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Topic: Super Nintendo rant

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LG18

I bought a Super Nintendo a few weeks back.

Upon plugging the system in, the graphics were completely scrambled, and rendered any game Un-Playable.

After going through the incredibly laborious process of sending it back, I bought another console.

It arrived today, and did a similar thing, only this time to a lesser degree - only the backgrounds were scrambled.

What the hell is going on?

You pay what's already allot of money, much more than the genesis costs on eBay now days, to have a console that has likely yellowed and will go brittle over time (unless you spend £50 on ingredients to reverse the reaction) and where there's a high likelyhood it seems, that the board has gone bad.

LG18

OneBagTravel

If two systems yield nearly the same result, I'd almost think it's your TV connection or cartridge. Those were the two consistencies in this whole thing.

Try a different TV.
Try a different video cable.
Try a different game.

I imagine the root of the problem will show itself.

If the slim chance that you got two bad SNES consoles, I'd forego ebay and pick one up at a local used gamestore where you can test it out before you buy it.

Edited on by OneBagTravel

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Tasuki

Did you by them from the same seller by chance?

I have two SNES that work fine to this day and I know others that do to so it's not the SNES. It might be your connection or tv.

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LG18

Unfortunately I already tried all those things, otherwise I wouldn't be so dismissive of the console as a whole.

I tried an RF cable, a composite cable and a scarf cable and still nothing.
All three TV's have had it on and the same story.

I have two games: DK country and Street fighter.

With the first console, both games were completely scrambled from the start, and the only thing that was working properly was the music.
With the second console, DK Country was playable, but with scrambled graphics on the background images (the same scrambling of the image that lagged the entire game on the first system)

For Streetfighter, for now at least, the game seems to be playable.

The problem with living in the UK is that there aren't really any local used game stores.
EBay is almost the only option, and I don't know about other places in the world, but the prices are rediculous.

I shouldn't have to pay a minimum of £50 for a console that hasn't (unbeknown to me at the time) even been tested.

On a side note, the buttons on the controllers barely worked on both systems, which was just another anoyance.

LG18

LG18

@Tasuki:

Not the same seller, no. I wouldn't be that idiotic,

I'm fairly certain it's the console, having trouble shot everything else.

My guess is a bad ram chip or PPU.

LG18

Tasuki

Try thrift stores, flea markets and garage sales as well you can usually find systems alot cheaper at those places then ebay. Also not sure if UK has something like Craigslist but if they do check there as well.

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LG18

@Tasuki:

I've had a look at carboot sales/flea markets but haven't seen one yet. The only time I did, it was again, a rediculous price of £50 with no games and allot of yellowing.

I'll have a look at Craigslist.

Thanks for the help you two.

LG18

Tasuki

@LG18: Just to let you know the yellowing doesn't mean there is something wrong with the system. The SNES was well known to yellow due to the chemicals in the plastic to make it flame retardant. So don't judge the system by the yellowing.

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Arminillo

Would having an American SNES work with UK cartridges?

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KingMike

No. PAL carts used a different lockout chip than NTSC (US and Japanese) carts.

KingMike

LG18

Tasuki wrote:

@LG18: Just to let you know the yellowing doesn't mean there is something wrong with the system. The SNES was well known to yellow due to the chemicals in the plastic to make it flame retardant. So don't judge the system by the yellowing.

No I do know that, thanks though.

I just meant it was another annoying factor when buying one.
As you'll know, eventually the plastic gets brittle and breaks, and it's quite a bit of money to fix it.

LG18

LG18

Yes, unfortunately that's the case. They're completely irreversibly region locked.

I'm wondering weather it's the game that's the issue - as I said, street fighter works fine.

I didn't think it'd be the game though, because like I said, the broken console was doing the same thing but worse.
I wouldn't have thought that both the game and console could have a same issue,

LG18

LG18

I'll do some digging as to the circuitry inside the cartridge.

It's whatever that's controlling the third scrolling layer, which in this case is the background that's the issue.

I thought that was controlled by the two PPU chips on the console, however, so if that was the case, it wouldn't point to the cartridge as the problem.

Edited on by LG18

LG18

Tasuki

LG18 wrote:

Tasuki wrote:

@LG18: Just to let you know the yellowing doesn't mean there is something wrong with the system. The SNES was well known to yellow due to the chemicals in the plastic to make it flame retardant. So don't judge the system by the yellowing.

No I do know that, thanks though.

I just meant it was another annoying factor when buying one.
As you'll know, eventually the plastic gets brittle and breaks, and it's quite a bit of money to fix it.

Yeah not a problem. I honestly haven't had the problem of the plastic getting brittle, I guess if someone exposed it to heat for a long time that could happen, but I haven't had anything like that happen. As for the yellowing if it bothers you that much there are ways to take care of it I believe I have seen some videos on Youtube.

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LG18

@Tasuki:

Well that's some good news atleast.

As far as getting rid of the yellowing, you essentially have to reverse the reaction caused by the bromine.
This means a high percentage mix of peroxide and cleaning solution, and some form of gum to actually stick the solution to the console.

All in all it ends up pretty pricy.

LG18

Tasuki

@LG18: Ah ok yeah I never looked into it myself, the yellowing doesn't bother me. As long as it plays the games it's good enough for me.

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