3 ms·

Those adapters are fine now, but what about in 10 years when it's even harder to find a working NES? 20? 50? At some point there will be no more working systems

Those adapters are fine now, but what about in 10 years when it's even harder to find a working NES? 20? 50? At some point there will be no more working systems and cartridges, but because of the efforts of pirates these games can and probably will live forever.

MrFoof 10y ago
There are alternatives like the Analogue NT which is fully compatible with the entire Nintendo library, including Flash carts like the PowerPak and Everdrive. It has a built-in Four Score. It supports Component and HDMI output. It has a built in hardware upscaler. It supports wireless controllers with no input latency, light guns, and basically any 3rd party controller ever made. It also has a Famicom slot, so it'll play both NES and Famicom cartridges without adapters. It has the Famicom expansion port as well, so it'll even play Famicom Disk System games. It is the Nintendo completely reverse engineered using an Altera Cyclone V FPGA to emulate the hardware in hardware. Granted, it's $450, but it plays your games perfectly, and on your modern hardware in ways that an original NES couldn't without RGB modding a top-loader and getting a separate upscaler. I'm a retro speedrunner, and I intend on getting one later this year rather than modding my 30-year old NES (which I self-refurbish) and buying an upscaler and having a nest of cables. Hobbyists are making some amazing stuff. Someone is currently making component cables that work with your SNES, as well as ones for the Sega Genesis and Sega Saturn. I'm on the waiting list to pounce when the next batch arrives. It's like classic cars. In the 60s no one cared. In the 80s and 90s people built businesses to fill the niche and take all the money being left on the table.
- bisby 10y ago
  I know hardcore retro gamers consider "on hardware" and "on emulator" to be separate categories. I remember getting super mario world to memory jump to the credits on actual hardware was a big thing. Where does Analogue NT fit in there? That's not ORIGINAL hardware. It could technically have different quirks that means minor differences could play out. That puts it more in the emulator category right?
  - MrFoof 10y ago
    It emulates the NES perfectly, since it exactly emulates the NES hardware on more powerful modern hardware. Every glitch will work exactly as it does on an actual NES. That was their goal. A few places have reviewed it to ensure the glitches work as expected -- sure enough, they do. They had some of the most hardcore folks in the emulation community included in the development. The guys who designed it wanted it to be reference quality. It supports all the options of every NES made, including full support for custom sound chips (like FDS versions of Castlevania 3, which sound amazing), and stuff like the PowerPak and Everdrive -- because to the game, it IS the NES. It's exactly why I'm getting one myself. As a speedrunner, reference quality (whether on hardware or software) is a requirement for me to have my world records be considered legit.
    - bisby 10y ago
      That works for me. I wasnt trying to discredit the machine, I was asking with genuine curiosity, since I knew that there was a difference between emulators and "reference" hardware. Cheers :)
  - 0xcde4c3db 10y ago
    > It could technically have different quirks that means minor differences could play out. That could just as easily describe the NES-101 or SNS-101. You can always find some difference if you look hard enough, even with original hardware (hardcore SNES and Neo Geo players care a lot about a console's serial number; a few Commodore 64 fans and musicians care about the date code on a SID chip). In principle, you're correct. In practice, I think you'll have a hard time finding anyone who's genuinely pickier about NES accuracy than Kevin Horton.

MrFoof 10y ago

There are alternatives like the Analogue NT which is fully compatible with the entire Nintendo library, including Flash carts like the PowerPak and Everdrive. It has a built-in Four Score. It supports Component and HDMI output. It has a built in hardware upscaler. It supports wireless controllers with no input latency, light guns, and basically any 3rd party controller ever made. It also has a Famicom slot, so it'll play both NES and Famicom cartridges without adapters. It has the Famicom expansion port as well, so it'll even play Famicom Disk System games. It is the Nintendo completely reverse engineered using an Altera Cyclone V FPGA to emulate the hardware in hardware. Granted, it's $450, but it plays your games perfectly, and on your modern hardware in ways that an original NES couldn't without RGB modding a top-loader and getting a separate upscaler. I'm a retro speedrunner, and I intend on getting one later this year rather than modding my 30-year old NES (which I self-refurbish) and buying an upscaler and having a nest of cables. Hobbyists are making some amazing stuff. Someone is currently making component cables that work with your SNES, as well as ones for the Sega Genesis and Sega Saturn. I'm on the waiting list to pounce when the next batch arrives. It's like classic cars. In the 60s no one cared. In the 80s and 90s people built businesses to fill the niche and take all the money being left on the table.

bisby 10y ago
I know hardcore retro gamers consider "on hardware" and "on emulator" to be separate categories. I remember getting super mario world to memory jump to the credits on actual hardware was a big thing. Where does Analogue NT fit in there? That's not ORIGINAL hardware. It could technically have different quirks that means minor differences could play out. That puts it more in the emulator category right?
- MrFoof 10y ago
  It emulates the NES perfectly, since it exactly emulates the NES hardware on more powerful modern hardware. Every glitch will work exactly as it does on an actual NES. That was their goal. A few places have reviewed it to ensure the glitches work as expected -- sure enough, they do. They had some of the most hardcore folks in the emulation community included in the development. The guys who designed it wanted it to be reference quality. It supports all the options of every NES made, including full support for custom sound chips (like FDS versions of Castlevania 3, which sound amazing), and stuff like the PowerPak and Everdrive -- because to the game, it IS the NES. It's exactly why I'm getting one myself. As a speedrunner, reference quality (whether on hardware or software) is a requirement for me to have my world records be considered legit.
  - bisby 10y ago
    That works for me. I wasnt trying to discredit the machine, I was asking with genuine curiosity, since I knew that there was a difference between emulators and "reference" hardware. Cheers :)
- 0xcde4c3db 10y ago
  > It could technically have different quirks that means minor differences could play out. That could just as easily describe the NES-101 or SNS-101. You can always find some difference if you look hard enough, even with original hardware (hardcore SNES and Neo Geo players care a lot about a console's serial number; a few Commodore 64 fans and musicians care about the date code on a SID chip). In principle, you're correct. In practice, I think you'll have a hard time finding anyone who's genuinely pickier about NES accuracy than Kevin Horton.