10NES and Grounding.

[madhatter667]

Hey all.

Let me preface this with: I have multiple NES consoles. Back in the day I was finding them dirty cheap, and I liked having contingencies. I still own the one I had as a kid, on top of spares. Now, with that being said, I am seriously thinking of doing the 10NES chip clip. Because why not? I know which pin to cut, it's all over the net.

 

What I AM having a hard time ferreting out, is: 1. Are there any games that will not run on a clipped chip? and 2. If I make a jumper wire, and connect pin 4 to ground (pad on the mobo, part of the RF shielding etc.) will it just act as if it's verified authenticity all the time? I read a little blurb somewhere about people adding switches to enable/disable... but if I can just trick the system into full time verified...why would I even bother taking that step? That's one more thing for this klutz to eff up. Lol.

[madhatter667]

Finding conflicting information on this topic. Some sites say to be most thorough, connect to ground.... majority of searches say not to even worry about it. Also information seems spotty as to which games require "seeing" the 10NES/CIC to function... but one title I found that was specifically mentioned was the NWC cart. I'll likely never get ones of those, not even as a reproduction....so meh?

Not sure if I answered my own questions here. Lol. Are there any other specific titles that will not function on a clipped chip?

[0078265317]

https://www.reddit.com/r/nes/comments/2sj52j/is_there_any_reason_not_to_disable_the_lockout/

[Osgeld]

The chip if you yank the pin is biased to ground and will go there on its own unless pulled high by the system

 

Really in all best practices you shouldn't let a digital pin "float" as a good strong signal could cause it to fluctuate. But since it's natural tendency is to be at or near ground and there is metal grounded shielding over the whole lot its not going to pose a problem for the vast majority of people

[Guspaz]

Which is a good thing, because I tore the whole pin right off while trying to lift it, and there's nothing left to solder to if I wanted to ground it.

[ApolloBoy]

I did this to my NES like 12 years ago, it still works fine.

[karokoenig]

https://www.reddit.com/r/nes/comments/2sj52j/is_there_any_reason_not_to_disable_the_lockout/

What'S with the boiling of the 72-pin connector mentioned in that thread? What does that do and is it even remotely advisable to do it?

[Osgeld]

It's a trick to refurb the connector, I have done it, worked, should you do it? Probably not

Edited May 29, 2016 by Osgeld

[icemanxp300]

It's a trick to refurb the connector, I have done it, worked, should you do it? Probably not

 

Why do you say probably not? I have done it many times. I generally do 5-10 systems as once and boil and bake them all together. I actually have a bunch I need to get done here soon to so I can sell them.

[Osgeld]

cause I assume since karo hasn't heard of it, he hasn't sought advice about a crappy 72 pin connector, in which boiling comes up extremely quick. Therefore his 72 pin connector must be fine and doesn't need the treatment

 

[karokoenig]

That's funny. I actually did have problems with a connector and did look up what to do. Never came across "boiling", though. I ended up cleaning and slightly bending the pins, which did work alright I guess.

[brento]

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.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Just clip pin 4. You really don't need a ground.

 

Two games are affected by lockout disable:

• SMB/Tetris/World Cub [PAL] - You need to Power off the console instead or hitting Reset to return to the boot menu. Such a terrible inconvenience to hit Power instead of Reset. I often lay awake at night thinking about the extra power cycles I put my NES through just to play this multicart of games you can easily pick up individually. As this game is PAL region only, you can't play it on an NTSC console without first disabling the lockout so it's really a moot issue.
• Authentic Gray or Gold Nintendo World Championship [NTSC] - Needs Reset signal from NES10 to initialize the timer. Game time may not be correct otherwise. Seriously get a blue RetroUSB NWC repro if you really want to play; it's roughly two orders of magnitude cheaper and the repro does not use the lockout signal.

 

As for the boiling bit, in my personal experience, it doesn't do much. But my pins were probably already warped from Game Genie abuse and I didn't want to bother trying to bend them back. If you're going to boil it, it won't hurt anything. Adding a bit of distilled vinegar to the water in the pot will make the dirt/corrosion removal much more effective. Put the connector in the oven on low/warm to dry quickly so it doesn't rust. The plastic is not going to melt if you keep the oven on it's lowest setting.

 

Honestly the Achilles heel of the NES is the loading tray that bends the pins. Even if you replace the connector, repeated cart insertions will wear it out in a couple years. Better to order yourself a Blinking Light Win and toss that fugly original loading tray...

https://www.arcadeworks.net/blw

 

Also if you get the BLW, you don't need to clip the lockout chip, but it won't affect operation if your NES10 is already clipped. Be advised, the turnaround on orders may take some time so be patient...

[brento]

^ 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.