There Was a Lock for the NES
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- čas přidán 5. 01. 2021
- In 1989, parents' concerns for their children's video game habits were at an all-time high. One eclectic inventor thought he had the perfect solution: Homework First. It was a literal lock that blocked the cartridge slot of the Nintendo Entertainment System. Was Homework First the ultimate solution to Nintenditis? Learn the story behind the first parental control system for video games.
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#HomeworkFirst #NES #GamingHistorian - Hry
Happy New Year! How did your parents curb your video game playing habits? My mom just hid the console, and I was too afraid to go look for it!
Did not know about it till now.
Edit: I though the title was referring to the NES lockout chip.
My parents would take away my controllers and batteries
For real. Mine would just disconnect it and put it away and dared us to go look for it until our punishment was over or our work was done.
@@LSTNSCRFN Controller and batteries, Xbox?
Is it possible to make a video about the first ever expansion/dlc. Also I just went to the base community center when my parents had the consoles I owned. Then I could play almost any game and play with friends
"This is the LockPickingLawyer, and today we're going to take a look at this Nintendo chastity device"
I would've rummaged for a junior hack saw to take to that lock!
The item that started the man’s career
Little click out of one and we got it open
Don't worry, it's a Master Lock, he'll have it open in seconds.
Ok, today we're going to open this lock using a soggy sponge.🤣
Imagine how much time kids spent trying to figure out the combination rather than doing homework or going outside as intended.
Ya once you figure it out u can swipe their debt card and buy a go cart or puppy and get in real trouble.
Lol. But the fact that 4 numbers can be encrypted as one of 10.000 combinations makes me wonder if parents would have needed to buy more and more locks.
Edit: combinationS
Or actually more than playing the game itself. Because it's on lockdown. Lol.
Someone missed a huge marketing opportunity by not call it the Loch NES.
Dat weasel.....haaart....
Uuuuuhhh!
Lock NES would've made more sense while keeping the pun. "Loch" wouldn't have made sense since it's a lock, not a loch.
Holy shit, they could even had made it in to the shape of the neck sticking out of the water
someone isn't reading top comments
Did my man actually set the code to "1337?" Legend.
czcams.com/video/fKYYhYxp81I/video.html
I was gonna say that too, glad I didn't since then I would get hunted down for it
"This is the Lock Picking Lawyer, and What I have for you today is the "Homework First." NES Lockout device."
Someone make this happen!!!
I'd love to see him do this lock, combination locks like these always seem to have flaws.
Damn beat me to it.
It’s a Master Lock. It probably comes apart if you look at it funny.
Best interest cross over ever.
This video made me realize that kitty litter didn’t always just... exist.
Pretty sure sand has been around for uncountable epochs....
Or cats.
I live near the town where Kitty Litter was invented.... He originally purchased the stuff to use in chicken coops, but found nobody wanted it for that. He came up with the kitty litter idea to sell the mountain of small rocks and clay he had just spent a bunch of money on.
And just like litter, this lock idea is great...
....FOR ME TO POOP ON!
It's weird to think of a world without a litter box.
I often feel like I was the luckiest kid in the world because when I was young, I was clumsy and uncoordinated. It was so bad, my parents took me to the doctor, and he actually told them to buy me a Nintendo, saying it would improve my hand-eye coordination.
So they let me play as much as I wanted because it was good for me.
And you know, I guess he was actually correct, because as an adult I have very good hand-eye coordination. So, everybody won.
I've heard a fair number of people recovering from accidents have used Tetris to rebuild their coordination.
nice
"See mom? That's why video games are good."
I had a similar experience. I was, as you said, very clumsy as a kid. Dropped a lot of stuff I tried to hold onto, constantly bumped into things. My family thought I was going to be like that forever. But one of my doctors had a small cabinet (I think it was called a "Kidzpace") with a SEGA Genesis and a Sonic game inside it. While Dad as talking with the doctor one day, I wandered over to this cabinet and started playing. I had a few deaths, to be sure, but I very quickly started picking up on the "twitch reflex" and necessary timing and it wasn't long before I cleared Emerald Hill Zone. The doctor noticed this and asked if I played video games at home. Dad said yes, because we had the ATARI 2600 and a recntly-purchased NES, but they limited how much I played because of fears the TV screen would damage my eyes. The doctor very quickly put that to rest and said as long as my face wasn't pressed right against the screen I was fine and that they should let me play more to develop my coordination. In less than three months, my reflexes, and thus coordination, had improved far more than they had in the previous three years. After that, Dad never put any limits on my gaming. He did try to make sure I understood time management and how to balance gaming versus real-world things I needed to do, which also helped me in life. (And, rather fittingly, games with their countdown timers helped me with that, too.)
@@KamenRiderGumo nice
7:05 imagine cursing someone by locking Action 52 into their console
Howabout Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?
Honestly surprised CZcams didn’t take down this comment for containing a detailed and horrific description of what hell looks like.
I remember when i first played it, I had no idea how to flip the pages so I only saw 18ish "games". I wish I never figured out there was more to that dumpster fire. It's really bad, like really bad
Reported for terrorism and graphic violence, what were you thinking??
@$$ - AVGN
This thing sounds like some parody device that would pop up in a fake ad during a movie, it's too bizarre to be real.
Or like the ads you hear on the radio in GTA
@@ps3master72 "I was worried that my kids would run away, so i put a microchip in their brains. Now, no one can molest them but me."
While the implementation is a bit bizarre, the basic idea is built in to pretty much all electronics these days - Parental Lock or Parental Controls. They are in everything from TVs, computers, consoles, to your handhelds such as phones and tablets, even in internet routers.
My parents actually bought this for the NES, since my sister and I were latch-key kids and the NES was causing our grades to slip.
Since we had our NES near my dad’s parakeets the NES soon stopped working and we had to pay $60 to have Nintendo fix it and the tech said the NES was full of bird feathers and seeds.
Whoever decided to make a lock that holds open the dust cover wasn’t REALLY thinking this thing through.
I don't see how entertainment can "cause your grades to slip"! We each just need a perfect balance between fun and learning!
@@adultmoshifan87 When you’re a kid and have unsupervised time after school you waste it.
@@adultmoshifan87 Just like many things in life, not all kids can manage either, at least at a certain age... Or mental education.
@@adultmoshifan87 In my experience, most children don't have the ability to manage their time wisely until around middle school, and even then some adults can't handle it either.
but yes, a good balance is ideal. Everybody is happy that way.
Makes sense. It's the old NES speedrunnimg trope. Birds are jerks.
"His son was up past midnight playing Nintendo. He wished there was some way to lock up the NES."
There is. You unplug it and put it in a closet. It's called "parenting".
And it works with every console!
My parents just took our controllers. Less work for them. No purchase necessary
I always found them when they took them away and put them back before they got back home. I never got caught. I learned to pick every lock and block they put up, including calling Nintendo for a master key for my 3DS and using computers at school or devices my parents didn't even know had web browsers to generate master keys for the Wii.
Don't insult kids' intelligence, when motivated enough they'll think circles around you. The closet is a joke.
Wow is this comment relateable. So true. Being told no is a powerful motivator for a kid.
@@SolaceonWow. I mean thats where "the law" needs to be laid down... If my kid goes to that extreme after I forbid him from playing so many video games, then its clearly a problem with obedience and authority, not really the methods.
All i should have to do is unplug it and explain to the child why its being unplugged. My parents simply took it away when i was slacking off from school and that was that... I didnt go behind their back and start looking for it and plug it back in... To this day, when i really want or need to focus, thats all i do is uninstall video games, CZcams and turn my phone off... Its crazy how different life becomes when you dont have these things to distract you.
Gaming Historian: "I think a better punishment would be to use the lock with a game in there, cursing the kid to be able to play only one game for the rest of their life."
Kid: "So anyway, that's how I started speedrunning."
IT HAS TO BE AN IJN GAME. edit i thought it did not post so i had to try twice
I'm glad I had a MUCH BETTER first taste of speedrunning: I rented Spyro 1 for the PlayStation as soon as I could after it came out. Been looking forward to the game for months! However, because I was only renting it for the weekend, I rushed through it, but the night before it had to go back, I made it to Gnasty Gnorc! Sadly, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't beat him! I was SO burned that I felt I couldn't go near Spyro again for over half a decade!
I can imagine a young James Rolfe getting in trouble and his parents locking in a LJN game.
I played Castlevania 2 so often (I remember chips and a lot of late nights involved) but I never really got far in it. Till this day, that game's challenge haunts me. I didn't mind replaying it though. The music is just amazing.
This sir deserves an award....
I remember every time I got into trouble of my parents they would remove the controllers for my SEGA master system II
@@gwenwalravens8030 It still isn't a bad game, isn't it? I mean, come on, it's Konami!
🤣🤣🤣
Parents be like "I'm locking the NES up, go outside and play with your friends"
.... Goes down to friends house to play NES with their friends. 🖕
🤣👍
Plays game boy outside.
Better than playing alone
From a social interaction perspective, that IS an improvement.
Perhaps a better investment would have been some good multiplayer games to promote more social gaming? It's kind of a shame that local multiplayer, or "couch co-op" is much less common these days.
Plays tetris with his friends outside
I think most parents could think of easier solutions all on their own. My mom just took all my controllers away from me when I got in trouble. It worked when I was young, but as I became older I just always hid one controller where she didn't know about it.
The parents who bought this must’ve had such a weak hold on their kids discipline that I’m sure most of those kids figured out the combinations or straight up broke the lock off.
Reminds me of Ned Flanders's parents trying to discipline him. "We've tried nothing, and we're all out of ideas!"
This is probably the most accurate thing I've seen in a while lol
They aren't allowed to play Uno
I’m jealous of girls because cuse they get to wear dresses.
@@Kara_Kay_Eschel You can wear a dress if you want to. If anyone makes fun of you just smack em with your purse.
@@thehorseformerlywithoutana2522 That's my purse! I don't know you! *kicks person in groin*
Imagine forcing someone to play Jekyll and Hyde for the rest of their life
then that’ll be more than the NES that gets locked
@@bruhchamp16593 More like the NES that get's destroyed.
If someone did that to me I would just try to every combination to unlock it
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!
Put AVGN in a containment room, with that game AND the lock. Enjoy his suffering now.
This was also in a time where when your parents blocked you from playing a game, you just went over to a friends place who didn’t block them.
"My kid plays it all night, I wish I could lock it up". Pick it up and take it, it weighs like a pound....
nothing stopping the child from finding it while the parent is e.g. showering
@@BigOlSmellyFlashlight, I don’t know why. But “...the parent is e.g. showering” made me laugh.
This device should have been called "The Lock NES Monster."
You got jumped in school for your humor huh? Lol but seriously that was a good one
OOOOOOOOOOOH.
That was honestly pretty good
Except nobody old enough to have owned an NES back then actually pronounces it that way.
@@mattbernacke bruh moment
you could just.... Take away the Nintendo?
Or just... take away the power supply?
Yes but, what about a bike lock?
@@GamingHistorian Clearly the most effective and efficient solution
My brother wrecked the house looking for his taken away NES. So... Yes, but it could also cost money if your child is a complete psychopath.
Nobody bought this because they were smart enough to be good parents
Wow,I didn't know this existed but when I was in seventh grade back in 88 I had a friend who didn't want his sister playing his nes so he actually put an ignition switch built right into the right side of the console that just used a key to power on and off,I was blown away that it actually worked.
If my mom knew this device existed at the time, she would've picked one up immediately and been resourceful enough to lock a copy of 'Bible Games' or some other horrible game into my console, and leave it in my room completely operational as punishment. Just knowing that I have a fully functional Nintendo that could only play that game would've been a much more horrendous torture than her just taking the console away for a week. And she would've known that... I'm so happy that the existence of this device completely flew over her radar at the time...
Imagine this being an item you can use in Smash Bros.
Great idea. Maybe if they’re hit with it they can’t perform certain moves or something
@@balaam_7087 Awesome! Dang, now I want that as an item
Temporarily stuns on lock?
Or locks a move out temporarily
or limit you to jump
Me and my top loading NES laugh at this.
I would like to see a lock designed for that.
Video quality
@RockManLP_Reviews Nintendo did release some with audio/video input.. They are very rare though..
Late in the Nes life cycle released top loader
@@deezy81 they did not release an alternative some people were able to send theirs in and get the modded by Nintendo but as you said those are very rare
I remember seeing this in magazines only. I never seen it in any local stores. However, I don't think I had to worry about it. My Mom was a widowed single parent raising a single child. She used video games as babysitting tools. My grandmother as well only because she liked the games, too. Because of them I was blessed enough to be able to grow up with the video gaming industry. As new consoles came out it wouldn't be long before they would be sitting at a TV in front of me. Birthday and Christmas times always revealed new consoles and/or video games whether I asked for them or not. While I might have been spoiled it also gave me a biased passion for video games which I still have to this day.
With that said, I've had my 5200 taken from me one time for a bad grade which I made up real quick. My 5200 was locked away for only a week and that was enough. It was never taken from me again I made sure of that. I would pack it on weekends I knew grade cards were coming out and take it with me to my grandmother's house. I would leave it there until next weekend. I had to protect my best friend from being locked up again. I'd rather leave it at my grandmother's house.
As for the NES era and on, nope...none of my consoles or computers were ever given any sort of parental lock out controls. They wouldn't last long if they did. I don't like things on my hardware if it is not suppose to be there. I don't care if it is a sticker or something else...if it doesn't belong there then please don't put it there. Mom knew how much I took care of my stuff so having that on there would have drove me nuts not because I couldn't play the thing...that wouldn't have bothered me...it's the fact something is touching my system that should not be there. I didn't want scratches or scuffs.
My parents bought that lock and gave it to me as a Christmas present. It was used like once. Then I figured out that if you pull on the lock and spin each number from the bottom to top, the lock will jump up a little when you hit the right number. Do this 4 times and it comes off. After a few months they forgot about it.
Being 30 years old it still holds up really well. Now to find some other use for it other than a fun toy to play with by guessing the combination you randomly set.
haha. Ya i was lucky my mom traveled for work every week and my dad had his own business so i had the house to myself from 3 to 6 every day. Got a lot more fun when we got AOL..... ;)
This is when you’re too scared to touch the console but you have to stop your kids from using it.
@@AxxLAfriku you’re not
100% ... A product fueled by animosity and repulsion. Uneccessary and agressively anti to the child's enjoyment... Just it's presence is intimidating. Of COURSE you should meter play ... But not like this... get involved you terrible parents... How awful.
The people of that generation probably thought the nes was cursed or something.
If we just think how much consoles was touched by a fathers hammer or something like that...)
@@AxxLAfriku Damn, your account just screams "desperate for attention".
My parents let me play all I wanted. I had a NES/SNES/Genesis in my room and later a computer with it's own phone line. I've thanked them for this a few times later in life. So many amazing memories.
@8BiToe I Would Just Hide My Nes And Maybe THROW OUT Or Burn That Lock
Found the rich kid, lol.
My parents are pretty much the same way the few times they tried to limit my time on my devices in the past they could never remember to stick to it (which didn’t take too long) at some point and so eventually I was allowed to play as much as I wanted.
@@Cooe. Meh. I had a Master System while my sister had the NES. I later sold my Master System with games and bought a Mega Drive with it and a game. My sister bought a SNES. Those consoles are pretty cheap compared to the games. Sadly most friends (from school) owned Nintendo devices so I often played other SNES and NES games on my sister's console. I also bought Zelda and Mario Kart on the SNES xD.
Too bad Sega hasn't made a Master System collection for Steam. I miss those games. I regret selling those consoles (sold Mega Drive for Playstation).
Very Lucky, thinking about it I am grateful to my parents as well for they had a similar policy, they never felt the need dampen me and my sisters love of video game or the length of time we spent on them. To this day they themselves are still huge fans of the Mario games from the NES/SNES era.
My parents just had a "weekends only" rule and never needed this
Just lock a copy of bible adventures in it. That’ll teach those damn kids.
Anything from Wisdom Tree or LJN would be a fitting punishment.
not everyone is christian
@@starscratcher why would whether or not you believe the source material of a bad game to be factual or not matter here?
@@daemosblack no bible advantures is christian so some parents dont want their kids to play it
Lock Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in it.
"A chastity belt for your NES"
-Gaming Historian, 2021
It's true and I stand by my comments
call the locksmith!
@@derek-64 CALL THE LOCKSMITH!
@@GamingHistorian I can tell you struggled to say that with a straight face
@@GamingHistorian I argue you could have found a dozen other ways to phrase that without scaring my brain with the mental image of the NES having its junk guarded 0_0
My parents just took it away. After I got tired of finding it, I went outside.
Homework still not done, to this day.
Same
Lol, sounds like my childhood.
Hell, when I was 13 all I wanted to do when I got home from school was play Nintendo and whack off. F--k homework
@@ku4uv Here I am, completing my Masters, with 3 project cars and a basement full of old PCs.
Suit yourself. :D
lol!
Plot Twist: This lock was bypassed by Lockpicking Lawyer before he was 10.
I would really like a Lockpicking Lawyer episode about this.
Somewhat I’m pretty sure that there must’ve been at least one instance of a parent actually forgetting the lock’s combination, and the dramatic scene following soon after.
Thank goodness my parents never thought about buying something like this when I was young
My mom didn' thave to. We had one tv in our house so she knew when we were playing NES and not. Also we were good kids and knew to do our homework first.
The lock, or the Nintendo? We didn't have an NES-we got an 8088 IBM compatible in 1990.
@@hey_you: I think your reply was intended for a different comment thread. Your reply doesn't match with any comments in this thread.
i love that you made your lock combination "1337"
Can’t believe I had to scroll *this far* down to find somebody else who noticed it!
Ditto! The days of l337 speak are sadly gone.
Have a feeling these were only in homes that coincidently were restricted to Wisdom Tree games.
When you want to send the message to your child that you care about their education but you're also bad with money.
Gaming Historian: "The lock features a Master Lock mechanism"
Young LockPickingLawyer: "1 is binding, nothing on 2, a little click on 3..."
@Muhammad It would probably just deteriorate out of fear.
Missed crossover opportunity here
Heck he'd talk down to it due to the master lock company being the masters of weak lock mechanisms in a great body
I was thinking of the same thing when I came down to the comments.... lol
I clicked the video just to say it and you beat me to it
There was a "Learn To Lockpick" tool being marketed in response to this around 1989. It didn't sell that well and was the recipient of several cease-and-desists from SafeCare.
Like there isn't any other way to learn to lockpick...
Who needs to pick it?
It’s only got 10000 combinations.
You just keep trying one at a time until you hit the right one.
I always did my homework first. My parents made it clear that video games and TV were for weekends and when we had finished our homework. My brother would have so put the lock on the game system to keep me from playing it without him.
That one kid who builds an UNlock that blocks the screwhole the lock takes without blocking the actual cartridge slot
wait does it exist
@@alexanderavila8488 I don't know lol, it's just a funny idea. It's like locking screen time on your phone so nobody else can lock it.
My friend used to have to put his games in a safe. So I feel this.
My grandma would hide the gamepads after school.
I respected my parents didnt want an asswhippin 🤷♂️🤣
“It was basically a chastity belt for your NES” Gaming Historian, 2021
we all saw the video
I've come back two years later because I saw you did indeed send this to LPL.
My parents just took it away too. But that's because we fought over it, not because we played too much.
LPL as a kid: screw homework, a little click out of 1, 2 is binding aaaand it's open
Was looking for this as soon as I heard "Master lock"
3:02 huh,combo number 1337-elite. Well played👏
imagine someone locking your system with Fester's Quest inside.
That kid was a lost cause.
1:16 "It's basically a chastity belt for your NES" is a phrase I will only hear once in my lifetime.
I want to see the LockPickingLawyer break into it. Shouldn't take him too long, it's Masterlock after all.
You would to
I heard he made a video, but even when gutted it was 90 seconds and not worth it.
Huh, it IS a Masterlock, man, you can probably shim it in a second.
When my parents got me a sega genesis for christmas, and my grades started slipping during the following school year....my dad used his electronics engineering skills that he learned in the air force and used at work to build a device that allowed you to spend 1 hour playing the game, after which it would shut off the console. It was a box with a keyhole at the top. My parents each had a key, and I was allowed 1 hour per day. When they turned the key, it allowed the power circuit open to the sega. Once the hour was up, it would close the circuit. He even printed up a label and stuck to the side of it, but he misspelled Sega. So my physical parental control timer was called the "Saga TimeKeeper". I actually still have it stored away in a box somewhere collecting dust, but it was an interesting idea. The only flaw was that you could bypass it by just plugging the console power directly into a nearby wall outlet. So if they weren't at home, that's what I would do :D.....I just had to remember to plug it back in to the box before they got home.
This is how my mom curbed my gaming when I was 9.
"Shut that off and go play outside."
"Awe mom."
"Don't aw mom me. You're spending too much time inside."
"Ok. Can I ride my bike to Matt's house?"
"Yes, but be home in time for dinner."
My mom didn't need to waste twenty bucks (a lot back then) on a bike lock for my Nintendo.
Looking back, the logic baffles me, oh I'm spending too much time inside. Okay, I'll just ride my bike to my friends house and play video games over there, they have more games anyway!
Not every kid listens to their parents, no matter how good the parents actually are. Humans have an instinctive desire for autonomy, and some have it more than others. My parents weren't super strict but they weren't afraid of discipline. The problem was, neither was I.
Because Matt has Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
@@OtakuUnitedStudio yea people think whatever a kid does is because of the parents
My mother came up with a far simpler solution: She took away the *controllers* . Easier to do than taking away the system or power supply.
Mine just took the VCR. (Our tv had to run the signal through a VCR in order for it to work with an N64 cause it only had an RF antenna hook-up)
Mine did too. She didn't know I had spares.
@@renakunisaki
That's exactly why the NES lock was invented - there's no getting around *that* without a metal saw or a lockpicking course 🤣
Lolz, now kids just use their parents Amazon account & order a new controller. Same/next day delivery.
Always had a spare
Sure, you can yoink the AC adapter, or have a trusting, communicative relationship with your kids, but this is about MAKING A STATEMENT. 😂
I mean, really. When I was a kid I had a strict two hour time limit on playing games on school days. And I didn't violate it, even though the NES was in my room and no one would have known if I had been playing it all night.
@@fergalstackstreams For me I wasn't allowed to play on school days. Only on weekends for about an hour and 30 minutes.
5:02 This classic video comes back to haunt me once again.
Just watched the video from LPL. No surprise, he got it open so quickly that Master Lock, as well as many parents, was probably thankful that the Internet was not that commonplace yet.
I wonder if the popular children's activities of the previous generations ever had products designed to keep kids from enjoying them. Baseball glove lock? Doll jail? Hula hoop boot?
Safety 1st does create covers for electrical wall sockets, so young kids don't stick foreign objects in them, which would in turn result in electric shock.
Safety 1st also created a lock for VCR slots, which prevents young kids from putting their hands or foreign objects into the inside of the VCR where the videocassettes go, which, in turn, would damage the VCR heads.
Chess and novels. Back in the 19th century parents were worried those frivolous products were rotting their children minds. Yes, chess and dime novels. Look it up.
Back then they would just beat up the kids and burn the toys.
Look up the waltz. It was scandalous at the time.
Those activities promoted skill social and other valuable traits imo
My parents just said no. I wasn’t about to go against their word.
Sounds like you had good parents then.
@@ghhn4505 yep :)
And to be fair, they rarely said no because I didn’t give them much of a reason to. I didn’t play video games for more than an hour. I preferred playing outside.
@@GatCat That was me too. I can't recall my parents telling me not to play video games. Mostly, they would just ban me from using the TV at all. It was an effective punishment.
I love how the kid is playing Fester's Quest in the picture with the guy imagining the lock around the nes.
My brother was a troublemaker and I was not. Honestly, my parents were just happy I wasn't out causing mischief so I was allowed to play games as long as homework and chores were done.
There's no way that kid was playing Fester's Quest for hours.
My dad would play Fester's Quest for a long time, farming gun upgrades just to get to the highest quality gun before actually starting the game back when I was a kid.
It's not really a bad game, it's just very punishing and unforgiving with its difficulty.
Developed by Sunsoft's western branch, testers in Japan had complained that the game was unreasonably hard. In an interview from a couple of years ago, one of the devs said that in hindsight, the game should have had, if not a battery save, then at least a password system, but there wasn't enough time to do changes like that, so instead they opted for damage control by intentionally marketing the game as being highly challenging.
"... forever cursing someone to play one game on their NES for the rest of their lives." YOU MONSTER!!!
Great episode thank you!
My parents had one when I was a kid because I taught my kid brother how to get around my parents taking away the power supply and the coax cable (my dad's old reel to reel VCR system had an identical one to the NES and you could just switch out cables) . It's how he learned to beat combination locks. He was a very technically gifted criminal and vandal by the time he was in high school, which made him an ideal radio and crypto tech when he went in to the Navy.
At least he eventually used those skills for good instead of turning to a life of crime as an adult. My mom never really had to worry about me and my sister: we were nerds so we did our homework first and our grades were good but if we had slipped up, she would have just hidden the system.
Imagine putting a Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde cartridge in AVGN's NES, and putting the lock on
Hohoho! That is a good idea
A modified version that gives the unlock code at the end.
He would be like:
"Oh No.... NOT AGAIN!!! NOT AGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIN!!!! Don't tell me i'm gonna play this shit for the rest of my life!? THAT'S IT!!!! Homework First? MORE LIKE SHITWORK FIRST!!!"
@@mickeymouseproductions8977 All the worst games, including Action 52, Bill & Ted, Terminator, Kid Kool, Milon's Secret Castle, Roger Rabbit, Dick Tracy, Menace Beach/Sunday Funday, as well as ALL the Bible Games!
I was abnormally PRO at finding my hidden game systems, power supplies, and controllers.
Surprised I didn't grow up to be a detective.! Not surprised I grew up to play video games for a living...
You always look for that off color brick/tile. It's a dead giveaway 😉
If only your parents had bought Homework First!
@@GamingHistorian Haha, yea. I was a pretty rebellious skater kid back then and I would have found a way to rip that thing right off! lol
Because you played video games instead of studying
The "hide power cord" trick didn't work for you then
80’s, “a lock may traumatize a child”. 2000’s “ I just uploaded a video of me destroying my kids PlayStation with a sledgehammer while they watched.”
traumatize is now a entertainment
2010s "i just hit my kid with a sledgehammer epic funny by daddyofive"
Shit my mom got tired of me and my older brother arguing over it and ripped it out of the wall and smashed it on the back porch. That was 1991
@@erichquinones598 Mine smashed my PS1. I'm no-contact with her, incidentally...
@@incongruous4 Do those freaks still have custody of their kids?
That song at the beginning....I can't stop thinking about De La Soul - Breakadawn now!
Your videos are awesome! I love the relaxing music in the background that plays during the video
If I'd seen this at the time: "Ah, a challenging new game: Find The Combination!"
You can tell this guy was a troll with an invention name like “homework first”
He was a loser
@@pp3k3jamail no u homie.
It's very impressive to see how the production value of this channel has grown over the years. Very impressive.
The way I figure it is the kid could probably get a piece of paper and write down all the possible different combos until he/she finally got it and then locking it back once they were done if they forgot to lock it back is why they kept the piece of paper with all the different combos
I could see this being useful at conventions' video game rooms, where they'll lock your console with a cable lock but it's hard to keep someone from taking out the cartridge without putting the whole console in a cage or behind a wall.
I wouldn't. Those locks are absurdly easy to crack.
Your research is truly impeccable
3:05 I just watched this again after seeing LPL's video and I just noticed the combination here :)
1989: Parents "video games will damage kid's social skills"
2004: Facebook "hold my beer"
2020: Corona Virus "Amateurs!"
@@baltousprime7897 as a father of 3, I completely agree.
@niggerbait found the flatter!
@@39zack if i were you i wouldn't call people out like that it gives off some bad vibes about yourself. No offense that's why don't do that first and just ask. But you could have said something a bit more convincing of a statement.
aguyandhiscomputer, I love your avatar. Daylilies are so cute.
The most evil thing about this invention was keeping the NES locked with the door open and letting all the dust get it.
Better get your homework done fast then.
Worse, finding a spider laid eggs in side in the morning.
Let’s be honest and real, homework is bullshit. Even teachers (at least in my country) think so. They believe it gets in the way of family time and causes more stress in children. Children should *NOT* be stressed or depressed. Fuck homework.
@@songoku9348 agreed
@@songoku9348 I always did my homework during class instead of listening to the teacher talk. If the only criterion for being a "good" student is getting the right answers in the book, then why should I pay attention to anything else?
That beat in the end is sick!
3:03 nice little detail ;)
"It's basically a chastity belt for your NES."
"CALL A LOCKSMITH!"
underrated
Call a lock Smith!
CALL A LOCKSMITH!!!!
Imagine some kid filming himself trying to defeat the lock and starting it with "This is the LockPickingLawyer"
That was a fun vid. Thanks for sharing all that stuff man, I loved it!
The name "Homework First!" makes me irrationally angry
Not just the fact that there is a lock to keep the kids out until their homework is done, but that they rub it in your face. Especially when I got most of my homework done IN CLASS anyway.
Nowadays kids are bombarded with homework and an internet education really equates to nothing when universities and colleges take in anyone who will throw money their way
@@finkamain1621 yea that's true
It was made by someone who really didn't enjoy having children.
@@MLBlue30 probably true
My friend's parents got him one of these for Christmas back in the day. I remember thinking, "what kind of gift is a lock that stops you from playing with your toys?" In the end, though, it was pretty fun. It vaguely resembled a hand grenade so whenever we needed a grenade prop for playing imaginary soldiers, it saw some action.
Considering this has a Masterlock mechanism, Lockpickinglawyer's going to have a field day with this
A few years ago when I was grounded, what my mom did was just take my controllers because while I had a media remote for my Xbox one, it couldn't be used to play any games so I could at least still use it as a Blu-ray player which was one of the functions I bought it for
when my friend and I saw this advertised in a gaming magazine, he made the comment that it would just keep the dust cover up. When he read "It won't damage your cart or NES console," he scoffed and said, "Yeah until dust settles into it."
interesting
"I've had family members erasing my save files accidentally."
My brother did that stuff deliberately.
Yup.
Isn't it great to have siblings.
What a little shi-
I had a friend who wiped me 30 hours of Pokemon Red shortly after it came out because he found out about the link cable and tried to connect my Game Boy to his... with two different games in. He did this without telling me, and not doing it in the right order anyway. I had Pokemon Red in my Game Boy, he had Wheel of Fortune.
@@OtakuUnitedStudio wheel of fortune? What the hell
Gaming historian:“...14 year old son up past midnight”
Me: *watching this video past 2AM*
his kid was clearly ahead of his time!
fools, I went up to 4am and my brother went up to 6am
@@cursed1083 ):(
Sounds like an armature to me!
@@diskdem0n I still do and I'm almost 35.
That is wild! Great story, thanks Gaming Historian.
dat zaxxon cameo! one of the first games I played as a kid and loved it
Everyone's talking about the chastity belt line, but I loved the line, "Lowe nauseatingly named his product Homework First"
"As much fun as naming your game Night Walk" - Stuart Ashen
Shovel Knight there in the background: "Steel thy lock!"
2:08 Nothing like staying up past midnight to play Fester's Quest
Checking back after a while, still top quality norman.
“The heck? I parked my NES here and put a lock on it! Now there’s a bike!”
@Mason Wyberg I did!