Top loader NES AV mod from CatHouse Games

[MegaManFan]

This is un-sponsored and entirely my own opinion. It's so weird that after all these years you need to clarify posts and videos from the start that way, but I'd rather not people think I'm in any way enticed to give the following review.

 

I have a friend locally to me named Phil -- a few of you may have seen him on YouTube (he goes by "Fix-It Phil") and some of you might even be in his Facebook group. When it comes to replacing leaking caps in my old consoles, he's become my go to guy. It's a Godsend to have somebody who can do the work right here in town and not have to ship it out of state, and he does repairs for most of the game stores in town too so "he knows his shit" so to speak. In fact whenever people tell me they have an old Nomad/Game Gear/NES/ColecoVision/PS1/et cetera any more, I recommend him first. ANYWAY...

 

A few days back I was asking Phil what consoles he thought should be on my "hit list" to do next. He asked if I had ever replaced the caps in my Nintendo decks, and happened to mention if I hadn't done my top loader, he could always do an AV mod while he had it open. BINGO. Any of you who have ever owned a top loader know what a pain it is to only have RF output - it's horribly unclean and creates what's commonly called "jailbars" on the screen. I stopped using my top loader because of it once I had my toaster NES modded, but recently CatHouse games started offering the following AV mod and Console5 became an authorized reseller.

 

https://console5.com/store/nes-toploader-nes-101-and-famicom-composite-av-mod-kit.html

 

I went ahead and bought the mod, the wiring, and a cap kit to replace all of the old caps in the console. The parts cost me $30, the labor cost me $30, and it's honestly $60 of the best I've ever spent. The output has never looked so good on EITHER Nintendo I own. I think the only way you could get a cleaner picture than this would be the NES Classic with its built in HDMI output (though you have to mod it to play roms and can't play carts on it) or the Analogue NT (which will cost you far more than $60). I don't think this picture will do it justice but if not I will upload a video to show it off later.

 

I HIGHLY recommend this product but I have to give the following warning -- doing the mod yourself is not for the faint of heart. I watched Phil do it via live stream on Facebook and I know I would have no chance of doing it myself - lots of flux, lots of solder, and you have to bend back a pin on one of the chips on the board.

[DragonGrafx-16]

I decided to go the BLW + a toaster NES to solve the jailbar problem for me... much much easier than modding my top loader which I'm now selling.

[Tanooki]

With an original deck the only thing acceptable to me is the original pin, straightened, and boiled until 100% clean, just as reliable as a top loader especially with that security chip taken out.

 

But for this, your friend did a nice job but I wouldnt and didn't go half baked like that after having already one modded top loader which really didn't entirely clean out the bars going with SD output (just not rgb.) I put up for a hidefnes kit and had that dropped into another top loader instead and it's mind blowing just now amazing that is, and with the perks of the famicom expanded sound channels too.

[DragonGrafx-16]

That was the first thing I tried... it helped but games still took way too long to get working. Now games work every single time.

[Punisher5.0]

I really need to get one of those Top Loader AV kits. They are so cheap on Ebay. I have a front loader but I much prefer the work everytime the first time on the Top loader

[0078265317]

I remember tale spin. That was a good show bitd.

[MegaManFan]

I really need to get one of those Top Loader AV kits. They are so cheap on Ebay. I have a front loader but I much prefer the work everytime the first time on the Top loader

Indeed and it’s SO much cheaper than a HDMI FPGA deck.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Indeed and it’s SO much cheaper than a HDMI FPGA deck.

Ahh.. but a Hi-Def NES looks sooooo good!!!!

[DJ Clae]

I already did what I reccomend in my Youtube video -- NESRGB + Blinking Light Win. I would like to see NESRGB on the toploader. Unfortunately there's no good way to do expansion audio on the US toploader, since they removed the pins.

[DragonGrafx-16]

I already did what I reccomend in my Youtube video -- NESRGB + Blinking Light Win. I would like to see NESRGB on the toploader. Unfortunately there's no good way to do expansion audio on the US toploader, since they removed the pins.

I really need to do the expansion audio mod... is it hard?

[Tanooki]

I really need to do the expansion audio mod... is it hard?

Stupid easy it appears, basically soldering one part between 2 points on the bottom of your NES motherboard.

http://www.retrofixes.com/2014/05/open-hidden-sound-channels-in-nes.html

 

You could do one resistor but the audio won't be rightly leveled, it appears what you need are 2x47kOhm resistors. There is an ENIO expansion module you can pick up that jacks into the port on the bottom of the NES to do it for you, or you just solder it in yourself.

[DragonGrafx-16]

Stupid easy it appears, basically soldering one part between 2 points on the bottom of your NES motherboard.

http://www.retrofixes.com/2014/05/open-hidden-sound-channels-in-nes.html

 

You could do one resistor but the audio won't be rightly leveled, it appears what you need are 2x47kOhm resistors. There is an ENIO expansion module you can pick up that jacks into the port on the bottom of the NES to do it for you, or you just solder it in yourself.

Or that's super simple indeed! I've put together an analog synthesizer kit before and that was much more complex.

[DJ Clae]

Yeah, it's simple. You most likely will need to mod your converter too.

[derFunkenstein]

Or that's super simple indeed! I've put together an analog synthesizer kit before and that was much more complex.

Its so simple it was literally my first soldering mod. Did it on two NES systems. Both worked great on the first try.