Jagasian

I think that he was refering to the claim that the games don't support s-video. As kevtris demonstrated, if you made a clone from scratch, i.e. not based on a NOAC, you can have S-video or even RGB video output and it does look better. Modding existing NES systems, however, or adding s-video to a NOAC based clone, will not improve the video quality at all.

I agree with what n8littlefield has to say. We have been playing the NES for over 20 years now, and it should only be assumed that we are very interested in an objective breakdown of the positives and negatives of the system. Similarly for many people who are interested in buying a NEX. Just as fans were upset when the original Star Wars movies were released on DVD because they were not accurate recreations of the original movies, many interested in buying the NEX care that the system is not an accurate recreation of the NES. A similar thing happened with the Flashback, though I will give the Flashback developers credit for creating a new 2600 clone with the Flashback 2 and not just re-packaging an existing NOAC. Those who criticize the NEX are merely pointing out the huge list of negatives and contrast it with statements made by Messiah, NubyTech, and reviews-turned-advertisements (for example IGN's review). The facts would speak for themselves, if there wasn't so much misinformation being spread around by the aforementioned organizations. The critics would stop posting if others would stop spreading misinformation so as to hide the negative aspects of the NEX system. Nobody has been attacked for saying that they like their NEX, unless they lie and spread misinformation. In the positive review on Lik-sang and the IGN review, lies and misinformation were spread, and so they were attacked. Contrast this with bones' post in this thread, which was not attacked. Though people did inquire as to how he got games to work which are listed as incompatible in the NEX compatibility list, and they implied that either his carts were cleaner than the ones used to make the list or he has a newer revision NEX which correctly wires the cart connector and therefore fixes some of the incompatibility problems.

The 360 uses one internal RF transmitter. This means that it should be able to support more than 4 wireless controllers at a time, as there won't be multiple transmitters on the game system stepping on eachother's toes.

The official Saturn controllers are supposed to be really nice, so I guess I'll stick to trusty old extension cords. I figure it would be tough to support up to 10 RF wireless controllers at a time. All of the systems that I know of can only do up to 4 RF wireless controllers at a time.

My family enjoys Bomberman for the SNES and Gamecube, but those games are restricted to 4 players maximum. Apparently the best Bomberman is the Sega Saturn Bomberman, which can have up to 10 players at a time, when using 2 multi-taps. The problem is, I know nothing about the Saturn. I'd prefer to use wireless controllers, so can the Saturn experts answer these questions for me? 1. Are there wireless controllers for the Saturn? 2. Are they any good? 3. What technology do they use infra red or RF? 4. If RF, what frequency do they use? 5. How many can be used at a time?

When did you get your NEX? Maybe it is a newer revision that fixes some of the incompatibility issues? Also, omne, you've been warned by the admin to stop attacking people over this topic. I'd suggest you stop before you get banned.

Incompatibility with over 40 games and other bugs in the NEX are not just opinions. They are facts. Also, the misleading information about the original NES not having RCA composite audio and video, as well as dual channel mono is bad. Similarly, their "review" makes false statements about the current state of NES emulators, which are far more accurate and compatible than the NEX. A professional review should have compared the NEX side-by-side with other NES and Famicom systems, both official and clones. People who would be interested in buying the NEX will most likely do so because they used to own a previous NES system, and therefore such a review would be the most useful. Many people don't have the time or money to hand test every piece of electronics. This is why we have consumer review magazines and web sites. IGN has demonstrated that it lacks the ability to professionally review video game hardware.

Do all of the episodes have 2600 games in them, or just some? Can somebody post a list of episodes about or related to the 2600?

What is a good general game review site these days? I've always been a fan of Gamespot, as they seem to be professional and consistent. Except for their reviews of GTA1 and GTA2, where they described the games as gimmicky and boring. Then when GTA3 was released they called it revolutionary and gave it one of their hightest scores, even though it is pretty much the first city of GTA1 with better graphics and sound.

There is no reason to continue to act like a jerk. Also, I don't have a new DP handle. I just searched the forum to see if anybody started a thread on the IGN NEX review, and I noticed that they did. The DP forums are moderated by morons, who can't tell the difference between game controllers and a game system, and I have proof to back up that claim too.

Sorry if you guys have seen this already. It is a documentary on video games from 1984, and it has a guy from Activision demonstrating his 2600 Space Shuttle game. For 2600 fans this is an absolute must see. It is 180MB in size, so be patient. http://www.slackcircus.com/video/ComputerChronicles1984.mov

Omne, even you have to admit that the IGN article is full of misinformation. The fact that Slashdot is helping spread misinformation is not a good thing. I even noticed that people at DigitPress have already started a thread making fun of IGN's "review".

There are a few points in the article where they seem to compare the NEX to the original NES, especially when they say "Another nice discovery was the fact that a fresh console does a lot to help old cartridges work, as we managed to get all of our carts working with a minimal amount of huffing and puffing, including a "broken" copy of Zelda we snagged from EB." The top loader doesn't have the blinking issue that many people think can be solved by blowing on the carts, yet they say that such a thing is not necessary with the NEX. I think the evidence overwhelming points to the fact that they never did any side-by-side comparison of the NEX to the original toaster NES or the top loader NES.

While it is a great game, I've never met anybody that could beat it without cheating. On the other hand, I could beat the original Contra on the NES without dying at all, and in fact, I could get so many points that I would get a free life or two by the end of the game. No cheating, no codes, just pure Contra skill. Contra 3, however, is just crazy difficult!

This would mean that they didn't compare the NEX and NES side-by-side, but instead compared the NEX to their memories of playing the NES 20 years ago. No matter what the case is, their misinformation goes to such lengths as to become lies. Omne, while I disagree with him on a personal level, does a pretty good job of refurbishing NES systems sent to him, as well as selling refurbished systems with controllers and all. He replaces the 72-pin connector with a high-quality replacement and does lots of testing to make sure everything was done correctly. These connectors are tighter than the original, but then again, so is the connector used in the NEX. You can always lube up your carts with Stabilant 22, which will help them slide in and out more easily. Omne, as well as many other refurbers, also mod the lockout chip inside the NES. Nintendo put it in there to stop the system from running unlicensed games, but it has the negative side-effect of causing the dreaded blinking when the connector pins that the lockout chip connects to the cart with become dirty or too loose. There is a third part to solving blinking problems. You've also gotta have clean and working carts. Over the years, many NES carts have had their contacts worn down and corroded, as well as dirtied up. If your cart is clean and the NES is refurbished as described above, your games should work without problems.

How will you take screenshots? It would be great to have a site that details the differences between different NES and Famicom systems. Some people claim that the Sharp NES TV has the best video quality of them all. I'd love to see a comparison of screenshots taken from: 1. RF toaster NES 2. composite toaster NES 3. unmodded top loader 4. AV version 1 modded top loader 5. AV version 2 modded top loader 6. RF Famicom 7. AV modded RF Famicom 8. AV Famicom 9. S-video Titler 10. RGB PPU based systems (arcades and mods) 11. a few unlicensed clones such as the Neo Fami (aka Yobo) and the NEX

Better yet, get an after-market Gamecube S-Video cable if your TV is equipped for it. It'll work with the SNES, and it has even better quality than composite. (Note that there are Gamecube component cables, but those won't work with the SNES.) Actually, the SNES was the first Nintendo console to support S-video, and the cable used for the Gamecube is identical to the SNES's S-video cable. The SNES was also the first Nintendo console to support RGB video, though the official Nintendo brand cable for RGB NTSC video was only sold in Japan. I recommended composite because every TV these days supports composite, while there are a few that do not support S-video. With the SNES you have every option from best to worst: RGB, S-video, composite, and RF. So choose the best option that your TV supports. Nintendo's Gamecube component cables do not use the standard Nintendo multi-out connector, so they don't work with the SNES, N64, or even new Gamecubes! A multi-out cable will work with any Nintendo console from SNES through Gamecube. I wonder if the revolution will use the standard multi-out cable? I'd love it if they made a component multi-out cable.

Teknik, The review of the video in the IGN article says that the NEX's "composite video is a step up compared to the NES's original RF. Otherwise identical to NES quality". While they don't explicitly say that the original NES cannot also do composite video, which I might add is of better quality than the NEX's composite video, it is definitely implied by those two sentences that the NEX's video quality is better than the NES's because the NEX uses composite and the NES uses RF. If the reviewer has never used a real NES, then how can they claim that the video quality is otherwise identical to the NES's? Hence they are definitely lying about the video quality, unless you believe that they compared it to a real NES, yet somehow neglected to notice the glaringly obvious composite RCA jacks on the side of the NES during their comparison. So the question is, why would they make such a blatently false statement?

I was wrong, and Great Hierophant is right. The color emphasis bits are the problem that I was referring to. I thought the RGB PPU made them come out black, but it is the opposite. They come out white.

Get a SNES off of Ebay for around $20 to $30. Get a pair of official SNES controllers, no 3rd party crap, and go for RCA composite AV cables instead of RF cables. The video quality is allot better. After that, you might want to consider getting a SNES flash card kit. That way you can flash ROM images of games to a real SNES cart and play the games on a real SNES. You can even fit more than one game at a time on the cart. This company makes and sells the kits: http://www.tototek.com/

kevtris at nesdev pointed out the exact differences with the official RGB PPUs. The biggest negative, from what I remember, is that there are entire ranges of colors that come out as black on the RGB PPU. Personally, I think that an original NES, properly hooked up with nice cables, has great video and audio quality. I bet most NES games were designed with RCA composite in mind for the highend and RF for the lowend. Also, I grew up with RCA composite NES gaming, and so that looks the most natural to me. My original NES's video quality beats out the XBox's #1 NES emulator's video quality, when both hooked up to the same TV. Funny that.

I didn't know that plugging a mono cable into the white plug on a stereo TV will cause the audio to be output of both speakers. I just used a mono-to-stereo cable. They aren't expensive at all, but I guess they are less common than the normal RCA cables, which I have literally a big box full of. Also, why are all of the positive NEX reviews the same, and based on the same misinformation? Here are the similarities that I have noticed in the NEX-reviews-that-look-like-advertisements: 1. NEX can RCA composite video, while the NES can't 2. NEX can do dual mono, while the NES can't 3. NEX can support wireless controllers, while the NES can't 4. NEX can play Famicom games, while the NES can't 5. NEX can play games without blinking problems, while the NES can't 6. NEX has no noticable compatibility problems, AV differences, or glitches compared to the NES Each one of these is not true, as stated many times before, when compared to a professionally refurbished NES, which is better than the NEX in every way, including price. So the question remains, why do all of the positive reviews repeat the same misinformation? Also, even if you don't care about these things, why spend twice as much on a NEX, when an original NES is capable of meeting your low standards? Hell, you could save even more money, with your low standards, and buy a cheapy NES clone like the USA Version Neo Fami.

The review reads like an advertisement. I wouldn't trust them for accurate and critical reviews of gaming hardware or software after this one. The review is full of tons of misleading information, as pointed out by Great Hierophant. A positive review is fine, as long as it is grounded in reality.

Great Hierophant, I didn't mean to imply that the Titler outputs RGB video. I tried to say that the Player's Choice and VS arcade systems output RGB. Maybe my writing could have been clearer. omne, do you still believe that WMDs are to be found in Iraq? Yup, no lies were told.

Seems like a fair summary, though people who questioned the NEX before its release were attacked, and those that criticized it after its release were attacked. JB brings up a good point, and it is one of the bits on info on Messiahs site that caused me to come to the conclusion, early on, that the NEX was just another NOAC based Famiclone. Pre-existing NOACs only support RCA composite, and the lie in Messiah's FAQ is a glaringly obvious red flag to NES and Famicom fans because the Famicom Titler (a licensed official Famicom clone) supports S-video and the Player's Choice and VS arcade systems support RGB video! Yet everyone of these systems runs the same software as the NES. That is, if you play NES games on these systems, the games output S-video or RGB video. I've discussed that point before, but no matter how many facts I present, there always seems to be people that doubt that Messiah and its distributor (who DreamTR works for) NubyTech lied. Another correction to the summary: DreamTR is employed fulltime at NubyTech, Messiah's NEX distributor, but he was temporarily employed by Messiah to test the NEX. This is why he had a NEX system before its release, and at that time I asked him if it used a NOAC, to post a compatibility list, and/or to post pictures of the inside of the NEX. He attacked me, when I asked for that stuff to prove me wrong about my NOAC hypothesis. It was only a week after the NOAC started to ship that the compatibility list that DreamTR made for Messiah was posted on Messiah's site.