Castlevania III pins missing

Discussion and listing of Retron 5 cartridge compatibility.
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link2past
Posts: 9
Joined: December 28th, 2015, 7:05 pm

Castlevania III pins missing

Post by link2past » January 4th, 2016, 11:48 pm

Just got a copy of Castlevania III and noticed that it has what appears to be missing pins in most of the middle and 1 on a side edge. Looks to me like they were there and aren't anymore, but I read that they shipped this way and that means that it won't be readable by anything but a front-loading NES?? Of course before I was looking to acquire a copy I had checked to make sure it was compatible with the Retron 5. Sooooo that's confusing to me...

Couldn't get it to recognize the game nor load more than a white screen, even after cleaning it. I have no prior experience with an NES or it's games(mostly SNES and some Genesis), so I'm not sure if I'm just missing something here or I need to get a different copy of the game because this one is broken or an incompatible release or what.

link2past
Posts: 9
Joined: December 28th, 2015, 7:05 pm

Re: Castlevania III pins missing

Post by link2past » January 6th, 2016, 3:45 pm

I have since opened the game up and the pins do appear correct as utilized by the board. However, I have cleaned it even more; it's about as clean as can be and yet still unrecognized and a white screen. Board looks to be pretty good condition. So I'm just really perplexed...

DeathByBFG
Posts: 43
Joined: October 4th, 2015, 9:32 pm

Re: Castlevania III pins missing

Post by DeathByBFG » January 6th, 2016, 7:31 pm

Based on what you described I believe the pins are correct. My copy has the same setup. Castlevania 3 was one of the harder games to emulate. However, mine did work on the Retron 5. What firmware are you using?

link2past
Posts: 9
Joined: December 28th, 2015, 7:05 pm

Re: Castlevania III pins missing

Post by link2past » January 6th, 2016, 7:41 pm

I'm on 2.2

DeathByBFG
Posts: 43
Joined: October 4th, 2015, 9:32 pm

Re: Castlevania III pins missing

Post by DeathByBFG » January 6th, 2016, 7:52 pm

I believe I am too. The first time I put C3 in it reported it was an unknown cart. Then I fiddled with the cart accidentally while trying to take it out and then the Retron rescanned the game. Afterward it read it as Castlevania 3 and it played just fine. Is your reading it as C3 or Unknown.
I do recommend cleaning the game very thoroughly with isopropyl alcohol 91% or higher and some q-tips. You may need to use several q-tips.
Also, check the pins on your NES connector. Do they all still look okay?

link2past
Posts: 9
Joined: December 28th, 2015, 7:05 pm

Re: Castlevania III pins missing

Post by link2past » January 6th, 2016, 8:17 pm

It's always read as unknown and all I can get is a white screen. Fiddling hasn't gotten it to do anything for me; doesn't read it again unless I remove it. Opened it up and cleaned with 91% alcohol last night, buncha q-tips, can't get anything more off of it, looks pretty good. My NES slot hasn't really gotten any use and looks totally fine; cart goes in and out much smoother than my other slots which are bending up a bit and gripping too much...

link2past
Posts: 9
Joined: December 28th, 2015, 7:05 pm

Re: Castlevania III pins missing

Post by link2past » January 6th, 2016, 10:49 pm

Took it apart AGAIN. Used tin foil and then alcohol, vigorously, still no change. Had the Retron dump some SNES carts over and over again and then when I went back to Castlevania it took a lot longer to dump and it's still unknown but it loads up now and is playable but the graphics are all jumbled up...

DeathByBFG
Posts: 43
Joined: October 4th, 2015, 9:32 pm

Re: Castlevania III pins missing

Post by DeathByBFG » January 7th, 2016, 11:38 pm

A question for you. How do the Famicom pins look? One thing I've noticed is that if the pins in one slot are bad it can affect the slots behind it. A problem that I had several times were that the NES pins would get jacked up and create a short causing other slots behind it to have issues. For example, I would have bent pins in the NES connector and then try and put in an SNES or Genesis game and the Retron 5 wouldn't read it or read it as unknown. But putting a credit card or piece of paper between the bent NES pins would break the short and allow the R5 to read the other games properly. Maybe you're in the same boat?

Unfortunately a more likely scenario is just that this is one of those weird games where it's hard to read. You may have to fiddle with it a lot to get the Retron 5 to read it properly if at all.

A tip though. I was able to get it to work but one problem I would have is that when I went back to play is that the R5 wouldn't load the last known state properly and the game would be in a frozen and graphically glitchy mess. I can be meticulous so whenever I'm done playing I always do a save state. So when I would load C3 and the R5 would load the last known state before turning off (or removing the cart, whatever) it was essentially broken. However, if you load the last save state you should be gravy.

DeathByBFG
Posts: 43
Joined: October 4th, 2015, 9:32 pm

Re: Castlevania III pins missing

Post by DeathByBFG » January 7th, 2016, 11:41 pm

Ah! Another tip came to mind. Find yourself an NES-Famicom (72 pin to 60-pin) converter on eBay. Put Castlevania 3 on that converter and then put the whole thing in the Famicom slot. The Retron will tell you the Famicom slot is in use but will still read the game properly.
Unsure if you have familiarity with those adapters but when you put an NES game on the adapter make sure the game is backwards.

link2past
Posts: 9
Joined: December 28th, 2015, 7:05 pm

Re: Castlevania III pins missing

Post by link2past » January 8th, 2016, 1:06 am

Thanks for all your help! Took it apart and used various cleaning methods about 5-6 times over a few days. Finally got that garbled result after dumping some SNES games right before returning to my attempts. After a final vigorous effort with the foil and alcohol, a swap to SNES dumps followed by taking it in and out repeatedly, I got the Retron to make a larger dump and recognize it and run it properly. Now it sometimes takes 2 or 3 attempts at seating it but it recognizes it regularly! Dumping in the SNES slot, for whatever reason, did appear to have some effect...

And it's a helluva game!

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