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NES (Games) Classic Games (Games)

Reincarnating the NES 91

IGN has a piece on a modern NES clone, the NEX. Well constructed and designed to recapture a gamer's enthusiasm for the 80's gaming juggernaut, they have a rundown on the deck's features and extras. From the article: "Though there have been some rather weak attempts to remake the NES/Famicom prior to the NEX, Messiah really put some work into the production to make the NEX feel deserving of the love its users no doubt feel for the original. The device itself is small, cute, and very reminiscent of its forefathers with a front-loading NES cartridge slot and a top loading Famicom slot. The controller jacks are the same as the original NES, meaning you are welcome to use your original controllers if you still have some. Even the packaging is attractive, and the Generation NEX kit includes a cartridge-shaped manual in a slip case, packed with instructions written and illustrated in action-comic-book style and a mini rarity guide developed by Digital Press."
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Reincarnating the NES

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  • It's about time this happend, playing new zealand story on the taito classics for XBOX just wasn't any fun. And it gives us something to tide us through until the Revolutions' released. Bring on the Nostalgia and beer I say!!
  • Here's the compatibility chart they've compiled.

    They weren't able to get Maniac Mansion working, but it looks like it may have been a problem with the cartridge.

    I so want one of these.
  • Cool, but too late (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Schezar ( 249629 ) on Thursday December 22, 2005 @11:48AM (#14318508) Homepage Journal
    I think products like this are extremely cool. Unfortunately, I can't really see a use. I love my old NES games, and I have a sizable collection of carts. Problem is, between the NES, SNES, Atari, Intellivision, and so forth, it's impossible to pile them all up around the TV. Not to mention the huge PITA involved in keeping all the old carts readily available for play.

    Thus, emulators. Instead of a dozen consoles, I have one Gamecube and one PC, the PC running every emulator you can imagine. I physically OWN the cartridges, yet I prefer playing the games themselves on the PC: improved graphics, better controllers, and best of all, no blowing furiously into carts trying to make them work.

    Thus, my collection of physical games sits in myriad boxes for posterity's sake (excepting my gold Zelda cart, which rests lovingly on display) while I actually -play- the games on a PC.
    • I was very psyched about this until I read some very negative reviews by sites I trust a lot more than IGN. Pass.
    • And so you're not quite a collector, in the way that many dedicated classic gamers are. It's simply a matter of fact that many nostalgic gamers want to play it on the original carts, with original gameplay exactly recreated, even when it's for the worse. And using the real, original physical system to do it is part of the magic of recreating that play experience.

      Telling a classic gamer with a collector inclination that emulation is the final solution to all his problems is about as sensible as telling a

    • I have to agree. The IGN article puts down emulated NES gaming as being incompatible and buggy. This couldn't be further from the truth. NES (and even SNES) emulation has been under development for so long that it is, in my opinion, pretty close to flawless.

      I'd rather build my own NES out of a mini-itx/nano-itx/other sufficiently small device. Throw in a cheap 10 or 20 gig 2.5" hard drive for all the ROMs, and a few SmartJoy adapters (that allow the use of classic console controllers via USB), plug it into
      • "You could even write a nice menu system to run on boot to choose between emulators and games, making the machine seem more like a remade console."

        What you are describing is exactly what has been done with emulation on the Xbox. Modded Xboxes use a menu interface such as Evolution X which makes it easy to select emulators, homebrew games or media center apps while sitting on the couch.
        The emulator interfaces are easy to use menus. Most of the emulators are ports of ones you have used on Windows, just with a
        • The problem is that the XBOX is just a tad larger than a nano-itx machine ;)

          The goal of my, errm, fantasy, was to create as small an emulation box as possible. With a nano-itx motherboard (Still difficult to obtain as they have only just now entered limited availability in Japan), you could create an emulation box that is fanless and actually much smaller than a Mac Mini (Mac Mini is 16.5cm wide/deep, nano-itx mobos are 12cm).

          The xbox, while certainly more capable (and cheaper), is much larger and noisier.

          O
          • True - but yeah I think the processors used in nano-itx solutions are not quite good enough for emulation. Well, they would certainly handle 8bit stuff fine - I don't know how well they would do 16 bit systems.
            Of course in a few years time I think nano size systems will reach a level of maturity especially since the mini has shown that there is a market for smaller computers inspite of the limitations you get from slower processors.
            I think it would be a neat project to transplant an Xbox into something more
            • The nano-ITX mobo comes with (up to) a 1GHz Via C3. It might even be faster than the Xbox's 733MHz P3. I doubt it would have any trouble with any 16-bit consoles. As I said, you're not going to do PSX or N64 emulation due to the lack of 3D hardware, but anything 2D should be emulated just fine.

              nano-ITX motherboards aren't uselessly slow, just not up to modern (Pentium-M) equivalents. But you're getting a 12 cm by 12 cm motherboard, so 1GHz and a 1GB SODIMM is pretty damned nice for something a lot smaller t
              • Well the C3s performance is kind of all over the map. If you look at these benchmarks [tomshardware.com] you can see that a Celeron 667 is faster is most cases.
                I guess the biggest advantage the Xbox has in terms of performance is no operating system overhead.
                But yeah there really isn't any other option in the super small, cool and quiet space.
                • No operating system overhead? And what do you think the xbox does, force every game to write their own OS? Don't kid yourself, the XBOX has a full OS.

                  Fine, so the C3 isn't incredibly fast. I didn't claim it was (Only that I thought there was a chance that it was faster than the XBOX's CPU, and it isn't THAT far off).

                  My original point stands though, the C3 has way more than enough power to emulate any 16-bit platform.
                  • Compared to full blown Win XP or even Win 2000, the Xbox OS has very low overhead. While based on the same kernal and direct X apis, it has had tons of functionality stripped out of it. Not to mention it is optimized for one particular hardware platform, not generic x86. So ok "no overhead" would be wrong, but "way the hell less overhead than win XP" would be correct. Try running XP or 2000 on a 700MHz computer with 64MB of RAM.
                    Then again on a nano board system you would have a lot more memory, which should
                    • And nobody said you had to run Windows XP on the embedded box. Grab a minimal linux kernel, throw in BusyBox, and you've got a pretty small amount of overhead. You only load the drivers that are needed, and have barely any additional apps running.

                      You'd have to go this route with the xbox anyhow, since you'd need to install Linux on it anyhow. So you'd be tossing away all the benefits of the xbox and end up back where you started: either get the smaller size, additional memory, and much greater expandability
                    • True, you could run Linux instead.
                      You don't need to install/run Linux on the Xbox in order to run emulators, Xbox media center or xbox home brew applications. Those are built and compiled with the MS Xbox dev kit. They just aren't signed by MS which is why you need a mod chip.
                      I paid $150 for my Xbox + $100 for 160GB hard drive + $50 for mod chip. So $300 total. And in truth you can get a much cheaper mod chip, I got the top of the line one which allows you to load and switch between different bios.
          • If you are interested. I was going to build such a system as you describe. It would be smaller than a nano-itx system as well.

            I was going to use a Evalue Tech ECM-3611-a1 3.5" SBC

            http://www.tri-m.com/products/evalue/ecm3611a1.htm l [tri-m.com]

            US$280

            Pretty good deal. Only downsides I see to my choice in board, it only does Stereo sound, and no TV output. But easily rectified with a scan converter, and say a pcimia sound card attatched to the PC104+ expansion (supports 3 PC104+ devices.

            Nano-ITX doesn't excite me, much sm
            • I don't think the ECM-3611 is any better than the nano-ITX board. In fact, I think it is worse.

              For one thing, it isn't really smaller. It is 14cm by 10cm, whereas the nano-ITX is 12cm by 12cm. Virtually the same surface area.

              Furthermore, adding a VGA to TV converter adds $50 to $100 to the price, and may not have as high quality as a direct output from the motherboard's onboard video.
      • I've done this exact thing by building a pc used for my media center one month ago. I installed Slackware and Freevo and things work like a charm.

        The computer is always on as it doubles as my samba and music server so I don't have the problem of boot times
    • Oh. Can someone explain to me why they refer to the old NES as a "Toaster"? Because of the push-down action?
    • From the parent's link, a post by a Nuby employee: "I had a feeling there would be issues with this in the hardcore community, but it's more geared towards a casual gamer."

      Riiiiiiiight. A casual gamer is going to spend $50+ on an NES when they can get a GC for $60, a PS2 for $120, or a wide variety of controller-to-TV games for $10-$20. If Messiah and Nuby really think that, then their console is dead in the water. Judging by the compatibility list, this thing IS just like the other NES clones that have
  • ...it can use ROM files. I don't even know where any of my old NES carts are. Chances are my mom threw them away years ago when I moved out.
    • You MOVED OUT! You should have just moved into the basement, then all your stuff would still be close at hand. And you get mom's cooking.
      • Well:

        1) I live in Florida, so no basements.

        2) I've heard from reliable sources (read: my wife) that chicks don't like visitng you in your parents house, regardless of room.
    • by Yst ( 936212 )
      The biggest problem for most would-be NES gamers though, I think, isn't scarcity or loss of carts. Most popular NES games, like popular Atari carts, are fairly abundant, so even if you've lost them, you can acquire them very cheaply.

      A more insurmountable problem for many games is battery death. We're reaching the outside of the lifespan of most NES cart batteries, at this point. We're well past the time period most were speced for, but some have survived 18 or 19 years inside their plastic shells anywa

    • My friend has for his SNES, a floopy drive. He's got to have dozens and dozens of 3.5" floppies with roms on them. I think it was called the Super Drive or something...
      • Your friend has what is called a "copier". You can read up on these copiers here [clara.co.uk]. Today, console piracy involves mod-chips or flash carts. In fact, there is even a flash cart made for the SNES [tototek.com], which lets you read ROMs from SNES carts and write ROMs to the flash cart so that they can be played on a real SNES.
  • A cheaper option. (Score:3, Informative)

    by Rowan_u ( 859287 ) on Thursday December 22, 2005 @11:54AM (#14318580)
    One of the greatest gaming uses I've discovered for my laptop is a couple of emulators and this device [lik-sang.com] from lik-sang.com. It allows you to use one of the best controllers of all time to play your favorite NES SNES and MAME games. It works flawlessly, is cheap (if you have the PC already), and doesn't require the complicated process of blowing/erasing the connections on aging game carts.
    • Incidentally, some of the SNES joypad parallel port adapters are really cheap and easy to build. If you can solder, you can make an adapter. If you're using it on a PC with legacy ports anyway, it's a LOT cheaper.
  • Given that I've got NES emulators on my PC, phone, iPaq, DS, PSP and GBA and I've got a Gold Famicom style GBA and a Famicom Style GB Micro I don't really feel the need to revisit the Famicom/NES again.

    What I would pay good money for is a revisit to the SNES, one of my all time favourite consoles. A Generation NEX-type SNES with wireless controllers would certainly suit the bill for me, I think this might be impossible though. IIRC the SNES had lots of custom chips which might not be possible to duplicate.
    • The people that make the Generation NEX make wireless SNES [playmessiah.com] controllers. No Generation SNEX yet, but I wouldn't think it'd be far off.
    • A Generation NEX-type SNES

      Would likely be impossible until 2086 when the copyright on the program inside the Super NES lockout chip expires. Unlike on the NES, where you could get away with not putting a lockout chip into the console, the Super NES has games that require a working official lockout chip on both ends of the cart bus in order to enable access to most of the ROM.

  • "I think products like this are extremely cool. Unfortunately, I can't really see a use. I love my old NES games, and I have a sizable collection of carts. Problem is, between the NES, SNES, Atari, Intellivision, and so forth, it's impossible to pile them all up around the TV. "

    Buy a cheap used XBOX and a good modchip.

    I put a cheap 80gig hard drive on there and with a few easy to find emulators it currently has every NES, SNES, Atari, Sega Genesis, and Gameboy game ever made. Since both the Xbox and
    • Congratulations, you reinvented the second paragraph of the very same post you just finished replying to.

      Too excited to even read past the first paragraph before you succumb to the compulsion to throw your opinion into the ring? Attention-defecit much?
    • "Buy a cheap used XBOX and a good modchip."

      Or, when the Revolution comes, get it.
  • Seriously. This thing is cheaper than a toploader, and it plays famicon games. Tell me where and I'll hand over my credit card now.
  • I read this article the other day and still wonder how it's possible to release this system without any flak from Nintendo. This is considered legal? It's being sold at gamestop and other big chains so it seems to be just fine. Doesn't Nintendo hold some IP that disallows the use of making an NES clone?
    • Re:Legal? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by badasscat ( 563442 ) <basscadet75NO@SPAMyahoo.com> on Thursday December 22, 2005 @12:30PM (#14318984)
      I read this article the other day and still wonder how it's possible to release this system without any flak from Nintendo. This is considered legal?

      It's not only *considered* legal, it is legal.

      The NES was reverse-engineered years ago. And all of their important patents have expired as well. Anyone has free reign to build a famiclone these days, and in fact nearly all of the retro-consoles on the market right now (with some notable exceptions like the Flashback 2 and the C64 joystick thing) are famicoms-on-a-chip running emulated software.

      Nintendo doesn't like it but there's not a thing they can do about it. What they do do every once in a while is find a manufacturer that's including game ROMs with their famiclones and bust them for that. Then they word their press release such that it looks like the real issue was "unauthorized consoles" and the headlines end up saying things like "Nintendo busts NES clone manufacturer!" But it's always the ROMs that are the real issue - obviously the copyright on actual content still applies.

      If you just sell the hardware, though, anybody is free to do so.
      • Tricky tricky wording with the headlines, making people assume that the system is what makes it illegal.

        I find it odd that it has taken so long to get an NES clone into large retail chains, especially one that sells used games for said system.
    • Then NES was released 20 years ago so the patents (which lasted 17 years at the time) on the NES arcitechture have run out, so they can do this, at least technology-wise.
    • Legal? Yes. The NES doesn't have a BIOS or anything they'd need to copy, such as with the PlayStation.

      Worth the money? No. The chip it uses is a years-old cheap knock-off that has known picture and sound problems. You can get the Real Thing for less money on eBay.
  • ...but this is the same thing two-bit Asian electronics companies have been pushing for a while now. It's just in prettier packaging. The one I have now (that I bought at the mall after talking the guy down from $50 to $15) looks a bit silly with it's cartridge slot being almost flush with the top of the unit, but I'll bet underneath the same ship makes both tick.
    • You forget that people often judge a book by its cover. So what if the insides are the same as the boat load of less expensive unlicensed NES clones. Note that people use the same reasoning for deciding which people they like, which politicians they vote for, which musicians they choose to listen to, etc.
  • Lots of interesting comments about the NEX over at AtariAge [atariage.com].
  • I preordered mine the moment I heard of it, and got mine in the first batch. I'm very pleased with it. I play it more then my Gamecube. It's worth it (and cheap) to track down old titles that I've only played in emualtion before. Dragon Warrior and Faxanadu are very good games that are still fun that I happend to have missed. Call it "Maximizing your gameing dollar".

    Plus, the redesigned controller they shipped with the NEX is awesome. It doesn't leave marks like the old one did, and it has some new touches
    • "That said, all the other Castlevainias"

      I have an experiment for you, then:
      1. Play Castlevania II on your NEX
      2. Play Castlevania II on a real NES
      3. Do you hear the difference?
      • Yes. I get a flashing pink screen when I play it on my NES. It works on my NEX.
        • So the $50 for this Famiclone was worth it when you simply could have spent $10 on eBay for a cleaning kit (or even a clean, working NES) and ended up with better picture and sound quality?
        • He obviously intended for you to compare Castlevania II on the NEX versus the Castlevania II when played on a working NES. Just because you choose to not fix your NES or buy a $30 professionally refurbished NES does not factor into the poster's point. The NEX uses a garden variety unlicensed Hong Kong NES-on-a-chip that is notorious for its inaccurate audio. The audio is sometimes so bad that entire sound effects or music tracks are missing.
          • I'll also add that it works perfectly on the NEX as well. I've played for hours and never had audio or graphical issuses. Having used the thing on dozens of games for +75 hours, I've only noticed slight audio corruption in SMB3. Works pretty well for a cheap "Hong Kong NOAC" for me.
        • I get a flashing pink screen when I play it on my NES.

          How to Clean an NES Game Pak
          Adapted from a procedure in the official NES cleaning kit's manual

          1. Moisten one end of a cotton swab in rubbing alcohol (which is usually 70% isopropanol). If you don't have rubbing alcohol, water should be OK.
          2. Wipe the moist end of the cotton swab back and forth across both sides of the Game Pak's edge connector to scrub the dirt off.
          3. Repeat with the dry end to scrub more dirt off and dry the cartridge.
          4. Watch your NES r
  • by faloi ( 738831 )
    Maybe I'm getting too stodgey, but someone should've consulted a Latin dictionary first.
  • Yet another Hong Kong Famiclone. Yay.

    I have a well-maintained front-loader, a top-loader, and an A/V Famicom. Why would I be interested in this? I can stick in my Final Fantasy III cartridge, but will it let me play the game in English? No? Then I'll wait for the Kevtendo [google.com].

    Heck, can this Famiclone even get all the sound right? They mentioned TMNT II, how was the percussion in that game? Did April's digitized scream come through?

    Hell, I had a Tristar once, which did everything this thing does (played b
    • I'm pretty sure that the clones are meant to service the sector of folks who are on a nostalgia trip, but either can't track down a working original or don't want to have to putz around with adapters. Are any of the clones perfect? Not likely. Are they better than nothing? Probably so. It's awesome for you that you've got well-maintained this-that-and-others, but you're an exception, not a rule.
      • I'd get a Famiclone if it was done well, but these NES-on-a-chip clones aren't. The colors are washed, sound is spotty with missing sound effects and musical instruments... The people who took the time to both write NES emulators and dump NES cartridges put a lot more effort (and pride) in their work than this bunch of people selling $5 worth of hardware for $50. They make the vast majority of their money from people who don't know any better.

        You can get a refurbished front-loader (complete with composit
        • Fair points, all of them. Now, where the hell where you before I entered my damn credit card number? Maybe I can still pull the order out before they complete it...
          • Famiclones have been around forver [wikipedia.org], it's not really news. What would have been newsworth would be these guys making something like the "Dr PC Jr," the Holy Grail of Famiclones (it will play NES ROMs off of a 3.5" floppy disk), but those haven't been manufactured in years and will typically sell for $500 nowadays.

            As for your new NEX, try not to play a real NES and avoid certian later Konami/Ultra titles (like Castlevania II and TMNT II) and maybe you won't notice the difference.
      • There are plenty of retailers on Ebay and on their own web sites that sell professionally refurbished original NES systems, which do not have any issues with blinking games or blowing on carts. A typical price for a professionally refurbished NES system is $30, which is half the price of a NEX.
    • Isn't the Kevtendo now called the FPGA Console? I checked the website for that machine and it doesn't look like there's been an update since May. Sounds like a good machine, but I wouldn't be holding my breath.
      • Yeah, the project has probably fallen through, but somebody somewhere will finally follow through with this. It's only a matter of time.
    • Hell, I had a Tristar once, which did everything this thing does (played both NES and Famicom carts) while pretending to be an add-on to my SNES. That saved even more shelf space than having one of these would. What advantage does this have over a Tristar?

      You had a Tristar once... and you got rid of it? You fool!

      Mine works great, though I did have to solder a jumper wire to make SNES FX games work. It's one of the best things you can get... if you can find one. The main negatives are 1) no S-video, and

      • "You had a Tristar once... and you got rid of it? You fool!"

        I got rid of it because I was tired of the graphical and sound glitches. It uses the same chip as this NEX and has the same problems. So I sold it on eBay and now have a SWC DX2 that sits on top of my SNES (which uses S-VHS output). I use my front-loading NES now with its composite outputs, but if I ever feel the need to safe shelf space again, I'll use the A/V Famicom and my 72-to-60 pin converter (looks silly but saves horizontal space).
  • I hope like hell this shuts up my roommate and her incessant whining about not having any games in the current generation line-ups that are fun and easy to play (excepting Katamari and Super Monkey Ball, which she won't put down...).
  • mmmmmmmm...

    I have been following this device and its creators for some time now, and they had been stating a Christmas release and at least online they have hit their mark (more than can be said of a number of others). While the novelty and the retro gamers will love it I believe it is ill-fated for a couple major reasons.

    1.) Poor timing with the upcoming Revolution release and the backwards compatability.

    2.) The NES is one of the hardest consoles to program for EVER. It is a major pain in the ass, I've wor
    • The NES is one of the hardest consoles to program for EVER.

      Bullshit. NES is easy. Atari 2600 is hard.

      Without an active community of developers

      So what are we [parodius.com]? Chopped liver?

      • I wasn't comparing to Atari, of course it would be harder... I mean we could go back and say that any old hardware would be harder. My point was even the SNES is a hell of a lot easier. The NES is not simple, it's not even remotely considered "easy." It is a system that is moderate to difficult to do anything meaningful with.

        Most people who are "developing" for the NES are just hacking existing ROMS, and while that is novel and has some good outcomes, it is not anywhere near a trulky active community.

        With t
        • My point was even the SNES is a hell of a lot easier.

          Not especially. They use almost the same CPU, and for scrolling-background type code, the programming model is nearly the same. In fact, it's harder to get sound going on a Super NES because you have to learn two instruction sets and communicate between the two through a really narrow channel.

          Most people who are "developing" for the NES are just hacking existing ROMS

          Sure, the ROM hacking community overshadows the original development community,

          • I've worked on NEs titles and SNES titles and to me I was able to do more, quicker, and easier on the SNES. Now I could just be strange, but that was what I found.

            While I applaud your work, and don't want to demean it in any way, it is just a Tetris clone. I programmed that on a TI83 calculator with minimal trouble. If you take a look through the forums on that site you gave me in the dev section you will see a number of common troubles people are experiencing with things like scrolling and such.

            All I was s
            • The NEX does not come with wireless pads. You have to buy them separately, and they even work with a regular NES. In fact, some places sell a package for $60 consisting of a real original professional refurbished NES and a wireless Messiah controller.
    • The NES is one of the hardest consoles to program for EVER. It is a major pain in the ass, I've worked on two NES titles and they are not fun.

      What, were you trying to do bitmap-style graphics on it or something?

      You should try your hand at the Atari 7800 sometime. If the NES is a pain in the ass, the 7800 is a pain in the whole body. The difference between the 7800 and the Colecovision is like night and day. The NES shouldn't be too much different from the Colecovision (other than being 6502 code instea

  • Do a quick search for this device on the net & be prepared to hear about terrible compatibility problems ranging from graphic anomolies, off-key sound, to total incompatibility.

    While this device looks great, I fear that it's functionality will leave a lot to be desired.

  • This Joystiq [joystiq.com] article from over a year ago new-nes-console-knockoff-is-a-lemon [joystiq.com] seems to indicate that the NEX is not all it's cracked up to be.
  • It has already been said above, but for those that didn't see it there here it is again. I have one of these, I pre-ordered early on. It is very pretty and is packaged well, but the compatibility sucks, the cart slot is tight as can be and there is a sticker, yes a paper sticker, on the back that says not to remove it to reduce risk of fire and electrocution if you don't have the right hookups for it. I'm totally behind the idea that the GenNEX seems to to have come from, I really wanted to be happy with
  • From what I've seen IGN is the only site giving this positive reviews. Everyone else says the console is crap. I guess IGN has sold their advertising services in the form of a review, yet again.

    You can find a less biased review here:
    http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives /6 [vintagecomputing.com]

    And these guys aren't the only ones saying the system is terrible.

    Basically it's nothing more than one of those cheap, Chinese Nintendo clones with a NES-type shell. The creators of this system claim this thing has a custom IC
  • The IGN article is nothing more than a sales pitch presented in the form of a review. Read here for more details [atariage.com]

    Do not judge a book by its cover. The NEX is nothing more than yet another Famicom/NES clone. There have been 100s before it, and they all pretty much suck. It uses the same NES-on-a-chip (NOAC) used in many other Famicom and NES clones. These NOACs have inaccurate audio, video, glitches, and are completely incompatible with roughly 40 NES games (Castlevania III, Gauntlet, etc) and even more
  • Did the people at IGN even put a NEX side-by-side with an original NES?! I bought a NEX. It's a gorgeous system, it just happens not to work very well. Colors are off, sound is off, and quite a number of games don't work at all. Within short order I'd shelved it and reconnected my original NES (with a newly replaced 72-pin connector). Great wireless controllers though.

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