Woohoo. 

Does this make anyone else think of the Sega Nomad.  Though I may actually get this instead of fiddling with hooking an SNES to the TV when I want to play those games when I find a cart cheap and  someone say it great.  Be even cooler if it was region free.  Who doesn't  want to play Noah's Ark 3D?

Though I wander how this sort of thing goes down with Nintendo.

Patents last 20 years and its been that long since the SNES came out, right? So its probably no coincidence something like that is coming out now. Before the patents expire it would be illegal to make something like this. NES clones have been legal since about 5 years ago.

There is clearly a market for systems that can play old videogame cartridges.  It makes you wonder why Nintendo doesn't get in on this.  Why not re-release the NES and SNES for the enthusiast market.  Are they afraid this will eat into VC sales?  I'm not asking that they re-release the old games, just hardware that can play all the old cartridges out there.

LPs are still made for the enthusiast market.  These are not big earners for the record labels, they are just a niche market.  There is a niche market for these sort of devices.  If Nintendo made them then they would undoutably kick the snot out of any of the clones.  I would not hestitate for a second to buy a new NES with a reliable connector and A/V output.  If Nintendo themselves released one I would buy it on day one.  It would be really cool if they made an NES/SNES combo unit.

I think for some of the big games like Mario, Zelda and Metroid, re-releasing actual cartridges would also attract a niche market.  This isn't something you create a million copies of because it won't sell like that.  It's just a niche thing for people that want to play a real cartridge on a real NES or SNES.  Hell, they could probably just sell it exclusively on their web site.  It would sell and it would make a profit if they were smart about it.  The sheer existance of the SupaBoy proves there is a market for this sort of thing.

From what I've heard, some of the NES clones out there are actually more reliable than the official NES which had some major problems with the connectors where the cartridges would connect with the system. That was why people always used to blow on the carts to get them to work. One key problem seems to be compatibility with games and peripherals. Most games will work on the clones, but I don't think there is any clone that can claim 100% compatibility with every game. There's always some games that won't work, for whatever reason.

Simply put Nintendo doesn't want to support more hardware then they have to and if they can sell it to you on VC they make something.  They do not make anything on resold carts.  Its not in their interest to make it any easier in fact there incentivized to make it harder instead.

Dude I would definitely love to have a snes that doesn't instakill my game with just the slightest touch. insanolord knows what I'm talkin bout.

But this thing is a 3.5 inch screen for $80. If I want snes games on the go I'll just get a GBA amiright.

Is it just saying that it's compatible with these devices, or does it include them in some way?

The NES has an A/V output. Though oddly enough the redesign does not.

I'm sure they don't include them. Those components are hard to find anymore. I suppose they could make clones of them, but if they did they sure aren't going to bundle them and then sell the console as low as $79.99. That said, I wonder if its feasible to take a standard computer PS/2 or USB mouse and then rewire it to work with the SNES? Would that be a possibility? It would be really nice if an optical mouse could be wired to work on the SNES, because mouseballs suck.

Is this from SupaKirb?

Well I'm going to buy the old carts anyway.  So either Nintendo can make some money off it by reselling the old hardware or they can make jack shit.  And if they did make a few new carts then they could sell those.  If they re-released Super Mario Bros. 3 on NES cartridge there are a bunch of die-hards that would buy it just to get mint condition box and manual alone.

That's what I'm talking about.  Right now we can either get A/V output or a reliable connector.  Every official version of the NES is fucked up in some way.

Does Nintendo even have the means to manufacture NES carts anymore? There is some demand for the niche market for new NES carts, but Nintendo isn't just going to manufacture a few carts. They would have to mass produce thousands for it to be worth the effort, and that means opening up a factory or two. As nice as it would be, I don't think its very likely. Nintendo could make more money using those factories for other purposes.