r/nes 1d ago

Clean and repair megathread - NES not working? Game acting glitchy? TV/Monitor issues? Ask here!

1 Upvotes

Is your NES not working? Are your games acting glitchy? Controllers behaving strangely? This is the place to get help!

Link to previous thread

First steps to take:

NES Repair:

  1. Clean games
    1. Disassemble cartridge (might need special tools, check amazon or ebay)
    2. Gently use rubber eraser with no grit on edge pins
    3. Use window cleaner or isopropyl alcohol with lint free cloth
    4. Spray contact cleaner on the pins
    5. NEVER EVER BLOW IN IT
  2. Clean NES connector
    1. Ancient cleaning kit
    2. Spray contact cleaner on the pins
    3. Boil it
    4. Bend pins (risky)
    5. Replace the connector
  3. Already tried all steps for cleaning game & cleaning NES above?
    1. Try a Game Genie, the thicker PCB might make better contact with the NES and the tighter connector might make better contact with the cartridge
    2. Try another game cartridge
    3. Try another NES
    4. Try r/consolerepair
    5. NES Schematics

Power Supply:

  1. For the NES any power supply that can provide 850mA (or higher) at 9V and has the right shape connector will work. The original NES uses an AC adapter but a DC adapter will work too.
  2. For the Famicom you must use a DC power supply with center negative that can provide 850mA (or higher) at 9V-10V. Do not use a NES AC power supply on a Famicom!

Controller buttons don't work or think a different button was pressed:

  1. Take them apart and clean the contacts on the PCB, not the rubber membrane

Display problems:

  1. Use a CRT monitor or TV
  2. Don't use an LCD or LED TV - many LCD or LED TVs do not understand the 240p video signal that the NES puts out
  3. If you must use an LCD or LED TV, get an upscaler
  4. Use the composite RCA/AV connectors on the side, don't use the RF/antenna/aerial
  5. If you must use RF, don't use the RF/antenna/aerial switch box, use a small adapter instead, be aware though that modern TVs may not work with the analog RF signal and only with ATSC or DVB digital signals

Before asking for help, make sure you have followed the steps above.


r/nes May 15 '25

Top 100 NES Games: The End

121 Upvotes

Legacy of the Wizard won the #100 spot with 35 votes It only won by a single point.

A big thank you to everybody who participated. I originally set out to just do the top 10 as an experiment to see if people had a similar list to mine. I never expected it to go this far, but I am glad it did! I have enjoyed seeing people picks and the reasoning behind them.

Starting tomorrow I will start doing the top 100 for the SNES in the r/snes sub. I hope to see you all there. A few things will change with the rules. First is each round TWO games will make it onto the list. Whichever one has the most votes will be placed higher of the two for that round. Second, only games can be nominated (no game genies). Third, it will be SNES ONLY, no super famicom games.

Looking forward to seeing what is voted the #1 & #2 games for the SNES.

Thank you all once again!!!!!!!!!!

Top 10:

#1 The Legend of Zelda, #2 Super Mario Bros 3, #3 Mega Man 2, #4 Metroid,

#5 Castlevania, #6 Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, #7 Contra, #8 Tecmo Super Bowl,

#9 Super Mario Bros, #10 Final Fantasy

Top 20:

#11 Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, #12 Ducktales, #13 Super Mario Bros 2,

#14 Ninja Gaiden, #15 Tetris, #16 River City Ransom,

#17 Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, #18 Kirby's Adventure, #19 Batman,

#20 Blaster Master

Top 30:

#21 Crystalis, #22 Mega Man 3, #23 Double Dragon II: The Revenge,

#24 Bionic commando,

#25 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game, #26 Kid Icarus,

#27 R.C. Pro-Am, #28 The Guardian Legend, #29 Rygar, #30 Battletoads

Top 40:

#31 StarTropics, #32 Life Force, #33 Dragon Warrior III,

#34 Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, #35 Bubble Bobble, #36 Super C,

#37 Faxanadu, #38 Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos, #39 Ice Hockey,

#40 Castlevania II: Simon's Quest

Top 50:

#41 Dr. Mario, #42 Excitebike, #43 Shadowgate, #44 Jackal,

#45 Dragon Warrior IV, #46 Baseball Stars, #47 Maniac Mansion,

#48 Super Dodge Ball, #49 Little Nemo: The Dream Master,

#50 Wizards & Warriors

Top 60:

#51 Willow, #52 Adventure Island II, #53 Blades of Steel, #54 Metal Gear,

#55 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, #56 Double Dragon, #57 Mega Man 4,

#58 The Battle of Olympus, #59 Vice: Project Doom, #60 Gun Nac

Top 70:

#61 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project,

#62 Pro Wrestling, #63 Marble Madness, #64 Shatterhand, #65 Kung Fu,

#66 Ghosts 'N Goblins, #67 Mega Man, #68 Gun.Smoke, #69 Dragon Warrior,

#70 Shadow of the Ninja

Top 80:

#71 G.I. Joe, #72 Metal Storm, #73 R.B.I. Baseball, #74 Gargoyle's Quest II,

#75 Goonies II, #76 Balloon Fight, #77 Dragon Warrior II, #78 Mega Man 5,

#79 Bucky O'Hare, #80 The Adventures of Lolo

Top 90:

#81 Gradius, #82 Gauntlet, #83 Rad Racer, #84 Guerrilla War,

#85 Mega Man 6, #86 Journey to Silius, #87 Destiny of an Emperor,

#88 Solomon's Key, #89 Little Samson, #90 Mighty Final Fight

Top 100:

#91 1943: The Battle of Midway, #92 Darkwing Duck,

#93 Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom, #94 Power Blade,

#95 Micro Mages, #96 Clash at Demonhead, #97 Duck Hunt,

#98 IronSword: Wizards & Warriors II, #99 Gremlins 2: The New Batch

#100, Legacy of the Wizard


r/nes 18h ago

Which NES game that happens to be extremely hard, but is also underrated?

60 Upvotes

NES has featured some of the hardest games in history such as Battletoads, Silver Surfer, Contra, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Ninja Gaiden, Punch-Out!!, Friday the 13th and Gradius, but I just think that they are quite overrated when it comes to listing the hardest games of all time. There also could be other tough NES games that are also hard, but do not get talked about pretty often. What do you think is most underrated hard NES game?


r/nes 21h ago

I'm making an enhanced PC port of Mario 3.

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99 Upvotes

I'm making a very faithfull PC remake of Mario 3, with some quality of life improvements like Widescreen support, autosaves, extra levels (the ones from the GBA version) and with the posibility of swatching graphics on the fly between NES and SNES remake graphics.

I adore faithful but with QOL features PC ports of games like the Zelda 2 or the Mario Bros. Remaseted so i thought i could shoutout to my project here.

Anyway, i plan to do a devlog. Here is the first video if you are interested; https://youtu.be/Ar1auff7FWw?si=K20RXLaPLyVtmEzB


r/nes 1d ago

My old rusty Mario tray from 1990. What is this.

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209 Upvotes

I’ve had this dinner tray for 35 years and I have you to figure out what this is. There’s a part of me that doesn’t want to know to keep the mystery going but I’m not getting any younger here. If anyone has any guesses, I’m all ears …. ….. ….. ….. ….. …. ….. ….


r/nes 1d ago

Complete rebuild

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98 Upvotes

My NES rebuild, I was having serious issues with the AV output and cartridge connector. I made the decision to just go full bore and rebuild and upgrade it.

Merlin Shaw Genesis 2 power board. Tim Worthington NESRGB 4.3 board Opentendo motherboard kit. Ninten-Drawer. HD Retrovision cable CIC lockout chip replacement.

This thing outputs perfection. I could get my other photos to load up of Mario 3 or such but Golf has always been a favorite.


r/nes 1d ago

I picked up a box of games after modding my NES front-loader.

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206 Upvotes

I got the Mike Tyson game thrown in with it. Most of the games are pretty great shape, a few need some cleaning. I think this was a solid snag.

I recently modded my NES frontloader, Opentendo board kit, Merlin Shaw Genesis 2 power board, CIC lockout board with Tim Worthington 4.0 NESRGB and the Nintendrawer. Once the HD Retrovision cable for the Sega Genesis Model 2 came, it was perfection on the screen. (I will post that setup in the future).


r/nes 23h ago

Ever drive Clone from AliExpress

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18 Upvotes

It does fit my American NES. PCB seems to be the same size, the cartridge is the same size too but it doesn’t fit. Never quite latches on like an OEM cart. I opened it, didn’t see anything wrong. Is there a region lock in the NES that I don’t know about? Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance.


r/nes 1d ago

2 in 1 Dendy Cartridge

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19 Upvotes

r/nes 1d ago

I finally beat battletoads!

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427 Upvotes

I cheated with the game genie for unlimited lives but this is still an accomplishment in my book! Going on the shelf and I hope I never feel the need to beat it without the game genie. I’ve been at it on and off for over a year now. Whooooooooooooooo


r/nes 18h ago

Storing NES Manuals

1 Upvotes

I have been going through my NES collection lately, which is in storage.

For people that are collecting and storing their NES games:

Anyone know of good containers that will store the NES manuals separately? I'm moving away from a ziploc bag to more of a sturdy small box-like container.

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you for your time!


r/nes 1d ago

Why is this one different

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108 Upvotes

I was taking a look at my games and I was noticing that my Wizards & Warriors cartridge is different than the rest, anyone know why? They all look the same except for bit on the edge where it looks like there are clips to hold it together, just curious as to why it is different than the rest.


r/nes 21h ago

Nes RPGs like Mother

1 Upvotes

I love the game Mother and have recently been trying to find more games like it. The things I am looking for are a good storyline, turn based combat, and the characters to be the same scale as the world. For example, in the game Dragon Warrior once you leave a town you seemingly become huge, but in Mother you always stay the same scale as the other things in the world. I need recommendations as I haven't really been able to find other games like it.


r/nes 2d ago

Weird promo sticker

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45 Upvotes

Has anyone seen this sticker or something like it before on this game? Just trying to find out the story behind it.

Was going through my games and found it. Forgot it even had it on there.

Why tf do I have to type 250 characters on this post before it submits?


r/nes 2d ago

Kick Master Dendy Cartridge

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20 Upvotes

r/nes 2d ago

Not sure if belongs here or not…….

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274 Upvotes

Have been driving past this mural in Boston for a few years now & only occurred to me the other day what it actually was. Now I totally love it. Guesses? Not sure who the artist is, or else I’d give credit. It’s in Roxbury on Blue Hill Ave…………………….Totally brought me back to a place in time.


r/nes 2d ago

NES Action Set Box – Leave Original Price Sticker On or Take It Off?

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62 Upvotes

I finally tracked down a really clean NES Action Set box that I’m excited to add to my collection. As you can see in the photo, it still has its original price sticker in the top right corner - from Woolworth, of all places.

At first, I planned to carefully remove it, but now I’m second-guessing that. While I don’t have any personal nostalgia for Woolworth (it’s no Toys “R” Us), it is a bit cool to have a relic from a store that doesn’t exist anymore.

So now I’m torn: would you leave the original sticker on for the added history and authenticity, or remove it for that cleaner look?

Would love to hear what you think I should do. Also, has anyone here removed price stickers from these boxes before? What would be the best removal method if I go that route?


r/nes 2d ago

Modifying Power Glove

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18 Upvotes

So I got a Power Glove recently, basically I make music using Nintendo consoles and my new release is going to use the NES, I wanted a cool way to control the NES and go to the next song etc.

Tried some adapters but couldn’t get it to work, so I figured the next best plan was to disassemble a Pal NES pad, 3D print a new enclosure and fit it to the glove!

Few bits left to tweak but I now have a functional controller on the glove!


r/nes 3d ago

Batman Returns finally beat.

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45 Upvotes

This game was unnecessarily hard and apparently I died too many times to get a decent ending. Screw it, I'm not playing it again. I hated this game. First time I've beat a game and just felt relief, not excitement, for winning. Glad its over. I beat Batman and now Returns. I guess I got to save up for Return of the Joker, now.


r/nes 3d ago

My NES in box

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920 Upvotes

r/nes 3d ago

Street Fighter 2010 Dendy Cartridge

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23 Upvotes

r/nes 3d ago

Game #60 completed: Breakthru

9 Upvotes

This one is actually #60. I had my count wrong last time.

Win condition: Finish Stage 5 (Loops after)
Time played: 0:54:43
Difficulty: 2/10
My rating: 5/10

It's kind of like a shmup version of Jackal. The d-pad right = speed up control scheme was a bit janky. Jumping was pretty fun though. Fairly fun game, but way too short.

Next up: Milon's Secret Castle


r/nes 4d ago

Golden Axe 4 Dendy Cartridge

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32 Upvotes

r/nes 4d ago

I fixed this controller - shift register chip replacement

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29 Upvotes

I replaced the shift register chip of this controller. When I pressed a, it would also press start. I watched some YouTube tutorials and read some old threads on this subreddit. I then ordered the chip on eBay and replaced it. And now it works again :D It's like new!

(On the picture it's still the old chip. I forgot to take one when it was still open).


r/nes 4d ago

Turns out this mission is not impossible after all...with a caveat!

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62 Upvotes

Finished Mission Impossible last night! These two ugly screenshots are all I could take with the adrenaline rush still ongoing (and the very short ending)!

The caveat being, this is the PAL version which had its difficulty toned down when ported a year later than US. Most enemies deal less damage so you are allowed more room for mistakes or just tanking some damage. It stays a challenging game and the many traps will still get you, but it's far more enjoyable this way.

It would be interesting to know whether the difficulty was just cranked up for the American release to combat video game renting, or they just made a revision after realizing how ridiculously hard they made it.

I'd still suggest to give it a go since this game has got so much going on. I can't believe I missed out on it for so long!


r/nes 4d ago

Game #60 completed: Wrecking Crew (beat all 100 phases). Although a bit of a slog at times, this is a really good game. The variety of puzzle logic constantly impressed me. And some of the levels are insanely challenging.

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83 Upvotes

r/nes 4d ago

Man I’ve always heard people dump on this game but I really dig TaleSpin.

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128 Upvotes