NES lockout chip

NESBest · Post by **NESBest** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 3:04 pm

i know i said i finished my lockout chip and it works, and it still works, im just not sure why and its kind of bothering me. on my switch i have pin four soldered to the middle leg, ground on one leg, and 5v(where pin four was originally hooked up to) on the other leg. i found that the switch still works even when not hooked up to 5V. i tested it with no cart and in one position it blinks, and the other position it doesnt. this doesnt make sense, b/c for it to blink like a stock nes would with no cart, it must be hooked up to 5V, which it is not, any ideas?

MM007 · Post by **MM007** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 4:17 pm

Well, I'm not sure what happened there...the best advice I can give you is when something similar happened when I wired an SNES controller internal..."If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

NESBest · Post by **NESBest** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 8:16 pm

haha, a friend said a similar thing, thanks for the advice!

Kenny_McCormic · Post by **Kenny_McCormic** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 8:21 am

wait a minute WHY would u want to add a switc to the lockout chip?
why not just make it always off it would be cheaper that way

MM007 · Post by **MM007** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 12:51 pm

Because it is said that some games mess up without the lockout chip. I haven't encountered it on the NES, but I have on the SNES, and it is the same chip, so it is certainly possible. It's best to throw in a switch to be absolutely certain of compatibility.

olderthanyouthink · Post by **olderthanyouthink** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 3:02 pm

Best guess, when you don't have the pin connected to anything, it "floats" at 5V because of its internal circuitry. Of course it could be any number of other reasons as well.

I would expect this type of thing to be real hit-and-miss even among chips that are otherwise identical.

If it works without connecting it to 5V, you just saved yourself a wire :)

arfink · Post by **arfink** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 3:24 pm

There is only one game I can think of which might mess up as a result of the lockout chip not working. That is the prototype of the USA localization of Mother, also known as the Earthbound prototype for NES. I do not know for certain, but that is about the only game I can think of that could possibly have this happen. Even so, my guess is that it would not matter anyway, since you cannot, without making a special mapper for the cartridge, check the status of whether the lockout chip is working or not.

A_Username · Post by **A_Username** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 4:53 pm

NESBest wrote:i know i said i finished my lockout chip and it works, and it still works, im just not sure why and its kind of bothering me. on my switch i have pin four soldered to the middle leg, ground on one leg, and 5v(where pin four was originally hooked up to) on the other leg. i found that the switch still works even when not hooked up to 5V. i tested it with no cart and in one position it blinks, and the other position it doesnt. this doesnt make sense, b/c for it to blink like a stock nes would with no cart, it must be hooked up to 5V, which it is not, any ideas?

Just cut pin 4 on the lockout chip to disable it, just looked through some tengen game instructions and they said to "cut the master/slave pin, pin #4 to disable it and enjoy all your tengen games.

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NES lockout chip

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