Building a new NES in 2022: Introducing the Super 8 Bit NES board!

Thanks to PCBway for sponsoring this video! www.pcbway.com/ The Super 8 Bit is a project that allows you to build a NES and Famicom console from scratch, using almost 100% new parts. Unlike the original NES and Famicom, the Super 8 Bit was designed for RGB in mind, so it can be paired with the NESRGB to deliver fantastic results! On this week's Fix it Friday we will build one from the ground up and go through all of it's awesome features!
Check out 1uprestorations.com for more video game console repairs and mods!
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Parts: www.tindie.com/products/low_b...
Music:
Monster in My Pocket (NES)
Bucky O'Hare (NES)
Gimmick! (Famicom)
Castlevania 3 (NES/Famicom)
Wai Wai World 2 (Famicom)
Armed Police Batrider (Arcade)
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[@woogaloo]

Such a cool build. Not sure why it's so satisfying watching you solder things to the board!

[@LIRetroGaming]

Thanks, I’m glad that you enjoyed the video!

[@3vi1J]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing the experience with this board.

[@gnawtsatyr8865]

I'm honestly too tired because of work to keep watching but I really enjoy seeing the soldering reinforcements on the back of the board and the clipping of the extra wire parts because that's not something I see in a lot of retro console or handheld fixes. It's part of the beauty of building from scratch that isn't really shown in other "from scratch" builds with raw mobos. This was ASMR type satisfying both from the visuals and the midi music

[@LIRetroGaming]

Thanks! I really try to make the soldering as clean as possible, with very short and organized wiring connections whenever it’s possible

[@HKT-4300]

Love your vids, very chill and informative, i'm gonna do an NESRGB install when mine comes in the mail soon, ordered it september 6th but took a bit to ship. It's been very suspenseful as i desoldered everything weeks ago with a pretty bad soldering iron and hand solder pump, but it went surprisingly well, i hope once it's actuallly installed and done that it actually works, but i've watched you install so many of them that that shouldn't be a problem hahah

[@FabioBarciela]

I love to watch you assembling all this stuff... Is relaxing! 😊 😊 Congrats!

[@kibagami25]

omg i can watch you do these all day. love the 8bit audio as well. great video and you got me into retro repair and modding. Please shoe more videos for us dummies for how to solder and beginner stuff. Great videos keep them coming.

[@LIRetroGaming]

Thanks so much man! I always appreciate the support

[@PapaMurphTV]

Much love to you! I sent my PS1 to get the xstation mod and I had a non-compatible board. My man emailed me and explained the issues, took what I sent him and made the console I dreamed of. 200% recommend his service.

[@LIRetroGaming]

Thanks man, I’m glad you’re enjoying it!

[@OliverNorth9729]

How many games do you have?

[@kranibal]

Any NES content such as this is awesome. Thanks for posting.

[@MundoNintend0]

For videos like this I subscribed to the channel and every Friday I am faithful to see these great modifications to retro consoles, from my part I congratulate you brother for such beautiful work you do. you are a crack my respect for your person

[@LIRetroGaming]

Thanks brother! Always appreciate your support

[@NeverSayDie87]

I always look forward to these videos on a Friday, so interesting!

[@LIRetroGaming]

Thanks, I appreciate that!

[@fabulousasia9848]

Love it!! Can't wait to see it in a cool case!

[@DeathpunchTactics]

Never could do this on my own, but fantastic to see your work! NICE JOB!

[@1lapmagic]

You can do this.

[@RetroSho]

Wow this project looks incredible. Definitely would like to see how it finishes up with a proper enclosure.

[@LIRetroGaming]

Yeah this was a lot of fun! I need to reach out to some of the guys that do 3d design and see if they can help with this case

[@9scorpions]

@@LIRetroGaming this was going to be my question. I did not find a case after searching online (unless you buy the pre-built edition). Either way, great work and thanks for sharing this project. Love it!

[@lowbudgetify]

I made the Super 8 bit pre-assembled from 2014-2016 in an aluminum powder coated case, which cost $130 each and I had to order at least 25 for that price. Recently I decided to make more of the PCBs, but not the cases. I wasn't sure if I could get 25 or so people willing to pay that much just for the case.

[@arcadeslum5882]

@@lowbudgetify 3d scan one so it can be 3d printed for pennies?

[@paxhumana2015]

@@LIRetroGaming , I wonder if you will fill in the void that is being left behind by Analog NT now since they are going to no longer make NES/FDS and SNES/NSFC clone systems?

[@charlesortiz1059]

awesome! love your posts, keep saving old consoles. 👍

[@malcolmogilvy4885]

Fantastic skills glad ima found your channel as love tinkering with retro tech and fixing broken consoles etc

[@LIRetroGaming]

Thanks man, glad you enjoyed it

[@joshuahenry7482]

This is the future I wanted. I'm glad we're finally here.

[@robertlawrence9000]

That's a rad kit! I hope you had a bucket of ice in standby for your hands after all of that soldering. 😁

[@julesl6910]

Really great video, thank you for keeping the soldering footage. People don't realize what a time investment it is. They also might not realize how detail oriented it has to be, one simple polarity or component value mistake can means hours of troubleshooting, or worse. You did an excellent job.

[@LIRetroGaming]

Thanks, I appreciate the kind words and it’s true, it does take a lot of time to complete projects like this

[@morerajuan]

I got happy seeing you using sockets, is the best idea but not everyubody uses them, very nice man!

[@LIRetroGaming]

Thanks! Yeah it definitely makes projects like this much easier, especially if something goes wrong

[@malikbelaredj2956]

This is once again a great video! Thanks alot

[@Auxodium]

I wish there was something like this for SNES and the N64. Great video.

[@NordicDan]

Man I'm 100% with you there. I want my next project to be an SNES and then I can do my N64 if something ever comes out....

[@massiveheadwoundharry6833]

I wonder if it's possible to create/add a cartridge peripheral to an SNES mini console...🤔

[@LITTLE1994]

Probably.

[@shadowslayer0420]

@@NordicDan I'd honestly also love to see a genesis/mega drive board that has an integrated 32x and triple bypass

[@draconic5129]

SNES/SFC might be doable but would certainly be way more difficult on the count of the fact that all the chips are surface mount and have smaller pins. Still doable but definitely more complex. The N64 on the other hand seems incredibly unfeasible because it has way more custom chips and unless I'm remembering wrong some of them are BGA soldered to the board (if they're not and I'm just remembering wrong somebody please correct me).

[@ajchaffers]

Your retro skills are unmatched!

[@LIRetroGaming]

Thanks, I appreciate that!

[@NordicDan]

HA! I finally sat down and did my NESessity build with a Hi-Def NES a couple months ago, and it was instantly a favorite with both my kids and me. Seeing a new generation board released so shortly after I finally finished my build hit me funny. Still awesome to see continued support and modernizing for these vintage consoles. I'm hoping a similar update for the SNES is developed sooner rather than later, along with some sort of legitimate HDMI mod.

[@LIRetroGaming]

Fantastic! I’m glad that you built a NESessity, they are a lot of fun. I really hope that a super Nintendo board gets designed as well, that would be awesome!

[@enriquedossantos3283]

give it time, I'm pretty sure there is someone right now working on an NES SOC, a complete sistem on a chip, that way they can implement true HDMI support and many more features

[@draconic5129]

would be very cool to see a nice custom case for this board.

[@R3TR0R4V3]

Sweet! Nice work. Very tempted to build one of these repro mobo's. 🤘

[@LIRetroGaming]

It’s certainly a fun project!

[@poppycortez6802]

Just got mine in the mail. Open it up and thought well i need all the parts to build it. So i ordered the parts kit. I should just ordered it all together. I can't wait to build it, i need my 200th way to play NES games. Lol

[@JohnDunne001]

I can't believe I've only just heard about the multimeter trick to detect the ohm of a resistor. I'm officially 20 years a noob... Awesome video too - thanks!

[@russwilliams4678]

It's not so much a hack as a shortcut. The color code tells you what the value should be underload in a circuit with a tolerance value. This is more important in troubleshooting and repair than assembly.

[@stephenhood2948]

LOL The 8 bit music is so fitting for this.

[@Phils3r]

Really great board. I wish there would be a shell for it. So I could have my own awesome NES. I could harvest my junk famicom and build a RGB mod on top of it like you did.

[@LIRetroGaming]

I need to get back to this project and get a case solution figured out

[@Sr.D]

I would love to see more of these PCBs for more consoles, and replacement for the main unit chips, you will end up mounting your own mega drive, NES...

[@LIRetroGaming]

Yeah I hope more of these projects get made

[@colosussofbaine]

Love your videos, keep it up!

[@JamieKitchens6]

Wonderful video!

[@blakeromo]

Do you know of any one working on a new board for a top loader NES? We need someone in the community to come out with a pcb replacement in this form factor

[@LIRetroGaming]

Yes, redherring32 is making one and it’s almost finished!

[@blakeromo]

@@LIRetroGaming Fantastic! I have a bad board that needs to be rebuilt, but no replacement pcbs exist yet! I hope you review it when it gets released. I love your NES builds and projects

[@redherring3253]

@@LIRetroGaming 👀

[@rs.matr1x]

@@LIRetroGaming I hope it has composite out by default.

[@raiyu1985]

Russians made a gerber of Dendy. There is link for the file. look it up at emuland

[@laurens4359]

NB: to lessen the chance of IC damage due to ESD (especially as you're not using any ESD protection) - I recommend installing the ICs last. For two reasons: 1. it reduces the amount of handling time 2. once the passives are mounted they provides alternate discharge paths to prevent discharge through the IC

[@TheRationalPi]

I love that a dead NES could be resurrected as long as the core chips are still working. Truly amazing what people in the retro modding scene are capable of!

[@MinaliaGames]

Your soldering skills are most impressive.

[@thepeternetwork]

I find these console assembly videos oddly satisfying. If my uncle were alive and still with us today he would agree with me... maybe.

[@tspawn35]

I watch these going this looks so cool I should look into this. Then I remember that I already have the setup I want. I just always get the itch to build something when watching other people do it. LOL

[@LIRetroGaming]

I totally understand that! My personal set up has stayed the same for quite some time, but I love building stuff for other people

[@TribalScience]

Awesome! I also built a NESessity thanks to your old video.

[@LIRetroGaming]

That’s great! I’m glad the NESessity video was helpful

[@dionpezzimenti3002]

Super awesome build and saw your comment about an enclosure. Would love to see a picture of it if you are able to stuff it in a case.

[@LIRetroGaming]

Yes I will definitely have a follow up video on the case!

[@coolduder1001]

So damn close, there's just two edits I want. 1. Include the Nintendo multi out on the PCB itself. The Nintendo av cable just uses a pcb as the male connector, and it would be more cost effective to just add it to the main PCB. 2. New surface mount components for everything that can be replaced with a modern equivalent. It would reduce the board size some more, making the PCB cheaper, and SMD is usually cheaper/ more common these days. I want to make my own Famicom board with this design in mind, including a pin header for an s-video comb filter adapter, dsub 15 for accessories, db9 for controllers (dendy Pinot), a 3.5mm for the mic, and usb power. I just don't play enough NES to care, and the price for games just keeps rising. Plus this is a complicated design for me, it would take like a year.

[@FruitlessGaming]

Thoroughly impressed watching you do those tight solder points with an average sized soldering iron. That and how clean it looks when you're done. Well done!

[@LIRetroGaming]

Thanks! It’s good to put a lot of work into a project like this and have it turn out nicely

[@countrickter]

I was also surprised how icey his soldering was with size of the iron. My man is nice with it! My first time watching. I really enjoyed it. I will be watching other videos

[@BangBang-hk4rg]

This would be really awesome in a clear case!

[@LIRetroGaming]

Absolutely

[@digitalblasphemy1100]

I remember a video of Kevtris talking about having a console that played everything (Zimba 3000) or something. I would kill for a NES, SNES, N64 console. Imagine having a single board with all three cartridge slots and controller ports. Something like sending your three consoles or special chips/controller ports from them to Long Island Retro to have it assembled. I'd pay 1,000 dollars for something like that, ESPECIALLY if they output RGB/HDMI. Then collaborating with some of these other guys on youtube for a special case. I work at a place in the US that produce injection molded parts. We even build all of our molds here. I've always wanted to get involved with some kinds of retro video game related stuff. I've had several ideas for years now and never had the money to build the molds to make it happen but maybe if enough people in the community were on board it could happen one day.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

I'd love to mod an NES to use pogo pin connectors rather than the style of spring that the original had. The main reason being that the pogo pins should be a bit more resilient when inserting and removing carts, or at bare minimum a bit easier on the carts.

[@pichonPoP]

really like to see this project

[@FR4M3Sharma]

A NES Styled Case with Famicon's Color would be really dope for this.

[@LIRetroGaming]

I like that idea

[@jimmy2thymes916]

great build! Wood case would be amazing.

[@LIRetroGaming]

Yes I’m definitely thinking about a wood case

[@chadwolf3840]

Damn you’re so good at this stuff.

[@LIRetroGaming]

Thanks, really appreciate it

[@pixelpoppyproductions]

This is a really cool product - reminds me of my past Megasquirt projects, only now it’s for the NES. There’s a huge personal satisfaction completing something like this, that you definitely can’t buy off the shelf. Does this fit into the original case? If not, no big deal. A PCB soldering + 3D printing project sounds like a great time with my kids.

[@LIRetroGaming]

Yeah it is certainly a lot of fun to make. Right now there is no shell for this system but I’m hoping that someone can design a nice 3-D printed case

[@anonymex22]

great job, better than any emulator, the true thing, with little tweaks if wanted, that's great! Shame that you did not preserve the cartridge horizontal insertion, because you should be able to make a case which would be as close as the original one!

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

That’s nuts!

[@madkvideo]

Damn, that thing sounds amazing

[@LIRetroGaming]

Yeah I really enjoy the independent controls for each sound channel

[@romainvilleneuve]

pretty cool board 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@trev1976]

Wow how awesome

[@richardheckmann1892]

Wow very cool. I want one

[@thegametinkerer]

This is a cool project. It makes me want to build one. Then I remember that I don't play nes enough to warrant building one.

[@DeadlyVenomKing]

Like your soldering skills

[@dccelly1615]

Those things are so rad! I love watching you do these builds. Are these only custom made PCB’s or can they be ordered directly?

[@LIRetroGaming]

These can be ordered directly and I put a link in the description

[@TheTenthArt]

Kudos!

[@bowieinc]

So, my wife mentioned she never got to see Mario 3 all the way through as a child. We have storage bays and someone had left a NES in it awhile back. Dug it out and had to take it apart and clean and SMB3 was in it. So, here’s the thing. Both my wife and I were astonished at how bad we were at the game. We are 40 yrs old, btw. We both had bragged to each other about our younger years Mario prowess and it literally took us two hours to get to world 3??? Later that night I did some research and learned about the latency issue with LCD screens vs the old CRT TVs. There’s even a gentleman who made an iOS app called “Is it snappy” to test. Thankfully I discovered that our TV had a “Game” mode that reduced the 100ms latency down to a more reasonable number. What a difference it made! Or at least we think it did. The improvement could have also been the couple hours of practice the night before. Made me think of the thousands that have probably revisited older consoles and had this happen, walking away with their tale tucked. I also learned that modern consoles using HDMI will allow TVs to recognize the console and automatically switch to game mode.

[@TheFractusman]

The lag in LCDs has caused so much fighting between me and my friends over the years! Especially playing fighting games. I cannot abide even a bit of lag or it throws my timing off utterly. Thankfully most LCDs have a gaming mode, now. Good luck on finally beating SMB3!

[@gungan5822]

*Watches you leave a row of VRAM pins unsoldered and yelling at the screen.*

[@LIRetroGaming]

Well they got soldered eventually, otherwise it wouldn’t work

[@demonprincess5634]

wish i could do stuff like that would love to that one

[@romario9158]

Fantastic

[@landmind666]

Its like building your own analog nes

[@hardwarehacker]

Hey, this was awesome! I have some questions that you may have answered somewhere in the comments below, but at the time of writing this comment there are already 441 other comments (so please forgive me if I don't go hunting through all of them to find answers to my questions). Questions: 1. For Famicom cartridges, is there a way to modify the board (either directly or via some kind of daughter board) so that the cartridge can be used with the front label facing front instead of facing the TV (or monitor)? 2. When you had the Famicom version of Super Mario Brothers being demonstrated in your video, is it just me or was the time remaining countdown clock running a bit faster than it should be? Perhaps the chip(s) that handle the clock were a bit fast? 3. Who makes the GREEN colored boards that you installed on the Super 8 Bit (I'll later abbreviate as S8B) main board? Do those also come in the same color as the S8B mainboard? 4. When will you be testing the expansion port? 5. Did you have to sacrifice an old NES for the NES-specific chips in this build? If not did they come with the kit or did you have to obtain them somewhere online? Perhaps that info is in the instructions from the links you provided just under your fantastic video. 6. Could you explain the use of the liquid you sometimes used? It seems like sometimes you used it when soldering some components to the board but other times you did not. This was fantastic and really enjoyable to watch.

[@coreyfuchs730]

Thats sweet

[@ryox82]

Subscribed from LI. Pretty cool.

[@colinkraus7139]

Wow. What skill.

[@grumpymeggo]

I wish I was skilled enough to do something like that. But I am not good at sodering and I don't know anything about electronics :( Still watched the whole video! Very informative none the less!

[@jackytan43]

Awesome .

[@denisjardin8168]

Bueno ahora a por la Super NES exelente video

[@RobertGuido]

Okay so I can't place the music about halfway through the video when you're doing the speed up. It's on the tip of my brain but I can't think of it and it's driving me bananas🤪

[@LIRetroGaming]

The music info is in the description

[@Mtaalas]

that RGB-jumper cables (and CYV) should have it's own ground connection as well for close coupling of somewhat fast signalling. As it stands, the return path for those signals is from "where ever" it can find the return path, instead of where it wants to go, which is the same route as it came from. Providing separate ground will make better image quality and reduce EMI issues.... There's - connection point provided at the other end for you to do that I think... you should.

[@LIRetroGaming]

Thanks for that info. I can add that additional ground

[@Mtaalas]

@@LIRetroGaming just make sure there's ground available on both ends... that - looks like ground, but i'm sure the documentation can tell you if it is :) I'm electronics designer, so thinking and watching for stuff like this is second nature :)

[@fkat1666]

perfect to make the N Toaster mark III

[@Davidevgen]

how ironic... i was just in long island a few weeks ago. anyways great video! i remember you or some one doing this awile ago

[@LIRetroGaming]

I’ve done similar projects before, the Opentendo and the NESessity

[@modology]

why famicom slot is backward ? should it be on the same direction as NES slot?

[@Corruptinator]

0:30 - "Original NESessity Console" Clever pun twist on _Necessity_

[@elkernel]

22:40 T.W. NESRGB pinout jumper explanation

[@BioGenx2b]

You should rig up a little adapter for the Famicom port so you can turn it around to face the front.

[@LIRetroGaming]

That would be cool to do

[@OldSchoolGamerandCollector]

Cool!

[@derekarnold]

Neat board, good build. Looks like they're sold out on tindie, but jointed the waitlist. One nitpick is you keep referring to plated through-holes as vias, which are not the same thing, and might be confusing to people. For instance, in >2 layer boards, there can be vias that don't go through the entire board, but a through-hole (the items you're referring to) are always all the way through the board.

[@LIRetroGaming]

Yeah sorry about that. I’m just so used to working on boards that have two or more layers and I have a bad habit of using those terms interchangeably

[@ericochoa4034]

Awesome redesign now if only there was a proper 3d printed case.

[@iamaldovanucci]

Any updates on a case for the super 8 bit? I recently built one but I'm struggling learning CAD to design one on my own.

[@LIRetroGaming]

Not yet unfortunately. I have been slammed with other projects but I will get back to this eventually!

[@johngarvey4448]

it would look cool if you used a smoke grey for the plastic. might have to look into metal hinges for the trap doors on the 3d print though plastic ones might ware out to fast.

[@LIRetroGaming]

Yeah there are lots of possibilities with the shell. I need to partner up with someone on that because that is not one of my skills

[@jay6157]

some of us dont know what your doing but still cool

[@kschewe]

Nice product and I will build mine eventually. I bought a famicom and famicom av to use for the parts. How much can you salvage from an existing products instead of using new digikey parts? I like to give my desolding station some usage. Going to use the composite for now.

[@LIRetroGaming]

There’s a decent amount of overlapping components between this and the famicom

[@GambiaHeroArlessonSilva]

é mais facil comprar um SUP game que no brasil 2 dolar você acha nas feiras , mas não tira o mérito e o trabalho incrivel de montar uma maquina do zero , parabéns

[@RobertGuido]

And I've been soldering for a while sometimes I have the touch sometimes I don't. It's nice to see someone do some good soldering so many videos I see it looks like crap

[@PetrBelohoubek-ot5ok]

Nice FPGA bro ;-)

[@VashStarwind]

This is very cool, what is the total cost of the build? Cost of pcb, components, and chips? Sorry if you said, i didnt catch it

[@DarkZenith]

I've always wondered why not make modern boards just input 5v natively and use a usb-c connector vs voltage regulation...

[@Dormat25]

I hope you find a way for Famicom carts to face forward correctly.

[@doc_sav]

low_budget is amazing.

[@robsixtyfour9204]

What song plays at 5:00? I couldnt find it anywhere.. sounds like a super nintendo game

[@elkernel]

23:19 why close Jumper 10 for the Dejitter? can you please explain why it is necessary on NTSC/NTSC-J consoles? Thanks, great video

[@LIRetroGaming]

the dejitter feature helps to standardize the sync from the NES. Some modern scalers can have issues with the sync on the nes, so the dejitter feature helps with that

[@elkernel]

@@LIRetroGaming thanks for the info ✌🏻

[@donnkasten4111]

I believe you said something about the system only using 5v’s. Is there a way to power with a usb or something similar where you aren’t dealing with wall warts at all?

[@LIRetroGaming]

Yeah that should be possible. You would not need a voltage regulator and instead 5v could come from a usb cell phone power supply, as long as the current is 1.5-2amps

[@anujashok5107]

How much does it cost to build the entire thing?

[@FeyzSHB]

Amazing video. Could you make a tutorial of that pcb design? Would be very appreciated!

[@LIRetroGaming]

The creator of the super 8 bit, low_budget, might be able to do that. Glad that you enjoyed it!

[@sonichuizcool7445]

Ok, so the 6502 and the PPU were my biggest issue. I set out to rebuild the NES board using all new parts. Have it fit the console shell and mate up just like original. I made a couple modifications via a connector so that if you didn't want to out wear and tear on your antique carts you could use sdcard to store them. The CPU was a tough deal. Unless I ruined a console or found a broken one with a good cpu and ppu I could harvest but that ruined the whole spirit... the idea of all modern hardware. I solved the Cpu by sourcing a chip with backwards compatibility. It was the nes lock out chip and PPU that were troublesome. Even though I walked away with a working console it was a failure. Nes lockout, ppu and cpu all set a tough hurdle. My only answer was to instead consolidate and use am FPGA for all three. I ended up with a console that booted up exactly like a nes but if you flipped a switch on mobo you can turn on sd card storage have access to a basic menu system that allowed tweaking. In the end ... it wasn't worth it

[@meatpockets]

Is the lockout chip even required? I thought you could cut one of the pins to disable it on an original NES to help eliminate flashing screens.