Good stuff man, I'm happy you're getting some confidence from it. Like I said, the other people confirming their boiling of it pushed me over the edge as well from the OG thread (Which I think should be pinned)

When you've got the pins out of your system, bend them as well. Get that good contact with the game. The video I linked earlier was very helpful explaining it.

In terms of the boiling I was SUPER careful... haha, it was like I was boiling a little tiny egg. I was very gentle.

And like others have said, drying for an hour in front of a fan is overkill, haha.

How is this process of rebending the pins "easier" than just chucking the old pin connector in the trash and installing the new aftermarket one like Quest4NES suggested? And I'm sure Quest4NES gets his pin connectors in bulk discount and resells them to customers if they need their pins replaced. I mod the hell out of my own gear and I'm not even meticulous enough to fool with that crap. The average joe sure as hell does not want to meticulously rebend 36 pins. Just open the NES with a screwdriver, chuck the old worn connector and replace. No dickering around with bent sewing needles, toothpicks, paper clips, or whatever the user can find around the house to bend the pins out. Out with the old and in with the new. Rinse and repeat every two years.

Or buy a BLW. One swap and your good for at least anotehr 30 years or longer.

bending pins is easy, they don't need to line up. First few carts you use will bend them back down to a perfect position.

Thanks Ozzy... Thus confirming I'm not crazy.

That was the entire point I was trying to make. It's easy.

For a guy like me, who doesn't work with electronics, capacitors, resistors, ohms, tweeters, boards, PCB's, pomegranates, chip tunes, motherboards, rotary gurters, or any of that nonsense it was mind blowingly easy, I just needed the confidence to go for it.

I think that's what most people are lacking.

Sorry to revive a months-old thread, but we should all keep in mind that if you get a new connector, the BLW, or boil and bend the original connector, there are issues we had to live with 25-30 years ago:

- most of us were kids, not taking good care of the NES, the cartridges, etc.
- most of us spent a LOT more time playing the NES, changing cartridges during a play session, putting more stress on the connector.
- nobody cleaned their games back then; the first time I heard of the NES cleaning kit must have been around the year 2000 (cleaning games regularly, even with only a q-tip and some rubbing alcohol, will help A LOT).
- we don't rent dirty games from the video store anymore.

So under most conditions, while originally after 2-3 years the NES wasn't working properly, now it can probably last 5-10 years, maybe even more, before you have to boil the pins again. And for people like me who stick an Everdrive in there, there is no limit! The binds are permanently down but it doesn't seem to cause too many problems.

How is that any different from buying dirty games second hand?

Don't know about others experience, but I've bought used games in deplorable condition before.
http://beta.nintendoage.com/forum...

I mean that as kids we rented dirty games and happily shoved them in our beloved systems; now used games are dirtier than ever so we clean them first.

I bought a replacement pin connector 11 years ago, and it still works great. Only have to wiggle the game back and forth in the tray a little bit once in a while, boots straight up most of the time. I thought I heard there was some massive decline in the quality of new pins in the past few years, though. I'll try boiling the pins on my other NES and see how that goes.

I guess I was one of the rare people that had an official NES cleaning kit back in the day. I rented games all of the time, so I had gotten into the habit of cleaning them before I even tried to play them. Most of them were dirty enough on the outside that there was no way that I was going to risk putting them in my NES without taking the 30 seconds or so to give them a quick cleaning.

 

I have probably bought upwards of 15 nes consoles over the years in various lots and deals. I can honestly say i've never had one that works great. Always blinking lights and not firing up the games. I've tried the boiling method to no avail. I've also replaced the pin connectors with the new ones from eBay but my games really do not want to work. I had become so fed up I bought an FC twin and my carts work perfectly every time. Im not sure what the problem os but i always suspected it had to do with the humidity where I live.

I went through three replacement connectors over several years.

This is the last pin replacement you'll ever buy:
https://www.arcadeworks.net/blw...

 

What the fuck is a repop.

That word sounds ridiculous and made up

iirc it was something coined on here years back from misuse of 'repro'.

I'll throw my hat in the ring for this thread; I can't remember exactly when I first got my current NES, but I know I've had it since at least 2012. When I first got it, I snipped the 10NES, cleaned and re-bent the pins. In the past 4 or so years, I've never had to perform any sort of maintenance on the thing. Sure I may get a blank screen every now and then, but just quickly reseating the cart once is all it takes.

I think the unsung hatred of the BLW is from it having an incredibly stupid name, looking fugly as hell, and that NES games look fuckin stupid sticking up inside the cart bay since you can't push them down anymore.

Respectfully disagree with you there. By that logic, you could say the SNES and N64 and every other cartridge system out there looks stupid with the cartdge sticking out. The original loading tray, as a functional device, was fugly as hell. BLW simply works and is an elegant design, and the plastic is just as sturdy if not moreso than the original loading tray.

I had my NES fall off my desk without the game glitch or crash. Not in a million years would your game session survive a fall like that with the original loading tray. You so much as breath funny on the original loading tray, and your game crashes.

On the first bit, I was talking about the device itself. Bare PCB with really cheap looking edge connectors soldered on compared to the original pin connector. Once the BLW is inside, if you don't look into the system, it doesnt look much different from the original.

On the second bit...hell, most consoles couldn't survive a fall without the game freezing. It's probably since the BLW you're using is still brand new...wait a few years. And the original loading tray...yeah, no, I just put mine through a beating and the only times it fucked up was when the cart popped up from slamming the system. Otherwise, the thing was fairly resiliant. 

Well the NES was piled on top of other consoles slid off, and fell a couple feet onto a pile of game clutter. My game room is a pig sty. Wasn't a hard fall by any means. My atari has also faired similarly. Game boys and DS hold up pretty well against physical shock but the cart ports on SNES and N64 do tend to be a bit loose (about 2mm or so of wiggle room) compared to Genesis, Atari, and other top loading third party systems. Sometimes I'd stuff folded paper behind the game cart as I've had games crash multiple times on the SNES or 64 from tripping or yanking a controller cable.

You could chuck an Atari down a flight of stairs while on and it wouldn't even flicker. Also lol the portables are kinda designed for taking drops so it'd be pretty hard for one of them to fuck up

I honestly had no idea people had so many different issues with pin connectors. I got a random, beat-to-shit NES from a buddy about a year and a half ago, boiled the pins, bent 'em back a bit, and it works like brand new every single time.

Yep boils the pins and since you're already in there, snip the lockout chip and you're mostly good to go. Mine still gets finicky with certain carts but overall it's great. There's definitely something with those new 72-pin connectors though I agree. Bought and NES from a reseller friend with one in it. Gripped the carts way, way, WAY too tight. He told me you just have to work it out over time. Ended up selling it a few months later.

I really don't think that's it.... But close.

Repop = Reproduction. I heard it on American Pickers, haha... If you hear them use it on there, it actually makes perfect sense. I heard them use the term "repop" before "reproduction" and I still knew what they were talking about. And, of course, they were looking right at a new reproduction piece (replicating an antique).

So I just used the terminology here...

4 years is a good run with a boiled/bent set of pins. I just did mine recently... as noted in the thread.

Mike's from Joliet, Illinois and Frank and Danielle are from Iowa. People from those places never know how to talk right.
 

Haha... Right. Or Canada, eh?

Pickers are cool. It never ceases to amaze me the prices people pay for old junk, especially rusty junk. Mint, yeah I can see that, but for instance signs where there's so much rust you can hardly read the logo, meh...

Missed this.

Yeah, the rusty junk they find can be pretty crazy.

It's pretty awesome when they pull a rusty piece of junk out of the ground and make it into something nice, though. That's what I feel like when I shine up an NES cart and clean it up good.

Got myself a custom NES on the way... so the possibility of there being a repop set of pins is high but at this point I don't care. Looking for a nice piece of artwork.