NES Carts Explained

In this episode I open a Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt NES cartridge and I explain what's inside.
Support the channel on Patreon: / neshacker
NES Console & Game Screwdriver Bits:
www.amazon.com/GCA-Security-S...
CIC Lockout Chip Info:
wiki.nesdev.com/w/index.php/C...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIC_%28...
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:24 Series & Topic Overview
1:27 Notes of Caution
2:14 Opening the Cart
3:17 ROM Board Overview
3:44 PRG-ROM
4:30 CHR-ROM
5:19 MHROM Board Type
5:43 Mapper Circuitry
6:38 CIC Lockout Chip
7:16 Conclusion

[@johneymute]

Those bankswitching chips would be the most interesting subject of the nes.

[@NesHacker]

Oh yeah, there are a bunch of different chips and it’s super cool how they work. Gonna be a lot of fun making videos about them!

[@GianmarioScotti]

I strongly agree - bankswitching is very interesting in general, and having it implemented in the cart adds even more sexiness. This is the first time I realized a 74161 can be used as a simple mapper.

[@claudiosettiart]

Love your channel - thank you for making such well made and informative videos!

[@darrensingleton7757]

Fantastic content. You're very knowledgeable and have a wonderful presence in front of the camera. This is a super niche topic, so don't get discouraged if it takes a while to rack up those views. All around great work.

[@alandoce9186]

FANTASTIC video and channel! Cheers!

[@NesHacker]

Thanks!

[@CyberkilerKuebiTube]

I'm so happy KZbin recommend me your vids !!

[@thomaswerner9970]

Awesome content! Looking forward to seeing more of this. Thank you!

[@joshb.9380]

Ryan, I just discovered your channel and wanted to say "Great work!". Subbed and looking forward to catching up on your videos.

[@erygion]

I love the channel! I'm going through all the videos now as a newb NES hacker, thank you for all the hard work.

[@nicholaslowery9445]

I really like your content i have a feeling if you keep it up you will get big! i Look forward to seeing more from you^^

[@NesHacker]

Thank you, Nicholas!

[@knghtbrd]

Not a doorknob. Cold water pipe or the faucet it's attached to, or something else metal that's grounded to your outlets' third prong (assuming that's grounded properly.) YT says NO! to a link to an anti-static mat with ground wire, hit up Amazon or something. Totally worth it if you're gonna do a lot of these. You _might_ scratch yourself on a sharp solder joint, but not if you're careful. Also, 1980s, that solder contains lead. Handwashing or gloves wouldn't be dumb ideas. If you wanna collect these games and not get ripped off paying for a "rare" vintage cart that made last week in Shenzhen, be prepared to open the carts and examine the PCBs. Happy hacking!

[@flissfloss915]

Saw your video posted on Reddit, nice vid man you have a lot of potential

[@NesHacker]

Thanks! I've been heads down work on more videos this week and was unaware.

[@SuperballsSupervidsOnYT]

This is a criminally undviewed channel. Great content and hope it grows. Nonetheless, this is extremely valuable information in regards to preserving the NES.

[@NesHacker]

Hell yeah, thanks for the compliment. I’ve not been able to work on videos for a bit but I’m hoping to do so very soon. Keep an eye out for new content :)

[@SuperballsSupervidsOnYT]

@@NesHacker I certainly will. I'm not even a programmer and I found this super interesting. Who knows .albeit I'll end up throwing something together. I just got a pair of Sinden Lightguns, so maybe a gun game would be in the cards.

[@BigOleWords]

This is awesome man, looking forward to more!

[@NesHacker]

Thanks so much that means a lot! Got some good stuff coming up in a in a couple of weeks so keep an eye out!

[@BigOleWords]

@@NesHacker Awesome!

[@djmobman1727]

Best videos on technical new stuff wow love it

[@NesHacker]

Yeah, I think most videos shy away from the coding aspects involved with these old carts. Code and hardware really were two sides of the same coin back in the 8-bit era.

[@Harosho]

A video about the NES lockout chip and how it was reversed engineered please :-)

[@NesHacker]

That's a great idea! Added it to my ideas spreadsheet :D

[@RetroArcadeGuy]

MVG already covered the CIC chips, but probably on a superficial level. NH should do something more in deep and the different piracy methods devs took to workaround anyone bypassing the lockout chip too!

[@edinkogoggamer2732]

@@NesHacker ANother idea for your spreadsheet - you could cover the SNES exactly as the NES if possible and if you know about it the same stuff. Would love to watch detailed architecture breakdowns and how graphics work also for the SNES.

[@possible-realities]

@@edinkogoggamer2732 For SNES graphics, I can recommend kzbin.info, he has a whole series on that. But I wouldn't mind if NesHacker would cover it too of course :)

[@theowillis6870]

helped alot. because I am working with these components :3

[@tomh.648]

I stumbled in here by dumb luck, & man am I glad I did. Subbed.

[@ZarateAdriel]

Thanks for this channel!

[@NesHacker]

You’re very welcome, Adriel!

[@GianmarioScotti]

Except for the CIC video, I have not seen any more videos in this series, and I am burning with desire to learn of the various mapper approaches in the NES.

[@fattomandeibu]

I knew a guy who owned a few Codemasters games(Dizzy and Micro Machines are the 2 that come straight to mind) that had cartridges that looked kinda like a Game Genie. It apparently was to piggyback a CIC from a real cartridge. They were both PAL, you could buy them straight from shops here, not sure if NTSC versions of these exist.

[@snper1492]

About the 3 screws on carts - from what I remember initially there were 5 screws, but then they removed 2 likely to cut costs. Just a little fun fact I guess

[@mr.9931]

also on the 5 screw carts instead of game bit screws they were flathead screws (I think)

[@williamv0242]

the 5 screw carts actually contain adapter that converts a famicom cart to a nes cart (seems quite a lot more expensive no wonder they dropped)

[@mr.9931]

@@williamv0242 I believe they did that as they had many more Famicom cart boards than NES boards at the time and it would cost more to produce new NES cart boards than simple adapters, at least that's what makes sense to me.

[@scottythegreat1]

It depends on the cartridges themselves. MOST games only used half of the cartridge space, and it was easy to secure them. However, when it came to games that had the MMC5 mapper chip, it was difficult as they were bigger (and more expensive to manufacture) circuit boards. Some of those MMC5 carts also had multiple CHR and PRG processors.

[@dailyskeptic]

Not that it matters too much, but of course, some carts will have 5 screws and no top tabs, and the screws themselves vary

[@NesHacker]

Yeah I read about those recently, seems they were only manufactured for a while right at the beginning and then the carts switched over to the security screws. I don’t have any of them but been looking to grab one so I can cover it. Thanks for watching :)

[@chadrem]

Fantastic!

[@NesHacker]

Thank you, thank you!

[@Leikjarinn]

Thanks for this!

[@NesHacker]

Haha you watched my oldest video and my newest video and got excite about both 😂 thank you so much 😊

[@Leikjarinn]

@@NesHacker fantastic stuff

[@blastproces]

you got a good brain in your noggin dude I’ve learned a few things today

[@TonyBologna999]

Awesome

[@MrJmenaru]

my nes clone (when y was kild) operate whith a game card whitout this chips.Only one in middle of it round and black.All of game card was like that!

[@mattfowler4155]

Awesome content on this channel. I have a question for you. I have a Zelda cartridge that behaves in a strange way. I wonder if you could guide me on whether or not it is fixable. I have cleaned the contacts and it starts up just fine. The first screen where you go into the cave to get the sword appears grey for a second and then the middle of the screen goes black with only the edges showing. I can still move Link around and go to another screen or even into the cave to get the sword. If I immediately go left or right the game crashes. If I go up that screen loads correctly and if so go back down to the first screen it also loads correctly. Now if I start going left or right the screen will scroll and as it does the screen splits and I see the correct screen at the top left for a second but the bottom of the screen looks like the screen I left. The bottom image takes over. Link and the enemy sprites all move and behave correctly but the background is wrong. The collision detection is like I am on the correct screen if there is a tree on the actual map I can’t walk through it. I have to memorize what the game should look like and works. I have a regular front load NES and it plays all of my other games just fine no problems. I also have a Retro Duo and this game actually plays quite a bit better on the Duo. It renders the maps correctly but it has black squares that appear on the screen in the backgrounds. Can you advise me on what I should try to do to get it running correctly? Have you heard of this problem before?

[@martianhighminder4539]

Both Zelda and Zelda II for the NES have internal save batteries. Perhaps the one in your cart is wearing out and somehow causing voltage problems, or worse, has maybe been damaged and affected the PCB traces? It might not hurt to get some cheap gamebit screwdrivers and open the cart up to look, if you haven't. It would also give you a chance to do a deeper clean and check for any kind of damage near the cart connector pins. Hope you get it sorted out!

[@FuerstBerg]

PCBs can have sharp edges... I remember a VLB hard disk controller havig sharp edges on the contacts - the only part of the PCB that must lay open...

[@brendankappler4257]

I've never been able to get a clear answer on this and I was hoping you could elaborate! Are PRG and CHR roms something that is unique to NES games? Is it possible to open up and old computer from the same time frame and find a PRG rom or again is it something exclusive to Nintendo?

[@NesHacker]

No, it was pretty common and not Nintendo exclusive. You can find ROMs that are pretty much the same in Atari games and Commodore 64 cartridges.

[@insertmetalusernamehere]

Can I ask you a question? Nothing about the hacks or programming. What caused the the blue screen? That use to drive me crazy lol This channel is awesome. Just a little past my pay grade but still cool to learn about.

[@NesHacker]

You mean when you’d turn the game on but all you see is a solid color and maybe a single tone playing over the speakers? Most likely a bad connection from the cart to the console. The pads could get very corroded and after a while would make bad contact either the cart adapter. Since the cart communicated data and addresses to the console with a parallel bus (a single electrical connection for each bit) if only a single one is messed up the console gets corrupted data, when this happens with program code it spells disaster for the game and it does all sorts of weird crap.

[@alieander]

Nice.

[@NesHacker]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@huldu]

How far is it possible push that old nes 8-bit console using only a cartridge? Would it be possible to add a second cpu etc on the cartridge? I heard a story about a game a while back that tried to do something like that but it got cancelled during development. I'm not thinking about the cost of doing such a thing but merely if it would be possible and how far you could go with that old hardware.

[@Jarod_Schultz]

What interests me about the NES library, is there are so many different types of carts. 1) Official North American releases 2) PAL region games 3) Famicom carts 4) Championship carts 5) Unlicensed games 6) Unreleased Prototypes 7) Homebrews/Aftermarket games 8) Aladdin Deck Enhancer carts 9) Hacks 10) Multi-carts 11) Translation/Conversion carts 12) Reproductions 13) Screw variants

[@retrogamestudios7649]

How do I add a game I made onto a cart?

[@jaysonl]

Ahh, yes. the dreaded 10NES, AKA the thing that makes your front loader blink on and off....

[@NesHacker]

And we would have gotten away with it too… If it wasn’t for those Corporate types and their little CIC chip!

[@jaysonl]

@@NesHacker I personally love how they removed the CIC chip completely from the top loader design, even though not using that godawful ZIF connector was probably enough to remedy the issue!

[@dedkeny]

I WANT THAT SHIRT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@Omarencarnacion1]

i have a question about multicarts, play multicarts with 3 games for example in my NES, is some kind of emulation or is like play the original game?

[@linkzz00]

Can you explain how an Everdrive operates or how a Super NT (jb fw) operates since both use “dumped” rom data vs separate chips/pcb?

[@martianhighminder4539]

The Everdrives and Super NT are based around FPGAs, which can be programmed to emulate/recreate the functionality of various hardware. So for the Everdrive, the FPGA provides the general file handling interface and also recreates a lot of the mappers and chips NES carts used, in addition to other things. The Super NT uses an even more advanced FPGA to recreate the SNES hardware and, with the right firmware, at least some of the enhancement chips certain SNES games relied on, in addition to more basic cartridge functions.

[@Chris-ls5th]

Go go KZbin algorithm.

[@NesHacker]

The algorithm giveth, and the algorithm taketh away...

[@jeancanas1089]

Faltan los subtitulos.

[@Timberwolf0952]

Millennials love calling it Super Mario BROS.

[@Luis45ccs]

Please active sub tittles for translate

[@YamiVT]

Banner channel

[@IaconDawnshire]

Such a waste of plastic for a small chipset

[@NesHacker]

Seriously, though the carts do look cool... but that might just be "nostalgia chic" 😄

[@alexthesp]

goo goo ga ga pew pew pee pee

[@NicoFlame9]

Awesome