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NES/Famicom Appreciation Thread

Kawika

Kawika

Member
Picked up some games at the Frank & Son's bi-weekly comic/collectible..er...thing...

Anyway I scored Gradius, Dr. Mario and Blaster Master for about $25. Anyway, I didn't mind paying a little more since they seemed to be in good condition. When I got home only Blaster Master would load but the other two no dice. I pulled out my retron and eventually I got Gradius and Dr Mario to load.. Retried them in the NES. Nope.

Gaf, what IS the best way to clean contacts?. Ars Techinca article is # 1 on my google search but there is a lot of people saying never use brass polish to clean the contacts.
 
S

Snatch1414

Banned
Kawika said:
Picked up some games at the Frank & Son's bi-weekly comic/collectible..er...thing...

Anyway I scored Gradius, Dr. Mario and Blaster Master for about $25. Anyway, I didn't mind paying a little more since they seemed to be in good condition. When I got home only Blaster Master would load but the other two no dice. I pulled out my retron and eventually I got Gradius and Dr Mario to load.. Retried them in the NES. Nope.

Gaf, what IS the best way to clean contacts?. Ars Techinca article is # 1 on my google search but there is a lot of people saying never use brass polish to clean the contacts.
Click to expand...

Just use a q-tip with 91% rubbing alcohol (also called isopropyl alcohol, found at any drug store for a buck). I wet the q-tip, wipe, then use the other end to dry everything and get off any excess dirt that's just sitting there on the contacts.

If it doesn't work, do it again. If it STILL doesn't work, open up the cartridge with the special bit you can get on Amazon, take the PCB out and use the brass cleaner. Even on a "clean" game you'll be shocked how much dirt comes off. After you use that be sure to use the alcohol again because that brass cleaner will leave a residue otherwise. (side note: other people say they use erasers for all this but I can never remember which kind so I just do this).

On a related note, you say you tried them then had to use a Retron to get them to work. The pins on your NES connector might be loose, depending on how many games are failing you. If it's only those two I wouldn't worry about it at the moment.

PS: About the brass cleaner: it's fine as far as I can tell. There are a few different schools of thought on all these methods. Some people say use alcohol, some say windex, some say brass clearner, on and on. Every one of those has a group of detractors that say to "never" use it. In my personal experience the above is a good way to go.
 
E

emb

Member
I've had too many games that wouldn't work at all until I tried Brasso.

I usually do something pretty similar to what Snatch does. I do alcohol first (usually a couple of times if the contacts seem noticeably dirty). Try it out. If that doesn't work, I clean it off with Brasso, take the eraser to it, and then another round of rubbing alcohol to make sure all the Brasso residue and eraser scraps are gone.

Works wonders most of the time. For other times, it's usually that the contacts in your system are loose, or dirty from playing games that haven't been cleaned.
 
R

RadarScope1

Member
Mzo said:
As much as I dislike Pat the NES Punk's shows and whatnot I often find myself listening to the Completely Unnecessary Podcast because I like Ian.

Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat is a running joke on there, is my point. Decent game!
Click to expand...

What's the joke? Do they hate it?
 
O

OnPoint

Member
Just learned the secrets of Tim Follin's drum sounds on the NES and am super excited to write with them. It's so surprising how much good sound clever and creative people were able to trick the 2A03 into making without using the DPCM channel for samples.
 
T

thomasos

Member
The best solution I've found for cleaning NES carts/systems is the official NES cleaning kit (using the recommended mix of water and isopropyl alcohol). Seriously. And they can usually be found for pretty cheap.

I've used this to revive three NES consoles and probably two dozen cartridges without fail.
 
D.Lo

D.Lo

Member
Another write up, this time the music game DoReMikko for Famicom Disk System!

Play along with the Gradius music!
doremikko_3.jpg

doremikko_6.jpg

doremikko-004.png
Click to expand...
 
Kawika

Kawika

Member
Snatch1414 said:
Just use a q-tip with 91% rubbing alcohol (also called isopropyl alcohol, found at any drug store for a buck). I wet the q-tip, wipe, then use the other end to dry everything and get off any excess dirt that's just sitting there on the contacts.

If it doesn't work, do it again. If it STILL doesn't work, open up the cartridge with the special bit you can get on Amazon, take the PCB out and use the brass cleaner. Even on a "clean" game you'll be shocked how much dirt comes off. After you use that be sure to use the alcohol again because that brass cleaner will leave a residue otherwise. (side note: other people say they use erasers for all this but I can never remember which kind so I just do this).

On a related note, you say you tried them then had to use a Retron to get them to work. The pins on your NES connector might be loose, depending on how many games are failing you. If it's only those two I wouldn't worry about it at the moment.

PS: About the brass cleaner: it's fine as far as I can tell. There are a few different schools of thought on all these methods. Some people say use alcohol, some say windex, some say brass clearner, on and on. Every one of those has a group of detractors that say to "never" use it. In my personal experience the above is a good way to go.
Click to expand...

Before I got a chance to read this, I cleaned my carts with Q-tips and Rubbing Alcohol. Every stubborn game that wouldn't boot up on NES worked fine. With the exception of Gradius which almost always requires it to be reset once (shrug). The odd thing about Gradius, is I don't need to take it out when I reset. I just reset it and boom it works. Since Gradius came from a trade show, it might need a little more tlc as far as cleaning is concerned, I might try the eraser technique and if that doesn't then the brass polish.

The majority of my carts in my original collection (the ones that didn't get stolen) have never been cleaned and they boot up instantly.
 
T

TeaJay

Member
Has anyone here printed custom end labels for Famicom and Super Famicom (also PAL) carts? I have each in their own "loose carts box" and besides US carts and Famicom games by Konami (who were nice enough to make end labels) I'd like to know which game is which. I thought about taking the logo of the game in the best quality I can find and have them printed in a local print shop.
 
M

Mzo

Member
Played through Astyanax since I'm looking into Aicom's games. I hate how hard it is to find solid info on old Japanese developers, but the similarities between this and Legendary Axe were too big to be just coincidence.

First off, it doesn't play nearly as well as Legendary Axe. Hit boxes seem to be off by a bit, generally extending too far forward. The weapon upgrade is weird. According to the manual, the spear, the weapon's second form, is weaker than the axe, which is the default. The third form is outrageously powerful, though, but difficult to keep first time through the game because of some really mean surprise enemy placements and bottomless pits. There is no special animation for landing the most powerful hit. That's a huge negative coming from LA.

The game definitely feels balanced around the sword. With the sword and smart magic management you can take the bosses down easily. Without it some become wars of attritions instead of contests of skill, and you almost depend on dying to refill your magic meter.

The anime-style cutscenes are decently implemented. I feel a little disconnect between the high school kid protagonist in the cutscenes and the giant barbarian in-game, but we can chalk it up to magic. A fairy in leg warmers is pretty great, though. I really like the enemy designs, especially some of the bosses.

Overall, not a bad game. Easy to find on the cheap side and one of the best published by the Japan Leisure Company, who weren't always the best judges of quality.
 
N

NDPsycho

Member
I had a once in a lifetime today. My brother called me to a yard sale that was selling off the stock of a previous video rental store. It pains me to think of what got sold last night to early buyers and the fact that I was about an hour late to their opening today. They had an absolute ton of NES, SNES, N64 and Genesis games 4/$1....that's right 25 cents each. Even with my late arrival, I did manage to find some gems. I finally got copies of Duck Tales 2, Chip 'n Dale 2, and Metal Storm for a quarter each. I was also happy to finally get River City Ransom, Journey to Sillius, some Mega Man, etc. So hyped, I'll be spending months cleaning carts. Anyone got any other Mega Man carts they'd trade for 2 or 3? I don't have any of the others. :)








Click to expand...
Most of the SNES was cleaned out, but a lot of the NES was still there. I don't know as much about NES games though, so I'm sure I left a lot of good stuff behind.

I'm a image newb...how do I resize these so they're not so big? Any easy way?
 
T

TeaJay

Member
NDPsycho said:
I'm a image newb...how do I resize these so they're not so big? Any easy way?
Click to expand...

Put them in a quote.

But damn, man. That is indeed once in a lifetime. Words cannot describe my jealousy. Don't try to think too much what you missed on the SNES side. There's some great titles in there too, although probably the best ones have been indeed taken.

Send me one of those Siliuses. I'll pay you double what you paid! Maybe even triple! (seriously, if you're willing to sell and ship international, hook me up.)
 
N

NDPsycho

Member
Zello said:
Put them in a quote.

But damn, man. That is indeed once in a lifetime. Words cannot describe my jealousy. Don't try to think too much what you missed on the SNES side. There's some great titles in there too, although probably the best ones have been indeed taken.

Send me one of those Siliuses. I'll pay you double what you paid! Maybe even triple! (seriously, if you're willing to sell and ship international, hook me up.)
Click to expand...

Awesome, thanks for the tip. I'll take your offer under consideration :)
 
M

Mercutio

Member
There's no way you can mourn for what you missed SNES-side when you got C&D 2, Ducktales 2, and Metal Storm. You won. I'd be willing to bet nobody who came before you had a clue what was there if those remained.

And I see a sneaky Tengen Tetris in there too! Awesome, awesome version. Had one ages ago, and I haven't been willing to pay the prices of today to get another.
 
E

ElTopo

Banned
I'm shocked that a video store in 2015 still had 8 and 16 bit games with the original boxes... Nice find tho.

Anywho, thoughts on the NES Nightmare on Elm Street game? It has a pretty negative reputation because of the AVGN review but I think it's pretty decent. I think it's a small miracle that there even is a Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street game on the NES given Nintendo of America's strict censorship. But the graphics and controls are good even if the jumps are a little too floaty. The music is quality and has a very faithful 8 bit interpretation of the nursery rhyme from the movies. It deceives you into thinking it's non-linear like a Mega Man game and you can go into any house but they have to be approached in order. It was done deliberately so you would lose time on your sleep meter and pad the game out a bit. I didn't mind that so much because actually fighting Freddy and hearing the nursery rhyme was great and got me spooked as a kid. Even if Freddy is easy as fuck in those battles.

The big problems are:

You cannot see your hit points. You get a maximum of 4 hit points before losing a life.

The hit detection on flying enemies is suspect.

Playing while awake in-game isn't as fun as playing in the dream world and having access to the Ninja and Athlete persona's.

There's some very cheap enemy spawn points and at least one jump that's almost impossible unless you're in the dream world and use the Ninja or Athlete persona. Not to mention that enemies (particularly flying enemies) almost never go away if you leave the screen. Those bats and flies will follow you to the very end of the level until you kill them.

The bosses are a little uninspired too.

Overall I'd give it a 6.5 which I think is fair.

The Friday the 13th game is terrible.
 
T

Timu

Member
ElTopo said:
I'm shocked that a video store in 2015 still had 8 and 16 bit games with the original boxes... Nice find tho.

Anywho, thoughts on the NES Nightmare on Elm Street game? It has a pretty negative reputation because of the AVGN review but I think it's pretty decent. I think it's a small miracle that there even is a Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street game on the NES given Nintendo of America's strict censorship. But the graphics and controls are good even if the jumps are a little too floaty. The music is quality and has a very faithful 8 bit interpretation of the nursery rhyme from the movies. It deceives you into thinking it's non-linear like a Mega Man game and you can go into any house but they have to be approached in order. It was done deliberately so you would lose time on your sleep meter and pad the game out a bit. I didn't mind that so much because actually fighting Freddy and hearing the nursery rhyme was great and got me spooked as a kid. Even if Freddy is easy as fuck in those battles.

The big problems are:

You cannot see your hit points. You get a maximum of 4 hit points before losing a life.

The hit detection on flying enemies is suspect.

Playing while awake in-game isn't as fun as playing in the dream world and having access to the Ninja and Athlete persona's.

There's some very cheap enemy spawn points and at least one jump that's almost impossible unless you're in the dream world and use the Ninja or Athlete persona. Not to mention that enemies (particularly flying enemies) almost never go away if you leave the screen. Those bats and flies will follow you to the very end of the level until you kill them.

The bosses are a little uninspired too.

Overall I'd give it a 6.5 which I think is fair.

The Friday the 13th game is terrible.
Click to expand...
I agree with this post!!!
 
M

Mzo

Member
Cygnus Destroyer aka the LJN Defender has a great review/defense of Nightmare on Elm Street up on YouTube.

His voice is kind of nerdy but he does a great job explaining the game.
 
N

NDPsycho

Member
Mercutio said:
There's no way you can mourn for what you missed SNES-side when you got C&D 2, Ducktales 2, and Metal Storm. You won. I'd be willing to bet nobody who came before you had a clue what was there if those remained.

And I see a sneaky Tengen Tetris in there too! Awesome, awesome version. Had one ages ago, and I haven't been willing to pay the prices of today to get another.
Click to expand...

I don't mean to seem ungrateful, it's a hell of a haul for sure. I need some sleep, but felt compelled to go back and pick at the corpse one more time. Got these for $7 total.

Click to expand...
 
T

Timu

Member
Mzo said:
Cygnus Destroyer aka the LJN Defender has a great review/defense of Nightmare on Elm Street up on YouTube.

His voice is kind of nerdy but he does a great job explaining the game.
Click to expand...
I checked out his channel and I do like his reviews on various games that aren't as bad as people make them out to be, but even he admits that there are some legitimately bad games that deserve the bashing(like Action 52).
 
N

NDPsycho

Member
ElTopo said:
I'm shocked that a video store in 2015 still had 8 and 16 bit games with the original boxes... Nice find tho.
The Friday the 13th game is terrible.
Click to expand...

I didn't get the impression that they were still in business. Given the enormous amount of vhs tapes and rental vcr's they had and the layer of dust on everything. I'd think it's been in storage for a while.

What surprises me, is that they apparently had/have no idea of what they were sitting on...I can't believe that you wouldn't look at ebay or something. I don't know for certain, but I'm pretty sure the staff of a local retro game store was buying up a whole lot of what was there. They're pretty nice guys though, everything was friendly and civil.
 
A Black Falcon

A Black Falcon

Member
RadarScope1 said:
Huh. Can't say I've really known about this one before. Looks like Super Off Road with a pit stop element. Looks like it could be fun with 3 or 4 players for sure.
Click to expand...

Indy Heat really IS the sequel to Super Off-Road. It's the other arcade racing game by Leland, the developer of Super Off-Road. Sadly unlike that game it never appeared in any Midway collections, I don't know why (Midway bought Leland in the early/mid '90s.). I absolutely LOVED Super Offroad in arcades, but rarely saw this one... I really need to get the NES version.
 
R

RadarScope1

Member
NDPsycho said:
I had a once in a lifetime today. My brother called me to a yard sale that was selling off the stock of a previous video rental store. It pains me to think of what got sold last night to early buyers and the fact that I was about an hour late to their opening today. They had an absolute ton of NES, SNES, N64 and Genesis games 4/$1....that's right 25 cents each. Even with my late arrival, I did manage to find some gems. I finally got copies of Duck Tales 2, Chip 'n Dale 2, and Metal Storm for a quarter each. I was also happy to finally get River City Ransom, Journey to Sillius, some Mega Man, etc. So hyped, I'll be spending months cleaning carts. Anyone got any other Mega Man carts they'd trade for 2 or 3? I don't have any of the others. :)

Most of the SNES was cleaned out, but a lot of the NES was still there. I don't know as much about NES games though, so I'm sure I left a lot of good stuff behind.

I'm a image newb...how do I resize these so they're not so big? Any easy way?
Click to expand...

Holy mother of fuck. That is truly a once-in-a-lifetime get. I am so jealous. If you're willing to listen to offers, I'm going to send you a PM about two games that you have duplicates of in the photos.

Wow!

A Black Falcon said:
Indy Heat really IS the sequel to Super Off-Road. It's the other arcade racing game by Leland, the developer of Super Off-Road. Sadly unlike that game it never appeared in any Midway collections, I don't know why (Midway bought Leland in the early/mid '90s.). I absolutely LOVED Super Offroad in arcades, but rarely saw this one... I really need to get the NES version.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I did a little digging and kind of came to that conclusion. Pretty cool.
 
N

NDPsycho

Member
theSlacker said:
Pls stop posting. I don't recall ever being this jelly. :c
Click to expand...

Not much left to buy there last time I left, so your wish is granted :) Sorry if this comes across as bragging (I know it kind of is..). None of my friends collect games, I felt compelled to share my euphoria in the moment and this seemed like the right place.
 
U

ultimos

Neo Member
NDPsycho said:
Not much left to buy there last time I left, so your wish is granted :) Sorry if this comes across as bragging (I know it kind of is..). None of my friends collect games, I felt compelled to share my euphoria in the moment and this seemed like the right place.
Click to expand...

Anyone would brag about this. Are you sure you didn't take a time machine to like 1999 to get to this yard sale?
 
Chittagong

Chittagong

Gold Member
This is truly the greatest haul I have ever seen. I don't think I have seen that many CIB NES games since early 1990s. What you have must be worth a lot.
 
Kagoshima_Luke

Kagoshima_Luke

Gold Member
NDPsycho said:
I had a once in a lifetime today. My brother called me to a yard sale that was selling off the stock of a previous video rental store. It pains me to think of what got sold last night to early buyers and the fact that I was about an hour late to their opening today. They had an absolute ton of NES, SNES, N64 and Genesis games 4/$1....that's right 25 cents each. Even with my late arrival, I did manage to find some gems. I finally got copies of Duck Tales 2, Chip 'n Dale 2, and Metal Storm for a quarter each. I was also happy to finally get River City Ransom, Journey to Sillius, some Mega Man, etc. So hyped, I'll be spending months cleaning carts. Anyone got any other Mega Man carts they'd trade for 2 or 3? I don't have any of the others. :)

Most of the SNES was cleaned out, but a lot of the NES was still there. I don't know as much about NES games though, so I'm sure I left a lot of good stuff behind.

I'm a image newb...how do I resize these so they're not so big? Any easy way?
Click to expand...

Holy shit. Amazing haul - congrats!

I'm still sitting on about 200 NES/Famicom games in my collection. I actually don't collect the original boxes, but rather just the cart and manual, which I place inside custom, plastic cases. My games take up more room, but they look really nice and uniform lined up on a shelf. Here are some pics of what I'm talking about:

20184769326_d532f15102_b.jpg


20024560349_4ac204cc84_b.jpg


20216898491_3a5a2a3998_b.jpg
Click to expand...
 
E

ElTopo

Banned
Took me three attempts but I beat the NES Nightmare on Elm Street. First time beating it without save states. Pretty short game, could be beaten in about 20 minutes. Towards the end I was kind of rushing it out of frustration but I did it.

An okay early horror game. I wonder why we never got another Elm Street game all these years later. Same with the other big franchises. Only exception to the rule would be those Evil Dead games.
 
entremet

entremet

Member
NDPsycho said:
I had a once in a lifetime today. My brother called me to a yard sale that was selling off the stock of a previous video rental store. It pains me to think of what got sold last night to early buyers and the fact that I was about an hour late to their opening today. They had an absolute ton of NES, SNES, N64 and Genesis games 4/$1....that's right 25 cents each. Even with my late arrival, I did manage to find some gems. I finally got copies of Duck Tales 2, Chip 'n Dale 2, and Metal Storm for a quarter each. I was also happy to finally get River City Ransom, Journey to Sillius, some Mega Man, etc. So hyped, I'll be spending months cleaning carts. Anyone got any other Mega Man carts they'd trade for 2 or 3? I don't have any of the others. :)

Most of the SNES was cleaned out, but a lot of the NES was still there. I don't know as much about NES games though, so I'm sure I left a lot of good stuff behind.

I'm a image newb...how do I resize these so they're not so big? Any easy way?
Click to expand...

Holy crap, man!

Get some plastic game protectors STAT.

http://www.videogameboxprotectors.com

Those are some pristine cardboard boxes, which are rare these days.
 
N

NDPsycho

Member
Chittagong said:
This is truly the greatest haul I have ever seen. I don't think I have seen that many CIB NES games since early 1990s. What you have must be worth a lot.
Click to expand...

Not complete, many are just the box and cart, some have manuals, but thanks :)

Keep finding more gems that I didn't realize I was picking up. I thought I had grabbed Contra and Super C. Turns out it was Contra Force. Also got Wacky Races and 3 Color Dreams games. If I had only went in with some of this knowledge!
 
Z

Zing

Banned
For a quarter, why wouldn't someone simply buy the entire lot? Even a loose cart is usually worth 50 cents.
 
D.Lo

D.Lo

Member
I might sound like a mercenary, but I would have said to them 'how much for the lot' and dealt with sorting later, just to lock out other buyers!

NDPsycho said:
Keep finding more gems that I didn't realize I was picking up. I thought I had grabbed Contra and Super C. Turns out it was Contra Force.
Click to expand...
Holy crap. I've given up ever completing my Konami NES collection because that game is too expensive.
 
B

blast processed

Member
D.Lo said:
I might sound like a mercenary, but I would have said to them 'how much for the lot' and dealt with sorting later, just to lock out other buyers!
Click to expand...

I agree, I would have just purchased everything. He clearly wanted to unload everything. BTW. Holy Shit!!!! Nice pick ups.
 
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