Product reviewsNintendo SNES Home Console - Gray

Accurately describes what the person is buying.

The product was clean and well packaged. Functions just fine. The main complaint -- I did buy second-hand -- is that the reset button does not work. Someone stole my original console (which I hope to give my kids someday). The device functions just fine. Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: lukiegames

Love the 1 chip but...

Received the console in a timely manner but, it kept going into a black screen as I played it. I thought at first it was just mystical ninja game but, then as I played yoshis island it did the same thing. I’m assuming the cartridge slot needs to be cleaned. So I did so and still same issue. I have another snes it never does this to me so I know it’s not the cartridges. Bit pricey for a hit or miss console Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: michelljone25

Awesome memories + Japanese games = new dejavu love

Super NES, Japanese version - need I say more? Still fun, still functional after all this time. I only hope you get one half as nice as the guy who kept this one. Truly he loved it. (Thank you sir! *salute* ) Took it to a Legends of Galactic Heroes party and everyone had a blast. If you loved SNES before, try the Japanese collection of games out for new found love all over again. Hookups are no worry for new LED/LCD TVs - mine sync'd with it no problem. Just make sure yours still has a composite input. If not, or if you want to use a regular computer monitor, a small Composite- VGA adapter works great.Read full review...

Great system, would reccomend!

The NES-101 is a MUST HAVE for any Nintendo fan. For so many reasons, too many to even list, so I'll choose my favorite reason:

My #1 reason for loving my purchase of a NES-101 is because there's no need to try and try to get the games to load correctly, and you won't get a frozen game halfway through playing, or glitchy screen. No more need to try and do the old trick where you stick a game on top to hold the game down on the older system, and no need to constantly use the trick of loading with a game genie to get the games to load. Pop the game in, flip the switch, and 99% of the time, the games load perfectly. If they don't, pull it out, pop back in, and it does the second time, every time, as opposed to spending 5 minutes on the regular system sometimes.

You pop a game in, turn it on, and it works. Pretty much how you've always wanted your Nintendo to do your entire life.Read full review...

Great Retro Console

The SNES is still alive today through resells of the old console. The one I got is still working and plays as good as it was back in the day. If you get a feel for the nostalga of Retro gaming, you can't go wrong with the SNES! Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: eyardstore

Best of the Best

If you have a standard American TV, this is the best video quality your NES is capable of. Rather than externally transcoding from RGB, this does it internally for you, requiring only a single run of component cable. Be sure to purchase a 1/8" mono-to-stereo audio adapter in order to be able to use standard RCA audio from this unit. I am extremely happy.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: jwilk21

Awesome Prodct! Well worth it from the results it gives you!!

I would honestly love to give my opinions and thoughts about the NES Toploader. All I have to say is this machine is a miracle maker. Lets turn back time and look back in 1985, you got yourself some very nice NES games and you want to play them. Unfortunatly the Nintendo system has a bad connection problem and you have to fidget around with it and hope it doesnt glitch up on you. Then this model came out and threw that problem out the window. The connection is perfect and I can leave the game running for more that ten minutes and not have to worry about the game reseting or glitching up on me. I will admit though, I have run into a few problems, but that are so little to hurt this model. All in all, the NES Toploader is a perfect buy and definately recommeneded for old school gamers and video game collectors. You won't be dissapointed with the results this system brings to your video game collection.Read full review...

My SNES buy

Just got home with it today. I'm greatly pleased with the condition of the console given the years it's been out. I do, however, have some highs and lows that I'd like to go through albeit knowing that it's used, but may be reference for future buyers ♡

The console itself looks very good. It does have a little yellow near the controller ports, which isn't terrible. But it was a buying point when it was advertised as no yellowing but after getting it I think I can live with it.

The AC adapter and AV cables aren't stock, which was surprising but hey they work great and shouldn't be an issue unless you're looking for original parts.

The controller is probably the low point. And yeah I know it's used condition and a broad term but here's what I got. The cord and connector are perfect condition, no twisting or tearing at all. I find the shoulder, ABYX and start select buttons work very well, maybe a 7/10 for freshness. The dpad however is a bit more worn in and not very well responsive as it seems a lot of weight has been used on the down direction specifically. The controller is also quite yellow, I'd say probably 6/10 yellowing if 1 is no yellow at all and 10 being the worst. There's also a little crack on the bottom middle where plastic is missing.

Hope this is helpful to future buyers.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: grizzlygaming

retro gaming from the 90's!!!!

In my respect for the SNES. It was one of the best consoles in the 90's, not only did it have great graphics, for the time but you didn't have to wait on load time, for the games to load up like in PS1, 2 3 and 4! it's easier to hook up, say then the Atari 2600 was. The button lay out on the controller was much more advanced for the time on the SNES controller then with the NES controller! The system has a straight up eject button where you could just eject the cart, the with the ps2 you had to wait for the draw to open to eject the game. The console itself had many great games, RPG, FPS, MMO's, ect!!! Certain games had a save function for example THE LEGEND OF ZELDA A LINK TO THE PAST AND FINAL FANSTY I, II, AND III games. where other games on the snes had no saving feature, I can't think of anymore games off the top of my head. the carts for the snes sometimes yes you had to clean them, unlike cd's that will get scratched. Bring back the retro 90's for gaming! there is only 3 ways of hooking the SNES to a TV, using R/F or Radio frequency which is the screw on type which the video resolution is 480 interlaced, A/v which brings a better picture, and s-video which a/v and s-video are a better way of hooking up the system to the tv then R/F is!Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: ebyot

Good bundle for reasonable price

Good Buy for the price. As it is an older system it may need to be reset occasionally to work when loading a new game but that was expected. Hard to get the smell of smoke/cigarettes off of it but that's what you get for buying used products. Overall, it works as expected and was a great deal for everything bundled.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: electric-mayhem...

NES Top Loader

I have been getting back into classic NES gaming and of course, the more I've been using my NES the more I've been frustrated by white screens, flashing screens and system lock-ups. I had heard that these issues don't generally exist on the NES-101 (top loader) so I bought one. All the games load up instantly and I have yet to see a white screen or a flashing screen. However, there is one draw back to this system. Read on.

The NES was based on Nintendo's Famicom system (released only in parts of Asia). For the North American release, there were fears that the video game crash of 1983 would hurt sales of the NES. So the system was designed as an entertainment system that could sit side by side with other A/V components. Thus the front loading system which resembled a videocassette player was developed. The NES even has composite A/V jacks which at the time were revolutionary for a video game system. The result of all this (and other strategies) lead to the most successful video game system in history.

However, there were some limitations and design flaws that created aggravation with NES owners.

First was the 10NES chip, a security lock-out chip that prevented unauthorized titles from running on the NES. If the game cartridge and the 10NES chip didn't successfully establish a security handshake, the 10NES would reset the system. This would be the infamous flashing screen.

Second was the design of the cartridge connector. This is basically a U-shaped adapter that connects the top of the NES to the bottom of the NES where the system board is. The insertion of a cartridge, and then depressing of the cartridge put unnecessary strain on the adapters' pins. After a few years of use, or if a game was stored in the system, these pins could end up flattened in such a way that proper contact between a game and itself would not be possible.

The NES-101 (or top loader) was released in 1993 and addressed both of those issues, but introduced a new issue.

First, it got rid of the 10NES lock out chip. This was done to cut costs and most publishers had moved on to the SNES. (although games were developed for the NES all the way up to 1995)

Second, while the NES looked nice next the other AV equipment, it was large and had a lot of extra empty room inside. The NES-101 got rid of all that extra space (and the original U-shaped cartridge connector) and made the system top loading.

Those two changes allowed the NES-101 to play any NES game whether it's licensed, unlicensed or dirty.

But, with the reduction in size and cost savings measures they also got rid of the composite A/V connectors. This means that the system is limited to an RF connection. While this okay, they also skimped on parts and shielding. The resulting video has faint vertical lines across the screen.

There are a small number of NES-101's in circulation that have the SNES/N64/Gamecube style AV connector port. The only NES-101 systems to receive this port were systems that customers sent in during the warranty phase with complaints of poor video.

What to do?

For the NES one can cut a pin on the system board to disable the 10NES chip. One can bend back flattened pins on the Cartridge connector (or buy a replacement connector). One could also disassemble the actual NES cartridges and clean the contacts.

For an NES-101 one can solder on AV ports.

This is a catch-22 for one that would like to retain the equipment in an original state and play the games.Read full review...