brento

Interesting. I noticed when the SNES is powered on, and the NES's cord is touched with my finger, about half of the 'snow' disappears. Why would that be? Grounding issue?

Well, I decided to dig in further and open up the little piece of plastic that guards the mechanism which slides into place when the power button is on. I noticed the metal inside was severely corroded, so now I am guessing it must have something to do with this. Tried cleaning and fixing it, but same issue. I do have another power/reset part to test it out with. Maybe I'll do that... just to see if 7800fan's theory is correct or incorrect

Yeah, I will take back my comments indicating that the third party power supplies are not right for the system, as they do work. It's just odd that they produce that static if and only if you are also using a third party av cord.

So I just got a 'non-working' NES which in fact, does work, after I did some testing. Had a look at the board, didn't notice anything wrong. Pressed the power button, and it came on. Pressed it again, nothing. So I pressed the reset button, and boom, power comes on. It seems the Power button will only work if the reset button was pushed before it. If I turn off the system with the power button, and then try turning it back on with the power button, nothing happens. But if I press the reset button, and THEN press the power button, the system comes on. Resetting the console if it is on simply resets it as normal. Has anyone come across this before or knows of a potential solution?

Update: I think I have solved some of the confusion. I recently did a test with 4 different Super Nintendo consoles, power supplies, and cords. Here are my results. I *only* get the scanning static lines if both the AV cords and power supply are 3rd party. If I mix an OEM AV cable with a third party AC adapter, no problem. Same thing is true if I use a third party AV cable plus original power supply... again, no problem. So! The problem seems to be that using BOTH third part av cable and ac adapter is the issue. This sort of sucks, as I have recently been fixing up Super Nintendos, raising them from the dead. And when I get "broken" consoles, they never have the OEM cables or power supply. I don't want to give these perfectly functional SNES consoles to people with the static issue. And trust me, I know it's nothing wrong with the SNES consoles as they are ALL perfectly fine with OEM cables. So, now since I am not rabidly against *just* the third party AC adapters, I am now open to using them, but need compatible AV cables. So, I am wondering if anyone here has ordered third-party cables and does not have the static / rolling lines problem? And do you remember where you bought them if you did so online? I'd like to find a good combo of third-party cables that don't have this static issue.

I'm interested in this... Currently wondering if the RetroUSB HDMI console seems a worthy alternate. It's a whole new console that can play NES games perfectly... No need to mod the NES. But I like the idea of using the original hardware. I'm not sure I trust myself to do such a complex install. The price of outright buying a high def NESscared me at first, mainly since I live in Canada and the shipping plus exchange rate would not be nice to me... Buuuut if all caps have been replaced and the install done by experts... It's very tempting since this gives new life to the NES. Maybe get both this and the Retro USB. Haha.

Interesting thing with the audio hum. The audio hum thing happens with all 3 of my Genesis systems which use OEM adapters. Mind you, I haven't opened up the adapters to see if all of the capacitors are in good shape. is this just something we get with the Genesis? I dunno, I've never owned one until about a year ago... And is there any cure for it?

Smack: any luck?

Iceman: I'm glad they worked out for you... I do wonder why mine wasn't perfect and yours is. I mean, it can't be that they're exactly the same. Perhaps since I got mine over a year ago, they've been improved since then. I remember that one game (Starfox) didn't work at all while others had distortion in the picture. Just curious what prob it gave for your Genesis? On my NES and Genesis it worked perfectly. It was just the SNES with probs. I noticed that the output of an OEM SNES adapter is 10v & 850ma. The output on my old Chinese-made 3-in-1 is 9v 850ma. Not sure if that's a big deal or not. Thecrypticodor: Your explanation seems good... It seems to me the 9v 10v difference isn't a big deal... It did look a lot like RF noise. I'm sure that was it... A shame these things are made without the proper filters. Dunno why Star Fox was weird... It never worked with that 3rd party adapter. Could it be voltage related or maybe I was just unlucky that day...

Iceman: I hate to be the bearer of bad news but that yellow packaged 3-in-1 is not good for the SNES. It is fine, however, for Genesis and NES though I've heard the build quality is questionable. The problem with the adapter there is that it's specs don't match the original of the SNES. This led to (for me and others) some distortion in the picture... either rolling lines or static.

I don't know about you but I've tried out various third party adapters on my SNES and none of them seem to do the job like the ole trusty Nintendo branded one. I keep seeing minor distortion in the picture quality. I am wondering if anyone here has used a third party AC adapter that works as well as the Nintendo one... Just look at these poor reviews of this third party adapter. Scrolling lines down your screen, the wrong amount of power being fed to your SNES. It's sketchy. https://www.amazon.com/Super-Nintendo-AC-Adapter-Power-Supply/dp/B000A7I71C I don't like all these "all in one" adapters. Why can't someone just make one that's truly SNES compatible? I'm shocked that nobody seems to have done it... Unless I'm missing something.

Cool. This is great stuff I'm learning here...

Ok will look into that too. I also noticed that game cartridges have capacitors too. But question... Why do game carts have capacitors? And do you recommend changing those too? I guess the biggest fear is that one would leak onto your cart's board...

^ That's right. I have two NES systems. One is the original loading toaster style, and I clipped the pin... has worked great, but honestly, I don't think that was needed. It's all about the cleanliness of the contacts. As for the Blinking Light Win, that is not clipped, and it works *every time* simply because the contacts are... well... making contact! So yeah, thumbs up to Arcadeworks.

The boiling trick has worked for me for sure. I think it might expand the metal temporarily and as the metal expands, dirt becomes immobilized. The heat and movement of water breaks down the dirt dislodging it from the metal. I think that is a big helper for dirty contacts but it may not help out systems that have bent contacts. For that you will need to physically bend them yourself. In my experience with carts, cleaning the contacts definitely fixed things. I would have bought games that didn't run at all or only 30% of the time. Taking apart the cartridge with the proper screwdriver (with a bit attached) and cleaning the contacts always worked. Only one game in my life did I come across that cleaning the contacts didn't help. So let's use the same logic for the metal contacts I the system's themselves. They get dirt on them over time and need a clean... And that's what the boiling does. Simple as that.

Sweet! I'm considering doing a cap change too as I just did a huge 31 cap replacement on my Sega Genesis model 2.

Some very useful information there thank you. Yes I also believed "if it ain't broke don't fix it" however if capacitors really do go bad, I think it's a good idea to replace them every 20 years or so... If you can. Anyways I left the Genesis on for a good two hours, and it ran very smoothly without a single issue. I think that since this was a success I will try fixing my other systems, starting with the Atari 2600 which probably needs a cap change badly.

Yes. The only reason I wanted the Retro VGS was to play older games flawlessly on it, and maybe cool if I could play new 'retro style' games on it. But what it has morphed into since I first heard about it no longer leaves me interested. I just hope that the Retro VGS team goes back to the original concept, straightens things out, maybe works with Kevtris (???) and all will be fixed and well? Here's hoping.

It's funny how the Retro VGS team seems to be starting with the shell, then working their way into the board. Isn't that opposite of what should happen? You start first with the board, and surround it with plastic. I think you're off to the right start, Kevtris

I will not be contributing to the IndieGoGo campaign because I feel they are not ready. I think they should take this as a learning opportunity, listen to what the community wants, and communicate what the system is a lot better. It was quite confusing for me actually, as they are not quite clear on what the system can actually do or what games I will be able to play on it. But I do know about the various custom color options I could purchase... which I do not care about...

Hello everyone. This is my first post on Atari Age, a forum I never knew existed... and I am a hardcore retro gamer. Guess I just hadn't heard of this forum until hearing about Kevtris and his work. (Then again, I am less of an Atari person and more of the 8-bit to 16-bit era kind of guy.) Kevtris's work sounds super interesting. I had really been looking forward to the Retro VGS, but had my hopes dashed when I saw the Indiegogo campaign. No specific information, no working prototype... Plus, I thought they were primarily focusing on being able to play old retro games on the system rather than new carts with 'retro style games' which would have been better as a sort of bonus. I would definitely throw $300+ (I voted sky's the limit) at anyone who could give me a system that could run the plethora of systems that Kevtris has said he could get (and has gotten) running. I love the FPGA system as it would be very authentic, unlike the modern day emulators which always seem to have incompatibility issues and (very important to me as I am a sound designer composer for video games...) AUDIO and MUSIC! I seriously get bugged playing emulated games because the sound is just ... so... off. Listening to that Castlevania 3 demo was just... wonderful. Good work there, Kevtris! Part of the reason I would throw money into the direction of someone doing something along the lines of what Kevtris is doing is because I already own a ton of carts, but some carts are just getting too pricey and I would love to play them as they were meant to be played. Also, a couple of capacitors have leaked onto my SNES and Genesis board. I replaced them, and they work... but will that always be the case? I want a concole that could last a much longer time. As someone who repairs old consoles, I have noticed more breaking down this last year. Are these things finally getting old enough to bite the dust? The FPGA system would be that awesome solution to my worries. It would also preserve video game history in a sense. So Kevtris would be doing more for the community than just coming out with a system... he'd be preserving an entire era of video gaming culture... one that is slowly slipping away. Anyhow, the idea of an SD card slot that automatically loads the system core is just... so cool. I mean, damn amazing. Plus playing your carts? That's like... a dream come true. I swear if you came out with this, it would be very popular. I know there are many like myself who just want to clear up a little space in the living room, use HDMI, and have an authentic experience... without tampering around. Seriously, the SD card idea is just brilliant. USB connection for controllers? Superb. I cannot think of a better idea. So yeah, I wanted to add to the horde saying that: 1) Yes, I'd pay $300 no problemo. 2) I'd hope to have HDMI and component 3) I would looove support for SNES, Genesis, NES. (If you could ever get Sega Saturn working, you're a superstar.) But even with the cores you've currently developed, you're just an amazing person. So yeah. I think you should someday think about launching your own Kickstarter. You'd get my money without even a hint of a thought. I think a lot of peeps here were dissapointed with the Retro VGS launch... we were also dissapointed with cheaply made poor man's consoles like the Retron 5 (ughhh) maybe you could be the person who makes us all happy