Some people will find a tv and do a tube swap. Using tinted glass or plexi helps hide it. I guess its your choice on with or without. If it doesnt affect gameplay I wouldnt worry too much about it.
It is very common. Especially on 'classics' (early 1980's games, made before the realized it was going to be a problem.) Later game design (1990's) moved stuff around on the screen so it wasn't such a big deal.
It is also nothing to worry about, being about the easiest cosmetic thing to fix on a game. Just find a compatible TV tube from Goodwill and swap the tube -- viola, no screen burn.
Screen burn is very common in games.
How do you fix it? Replacement is the only practical way of dealing with it. While I do have some limited experience in repairing screen burn issues back in the day of early composite color screens. Those specialized machine to cut out the guns have long been scrapped. The chemical to use to was out the tubes were toxic to people and made toxic goop that was hard to get rid of even in the late 70s.
Recoating a tube while it did improve the screen burns were still noticeable..