I have an original (NA) NES, SNES, n64, and GameBoy. All work pretty well.

We've got an NES at our camp that sort of works (the damn power light keeps flashing unless you turn it off and on very rapidly). Our SNES and N64 are currently in my closet. I've also got an original gameboy from 1989 that still works .

The N64's controllers are hosed though. The analog stick on both controllers are worn pretty loose. I read that they can be fixed but it's usually easier to just find a new controller

There was a cleaning kit you could buy that was supposed to help with the lockout problem (which is what I believe my NES is suffering from). AFAIK it was still quite possible that the contacts in the NES would eventually get bent/pushed back making the console fail as well.

I noticed that like all of the NESes on eBay have gold cartridge connector upgrades or something... I don't think the one I'm getting (assuming PayPal hurries the fsck up!) has them, which is good because I think I'd rather get an unadulterated one and upgrade it myself if I'm so inclined. If it does have it, oh well, hopefully it means more reliable booting.

I saw a few of those on eBay and didn't want one no matter what the price... It just wouldn't bring back the memories of the original. Also, it looks ridiculously stupid to me...

Got my SNES with a yellowish hue. It still works, but I am afraid some of my battery games are already done for (although I tried Zelda: A Link to the Past a year or two ago and it still had it). My GB still works, although there is a pixel row that no longer turns on near the right (around 5 or 6 pixel rows from the side). And my original Nintendo DS is dying too, a full battery recharge only lasts for around an hour and a bit more. And now that I use it for homebrew (mostly Comic Book DS) it goes down even faster.

You can replace a NES battery too ... just use a CR2032 and tape it back together.

Sorry, bamccaig, mine arrived this morning. And the PSU is a switching model, so a dumb plug adaptor is all I need. Will try to work a trip to the shops into my day...

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Again, if you had one, you'd use it with pay pal, not make echeck transfers

Not everyone is from the US you know.

Which take a couple business days max. Even checks in Canada only take that long now. not the 8 business days PayPal holds echecks for.

On my own parallel version of the thread, I've discovered that Star Wars seems to be a really good game. And I'm explicitly not a fan of the films.

The Star Wars game was the #1 NES game until Super Mario Bros 3 appeared. And when Empire Strikes Back came, it went to #2 below SMB3, so we are talking about high quality games.

If you manage to find an Elite NES cartridge, don't doubt it, even Ian Bell mentions it is the best version.

Still got some old magazines ('91-'95) in case you want more suggestions.

Got some Club Nintendos (although I gave away many of the earliest ones to people who needed the guides). Also, Spanish magazines like Hobby Consolas and similar. These arrived 6 months later here, but without internet was the best I could wish for.

Oh, yeah. A pity there was no NTSC version, I have always had a soft spot for it. A few games I still got are Kick Master (which was really awesome with the multiple powers you could call with SELECT and the whole RPG element--obtain experience to learn new kicks and increase your mana to call powers more often). If you like side scrollers, this is a very good one.

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Another excellent game is Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, the NES/GameBoy version of the Kevin Costner movie, it is extremely long, covers all the movie (from the escape to the final battle), and has several types of gameplay: the main top-down view (which was used during most of the game, you could attack with it):

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the duel view (when you attacked someone "special" in the plot, and bosses):

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the horse races (this one stolen from Something Awful):

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and the strategy battles (where you fight along all your partners, like during the wood city attack, this view is so far overhead that all the characters are probably 4 or 6 pixels tall). I really enjoyed it the many times I have played it (plus there are a lot of secrets, even got item management, since you had limited spots where to store it all).