Micro Machines NES question

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Interesting and informative post! I haven't played MM since about... 1993 or 1994. I didn't realize some games were locked out, although I was aware of a lockout chip actually being present in the console. Hopefully that helps our new member out!

In fact, there are hundreds of games that were locked out. Every single NES game cartridge that isn't housed in the normal gray nintendo game pak shell only plays by "tricking" the CIC lockout chip.

Unlicensed NES games came in Tengen black cartridges, Camerica gold cartridges, ColorDreams baby blue cartridges just to name the most common. The camerica ones were probably the most dangerous to use in theory. They disabled the lockout chip by literally sending a mild electric shock through the NES motherboard! So why the lockout chip in the NES when the Famicom didn't have it to begin with?

Long story short, the lockout chip was designed for two main reasons:
1. to ensure joe blow with $3000 to spend can't simply make his own crappy game and the market gets flooded by crappy games as what had happened in the videogame crash a few years prior

2. to ensure Nintendo made a profit on 100% of software sales as all third party developers would HAVE to buy the shells from Nintendo directly. Nintendo went even so far as to demand that third party companies couldnt put out the same game on another system for one year and could only produce six games a year.

This would eventually be ruled illegal in the courts, but by then the damage was done. This is why there's the Ultra Games branding under Konami - by having two "different" companies, they could produce twelve games a year.

[Dry Bones]

After you do that, test it out on another system. a clone, a famicom, a toploader, whatever. If it works on something else, then the problem IS your NES.

the switch on the back of micromachines or any other camerica game isn't a region switch, it's a switch that sends a different electrical setting to the CIC lockout chip. Late revisions of the NES had a much stronger lockout chip that prevented unlicensed (non gray) carts from working.

If the game does work on another system, go open your NES and disable the lockout chip by cutting pin 4. Google will find you many tutorials for how to do this. Disabling the lockout chip will not negitively affect anything as long as you do it right - just remember that your goal is to disable the chip, not destroy it.

If after all that it still won't work, it's a faulty cart and you will need to buy a replacement.

Out of curiosity, is there a way to tell if I have an early or later NES? At one point I had 3 of them, but that was so long ago I couldnt tell you which one was bought when.

I still have a second one lying around, but the power doesnt come on. Got any reccommendations on where to diagnose the problem? I can be handy but my electrical knowledge is very basic.

Thanks for all the info guys. If anyone else has pics of the inside of their cart I'd love to see them.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Unless it's label is dated, then no, there's not any external way to tell the differences in NES revisions.

As for an NES that doesn't power on, could be a number of things. Voltage regulator burnt out caps man could be anything. Your best bet is a good ol' continunity test with a digital multimeter. That sexy beep will be your friend.

[Hobie-wan]

Long story short, the lockout chip was designed for two main reasons:
1. to ensure joe blow with $3000 to spend can't simply make his own crappy game and the market gets flooded by crappy games as what had happened in the videogame crash a few years prior

2. to ensure Nintendo made a profit on 100% of software sales as all third party developers would HAVE to buy the shells from Nintendo directly. Nintendo went even so far as to demand that third party companies couldnt put out the same game on another system for one year and could only produce six games a year.

Don't forget it was also to help fight against the flood of pirate carts that were a problem in Asia and Japan. They wanted to avoid the same thing happening in the west.

Out of curiosity, is there a way to tell if I have an early or later NES? At one point I had 3 of them, but that was so long ago I couldnt tell you which one was bought when.

Early NES have a smooth top surface but later they switched to a rough textured surface. I could stick my Quickshot XII with suckers on my NES back in the day and I've had one other smooth top pass through my hands in more recent years. The other 4 or 5 NES I've owned were rough ones. I'm not sure about the serial numbers offhand and I no longer have a smooth one.

[Dry Bones]

Quick update, turns out my other NES does work, so I gave it a cleaning and tried the game but got the same result.