How do you collect?

How you like to collect your games?
-cart only
-boxed
-complete

If you ask me i'd have to say complete, if that's not possible i'll buy the cart first and then get it complete later.

How you like to collect your games?
-cart only
-boxed
-complete

If you ask me i'd have to say complete, if that's not possible i'll buy the cart first and then get it complete later.

Complete is obviously the best, but that's getting harder and harder to do... It is sometimes possible to get just the manual or just the box without the game, and I usually jump at the chance-- often the seller doesn't realize that the value is NOT that much less without the game, as the game is far more popular than the box or manuals...

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Derek

Ja true, well if i know i could need it i buy it too,most of the time i search on complete but if not possible i go seacrh for carts or box/manual.

In the past, I've had best luck getting great deals on complete games at garage/yard sales and occassionally auctions and flea markets. That's starting to become more rare. Ebay is typically a bit over-priced for most things, IMO...

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Derek

Ebay is a pain man, i have to buy most things on the net and ebay is one of them, i started collecting last year and bought 125 things by now and sold some stuff.

Be glad you still have pawnshops,yardsales,thriftshops,shit loads of 2nd hand stores and not to forget fleas,damn you guys are lucky.
But we have pal only's and that's a good thing, i traded some cool stuff for pal only's,so glad for that!

Yeah-- quite a pain. I just wasted all afternoon posting a bunch of stuff on Ebay. No NES stuff, but it just takes forever-- writing information about the stuff, etc... It should pay off in a week when I start getting paid for the stuff, though...

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Derek

i buy whatever, though i usually go with whatever is cheapest(although i want a few complete)

carts all the way, I play them, no point in just hoarding games for the sake of having them, they were created to enjoy through interactivity, not staring at a giant stack of them.

that's not to say I wouldn't take completes, but I'd be opening them up and playing.

Well, as a collector, most of mine are in a stack. I do like to play them when I get a chance, but the boxes and manuals aren't usually played with, so I like to collect those, even if it's without the cart-- it's much easier to find just the cart later...

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Derek

i dont mind how they come. i just want them in good condition, perfering the manual with it. then i get a game that i like and collect the whole series of that game. (its Megaman for me right now).
i've got the aniversary collection, but i want the actual cartriges. so far, i have Megaman 1,2, and 6. )

I still have to get some Megaman's too, but those you can always buy.
Getting the series complete would be cool .

*sigh*

I, too, only have a couple of Megaman games. Part two and six, to be exact. Is it just me, or does everybody in the world have part six?!? It must be very plentiful. I'll have to check some of those rarity sites that are linked to here. Anyway, I really want part one and three.

I think 6 was only released in the US, anyway those aren't hard to come by, but they costs you some money.
I try to buy the rarer ones first and then the rest.

I think 6 was only released in the US, anyway those aren't hard to come by, but they costs you some money.
I try to buy the rarer ones first and then the rest.

Most of the time, I don't find too many rare games. Without a credit card, it's hard to do on-line shopping. Luckily, there's a couple of retro gaming stores near my place, 'bout half hour drive. They usually don't have to much in rarities, though.

Well at least there are some gameshops dude, here i have to go on the net or to the flea, and the flea's don't have anything normal.
If your looking for PAL only releases i can Hook you up once in a while, if you could arrange some NTSC releases only we could trade in the future.

I'm kind of new at this, what exactly is PAL and NTSC?

PAL= European version NES Games,some are only released in Europe and never in the states.
MTSC=USA version NES Games,same here,some are only released in the USA and not in Europe.

Do they both run on the same system, or were there different guts inside the two?

If you cut out the lock out chip in the console you can play most of the games, some don't work most do.

WOW! Learn something new everyday. Exactly where is this 'lock-out' chip?

The lockout chip was Nintendo's way of making sure people got licences to produce games. Some companies such an Tengen found ways to get around it. the Japanese Famicom doesn't have a lockout chip, which is why their carts are only 60 pin. also, if you get the famicom to NES adaptors, they usually contain the lockout chip which is why they allow games to work.

as for the location of the chip, I believe it's labeled as 'CIC' on the NES motherboard, I'll crack mine open tonight (again ) and see if I can give better directions.

Now, doing stuff like that makes me nervous. Exactly how would you "cut it out?"

From the little bit of research I've done, you cut pin #4, and solder wires from it to two different places, but don't go trying it based on that

Heck, I haven't soldered anything for over 10 years, I wouldn't even THINK about attempting it! Cool to know, though. Thanks!

No you don't have solder,check this link and then you will know what to do!

ah, but it makes some games unplayable... not worth it in my opinion...

It plays all ntsc games, but not all pal games or not all japanese games,but most of them.

perhaps if I were to ever find a large cache of PAL/FC games I'd consider it on a spare NES, but not worth the trouble if you don't have the carts...

I'm kind of new at this, what exactly is PAL and NTSC?

NTSC and PAL are video standards. Europe uses PAL, and North America and Japan use NTSC. This is video-wide, and not just NES or video-game consoles... If you get a chipped NES, the screens should look squished or not fill the whole screen, I believe...

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Derek

the difference I have seen from a few DC games I have with a PAL/NTSC selector is that PAL is 50Hz, while NTSC is 60Hz, our televisions are designed for that signal, and 50 Hz will looks scrambled or not fit properly on the screen here.

Yeah some are playable and some you can't even see the game properly, but still that is a small amount of games that give this problem.

But what games would those be? Anything important?

but all NTSC games work properly on an NTSC console, correct? I've heard of two games that don't work after clipping the lockout chip.

FireHawk, and some other one I can't remember...

That can be true dude, i dunno for sure,i don't own firehawk.Do you have a spare Nes?if you don't chip it you can still play the games on another console.

Well, I have two right now, one is clipped, one is not. I may have to give the non-clipped one away. but I'm sure I'll come up with another sometime.

Yeah man that's not so hard,i own a couple,some are clipped some aren't,better to keep some unclipped to keep them in original state.

exactly, that's why I'm keeping my clipped one as a hacking NES, as I've stated a few dozen time I plan on trying that overclock on it soon, (Metroid REALLY needs it)

Sometime in the near future, I'm going to get another NES to try some of this stuff with. I'd really like to experience some of the stuff that's abroad. It'd be fun to mess with the NES's guts, too!

I need to have a spare one, I take everything apart, and I can't resist messing with the guts. I need to find some PAL release games to take advantage of the clipped NES though.

That shouldn't be too terribly difficult. The web is quite expansive. Finding certain games that you would want might be a bit difficult, though.

Well, I generally have to avoid buying from stores, the Canada/US customs usually like to slap a large tax on things coming across unless they're delcared as a gift.

My recent aquisition of those 22 carts was delayed by over a week because the guy at UPS marked the value of the package wrong and there was a $50 customs charge on the package. It was only resolved when UPS faxed an updated invoice to the delivery company here.

In the end, if you ship anything across the Canada/US border, remember to check the little 'gift' box.

It makes you wonder why they even have such a tax. If it's as easy as checking a box, then there's no point! Probably to fool the foolhardy, I guess...

Well, you're not SUPPOSED to check the box unless it really is a gift. and that way the collect huge ammounts of money. But seeing as they have no way of knowing if you send a money order or cheque to the person a few weeks before the package comes across the border checked as a gift, it's pretty easy to save yourself big bucks that way. But of course marking it as a gift only exempts you from taxes on packages of lower value, if you were shipping a $3000 computer or something that would still be taxed.

from my experience, USPS is exempt from the tax if the value is under $60, and $200 if it's marked as a gift.

UPS on the other hand only gets $60 if it's marked as a gift...

That's good info to know for the NES collecting community. Maybe you should start a thread about that or something. Different ways around taxes for shipping to and from places?

I think it should be kept more on the down-low, as I think it would be considered Tax evasion, or fraud, which is illegal

Oh yeah, good point! Wasn't using my head..... Although telling people, and actually getting caught doing it are two different things

heh, true but I think we should just leave it as is, people can find it in this thread, and know about it. I don't know if the same things apply for other borders but I would assume there are similar taxes.

I'm not sure there are any other Canadian members on this forum actually...

I just grab what comes my way.

just to add, these are the games ive found so far(ntsc games) that dont work on an ntsc nes after the chip has been cut:
Super Mario Bros. - acts like the start button doesnt work
felix the cat - acts like the start button is stuck
faria - acts like the start button is stuck

im sure there are many more, so the solution is to avoid pal games, or have 2 nes's Hooked up like i do / use a toplaoder

i collect mine in all ways opened plastic boxed whatever but no doubt i only play the open ones