Introduction and a bunch of questions

[son_ov_hades]

Since no one has said it, I think its really cool that you're from Iceland! I need to get there before I die.

[botulismo]

Very neat Pictures, Kiddo. I wish my first purchase had been pirate games, but aside from some people on this forum I don't know anywhere else to find them. Ebay has them occasionally, but sometimes people report them and they disappear.

That's some amazingly bad English on the back of those cartridges. Let me ask you one thing. Are the games the original Japanese games, or are they in English or another language, and are you playing them without any NTSC -> PAL adapter? Sorry if you've said these things, I don't see them in your posts, but it wouldn't be the first time I've missed something. Just curious is all.  It's nice to see new stuff.

[Kiddo]

Haha even some of my NES games are pirates as well. It might be interesting to look into who the supplier here in Iceland was back in the days and see where he got his carts and consoles from (This might sound boring but I'm a student of history and find things like these interesting  )

I've been trying to put up online ads to obtain more Famicom games here but everyone just tries to sell me NES games. It seems like I'll have to buy carts online if I want to go into collecting or just give it up and collect the NES games instead.

Let me ask you one thing. Are the games the original Japanese games, or are they in English or another language, and are you playing them without any NTSC -> PAL adapter?

As for the NTSC/PAL questions I don't really know much about that really, this is the first time I give these games a thought since I last played them roughly 12 years ago. But I don't use an adaptor for the Famicom carts but I use an adaptor when playing the NES carts and I can play them all, even the "NASA" carts.

Most of the games are in english but some of them are in japanese. Some of the japanese games are virtually unplayable because of they are in japanese. For example I can't really play the Dragonball game because it seems to be a very story driven game with alot of cutscenes with the characters speaking in japanese. Also the game I don't know the name of (The one with the picture of that barbarian-kid throwing a captain america looking shield whilst being stalked by a robot? Does anyone know what that one is called?) is in japanese. I haven't really gotten far in that one either because I don't know what to do, but in the game you can walk into caves where you meet meditating giants that say something in japanese which is probably  a tip as how to advance but I have no idea what they are saying. 
But the more linear games like Chip & Dales I have no problem with even though they are in japanese.

Since no one has said it, I think its really cool that you're from Iceland! I need to get there before I die.

Thank you! 
This is best time to travel here, with the economic collapse, almost all foreign currencies are worth twice what they were worth in 2007. If that's not enough to convince you to come, take a look at this video released by the icelandic tourism ministry :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npawmHVaf-E

Thanks for all the feedback guys, much appreciated.

[UglyJoe]

Also the game I don't know the name of (The one with the picture of that barbarian-kid throwing a captain america looking shield whilst being stalked by a robot? Does anyone know what that one is called?) is in japanese. I haven't really gotten far in that one either because I don't know what to do, but in the game you can walk into caves where you meet meditating giants that say something in japanese which is probably  a tip as how to advance but I have no idea what they are saying.  \

That would be Argos no Senshi: Hacha Mecha Daishingeki, known as Rygar outside of Japan.

[Xious]

Do the Famicom games have a Region setting as the NES had or can I play any and all Famicom cartridges I find? And on a sidenote, can I also play every NES cartridge?

Not a region setting, exactly; Most PAL games will run on an NTSC system and visa versa, with some exceptions. If you need a technical explanation of what keeps them from running, let me know and I'll point you to the correct datum.

The girl that sold me the console told me that the guy who she is selling the consoles for has a bunch of them and they are all in mint condition. There are two Famiclone variations that they are selling. The one I bough was the polish Pegasus IQ-502 (Kinda looks nothing like original Famicom) while the other one is the Televison Computer system HT-767 (Looks similiar to the Famicom). I was wondering if there is a market for selling these online or if they are shunned by the Famicom community for being clones.   
The reason I ask is because they are selling them for a very low price and it crossed my mind that if I bought them all I might turn a small profit by selling them again.

Newly-made clones (NOAC type) aren't valuable unless there is something terribly unusual about them. Full hardware clones (such as the Dendy, and possibly your Microgenius/Pegasus if it is a full HW clone) are more valuable however, and you could potentially re-sell them for a margin, but nothing huge if you flood the market. If you want to maximize your money, buy the entire stock and sell one at a time slowly.

On the Pegasus IQ-502. Is there anything you can tell me about it? Is it reliable, does it play all games etc? Also is it possible to get a light-gun for it?

I'm pretty sure that the Pegasus is a rebadged Microgenius, and may be a full hardware clone, and not a NOAC. If it is a full clone, with individually cloned components, then it is far more compatible and accurate. NOAC systems are notorious for being inaccurate, glitch-y and unable to play many of the more complex games.

Most often, they suffer from random graphics glitches, wrong colour palettes, and incorrect sound. i have a perfect example of a handheld clone with SMB: Mario is blue and green, the sky is glitching and the sounds are too sharp. Still if this doesn't bother you, then NOAC is alright for your needs... Personally, I can't stand playing on them.

They also lack support for complex mappers, custom mappers, extra sound and many other good stuff, so quite a lot of games either won't run, or break. I could probably name more broken games and unplayable games than games that run at this point, from my usual library of selections. Even 'Tetris 2+Bombliss' won't run, because the mapper is unsupported , and if I can't play that, then the system is useless to me.

Full HW clones usually don't have such severe problems: generally speaking, the biggest problem is that they have odd sounds or slightly off-colour palettes, but not completely wrong like NOAC systems. They may even (occasionally) support Extra Sound, such as the Dendy clones, if memory serves.

If you open the case, and post a photoI can tell you what it is.

And a bonus question. After learning about the Famiclones I got wondering if my old Famicom might be a clone as well. It looks just like the Red/White Famicoms but it is Grey/White. Also it doesn't have a Microphone on the second controller but it has turbo settings. Is my old Famicom a clone?

That's a clone. If you open it up and post photos of its guts, I can identify it for you.

Thanks a bunch in advance!

No worries.

[jpx72]

Wow never imagined that Iceland's nintendo/famicom market was so similar to Slovakian one (and I think the one in Poland also)!
I also bought my first "nintento" in an official electronics store for about 100€ back in the days, but now I know that it was a full hardware famicom clone, with turbo buttons and detachable controllers.

Almost nobody here has original Famicom cartridges (they were never sold here), only pirates are common here (in chinese shops or at  flea markets), NES carts were always really expensive and rare so not many here, no NES pirates from what I've seen so far. There were a bunch of people that bought an original NES, but the lack of cartridges and/or adapters made them uninterresting. So almost anybody that claims here that has nintendo (or in many cases "Sega" !!!) has usually an ordinary famiclone, with a bunch of yellow cheaply made pirate cartridges, and almost 99% glob-types (without proper ROMs inside).

Now I have many original/pirates of FC/NES cartridges, PAL and NTSC, a couple of famiclones (PAL only) and a PAL NES, NTSC NES and NTSC Famicom (running on several PAL and NTSC compatible TVs). And from what I've seen so far, every cartridge was able to run on every system I've got (with or without a 60-72 converter). Only difference is the change of gameplay/sound speed between PAL and NTSC systems (although I don't have Akumajou Densetsu).

From what I've seen on your photos, all your FC carts are pirates (I love the Duck tales label !!). The two brighter NES carts also. By the way, I was also thinking about selling some famiclones, mainly the keyboard-types, because they sell for 10€ here, but I understand that not many people would like the PAL version of those, because NTSC countries have trouble running PAL systems.

But I highly recommend you to buy a NTSC NES or an original Famicom, because all your games can be played at a faster speed, the way they were intended to play. NTSC system's speed is GODLIKE!

(Just a small addition to the "sega" name of famiclones - here's a good one - CLICK. You must understand that a famiclone can have anything written on top, also "Sega Mega Drive").

[Kiddo]

That would be Argos no Senshi: Hacha Mecha Daishingeki, known as Rygar outside of Japan.

Thanks for the identification. After looking it up I found an article that says the game is unbeatable in some versions cause of a programming flaw when fighting the last boss. Is there a way for me to find out if this is the case with my Rygar game?

@Xious: I might pick you up on that offer soon if I get myself around to screwing the consoles apart. Would be nice to know where my original clone comes from and if my Pegasus is a NOAC or not.

Wow never imagined that Iceland's nintendo/famicom market was so similar to Slovakian one (and I think the one in Poland also)!
I also bought my first "nintento" in an official electronics store for about 100€ back in the days, but now I know that it was a full hardware famicom clone, with turbo buttons and detachable controllers.

Almost nobody here has original Famicom cartridges (they were never sold here), only pirates are common here (in chinese shops or at  flea markets), NES carts were always really expensive and rare so not many here, no NES pirates from what I've seen so far. There were a bunch of people that bought an original NES, but the lack of cartridges and/or adapters made them uninterresting. So almost anybody that claims here that has nintendo (or in many cases "Sega" !!!) has usually an ordinary famiclone, with a bunch of yellow cheaply made pirate cartridges, and almost 99% glob-types (without proper ROMs inside).

Actually it was quite the opposite here. 99% of gamers had the offical NES system and around 95% or so of the carts were offical Nintendo carts. I only know of a handful of people that had the same Famiclone I had back then (the grey/white one), and people that had them usually had more NES games to play on those (with the adaptor) than they had in Famicom carts. But from what I've learned in the last few days it seems the whole icelandic Famicom market was in pirated goods like in Slovakia from what you describe.
Of course when the Sega Mega Drive came out a lot of people abandoned their NES in favor of more colorful and faster paced 16 bit  games, including me 

From what I've seen on your photos, all your FC carts are pirates (I love the Duck tales label !!). The two brighter NES carts also. By the way, I was also thinking about selling some famiclones, mainly the keyboard-types, because they sell for 10€ here, but I understand that not many people would like the PAL version of those, because NTSC countries have trouble running PAL systems.

But I highly recommend you to buy a NTSC NES or an original Famicom, because all your games can be played at a faster speed, the way they were intended to play. NTSC system's speed is GODLIKE!

Not sure if I'll be buying another Famiclone or an original Famicom for that matter since it seems that collecting for the Famicom is a lost cause when you live on an island in the atlantic. I'll probably just try and pick up a NES system and collect those.

Also didn't realise the famiclones played the games slower. But how would I know, thats all I've ever used 

[botulismo]

Not sure if I'll be buying another Famiclone or an original Famicom for that matter since it seems that collecting for the Famicom is a lost cause when you live on an island in the atlantic. I'll probably just try and pick up a NES system and collect those.

Also didn't realise the famiclones played the games slower. But how would I know, thats all I've ever used  

Awww, that shouldn't stop you. Heck, you might even be able to trade pirate cartridges for official famicom cartridges with some people on here. Look at how much interest your stuff has generated on here. Also, there's several stores online that sell official cartridges that ship worldwide. I would look at the ability to buy pirate cartridges locally a bonus. As far as Japanese games go, I've only ever seen 2 or 3 Super Famicom cartridges for sale in my city, ever. With 500,000 people, there should be more than that! I'd kill for a store that sold anything Famicom related, pirates or not.

I noticed on that Famicom games list thread you said your Ninja Gaiden III doesn't work. Could it be dirty? I use cotton swabs (q-tips) and rubbing (isopropyl) alcohol. Just run it around both sides of the connector pins until there's no more dirt. Other people use window cleaner. Just make sure it dries. This seems to fix most cartridge errors for me.

[cubelmariomadness]

Also didn't realise the famiclones played the games slower. But how would I know, thats all I've ever used 

Not all clones go slow. Only games in PAL video regions go slower than NTSC. Does Iceland use PAL or NTSC?

[Kiddo]

Awww, that shouldn't stop you. Heck, you might even be able to trade pirate cartridges for official famicom cartridges with some people on here. Look at how much interest your stuff has generated on here. Also, there's several stores online that sell official cartridges that ship worldwide. I would look at the ability to buy pirate cartridges locally a bonus. As far as Japanese games go, I've only ever seen 2 or 3 Super Famicom cartridges for sale in my city, ever. With 500,000 people, there should be more than that! I'd kill for a store that sold anything Famicom related, pirates or not.

I've already made contact with a few people willing to sell me NES games but only one of them had any Famicom games and he was asking for more money than I was willing to pay for them. I actually saw your Rakuten thread and checked out their site and there are a lot of carts there that I'd like for a lot less money then what people are asking for here (in Iceland, not the forum). I'm trying to compile a list of what games I want (NEED) and then I might try and order some carts from them.
There used to be a time where you would see gamecarts on fleamarkets here and in "used CD/VHS/DVD/Vinyl/Games-stores" but alas, that time has long passed and the games have passed into obscurity 

I noticed on that Famicom games list thread you said your Ninja Gaiden III doesn't work. Could it be dirty? I use cotton swabs (q-tips) and rubbing (isopropyl) alcohol. Just run it around both sides of the connector pins until there's no more dirt. Other people use window cleaner. Just make sure it dries. This seems to fix most cartridge errors for me.

I must admit I never even thought about cleaning it. From the day I bought it, it didn't work. But this one time it did work and I played it for hours not wanting to turn off the game 
I'll try and clean it, will let you know if it works.

Not all clones go slow. Only games in PAL video regions go slower than NTSC. Does Iceland use PAL or NTSC?

I'm pretty sure we have (had? are these systems still in effect with stuff?) the PAL system.

[botulismo]

Darn, that stinks that stuff is so overpriced there. If I had any extra Famicom stuff to offer to trade for some of those pirate cartridges, I would. Maybe one day I will have more than I need, but right now my collection is small. Almost every NES game is something from my childhood, so it's not something I'd be willing to trade.

It's sort of funny though. NES games are so common. I can go to a used bookstore and most cartridges there are $1-$4, maybe a couple dollars more if it's a rarer game. Of course, this is without manual and box. Of course, I'm not looking for NES games, I'm looking for Famicom!

I hope Rakuten works out for you. It really worked out for me. I got so much more than I could have gotten on Ebay. Let me know if the cleaning works out for you. I've gotten several cartridges that people told me didn't work as extras from purchases, and every single time what they needed was a good cleaning. I'm not saying cartridges don't break, just most of the time the reason they don't start is because of dirt.

I've already made contact with a few people willing to sell me NES games but only one of them had any Famicom games and he was asking for more money than I was willing to pay for them. I actually saw your Rakuten thread and checked out their site and there are a lot of carts there that I'd like for a lot less money then what people are asking for here (in Iceland, not the forum). I'm trying to compile a list of what games I want (NEED) and then I might try and order some carts from them.
There used to be a time where you would see gamecarts on fleamarkets here and in "used CD/VHS/DVD/Vinyl/Games-stores" but alas, that time has long passed and the games have passed into obscurity 
I must admit I never even thought about cleaning it. From the day I bought it, it didn't work. But this one time it did work and I played it for hours not wanting to turn off the game 
I'll try and clean it, will let you know if it works.