THIS looks like the most promising NES clone system yet!

[MaximRecoil]

I know about the blinking light fix that was Kickstarter funded, but every NES repair service that I know of still uses the 72-pin connector. I wonder if there are any that use the blinking light fix? Becasuse I do have an original front-loader/toaster NES,. and I would totally shell out the money to send it it in to someone who would give it a good cleaning, and install the blinking light fix. That would rock!

 

Why not just try the good cleaning yourself? With a 100% stock front-loader NES (including the original 72-pin connector), I've never seen a proper cleaning (plus disabling the 10NES lockout chip, plus properly cleaning all of your cartridge contacts) fail to make one work first time, every time. Of course, if you use it regularly, you'll have to clean it again eventually, probably after a few years.

 

Get a toothbrush and a $2 can of Bar Keepers Friend powder (it is a metal cleaner which uses oxalic acid as the active ingredient; it removes oxidation and tarnish quickly and easily; unlike rubbing alcohol, which has little-to-no effect on those things). Take the NES apart, remove the 72-pin connector, scrub all of its metal pins with a toothbrush dipped in a roughly half-and-half mixture of BKF and water, rinse off the BKF residue with water, scrub again with a clean toothbrush dipped in alcohol (just to be extra sure you get rid of all the BKF residue), and let dry.

 

Then cut or lift the #4 leg of the 10NES lockout chip (Google will bring up plenty of pictures/instructions for doing this), and reassemble your NES. Your cartridge contacts need to be clean as well, and to do that, disassemble the cartridge (you'll need the smaller of the two common sizes of "gamebit" security bits [3.8mm] to do so, except for early "5-screw" cartridges, for which you can use a normal flat-blade screwdriver), and clean the same way you cleaned the 72-pin connector. If you try to clean the cartridge contacts with BKF without taking the cartridge apart, you'll probably get water and BKF residue seeping into places you don't want it to go.

Edited November 20, 2015 by MaximRecoil

[ataridave]

 

Why not just try the good cleaning yourself? With a 100% stock front-loader NES (including the original 72-pin connector), I've never seen a proper cleaning (plus disabling the 10NES lockout chip, plus properly cleaning all of your cartridge contacts) fail to make one work first time, every time. Of course, if you use it regularly, you'll have to clean it again eventually, probably after a few years.

 

Get a toothbrush and a $2 can of Bar Keepers Friend powder (it is a metal cleaner which uses oxalic acid as the active ingredient; it removes oxidation and tarnish quickly and easily; unlike rubbing alcohol, which has little-to-no effect on those things). Take the NES apart, remove the 72-pin connector, scrub all of its metal pins with a toothbrush dipped in a roughly half-and-half mixture of BKF and water, rinse off the BKF residue with water, scrub again with a clean toothbrush dipped in alcohol (just to be extra sure you get rid of all the BKF residue), and let dry.

 

Then cut or lift the #4 leg of the 10NES lockout chip (Google will bring up plenty of pictures/instructions for doing this), and reassemble your NES. Your cartridge contacts need to be clean as well, and to do that, disassemble the cartridge (you'll need the smaller of the two common sizes of "gamebit" security bits [3.8mm] to do so, except for early "5-screw" cartridges, for which you can use a normal flat-blade screwdriver), and clean the same way you cleaned the 72-pin connector. If you try to clean the cartridge contacts with BKF without taking the cartridge apart, you'll probably get water and BKF residue seeping into places you don't want it to go.

 

Thanks for the advice! And, there are a lot of videos on YouTube that show how to dissasemble a front-loader NES. BTW, what was the RF shielding in it, and other retro game consoles, for?

Edited November 20, 2015 by ataridave

[CatPix]

Dissasembling the NES is pretty straightforward. Remove screws until you can remove the 72 pins connector

 

The RF shield is to comply to amazingly harsh American RF leaking norms, that were progressively softened (hence why latter consoles have less shielding - this and the elimination of RF output).

This also explain why numerou Pong system in the USA and consoles like the RCA Studio II and Atari 5200 have an external RF+Power box. as those where the main RF source, it was easier to shield a little box than a whole console (BTW, are the Atari 5200 guts shielded?).

European made or sold console lack those shielding, as well as Japanese ones.

[MaximRecoil]

Dissasembling the NES is pretty straightforward. Remove screws until you can remove the 72 pins connector

 

Yes, and for reassembly purposes, keep track of which screws go where. You don't need to put each screw back in exactly the same hole it came out of, but you want to put the same type of screw back in. If I remember right, there are 3 types of screws (maybe more): the type that holds the two half of the outer plastic case together, the type that holds the RF shielding in place, and two silver-colored ones (the rest are goldish colored) that are longer than the rest, which are among the screws which hold the cartridge tray in place. Just keep like grouped with like, and remember or write down where they go.

 

Getting the cartridge tray back in place correctly can be slightly tricky, because there is a tab in front, on the bottom of it, which has to go under something, and it's easy to get it wrong and still have it go back together, sort of. It is hard to describe (plus it has been a few years since I took one apart). Just pay attention to how the cartridge tray is in there before taking it apart (or better yet, take pictures).

Edited November 20, 2015 by MaximRecoil

[ataridave]

I'd have to blow dust out of it with compressed air. I got a can of it a few months ago, sprayed it for the first time, and it was wet for some reason. I hope that the RetroUSB AVS console is cheaper then the Analogue NT. I really wish that RetroUSB would come out with a release date and price point.

[ataridave]

 

Yes, and for reassembly purposes, keep track of which screws go where. You don't need to put each screw back in exactly the same hole it came out of, but you want to put the same type of screw back in. If I remember right, there are 3 types of screws (maybe more): the type that holds the two half of the outer plastic case together, the type that holds the RF shielding in place, and two silver-colored ones (the rest are goldish colored) that are longer than the rest, which are among the screws which hold the cartridge tray in place. Just keep like grouped with like, and remember or write down where they go.

 

Getting the cartridge tray back in place correctly can be slightly tricky, because there is a tab in front, on the bottom of it, which has to go under something, and it's easy to get it wrong and still have it go back together, sort of. It is hard to describe (plus it has been a few years since I took one apart). Just pay attention to how the cartridge tray is in there before taking it apart (or better yet, take pictures).

 

At this point, I wonder if I should just buy a new 72-pin connector, or the blinking light win. Arcade Works has a pretty heavy backlog of orders for the blinking light win, although you can still get one.

Edited January 16, 2016 by ataridave

[CatPix]

I do'nt see why you should buy a new one. I have the same conenctors in my old NESes - and one of them have been in my possession for 20 years now. I cleaned the connector ONCE, about 8 years ago, and it's stull useable today. So unless your conenctor is physically damaged beyond repair, you can just clean it and wait for the Blinking Light.

[ataridave]

I do'nt see why you should buy a new one. I have the same conenctors in my old NESes - and one of them have been in my possession for 20 years now. I cleaned the connector ONCE, about 8 years ago, and it's stull useable today. So unless your conenctor is physically damaged beyond repair, you can just clean it and wait for the Blinking Light.

 

OK, then I can just clean it. Since the pins are so small, how do I tell if they are physically damaged at all?

[CatPix]

They should't be. Just look at naked eye. They should shine, and be straight. If they are bent, you can push them back in place with a ruler. If they are rusted... WTF have you done with it? More seriously, I cleaned mien with a bath in crystal vinegar. It dissolve oxydation.

You should also clean your carts connectors. The simplest way is to get a bit of cardboard and rub it inside the cart. It will remove oxydation from the cart. If you still ahve issues with some games, cleaning them with crystal vinegar will usually do. And if it still doesn't, well then you might have to open it and clean it this way to you can easier access to the PCB, but that's a rare occurence.

[ataridave]

They should't be. Just look at naked eye. They should shine, and be straight. If they are bent, you can push them back in place with a ruler. If they are rusted... WTF have you done with it? More seriously, I cleaned mien with a bath in crystal vinegar. It dissolve oxydation.

You should also clean your carts connectors. The simplest way is to get a bit of cardboard and rub it inside the cart. It will remove oxydation from the cart. If you still ahve issues with some games, cleaning them with crystal vinegar will usually do. And if it still doesn't, well then you might have to open it and clean it this way to you can easier access to the PCB, but that's a rare occurence.

 

OK, thanks! I think all of the screws in the NES are phillips head.

[thecrypticodor]

I got my 8-Bit Entertainment System (going to abbreviate as 8BES from here on) in tonight!... and these are the results.

 

Games That Worked

====================

Dragon Warrior

Earthbound 0

Kirby's Adventure

The Legend of Zelda

The Legend of Zelda 2 - Adventure of Link

Mach Rider

Mega Man 2

Metroid

Pac-Man (Tengen)

Punch-Out! (Mike Tyson's)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III - The Manhattan Project

StarTropics

StarTropics 2 (Zoda's Revenge)

Trojan

Viper

 

Games That Didn't Work*

=========================

Mega Man 3

Mega Man 4

I figured out why some games like Mega Man 3-6 won't start on the Gamerz tek NES. There's something screwy with the ground pad that the reset capacitor is soldered to. If you pull the negative leg out of the via and solder a wire from it to any other ground point like the cathode via for the unused diode it will fix it.

Edited May 31, 2016 by thecrypticodor

[0078265317]

I figured out why some games like Mega Man 3-6 won't start on the Gamerz tek NES. There's something screwy with the ground pad that the reset capacitor is soldered to. If you pull the negative leg out of the via and solder a wire from it to any other ground point like the cathode via for the unused diode it will fix it.

post-37192-0-05658100-1445020844.jpg DSCN1245.JPG

Nice discovery. I wish I was as smart.

[SignGuy81]

 

The top-loader's vertical lines do suck, and being limited to RF-only sucks as well. However, had you bought one new for $50, if you called Nintendo back then and complained about the lines they would have had you send it in and they would have sent you one back with an AV multiport like the AV Famicom, SNES, N64, etc. has, like so:

 

 

And then it would be $50 well-spent.

I wish I'd known this back in the day. I just dealt with it but hated it though.

[Tanooki]

I don't think they well advertised it.

 

That 8Bit NES knockoff just above the last post, how compatible is it really with that fix though? How about the audio quality, color palette correctness and so on? Curious if it's usual system on a chip crap or someone decades later did ti right finally (with a fix.)

[The Usotsuki]

I would kill for an AV Toploader.

[Great Hierophant]

I would kill for an AV Toploader.

Everyone should note the power jack in the photo, it says DC IN. Front Loaders and RF-only Top Loaders have an AC IN. I bet someone killed one of these plugging a regular NES AC power adapter into it.

[SignGuy81]

Everyone should note the power jack in the photo, it says DC IN. Front Loaders and RF-only Top Loaders have an AC IN. I bet someone killed one of these plugging a regular NES AC power adapter into it.

Very hard to tell in the photo it is blurry. So take a look at the sticker on the bottom instead, it says AC9V.

Edited May 9, 2017 by SignGuy81

[Great Hierophant]

Very hard to tell in the photo it is blurry. So take a look at the sticker on the bottom instead, it says AC9V.

Nevermind, there is a full wave rectifier on the revised PCB, so you can use AC or DC power adapters :