Thinking of Buying an NES

[marlowe221]

What do you consider expensive? $20-30 shipped loose in gold not being beat up. To me that's high, but I'm old school having bought all these games since the last half of the 90s when most things up until maybe 4 years ago were stupid cheap to reasonably priced except for a few true honest select rares, not fake rares for more reseller bucks.

I'd consider if I were you so you don't get whipped, put $100 to the side or so, and just buy up some solid ebay lots. Even if you get some undesirable stuff, you may end up liking it, and it would pay off in spare parts(shells and screws) if you needed them or fluff to throw in another lot to sell off the junk you don't want with a spare system. Buy and flip or get burned is pretty much it now, so you do that to break even or minimize the damage.

That is an excellent suggestion.

I don't think $20-30 is too bad actually. I'm just cheap!

Here's the "big" titles I want to pick up at some point:

Zelda 1
Mega Man 2, 3, 4
Castlevania 1 and 3
Turtles 2, the Arcade Game
Mario 1 and 3
Metroid
Kirby

There are some other specific games I am interested in too but otherwise, I am happy to play "grab bag" to some extent. Buying a lot or two from ebay is not a bad idea at all.

[Tanooki]

Those aren't terrible at all compared to quite a few, they're cake. Just look for lots, you'll get many of those in one as they're all common.

I'm cheap too, but it's because I remember as soon as 2011 these games now doing $20-50 you'd be happy to make $5-10 on ebay for. That's my issue.

[marlowe221]

Those aren't terrible at all compared to quite a few, they're cake. Just look for lots, you'll get many of those in one as they're all common.

I'm cheap too, but it's because I remember as soon as 2011 these games now doing $20-50 you'd be happy to make $5-10 on ebay for. That's my issue.

I'm in the same boat, but with the SNES...

[Tanooki]

Yup that's no surprise right there with the SNES as it's getting hammered in a way worse than the NES was. The NES kind of had some harder extremes where a lot still stayed in the cheap realm, but then the stuff people/predators deemed had value went damn near or over the three figures level fast. The NES though the overproduced staples people love, less of those are absurdly priced. SNES then is kind of an opposite, far more of the 'common' games have been preyed upon and cost too much money. Compare Castlevania 1-3 to #4, TMNT 2 or 3 to TMNT4, Zelda 1 or 2 to Link to the Past, Megaman to Megaman 7 and so on for comparable franchises. The SNES is just being pilfered and while it does have some three figure titles there's less, yet there are far more commons going for like the $30-100 range which is sick.

[Snatch1414]

Once you get your NES, clean the games it came with and see how consistently the games fire up on the first or second try. I bought one last year and cleaned it, but I had to go back in just recently and mess with it again. They're pretty finicky but:

Long story short if it's not very reliable look up how to boil the 72-pin connector in hot water (yes you read that right) and how to disable the lockout chip. Doing both of those things are very easy even if you're not a hands-on tech person (anyone that has seen my threads with questions on this will know I'm not a handy guy by any means) and your games will fire up consistently as long as they're clean.

If it works perfectly from the moment you receive it that's great, but I mention these things because most resellers I know don't clean their stuff, which I have a big problem with but that's another topic.

PS: Have fun! I didn't own one myself until last year and had only played it at friends houses as a kid like yourself. The library is vast with a lot of hidden gems to be found IMO. There's also the "second tier" of classics like Batman, Blaster Master, etc. that you might not think of when listing games you have to have. Like others said, find some lots with a game or two you want and a few others. It's fun just to try out all the stuff they put out for the thing. I'm a Sega fanboy and that's primarily why I started collecting but I mess around with my NES and collection of games for it more than anything else.

[samsonlonghair]

Long story short if it's not very reliable look up how to boil the 72-pin connector in hot water (yes you read that right)

I once knew a guy who was soooooooooo dumb.

(How dumb was he?)

He was sooooooooo dumb he had to look up directions on how to boil water.

<Snare drum> <cymbal crash>

[marlowe221]

My new-to-me NES just came in the mail today. I haven't had a chance to hook it up yet but, of course, I will be doing that as soon as possible this evening.

Tomorrow I will be visiting a nice retro game store a couple of hours away from me. I will be looking to pick up a few games for the system.

I will be on the look out for:

Crystalis
Batman
Blaster Master
Beat em ups
shmups (any suggestions here?)

Games that are slightly under the radar (as much as that a happens any more with the internet and all...) are what I will be looking for basically.

[KalessinDB]

Only games on your list that should run more than 10 bucks are your Mega Mans. Rest of them should be easy to find as long as you're not impatient. Good luck man, enjoy it, my favorite system.

[Hobie-wan]

As I said is someone else's thread, Zanac for your shmups suggestion. Otherwise look back over the NES Racket guides.

[nightrnr]

Dragon Spirit is hands down my favorite shoot-em-up on the system.
It's better (IMHO) than the arcade and is quite affordable (last I checked).

Great taste in Crystalis. That is definitely in my top ten NES games.

I've had a bit of an 8-bit revival myself, as I recently got a fun collection of famicom games from a seller here. That combined with a 9-pin to 7-pin controller adapter, my (hideously ugly) famiclone finally has a worthy purpose in life.


....and now a random thought about my actual NES system.
I have an original Nintendo system that has exchanged hands with no other gamer but myself.
True, it was originally a family gift played by my kin, but I played it so much (more) and eventually laid sole claim to the relic.
It was played and loved when most people had moved on to 16-bit glory. It taught me more about gameplay than any other system (in most genres anyways). It was and still is the dawn of sophistication in console videogames. It is, in no uncertain terms, the most interesting system in the world ( ) influential game console of all time (for me anyways).
It is still out, still rocking the original 72-pin connector, and I have a game collection 100 strong.

I think it will take my death before it moves on to a new steward.