Nintendo Entertainment System?
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I am looking to get a system that can play original NES cartridges. I know that the copyright has expired on the NES and that there are new hardware sets on the market that can play the carts. Have any of you used any of them? Are any of them good? Looking for recommendations here.
Thanks :D
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Pedantic nitpick:
@Vaire said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
I know that the copyright has expired on the NES
*Patents. Copyrights, as far as we know, last forever.
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@Vaire Didn't try any of those retro hardware, but I find the best setup is a good emulator with a NES USB controller like this one
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@Vaire Out of interest, why not just buy a NES?
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@RaceProUK I thought of that, but that hardware is going to be over 30 years old. And I remember how finicky it was back in the day when I played at friends houses, etc. Was kind of hoping the newer hardware would be more solid. Maybe at least then I wouldn't have to deal with the gimpy spring-loading platform that frequently needed another game shoved in over it to keep the contacts engaged so the game would actually play? :/
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@Vaire Oh yeah, I forgot the American design sucked ass; the Japanese version was much better designed
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@RaceProUK said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
@Vaire Oh yeah, I forgot the American design sucked ass; the Japanese version was much better designed
That doesn't help meeeeeeeeeeee.
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@anonymous234 said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
Pedantic nitpick:
@Vaire said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
I know that the copyright has expired on the NES
*Patents. Copyrights, as far as we know, last forever.
I bow before your superior pedantry
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@Vaire The search is over, found what I was looking for. This looks AWESOME.
http://www.analogue.co/products/analogue-nt-information
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@Vaire said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
This looks AWESOME.
It's not this though.
Mine still works.
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@loopback0 Oh, I know I could get one off e-bay or even from a local game store (do those still exist?), but it will be 30 year old hardware, and it will have the same issues that it did back then. Plus the system I linked to has wireless controllers. I mean ... I can't even ... squeeeeee :D
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@Vaire said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
@RaceProUK I thought of that, but that hardware is going to be over 30 years old.
The controllers are a bigger issue than the console. Leaky capacitors is about the only thing that can go wrong on the circuit board. I'm pretty sure mine still works, although I haven't tried it in about 4-5 years.
@Vaire said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
Maybe at least then I wouldn't have to deal with the gimpy spring-loading platform that frequently needed another game shoved in over it to keep the contacts engaged so the game would actually play?
If you don't want the spring-loaded platform, the true Nintendo experience, then why not just use an emulator? If you're not interested in authenticity, just go all the fucking way why not.
@RaceProUK said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
Oh yeah, I forgot the American design sucked ass; the Japanese version was much better designed
You're fucking British. Let's reminisce about all those great British game consoles, like the... uh. Oh, and the... hm. And don't forget that... one?
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I saw them selling NES/SNES combos a while back at Fred Meyers I think. I imagine those would work fine.
Make sure you get Battletoads btw. That game is fun.
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@Vaire said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
@Vaire The search is over, found what I was looking for. This looks AWESOME.
Analogue Nt Information
You're going to spend $500 on a not-Nintendo? $500?!
You're insane.
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Maybe this http://www.retrode.org/
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@Vaire said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
Maybe at least then I wouldn't have to deal with the gimpy spring-loading platform
Which is, to my knowledge, easy to replace (if you buy a replacement, and I believe they are still sold) and even repairable themselves if you're willing.
Otherwise, you could go with this:
Still official and had a more reliable pin connector. If you want RCA out, though, you have to get it modded.
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@Adynathos That's just a cartridge -> USB interface; the ganes are all emulated.
At least the $500 one had the same guts as an actual NES, or so it claimed.
If you check Ebay, it's full of non-Nintendos like this:
And they're a shitload less than $500.
Or you can buy an ACTUAL NES in excellent condition for $130:
Here, for a few bucks more you can buy this one with a brand-new power supply and the cartridge reader completely replaced with a new one:
Anyway, what I'm getting at is: if you want a Nintendo, buy a Nintendo!
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@blakeyrat said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
That's just a cartridge -> USB interface; the ganes are all emulated.
At least the $500 one had the same guts as an actual NES, or so it claimed.Yes, but then you should be able to run the games on a PC, with superior processing power and tools like changing speed, saving state etc, and ability to backup cartridges into files.
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@Adynathos Right, but again: why bother?
Look, to me, there's two states here:
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I want the genuine Nintendo experience, like a person would have in 1986
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I just want to play some gamezzz
If you're in state 1, then you need an actual Nintendo. If you're in state 2, then an emulator is fine. What I don't get is this weird inbetween state:
- I want to play gamezzz with all the annoyances of the physical Nintendo hardware, but I don't care about the Nintendo experience
That is inscrutable to me.
And I say that as a person who owns this:
(Back when it was way cheaper. Damned. $90?!)
But here's the deal: that GIVES the authentic (single-player) Atari experience, because that controller is just as fucking terrible as the Atari controller and the emulator in it is pixel-perfect.
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@Adynathos said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
Yes, but then you should be able to run the games on a PC
If you're going to go that route, why not just get an emulator and download the roms instead of loading/backing up games you have.
Besides, the Retrode doesn't even do NES games, it does SNES and Genesis (and apparently a tiny amount of Nintendo 64, Virtual Boy, and Atari 2600 games with special adapters).
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@blakeyrat said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
@Vaire said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
@Vaire The search is over, found what I was looking for. This looks AWESOME.
Analogue Nt Information
You're going to spend $500 on a not-Nintendo? $500?!
You're insane.
I never claimed I wasn't
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@blakeyrat Good point, I am definitely not the target group for the Nintendo stuff, as I was not even born when NES was released.
Probably all the good games are ported to PC, even without the need for an emulator.@ChaosTheEternal said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
If you're going to go that route, why not just get an emulator and download the roms instead of loading/backing up games you have.
That is obviously the best way. I don't know why they build those machines, maybe for making the first copy of games which are not yet copied...
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@Adynathos said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
Probably all the good games are ported to PC, even without the need for an emulator.
Sadly no.
Nintendo holds them hostage on their dumb Wii Shop download store thing. (At least the games they created; you might be able to buy NES games from non-Nintendo publishers on PC, although I haven't personally seen that and I track the PC game market pretty closely.)
Nintendo HATES PC. With a passion. They've never ported anything to PC except Mario Teaches Typing, and that was a fluke.
@Adynathos said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
I don't know why they build those machines, maybe for making the first copy of games which are not yet copied...
If you're an idiot, you might care that you're playing "your" copy of the game.
If you actually own a Nintendo cart in 2016 that's never appeared in a ROM collection, you should sell it for the $5,000,000 it's worth. Because damn.
That's kind of like saying, "meh not sure why you'd buy a scanner except to scan in that Action Comics #1 in mint condition you have sitting around..."
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@ChaosTheEternal said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
@Vaire said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
Maybe at least then I wouldn't have to deal with the gimpy spring-loading platform
Which is, to my knowledge, easy to replace (if you buy a replacement, and I believe they are still sold) and even repairable themselves if you're willing.
Otherwise, you could go with this:
Still official and had a more reliable pin connector. If you want RCA out, though, you have to get it modded.
I will check this out, thanks :D
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@blakeyrat said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
@Adynathos That's just a cartridge -> USB interface; the ganes are all emulated.
At least the $500 one had the same guts as an actual NES, or so it claimed.
If you check Ebay, it's full of non-Nintendos like this:
And they're a shitload less than $500.
Or you can buy an ACTUAL NES in excellent condition for $130:
Here, for a few bucks more you can buy this one with a brand-new power supply and the cartridge reader completely replaced with a new one:
Anyway, what I'm getting at is: if you want a Nintendo, buy a Nintendo!
But I don't truuuuuuust e-baaaaaaay
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@Adynathos Don't want an emulator
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@blakeyrat said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
Nintendo HATES PC
That explains why I never owned a Nintendo game :)
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@Adynathos said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
That explains why I never owned a Nintendo game
You're lucky; I stupidly spent money on a Gamecube and it was a fucking ripoff. All the games were shit.
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@Vaire It sure does.
It also costs $499 and is currently sold out. I suggest you resume your search.
AFAIK any of the clones has almost perfect compatibility with the games, so I'd just pick a nice looking one.
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@anonymous234 said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
@Vaire It sure does.
It also costs $499 and is currently sold out. I suggest you resume your search.
AFAIK any of the clones has almost perfect compatibility with the games, so I'd just pick a nice looking one.
That is the problem, I don't know where to go to find the clones :(
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@Vaire said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
But I don't truuuuuuust e-baaaaaaay
So buy one elsewhere.
I'm with blakey here - IMO either get an emulator and some ROMs or buy a NES.
Even if the NES breaks at some point - you could replace it twice for less than that thing you posted before.
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@loopback0 said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
Even if the NES breaks at some point - you could replace it twice for less than that thing you posted before.
Which is sold out anyway. But admittedly is kind of cool, in a 'if i had a disposable income, i might buy it' way.
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@loopback0 said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
@Vaire said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
But I don't truuuuuuust e-baaaaaaay
So buy one elsewhere.
I'm with blakey here - IMO either get an emulator and some ROMs or buy a NES.
Even if the NES breaks at some point - you could replace it twice for less than that thing you posted before.It will be a warm day in Scotland 'afore I use a ROM =_=
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@Magus said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
@loopback0 said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
Even if the NES breaks at some point - you could replace it twice for less than that thing you posted before.
Which is sold out anyway. But admittedly is kind of cool, in a 'if i had a disposable income, i might buy it' way.
I DO have disposable income. I am a senior dev at one of the largest companies on earth (I am sure you have all heard of it). And I want me some RELIABLE Mario dagnabbit! >_</*
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@Vaire Watch out, Blakey is going to tell you he hates rich people.
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@Vaire said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
It will be a warm day in Scotland 'afore I use a ROM =_=
So you want to be authentic and use actual cartridges, but you don't care about using emulated NES. I really don't get where you're coming from.
If it were, like, you were trying to find a Baird mechanical television and those are like $75,000 and none work anymore, then ok. I'd get that. But NES sold millions. They're all over. They're cheap. They're easy-to-find. You can even find new-in-box NES without too much difficulty.
@Vaire said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
I DO have disposable income.
I have disposable income, too. I don't waste it on stupid shit.
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@Magus said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
@Vaire Watch out, Blakey is going to tell you he hates rich people.
I'm not rich, I just spend money on toys.
And besides, Blakey and me are cool, I nominated him for glorious leader earlier ;)
And also, I am fairly certain Blakey works for a certain tech giant in Seattle, or one closely related to them, so he has very little room to bark at me. If he works for whom I think he works, we have probably done business together and not even known it :D
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@blakeyrat said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
@Vaire said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
It will be a warm day in Scotland 'afore I use a ROM =_=
So you want to be authentic and use actual cartridges, but you don't care about using emulated NES. I really don't get where you're coming from.
If it were, like, you were trying to find a Baird mechanical television and those are like $75,000 and none work anymore, then ok. I'd get that. But NES sold millions. They're all over. They're cheap. They're easy-to-find. You can even find new-in-box NES without too much difficulty.
@Vaire said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
I DO have disposable income.
I have disposable income, too. I don't waste it on stupid shit.
The one I linked to isn't using emulation, right? It is using original hardware, just with upscalers and stuff :P
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@Vaire said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
And also, I am fairly certain Blakey works for a certain tech giant in Seattle,
I did once by accident, because they bought the smaller company I actually did work for. Then they sold the division I worked in in a year, and I no longer did.
But no, I've never worked directly for Microsoft other than that. I did once work for a contracting agency that worked with Microsoft to do Xbox 360 network testing, as a result of which my name is in the Gears of War credits BTW.
Currently I work for a very small startup in the healthcare industry.
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@blakeyrat said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
@Vaire said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
And also, I am fairly certain Blakey works for a certain tech giant in Seattle,
I did once by accident, because they bought the smaller company I actually did work for. Then they sold the division I worked in in a year, and I no longer did.
But no, I've never worked directly for Microsoft other than that. I did once work for a contracting agency that worked with Microsoft to do Xbox 360 network testing, as a result of which my name is in the Gears of War credits BTW.
Currently I work for a very small startup in the healthcare industry.
I dunno ... you seem to have a pretty vast amount of experience in Enterprise-land. But all right, sure, if you say you don't work for the big M, I believe you ;)
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@Vaire said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
I dunno ... you seem to have a pretty vast amount of experience in Enterprise-land.
I worked for an "enterprise" once for about 4 months before
I got firedmy manager and I mutually decided it would be best to end my contract early, it was the biggest mistake of my life.Pretty much my entire career, I've worked at companies with between 50 and 500 employees. Large enough to have an actual HR department, but small enough to not be "enterprise". It's a good place to be.
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@blakeyrat said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
@Vaire said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
I dunno ... you seem to have a pretty vast amount of experience in Enterprise-land.
I worked for an "enterprise" once for about 4 months before
I got firedmy manager and I mutually decided it would be best to end my contract early, it was the biggest mistake of my life.Pretty much my entire career, I've worked at companies with between 50 and 500 employees. Large enough to have an actual HR department, but small enough to not be "enterprise". It's a good place to be.
I have done the smaller company thing. The people in those companies tend to want to get too chummy. It gets annoying fast. I have my own life and family, I DO NOT want to join the "work family." I am there to do a job, and do it well. I think my personality just meshes better at large Fortune 100 types of companies. I don't need to be babysitting people's hurt bunny feelings because I decline their invite to after-work activities, or 3 hour lunches/parties (which would mean I would have to stay late to finish what I need to do). I want to get in, do my job, and get out (and post here while doing so).
I have also had the experience in smaller companies of them just not having enough for me to do sometimes. They hire me on as a full-time developer, and I plow through their to-do stack in a few months, and then they are like, "oh ... you finished all that? Well ... why don't you go help Judy in accounting get her numbers in."
FUCK. THAT.
I didn't go to college to get my CS degree, and build up my experience in the development skill set, to "wear many hats" and "pitch in as needed." I am a full time developer. If you don't have enough work for me to do as a full time developer, you shouldn't have hired me. You should have hired a QA person trying to break into development.The last company that tried that with me (and got bitchy with me when I resisted), I quit with no notice once I lined up my next gig (which they needed me for immediately). Normally I do give notice, even to companies I hate. I don't like to burn bridges if I can help it. I have to say, I kind of enjoyed how flabbergasted they were that I wanted to leave their little "family". They COULD NOT understand why I was leaving
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@Vaire said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
I have done the smaller company thing. The people in those companies tend to want to get too chummy.
Entirely orthogonal to company size.
Google is full of "chummy" people. The company I work for at literally 1/500th the size is not.
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@blakeyrat said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
@Vaire said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
I have done the smaller company thing. The people in those companies tend to want to get too chummy.
Entirely orthogonal to company size.
Google is full of "chummy" people. The company I work for at literally 1/500th the size is not.
Google is also fully of hipsters. E.G. you LITERALLY couldn't pay me to work there.
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This post is deleted!
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@fbmac Well, I mean, the key word there is "bank." I can check out after that, I KNOW the fustercluck is coming where I hear that.
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@blakeyrat said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
Leaky capacitors is about the only thing that can go wrong on the circuit board.
…and if that happened, you can probably repair the board by soldering on a new one yourself.
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@ChaosTheEternal said in Nintendo Entertainment System?:
If you want RCA out, though, you have to get it modded.
I think it has the same AV port as the SNES, N64 and Gamecube, so if you have one of those cables you can just use that. Or get the cable; it's gotta be cheaper and faster than modding in new ports.
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@hungrier
No, the NES didn't use the same connector as those. That started with the SNES.The NES Top Loader only has RF out. The original NES has red and yellow RCA on the side and RF out on the back.
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@ChaosTheEternal My mistake; I thought the top loader was recent enough that it had the AV port, and I found something on Google that seemed to confirm that, but it was actually the Japanese AV Famicom.