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The Gratuitous Rainbow Spectrum

NES Essentials Overview

NES Essentials Overview

Kris Randazzo
9 minute read

Things have changed a lot since the NES came out, and if you've got one, you're probably in the market for a few things to make using it a bit easier, or make your collection a bit prettier. We carry a number of accessories tailor made for making the NES feel just a bit more modern, and make your old games work like new.

Simulated Stereo AV Cable NES 72-pin Connector: https://stoneagegamer.com/nes-72-pin-connector.ht...

Replacement Controller Silicone: https://stoneagegamer.com/replacement-controller-...

Controller Extension Cable: https://stoneagegamer.com/nes-controller-extensio...

NES Retro Receiver: https://stoneagegamer.com/8bitdo-nes-retro-receiv...

Cartridge Cleaner: https://stoneagegamer.com/old-skool-cartridge-cle...

Game Cartridge/Console Security Bit: https://stoneagegamer.com/game-cartridge-console-...

Styrofoam Block Piece: https://stoneagegamer.com/nintendo-nes-styrofoam-...

EverDrive-N8: https://stoneagegamer.com/bitbox-nes-game-case.ht...

BitBox NES Game Case: https://stoneagegamer.com/flash/nes/carts/?afmc=m...

Background music by RoccoW: https://roccow.bandcamp.com/

Transcript of the video:

Hi everyone! Kris from Stone Age Gamer here. This here is an NES, and while it probably worked pretty well right out of the box in the late 80s, things have changed a lot since then. So whether you’re looking to sit a little further back from your TV, stop that darn blinking light, or connect it with stereo sound, we’ve got a huge selection of items that can help get you playing with power once again. Let’s take a look.

All right, let's get started with a couple of things that we can do with the system itself, and let's start here. Now, this may look like a standard AV cable, but it's very special for the NES, because check this out. The NES itself, as you can see on the side here, only had mono audio. So this guy right here actually splits your mono audio into stereo. It's not going to give you a full proper like Gameboy with headphone stereo effect, but it will double the audio and make it come out of both of your speakers. So it sounds really nice and full coming out of your AV situation with your NES makes things sound a lot better. Who doesn't love good quality video game music? 

Another thing we have that can help you out with your system is this. This is a brand spanking new pin connector, and it is remarkably easy to install as a lot of a, you know, a little how to guides on the internet that it's I was able to do it. I installed a new one of these in my system, and I am not great at this kind of stuff. But this should help you out with your system, not reading your cartridges, getting all those blinking lights. And oh no, what is the red flashing screen mean? What are the blue flashing screen mean? Now it's pink. Now this, this ought to help you out just fine. 

All right. Next, let's talk about what we can do with your controller now. If your controllers are like mine, they've been through a lot over the years. And while you can get replacement controllers, if you want to fix up the ones that you already have, if their buttons aren't working and stuff, we have these. These are replacement silicone controller button pads for NES. You've got your start and select buttons, your A and B buttons and your D-pad, and you just crack this sucker open. It's real easy with a regular small Phillips head screwdriver should crack this open just fine, and then you just swap out these pads. It's a pretty simple process and it'll make them work like new. 

Also on the point of these controllers, sometimes you want to sit a little farther away, and when we were kids, sometimes we'd like to just sit down on the floor and sit right in front of the TV and play our games that way. But if you want to sit a little further away, there's this plain old school extension cable for NES. It's an extra six feet to tack onto your NES controller so you can sit back, relax on your couch and shoot with your Zapper. Use your NES Max, your dog bone controller. I like how they draw those things in there. But yes, it's a it's a pretty basic extension cable, and it just gives you a little bit of extra room to work with your controllers from a distance. 

Now, let's say you want to use something a little bit more modern on your NES like you have one of these 8Bitdo gamepads here or, do? DOH? I have no idea how you actually say that company's name, but either way, if you've got one of these kind of pads, really any any of those kinds of pads, we sell this guy right here. This is from 8bitdo, it is a retro receiver, and it allows you to plug this right into your NES controller port. And then you can sync your wireless controllers to your NES, and play wirelessly like it's the future. 

Let's talk a little bit about the game cartridges themselves. I probably should clean this one off. Sorry about that. Anyway, here's my copy of Captain America and The Avengers, and let's say I wanted to clean it because oh my goodness, it's filthy. We have this little doodad right here. This is the old school cartridge cleaner. It's a wet side and a dry side, and all you gotta do is put a couple of drops of rubbing alcohol onto the wet side of the cleaner, slide the cleaner and the cartridge contacts in back and forth motion. Repeat this step with the dry side and enjoy playing your retro games once again. It's a much nicer. Let's say, lint free experience than using an old Q-Tip and whatnot. And uh, well, it's it's pretty cool looking to write something in there. Clean it up. You're all good to go. 

But let's say you want to go a little bit more in-depth and you want to open this sucker up and you look on the back. And here's I can't open this up. I don't know about what is that that just that doesn't look like a Phillips head screwdriver. That's because it isn't. It's a security bit, and we sell them right on our site. So these are just these little security security bits designed to crack open these cartridges. They fit standard screwdrivers just like so tada. And then you just kind of stick it in there and unscrew. And it is a nice, easy process. And then you can go ahead and get your tighten that back up again. Then you can get your either the actual, you know, chips in there out, clean them up all properly. Maybe you dropped a quarter in there when you were a kid. If something's rattling around in there, crack open your cartridges get 'em fixed up like new. 

On the topic of game cartridges. Here's a copy of Star Tropics II: Zoda's Revenge. And I also have the box for it, and that's special. So here's here's the thing with NES boxes is that's unlike a lot of other game boxes, there was a little something extra to him. So he sits there, cart in the manual, plop that in there and you've got all this extra space in it. That's because they originally came with these little Styrofoam bricks. Now, a lot of people lost these things or threw them out over the years, but we actually sell them here so you can take your copy of Star Tropics II Zoda's revenge, get out of their sleeve. You can put this nice little Styrofoam bit in the bottom here. There it goes. Nice flush. And then you can keep your cart and your manual and you can stick them in there just like so and look at that, it actually fits in the box the way it was supposed to. Isn't that special? 

And of course, last but not least, what would it be without an EverDrive? I've got an old EverDrive N8 and the more recent EverDrive N8 Pro. In case you don't know what these guys are, we'll run down the basics. These are flash carts, and they allow you to play your legally obtained video game backups through an SD card and you just stick them in your system and then you can choose whichever game you want to play. You can keep your entire any library on a single cartridge, and that way you don't have to keep swapping carts in and out. Or if you've got games in boxes like that, you don't want to keep messing with the cardboard boxes to try and get your cartridges in and out. This is a much more efficient way of doing that kind of stuff. 

But also there's these cases that these EverDrives are, and you'll notice that the EverDrive N8 Pro here is in regular NES style cartridge. And this guy right here will hold any regular, NES cartridge like a pro and grab my star tropics slugger that fits right in there and we sell artwork, official artwork for them. This is a BitBox. We did a whole video about these things too. We've got them for all different platforms, but they're a really nice way to contain and display your any games in style. 

All these items and more are available now at stoneagegamer.com. Thanks for watching everyone. If you liked what you saw here, please like, comment, subscribe, and be sure to let us know what you think of these items. Are there other modern NES products you’d like us to carry? Let us know! Thanks again, and on behalf of all of us here at stone age gamer, keep playing games.

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