YoBo! NES clone.

[walter_J64bit]

I've found a used YoBo for $10.00 with on games, I've read that it doesn't have lockout chip, what lockout chip for anyway?

[DemonoidTentacle]

A lockout chip would stop your NTSC NES from playing PAL games, and vice versa.

[+wongojack]

Every NES game has a lockout chip in it as well as the console itself. The NES looks for a corresponding lockout chip when it starts a game and if it fails to find one, it gives a blinking red light. This is problematic when using older games because the lockout in the game itself could go bad and/or the pins that lead to the lockout chip on the console or the game. If so, you simply can't play. Users frequently disable their console's lockout chip to help troubleshooting older games as it isn't needed for game functionality, and no one is concerned about anything like a warranty any longer.

 

Presumably, an out of region game would fail to start because its lockout does not match with the lockout in the console from another region. Disabling the chip in the console means that it will never even check for lockout and simply allow the game to play.

 

I have a YoBo clone as well, but I've never tested an out of region game. It does have some compatibility problems, but at $10 who cares?

[walter_J64bit]

@ wongojack

thanks for the info does the GameGenie work on the Yobo and is there compatibility list?

[walter_J64bit]

A lockout chip would stop your NTSC NES from playing PAL games, and vice versa.

Oh ok, PAL games I don't know much about them for the NES, I'm just going to get a hand full of NTSC games much easier to find. Edited August 22, 2014 by walter_J64bit

[+wongojack]

@ wongojack

thanks for the info does the GameGenie work on the Yobo and is there compatibility list?

 

I don't have a GG, so I'm not sure. As for a compat list, I think those are hard to come by as even the revisions of the individual models of these ubiquitous Famiclones seem to vary on their compatibility. Something about how NES games use a variety of "mappers" that make it very hard to emulate all configurations. I've gone looking for definitive lists, but haven't found any.

[Osgeld]

its a bit more complicated than just keeping you from ...

 

pre NES there was no control on who was making what, at first it was fine, then activision sort of happened, and now your not paying atari for 2600 games, you are paying activision, along with any moron with a prom burner, and one hung low pirates.

 

Market became flooded with "just like" clones and crapware, atari aint making any good money and trying to keep up by producing their own shovelware (ET, PacMan), consumers start asking "why am I paying A LOT of money for this crap" market crashes

 

Nintendo Comes along and secures a licensing arrangement, says all their games are approved by a nintendo seal of quality (more like the publishers paid nintendo's fee, cause look at all the crap on NES) 3rd party's and pirates say oh yea? whats going to stop us

 

the lockout chip

 

now nintendo gets a cut from every game sold, ensuring contiunued support of the system, 3rd party's have a stable platform to release their game on, consumers have more confident that what they bought wasnt a borked space invaders clone, and the industry has been like that ever since

 

cause rule number 1 of the video game industry... you do not make your money on the sale of the console, you make the money off the software you sell for the console! repeat sales vs a 1 time sale.

 

it is noteworthy that other schemes similar to nintendo did exist pre NES, such as the colecovision bios

Edited August 22, 2014 by Osgeld

[walter_J64bit]

Ok, I've just found this on gamewinners it's a hit or miss when it comes to using a GameGenie, that just falls back on the Yobo compatibility issues. I'll be Looking for a GameGenie if it doesn't work I can always sell it.

Edited August 23, 2014 by walter_J64bit

[Osgeld]

I found one in my local game shop for 12 bucks and another on ebay for like 10

 

so they are out there and cheap (well cheap considering most NES games at my local shop are 12-20 bucks ugh)