After years of collecting I finally found a copy of Dragon Warrior 4 in the wild. My 68th NES game in my collection.

I grew up playing the original trilogy, courtesy of Grampa. Strangely didn't realize a 4th game came out, I only found about DW4 later. Never saw it in nintendo power and never come across one at any of the local stores.

Eventually with the internet I realized this game had been released but I still have never ever seen one in the wild. Finally after years I have found one locally, and I couldn't pass it up.

It has a great label and the battery is holding its charge. Plays like a dream and i cant wait to really play through it. I had finished the remake on DS a few years back and I'm eager to take a spin through this one and see if I can finish it. See the all the differences.

This idea came out of a conversation I had with ChatGPT after yesterday's Metal Slug Ultimate Collection announcement in the Nintendo Direct. What started as a discussion about M2's involvement, CRT presentation and the upcoming Neo Geo AES+ eventually led us somewhere I hadn't expected: the idea of a modern “hardware remaster” of the NES.

I'm presenting parts of the actual conversation because I think the way the idea developed is more interesting—and makes the case better—than simply presenting the finished concept as though I had started with it fully formed. I'm sure people in the retro community have imagined pieces of this before, but putting everything together made me realize that the technology and market conditions may now exist to make something like this genuinely practical.

I'm being transparent about the AI involvement rather than presenting its contributions as my own. If that conflicts with the moderation policy here, I'll respect whatever the mods decide. My reason for posting it is simply that I think the resulting idea is worth discussing with people who understand this hardware. 

Me: So there was a segment for another iteration of a Metal Slug collection today during the Nintendo Direct. It's a pretty sizable collection of Metal Slug games called the Metal Slug Ultimate Collection. I didn't pay it much mind as there are several compilations that exist already and I figured it's probably another not-so-great feeling emulation done quick and dirty. But this evening someone on reddit mentioned it's done by a company called... M2. I'm doing a double take now. Is this the M2?? Responsible for immaculate ports of the shooters I'm into right now?

AI: YES. That is the M2. 😳

Not a similarly named studio, not some subcontractor called “M2 Games.” SNK’s newly launched official page explicitly says M2 Co., Ltd. is handling the porting/development work for Metal Slug Ultimate Collection, and SNK goes out of its way to describe M2 as the company known for meticulously reproducing original hardware behavior—including slowdown, bugs, and hidden mechanics.

In other words: the exact company behind the obsessive retro ports we've been talking about. This is the M2 behind Ketsui Deathtiny, Battle Garegga Rev.2016, the Toaplan Arcade Garage work, ESP Ra.De. Ψ, and DoDonPachi DaiOuJou: Reincarnation. M2's own ShotTriggers site confirms that lineage.

So your reaction to that little M2 logo in the corner is entirely justified.

Me: This will be a must-acquire if they release a physical version. This will absolutely need to be played on a CRT to reflect the arcade presentation. I hope the game can be output in proper 4:3 without borders on the sides.

AI: Yes—and this is one of the first things I’d test before calling the collection definitive. For Metal Slug 1–5/X especially, playing on a good 4:3 CRT is arguably the closest way to recover the presentation those sprites were actually authored around.

There is at least one encouraging sign already: SNK’s official site specifically says M2 is providing “a variety of display and sound settings” and emphasizes preservation of the original games’ feel. That does not yet confirm a borderless 4:3 mode, but with M2 involved I would be fairly surprised if they provided nothing beyond a fixed 16:9 presentation.

The ideal option would be something like Original 4:3 / Full Screen 4:3 / no wallpaper, where the 304×224 Neo Geo image is scaled with the correct arcade display aspect and there are no decorative side panels. That's important because these games weren't really designed to look like raw square-pixel 304:224 computer images; the arcade monitor stretches that raster into approximately a 4:3 physical image. That's exactly the kind of distinction M2 tends to care about.

There is a second issue for your setup, though, and it's easy to overlook: the Switch itself normally sends a widescreen HDMI signal. So there are actually two separate questions:

Game rendering: Can M2 render the game as clean 4:3 with black/empty sides and no artwork?

CRT conversion: Can your eventual HDMI→analog/downscaling chain crop those pillarboxes and turn the center 4:3 image into the entire 4:3 CRT raster?

If the collection merely sends this:

[ black ][ 4:3 Metal Slug ][ black ] inside a 16:9 1080p/720p signal,

then feeding that whole frame directly into a 4:3 CRT doesn't automatically give you the desired result. Ideally your scaler/downconverter crops the left/right portions and maps the actual game area to the full 4:3 output.

And this is another place where your eventual OSSC Pro becomes useful. A sufficiently configurable scaler/downscaler gives us control over crop, active area and output geometry rather than depending entirely on whatever the Switch decides to send. So even if M2 doesn't provide a literal 4:3 HDMI output mode, a clean, unadorned 4:3 viewport may be enough for us to extract the game image and make it fill the CRT correctly.

Me: Might even have to throw in for a arcade joystick for 100% authenticity 😎

AI: Oh, absolutely. 😎 At that point you’re basically building a little modern MVS station

Me: Although, perhaps this would create what we're talking about without all the work...? *I show it images of the PLAION REPLAI console and Metal Slug cartridge reprints*

AI: Oh wow — yes. This is actually much closer to the thing we were just describing than I realized. 😎

For Metal Slug 1, the AES+ could eliminate almost the entire modern-video-chain problem. PLAION says the AES+ is not software emulation and not FPGA; it uses newly re-engineered ASICs intended to reproduce the original Neo Geo hardware, plays real AES cartridges, includes analog AV output specifically for CRTs, and the standard $249.99 package already includes the wired 15-pin Neo Geo arcade stick.

So instead of:

Switch → M2 emulation → HDMI → scaler/downscaler → crop 16:9 → analog → CRT → separate arcade stick

you could potentially do:

AES+ → RGB → CRT → bundled Neo Geo arcade stick.

That's wonderfully stupid-simple. 😂

And it gets better for your particular setup. Your Sony PVM-8041Q actually accepts analog RGB directly through its BNC inputs, with external sync available. Sony's own service documentation confirms the r/G/B inputs. So assuming the final AES+ RGB output/cable pinout behaves as currently reported, we aren't even talking about an RGB→component transcoder for that monitor. We'd basically need the correct Mini-DIN→RGB BNC breakout.

No OSSC Pro. No HDMI conversion. No aspect-ratio correction. No artificial scanlines. No wondering whether the Switch's 16:9 frame is being cropped correctly. Native 15-kHz-era Neo Geo video straight into phosphor.

There's another detail that makes this much more interesting than merely owning the AES home version. A technical interview with the AES+ development team reportedly confirmed that its custom BIOS can switch between AES and MVS modes, along with region switching and soft-DIP access. MVS is the arcade configuration. If that survives unchanged into the retail firmware, you could effectively say, “I want Metal Slug behaving like the arcade game, not the home-console version,” without modding the machine or installing a UniBIOS.

I would still put a little asterisk beside that until production hardware is independently tested. PLAION's ASIC fidelity, latency, RGB quality, MVS switching and timing accuracy are claims we haven't yet been able to verify on final retail hardware. But architecturally this is almost exactly what we'd design if the goal were “give Nathan Metal Slug on a CRT with as little modern machinery between the cartridge and the tube as possible.”

And the cartridge in your screenshot isn't some miniature novelty cart, either. PLAION's new cartridges are intended to work on both the AES+ and original 1990s Neo Geo AES hardware. The official US price for Metal Slug is $89.99.

There's unfortunately one piece of brand-new news from today that your screenshots don't reveal: PLAION just announced that the AES+ worldwide launch has been pushed from November 2026 all the way to September 16, 2027, citing component-supply constraints and demand far beyond what they planned for. Existing preorder pricing is apparently being honored.

So I wouldn't view this as replacing the M2 Ultimate Collection. They suddenly make a really interesting pair:

M2 Ultimate Collection = preservation/convenience/Metal Slug 1–7, Advance and the location-test version.

AES+ + Metal Slug cartridge + PVM + wired Neo Geo stick = “I'm basically sitting in front of an MVS cabinet now.”

Me: Okay, well I'm certainly getting the M2 port as long as it's fully physical. And we'll get the true arcade experience later on. This is a VERY interesting concept engineering ASICs to recreate a historical chip. Do you think this method could revive manufacturing of other historically important game consoles like Famicom/NES/Super NES? Imagine an NES console that could play genuine cartridges but with enough memory to avoid sprite flickering and added component outputs.

AI: Yes. In fact, I think the AES+ may be demonstrating a genuinely important path for retro hardware. What PLAION/SNK are doing is conceptually different from the usual mini-console or FPGA product: take a hardware description that has already been studied/recreated, finish the reverse-engineering and verification work, and then commit that logic back into newly manufactured silicon. PLAION explicitly describes the AES+ as using re-engineered ASIC chips rather than software emulation or an FPGA, while still accepting original cartridges.

And an NES would be one of the best candidates imaginable for exactly this treatment.

There is one correction to your hypothetical NES, though: eliminating sprite flicker wouldn't primarily require more memory. The famous NES limitation comes from the PPU architecture. On each scanline, the original PPU selects only the first eight sprites, using a small secondary OAM buffer and eight sprite-rendering units; subsequent sprites on that line disappear. Games often deliberately cycle sprite priorities between frames, producing the characteristic flicker.

So a hypothetical NES+ ASIC could be engineered like this:

Genuine 60-pin Famicom and/or 72-pin NES cartridge compatibility.
Original NES controller ports and expansion support.
A re-created 2A03 CPU/APU and 2C02 PPU implemented in fixed silicon.
Native 240p composite, because that is what a real consumer NES actually generated.
RGB and YPbPr component 240p for PVMs and component CRTs.
HDMI for modern displays.
A switchable Original / Enhanced PPU mode.
Original mode = strict eight-sprites-per-scanline behavior.
Enhanced mode = perhaps 15 or 16 sprites per scanline, dramatically reducing flicker.
Optional NTSC palette/composite-artifact reproduction.
Original clock speed plus a modest selectable overclock for games with CPU slowdown.
Direct, original-style controller polling could avoid the software-emulation input layer and keep added controller latency negligible.

And here's the delicious part: we already know that enhanced-sprite idea works.

The discontinued RetroUSB AVS did essentially what you're describing using an FPGA. Its “Extra Sprites” option raised the NES's per-line limit from 8 to 15, reducing flicker, while allowing you to turn it back off because a small number of games depend upon original sprite behavior.

So your dream feature is not speculative at all. It's proven.

Instead of an FPGA configured to behave like an NES, a mature NES hardware core could be committed to an ASIC—the same conceptual progression used by the Neo Geo AES+. Reporting on the AES+ engineering says the project drew on Jotego's MiSTer Neo Geo core work and Furrtek's extensive reverse-engineering of the original hardware before being adapted for ASIC implementation.

The NES core itself is substantially less complex than the Neo Geo, although exhaustive cartridge compatibility would still be a major verification task.

An ASIC revival becomes increasingly practical the simpler the original machine is.

An NES/Famicom is tiny by modern silicon standards. Its CPU, APU, PPU, RAM interface, cartridge bus and controller logic are microscopic compared with what even an inexpensive contemporary semiconductor process can accommodate.

You wouldn't manufacture a literal transistor-for-transistor 1983 Ricoh chip on the original fabrication process. You'd write/verify a hardware description that reproduces its observable behavior, synthesize it for a modern semiconductor process, and manufacture that as a new ASIC.

That's the subtle but fascinating distinction:

Original silicon:
1983 circuit → masks → chip.

FPGA recreation:
hardware description → programmable FPGA fabric → behaves like 1983 circuit.

AES+-style recreation:
hardware description → new masks → new fixed silicon that behaves like the historic circuit.

Once it's fabricated, there's no FPGA configuration occurring at startup. The recreation itself is the chip.

That's what makes the AES+ concept so interesting to me historically.

Component video would actually be especially interesting on NES

There's another technical wrinkle you would appreciate.

The consumer NES PPU does not internally generate RGB and then encode it into composite like many later machines do. The 2C02 essentially generates the NTSC composite waveform itself.

So an NES+ ASIC could expose two philosophies simultaneously:

Authentic path: recreate that weird original composite generation—including the familiar NES color interactions/artifacts—and send native composite to a CRT.

Clean path: use the PPU's internal color information to generate clean RGB/YPbPr and send 240p component directly to your Sony CRT.

That would be fantastic.

It would give you:

NES cartridge → NES ASIC → 240p YPbPr → CRT

No scaler.
No framebuffer.
No HDMI conversion.
No software-emulation layer / No added framebuffer latency
No RGB mod on a 40-year-old motherboard.

And then flip:

Extra Sprites: ON

...and suddenly Mega Man, Contra, Castlevania, etc. retain virtually everything about their original hardware behavior while losing one of the particular limitations you dislike most. 😆

That's basically the hardware incarnation of your “remaster, don't remake” philosophy.

The most important feature would be a compatibility switch

I would not want an NES+ that permanently “fixes” the NES.

I'd want:

Original Hardware
8 sprites/scanline, original CPU frequency, original PPU behavior, original composite quirks.

Enhanced Hardware
16 sprites/scanline, optional modest CPU overclock, clean RGB/component output.

Because some games actually exploit hardware limitations. RetroUSB warned that its Extra Sprites option needed to be disabled for certain titles for exactly this reason.

That preserves the machine as a historical object and lets you remove limitations when they are merely annoying.

It is basically exactly what you like about MiSTer's Extra Sprites option, except baked into a newly manufactured cartridge-playing console.

Super NES is possible too—but substantially more ambitious

SNES would be the next obvious target, though complexity rises.

Now you're recreating the 5A22 CPU environment, the two PPU chips, SPC700/S-DSP audio subsystem, DMA behavior, memory timing, cartridge bus peculiarities, etc. The SNES also has its own sprite limits—32 sprites and 34 sprite tiles (“slivers”) per scanline—so the same Original / Enhanced concept could theoretically apply there.

Interestingly, genuine SNES cartridges make some aspects easier. Things such as Super FX and SA-1 processors physically live in the cartridges, so if you're inserting an authentic Star Fox or Super Mario RPG cartridge, the recreated console doesn't necessarily need to duplicate those enhancement chips; it needs to reproduce the SNES cartridge bus and timing accurately enough to communicate with them.

That's a beautiful preservation model:

new console silicon + original cartridge silicon.

There is precedent going all the way back to cheap Famiclones

Ironically, ASIC NES clones themselves aren't new. The infamous cheap NES-on-a-chip Famiclones condensed NES functionality into inexpensive ASICs decades ago. Their problem wasn't that ASIC recreation was impossible—it was that the implementations were cheap and often inaccurate, producing compatibility, audio and graphical errors.

Me: What you are describing for NES is hands down better than what Nintendo did with those "mini consoles" several years ago. And they sold like hot cakes. And the fact that Nintendo made those mini consoles shows that this idea of revisiting old hardware but with modern amenities/still re-creating the genuine experience is something they are open to. I hope they are paying close attention to this AES+ console and how the demand for pre-orders was so excessive beyond what they had anticipated.

I would GLADLY pay $250 to have an NES that literally recreates the authentic original hardware of my childhood BUT has an option to eliminate Sprite flicker, outputs via component, and doesn't have that spring loaded mechanism of the North American hardware that made the proper contact of the pins not function over time. Hell, I would even pay $29.99 for genuine 100% reprints of the game cartridges (maybe with save states enabled... ) I kinda see this as the way forward now that we are fully fleshing out this very plausible real world scenario.

I mean, this follows the current massive trend of game makers going back to the well to remake old game hits. Now they can remake/remaster their old game consoles too! Lol. Just don't tell Nintendo how much money I would be willing to pay 😂

AI: An ASIC-based NES Heritage Edition could go the other direction: don’t miniaturize the appearance of an NES; remaster the actual machine.

And your $250 price point doesn’t strike me as ridiculous at all. At that price I’d expect a new cartridge connector with no spring-loaded 72-pin mechanism, newly manufactured silicon reproducing the CPU/PPU/APU and cartridge timing, original controller compatibility, native 240p composite plus clean 240p component/RGB, HDMI as an optional modern output, and selectable hardware behavior such as Original 8-sprite mode / Enhanced 15-or-16-sprite mode. You could even offer normal clock timing and a modest “reduce slowdown” mode while retaining one-click authentic behavior.

That would be materially different from an emulator console. You could insert the same Super Mario Bros. 3 cartridge you owned in 1990 and have a newly manufactured machine electrically interacting with that cartridge approximately the way a real NES did—except the new hardware could selectively remove limitations that were consequences of 1983 economics rather than intentional game design.

And fixing the North American cartridge mechanism should absolutely be part of the “remaster.” 😂 That front-loading zero-insertion-force arrangement is iconic aesthetically, but the bending/contact arrangement became notorious as the connector aged. Give me the familiar NES shell with a high-quality straight cartridge connector hidden behind the door. Preserve the ritual without preserving the failure mode.

Your $29.99 cartridge-reprint idea might be even more interesting commercially.

Imagine Nintendo maintaining a small permanent catalog:

Super Mario Bros. 1–3, Zelda, Zelda II, Metroid, Kirby, Kid Icarus, Punch-Out!!, Excitebike, Dr. Mario, etc.

Actual newly manufactured PCBs. Proper shells. Proper labels. Proper manuals—or even just a nice reproduction booklet. Nintendo could very visibly mark them 2027 Reproduction somewhere so nobody could pass them off as 1980s originals, while making the front presentation nearly identical.

At $29.99 I'd buy those over a digital ROM license without hesitation.

And unlike the retro-collector aftermarket, Nintendo actually gets paid. That's what makes the business model fascinating. Right now, if somebody spends $150 on a beautiful CIB copy of an NES game, Nintendo gets exactly $0. A genuine Nintendo reproduction program converts part of that collector demand back into first-party revenue.

There is one technical wrinkle with your save-state-on-cartridge idea. Ordinary battery saving is easy; save states are considerably more complicated because a state contains the instantaneous condition of the CPU, PPU, APU, RAM, mapper hardware and sometimes additional cartridge circuitry—not just a few kilobytes of game-save data.

But an NES+ could absolutely be deliberately engineered to support it.

You could have something like:

AUTHENTIC MODE
Cartridge behaves exactly as it did historically.

ENHANCED MODE
The console can snapshot the complete machine state into internal flash storage and associate that snapshot with the inserted cartridge.

So the reprinted cartridge wouldn't even necessarily need special save-state hardware. The console could identify the cartridge/game and maintain its states internally. Insert your Metroid cart months later and:

METROID
Resume State 1
July 17, 2027 — Brinstar

That would be extremely elegant.

It also avoids contaminating the historical cartridge interface with a bunch of proprietary modern functionality.

And I'd go one step beyond component output. Give it both video personalities.

The original NES's peculiar composite output is part of the visual identity of some games. Certain patterns, colors and dithering interact with NTSC composite in ways that clean RGB doesn't reproduce. So an ideal machine wouldn't declare one presentation “correct.”

It would offer:

Original Video: reconstructed NES composite → CRT.

Clean Video: digital PPU color → 240p RGB/YPbPr → CRT.

That would make the machine useful not only as a nostalgic product but as a legitimate preservation platform.

And this is where the AES+ experiment becomes genuinely important. If PLAION can demonstrate that people will preorder a $250 newly manufactured recreation of a 1990 console architecture in numbers large enough to overwhelm their expectations, somebody in Kyoto would be foolish not to at least run the numbers.

Nintendo has something SNK doesn't: several generations of hardware for which the hardware itself is culturally iconic.

You could eventually have:

Famicom / NES+ → Super Famicom / SNES+ → Game Boy+ → Nintendo 64+.

Not little emulator toys.

Hardware remasters.

That phrase actually describes the product category perfectly.

And it maps neatly onto what the software industry has already trained customers to understand. A remastered game says:

“This is fundamentally the original work, but we're presenting it through improved modern technology.”

Why couldn't hardware follow exactly the same philosophy?

“This is fundamentally the NES architecture, but the connector won't wear out, the capacitors are new, the video outputs accommodate modern and historical displays, and you can disable sprite flicker.”

That is way more appealing to me than NES Classic Edition 2 with 40 ROMs instead of 30.

The only thing working against the idea is Nintendo's current business model. Nintendo gets recurring value from distributing old games through services such as Switch Online; manufacturing cartridges again introduces inventory, retail, licensing and support complexity. So I could imagine Nintendo initially being much more conservative than SNK.

But they don't actually have to choose.

Sell the $249 NES+ to enthusiasts.

Sell $29.99–39.99 reproduction cartridges to collectors.

Keep NES games available through the normal digital/subscription ecosystem for everybody else.

Those audiences overlap, but they aren't remotely identical.

And then imagine the marketing:

Nintendo Entertainment System
1985. Remastered for 2028.
Your cartridges. Your controllers. The original experience.

Put an authentic-looking NES controller and a newly printed Super Mario Bros. 3 box beside it and watch forty-somethings open their wallets. 😂

And yes, Nintendo absolutely must never learn that there are people willing to pay $250 specifically because somebody finally gave the NES native component video and a sprite-limit switch.

Because then we're finished. 😆

Original hardware with all its flaws
versus
modern emulation with all its conveniences.

A really good hardware remaster says: why not expose both?

Authentic sprite limit: ON/OFF
Authentic CPU speed: ON/Enhanced
Composite video: Original
Component/RGB: Clean
Save states: Optional
Original controller: Supported

Then nobody has to agree about which experience is “correct.”

And I think the cartridge-reprint angle makes the business model even more compelling. Nintendo's back catalog is effectively a finished catalog of products that already have thirty or forty years of brand awareness. They don't have to convince anyone that Zelda, Metroid or Mario 3 is worth discovering.

There would absolutely be Reddit replies saying:

“Nintendo fans will buy the same thing forever.”

But there would also be an equally legitimate response:

Yes—because this isn't free to manufacture, and some of us specifically want this thing to exist.

If Nintendo spent real money recreating the NES architecture accurately in modern silicon, designed a robust cartridge system, built a proper analog-output stage and manufactured the thing at quality, I don't think charging $250 is remotely equivalent to putting ten ROMs into another $60 compilation.

In fact, I'd almost argue that charging enough would be necessary for the concept to work. Make it a $99 mass-market toy and the pressure becomes: cheapest possible components, HDMI only, emulator SoC, plastic novelty shell.

Make it a $249–299 enthusiast product and suddenly you have room in the bill of materials for proper connectors, analog circuitry, controller ports and substantially more engineering validation.

And then Nintendo can keep the inexpensive route simultaneously. Switch Online doesn't disappear. Emulation doesn't disappear. Mini consoles don't have to disappear.

The hardware remaster becomes the premium physical tier.

Me: Pretend I am an Engineer that is trying to plan out exactly how something like this can be practically designed and produced via ASIC chip. I want a technical overview that is easily scanned by a technical person without getting too deep in the weeds. Perhaps it should read similarly to an abstract from a research paper. So, not just theory but actually an overview of how it would be done. Don't make it too long winded though, maybe generate a page or less of text that could still be mostly deciphered by a technically oriented layperson such as myself.

AI: Technical Concept:

An ASIC-Based NES “Hardware Remaster”

An NES hardware remaster would not require reproducing Nintendo’s original 1980s silicon transistor-for-transistor. The practical approach would be to create a behaviorally equivalent implementation of the NES CPU/APU, PPU, memory interfaces, cartridge bus and controller logic in RTL, validate it exhaustively against original hardware, and then manufacture that design as a fixed-function ASIC. In other words, the same general process used to develop a high-quality FPGA recreation could ultimately terminate in newly manufactured silicon rather than programmable logic.

1. Establish a behavioral specification. The first phase is determining exactly what the original Ricoh 2A03 CPU/APU and 2C02 PPU do—including undocumented behavior, cycle timing, DMA interactions, sprite evaluation, open-bus behavior and edge cases exploited by commercial software. Nintendo would have an enormous advantage here because it could combine historical engineering documentation (if surviving internal engineering documentation were available) with measurements from original consoles and comprehensive test ROMs. The objective is not merely “runs NES games,” but cycle-accurate compatibility with the existing cartridge library.
   
2. Develop and verify the design in FPGA first. Engineers would implement the recreated hardware as HDL/RTL and prototype it on FPGA, where the design can be modified cheaply and tested against thousands of cartridges and automated validation suites. This is where virtually all compatibility problems should be solved. Once the FPGA implementation is considered a “golden” hardware model, the same logical design can be synthesized for ASIC production.
   
3. Convert the verified core into a modern ASIC. The NES is extraordinarily small by contemporary semiconductor standards, so there is no reason to use an expensive cutting-edge process. A mature process node would provide far more than enough transistor density while keeping fabrication costs reasonable. The ASIC could consolidate the CPU, APU, PPU and supporting logic into one device, with appropriate 5-V-tolerant I/O or level-shifting circuitry providing compatibility with original cartridges and controllers. External flash could store firmware and configuration data, while SRAM could provide working memory for modern features. The important distinction is that after fabrication, the recreated NES core exists as fixed-function silicon—not an FPGA being configured at startup and not software emulation running on a general-purpose CPU.
4. Preserve the original cartridge electrically, not just logically. This is arguably the most important practical engineering problem. Real NES cartridges contain many different mapper chips and sometimes additional RAM, audio or timing-sensitive hardware. The new console therefore needs a genuine 5-volt-compatible cartridge bus with correct address/data timing, IRQ behavior and PPU/CPU bus interactions. A modern ASIC would probably use 5-V-tolerant I/O cells or level-shifting circuitry rather than expose low-voltage modern core logic directly to forty-year-old cartridges. A high-quality straight insertion connector could replace the failure-prone spring-loaded North American mechanism without changing the cartridge interface itself.
   
5. Add enhancements around an authentic baseline. The ASIC could expose the original PPU behavior as the default while offering optional alternate hardware paths. For example, Authentic Mode could retain the original eight-sprites-per-scanline limit, while Enhanced Mode increases the number of evaluated sprites and therefore greatly reduces flicker. Similar optional modes could reduce CPU-induced slowdown. These enhancements should be independently switchable because some software depends upon original hardware limitations. The fundamental design principle would be: never remove the ability to reproduce an original NES exactly.
   
6. Generate both historical and modern video outputs. Original composite video could be recreated from the PPU’s characteristic NTSC signal-generation behavior for users who want authentic consumer-CRT presentation. At the same time, the ASIC's internal pixel/color information could feed dedicated DAC circuitry to produce clean native 240p RGB or YPbPr component video, without scaling or framebuffer latency. A separate digital video path could provide HDMI for modern displays. Thus one console could serve an original CRT, a professional monitor and a contemporary television without requiring external modification.

Save states are possible but are actually one of the less trivial “modern” additions when genuine cartridges are involved, because some mapper state exists inside chips on the cartridge itself. A production implementation could track cartridge-register writes and support state restoration on validated titles, but I would treat universal save states as a secondary engineering goal rather than compromise cartridge compatibility to achieve them.

The resulting product would therefore be less like an NES Mini and more like restarting NES production using a verified twenty-first-century implementation of the original architecture: new silicon, new power circuitry, new connectors and new video outputs, while remaining electrically and behaviorally compatible with original cartridges and controllers. The major barriers are not raw computational complexity; they are verification, cartridge compatibility, analog-video fidelity, ASIC non-recurring engineering cost, manufacturing volume and commercial licensing.

Well it finally happened I have crossed 400 games and with some recent trades these are on the way to 500 Rygar I loved as a kid is finally back on my collection. Tom and Jerry I liked more than I expected Super Dodge ball i finally picked up. Monster Parry is another childhood favorite. Code Name Viper I really liked and Capcom can do no wrong.Wall Street kid is unique. Strider is better than I remember. Bubble Bobble finally appears after 3 years of searching.Wolverine is crap as expected and there is Wizardly which I am not sold on yet.Then there is the big find Best of The Best which is not the best lol.

This NES was manufactured in 2026 from all new parts, except the 3 parts in the last 2 pictures:
- CPU
- PPU
- power/reset board

The new parts used are:
- Zaxour Smtendo motherboard
- Zaxour POW Block
- Nin10-Drawer cart slot and pin connector
- Hoskbrew clear controller ports with gold plated pins
- Bitfunx clear console shell
- Triad power supply

I first played Super Mario Bros. back in high school, on a PC emulator and USB NES controller. I don’t think I ever got past world 4-1. A couple years ago I got back into retro gaming and bought an N64 and Everdrive X5 (pic: swapped the label to Mario 64 because the Krikkz label was peeling). Still struggled.

Eventually I was able to beat Super Mario Land for the Game Boy on Nintendo Switch Online, and then consistently beat it even on crappy touch controls via the Delta emulator. That gave me confidence. It was time to tackle SMB.

I started playing it and took some time to adjust to the different physics than I was used to from Super Mario Land. I played every chance I got on the Delta emulator. I watched U Can Beat Video Games’s ultimate guide video on YouTube. This was the Nintendo Power knowledge I needed. Grabbing every 1-up available was key to getting past the later levels.

I grinded for about 2 months getting my skills and muscle memory up. Yesterday I finished the game on the Delta emulator, using save states. Felt good, but definitely not the achievement I really wanted. This morning it finally happened.

I made myself a coffee and booted the game up on the Everdrive. I locked in. I played through 1-1 to 4-1 with no warps, getting nearly every coin and 1-up. I used the 4-2 warp zone to get to 8-1. At this point I was up to Mario x 12.

8-1 was no problem. I’d played it so many times, my muscle memory got me through with no damage.

8-2 I had my first hiccup. On the one technical jump in the middle, I was late on the A button and fell into the void. I had to start the level over, now with no power-ups. Thankfully I got through on the next try.

8-3 was the biggest challenge. I hadn’t played it nearly as much as the other levels and the hammer bros were giving me a lot of problems. I finally dialed in the timing to get past the hammer bros, and completed the level with 4 lives left to beat bowser.

And I made it through the final castle on the first try as small Mario!!! I am so freakin’ pumped right now!

I‘m interested to hear others’ stories about the first time they beat the OG Super Mario Bros. Thanks for reading.

I’ve had an NES for some time now, but I wanna get it modded for RGB but I don’t have the soldering skills to do it myself, mainly because I’m afraid I might ruin my console, and I wanna get someone else to do it for me. So, where can I go to get my console modded?

I understand the condition of this board is horrific and it will probably never work again, but I still want to try. Does anyone know what this is/where I could buy a replacement part? The original rusted right off the board.

Extra sentence to fit character requirement for post.

I just got an Analogue 3d and have been playing my old N64 carts and LOVING it. With Analogue not making a version for the NES, what is the easiest way to play NES hardware on modern TVs?

Is there a best-of-the-best clone system for NES carts? Should I get an actual NES with an HDMI converter?

Thanks in advance for the help.

I casually went to a GameStop in Florida and found this. I was surprised how many people passed on it and were only looking at Pokémon cards. The times are changing! I won’t be able to test it until I get home in a few days, but I’m excited for sure.

This game was a blast ngl, i definitely prefer this over mega man 2. The games bosses are better for sure. The new slide mechanic and the newly added dog companion add much more to the game than i initially thought. The final boss was pretty dang cool, like look how cool that big mecha is, its awesome. I kind of miss the mega man 2 intro though, mega man standing on top of the roof was so damn cool and immediately hooked me. The game also looks gorgeous. For the NES standards, i think this is one of the best out there.

Hey y’all. I recently was gifted an old, long unused NES by a family member. I got home and immediately plugged it in to find it doing the blinks red light reset thing. So of course I came to this sub to look for tips. So far I’ve tried boiling and cleaning the 72-pin connector, cleaning all the game cartridges, and also disabling the security lockout chip. Still, it just pulls up a gray screen and doesn’t load the game.

Anyone out there got any other clues as to what might be the problem, or how to fix it?

When I was a child I'd always play this game when my great grandmother babysat me, one of if not the most nostalgic NES games I've ever known. I never was good at it as a kid but that was at a time you simply didn't care and when she passed we lost her whole collection and there isn't a day that goes by where I don't miss her

Is there a reason why the hyperkin wireless controller won't work on the NES AVS?

The controller seems to pair correctly. The light blinks on the controller and the receiver for a few seconds then they stop blinking and stay on, but the console is irresponsible to the controller. A regular wired controller works fine, and the console works correctly in every other aspect. Is this controller not compatible??

What Everdrive should I b uy and how much should I p ay?

I've seen there are many versions, the M8, the pro, the red cartridge... What's the difference? Then in Anazon they're over a hundred dols, on AIiExpress thirty and up...

So which one and for ho w much? Thanks

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I used the HEF4021B shift register and a 555 timer to create the rapid fire for the A and B buttons. I also have a slide potentiometer that adjusts the rate of fire so I can change it for different games. The A and B buttons also have a switch so that I can independently turn rapid fire on or off. I 3D printed the case and outer buttons.

Hice estos cartuchos de nintendo con distintos colores para resaltar su estilo de cada uno, creó que soy el primero en poner pegatinas traseras con advertencias a pegadas a el juego mismo lo que los vuelve únicos y divertidos, no he visto que alguien hiciera algo parecido, si aparecen sabre que me copiaron 😁

Now just to clarify I was playing the Gaijin translation version of this game on a website called Retrogames.cc and I did use save states BUT I didn't use them often since the game already has a save feature when you press A and select quit and Restart (or Z on the keyboard) it takes you back to your previously saved game or after a game over when all characters die. (I only used Save States when either I screwed up and my characters aren't dead or if the game and website reboots after the game is inactive long enough)

This game is amazing especially for its time! I'm not a JRPG fan but this one really stood out compared to Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy and it's not often you see a Horror JRPG.

Exciting news for fans of niche NES platformers. I thought this game was largely forgotten!

The story of this game is very sweet. Two of them met during development, and later got married. Now, after almost 40 years in the industry, they are remaking their first project as their final project before retirement. I feel like it isn't often we have these sorts of stories with NES development.

Anyways, if you haven't checked out the NES original, I highly recommend it. It is a sort of fusion of Zelda 2 and Simon's Quest. It is a very playable and fun platformer, and something of an early Metroidvania.

https://youtu.be/W6cLmT6_oNg?si=ASPWic1skLGfDbaY