Yeah, I've watched some videos and there's a very common problem which is most likely the culprit. Just haven't gotten around to trying to fix it. It involves re-melting some old adhesive on some ribbon cables. A bit of a precarious procedure, but I'll get around to it some day.

That Virtual Boy purchase gave me the retro console itch, which resulted in me buying a bunch of stuff. So now I have three NES with bad 72-pin connectors (I've worked on them, but can't quite get them going just right), a Sega Genesis, Colecovision that needs fixing (looks like it's either the reset button or the power brick - the system looks like it's constantly resetting), a Sears Video Arcade 2 (re-branded late-model Atari 2600), Sega Dreamcast, Intellivision II complete in box, plus loads of Atari games (I aim for ones with the box), NES games (same), Gameboy, Gameboy Color, a Gameboy my wife brought back from her parents' house, and a couple Atari 2600's that I already had.

I also bought the NES and SNES Classics.


EDIT: I also picked up a dozen or so games, all in their boxes, for some Chinese Gameboy Advance knockoff called GameKing by a company called Time Top. About a buck a piece. Thing is, I can't find the actual console anywhere. I bought the games for their novelty value, not even knowing what they were and I'll tell you what, even if I never play them, the descriptions on the boxes are amazing.

pro-tip: buy 1 working nes instead of 3 broken ones


i reactivated my gamecube and bougt a lot of games.

Good advice!


I partly bought three because they were good deals with the various games and accessories that were included and partly because once they are fixed up, I think each of my kids would enjoy having one when they are grown-up and live on their own. They both - my son especially - love retro gaming stuff.

You probably know already because you bought them but NES consoles are incredibly easy to fix, even if you have no experience. Almost every possible problem has been documented.

From my limited experience the biggest risk is not putting it back together properly. It’s easy to disassemble but when you put everything back in it’s possible to mess up the contacts of the boards. Still I’m fairly mechanically inept and I did mine in one shot

Oh yeah, I've worked on them. Just haven't gotten them to work consistently. The problem on all three is almost certainly the 72-pin connector. I've cleaned them all, cleaned the connections on the main board, checked for corrosion, adjusted the pins, etc. Just not getting them to work as well as I'd like. Also have one replacement connector, but it's one of the ****ty death-grip ones from China. It works, but it sucks.


I haven't worked on them in a few months. I may give it one more go and then just buy some OEM refurbished connectors for $10 each or so.


By the way, for several weeks now, the 2+2 forum adds another line break whenever I hit enter, which is why there are huge gaps between my paragraphs. I can edit and remove them, but I can't figure out why I get the double line breaks now.

Has anyone played the Link to the Past randomizer? Basically takes all the items in chests and randomizes them throughout the game, meaning you have to beat everything in completely different ways each time. I've been absolutely addicted to these lately, great way to add tons of replay value to one of my favorite games of all time.

There are other randomizers for a bunch of different games, including one that uses some crazy rom-hacking wizardry to combine Link to the Past and Super Metroid into one ROM, with the items from both games scattered between them.

I have an issue with mine that I haven't gotten around to fixing, where it's fully playable but clear wavy lines appear on screen. Capacitors need to be replaced most likely, which isn't easy. I may send it away or buy a new one, although this video has a potential temporary solution:

Sorry to bump an old thread but seems like a lot of good discussion in here and relevant to my post.

I've dabbled in emulation before but I am more interested in the light gun games (point blank being one of my all time favourite arcade games and good knows how much time I spent on the PS1 version back in the day).

I owned two Aimtrak guns complete with recoil etc. but I couldn't handle the inaccuracy and need to for constant recalibration. I was after the original experience of pinpoint accuracy, no lag and definitely no crosshairs. This comnined with the difficulties of configuring the guns in the various emulators (and having 3 young children so time was at a premium) meant that I sold them a few years back.

Now with the introduction of much more accurate guns and much better emulator support I'm back on the path of creating a home light gun arcade. I've got 2 GUN4IRs on the way and am building an emulation PC complete with light gun build/front end. I've also sourced a triple USB pedal for quite cheap that should allow me to play all Time Crisis games (including TC5 that requires a dual pedal).

I'm sure that this will eventually lead to a full arcade build out (and I've already informed the wife that this will probably be the case!) but I hope to share some of my many awesome gaming memories from my youth with my kids.

Is anyone interested in me posting updates as to how I get on?
Also, are there any updates from anyone in here on how their build(s) are?

The only shooter I ever played was time crisis 2. I am interested to see the progress though

anyone got a suggestion for a retro-console ?

there are multiple kind coming with some having 10000s of games... and price being from 25$ to 200$

-jpp