@rey @typhlosion cutting the pin is probably safer and easier; when you need to remove a DIP IC and you don't need it to remain functional that's usually the best way to do it is just cut all the pins then desolder them one by one

you do need the 10NES to remain functional but not this one pin; I think there's other stuff that stops the system working if the 10NES is removed completely. i believe the pin you remove is just the one that connects to the reset signal

-F

@rey @typhlosion could be an impetus for you to get some side cutters though! you'd certainly have more use for them outside this project than kassy, who i don't know if she plans to do much hardware work, though i don't want to put words in her mouth of course
-F

@Felthry @rey i would love to get more into this stuff! though i dont really have a workspace for hardware stuff yet.

i did manage to mutilate pin 4 all the way off the 10nes chip somehow. pic attached (mild hardware gore i guess??). um. hopefully that will work??? im honestly kind of really scared, lmao.

@typhlosion @rey Looks like you've done the job there honestly! it's very hard to damage the chip inside by doing anything to the pins on the outside
-F

@Felthry @rey im less worried about damaging the chip inside and more worried about the sheer artlessness of the way i did it having knock-on effects, or of having picked the wrong pin or such

@typhlosion @rey Nope! That is indeed pin 4, and the only possible knock-on effect would be if some metal fragments bridge other pins; just give it a good brushing or even a spray from a can duster to get rid of any of those
-F

@Felthry @rey yknow, if someone told me id be kneeling in front of my bed to screw something and having the nagging feeling im doing it wrong, my first thought would be "awkward date," not "console repair"

@Felthry @rey update: when i put my Golf cartridge in, it boots to a solid yellow screen rather than doing a reset loop. which... is progress! that tells me theres something else wrong, probably with the cartridge.

when i tried Lizard before i snipped the pin, it showed the first frame of the title screen in the reset loop, which tells me that that game was probably on a good cartridge but the lockout chip was fritzing. the fact that Golf shows a solid color tells me maybe its pins are bad

@typhlosion @rey progress! try Lizard in it again maybe? That sounds like the closest thing to a known good cartridge you have

It's also possible the cartridge connector is too oxidized to make good contact; that's easy enough to clean. You can just spray contact cleaner in there and that usually helps, but you can also get these purpose-made things like this https://www.1upcard.com/products/the-1upcard-nes-console-and-game-cleaner-bundle?variant=20327843398

it's just an NES cartridge with a mild abrasive instead of electrical contacts, so it cleans off the oxide
-F

@Felthry @rey yeah, i'll try lizard in it next. that one was completely unused and hadn't even been taken out of the box before i tried it last night, so if that one isn't good it's definitely not due to usage

i did a quick visual inspection of the pin connector on the NES side when i had everything off, and it didn't look corroded (i think someone had replaced it before i got it) which is why i think it's an issue with the Golf cartridge (perhaps corrosion on *those* pins)

@typhlosion @rey yeah there could be corrosion on the cartridge pins too

if someone's replaced the cartridge connector on the NES side that doesn't necessarily mean it's good, for something like this you want pretty good gold plating on the contacts and nintendo used a pretty thin gold plating (which rubbed off over many cartridge insertions) and some of the replacements don't even use gold at all (good ones would probably be like, 30-50 μ" gold and yes that's a very cursed unit)
-F

@typhlosion @rey (it's probably fine though)
-F

@Felthry @rey success!! the music plays, all the controls work and everything. there are those wavy striations on the video output but im assuming those are just an artifact of some kind of something relating to using the NES with a modern television, or such. doesn't bother me either way

cc @rainwarrior thank you for your cool game that helped me test my NES repair job

@typhlosion @rey @rainwarrior excellent! glad it worked

i could go into what the striations are if you're interested, but you're correct that it's a consequence of using it with a modern tv
-F

@Felthry @rey @rainwarrior isn't it something to do with the video not being precisely 60Hz? i am indeed interested

@Felthry @rey (also let's probably untag brad from this thread now oops)

@typhlosion @rey yeah i was going to do that, dunno if rey wants to be untagged too

it might be that? more likely to be artefacts of either the RF or composite output, which both lose some information in the process of modulating stuff

i'm assuming your NES hasn't been modded to have a component or s-video output here, if it has it's something else
-F

@Felthry @rey it has red and yellow jacks on the side for video and audio, if thats what you mean. i think the guy who sold it to me mentioned that that was a mod

@typhlosion @rey that's not a mod, some later model NESes had that

that's composite output, where the color and intensity information are both sent over the same wire
-F

@typhlosion @rey i mean, it *could* be a mod if it's an early model NES, the kind that only had RF output, but I dunno why you'd go to the trouble of modding it and not use component or rgb
-F

@Felthry @rey is the RF shield actually necessary to put back on

@typhlosion @rey If you care about compliance to FCC regulations,.... maybe?

if you don't, no
-F

@Felthry @rey what's the most dire possible consequence of not putting it back on

@typhlosion @rey your radio picks up a bit more static
-F

@Felthry @rey oh nooooooo

i think im gonna leave it off, and then maybe see if i can get a transparent plastic casemod for the nes (at least the top cover), because i think that would look cool and also be a reminder to myself that i have in fact user-serviced it in some rudimentary way (this is a huge triumph for me)

@typhlosion @rey well congratulations! your first Electronics Thing
-F

@typhlosion @rey Make sure you figure out what model your NES is before getting the casemod, the case might have different mounting points and holes for connectors between models
-F

@Felthry @rey i swabbed the golf cartridge's pins with some ethyl alcohol (it was all they had at the store) and a q-tip, and... it still doesn't work :'3 can't win em all i guess

@typhlosion @rey aw, unfortunate

could be something wrong with the cartridge itself other than just the contacts

fortunately it's just golf, I suppose? Not exactly a rare game, checking ebay it looks like it goes for $5-6 plus another $5-6 in shipping
-F

@Felthry @rey i also have teenage mutant ninja turtles for the nes (the famously hard one), which i had never tried playing before, and that one gives me the same problem. the blank screen is even the same yellow color, oddly

... same result for Micro Mages, even... that one should definitely be working, because it's also a new game that was unused before i started testing it

is Lizard the only game i have that my NES likes????

@typhlosion @rey huh, that's a bit weird

i'd have to think on what that could be

could you get some photos of the inside of the nes?
-F

@Felthry @rey further testing:

Golf - yellow screen
TMNT - yellow screen
Micro Mages - yellow screen
Lizard - functions
Candelabra: The Mad Wizard - functions
Candelabra: The Rise of Amondus - functions
Candelabra: Estoscerro - functions

and those are all the nes games i have

@typhlosion @rey i wonder if there's a common feature that golf, tmnt, and micro mages use that none of the other ones do
-F