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

The difference between composite and RGB is huge, even on a really nice CRT like a PVM. I've never witnessed an NES outputting RGB, so I'm not sure how that compares. But I've played other consoles both through composite and RGB, and the difference is dramatic. I can only assume the same would be true of the NES; why wouldn't it be?

 

Hmm, part of me wants to hate this product as it's built by cannibalising old NES units and the outrageous price. On the other hand, it's not marketing at people like me and as Pat&Ian pointed out, who is this product marketed to? MVS/AES collectors are well known for paying huge prices for carts, in the NES world as far as I can gather, there's not that many collectors out there ready to drop major amount of coin.

 

I think Nintendo collectors are only after officially licensed stuff anyway. They'll pay for something sufficiently rare, but I don't know if collectors are after something like the NT. This is really for people who want the upgraded video out, but don't have the skills to solder it themselves or know someone who will do it for cheaper. I'm not sure the other bells and whistles sweeten the pot enough for anyone else besides those impressed with shiny things.

It's kinda like the CMVS they were selling in that regard. Anyone who knows better knows you can make a CMVS really cheaply, but if you don't know how to do it, you're going to have to pay. The big difference, however, is that the alternative to a CMVS is an AES with ridiculously expensive games or a cumbersome MVS arcade cabinet, both of which will cost more than the CMVS in the long run.

The alternative to this NT is a really cheap, easy to find NES that will work on your TV straight away, albeit with less than HDMI quality, or having to find someone on a message board (much like this one) to install the video upgrade to your NES/Fami. I would suspect the kind of people who have both NES and Famicom games in their collection would know this...

 

I'd rather see toaster NESes get cannibalized for something useful than be trashed because the cartridge slot went to crap.

 

Yeah, at the least it's using common available chips. As an arcade collector it p*sses me off people robbing the PPU from PC-10 mobos.

 

I guess the main point I have to make is that when I've been playing my NES I haven't been sitting 2 inches from the screen, so I did not really notice certain artifacts. Also certain games seem to have them stand out more, like SMB1. I would agree you would see benefit from S-Video or RGB. I guess it's been awhile since I've played my NES combined with I've never looked extremely close at a NES game to look for those things. So RGB would be nice to have for the NES. Though those comparisons are odd since the color/brightness doesn't seem to match at all.

 

The colors are different because that's using the original RGB mod for NES, which uses the arcade PC10 PPU for RGB output, which has a slightly different palette of colors.

 

It's an interesting idea with a high price point that will put a lot of people off buying one.

However, for me, here's the biggest shame:

I feel that Christoph broke his promise - he did disappoint. He knew that there would be questions, but didn't come back and answer them. He left us to find out the price ourselves - if you're touting a product you're developing, you do things right and know your costs, margins and hence your selling price. And if you're going to hype it up on major video game forums, for God's sake go back and engage with the users!

I appreciate that Christoph was a contributing member here before he posted about the product, and that somehow makes me feel a bit more let down. Don't abandon communities that you frequented, embrace them as potential customers!

 

It's almost universal that due to the price, Nobody wants this thing.