MaximRecoil

It is called Nintendo Australia; "Nintendo" is right in the name. They own it (not just control it), just like they own Nintendo of America, Nintendo of Europe, and Nintendo of Korea. So yes, that is at least one thing that Nintendo manufactures. Irony. Even if your reasoning here were correct (it isn't; see above), it wouldn't have proven "that Nintendo does not manufacturer anything". It is nothing like that example. This is a non sequitur, and a comical one at that, considering just how far removed from reality it is. And this is even funnier. Yes, it does have a name: Nintendo Australia.

This topic of this thread is an argument, specifically, an argument the OP started with me on a different thread, which he decided to make this "callout thread" about. The original post even attempts to summarize "argument A" and "argument b". Of course, the OP straw-manned my argument, i.e., I never argued what he claims I did, and his poll question doesn't even make sense, but regardless of that, that argument is what this thread is about. Peanut gallery-type comments, AKA: heckling, AKA: throwing paper cups from the sidelines, are not only laughably pathetic, but they are always off-topic, especially in this thread. If you don't have an argument, why are you posting on this thread?

Be careful when throwing those paper cups from the sidelines ... you could put an eye out.

As I said, "Then use the word 'original'". And you have it backwards; "OEM" isn't typically too broadly interpreted, it is typically too narrowly (and incorrectly) interpreted, such as by people who seem to think it is interchangeable with the word "original". I didn't do any such thing. It probably isn't, as I said, but that hasn't been established. What's the make and/or part number of it? If it was ever used as a factory part on any car ever made, then it is an OEM part, regardless of it not having been used as a factory part on your year/make/model of car. What the consumer uses a part for has no bearing whatsoever on whether or not it is an OEM part. No, it doesn't conflict with any of my views, given that I never claimed, suggested, nor even hinted that OEM parts in general are always the best. I gave the opinion in a very specific context, which is, parts compatible with an NES controller. Naming various other products in which aftermarket parts are better than OEM parts is irrelevant, though a general rule is something like this: OEM parts are typically better than cheaper aftermarket "equivalents". On the other hand, specialty aftermarket parts built with a goal other than offering the customer a lower-priced alternative to OEM (such as fixing a known flaw, or making it heavier-duty or otherwise high-performance) are often better than OEM, and often more expensive as well. Aftermarket high-end car audio equipment blows OEM stuff out of the water, for example. Then why are you arguing?

If you want to fix it you could use a gain booster; something like this: http://www.htd.com/Products/line-level-gain-boosters/LGB-1

That isn't Wal-mart's price, that's "Toymantime, LLC's" price, whoever they are. Wal-mart's website includes listings from other sellers, like Amazon.com does. I believe you can filter the search to only include products sold by Wal-mart.

Awesome post. I didn't think of using Google Groups; the last time I tried searching for really old posts on there, their advanced search was MIA and I haven't tried it since. I did try Google Trends, but that only went back to 2004.

Then use the word "original". As I said before, all original parts are OEM, but not all OEM parts are original. "OEM part" applies to parts that were actually manufactured by or authorized by the original manufacturer of the product the part belongs to. For example, the Ford (Motorcraft) ignition coil and the GM (AC Delco) HEI ignition module in my '69 Dodge Charger are OEM parts, because they were both factory-installed in various Ford and GM vehicles. They are obviously not original to the car, and to use them required me to modify the original ignition system, but OEM doesn't necessarily mean "original". However, if GM or Ford unilaterally decided to make clones of NES controller parts, they wouldn't be OEM parts, because the original manufacturer (Nintendo) didn't authorize it. In your case it is probably not an OEM part. A lot of the car parts OEMs make unauthorized copies of other OEMs' parts in addition to their actual OEM parts. OEM is a good thing, from my perspective, with regard to Nintendo controllers, which is the only thing relevant in this context. Not by a random factory in China, and not without input or authorization from Nintendo. Nintendo is a manufacturer, not that it's even remotely relevant. Parts in their official products are OEM regardless of who manufactured them. Again, this is irrelevant. False. Here's at least one thing they manufacture: Again, irrelevant. And I already know that much of Nintendo's stuff is made in China these days. I pointed it out several days ago on the huge NES mini thread, when discussing how cheaply they could have an HDMI-to-A/V adapter made if they wanted to. There's nothing inherently wrong with stuff made in China. China has nuclear weapons. They can manufacture high quality and even exotic stuff when they want to. Knockoff products made in random Chinese factories don't tend to be very good though. Which is all that matters. When Nintendo manufacturers or has someone manufacture parts for their products, those parts are OEM by definition. It doesn't make any difference what product they are made for as long as they do what I want them to do, which they will, as the video that someone linked to on the other thread proves. I'll take Nintendo's choices regarding grades of rubber, conductive coating, conductive coating attachment methods, grades of plastic, tolerances, and so on, over some random Chinese factory's choices. Also, your suggestion isn't even a comparable alternative to what I want to do, as I've pointed out more than once before. Your suggestion just gets you new rubber switches. What I want to do gets me new rubber switches, a new shell, new buttons, and a new D-pad, i.e., everything that counts with regard to appearance, feel, and function will be brand new, and it will look identical to an original NES controller, aside from the small print on the back.

*Proceeds to construct a straw man* Fixed. There is nothing civil about constructing a straw man. On the other hand, I haven't said anything uncivil in this thread.

The author linked to the eBay auction in the article, and I'm sure the bid was at $6.49 at the time. He doesn't seem to understand the concept of an auction though. The winning bid was $31.74 plus $11.74 shipping. That's a pretty good deal for a NES console that doesn't appear to be yellowed or cracked/chipped, with two original controllers, power brick, A/V cables, and a game, though it's obviously a far cry from $6.49. The blinking light is a non-issue, assuming it has its original 72-pin connector. A proper cleaning will make it work like new again. The auctions for some of the other stuff he linked to are still running.

So? What else would I use them for? It implies no such thing, especially since "OEM to nes controllers" is pure jibberish. Since you seem to think that "OEM" is an alternate spelling of "original", I'll assume you meant "original to nes controllers", and in that case, NES Mini controller parts are obviously not original parts for NES controllers; that goes without saying. I want OEM because in my experience, OEM is the safest bet in terms of quality (which I've already pointed out in the other thread), because they are built to the design and specifications of the original manufacturer. The alternative is parts made in a random Chinese factory with no input or authorization whatsoever from the original manufacturer. Me wanting OEM parts has nothing to do with originality. I haven't changed anything. You can't quote me saying anything even remotely similar to what you've claimed my argument was, because I never said any such thing. I said they were OEM, full stop, which they, in fact, are. The issue here is that OEM doesn't mean what you think it means, which I pointed out to you immediately in that other thread, and reiterated several times. Your poll question is a straw man. It also doesn't mean anything in the English language.

My post says no such thing. I never argued "that the classic mini controllers made today in 2016 are OEM to the Original NES controllers manufactured 30 years ago," because such an argument is nonsense, i.e., "OEM to the Original NES controllers" doesn't mean anything in the English language. I said that they are OEM, period, and they are. Again, the term "OEM" is not interchangeable with the term "original". Your poll is a straw man.

You're also conflating the term "OEM" with "original", and yes, it is an often misused term, misused in exactly the way you are misusing it. "OEM part" simply means a part manufactured by an OEM, and a part manufactured by an OEM is always an OEM part regardless of what you do with it. Again, "OEM" actually refers to the manufacturer. All original parts on a particular product are OEM, but not all OEM parts are original. To further complicate matters, there are two degrees of what people consider to be "original": 1. The specific part that was installed at the factory on your product. 2. An identical part from the same manufacturer, often taken from a different example of the same make and model product. With regard to parts that have serial numbers, people are less likely to use/accept the number 2 sense of the word "original", which is where the concept of "numbers matching" comes into play. But either way, OEM is not synonymous with "original".

I disabled the lockout chip on all my NESs many years ago. There's no way for me to know whether the problem was the dirty switch contacts or a bad solder joint on the switch's PCB, because I cleaned the contacts and resoldered all of the joints without testing in between, i.e., the shotgun approach. Whatever the problem was, it works perfectly now.

The fact that you can successfully do a board swap, as proven by the video that you graciously linked to, proves that the similarities don't end there. Also, the fact that a NES and NES Mini controller are visually ~indistinguishable aside from [presumably] the markings on the back, the cord length, and style of plug, proves that the similarities don't end there. You might not expect hood hinges from a 1970s (and some 1980s) Dodge fullsize pickup to fit on a '69 Charger either, but they do. And of course, this has nothing to do with whether or not a given part is OEM. OEM status is determined by who manufactured it, not by what some random person eventually uses it for or what it's compatible with. Or, you can just do a board swap and end up with a Nintendo-brand controller which works with an NES, that's all brand new aside from the PCB and cord.

No, I haven't argued that "the classic mini controllers made today in 2016 are OEM to the Original NES controllers manufactured 30 years ago." I've pointed out more than once that there's no such thing as "OEM to (insert product here)". You're conflating the term "OEM" with the term "original". It is valid to say that something is original to something, but it makes no sense to say that something is OEM to something. NES Mini controller parts are obviously not original to NES controllers, but that doesn't change the fact that they are OEM parts. Strictly speaking, the term "OEM" refers to a manufacturer, e.g., "Company A is an OEM for Company B". In vernacular we also refer to certain parts as "OEM", meaning they were manufactured by an OEM. An OEM part is always an OEM part, regardless of what you use it for. It is an OEM part when sitting on the shelf, it is an OEM part if jury-rigged to work with a product from an unrelated manufacturer, and so on. If it was manufactured by an OEM it is an OEM part forever.

There aren't any access points, though you could unhook the clasps of the cover and bend it up a little to spray something in there. But there's nothing to removing the cover completely (you just have to straighten two metal tabs in addition to unhooking the plastic clasps), at which point you have full access to the simple switch mechanism.

No, it shouldn't be obvious, given that you don't know what "tacit" or "piece of work" means. False. Kosmic Stardust made a false accusation (blatant provocation), and also tried to refute things I'd never said (i.e., straw man). Like your false assertion above, reality is precisely the opposite of what you think it is. When you ignore someone, they get the "last word" by default.

I had never encountered one either before today. I haven't tested that particular NES for many years, so either the switch wasn't flaky then, or I didn't notice it. Have you ever looked at the inside of the switch? It's an excellent, and very simple design. I don't see how it could ever wear out. In my case, a simple cleaning of the contacts made it work like new again. The reset switch is the same design, except it doesn't have the click mechanism.

A lot of times, metal that appears clean really isn't. Most people clean contacts with rubbing alcohol, which is only marginally effective. A potent acid such as oxalic acid is what's needed, because, unlike solvents, it cuts through oxidation. However, consoles which use standard card edge connectors like the SNES are pretty tolerant of contacts that aren't perfectly clean, so that's probably not the problem. What you described sounds like one or more bad solder joints, most likely among the solder joints that connect the card edge connector to the motherboard. If it were mine, I'd desolder every one of them and resolder them all. You could also just "reflow" them all, which is easier and faster. It could also be a broken trace near the card edge connector, but a bad solder joint is more likely.

No one is being called a monkey; "monkey see, monkey do" is a term which refers to the phenomenon of someone who imitates without understanding the principles of what he's imitating. That's why you ended up misapplying the term "tacit". You also don't seem to know what the common "piece of work" expression means, but that's not part of the "monkey see, monkey do" effect. On forums of this sort, I'm never snarky to anyone who isn't snarky first. If you disagree with that, go ahead and try to find an example where I issued the first snarky remark. There are a lot of people who get upset when someone disagrees with / refutes something they have said, and they jump right into snide mode. Then there are some people who are flat-out "trolls", offering up peanut gallery-type comments to posts that weren't even directed at them in the first place.

The 7800 has a 320 x 240 mode, which is higher resolution than the NES (256 x 240), but I'm not a programmer, so I don't know the caveats/limitation of using that mode. If 320 x 240 could be used for a Dodge Ball port, and if it doesn't carry with it some weird limitations like only having 4 colors or something like that, I would expect it to have at least passable graphics, and without the severe flicker of the NES version. The Pokey sound chip would be a must, because the NES Dodge Ball has some good music, especially the tune that plays during the final match (the "mirror match").

I replaced the aftermarket 72-pin connectors in a couple of my spare front-loaders with well-used OEM ones today, and on one of them, I noticed the power switch was acting up. When I powered it on, there was a brief flash of purple on the screen, then a brief delay, and then it booted the game correctly. I played SMB for a few minutes, and when I went to turn it off, just touching the power switch interrupted the power and reset the game. Normally you can press the switch all the way in with the game running and it won't affect anything until you release it. There was a power/reset switch assembly on eBay with a BIN of $7.49, free shipping, and I was about to order it, but I decided to have a look at the switch first. After straightening two metal prongs, the plastic cover of the switch snaps right off, and surprisingly, the switch has a very simple, robust design. I should have taken a picture, but I didn't think of it. There are two metal prongs which are soldered to the PCB, and the button that you push has a flat piece of metal attached to it. When you push the button, the flat piece of metal shorts those two metal prongs. The click mechanism that holds the button in and then releases when you push it again it is the exact same design as the cartridge tray's click mechanism; just a smaller version of it. The design appears to be bulletproof; I don't see how it could ever fail, aside from the contacts getting dirty, which was the case here. So I cleaned the contacts with Bar Keepers Friend, which quickly made them shine like new, and for good measure, since I had it all apart anyway, I desoldered and resoldered all the joints on the power/reset switch assembly's PCB, even though they all looked fine to begin with. The switch works perfectly now. So this can be added to the list of things which are easily fixable on an NES front-loader. Other things I've easily fixed include "dead" AC adapters (which in the case of the NES is actually just a 120V to 9V step-down transformer), flaky or non-working RF switches, and OEM 72-pin connectors. Unlike the myth perpetuated by e.g., Wikipedia ... ... in reality, the OEM 72-pin connectors never "wear out" (though they can be ruined by being vandalized, i.e., someone bending the pins upward in a misguided effort to fix them; I ruined a couple of them myself that way about 15 years ago before I figured out how to properly clean them). The three of them I got in the mail today were from a guy who had removed them from "blinking NESs" to replace them with aftermarket ones (which are junk in my experience), and they were so well-used that several of the thin plastic vanes between each pin had long since broken off. They have next to no grip on the cartridge pins when you slide the cartridge in, which is exactly how they're supposed to be. They are now installed in my spare front-loaders and working perfectly, first time, every time (the aftermarket ones worked on the first try maybe 80% of the time, and applied a death grip to the cartridges).

Of course I'm not happy with beat up original NES controllers with torn rubber switches. I am happy with my pair of NOS original NES controllers though, obviously. For what I plan to do, they aren't different in any meaningful way. This is ironic, considering you clearly don't know what OEM means. OEM refers to a part made by an original manufacturer or manufacturer authorized by the original manufacturer. It is the opposite of aftermarket. There are no doubt plenty of parts from a Ford Taurus that will fit a Ford Mustang, and yes, they are all OEM. What you use the parts for is irrelevant to whether or not something is OEM. You could use a Ford intake manifold as a door stop and it would still be an OEM part. You could use Motorcraft spark plug wires on a Chevrolet, and they would still be OEM Ford plug wires. More irony. OEM includes parts from any manufacturer which is authorized by the original manufacturer to make the part. In fact, originally, that's only what OEM referred to: "An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is a company that makes a part or subsystem that is used in another company's end product.[1] For example, if Acme Manufacturing Co. makes power cords that are used on IBM computers, Acme is an OEM." Again, OEM doesn't mean what you think it means. And no, not many people share your misconception, let alone "practically everyone else in the world". See above. Irony again. See above, again.

This is the best example of the concept of "monkey see, monkey do" I've ever seen online. Thanks.