NES Hardware Explained 

I've not seen anyone else cover the NES in such an in-depth and easy to digest way. Your videos have been a big push for me to get back into electronics and how systems work on a hardware level. Also, would love to see a video about the Expansion Bus port. It's always interesting to think about all the things Nintendo could have done with it, and I'd love to see your take on it!

I've found that cleaning the 72 pin connector is far superior to replacing it. Aftermarket connectors have a harsh grip and are made with inferior and harder metals that will damage the pins on cartridges. I've cleaned 5 different OEM connectors and they work like a charm. Please just clean and not replace.

Yes, please talk about the expansion port.

yes we all want the expansion port video. please :)

I'd be interested in watching a video about the expansion port!

I love how informative your videos are. Knowing what the individual components around the main chips do is a big help. Thanks!

A video on the expansion port would be wonderful! I’ve always wondered what that little plastic piece I could clip off was for

Would love to see an expantion port video.

A most excellent and informative exposition of the nes hardware.

These videos never get old. Watch them over and over. Super informative and actually makes me believe that I know what's going on

I defently want to know more about the extension port

Love the pace of the explanation. And I am curious about the expansion port.

I love videos like these. I remember as a kid looking at the board in awe thinking it was so complex and having no idea what the heck these different chips and components like the pot were for.

I did an incredibly simple mod to get expansion audio working on one of my NES consoles. Weird that it was as simple as jumping a few points on the motherboard together with a small resistor. That said, I really have no idea why that it works. Looking forward to the episode where you explore the unused expansion adapter at the bottom of the motherboard.

Great video!! A great introduction to the internals of the NES. The dremel on the way to the connection port AHH!!

This is fantastic thank you! I love this format and implore you to make more like it

You are a master in your field. Keep posting these type of videos with this level of detail. Thanks

Great video ! A video going into the expansion port would be nice as well.

After almost 4 decades, finally.

Awesome, well produced videos! Thank you for creating this content. Super great learning tools while being fast paced enough to be entertaining. Subscribed :)

I literally bent pins in the cartridge connector up just a little so they would touch the cartridge without having to push it down at all. Worked for 20 years without ever having to blow in a cartridge. Was also a board I had to replace a chip on from another broken system. Was either the hex inverter or the lockout chip iirc. I was 14 at the time.

Good stuff! I bought a motherboard alone for fun to go with my (complete) NES, and it was great to see an explanation of all of the components. I am curious to hear more about how the cartridges act as extensions to the motherboard, i.e. the NES is actually not a complete computer without a cartridge. I know you covered cartridges before, but I mean more about how they work with the main board. This would inevitably lead to how mappers work. I believe the Sharp SM590 is technically a microcontroller (not a CPU / microprocessor), i.e. it has its own RAM / ROM and only performs a single task, sort of like an Arduino / Atmel chip.

Loved the break down!

I noticed you didn't talk much about the RF box... but it's got the bridge rectifier and the 7805 regulator in there too. Even if you mod your console to output HDMI or component video, you can't just rip the RF box out without replacing the 5V circuit that feeds in and out of those thick chunky pins. I fabbed up a PCB a couple years ago that takes a USB type A cable, it seems to fit nicely in the square hole where the barrel plug used to go, and solders back up to the original pins.

Thanks for the great video! I'd love a future video on the expansion port.

I would love to see a video regarding the expantion port on the bottom of the NES. Awesome videos!

Imagine going back in time and watching this as a kid in the late 80s.

Excellent video, thank you very much

It's nice to know that after all these years, I'm not the only one who is still fascinated by this piece of hardware.

So happy you are back my mannn

Would love to know more about the workings of that unused expansion port !

The amount of subscribers you have is so criminally low. A lot of "millionaire" channels don't have a fraction of this juicy quality that your videos do. Seriously amazing stuff; and educating, too (even though I'm too stupid to understand like 99% of it).

Woo, first vid of yours I've seen. Really clear and understandable, and sparks my curiosity. Nice job. Now to go watch your other stuff.

Try aligning the cartridge tray while the board is outside of the case. It's much easier that way. All you have to do is make sure that the loading tray is flush and holes centered on the main board to ensure proper alignment. Once that is done then put two screws into the back position, one on each side of the 72 pin connector to buckle it down before putting into the case. This is pretty much how they were assembled on the line.

Hey man, I just wanted to say, I saw a video from 2 years ago, and then this video. And you look a lot healthier and better, love your videos

I just learned 6502 assembly in one of my comp sci classes. This is insanely cool!

This is super interesting! I always wondered how it worked.

Fantastic video! 👏👏👏

Great video awesome editing great commentary

Fantastic content. I am a huge fan.

I just got over a cold and I am now dealing with a dog that has diarrhea. I’m having to lay awake. Waiting for the vet to open. But I have this video and it is making my night so much better

Amazing, very good!!

Great intro, you have my attention 💃

Throughout summer 2022, I have opened a few Famicom consoles and one NES console. I even did a mod that allowed cartridge audio (but I only tested with my Everdrive N8 Pro).

I've fixed a lot of NES back in my time but I didn't needed to know that much, the majority of defects were in the voltage regulator 7805 by overheating it and that chip is present in every retro consoles so I was easy to find and replace, that's before parts were easy to buy online or at a near store

I would love a video on the expansion port. I know it wasn't officially used, but are there any 3rd party accessories new or old that used it?

Really COOL VIDEO!😎👍

Not too sure if you know this but that cartridge elevator has a tab on the front that slides underneath the motherboard. You shouldn't need to mess around with those screws if you have that tab under the board.

New to your channel. Can't wait to see more.

This is so good!

The big problem with the cart tray is the tab on the bottom that needs to go under the system board. Unless you're mindful of that tab, it's very easy for it to end up on the top side and cause problems like what you were showing, all the way to the tray not even being able to lock down. This is due to the fact that the once you start tightening it down, you warp the cart tray. You shouldn't have any issue just tightening the screws on the tray down snug as long as you've got that tab under the board, your 72-pin connector is working properly... as well as the game.

I'm very curious about the Expansion port. I'd assumed no hardware was ever produced to utilize it, but I'm curious what it might have been capable of.

lol, the sneaky dremel was a nice touch.

a breakdown of the nes-001 would be great

Good stuff

YES PLEASE make a expansion port video

I would love to see an expansion port video.

I installed a Blinking Light Win in my NES years ago. Games boot up every time and no need to push down the cartridge anymore. 👍

Viewers may wonder why the NES is so large compared to the board it contains. Maybe it has something to do with part availability, something just stuck out and it wasn't practical to make it smaller. Or maybe it had to do with plans for future internal expansion. Or maybe it was a heat exchange thing. Or maybe . . . Nope. It was just big because they thought it would sell better if it looked more like a VCR, and those were big. That's also why they called it an "entertainment system" instead of a video game console. See, it wasn't a video game, it was a multifunctional entertainment suite with games, toys, painting programs, and more! OK, actually it only really played games in the U.S. (The Japanese Family Computer (Famicom), which was the _right_ size for its board, did get some weird peripherals like a modem that allowed you to buy, and sell stock (?!?), but these were never released in the U.S. and are technically not compatible with the NES, though some very minor changes allows them to connect.) But it was important for marketing, because the video game crash of 1983 had made U.S. distributors unwilling to sell or market video consoles. In 1985, many electronics gurus insisted that video games were a dying fad, so a new console was a hard sell in the American market. Hence R.O.B. the robot and other silly novelties, as well as the VCR-sized NES and what Tom7 calls "the SUV of cartridges" (NES cartridges are enormous for no good reason). All that said, the NES is still superior to the Famicom in two important ways: its controllers were not wired directly to the console but could be unplugged, and their cords were much longer. That first one is big; I can't understand how they thought hardwired controllers were ever acceptable. I guess it was a different time.

I love this channel

Having had an Atari 2600, Odyssey 2 and Atari 5200 prior to the launch of the NES, the NES was simply mind blowing to us at the time of release.

I'm crying of joy ! 🤓

Very nice.

Someone's 35 year old NES is now famous.

Yes. Please make a video about the 001 extension port.

"I bought a cheap maybe working NES on Ebay" This dude has a great sense of humor.

I remember my uncle coming over to modify my NES to accept a 13 in one game. Worked great!

Thanks!

What is the small portable TV that you connect the NES to to test it?

This was very interesting, except I have a Japanese Famicom, so I would think there are some differences with that system(not the main components ofc though). I usually do a tear down of the systems I get but I haven't with the Famicom yet as it was sold as refurbished and AV modded and so didn't want to mess around with it lol(and it does run great too).

yes!! extension port video!! what is / was/ possibility, intention for??

These non-smd components look so cute )))

In retrospect, there's a lot of screwing around in this episode :|

I have never seen this guy before but my first impression is man this guy looks smart

Good thing that Famicom and NES-101 exist. This cartridge connector is more troublesome than I thought.

Where have you been all my life!? Seriously! This is some of the best sh*t I've seen. Anywhere. Keep it up and expect a Patreon subscription in a not too distant future. Thanks so much

Hello..I have a collection of nes...I made the rgb mod on two of them and still managed to put snes control.If I connect two processors in parallel, like one on top of the other?? Can I improve performance ??? Is it possible??

That shirt is dope AF.

Please make an extension port video!

Do you have any idea why some early NES units from the test market display video so blurry and dark? (Seems like the video is tinted green)

1:11 I swear I heard "are longer than the claw of a predator" (thinking of a velociraptor's claw)

wait what about the lock out chip? I've heard if you cut a certian leg also helps with games working better on troublesome NES consoles.

Can you do an NES Explained video on each opcode used in NES assembly?

yes

Can you make a video covering the sega genesis, I know asm but I'm unfamiliar with the hardware itself

Do you know much about the Atari 7800? Would love to know about that console from a fellow nerd!

1:22 what kind of monitor is that?

FYI for anyone who wants to bench-power an NES: It uses 9v AC, not DC. I'm not sure about this, but I think it's possible to damage an NES if you feed it DC into the barrel jack.

You may want to put your Patreon link on your videos. :-)

Congratulations

4:44 This 7404 have something to do with the jail bars (vertical lines) issue on the Famicom. Because Famicom do not have this chip and greatly suffers this video issue , and NES doesn't. I traced the pin 22 on PPU on the Famicom it goes directly to the 5V , and in the NES it goes to that 7404 chip :) and this is next to the pin 21 the video output

I’m a little new here I know what a GPU is but what is PPU

Dude, where did you get that shirt?

Probably inverters are used as amplifiers to protect chips?

Both hardware and software hacking is a thing you have to experience, especially as a retro lover. And I guess it’s just like owning classic cars, at some point you need to get out a screw driver to keep it going.

Bit confused on the reasoning behind the inverters of the controller ports. Id have just inverted the voltage signaling on the controllers themself

will you tell me where the fuse is?

NES Extension Port...... Yes, yes 🧿

Shimmy, shimmy shake, blow. Power on, power off. Rinse, Repeat till game loads.

Anyone know the cost of the NES , As in the hardware cost not the cost it was sold at , like was it sold at a high lose?