So I'm been looking around in here...

[Mtrapp]

Yes, this is my first post, but I've done a lot of looking around in this forum. Are many of you guys electricians/technicians or students in electrical engineering? Some of the stuff on here is incredible... I couldn't even imagine how long the simplest of mods and console hacking would take me. I'm just an average college student working towards an accounting degree, but I know jack squat when it comes to electronics. I mean, I've taken apart my xbox360 in an effort to fix E74 (it didn't work, lol.), but other than that the most impressive thing I've done electronically speaking is probably fixing my xbox 360 headset, and even for that all I had to do was open it up and re-solder the wire for audio output back onto the board XD. So tell me, are you all geniuses, or is it not that hard to learn about this stuff? :0
I see that there's some kind of basic book for learning how to mod and stuff, but I'm sure there's other info online... I just recently decided that I'm gonna try fixing my original GameBoy, but I'm sure it's not going to be very tough, I'll find out when my triwing screwdriver comes in, but I'd like to get into this kinda stuff a little bit. Maybe to do something like adding a backlight to an original gameboy, making a USB connection for a SNES controller, maybe eventually make a portable NES or something. I guess what I really want to know is how much time does it take to learn to do some of this stuff, and is it really costly? I'm a poor college student, I don't really have much spare money or time for that matter =/.

Anyway, hello to whoever reads this, I seriously am very impressed on like most of the stuff on the forum here, good work guys.

[collinE]

The book we usually refer to is the one that Benheck wrote. It shows you how to portablize the nes, snes, psone, and atari. I'm not sure if anyone has made one, exactly like the book shows, in a while. We usually just use it to get an idea of the basic steps we need to take and then modify it a bit to fit our case design.

very few of us are electricians or engineers. I'd say most of the members here are teenagers or at least started as teenagers with little or no experience. I had less experience than you when I first started and learned everything I know from these forums pretty much, or at least what's linked to in these forums.

welcome and good luck. it's a fun hobby.

[Mtrapp]

Thanks for the posts guys, and I like your idea Raizer - I actually have 3 original NES systems.. the only multiples of any that I own (2 not working, they have the flashing red light of death). So either this weekend or sometime soon I'm gonna take a look and see if I can fix em'. If I do, maybe I'll be able to use one of the spare ones for some type of mod

[OMGpedobear]

Good idea to start out fixing stuff , but cneaky but offer to fix friends/relatives dead stuff, if you cock it up jsut sya you cant fix it hehe. I am 14 so definitely not an enigineer or electrician, yet.hehe. Good luck and welcome to ben heck .

[Basement_Modder]

It's not that difficult at all. I'm 15, and made 2 N64p's (1st one fried literally 2 hours after I finished it.) and got pretty far on a GCp at 14, and attempted an N64p at 12. So...

Granted, I began soldering at 9. My skills were still mediocre at best when I first tried. You learn this stuff quick, and, next thing you know, you have no friends, and you live in your basement modding XBox controllers for $40, with the hope that the kids at school that commissioned you will stop calling you a nerd. I'm a geek, damn it! A GEEK!!!1!

So anyway, yup.

[Bino Gas]

next thing you know, you have no friends, and you live in your basement modding XBox controllers for $40, with the hope that the kids at school that commissioned you will stop calling you a nerd.

I do it for $20 + parts. Good business.

[nevermind1534]

Thanks for the posts guys, and I like your idea Raizer - I actually have 3 original NES systems.. the only multiples of any that I own (2 not working, they have the flashing red light of death). So either this weekend or sometime soon I'm gonna take a look and see if I can fix em'. If I do, maybe I'll be able to use one of the spare ones for some type of mod

Sounds like your 2 NES consoles need new 72 pin connectors. I can sell them to you if you want to replace them. You may also want to look into disabling the lockout chip.

[Mtrapp]

Yeah, I am giong to open them up when I get the chance (they're at home and I'm at school right now), hopefully I can get to it soon, I'm gonna see if I can tweak the 72 pin connectors and see if I can get them to work. What exactly is the point of disabling the louckout chip though? From what I've read about it, you are able to play foreign games when it's disabled, but is there any other use in disabling it?
Thanks

[palmertech]

Yeah, for some odd reason, it tends to make it less likely for games to not boot up due to dirty connections.