NES/Famicom Appreciation Thread - Playing With Power, Then and Now

I won’t deny that :slight_smile: It could certainly benefit from some improvements in the encounter rate.

Edits made. Thanks for keeping this USAian honest, folks. I think I might use that second post as place for game recommendations and lists over time.

I read this recently about the pre-Famicom to post Famicom world change:

Nintendo understood (albeit unconsciously) that the biggest change was that of “posture”. People weren’t playing standing behind an arcade cabinet and didn’t seek emulation of other forms of gaming (y’a know, tabletop, etc). People were at home sitting comfortably in the living room and as such need more “meaty” games such as, ya know, Mario and Zelda.

Pretty good summary of the paradigm change that was the Fami/NES.

As I mentioned in the what are you playing thread just wrapped up Metroid. Going to give Rogue Dawn a play next. I’ve heard it is real good so I’ve been waiting for the NT mini to come in to check it out. Seems like it will have maximum impact coming directly off Metroid. Not that it makes any sense to compare them, I realize, made under very different circumstances. All the same should be interesting to see what an 8-bit Metroid looks like with 30 years of video game ideas seperated between them.

Wow that looks phenomenal from the screenshots. Hard to believe it’s a hack of NES Metroid.

It’s real good so far! A lot of creative tile work so rock formations can feel interwoven and gives the planet a very naturalistic feel. It uses one of the largest carts at 512k/256k so probably would have been incredibly expensive to produce back in the day unless it was very late in the system’s life, like Kirby which uses the same, and has way more head room than Metroid’s comparatively tiny 128k, but still impressive stuff all the same. Had to be a hell of a lot of work.

It’s a collaboration of several folks, lead by the guy who did Metroid Incursion, which I have also heard is worth a look although not as ambitious as Rogue Dawn.

There are some holes in the article too.

LOL, what the hell. This is the quintessential “we some content” type of article.

I really need to play rogue Dawn. I’ve been following it since just before it released

Ugh.

They’re clearly small vents in case the chips got a bit hot. Overkill but that’s what they are.

Took the plunge last year and bought an AV Famicom and a NESRGB board. Installation was actually pretty simple (documented here), and the results are awesome.

and I love how tiny the thing is

Love the linked guide, Rich. I had mine done for me, though I think now that I have more experience soldering, I’d probably be able to do it myself. And yes, the AV Famicom is a beauty. It looks so small in the cubby in my setup! It really is a great design.

Nice! I’m jealous hehe. I should mod my Famicom, although is it possible to do the rgb mod on a Famicom which has already been AV modded?

How are those desoldering pumps btw? I’ve been looking at them as a cheap option to a proper desoldering station but I don’t know if they’re any good or not. Probably not as good as a desoldering station but maybe better than using just a desoldering wick and non-heated pumps?

Thanks! And yeah, I’ve become really confident now in soldering and mods. It’s saved me a huge amount of money and has made my collection feel a lot more personal.

Great photo @Rich and nice work. That’s a good point about making things more personal.

Not entirely sure…I presume it would be fine to do so, and then just desolder the wire to the phono jack to the composite output on the NESRGB board as it bypasses everything that the original output uses. I have no experience with the OG famicom though!

My desoldering pump was a tenner from Amazon and I use it all the time. It’s awesome. Just be patient with it and use flux if you can.

I really need to do a stocktake of my Famicom and NES games. I just counted and I have 78 games on Disk System alone, jebus.

I’m guessing I have 400-500 total?

Anyone got more?

That’s up there, man. I have about 130 NES games and a handful of Famicom and FDS games. I have about as many NES games on my wish list (another 120 or so) and I could probably collect just as many Famicom games if I really started a wish list. FDS … I’m going the ROM and FDS Stick route … Don’t hate me

It’s only money! Actually, the real problem for me is time. Have no time to play much of anything the last few months, though I have made a little time for Mario Odyssey.

My last count put me at 442. I thought I was done but there’s some great Homebrews out there I want to try.

I have probably owned that many over the course of the last 30 years but definitely not at once. There might be 200 games on the system I would enjoy replaying. That’s more than for most machines.