IrishNinja
Member
much love to them but hoooo doggie can they get stuff wrong sometimes
NES/Famicom Appreciation Thread
- Thread starter Teknoman
- Start date
much love to them but hoooo doggie can they get stuff wrong sometimes
Shadow Hog
Member
All I know is that its music is pretty incredible.
robot
Member
Minty Moon Crystal and Crisis Force carts are here!
Both games are really good, but holy smokes Crisis Force is a technical marvel. Can get flickery at times but it's pushing out so much on this hardware. So damn impressive, and that classic Konami music. Moon Crystal has some really smooth main character animations, really fun/obscure platformer w/ Ninja Gaiden style cut scenes.
Both games are really good, but holy smokes Crisis Force is a technical marvel. Can get flickery at times but it's pushing out so much on this hardware. So damn impressive, and that classic Konami music. Moon Crystal has some really smooth main character animations, really fun/obscure platformer w/ Ninja Gaiden style cut scenes.
This is so true, it's not even close.
PC Engine CD >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> every other console add-on.
entremet
Member
They have good intentions. I'm grateful they're still going, but many of them aren't really super hardcore collectors.
Kohler (kobunheat here) is and Jeremy just got a FDS recently.
RadarScope1
Member
I truly love Retronauts. Been listener since the original 1UP incarnation.
Their recent episode about Super Mario Bros was a good listen. Kohler was a guest. I'm on mobile so I can't link but everyone should check it out.
Their recent episode about Super Mario Bros was a good listen. Kohler was a guest. I'm on mobile so I can't link but everyone should check it out.
StevieWhite
Member
Captured some video of Code Name: Viper for a post I did for my blog. Through an Analogue NT at 720p with the "NES" setting for scanlines. Thought I'd share! Loving the NT!
https://youtu.be/ZO2UDmQWHQY
Despite being a blatant Rolling Thunder rip-off, I always feel like this game never got the respect it deserved.
https://youtu.be/ZO2UDmQWHQY
Despite being a blatant Rolling Thunder rip-off, I always feel like this game never got the respect it deserved.
IrishNinja
Member
^love me some Viper, wanna say an issue of Nintnedo Power got me to push a friend to rent it in the day! great game, seemed so hard though
StevieWhite
Member
My GOD is it hard.
Yup NES and PCengine seem to have the best composite.
Back to Monster Party:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Entertainment
They made some pretty good / out there stuff!
Had no idea they made Android Assault.
Back to Monster Party:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Entertainment
They made some pretty good / out there stuff!
Had no idea they made Android Assault.
IrishNinja
Member
yeah, can't argue with that - though Mzo's Fam + FDS made me feel like that somehow put out better composite
it's just a shame most NES now wouldn't be hooked to a CRT. those colors + stretched out = ughhhhhh
Triple Dash
Neo Member
Picked up SCAT and Lolo 3 earlier today. Haven't played any of the past Lolo games, mostly just got it because of store credit for DVD trades, so I hope it isn't too difficult.
For those in Michigan like myself, I'd definitely check out American Treasures over in Kalamazoo as they had the rarest collection of games I've seen thus far from a US store from the NES/Famicom stock alone (heck the owner showed me his prototype copy of SCAT). They're closing and going online at the end of the month so it'd be best to check them out while you still can.
Moon Crystal I think that one's been going up in price recently from what I can tell. Is it worth the price?
For those in Michigan like myself, I'd definitely check out American Treasures over in Kalamazoo as they had the rarest collection of games I've seen thus far from a US store from the NES/Famicom stock alone (heck the owner showed me his prototype copy of SCAT). They're closing and going online at the end of the month so it'd be best to check them out while you still can.
Moon Crystal I think that one's been going up in price recently from what I can tell. Is it worth the price?
D.Lo
Member
robot
Member
I tried it out on the Everdrive first and felt it was worth what I paid (around $120). Definitely try it first somehow - when it comes to the more expensive nes/famicom titles I would never recommend a blind buy.
Does the AV Famicom has the best Composite too?
Genuinely curious as it's my only Composite console, and boy it doesn't look nice to me. Other consoles have even worse Composite?
sixteen-bit
Member
My NES composite looks pretty bad imo PCE composite through the IFU briefcase setup looks shockingly good tho
Chittagong
Gold Member
We definitely should nominate Lolo 1 for a monthly game one month
D.Lo
Member
AV Famicom has slightly better composite than the NES in my experience.
And you have no other composite consoles? Almost every console ever supports composite. PS3 and Wii came with composite cables in the box.
coughlanio
Member
*drum roll*
Faxanadu was voted for before Crystal Palace, so I would suggest that that means it's the winner, unless people strongly feel otherwise. It's also the cheaper title, so *shrugs*.
Faxanadu was voted for before Crystal Palace, so I would suggest that that means it's the winner, unless people strongly feel otherwise. It's also the cheaper title, so *shrugs*.
I may have Composite consoles, but I don't have the Composite cables. My Sega consoles shipped with Scart in the box in my country, and the consoles I've bought used came without any cables, and I only got Scart cables for them too. Hell, I even went out of my way to get a French SC-3000 with RGB out (and 50Hz 
)
You're right about the Wii, I completely forgot about it. But I bought it in 2007 and promptly got a Scart cable for it too. I probably threw the original Composite cable away years ago.
The Composite I got from the AV Famicom is very flickery. Not fuzzy, but vertical lines are like wavy, oscillating at presumably 60Hz. It's very noticeable on Salamander and the cell pattern on its first stage. It doesn't show at all on screenshots though, obviously.
)You're right about the Wii, I completely forgot about it. But I bought it in 2007 and promptly got a Scart cable for it too. I probably threw the original Composite cable away years ago.
The Composite I got from the AV Famicom is very flickery. Not fuzzy, but vertical lines are like wavy, oscillating at presumably 60Hz. It's very noticeable on Salamander and the cell pattern on its first stage. It doesn't show at all on screenshots though, obviously.
*drum roll*
Faxanadu was voted for before Crystal Palace, so I would suggest that that means it's the winner, unless people strongly feel otherwise. It's also the cheaper title, so *shrugs*.
Faxanadu it is! Let's hope Crystal Palace doesn't price itself out of range by the next time it's up for vote.
eXistor
Member
Randomly browsing eBay, found this "acceptable" Zelda cart.
RoryDropkick
Member
So close! I already beat Faxanadu recently, so I voted for Crystal Palace which i own, but never seriously played. Also, a lot of my cartridges are packed away, but Crystal Palace was at the top, making that an easy choice. Will still be fun to read your experiences though, Faxanadu is a pretty great game!
IrishNinja
Member
oh man, wonder how far ill get in Faxanadu this time without a neighbor to tag-team the game with, haha...and dont worry Golgo, you'll get your day in the sun <3
I had no idea!
Nice! I've been thinking of picking up one of those myself. Any advice on what I should look out for?
Chittagong
Gold Member
Shiiit. Faxanadu is really hard.
It was one of the most anticipated games of my childhood. Went to the store every day for weeks until it finally arrived. It was wonderful, and even the box art is gorgeous. But so hard.
It was one of the most anticipated games of my childhood. Went to the store every day for weeks until it finally arrived. It was wonderful, and even the box art is gorgeous. But so hard.
RadarScope1
Member
Shit, man, you have the coolest stuff. Now get it RGB modded, lol.
D.Lo
Member
Well, the orange one is the superior model. It has better dials that lock at the end (so the paddles don't scroll forever off the screen), and can take mains power
But the white unit is the original, the true first Nintendo.
Not possible by the looks of it, or even composite, it generates the RF signal on the chip.
I am Christina Aguilera
Member
I always was intrigued by its maps in Nintendo Power as a kid myself, but actually playing it, I aggressively dislike it. That may just be not completely wrapping my head around the controls yet, though. It just feels really slippery and you get bounced off of enemies really hard. There's just a feeling of lack of control about it that I really dislike.
For everyone that's going to play Faxanadu, remember not to get the pendant item (or to use a romhack that fixes it like this! The pendant's math programming is bugged, so instead of it increasing your attack power by 25%, it decreases it by 25%! It makes the last stretch of the game especially nasty to slog through.
Otherwise, lovely game, enjoy, all!
There's a guy who modded his Color TV Game 15 to output S-Video.
Here are the relevant links (in Japanese but it should be easy enough to understand).
First attempt:
http://meganekun.blogspot.jp/2012/07/tv.html
Second attempt (with schematic of the mod):
http://meganekun.blogspot.jp/2013/09/tv2.html
And the Color TV Game IC schematic:
http://blog.beforemario.com/2011/12/nintendo-color-tv-game-15-service.html
Another (less detailed) schematic of the CTG15:
http://junkbako.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/files/CTG-15S.PNG
And finally one of the CTG6:
http://junkbako.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/files/CTG-6V.PNG
I remember beating it quite easily, just have to grind a bit, and things will work out fine.
D.Lo
Member
My Monster Party still hasn't arrived lol.
I'm sure there's some way to tap at least composite out of these things, but it won't be easy, is totally not worth it, and would be hacking around with something that has lasted 38 years in basically perfect working condition.
I'm actually doing a write up right now about an RF to VGA box I've been testing, it's pretty great for RF-only consoles. I'll be posting it to the upscaler/CRT thread.
That's guy's modding a CTVG Block Breaker, not a 15, which may be different.
I'm sure there's some way to tap at least composite out of these things, but it won't be easy, is totally not worth it, and would be hacking around with something that has lasted 38 years in basically perfect working condition.
I'm actually doing a write up right now about an RF to VGA box I've been testing, it's pretty great for RF-only consoles. I'll be posting it to the upscaler/CRT thread.
Chittagong
Gold Member
Hmmm.., maybe it was because it had a really complicated password system, so I always got it wrong and had to restart every time.
RadarScope1
Member
Do you guys have any luck with Craigslist? Talk about a rip off.
Looks like sellers are looking at BIN prices on eBay and inflating their stuff.
The dream is dead
No, not really. The vast majority of stuff on my local CL is newer(ish) stuff like PS3, 360, Wii or DS. A few truly retro things show up now and then but they're mostly very common items. I did buy a lot of about 12 NES games a few months ago that included all six Mega Man games and Bucky O'Hare. I was able to sell most of the lot and therefore get some MM games I still needed and Bucky for less than the going rate.
entremet
Member
I type in NES, Genesis, etc. I get results, but it's mostly overpriced listing.
theSlacker
Member
Do you guys have any luck with Craigslist? Talk about a rip off.
Looks like sellers are looking at BIN prices on eBay and inflating their stuff.
The dream is dead
I've stopped searching for retro or any video game related stuff on Craigslist a while ago. There seemed to be more "BUYING ALL GAMES" ads then actual people selling stuff, and what was listed was from the people that had bought them already and were just instantly flipping them for a profit. Since I can't really treat it like a full time job there is literally zero chance at me being lucky enough to find good deals before they are gotten to by resellers in my area. Same goes for yardsales and thrift shops.
So yeah, the dream is dead, but it's been dead for so long that I can't even remember how it was like when it was alive. :c
RadarScope1
Member
I was of course just joking about the RGB mod. This converter sounds like the most sensible way to go about using a device of that vintage. Really cool to have the very first piece of Nintendo hardware.
D.Lo
Member
Yeah I knew you were joking
It allowed me to pivot to what I thought was another interesting point, that it output an RF signal right from the chip. Most consoles produce video in some other analogue format (RGB, composite, YUV) and then pass it through to an RF modulator, but really old ones like this create RF right in the IC.Ha that's crazy, it's exactly the same in Australia on our local version (Gumtree). Drives me crazy because it clogs up simple searches (much like how 'high quality custom case' crap clogs up game searches on eBay). I wonder how much money flippers actually make.
Hey, wow, no need to get defensive here; your post simply made me think you wanted to go for it, which is why I replied.
Apparently, the internals are pretty much the same, and the schematics in the links (which are for CTVG6 and 15) provide all the info you'd need to tap composite and sound signals.
I totally understand why you wouldn't want to do it, though; it sure is nice to keep an old device in its original state.
No, it doesn't, M52342P is the modulator that outputs the RF signal.
M58815P (CTVG15) and M58816P (CTVG6) output video on pin 11.
I'm curious to read about that RF->VGA converter.
Last I checked, RF demodulators weren't the cheapest piece of equipment, but I can't say I've looked very thoroughly.
How's the picture quality?
Clunkiness aside, is it worth it compared to the old (but unfathomably cheap) VHS trick?
This might be it, looking forward to read your impression when you play it!
D.Lo
Member
Oh okay. But that's still a different design to any other console I've ever modded, which usually pass a video signal to a separate RF circuit, not a chip.
Picture quality is kind of amazing, especially for Famicom. It's only as good as a blurry RF picture can be, but since movement doesn't makes the picture squirm like with composite (dot crawl), I think I prefer RF on this box over Composite to a Framemeister. It's better than a VCR, which gives you all the negatives of both RF AND composite on a HD screen (and no upscaling by itself). And it's tiny and cost AU$30 (US$20) delivered.
I'll be putting it up in the upscaler/crt thread when done, with a video of a Famicom running Turtles 2 through it.
Flizzzipper
Member
I played a ton of Batman today and finally beat the Joker. Took me a million continues and I got pretty damn good at the last level because of it. Great game.