My Baseball Stars look just like that. I cleaned it and got it playing but the words are in some weird Nintenesh language.
Nintenesh as in scrambled graphics or Kanji (Japanese) characters? I always thought it was funny the say Nintendo games can sometimes still work but with the graphics all FUBAR'ed. Usually a bit more cleaning gets them fixed again...
Paul, I'm more interested in restoring it that trading it in for a less crappy version. Your Panic Restaurant actually looks pretty nice and I have a worser carts in my collection. For Example, my DK Math has a label that's got holes in it, and I have a couple of carts with torn labels due to retail/rental stickers.
Glad you don't mind a little work to get a cart restored.
Bad News, people. The PCB appears to be dead unfortunately. After spending a couple of hours trying to meticulously polish the PCB contacts, it was still showing a blank screen on my NES and AV Famicom. I finally resorted to 600 grit sandpaper. I have only done this two times in my life not counting today, and only on carts that were beyond working through other means. One of them was a Yars Revenge that apparently suffered from bit rot. Sanding did not help. The contacts gradually went from gold to silver, and finally bare copper before I got all of the corrosion off. Damn, that stuff went deep!
At any rate, the contacts are mostly bare copper now, and still the game won't load. There also doesn't appear to be any cold solder joints or any other manufacture defects that would prevent this game from working. There was also no corrosion inside the game cart in the chip area, so I'm just gonna assume it can't be fixed...
The blockbuster sticker removed from the label, and I mostly got rid of the PVT mark. The rat sh!t was surprizingly easy to clean off the cart using diluted dish soap. I had previously picked up a 6-pak of really cheap toothbrushes for like $1 at Walmart. Just remember not to brush your teeth using the same toothbrush, yuk! I usually wrap gorrilla tape around the handles of any toothbrush I use for cleaning anything other than teeth.
Can't help but wonder if there is a way to swap the chips with a similar board somehow, either way the thing looks pretty damn nice now.
You bring up an interesting point. Assuming the ROMs are good, it would technically be possible to desolder the mask ROMs and swap out another working TLROM-03 PCB, which would technically still be 100% authentic since it uses original ROMs. But would it be ethical to restore the game in this manner? If it was a cheapo game, I don't think anyone would care, but for a ~$300 game, some collectors might get upset if there'sevidence of tampering, even if it was 100% authentic. Anyone watched the excellent documentary "King of Kong" where they broke into Steve Wiebie's home to inspect his hardware?
Can't help but wonder if there is a way to swap the chips with a similar board somehow, either way the thing looks pretty damn nice now.
You bring up an interesting point. Assuming the ROMs are good, it would technically be possible to desolder the mask ROMs and swap out another working TLROM-03 PCB, which would technically still be 100% authentic since it uses original ROMs. But would it be ethical to restore the game in this manner? If it was a cheapo game, I don't think anyone would care, but for a ~$300 game, some collectors might get upset if there'sevidence of tampering, even if it was 100% authentic. Anyone watched the excellent documentary "King of Kong" where they broke into Steve Wiebie's home to inspect his hardware?
So what are you going to do with it?
In this kind of situation I think it's reasonable to swap pcb's if the roms are still functional, especially if you can find an identical revision. There's nothing unique about the board, and while it would be nice if the original board worked, we can't always be so lucky.
I've personally fixed two games in similar situations - Metal Storm with what I think was a bad mapper, and Earthbound with what I think was bad ram. To me the original mask rom is the most important part, and it's worth trading a bad original pcb to have a working rare game.
Apparently, TLROM-03 is a very common board, which is good. I found "Whomp-Em" in my Nintendo collection, a game I don't particularly have any strong feelings for, which uses a TLROM-03 board, but it has an MMC3B chip, whereas Panic Restaurant uses MMC3C. I don't really think there's a hill of beans difference with the MMC revisions, but I still want it to be authentic. Also, the 2.2uF capacitor is blue instead of black.
What would high profile collectors have to say about a PCB swap?
I don't see any hint of an ethical question there. If you have fully functional character and program data on the chips and you can pop them onto a working like for like board some other cheap game used there is no harm in doing so. It's over my head, but if I had that broken game and knew it was the case I'd pay someone to do the surgery for me. It's not like you're using fake chips, fake boards, a restoration label or a modern plastic shell. You'd have to be really uptight to have a problem with it I think. It's great Lincoln there could salvage both those titles with his skills. It's better off if you find some detestably rotten sports or otherwise awful title and put the board to good use than leaving a solid game that happens to have good value to die in such a way.
No different whatsoever than swapping the back of a cart. No one should have any issues with it. Just try and make sure the new PCB matches the old 100% and you're good to go.
I mean, really, what's the alternative? I would swap them and hope it worked. Then just make sure that you tell someone the whole story if you ever sell it. Beats the hell out of having a non-working game on your shelf.
Apparently, TLROM-03 is a very common board, which is good. I found "Whomp-Em" in my Nintendo collection, a game I don't particularly have any strong feelings for, which uses a TLROM-03 board, but it has an MMC3B chip, whereas Panic Restaurant uses MMC3C. I don't really think there's a hill of beans difference with the MMC revisions, but I still want it to be authentic. Also, the 2.2uF capacitor is blue instead of black.
What would high profile collectors have to say about a PCB swap?
you can search for specific chips on bootgod's site.
I would only be concerned with getting the board revision and mapper version correct. The capacitor is probably a generic part- the color would not be specific to the game.
As for value, doing a working transplanted rom might not be worth the same as a working all-original example, but it's worth a heck of a lot more than a dead original.
Guys, I've just received two offers via PM. FYI, I am not currently accepting offers at this time. It seems like I may be able to get the mask roms to work once I find a good donor board.
Working or not, if or when I decide to let go of it, I will post a separate thread about it in the marketplace forums.
UPDATE: I picked up a fresh Home Alone 2 cart today from Bossier City Game-X-Change. Same $4.95 price as the Panic Restaurant, LOL! The pins look to be pretty good shape and the game cart loaded fine in my NES although I haven't actually played it yet. Title screen music is highly annoying though. Hopefully the surgery goes well. I'll keep you posted...
BUMP. I have successfully transplanted the mask ROMs off the bad Panic Restaurant PCB and onto the good Home Alone 2 PCB. Surgery was a success! I popped it into the NES and was greeted with a wonderful Panic Restaurant title screen.
Top: Desoldering Iron from Radio Shack. This wonderful contraption has more than paid for itself!
Left: Old Panic Restaurant PCB.
Bottom Left: Original Home Alone 2 PCB with Panic Restaurant mask ROMs.
Right: Home Alone 2 "Organ Donor" (with bonus mustache, because Macaulay Culkin's a prick)
Center: Worthless Home Alone 2 mask ROMs, and the lockout chip off the original Panic Restaurant PCB board (I may keep the lockout chip for a future project).
I don't have plans to sell or trade the game at this time so please don't PM me.
If / when I decide to pass it on, I will post about it in the marketplace forum.
BUMP. I have successfully transplanted the mask ROMs off the bad Panic Restaurant PCB and onto the good Home Alone 2 PCB. Surgery was a success! I popped it into the NES and was greeted with a wonderful Panic Restaurant title screen.
Top: Desoldering Iron from Radio Shack. This wonderful contraption has more than paid for itself!
Left: Old Panic Restaurant PCB.
Bottom Left: Original Home Alone 2 PCB with Panic Restaurant mask ROMs.
Right: Home Alone 2 "Organ Donor" (with bonus mustache, because Macaulay Culkin's a prick)
Center: Worthless Home Alone 2 mask ROMs, and the lockout chip off the original Panic Restaurant PCB board (I may keep the lockout chip for a future project).
I don't have plans to sell or trade the game at this time so please don't PM me.
If / when I decide to pass it on, I will post about it in the marketplace forum.
Awesome job! For 10 bucks and some of your time, U now have a Gem!!
Is that all a soldering iron costs is $10? I could fix something I have held together right now with tape and glue of all things.
I have this Konami LCD handheld that can sometimes get pricy for what it is of Gradius but the seller(ebay) sent me a broken one I had to reassemble creatively.
Great job fixing it, looks as original as it should. Have fun playing it I hear it's fun.
Comments
Originally posted by: The Lung
My Baseball Stars look just like that. I cleaned it and got it playing but the words are in some weird Nintenesh language.
Nintenesh as in scrambled graphics or Kanji (Japanese) characters? I always thought it was funny the say Nintendo games can sometimes still work but with the graphics all FUBAR'ed. Usually a bit more cleaning gets them fixed again...
Originally posted by: stardust4ever
Paul, I'm more interested in restoring it that trading it in for a less crappy version. Your Panic Restaurant actually looks pretty nice and I have a worser carts in my collection. For Example, my DK Math has a label that's got holes in it, and I have a couple of carts with torn labels due to retail/rental stickers.
Glad you don't mind a little work to get a cart restored.
Saving a cart like that is great IMO>>>
At any rate, the contacts are mostly bare copper now, and still the game won't load. There also doesn't appear to be any cold solder joints or any other manufacture defects that would prevent this game from working. There was also no corrosion inside the game cart in the chip area, so I'm just gonna assume it can't be fixed...
The blockbuster sticker removed from the label, and I mostly got rid of the PVT mark. The rat sh!t was surprizingly easy to clean off the cart using diluted dish soap. I had previously picked up a 6-pak of really cheap toothbrushes for like $1 at Walmart. Just remember not to brush your teeth using the same toothbrush, yuk! I usually wrap gorrilla tape around the handles of any toothbrush I use for cleaning anything other than teeth.
Here's the pics:
I'd probably check the cap and resistor, I don't know much about how carts work but it's a quick and easy fix if thats what it is.
Originally posted by: Laseki
Can't help but wonder if there is a way to swap the chips with a similar board somehow, either way the thing looks pretty damn nice now.
You bring up an interesting point. Assuming the ROMs are good, it would technically be possible to desolder the mask ROMs and swap out another working TLROM-03 PCB, which would technically still be 100% authentic since it uses original ROMs. But would it be ethical to restore the game in this manner? If it was a cheapo game, I don't think anyone would care, but for a ~$300 game, some collectors might get upset if there'sevidence of tampering, even if it was 100% authentic. Anyone watched the excellent documentary "King of Kong" where they broke into Steve Wiebie's home to inspect his hardware?
Originally posted by: stardust4ever
Originally posted by: Laseki
Can't help but wonder if there is a way to swap the chips with a similar board somehow, either way the thing looks pretty damn nice now.
You bring up an interesting point. Assuming the ROMs are good, it would technically be possible to desolder the mask ROMs and swap out another working TLROM-03 PCB, which would technically still be 100% authentic since it uses original ROMs. But would it be ethical to restore the game in this manner? If it was a cheapo game, I don't think anyone would care, but for a ~$300 game, some collectors might get upset if there'sevidence of tampering, even if it was 100% authentic. Anyone watched the excellent documentary "King of Kong" where they broke into Steve Wiebie's home to inspect his hardware?
So what are you going to do with it?
In this kind of situation I think it's reasonable to swap pcb's if the roms are still functional, especially if you can find an identical revision. There's nothing unique about the board, and while it would be nice if the original board worked, we can't always be so lucky.
I've personally fixed two games in similar situations - Metal Storm with what I think was a bad mapper, and Earthbound with what I think was bad ram. To me the original mask rom is the most important part, and it's worth trading a bad original pcb to have a working rare game.
What would high profile collectors have to say about a PCB swap?
Originally posted by: stardust4ever
Apparently, TLROM-03 is a very common board, which is good. I found "Whomp-Em" in my Nintendo collection, a game I don't particularly have any strong feelings for, which uses a TLROM-03 board, but it has an MMC3B chip, whereas Panic Restaurant uses MMC3C. I don't really think there's a hill of beans difference with the MMC revisions, but I still want it to be authentic. Also, the 2.2uF capacitor is blue instead of black.
What would high profile collectors have to say about a PCB swap?
you can search for specific chips on bootgod's site.
http://bootgod.dyndns.org:7777/search.php?region_op=%3D%60%40%60®ion=USA&partno_op=LIKE+%60%25%40%25%60&partno=mmc3c&field=2&order=asc&rows=400&rfa=1+2+11+3+9+20+41+53
I would only be concerned with getting the board revision and mapper version correct. The capacitor is probably a generic part- the color would not be specific to the game.
As for value, doing a working transplanted rom might not be worth the same as a working all-original example, but it's worth a heck of a lot more than a dead original.
Working or not, if or when I decide to let go of it, I will post a separate thread about it in the marketplace forums.
UPDATE: I picked up a fresh Home Alone 2 cart today from Bossier City Game-X-Change. Same $4.95 price as the Panic Restaurant, LOL! The pins look to be pretty good shape and the game cart loaded fine in my NES although I haven't actually played it yet. Title screen music is highly annoying though. Hopefully the surgery goes well. I'll keep you posted...
Top: Desoldering Iron from Radio Shack. This wonderful contraption has more than paid for itself!
Left: Old Panic Restaurant PCB.
Bottom Left: Original Home Alone 2 PCB with Panic Restaurant mask ROMs.
Right: Home Alone 2 "Organ Donor" (with bonus mustache, because Macaulay Culkin's a prick)
Center: Worthless Home Alone 2 mask ROMs, and the lockout chip off the original Panic Restaurant PCB board (I may keep the lockout chip for a future project).
I don't have plans to sell or trade the game at this time so please don't PM me.
If / when I decide to pass it on, I will post about it in the marketplace forum.
Originally posted by: stardust4ever
BUMP. I have successfully transplanted the mask ROMs off the bad Panic Restaurant PCB and onto the good Home Alone 2 PCB. Surgery was a success! I popped it into the NES and was greeted with a wonderful Panic Restaurant title screen.
Top: Desoldering Iron from Radio Shack. This wonderful contraption has more than paid for itself!
Left: Old Panic Restaurant PCB.
Bottom Left: Original Home Alone 2 PCB with Panic Restaurant mask ROMs.
Right: Home Alone 2 "Organ Donor" (with bonus mustache, because Macaulay Culkin's a prick)
Center: Worthless Home Alone 2 mask ROMs, and the lockout chip off the original Panic Restaurant PCB board (I may keep the lockout chip for a future project).
I don't have plans to sell or trade the game at this time so please don't PM me.
If / when I decide to pass it on, I will post about it in the marketplace forum.
Awesome job! For 10 bucks and some of your time, U now have a Gem!!
I have this Konami LCD handheld that can sometimes get pricy for what it is of Gradius but the seller(ebay) sent me a broken one I had to reassemble creatively.
Great job fixing it, looks as original as it should. Have fun playing it I hear it's fun.