NES Satellite issue

[megasilverx1]

I've owned a NES Satellite for roughly a year and up until now, it has worked surprisingly great; never noticed any lag or missed button presses during that time. However, recently when I was playing some NES games, I noticed that about 40% of my button presses weren't registering or were super delayed. Pressing Start or Select barely registered at all. Also the controller 3 and 4 ports weren't working period. I know it wasn't the controller since when I plugged it into the NES directly, it worked perfectly fine. Also the batteries were still good (even put in new C batteries and it didn't fix anything). The battery compartment was and still is clean, no signs of corrosion/rust. The circuit board inside of the Satellite looked fine too and as for the receiver end that goes into the NES console controller ports, from what I could see (a metal box was blocking most of that part's circuit board) looked okay too. With all of that looking okay, I had thought that maybe the two IR lights might've burnt out since the NES Satellite is 30 years old, but both IR lights were still blinking and reacting to button presses. And yes, the NES Satellite has been set to CTLR mode and not GUN mode along with facing the receiver part this whole time.

After all of those checks, I'm left assuming that the receiver end is the problem. Maybe I should look under the metal box in the receiver or maybe get a new Satellite receiver? I noticed that Camerica also made a receiver device for the NES, but I'd imagine that was made for one of their wireless controllers and wouldn't work with the NES Satellite.

I've already purchased a NES Four Score, so I'll have a replacement multitap for the NES that should theoretically be more reliable since it's a wired connection and I know if I wanted to keep things wireless, 8bitDo controllers exist that use the more reliable bluetooth connection, but for a good chunk of time the NES Satellite has been working great for me (even on HD TVs) and I was wondering if their was anything else I could try to see if I can get it working reliably again. If not, it's no biggie. At the very least I thought I'd share a problem I had with this device. Plus when I dismantled it I noticed that HORI seems to have manufactured these since their name is printed on the circuit board of the receiver part of the NES Satellite. So that's kinda neat I guess.

[oldgamerz]

I am not sure, but what kind of television are you using? I actually never heard of this device before, if this is on the original NES hardware? you might need to use an older television and not an HDTV or flat screen. But you said that it worked fine before. You said it was 30 years old, maybe is worn out.

But even myself I have a lot of electronics act strange in my home as well

After watching an episode of GameSack on YouTube they said in one of their videos that CRT televisions are the best way to play the older consoles without lag, but I personally never actually had that issue with flatscreen televisions

Sorry to hear your having this problem

[megasilverx1]

So this is rather strange, these issues really only seem to be a problem with the NES port of Millipede so far. Thought I'd play Startropics, Mega Man 1, Super Mario Bros., Terminator 2, and Jurassic Park with the NES Satellite and they played perfectly fine. Pressing Start and Select worked almost perfect too (took an extra press or two to un-pause in Terminator 2). The four player game I tried again was Anticipation and the result was kind of weird; while controller ports 3 and 4 still seemed unresponsive, it seems like a third and fourth player could use the same controller as players 1 and 2 respectively to buzz in (like player 1 uses the D-pad to buzz in while player 3 would use the B button to buzz in on the same controller). I don't really feel like going through all 110ish NES/Famicom games I own to see which ones are having the same weird delayed/unresponsive control issue as Millipede is right now, but this is almost starting to seem like a weird compatibility issue (I still think the receiver end is the true problem not Millipede). Not a huge issue still, since I can simply unplug the NES Satellite receiver end and just plug in a controller.

I am not sure, but what kind of television are you using? I actually never heard of this device before, if this is on the original NES hardware? you might need to use an older television and not an HDTV or flat screen. But you said that it worked fine before. You said it was 30 years old, maybe is worn out.

After watching an episode of GameSack on YouTube they said in one of their videos that CRT televisions are the best way to play the older consoles without lag, but I personally never actually had that issue with flatscreen televisions

Sorry to hear your having this problem

The NES Satellite was an official wireless multitap for the NES released back in 1989 and used IR light to read controller inputs basically the same way how TVs read the buttons you press on the TV remote. This meant that like a TV remote, the NES Satellite has to be facing the NES console but it doesn't have to be directly facing it or even at the same level (contrary to what the internet seems to say, this device has a decent bit of leeway in terms of distance from my experience). The Satellite has two parts: the main unit where controllers are plugged into which is powered by six C batteries and the receiver which plugs into the controller ports on the NES console. Unlike accessories like the Zapper and Super Scope, the NES Satellite doesn't rely on scan lines but rather a solid uninterrupted connection between the main unit and receiver to function.

I primarily play my NES on a CRT since I have a few light gun games and the CRT hides the hideousness of composite video, but in terms of lag, I don't really notice any when playing on an HDTV.

[oldgamerz]

Can you still play Millipede and the other games without the NES Satellite? and plug your NES controller directly into the console itself? (edit) yes you already answered this question in the first post

If not, I would not worry too much about playing the Millipede port on the NES. with or without the NES Satellite.

with the NES Satellite
As long as most of your other games work fine with this device. I would not worry there is no need to fix your NES Satellite for one game and only one game. Especially for a game like Millipede. besides you could also save some money by using the bare controller ports right?
 
if Millipede is not working period. I know it may not be the same but you could  always play Millipede on other ports, there is probably hundreds or ways to enjoy a good old fashion game of Millipede. You can find Millipede

Arcade's Greatest Hits The Atari Collection 2 [PlayStation 1 Game]
Atari Anthology! [PS2 Game]
or on an actual Atari 2600/VCS  or Atari 5200 or an Atari 7800

[megasilverx1]

Update (not that anyone cares): The NES Satellite seems to be working again. I didn't do anything to it since I last posted on this topic, its been sitting in my closet for months, but out of curiosity, I thought I'd dust the accessory off and see if it'd work on my the AV Famicom I had recently got in the mail. Turns out that the NES Satellite not only works fine on the AV Famicom, but the thing was reading all of my button inputs fine again.

[oldgamerz]

Update (not that anyone cares): The NES Satellite seems to be working again. I didn't do anything to it since I last posted on this topic, its been sitting in my closet for months, but out of curiosity, I thought I'd dust the accessory off and see if it'd work on my the AV Famicom I had recently got in the mail. Turns out that the NES Satellite not only works fine on the AV Famicom, but the thing was reading all of my button inputs fine again.

I an glad it seems to work now,