Are there any differences in quality between these two official Nintendo S-Video cables? One has a dongle on it with a thicker cable which I presume was the first batch and the other is the standard which Nintendo used up until the GC.
I'd never seen the first one before, but chances always favor the thicker cable. I imagine it's like a collector's item at this point because it must be rare.
Yeah, they are not very common so it makes me wonder if they had issues or Nintendo simply redesigned them to save money. I'm curious to see if there are indeed any differences. I doubt it but you never know.
I would also like to know what exact version the first one is. I've seen plenty of their S cables since the SNES days (their first) and they all looked like the bottom; seemed perfectly fine quality in that form as well.
Still, as others have said, when in doubt the first one does LOOK like the more robustly-designed.
The Monster Gamelink GLS 250 S-Video Cable is even thicker than the 1st-gen official Nintendo SNES S-Video cable setup but it's nice to be able to use it with either SNES, the N64 or GCN consoles if so desired. It has both RCA composite video and the obligatory S-Video outputs + RF shielding as well. Looks awesome on one of those old school Sony Trinitron CRT monitors with S-Video input nevertheless.
PC Engine Fan X! wrote:The Monster Gamelink GLS 250 S-Video Cable is even thicker than the 1st-gen official Nintendo SNES S-Video cable setup but it's nice to be able to use the Monster Game S-Video cable with either SNES, the N64 or GCN consoles if so desired. It has both RCA composite video and the obligatory S-Video outputs + RF shielding as well.
I had that one as well as the 2 official cables. I collected all 3 types to see whether any was better (OCD). They all gave the exact same image on a CRT.
PC Engine Fan X! wrote:The Monster Gamelink GLS 250 S-Video Cable is even thicker than the 1st-gen official Nintendo SNES S-Video cable setup but it's nice to be able to use the Monster Game S-Video cable with either SNES, the N64 or GCN consoles if so desired.
PC Engine Fan X! ^_~
I had that one as well as the 2 official cables. I collected all 3 types to see whether any was better (OCD). They all gave the exact same image on a CRT.
If you're into collecting these types of cables, there's another s-video Monster Cable for the Nintendo Gamecube colored purple: https://www.ebay.com/itm/183893657010
These work with other Nintendo consoles (modded FC/NES, SFC/SNES, etc.). I've read reports that it has a slight edge in terms of visual quality but that the average or casual gamer may not even notice.
Apologies, my mistake - that’s actually the one I had. Maybe it does have an edge but I didn’t notice & I was looking closely. Maybe it’s only noticeable on flat panels or something, or possibly just the usual monster cable hype.
Looks like it comes from an independent source and is legit from way back in 2002. Personally, I use three different kinds of s-video cable for my Nintendo consoles (official one with dongle, monster from above review and a generic/no-frills one). Kinda OC myself. Off-hand, I didn't notice any significant differences but that's not to say they don't exist.
To the OP, if you're looking for value, perhaps you don't need to spend much to get quality cables. But buying unofficial or unbranded ones can be hit or miss.