How's your NES gaming going? What's your NES library like?

[Sarge]

I've been playing a healthy rotation of Super Mario Bros. 3, Kirby's Adventure (introducing it to my daughter), and Shatterhand (NeoGAF club).

It amazes me just how good Super Mario Bros. 3 is to this day.

It's my first time playing Shatterhand and it kicks ass.

Kirby's Adventure is definitely a good choice to introduce young children to the wonders of video games.

Yes to all three of these.

Strangely, though, I used to hate Super Mario Bros. 3. No, really. Its overwhelming popularity obscured other titles with my friends, and beating it every time I watched the neighbor's kids got old. I have a profound appreciation for it now, even if I still think another game you mentioned, Kirby's Adventure, is the best NES platformer. For different reasons, of course, because the intricacies of SMB3 are much different from those of Kirby.

And yes, Shatterhand is amazing. I love the feel of that game, it's almost like it's got NES Batman DNA. Definitely has that top-quality Sunsoft feel despite not being actually from Sunsoft. Natsume really got overlooked back in the day.

[BoneSnapDeez]

My daughter is pretty much obsessed with Kirby's Adventure. She can describe the levels and bosses to people and can hum the music.

I unexpectedly received the Japanese Famicom version of the game when I ordered a console off of eBay recently (seller tossed in a few freebies). This thrilled my daughter even more as it's pink!

Speaking of eBay crap, I finally found Faria at a decent price. Also have the original Mario Bros., Dragon Buster, and Fire Emblem on the way (latter two are Famicom carts).

From here on out I'm probably gonna buy more Famicom than NES carts. Partly due to price, also because tons of great RPGs were Fami exclusives.

Still playing FDS more than anything else though.

[FerretGamer]

I unexpectedly received the Japanese Famicom version of the game when I ordered a console off of eBay recently (seller tossed in a few freebies). This thrilled my daughter even more as it's pink!

YES! I am heavily considering buying the Fami version just because of its awesome looking pink cart. It's dirt cheap so I figure why not.

[Gunstar Green]

I have nostalgic feelings for the gray slab cartridges of the NES but damn, Famicom carts are so awesome and festive.

[ExedExes]

It's going a lot better with my latest pickup, NARC. That was a fine arcade port by RARE. A lot easier to get into compared to the original, and the control scheme works well.

[darsparx]

I have nostalgic feelings for the gray slab cartridges of the NES but damn, Famicom carts are so awesome and festive.

Yeah but i do have to admit, the nes carts were kind of a waste of plastic if we're honest. I mean looking at pictures of the insides of a cart why do a board that takes up half the case require one that big? Though thinking about it, I kinda wish I had the patience to find a top loader and mod it for av out. As much as I love the front loader I grew up on that thing is not designed the best way and way too finnicky for my tastes if I ever go back to it for games that don't require a translation patch...

[Tanooki]

Well you have to think about day one on this.

The earliest run games was a period when they were trying stuff out, so it wans't just a simple little board in there. You had a famicom to NES converter in there that eats up nearly half the height, then the original famicom board slotted in on top of that. It eats up much of the space while giving just enough room for those secondary height NES carts that aren't just 2 chips and fairly flat, kind of like a tetris L block in shape where part sticks up another inch.

And later on, there are some NES games that eat up nearly the whole space, especially larger adventure/rpgs which have a lot of chips and usually a battery up towards the top. Take a look at some of the MMC5 games from Castevania 3 to Gemfire and so on, they're space pigs.

I think had Nintendo been more ballsy with their 1985 start and just went all in like with the Famicom 2 years earlier they probably could have stuck with the famicom shell in general (minus the colors, at least early on due to the fear/fuss over the crash.) And like Famicom some games as they need more board and more parts were optionally taller. Though that would have forced them to use a top loading device out of the gate.



Since this is about NES library, for the first time in over 2 years I added a game this weekend, a bootleg (repro to some) of Mr Gimmick I found local for $40, uses a new infinite nes lives.com board and chips, nicely done. Stupidly didn't have the eeprom windows covered so I cut 5 equally sized strips of masking tape, stacked them and placed it over each window to keep the light out. The game is tricky, not bad, but tricky if you don't have a handle on the little dudes inertia and how that star works he attacks with. Took me awhile to clear world 1, but then I pushed it into 3.

[KalessinDB]

Yeah but i do have to admit, the nes carts were kind of a waste of plastic if we're honest. I mean looking at pictures of the insides of a cart why do a board that takes up half the case require one that big? Though thinking about it, I kinda wish I had the patience to find a top loader and mod it for av out. As much as I love the front loader I grew up on that thing is not designed the best way and way too finnicky for my tastes if I ever go back to it for games that don't require a translation patch...

Tanooki summed it up. NES carts are huge because they were originally Famicom carts with an adapter. They did that because they wanted the NES to look different from a typical "gaming system" because they were coming off of the great crash in the US. So instead of a top loading system, you had a front loading system that you pushed the game down and closed the flap so it wasn't visible any more. With that setup, the game had to be almost as long as the system so that it made contact at the back of the console.

I have a spare toploader already AV modded that I might be willing to sell. I upgraded to an NESRGB toploader... and have a spare stock one that I might be doing HiDefNES on when it becomes a little more readily available.

Incidentally though, Blinking Light Win completely rejuvenates a front loader if you really want to keep your front loader for nostalgia purposes. I say I might HiDefNES my spare stock toploader because I'm not sure if I want to do it to that or one of my front loaders with a Blinking Light Win in it.

[Tanooki]

BLW is fine, but if you want to remain stock it's not hard and free to make even a 30 year old pin totally reliable.

Remove it, fill pan of water deep enough to cover and then some, throw towel in bottom, boil water, throw in pin. Pin is made of aluminum, it won't rust. Boil for 5 min. Use NES cleaning kit or something as good, in and out on the pins and all sorts of decades of gray funk will come off. Repeat as needed(usually +1 times) until no more funk comes off.

The heat will have loosened up all the garbage, the wedge you clean with removes it, the repeated boil gets any left overs. Also the heat will strengthen the pins to the point that you can just toss the game in the system UP (or down 'natural position') and it will play as easily as a top loader. I did this on a system I found last year and it ran side by side with a top loader without fail, especially after I snipped that stupid security pin to stop the blinks which also open up PAL games and unlicensed stuff that can get finicky.

[CRTGAMER]

Adding to the NES oversized cart design, agree with Tannooki it was to accommodate the Famicom PCB adapter inside. As to why the Front Loader, that was incorporated to not be associated with the earlier failed video games marketing. The NES as a "VCR" appliance with large grey "tapes" inserted like a movie (along with ROB) to win over the stores to carry it.

Never been keen on the water boil method due to corrosion risk. I suppose okay if blown dried off right away, but rather do the alcohol soaked cardboard method. The connector pins are not aluminum, that would be too soft a metal to maintain the spring of the contacts.