Items tagged with NES
It is often said that records are meant to be broken, but holy cow, we did not expect retro video game collectors to run with the concept the way they have been over the past several weeks. For the third time in less than a month, a collector has paid a record amount for a video game cartridge, this time plunking down a staggering $2 million for an unopened copy of Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Super Mario Bros. came out for the NES back in 1985 and was an instant hit. Now almost four decades later, the game still holds up as a fun platform title. It has also spawned multiple re-releases on various hardware, most recently Nintendo's revived Game & Watch handheld....
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The winning bid for what is believed to be the earliest sealed copy of The Legend of Zelda for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) checked in at $870,000. Not too shabby for a cartridge that sold for $39.99 back in 1987. Even if accounting for inflation ($39.99 in 1987 is equivalent to around $95 today), that's a massive haul. It is also the biggest haul ever for a video game, a distinction that previously belonged to a sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. that fetched $660,000 at auction just a few months ago. What is it exactly that makes these games of yesteryear so valuable today? It is a combination of factors, like still being sealed and in mint condition. What truly sets them apart, however,...
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If you are of a certain age, the Nintendo Game Boy was likely a constant companion during childhood. The original was powered by four AA batteries, could easily be slipped into a pocket, carried along for long car rides (if it wasn't too dark outside), and generally provided hours of gaming fun. As its name implies, the Game Boy was a relatively small device for its time, but one Nintendo fan made a supersized version of the console. Witness the Game Man, which skipped straight over adolescence into adulthood, and is the brainchild of a gamer named Grumpy Modeler. While the original Game Boy stood 5.8 inches tall with a monochrome display that measured 2.6 inches across, the Game Man's off-the-shelf...
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The 20-year span between 1985 and 2005 saw the release of literally hundreds of classic game titles that were -- and are still -- beloved by millions of people around the world. From Super Mario Bros and The Legend of Zelda, to modern classics like Halo and Metal Gear Solid, most of gaming's biggest franchises spent their formative years on consoles plugged into standard-definition cathode ray tube (CRT) televisions, the warm glow and rounded geometry of which would provide countless hours of fun. If there's one problem with those consoles, however, it's that it can be difficult to get one running -- and more importantly looking good -- on modern HD television sets. Don't worry, though....
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Hallmark sells a rather nifty Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) Christmas tree ornament, complete with sound and lights—pressing the power button triggers the lighting and plays sounds from the classic Super Mario Bros. game. But what happens when you pair the ornament with a Raspberry Pi Zero? You get a working retro console! We have seen some neat mods with Raspberry Pi Zero, and have even done some ourselves. A couple years ago, for example, our own Marco Chiappetta showed how to build a Commodore 64 with a Raspberry Pi Zero, for under $50. It's a small board—half the size of a Raspberry Pi Model A+—yet capable, with a 1GHz single-core CPU, 512MB of RAM, mini HDMI port,...
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There's something fun about looking at a physical video game collection. That's especially true with retro games for systems like the original Nintendo Entertainment System, when cartridges came in boxes and those boxes were wide enough that the spine can show off some fun concept art. For the collector, it's fun to hunt down and find a variant, where corrections have been made between print runs. Those variants can then become collectible if they're rare enough, especially if the package hasn't been opened. That's exactly what happened with a copy of Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES. There's a label variation so rare and sought-after that it seemed unlikely to ever pop up in an unopened...
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Yesterday, we brought you news about the latest fruit produced from the collaboration between Nintendo and LEGO. LEGO posted a short teaser of the set yesterday, and not long after images of the set leaked onto the internet. Today, LEGO has gone official with the set, confirming the previous leaks. The set features a staggering 2,646 pieces and includes a retro CRT-style TV sitting on a stand, a faithfully recreated Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), a single controller (with wire), and a Super Mario Bros. game cartridge. We also like the added touches like a moveable antenna and composite inputs on the TV. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the set is that the TV is actually "interactive",...
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Part of LEGO's collaboration with Nintendo looks like it will entail a Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) set with a whole bunch of blocks, which when assembled will become a replica of the vintage console. Not only that, you'll be able to slide in a LEGO cartridge of Super Mario Bros. and see the famous plumber in action on a retro CRT television. Remember those? This is geek overload, folks. LEGO, NES, and Super Mario Bros. coming together is just a pile of awesomeness, no matter how you slice it. Add in a faux-working CRT from the 1980s and, well, you have the makings a LEGO set that is going to fly off store shelves. Pictures of the actual retail packaging popped up on VJGamer. According...
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If you grew up in the 1980s, chances are that Super Mario Bros. has a special place in your heart. The game was a smash hit on the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and is without a doubt one of the best video games of all time. But just how much would you be willing to spend to get a pristine copy of the original game cartridge? Sure many of us still have our old NES consoles complete with copies of Super Mario Bros., Duck Hunt and Excitebike; but those cartridges are probably old and worn, and have been blown on countless times to get them to work. So how does $114,000 sound to you for a brand new, mint and sealed copy of Super Mario Bros.? For one lucky bidder, it was...
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Retro gaming is a big deal with enthusiasts that want to relive the old games they grew up with. Tom Cruise fans may recall his NASCAR racing movie called "Days of Thunder". The Video Game History Foundation has discovered an unreleased version of a video game based on the film that was created by the late Chris Oberth (he died in 2012). He was the developer behind some popular retro games, including Anteater for the NES and Winter Games for the Commodore 64. It's unclear why the video game was canceled, but Oberth had virtually finished the game before it was shelved. The game was discovered spread across 40 different floppy disks acquired from Oberth's family by the Video Game History Foundation...
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Gamers around long enough to remember the Nintendo Entertainment System game console will probably remember that one of the iconic games everyone seemed to have was Mike Tyson's Punch-Out. That video game debuted on the NES 33 years ago at the height of Tyson's fame. In a recent interview, Iron Mike said that he wanted to bring the iconic game back. Tyson recently gave an interview to Shacknews, where he expressed interest in launching a new Punch-Out video game. He said during the interview that "we're" going to start our own Mike Tyson's Punch-Out game and Tyson Ranch computer game, and bring them both back to life. It's unclear who the "we" Tyson is talking about is or if the boxer is serious...
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Nintendo Switch fans who have been waiting to play some of the old-school Super NES games on the Switch have to wait no more. Nintendo has made the first 20 SNES games live on the Switch console. As exciting as the first 20 games are, the launch of those titles also brings a bit of bad news. Nintendo has confirmed that while more SNES games will be coming to the Switch in the future, the new launches won't be on a regular schedule. No schedule is a change compared to how Nintendo operated when it added the NES games to the Switch with a few coming every month. Making things even worse for fans is that the NES monthly schedule is now out the door as well. Currently, there are about 50 NES games...
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Spring has yet to arrive, but you might want to do some cleaning anyway, especially if you have ever owned a Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) console. Some of the old NES cartridges are apparently worth their weight in gold. An unsuspecting seller in Seattle just found that out when he brought a rare Nintendo World Championship cartridge into his local video games retailer, and walked out with a fat check. How fat? Try $13,000! That is one heck of a payday for a game cartridge, even one that is 29 years old. The reason this one netted the seller such an exorbitant amount is because it is an ultra-rare cartridge—it is estimated that less than 200 of these exist. Knowing this, Pink Gorilla...
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Here I thought that staged reality shows were the only places that people stumbled upon treasures, but sometimes it happens that way in real life as well. That is how it went for Scott Amos, an Arizona man who found an unopened Kid Icarus game cartridge for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) while cleaning out his mother's attic. The find could fetch him over $10,000 at auction. A series of events led to what will be a big payday. First off, it was Mother's Day, and Scott's mom had asked him to grab some boxes of his childhood belongings that she still had stored in the attic. As any good son would do, he obliged the request while visiting his mother at his childhood home. That is when he...
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Casual gamers rejoice—Nintendo has a rewind feature to its online NES library of games for the Switch console. Appropriately called Game Rewind, players can take a mulligan on a mistimed jump or any other unfortunate maneuver, and roll back the tape to a point prior to when things went very wrong. Nifty, right? That depends on who you ask. Some people consider the function a cheat of sorts. They are of the 'git gud' variety and, well, bless their judgemental hearts. For gamers who are not interested in 'gitting gud' and just want to go back a few ticks to before they got wrecked, the Game Rewind feature is a boon. Here's a look at how it works... This is not a new concept, by any stretch....
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Somewhere in an alternate universe, the NES Classic could include SimCity, which today would be a retro title that first launched on the original game system 27 years ago. Unfortunately, in this universe and this timeline that we occupy and where you're reading this, SimCity never got released to the NES. However, a prototype did in fact exist, and it's now available to play. You still can't play the game on the NES, but there is a ROM available of the NES version, which you can download and play on a PC. Frank Cifaldi, founder of The Video Game History Foundation, posted an extensive write-up detailing the unreleased game's history, how it's eluded collectors for all these years, and it's emergence...
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The original Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo Entertainment System, released in 1985, is about as iconic as a video game could possibly get. The history of Mario has been retold a countless number of times, but when you sit back and look at the past 33 years of the mustached character, the amount of progress we've made is really breathtaking. Today, games are hyper-realistic at times, and the capabilities are only going to improve as time goes on. New games obviously stomp older ones when it comes to the graphics department, but not always where gameplay is concerned. Sometimes, simpler is best, and that's exactly why a game like Super Mario Bros. continues to be so admired, despite being well...
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The fun Is coming to an end, folks. Nintendo's NES Classic and SNES Classic aren't long for this world according to comments made this week by Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aimé. While speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Fils-Aimé clearly indicated that production winding down on both the NES Classic and the SNES Classic. If you have been sitting on the sidelines, now is the time to get one as quickly as you can. "We’ve said that the current systems are the extent of our classic program," said Fils-Aimé. "We’ve also been clear that, at least from an Americas perspective, these products are going to be available through the...
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Last July, Nintendo went nuclear over ROM sites that were giving people access to pirated versions of classic Nintendo games. The first two sites that Nintendo took legal action against were LoveROMS.com and LoveRetro.com; both owned by the same people. The legal action against the two websites resulted in smaller ROM sites shutting down, out of fear they would be next on Nintendo's hit list. The legal action against LoveROMS.com and LoveRetro.com is now over as Nintendo, and the site owners Jacob Mathias and his wife have decided to settle the case. It seems that Mathias and his wife knew there was no fighting the Nintendo legal machine and entered into a negotiation to stave off a lengthy...
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Nintendo Switch Online just went live earlier this week, but it has already been hacked. Nintendo Switch Online is a paid service that gives subscribers access to cloud saves for games, online multiplayer and a [downloadable] classic games library that includes 20 NES titles. Nintendo Switch gamers have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the service due to the availability of classic games like Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda. However, hackers managed to crack the app's emulator, allowing anyone to install their own NES ROMs and successfully play them on the Nintendo Switch. A hacker by the name of DevRin uploaded a short clip to YouTube showing the game Battletoads...
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If you are like us, then for years you have been calling Nintendo's Entertainment System "N-E-S." Well, guess what? You have been saying it wrong, either out loud or in your head when you read about consoles like the NES Classic. According to Nintendo, the correct pronunciation is "Ness," no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Blasphemy, right? We think so, but that the is clarification Nintendo makes in Wario Ware Gold, which is now out for the Nintendo 3DS. The game includes a museum of old Nintendo consoles, and the description for the NES says that Nintendo pronounces it "Ness." In the museum section of the Japanese version of Wario Ware Gold, you can unlock some slides showcasing the Famicom. Also...
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There was nothing worse in a 1980’s/1990’s gamer’s life then realizing their console controller could not quite reach the comfiest chair in the room. Now there is a solution for retro console fans. 8BitDo has just released DIY kits that upgrade NES, SNES, and Sega Mega Drive controllers to wireless. 8BitDo’s DIY kits include all the necessary tools and do not require any soldering. The original controller’s cables are connected to the interior circuit board. The 8BitDo’s kit includes a new circuit board with a Bluetooth chip and rechargeable battery. The hole that once fed the cable will be replaced with a charging port. The port will also glow and...
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