Nintendo NES Classic Alternatives and clones

I've been trying to urge my hands on an NES Classic for the last 6 months, but I've refused to pay the many dollars that they're selling for on eBay by scalpers. So, I figured I might just wait until Nintendo But, now I'm being told that they've actually canceled the NES classic, which there'll be no more production of it. So, I assumed it had been time to seem into, you Know, maybe a number of the alternatives. Now, of course, you'll accompany the first NES, like this one. They're not hard to seek out. There's many them out there. 

But they are doing tend to truly cost quite bit lately and that they do have some maintenance issues, plus you've got to gather the particular physical hardware cartridges. EBay and amazon are just suffering from aftermarket consoles, so I made a decision to select up a couple of them to seem at . the primary one I'm getting to show you here is named the 8-Bit computer game System. This was the most cost effective unit I bought, which cost only $ 18 on Amazon.

It actually suggests NOT blowing into them, and instead cleaning them. It mentions HDTV causing delays, and to line your TV to game mode and 4: 3 ratio. So let's take a glance inside the box and see what it comes with. OK, so here's the console itself. It's quite small. In fact, compare its size to the first Nintendo here. It does have an equivalent color scheme, though. 

This console is pretty basic. Just audio and video ports on the rear, and controller ports on the front that are compatible with the first NES controllers. And although you'll use you original NES controllers, it does accompany two of And to be honest, while these do feel quite cheap, they don't really feel any cheaper than the first controllers from the 80s. They shape may be a little easier within the hand, but the button layout is that the same ..

Also the cables are almost as long because the original NES cables. And, I do know that has been a sore point on the new NES classic. So, let's try a game mice. First I'll connect it up to my television. attempted turning it on with no cartridge in it, and it gives this weird pattern on the screen. So, I'm getting to try Super Mario Brothers 2. Wow, check out that. But, it does work. To be honest, it feels perfectly natural playing this game, even with these controllers. And, I feel if nobody told me I used to be playing an aftermarket machine, I might haven't know the difference. 

However, I made a decision to hook this up to my video capture card and have a glance at the video output during a little more detail. And again .. even here it's perfectly fine to me.

However, once I took some still frames and zoomed in, therefore the colors seem pretty close, but there's some difference within the luminosity of a number of the darker colors. Also the important NES seems to possess a touch bit more ground noise than the clone. But there's another difference that I kept noticing, but it took me a short time to work out exactly what it's. If you compare these images from this angle, you'll see there are black areas on the left and right of the aftermarket. Initially I assumed the ratio was just wrong, but once I compared various things on the screen, they were an equivalent. Eventually I noticed the aftermarket consoles weren't showing the screen border correctly. 

However, as you can see this wasn't even visible on a true TV because it's outside of the viewable area anyway. So, you would possibly ask, how could I compare this to the NES Classic, because you continue to need to buy, or find, or whatever, all of the first cartridges and therefore the NES Classic has like 30 inbuilt games and you get the entire thing for like $ 60, assuming you'll find one without paying the scalpers on eBay. So, you would possibly say, “how is that a comparable deal? ”Well, I can actually match that. I bought this guy on Amazon and it's 143 games inbuilt. And it only cost me $ 50.

So, as you'll see, once I put this thing within the console, it just comes up with a menu and tons and plenty of games. Now, honestly, I'm unsure if this is often legal. I even have a suspicion So, I often have saying. If a corporation doesn't want to actively make their product available purchasable, then I don't shed too many tears when people pirate the fabric. And since Nintendo apparently has No further interest in selling their own 8-Bit console on the market, then what am I able to say? Legal or not, these appear to be scattered everywhere eBay and amazon. 

For people who have an interest, I wrote down all of the games that come on this and put them within the description field because none of the advertisements for this cartridge actually show what games are thereby. I used to be kind of curious myself until I got it within the mail so I could plug it in. Also , this cartridge is kind of infuriating as a collector. You see, I keep eagle to expand my collection of original cartridge titles.

But if I even have all of them on one cartridge, where's the fun in that? Out of curiosity, I wondered if this is able to add the first console with the lockout chip and everything. And surely, it works fine. Although I did notice one difference, which probably has nothing to try to with the cartridge. If you're taking a hear the background, you'll hear a faint humming noise, which is common for analog signals like this. But if we return to the aftermarket console, I noticed it's a way louder hum. I can't hear this when the games are playing, but because this cartridge stays quiet on the menu, I noticed. Moving along, here's subsequent console I would like to point out you. It's called the Retro-Bit. 

It's a touch costlier, at $ 59 it costs over 3 times what the previous console cost. But it does have some interesting advantages. The foremost obvious feature is that it's 3 cartridge ports and you'll quite literally insert an NES cartridge, Super Nintendo, and a Sega Genesis cartridge e all at an equivalent time. This selector here will determine which one you're playing. It's multiple connectors for all 3 sorts of the first controllers, but It also comes with its own controllers also, that appear to use the super Nintendo style ports On the rear it does have the quality audio video ports, but also an S-Video port also. And it comes with its own S-Video cable bundled with the regular ones.

As for enjoying the console, I couldn't see any noticeable difference from it over the last console I showed you. However, the controller proved to be irritating. You see on the first NES controllers, your A & B buttons are here, but So, now I'm sure you'll adapt to the present, but I did find it initially irritating. So, as for video comparison. But take a glance at this close-up. Therefore the S-Video features a, thing I used to be most curious about was how it looked between composite and S-Video. Now, to the eye it's hard to sell an enormous difference. color rendition more almost like the first Nintendo. But the image does seem to be a touch soft, for a few reason compared to the composite. 

I might have normally expected it to be the opposite way around. So, next I attempted playing an excellent Nintendo game, Super Mario Kart. What's interesting is that when watching the difference between composite and S-Video, you'll see a reasonably significant clarity difference here. I also tried a Gensis game in it, and it appeared to work about an equivalent. I also tried flicking this NTSC switch to PAL but it doesn't seem to try to anything in the least. In fact, my capture card insisted that it had been outputting NTSC video the entire time.

once I forced my capture card to PAL mode, the video image seemed like this. So I feel it's correct. I even have no idea what the switch is for unless it's simply to inform the games themselves what format they're alleged to get on All right, therefore the next console I would like to point out you is that the Generation Nex. Now, unfortunately, they don't actually make this console anymore, but you'll still find them on places like eBay and Amazon. I picked this one up recently for $ 50. Notice it's a front-loading cartridge slot, very similar to the first NES, but also features a top loading slot for the Japanese Famicom games. Notice it does have stereo audio outputs. 

I'm told that it does support stereo, but just for newer games that cash in of it. I haven't been ready to find any samples of games that do. The facility button and reset are on the highest and a touch hard to ascertain. If you compare it to an NES, you'll see it's much smaller and since it's front loading games, it' s a way lower profile than the 8-Bit console, once a cartridge is installed, which is sweet if you're sticking this in an wall unit or something. Now the controllers are interesting because it's these turbo and slow buttons and I'm quite curious how they work. 

I'm also curious what these rear buttons do. So I made a decision it had been time to open this adorable owner's manual that appears It says the buttons work a bit like slightly screen. And movie will slow a game right down to a snail's pace. I don't really get how that's possible, but I assume I'll just need to plug It in and check out it out. So when playing Super Mario Brothers 2, I attempted repeatedly touching the slow and turbo buttons and zip appeared to ever happen. I did discover that the buttons on the rear work just like the A & B buttons, in order that mystery is solved. 

I assumed maybe I should try the turbo and slow on a special game, maybe a shooter style game. Well, initially they still didn't seem to try to anything, on the other hand I noticed the manual was wrong, you don't treat them sort of a touch screen, rather you've got to actually press them moderately hard sort of a real button. So yeah, therefore the movie just acts love it is pushing pause 1,000,000 times.

And while this is often rather annoying, I can see how it'd still offer you a plus on some games where quick deciding is that the key to winning. I also got the turbo fire button to figure, and you'll see even on This game it makes a difference .. See, this is often the regular firing speed, and this is often with turbo on. So let's take a glance at some close-up screenshots as compared to the first NES. This has about an equivalent appearance Because the other aftermarket consoles I've shown. 

The last console I would like to point out you isn't an NES clone, however, I assumed it went rather well with this video. It's actually a Gameboy Color clone. It's called the GB Boy. It's called the GB Boy Color. It's regrettable they couldn't have picked a more creative name. You'll see it comes in 3 different colors, mine is blue in fact. And on the rear they need some questionable English. The thing that stood out the foremost is that it claims to possess a front light, but I'm pretty sure this is often actually a backlight. Anyway, lets open the box and have a glance.

It was literally packaged a bit like this. There appears to be a manual of some sort crammed down here… For all the great it does, all of the instructions are in Chinese. I really like that feeling of shedding factory screen protection. So, let's compare it with the first Gameboy Color from 1998. Looks pretty similar. Volume and data cable on the left. Headphone and power port on rock bottom. Yep same. Power turn on the proper. 

Yep! Same again. And eventually, cartridge port and infrared on the rear. Yep, all precisely the same. So, I'm getting to start by showing you the foremost important difference. Watching the first Gameboy, I'm getting to insert a game and power it on. As you'll see, the screen isn't backlit. It's really hard to seek out an angle that provides you the simplest lighting of the screen, but also doesn't cause a glare. And if you switch the sunshine off, it's darned near impossible to play. But not the GB Boy Color! It's backlit screen makes a HUG difference and may be played equally well in both a well lit room, or in lightlessness.

This is a feature I might have certainly paid extra for back within the 90s and is baffling to me why Nintendo didn't offer it at the time. It isn't like other systems weren't already using backlights during that point. Here's another interesting thing. If you power it on with no game within the slot, it comes up to the present screen claiming to possess 188 inbuilt games. So, I'll pick one, like Super Mario Land. Yep, it's the first game, and That I question the legality of this also. However, I can assure you that there aren't 188 games on here. I noticed tons of duplicates scattered throughout the list. So, I wrote all of them down and determined that there have been really only 66 unique games, with most of the games being on the list two or 3 times. 

I couldn't see any difference between the multiple copies. However, tons of the games on here are just garbage games. And a few of them aren’t even in English. I don't know if this is often Chinese or Japanese because I can't read  Ether one. But, I do know I certainly can't play these games like this. So, there are really only about maybe 10 actually good, playable games on here. And these aren't even Gameboy Color games. I mean, sure the games have color, but even the first black and white Gameboy games usually had very basic colors programmed into them for future use, like the Super Gameboy and therefore the Gameboy color.

But none of the games that are inbuilt are literally real Gameboy Color games that make use of larger color palettes. Of course, if you insert your own Gameboy color games, it seems to play all of them perfectly fully color. Another thing I should probably mention, is that I feel they only used an off-the-shelf LCD screen on this thing, probably something from a camera. And it the sub-pixel rendering organization isn't really optimum for Gameboy games. 

If you're taking a glance at this close-up of the screen, you'll see that the mountains check out little broken places. So, what's happening here is that the first Gameboy had a gray scale screen with more or less square pixels. When the Gameboy color came out, they moved to a color screen that also kept an equivalent basic shape of the pixels, but now had red. Green, and blue sub pixels. And so, the games translated rather well. This screen,

However, uses a completely different sub-pixel technique that's fine for photographs and things, but not great for games. Still, I can't complain an excessive amount of about this because, honestly, I used to be playing it for half-hour Before I even noticed. Plus, when things are in motion, it's impossible to even tell. So, if you are doing enjoy playing the old Gameboy games and you really like having tactile controls, you know, belongings you can actually feel together with your And despite a number of the shortcomings that it's, I feel it's a superior experience to playing the first Gameboy Color. And it's really nothing to try to with the pirated games that it's built into it, because, like I said, there's only like maybe 10 of them in there worth playing. 

The most thing is simply the backlit screen. That basically makes all the difference within the world. I'm also putting the list of 66 games included within the ROM down within the description field, because very similar to the opposite cartridge I showed, there's actually not an inventory anywhere on the box or within the advertisement for this product. Probably because they're not legal copies in order that they probably don' t want to throw the names out of all the various things they're pirating, but anyway for people who have an interest you'll take a glance.

You know, this is often really what the Gameboy Color should are from the very beginning when it had been produced back in 1998. And it's not like there weren't other portable consoles 00 a backlit color screen, so I don't really know why it wasn't included. But, the sole thing they might do to actually make this better, in my opinion, is to place a bigger screen similarly. I mean, I do know it's roughly an equivalent size because the original Gameboy screen, so I can't complain an excessive amount of that, but there's actually space here. You know, they might make that screen another inch or two bigger. Which would actually be really cool. I'd pay extra for that! OK, so I should mention another thing about all of the Nintendo clones. 

That, they were all basically on an equivalent “Nintendo on a Chip” architecture. Which suggests all of them suffer from an equivalent problems and incompatibilities. In fact, there's a brief list out there of a really small number of games which will not work, presumably on any of the aftermarket consoles. I don't actually own any of these games, so it doesn't really affect me. But, I will be able to means one thing, and this affects all of those systems , even the first Nintendo as compared with the NES classic. The Classic does have one thing going for it thereby it does have HDMI video output.

Now, none of the games are getting to be high definition even when running on HDMI, because they only weren't designed for it. But, the image are going to be sharper and clearer as a results of being on HDMI. Not only that, it probably makes it somewhat easier to attach to a number of the more modern televisions. I should mean that there's a minimum of one other console out there, called the Retro USB AVS which actually uses its own custom chips and thus is during a different league than these clones, it also has HDMI output. But it costs $ 185 and it had been out of stock at the time I used to be trying to form this video, so I wasn't ready to show it. It also has 4 controller ports, but I'm unsure which games would use that.

 

So, out of all of those consoles, which one is my favorite? Well, I'm probably still getting to accompany the first NES as my favorite, but admittedly, like I said, these sometimes can have reliability and maintenance issues because they're getting very old . So, my next favorite console probably is that the Generation Nex. Albeit these are a couple of years old now, they are doing seem to carry up pretty much and that I just like the front loading thereto. Not only that, but after I Finally noticed the buzzing sound on this guy, it actually quite began to drive me nuts! And this has actually a really quiet audio impurities. So, I also like that about it. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this episode and leave me some comments and tell me what you think that.

The Advantech I.Q. Unlimited with BASIC and a Z80 CPU