Nintendo is bringing back the NES — NES Classic Edition

[pbj]

Yeah, that's what I'm hoping for personally.

[Le Chuck]

Have they tried Castlevania 3 yet?

[8BitMonk]

Looks like some progress on hacking this thing.

http://www.polygon.com/2017/1/9/14211402/nes-classic-edition-hack

[yotsuya]

[JDFan]

FTFY

[yotsuya]

Missing Pic

FTFY

Dude, I was in the middle of tweaking it when you posted that. Patience.

[yotsuya]

Getting back to my original image, this is what you guys sound like to me.

[pbj]

Go yell at clouds somewhere else, old man.

[Howard_Casto]

Getting back to my original image, this is what you guys sound like to me.

To be fair Linux was developed by a Finnish guy, so it's commands sound like nonsense to nearly everyone.  Then again Unix is similar, so maybe that isn't a good excuse. 

[opt2not]

Alright, now I want to see the thing running rom hacks.

I thought you only play games off x-in-1 carts?

[pbj]

Oh look, it's Mr. I Only Run Official Carts on my $400 Upscaler.  Begone.

[opt2not]

FYI it's a $300 upscaler, and I run games off a Powerpak.

But green isn't a good colour on you, James. 

[yotsuya]

FYI it's a $300 upscaler, and I run games off a Powerpak.

But green isn't a good colour on you, James. 

Conversely, some dudes would be happy if they could get MAME running on their toaster...

[opt2not]

And some dudes want to put an NES Mini (JPN ver) in a classic Gameboy:
! No longer available

[bigster]

That video of the famicom mini in the gameboy was wild.  I like the idea of hacking the software, adding all games, possibly adding support for 4 original controllers and putting it in a linux box with all the games. 

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[JDFan]

Decided to give the hack tools a try using hakchi2 - it makes it a simple process to add new games and works perfectly - added  1942, 1943, Arch Rivals, BurgerTime, DigDug, DK3, Elavator Action, Galaxian, Gauntlet, Joust, Lode Runner, and Metal Gear. And they all show up and play fine on the emulator.

[Malenko]

Decided to give the hack tools a try using hakchi2 - it makes it a simple process to add new games and works perfectly - added  1942, 1943, Arch Rivals, BurgerTime, DigDug, DK3, Elavator Action, Galaxian, Gauntlet, Joust, Lode Runner, and Metal Gear. And they all show up and play fine on the emulator.

Try Mighty Final Fight! love that game. Im jelly you got one, I'll prolly snag one in like 2 years when no one wants it anymore.

[JDFan]

Decided to give the hack tools a try using hakchi2 - it makes it a simple process to add new games and works perfectly - added  1942, 1943, Arch Rivals, BurgerTime, DigDug, DK3, Elavator Action, Galaxian, Gauntlet, Joust, Lode Runner, and Metal Gear. And they all show up and play fine on the emulator.

Try Mighty Final Fight! love that game. Im jelly you got one, I'll prolly snag one in like 2 years when no one wants it anymore.

Just downloaded to test for you and it works fine !! Hopefully they'll restock before they stop production - at $60 it's a nice little unit to play with (currently testing it with a 7" 5V display and 5v lion battery and it works well as a portable unit as well.)

[opt2not]

Decided to give the hack tools a try using hakchi2 - it makes it a simple process to add new games and works perfectly - added  1942, 1943, Arch Rivals, BurgerTime, DigDug, DK3, Elavator Action, Galaxian, Gauntlet, Joust, Lode Runner, and Metal Gear. And they all show up and play fine on the emulator.

Can you add a famicom game with expansion audio and see if the extra music channels are present?
Actually I wonder what mappers this thing supports...VRC6??

[JDFan]

Decided to give the hack tools a try using hakchi2 - it makes it a simple process to add new games and works perfectly - added  1942, 1943, Arch Rivals, BurgerTime, DigDug, DK3, Elavator Action, Galaxian, Gauntlet, Joust, Lode Runner, and Metal Gear. And they all show up and play fine on the emulator.

Can you add a famicom game with expansion audio and see if the extra music channels are present?
Actually I wonder what mappers this thing supports...VRC6??

From cluster a few days ago in his release thread(maker of the hakchi2 tool) :

Just added FDS support, version 2.05.
FDS BIOS not required, it's already present in NES Mini

Not real familiar with the famicom disk system - but from reading the thread on the hack it does have support for the FDS now - downloaded the super mario bros 2 fds japan rom and installed it and it runs fine - how can you tell if the extended audio channels are present - hooked it up to my TV and it sounds pretty good and is definitely different than the smb 2 that came installed on the unit but not sure how to verify what audio channels it is using. 

[opt2not]

I usually use Castlevania III as a good comparison:


You can hear Akumaju Densetsu's music is more full and has a couple more instruments layered into the music.

[JDFan]

You can hear Akumaju Densetsu's music is more full and has a couple more instruments layered into the music.

I'll give them both a test tomorrow during the day and let you know.

Any others that could be tested - Just tried  Akumaju Densetsu and got an unsupported mapper error so don't think the nes mini emulator will work with it !

[opt2not]

Any others that could be tested - Just tried  Akumaju Densetsu and got an unsupported mapper error so don't think the nes mini emulator will work with it !

Hmm if VRC6 isn't supported (Akumaju Dracula, Esper Dream 2, Madara), VRC7 is out of the question (Lagrange Point has a unique and awesome soundtrack using FM Synth).

Could you try a Namco 163 mapper game (King of Kings), and Sunsoft 5B (Gimmick!)?

I doubt any of these are supported though, but doesn't hurt to try. Gimmick! Is a seriously hard platformer that has some neat-o sound too.

[pbj]

Good lord, THAT'S the emulation difference you people are always blathering about.... they sound 99% the same.

[JDFan]

Any others that could be tested - Just tried  Akumaju Densetsu and got an unsupported mapper error so don't think the nes mini emulator will work with it !

Hmm if VRC6 isn't supported (Akumaju Dracula, Esper Dream 2, Madara), VRC7 is out of the question (Lagrange Point has a unique and awesome soundtrack using FM Synth).

Could you try a Namco 163 mapper game (King of Kings), and Sunsoft 5B (Gimmick!)?

I doubt any of these are supported though, but doesn't hurt to try. Gimmick! Is a seriously hard platformer that has some neat-o sound too.

Looks like it doesn't support those (wonder if the Japanese version would (doubt it as they are probably both using the same emulator core) - seems they only included support for the mappers the units were going to have used or that might have been used. guess they figured adding support for third party mappers wasn't worth the effort if they were not going to be used - perhaps support for those could be added as time goes on but for now seems they do not have support )

[lilshawn]

there is apparently talks of some modified firmware to add some more mappers and patch some things. perhaps in the near future these games may work. People are going ham on hacking this system.

[pbj]

Granted, your little hacker program is the one telling you it's incompatible.  Maybe worth shoving one onto the system anyway and seeing what happens?

[opt2not]

Yeah figured as much. Thanks for checking those out for us, JDFan.

Good lord, THAT'S the emulation difference you people are always blathering about.... they sound 99% the same.

Filthy composite casuals need not apply.

[pbj]

Meh, it's a beloved family heirloom versus some rich boy toy you threw money at.  Congrats. 

[opt2not]

Enjoy your those Chinese knockoff carts on your "family heirloom", your highness.

[pbj]

I do, thanks. 

[opt2not]

Anyways, back to the big-boy discussions, JDFan could you try one more game? Just Breed, it's an MMC5 mapper that Nintendo released. It's the mother of all mappers that supports 3 extra sound channels, and supports the largest rom sizes on the NES. A bunch of hackers are now converting games to MMC5 to expand the Roms for larger and more radical game changes/mods, but Nintendo originally used them for larger strategy games.

[JDFan]

Anyways, back to the big-boy discussions, JDFan could you try one more game? Just Breed, it's an MMC5 mapper that Nintendo released. It's the mother of all mappers that supports 3 extra sound channels, and supports the largest rom sizes on the NES. A bunch of hackers are now converting games to MMC5 to expand the Roms for larger and more radical game changes/mods, but Nintendo originally used them for larger strategy games and of course an arcade port of Just Breed.

Using Just Breed (J) [T+Eng1.00_Stealth].nes rom it seems to work fine ! (guess they included it since it is a nintendo mapper and they may release something that uses it at some point so included it in the emulator. )

[Howard_Casto]

Anyways, back to the big-boy discussions...

I just about spit my drink out with that line. 

[opt2not]

Using Just Breed (J) [T+Eng1.00_Stealth].nes rom it seems to work fine ! (guess they included it since it is a nintendo mapper and they may release something that uses it at some point so included it in the emulator. )

Nice! That's great. There is a lot of room for hackers these days to create some really interesting mods to games using MMC5 due to the larger rom sizes.
Glad to see that Just Breed works! Thanks.
Hopefully other mappers will be added by the hacking community, expansion audio is such a hidden gem for some games. I can't even play the US Castlevania III now, it just sounds so hollow.  Those extra layers of sound really fill out the music and epic tone of the game.

[Howard_Casto]

Granted, your little hacker program is the one telling you it's incompatible.  Maybe worth shoving one onto the system anyway and seeing what happens?

^This^

They probably tried one game with that mapper, it didn't work, and so they assumed they all don't work.

[JDFan]

Finished putting together my Nintendo Emulator Cartridge with a pi zero today - just need to get the roms loaded - was ordering a pi3 to play with and they had the zero in stock for $5 so added it to the order.

Figure the whole thing cost about $30 - with the parts ordered from China ( was much cheaper to wait on the pieces - other than the pi zero from adafruit and the micro sd from Best Buy (way too many fakes out there to trust china on that !! )

Price breakdown :

Repro cartridge - 6 pack for $14 ( $2.33 @ )                           $2.33
Micro USB to USB adapter 5 pack for $1.69 ( $0.34 @)            $0.34
4 Port USB hub                                                                     $0.99
Micro USB M/F extension                                                       $0.96
Mini HDMI M to HDMI F adapter                                             $1.63
Pi Zero (adafruit)                                                                  $5.00
2x SNES Game Controllers                                                     $5.51
32GB Microsd card                                                                $9.95

Total                                                                                  $26.71

Would have been $8.50 more for the adafruit shipping if not ordered with the rpi3 in same order which cost the same for shipping.

Had ordered the pieces before being able to get the mini from Walmart and then figured it could be used for the games the mini was missing but now that the hack is working 

[knave]

That looks pretty sweet JDFan! How is the UI on the pi0? Can it boot directly into a frontend of some sort?

How does the NES classic compare to something like this? Or just an android tv box?

I mean we all have the capability to emulate and play the NES games if we want...yet there is lots of interest. What makes the Classic worth getting. Is it just convenience...plug and play?

[JDFan]

That looks pretty sweet JDFan! How is the UI on the pi0? Can it boot directly into a frontend of some sort?

How does the NES classic compare to something like this? Or just an android tv box?

I mean we all have the capability to emulate and play the NES games if we want...yet there is lots of interest. What makes the Classic worth getting. Is it just convenience...plug and play?

Haven't finished setting it up yet but the pi's are very easy to set up with retropie and emulation station ( you just place the image on a sd disk on the PC - put it in the pi and turn it on and it expands the system and sets up the entire thing and boots directly into Emulation Station - then you just need to copy the roms to the proper emulator folder ( It will automatically load the emulators that have roms in their folders as you add roms so first boot just the retropie main screen shows with the various files to configure it.)

To add the roms you can either use your PC and connect to the pi ( once you set up the WiFi or internet connection) or use a thumbdrive ( on the pc just make a retropie folder - disconnect the thumbdrive and take it and plug into the pi - and once the Pi recognizes the device being plugged in it will auto setup a folder structure etc. - once that finishes you just remove the thumbdrive from the pi take it back to your PC and place the roms in the emulator folders - remove and take back to the Pi and it will auto copy the roms onto the pi. So pretty much an automated process at this point.

Main thing about the classic is it is an actual Nintendo product so is plug and play with a very simple front end and is pretty much bullet proof so kids and relatives can't mess the thing up ( so no after install phone calls for help ! ) Plus it looks just like the old system so brings back some memories for those that had them growing up. - Definitely needs an extension cable for the controller ( I got 2 6ft extensions from China for about $2 apiece )

The pi zero does pretty well also but takes a bit more setup and maintenance - and can also run older MAME games as well so they both have uses and do have some overlap depending on the use. ANd either one can be set up for around $40 - $60 so don't break the bank.

[Howard_Casto]

Yeah I think that one should be obvious.  People want the classic because it's an official Nintendo plug-n-play system.  That's a huge deal.  Companies that are still actively making hardware do NOT release pnp systems.  Also since it's hardware released by Nintendo, you know the quality is there.  It isn't an atgames piece of junk.