My new famiclone doesn't work?

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tokumaru
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My new famiclone doesn't work?

Post by tokumaru »

Hello! Happy new year everybody!

I got something for christmas this year:
Image

It's an old famiclone that used to be quite popular here in Brazil. It was previously owned by my girlfriend's cousins, who rescued it when they knew I was into collecting famiclones (this is my 3rd, and I got no real NES). This one is very nice because it has slots for both US and JAP cartridges, wich is a very handy feature since my 60-to-72 adapter is of really low quality and doesnt fit any of my famiclones without me needing to remove their cases.

It came with that ugly cartridge... well, only the board actually, that supposedly is a Duck Tales game. It was reported to be working 5 years ago, but I couldn't get it to work today. All I get is a full colored screen, wich appears to be color $16 and sometimes color $26, with or without the cart.

I posted the pictures so that someone who understands basic NES/famiclone electronics (I don't at all!) could say if the problem is probably related with the cartridge. It would be really frustrating to get my hands in this system that I've been wanting for so long and the thing doesn't work.

I'll soon test it with other cartridges I got at home, but I'm not at home and this (busted?) cartridge is all I've got now, and would just like to know what you guys think: Is the full colored screen a sign of a busted system or a busted cartridge?

Thanks in advance, everyone!

EDIT: Oh, and what is that shiny thing, in the cart? Is that CHR-RAM or something?
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blargg
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Post by blargg »

The rainbow thing is an EPROM. It has a clear window for exposing it to ultraviolet light, which erases it.

That cartridge looks like it was sitting at the bottom of a lake for a while. :)
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tokumaru
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Post by tokumaru »

blargg wrote:The rainbow thing is an EPROM. It has a clear window for exposing it to ultraviolet light, which erases it.
Now that you said it... I remember my father saing that to me when I was a kid, when we were looking at an Atari 2600 cartridge. But what is stored there? The program? The game can be erased just like that?
That cartridge looks like it was sitting at the bottom of a lake for a while. :)
Yeah, it does. I think it looks even worse than in the picture. It must have something to do with the fact that the previous owners of this thing lived right in front of a beach. Everything at their house was really rusty. Even the A/V connectors at the back of the console where quite rusty. The rest of the stuff on the inside seems to be OK.
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No Carrier
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Post by No Carrier »

If the EPROM was exposed to natural light for a few years.. especially near a sunny beach, that could be the cause of it not working. Perhaps small amounts of UV light slowly erased that cart. You said you didn't get it in a case, right?

NC
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tokumaru
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Post by tokumaru »

No Carrier wrote:If the EPROM was exposed to natural light for a few years.. especially near a sunny beach, that could be the cause of it not working. Perhaps small amounts of UV light slowly erased that cart. You said you didn't get it in a case, right?

NC
Yes, there was no case, and it seems that it has been like this for a while... I don't think it has been exposed to direct sunlight, though, even if it was a sunny place. But since the console behaves the same with or without the cart, it is logical that there is no program to run. Or the console is toasted, wich is what I'm afraid of.
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tokumaru
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Post by tokumaru »

The famiclone works! So I guess the cartridge was garbage...

However as I started playing with it, I noticed something wrong:
Image

Now, if you ignore the bad quality and the lack of color (the console is PAL-M and the camcorder I used to capture the shot is NTSC, so the color was garbage and I took it out), you'll notice some strange vertical lines, most noticeble on the mountain things in the background and on the text box at the bottom (plain color areas).

Is this a sign of a cheap system or a malfunction? None of my other famiclones have this behavior... Do you guys have any ideas on what could be causing this?
gannon
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Post by gannon »

I think it's mainly from bad or no decoupling of the video
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tokumaru
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Post by tokumaru »

Hey,
I tested the RF out on the console and the vertical bars do not appear when using it (the overall quality was not very good though). I don't know what "video decoupling" means, but how can it affect only the composite output and not RF? Do you think there is a way to improve the quality of the composite video?

PS: Yes, I'm REALLY ignorant when it comes to electronics.
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