Retro Mini NES Portable - ThinkGeek - $49.xx shipped, tax included after coupons

Penguin1084

Penguin1084

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Hey everyone! I was browsing gonintendo.com and they had a story about this. I think it looks really cool.

https://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/retro-gaming/ba65/

if you use the coupon code "PUZZLING", you get $10 off the order (which covers tax + ground shipping) and if you use the code "MONKEYFLY" you get a monkey slingshot. My total came out to $49.xx shipped and tax included.

I really like the concept of the NES portable and seeing that it has composite video out, it acts as an NES system as well!

Enjoy!
 
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Or I can just use my custom firmware PSP with its liith-ion battery instead of setting myself back 10-15 years with AA batteries. =\
 
Dang, do those portables on Amazon work?!? I'd never heard of such a thing.

Bad thing is the screen's only 2.5 or 2.4". The DS screen is already tiny, and it's 3" (and games are made for it), so I'm not sure how stuff would look, even if it runs okay.

Wish Nintendo would release stuff like this. I'd be more likely to buy their older hardware and software than their new stuff.
 
The morons put Start and Select in the wrong places. Start goes on the right. Come on, guys.

Also, if you're going to have AV out, you need to have DC in, as well as a couple controller ports.
 
This is a pretty good deal if you want to *collect* but seriously, are there anyone who would actually play this outside?

I've seen this thing in a Play N Trade, the dude demo it for me... while the graphics is fine, I can't help but feel appreciative of how compact the GBm is, the console itself is pretty chunky, maybe about the size of the 15 year old nomad, but what stopped me from buying is seeing one of the guys claiming he plays it on the train with a back pack full of a warpping 5 NES carts... those NES carts are just not meant to be portable, especially not in a hand held form...

I'd recommend playing your NES on a PSP too...
 
[quote name='SL4IN']Stay away from these things. They're terrible quality, not very durable and just all around a waste of money.[/QUOTE]

I wish I would have seen this earlier... I ordered it when I posted the OP and I received it today. I opened the box and the damn thing doesn't even work. I processed a return thing through thinkgeek and hopefully all goes well. mods, lock this please and/or delete it.
 
[quote name='Penguin1084']I wish I would have seen this earlier... I ordered it when I posted the OP and I received it today. I opened the box and the damn thing doesn't even work. I processed a return thing through thinkgeek and hopefully all goes well. mods, lock this please and/or delete it.[/QUOTE]

I can't believe a piece of illegal Asian electronics didn't function properly!
 
[quote name='Survivalism']I can't believe a piece of illegal Asian electronics didn't function properly![/QUOTE] While they are all of terrible quality, they haven't been illegal for some years now, since Nintendo's patents expired -- they sued one clone maker in 2005 and lost.
 
I've heard bad things about both the portable and the "new" Nintendo-style systems that come with wireless controllers, etc. I would stay away - just buy an old system on Ebay and install a new pin connector yourself for about the same price as one of these.
 
[quote name='RudyPants']I've heard bad things about both the portable and the "new" Nintendo-style systems that come with wireless controllers, etc. I would stay away - just buy an old system on Ebay and install a new pin connector yourself for about the same price as one of these.[/QUOTE]

I replaced the pin connector on my original system, but I thought it would be cool to have a portable thing like this.
 
[quote name='robbyH']Wake me when one of these come out for both SNES or Genesis.[/QUOTE]It's called a Sega Nomad. It came out in 1995. Buy one if you can find it cheap; its pretty awesome :)

[quote name='RudyPants']I've heard bad things about both the portable and the "new" Nintendo-style systems that come with wireless controllers, etc. I would stay away - just buy an old system on Ebay and install a new pin connector yourself for about the same price as one of these.[/QUOTE]The only NES system worth buying is the "NES 2" with the top-loading slot and dogbone controllers. Its expensive, but unlike the VCR-style original NES, they will probably still work fine, and unlike the clones they will play all your games.

I know that the idea of a portable NES is appealing, but realistically, are you going to want to cart around the bulky NES Game Paks? Especially knowing that the save game battery might fail at any time? TBH, your best bet (barring emulation) is to get a GBA and re-buy the games you liked. Sad, but true. I own a few of these clones (included the much-heralded Messiah), and none of them play all games, let alone perfectly.
 
[quote name='franz ferdinand']The only NES system worth buying is the "NES 2" with the top-loading slot and dogbone controllers. Its expensive, but unlike the VCR-style original NES, they will probably still work fine, and unlike the clones they will play all your games.[/QUOTE]
I have two of the top loaders. They use the same non-ZIF sockets like the SNES and Genesis. You plug a game in and it fires up 95% of the time. (If it doesn't, reinsert it and it works guaranteed after it rubs some gunk off the contacts.) It comes with the "dogbone" controllers, but has the same sockets and uses the same controllers just like the original ZIF version.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NES_2

Two problems with them. First is that w/o modding them, they only have RF out; no composite connections like the original ZIF versions. Second, they're also pricey. I got one on eBay for $100+ several years ago, and then got my other one from a pawn shop for $20. But they're worth it.
 
[quote name='franz ferdinand']It's called a Sega Nomad. It came out in 1995. Buy one if you can find it cheap; its pretty awesome :)[/QUOTE]

I know about the Nomad. Good luck finding one afordable.

But if they can make this little thing. And provided the patents are finished with the Genesis. Why not make this.
 
[quote name='robbyH']I know about the Nomad. Good luck finding one afordable.

But if they can make this little thing. And provided the patents are finished with the Genesis. Why not make this.[/QUOTE] Maybe something could be done with the Tec Toy Genesis handhelds. Apparently there are a few portable systems out there, mostly in the third world.

I don't think the Genesis is tied down in patents -- it used standard chips (M68K and Z80 -- two of the most popular of all time), and the licensing restrictions were essentially declared void in the 1992 case Sega Enterprises Ltd. v. Accolade Inc. From what I gather, the Genesis just never had the popularity of the NES, at least outside Brazil, and there was never a "Genesis-on-a-chip", so the Chinese manufacturers never made knock-offs at the level that they make Famiclones.

Plus, a PSP with the proper firmware (or a copy of the Sega Genesis Collection UMD) will be able to play pretty much anything you throw at it. The PSP's hackability has, for better or worse, probably killed off any interest in throwback handhelds in the West.

This is all IIRC -- I could easily be wrong.
 
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