Is it worth it to mod an NES top loader?

shane7951

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I have an NES top loader and I was curious to see how much would it cost for someone to mod a top loader. I don't have enough experience to mod it myself so I was curious on how much would it cost and how much better is the quality?
 
I assume you're talking about the a/v mod. I've wanted to do it to mine, but never got around to it. I can't speak for the quality, but I've heard good things.
 
I am a collector of nintendo consoles. I personally like the japanese a/v famicom as it has all the goodness right out of the box. Hate having to mod classic systems.
 
Agreed. I was just kidding before. I actually run A/V out on my original. I have my NES, Famicom/FDS, Super Famicom and N64 all hooked up to an A/V switcher.
 
I used to think that I wanted a top loader, because it was so hard to keep the front loaders running, even with replacing the connector. But since I found deoxIT I am happy with my front loader. And it has av out. While it would to RGB.mod a NES I would rather get one of those adapters so you can put a NES cart in a playchoice!
 
I've heard that the A/V modification doesn't completely get rid of the lines on the top loader.

I don't see the point of a top loader anyway, at least not if you're considering doing modifications. They are ugly and have picture quality issues, plus [last I knew] they are overpriced. It is a lot easier to make a classic NES reliable, and it already has A/V outputs with good picture quality; and is the iconic NES that everyone remembers from the '80s.

I have two of them that work perfectly, first time, every time; and they have for about 6 years now. I disabled the NES10 lockout chip and replaced the 72-pin connector in both of them. The replacement 72 pin connectors are quite tight fitting, so I use them as I would a standard card edge connector; i.e., I just push the cartridge in and turn the NES on (I don't push the cartridge down after inserting it like you would with a stock NES).

Pushing the cartridge down is where a lot of wear and tear happened on the stock 72-pin connectors, because of all the flexing involved, making them sloppy over time. If you can get a 72-pin connector that make a solid connection without having to push the cartridge down, that's a bonus, because that's exactly how a standard card edge connector works (that's the appeal of the top loader of course; i.e., that it uses a standard card edge connector).

I do have a working top loader, which I never use, because the picture quality sucks and it is funny looking. I got it free long before they were deemed valuable by the internet generation.
 
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But that's the best part! 'cla-click!' :D

I think the best part is turning it on and having it work the first time, every time, for the long haul. I'm not going to put undue stress on the connector by pushing the cartridge down when it works perfectly without pushing it down.

Speaking of that; my cousin Mike was the first person I knew to get an NES when they first saw widespread release in '86. He got one within a week after the first US commercials aired for them. He thought it was broken and was about to take it back, because he had no idea that you were supposed to push the cartridge down after inserting it. This was when the pack-in games were Gyromite and Duck Hunt, and R.O.B. the robot was included (which he never really figured out, it just sat on his dresser).

He bought Super Mario Bros. as a separate cartridge, on the same day that he got the NES, and a couple others, including Excitebike which I thought was awesome, because I'd been playing it in the arcade (VS. UniSystem version) for the past 6 months or so.

The NES seems so classic now, but I remember how weird I thought it was the first time I saw one. No joysticks, a little chunky gray box, giant thin cartridges that slid in the front of the console and were then pushed down (I was familiar with Atari 2600 and ColecoVision at the time). I made fun of Mike's goofy little contraption until he put Excitebike in, and I saw that it was essentially identical to what I'd been playing at the arcade. That left me awestruck.
 
FWIW, I just repaired all 3 of mine, disabling that lockout chip, but still using the original connector. Just clean the pins (alcohol and toothbrush works great), bend them back with a pocket screwdriver and your all set. I don't push down anymore either unless I have to which is a rarity since doing these mods.
 
FWIW, I just repaired all 3 of mine, disabling that lockout chip, but still using the original connector. Just clean the pins (alcohol and toothbrush works great), bend them back with a pocket screwdriver and your all set. I don't push down anymore either unless I have to which is a rarity since doing these mods.

I had mixed results using the original connectors, even after cleaning and bending the pins. I could get it so its grip on the cartridge was tighter, and it would work most of the time, but still not 100%. With the new 72-pin connectors, they have been 100% for years now (though I only use one of the two regularly).

But yeah, if you can get it to work without pushing the cartridge down, it is better; because that will save a lot of wear and tear on the connector pins over time.
 
My toploader doesn't have the lines on the screen and the different horror stories that people talk about. Seems like I lucked out with that part, the only thing is the color doesn't seems as good.
 
Did you guys hear me when I said to use deoxit? Great stuff and you don't have to replace the connector.

A new connector is about the same price as a can of DeoxIT, plus it is already clean and the pins don't have years' worth of metal fatigue, which can prevent them from holding their tension against the PCB pins well enough for a good connection and/or can cause problems to recur not long after they are fixed.

Nothing wrong with cleaning (there are various effective methods), but I'd rather start with a new connector to eliminate problems that can stem from fatiqued pins. If needed, the new connector can be cleaned later on down the road (though I haven't had to yet with mine, but I do make sure the game's PCB card edge pins are clean before putting it in the console).

Disabling the lockout chip is particularly helpful too, because that part is the most sensitive to a less-than-perfect connection, and is the actual mechanism which causes the "blinking" with a "blinking NES". Top loaders don't have the lockout chip to begin with, so they never "blink".
 
We're talking 8-bit quality here. RF is fine. Getting that to work is part of the experience. ;)

The more basic the graphics, the more important it is to have a quality signal (RGB being the best possible analog video signal). Basic graphics have a lot of sharp transitions in color, which are points where muddy signals look the worst.

It can be compared to digital images and compression. JPEG compression for example, is often unnoticeable (compared to raw or lossless compression) on typical photograph type images, because there is so much going on in the image, and there are few sharp color transitions.

Also, this is why test patterns use very crude graphics, such as crosshatch patterns and solid blocks of color, because it is easier to see problems with crude graphics like that than something like a photorealistic image with millions of colors all subtly transitioning into one another.

And another example: have you ever done TV out with a PC to a standard resolution TV via composite or S-video? It looks fine for watching live-action video (such as a movie on DVD), but how does Windows look? Windows is graphically much cruder than live action video. By your reasoning it should look great.
 
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