Nintendo Redivivus: how to resuscitate an old friend

Introduction

Ah, the venerable Nintendo Entertainment System. Thanks to this wonderfully advanced piece of 8-bit hardware, a large number of us gamers got our start in gaming at a young age. Then we went off to college, where we spent less time playing and more time trying to get the damn console to work. The frustration of getting your favorite game to work without wiping your save game, or restarting it after the screen turned to junk 15 minutes into the game; ah, the memories.

To be young again, and to have a pristine NES. A lucky few are fortunate in that their NES STILL works fine regardless of its age, or perhaps they have found a top-loading Nintendo on eBay. However, your NES will eventually have a problem loading games ? even the top-loading version. If you’re like me, you’re tired of blowing on the cartridges, swabbing alcohol on the game connectors, or just plain physically abusing your Nintendo until it works. Whatever your preferred method, you’d just like it to work without any futzing around, right?

Never fear. For less than $20 and the use of some tools you already own, or you can bum off the neighbors, your Nintendo can be as good as new.

You will need a few simple things to fix your Nintendo. First, a few tools probably within a few feet of where you’re sitting now: a Phillip’s head screwdriver and a pair of pliers. [Supposedly, some Nintendos use a star or a proprietary Nintendo-only screw head. If this is true in your case, try to find a screwdriver that will work. If you cannot find something that works, you may have to drill the screws out and get some new ones. I’ve done this changeover on three NES’s and have only seen Philips-head screws. If you know what models have Nintendo stars, let me know at ronelson@vt.edu] Alongside the pliers and screwdriver, we’re going to also need a saw and tinsnips. I would suggest a small “mini-hacksaw”, as we need a saw that’s not going to be too big for the Nintendo’s insides. We will also need a solder iron and the requisite skill for its use. If you’ve never soldered before, you might want to pick up a desolderer and a solder sucker, in case you slip up. Alternatively, you could go the safe route and just ask another someone who knows how to use the iron to help you out.

The very last piece we’ll need is a new connector to replace the one inside of the Nintendo. There are two ways to acquire such a connector: if you have a Game Genie, there’s a connector inside of it (as an aside, you may have noticed that when you play a game with the game genie, even if you don’t use codes, it’s more likely to play without any fuss). If you don’t have a Game Genie, you can order a connector online from Newark Electronics, part number 50-36SN-12. Other sites recommend ordering via telephone rather than their web site. I ordered via the web, and received a confirmation within 24 hours, but it was nearly two months until it was delivered. My credit card wasn’t charged until right before they sent it, however. I don’t know if you’ll have any better success if you decide to call them, so the choice is yours. The part was a mere $3.94 and the shipping cost was approximately $7. So, for under $15, we should be good to go. At that price, feel free to order two of them: we’ll have to do some bending of pins and it’s easy to yank a pin out if you’re not careful.

The lineup:

Before we begin, I should note that the original connectors on the Nintendo are set up to point forward. The replacement ones we will be using will point toward the back of the NES, and require us to cut a hole in the Nintendo’s casing. If you don’t mind cutting a hole in your NES, you’ll also be rid of that annoying push-down holder that you used to have to put the games in. If you’re still interested, continue reading.

The first step is removing the case from your Nintendo. As you proceed, I suggest using a few pieces of paper and some tape. Draw a diagram of the portion of the NES you’re dismantling and where each screw goes. After 15+ years stuck together, you might have a hard time convincing the rear right screw to fit properly in the front middle spot. Flip your Nintendo over. You’ll notice six holes, three along the front and three along the back. Take the screws out, flip it over, and remove the cover. Your Nintendo should look something like the one below.

Next, we will need to remove the eight screws holding that aluminum shield on top ? once you take off the shield, you’ll see the motherboard and a few things on top of it. The first order of business is to remove that annoying loader. There’s three or four screws on the back of it. Remove those and you should be able to remove the loader. You can now throw both the loader and the shield out. We won’t be using the parts anymore, and there’s no use putting either of them back in.

The last part to remove is the original connectors. All the screws should be out, so just gently slide it off the back. If you take a close look, you’ll probably see some corrosion on the connectors. Some people have found no corrosion on their connectors but most have found rust. No wonder it took 30 minutes for you just to boot up your game to find out you had lost your saved game!

The journey continues…

Unscrew the last few screws holding the motherboard down and pull it up. There’s another aluminum shield on the bottom as well as the power and controller connectors. Undo the connectors (again, mark which one goes where) and you can slide the shield off. It was held on covering the infamous expansion slot, something that I’m sure none of you ever used. Was this thing advanced, or what? Hold down your 8-bit excitement and put the motherboard down on your table.

For this next part, we’re going to be soldering. Here’s a few tips, even if you’ve soldered before. First, make sure you’re not stretching the power cord too tight. Having it yanked out of your hand only to burn your arm wouldn’t be fun. These things get very hot. You may even need to stop and let it cool down once or twice. Second, make sure you have something non-flammable and preferably disposable and/or replaceable underneath it. (I wonder how long it will be until my wife finds the solder iron-shaped burn mark in the placemat…) Lastly, pay attention to what you’re doing. You don’t want sloppy solders, and most irons need to be unplugged in order to turn them off.

With the safety spiel out of the way, let’s continue. Our replacement connector needs to fit where the old one was removed. The pins have to line up on both sides of the motherboard. To get the pins to line up, you’re going to have to bend the pins on the outside ? the first 5 or so pins on the left and right ? slightly toward center. This is an art, not a science, but you’ll know whether you got it or not just by trying to line up the connector on the board. The important thing is to make sure that no two pins are touching one another after the solder job is complete. Once you think you have it right, line up the connector and solder the pins so that they are flush against the top of the motherboard. Make sure that there’s a slight gap between the motherboard and the connector as well.

For the next step, you might need another person to help you unless you have more than two hands. The other side of the connector needs to be soldered to the board, but because we made the pins on the other side flush with the board, these pins are slightly offset and aren’t touching. The easiest way to fix this is to bend the pins down by pushing against them with your pliers or some tweezers and then soldering them. You’ll need one hand to hold the pin down, one hand to hold the iron, and a third to hold the solder. Get someone to hold the pin down while you solder. After each solder, make sure you hold the pin down for a second or two until the solder is dry, otherwise they’ll spring back into place really easily, breaking your solder joint.

Now that you’ve gotten this far, it’s time to test it. The real work hasn’t begun yet, and there’s no point in wasting time if your solder job doesn’t work or you damaged the mobo. Insert just the mobo into the case and plug in the power and controller cables. Connect the power adapter and RF adapter. Put a game on your new connector, upside down ? remember, the original connectors were U-shaped, so we have to put the game in upside down or pin 1 won’t be on pin 1. Turn the unit on and you should get your game’s startup screen. Just remember, if the connectors on the game itself are corroded, this won’t fix that.

The next step is to cut the hole where we’ll load games from now on. Put the bottom shield back on the motherboard and put it back inside the case ? you don’t need to hook up the controllers or power quite yet. Take a look at what’s blocking the back area of the NES. If you lay a NES game over the new connector you installed, you’ll be able to mark two of the boundaries for the new hole. Hold the game flush against the case and you can measure the depth. Take the mobo/shield out of the case again. The other part that we need to cut is the shield itself. Get out your tinsnips and cut off the offending sections. You can throw out the scrap when you’re done.

In the above picture, you can see how much of the case needs to be sawed off. You’ll have to remove not only some plastic covering the outside of the case, but also some of the screw pegs. Do your best to saw off what’s needed, but nothing more. We’re already going to be down to 5 out of 6 screws to hold the case onto the Nintendo; removing a few more internal screws might allow the mobo to jump and shake a just a bit. Try to do all your sawing on some paper towels, an old T-shirt, or something you don’t mind throwing out. The plastic bits go everywhere and will stick to the sawblade, your fingers, your clothes, your shoes, your carpet, or whatever else you let them touch. This is another area where you may be risking your significant other’s wrath. Try fitting a game to the connectors and putting the case together. Adjust if needed.

The homestretch

With the connector aligned slightly down off the motherboard, we’ve saved ourselves some work. When we cut a hole in the back of the Nintendo to load the games in, we’ll only have to cut the bottom part. If your connector is a little higher than what I’ve described, you may have to cut into the top part of the NES. While the size of the hole is fairly arbitrary, we want to make sure the bottom of the cut is the right height for a game to rest on. If we cut too deep, the game will sag and put some extra stress on the solder joints. You can see the first time I tried this modification how I screwed up and had to cut into the top of the case. It’s difficult to cut that shallowly without really tearing up the case. This is only aesthetics, so if your only interest is in a working console, you might not care at all.

Last thing to do is to put this all together. You should have a mobo with a shield on the bottom. The controller and power connectors get plugged into the motherboard, which then sits inside the bottom fairly snugly. About eight screws need to go back into the motherboard to hold it on. After that, the top of the case goes on, the Nintendo gets flipped over, and five screws get put back in. Your Nintendo should look something like this:

Your old NES now works just as good as a new one, you just have to load it backwards! Again, keep in mind that we’ve fixed the Nintendo, but any games with dirty or corroded connectors of their own might still have troubles, as well as games with dead batteries. I’ve been pretty happy with my repaired Nintendo, and I hope you are too.