Original NES and SNES controllers

[CZroe]

ebay store... so what was that roughly $100 a game?

I think he means that he browses the guy's wares on eBay but then gets it locally because he's, well, local.

Ichinisan's at the end of Batman right now, BTW.

 

[007ELmO]

It was about $12 a game ($200 total), cleaned and tested. Not all have sleeves, but the label and electronic condition was good. Yes, he is within driving distance.

When I visited Tokyo 10 years or so ago, I remember visiting stores filled with old NES games/etc in Akihabara. I don't know how many of those exist in USA, but it was amazing to see.

 

[007ELmO]

I think he means that he browses the guy's wares on eBay but then gets it locally because he's, well, local.

Ichinisan's at the end of Batman right now, BTW.

Are you guys brothers, I might have missed that, lol.

 

[CZroe]

Are you guys brothers, I might have missed that, lol.

Yup. Twin brothers. It's a shared collection (only way we can afford it).

 

[007ELmO]

Without viewing his screen, can you tell which level and how many points he has on Batman.

 

[CZroe]

Without viewing his screen, can you tell which level and how many points he has on Batman.

LOL! No, but that could be because even he never cares about/pays attention to his current score.

 

[Ichinisan]

LOL! No, but that could be because even he never cares about/pays attention to his current score.

I could just tell you. or you could just read my mind

 

[Fallen Kell]

I need to get control of this obsession.

There's a guy near me who has an ebay store that sells high quality, cleaned/tested NES games.

I now have these games:
Zelda 1
Mario 1, 2, 3
Castlevania 1, 2
Double Dragon 1, 2
Dragon Warrior 1
Tetris
Ninja Gaiden 1
TMNT 1, 2, 3
Megaman 2
Mike Tyson's Punchout

How do you guys store your games (outside of just using the Nintendo sleeve)? Any cheap Ikea cabinets we could use?

This was most of my collection as of 5 years ago (havn't updated my list since then, but I know I have at least another 2-3 dozen games, just eyeballing it and notably missing are the Megamans, Batman, Battletoads, Final Fantasy some of which I have had since they originally were released, and anything I had a duplicate/multiple of I have a 2x or 3x next to, but really are not many of those):

1) A Boy and his Blob
2) Adventured of Bayou Billy
3) Archon
4) Back to the Future
5) Bases Loaded
6) Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
7) Bionic Commando
8) Cabal
9,10,11) Castlevania 1, 2, 3
12) Clashball
13) Commando
14) Contra
15) Crystalis
16) Double Dribble
17) Dragon Warrior
18) DuckTales
19) Dungeon Magic
20) Dyno Warz
21) Faxanadu
22) Fighting Golf
23) Ghostbusters
24) Ghostbusters II
25) The Goonies 2
26) Gremlins II
27) Guardian Legend
28) Ice Hockey
29) Iron Tank
30) Jackal
31) Joust
32) Jurasic Park
33) Karate Champ
34) Kid Niki
35) Kirby's Adventure
36) Kung Fu Heroes
37) The Last Starfighter
38) Legendary Wings
39) Life Force
40) Lunar Pool
41) Manic Mansion
42) Marble Madness
43) Metal Gear
44) Metroid
45) Mighty Bomb Jack
46) Mike Tyson's Punch Out
47) Milon's Secret Castle
48) Narc
49) NFL Football
50,51,52) Ninja Gaiden 1, 2, 3
53) Platoon
54) Popeye
55) Racket Attack
56) Rambo
57) Rampage
58) R.C. Pro-Am (x2)
59) River City Ransom
60) Robin Hood
61) The Rocketeer
62) Rollergames
63) Rush N Attack
64) Rygar
65) Shadowgate
66) Shingen the Ruler
67) Snake, Rattle, and Roll
68) Spy vs Spy
69) Strider
70) Top Gun
71) Top Secret Episode Gologo 12
72) Section Z
73) Super Dodge Ball
74) Super Spike Volley Ball
75) Super Mario Brothers\Duck Hunt (x2)
76,77) Super Mario Brothers 2, 3
78) Tecmo Bowl
79) Tetris
80) Ultima Exodus
81) Ultimate Basketball
82) Who Framed Roger Rabbit
83) WWF WrestleMania Challenge
84) Yoshi
85,86) Zelda and Zelda 2

 

[007ELmO]

This was most of my collection as of 5 years ago (havn't updated my list since then, but I know I have at least another 2-3 dozen games, just eyeballing it and notably missing are the Megamans, Batman, Battletoads, Final Fantasy some of which I have had since they originally were released, and anything I had a duplicate/multiple of I have a 2x or 3x next to, but really are not many of those):

1) A Boy and his Blob
2) Adventured of Bayou Billy
3) Archon
4) Back to the Future
5) Bases Loaded
6) Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
7) Bionic Commando
8) Cabal
9,10,11) Castlevania 1, 2, 3
12) Clashball
13) Commando
14) Contra
15) Crystalis
16) Double Dribble
17) Dragon Warrior
18) DuckTales
19) Dungeon Magic
20) Dyno Warz
21) Faxanadu
22) Fighting Golf
23) Ghostbusters
24) Ghostbusters II
25) The Goonies 2
26) Gremlins II
27) Guardian Legend
28) Ice Hockey
29) Iron Tank
30) Jackal
31) Joust
32) Jurasic Park
33) Karate Champ
34) Kid Niki
35) Kirby's Adventure
36) Kung Fu Heroes
37) The Last Starfighter
38) Legendary Wings
39) Life Force
40) Lunar Pool
41) Manic Mansion
42) Marble Madness
43) Metal Gear
44) Metroid
45) Mighty Bomb Jack
46) Mike Tyson's Punch Out
47) Milon's Secret Castle
48) Narc
49) NFL Football
50,51,52) Ninja Gaiden 1, 2, 3
53) Platoon
54) Popeye
55) Racket Attack
56) Rambo
57) Rampage
58) R.C. Pro-Am (x2)
59) River City Ransom
60) Robin Hood
61) The Rocketeer
62) Rollergames
63) Rush N Attack
64) Rygar
65) Shadowgate
66) Shingen the Ruler
67) Snake, Rattle, and Roll
68) Spy vs Spy
69) Strider
70) Top Gun
71) Top Secret Episode Gologo 12
72) Section Z
73) Super Dodge Ball
74) Super Spike Volley Ball
75) Super Mario Brothers\Duck Hunt (x2)
76,77) Super Mario Brothers 2, 3
78) Tecmo Bowl
79) Tetris
80) Ultima Exodus
81) Ultimate Basketball
82) Who Framed Roger Rabbit
83) WWF WrestleMania Challenge
84) Yoshi
85,86) Zelda and Zelda 2

I highlighted the games I want out of that list. I also need Kid Icarus!

My games and hi-def NES consoles came today! I'm going to wrap up the NES gifts after testing them tonight. One of them, the power/reset buttons is pretty shady looking. The other is fairly pristine overall. I'm going to test each with Zelda 1 and leave it in the console before shipping them out.

 

[CZroe]

I highlighted the games I want out of that list. I also need Kid Icarus!

My games and hi-def NES consoles came today! I'm going to wrap up the NES gifts after testing them tonight. One of them, the power/reset buttons is pretty shady looking. The other is fairly pristine overall. I'm going to test each with Zelda 1 and leave it in the console before shipping them out.

Just don't leave it depressed. Leaving the pins under tension makes them loose. You might want to tape the door shut with masking tape or painter's tape either way.

 

[007ELmO]

Woops, I didn't know that! I left my own depressed - yikes. I'm having a lot of trouble getting my game out of the deathgrip, lol. Any tips? There's o little room to hold it. No wonder so many lids have broken off, haha!

 

[CZroe]

I need to get control of this obsession.
...
How do you guys store your games (outside of just using the Nintendo sleeve)? Any cheap Ikea cabinets we could use?

I run out of storage for nearly every storage method I choose, so I have a bunch in purpose-manufactured organizers, a bunch in NES game cases, a bunch in any appropriately sized container I could find, a bunch in original boxes, and a bunch lined up on shelves in sleeves and a bunch more just loose. Yeah, I got bunches of bunches, but way too many are dupes / commons so the collection isn't nearly complete.

I do use one of my organizer drawers for the ones I actually play but even it is out of space. If you only intend to collect the games you'll play one or two of those should suffice.

Thought I'd show some examples.
Here's a wooden organizer thing:

It's designed poorly because there's no way to fill it up and set it on an appropriately-sized shelf and access the games. Pulling the drawer out far enough to access the rear row essentially just pulls the whole thing out and it's a pain to put back in while fully loaded. If you don't use an empty flat space with double its footprint (equal space in front) then the games will unbalance it and send the whole thing to the ground. Trying to suspend it and get a game from the back row guarantees that the drawer will come completely out and you are going to be putting it back together on the couch.

Even so, I kinda like it. It fits a lot of games and came with some kid's "Best" and "Very best" Metroid passwords stuffed into the top.

This shelf has a row of boxed games in the back and many more in the aforementioned "appropriately sized container" (front). Also visible here are some of the "just loose" games. So sue me. There are even more loosely piled at our other place (some cased, some sleeved, some loose; no pics). Sometimes I find perfectly sized containers that just aren't strong enough, so I patch them up and use them anyway.

Here's another huge shelf of games in cases:

I actually have more cases than will fit on the shelf but not nearly enough to start a second shelf (most are at the other apartment where we also have many sleeve-only games (no pics).

More "appropriately sized containers:"

You can see that I turned one of those boxes inside-out when I realized what it was good for.

I usually leave these in front of the cases games because it's a deep shelf and I can slide these left and right to access the cases games behind.

Here is another "purpose built" organizer I put in front of the cases games:

It's nice to have a place to put some of my loose manuals that don't have a box.

These aren't for NES, but here are some containers I've adapted or strengthened for SNES/SFC games:

All in all, it's cobbled together and not very presentable, but it's better than leaving it in piles... which reminds me that I still need to take care of that pile at my other place (not pictured).

 

[CZroe]

Woops, I didn't know that! I left my own depressed - yikes. I'm having a lot of trouble getting my game out of the deathgrip, lol. Any tips? There's o little room to hold it. No wonder so many lids have broken off, haha!

Well, for those "death grip" replacement connectors you often don't even have to push down to play the game in the first place! The original connectors are the worst about the pins losing their springiness. I have heard that boiling will relax the metal and allow them to return to their original shape, but I've never tried that (I will next time I encounter a problematic control deck).

 

[007ELmO]

Yep, I don't have to push the cart down, that's fine - but how on earth do we get the cartridge OUT? lol. My hands are hurting trying to pry zelda out and it didn't come out. I'm sure the door is going to bust sometime in this process. I almost want to get some rubber pliers that wouldn't chip the game and try to pull it out like that? lol, I'm going to break this thing someday.

 

[CZroe]

Yep, I don't have to push the cart down, that's fine - but how on earth do we get the cartridge OUT? lol. My hands are hurting trying to pry zelda out and it didn't come out. I'm sure the door is going to bust sometime in this process. I almost want to get some rubber pliers that wouldn't chip the game and try to pull it out like that? lol, I'm going to break this thing someday.

One of my gold carts is showing black at the tab where you push down/grip. That particular connector sounds like it is so tight that the games should probably stay down for a while to loosen it up.

 

[007ELmO]

So to get the cartridge out, I just hold the back of the NES and wiggle the cartridge left to right, I can consistently get it out without much force. I don't know if I'm damaging the connector, I'm pretty sure the cartridge pins are sturdy enough they aren't taking any damage.

So slightly bad news. Of the 2 hi-def NES I received from jason, 1 seems buggy! I emailed him, I'm sure he'll take care of it ASAP. Here are the hilarious symptoms.

Zelda 1 shows a gray title screen, I tried reconnecting it. Eventually Zelda loaded, but the title screen was garbled. I kept trying and eventually it was clean, but it locked up trying to start the game. I tried this game on the other 2 hi-def NES I have and it worked fine on both, multiple times.

Mario 3 booted with a black bar at the bottom of the curtains. Reinserted it, now it has debug numbers (0s and 1s) down there. Reinserted it, Mario seems to randomly jump whenever he wants on the first level, and hits his head on things that aren't there. Reinserted it, a random question mark block appeared on the 1st level (lol). Reinserted it again and eventually the screen started to scroll vertically over and over. I tried this game on the other 2 hi-def NES from and they worked fine through the 1st level.

 

[Ichinisan]

With all the systems he has worked on, I wonder if Jason knows what would cause this:
Sharp Twin Famicom AN-505-BK Rolling Noise Bars

 

[007ELmO]

Thought I'd show some examples.
Here's a wooden organizer thing:

It's designed poorly because there's no way to fill it up and set it on an appropriately-sized shelf and access the games. Pulling the drawer out far enough to access the rear row essentially just pulls the whole thing out and it's a pain to put back in while fully loaded. If you don't use an empty flat space with double its footprint (equal space in front) then the games will unbalance it and send the whole thing to the ground. Trying to suspend it and get a game from the back row guarantees that the drawer will come completely out and you are going to be putting it back together on the couch.

Even so, I kinda like it. It fits a lot of games and came with some kid's "Best" and "Very best" Metroid passwords stuffed into the top.

This shelf has a row of boxed games in the back and many more in the aforementioned "appropriately sized container" (front). Also visible here are some of the "just loose" games. So sue me. There are even more loosely piled at our other place (some cased, some sleeved, some loose; no pics). Sometimes I find perfectly sized containers that just aren't strong enough, so I patch them up and use them anyway.

Here's another huge shelf of games in cases:

I actually have more cases than will fit on the shelf but not nearly enough to start a second shelf (most are at the other apartment where we also have many sleeve-only games (no pics).

More "appropriately sized containers:"

You can see that I turned one of those boxes inside-out when I realized what it was good for.

I usually leave these in front of the cases games because it's a deep shelf and I can slide these left and right to access the cases games behind.

Here is another "purpose built" organizer I put in front of the cases games:

It's nice to have a place to put some of my loose manuals that don't have a box.

These aren't for NES, but here are some containers I've adapted or strengthened for SNES/SFC games:

All in all, it's cobbled together and not very presentable, but it's better than leaving it in piles... which reminds me that I still need to take care of that pile at my other place (not pictured).

You should go to Akihabara in Japan, you may never leave. The oldschool NES/SNES stores there were amazing. Shelves upon shelves of retro gaming. Your collection is nuts, you should really build a showcase cabinet for all of them, I would do that - with cool lighting/etc. Those are the things I waste time with in my life.

 

[007ELmO]

With all the systems he has worked on, I wonder if Jason knows what would cause this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB_gtPcJkD0

It's good Jason has worked on a ton, he probably knows what's wrong with mine before even getting it back.

I thought i saw some text overlay with one of my zeld acartridges, it's hard to tell if that's my plasma TV getting immediate burn-in from the "REGISTER YOUR NAME" in zelda. It was only up for a split second though, it could be, or there could be something buggy with the hardware. It only appeared on the very 1st map tile when you start zelda 1, but even if i went away from the map and came back to it, I could read it. It wasn't there on other map tiles. Strange. based on what I saw with mario 3, it seems like basically anything is possible when the hardware is bugging out - lol.

 

[007ELmO]

Jason got back to me, he thinks it's the connector, he's had a connector crap on him before right after testing it. He will replace it for me if I send the unit back.

Is it possible I can break the connector or damage it by pushing the cartridge in? I mean it takes a decent force to get the cartridge in because of the death grip, I wonder if I damaged something - I looked at the connector pins inside and everything "looks" OK.

I wonder if I should expect games to load on the 1st try, or is it possible I'll see all those strange effects with the other "seem to be working" hi-def NES I have?

 

[Ichinisan]

Jason got back to me, he thinks it's the connector, he's had a connector crap on him before right after testing it. He will replace it for me if I send the unit back.

Is it possible I can break the connector or damage it by pushing the cartridge in? I mean it takes a decent force to get the cartridge in because of the death grip, I wonder if I damaged something - I looked at the connector pins inside and everything "looks" OK.

I wonder if I should expect games to load on the 1st try, or is it possible I'll see all those strange effects with the other "seem to be working" hi-def NES I have?

You should be able to insert/remove without care, so it wouldn't be your fault if that damaged it. Connectors are easy to replace though. I wonder if he'd just send you a connector and let you replace it...

 

[007ELmO]

He said he will replace it for me, so now it sounds like unless it's a BLW, it's not good. Here is his response to those questions I asked:

"Yeah they are crap connectors, but all of them are except the new blinking light win, but it's not readily available yet."

Seems like the BLW is backordered for 8 weeks, but I know earlier when I was posting in this thread I saw it in stock, but didn't think of buying it.

 

[007ELmO]

I asked Jason if he can do this for me while he's looking at it.

Optimizing Pin Connector to Cartridge Alignment
http://console5.com/wiki/Improving_...timizing_Pin_Connector_to_Cartridge_Alignment

EDIT: he said that's just BS to try and get a shit connector to work, lol.

 

[Ichinisan]

I asked Jason if he can do this for me while he's looking at it.

Optimizing Pin Connector to Cartridge Alignment
http://console5.com/wiki/Improving_...timizing_Pin_Connector_to_Cartridge_Alignment

EDIT: he said that's just BS to try and get a shit connector to work, lol.

He's right about the alignment thing. It's BS.

I love watching him diagnose and fix issues on broken boards he gets:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK6J9qy9ebM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CL0o7OttUik https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCV2xVbw5Zs

 

[Ichinisan]

Seems like the BLW is backordered for 8 weeks, but I know earlier when I was posting in this thread I saw it in stock, but didn't think of buying it.

I ordered 3 units about 1 week ago and they said it was "backordered." I checked on Monday and they were back in-stock and my order said it was completed. Just waiting for them to arrive now...

I chose the cheapest shipping option, so I have no tracking.