In honor of the Famicom's upcoming 30th birthday, I picked up the following

[Ace]

Don't mind Ace! Examining hardware for him is like reading porn! Hahahaha! No offense intended Ace!

It's not just about examining the hardware, dude. It's about directing people to the best hardware revision of a certain console. I put authenticity over everything else, you should know that by now.

I seriously don't get all the praise the AV Famicom gets. The video is blurrier than other hardware revisions (at least compared to a Front-Loader NES and Twin Famicom, and even my Top-Loader NES had sharper video through RF but with HORRIBLE vertical lines), it's dark and it has the aforementioned audio problems. I would rather use an A/V-modded Famicom with motherboard revision HVC-CPU-08 or older than an AV Famicom. Video issues, I could deal with, so long as they're not vertical lines, but audio imperfections drive me absolutely nuts.

You can fix the sound mixing problem by replacing all of 2 resistors. Oh nos.

Has anyone actually retraced the AV Famicom's audio circuit? The one thing it gets right is a very good signal-to-noise ratio as the amount of video noise is so low, you can hardly hear it even when the console is not outputting any sound.

[TheSonicRetard]

It's not just about examining the hardware, dude. It's about directing people to the best hardware revision of a certain console. I put authenticity over everything else, you should know that by now.

I seriously don't get all the praise the AV Famicom gets. The video is blurry, it's dark and it has the aforementioned audio problems. I would rather use an A/V-modded Famicom with motherboard revision HVC-CPU-08 or older than an AV Famicom. Video issues, I could deal with, so long as they're not vertical lines, but audio imperfections drive me absolutely nuts.



Has anyone actually retraced the AV Famicom's audio circuit? The one thing it gets right is a very good signal-to-noise ratio as the amount of video noise is so low, you can hardly hear it even when the console is not outputting any sound.

Yeah I don't really care about getting the best hardware revision right now, because I'll eventually get them all. It doesn't really matter, you don't need to freak out. I'll wind up with every model of Famicom before I'm done collecting.

[Ace]

Okay then, good to know.

I will say, the main reason why I bought a Twin Famicom was actually for Akumajou Densetsu because of the volume balance issues on the AV Famicom and I already had an AV Famicom prior to getting my Twin Famicom, only to find out the Twin Famicom has audio problems of its own! Muffled sound, incorrectly-balanced audio between the cartridge and disk modes and a missing low-pass filter on the Disk System audio output. I managed to fix the first two issues (makes me wonder who at Sharp designed the audio circuitry for this), and the 3rd issue isn't quite fixed as the audio out of the 2A03 got low-pass filtered along with the audio from the Disk System's 2C33. If it wasn't for an extra circuit whose only purpose is to bring the audio levels WAY down, the Twin Famicom is actually the loudest hardware revision of the Famicom. Some AN-500R Twin Famicoms also have misplaced resistors which cause the 2C33 to severely overpower the 2A03 and the audio is quite distorted.

And then I actually listened to Akumajou Densetsu on the AV Famicom compared to the Twin Famicom... what a difference. The sound is really rich on the Twin Famicom, but on the AV Famicom, the volume level of the 2A03 actually DROPS because of the mere presence of the VRC6, and it drops so much, you can hardly hear the 2A03. Makes the audio very bland.

[TheSonicRetard]

Picked up a few more FDS games:



Oblig. Metroid


Arumana no Kiseki


Ai Senshi Nicol

Strange how Konami dominates my MSX/2 and Famicom library thus far.

[NostalgicMachine]

Metroid for the win! These look great, man!

[Drakon]

This is an incredible pick up. I'm in the process of acquiring a top-loading NES myself, but this is just incredible.

Get the av famicom if you can, it's just better.

You can fix the sound mixing problem by replacing all of 2 resistors. Oh nos.

Which 2 resistors?

Ooh! Everything is boxed, complete, and relatively prestine! Nice purchase!

Don't mind Ace! Examining hardware for him is like reading porn! Hahahaha! No offense intended Ace!

After watching Drakon's video, I was intrigued by the gameplay of "Gimmick!" That looks like a rather nifty platformer!

Gimmick is painful, but it's so purdy to look at with nice music.

Nice haul!

For the controller options, one can also built converters to be use with the original FC and Twin FC exp. port.

Like this for example

Those don't work with 100% of games mario 2 us won't work with that. That's why I wired up my own controller ports that work with all games.

I seriously don't get all the praise the AV Famicom gets. The video is blurrier than other hardware revisions (at least compared to a Front-Loader NES and Twin Famicom, and even my Top-Loader NES had sharper video through RF but with HORRIBLE vertical lines), it's dark and it has the aforementioned audio problems. I would rather use an A/V-modded Famicom with motherboard revision HVC-CPU-08 or older than an AV Famicom. Video issues, I could deal with, so long as they're not vertical lines, but audio imperfections drive me absolutely nuts.

Has anyone actually retraced the AV Famicom's audio circuit? The one thing it gets right is a very good signal-to-noise ratio as the amount of video noise is so low, you can hardly hear it even when the console is not outputting any sound.

Uhm my av famicom out of the box had clearer composite video than the toaster nes. Anyway the av famicom is a great platform for modding.

[NostalgicMachine]

Get the av famicom if you can, it's just better.

What's it typically priced at, and how's the availability of said console?

[Drakon]

What's it typically priced at, and how's the availability of said console?

Not very high availability and they aren't cheap (200$ shipped if you're too lazy to look around). Unfortunately my modding business has helped spread the demand for the av famicom since most consoles I build for people are av famicoms. Ace is right out the box the av famicom audio circuit has the mixing quite wrong with carts that came with built in audio chips, it's fixable with modding and it's a sexy machine, also it comes with the snes multi av port which is so nice. I don't know of any simple quick fixes for the av famicom audio though, as the ones I build have completely rebuilt audio circuits.

Honestly I'll take any model of the famicom over the nes any day of the week. The catridge connector is more "no frills" with built in wiring for audio mixing. Famicoms are all top loaders, no stupid lockout chips, they're just....better.

[NostalgicMachine]

Hmmm...well, I have a top-loader being refurbished for me at Play N Trade...

[Drakon]

Hmmm...well, I have a top-loader being refurbished for me at Play N Trade...

A heck of a lot better than the toaster. The problem with the nes 2 is the audio circuit is custom (and absolute garbage). If you like rf only...then okay....if you mod the nes 2 for composite video and audio outs that'll atleast fix the jailbars if done right.

Seriously though for anyone worried about the av famicom audio you can buy these japanese circuits I install which is pretty much as good as the tiido ccam. I'm working on trying to figure out what about the circuit causes drums to get filtered out in kirbys adventure / tmnt 2. If I ever manage to fix that then you'll really never have any need to use the original audio circuit.

Also I could re-create the kit audio circuit myself I just don't want to rip off the author. Maybe when I run out of rgb commissions I'll finish retracing the circuit and draw a schematic.

I really wish the av famicom audio gets retraced. I found a picture where some nutbar removed the pcb masking from an av famicom pcb (what a terrible sacrifice), it's on my computer. The picture isn't as clear as I'd like it to be so that may not be good enough to rework the circuit.

I'd also love to get my hands on a HVC-CPU-08 or older revision famicom, but unless someone is willing to donate one to me (for science) I doubt I will pick one up they seem to be hard to find unless you speak great japanese. Honestly though through modding you can fix all the faults with any model, it's just some are way more work than others (nes 2 I'm looking at you). The only reason I built this uber famicom was because I got it for super cheap on ebay (50$ shipped!), then broke a trace while modding it aeons ago, never had time to fix it, recently found time, fixed it, and had enough parts laying around to totally pimp the thing out.

[NostalgicMachine]

A heck of a lot better than the toaster. The problem with the nes 2 is the audio circuit is custom (and absolute garbage). If you like rf only...then okay....if you mod the nes 2 for composite video and audio outs that'll atleast fix the jailbars if done right.

Good to know, lol. I'll be sure to let you know when I acquire it.

[Ace]

Uhm my av famicom out of the box had clearer composite video than the toaster nes. Anyway the av famicom is a great platform for modding.

Really? Well, when I compared the AV Famicom to my Front-Loader NES, the video was darker and blurrier, and the colors were more dull. Even my A/V-modded Top-Loader NES has better video than the AV Famicom.

[chinitosoccer]

I have Gradius 2, a pirate NES cartridge which came with my brazilian "Turbo Game CCE" 20+ years ago, didn't know it was never relased outside of Japan.

I built this:

Ugly, but functional, and RGB is a big plus

[Robotwo]

I've started picking up Kunio-kun games recently because I loved Nintendo World Cup and River City Ransom.
So far I've got (famicom carts):

Downtown Nekketsu Kōshinkyoku: Soreyuke Daiundōkai -Really odd Kunio-kun game where you race 3 other characters through houses and alleyways while throwing stuff at eachother.

Downtown Special: Kunio-kun no Jidaigeki da yo Zen'in Shūgō -Pretty much the spiritual sequel to River City Ransom.

Kunio Kun no Nekketsu Soccer League -Really good one, the sequel to Nintendo World Cup and features new animations, improved movesets, weather and small cutscenes whenever you make a goal

Ike Ike! Nekketsu Hockey Bu -Probably my favorite ice hockey game, really nice gameplay, good music and the regular violence found in most kunio-kun games

Now I'm on the lookout for Nekketsu! Street Basket - Ganbare Dunk Heroes and Nekketsu Kakutou Densetsu

[TheSonicRetard]

Picked up a few more titles and another piece of hardware:


Castlevania I & II


Boxed Famicom 3D System

And a couple of 3D games:


Falsion


Rad Racer