Analogue Nt: an RGB NES and Famicom. No Emulation.

What is the time cost of that solution though? $100? $150?

I would put the cost of a decent condition NES with new 72 pin + AV multiout connector + RGB mod + install + parts at around $275-$300. The way I see it, we're paying $200 more for four player support, upgraded audio, a nice case, and some warranty period.

 

This thing has both cart slots, a built in 4 score and the japanese expansion port.

Would someone really wire all that up for $50?

I don't think this is "worth" $500, but I'll bet people will buy it at that price. It's more like a status thing and it's not as ugly as an NES/Famicom. Plenty of people in their late 20s/early 30s probably have a stack of Nintendo games, more money than sense, a strong feeling of nostalgia, and read just enough mainstream tech blogs to make them think this is a good deal.

I dunno... I'm fine with "just" my Famicom. We're probably just not the target market for this thing.

 

I think that should be people in their early to late 30's. People in their 20's are maybe a little young to have been able to play games when the Famicom / NES was in it's prime.

 

times have moved on, and so has technology (status-quo)
altered state of mind on approach, isn't easy!
the lines are too thin, and that's a good thing!
guess i'm trying to say 'i couldn't care any less IF the item got TRUE 1/1 emulation/playback in IDENTICAL fashion to the original hardware'...
but if i'm understanding this subject correctly, the console is made of some original HW parts and that just irks me (hitler vid, WIN!) and the pricing is a bit INSANE!
is there any point in using aerospace grade foils for a goddamn console? NO!
waste of material that's designed for aviation, not a console! (use other metals and less costly forms of production for that housing)
...
in all, i'll watch this from afar, too rich for my blood, but i would sleep sounder if...
1, original hardware wasn't sacrificed to build this thing and... (rich coming from a twat with a krikzz EDv2 that used a PAL-EUR CIC security chip from an original game cartridge. i wonder what happened to that poor game board? )
2, the price! it's nuts, plain and simple! bring it DOWN!
...
[edit]
typo..

 

Well, at least their custom upscaler with scanlines seems nice for 50$! If it does 240p/480i to 720p/1080p I'd buy it alone for my saturn.

But I guess they won't let you buy it if it's not with that 500$ aluminium bloc...

 

Exactly. Looking up one of the places online that does this stuff:
http://www.game-tech.us/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Nes/OriginalNES
"Maxing out" an NES would cost $140 in labor, plus $90 for the NESRGB chip, however much the multi-out connector costs, etc. And that doesn't include case modding, 4-player or the Japanese ports. When you add all that up (to say nothing of having a Famicom done separately), the Analogue doesn't seem quite that preposterous. If you think the aluminum case is super cool, it might even sound like a fair deal.

Personally I'm leaning toward getting my NES and Twin FC modded with NESRGB separately at this point though.

 

The "motherboard" shouldn't have much to do with how the games work unless they made a mistake in wiring. The important part is that original CPU/PPU chips are used so compatibility and accuracy should be exactly what you'd expect. So everything from those points should work perfectly.

I know part of the draw is that it's got S-Video and RGB video output. Honestly I can't say that Composite Video from the NES bothers me at all. I do use RGB on everything I can. But the NES doesn't look bad at all. Not like the Genesis for example. The next big draw would be it has a Famicom cartridge port. But since I have a PowerPAK and don't really desire to collect Famicom carts, it means nothing. Even the FDS doesn't matter since the flash carts cover that too. Now if you have a huge collection and the NES is your religion or something I can see this being appealing particularly the upscaler so you can "future proof" your collection somewhat incase you end up without a CRT.

So pretty much that's my take on it. It's a product that targets a group that's very small within an already small group. For one thing, any of these supposed nostalgic adults in their 30s don't know enough about things to really care about authenticity. They'd be fine with Retron 3 emulator machine. It's not like they could tell the difference in accuracy.

 

IMO it's a pretty big difference. This is what you can expect out of the Analogue Nt, if its upscaler is as decent for upscaling 240p content as the XRGB-mini is...

NES with NESRGB composite video, upscaled to 720p via XRGB:


NES with NESRGB RGB video, upscaled to 720p via XRGB:

 

I'd still like to see some info on why the case is so mysteriously close in design to bunny's project, since it doesn't seem like he's tied at all to analogue's

 

I'm of two minds. I really like the idea, but the price is a little high for me. Some consoles I love enough to maybe justify that sort of money but I don't love NES quite that much.

My main concerns are PAL compatibility and the lack of reset (that I could see).

 

I really don't understand the people moaning about the price of this console. When you consider the cost of manufacturing bespoke PCBs, a NES for the CPU and PPU, NESRGB kits (assuming it's using them) and however much the aluminium case is, not to mention the number of hours which must've been put into designing and producing this thing, $500 doesn't seem too bad. Besides, it is a niche product which means that profit margins need to be relatively high per unit - had Chris counted on selling thousands upon thousands of them, then that would drive down general manufacturing costs as well as the need for higher margins in order to recoup costs.

I'm not going to buy one for any number of reasons; I could count the NES games I give a shit about on one hand, I don't have a nice TV to play it on or a decent AV cabinet to place it in. Mostly I could do much of the work myself if I was so inclined for far less and prefer to have my consoles looking as stock as possible, while running as many mods as possible, but there are people out these who can't perform the mods included in this console and who may prefer the look of the NT case.

 

You must have missed the part where I play the NES on a standard analog monitor. I don't need it "upscaled". Composite video doesn't look bad or fuzzy on a high quality CRT. The top image looks a bit blurry, but it doesn't look blurry with my original NES on my CRT. So I don't need that feature. As I said, some people will certainly benefit from this creation. But it's quite an investment.

For me and many others, all you need is the original system and a CRT that's good.

 

But wait there's more a refurbished NES controller can be yours for just an extra $29!

Price is insanely high, I understand the material it's made of is expensive but I think a nice plastic shell would've been enough :/

Earlier today I watched Pat and Ian's podcast about this, and they raised a good point on; who is this marketed towards?

 

don't get me wrong, the idea is unbeatable but there seems too much emphasis on that housing, i can only imagine what costs are cut as a result of a change to something a bit less...i dunno? pointless and expensive.
...
500bats is loony money, and not many can spend that!
it's certainly ISN'T marketed towards the connoisseur that's for sure, not all who can truly appreciate the tech could afford it if they tried.
it's marketed toward a clique...is how it seems to me, there's so many reasons why i believe this, then again, the subject itself is the reason!
if the aerospace grade aluminium housing DOESN'T scream 'rich kid clique' then i don't know what does.
...
there's NO requirement for that housing at all, other materials would suffice with NO loss of durability or quality.
true, the PCB build will be a cost, but lets have some perspective here, not 500$ MINIMUM!

 

There's no requirement for that housing, but let's be real here: it looks fucking rad.

I dunno. There's a certain appeal to having a decked-out Famicom that outputs top-quality video and audio, and that looks cool. For me, it's as much of a conversation piece as it is a game system. I wouldn't say it's aimed so much at a rich kid clique as it is towards people who are really into gaming culture and who want the best. I imagine that's a really limited market, but y'know what? I'm glad this sort of thing exists. People who just want a Famicom with better connectivity already have the ability to buy one, and there are more solutions on the way. This just goes the extra mile.

 

It's not so much the price as it is the price of this compared to the next best alternative. All these things that add to the price - 2 slots, extra controller ports, fancy enclosure, etc., are really superfluous when you just want to play Zelda or Mario 3...

You can get a perfectly good working NES & a small collection of games for a tenth of the price of this. Some people are interested in how this thing looks (both the video out and the hardware itself), but the people moaning about the price are the type who just like to play games.

 

It's aimed at hardcore collectors who have a ton to spend that's it. If it's anything like their neo ego one it's just a regular nes or famicom gutted with their own case with mods. The famicom would be easier to work with due to board size and I imagine they would wire the pins directly from under the famicom cart slot to an nes one. I know someone did a nes mod where they put a famicom slot on top and just wired all the famicom pins to the expansion port for easier wiring and to retain external chip sound.

 

There's no need to get upset with me over display choices. I showed two upscaled images to compare composite vs. RGB on an NES with an NESRGB (which the Analog NT uses). That they happened to be upscaled is irrelevant to the conversation and if I were preaching the advantages of upscaling surely I would have chosen to display normal vs. upscaled images? Typically I don't keep records on what forum members possess which type of displays and how good their comb filters are (or maybe the "part" that I "missed" was that I'm supposed to have clairvoyance), but even on your typical CRT you will see dot crawl and color bleed on composite signals.

Obviously you have the right to do whatever you want to do and if you're happy with composite, all the more power to you, enjoy your CRT. But I didn't think I'd get such scathing response from posting screenshots of the RGB output from the console this topic is about.

 

You seem to be reading some sort of attitude from my text that doesn't exist. I certainly wasn't being "scathing". If you thought I was angry or otherwise hostile, I was not.

The simplify my point, on my CRT the Composite Video from the NES looks quite good and sharp. Not blurry. I don't want to upscale it as upscaling Composite Video is a bad idea. If you are going to require upscaling, you definitely want the RGB output. I think alot of people will fall in this category where they don't see RGB as a critical feature. Now if they only have a digital TV that needs upscaling then it will be much more appealing. My CRT does accept RGB but the benefit from the NES would not be that great in my opinin. Not like other consoles like the Genesis which benefits greatly from RGB. Maybe you are right that others who might have typical consumer TVs (CRTs) would notice dot crawl and color bleeding more than those with higher quality displays. I've been using a PVM for quite awhile so I get pretty good video from the NES.

So I do agree if you have issues with Composite Video on your display that it may be more appealing but then we can go the route of just modding an existing console instead of buying this $500 console. Anyway, I'm sure people will buy this. Not sure how many but certainly some will.

 

Have you compared RGB vs composite on your setup MottZilla? Here are someone else's composite vs RGB comparison pics on a Sony BVM. Given these pictures, I'd much rather have the RGB output - both for the clarity and the palette choice.

http://retrorgb.com/nespics.html