nintendo-64
I bought a used N64 system and I was told it was tested and works. But I only have one old game I haven't played in years that I tried with it. When I turn it on, the light turns on on front of the system. But nothing displays on screen.
What I want to know is if it should turn the screen black when turned on even if there is no game cartrigue connected so I can determine if the system is not working or the game.
The video cable does work because I've tried it on a gamecube.
I replaced the RF modulator and RF switch with a cheap aftermarket composite video/stereo audio cable. Plugged it into the RCA composite video/stero audio jacks on the back of the TV and everything works like a charm.
I guess the TV was not able to de-modulate the signal properly before, or perhaps the modulator or switch was damaged.
Component (5 cables- Red Green Blue /Red(sometimes white with red stripe) White) and Composite (Yellow Red White) are not compatible. Radio Shack people are famous for not having a clue but pretending to. You may get a signal on some devices, but it likely wouldn't be a usable one.
For Composite, the Red and White are left and right audio (stereo), and the yellow is video. For Component, the red and white (again, the red and white are usually labelled/patterned differently to denote they are audio) are the left/right audio, and the red/green/blue are the three color channels for video. IF you plugged in green, and got a signal, you'd only be getting the green color channel, which I would think would be unplayable. You can get component->composite converters, or you can get a composite cable directly. For reference, RCA is the same as composite (red/white/yellow).
Below is an example of what I mean for the component cable that differentiates the red(audio) from the red(video). Note the difference in color pattern for the two reds.
Best Answer
There is no image on the screen when an N64 is turned on with no cartridge (but mine hums). So it may be the game that is faulty.