Famiclones
Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2016 11:50 am
So I assume by now everybody's heard of the NES Classic Edition, Nintendo's upcoming $60 emulation box that comes preloaded with 30 games.
I expressed some disappointment in the comments section that Nintendo opted to go the emulation route, because Sega's plug-n-play Genesis is an actual Genesis that you can plug cartridges into (EDIT: apparently I am mistaken about this; you can plug cartridges into it but it is actually a shitty emulator), and because it's doubtful Nintendo's emulator will be any better than the wealth of NES emulation options I've already got on a computer hooked up to my TV. (In other words, I'm not the audience for this thing. Which is not to say I don't think it's a cool thing! I might get one for my nephew! But not for me.) I'd really like to be able to play NES on my TV with a decent-looking upscaler, but options like the Analogue NT and the Framemeister are too rich for my blood.
So somebody else turned me on to the upcoming RetroUSB AVS, which I hadn't heard of previously.
Rather than being a software emulator (like the RetroN or the NES CE), a SoC (like the Generation NEX or any number of other clones), or salvaged parts from old Nintendo consoles and cabinets (like the Analogue NT), it's FPGA-based. In other words, it's hardware emulation.
RetroUSB has a pretty good reputation, and this looks pretty solid. They're claiming it'll have 100% hardware compatibility with an authentic NES. While that remains to be seen, it definitely runs Castlevania 3. And even if it turns out there are games it doesn't run, that should be fixable with a firmware update.
It's going to run $185 and output at 720p. I'm going to wait for reviews but it sounds pretty good; a reasonable intermediate step between the cheap options and the expensive ones.
As for my actual NES, and the rest of my old consoles, I've got an old CRT TV with component inputs, but it's got a blown capacitor and doesn't display the top of the picture. My father-in-law knows how to fix it but hasn't gotten around to it yet; he lives in California and, while he visits a handful of times a year, I hate to keep bugging him about it. So I'm looking to see if there's anywhere I can take it to get it fixed; so far all the TV repair shops I've found don't work on tubes anymore.
I expressed some disappointment in the comments section that Nintendo opted to go the emulation route, because Sega's plug-n-play Genesis is an actual Genesis that you can plug cartridges into (EDIT: apparently I am mistaken about this; you can plug cartridges into it but it is actually a shitty emulator), and because it's doubtful Nintendo's emulator will be any better than the wealth of NES emulation options I've already got on a computer hooked up to my TV. (In other words, I'm not the audience for this thing. Which is not to say I don't think it's a cool thing! I might get one for my nephew! But not for me.) I'd really like to be able to play NES on my TV with a decent-looking upscaler, but options like the Analogue NT and the Framemeister are too rich for my blood.
So somebody else turned me on to the upcoming RetroUSB AVS, which I hadn't heard of previously.
Rather than being a software emulator (like the RetroN or the NES CE), a SoC (like the Generation NEX or any number of other clones), or salvaged parts from old Nintendo consoles and cabinets (like the Analogue NT), it's FPGA-based. In other words, it's hardware emulation.
RetroUSB has a pretty good reputation, and this looks pretty solid. They're claiming it'll have 100% hardware compatibility with an authentic NES. While that remains to be seen, it definitely runs Castlevania 3. And even if it turns out there are games it doesn't run, that should be fixable with a firmware update.
It's going to run $185 and output at 720p. I'm going to wait for reviews but it sounds pretty good; a reasonable intermediate step between the cheap options and the expensive ones.
As for my actual NES, and the rest of my old consoles, I've got an old CRT TV with component inputs, but it's got a blown capacitor and doesn't display the top of the picture. My father-in-law knows how to fix it but hasn't gotten around to it yet; he lives in California and, while he visits a handful of times a year, I hate to keep bugging him about it. So I'm looking to see if there's anywhere I can take it to get it fixed; so far all the TV repair shops I've found don't work on tubes anymore.