23rd March 2012, 7:41 PM
So I got a new games.
Hogan's Alley for NES, twice.
Part of it was nostalgia because I remembered playing it as a kid. The majority of it was because I've been looking for the incredibly rare "converter cart" versions of the first batch of NES games during launch. They had to cut some corners to make enough games in time for release, and to that end they simply used the (already in English) game boards from some Famicom carts and produced a converter board to make them work in an NES cart. They're still pretty rare. Hogan's Alley is one of the games that can include it, and thanks to finding a quick and dirty way to find them (look for the 5 screw carts without plastic tabs along the top edge (first party NES games only and from there only those first few games, so a 5 screw Metroid game will never have it), and then check the cartridge edge to see if the little "finger" coming off the pins is in the center or off to the side. If it's to the side, it's a converter, every time.
So, it took a lot of searching but I finally snagged one in the form of Hogan's Alley. Since I knew what I was going to do to this poor game, I got a second (non-converter) copy to use as my main copy. I cracked it open when I got it home, confirmed it was a Famicom board in a converter, then set about removing it. It's pretty easy actually. After testing it on the one Famicom game I somehow managed to acquire (Devil World), I confirmed this thing works on pretty much any Famicom game (except, I would imagine, any Famicom game with custom sound chips, since the NES doesn't have the pins to support that sort of thing...). Oh, I had to sand down the edges of the board slot on the converter to fit the actual Famicom cart case (I guess since it was only intended for a board they never felt the need to check if a case would fit around it). Not much sanding, it was about a millimeter too wide. It went quick.
Next step: ruin everything. I used a few tools to cut open one of those Hogan's Alley carts. The second copy I got as my "main" actually had a busted case along the top side, so I opened it up and switched the board into the good case (5 screw or 3 screw, the internals of the case are the same so the converter fits fine either way). I then cut off the top part down to the level of the converter's top board slot. I had to "reverse" the slot itself so the screw slots were lower down, and then modify what was left of the case to make room for them being lower and add some external holes for the next part. I took one of my Game Genies (the one with the ruined label) and unscrewed it to take out the handle. I put the two screw holes on the handle through the extra holes I made in the cartridge and screwed that in through the screw holes on the converter (amazing coincidence, they lined up perfectly). I screwed in the remaining screw slots on this bottom half of a cartridge case I had and it all fit pretty securely. I cut a bit of plastic from some blister box or another I had in the trash and taped it inside the top part to "push" the slot into place a bit better, then covered up the two empty spots on either side of the cart slot with some tape. I could probably do a more professional job in the future, but this works fine for now. As it stands, I have a device that fits a Famicom cart into an NES perfectly and is as easy to remove as a Game Genie thanks to the handle I screwed in. The remains of the cartridge I cut up are basically trash, so I tossed them out. I normally would feel bad about this sort of cannibalizing, but since the cart was already smashed in on that top half, I figured it wasn't hurting anything, and I only needed the bottom half intact. The Famicom board of Hogan's Alley is basically "loose" at this point. It's still usable, so I'm holding onto it in a static bag until I find someone who wants it. The other copy is working just fine in the good case. The Game Genie I stole the handle from is put back together and should work just fine, but it'll be hard to remove from a classic style NES without it so I'll probably find someone with a top loading NES who wants it.
So... um... Devil World for NES is a pretty fun game in the style of a lot of the really early NES games. I have whole new reasons to hate that devil guy in Smash Bros. Brawl...
Hogan's Alley for NES, twice.
Part of it was nostalgia because I remembered playing it as a kid. The majority of it was because I've been looking for the incredibly rare "converter cart" versions of the first batch of NES games during launch. They had to cut some corners to make enough games in time for release, and to that end they simply used the (already in English) game boards from some Famicom carts and produced a converter board to make them work in an NES cart. They're still pretty rare. Hogan's Alley is one of the games that can include it, and thanks to finding a quick and dirty way to find them (look for the 5 screw carts without plastic tabs along the top edge (first party NES games only and from there only those first few games, so a 5 screw Metroid game will never have it), and then check the cartridge edge to see if the little "finger" coming off the pins is in the center or off to the side. If it's to the side, it's a converter, every time.
So, it took a lot of searching but I finally snagged one in the form of Hogan's Alley. Since I knew what I was going to do to this poor game, I got a second (non-converter) copy to use as my main copy. I cracked it open when I got it home, confirmed it was a Famicom board in a converter, then set about removing it. It's pretty easy actually. After testing it on the one Famicom game I somehow managed to acquire (Devil World), I confirmed this thing works on pretty much any Famicom game (except, I would imagine, any Famicom game with custom sound chips, since the NES doesn't have the pins to support that sort of thing...). Oh, I had to sand down the edges of the board slot on the converter to fit the actual Famicom cart case (I guess since it was only intended for a board they never felt the need to check if a case would fit around it). Not much sanding, it was about a millimeter too wide. It went quick.
Next step: ruin everything. I used a few tools to cut open one of those Hogan's Alley carts. The second copy I got as my "main" actually had a busted case along the top side, so I opened it up and switched the board into the good case (5 screw or 3 screw, the internals of the case are the same so the converter fits fine either way). I then cut off the top part down to the level of the converter's top board slot. I had to "reverse" the slot itself so the screw slots were lower down, and then modify what was left of the case to make room for them being lower and add some external holes for the next part. I took one of my Game Genies (the one with the ruined label) and unscrewed it to take out the handle. I put the two screw holes on the handle through the extra holes I made in the cartridge and screwed that in through the screw holes on the converter (amazing coincidence, they lined up perfectly). I screwed in the remaining screw slots on this bottom half of a cartridge case I had and it all fit pretty securely. I cut a bit of plastic from some blister box or another I had in the trash and taped it inside the top part to "push" the slot into place a bit better, then covered up the two empty spots on either side of the cart slot with some tape. I could probably do a more professional job in the future, but this works fine for now. As it stands, I have a device that fits a Famicom cart into an NES perfectly and is as easy to remove as a Game Genie thanks to the handle I screwed in. The remains of the cartridge I cut up are basically trash, so I tossed them out. I normally would feel bad about this sort of cannibalizing, but since the cart was already smashed in on that top half, I figured it wasn't hurting anything, and I only needed the bottom half intact. The Famicom board of Hogan's Alley is basically "loose" at this point. It's still usable, so I'm holding onto it in a static bag until I find someone who wants it. The other copy is working just fine in the good case. The Game Genie I stole the handle from is put back together and should work just fine, but it'll be hard to remove from a classic style NES without it so I'll probably find someone with a top loading NES who wants it.
So... um... Devil World for NES is a pretty fun game in the style of a lot of the really early NES games. I have whole new reasons to hate that devil guy in Smash Bros. Brawl...
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)