A Game Pak is a high-precision piece of electronics. Don't drop it, and don't take it apart. Don't touch the connector with your fingers or otherwise let it get wet or dirty. Always turn off the Control Deck's power before inserting or removing a Game Pak.*
To fix a blank or scrambled screen, turn the power off and remove and reinsert the Game Pak. If that doesn't work, don't blow on the connector. Instead, scrub the connector with a cotton swab soaked in isopropyl rubbing alcohol and then dry it with the other end.
A small fraction of the population is sensitive to flashing lights and other things seen in video games. If you have had seizures, ask a health care professional before playing video games. To reduce the risk, play with the lights on and don't sit too close to the screen.
Playing too long can hurt your eyes and hands. Make sure to take a few minutes' break every hour. If you feel sick or sore, take a nap.
Leaving a still image on the screen too long may cause it to be permanently burned into the screen. This can happen with games' score indicators or with a game left on pause too long. It can even happen with channel logos or ball game scores on regular TV. Cathode ray tube (CRT) front and rear projection TVs and OLEDs appear to be most affected, with plasma TVs and direct view CRT TVs less so. LCDs and LCD projectors don't appear to suffer from noticeable burn-in. So if leaving a game on pause more than a couple minutes, turn the TV off.
* With the exception of TapeDump.
The NES Control Deck contains a checking integrated circuit (CIC) to ensure good connection with the Game Pak. When the CIC fails to make a connection to the key chip in the Game Pak, the power light blinks slowly. To give each distributor exclusive access to its territory, Nintendo used a slightly different CIC for each region.
Action 53 uses a multi-region key that can interact with the CICs used in North America (NTSC) and both European markets (PAL). If the power light blinks, wait ten seconds and press the Reset button on the Control Deck to change the region. After a successful connection, it saves the region for next time. But if it continues to blink after several tries, or if it comes up with a blank or scrambled screen, the edge connector may be dirty. Clean the Game Pak's edge connector, and try other Game Paks.
All activities work on Family Computer and North American versions of the NES, which use 60 Hz field rate. Some activities will not work on PAL systems, which use 50 Hz field rate.
Each volume of Action 53 contains well over a dozen games and other activities. After the title screen (press A or wait), a list of activities appears.
With an NES controller in port 1:
With a Super NES Mouse in port 1:
With a Zapper in port 2:
Activities that use the Zapper work only with a standard-definition television (SDTV) using a cathode ray tube (CRT). They do not work with flat-panel, projection, or high-definition TVs.
In most activities, you can press the Reset button to return to the menu. In others, Reset goes back to the activity's title screen, and you can choose to return to the menu from the title screen.
If you can solder, and you have a couple controller extension cables, you can build an adapter to use a Super NES controller or Super NES Mouse with your NES. Almost all activities work with the Super NES controller, which you may find more comfortable to hold than the original NES controller. In activities without specific support for the Super NES controller, the B and Y buttons act as A and B on an NES controller. Some activities in this collection work with a mouse as well.
Pins in the Super NES controller are numbered from the square end to the round end.
1 [oooo|ooo) 7 1:+5V 2:Clk 3:Out 4:D0 5,6:NC 7:Gnd
Connect the five pins to the NES plug end as follows:
.-
GND -- |7\
CLK <- |21\ -- +5V
OUT <- |3o| -- NC
D0 -> |4o| -- NC
'--'
Leave the other two pins on each side disconnected.