To explain this in pinhead terms, it's Nintendo's MMR, IMVE or BBB.

Retro Nintendo is white hot at the moment, and real NES cartridges fetch $20+ for even common games. A used NES console under $50 is almost impossible to find.

So yes, this is 3x more expensive than your average TV games console (= Nintendo prints money) but it's also massively cheaper than collecting even a fraction of the included games.

Without a doubt Nintendo limits supply to create demand.

The Wii was a surprise hit, so its 1st Christmas rarity might make sense... But also being hard to find the 2nd Christmas? That's BS.

Amiibos - basically a Happy Meal toy with an RFID chip. Why is this hard to produce?

In my mind Nintendo does this to stretch out fads as long as possible. It also gives them free press in the media "SUPER MARIO 2 SOLD OUT EVERYWHERE!"

They make games to sell hardware, instead of MS/Sony who make hardware to sell games.

I bought one of these recently: http://www.retrousb.com/product_info.php?cPath=36&products_id=78

Works great and also plays Famicom games.

Nintendo has been deliberately limiting supply to create hype / free press for DECADES.

Look at Amiibos. You're telling me a 100 year old manufacturer doesn't know how to make a decent supply of $15 Happy Meal toys?

We were thinking about doing an episode of our show about how to make your own extension cables, inspired by this product.

Thoughts?

Coincidentally, I just ordered Akumajo Densetsu off eBay, so I can play it on my RetroUSB AVS. Just for the extra FM sound

RetroAvs is great and you can use any controller you want!

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Any of these that will be sold by the end of the year were already built and shipped from China months ago - they can't just call up and order more.

Nintendo is trickling out supply for free publicity and to ensure stock sells out.

They're definitely going for nostalgia now (25-35 year olds as seen in Switch video) as Nintendo means nothing to kids.

Played through Super Dodge Ball last night on my AVS!

Nintendo has been purposefully limiting supply to create artificial scarcity and demand for nearly 30 years now. It's well beyond "just a conspiracy theory"

This video sums it up quite well:

Wow that lag is really bad.

I wouldn't say the ReteoAVS is perfect either, but I've enjoyed it thus far.

This is a perfect example of "if a company doesn't make its content easy enough to access, people will turn to piracy" (not judging I enjoy ROMs too!)

I read only 200k NES Classics made it to the States. That's just bonkers. They could have sold five times that.

Artificial scarcity kind of makes sense with pinball. They don't sell all that many in grand scheme of things, take a long time to build, are expensive.

But the Classic is just a drugstore TV games console with a Nintendo brand. At three times the cost. They're making mad profits on each one why not sell more?

The Switch is far from a sure bet (I personally think it's going to be a belly flop turd) so maybe Nintendo should collect as much money as possible just in case?

Switch concerns:

1) It's going to be a physically large / expensive handheld. Gameboy succeeded because it fit in your pocket. If the Switch costs more than $200 it had better act as a tablet replacement. But then it's competing with far better hardware like XB1/PS4.

2) As a console it will be a turd sandwich. XB1/PS4 were out of date at launch, and Switch is well behind them in specs. Plus different architecture (ARM vs x86 for the leads) so forget about ports.

3) Card media. This is only to make retailers (and pawn shop reseller GameStop) happy it does nothing for consumers. Will limit the size of games (again, no ports) reduce the profits for 3rd parties (assuming there are any) and make games harder to update. This is just as boneheaded as using carts on N64 (the system that got beat 4-1 in sales by PS1) and 20 years from now will be on the same "What Were They Thinking?" lists as the Virtual Boy and Sega 32X.

4) Kids (the traditional handheld market) don't give a damn about the brand "Nintendo". They've grown up in an age of $200 tablets and free games. So who's the market? Public transit millennials?

But don't worry. Nintendo will make sure to not build enough for launch on purpose to get lots of free publicity and ensure 100% sell-through at retail for months. (like 1988 chip shortages, like Wii's 2nd Christmas, like Amiibo, like NES Classic)

Northvibe hit th nail on the head. By limiting supply they stretch hype as long as possible.

The Wii is a great example. No reason it should have been impossible to find the second Xmas. But it was. By limiting supply they pushed that system's eventual fate (of being a dust collecting Wii Sports adapter) back a few years.

Now take the opposite example Dreamcast. They're still cheap to obtain because at the time of its cancellation they had more units manufactured in storage than had actually been sold since launch. Or the Atari landfill. Expecting a console-selling mega hit, they manufactured more ET cartridges than there existed 2600s to play then on.

NES Classic will have 100% sell through because people have been trained to think they're desirable. Just like pinheads running to pay 8k for MMR.

Ps3/4 controllers are Bluetooth and RaspPi3 has BT built in.

Seems like a safe bet.

Finally got my NES Everdrive!

Pretty cool device, menu is kind of wank though.

Think I was the exact age where the advertising of "GENESIS IS COOLER!" worked on me, so I never got into the SNES until much later.

Remember Road Rash? How cool was that, right?

I think he meant Dragon Warrior.

If the switch is over $250 in price it's gonna be DOA.

Also Nintendo will limit supply on purpose because that is what they do.

There's a reason PS4 is the fastest selling console ever - Sony makes as many as people can buy.

The 360 menu system was great circa 2008 (the "New Experience" update). Then it went to trash, eventually becoming a series of pages that were 80% ads with little icons hidden for what you actually wanted.

PS4 isn't that much better. I had a helluva time one movie night just figuring out how to launch a Blu-Ray.

Yes it was a few years ago when I couldn't figure out how to run a Blu-Ray. I eventually fired up the PS3 and it worked fine! (Supports 3D Blu ray too)

Re Blu-Ray on XB1 there's a player license fee that MS has to eat so by making it optional they only pay it when people download the feature. See also: newer versions of Windows ditching DVD support.

I've played Zen Pinball on my PS4 in 3D. Seems like a game where the 3D is actually useful (though I don't think their pin simulation feels accurate)

3D was mostly a fad to push TV sales, now they've moved onto 4K. Which is also dumb, because they need to get 1080p gaming right first

The "Smart TV" part is awesome. So handy having Netflix, Amazon, HBO built into the TV and not having to turn on other crap.

4K is just a gimmick to re-sell TV's to people faster. See, TV has a 8-10 year sell cycle, so profits aren't as high as say smartphones ($600 to everyone every 2 years). See also PS4 Pro and Scorpio mid-life cycles. It's not just "software as service" they're aiming for, but "hardware-as-service too".

All they do with 4K is cut master LCD glass differently. What would be (4) 30" 1080p panels are left as a single 60" 4K panel. Just a different way of slicing a pie.

What's the best place to obtain a Framemeister, and how much do they usually cost?

Nintendo drops its old systems like a rancid hot potato. Sony, MS and their 3rd parties continue supporting older hardware almost to a fault.

Nintendo has a lot riding on the Switch. They'll hold back inventory to create hype for launch. I also expect the WiiU version of Zelda to be canceled.

From the presentation, I feel they're making all the same mistakes they made with the Switch. The system will be huge in public commute heavy Japan, not sure about Western markets long term.

Super Mario 3 made it pretty easy to get extra lives with that end of stage jump for the star thing.

Just picked this up. Now I can play Rondo of Blood in a language I don't understand, with a controller cable too short for my American home!

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I've come across this twice at shows, for about the same price, so felt I should just GO FOR IT.

They had a TurboDuo for about the same cost (and I wouldn't have had to buy to System Card 3) but I like how janky this thing looks.

Ordered some old-school Apple Serial Cables off eBay (mini DINto use as controller extensions.

PC Engine CD system thoughts:

Uncompressed CD audio is awesome! Thumpin' bass!
Rondo of Blood is balls-hard, the people on YouTube make it look so easy
Controller cables too short, but a mini DIN-8 can be used as an extension (like the old Mac serial cables)

Speaking of short cables, it really highlights how cheap and lazy Nintendo is with their Mini systems. They didn't even "localize" the controller cable lengths for non-Japanese countries.

I think we're on the waning edge of NES/SNES nostalgia. It's time to cash out on any valuable games I got back in the 90s for a song.

It's bizarre how valuable some obscure things can be!

I know it's emulation, but we just made this on the show.

Pi A+ based, all low level kernel stuff for the buttons and display, it's about the same size and thickness as a NES cart.

Has a giant flat LiPO inside and 3 USB ports.

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People have "done the math" and determined that CR2032 battery-backed games may last into the 2050's!

I checked this against a 20 year old NBA Live 96 cartridge I have and sure enough, it had only dropped a few hundred millivolts since 1995.

It's one of those situations where the battery may mechanically fail or leak before the voltage itself drops low enough to corrupt the RAM.

Gameboy games used smaller hearing-aid sized batteries and those have started to fail.

Who all is going to Portland next weekend? Great show, but I still haven't beat Rondo of Blood I bought last year!

PVM GET!

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Agreed. If it ain't Nintendo (or maaaaaaybe Atari) nobody cares.

Maybe it's already been mentioned on here but if you're a fan of the Castlevania series you MUST watch the new show on Netflix!

It's basically the characters of Castlevania 3 with the backstory and motivations from Symphony of the Night. Easily the best video game adaption by a country mile.

Yeah no music was my biggest beef until the penultimate episode in season 2 episode 7..... Joy!

Really wish a good Neo Geo retro.... Thing would eventually be made.

Darth Vader "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

and whoever found them at Goodwill: "YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSS!"

It really seems like it's a farmed out 3rd party project.

I maintain you could get a real PS1 and a pile of games for $100 - they're not remotely as expensive as NES/SNES thus reducing value proposition.

Sounds like the PS classic is a dud.

Sony could have just visited a few retro game shops/conventions and seen all the unwanted PS1's piled up like garbage and realized the nostalgia for this machine just isn't there.

I agree. Nintendo has outright said the NES mini was just a stopgap product until the Switch was ready, and the SNES Mini was basically the same PCB in a new shell.

I was thinking about removing all the ICs from an Atari Lynx and rebuilding it into a smaller unit custom PCB using one of the new replacement LCD's.

Thoughts?

Sure you aren't thinking of the 99 life trick in Super Mario Bros with thr turtle shell?

It was two years late but the Kickstarter for Bloodstained Ritual of the Night finally delivered. It's basically the Symphony of the Night spiritual successor.

If you like Castlevania GET IT.

Rarehero the Neo Geo Mini is down to $71 on Amazon.

I bought one for a modding project last year. Pretty good emulation, pixel scaling done very well... Biggest negative is its fixed in "no blood" mode and also AES mode which means finite # of credits. Also it's a standard modern analog joystick not a clicky digital one.

It has a Linux serial port on the MB so I'm sure it's been good and hacked by now.