The real one is built better and sounds better. Also, you will get what you expect. A different counterfeit might be totally different than the one I have.

I agree. It's an Engineer SS-02 and is featured in the video at 2:12 (currently $19). There should be some similar brands that may be cheaper. It takes a lot more time, but I've been able to do a recap with that solder sucker before. I wouldn't try to remove the power supply if all I had is one of the very cheap plastic tipped solder suckers though. It would be too frustrating.

@@SparkY0 yeah, that's the one. I actually have a desoldering iron but I like to use that solder sucker on jobs where a desoldering iron is overkill.

​@@SparkY0and I must not have been paying very good attention to your video because yes you do show that exact one

It should be all the electrolytic caps in the system, which are featured in the video. Most of them are in the power unit. Theres a bunch of ceramic caps not listed, but they don't need to be changed as preventative maintenance. Also, the parts can vary depending on your power supply. It's best to look up your model before ordering parts, and open it up to double check if you have the time.

I feel the circuit to completely remove the 10NES entirely is a pretty good option when you have a broken cic, but leaving the functioning chip (other then the disabled reset function) is less likely to cause issues. As for grounding the output, I thought it was pulled up/down internally, depending on it's state. I'll have to look into whether either state is floating. There's a chance a weak pull up might be better than grounding it.

Simply cutting the 10nes chip can be bad as it could do harm to the chip which is also used for resetting the console.

The board is labeled C1, C2, etc.

It's a little snug, but it will fit in the USB port on the OA4 without removing the door

Usually cleaning works on the 72-pin, but you should go through every pin and inspect each one to ensure they haven't broken, or corroded away. You can also bend the pins slightly to ensure good contact. If it all looks good, I would wait until trying a few other things before changing it If audio is working normally and the game seems to be running (but without video) that would imply the connection between the cartridge and console is ok. Since it's intermittent, that usually means a mechanical failure. 72-pin is mechanical so it's not a bad guess, but it also could mean cracked solder. First, inspect as much as you can. If there's any rust, corrosion, burn marks, spilled soda, stains, etc. Then the problem is likely to be in that general area. After that, I would start by reflowing the solder on the video connector and components along the video signal path. There's some capacitors and a transistor near the connector. You can pop off the bottom shielding and do this without removing the power/AV box, therefore it's the easiest thing to try starting with. After that I would do the capacitors if they haven't been changed before (personally I would change them even if there was no problem - it's just so annoying to get the power/AV box off). Then I would consider reflowing the 72-pin, but at that point you may as well change it. If there's still problems after all that, and everything looked clean, I would start looking at the semiconductors, starting with that video transistor. Don't fully solder down the shielding of the power box until you know it's working, and you don't need to remove it again.. just do the connector and maybe tack-on one spot to ground it.

I like this microphone quite a bit. It's pattern isn't too tight, so it's a bit more forgiving for indoor use compared to some other shotgun microphones. I would lean toward this shotgun mic over the nt-1 (or any studio mic) if video is your main focus. Especially if you want to get the microphone out of frame, or if the microphone needs to be lighter weight. The Nt-1 would feel more at home in a vocal booth, and looks more natural if you just like having the microphone on camera (ie streaming). Both can get good results for voiceover if you take the time to practice and learn the best position. The quality of your vocal booth will be a lot more important for VO than the microphone, especially when getting started. For an alternative to the rode nt-1, the Blue Baby Bottle is a good deal right now at under $200. I think Logitech is clearing out everything with Blue Branding to make space for their rebrand to Logi. I've been alternating between the baby bottle and the 875r for my faceless content. Both have pros and cons.

@@SparkY0 Thanks for the detailed answer, I'm just really looking for something that I could use in between normal days playing with friends and for occassional voice overs for my casual tiktok content (on a vocal booth made with a divider and my closet and some blankets). I just found that my dynamic microphone just sounds too broadcast-y to use and doesn't sound great when use for VO. And I think with this, I might go for the At875r, thanks for the reco! Really afraid of Nt-1 because it might capture my fans buzzing while on Discord.

For this test I used an Audient Audient iD14 Audio Interface and a typical XLR cable. I also often use a Zoom F3. I've used an M-Audio M-Track solo in my oldest videos, but I do not recommend that interface, especially with Windows.

@@SparkY0can i use a XLR to 3.5mm cable to connect to my computer and use it as a mic? is that possible please respond

It should work, I'm not sure if it's worth it. I think it came with an XLR to 1/4 inch cable. With the added cost of an adapter though, you might be better off with a USB microphone. Maybe something like a ATR2100x, Tonor TD310 , or you can even get a generic USB condenser microphone kit with an arm and pop filter for around $35. Also there's some dynamic microphones that come with 3.5mm built in instead of XLR, which cost about the same as this tonor mic or cheaper. I have one from Shinco but I haven't tested it yet.

@@SparkY0 okay thank u for ur help!

@@SparkY0 hi i have one more question. Does this mic use phantom power? apparently its not good to connect a karaoke mic to a computer or phone

Make sure you're close enough, and then boost the gain in post

Were many people reselling donor carts with new roms, or was this mostly something people did at home?

@@SparkY0 Both, really. There was also a third category of people offering re-flashing services to customers who supplied the correct donor.

The game is real.

Different volumes could be interesting. I think it gets split out by waveform (triangle, square, noise) so it wouldn't be as simple as something like turning down a background track.

@@SparkY0 That's correct, there's no way for anything external to the game's code to know what each sound channel represents. That's not really a use case I was suggesting for the audio split, though. I just mean like, let's say the player wants to reduce the harshness of the square waves, or pan the triangle left and the square right, or whatever.

I guess so. The fun is that people into that kind of thing can do it

NES has some really good and groundbreaking games, but also some bad and confusing games. It's an era where the user manual was usually pretty important to figure out how a game works.

I'm not the biggest fan of the NES (no shade thrown, just not my favourite), but I would highly recommend the following games if you're getting started: Spy Hunter, Shatter Hand, Chip & Dale, Smash TV, and Sweet Home.

An nt mini would be great, but didn't they stop making them years ago?

@SparkY0 Just get the AVS console from RetroUSB, that one used FPGA, had four controller ports and 2 cartridge slots (one for Famicom and for NES) just like the Analogue Nt but is cheaper in price.

(I secretly ordered an AVS last night, don't tell anybody)

@@VOAN The feature set of the NT Mini or NT Mini Noir far exceeds the AVS. The AVS is a wonderful machine, just the NT Mini and Mini Noir are just that insane feature wise. Like comparing a high end Corvette to a McLaren.

@@SparkY0 The NT Mini yes back in 2018. I think the did the final run on the Noir in 2020 or 2021. That is the one thing I don't like about Analogue, they discontinue their previous consoles. They never should have discontinued the Mega SG or Super NT, and should have made a cost reduced NT Mini. I own 2 or 3 of each because they are that awesome but I still believe they are leaving money on the table.

I understand why they put them there; anything else would have added significant complexity to the design... but I still don't like having to reach around the game to turn it on.

Correct, no worries there.

@@SparkY0 Good. That'd save me the hassle of buying an original NES and having the 10NES chip disabled in it if, say, I wanted to play imports.

It's pretty easy to disable that chip though, you only need to cut off a single pin.

I saw it, it reminds me the same thing!

He even explained why it’s so small in 5 seconds.

I think they did what they could to be respectful of the system. When it comes to standard NES chips there's a whole lot of those out there in poor condition where the parts will live a better life in a small project like this. As for the rare arcade chips though, I don't know. When there's 0 for sale on ebay then preservation seems like it should be the higher priority. Ideally, the clone chips would finally get updated versions to be flawless, but really they're good enough. The clone CPU is fine and the glitched instructions in the clone PPU are minor, and only affect a couple of games that nobody actually plays. At least, depending on which clone you have.

@@SparkY0 I certainly hope so. Totally use parts from broken systems or cloned systems from the day or even remade parts that are easily copied. Just don’t take them from perfectly working original nes or famicoms lol

They can. Something to be aware of is that the NTSC version of the PPU is harder to find /more expensive. I've heard sometimes you'll get sent a PAL version but with the part number changed

@@SparkY0 Thank you for replying. Hopefully the ntsc one becomes more available. It would also be great if they could make clone chips, that can be used in super nintendo.

Not sure what you mean by "but maybe not play cartridges"...

For example cheap knockoff handhelds that run a NES clone SoC but you can't plug a cartridge into them, just the crappy built-in games... I made a video about one from Walmart once. Most every bootleg/plug and play console is an NES at its heart. Although ARM/android is getting more common. But TinyNES isn't a modern bootleg. It's using the authentic original chips.

@@SparkY0what is your take on fpga based devices? I’m not an expert but as I understand it they can emulate hardware perfectly.

I haven't tried one, but I have one on the way. It will depend on how well the designer was able to copy the original.