Nintendo NES Overclocking Guide 229
Deven "Epicenter" Gallo writes "I've perfected a process by which to overclock the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) to run games smoother without slowdown. The NES CPU normally runs at 1.79 MHz, I've reached a stable maximum of 4.2 MHz, about a 230% overclock. The games do not run faster than they should, the CPU never overheats, and most games are perfect up to 3.3 MHz!" Here's the guide on how to perform the modification, along with photos and demonstration videos
Re:What to do with old Nintendos! (Score:2, Insightful)
Blowing is a waste of energy (Score:5, Insightful)
Gah, this old myth.
Again, blowing on the cartridges generally does nothing. You're not getting a bad connection due to an infinitessimally thin layer of dust, unless you've been letting these carts sit around for a decade or more.
The reason NES carts don't work nicely is the poor connector in the console itself, and the fact that using 2 different types of metals in a connection leads to massive corrosion. The way to fix this is to scrub the hell out of the cart connections using a Q-tip soaked in rubbing alcohol.
Why did blowing seem to work back in the day? The corrosion isn't uniform, and odds are the removal and re-insertion of the cartridge not only removed a tiny bit of the corrosion, but also moved it over a tiny amount, thereby establishing a strong connection. Remember having to remove-and-blow 5 or 10 times before it would work? Could THAT much dust have accumulated?
Trust me, I've spent the past 5 years re-conditioning old NES decks and cartridges. Haven't blown on a single one, but short of a dead deck the rubbing alcohol trick has led to every single cart I own working (several hundred and counting).
Ummm (Score:3, Insightful)
So what's the point in overclocking it? Faster load times?
Re:What to do with old Nintendos! (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Pfff, what a lot of work for nothing (Score:3, Insightful)
the good old days are today (Score:2, Insightful)
Rusty,
I'm not trying to contradict you or be a smartass.
Ah, the good old days. How glad I am that I will never, ever have to live through them again.
Today is the good old days for tomorrow. Kinda sucks to think of all our current cool shit in that context, but back when it was the good old days, we thought our cool shit was as cool as we now think of our cool shit.
Re:ohhhh..... (Score:1, Insightful)
m = milli. M = mega. Hz = hertz. Fuckwits.
Re:It dosen't slow down-slide show style.... (Score:5, Insightful)
often suffer the slideshow effect, intead
of gracefully going into slow motion.*
because of timing. in pc games most of the time(all the time now if it's what is considered properly done) the game logic(the game itself) will run same speed on every computer(that is, the enemies and everything else move regardless of if there's time to draw them on the screen).
it's not just with modern games, it was a 'problem' or a feature on some older games as well. stunts(or 4d sports driving) could be played on a 8mhz pc.. but damn if the track was complex or if there were an ai driven car on the track... you would basically have to drive 'blind' as after the start it could take quite some time before the screen updated the next time(but, everything moved anyhow).
basically it's about how you choose to do things. and if you're intending to add network play at any stage you basically have to keep the engine running regardless of if you have time to draw things or not at speedy rate enough.
Re:Why not in the first place? (Score:3, Insightful)
though, now they have coined up using 'overclock' as a marketing term..
anyone? (Score:2, Insightful)
Granted this is not a very useful mod today, but who cares? If it doesn't do it for you, move along, nothing here to see. For those of us that do dig it, it's a great lil' holiday read.
Re:That's nothing (Score:5, Insightful)
1998 called, they want their generalization back.