This Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is the first retro games console I've actually exchanged real money for for quite some time, the last few machines have been donated to me by various people.It looks nothing like the Japanese Famicom (Family Computer) version of the console that came first, which was a flatter, top loading, red and white affair
The front of the machine has a door that lifts up for the cartridge, two propriety controller ports, and a toggle power button and momentary reset button which just cuts the power to the console.The rear has the power socket and an RF output. There is a cut-out which is just blanked off in this region.
On the right side there is composite video and mono audio out, and there's nothing on the left side.
Not entirely sure what the channels on the bottom are for.
Opening the cartridge door reveals the 72 pin connector, this connector gets a bit worn which causes the console to give the flashing red light of death, or the blink effect, where the console power cycles itself once per second. This was down to the "10NES" lockout chip, which needs constant communication with the cartridge, or it will reboot the console. Cleaning, or even replacing the connector will fix this. It's an easy procedure and requires no soldering.
To insert a game cartridge, open the door, insert the cartridge all the way in, and press it down, then close the door. Reverse the procedure to remove it
The iconic controllers are nothing more than rectangles, but are surprisingly comfortable to use. They are a little bit bigger than the Sega Master System controllers
I bought my NES with no games, so had an agonizing wait until the next day before I could "acquire" some games to test it with, I also picked up a second controller for not muchIt took more attempts than I'm willing to admit to to get it working, so it may be worth replacing the 72 pin connector, or cleaning it.But once it recognized there was a cartridge inserted, it works just fine, which was nice
Software
The Simpsons, Bart Vs The Space Mutants
Super Mario Bros, Tetris, Nintendo World Cup
It's a safe bet that more games will be bought soon...
I seem to have stumbled upon a cheat to "win" at Game B Level 9 High 5 on Tetris, this needs more research...
5 - Out of screen, 294:1