nesdev.org

In about 3 weeks I will return home where I have my game consoles stored. I am looking to sell off my Famicom collection. I'm 21, I'm in school, and I like messing with game hardware and playing games sometimes. Collecting is not really the point of owning any of these things, and when I see the value of these old cartridges rise it almost feels wasteful for me to have them and not use more than a few of them that much. When I get home I'm going to be thinning out the herd, starting with the Famicom stuff.

I figure here we have some good Nintendo nuts who'd like this sort of stuff, so if anyone might want some of it let me know.

Famicom - Pending - In good condition, has a very white shell and the controllers are pretty much mint. Here's a video of me peeling the protective plastic off of the controllers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VazNpJ7rVaI
You can see the condition of the console in that video. In addition, you can see my Gimmick! cartridge. I am not sure if I want to hang on to that or not. This is one of the earlier versions of the Famicom, with the nice audio mixing (where the expansion isn't too loud like the later ones.)

The NESRGB mod was installed before the Famicom kit existed, so I did it with a DIY solution. It looks a little nasty, but it has been rock solid.


The power section has a very efficient PTH8080 regulator from Texas Instruments, and it uses the original plug and power supply for the Famicom. It does not get nearly as warm. An S-video jack is mounted on the back as well as a 1/8" audio jack for sound. These replace the old RF jack for output.

Here is the result of the RGB mod (running on my 32" RGB CRT):



I broke out the RGB signal with a small RJ-11 plug on the back of the Famicom. This was the best way to keep the installation small, but not difficult to mount with stability. It breaks out into a VGA-style plug, with RGB on pins 1, 2, and 3 (standard for VGA) and Composite Sync on pin 13 (Hsync on VGA). This is pretty typical wiring for these signals, and it will work on just about every projector (turns out most will accept SCART-style signals without arguing). I was afraid ghosting or interference might be an issue with this sort of cable, but a long 5' cable has provided no such problems. 15KHz RGB is a pretty low bandwidth signal.


I mounted such a VGA plug on the CRT I modified to take VGA.


However, you can easily wire yourself a JP21 / SCART adapter, or get a VGA to SCART adapter which should work just fine for this.

I have a Famicom Disk System as well. It's in good shape, and it has the RAM adapter as well.

I will make a much better post when I get home and can see all my games, but these are the ones I remember off the top of my head:

Cartridges
Boulder Dash
Super Mario Bros 1
Super Mario Bros USA
Super Mario Bros 3 - Pending
Devil World - Pending
Salamander - Pending
Gradius 2 - Pending
Parodius Da! - Pending
Hebereke - Pending
Gimmick!
Quarth
Rolling Thunder (cartridge modified with a little transistor pre-amp I built to better amplify the really quiet Namco audio chip inside)
Yoshi's Cookie
Kirby's Adventure
Rockman 2
Rockman 1 (boot)
Duck Tales
Flipull

Disk System Games
The Legend of Zelda - Pending
Super Mario Bros 2 (J)
Castlevania / Akumajou Dracula - Pending
Ice Hockey - Pending
Bio Miracle Bokkute Upa - Pending

I am not totally sure how to value these exactly. I will have access to them around August 22nd +/- a few days as I will be moving. If anyone wants to venture interest in them or has pricing suggestions, I'd be happy to know. I can answer questions, but can't really do a whole lot until I have physical access to the systems.

I'm interested in how you modified your CRT to accept RGB. Did you tap directly into the driver transistors on the back of the neck of the tube? (and send the sync signal into the composite input). I've tried this once before, but I couldn't get the levels quite right. The contrast would always come out wrong. I know it probably varies with each make/model. I had a mid 90s Sony Trinitron that I tried to get working with my SNES, it never looked quite right, so used my Commodore 1084 monitor.

drk421 wrote:I'm interested in how you modified your CRT to accept RGB. Did you tap directly into the driver transistors on the back of the neck of the tube? (and send the sync signal into the composite input). I've tried this once before, but I couldn't get the levels quite right. The contrast would always come out wrong. I know it probably varies with each make/model. I had a mid 90s Sony Trinitron that I tried to get working with my SNES, it never looked quite right, so used my Commodore 1084 monitor.

I used to do it that way on a lot of monitors, but getting a good contrast level was always difficult. Rather, what I'm doing is feeding RGB into where the microcontroller puts its RGB output for the overlay, and am tying high the BLANK signal (which makes the entire OSD "not transparent", and the OSD is now my RGB Image). I then put a multi-throw switch to enable / disable this functionality, then put a VGA port on the back of the TV. I use a VGA cable for RGB signals since they are common, easy to get shielded cables that have enough conductors and relatively good compatibility.

I'd be interested in some of the carts and all of the FDS games. I'm not interested in Gimmick! (it's a great game but I don't have any interest in taking the cart away from someone :-) ). I'm still on the fence about the Famicom (I don't tend to like modified hardware, even if it's for the better, and I already have an excellent condition Famicom AV).

I'll drop you a PM about the carts and FDS titles I'm interested in. I'm trying to think of prices that are reasonable (i.e. not dirt cheap, but average with a little bit extra tossed in since you're young and in school -- I know money can be a pain), but the hardest part is that the only available comparisons are places like eBay where everything is ridiculously overpriced for no reason other than greed.

I'm interested as well if you wanna drop me a PM when you have a full list together. I need a FC and most of those games.

The list has been updated, a lot of stuff is pending (which is really as good as sold since the only reason they aren't yet is that I'm not home).