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Finally, A Working NES!
vandel405 writes "We've seen the NES PC Conversion, and we've all lusted over the top-loading NES. But, top-loading NES's aren't something you're going to pick up at a garage sale. How can you resurrect your 8 bit console hero? Easy, with this news guide from ArsTechnica! Now you can make your 8Bit NES as reliable as your linux kernel. No more Blow and Pray!"
No more Blow and Pray!"
just like the girls at church
Really, replacing the connector isn't hard, requires no soldering, and cost me $17 CDN just a couple of years ago.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
I've actually got a Top-loading NES. I'll sell it for $100 :P
I'd be there are some on ebay, but the problem would be finding 'em. I don't feel like searching through a few hundred listings though.
I did find this 72-pin connector for replacing the cartage edge.
The NES cleaning kit also helps a lot.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
...now i can play burgertime once again!!!
...And the one pointing to the article is labelled "arstechnica". This is confusing.
I propose a standard system whereby the name of the article be a very long link, such as what I just made, so that it can be easily identified, and that it include the word "article". I propose doing away with the word "here" as a link, because it just makes you scan the rest of the sentence for the context.
Finally, I propose that homepages be included in parentheses, such as those of Arstechnica (home) -- there are few times that we are interested in the homepage of the company where the article is to be found.
Thank you.
This requires you to cut your nintendo case and use even more space with 4" of cartridge sticking out of the back. Plus, nothing is like coming back from a frat party and trying to load Super Mario Bros 3 while verbally abusing your nintendo :)
-dk
My friend has a top load NES and we've been playing it a lot this year. It's the shit! We don't really use the PS2 except for a DVD Player. The games seem just as addicting. Even though the graphics aren't the best, it's still very fun after all these years. Just goes to show how good graphics can't compensate for good game design.
or did that soldering job look super shady? You might be better off buying that game genie afterall...
Will this void the warranty?
--sex
Very popular slashdot journal for adul
What do I need a NES for I'll just play on my SNES, N64 or GC instead!!!!! hahahahhaa
Okay I admit I have no NES!!! And it's bothering me every day *sniff*
I fought the corporate America, and the corporate America bought the law.
River City Ransom was the BEST. You are going double dragon style to rescue Alex's girlfriend. It rocks. It's real fun too!
void
Before you dig out your soldering iron, try this first. Clean all your cartriges with your favorite cartrige cleaner and some isopropol alcohol. Then take your Nintendo apart, and clean that motherboard connector the same way. Now clean all the pins in that big, strange looking black connector with something flat, slightly abrasive, lint-free, and some more isopropol alcohol. Use some really fine grit sandpaper if you have to.
Now put the whole thing back together and forget about solder. Usually the insides just need to be cleaned, as the copper oxidizes slowly over time.
I turned an almost useless Nintendo into one that worked perfectly in under an hour at no cost.
Now we just need a way to replace the tiny controllers with bigger ones. Of course, I just use JNes anyways!
And you can still load from the front!
How To Repair Your NES
It lives up to it's name: http://www.sanspoint.com
The key to getting those old things to work a bit better isn't blowing.
To get cartridge playing the first time you insert them withut blowing is to open the NES and bend all the connectors out a bit.
Those things are a bit weak and tend to bend into the piece of plastic they're attached to, that's why after years of intensive use your NES doen't play games as well as it used to. Not all pins are conneced propperly.
I always found that a little rubbing alcohol did the trick. Get a tissue, pour the alcohol on it, and rub it lightly onto the metal connectors on the cartridge.
At first I thought this was just working 'cause it was cleaning the thing, but I found that I had to do it over and over to the same cartridge every time I wanted it to work. So I figured maybe it helped make the connections. It's been a while since I did any chem, tho... does anybody know if rubbing alcohol would help conduct?
See, back in 1993, I told you to get one of them top-loading NES's. They were selling for only $50. But NOOOOOOO, you said your old box version was doing just fine. Now, ten years later, who's system still works perfectly? Hmmm? Serves you right.
(Of course, I never use the thing. Emulators and all. Wonder how much I could sell it for on e-bay...)
I have an NES which has been a paperweight for a good 15 years now... It's sitting in my closet collecting dust. The connector inside is probably just fine... Now that I'm 25 and grown up and married and all, I never play it. Instead, I log on to XBox live and play UC. Maybe my wife will like it as a valentine's day gift. Hm.
Whenever the games copyrights expire i'd imagine.
Like someone said, all that effort isnt neccesary.
I took my motherboard out (of the nes), wrapped very fine grit sandpaper around a half popsicle stick and rubbed those connectors down. Blow it out good (canned air works well.)
Then i dipped the edge connector slot in some tinning solution so it wouldnt corrode again. Wash with some distilled water, let dry, put it back together and it has lasted untill so far. No problems with games booting or losing saved games.
It's easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
...you are a priest then?
I had pretty good success with opening it up, cleaning the connector with rubbing alcohol, and bending the pins up a little bit (so they grip the cartrige tighter). Replacing it entirely probably works better, but you might want to try something simpler first. YMMV
Now you can make your 8Bit NES as reliable as your linux kernel.
Believe me, my NES is EXACTLY as reliable as my linux kernal.
Now if you'll excuse me I'll be attempting to get the fscking thing to survive a boot sequence...
Replace the fucking connector.
That's all. That is the only peice of information the whole 3-page article gives you.
here's a more detailed description:
You know the connector on your nintendo? the one the cartridges plug in to? Replace it.
Woopty-shit.
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
I always thought the older one was the "mouth loading NES"
And yes I did wonder precisely what I was shoving the power lead into.
I cannot believe this story got linked. Look, the ars technica story is bullshit. It's half-assed and it's absolutely idiotic. Go to mcmelectronics.com, get part number 83-3785, the "NINTENDO TYPE 72 PIN CONNECTOR" and then just take apart your nintendo, pull out the old edge connector (it's a slide-on/slide-off procedure, no soldering or glue involved) and REPLACE IT WITH A NEW ONE. Then you're out like $6 + shipping and you didn't have to cut a hole in anything. Then again, if you like sticking it in from behind, this might be the mod for you.
Reinvent the wheel only at either a lower cost, greater effectiveness, or your own personal enrichment and satisfaction.
My favorite hobby is fixing semi-working game consoles because it's so damn easy.
First, find a console where, either the game just doesn't make the connection unless it's put in just right, or one of the connectors (controller, power, etc) has a similar problem.
This happens because a lot of (gradual) force is exerted on those connectors, and the designers were so stupid as to not insert something to take the punishment. In otherwords, everytime you plug in a cartridge, you are damaging the solder connection a little more.
Now that you know the problem, it should be easy to fix. Open up the system you bought for $5 at a pawn shop, and find the damaged connector. All you need to do is heat up a soldering iron, and add a little bit more solder to each one of the pins connecting to the board.
In some cases, the system was used in it's state for a good ammount of time, and the actual etchings on the board are damaged. In that case, you simply have to trace the etching te the next solder point, then connect a wire between the two.
With that info, you can now repair 90% of the consoles on the market. The other 10% were either dropped off of a building, or hooked up to the wrong AC adapter (``POP"!!!).
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
When the games don't work, most people blow and pray... and shove the game in as hard and far back as possible...
I've found that the easiest ways to get games to load good as new is to just not push it in all the way...
Push it just so that you can feel the game has "made contact" inside the system and everything should be good to go.. (this is cause most of the time the part worn out is the "root" of the connector inside)
It'll be like brand new... or atleast for another 5 years until you wear out the tips of the connector...)
Now you can make your 8Bit NES as reliable as your linux kernel.
:(
Guess I shouldn't try this then... just recompiled my kernel and now it won't boot
I once used a screw driver and pliers to pull out each and every one of thoes metal connectors out of the plastic 'U' frame, filed, bent, and reinserted them. (I'm not kidding).
How can you use my intestines as a gift? -Actual Hong Kong subtitle.
I have it for the Dreamcast. I have about 500 NES and SNES roms with the emulator. Plays pretty ok. I love the Dreamcast because of all the emulators for it.
Yeah. It scares me a bit that most of it is a quick "how to solder" primer - if you can't solder, you're going to kill your NES and burn the fuck out of your hands *looong* before you ever get it working.
I repair my ancient 4x CD Rewriter using some meths, a couple of cotton bud, a death metal CD and a hacksaw ... and you all get to see the pictures!
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
My PSX has only one of the ball bearings left, and even then it often falls out when the CD is removed. Half of the games don't work right unless (strangely) the PSX is on its side or upside-down - when they do load, it's unsettling to see Kunimitsu teleport randomly around the arena and end up with the polygons for her hair through the ground, while Law's finds his arms are on backwards. I'm sure I'm not the only owner of a borked PSX!
Hows about a conversion to let a PSX use a standard dirt-cheap CD drive?
... it just means you have to completely rebuild your NES from scratch every 4 months.
I once had a NES that was thrown 40' over the edge of a deck of a house that sat on a steep hillside.
Crushed by this abuse of my baby, I picked her up and carried her inside, I had spent so many a hours with her and metroid, amungst other games.
Upon openening the case, I noticed that the PCB had cracked near the AV out panel, across only 3 traces. I found some blue wire wrap wire and began carefully soldering the 3 traces.
After slapping what was left of the case back together, I put in a cartridge and pressed the power button. Sucess as I turned up the volume to annoy my father with my victory over his rage on my defensless nintendo.
**Shudders**
Man, I have a friend with a NES that works perfectly. Mine worked perfectly before I sold it to him! :( (A mistake I would not make again)
Anyway, it's what? A million years old now? Give or take an hour?
My XBox died tonight. That stupid DVD-ROM thingie that everybody loves so much about modern day machines went out! It DIED! DEAD! It won't read a CD, it won't read a DVD movie, it won't read a single damned thing!
After doing a web-search I found that this is common on the XBox, and apparently there is a high demand for used DVD mechanisms taken out of broken XBoxes.
So I called Microsoft and much to my shock they were aware of this issue, considered my XBox still under warrenty, and are going to repair the unit.
Now, I would like to point out that this XBox is hardly used because there really just aren't that many great games for it. If I had to guess I'd say the machine has maybe between 60 to 80 hours of use.
Now, that old Nintendo probably has somewhere near thousands of hours of use. LITERALLY Thousands. We figured out long ago that the old "blow on the terminals" trick isn't even necessary. If the game give a flashing red screen or solid black screen we simply turn the machine off, eject, reinsert, power back on (sans blowing) and it is normally fine.
Do you know how many times I ejected that DVD and reinserted it into that XBOX? At least a half dozen. Trying to "Clean it" to make sure the disc wasn't defective probably created more scratches than existed previously and it wasn't until after I tried other games that I realized it was the XBox, and not the discs.
I guess the point I'm trying to make is that while I actually remember cases of Nintendos breaking down they were the few sad stories, and not an epidemic.
So while people might complain that those 15 year old game machines are a pain in the ass to get running, just remember, they don't build them like they used to. And they don't make the games nearly as fun, either.
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
I can do it in 3 words,
replace the connector
Blow & pray, All the way,
That's the way they go.
I know that *nothing beats the real thing* but wouldnt it just be easier to spark up the old NES EMU we all have kicking about and save the old NES hardware for something useful. You know, for something like a paper weight
I've just written my own custom DDX routines!!
For games like Final Fantasy or Zelda, you probably will need to replace the cartridge battery
One of my unfinished projects is to go over some SNES emulators for DC and see if they're optimizable. I wouldn't be suprised if it's poor (should probably say average) coding that's causing these games to run so choppily. For now though a pc and a Sidewinder seems to be the way to go.
I'm the big fish in the big pond bitch.
What is up with the top loading NES??? I bought one of these a while back (about 4 or 5 years ago I think). Wasn't a big deal, was real cheap (like 40 bucks or so).
Are people trying to get ahold of them??? Are they rare?
Sometimes I just dont get why old stuff is popular.
Derek
Why is this on slashdot, or arstechnica?
>> top-loading NES's aren't something you're going to pick up at a garage sale
Funny, I did just that. 10 bucks. You'd be surprised what you can pick up at a garage sale.
I have 3 of the oldschool models. One is vintage to the year of release. They all work flawlessly. The reason is I never blew on them or the carts. If a game doesn't work, I clean the edge connectors with some rubbing alcohol and q-tips.
Frankly I'm not impressed with the way they ruined that NES by hacking a big old hole in the back. Even with a bad connector you can restore it to original in a half hour or so for less than 5 bucks (you can get replacements).
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Lets see...I'm ignorant and you're referring to my mother's penis? Who's ignorant? Generally there are two sexes:
a) male: which generally speaking have penises, a male parent is usually referred to as a "father"
b) female: which generally speaking have vaginas, a female parent is usually referred to as a "mother." I'm not 100% how to categorize the hermaphrodite and other medial anomalies.
So if your father was a cross-dresser that preferred to be called mom, maybe that's why you think mothers have penises. And apparently your father was a sick pedophile who made you suck his dick.
I feel so bad for you, what a horrible childhood!
I had a NES stop reading cartridges a few years ago. I noticed the springs in the cartridge tray were weak enough that the tray wiggled. I replaced the springs (purchased at ACE hardware)and it has worked fine ever since.
I picked up one of the redesigned top load NES consoles a few years back at a Wal-Mart. Doesn't seem like it was that long ago, but it could have been 5+ years ago. And sure enough, it's in tip top shape.
- Order a replacement 72-pin connector from MCM electronics. Go ahead and slashdot them, but BUY ONE. If enough people buy them, hopefully they'll keep making them.
- If you don't have one, order one of these tookits too. You'll need some of the bits to open your NES without destroying it, and it's got lots of insanely useful other bits too.
- Take your NES apart, carefully, and replace the connector. It's all screws once you're past the cover. Take a few digital photos along the way so you can back up if you get lost. It's not hard.
- Be happy.
I'd invite you over to Nintendo Hockey, but that game as a fatal flaw: I can't be beaten at it. Oh well.-- http://frobnosticate.com
I picked up two of those top loading nintendo's at a garage sale for $10!
There really slick, however they've got their own little quirks.
I've since sold one of them, but they both needed to have a little wedge of paper crammed behind the cartridge, otherwise you'd get the GGSOD, "Grey Gibberish Screen Of Death"
BTW, mines not for sale...
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out is buggy on most of them as well.
How? Just one minute ago, I was able to TKO the first opponent using the open-source emulator FCE Ultra without a single glitch. Just make sure you don't have a bad dump.
Will I retire or break 10K?
I actually had the fortitude in my younger days to save up enough cash to send it Authorized Nintendo Repair Service. While it didn't amount to a great deal (replaced the connector...sound familiar yet?), it still put me out US$50.
:-)
Of better note, however, was the tech who serviced my console, and brought up an interesting point I haven't seen posted yet. The very "fix" we used to use (blowing...air, that is) as youts is the major cause of corrosion. Yes, I know copper oxidizes on its own, but when introduced to a moist environment, the process is accelerated.
"Moist environment? But this is my Nintendo?" you may be asking yourself. Consider this: besides CO2, we also exhale H2O. Condensation of that water vapor on the cartridge contacts is the main culprit. "But the velocity of a blow on the cartridge would negate any condensation," I can hear some saying. Nay, if your warm breath, no matter how fast, comes in contact with a colder object, condensation will form.
But we're all slashdotters. We all knew this already, correct?
Dear Penthouse,
oops, I mean, in order to get your games to work on the original NES, don't blow. Blowing on the games might make the problem worse over time by introducing more contaminants. Instead, insert the cart, lock it down, then wiggle it left and right about 20 times. This is just a short term thing to get the game working. You need to clean it (your carts AND your console) to eliminate the problem.
Also, to keep the games from getting dirty, never set them on carpet and keep them in the sleeve or other container when not in use. Try to keep the console off the carpet too. No slouching!
I assert ownership of all trademarks and copyrights on this page.
I much prefer playing "Fester's Quest" and THE BEST VERSION OF TETRIS HANDS DOWN EVER + Monopoly with really good "cheater AI opponents" and Wall Street Kid - all on the road with my PowerBook or having it placed on my desktop.
I really find nothing special about the mod. You could also buy "REconnect" from a hardware store or Radio Shack. It a solution that you apply to any metal surface that cleans and "deposits gold, silver" bonding to most metals. It kinda refurbs faulty or bad current flow due to wear, soiling, shorting, or small connection.
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
While Emulation is nice (dont have to buy a famicom to play the japanese titles) it just doenst have the same feel as playing the NES unless you have hacked a nes controler to a serial port and are outputing the video to a tv.
This is why projects like this one (although stupid) are still done. It's like taking a walk back though time to when you were younger. Square controler in your hand, annoingly small buttons, and the small little leap of joy when the cart would work right without having to go though the ritual. THIS is what makes even considering repairing an old unit like this worth while.
any idea how to fix those? Seems they're all comeing up crappy...I had an urge to play PSO the other day...only to find the discs will spin up, but the laser does not emit any lgiht!
I just looked at the first page of this linked
article. You do NOT need a soldering iron!
I've fixed LOTS of these units, and all you
need is to call MCM Electronics at 1-800-543-4330
or visit them on the WWW at www.mcmelectronics.com
and get:
Item #83-3785, NINTENDO TYPE 72 PIN CONNECTOR, $5.99 each
And if you need it:
Item #22-1145, 3.8MM SECURITY BIT (SMALL), $1.99
Or:
Item #22-1150, 4.5MM SECURITY BIT (LARGE), $1.99
I don't work for them, but I have ordered from
them (these very parts) and they are a great
company.
There are LOTS of screws to be removed and
replaced so keep track of where they all go.
The old cartridge slot just slides off, and
the new one slides on. This is a very simple
task, but you need to pay close attention to
what you are doing and where the screws came
from and go back. I have NEVER needed a
soldering iron for this repair, and I don't
think anyone should.
And for the record, anyone who blows on their
cartridges or into their cartridge slot is a
moron. You are doing more harm than good. Get
a system cleaning kit for the cartridge slot,
and you can use cotton swabs and 90% Isopropyl
Alcohol for the cartridge connectors. Good luck!
MCM Electronics has the part for $5.99 (US) here is the url
NES Connector
The best part is no case mods required.
Meddle thou not in the affairs of Dragons, for thou art crunchy and with most anything.
1. Put the cartridge in and slowly wiggle it from left to right and back for about 3 seconds.
2. Press the cartridge down, and hold it down as far as it will go, and hold the power button down for 5 seconds.
3. Start playing.
Odd thing is, it worked almost every time . . . and my parents started saving a lot of money on alcohol and Q-tips, so I could get more games!
A new cartridge connector is $10 on ebay. And all you need top put it in is a phillips head screwdriver. The connection is so tight you can play the game without pushing it down in the cartridge chamber.
---- "Excuse me. Where's the children's gun section?"
Here [Fatman Games] is another good article on the topic of repairing your NES (my new site). It is fully illustrated, and has several helpful links.
I've found that while the top-load NES and the pin replacement techniques produce good results, nothing beats taking care of your GAMES. Some games that I've bought used just don't play well, regardless of how much I clean the system or the game.
I also had a NES week a while back that had some great reviews and articles. Good for the 8-bit flashbacks.
Video Game News, FAQs, etc
Yea, what a waste of a CD to burn. I tried it out awhile back. Just recently I was checking out the progress, sounds like they are almost there but still not quite.
What I really wanted to do was be able to play some old SNES games in the lazy boy especially some RPGs I never had a chance to complete. I've just built a FreeBSD DVD player from my old p3 500. But damn it SNES9x is getting compile errors and zsnes doesn't support USB gamepads. I haven't had much of a chance to explore these problems yet though.
Understanding is a three-edged sword. -- Kosh Naranek
No more Blow and Pray!
Hey, if he's doing it with absolutely no regard whatsoever for static protection, there's gonna be plenty of blow and pray... and I don't see a single wrist strap in the photos.
*PLEASE* use static protection on anything you're repairing or modding. Why? By the time you see a static electric spark, it's on the order of 3,000V per millimeter. Sure, there's very little current behind it, but it's still more than any one of the millions of MOSFET transistors in a microprocessor or memory chip can handle. And it only takes about 25V to exceed the dielectric strength of the gate-junction layer in a typical MOSFET.
Static damage is seldom obvious. Usually, a damaged system will still boot and appear to work. But one bad transistor out of the millions in a memory chip or CPU can make it intermittent. What if one bit in a RAM chip sometimes spat back a 1, no matter what had been saved there? The computer would probably work just fine... except for the occasional "inexplicable" crash when the CPU tried to execute an instruction read from that RAM location.
A wriststrap and antistatic pad are *so* cheap and save *so many* problems.
Fire and Meat. Yummy.
Hmmm, that sucks, I'm using my game box for emulation ... i.e. windows, and my USB gamepad works. Shouldn't be too hard to get it working under BSD.
I'm the big fish in the big pond bitch.
The way I see it, I have two options:
1)Spend hours doing the procedure described in the article
2)Spend minutes installing an emulator.
What do you think is the more logical option?
"Do I dare disturb the universe?"
Can someone please take their time to explain to me why the words "linux" and "kernel" are contained in the above post?
/dev/null.
The only explanation I can think of is those words automagically alter the probability of acception and posting of ones` submission to slashdot, in much the same way the words FREE and ENLARGEMENT alter the probability of e-mail ending up at
But procmail does not get paid to do that.
???
my
I'm certainly no zealot, but I'd disagree. Halo is great, I've thoroughly enjoy Amped, Outlaw Golf was fun until I mastered it (but I love golf, so that's not really fair), Morrowind was epic, enjoyable, and entirely too long (to me Baldur's Gate was too long), and my personal favorite is Project Gotham.
Now, I've never owned or enjoyed playing a racing game. I'm not even a big car guy (I drive a 95 Neon), but this game is a blast. I bought the driving wheel, which is the only way to play the game. The city streets are identical to the real world, down to crosswalk markings and pavement coloring (e.g., the green and red pavement in London, properly textured). After more than 36 hours of finished race time, I still come back for more.
In fact, while driving around with my wife in my Neon, I like to threaten her with a power slide by grabbing the hand brake and saying, "Hold on, Kudos opportunity!" That game honestly changed the way I look at driving in real life. I love it.
Hold your flames, though, I realize the physics were ph*cked with to make the game more arcade-y. It's still a hell of a game. Plus, the Carrera GT was just up on Yahoo's most popular photo list, which is my personal favorite car in the game (b/c I haven't earned the F50 yet).
So bite your toungue with that no fun games stuff. :-) I (probably the only one, based on sales) don't think GTA3 is all that special. The graphics are ho-hum, and having sex with hookers to up my strength simply doesn't get me off. Slapping them around ranks about the same. I guess I'm not 18 any more...
doug.
first one
This is not B.S., It works. This is commonly done by antique radio restorers to fix faulty switches and controls. It was also a trick used in the days of "slot cars". A similar thing is done by using di-electric grease on light bulb sockets and spark plug contacts.
Radio-shack TV tuner cleaner (which leaves behind a lubricant) is another thing you can use if you want to get fancy. Craig Labs "DE-OXIT" (available on the web) is what the pro's use.
WD-40 attracts dust so you can use the fancier stuff if you believe your gaming system is collectible.
This is from someone who does a lot of repair of high-end test instrumentation...
What more can you say about this utterly usedless mod but:
:)
"Imagine a Beowold Cluster of these in Soviet Russia!!" Don't forget to tip the waitress on the way out
You need a FREE iPod Nano
It doesn't take a master to design something to last forever.
It takes a genius to make something that breaks down and forces people to spend money repairing it.
Case in point: Nintendo, Sega, Microsoft, Sony...
You get the idea.
Striking fear in the authors of godawful fanfiction, I am here, appearing in darkness, Tuxedo Jack!
I know there's no way I'm the first to think this, but does anyone else think that this could become the next goatse pic?
Would using compressed air work better than blowing on the cartridge?
"Evil will always triumph because good is dumb." -- Dark Helmet
(-1 Off Topic)
What I find most interesting is how many people I knew growing up who independantly came up with the "Blow On It" thing. Hell, I did myself.
I repaired an old SNES "Game Genie" by picking up a replacement slot connector at the local "Radio Shack" and soldering it in place. It was too wide, but some strategic hackery made it irrelevant. That, and an hour or two of soldering under a magnifier (My eyes aren't perfect) and it was perfectly functional.
Damn it, I want to play Old School Zelda again.
You lose the composite out, and it's not any more reliable than the classic model.
How can I say that? It's simple, you need to go get a NES GameGenie. If you're unfamiliar with it, the added 3.5 inches/8.75 cm makes it so you can't push the cartridge down. The benefit of this is that you get a nice, solid connection every time you push it into the unit. My NES became practically useless to use without the GameGenie in 1992, but with the GameGenie I've never had a problem.
So, save yourself either time (the time to fix in this article), the money (a top loading NES is not worth 150$ CDN), and the composite out (because top loading NES is RF only!), and just get a GameGenie.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
Cut open the case? What the heck?
At first I thought that this was an article on how to replace the component, which requires no soldering, or other nastiness..
Just buy new pins for the thing, no cutting involved. Do a search on eBay for "NES Pins" and you can find them in the $10-12 range. A philips-head screwdriver is all that is required. Make sure that you get one with instructions.
I worked at a used video game shop for a couple of years, and ever NES we sold had new pins. I probably installed 500 of the things, and I rarely had any problems. Buy a coulple of sets, so that in 10 years you can replace them again!
good thing I came across this post. Otherwise I would have sold my top loader at my upcoming garage sale. Is this actually worth something?
Back in 93, I was 8 and I had asked my mom to get me a Sega Genesis. Instead, she got confused and bought me this top-loader. They are really nice. Expecially the round controller.
in video game technology we bring an 8-bit system that actually works. After you cut a hole in the back, make a ton of soldering connections and order $10 ($3 parts, $7 shipping) worth of supplies IF you have the tools laying close by.
How far we've come.
The toploading NES had no composite port. Instead, you had to re-add the composite and audio mono hookups via a complicated hardware hack. I once saw a webpage that showed how do to it.
:)
However, when you consider that a NES GameGenie will also fix these troubles for far less $$, it really doesn't matter
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Actually I do wonder about this. In general CARTS were bullet proof things. How easy is it going to be to find less trivially download sized old PSX games in 10 years, is there any project to dump these now while the CDs nearly work?
.5GB or so per game it'll be a while, but it's not too awfully hard to find most games today anyway.
i doubt that'll be a problem given how easy they are to pirate (and play on an emulator even if you don't own a modchipped psx.) harddrives keep getting bigger, it won't be as long as you'd think before people are sharing the entire catalog of psx games on p2p like they do now for MAME. ok, at
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the emulator is free
Why the hell would you hack the system like that? Orignal NEW NES connectors are still available, and they're easy to replace. I know that MCM Electronics (www.i-mcm.com) had them a while ago, and places like Hosfelt (www.hosfelt.com) Electronics, and even Parts Express (www.{takeaguess}.com) would probably have them, too... and you don't have to hack yer NES to make it work again. Sheesh. Sometimes cutting holes in the case ISN't the best fix.
-- Liberalism is a mental disorder.
I still have my original Nintendo.....and I never have had to blow & pray...even to this day it works perfectly. In fact, I remember back in the day hearing that blowing on your cartridges was actually a bad thing to do.
Yes, mine still works great, granted my mother was a clean-freak, so take it w/ a grain of salt
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
Halo is Great, and Gotham is at least so-so. Fun at least, but only for a short while. Amped did nothing for me, and I'm not into Golf. Morrowind is fine, I guess, but available on the PC.
That's a FEW mediocre to good games. Halo of course being the best of them. And Gotham being pretty much standard stuff as far as racing (though the Kudos were a fun addition.)
Point is, with the FEW (and I mean very few) good games for the XBox, my system has not been played enough for the drive to have actually failed.
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
I don't know how much those things are going for on Ebay...you can get 'em in Japan for under $50.
Netjak.com independent reviews of domestic & import video ga
What is the author of this smoking?
I got my secondary NES at a Garage Sale just last summer. $20 for that and a working 15' monitor. I got 160 Atari 2600 cartridges and several consoles for about $50 too, a few summers ago.
These things are everywhere.
-Clio
Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
Opinions differ, and I was just trying to weigh in with a positive one re: the XBox.
FYI, the first day I brought mine home the thing fried after about 5 minutes. I exchnaged it the same day.
I also just replaced a hard drive and CDROM from 96 on a piece of equipment at work. I think hardware tends to be luck of the draw.
... never had an nes, but did have a Sega Master System & Sega Genesis.. Maybe I'd still play them, except almost all the controllers are dead. :(. Anyone have tips for reviving those parts?
Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
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People post dumps of psx games already on alt.binaries.cd.image.playstation and alt.binaries.cd.image.playstation.repost - all you need is a decent news server and a fast connection.
FYI, the first day I brought mine home the thing fried after about 5 minutes. I exchnaged it the same day.
I wish mine had died two months ago, then I could have taken it back to the store where I bought it.
Yeah, I generally tend to agree that hardware is luck of the draw, but a good web-search is yielding tons of results of this particular problem. One thread I found that no longer existed was literally hundreds of "ME TOO! SAME PROBLEM!" I was only able to read it through it's Google cache...
I'm glad the warrenty covers this, and I sure hope I have better luck with the replacement. I was so wanting to get into Panzer Dragoon Orta and DOAX.
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
This one's worth its weight in gold:
http://nintendope.iodized.net/thisoldnes/lock.txt
It permanently stops the "flashing NES" syndrome, and permits you to play lots of unlicensed and international games. It worked brilliantly for me!
The way myself and my younger brother do it is to
open it up loosen the connector then with a cartridge in the slot tighten it down again (after cleanin everything with cleaning solution of course)this simple fix works great since we've found that nine times out of ten the connectors are simply out of alignement. and it does not cost a penny
I don't know if you know about this game called Animal Crossing for the Gamecube. It has a kiddy title, and a kiddy appearance, but ANYONE who plays it know how much it rules! AND... as a bonus, there are tons of hidden NES games in it! Punch-Out, Pinball, Ice Climber, etc. Others are RUMORED to be there too (Zelda, SMB, etc).
As I saw someone else state, all that is completely unneeded. all you have todo is:
...and sooo much more!!!
1: Clean contacts with rubbing alcohol
2: bend pins back at a more upright angle. Dental scraping tools work great for this, and takes under a min.
3: apply gold contact 'paint'(don't remember it's exact name), which can be had at just about any hardware store, so the contacts don't become corroded again.
4: clean all your game's contacts with q-tips and more alcohol.
5: and if you want the pins to stay this time, don't leave the games in the console when your not playing.
OR
Just buy an xbox and modchip, have a state of the art gaming system, and have access to all the classic consoles on one. You'll get that console feel, sitting in front of your 42" Plasma EDTV;-P Hell, you can play:
Sega Master System
Sega Genesis
NES
SNES
Atari 2600
Thanks to a good cleaning. The edge connector on the motherboard is mostly to blame, it gets corroded over time. The actual pin connector that makes contact with the cart is actually very durable, none of my pins have bent to the point of no connection despite this unit being 15 years old.
Some suggestions to get your unit working:
1. USE AN ERASER. YOU MUST, -MUST- DO THIS.
Smirk if you will, but erasers have been the #1 most effective way I've found for getting corrosion off conductive surfaces. When you open the NES to clean the edge connector, use these before you use any chemicals.
Even better, you can use erasers to clean up your cart pins just by running the side of a pencil eraser along your cart's pins. You can use the pencil to reach down in there, so you don't even have to remove the plastic case.
2. Still having games with flashing green screens at boot? Use the friction between the pin connector and the cartridge to your advantage. Since this is a metal-on-metal connection, you can use the two connectors to cut through the grime.
Insert the cartridge so that it's not quite seated in the back and push it down so it locks in and the pins bite down on it. Now, if you push hard, you can still move the cartridge forward just a little. Without removing it, carefully push it forward. It should move all of a few millimeters, but that much friction between the two will cut through corrosion on both the cart and the pin connectors.
You should be able to make games work more often on the first try with this trick, although admittedly it may not be good for the long-term life of the connectors.
Man is the animal that laughs.
And occasionally whores for Karma.
What I'd like to see is an NES controller mod for the dreamcast. NesterDC is extremely mature, and can play most games with no problems whatsoever. That way, you can shove the entire NES library on a CD and you don't have to worry about dead batteries (the VMU will still save games without batteries.) The only real problem is that the DC's controller blows.
So now that I know what to do to fix my NES, what can I do to make the original controllers work better? I've noticed the direction-pad isn't as sharp as it used to be.
After reading this article's comments, my jaw is still on the floor. I don't get it.
(1) Why are you all drooling over these top-loading NES machines as if they were rare collector's things? Bloody hell, my friend bought one for the AU equivelant of US$10. They're around! Although they *do* seem to be faster than the regular NES machines - the Mario Brothers theme just doesn't sound the same with the fast tempo on these things. Do American console enthusiasts pay lots of money for these things???
(2) Am I the only one who's NES is well behaved? I can't belive all this talk about changing connectors and alcohol cleaning. My NES just bloody well works. Sure, sometimes you gotta put the game in a second time, but it's certainly not so frequent an occurance to warrant this kind of effort. Most of the time there's not a problem.
This has kind of shocked me, both these points seem so damn foreign to me. Oh well, back to Double Dragon II: The Revenge! (damn disappearing stairs)
Real problem is abuse to games not the connection pins. Though I have taken apart my NES and bumped up the pins, the usual problem is the worn connection on my games. Workin on a solution to this problem as we speak but it looks like a little solder in some key places may work like magic
Further discussion of this can be found in my journal. The rant would just be spam if I dumped it all here.
The guilt is just too much.
A year ago, curiously i called the 800 listed on the back of my nintendo. The number still worked, and I found out that for a flat service fee of 35.95 you can send all the games you own, and your nintendo system back to a licensed service place. The restore the entire thing to brand spanking new and clean all the games to their new condition and in some cases add labels. I don't know if this is the case anymore. Somebody so inclined might want to look into it. I did however have this service done and it was the best 40 bucks i ever spent.
Who can be bothered to futz around with old hardware like this when one can use a Dreamcast and NESter for next to nothing? "But the real thing feels so much better" you say. I'll never understand this cult of "the original" when it's only the game on the screen that matters.
I'm not sure if I'd consider it worth buying a 2nd hand DC just for this.. but it shows that there is light at the end of the tunnel for us people addicted to NES/SNES. Thanks for the notes guys, I'll have a look around.
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