Topic: My New NES!

[Kasceis]

About 8 years ago, my brother sold our(my) Nintendo NES at a yardsell and all the games.  All I got was a lame $5 for it too, but I just bought a NES off my friend for $30, so I'm looking foward to play some games of old that I enjoyed.  Also I got 30, count em, 30 games with it to.  So now I'm rolling in old school Nintendo. So time to take a break from the 'cube and refesh myself in the games that hooked me.

[PIAC]

yaaaaay i sorely learnt my lesson twice about getting rid of games/consoles, i missed my snes so much i bought another, and im missing my gameboy games that i stupidly sold so ill have to get them back too

[mouse_clicker]

I think I need a new NES. My old one kept having problems reading cartridges, so I attempted to fix the problem by moving the springs that hold the carts in place back to their original position. Needless to say, my NES doesn't work at all anymore. Luckily there's a great used game store in town, so I'll probably pick up a new one soon.

[rpglover]

my nes has been hard to get working for some time, but all it need is a little lovin'
usually i just blow into the cartrages and system to get the dust out
if i have a hard time getting it to read then i usually place a cartrage on top of the one i want to play in the system itself
i know a lot of people who do it- i dont know if it hurts the system or not
but when it does work i get some good kid icarus playing going

[Infernal Monkey]

Yes, I sold my original NES way back when, in the effort of gathering money for the SNES. =(

I got a second hand NES about two years back, dirt cheap, and I've tried to regain all the classics I had, but this NES wasn't taken care of very well, It has a VERY hard time getting any game to go. I always get the flashing power button, complete with crazy colours on screen.

Me thinks I need to pay Ebay a serious visit.

[BlkPaladin]

I was smart and I have the console I have dating back to 2600. The 2600 will have to have a connection resodered but all the others are in working condition.

[couchmonkey]

STOP THE TYRANNY OF BLOWING ON YOUR CARTS!!

This temporarily "fixes" dirty games because the moisture from your breath is helping to make a connection between the dirty cartridge pins and the pins in the system, but over time you are corroding the pins on the game!  Eventually it may stop working altogether.

Instead you should clean the pins on the game using q-tips dipped in a 50/50 solution of water and rubbing alcohol.  Do a search for "cleaning NES games" on the 'net, you should get dozens of more detailed explanations on how to clean your games.  You might also consider looking for one of the official cleaning kits.  I decided to buy one and while you can get similar results with q-tips, I actually find Nintendo's "cleaning tools" are pretty useful.

I bought 20 karts from a friend a year ago and almost all of them were "broken".  After meticulous cleaning most of them now work flawlessly, no blowing required!

[joeamis]

my friend showed me this trick back in the early 90s....

when you put the cartridge in the NES, make sure the top of the cartridge (the half inch thick piece) that's closest to you is pushed inside the system as least as possible.
the top of the cartridge (half inch thick) will scrape against the plastic of the system (closest to you)
and it will usually make the evilest of carts work with no problem

[Uglydot]

I simply did the screwdriver trick, where you bent the connectors inside the NES back to their original position, my games now work flawlessly.  This trick is slightly dangerous to do, but if done right, is a god send.  My games no longer take 30 minutes to make work.

[Termin8Anakin]

I never had an NES. I had a SNES, but I too sold it to get an N64.
I borrowed my friend's NES last year. I got Super Mario Bros., Duck Hunt, the gun, Zelda, Hunt for Red October, and Battletoads. SMB and DH worked great. HFRO was annoying. Battletoads was cool. But Zelda, Oh, my sweet Zelda....it didn't work. Why GOD, do you hate me? It actually worked for like an hour, and I saved it, and it had that familiar theme (the piano song that the lead Zora plays in his room in Majora's Mask), but after I wanted tpo go back to it the next day, the screen was just grey. Nothing.

I read the blurb on back. Oh hpow things have changed. If I recall, the blurb was really a brag about how advanced the game was:
"This is the biggest game we have made to date! It features large environments, great graphics, and great action!"
Something like that. Made me smirk for a while.

[ThePerm]

nes cost $60 at out mom and pop store now .it used to be 20


apparently its an antique according to the damn guy(i think things must be at leas 20 years old to be an antique which nes is not)..yeah..hes  known as the ripoff bastard in out rown.

and uglydot...whoa.. hope thats all i need to do to get mien in tip top condition.

[Praxius]

Quote
Originally posted by: joeamis
my friend showed me this trick back in the early 90s....

when you put the cartridge in the NES, make sure the top of the cartridge (the half inch thick piece) that's closest to you is pushed inside the system as least as possible.
the top of the cartridge (half inch thick) will scrape against the plastic of the system (closest to you)
and it will usually make the evilest of carts work with no problem

You got the idea there. I have been doing that ever since 88 when my Nintendo started screwing up. I told my grandfather about it and my friends and it all works for them. Occasionally you may have to get a lighter or something else to wedge in there to hold the cartridge down a bit further than normal, but that is only a last resort.

But all this blowing in the system and the carts and cleaning such, is not really the answer. Infact don't you silly people remember the instructions to your NES's stating that you should not use rubbing alcohol in any manner to clean your console?

Just do exactly as state above and it will work fine.

[Reapr555]

  Want your NES to work like brand new? First off, I agree, stop blowing into games... Clean them with the alcohol solution, and if they are seriously corroded, get some fine grit sandpaper, a fine fingernail file will do, and pass it a few times over each side of the board in the cartridge then clean it again.  The real problem is inside your NES though.  The old 72-pin connector.  Open your NES, remove  the screws that hold in the big shiny metal housing inside, then remove the screws that hold the big black plastic piece in.. once everything is loose you should be able to slide the big black plastic thing off and you'll see the slot where the games go into and connect.... Those metal pins inside that slot are undoubtedly old and are no longer pushed far enough out to make good contact with your game cartridges.  If they look like they are far enough out they could just be dirty, clean them just like I described for the cartridges, but be careful not to mangle the pins.  If they are not making good contact you've got two options.... The easy way is to go on ebay where there are plenty of new 72-pin connectors for sale for less than 10 bucks and they will make your NES work like new... if you're like me and you're cheap and can't wait for that to come in the mail, bend the pins out yourself.  If its done right it will work great.  I can't give any easy way of doing this, just experiment.  Ive tried taking a very sharp tool with a curved edge on it, almost like something the dentist would use, and using it to bend the pins out.  On another system i actually used a small screwdriver to press in the little clips that hold the pins in and pulled the pins out to reshape them... both systems work fine.  If you're not very good with tools and figuring out electronic devices you're probably better off getting a new connector. I guarantee if your system is lighting up properly but just not playing games correctly, these are your problems and solutions.

[Round Eye]

You can also get a brand new 72-pin connector at MCM.  Man I am beginning to love that place.  I also got my gamebit from there.

This is the part #:
83-3785

And this is what they call it:
NINTENDO TYPE 72 PIN CONNECTOR

http://www.mcmelectronics.com/