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SNES Game Collecting (Tips, discussion, and info for like minded collectors)

L

lostinblue

Banned
BocoDragon said:
Super Famicom cables are interchangeable with US SNES cables.

You could use a J21 cable or a SCART cable meant for US SNES or Super Famicom.
Click to expand...
That's that, then. ;)

US RGB cables incoming when I get around to it.


I also have other doubt or something to bring up, which is, I've been looking into pinouts and uncovered this passage:

First of all, thanks to Florian who sent me his whole SNES equipment for testing. I've put up the chain and got the well known "No Signal" error. Nevertheless I know that my stuff is working properly, so I was quite sure that there must something with the scaler. But after a little chat with Fudoh he pointed out that the XRGB-3 has same issues with SNES. So I focused on the SNES RGB cable.

It turns out that SNES signal level are far to high from a RGB point of view. So I made a attentuation circuit and put it into the RGB Cable, where it should placed imho.
Click to expand...
Source: http://bencao74.blogspot.pt/2011/10/scaler-pcb-gbs8220-and-snes-rgb-scart.html

Dude doesn't really go into detail here of what exactly he "attenuated", but he does do so, here:

(...) since Erik was to lazy to buy a RGB SNES from my site (...) he decided to make a RGB SNES Cable for his own. He posted his results here.

snes_schematic.jpg
Click to expand...

Please replace the 220 Ohm with 75 Ohm resistors for a better result.
Click to expand...
Source: http://bencao74.blogspot.pt/2011/11/erics-rgb-snes-cable-mod-with-220-ohm.html

Pretty sure most cables follow pinouts and resistor recommendations of those diagrams but it seems like we've been doing it wrong. Possibly only applies to PAL-lands but I still felt I should let it out there.
 
K

-KRS-

Member
lostinblue said:
That's that, then. ;)

US RGB cables incoming when I get around to it.


I also have other doubt or something to bring up, which is, I've been looking into pinouts and uncovered this passage:

Source: http://bencao74.blogspot.pt/2011/10/scaler-pcb-gbs8220-and-snes-rgb-scart.html

Dude doesn't really go into detail here of what exactly he "attenuated", but he does do so, here:

Source: http://bencao74.blogspot.pt/2011/11/erics-rgb-snes-cable-mod-with-220-ohm.html

Pretty sure most cables follow pinouts and resistor recommendations of those diagrams but it seems like we've been doing it wrong. Possibly only applies to PAL-lands but I still felt I should let it out there.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I think that only applies to PAL. But it could explain why the picture on my SFC + NTSC RGB SCART looks a bit better than on my PAL SNES + PAL RGB SCART on the same CRT.

The PAL SNES RGB signal is stronger than the NTSC SNES RGB signal I think. That's why if you hook up a PAL RGB SCART to an NTSC SNES the picture will be really dark since the signal is weaker. In the NTSC RGB SCART cables there are different capacitors that amplify the NTSC signal correctly. Perhaps the "regular" way of doing PAL RGB cables is still making the signal too strong.

Edit: Also, an added bonus with the NTSC RGB SCART cables is that they work great with PAL Gamecubes as well. I used to use my PAL SNES RGB cable for my GC as well and it looks pretty good. Good enough that I used that for years and was happy with it. But when I got my NTSC RGB cable I had read that it also works on PAL GCs, so I tried it and I literally said "Wow!". The difference was huge. It looks 10 times better. I said to myself 'man I can't believe what I've been missing all these years" haha.
 
L

lostinblue

Banned
synt4x said:
Edit: Also, an added bonus with the NTSC RGB SCART cables is that they work great with PAL Gamecubes as well. I used to use my PAL SNES RGB cable for my GC as well and it looks pretty good. Good enough that I used that for years and was happy with it. But when I got my NTSC RGB cable I had read that it also works on PAL GCs, so I tried it and I literally said "Wow!". The difference was huge. It looks 10 times better. I said to myself 'man I can't believe what I've been missing all these years" haha.
Click to expand...
:O

That's really good news (and really the kind of informed trial and error experience I've been looking for!), I have PAL Gamecube RGB cables and it didn't cross my mind for a second if they could be compatible.

Which means I can put off that acquisition for the super famicom for a while, even if the end result will be so much better once I do. I usually go the multiregion modding direction but with SNES I plan on having all of them.

NTSC is ugly as fuck (unless I score a SNES mini) but it has the proper cartridge length for NTSC (I dislike dremelling the shit out of poor old consoles that would be mint otherwise), the PAL one... well I'm in PAL-lands, it comes with the territory, and the japanese one is smelling like the ultimate one in the oven (proper overall look and 60 Hz, cheaper games also help a lot, seeing I can live perfectly fine with the fact a plataformer is in japanese)

I really need to get a few Nintendo RGB cables and play around sometime to see the differences though. I'll also purchase a RGB amp in time which will improve my results quite a bit I hope. I'm constantly working my scaler chain and a knob geometry manipulation device and a capable RGB amp with centering knob are all I am missing as of now. (well, after that the only improvement I can do is going for a XRGB-mini)

I wish I had them all just now to run some experiments (it sucks being poor, those are in my to get list for the next 6 months).
 
K

-KRS-

Member
lostinblue said:
:O

That's really good news (and really the kind of informed trial and error experience I've been looking for!), I have PAL Gamecube RGB cables and it didn't cross my mind for a second if they could be compatible.

Which means I can put off that acquisition for the super famicom for a while, even if the end result will be so much better once I do. I usually go the multiregion modding direction but with SNES I plan on having all of them.

NTSC is ugly as fuck (unless I score a SNES mini) but it has the proper cartridge length for NTSC (I dislike dremelling the shit out of poor old consoles that would be mint otherwise), the PAL one... well I'm in PAL-lands, it comes with the territory, and the japanese one is smelling like the ultimate one in the oven (proper overall look and 60 Hz, cheaper games also help a lot, seeing I can live perfectly fine with the fact a plataformer is in japanese)

I really need to get a few Nintendo RGB cables and play around sometime to see the differences though. I'll also purchase a RGB amp in time which will improve my results quite a bit I hope. I'm constantly working my scaler chain and a knob geometry manipulation device and a capable RGB amp with centering knob are all I am missing as of now. (well, after that the only improvement I can do is going for a XRGB-mini)

I wish I had them all just now to run some experiments (it sucks being poor, those are in my to get list for the next 6 months).
Click to expand...

Is your PAL GC cable specifically made for the PAL GC? If so it should probably work fine with Super Famicoms/US SNESes as well yes. But if the cable also seems to work fine on your PAL SNES I don't think it will work on an SFC/US SNES. It should be immediately obvious if it doesn't work with the PAL SNES so if everything seems fine I would assume the cable does not work on a SFC.
 
K

-KRS-

Member
Recently it's been one of the games I load up on my SD2SNES the most. It's really fun to play. I've gotten pretty used to the physics of the fishing line mechanic now and it totally changes how you approach the levels.

Edit: BTW, am I the only one who thinks the graphics and art in that game weren't exactly good? It feels kind of uninspired with some dashes of creativity here and there. Like enemies look pretty good and amusing but the levels themselves look boring as shit for the most part. And the backgrounds of many levels appear to simply be a digitized photograph. It feels sort of lazy but even so it's still a great game. The gameplay and music (while a bit cheesy at times) is really good at least.
 
H

Hayama Akito

Member
synt4x said:
Edit: BTW, am I the only one who thinks the graphics and art in that game weren't exactly good? It feels kind of uninspired with some dashes of creativity here and there. Like enemies look pretty good and amusing but the levels themselves look boring as shit for the most part. And the backgrounds of many levels appear to simply be a digitized photograph. It feels sort of lazy but even so it's still a great game. The gameplay and music (while a bit cheesy at times) is really good at least.
Click to expand...

Umihara was almost an Indie game on SFC at the time. For me the charm of the game is the fishing rod, so many possibilities in the gameplay! and i absolutely love the music.
 
K

-KRS-

Member
Oh yes. Everything else about the game is just lovely. Gameplay and music is ace. Just the artstyle and graphics aren't exactly its strong points. Actually, looking at later games in the series that seems to be the case there as well.

Still though, these games are the perfect example of "graphics doesn't matter" holding true.
 
S

sixteen-bit

Member
lol, I love that amateurish "bad art" aesthetic of all the Umihara Kawase games.

Charming as all get-out and the games themselves are rock-solid.
 
T

TangoAlphaLima

Member
So I pulled my old NES, SNES, and cartridges out of my parents' house this past weekend with the intent to hook them up in my man cave. Since my childhood game collection was rather limited, I'd like to casually get into collecting games from these generations. I don't necessarily want to target very many specific titles, nor do I want to spend a lot.

Any recommendations for how to go about doing this? I think I'd rather stay away from online purchasing, just because it kinda defeats the thrill of the hunt. Where's the best place to look for this stuff? Flea markets? Garage/yard sales? Craigslist? Has anyone tried the Midwest chain Vintage Stock?
 
depths20XX

depths20XX

Member
Yeah V-Stock is not that great. Usually overpriced and pretty bad selection.

You're better off going to Slackers or local game shop if you want to go the retail route.
 
K

-KRS-

Member
I think that you'll have your best chances of making deals at flea markets and yard sales, but even there people have become aware of what things are worth. A lot of times they have heard that old games are all the rage these days and therefore want like $50+ for a Super Mario World cart which is kind of hilarious. Sometimes they might have old games at second-hand stores, but again they're often checking prices online before putting them up for sale. It's hard to find good deals these days.

Also, ask your friends if they have any old stuff they want to get rid of.
 
T

TangoAlphaLima

Member
ZealousD said:
Vintage Stock is typically overpriced. You might get some commons for reasonable prices or if they have a sale going on, but overwise eBay is usually cheaper.
Click to expand...

depths20XX said:
Yeah V-Stock is not that great. Usually overpriced and pretty bad selection.

You're better off going to Slackers or local game shop if you want to go the retail route.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Apparently they had a B2G1 Free sale last weekend for Easter, but of course I didn't notice it until Monday when the sale was already over.

synt4x said:
I think that you'll have your best chances of making deals at flea markets and yard sales, but even there people have become aware of what things are worth. A lot of times they have heard that old games are all the rage these days and therefore want like $50+ for a Super Mario World cart which is kind of hilarious. Sometimes they might have old games at second-hand stores, but again they're often checking prices online before putting them up for sale. It's hard to find good deals these days.

Also, ask your friends if they have any old stuff they want to get rid of.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that sucks. Guess I missed the boat on vintage collecting long ago.

Its funny though, even my wife and parents think my old games are worth a lot. They're in good condition, and I have most, if not all of the original boxes and manuals, also in good condition, but I don't have anything particularly rare, so most of it goes for $20 or $30.
 
Z

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
TangoAlphaLima said:
Thanks. Apparently they had a B2G1 Free sale last weekend for Easter, but of course I didn't notice it until Monday when the sale was already over.
Click to expand...

You might save a little bit of money going the B2G1 free route, but it's probably not that much. I did do their sale the other day and bought like 10 games, but I probably only saved like $10, even taking eBay shipping costs into account.
 
T

TangoAlphaLima

Member
Found a guy on Craigslist who is selling a bunch of NES & SNES cartridges, so I picked out a bunch and inquired about them. If I buy all these, he'd give me approximately a 15% discount. Seems pretty reasonable to me. They all track pretty well with the prices on videogames.pricecharting.com, and I'm obviously not paying shipping, so that's a plus.

Thoughts? I know some of the games are trash, but I want some lousy games in my collection as well. After all, I had NES Wolverine and Back to the Future as a kid.

SNES:
Spiderman and the X-Men: Arcade's Revenge $4
Tiny Toon Adventures Buster Busts Loose $6
Toy Story $7
The Death and Return of Superman $20
The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse $10
Jurassic Park $7
X-men Mutant Apocalypse $10
Super Star Wars $10
Alien 3 $9

NES:
Track and Field $4
Xenophobe $3
Batman $6
Rescue $3
The Adventures of Bayou Billy $4
Ghost and Goblins $10
Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers $10
Tale spin $9
Excitebike $3
Castlevania 2 $10
Defender of the Crown $4
Double Dragon 2 $8
1943 $8
 
L

Linkhero1

Member
TangoAlphaLima said:
Found a guy on Craigslist who is selling a bunch of NES & SNES cartridges, so I picked out a bunch and inquired about them. If I buy all these, he'd give me approximately a 15% discount. Seems pretty reasonable to me. They all track pretty well with the prices on videogames.pricecharting.com, and I'm obviously not paying shipping, so that's a plus.

Thoughts? I know some of the games are trash, but I want some lousy games in my collection as well. After all, I had NES Wolverine and Back to the Future as a kid.

SNES:
Spiderman and the X-Men: Arcade's Revenge $4
Tiny Toon Adventures Buster Busts Loose $6
Toy Story $7
The Death and Return of Superman $20
The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse $10
Jurassic Park $7
X-men Mutant Apocalypse $10
Super Star Wars $10
Alien 3 $9

NES:
Track and Field $4
Xenophobe $3
Batman $6
Rescue $3
The Adventures of Bayou Billy $4
Ghost and Goblins $10
Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers $10
Tale spin $9
Excitebike $3
Castlevania 2 $10
Defender of the Crown $4
Double Dragon 2 $8
1943 $8
Click to expand...

Do you live in the Bay Area?
 
spookyfish

spookyfish

Member
I have a quick question: Is there ANY WAY to play Terranigma on an NTSC SNES? One of my favorite series during the 16-bit era, and I never got to play the finale.

Thanks!
 
B

brainpann

Member
spookyfish said:
I have a quick question: Is there ANY WAY to play Terranigma on an NTSC SNES? One of my favorite series during the 16-bit era, and I never got to play the finale.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Im assuming you mean the English version.
Yeah-you can play it via Super Everdrive/SD2SNES, or purchase a repro. Im actually playing through it right now.
 
Kagoshima_Luke

Kagoshima_Luke

Gold Member
OK SNES GAF, I have a question.

I have FFIV with the original battery and the save files are still working. That said, it hasn't been played in earnest for years. Maybe even a decade. I want to play through the game again, but should I risk playing with this battery?
 
T

The End

Member
I've got a copy of Demon's Crest (loose cart, works fine, original battery) that I'm thinking of parting ways with. Prices seem to be all over the place. What would you, dedicated SNES collectors, think is a decent range?
 
B

brainpann

Member
Kagoshima_Luke said:
OK SNES GAF, I have a question.

I have FFIV with the original battery and the save files are still working. That said, it hasn't been played in earnest for years. Maybe even a decade. I want to play through the game again, but should I risk playing with this battery?
Click to expand...

Id say chances are good that your save files will be fine. I suppose you could make a new save and see what happens. Not sure if that would actually test anything though.


The End said:
I've got a copy of Demon's Crest (loose cart, works fine, original battery) that I'm thinking of parting ways with. Prices seem to be all over the place. What would you, dedicated SNES collectors, think is a decent range?
Click to expand...

Holy crap at current Demons Crest prices! I payed $35 for my copy two years ago and felt i was getting robbed.

I dunno-$70-90.00 seems to be the current asking range. Some of the buy it nows were over $100.00, but thats just "impatience tax". :p
 
H

HaL64

Member
The End said:
I've got a copy of Demon's Crest (loose cart, works fine, original battery) that I'm thinking of parting ways with. Prices seem to be all over the place. What would you, dedicated SNES collectors, think is a decent range?
Click to expand...

That game is all over the place. I got mine by waiting on ebay for a "buy it now" for $70 with collectors case. If the label is very shiney, you could get up to $90 for it from a collector. But I'd say, outside of ebay, $70 is what you should be asking.
But putting it on ebay, buy it now for $100, and let it ride. It will be gone within a couple weeks. And then pat yourself on the back for contributing to the ever growing price increase.
 
H

Hero_of_the_Day

Member
The End said:
I've got a copy of Demon's Crest (loose cart, works fine, original battery) that I'm thinking of parting ways with. Prices seem to be all over the place. What would you, dedicated SNES collectors, think is a decent range?
Click to expand...

These are the last sold auctions on eBay:

puffLji.png
Click to expand...

Outside of the one $75, seems like it goes for $100 on the regular now. Figure out what eBay and Paypal fees would be, then try selling it here in the B/S/T thread for less that (ask for a paypal gift or for the buyer to cover fees). That way they get a better than eBay price, you get the same amount of money. Win/Win.

Sidenote, I totally called this and Mega Man X2 climbing up to $100+ months ago. Kind of sucks be right.
 
L

lostinblue

Banned
synt4x said:
Is your PAL GC cable specifically made for the PAL GC? If so it should probably work fine with Super Famicoms/US SNESes as well yes. But if the cable also seems to work fine on your PAL SNES I don't think it will work on an SFC/US SNES. It should be immediately obvious if it doesn't work with the PAL SNES so if everything seems fine I would assume the cable does not work on a SFC.
Click to expand...
It's the official GC one.

I never tried it on other nintendo consoles because I heard it was incompatible.

Seems like that's only half right as it does work with US and JP SNES consoles; still, I'll buy proper cables eventually, but that's lifesaving for now.

It absolutely shouldn't work with PAL SNES, I thought that meant not working with all SNES'es in the world. Feels good to be wrong.
 
Z

Zing

Banned
Kagoshima_Luke said:
OK SNES GAF, I have a question.

I have FFIV with the original battery and the save files are still working. That said, it hasn't been played in earnest for years. Maybe even a decade. I want to play through the game again, but should I risk playing with this battery?
Click to expand...
I have dozens of NES and SNES battery games. Not a single one has a dead battery.
 
B

brainpann

Member
Zing said:
I have dozens of NES and SNES battery games. Not a single one has a dead battery.
Click to expand...


Yeah-its actually not common that i come across a dead battery in a cart. Even with NES games. The only game i had trouble with recently was my Chrono Trigger cart.

Which reminds me- does anyone remember the name of the adapter that willl let you pull saves from an snes cart? I think you can then save them to an SD card.
 
B

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Zing said:
I have dozens of NES and SNES battery games. Not a single one has a dead battery.
Click to expand...

co-signed.

"5 years life" my ass!

Only Gameboy Gold/Silver should have a dead battery because of it's internal clock ticking away on that thing. There's a reason why most "ZOMG what about cart batteries??" people are Pokemon fans ;)
 
H

Hero_of_the_Day

Member
brainpann said:
Yeah-its actually not common that i come across a dead battery in a cart. Even with NES games. The only game i had trouble with recently was my Chrono Trigger cart.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've only had a few out of all of my games. Super Metroid, Mario All-Stars, Zelda 1, and Final Fantasy 3. I got fucked on that FF3. Started playing it, woke up the next morning and found my save gone.

But, yeah. If you're sure it's currently saving, it's not going to just go out over night. There is no reason to go through and replace every battery before you play a game. The vast majority will be fine.

One important note, though. Don't just save and immediately check if it kept it. It won't lose the save immediately, even with the system powered off. If I get a new game that doesn't have saves on it, I save it and then check it the next morning. Probably doesn't actually hold for more than 10 minutes, but just to be sure I let it sit overnight.
 
S

sixteen-bit

Member
brainpann said:
Yeah-its actually not common that i come across a dead battery in a cart. Even with NES games. The only game i had trouble with recently was my Chrono Trigger cart.

Which reminds me- does anyone remember the name of the adapter that willl let you pull saves from an snes cart? I think you can then save them to an SD card.
Click to expand...

retrode?
 
T

The End

Member
Hero_of_the_Day said:
These are the last sold auctions on eBay:



Outside of the one $75, seems like it goes for $100 on the regular now. Figure out what eBay and Paypal fees would be, then try selling it here in the B/S/T thread for less that (ask for a paypal gift or for the buyer to cover fees). That way they get a better than eBay price, you get the same amount of money. Win/Win.

Sidenote, I totally called this and Mega Man X2 climbing up to $100+ months ago. Kind of sucks be right.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'd be happy to sell it to one of you guys,it's literally sitting in a tupperware container and hasn't been played in probably two years. (And I totally forgot about the lack of battery save, I just meant I haven't opened it up).
 
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