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Nintendo Classic Mini announced


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FYI, I'm not selling roms. I don't email people roms or sell flash drives loaded with roms. I mail people a reproduction of a single game put into cartridge form, there is a big difference.

So you have a legitimate source of old roms that you put in otherwise new PCBs and cases?

Or you only sell them to people that prove to you that they own the original? [the backup rule right?]

 

I am glad you found a niche market but let's be honest with copyright laws extending 75Y it's a hell of a grey area and infractions only allowed because many can get away with it .... it is not right per se, just somewhat tolerated.

 

I noticed in your "repro" list that you do have Bobble Bobble 2 for NES, which I venture is copyrighted by Taito ..... if they included it in this nes classic would you stop reproing it as obviously the copyright holder is taking a loss because of you? .... just asking.

[you do have a hack of SMB3 for NES, unclear if that's legit at all given this new console, what do you think?].

 

EDIT: I am not stupid, I know what you are doing, just don't wear the holier-than-thou hat. You are making a profit in a grey area of the law ... once we all agree on that and you get off your high horse then we can talk about the merits of this console.

Your comment came off as conflict of interest because of your activity .... it doesn't even matter if there's a real conflict or not, the potential is there hence the comment sounded self-serving and not genuine.

 

EDIT2: and to make it clear I made my own 7800 repro carts for my own usage and I am as guilty as you (doesn't matter I don't sell them, pertinent to this discussion the 7800 is home to a few Nintendo character games so obviously [...fill in the blank...]), and I own various flash carts for the various systems etc... etc.....

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I disagree, I don't think this should be a series. I think it should be a home run product that they sell for as long as they can. If they make a next generation sequel, they should wait at least five years, then make it a major upgrade. Make an event out of it. Don't cheapen it by making it a disposable toy. Make it an on-ramp to their REAL platform(s) that play both old AND new games, including the SNES and N64 and GameBoy and GBA things the true fans want.

 

Nintendo should release a really nice companion strategy guide that compiles their Nintendo Power articles from these games. Or maybe release them for free on the internet, wouldn't that be generous?

 

AtGames does annual revisions of its Atari and Sega things. They're largely the same thing over and over again, and they're not known for amazing quality.

 

The fact that Nintendo did this at all is amazeballs. They're being very strategic in the way they dribble out their retro stuff very slowly, like one title per month. Dumping it all in a cheap bundle gets our attention this time, but I don't see how that would work year after year.

 

I agree with most of what you said. I don't think they need to do annual refreshes on a product like this.

 

Nintendo often aims to design games that have longevity in the marketplace. Some of Nintendo's hit games have been perennial sellers for several years straight. I'm sure Nintendo envisions being able to sell this system unchanged for a few years down the road.

 

Five years for a refresh might be a little too long, though. Four years would be fine, or maybe even three years, especially if this turns out to be a rousing success and fans express demand for more games. More frequent refreshes would cheapen its image, as you said.

 

If there is an improved successor, then perhaps Nintendo could include a working cartridge slot so that new games could be added to the system. I doubt Nintendo would offer an SD card slot and let you toss on any old ROM image, but they might use a proprietary cartridge slot and offer miniature cartridges (about the physical size of a Game Boy cartridge) with compilations of several NES games.

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If there is an improved successor, then perhaps Nintendo could include a working cartridge slot so that new games could be added to the system. I doubt Nintendo would offer an SD card slot and let you toss on any old ROM image, but they might use a proprietary cartridge slot and offer miniature cartridges (about the physical size of a Game Boy cartridge) with compilations of several NES games.

I am not sure what the economy of this plan would be. Take AtGames, rather than release new versions of their Genesis/MD flashback with new games, they could have just release a cart of those (given that the console has the slot) but they didn't.

Maybe Bill Loguidice can chime in but I assume that adding a bunch of games to an existing ROM and build a "new" console is more convenient/cheap than release a cart compilation and keep old hardware, not sure, maybe it has to do on how they market it thru Toys'r'Us etc...

 

If Nintendo were to take the cart route it would have effectively released a new NES console in 2016 .... given the AVS, NESHD projects existence it could make sense but I am not entirely sure that's what they were aiming for here. It would for sure cast a shadow on those projects as well (maybe, not sure how the HW copyright laws work wrt reverse engineer PCB connections and glue logic, those systems do use the original CPU and PPU if memory serves).

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on topic.., this looks cool for folks who remember the NES. Nintendo isn't catering a device to those who have an indepth knowledge of emulation. This is meant to sit on the endcap at the checkout aisle of Best Buy where 30-40 somethings can say "hey, neat!" and grab one as they head for the register.

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I am not sure what the economy of this plan would be. Take AtGames, rather than release new versions of their Genesis/MD flashback with new games, they could have just release a cart of those (given that the console has the slot) but they didn't.

Maybe Bill Loguidice can chime in but I assume that adding a bunch of games to an existing ROM and build a "new" console is more convenient/cheap than release a cart compilation and keep old hardware, not sure, maybe it has to do on how they market it thru Toys'r'Us etc...

 

If Nintendo were to take the cart route it would have effectively released a new NES console in 2016 .... given the AVS, NESHD projects existence it could make sense but I am not entirely sure that's what they were aiming for here. It would for sure cast a shadow on those projects as well (maybe, not sure how the HW copyright laws work wrt reverse engineer PCB connections and glue logic, those systems do use the original CPU and PPU if memory serves).

 

Good points, and I agree that it's almost certainly cheaper to just change the ROM in the self-contained console than to release cartridges and keep old hardware.

 

However, my point is that this is something they might do in a few years, with a second-generation version of this unit. In that process, they would already update the built-in ROM to change/add different games. The "cartridge slot" would be a concession to those who say "it sure would be nice to be able to play other games", and also offer something extra for collectors.

 

The situation with the new Genesis systems is rather different. These machines have an actual Genesis cartridge slot, so they're already capable of adding other games. I suppose AtGames could conceivably release additional cartridges, but their systems already have practically all of the "marquee" games within the constraints of what they've already licensed. Sure, there are lots of other great Genesis games that haven't been represented, but they are either lesser-known games that have niche appeal (and would be unknown to people browsing the aisles of Walmart or Target today), or they're from large publishers like Electronic Arts and Activision, who might demand so much money for the rights to their games that it isn't economically feasible. They might occasionally luck out and obtain the rights to another game here or there, but it's not enough to warrant releasing them as separate cartridges.

 

Nintendo, on the other hand, has a lot more money and clout. Just looking at the games on here, they've already got games from big-hitters such as Konami, Namco, Tecmo, andd Square Enix. It wouldn't be much of a stretch for a company like Nintendo to gather up some of the games that didn't make the initial cut and release them as an add-on pack. Think of the cartridges as DLC without the DL. Whether they do this (and how frequently) would depend on fan demand.

 

This concept has been done before with self-contained game systems. I remember a couple of Jakks Pacific's TV Games from about 7 or 8 years ago having a slot for adding games, and the Neo-Geo X also had a cartridge with some additional games. If Nintendo does this, then I feel it would be something similar, where they might offer just one or two of these cartridges and stop there. However, if the fans really embrace it, then there's always the opportunity for more.

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This concept has been done before with self-contained game systems. I remember a couple of Jakks Pacific's TV Games from about 7 or 8 years ago having a slot for adding games, and the Neo-Geo X also had a cartridge with some additional games. If Nintendo does this, then I feel it would be something similar, where they might offer just one or two of these cartridges and stop there. However, if the fans really embrace it, then there's always the opportunity for more.

The point being they can just make a new version with say 100 games and be done, no hassle no tussle no support costs.

The only reason for a slot that I can see is if they want to sell you new pokemon games :D .

 

Regarding Jakks cart slot it failed miserably, and for the NG-X was seen as a way to actually pluck more money from your pocket rather than give you upfront a bigger catalog (the whole NG MVS catalog sits at around 150 games) and it ended poorly once it was hacked obviously.

 

EDIT: even with a catalog of games as big as the NES [~2K games] even if big N could get any license it wanted, top 100 would be already what most everyone would be satisfied with. The 2 or 5 games that such and such swear should have been in the list don't really matter. There's always someone that swears by a particular game as the holy grail of his childhood, can't win them all.

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You might be right. If there is a second-generation version of this unit, then they could just beef up the set of built-in games. However, if there was the ability to add more games to a self-contained video game system, then Nintendo is one company that I believe could pull it off properly.

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I am not sure what the economy of this plan would be. Take AtGames, rather than release new versions of their Genesis/MD flashback with new games, they could have just release a cart of those (given that the console has the slot) but they didn't.

Maybe Bill Loguidice can chime in but I assume that adding a bunch of games to an existing ROM and build a "new" console is more convenient/cheap than release a cart compilation and keep old hardware, not sure, maybe it has to do on how they market it thru Toys'r'Us etc...

 

Think shelf space. We can get shelf space for a console, but getting shelf space for accessories and more cartridges is a different issue. It probably wouldn't be a big deal for someone with the clout of Nintendo, but is more of a challenge for others, particularly if the majority of sales happen during the holiday season. It's something we'll continue to investigate, though.

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Think shelf space. We can get shelf space for a console, but getting shelf space for accessories and more cartridges is a different issue. It probably wouldn't be a big deal for someone with the clout of Nintendo, but is more of a challenge for others, particularly if the majority of sales happen during the holiday season. It's something we'll continue to investigate, though.

Thanks for chiming in, selling these things in physical locations is different than online and it likely shapes what to build as well to meet those "distributors" demands.

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I'm in for one or two since I don't have a means of playing NES games on my newer TV. I stopped doing Virtual Console games after my original Wii died and I couldn't transfer my games to another Wii. Anyway, the packaging looks great. Aside from the lack of Tetris, Castlevania III, and Contra the game selection is just about perfect. And if I do happen to go back to buying Virtual Console games, I'll have a pad with a normal-sized D-pad to play with because, frankly, Nintendo's D-pads have sucked since the Gamecube came out.

 

People like to complain about Nintendo selling their old games but you know what? It's their product. Just like old books, movies, and music. And as long as that product sells, they will have it on the market. I think it's great. It also introduces younger people to the classics.

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I'm in for one or two since I don't have a means of playing NES games on my newer TV. I stopped doing Virtual Console games after my original Wii died and I couldn't transfer my games to another Wii. Anyway, the packaging looks great. Aside from the lack of Tetris, Castlevania III, and Contra the game selection is just about perfect. And if I do happen to go back to buying Virtual Console games, I'll have a pad with a normal-sized D-pad to play with because, frankly, Nintendo's D-pads have sucked since the Gamecube came out.

 

People like to complain about Nintendo selling their old games but you know what? It's their product. Just like old books, movies, and music. And as long as that product sells, they will have it on the market. I think it's great. It also introduces younger people to the classics.

Long before annual sequels became a thing, Nintendo said their strategy was to make games that had long-term enjoyability, so that people would continue to buy them over the entire life of the console. In their minds, it was better to have a small number of perennial sellers than a large catalog that was unpopular.

 

I think the fact that Nintendo's first generation of titles is still selling 30 years later is a sign that strategy worked.

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I'm really excited about this... The packaging looks great. It will look really cool next to an FB2.

 

Unfortunately I'm one of those people stuck in the Stone Age with a crt tv... Hope it will also have composite output.

I am in the same boat. I had so many HD TVs break down on me that I switched back to CRT TVs a few years ago. I even had a friend offer to buy me a brand new 50" HD television free of charge. I told him no thank you and that I am currently content using the old stuff.

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If it were able to play future releases of games, I would prefer that. I'm not saying those games available are not good but a bigger selection would be better in my opinion. To me the games matter little, it's the system itself and not having to deal with 30 year old hardware.

But that's exactly what this is not.

Maybe Bill is right and this little gizmo plays a part in the Nintendo strategy for the NX, to build up momentum so people would want to wait past the holiday season and be content with a cheap but hopefully reasonable quality nostalgia filler until they are ready.

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