NES/Famicom Appreciation Thread

putermcgee said:
Yeah, hardcore bummer. At least the cart looks amazing.

Buggy Popper is really cheap if you just want the cart. 400 yen or so at places around Akihabara, or under 200 in the burbs. Nice green cart too. And one of my favorite NES/Famicom soundtracks.
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Yea, being in the US means it's usually best to do a bulk order of cheaper carts so I can save a ton on shipping. Buggy Popper, Motocross Champion, Mach Rider and a few others are already on the list for my next order. And I still need to find Crisis Force at a decent price.
 
robot said:
Yea, being in the US means it's usually best to do a bulk order of cheaper carts so I can save a ton on shipping. Buggy Popper, Motocross Champion, Mach Rider and a few others are already on the list for my next order. And I still need to find Crisis Force at a decent price.
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Hahaha, I keep grabbing Mach Rider at shops, then putting it down again. I love that game, but I think mostly the music. I always end up thinking I'll never actually play it enough to justify the purchase.
 
amnesiac said:
Well I disabled the lockout chip and no more blinking lights, but the games still only run about 20% of the time. I guess it's a lost cause. Thanks for all your help!
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Clean the pins on the motherboard that the 72pin connector slides onto. Then look at the capacitors to see if there are any that are bulging.
 
Hi folk, haven't been on gaf for a few years now, but the past couple of months I've gotten into game collecting and have been buying nes games like a mad man. Thought I'd start following this thread.

My buddy gave me a broken nes years ago and a few months ago I thought I'd give a try at fixing it, and voila a new 72 pin connector and I was in business. The best part was that his game collection was rock solid. I started out immediately with copies of smb/duck hunt, zelda, mike tyson's punch out, smb3, contra, double dragon 2 and 3, rad racer 2, and a handful of mediocre sports games.

I'm in Atlanta and there's not many stores that sell retro games, but I'm pretty proud of a recent pick up I got from a store in north Georgia. I paid about $50 for the lot.
Kr7SDwg.jpg
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I think I've got about 90 games or so, not all amazing games but they still have got their entertaining quirks. I'll have to post the whole collection sometime soon. That being said, I was thinking about getting some universal game cases but with this many games I was wondering if anyone knew a cheap way to get them in bulk or maybe I should stick to the sleeves.. not sure what to do.
 
zaxor0 said:
I think I've got about 90 games or so, not all amazing games but they still have got their entertaining quirks. I'll have to post the whole collection sometime soon. That being said, I was thinking about getting some universal game cases but with this many games I was wondering if anyone knew a cheap way to get them in bulk or maybe I should stick to the sleeves.. not sure what to do.
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Not sure how cheap you want to go, but Universal Game Cases can be had for less than a buck a piece. I think for me it was close to $18 shipping, so was about 0.85 a piece. Cheaper than pretty much anything else I could find. Also, if you go this route, you could sell any dustcovers you have for about a buck a piece, help bring the overall cost down (on ebay they usually go for about $1.25, so after fees should be almost a dollar)
 
noquarter said:
Not sure how cheap you want to go, but Universal Game Cases can be had for less than a buck a piece. I think for me it was close to $18 shipping, so was about 0.85 a piece. Cheaper than pretty much anything else I could find. Also, if you go this route, you could sell any dustcovers you have for about a buck a piece, help bring the overall cost down (on ebay they usually go for about $1.25, so after fees should be almost a dollar)
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Do these fit NES games? I've got a few of them, and there wasn't any obvious way to fit the cartridge.
 
Lettuce said:
I wonder if the toyed with the idea of soldering the 2 pcb's that go between the CPU and PPU chips to the underside of the nes mainboard instead, that way you wouldn't need to desolder the CPU and PPU chips.

Yeah and thus defo needs a Scanline option
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Would there be room for that? I mean the bottom of the board just sits on the bottom case, no?

Also, I hope its easy to add an SPDIF connection for the audio. Pure. Digital. Audio. Pleasure. At last, the NES wont sound like I'm getting a brain tumor.
 
Back again. I really want to get my NES (version 1) to work. Here is what the problem is:

My games only work maybe 2 out of 10 tries, and when they do, they can be pretty glitchy. When they do not work, I get a white screen (it used to blink before I disabled the lockout chip). If I spend a minute or two wiggling them around and resetting the system, they eventually work.

Here is what I have done:

  • Cleaned the old 72 pin connector
  • Replaced the old 72 pin connector
  • Cleaned the part of the motherboard that the 72 pin connector slides into
  • Disabled lockout chip (blinking now gone)
  • Checked for bulging capacitors. I don't see any.
  • Cleaned games thoroughly
As I've said, the games do work eventually. Is there anything left to do? What could I be missing?

Thanks
 
amnesiac said:
Well I've tried both but I've found that I get a higher success rate by pushing them down.
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Which connector have you got in there, the new one or the original? I've heard some of the new ones aren't very good quality.

When I cleaned my original one, I also realigned the pins because they were all bent further back from the push down mechanism, if that makes sense. This allowed them to actually make proper contact with the games, and now I don't have to push it down, ever.
 
Peagles said:
Which connector have you got in there, the new one or the original? I've heard some of the new ones aren't very good quality.

When I cleaned my original one, I also realigned the pins because they were all bent further back from the push down mechanism, if that makes sense. This allowed them to actually make proper contact with the games, and now I don't have to push it down, ever.
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The one that is in there currently is the replacement one. I've bent the pins on my original one, and it grips really well to the game (to the point that it's a struggle to take them out!), but it is still pretty unreliable. I will give it another clean.

I also intend to try this thing about alignment at the bottom of the page. Hmm.
 
amnesiac said:
The one that is in there currently is the replacement one. I've bent the pins on my original one, and it grips really well to the game (to the point that it's a struggle to take them out!), but it is still pretty unreliable. I will give it another clean.

I also intend to try this thing about alignment at the bottom of the page. Hmm.
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When I put my NES back together after doing the RGB mod, I sort of had to realign it (although I did it kind of unintentionally, the description on that page sounds a bit like what I ended up doing). Before that I was getting glitchy graphics or nothing at all.

Some people have also had luck boiling the connector to give it a good clean. I haven't tried it myself but I think some people here have.
 
Peagles said:
When I put my NES back together after doing the RGB mod, I sort of had to realign it (although I did it kind of unintentionally, the description on that page sounds a bit like what I ended up doing). Before that I was getting glitchy graphics or nothing at all.

Some people have also had luck boiling the connector to give it a good clean. I haven't tried it myself but I think some people here have.
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Lettuce said:
Have you tried boiling the old 72pin connector in soapy water in a saucepan, I know it sounds crazy but does appear to work....

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnxZIuYb9WU
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Well I just boiled my 72 pin connector and hooked the console up again. It seems to work a little better. Or it's a placebo, I don't know.

What's really weird is that one of my copies of Super Mario Bros works flawlessly every time. How is this possible. None of my other games work on the first try. I've cleaned them all with isopropyl, but that Mario one is the only one that I've opened and cleaned heavily with an eraser. Coincidence? I don't know.
 
amnesiac said:
Well I just boiled my 72 pin connector and hooked the console up again. It seems to work a little better. Or it's a placebo, I don't know.

What's really weird is that one of my copies of Super Mario Bros works flawlessly every time. How is this possible. None of my other games work on the first try. I've cleaned them all with isopropyl, but that Mario one is the only one that I've opened and cleaned heavily with an eraser. Coincidence? I don't know.
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Do you clean the contacts on the carts with an eraser/rubber first?. I always use a rubber and then finish off with rubbing alcohol, the rubber is the best damn method of cleaning the contacts.

Here's a tutorial I make a while back showing how quick and effective it is......

www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3hwuTiBwvg
 
Lettuce said:
Do you clean the contacts on the carts with an eraser/rubber first?. I always use a rubber and then finish off with rubbing alcohol, the rubber is the best damn method of cleaning the contacts.

Here's a tutorial I make a while back showing how quick and effective it is......

www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3hwuTiBwvg
Click to expand...

He said his cart of Super Mario Bros is the only one that works consistently and that he cleaned that with an eraser. I agree that the eraser method is the best one. Go ahead and clean the rest of your carts that way amnesiac and they'll probably work as well.
 
Yeh I always use an eraser too. Followed by isopropyl.

If one game always works, but the others don't, it must be the other games (not the system itself) that have a problem.
 
Lettuce said:
Do you clean the contacts on the carts with an eraser/rubber first?. I always use a rubber and then finish off with rubbing alcohol, the rubber is the best damn method of cleaning the contacts.

Here's a tutorial I make a while back showing how quick and effective it is......

www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3hwuTiBwvg
Click to expand...

synt4x said:
He said his cart of Super Mario Bros is the only one that works consistently and that he cleaned that with an eraser. I agree that the eraser method is the best one. Go ahead and clean the rest of your carts that way amnesiac and they'll probably work as well.
Click to expand...

Peagles said:
Yeh I always use an eraser too. Followed by isopropyl.

If one game always works, but the others don't, it must be the other games (not the system itself) that have a problem.
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Yeah but the thing is Mario Bros is the only title I have that has flathead screws in the back so I have to order a security bit from somewhere. I'll probably add it to my next Amazon order.

I did see something about molding a bic pen to the shape though...
 
amnesiac said:
Yeah but the thing is Mario Bros is the only title I have that has flathead screws in the back so I have to order a security bit from somewhere. I'll probably add it to my next Amazon order.

I did see something about molding a bic pen to the shape though...
Click to expand...

You can do that but it won't last long. Basically you might get one or two carts opened before they get worn out. I say just get one of those bits. They're well worth it if you have a lot of carts or plan to get more.
 
amnesiac said:
Yeah but the thing is Mario Bros is the only title I have that has flathead screws in the back so I have to order a security bit from somewhere. I'll probably add it to my next Amazon order.

I did see something about molding a bic pen to the shape though...
Click to expand...

synt4x said:
You can do that but it won't last long. Basically you might get one or two carts opened before they get worn out. I say just get one of those bits. They're well worth it if you have a lot of carts or plan to get more.
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I agree they are well worth it. Get the steel ones though. Not the black looking ones (I don't know what they're made of but they're soft and get out of shape too easily, even though they're cheaper).
 
synt4x said:
You can do that but it won't last long. Basically you might get one or two carts opened before they get worn out. I say just get one of those bits. They're well worth it if you have a lot of carts or plan to get more.
Click to expand...

If you play Nintendo games with any sort of frequency it's more than worth it to buy the bit for what, $4-5 or so? Being able to open games and clean them up nicely will let your old NES fire up first time, every time. Haven't had an issue since I started doing that two years ago.
 
Mzo said:
If you play Nintendo games with any sort of frequency it's more than worth it to buy the bit for what, $4-5 or so? Being able to open games and clean them up nicely will let your old NES fire up first time, every time. Haven't had an issue since I started doing that two years ago.
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And the 4.5mm one is also good for opening up consoles like the SNES as well as Sega Genesis carts and probably other carts as well. I've sometimes seen them sold in bundles on ebay for like $10 or so. It's also worth getting one as soon as possible simply so you don't have like 150 carts to clean after having collected for a while as was my case...

Edit: By the way, I won an auction for a cart of Famicom Contra yesterday finally. $41... but I think it was worth it. For some reason that specific version of Contra is rarely seen on eBay, much less as an auction. And it's often quite expensive. Really strange. I would've guessed Contra sold well back in the day but perhaps the Famicom version didn't sell as much as the western one? Been meaning to get it for a long time now so I'm happy. I wanted the FC version both because it's the superior version because of the VRC2 chip used in it and also for the fact that the Famicom version came out... the exact same day I came out, so to speak haha. Can't wait for it to get here.
 
Mercutio said:
I'm not sure, but I think Everdrive and Powerpak might support Game Genie codes?
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I was going to mention flashcarts, but that's not a solution for actual carts obviously. But yes, the Powerpak definitely supports GG codes and I think the Everdrive does too. The Powerpak even has support for straight up emulator-style save states in most games if you wanna go that far lol.
 
mikespit1200 said:
Silly question: will a regular game genie work on a top loader NES?
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Looking at the adapter it's probably a case of physical incompatibility. It just doesn't fit. You could try it without the shell, and just sand the parts that won't fit.

[edit] Or use a famicom to nes adapter, then a nes to famicom adapter.
 
I wasn't expecting to see sales for Thanksgiving/Black Friday on RetroGate, but I took the plunge on both a Famicom cart and an N64 cart. When all of the games I buy are used, it's always a crapshoot to get them working well without some finagling. It'll be nice to just keep one cart in the system at all times instead.
 
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