23rd July 2015, 10:59 PM
I mean "zero insertion force" as in when you plug the cart into a regular NES it requires almost no effort, and it's the same for removing it. With a replacement pin connector removing the game gets harder, but the BLW is a lot worse than that. See, it's not just a new pin connector that will fail just like the originals do, it's a replacement for the tray and connector that has a new tray that can't click down, for just straight-in cartridge loading, and a new connector on the end with two pin connectors, one for the board and one for the cart. The issue is that getting carts out of that connector from the cart port is harder than I'd like (it requires too much effort, though wiggling the cart back and forth some first is helpful) and as I said forget about a Famicom converter.
But the benefit is that it's an actual working NES, which this NES has, as I said, never been. I first got it with blinking-light problems. I tried one of those replacement pin connectors, I tried disabling the lockout chip, etc, nothing worked. It could read some games, but not others, for whatever reason (Kabuki Quantum Warrior never worked on the NES 1 for instance), while the NES 2 could read all the games no problem. Well, the BLW finally fixed the issues, and reads carts great! Some have required some cleaning -- my Conquest of the Crystal Palace cart always has problems loading -- but unlike the old NES, where just leaving it in would eventually cause a crash, with BLW once I got it working (cleaned it some) it didn't crash when I left it pause for a while. So yeah, it's very nice to have.
But the benefit is that it's an actual working NES, which this NES has, as I said, never been. I first got it with blinking-light problems. I tried one of those replacement pin connectors, I tried disabling the lockout chip, etc, nothing worked. It could read some games, but not others, for whatever reason (Kabuki Quantum Warrior never worked on the NES 1 for instance), while the NES 2 could read all the games no problem. Well, the BLW finally fixed the issues, and reads carts great! Some have required some cleaning -- my Conquest of the Crystal Palace cart always has problems loading -- but unlike the old NES, where just leaving it in would eventually cause a crash, with BLW once I got it working (cleaned it some) it didn't crash when I left it pause for a while. So yeah, it's very nice to have.