Re: AVS System (Play Nintendo in HD)
 

I still would have thought Nintendo would have found a way to patent HD/HDMI output of the NES, thus not letting the patent expire.

They're a big powerful company with lots of lawyers, and I'm surprised they let things like this happen considering how quickly they jumped on that Nintendo Power archive.

Re: AVS System (Play Nintendo in HD)
 

At best, that would patent only HDMI output from an NES, and a lot of the HDMI output is likely covered by HDMI patents. There might not be anything "novel" enough about adding an HDMI converter to the RGB output of the original hardware to warrant a new patent.

Nintendo Power is still protected by copyright, which has a significantly longer term (95 years from publication for "corporate" authorship, compared with 20 years for patents).

http://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Term_o..._United_States

Re: AVS System (Play Nintendo in HD)
 

<s>Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but copyrights and patents aren't remotely the same.</s>

what Jay said. :)

I'm still tempted by this, but I'd also love a SNES one. Let's make one!!

Re: AVS System (Play Nintendo in HD)
 

I found a video showing the optional scanlines filter on this console:

Re: AVS System (Play Nintendo in HD)
 

It looks like it doesn't do save states right?

Re: AVS System (Play Nintendo in HD)
 

No, it's not an emulator but a recreation of the original hardware, so save states would require a lot more work.

That said, it does do Game Genie codes.

Re: AVS System (Play Nintendo in HD)
 

This guy did a lot better video than me lol.

Re: AVS System (Play Nintendo in HD)
 

That's a bummer, I mean it's running on an fpga so he's basically doing a Nintendo on a chip scheme so he could have had a memory write routine that said where they were in the cartridge rom and what was in the current MCU ram.

Re: AVS System (Play Nintendo in HD)
 

Well, I mean, if you want to program a chip that can do that, I'm sure he'd be happy to add the feature in a firmware update. But where would the save state be saved to?

Frankly, programming an original NES hardware onto a FPGA is impressive enough, in my opinion.

Re: AVS System (Play Nintendo in HD)
 

BTW, Analogue is currently working on an "Nt Mini" that is also using a FPGA chip. It's slightly cheaper than the original Nt at $449, but is still quite a bit more than the AVS.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/0...re-affordable/

Re: AVS System (Play Nintendo in HD)
 

Save states would greatly increase my interest in this. I still have all my cartridges, but most of the ones that I'd want to play have batteries in them which are likely long dead, and I don't trust myself with a soldering gun enough to attempt changing them.

Re: AVS System (Play Nintendo in HD)
 

There are services that will replace the batteries for you.

Also, RetroUSB's PowerPack will simulate a battery save for ROMs loaded onto it. It's an additional $135:
http://www.retrousb.com/product_info...products_id=34

There was an accessory for the NES called the Game Action Replay (not to be confused with the Pro Action Replay) that purported to save game states:
http://www.nesworld.com/gameactionreplay.php
The mention of "Game Types" suggests that saving state on a hardware console isn't as straightforward as it may seem. It's also unclear how many games the accessory was actually compatible with.

I do think emulators may have the edge in terms of save states, since they can save everything, including freezing the CPU and PPU state instantly. The Retron 5 console can do save states, but it's basically an emulator:
http://www.hyperkin.com/retro/retron...-hyperkin.html

Re: AVS System (Play Nintendo in HD)
 

A new review of the system:
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/0...es-cartridges/

tl;dr They're not in love with the case design, but find the other features make it a good value.

An interesting part of the article is about a feature I hadn't seen mentioned here yet:

Re: AVS System (Play Nintendo in HD)
 

Good point Jay, I wanted to test out TMNT to see if that would help with the stuttering that game can have.

Re: AVS System (Play Nintendo in HD)
 

I realize that, but there's also significantly less revenue to be made from old issues of Nintendo Power than there is of reselling decades old hardware to people. I'm simply saying I'm surprised Nintendo is letting it happen. Even if they just brought out their own system and undercut the price instead of one of those cheesey preloaded systems they got coming out.

Re: AVS System (Play Nintendo in HD)
 

Oh, Nintendo would stop it if they could, but they can't. I'm not at all disagreeing that Nintendo would protect their hardware against cloning if it was at all legally possible, but the only protection against it, the patents, have expired.


Nintendo is going to make far more money from the NES Mini than the AVS is going to make.

Re: AVS System (Play Nintendo in HD)
 

After going back and forth on whether the NES mini was worth it or not, I decided to order one of these last week. It arrived a couple days ago. I think I chose wisely. So far, every game I've put in it has looked and played flawlessly. Granted I've already played a ton of these games in HD via emulation (PC, OUYA, etc), but it never felt right. The controller was awkward and never as responsive as it needed to be. You honestly cannot beat the experience of using the actual cart and original controller. The games actually feel and play the way they're supposed to. Every time I pop in a new cart, I'm in awe. It just works. The controls are accurate. And it looks absolutely incredible. I'd say if anyone still has a collection of old NES carts lying around, this system is a must own.

Re: AVS System (Play Nintendo in HD)
 

You don't need a soldering gun to change the batteries. All you need is a security screwdriver bit to open the cartridge. Can be easily found on eBay (or even a hardware store) for a couple dollars. There's two sizes 3.8 and 4.5mm. Don't remember which ones are for NES or SNES but it wouldn't hurt to have both. The batteries are just standard 3v 2032 coin-like batteries and they pop right out.

If you have any old cartridges lying around, it would be wise to buy the screwdriver bit(s) and open the cartridges anyway since that's the most effective way to clean them. I've opened and cleaned every NES cart I own (over 350+). It's super easy.

Re: AVS System (Play Nintendo in HD)
 

I dunno, I looked at a youtube video on changing NES cartridge batteries, and the person in the video was soldering.

Re: AVS System (Play Nintendo in HD)
 

It may depend on the specific game/game company, but i do think most NES cartridges soldered the battery clip to the board, since it's cheaper.

There's after-market mods to add a battery holder to the cartridge, to make swapping batteries again later on easier:
http://www.the9thkey.com/games/Nesbatt.htm
http://www.retronintendoreviews.com/...y-replacement/

I did find a video for doing a solderless replacement, which basically involves prying the existing clips off the current battery, then using electrical tape to keep the clips connected to the new battery.

Re: AVS System (Play Nintendo in HD)
 

Part of me is interested in this since I've got a bunch of cartridges but it seems so expensive. I know it's a true console and not just an emulator but I don't know if I really want to drop close to $200 on it.