At first I thought "Is....is that a Nintendo?" Then... "I don't need another Nintendo. I'll share it in a local gaming group." I finished my shopping but felt bad for leaving it. I circled back and it was still there, so I pulled over and picked it up. Great job, David! I'm giving it to a local Nintendo collector who loves the story behind it.
Plot twist: David though that you've GAVE this NES to him, so now you two have to fight for it :D 2nd plot twist: after seeing actual S/N, previous owner shares story about actually loosing it while moving SO HE WANTS IT BACK and now three of you have to fight for death to solve this problem ;p
PSA: Save all original NES 72-pin connectors, even if you end up switching it out. They are sought after because they can be restored and made to perform better than the Chinese ones.
I was going to say the same thing. When I was a kid my dad opened the thing up and took out the connector and spent a long time bending every single pin inward for a better connection. It still works to this day on the first try every time.
@@Alexander_l322 Same here, brother. The rubber pads in my NES controllers are all pulverized and unusable, but I keep 'em anyway because who knows! Maybe we'll have some way to revulcanize rubber back together in the future.
That was actually how I felt too! Like a pet with a broken leg on the streets, you rescue them, treat their wounds, and then find them a new home. They might not be fully back to their old selves but they feel better and happier.
I know the NES isn't exactly rare or expensive, but I love when these old abused electronics get the love they deserve. Someone took months or even years designing that thing.
Sadly, that's not an unfounded decision. Last time I was buying broken/damaged NES and SNES controllers at the local independently-owned used game store to reassemble/fix into working ones at half the price of the tested-working ones, one of the SNES controllers had a crack I had to acetone-weld back together and another had a piece of the shell completely gone. (I left that last one since I was already buying enough better-condition ones on that trip.) Luckily, the most common damage tends to be damage to the cable. Sometimes, all I need to do is super-glue a split in the outer jacket back together. For the most recent ones, I'm probably going to have to chop out an inch or so of chewed wire, solder the lines back together with some heat shrink over them, and then see if I can slip another piece of glue-lined heat-shrink over the outside from the controller end of the cable.
I got a Flooded NES system from my Best Friend a few years back. It was so grimy and covered with soot from a flooded basement that it would have taken days to fully clean by hand. Instead we disassembled it and placed everything in the dishwasher and ran it through a cycle. It came out sparkling clean and works perfectly to this day. I did replace the Pin and Cart Tray with an updated set (no more pushing down), but I still have the original and it still works. I can defiantly say the NES is a hard nut to break. Takes a licking and keeps on ticking. ;)
I've seen at least one fellow that has a nice side business restoring old Collins ham radio gear use the dishwasher to get the almost-inevitable old-ham nicotine and tar stains out of old radios. Pull the tubes and any mechanical stuff like the preselector filter rack and the VFO out, run it thru the dishwasher, and leave it out in the sun for a day to dry. Pristine!
Look at that dent, too, like Mike Tyson in his prime gave it a real good punch. I'm actually quite amazed at how little damage there was to the plastic shell of the console, whatever impact it took smashed through the case, I guess flexing the plastic, then impacted the RF shield, which took the brunt of that energy.
@@0neDoomedSpaceMarine "Thtupid En-ee-eth! That'll teatth you to thtop flickerin'. C'mon Mawkus letth throw it out the winnow an' get back to tholvin' thith Texath-thized mythtery."
I’m impressed that this console survived such a beating. Good on you for fixing it up! That cartridge tray fix was a great way to use a paperclip, too.
When he pulled out the Petscii robot NES cartridge, I almost fell out of my chair. I had no idea there was NES version in the making and it was a big surprise.
In 1989 I went to my friends house to play some NES with him and saw he had bought a new one and his old one was sitting in a corner with all of the gear (controllers, connectors, light gun and even the Mario/Duck Hunt cartridge). I asked him what was wrong and he said it is broken. I asked him if I could have it and he said yes, that he was going to through it out anyway. I took it home, opened it up to see if I could fix it and noticed there was a toothpick lodged in the clip that locks/unlocks the cartridge down (his son was 4 years old at the time, so I am assuming that is how the toothpick got there, lol). I removed the toothpick, reassembled and it has been working perfect to this day. Yes, I still use it even in 2022 :) So, never give up on an NES, you may be able to rescue it.
The fact that the NES was runover by some car on a freeway and somehow survived and exposed to the outside elements and still kicking is a testament of how well things were built decades ago.
It's difficult to imagine that it actually got ran over and survived in that good of condition. Having said that, it's also difficult to imagine how the R/F shield got so badly bent without something like that happening to it. I guess we'll never know.
I don’t know if it’s true or not but I heard a story of an Everest climber that brought a Nintendo DS with him, and in a deep freeze all of his radios and GPS systems stopped working due to the cold temperature, but his Nintendo DS continued to operate
I've never seen a paperclip be used to restore the tray like that. Incredible. also, be careful about using non OEM 72 pin connectors. They're built even worse than the originals. It works now, but that won't last. It's only a problem if you use the console semi regularly though.
The closest I got to this was when I was living in an apartment, and I saw a curious plastic bin sitting at the curb for trash pickup, that said "Free" on the side. Curiosity got the better of me, and I walked over to see what it was - it was in fact a working Super Nintendo, 2 controllers, all the wires to hook it up and around 25 games for it. Nerd jackpot! I do suspect that it was put out there by someone's girlfriend - the handwriting was suspiciously feminine, and I heard them arguing later that week.
10 years ago I bid and won a elite 360 with 2 controllers, and af ew games one it went for soooo cheap I mean about the price of a new controller, and the next morning I woke to have a courier at my door with the console, the seller didn't respond online to payment details, so I assume either a annoyed partner or it was another reason someone wanted rid no questions asked.
I Got two Playstations like that, 7 controllers and some games. Apparently a lava lamp exploded over it all. Out of the two PS, I made one work by moving the motor/spindle assembly from one to the other (I had to cut the base of where it mounted, apparently they were different revs) and I got a MOD chip installed after I sold the 4-5 extra working controllers to Cash Converters. Then I played Gran Turismo on repeat for years. Not sure what I did with it after that. Oh and once, in the garbage disposal room in a high rise, someone left a box with a NES in there and a bunch of games + gun. Everything worked! I still have some of those games.
About 25 years ago a friend found a complete working ColecoVision system in a neighbor's trash, with a bunch of games, including the somewhat rare Super Action Baseball cartridge and controllers. It was only missing the power supply, but I had a spare to give him. We got many hours of enjoyment out of that thing. Don't know if he still has it or not as we've fallen out of touch over the years.
On behalf of video game preservationists and Nintendo fans everywhere: THANK YOU (and Obsolete Geek!) for rescuing and fixing this NES! Also: the NES version of PETSCII Robots is a Day 1 purchase for me. Can't wait!
The fact that it survived (maybe more than an hour?) On the side of the hwy is amazing, BUT it also got hit, and THE CARTRIDGE FLAP SURVIVED! I think that's the most amazing part, haha. More amazing, is what if this fell out of a truck heading to the dump? The possibilities are endless...
I'm surprised about the cartridge door as well. I've seen those break under just normal operation (kids playing them, etc) its really amazing it survived that.
@@volvo09 Goes to show that Nintendo has been making their special sauce plastic for a very long time. I think they invented it for the Game&Watch line and got so good at making it that they just made everything from it from then on.
@James Jackson I agree. Thank you to the 8-Bit Guy. I have personally rescued and restored to working order four Nintendo 64 Systems. They were easy restorations that just needed a good cleaning inside and out and the contacts were extremely dirty. One was donated to a kid that had no gaming system of any kind (this was about 8 years ago. I wonder if he still has it?)
When running screws back into holes that have existing threads in them.. *_Always_* turn the screw backwards until you feel it pop/settle down into the old threads, *_then_* begin screwing it back in. You *must* chase the old threads or you risk splitting the screw bosses and making a much larger problem for yourself. I'm really surprised to see you not doing this being you're a retro nerd like myself :(
My bf is a plc tech/electrician and he taught me this too. Definitely saved me from tearing up a lot of things, which I definitely used to do... a lot lol
That NES ended up having the time of it's life. After being tossed out it not only got found, featured on RU-vid, fully repaired, it now gets to live with a collector and be appreciated properly, I'd say that's a win.
Most videos of people restoring stuff is actually things they throw in some dirty place and than record themselves “finding” it. It good to see someone restoring something that really needed to
15 minutes after watching the video, I'm still smiling at David's joke about his favourite thing, the paper clip. That bit of tongue-in-cheek self-mockery made my day (well, my night actually). :-)
that wasn't a paper clip is was "microsoft's clippy" being tortured, and his body parts being harvested, poor clippy may your harvested parts live on forever 📎☺🎃
I would imagine it fell off the back of a pickup truck going to a dump site or some such. I imagine that they hit a bump and the NES bounced out onto the road, and then got punted by another vehicle before being run over. The fact it survived such an ordeal, whatever the truth is about what happened to it, is testament to Nintendo's engineering at the time.
@@JoePCool14 I can attest to that, our lasses switch joycans needed the sticks replacing, her pro controller left stick needed replacing, and at least 5 friends with a switch have had joycons go bad, and one of them had about 8 pairs of controllers go bad, and to top it all off our lasses switch screen is starting to separate from the chassis due to the glue failing. Nintendo used to make such incredible and well built stuff, now we're lucky if anything they make lasts to the end of the warranty period. :(
Another testament to how well the nes was built Years ago i was cleaning doing some repairs to a House that the tenants had been evicted There was lots of trash left behind in the house And in the yard When cleaning the yard in preparation for mowing I found a snes unit Laying in the grass I suspected it was broken but kept it anyway Several days later i remembered i had it So out of curiosity i plugged it in and connected to the tv Flipped the power switch and nothing flipped it again nothing figured well i found it was about to toss it when my brother said try it again I did and it worked so we put a game it worked I eventually gave it to my brother who still has it today and it still works
I'm guessing someone pulled over on the side of the road, was sorting through a box to find something, and set the NES on the roof before driving away without realizing it. It would explain how the NES slid so much on the bottom to grind the feet off... car starts to get up to speed, rubber feet lose friction as the wind blows, and it slides off, skidding to a halt.
@@The8BitGuy I know of the code for one, it'd have to be modified to fit onto an ASIC, as it's still for an FPGA but that can be done fairly easily. Send me a message or respond.
0:24 That moment you see your childhood home damn near front and center in an T8BG Video, literally approaching my exit in the driving footage. Man how did I miss this?! (Bedford Reprezent! Where my Meadow Creek peeps at?!)
As one of the few post-millennium kids who grew up with the NES (my aunt would occasionally bring it over to my grandparents place in my youth), this was a very heartwarming *and* unusual rescue and restore episode. Thanks David!
Well, things like this happen. I happened to find a Wii console outside my local Tender Centre one day, and it still works perfectly. It even had a copy of Super Smash Bros Brawl inside, so that's an added bonus!
Having just turned 30 it is so satisfying to still hear the high-pitched whine of a CRT, protect your hearing kids you’ll want to later in life as well.
It looks like it got caught underneath a car. That would explain how the black marks and RF shield got damaged without completely destroying the console and how the feet got worn down.
Someone had it stored in a garage, or were moving stuff/packing the car to take it on a trip and it ended up escaping under the car before they left perhaps? It's definitely been dragged, though I'm not sure it's been runover, more like grazed a tire, otherwise it'd probably be completely pancaked into shards of plasti
@@DounutCereal Yeah, this looks less like it was underneath the wheels, and more like it maybe bounced against the pavement and then maybe hit something on the vehicle it fell from, or optionally another nearby vehicle (either way something which pierced the body of it), finally clattering to the asphalt, sliding probably a good few feet given the state of the feet.
David, I have had the worst couple of days. Storms knocked out our power and phones. Still nothing. And something as simple as watching you repair this was so comforting. Thank you so much. You have immensely improved my day.
My NES tray has been broken like that for years, so I would just keep the game down by jamming something else in on top of the cartridge. Good to know how I can fix it now! I think I'll also buy a replacement 72 pin connector on ebay.
Repairing NES's became my party trick in High school. Everyone who wanted one fixed I could do it. I fixed my permanently. I bought a kit called Blinking Light Win, which fixes the push down on the caddy and lock out chip issues. Plus I mostly use an Everdrive.
One time it was hard rubbish season and I found a Wii with cables on the side of the road. I took it home, cleaned it up and Homebrewed it, and it's still being used to this day. This is what I was reminded of while watching this video.
Good video! I remember seeing Rob's posts too and just laughing at the craziness. I've been waiting on your video ever since and am pleasantly surprised to see that you were able to restore it to it's former glory.
Considering the grime on the _inside_ of the plastic case, I assume the cartridge connector or latch mechanism broke first and it sat disassembled in a basement somewhere and the bent shielding is the result of something stacked on top of the exposed motherboard (or it dropped from a shelf at some point). The original owner may have hastily screwed it back together to avoid further damage (hence the partially missing screws) and eventually yeeted (yote?) it out the window when he looked at the poor thing with possible motherboard damage, a broken cartridge connector, a broken latch and decided to end its existence. But the little NES didn't give up. And it won't forget what has been done to it. And it will find him.
I just recently was able to repair my old original xbox from watching your videos. The issue was these 5 capacitors were bulged on the motherboard. I learned more from your channel than I did from taking electrical engineering classes in college! Thanks for the help.
I am so impressed. He takes such time and care when doing these projects and he has the ability to try ways to fix items that most people wouldn't think of. The paper clip repair absolute genius. He puts all these other RU-vid "experts" to shame.
It's no surprise. I was able to unlock multi-region on my Sega 32X by bridging two connections with a piece of sticky taped and rolled up aluminum foil.
@@ChrisKewl Making fun of yourself != growing. Personally, I do it like Marge - I bury it deep, deep within me where it is allowed to fester and come out as a mental disorder decades later. That's tomorrow's problem!
It's so satisfying to see restoration videos and see something can be nicely restored and given a new lease on life thank you so much for sharing.@8-Bit Guy
I'm glad this NES found a good home! Sad to see previous owner just throw away things like this. This is why more people need to be educated in technology and how easy it is to fix them. We need more engineers in this world!
In the 90's I worked as a TV repair tech in a small town. I must have repaired dozens of these things, mostly because of the cartridge connector. I never replaced a single one. I would use a metal dental pick to SLIGHTLY bend each contact back up into position. It doesn't take much to overdo it and make the cartridge fit so tightly it becomes difficult to remove. I also know you can remove the connector assembly without having to completely remove the board. Just removing the rear screws lets you raise the board enough to remove it.
3:41 - the flashing screen is the caused by the lockout chip, it either means it doesn't make good contact and the system can't talk to the chip inside the NES cartridge but the same can happen if you try to play a game from a different region. I bought a game from the UK and I didn't know that UK PAL is not the same as the rest of Europe PAL. You don't need to replace the 72pin connector, you just need to deep clean the original one. No need to bend the needles or anything, just take it out, put it in boiling water with some soap or dishwasher for 5-10 minutes, take out, drain it a little and shove a cartridge in and out a couple of times to loosen the grime. Do this once or twice and you are good to go, don't need to use a cheap low quality after market 72pin connector! The tray problem is a bit more difficult, I have an NES I repaired and if I tightened the screw too much on the bottom of the case the whole mechanism didn't stay down. Don't know the actual solution but it worked if I didn't tighten the screw too much. It's really nice to work on an NES, much easier than a PS3 fat :D 8:59 - When you said "here's a little surprise" I knew what it's going to be! AWESOME!!! This whole story reminds me of the Gameboy that survived a bombing and is still on display in some museum. I like that you kept the shield!
It's also possible to "kill" the lockout chip, by cutting a very specific tab on this chip. Without this tab, the chip no longer sends information to the CPU. You can find tutos on internet for this and it unlocks the "free" region mode in bonus. I save my NES with this very simple, free but précise operation. It's strange 8-Bit Guy doesn't seem to know this very famous problem.
@@IsatisAngel He's not into gaming things that much I believe. Cut a pin to the lockout chip? Hmm, sounds interesting since the problem with the lockout chip in the first place is that there's a chip in each console that needs to talk to a chip in the game. If the console can't talk to the chip or it returns an answer from the chip that is not the expected (region info) then it resets the console, that's why you get a flashing screen, it means the console gets repeatedly reseted by itself. Maybe the reset signal pin is getting cut?
I have 2 NES front loaders that I swapped the shells to the TMNT and SMB theme (custom painted ones I got off of eBay), replaced the 72-pin edge connector with a functional refurbished OEM on the one (I used the one from Amazon and it felt too tight and required 3 screwdrivers to remove the dang cartridge), and cleaned the other and they both work rather nicely. I only have SMB/Duck Hunt with 2 controllers and the Zapper. Looks better on my PVM than my modern TV.
Man, very useful video, I just found an old NES in a flea market; it was dirty, with roaches living inside. I'm still working on the cleaning stage, and thanks to your video was able to repair the cartridge tray. The A/V and power board has very rusty metal covers, had to replace the main capacitor that smelled like fish, but other than that, all components look fine. I hope I can bring it from the dead as soon as I reassemble it. Thanks!
Yeah, even way back in 2004 or so, I ordered a replacement 72-pin connector and used it to repair my NES. It worked, but the thing would have a death grip on cartridges that you inserted, making it really hard to pull them back out.
It was nice of you to port your game over to consoles like that I know how much work you put into it. And I hope they appreciate it.. good video have a nice day.
David, you don't know how many NES's I've found in my lifetime that had missing doors, it must be a common breakage. Also, I LOVE that wall pattern you have, looks amazing! Also... when is pre-orders starting for the NES version of The Attack of the Petscii Robots? I'd love to buy 1 or 2 or maybe even 3 (my programming / retro friends would love it).
I always knew the NES was badass. From the games, to the seldom-used voice synthesis, technical architecture, to the size and longevity of its fanbase, I never thought the system was so physically formidable. Damn.
Funny thing is that the original Japanese version (as well as the Famiclones made by Chinese companies) had a much more reliable design due to having a simple top loading cartridge slot. The reason the Western NES had that weird tray is because they wanted kids to think of it as a VCR.
@@aprofondir I think it's actually they wanted electronic store executives to think of it as a VCR. After the video game crash, most stores didn't have a lot of trust in the industry, so Nintendo designed it to look less like a console, and more like a VCR. It's also why ROB was included; it tips the focus more as a toy controlled by a computer, rather then purely videogames. At least, that's always the story I've heard.
I can't imagine this was thrown out of a moving vehicle given it's in better condition than most I've seen listed for sell. It was either placed there or it someone in packed car pulled over and it fell out of the door when opened.
David's VIc20 came very close to having a similar fate, but he rescued on the way to recycling. That might have been in the Vintage Computer Fare video.
