NES Test Cartridges

NES test cartridges are hot items among many NES collectors today. Their usual going rate is roughly $120 on auction sites like eBay. Although it is not in the same monetary league as the prices that prototypes generate, it is surely expensive enough considering there is not very much to do with them after you plop down the dough and watch the simple test performed.

Nintendo shipped five different variations of test carts all over the country to Nintendo Service Centers. Test carts functioned to make the system’s hardware and accessories run through tests to make sure that internal and external equipment were all working properly and as they should. Some examples of the sort of things a normal test would diagnose: Video RAM, colors, control ports, Power Pads, joysticks, etc.

Here is the inside of an NES Control Deck test cart. (Photo taken by NES.God to be used on this page.)

Listed below are more photos, information, and downloads of the various other test cartridges used by Nintendo Service Centers.

The NES Test goes through RAM, color, joystick, and control tests. An ‘OK’ shows up if system passes test.

POWER PAD TEST

NTF2 TEST

PORT TEST

JOYSTICK TEST

-Thanks goes to NES.God for the photographs