Quite a few months ago, my mom and I were just going to our usual trip to Goodwill. I didn't know much about NES, Atari, etc., but I knew what they looked like and if I found one for cheap I would take it. I was just strolling down the isles, and while I was looking at something (I think it was a cabinet), but in the corner of my eye, I spotted a white/grey machine. Before I looked at it directly, I thought and almost even yelled NES!!!!! It was one of the earlier ones because it dosen't have the 1800 number on the door, it was on the bottom. As I was looking on the bottom to find where the 1800 number was, I found the price. WHOLLY MOLLY! $6 and it was in cosmetically MINT condition!!! Even though I had no money, my mom bought it for me. It was the beginning of my collection. It was the centerpeice of my playroom. I was sooo exited..... Only to realize it had NO cables, NO games, and NO nothing. I had no way to test it. About a month later, I went to a Gamestop to get a Namco Museum for PS2, but they lied that they got a brand new sealed copy, bla bla bla, so I returned it. My mom was going to her favorite far-away grocery store, and my dad took me to the video game store next to it. I was just looking around for Namco Museum for the PS1, and my dad poked me on the back and said, "Is this what you're looking for?" as he held up an NES controller, and I chased him all around the store until I could reach it. I got it while I was in a specific corner.... Dedicated to NES, SNES, N64, Genesis, and Dreamcast. I immediately started searching for games I wanted and cables, but I was short on money. There were lots of good games hidden in the back and they had rediculously low prices. I ended up getting Pac-Man (Tengen liscenced), Tetris, an NES power supply, and 2 controllers. I did want Dr. Mario, Super Mario Bros., and Donkey Kong, but I was out of $$. We drove ALL the way
home, and I immediately started hooking up the NES (we have tons of AV cables in our house), and I was all done, popped in Pac-Man..... Turned it on...... Scrambled screen... I forgot! I was supposed to clean it and move the pins back and forth to bend them back into place. I cleaned the games with Alchohol, that didn't help. I tried Windex and used the move ack and forth technique (which I learned from Rinrygamegame on Youtube), and voila! Pac-Man worked with no problems. Tetris, was a pain... I tried everything. Claning, snapping it down, moving the pins... It didn't help. I waited until the next dat to try Tetris, and oddly enough, it worked. My collection keeps growing, and then I learned how to clean the pins.. i took it apart, blah blah blah. Yay! It works like it's brand new. I love it, and now my brother's addicted to Tetris.
NOTE: I did not have to do any mods like disable the 10NES chip, new 72 pin connector, etc. The previous owner seems like he/she barely used it.