NES Honeybee converter

[Tanooki]

Long story short I recently ended up getting not one but two of these in a pair of ebay auctions by sheer dumb luck for nearly nothing. I've always wanted one of these but didn't like the $30-50 price tag on them. I've seen stories how they're preferred, somehow the best and most reliable.

What's the real deal with these things?

I know some cheapo devices won't work with all games and some have a little piece that'll jolt the security chip to let games run, but I haven't a clue unless that is why these are so desirable.


And if anyone is asking, the other went to one of the honorable members over at NA who loved it.

[Ozzy_98]

I love mine, its got to be close to 10 years old. Biggest difference between it and most cheap ones is shell doesn't fall apart (If it even has a shell), and the pull ribbon is nice. It's not like it's worth the prices, but the cheapo ones are such crap in most cases.

[Gameguy]

It's a basic type of converter that works like any other, only it's built better for better reliability. I have other ones that aren't working because either the solder connections or the traces have gone bad, other working ones feel flimsy or fragile. The HoneyBee just feels better constructed.

All of these converters used to be cheap, I'm still having trouble accepting that they're selling for $30 now. I remember finding multicarts with converters attached for under $5 total at various thrift stores and flea markets, too bad it's all years ago. I've only found one actual HoneyBee adapter, the rest are from other companies.

[Nesmaster]

I have two HB, found cheap locally, and a generic from ebay that came with my fami Golden 250. Both makes work the same, but the case on the HB feels a bit higher quality. Either way they're very handy and neat to have, and come with the bonus of being worth a bit.

[Gatucaman]

I am a poor fucker who could only afford a NASA Super Games Adaptor, like this one pictured here:

7538

Granted i bought it for Cheap via Mercado-Libre (surprisingly, as in that place is a hell hole and it's worse than Ebay when it comes to retro gaming) for $8 shipping included and extra fee for paying via coupon-check.

Sadly, the deal is, since i am one of the guys who has cleaned and repaired their original 72 pin connector on their NES, i don't want to push the games down anymore so i don't have to deal with blowing games, and guess what?.

The Famicom games don't register properly with the connector if i don't push them down. i tried and at best one of my crappy multi-cart and i got garbage graphics and menus. which means that if i want to play Splatterhouse Wanpaku Graffiti i had to force the game down and while it registers, i am afraid it would pop up and get damaged.

If only i have a better one that can register the games with repaired NES pins.

[PizzaKat]

And if anyone is asking, the other went to one of the honorable members over at NA who loved it.

...I should of read your whole post before I got my hopes up.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

I have an extra honeybee Famicom to NES adapter if anyone is interested in trading or buying.

[Bloodreign]

I love my Honeybee converter, can't live without it now that I am spoiled to opening up the world of Famicom gaming in my home. Mind you it doesn't work for everything (games with extra chips in them for sound), but it works for enough games to keep me happy and building my FC collection slowly but steadily.

[Tanooki]

Will extra sound chip games like Castlevania 3 or Gimmick not play at all?

I'm kind of thinking your issue isn't the honeybee. The Nintendo lacks one tiny 2 cent piece you could solder to the bottom of the NES control deck board that would re-enable that audio if you haven't done that. The honeybee is just a pass through. Though if you're using a toploader I have no idea if it's cut off on that one or not and if it is how to restore it if the process is the same.

[CRTGAMER]

I imagine the ribbon cable of some convertors are fragile. I just use the official adapter found in early Gyromite game carts, placing the Famicom PCB inside a NES shell. Since I only have a few bootleg multigame Famicom carts this works out well. This approach is worth creating a "new NES Cart" considering some of the bootlegs have rare games such as Tengen Tetris.

[InsaneDavid]

Best Famicom to NES converter is one made out of an early release NES game with the 60 pin passthrough and 60 to 72 pin converter board. No BS, high quality parts, 10NES chip on board.

http://www.classicplastic.net/dvgi/editorials-davidnesconvert003.jpg

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Will extra sound chip games like Castlevania 3 or Gimmick not play at all?

I'm kind of thinking your issue isn't the honeybee. The Nintendo lacks one tiny 2 cent piece you could solder to the bottom of the NES control deck board that would re-enable that audio if you haven't done that. The honeybee is just a pass through. Though if you're using a toploader I have no idea if it's cut off on that one or not and if it is how to restore it if the process is the same.

Yes, the Honeybee is merely a passthrough for the expansion audio signals, it doesn't generate them or tell the NES what to do with them.

Famicom pins 45 and 46 which are responsible for Famicom expansion audio are not natively mapped anywhere on the NES, because NoA decided not to use them when they designed the NES. The extra traces were sent to the expansion port on the button which was unused as well. With resistors you can restore expansion audio on an NES-001 (the "toaster").

However, with the NES-101 [the top loader with the "dogbone" controller], Nintendo completely removed all unused traces, including ones for expansion audio. You cannot get any Famicom expansion audio from an NES-101 short of completely rebuilding the motherboard.

[Tanooki]

Ok cool so I was thinking right on that, good. I really really need to get a game with these added sound channels to hear the myself out of my own tv for once instead of over my laptop thanks to the R5 I've got.

I know there's CV3J and Gimmick, there's more, but I'd have to go digging as I have no idea.

[Gameguy]

This approach is worth creating a "new NES Cart" considering some of the bootlegs have rare games such as Tengen Tetris.
I have at least one multicart with the unreleased licenced version of Tengen Tetris. At the time I thought the message was just hacked into the game, but later found out that there was a licensed version floating around. Actually several of the multicarts I have are North American versions so no converter cart is needed. Glad I held onto these. Dig Dug, Galaxian, Pooyan, and various other games not released in North America are all worth playing.

[Pikkon]

Yes, the Honeybee is merely a passthrough for the expansion audio signals, it doesn't generate them or tell the NES what to do with them.

Famicom pins 45 and 46 which are responsible for Famicom expansion audio are not natively mapped anywhere on the NES, because NoA decided not to use them when they designed the NES. The extra traces were sent to the expansion port on the button which was unused as well. With resistors you can restore expansion audio on an NES-001 (the "toaster").

However, with the NES-101 [the top loader with the "dogbone" controller], Nintendo completely removed all unused traces, including ones for expansion audio. You cannot get any Famicom expansion audio from an NES-101 short of completely rebuilding the motherboard.

It does indeed work on a nes top loader as I modded my friends nes not to long ago for expansion audio.
http://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?t=7880

[Tanooki]

Wow thats cool so you can do this cheap fix to the top loader. Ive already got a heavily modded one with the led light, rca connector, and a stereo separation wheel on the back. Ive barely got any time on a soldering gun as I just got into it, but I have so far fixed a gradius handheld, my crazy climber tabletop, and early week my first battery swap into a crystalis cart. I dont see this being too difficult to follow given a clear, clean and larger image.

Good job on that. Of course now Id have to get akamajou densetsu and gimmick.

[thegamezmaster]

Anyone have one to sell for a reasonable price? If so please PM me, thanks!

[Rickstilwell1]

I would rather buy an AV Famicom and a converter to play US cartridges on that. Those opposite converters seem even harder to find though.

[SparTonberry]

My cheapo Famiclone came with a converter for NES carts.
Although the converter I got doesn't support Castlevania III.
Maybe it could be worth looking at those?

[Immutable]

My cheapo Famiclone came with a converter for NES carts.
Although the converter I got doesn't support Castlevania III.
Maybe it could be worth looking at those?

Your best bet would be the NES-joint-01 as stated previously. :)

[Niku-Sama]

I wonder, since you'd be going from the bigger cart to the smaller one if you could find a double ended 72pin connector and use a converter from a converter cart

[SparTonberry]

Your best bet would be the NES-joint-01 as stated previously. :)

But does it work in reverse?

[A Black Falcon]

I have a Honey Bee converter that I got years ago for a few bucks, but sadly the cloth pull-strip tore off a few months ago. Bah. It's still perfectly usable in my NES 2, but can't use it in the original model NES anymore, there'd be no way to get it out.

[Einzelherz]

Can you unscrew it and put a piece of ribbon in there? That's what I use for my NES factory converters.

[celerystalker]

I just, like many other, pulled the converter out of a copy of Gyromite. I use it as-is with my top-loader, or in a Game Genie with my classic model. Works like a champ and has for many years.

[Tanooki]

I have a Honey Bee converter that I got years ago for a few bucks, but sadly the cloth pull-strip tore off a few months ago. Bah. It's still perfectly usable in my NES 2, but can't use it in the original model NES anymore, there'd be no way to get it out.

You really have no idea how to fix it??

All you need is a screwdriver, some glue(super?), and a new piece of ribbon around 6-8" long that's an inch wide (whatever the original is) and that's it.



The two I had one of the ribbons was I believe gone, pulled out. I had 2 when I got that lucky strike mentioned a year ago in this thread, so all I did was compare the ribbons and my wife liked to make hairbows for the kid so I found a nice dark green one. I unscrewed it, saw where the other was and these teeth got pulled out from idiotic force(it wasn't wear) and I just reset the teeth, used a little extra glue around them and sandwiched the ribbon on it, and then I just snapped and screwed it back together. Let the super glue set for 30min, and it was as good as new. Thats the one I promised to the other guy mentioned in that old post and he was happy completely with it being new and reinforced over na original. Mine has the original on it which I compared, it's like this light blue-ish gray color.

I just keep mine because I know the R5 is a chinese ticking time bomb that fail eventually so I can still use my real games on my real top loader hardware in time.

I almost did that Gyromite adapter thing, but at the time I just held onto it for a couple years but never had any games so I just sold it not wanting to keep a useless game around to someone who wanted it for the part. The honeybees I ended up with got me kickstarted into the famicom stuff, then the R5 when it dropped got me to buy even more so I ended up with like 20 of them, but I kept 15. I've not bought anymore this year, but I know I'll snap something up again eventually when my will returns to play console games again more seriously.