I think I’ve been watching this channel for years

Fun fact: The Super Nintendo in PAL regions shared the same console, controller, and cartridge design as the Super Famicom. Only the US was different with their Super Nintendo.

Incredible deja vu in this video for MattKC's "Buying a $1 Wii from Japan." His Wii had similar visual output issues, and faulty capacitors was also the issue! He also had a nerve-racking experience attempting to replace them. Highly recommend the video if you haven't seen it.

The Famicom's design really aged very well. I really like how the controllers connect to the side and the cartages are smaller and easier to look at VS what we got in the USA

30:45 That pitcher had no idea what he was doing, walking two batters back-to-back like that.

Great job on your first time recapping! So glad it was successful!

I enjoyed seeing a more technical restoration video. Great job with the recapping!

Agreed about that box art, and I wouldn't be surprised if someone just squirted a bunch of flux on that board before reflowing it and never cleaned it off. I like the 8-Bit Guy's method for retro-brighting, because it seems to be the most thorough method all around.

I watched mattkc’s wii video and immediately knew what the problem was with the snes

The twist method works just fine. The important part with it is to not pull up as you could lift the trace pulling up. Personally I bought a cheap 858D hot air station and used that to desolder my SNES's caps.

i absolutely love the look of the super famicoms box. great vid

Bravo on your first recap! Well done.

Yo love the content bro, keep grinding ❤

Wow for a first time recapper and SMD to boot, that was nice work! As you said ignore the pitch forks and torches because someone will always get worked up about how you do it. It gets way easier as you go and I hope to see more videos like this.

You did great on those surface mounts!

Man nice job on that recapping, good stuff. I bodged my first surface mount attempt, lifted the pad right off the board because i was too scared to do the twist (heh). Naturally my 2nd attempt went just fine and replaced several, all because i did the twist anyway regardless of any fears. -my first ever full console recap was my childhood sega CDX.. to all the people whose hearts just stopped at hearing this; It was successful :^)).

MattKC fixed a similar issue on a Wii. The capacitors that smooth video out the signal were old and needed replacing. The whole testing, research, fixing process was very similar as well including the "best way to remove capacitors" conundrum.

Hey! I work at Sally Beauty, was shocked to see Salon Care developer in yet another non hair application! it works wonders for whitening yellowed objects up, however, make sure you restock your developer at least every year! Even if the cap is screwed tight, developer typically will last up to a year before degrading in quality/efficacy. Weirdly enough, it'll start to have similar qualities to spoiled milk, having an off smell and starting to 'curdle'. Just wanted to make sure as I haven't seen that labeling for it in a while :) Love your content, keep it up!

If you don't mind, I have some suggestions for your retro bighting setup. I got into all of the retrobrighting stuff last year, in the end, I got everything working perfectly every time. Get a large plastic storage tub with air tight lid, cover the entire of the inside with tin foil (including the lid). Then get some reels of UV LED stirps (I use 905nm), repeat the last step with the lights, covering the lid and sides of the tub in LEDS. Do the same clingfilm technique you used in the video (I think you call it seranwrap?). Place it inside the box, put the lid on and put the box on a heat mat. The heat mat is important because it activates the Peroxide. I'm sure you get advice about this stuff all the time, but this works perfect for me, every time, and I thought it might help you.

I would be too nervous to recap anything so I’m impressed you got right your first time

MJD, I’ve been watching you for a while now. Thank you for always making good content I can watch.

Honestly, "retrobrighting" isn't good for the console in the long run and would be fine leaving it brown. Good video though and I'm glad there is another in-depth repair video.

this is a really great video michael!!! love seeing your process of hardware troubleshooting (and gaming, of course)

Awesome episode! About the caps, Adrian Black from Adrian's Digital Basement use that method with some differences. In both his channels he recently made a full recap of Mac motherboards and explained everything about it too. And finally... The cool time-lapse is back! 😊

Famicom Tetris is fascinating because it was technically unlicensed, but it directly resulted in the same team doing Nintendo's international versions on Game Boy and NES. It also got two sequels in the form of Tetris 2/Super Tetris 2 (unrelated to the worldwide release) and Super Tetris 3, which are both significantly better. Though admittedly, the definitive version of Tetris in Japan is Sega's arcade version, which is as iconic there as the NES/GB versions are here.

The music and retrobrite makes me think of the 8-bit guy! Love both of your channels

Enjoyed being along for the process. Great vid

25:14 Might be worth reflowing the solder joints on all the chips inside the cart. I know some game boy carts have that problem where legs on the chips lose connection to the board and then of course the game doesn’t work.

you can leave hydrogen peroxide in water and bathe it in, getting the bubbles out twice a day. it doesn't require heat or light, it just takes a week, but it comes out perfect.

Man, excellent job at recapping the Super Famicom! I was like you when I wanted to, and decided to start learning how to recap, and as such, how to solder and desolder, my own Super Nintendo console last year. The first one I did, which is a console I've had since the early 2000s, I was successful with, did not lift or otherwise tear any pads off the pcb board, and it still works great now. I then decided to start buying and "collecting" earlier / SHVC model Super Nintendos off eBay... the first one, I was successful with. Then, the next one, is when I had my first experience with lifting / ripping a solder pad off the board. But overall, its been giving me practice and experience with doing that kind of work, and I'm not too upset that I messed up not just that 3rd console, but also a 4th replacement board I bought to put into that 3rd console. I went the method of, use a soldering iron to heat up one side of the surface-mount caps, and slowly and gently tilt that side of it upward, then switch over and do the same thing with the other side of it, and just back and forth maybe once more of each side until it comes off. Yes, that method has worked great for me, like I said, my first two times / first two console projects were successful with no damage on my part. I was afraid that the method you used, would no doubt lift or rip off pads, but I'm glad to know that, at least in your case, it didn't.

Great restoration! Makes me wonder now if you are going to continue on the Compaq Portable. I've been waiting for the second part in years.

Can we all agree MJD makes our day?

Nice work on the recap job. The Super Famicom is almost impossible to bring back to its original colour once it's that yellowed. Unfortunately they tend to just go from yellow to white if you retrobright them enough (no grey zone). And thanks for the shoutout!

Thank you so much MichaelMJD for your videos i've been watching your videos for a long time. I love your videos

This is really great. Possibly one of my favorites for restoration!

The OG Famicom's design did really age very well. 🎮 I really like how the controllers connect to the sides and the cartridges are smaller and easier to look at versus what we got here in the states.

Fantastic video. I was watching a bunch of retro console repairs, and then your new vid release, and boom similar subject. I hope to see that copy of Yoshi's Island working one day.

The 8 bit guy recapped a macentosh LC 2 and had simmeralar capacitors and used the same methead to pull them off and not damage the solder pad!!!

@MichaelMJD You did great! Your soldering technique was good, it seemed like you were being very careful and methodical with your approach to the work needing to be done and you seemed like you were taking things one step at a time. I say bravo! The only thing I would do different, and maybe do this in your restoration video, since that bottom of the SuperFam can't be restored to it's original color, spray paint it. Find a darker shade of grey that will match the top face and eject button. Lowes carries a great selection of paints but there are other places to buy them. It doesn't have to be exact, just close enough and it will look really sharp! I've done this myself to systems that have very bad discoloring. Also get a gloss clear coat to finish or it will look weird. Good luck and have fun!

Now, i did not expect to receive fixing, recaping and retrobrighting on this channel, what a surprise, but welcome one 👍

Congrats on your successful recap job! It's nerve wrecking as hell to have to do the surface mounts but is so satisfying when you succeed.

Having lived in Japan for since the early 2010s I don’t know how much you paid for the SFC but the condition is “woof”. A gem quality working SFC should’ve only cost about 4,000 yen at most. Yoshi’s island is a 110 yen game at most. The three games you got for the SFC that ranged 500 to 800 yen must have been from a tourist trap here. Be aware anyone buying vintage stuff from Japan these days. Due to a weak yen the junk items are being sold overseas at inflated prices. If you really want a working Yoshi’s Island I will send you one free of charge MJD because I love your content. Maybe some candy or something with it. Also, here in Japan there are USB adapters for the power input available as well as pre modified FCs with AV out.

Michael, try a plain old white eraser that you probably have lying around for that copy of Yoshi's Island. You'll see the dirt come off as you brush through the pins. You'd be surprised at how well it works at reviving cartridges.

When I bought my Famicom, it came with a composite video mod and a Chinese power adapter that could vary the output it was working with. For anyone looking into these consoles, I would recommend doing so as well.

$20 each for the FC and SFC is a huge deal. Amazing find and nice restoration vid!

I'm actually kind of annoyed to see this video doesn't seem to be doing as well as your other videos. I really liked this one and I appreciate that a lot of work went into this video...

The NES doesn't actually use AC, the AC goes directly to a bridge rectifier and nowhere else. So you can use a DC power supply with the NES, and either 50 or 60 Hz AC should be fine as well. It all ends up as DC at the bridge rectifier. They could've put the bridge rectifier in the power adapter like most things do, but I guess it was cheaper to do it this way, so they didn't have to add any circuitry to the power adapter, since it's just a big transformer.

i recently found out there are two through hole caps inside the RF housing in a SNES! crazy! congrats on your recap! it's so nice when it fires back up no problem!

If you encounter other devices with a messed up video output I can suggest using an analog b&w TV for testing. Their simpler circuitry can usually deal with an improper signal level better than newer televisions, and especially better than modern digital capture devices which expect a near-perfect signal.

time for a good time lapse ad plays

I have been watching you for about 3 years now. Thank you for all your content!!

I worked in electronics manufacturing for 30 years & twisting sm electrolytic caps is definitely the way to go. I never used braid to clean up pads though. I've seen to many people solder the braid to the pads & rip them off.

your videos are the ultimate calming experience

Where the heck do u find those for 20 bucks!

I really like when an MJD video become a Conan episode, explaining everything and finding the culprit.

the fact you still dont have a million subs at minimum is criminal

gratz on you fixing your Super Famicom! Bummer you got the revision with the old CPU. So I recommend you have as much fun with it as you can and get as much out of it as you can. Enjoy this device as it was made for enjoyment!

The nice thing about the the Famicom and Super Famicom is they have the same AC adapter, down to the part number. Additionally, it has the same specs/connector as the ones used with the Mega Drive 1 and PC Engine. I use my US Mega Drive adapter on my JP MD, Famicom, and SFC.

How could you get this for 20 dollar?? I never get a good deal…

I dont expect my comment to be read, but you can simply put your iron on the capacitor while ON. The heat will affect the capacitor's ESR value, thus making less resistive. Great trick for quick diagnosis. You might also want to measure any DC offset on each side of the capacitors, preventing a DC potential to get through a "leaky capacitor". That will negatively affect your signal fed to the television. In addition, you can get an oscilloscope to visually measure the signals and also a great way to get acquainted with a scope. For your solder, keep in mind that computer motherboard contains Lead Free solder. Over the counter iron for sale are for the most part decent for leaded solder. Acquiring regular board like any old device would be a much better option for practice. Motherboards needs lot of heat to work with. Good work all in all !

Actually a very early rev.1 Super Famicom that, where the Sony soundchip is located in the independent module next to the caps you recapped. Odd that Nintendo decided the sound circuitry needed such overkill shielding and isolation. The later revisions had the soundchip integrated on the main motherboard, with apparently no change in sound quality. Some folk like to claim that the early models might even have slightly noisier output.

you should make more develepmont history videos! windows 2000s history is pretty interesting! :D

Some advice from another person who learned soldering and electronics repair courtesy of youtube: Practicing on a PC motherboard is starting on hard mode. PC Motherboards are often 4+ layers of copper, and often have very large copper ground and power planes that take up 1-2 of those layers, so trying to get solder flowing on them is like pulling teeth. The huge copper plate acts like a heat sink and wicks away the heat on your soldering tip very quickly. Another issue with large multi-layer PCBs you want to be aware of is the potential for the board to warp and damage itself due to localized heating causing thermal expansion in one area only. This is more of a problem with hot air rework, but you can also cause this by overheating a stubborn ground connection in an attempt to remove it.

I love how Nintendo using plastic that yellows for one piece and plastic that doesn't for the other is consistent across versions despite the different case designs.

OMG Thank you! You saved my super famicom! I was looking all over for this issue and no one had details! THANK YOU AGAIN! and I am now a dedicated subscriber now.

"Hard off" has to be one of those wacky Michaelsoft Binbos puns

I can smell the 90's from here. Had the Euro Super Nintendo (identical to the Japanese SNES), sweet memories.

Very interesting video! Love it! ❤️

21:48 The hot air station is pretty much being used by anyone who's doing surface mounted components and chips these days. You likely won't waste money buying one of those.

You should also buy the disk system for the famicom

I collect consoles and people who know this often try to get me to buy old beat up consoles that have clearly been laying in a trash heap for decades, but for ebay prices. And they can never power it on or anything using the "I don't have thr cables" excuse but always insist its "probably" working. I always tell them- for exactly the reasons shown in this video- if you don't see it running with your own eyes for at least ten minutes, it's broken.

That whole thing with the slipcover over a brick of styrofoam was pretty much the same way the NES was packaged in the US.

thank you because youve solved my 2 year curse of having a paperweight for an snes. my power adapter didnt work and i didnt consider that for some reason until this video!!!11!

Amazing work on replacing the caps!!

Great video as always. I'm curious about one thing. In that Yoshi game, did you check if the chip legs are loose? Seen a few videos where people fixed games by resoldering chip legs. I will admit, those were Gameboy games but maybe there's a similar problem with this Yoshi.

Good job on those caps, that looks like it must have been a pain in the ass with just a regular iron.

25:11 had the same problem with mario rpg on my usa snes, the cartridge slot had 2 broken pins which caused mario rpg fail to load. replaced the cartridge slot and now working fine, also you could also clean the cartridge slot

Regarding 100v devices and the 120v power line: if the device uses a switching power supply it should be perfectly fine (assuming 200v capacitors are used). If it has a conventional power supply with an iron core transformer running the higher voltage will stress the components more and result in a higher output voltage which can be problematic.

I love the timelapse music. It just gives me a feeling I can't explain.

Nice pliers!

This video gonna be fire 🔥

Congratulation on the successful recap!

Great work on the recap!

very cool video, man! glad you got it working

Best way to take surface mount caps off is to use flush cutters.

I really like this different style of video it has a nice flow to it

michaels content honestly makes my day

Y'know I didn't think I'd be seeing Power Pros in this video, nice surprise! The franchise has come to the States a few times, most notably as the MLB Power Pros series from 2008-2010, and most recently as WBSC eBaseball: Power Pros in 2023

That yellowing under the SNES 😮

bro i’ve been watching you for half my life now your content is amazing

You can break off tabs on the American SNES and play Super Famicom games. Aside from that, I'd suggest cleaning the cartridge slot. One thing I tried was folding an index card, putting some isopropyl on it, and putting the folded end into the cartridge slot. You see some dark streaks come out, so you know that's doing something.

Very good video, I enjoyed it. Well done on replacing the capacitors first try 👍

It's great that the problem was only the caps. That model of SFC is one of the first generations of the system. You can tell first generation SFC consoles because they have 4 rubber feet at the bottom. However those models are known for chip failure problems. Replacing the caps helped extend its life.

The Super Famicom didn't come with a power supply, you had to use the Famicom power supply or buy one separately.

I really love Japanese consoles, and I’m glad to see you covering things like this! (Hope you enjoy the retro games!)

Good job getting that SFC working. I'm sure you were doing this for the experience, since I found it easier to break the two plastic pieces from my SNES to allow Japanese games to work. But that probably wouldn't make an interesting video. I lived in Japan in the early 2000s an found Japanese games to be way cheaper. I suspect that Japanese people don't think of games as an investment like in the US (heck, even real estate is not considered good investment in Japan for a number of reasons). Or maybe space constraints is the primary driver. It's easy to find games for under $5.

More like this one, Please 😊

You will definitely want the Famicom Disk System.

the famicom's design sure does look a lot nicer than the NES

I have the same problem with my european version of Yoshi's Island. Every other game I throw at my (european) Super Nintendo works, just Yoshi's Island gives me a black screen without anything working. Had a friend reflow all the solder on the game's cardridge but to no avail. The seller still insists it worked on his end. Cleaning up the pads and all the stuff didn't work for me either. If anyone has a suggestion as for what might be the problem, I'd also be happy to know! By the way: for your first soldering job you did very well! Glad to see another of these great retro consoles back to be fully working! Treat them well :)