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Immortal Cartridges function differently than most?

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Sep 14, 2007 at 11:31:59 PM
pedro! (24)
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(Pedro Games) < Lolo Lord >
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I have had maybe twenty copies of this game, and maybe three that actually worked. I have tried it on various systems, thinking maybe that would help, and it did not. Upon opening them, they architecture seems no different from any other games. Is there something unusual about the function of this game? Another game that seems to do this for me is Cybernoid. Any ideas?

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Sep 14, 2007 at 11:50:26 PM
antofarabia (106)
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(Papa Smurf) < Kraid Killer >
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hey pedro! ... not sure about that ... I have a Contra and F117A that did not work though they looked cosmetically sound and internally they looked sound...the NES lockout chip on both of these even still worked properly.  If I had to guess it has something to do with the one of the two main chips on the board and possibly being manufactured cheaply...either that or they sat in an attic for years on end and the heat killed the electrical components ---- btw are you the pedro! on ebay?  How's that working for you?  I've seen your score go from 50 to thousands...so good job on that.

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They call me big Papa ....


Sep 14, 2007 at 11:50:42 PM
BootGod (16)
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(Mark Lacey) < Meka Chicken >
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Interesting, could you take a pic of this unusual PCB? Later on in the NES's life Acclaim made some of their own carts, and some companies also had their games produced by them (Hi-Tech, Virgin) but The Immortal has no relation to any of them, I'd love to see what you have there.

The Cybernoid cart has bus conflicts which I suppose could make it not work on some models. A lot of games have bus conflicts, but Cybernoid happens to rely on them, due to shitty programming I suppose. AFAIK emulators have to do a special case for this game to get it to work right.

There are couple games that pop into my head that also have issues: Astynax and Snake, Rattle & Roll. There must be something odd about the video signal output by these games, they do not work on my LCD monitor at all, as if the monitor doesn't think it's getting a valid signal. I've not looked into it much so I couldn't tell you much more than that.

Sep 14, 2007 at 11:56:56 PM
joshmillslane (5)
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(Joshua Lane) < Crack Trooper >
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I've had the same problem with Immortal.

Sep 15, 2007 at 12:00:05 AM
pedro! (24)
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(Pedro Games) < Lolo Lord >
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I am the pedro! from ebay, thanks for noticing. Things are going very well over there. Pretty sure we're the third largest volume NES dealer on ebay at the moment, looking to be number two by Christmas. pedrogames.com will get you to our store on ebay if you're interested. We'll have a full blown website soon, mostly informational though.

The pedro! name by the way has nothing to do with my real name, more to do with my favorite pitcher, and a reference to a great movie.

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WWW.PEDROGAMES.COM


Edited: 09/15/2007 at 12:01 AM by pedro!

Sep 15, 2007 at 12:59:20 AM
KHAN Games (89)
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(Kevin Hanley) < Master Higgins >
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I've bought games from you. Nice to see you around.

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Sep 15, 2007 at 1:03:22 AM
NationalGameDepot (279)
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(Dr. NGD) < Bonk >
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I have also had 2 Immortal carts that didn't work.....
~~NGD

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Proud replier of post #1000 in the infamous Joel thread

Sep 15, 2007 at 1:22:30 AM
mcat999 (35)
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< Kraid Killer >
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you gotta chillax guys

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Sep 15, 2007 at 1:29:03 AM
OCDsteeldor (36)
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(D S) < Meka Chicken >
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I've had several not work as well. I know it has nothing to do with dirty contacts as they were spotless.

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/ dear sir, dear lady, this carnival is dead and gone //

Sep 15, 2007 at 9:10:47 AM
BootGod (16)
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(Mark Lacey) < Meka Chicken >
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anyone have any of these "non-working" ones right now? If I could see a pic of the insides and it is something odd, I'd like to pick one up.

Sep 15, 2007 at 11:39:30 AM
NationalGameDepot (279)
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(Dr. NGD) < Bonk >
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I still have my PCB boards for mine I think Bootgod. I can send it to you if you want to poke around with it.
~~NGD

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Proud replier of post #1000 in the infamous Joel thread

Sep 15, 2007 at 11:45:00 AM
joshmillslane (5)
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(Joshua Lane) < Crack Trooper >
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I have 2 noin-working immortals in my hand right now.  They are both mint - no damage.  Also, they are both stamped "28" on the back.

I'll send them to you if you'll cover the $3.00 shipping.

Sep 15, 2007 at 12:59:34 PM
Mr. Gimmick (50)
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(Gimmick, Mr.) < King Solomon >
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I also have a flawless immortal cart that works on average 20% of the time. I have to practically push the catride down 50 times before it works. I'm guessing the electronics are made cheap. 

Sep 15, 2007 at 6:56:17 PM
BootGod (16)
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(Mark Lacey) < Meka Chicken >
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Doh I just realized I mis-read pedro's original post, I thought he said it was different from other PCB's, but he said *no* different, selective reading I guess

Anyways, I'm still curious as to what is going on here. I didn't remember having trouble with this cart but I decided to dig mine out and check it and I am having issues. The program seems to be running fine, i.e. music is playing and demo runs and whatnot. The graphics are messed up, but not in the typical dirty connector garble / lines. Instead the picture seems very unstable, shaking all over the place. Is this the same problem everyone else is having? This seems like a timing issue to me, but if that were the case, it should consistently not work.

My cart also has mfg ID '28', I wonder if they had a bad run? To anyone who has a cart that doesn't give them trouble: Does it have a different mfg ID on the back (a 2-digit number impressed into the top-left corner of the back label, can be hard to see)?

Sep 15, 2007 at 8:01:52 PM
NationalGameDepot (279)
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(Dr. NGD) < Bonk >
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I have had 2 that wouldn't work at all, and believe me I cleaned them. Then I have had 1-2 more than has issuses like you mentioned.
~~NGD

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Proud replier of post #1000 in the infamous Joel thread

Sep 15, 2007 at 8:30:42 PM
joshmillslane (5)
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(Joshua Lane) < Crack Trooper >
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The shaky graphics and perfect music is exactly the problem I've had with every non-working Immortal I've seen - at least 5 different carts.

Sep 15, 2007 at 9:35:25 PM
Dr. Morbis (30)
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(Basil T) < Kraid Killer >
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My Immortal is ID 28, and it *always* has garbled graphics but perfect music on power up; however, I've never had a problem making it work properly after a couple of minor adjustments to how the cart is seated in the control deck.

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My mantra, as worded by SamSpade on 06/12/12:
I don't resell to fund my collection, I don't treat this hobby like a second job, I don't care if my collection is worth ten bucks or ten thousand because I never plan on selling it. Seriously, what does the value have to do with anything if you never plan on selling? Speculation doesn't mean jack shit to me at this point, I just want to play my nes games...

Sep 15, 2007 at 11:25:51 PM
pedro! (24)
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(Pedro Games) < Lolo Lord >
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I'm just glad I'm not the only one. I've seen them for sale by the hundreds on ebay, but I went through at least twenty before I got one I would sell, that worked every time. I also got one that had Cybernoid in it, the other game I have regular problems with. I thought that was pretty weird.

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Sep 16, 2007 at 8:35:54 AM
joshmillslane (5)
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(Joshua Lane) < Crack Trooper >
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I just tried both of my "28" Immortals over and over - repositioning them like you said.  I never got them to work properly.

I've never had a problem with a cybernoid.

Sep 16, 2007 at 10:58:51 AM
jbholio (5)
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(JB Martin) < Crack Trooper >
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I tested my Immortal cart (with number 28 on back) on 3 different systems:
NES toaster: works perfectly
NES top loader: works perfectly
Super 8 adapter (play NES on SNES): shaky graphics, very dark color compared to NES systems making the text hard to read but the music is perfect

The Super 8 has AV plugs, so maybe this why the cart is not working great.


Edited: 09/16/2007 at 11:00 AM by jbholio

Sep 16, 2007 at 11:49:32 AM
albailey (55)
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(Al Bailey) < Lolo Lord >
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From a post on nesdev talking about color palette 0x0D (which was the color that was causing my Sudoku game to appear hosed on some people's TVs)

<quote>Besides the Game Genie, has anyone here ever see TVs glitching because of other games that use color $0D? Maniac Mansion (the American version, not the Japanese version), Skate or Die 2, and The Immortal use this color, so maybe those owning a PowerPak could test these games on their TVs, especially if those TVs glitch for Game Genie. </quote>

So I guess you guys that are seeing a bad "Immortal" can maybe try out Skate or Die 2,  or Maniac Mansion and see if you see something similar (assuming the original poster on nesdev was correct)

Al

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My Gameboy collection  97% complete.          My N64 collection   88% complete



 My Gamecube collection  99% complete        My NES collection   97% complete


Sep 16, 2007 at 12:08:54 PM
joshmillslane (5)
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(Joshua Lane) < Crack Trooper >
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All those other games work fine.  It's only Immortal I've had this problem with.  And it's all of them...I'm running the regular RF adapter out of my top loading NES.

Sep 16, 2007 at 12:35:28 PM
BootGod (16)
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(Mark Lacey) < Meka Chicken >
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I've never had a problem with those other 2 either. Actually I tried Skate or Die 2 yesterday at the same time because it was right next to the immortal and the only other game EA published.

Sep 18, 2007 at 10:36:35 PM
BootGod (16)
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(Mark Lacey) < Meka Chicken >
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Well it looks like our Immortal carts are not broken I brought this up over at nesdev, and it is indeed due partly to using the palette index that Al mentioned, but the problem is amplified because the game also uses the color emphasis bits to further darken the color. The reason this is a problem because the resulting voltage level of signal is close to the level used for the sync signal. So some TV's are mistaking it as such. From what others have said, this seems to affect mainly newer TV types like LCD. I couldn't get a stable picture at all with my LCD, but then I hooked it up to a CRT and then it worked just fine.

Sep 21, 2007 at 3:20:35 PM
radboyzonly (0)
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(Erik Isom) < Cherub >
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i just picked up an Immortal cart with manual for $5. it is stamped with "28" and works fine.