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Amazon deal trucks may be your last chance at an NES Classic
Are you still pining for the elusive NES Classic Edition a few months after its abrupt discontinuation? If you're in the right US city and act quickly, you might have a chance. Amazon's Treasure Trucks in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles and Seattle are offering the retro console at its original $60 price as part of a one-day sale on July 29th. You just have to order from the Amazon app and pick one of the trucks as your pickup point. The offer is only available from 11AM to 5PM local time, and only while stocks last, but this may be your best (and possibly last) opportunity to get the Classic without being gouged by a third-party reseller or online auction. And if you miss out? Well, there's always the SNES Classic.
Nintendo's 3DS isn't dead, but it is trapped in the Switch's shadow
Earlier this year, Nintendo announced a brand-new console, a hybrid portable device that serves as both a portable entertainment machine and a game system for the living room. At a glance, it looked great -- but some criticized the Nintendo Switch for having "nothing to play" except the new Legend of Zelda game, of course. Nintendo's E3 show served as a strong answer to those critics: Between Super Mario Odyssey, the promise of a new Pokémon game, new Xenoblade, Yoshi and Kirby titles and a Switch port of Rocket League, Nintendo gave buyers every reason to pick up its latest portable console. At the same time, it gave fans almost no reason to pick its other handheld device. If you don't already own a 3DS, you're probably never going to buy one now.
‘Arms’ is the successor to ‘Punch Out’ the Nintendo Switch needs
The original Punch Out may be heralded as a classic 8-bit NES game, but it's one I didn't play until I was in college. I'd heard it mentioned as I grew up but always dismissed it out of hand. Sports games, particularly those with celebrity endorsements, meant nothing to me as a child. When I eventually picked up a battered copy at a local flea market, I discovered the game was a masterpiece of simple, but challenging, gameplay. My experience with Arms on the Nintendo Switch is almost identical. It looked underwhelming until, of course, I played it.
'Breath of the NES' is a retro 'Zelda' fan project destined to die
While you wait for something else to play on your Switch (might I suggest looking into TumbleSeed?), you could kill some time with Breath of the NES. As the name suggests, the fan-project was inspired by Nintendo's 8-bit Breath of the Wild prototype that the company divulged during a GDC panel earlier this year. This isn't a straight facsimile though. Developer WinterDrake has added modern lighting and shadows (the fireflies are particularly impressive), while keeping gameplay mostly familiar.
Capcom's collection of Disney NES games does retro gaming right
Recapturing the feeling of playing video games of bygone eras is no easy task. Sure, a simple emulator can technically drag ancient software to modern television screens, but anyone who grew up playing 8-bit games can tell you the experience isn't always the same. Pixel-perfect presentations can sometimes lack the nostalgic charm of the distorted, fuzzy tube TVs old games were originally designed for. That's one of the things that makes Capcom's Disney Afternoon Collection so special. It doesn't just collect Ducktales, Rescue Rangers and other iconic NES Disney games in convenient one package -- it wraps them in the style, context and visual limitations of the 1990s.
Nintendo's NES Classic has been discontinued in Europe too
When Nintendo pulled the NES Classic from its website and retailers in the US, we knew it was only a matter of time before the same happened on the other side of the Atlantic. It took four days, but the company today confirmed to Eurogamer that the tiny retro console is no longer on sale in Europe, meaning it's now been discontinued worldwide.
After Math: It's so hard to say goodbye
It's been a tough week for farewells. We've seen the NES Classic get canceled, Microsoft pull the plug on Vista, and the impending end of free registration for California's electric vehicles. Numbers, because how else would we know how much time we have left?
You're never getting an NES Classic Edition now
If you've spent the last few months trying to get your hands on a NES Classic Edition, it's time to give up. Nintendo's tiny, plug-and-play retro console is dead. Or dying, at least. The company says the last shipments to North American territories will reach stores in April, advising buyers to check with their local retailers for availability. In other words, the NES Classic Edition shortage is going away, but only because the product won't exist anymore.
Streamer completes every NES game ever made
In May 2014, Piotr Delgado "The Mexican Runner" Kusielczuk wanted a new challenge. His Super Castlevania IV speed runs were leaving him burned out and he wanted to tackle something different for the entertainment of his Twitch followers. Friends suggested that instead of completing NES games as fast as possible, he should perhaps think about beating every game ever made for the platform. Starting with Whomp 'Em on May 28th, 2014, Kusielczuk methodically completed all 714 titles, eventually completing the final world in his final game, Super Mario 3, yesterday.
The Analogue Nt Mini wants to be the last NES you'll ever buy
Trying to play an NES cartridge on Nintendo's original, 30-year-old hardware can be an exercise in frustration. The console's ancient composite cables offer terrible image quality on modern televisions, and getting games to actually run is a ballet of reseating, jostling and, of course, blowing on game cartridges. Nintendo's own NES Classic Edition and the Wii U and 3DS virtual consoles offer refuge for the casual gamer's nostalgic yearnings, but collectors looking for an authentic, cartridge-based retro gaming experience have long suffered under the dark shadow of compromise. Is it better to play on the original, but unreliable, hardware, or an NES clone plagued with compatibility issues? With the Analogue Nt Mini, you may not have to tolerate either -- but at $449, Analogue's compromise-free Nintendo doesn't come cheap.
Nintendo classics get online multiplayer on the Switch
The Nintendo Switch features a new, paid subscription model that grants players access to online multiplayer features -- and something extra. According to the Nintendo Switch Online Service website, anyone who subscribes will be able to download and play one classic game from the Nintendo Entertainment System or Super Nintendo Entertainment System per month, "with newly added online play."
Nintendo hid a secret message in the Famicom Mini
The NES Classic and its Japanese counterpart are already incredibly cool -- but you know what makes an awesome toy even better? A secret message. Apparently, developers that worked on the Famicom Mini emulator left a short, hidden message in the code: "Please," it says, "don't break everything!"
Peek at the drawings used to design the original 'Zelda'
To quote one of my favorite video game characters: Greatness, from small beginnings. To celebrate The Legend of Zelda's 30th anniversary, Nintendo has released a handful of drawings that were used to design the first game in the franchise. They're essentially graph paper, with shaded boxes to represent walls and bottomless pits. Careful markings indicate where doors and monsters should be, while a pair of tables explain which colors should be used. Each page offers some wonderful insights into how Shigeru Miyamoto, Takashi Tezuka and others mapped out one of the most iconic video games of all time. Looking at them, I can't help but crack a smile.
Pros and cons: Our quick verdict on the NES Classic Edition
The NES Classic is an easy sell: It's a $60 device that looks and feels like the original Nintendo Entertainment System, with a library of 30 popular games pre-loaded. It's also easy to set up -- all you need is spare HDMI and USB ports on your TV. The problem? The device is such a great proposition that it's either sold out everywhere, or only available through resellers for five times the price. We're not sure we recommend spending $300 on this, especially given a few flaws like the too-short controller cables and the fact that you can't download any additional games. But if you do resort to desperate measures to get one this holiday season, we won't judge.
NES Classic wireless receiver solves the short cord problem
We love almost everything about Nintendo's adorable NES Classic Edition, but there's still one major downside. There's no way around it: Those short controller cables are a major buzzkill. Unsurprisingly, third-party companies are stepping up to solve the problem -- one such solution comes from 8Bitdo, which just released a new version of its Retro Receiver that works with the NES Classic.
NES Classic Edition review: The best and worst of retro gaming
"I don't want to sit on the floor while I play video games," my buddy Josh told me. "I'm not 7 anymore." My friend was parked just 4 feet away from my 40-inch television, playing Ninja Gaiden on the NES Classic Edition -- a tiny re-creation of Nintendo's original home game console. The diminutive game system has everything a nostalgic gamer could want: an iconic design, a built-in collection of 30 classic games and pixel-perfect emulation. But for Josh, the two-and-a-half-foot-long controller cables were a deal-breaker. It's a shame, too: Almost everything else about the NES Classic is perfect.
Nintendo's mini NES is out today
You may want to ready your wallets and your mouse-clicking fingers for the NES Classic's launch today. Some fans who attended the midnight event at Nintendo's New York offices were already able to get one, but don't worry: you can grab your own from several retailers. Amazon, for one, has sent out emails informing customers that it'll start selling the retro-console in "very limited quantities" starting at 2PM PT/5PM ET later. The online shopping giant warns that it expects demands to be high and that "there's no guarantee that it will remain in stock for long." If you're looking to buy from Amazon, make sure to bookmark the device's page and set an alarm.
Nintendo is reviving the NES' hint line for one weekend
When Nintendo releases the NES Classic Edition on November 11th, it won't limit the nostalgia to the hardware you take home. The company is marking the launch by resurrecting its classic Power Line for that weekend. Call 425-885-7529 between 9AM and 10PM Eastern each day (until the night of the 13th) and you can get both hints for "several" games as well as stories from people who manned the phones on the original line back in the 1980s. The tips are pre-recorded, alas, but this could easily rekindle memories of a pre-web era when your best bets at help usually involved calling the Power Line or asking a friend. Our main question: will the phone line stick to the same tips you got as a kid, or offer a few juicy secrets?
Ben Heck's multi-system retro controller
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Using a build idea from the element14 Community, Ben takes an ESP8266 module and creates the ultimate all-in-one retro gaming controller for the Super Nintendo, Sega Megadrive / Genesis and Nintendo Entertainment System. To get the digital signals from the buttons across the wireless transmission to the receiver, Ben will have to use shift registers such as the 74HC595 to combine the bits into a data stream. It's not all straightforward, though: Felix steps in to help with LUA scripting and the team hits a snag with the programming. Fortunately, designing the enclosure is a lot simpler thanks to Autodesk Fusion 360. After a lot of testing, soldering and taking apart a Sega controller, the team creates a controller of wonder. Which consoles would you control? Would you design it any differently? Suggest a build on the element14 Community.
Peek inside one of Nintendo's retro gaming vaults
What secrets lie inside Nintendo's offices? It's a question I ask myself regularly at night, clutching my new Nintendo 3DS and dreaming about a Metroid Prime sequel (Federation Force doesn't count.) Well, today Nintendo has drawn back the curtain -- if only a smidge. In a collection of articles celebrating the Legend of Zelda, Nintendo has posted some photos from a storage room at its Kyoto headquarters. It's chock-full of old hardware, including mint Famicoms (released as the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES in North America) and Disk Systems.
