Famicom - Won't read games - Audio Hum - Fixing Ebay Junk

[@Zippomon]

NES cartridges (and the NES itself) were artificially larger purely to appeal to the western market of the 80s. This was after the video game crash and the NES was marketed as a more-serious piece of "entertainment" equipment, much like a VCR (hence Nintendo "Entertainment System") - which is also why the NES was front-loading. NOA felt the Famicom would have been seen as more of a toy to American customers. If you open up many NES cartridges, you'll see that most of it is empty space. The cart boards themselves are closer to the size of a Famicom cart. The NES itself also had a lot of extra space. It was all to make everything seem more substantial. It seems silly by today's standards, but for the time it was a winning marketing strategy.

[@mjc0961]

Thanks, Did You Know Gaming, but we did indeed know that.

[@lelandclayton5462]

@@mjc0961 Did you know some NES games have Famicom Adapters? As in Famicom cart boards stuffed into a NES cart that had a adapter PCB that just broke it out to the NES 72pin.

[@chrisdelavictoria4520]

@Lassi Kinnunen I opened up my amp and most of it was just empty unused space!

[@strangulator42]

I always forget that Canadians say "deck-uhls" lol! Love the video dude!

[@knighthawk86855]

Yeah we pronounce it, DE.. Cows.

[@mattdoe04]

Canadian here- my pronunciation for Decals varies lol

[@antonnym214]

Interesting and well-explained! On a side note: in the USA, those rubber "washers", we would call a grommet or a strain relief.

[@EyeMWing]

Just a minor note about Japanese cars and electronics. Anything that LOOKS like a Phillips screw may very well actually be a JIS "Japanese Industrial Standard" screw. They look basically the same as a phillips but with a different angle to the point. This often manifests in "I need a big ol #2 phillips for this pretty tiny screw". End result is that using a phillips screwdriver on a stiff JIS screw is MUCH more likely to damage the screw or screwdriver. Less common for it to be a problem in electronics because so many screws go into pretty soft plastic, but stripped screws ruin everybody's day.

[@jefflavenz7285]

The Famicom uses 60-pin cartridges as opposed to the NES which uses 72-pins. This was done to implement the 10NES chip into the cartridges so unlicensed games would not run (although workarounds were later made such as with the tengen carts), which is why most bootleg multicarts are just a Famicom cart through a 60 to 72 pin converter.

[@mesmesd]

U Made my evening, Just went on to KZbin to see that U uploaded something. Ofc i had to watch it right away. Awesome vid! 👍

[@fullmetalmma]

Between yourelf and Louis, I've found that electronic repair is some crazy asmr nadhas piqued a lifeliong interest in electronics and repair. TY :)

[@nathanosullivan8816]

The plastic "washers" that you were not sure of the name, are called grommets.

[@Porygonal64]

Let's drop in on a grommet.

[@mltrymn1213]

Love that you are uploading so often. However, I'm about to boycott Retro Repairs until Kona gets her fair share of camera time. I heard her walking around in the last video! Keep the videos coming brother. I really enjoy the content and I've learned a lot from you.

[@RetroRepairs]

Ive already got the next one recorded, she makes an appearance. I have to keep the viewers wanting more, can't be all Kona, all the time

[@samhart5806]

New subscriber here. Just wanted to say how much I apprieciate your videos, relatively new to console repair so your videos help alot. Thanks.

[@PuffyRainbowCloud]

You might want to consider using vinegar to remove the oxidation as opposed to grinding it off. While both will work the sandpaper will remove more "good" material than the vinegar which only dissolves the oxidised metal.

[@Oheao]

Hey, as to your question on why Nintendo decided to make the cartridges so different among regions. I am almost sure that was to prevent importing games from Japan, as titles were often released first in Japan and thus importers could use that to undercut official vendors if they were to try to sell the import copies. At least that is why I think they did that.

[@RetroRepairs]

Could be. They use physical blocks on SNES and n64 carts too.

[@pinrod1]

the reason, that has been stated by nintendo, on why the NES was designed differently for the US and EU, is because they wanted it to resemble a VCR and VCR tape, to distance their product from other game consoles at the time (e.g. Atari, Colecovision) because of the video game crash of 1983.

[@BigMacIIx]

I’m sure you’re already know this; you can tweak the potentiameter inside the RF tin to output on channel 6.

[@bundesautobahn7]

Just to add, Japan used a slightly different version of NTSC called NTSC-J. Those who know "vanilla" NTSC will remember that there is no Channel 1, at least not in analogue VHF OTA television. NTSC-J did have Channel 1.

[@anime-mun]

The reason for the extra pins are for the 10NES anti-piracy chip.

[@dnwheeler]

The screws are probably JIS and not Phillips - most JIS screws have a small dimple on the head. It's very easy to strip out the head of a JIS screw if you use a Phillips screwdriver.

[@lawnboyfreak]

The inside of the Famicom is so neat and tidy. They did a great job engineering it.

[@Tone260]

Loved it! Informative and entertaining as always! Thanks for sharing your knowledge and expertise with us!

[@omnihorse7618]

Im binge watching your channel, Love it!!!

[@Scorpwanna]

"Before you Screw it all up......, errr put the screws in I'm gonna say" :)

[@joshm3752]

@33:43 why would any of this be in English? It is a japanese console playing a japanese game in a format that was never released anywhere by Japan. Just curious as I've never used a non-north american console before.

[@RetroRepairs]

There's a surprisingly large amount of English usage in Japan. Why? I have no idea. Learning English is a mandatory in Japanese schools, and while i wouldnt go as far as to call it an official second language there, it's on so much stuff. Now, how do they decide between what to print in Japanese and what to print using the English/Roman alphabet? I have no clue. Maybe a viewer who understands Japanese culture better might chime in.

[@jodylewis4345]

This was an awesome look in to the history of NINTENDO. Thank you, for this amazing look into the PCB board. Hope to see more videos soon

[@Pie-jacker875]

On the topic of cartridge sizes (not talking about the pinout), the cartridge mechanism on the NES requires all the cartridges to be the same size, while famicom cartridges can be as short or long as they want to allow for bigger boards with more expansion hardware.

[@RetroRepairs]

Excellent point. Could be a way of "futureproofing" for enhancements. Also, some very early carts were actually famicom carts slapped in to a converter, which took up additional space"

[@EngineeringVignettes]

Came here to read all of the comments from people triggered by the way you pronounce _decal_ Was not disappointed. 😁

[@RetroRepairs]

Deck-al deck-al deck-al

[@BrianOliver73]

Eddy_D same.

[@claudiodiaz9752]

NES exterior design was so different from the Famicom, because in America, Nintendo was trying to hide the fact that the NES was a video game.

[@Cp-71]

3:05 The cartridge is bigger as it wasn't supposed to look like one; because of the 1983 crash Nintendo tried to market their system as a toy, not a console. Also, the cartridges were actually called "game packs" when the NES came out.

[@TheBromden]

Slick! Always stoked to see a new video up. Could have used more kona tho :)

[@auto1lija]

The cartridges are bigger on the NES because of a Videogame Crash so they made them look like cassettes for a VCR

[@paulmoore3846]

The hum its possibly the microphone on the controller I had a security camera start humming and removed the mic and it stopped

[@WatcherMovie008]

Just wondering, is it worth converting NES controllers to have micro switches in them? From what I read and hear, micro switches were the best type of controllers in the 80s and 90s due to having high reliability and durability, and unlike contact switches which deteriorate overtime.

[@RetroRepairs]

That's entirely up to you. The pads are easily cleaned, so if they do start to fail, just open it up and clean. Some people prefer the feel of actual switches, theres a guy in a retro modding group im in on Facebook that has actually created replacement PCBs designed for switches instead. Obviously it's alot more work and money, but if you like it, give er.

[@knedy]

*Actually to circumvent an American patent a lot of old Japanese stuff use JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard) screws and not Phillips head screws, they look similar and you can use one with the other but it's not a perfect fit. Although I don't know if the Famicon used JIS or Phillips heads, I just like pointless trivia.*

[@RetroRepairs]

Cool, i didn't know that

[@corysmith1851]

The reason why the NES cartridges are quite a bit larger than the Famicom's is because initially retailers and American consumers in general were skeptical about gaming systems. Keep in mind that this was just after the video game crash of 1983. So Nintendo designed the NES to resemble a VCR in order to appeal to the American audience better, hence needing larger cartridges.

[@3Dsjk]

Yup. Nintendo also focused all the initial advertising on R.O.B. the robot, to further disassociate itself from video game consoles. I’ve heard it theorizes that the NES cartridges were supposed to remind people of 3.5” computer disks, but I don’t remember if those were a thing in 1985. Might just be coincidence.

[@rockettaco]

3Dsjk They kinda were, but it was definitely 5 1/4 disks that were more widely used at the time.

[@pinkfloyd1116]

I know what a dee-cal is, but what's a deck-al?

[@noapparentfunction]

it's an offshoot species of adhesive label, native only to Canada.

[@pengwin_]

"Deckal Deckal Hyde Deckal-Hyde Hyde Deckal! Deckal Deckal Hyde Deckal Hyde!"

[@MrHoboBuba]

Why didn't you replace electrolitic capacitor for gamepad with microphone? That should reduce noise too.

[@spanky3425]

This is a fix things with isopropyl alcohol channel. If you don't like watching videos of cleaning things than this is not the channel for you!

[@MrHoboBuba]

@@spanky3425 Cleaning is kind of repair too. But there's more complex repair with replacing old electrolitics for example. For continuous good effect after repair or checking condition.

[@MV60]

4:22 It says right there AC adapter. Or does that refer to the wall plug and the actual power is DC?

[@RetroRepairs]

Refers to the ac adapter which outputs dc power

[@MV60]

@@RetroRepairs Thanks. It can really trick you there if you didn't know. Technically it is a correct label though.

[@scarroll625]

Seeing you spray the alcohol on the circuit boards gave me agita

[@B0redom13]

Always loved the Japanese game labels. Funny how a famicom controller had strain relief for the cord but modern corded controllers don’t

[@chefkdowg]

First! Great job Cool, you could play as Luigi, which did make it over to America but during the wii U years.

[@bencheshire]

I think mine has a composite av mod and terrible jailbars, were they all like that?

[@pukalo]

3:49 funny you should mention that. The NES was designed specifically to look more like a VCR than a game console, and the NES cartridges were made big to give them a robust, "professional" look. This is due to the stigma against video games that existed in North America following crash of the video game industry in 1983.

[@xenonkay]

The controller connectors being different sizes is to accommodate the extra wires required for the microphone and not being able to mix them up is just a side-effect. Also the decision to use huge cartridges and a front-loading mechanism on the NES for North America was to make it feel more like a VCR and get away from the stigma video game consoles had following the crash of the industry a couple years prior. Though I imagine that was probably a completely pointless decision made by an out of touch executive, because it's not like anyone was ever going to think of it as anything but a video game console.

[@rat9625]

I had the same hum on my Sharp Twin Famicom, thankfully it's an easy fix

[@awmehgoddd]

Won't lie, I read that paper slip on the back of the Famicom as "Mayor May Not Work"

[@greulich9635]

sooooooooo could you cut holes into the case, extend the ports with wires and just have disconnectable controllers that way?

[@RetroRepairs]

In theory, yes

[@Julzilla]

Fun Fact: Original NES can take both AC and DC. It also doesn't care what polarity either. Pretty cool!

[@thetechdoc792]

What is the voltage input for this console. I have one, and i need to retrobrite it and hook it up to test. Too bad the only game I have is Tennis.

[@YangGuang]

@RetroRepairs you should check out my Famicom tear down and repair. I almost matched you for near everything that you did, including the missing of the eject mechanism. Good video buddy, keep up the great work.

[@RetroRepairs]

Ha, nice. I've done about 4 of these, first time ive left out the eject mechanism. Its usually LED diffusers for me.

[@BakuretsuTen]

awesome vid! i needed my repair fix. thank you.

[@lasset9916]

Hey. Nice video. I have only used the NES. It looks like the label on the back of your famicom say AC adaptor?

[@RetroRepairs]

It does, however the famicom adapter outputs 10vAC 650mah. It doesn't have a rectifier to convert ac to dc, so you definitely don't want to use an adapter that outputs AC power.

[@lasset9916]

@@RetroRepairs nice info thanks.

[@Chaos89P]

Isn't it a good idea to test the console with the board out before putting it all back together, or is it different with the Famicom? I only know of three consoles that don't load from the top, by the way: the NES everyone knows about, the Intellivision, and the Fairchild Channel F. The Channel F loads from the front similarly to the NES, but the Intellivision loads from the side. The cartridges are also difficult to plug in on the latter. **Insert AVGN reference here**

[@RetroRepairs]

Yeah, it's a good idea. I was confident in that i didn't damage anything as it was just a simple cleaning. If it were an actual repair, then yes, I'd test before screwing it together

[@cesarb94]

Hey, the belt on my Disk System keeps falling off the pulley, is there some adjustment it can be made?

[@RetroRepairs]

You need a new belt. They're very prone to failure and even some brand new ones are bad. It took me two orders to find one that worked. They need to be a specific length, thickness and strechyness

[@cesarb94]

@@RetroRepairs Thanks! The new ones are falling off actually. I replaced the old ones because they had transformed into a gooey mess. Could you share where you got yours?

[@lelandclayton5462]

Never knew of the paper trick with the silicone button parts.

[@nighttimestalker]

I personally like the look of the famicom better

[@albeon_draken]

The NES I originally had was one of the later models shaped more like a Famicom. I think it was called a New-Style NES.

[@pascalbriand9987]

I have a floppy drive adapter for the snes called a game doctor which I bought in HK in 1994, never seen it anywhere else or since... this floppy drive you have is cool.

[@RetroRepairs]

Those were for making backups of carts onto standard 3.5" floppy disks. Questionably illegal, but still cool. This was an OEM Nintendo disk player, they produced 3.0" disks with games on them. Advantage is bigger storage capacity, but piracy again was a huge issue. A cool thing was they would have disk writers where you could go in and get your disk rewritten

[@pascalbriand9987]

RetroRepairs howdy, do you ever fix nes or snes on order, i have one of each, they were next to a window facing the ocean for years when I played them, tthen stored in a garage for 12 years, I opened the nes, it was full of black soot and the rust!!! I'd love to get them restored? Thx

[@pascalbriand9987]

RetroRepairs I have something else that's been forgotten, a Panasonic3do, I hardly ever used it as I got it in HK and took it back to Australia, the power converter used to get unbelievably hot after a few minutes of play.

[@02stampede]

It's interesting that the US and Japanese versions are so different.

[@AcornElectron]

02stampede the famicom was perceived as too toy like for western audiences. It was repositioned as an ‘entertainment system’. Hence the redesign.

[@02stampede]

@@AcornElectron That makes sense. Thanks for the info.

[@KISSbestfan]

Hey ! I see that you finally got to work with the Family Computer. Well, if you are having an insomnia, or you are in need of reading something quite long here I come with the post why Famicom actually was a revolutionary system here in Eastern Europe - not Western Europe mind you ! Lets start it all with the situation in the gaming market during the early 1990s. Eastern Europe was a place where people used the computers more for the gaming than video game consoles, and this trend was kinda also in the West, when it started to change with the next generation of consoles (Sega Genesis and SNES). But lets be real, here in the east people in general didnt had money to buy such expensive for its time consoles, so there was a real need for something cheaper on the market. Not to mention you could only dream about official sales of gaming consoles, you had to wait for this until the early 2000s ! In the early 90s you could have bought an Atari 2600 clones, that usually came with built in games, but lets be real, those kind of graphics didnt appealed to most of the people at the beginning of the 90s. And then back in Taiwan they started to clone the Famicom console, which suddenly became a great alternative for cheap gaming over here. After all it was much more fresh in terms of graphics and playability. And this is how it all started. The systems were styled in a similiar way to the original Family Computer, but had a few advantages over the real one. First one was the controllers - they actually thought about making them able to unplug from console, in case one breaks, plus the cords were longer. No more sitting right next to your TV. The connector they used shouldnt surprise - in most cases they went for the 9 pin connector, that was everywhere for its time. Of course those do output different signal, so they only work with the Famicom based consoles - known right now as Famiclones. And mind you, even the controllers produced today do work with the oldest systems ! Some did use the 15 pin one, however you could re-wire them easily. Its also worth mentioning, that almost every Famiclone controller had the additional turbo A and B buttons. The next advantage would be the lightgun - or the so known zapper. While in the USA and western EU this was an addon you had to buy seperately, almost every system came with the gun included for free ! Last advantage I can think of would be the connection - you could still use RF, but you had also the composite video and audio now. The 9V PSU has the reversed polarity, just like the original one. I believe Sega also did this, and you can use Sega Genesis PSU for most of the Famiclones, except the fact some of the modern ones do run on the 5V. As the time flew by, the new systems were actually a thing, but that wasnt a problem for the Famiclone manufacturers. They started to redesign the consoles so they would look in a similiar way to the next generation systems, such as japanese SNES or Sega Genesis. I do own one clone that was a Genesis model 2 styled, and it really is almost identical - it even has expansion port cover ! The Sega-lookalike controllers having 6 buttons also do serve the purpose, as the C button serves as A+B pressed in the same time, and Z as the turbo version of it. Talk about being creative lol. While the next generation came in, the Famiclones lived as a cheap alternative for gaming, and were styled as PSX, N64 even Dreamcast or PS2. While in the west you had the big cartridges, here we always had the neat small Famicom style ones. And the games were all you can imagine. Not only the Japanese exclusives, you also had the American exclusives flashed into the 60 pin cartridges, and some of the FDS conversions into the carts. It was also the time they started to make new mappers that led into multicarts, and nowadays they learnt how to use the (I believe) N64 chips that have 32 MB of capacity, which results in hundrets of games being actually on the cartridge. Later in the 90s when the demand for the games was still big, there were some indie game studios such as legendary Hummer Team, who started to port games from Gameboy, SNES, Sega Genesis, re-create them on a custom engines (mostly fighting games) or going totally crazy like they did with FF7. Yes, there is a port of this game at the Famicom, and from what I heard it really is a full story you got on the Playstation. Oh and have I mentioned, that all those games were unlicensed by anyone :P ? But nobody gave a damn back then. Btw the japanese Super Mario 2 you mentioned isnt really in pair with the Lost Levels. Its much more difficult. Try to play through the game, and you will see what I mean. So thats basically how it looked like over here. Nes wasnt a cult console over here, and many people heard about it only recently (a few years back) mostly because of the retro gaming KZbinrs, and because of the Nintendo Classic Mini console. The famicom based consoles is a different story. Of course there were people here who had the next gen consoles, but its the same deal with Gameboys. Who didnt had the money for a Gameboy (and the games to play later) could always buy a cheap Brick Game. And people who had no money to buy a Playstation in 1996, could always buy a Polystation and still have fun playing some stuff. This however never really satisfied most people as much as PC gaming, and this is mostly why until the official distribution of PS3 and X360 along with the ability to play online, people were mostly PC gamers over here. Not only you had better graphics and gameplay, there were in general more PC titles to choose from, some of them even in a native language. But in terms of gaming consoles - the Famicom would be certainly a winner over here. Ever. Cheers !

[@KISSbestfan]

@C B S Hey ! I see that you finally got to work with the Family Computer. Well, if you are having an insomnia, or you are in need of reading something quite long here I come with the post why Famicom actually was a revolutionary system here in Eastern Europe - not Western Europe mind you ! Lets start it all with the situation in the gaming market during the early 1990s. Eastern Europe was a place where people used the computers more for the gaming than video game consoles, and this trend was kinda also in the West, when it started to change with the next generation of consoles (Sega Genesis and SNES). But lets be real, here in the east people in general didnt had money to buy such expensive for its time consoles, so there was a real need for something cheaper on the market. Not to mention you could only dream about official sales of gaming consoles, you had to wait for this until the early 2000s ! In the early 90s you could have bought an Atari 2600 clones, that usually came with built in games, but lets be real, those kind of graphics didnt appealed to most of the people at the beginning of the 90s. And then back in Taiwan they started to clone the Famicom console, which suddenly became a great alternative for cheap gaming over here. After all it was much more fresh in terms of graphics and playability. And this is how it all started. The systems were styled in a similiar way to the original Family Computer, but had a few advantages over the real one. First one was the controllers - they actually thought about making them able to unplug from console, in case one breaks, plus the cords were longer. No more sitting right next to your TV. The connector they used shouldnt surprise - in most cases they went for the 9 pin connector, that was everywhere for its time. Of course those do output different signal, so they only work with the Famicom based consoles - known right now as Famiclones. And mind you, even the controllers produced today do work with the oldest systems ! Some did use the 15 pin one, however you could re-wire them easily. Its also worth mentioning, that almost every Famiclone controller had the additional turbo A and B buttons. The next advantage would be the lightgun - or the so known zapper. While in the USA and western EU this was an addon you had to buy seperately, almost every system came with the gun included for free ! Last advantage I can think of would be the connection - you could still use RF, but you had also the composite video and audio now. The 9V PSU has the reversed polarity, just like the original one. I believe Sega also did this, and you can use Sega Genesis PSU for most of the Famiclones, except the fact some of the modern ones do run on the 5V. As the time flew by, the new systems were actually a thing, but that wasnt a problem for the Famiclone manufacturers. They started to redesign the consoles so they would look in a similiar way to the next generation systems, such as japanese SNES or Sega Genesis. I do own one clone that was a Genesis model 2 styled, and it really is almost identical - it even has expansion port cover ! The Sega-lookalike controllers having 6 buttons also do serve the purpose, as the C button serves as A+B pressed in the same time, and Z as the turbo version of it. Talk about being creative lol. While the next generation came in, the Famiclones lived as a cheap alternative for gaming, and were styled as PSX, N64 even Dreamcast or PS2. While in the west you had the big cartridges, here we always had the neat small Famicom style ones. And the games were all you can imagine. Not only the Japanese exclusives, you also had the American exclusives flashed into the 60 pin cartridges, and some of the FDS conversions into the carts. It was also the time they started to make new mappers that led into multicarts, and nowadays they learnt how to use the (I believe) N64 chips that have 32 MB of capacity, which results in hundrets of games being actually on the cartridge. Later in the 90s when the demand for the games was still big, there were some indie game studios such as legendary Hummer Team, who started to port games from Gameboy, SNES, Sega Genesis, re-create them on a custom engines (mostly fighting games) or going totally crazy like they did with FF7. Yes, there is a port of this game at the Famicom, and from what I heard it really is a full story you got on the Playstation. Oh and have I mentioned, that all those games were unlicensed by anyone :P ? But nobody gave a damn back then. Btw the japanese Super Mario 2 you mentioned isnt really in pair with the Lost Levels. Its much more difficult. Try to play through the game, and you will see what I mean. So thats basically how it looked like over here. Nes wasnt a cult console over here, and many people heard about it only recently (a few years back) mostly because of the retro gaming KZbinrs, and because of the Nintendo Classic Mini console. The famicom based consoles is a different story. Of course there were people here who had the next gen consoles, but its the same deal with Gameboys. Who didnt had the money for a Gameboy (and the games to play later) could always buy a cheap Brick Game. And people who had no money to buy a Playstation in 1996, could always buy a Polystation and still have fun playing some stuff. This however never really satisfied most people as much as PC gaming, and this is mostly why until the official distribution of PS3 and X360 along with the ability to play online, people were mostly PC gamers over here. Not only you had better graphics and gameplay, there were in general more PC titles to choose from, some of them even in a native language. But in terms of gaming consoles - the Famicom would be certainly a winner over here. Ever. Cheers !

[@4lifejeph]

I heard another Canadian KZbinr call the stickers he was selling deckls instead of D-cals but I thought he was just joking because he makes up words and phrases and talks in a babbley slang but I guess that's how they say it. Who knew?

[@instahawk8422]

I use your paper conductive pad cleaning technique it works a charm

[@grandolddrummer]

It really does! Breathed new life into an old Genesis controller with that trick.

[@instahawk8422]

grandolddrummer i recently used it on a master system controller before button 2 was not very responsive the jump animation was not great had to press the button down hard to make it work after cleaning it just lightly tapping it flawless and works every time I’ve watched lots of repair and cleaning channels this is the only one that cleans the conductive pads

[@pentiummmx2294]

the start/select buttons on my super famicom controller was not working at all, but the paper cleaning technique worked.

[@augustomoraes8887]

Nice videos. Congratulations!

[@elvsrbad2]

Family golf involves drinking, swearing, and throwing clubs in my family, not sure if that made it onto the NES edition

[@elliottf313]

Duckle? You mean decal?

[@vgplayersandhaters518]

Nice video fan for a while now. also the people want more kona :)

[@falconeio]

The board looked like a weird little robot once you pulled it out and flipped it over.

[@stude1965]

I recently installed an A/V mod from retrospectives2000 on eBay in one my famicoms. It replaces the power and RF board in back. It has a power led and outputs video/audio through a 3.5 jack. It was real easy to install and seems to work good. I have another famicom that was modded by someone else but the picture is garbled. I tried different ram but it didn't help. I think it needs a new PPU but I didn't care much for its av mod so I might get another these av power mods off ebay. At 37 USD it's not cheap but it seems worth it.

[@Blehstor]

SM3 on famicom is especially noisy, i have the same issue with it in an AV Famicom with RGB mod

[@TC_Smitty]

Dee-cal Unless it's a Canadian thing, in which case, carry on.

[@clocky4209]

I'd like to see you work on a sega mark iii someday

[@tux8664]

My famicom will have nothing on screen until you remove and enter the cartridge a few times, usually 4-5 times and it will work

[@englishbannana1232]

I recently bought a original famicom and the video is only in black and white instead of color. Any tips on what it could be and how to fix it?

[@RetroRepairs]

Do you get the same issue if you use RF out and the Composite out? My first thought is something in the RF modulator

[@englishbannana1232]

@@RetroRepairs yes I did

[@RetroRepairs]

Well, the PPU outputs a color composite signal. If you're inclined, you can open it up and tap directly into the video out pin (can't recall which one off hand) if that's still black and white, then could be a bad ppu. There's also a potentiometer which can be adjusted. Also check for bad capacitors. It'll probably be one of those

[@englishbannana1232]

@@RetroRepairs where would the potentiometer be located on the board?

[@RetroRepairs]

@@englishbannana1232 there's a pot near the crystal and the cpu. A very slight adjustment might impact the output. I'd do a little Google search for a second opinion first before you go adjusting the potentiometer

[@doomhuntress886gaming]

Who recognized the Disk System song from the broken Twin Sharp Famicom? I think the songs pretty catchy hehe :3

[@yummyklown9226]

Changing that capacitor with a better quality electrolytic capacitor might relieve that microphone hum.

[@Scorpwanna]

Have you ever thought about modding the Famicom to actually allow plug-in-play controller types? Perhaps using NES male and female connectors so that maybe NES controllers could be used since they have a longer cord.

[@RetroRepairs]

Yes, and also had thought about just using longer cords. Part of the whole design of the famicom is the controllers stored on the side, so using a square NES controller kind of defeats that though.

[@spidermcgavenport8767]

What i find interesting about the original famicom is the second controller has a built-in microphone used in The Legend of Zelda. What I would want to do to this console would be place its controllers wires towards the front of the console, or just purchase a Sharp Famicom Twin.

[@RetroRepairs]

The twin famicom also has rear facing controllers, but there's more space at the front to mount controller ports if one were inclined

[@spidermcgavenport8767]

@@RetroRepairs absolutely would you happen to have a top loader NES and try to get a game genie to work without it's expensive adaptor because this is something I'm very much so interested in, or find away to fabricate an extension pcb for it perhaps a resource that you may know? Greatly appreciated.

[@aurathedraak7909]

Get it nice and wet. I think I can agree to that .

[@colddripgaming]

The board is so elegantly crafted and yet the cabling looks like it was designed by a 2 year old

[@nensondubois]

My Famicom is AV modded. No issues.

[@johnwesley6929]

I have played and beat the Mario 2 lost levels. I could only do it by repeatedly saving before the hardest parts. The game was fun but viciously hard and practically unbeatable by the old standards ( no save).

[@bryanmoore7229]

Love your videos! For the love of god, it’s DE CAL, not DEC ALL! 😇😂😆

[@NotBart]

Isn’t the hum normal?

[@RetroRepairs]

Probably to a degree, but it shouldn't be obnoxiously loud

[@xaer0knight]

just like the turbografx-16. the FCC made NEC and Nintendo add more "shielding" on there consoles and added size to each because the FCC was worried about interference. i don't know why NEC got away with the HuCard and why Nintendo went to larger carts for the states

[@klexkavark]

You can plug in the Japanese power supply to an American outlet without modification? I have many Japanese imports still in their box (famicom, mega drive, pc engine, etc) because I was looking for a 3rd party power supply that's safe to use like the ones sold at www.retrogamecave.com/shop/4577155957/famicom-premium-power-supply/11265586

[@kochilin]

You should modify it to have the controller cables come out the front.

[@amaiorano]

The reason the NES carts are bigger is because they were trying to make the NES and it's games look like a VCR. This is because of the vg game crash of '83, no one wanted to buy game consoles anymore.

[@michaeljennisonjr.7410]

That's the way she goes. Sometimes she goes, sometimes she doesn't. She didn't go. 🤣

[@RetroRepairs]

Way of the road

[@michaeljennisonjr.7410]

@@RetroRepairs I don't know if you've noticed Adam, but your rig sleeper doesn't move an inch.

[@Jerkwad152]

deckles :D

[@thegibsonfamily4775]

I went straight to youtube for the video lol

[@drnod4779]

Back when Nintendo used regular screws... good times.

[@UhrwerkKlockwerx]

“Before you screw it all up” Well you kinda already did by forgetting the eject piece. Lol

[@RetroRepairs]

Shhh.. 🤫

[@UhrwerkKlockwerx]

RetroRepairs Wow, actually didn’t expect you to reply, cool! For the record, I think you are awesome and quite frankly your channel is underrated. I have a question for you, but I could not find a business email address to contact you with... so I’m relying on the comments section to ask you. Anyway, I have an SNES that might not be working properly. I got it in a lot of broken consoles from eBay, and because I repair consoles I gave it a go... It will not power on. The fuse is fine, I replaced the 7805 voltage regulator, and even replaced the Schottky diode (D1) with a 1n4001 as done on a forum. Nothing. My last resort is buying an actual OEM adaptor (I am currently using a third party one) in case the one I have isn’t delivering proper power. If it still doesn’t work, I am willing to do my final cosmetic refurb on it and send it over to you for free so maybe you can give it a go. If you are interested please don’t hesitate to email me or something!

[@RetroRepairs]

@@UhrwerkKlockwerx not sure what you've checked, but do you get voltage to the fuse? If yes, what about the voltage regulator? If no, it could be the T1 choke. console5.com/store/common-mode-choke-snes-t1.html When you say it wont power on, do you mean completely dead? No led or anything?

[@meunaimharouj6325]

great video.

[@TomsBackyardWorkshop]

WTF is a dakel? You mean decal?

[@HoboVibingToMusic]

Normal people: Repairing gameboy, has a tripod n camera. Slavs: stack books.

[@RetroRepairs]

In some of my earlier videos, i had a gamecube stacked on an xbox 360, with the phone hanging off the edge.

[@HoboVibingToMusic]

@@RetroRepairs Ha! Smart move there!

[@JustJake_0]

If you can't say the word "decal" correctly please just call them stickers.

[@RetroRepairs]

Sorry to trigger you

[@wickedxe]

The screws could be JIS not philips

[@Husain_Alhashmi]

Hi, you miss Eject parts , any way good job , please upload more videos ,thank you

[@matias_kamissani]

I think that the family is older than NES. First was the famicom then was the nes

[@RetroRepairs]

Correct, it came out in 83 i believe, then brought to north America in 85/86.

[@matias_kamissani]

@@RetroRepairs I'm from Argentina and here arrives both. The original NES and the famicom but it was a copy. Then we had adapters to run NES games in the family.

[@michaeladams9807]

👍👍

[@StormsparkPegasus]

In some ways the Famicom was better designed. Much better setup for the cartridge slot and the system itself. But hardwired controllers? Freaking RF video anytime past the 70's? What were they thinking? I haven't even owned a display device that can handle that in over 20 years.

[@RetroRepairs]

I like the look way better. The weirdest part, when they released the Super famicom, they also released an AV version of the famicom. When they released the super Nintendo in north America, they also released the NES toploader... which was RF OK ONLY! What were they thinking?!

[@StormsparkPegasus]

@@RetroRepairs I know, I got one of those thinking "ah, I won't have to deal with blinking and replacing cartridge connectors anymore". Only to have to hardware mod the thing to output video.

[@andrewsr574]

Deckles for days

[@EndrChe]

Deckles*

[@technixbul]

You call that repair??? In Eastern Europe we had ONLY Japanese FAMICOM version (not that breifcase american NES ones) and even kids learn how to fix broken consoles, cables, joysticks and pads on them. On Famicom those "controllers" are called "JOYSTICK" or "JOYPAD" but mostly Joystick. In Eastern Europe version, the Joysticks had also Turbo buttons on top of A and B (so 4 buttons on the right) and they used front connectors (DSUB9 or similar to 9 pins COM port type connector) instead of direct connection inside and lack of microphone, so you can easily change broken joystiks, and also same one connector for light gun on the middle between them. EE version also had 3 RCA connectors on the back -> RF, AUDIO, VIDEO and a barrel type power jack. Form factor of the case was the same and colors too as this one (Japanese)..