Analogue Nt and the Need for Hands-On Reviews

A few days ago, I made an expansive post describing the Analogue Nt, a high-end luxury third-party NES and Famicom console using Nintendo's CPU and PPU chips.  Quite a few paragraphs into that epic I emphasized the importance of getting a feel for the experience of using the console.  Pictures and company video captures can only do so much.  I have received new information today about the experience I would like to share to people interested in the subject matter, who may be considering purchasing it and who have just received it or the shipping information for it.

HDMI Upgrade Adapter and Delays

Currently, the only NESRGB units that are shipping are non-HDMI Upgraded units.  No one outside IGN can report receiving one.  When you get a non-HDMI Upgraded unit, you will see an empty hole where the HDMI port would be.  This is rather sloppy in my opinion, Analogue Interactive should have put a solid piece in place which could be removed if upgraded.  After all, to upgrade the device you are supposed to send it back to Analogue Interactive.  On the plus side, the hole seems perfect to insert coins into, so the Analogue Nt can double as an expensive piggy bank.  Dust bunnies and spiders can take up residence inside too and keep warm next to those running chips.

As far as IGN's unit goes, they received it three weeks ago and stated they would do a full hands-on "sometime soon."  The reviewer was showing off a silver unit, and he mentioned that the unit he ordered (personally) was black.  No footage from the unit was shown.  Perhaps the demo unit has been shipped back already because IGN has not mentioned the Analogue Nt since.  Assuming that the unit probably had non-finalized HDMI Upgrade hardware, IGN may be holding back on reviewing it until the receives the go ahead from Analogue Interactive.  It may come in the form of firmware that will enable the HDMI function.

At first, the HDMI Adapter Upgrade was going to be an external adapter and it was going to cost an additional $49.00.  Earlier photos of the enclosure showed no cut out for an HDMI port inside the system, just the analog video output.  The adapter would convert RGB to digital HDMI output.  Questions must have been asked how Analogue Interactive was going to make an external RGB to HDMI converter that was any good for that price, because a good device like the Micomsoft X-RGB Mini Framemeister goes for $300 at least.  At some point between November 4, 2014 and December 12, 2014, the decision to make the HDMI Adapter Upgrade internal was made and the price was raised to $79.00.  Kevtris did not announce his HDMI NES adapter and show video footage until November 14, 2014.  Analogue Interactive probably made the decision soon thereafter to approach him.

I applaud Analogue Interactive for its initiative using the best available HDMI implementation available.  It gives an answer to the question "Why not just use an X-RGB Mini Framemeister?"  I must criticize Analogue Interactive for failing to inform its pre-order customers of the change in direction.  Only on July 27 did Analogue Interactive give links to its backers of Youtube videos showing off the HDMI Upgrade and confirming that it was kevtris' design.  However, only yesterday did kevtris announce that the hardware, firmware and software for the HiDefNES (HDMI Mod) was finished and released to manufacturing for both the Analogue Nt and people who want to purchase the kit to install on their own.  So people who ordered their Analogue Nt with the HDMI Upgrade almost certainly won't be receiving their units until late June or more likely early August, if you read between the lines of the latest Analogue Interactive shipping update.

Video Issue #1 - RGB SCART Video

I have read or seen two issues with the video quality.  First, the RGB SCART (European) cable that comes with the Analogue Nt. is incorrectly designed.  It is lacking resistors on the R, G, & B lines, giving the resulting graphics a washed-out look and overly bright look.  The Component, S-Video and Composite video output do not have this problem.  Although the SCART and JP-21 cables used with the Analogue Nt do not carry audio signals, the overly bright video can add buzz noise to the audio.  According to this blogger, https://retrogamingnr.wordpress.com/2015/07/06/17/ the brightness can be reduced either on an analog CRT or an XGRB Mini Framemeister through the use of brightness and color settings.  Of course, this becomes extremely inconvenient when you want to use another console that has SCART with the proper resistors, probably 75ohm, inside.  Then you have to boost the brightness and color settings.  Considering Analogue Nt's work with the consolidated Neo Geo MVS, which output RGB video, this is a very uncharacteristic oversight.

I have also read that the problem exists in the BNC cables, which also carry pure analog video.  Unfortunately, there is no space to solder resistors with BNC cables.  Also, the issues with the faulty SCART cable cause synching issues with the Framemeister.  See here : https://twitter.com/gamespite/status/616685135384199168  The same user later reports that his issues have been resolved : https://twitter.com/gamespite/status/621886827843190784

That video shows a NES modded with a NESRGB board vs. an Analogue Nt.  Because the RGB output from the Analogue Nt was not usable, it is really RGB vs. Component.  Note that neither the modded NES nor the Analogue Nt show 100% same colors as an unmodded NES would, but they are closer than a 2C03 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5me9olJYGA0  Even so, the arguments over the "true" 2C02 PPU palette will rage until the 2nd to last person who cares dies.

By the way, if you really want to see what the NESRGB looks like in the Analogue Nt, the final production board, here you go : 

A bit less sleek than those official photos show, isn't it, with the NESRGB board.  Just wait until the HDMI Upgrade comes along, those official board photos from the press kit will look positively disingenuous.  Kevtris stated yesterday that his board and the NESRGB board should work harmoniously, but he needs to test it out thoroughly.

The Japanese Analogue Nt owner who took the above photo seems to state that he received replacement RGB cables, improving the picture quality of his machine considerably : https://twitter.com/KAPPY_2164/status/621808533156204544

Note that the official press kit photos have the CPU and PPU chips swapped!  See here : https://www.dropbox.com/sh/t0q2ugrc9z3ee1r/AABLi4Fl3eLCnuxj_0Qkxijta?dl=0

The board shots IGN posted back in January have the CPU and PPU in the correct sockets :
http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/01/13/look-at-whats-inside-the-analogue-nt

Video Issue #2 - Composite Video

The second issue I have confirmed is with the composite video.  In its User's Guide for the Analogue Nt, Analogue Interactive states :

"Composite

Your Analogue Nt outputs composite directly from the PPU, untouched, exactly the way your original NES or Famicom did when you first played it. This way, you can experience identically to the way it was released."

When I saw the video of the Analogue Nt's output, it demonstrated that the above quotation was not accurate.  This video shows in several instances native NES composite video vs. the Analogue Nt's composite video captured with the same equipment : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5me9olJYGA0

The composite output from the Analogue Nt either entirely lacks the dot crawl and the three-line zig zag pattern of the native NES composite video output or the effects are greatly diminished.  It looks like the composite video is being generated from the RGB, Component or S-Video signal.  In order to have untouched composite video on a NESRGB-modded NES, you must make a fourth selection using the palette selection switch.  The Analogue Nt does have a palette selection switch, but it is a little rocker switch on the underside of the console.   In order to change the palette, you have to pick up the heavy console to expose the base.  The palette selection switch has only three positions, native NES palette, RGB NES palette and improved NES palette, it does not have the fourth position for pass-through/NESRGB disable.

I would also note, however, that this form of composite video generation (from S-Video) was probably done in the Famicom Titler, so the composite video generated from the Analogue Nt is not totally without historical precedent.  But it is not how most of us first experienced it.  So you have a choice with composite NES video, sharp and jaggy from a non-Analogue Nt or straight and fuzzy from an Analogue Nt.

Cartridge Scratching

The most troubling issue reported so far is that the aluminum edges of the Analogue Nt's cartridge slots can scratch and shave plastic off cartridges when you insert and remove them.  The aluminum dust flaps which you push down on to insert a cartridge have stiff springs.  There is only about a millimeter's worth of clearance from each side of the cartridge when it is inserted into the slot.  The aluminum edges surrounding the cartridge slot are not beveled or smoothed.  If you insert it or pull it out so that the sides or the face of the cartridge makes contact with the aluminum edge, you can easily shave plastic off your cartridge.  You had best practice the Perfect Push/Pull of inserting/lifting the cartridge straight down/up to avoid damaging your carts.  Can you imagine that Little Sampson you bought for $350 in mint condition getting scratched up because you were a little off on your Pull?  While the cartridge connectors do not appear to have a Grip of Death, media damage can come in many forms.  (Broken record needles, tape/disk head crashes, out of spec lasers.)  While the NES and Famicom may also make close contact with cartridge shells, that is plastic on plastic and damage is not ordinarily going to occur.

This is what Analogue Interactive had to say about the cartridge inserting issue :

"Inserting Cartridges into the Analogue Nt

One of the most unique aspects of the Analogue Nt when compared to other video game systems, is of course that it is made from aluminum. The Analogue Nt is a high end product and it may require some reasonable extra attention when inserting cartridges. Carelessly inserting / removing cartridges into the slot or dramatically rocking them back and forth, may scuff your cartridges. Cartridges should be inserted and removed in a straight, upward and downward motion to avoid any issues. We’ve tested the cartridge mechanism with hundreds and hundreds of games, for nearly two years now and there are no known issues."

This is similar to what Apple said during the iPhone 4 antenna debacle, "you're holding it wrong!"  This is typical of a product that has never been tested outside the design lab.  Unfortunately it is way too expensive to recut the aluminum, (which was done in China), in order to widen the slot or soften the edges to prevent scratching in the future.  This may be the console you keep your Everdrive N8 or NES PowerPak always in the cartridge slot and leave your precious cartridge collection on the shelf.  I would note that only one in-depth review has reported shaved or scratched cartridge plastic from the Analogue Nt.  Analogue Nt has offered to make an extender available for anyone with an affected console so that the cartridge plastic will not make contact with the aluminum sides.

Note that there will be some difficulty using the PowerPak.  The PowerPak requires you to press reset to reset the game, but to hold down the reset button to return to the PowerPak menu.  The Analogue Nt uses a press of the switch to reset and holding down the switch to turn off the console.  You may have to get very good at the timing to get back to the menu.  The Analogue Nt's modern approach to the power button is at odds with Nintendo's separate power and reset buttons.  The Everdrive has a menu setting to allow a press of the reset button to return to the menu.

Everdrive Incompatibility

According to kevtris, the Everdrive will be incompatible with the HiDefNES board unless an ancient mapper set is used.  http://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=12019&start=105#p150882  This is the Board Analogue Interactive is using for the HiDefNES, so the situation will be the same if you have either an Analogue Nt or a console modded with the HiDefNES board.  kevtris says it can be fixed, but it must be done at the FPGA end, and krikzz has not made the Everdrive completely open source.  Krikzz has plenty of second rate hardware clones from aliexpress to deal with.  [update : The EverDrive's compatibility issues with the HiDefNES adapter appear to be resolved with EverDrive OS v13 and HiDefNES Update V2.00]

The Analogue Nt was sufficiently successful that a second run of consoles was made.  Unfortunately, this batch has serious issues with the EverDrive.  Games will often freeze after playing for 5-10 minutes.  Krikzz and Analogue Interactive have acknowledged the problem for some users, but there is no fix as of yet.

Positive Things about the Analogue Nt from Initial Reviews

I should not have it said that the Analogue Nt is a piece of overpriced junk or there is nothing positive about it.  For that extra $79.00, you get both the HDMI Upgrade board and the modification.  If you purchased the upgrade from Game-Tech.us, it would probably cost you double.

The reviewer had no issues with the Composite, S-Video or Component Video from the Analogue Nt.  The Component video, as shown in the test video, is pretty stunning.  The colors are bright and the pixels are crisp.

The FDS RAM Adapter fits flush and well on the Analogue Nt.  Nor have there been any complaints that the controller ports have a Grip of Death.

According to kevtris, Analogue Nt ordered 400 Hi-Def NES boards.  This will help the Hi-Def NES reach more people through the Analogue Nt and fund further batches of Hi-Def NES boards for people who want to mod their Nintendo-made systems.

HDMI Analogue Nt or Analog RGB Video Analogue Nt

At the end of August people are finally starting to get their HDMI Analogue Nts.  However, if they were expecting a Swiss army knife of NES video, they are going to wind up disappointed.  Analog video output, RGB, Component, S-Video and Composite Video are all disabled with an HDMI upgrade installed.  I suspect that there are no NESRGB boards in these units.  Kevtris indicated that his board could work in conjunction with the NESRGB board, but it required non-trivial modifications to the NESRGB board. He had not fully tested the pair and may not be very interested in doing so. Analogue Interactive apparently decided not to risk an incompatibility, so they disabled the NESRGB functionality when the HDMI upgrade is installed.  I would not be surprised if they removed the NESRGB board entirely, because they indicate that either type of Analogue Nt could be sent back to them for an upgrade.

The original composite video signal is still available when the HDMI cable is not plugged in.  Analogue Nt has offered to make that an output option for anyone who wishes to return their console for the modification.

HDMI Teething Issues

When the HDMI enabled Analogue Nts began shipping to customers in later August, there have been a few reports of teething problems.  The biggest confirmed issue is that Castlevania 3 and some other MMC5 games will not work in the HDMI version.  Laser Invasion works fine and that was the game kevtris used to test.  Very recently, there has been a workaround by using a CV3 plugged into a Game Genie.  Also, the HDMI Analogue Nts will reset if the TV is shut off.  The HiDef NES mod inside the Analogue Nt HDMI version should be fixable with a firmware update, but the buyers of the HDMI were not made aware that the board could possibly have bugs.  Also, while updating the firmware is easy with a PowerPak, not everyone has one of those.  They may have to wait for Analogue Interactive to ship them a cartridge with a firmware update.  [update: HiDefNES Update V2.25 fixes these issues and other bugs]

The First Sound Card

The Ad Lib Music Synthesizer Card may not have been the first add-on expansion board for a PC compatible computer that could generate sound, but it was undoubtedly the most important sound card ever made.  In this blog entry, I will give an overview of the hardware and software that made Ad Lib synonymous with good PC sound.

Hardware

The Ad Lib came in two revisions, the 1987 version and the 1990 version.  The 1987 version has a 6.35mm or 1/4" phono jack connector and the 1990 version has a 3.5mm mini-jack.  The 1990 version also has two extra decoupling capacitors to reduce the effects of noise.  The audio out can drive passive speakers and lower-impedance headphones.

The card itself was made entirely from off the shelf parts and a pair of specialized sound integrated circuits. All of the 1987 cards and some of the 1990 cards have he part numbers scratched off the Yamaha chips, but some 1990 cards have the part numbers on them.  The larger chip is the Yamaha YM-3812 FM Operator Type-L II (OPL2).  It is responsible for all audio generation.  In FM Synthesis, sound is produced when one sine wave, the modulator wave, modulates another sine wave, the carrier wave.  Each sine wave is called an operator and there are eighteen operators in a YM-3812.  In the default mode, each pair of operators is assigned a channel, so you have 9 channels available.  Each operator can have various settings assigned like Vibrato, Tremolo, ASDR and output level.  The settings for each operator pair can be called an instrument.  In the alternative mode, twelve pairs of operators are assigned to 6 channels and the rest are used to produce 5 percussion instruments.  The smaller chip is the Yamaha YM-3014 Serial Input Floating D/A Converter (DAC-SS).  It turns the digital audio output from the YM-3812 into an analog signal suitable for amplification.

Ad Lib's attempt at secrecy was short-lived.  By the end of 1989, its competitor Creative Technologies was already advertising its "Killer Card" (which would become the Sound Blaster), which included full Ad Lib compatibility.  Ad Lib clones appeared fairly quickly because the card was easy to clone once you figured out what the mystery chips were.  Ad Lib released programming information giving the abilities and register specifications for the chips.  Because the chips were not custom components (otherwise why scratch the part numbers off?), and it used FM Synthesis, it had almost certainly to come from Yamaha.  The price point and chip packaging must have narrowed down Yamaha's IC line considerably.  It was only a matter of time before the secret was out, and Ad Lib, a small French-Canadian company at the time, was in no position to obtain exclusive rights to use the chips from Yamaha.

When you look at either genuine board, you instantly notice the Ad Lib company logo.  I do not recall seeing an earlier PC expansion card printed circuit board with so striking a design.  Most PC expansion boards just have the name of the product labeled in ordinary text somewhere on the card, and many do not even have that, leaving someone to have to deduce the card's identity and function.  It would be a long time until we saw something as equally stylish (even though you would only see it when you opened the computer.)

However, you will also notice two sets of solder pads.  The first, with the "3 5 2" numbers above it, was to assign an IRQ to the card.  The card would fire off an IRQ when after one of the timers had reached zero.  None of these three pads are connected and no software would ever expect them to be connected, so this functionality was in practice never used.  The timers were typically used polled to auto-detect the card.

The second set of pads, "A B C D", allowed the user to change the I/O address from 388/389H.  This allowed the user to put four cards in a single system.  The other addresses were 218/219H, 288/289H and 318/319H.  Very little software ever supported the Ad Lib at an address other than the default.  The days when hardware hackers would routinely modify their hardware with a soldering iron was rapidly coming to a close during Ad Lib's early days.

The Path to Success

When the Ad Lib was first released in 1987, it did not instantly set the PC world alight and inspire software developers with new visions of affordable music.  The Ad Lib was marketed first as a music creation device using a program called Visual Composer to put notes on sheet music.  It appears to have only come bundled with the Visual Composer software and cost $245.00.  Music creation software was nothing new to the PC industry, Electronic Arts Music Construction Set and Mindscape's Bank Street Music Writer were already on the market and had done well.  The former worked with a PC Speaker in 1-voice or 4-voice mode, the PCjr. or Tandy 3-voice chip and the latter came with a 6-voice sound board based off the Apple II Mockingboard design.  IBM also had a MIDI interface based music card called the IBM Music Feature, but it was very expensive, and other companies like Roland produced MIDI interfaces to control their expensive synthesizers with computer software.  Parents were far more likely to buy the cheapest Casio or Yamaha keyboard on sale at Radio Shack for their kids.

In 1988, the card and company's fortunes changed when Sierra Online was looking for good hardware to support in their latest adventure games, which were planned to support full musical scores.  The Ad Lib was seen as more capable than the PSG-based solutions then available like the C64's SID chip, which simply did not sound impressive to U.S. composers. Sierra selected the Ad Lib card as its entry-level music solution and other companies followed.  The first PC game to support the Ad Lib or any other external sound device (Roland MT-32 & IBM Music Feature) was Sierra's King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella.  In fact, if you compare the boxes for the 1987 and 1990 versions, you can see that gaming had taken preference over music creation.

Once the Ad Lib became useful for games, a version of the card was released for $195.00 without the Visual Composer software.  The price for the Ad Lib was now much more attractive and competitive.  Often games would come with a $20 coupon for the card.  The next nearest competitor was the Creative Music System/Game Blaster, which at $129.00 competed well in price but poorly in features.  The Game Blaster may have had more voices (12 vs. 9 or 6/5) and stereo support, but its PSG-style music generation was not deemed by the press or the public as anywhere near the quality of the Ad Lib's FM Synthesis.

While the PSGs in the Game Blaster and the Tandy could output the same notes on the scale as the Ad Lib, the Ad Lib had sufficient capabilities to advertise to users that they could create something approximating actual instruments.  It also sounded somewhat close to the music in most arcade games of the late 80s and early 90s, giving it an edge over devices that sounded like a C64 or a NES.  If the Ad Lib had not gained popularity, perhaps it would have been the Game Blaster that fulfilled the PC gaming music niche, but the Ad Lib was supported in thousands of games while the Game Blaster never pushed above 100 games.

The Ad Lib had quite the appeal for people looking for a no-hassles upgrade.  The Ad Lib did not require any setting up, there were no user-accessible jumpers or dipswitches on the card.  It fit inside any system with a free 8-bit expansion slot.  It rarely required you to load a driver before running an application or a game.  PGA Tour Golf is one of the few examples I could find of a popular game that requires loading SOUND.COM before beginning the game.  Even Ad Lib soon embedded its driver into its application programs.  The most interaction people usually had with the card physically was with the volume control.

The Ad Lib was not designed to handle digitized sounds, but some companies were able to get around that by some careful timing writes to set up a level waveform, then feeding 6-bit values to the volume control registers.  This in essence allowed the Ad Lib to function like a 6-bit DAC.  Activision used it in Battle Tech : The Crescent Hawks' Revenge, Gametek in Super Jeopardy and Interplay in Out of this World.  Because sending audio samples directly to the "DAC" required a lot of CPU time, it was seldom used.  The rise of the Ad Lib compatible Sound Blaster, with its 8-bit DMA-assisted DAC, soon made this effectively obsolete.

From a programmer's standpoint, the Ad Lib was relatively simple to program for.  Programs could automatically detect the card because it had a pair of readable timers on it.  For 8088 systems, they could simply just send data to it, but faster systems required software delay loops of increasing length in order to have the card respond appropriately to address and data writes.  Unfortunately, the basic Ad Lib and its clones tend to fail when older games are being run in fast 386 and 486 machines, requiring the use of slowdown utilities, cache disabling programs or turning off the turbo button.  Eventually, virtually all audio would be handled by middleware drivers from companies like Miles Sound Design which would provide solid if unremarkable Ad Lib support for any system.

An Ad Lib could work with just about any PC or XT with 256KB of RAM and a CGA or better card.  However, in late 1988 that combination just was not doing it anymore for the latest games.  While the Ad Lib can work with most early games on an 8088 or V20 machine, the results are often unplayably slow. The Ad Lib works much better with a 286 @ 8MHz or better, an EGA graphics card and 640KB of RAM.  There were exceptions like Origin's Windwalker, which was programmed before the need to add software delays for faster systems was generally known.  That game is best run on an 8088 or V20 machine.

The Ad Lib had something of a love-hate relationship with musicians.  Computer musicians in the U.S. in the late 80s were usually thoroughly steeped using MIDI instruments.  You could compose a song on a synthesizer keyboard a lot more naturally than in a computer program of the time.  The Roland MT-32 and later the Roland Sound Canvas lines of PC MIDI devices were the preeminent external audio devices for PC gaming until digitized audio took over entirely.  Most composers at big-box developers like Sierra and Electronic Arts composed with MIDI devices and then transported their music to the MT-32, SC-55 and Ad Lib, but the translation was far easier from MIDI to MIDI devices with built-in samples than MIDI to Ad Lib.  So too often Ad Lib music playback paled in comparison to MT-32 and SCC-1 playback.

The Ad Lib did find early advocates at the shareware development houses.  The guys at ID Software and Epic MegaGames were often technologically more innovative and more willing to explore the features of their hardware than the larger publishers.  Shareware titles supported Ad Lib exclusively at first, then migrated to the Ultrasound and the Sound Canvas.  The music in Commander Keen 4-6 and Jill of the Jungle 1-3 (which requires a Sound Blaster) is often very good and hard to imagine being as good on an MT-32.  European programmers also were able to coax good music from the Ad Lib. They already had years of experience hacking away at the SID on the C64 and Paula on the Amiga, so this came easy to them.  The music for Dune by Cyro Interactive does not loose its essential character on an OPL2 even though it was composed for an OPL3.  The songs in Lemmings are very impressive, even compared to the Amiga original.

From a gamer's perspective, purchasing an Ad Lib in the first years following its release was a wise purchase because virtually every game that supported an expansion sound device supported the card.  Companies like Sierra, Origin, LucasArts, Microprose, Spectrum Holobyte, Interplay, and Epyx soon followed suit and began supporting the card in more and more of their products.  (Airball was a very rare example of a game that supported Innovation SID and Game Blaster but not Ad Lib.)  If you look at an early story such as the one published in Computer Gaming World #63 (September, 1989) you can see that every company that was considering sound cards at the time of contact was considering the Ad Lib.  When the Sound Blaster came with digitized sound support in 1990, digitized sound was slower to be adopted because the samples took up so much space on floppy disks.  It had other features, such as the built-in game port, and a price that was very competitive with the less-featured Ad Lib card.  Ad Lib's response to the coming of the Sound Blaster was to reduce its headphone jack to use a mini-jack connector.

Even when the Ad Lib Gold released the OPL3 chip, which has support for stereo output and double the number of FM operators and 4-operator FM Synthesis, game companies rarely supported the advanced features of the newer chip.  Even though the OPL3 chip quickly replaced the OPL2 chip in 1992, most music was still designed for the basic OPL2 features.

The Ad Lib was the entry level music device for an astonishing seven years, from 1988 through 1994.  Until CD-ROM drives and sample-based MIDI hardware became affordable, Ad Lib FM Synthesis was still the king of PC game music.  Early CD-ROM music was far superior musically but extremely inflexible.  Ad Lib music occupied little space and could be adjusted instantly to suit the needs of the program.  CD-ROM music changing required sending track change or track repeat commands.  There would be a pause while the new song was found or the old song was being repeated.  CD-ROM also did not do well with short snippets of music.  The iMUSE system from LucasArts, which dynamically changed the music according to room and scenes, was feasible with the Ad Lib but impossible with CD-ROM audio.  Only with the arrival of Windows 95 was the hardware sufficiently powerful to manage multiple digital streams of voice and music that made the Ad Lib totally obsolete.

Nintendo's Vs. System - Just Like at Home?

Vs. System Upright Version

In the year following the 1983 release of the Famicom, Nintendo began making the Vs. System arcade cabinets.  These cabinets essentially bolted two monitors with a pair of joysticks for each monitor.  The cabinet came in an upgright version with monitors at 45 degree angles to each other and a smaller sit down version with back-to-back monitors.  The Vs. System could play one game for each monitor or play a Dual System game where the game occupied both monitors.  Eventually Nintendo released a single monitor cabinet, the Vs Unisystem, which allowed for a cheaper machine which would only play one game.  You could also buy a conversion kit for some of Nintendo's older arcade stand-alone games : Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Donkey Kong 3, Popeye and Mario Bros.  Like these games, the Vs. System board uses inverted voltages to drive the monitors.

All games confirmed to have been released in the Vs. System format were also released for the NES or the Famicom.  Typically, the Vs. System games are significantly more challenging than the home console versions.  Nintendo and its third parties had to do something to distinguish these versions from the home console versions and get people to continue to put quarters in the machines.  If they had already mastered the game at home, the arcade machines' coin boxes would not be full.

Vs. System Sit Down Version

All the Vs. System cabinets with dual monitors had a large PCB with a pair of PPUs and a pair of CPUs.  Each CPU/PPU pair had access to a set of sockets where the game code and graphics would be stored. Hardware wise, Vs. System games were almost always supplied on EPROMs.  This made them incredibly easy to copy, so Nintendo typically shipped drop-in replacement PPU chips with the games.  The Vs. System board came with four PRG sockets and two CHR sockets, each holding an 8KB EPROM.  Most earlier Vs. System Board games had 32KB PRG and 16KB CHR whereas some of their home console counterparts had only 16KB PRG and none had more than 8KB CHR.  In other words, the Vs. System board has built-in bankswitching.  This allowed for many Vs. System games to have more impressive graphics than the home console versions.  Many also have extra RAM available which the cartridge versions did not have.  Some more advanced games required daughterboards with extra memory mapping hardware to run.  Vs. Gumshoe may require a board modification.

Dual monitor Vs. System units had, for each monitor, a pair of joysticks, each with a corresponding A and B button.  Each side also had four game select buttons numbered 1-4.  These buttons were colored blue, green, purple and yellow.  On a NES controller, they correspond to player 1 start, player 2 start, player 1 select and player 2 select.  Some Vs. System games have reverse inputs, so the joystick we typically associate with player 2 (the right one) become that used by player 1. 

Vs. Unisystem

All games use RGB capable PPUs.  Some use the standard 2C03 PPU, which has a palette similar to a 2C02 minus a pair of grays and does not handle color emphasis in the same manner.  Many use one of the four 2C04 PPUs.  These PPUs function just like the 2C03 except that each of the four versions has a scrambled palette entry table.  If you use the wrong PPU with a Vs. Game, you will get colors that will look bizarre or missing.  Finally, there are four games that use the 2C05 PPU.  This has the same palette entries as a 2C03 but swaps two of the registers and uses four bits of a third register to tell the game what it is.  The game will fail if it does not have the right variety of 2C05, and there were four of these as well.  (Actually, the Famicom Titler uses a 2C05-99, but this revision does not have the swapped registers because someone used it to mod a Sharp Twin Famicom, which uses a regular 2C02G-0 PPU.)

Here is a list of known, confirmed 36 unique Vs. System games :

Game Title	Compatible PPU	Notable Feature	NES/Famicom Title
Atari RBI Baseball	2C03/2C04-01-04	Protection IC	RBI Baseball/Pro Yakyuu Family Stadium
Battle City	2C04-01-04		Battle City (Famicom only)
Clu Clu Land	2C04-04		Clu Clu Land
Dr. Mario	2C04-03		Dr. Mario
Duck Hunt	2C03	Light Gun	Duck Hunt
Excitebike	2C04-03		Excitebike
Excitebike  (Japan)	2C04-04		Excitebike
Freedom Force	2C04-01	Light Gun	Freedom Force (NES only)
Ice Climber	2C04-04		Ice Climber
Ice Climber (Japan)	2C04-04	Dual System	Ice Climber
Mach Rider (Endurance Course)	2C04-02		Mach Rider
Mach Rider (Fighting Course)	2C04-01		Mach Rider
Mighty Bomb Jack (Japan)	2C05-02		Mighty Bomb Jack
Ninja Jajamaru-kun (Japan)	2C05-01		Ninja Jajamaru-kun (Famicom only)
Pinball	2C04-01		Pinball
Pinball (Japan)	2C03		Pinball
Platoon	2C04-01		Platoon (NES only)
Raid on Bungeling Bay	2C04-02	"Dual System"	Raid on Bungeling Bay
Soccer	2C04-03		Soccer
Soccer (Japan)	2C04-02		Soccer
Star Luster	2C03/2C04-01/02		Star Luster (Famicom only)
Stroke and Match Golf (Ladies Version)	2C04-02		Golf
Stroke and Match Golf (Men's Version)	2C04-02		Golf
Stroke and Match Golf (Men's Version) (Japan)	2C03		Golf
Super Sky Kid	2C03/2C04-01-02		Sky Kid
Super Xevious - Gump no Nazo	2C04-01-04	Protection IC	Super Xevious - Gump no Nazo
Tetris	2C03/2C04-01-04		Tetris (Tengen)
Vs. Balloon Fight	2C04-03	Dual System	Balloon Fight
Vs. Baseball	2C04-01	Dual System	Baseball
Vs. Baseball (Japan)	2C04-01	Dual System	Baseball
Vs. Castlevania	2C04-02		Castlevania/Akumajou Dracula
Vs. Gumshoe	2C05-03	Light Gun	Gumshoe (NES only)
Vs. Hogan's Alley	2C04-01	Light Gun	Hogan's Alley
Vs. Mahjong	2C03	Dual System	Mahjong (Famicom only)
Vs. Slalom	2C04-02		Slalom (NES only)
Vs. Super Mario Bros.	2C04-04		Super Mario Bros.
Vs. Tennis	2C03	Dual System	Tennis
Vs. The Goonies	2C04-03		The Goonies (Famicom only)
Vs. TKO Boxing	2C03/2C04-03	Protection IC	Ring King/Family Boxing
Vs. Top Gun	2C05-04		Top Gun
Vs. Wrecking Crew	2C04-02	Dual System	Wrecking Crew

As you may note from the above table, some of the third party games, essentially anything that Namco had a hand in, could use more than one PPU via dipswitches.  The correct settings of the dipswitches have been somewhat difficult to find, but thanks to a fork of Nintendulator (NewRisingSun version) I was able to get the right values for each game.  From the few Vs System manuals I was able to view the defaults appear for all dipswitches to be Off.  Here are the correct values when a dipswitch is On :

Game Name	All Dips Off	Dip 6	Dip 7	Dip 8	Dip 6 + 7	Dip 7+ 8	Dip 6 + 8	Dip 6 + 7 + 8
Vs. Atari R.B.I. Baseball	2C04-01	2C03	2C04-02	2C04-03	2C03	2C04-04	2C03	2C03
Vs. Battle City	2C04-01	Not Used	2C04-02	2C04-03	Not Used	2C04-04	Not Used	Not Used
Vs. Star Luster	2C03	2C04-01	2C03	Not Used	2C04-02	Not Used	Not Used	Not Used
Vs. Super SkyKid	2C04-01	2C03	2C04-02	2C04-03	2C03	2C04-04	2C03	2C03
Vs. Super Xevious	2C04-01	Not Used	2C04-02	2C04-03	Not Used	2C04-04	Not Used	Not Used
Vs. Tetris	2C04-01	2C03	2C04-02	2C04-03	2C03	2C04-04	2C03	2C03
Vs. TKO Boxing	2C04-03	2C03	Not Used	Not Used	Not Used	Not Used	Not Used	Not Used

Some notable features of these games are that Vs. Super Mario Bros. uses levels from Super Mario Bros. 2 for the Famicom Disk System game for some extra challenge.  Ice Climber is perhaps the only game that came in a Dual System and a non-Dual System version.  The graphics for Tetris are much less detailed than the cartridge version Tengen released.  Mach Rider, the Fighting Course version, has the slowly revealing photo arguably showing Mach Rider to be a woman.  See here : http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2014/12/nes-female-protagonists.html  Because the revisionless 2A03 is used as the CPU, Balloon Fight will have some slight sound differences in the noise channel compared with the home console version when played on most Famicoms and all NESes.  In Duck Hunt you can shoot the dog in the bonus rounds, but that ends the round early.

The most interesting games of the bunch are the six Vs. Dual System games.  These games monopolize both monitors and the arcade PCB.  The game would utilize both CPU/PPU pairs to drive the monitors.  The two sets were able to communicate with each other a shared bus.  Some of the better NES emulators can emulate most Vs. System games but always protest when Vs. Dual System games are trying to be played. MAME is the best way I know of to play them.  Getting this co-processing system in place had to have required a great deal of work on the part of the programmers.  The Vs. Dual System games probably were not particularly popular because they used both monitors and did not work in the single monitor systems.  Raid on Bungeling Bay also requires the 2nd CPU of the Vs. Dual System but does not function like a Vs. Dual System game.

Using Vs. Balloon Fight as an example. you can play with two players in two modes.  In the first mode, both players are on the same screen and can see each other.  They can break each other's balloon and push each other away.  Essentially you are competing for who can score the most points.  In the second mode, each player can play the game completely independently as if you were playing on two completely separate arcade machines.  The rest of the Dual System games play like this.  While you can get the same experience on a single screen, it undoubtedly felt cool to have a screen all to yourself.  

The Vs. System represented one of the last serious attempts by Nintendo to maintain an arcade presence. Most of its early home console NES games found their way to a Vs. System cabinet.  Those that did not, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Donkey Kong 3, Popeye and Mario Bros. already had standalone arcade versions that were superior to the NES-based Vs. System.  Most of the other early Nintendo home console games like Go, Gyromite, Stack-Up, Donkey Kong Jr. Math and Popeye English Lesson just were not suitable for an arcade machine.  Unfortunately, arcade games were continually evolving and what seemed fairly competitive in 1984 was looking positively ancient by 1987.  All but six of these games had been originally released from 1983-1986.  But for the early years Nintendo could almost always boast that their home console games were close ports of their arcade cousins.

Nintendo's own interest in unique arcade hardware was also fading.  As the NES and Famicom became more popular, Nintendo focused more on the Playchoice-10 than the Vs. System.  The Playchoice 10 was more attractive to arcade owners because they could fit ten games into a cabinet instead of two.  Which would you rather have as an arcade owner, a Playchoice 10 or essentially a Playchoice 2?  Also, they did not have to plug EPROMs into sockets, they only had to plug boards into a Playchoice 10 PCB.  Game developers could ship their games on a Playchoice-10 board with virtually no changes, whereas a fair amount of work was required for a Vs. System conversion.  Thereafter, the Nintendo Super System was the equivalent of the Playchoice-10 for the SNES and much later it released a few games for the Seta Aleck64 and the Nintendo Triforce System, which are essentially N64 and Gamecube hardware in arcade machines.  Oddly enough, Nintendo did manufacture the arcade hardware for the Irem-developed classic R-Type, but by the time of the Vs System its adventures in arcade hardware were almost over.

Analogue Nt - The NES as a Luxury Retro Console

Nintendo made over sixty million NES and Famicoms systems from 1983-2003.  It is not a rare system and a base system is not particularly expensive on the second hand market.  It was one of the most popular video game consoles of all time.  However, today getting a NES to run on modern LCD TVs and not looking like crap can be a bit of a challenge.  Any of the popular NES or Famicom models, the original Famicom HVC-001, the front loader NES-001, the top loader NES-101 and the Famicom AV HVC-101 output composite video at best and RF at worst.  LCDs usually make this signal look horrible and some newer TVs do not like the 240p signal output by these consoles at all and will refuse to display them.

Now suppose you took the two core custom chips inside every NTSC NES and Famicom, the 2A03 CPU and 2C02 PPU and had the resources to make a totally redesigned system.  Then suppose you wanted to make this redesigned system a luxury item which the press and deep pocket gamers would fall in love over.  Well, a company called Analogue Interactive did just that.  It made an enclosure for its redesign fashioned out of a single solid block of high-grade 6061 aluminum.  It took CPU and PPU chips from a batch of Famicoms in cosmetically objectionable condition and put them in sockets inside a new PCB that it designed.  The result is a redesigned NES called the Analogue Nt that costs $499.00 to purchase.  

Analogue Interactive has had success designing wooden enclosures for consolized Neo Geo MVS arcade PCBs.  These wooden enclosures, with matching enclosures for the joysticks, are beautifully designed, scream quality and come with price tags to match.  Of course, Neo Geo fans are known for deep pockets who will pay thousands of dollars for rare Neo Geo AES home console game versions and can afford an uncompromising attitude toward quality.  While prices for NES-related items have gone up and up over the years, they are not at the average level of Neo Geo-related items.  The NES had many more games, both games and systems cost far less and had a very wide appeal to gamers in Japan, the United States and Canada and to a lesser extent in Europe, Australia, Brazil, Russia and Southeast Asia.  Analogue Interactive has seen this as a market to tap into with its high-end design philosophy.

The Analogue Nt is designed to handle both NES and Famicom systems.  It has a 72-pin connector cartridge connector for NES Game Paks and a 60-pin connector for Famicom Cassettes (no one uses the "official" names for the media anymore, so from hereon out I will use the word "cartridges" like everybody else).  The four controller ports on the front eliminate the need for a separate 4-player adapter for either NES or Famicom games.  The controller pins are gold plated to resist corrosion.  It supports the Famicom Disk System with an FDS RAM adapter and disk drive.  

As you can see from the front of the unit, the Analogue Nt is very minimalist in design except where absolutely necessary.  No unnecessary ridges, no asymmetry, no buttons or switches.  No more vents than absolutely necessary.  The basic silver color looks as if it was designed by or for Apple Inc.  The little dot above the stylized A is for an LED button, something not found on a Famicom or top loader NES.  If you want to be more adventurous, for $49.00 extra you can get the console in red, blue and black.  Pre-order backers could specify white plastic controller ports instead of the Nintendo black.  

The Analogue Nt has more features and in some ways more powerful hardware than any official Nintendo product every boasted.  It has the equivalent of a NESRGB board built into every system.  That gives S-Video and RGB video output and this console also adds Component Video for us Yankees.  The regular 2C02 composite video is also available.  Cables beyond the basic composite/S-Video cable that the base system comes with cost an additional $29.00 each Analogue Interactive offers JP-21 RGB, SCART RGB, BNC RGB and Component Cables for sale.  For an extra $79.00, you can in addition have kevtris' HDMI Mod installed.  

On the back of the unit, you can see a number of ports.  From left to right, we have a Famicom Expansion Port and a microphone jack.  The microphone input mimics the functionality of the microphone on the original Famicom's 2nd controller.  So you should be able to kill Pols Voice without any effort on the original version of The Legend of Zelda on the Analogue Nt.  

After the microphone port are a pair of RCA audio outputs.  The RCA audio out is shielded and amplified for headphones.  The Analogue Nt supports the original mono audio from the NES or the split channels "stereo" audio mod.  The left switch is to select between the 4-player NES adapter, the default of 2-player input and the 4-player Famicom adapter.

The right switch functions with the up and down buttons next to it.  With the switch in the Mic position, you can set the output volume of the Microphone.  With the switch in the Aux position, you can set the output volume of the Expansion Audio from the a cartridge.  With the switch in the Mix position, you can set the monophonic/stereophonic setting

Next comes the power jack.  Finally there is an HDMI port (if you selected the HDMI Adapter Upgrade option) and a VGA-style HD-15 video output port for all analogue video output.    The red button is the power button and is taken from an NES controller.  A quick push acts as a soft reset, holding it down turns the power off.  

The Analogue Nt supports the NES PowerPak and Everdrive N8.  Its power supply supports all worldwide power standards and there are versions for the US and Japan, the UK, Europe and Australia.  It provides additional power for 3rd party devices.

The HDMI Adapter Upgrade offers an awful lot more.  It uses kevtris' (Kevin Horton's) design and has virtually all the features from the HDMI Mod he has been demonstrating for the past year. Here is an unlisted video Analogue Interactive put out showing off the features for its implementation : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXsZ3LvdfCs

For those who prefer their information in text as opposed to video, a listing of the menu and submenus can give you a good idea of its features

Analogue Nt [Main] Menu

• Resolution
• 640x480 [60Hz/50Hz]
• 1280x720 [60Hz/50Hz]
• 1920x1080 [60Hz/50Hz]
• Video Options
• Horizontal Stretch
• Width [Slider]
• Scaling
• None
• HQ2X
• HQ3X
• HQ4X
• Scale2X
• Scale3X
• XRay
• Scanlines
• Off
• NES
• 2X
• 3X
• 4X
• 5X
• Interpolation
• On
• Depth [Slider]
• Palette
• FCEUX'S
• Beware's
• Playchoice 10
• Black and White
• Cropping
• Top Edge [Slider]
• Right Edge [Slider]
• Bottom Edge [Slider]
• Left Edge [Slider]
• Horizontal Position
• Position [Slider]
• Despeckle
• Sound Options
• Enables
• VRC6
• VRC7
• FDS
• MMC5
• N163
• Sunsoft 5B
• VCR6 Swap
• Volumes
• APU [Slider]
• N163 [Slider]
• VRC6 [Slider]
• MMC5 [Slider]
• 5B [Slider]
• FDS [Slider]
• VRC7A [Slider]
• VRC7B [Slider]
• Panning
• NES Sqr 1 [Slider]
• NES Sqr 2 [Slider]
• NES Tri [Slider]
• NES Noise [Slider]
• NES DPCM [Slider]
• Namco 163 [Slider]
• VRC6 Sq 1 [Slider]
• VRC6 Sq 2 [Slider]
• VRC6 Saw [Slider]
• MMC5 Sq1 [Slider]
• MMC5 Sq2 [Slider]
• MMC5 PCM [Slider]
• Sunsft 5B [Slider]
• FDS [Slider]
• VCR7 A [Slider]
• VRC7 B [Slider]
• Viewer [visual representation by sliders]
• NES Pulse Wave 1 [Shows duty cycle, frequency and volume]
• NES Pulse Wave 2 [Shows duty cycle, frequency and volume]
• NES Triangle Wave [Shows frequency]
• NES Noise [Shows short and long noise periods, frequency and volume]
• NES Delta/PCM [Shows sample address, sample length, whether sample is looped, frequency]
• FDS Wavetable Main Channel [Frequency and volume]
• FDS Modulator [Frequency]
• MMC5 Pulse Wave 1 [Frequency and volume]
• MMC5 Pulse Wave 2 [Frequency and volume]
• VRC6 Pulse Wave 1 [Frequency and volume]
• VRC6 Pulse Wave 2 [Frequency and volume]
• VRC6 Sawtooth Wave [Frequency and accumuator rate]
• Sunsoft 5B Square Wave 1 [Frequency and volume]
• Sunsoft 5B Square Wave 2 [Frequency and volume]
• Sunsoft 5B Square Wave 3 [Frequency and volume]
• Settings
• Menu Hotkey [can select any combination]
• A
• B
• Select
• Strart
• Up
• Down
• Left
• Right
• Overclock Hotkey [can select any combination]
• A
• B
• Select
• Strart
• Up
• Down
• Left
• Right
• Underclock Hotkey [can select any combination]
• A
• B
• Select
• Strart
• Up
• Down
• Left
• Right
• Short Reset Hotkey [can select any combination]
• A
• B
• Select
• Strart
• Up
• Down
• Left
• Right
• Long Reset Hotkey [can select any combination]
• A
• B
• Select
• Strart
• Up
• Down
• Left
• Right
• Controller for Hotkeys
• Controller 1
• Controller 2
• DVI Mode
• DVI Mode
• EDID Disable
• Disable EDID
• Audio Clock
• CPU Clock
• PPU Clock
• Save and Update
• Save Settings
• Update Firmware [via flash cart like PowerPak or Everdrive]
• About

[Status]

Rez(olution) [Current]

Palette [Selected]

Elapsed [Time]

[Controls, changes with every screen]

Start - Reset Timer

A - Enter     Select - Back

While the NESRGB captures the pixel colors from the graphics more-or-less digitally and then recreates the frame, the HDMI NES has to do much more.  Not only can it output pure digital video, it can also output pure digital audio as well.  Because the audio comes out of the CPU in a strictly analog fashion, the HDMI NES has to emulate not only the internal Audio Processing Unit but also all the expansion audio chips.  It also has to monitor the controller input memory locations/registers to virtually eliminate input lag.  The NESRGB board is only connected to the PPU, but the HDMI board is connected to both the CPU and PPU.  The result is digital audio output at 16-bit/48kHz.

A NESRGB modded console connected to a Framemeister typically adds 1 frame of delay/lag to the input compared to a NES output to a CRT via composite video.  The Framemeister can convert analog audio to digital audio, which has to be converted back to analog for the speakers, so it is more noisy.  An HDMI modded NES like the Analogue Nt typically adds a few scanlines worth of delay, which is imperceptible by human beings.  This is in addition to any processing done by a non-CRT TV.  The NES's frame rate is an effective 60.098 frames per second, but the HDMI mod slows this down to a pure 60fps to avoid compatibility issues with picky HDTVs.  The slowdown of .0016% is unnoticeable to human beings.  If you want to get a better idea of how the HDMI mod works and its development, watch the videos on kevtris' channel : https://www.youtube.com/user/kevtris

Aethestically, the brushed silver aluminum finish may not make the best contrast against the dark gray matte finish of NES cartridges or the colorful plastic shells of Famicom cartridges.  Nintendo manufactured millions and millions of cartridges as cheaply as possible.  The gold Zelda cartridges and gold and silver Camerica cartridges may look most appropriate to the Analogue Nt, at least from a distance. The NES itself was made of plastic and rather boxy, it tried not to look out of place next to the VHS players and cassette decks of the mid-80s.  The Famicom, with its red and white scheme looked like a toy.  Those large NES joystick ports with visible pins are as far from modern interconnections like USB ports as you can get.  The plastic, rectangular NES and Famicom controllers with thick cables are somewhat removed from its descendants.  Today's video game storage media are optical disks and SD-like memory cards, not large bulky cartridges that stick out of a system.  The Analogue Nt may still look a little odd next to the 4K HDTV, the Blu-ray player, the Wii U, Xbox One  or Playstation 4 or the home receiver system.

The Analogue Nt was first announced in March, 2014 with an intended shipping date of summer, 2014.  However, summer turned to winter, winter to spring and spring to summer of 2015 before users have begun to receive their units.  Hard information about the device has been extremely limited, although excuses and apologies for the delay were not in short supply.  You can read a summary of it here : http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1076624  This has been seen by some as rather concerning from a company known primarily for its woodworking skills, not its electrical engineering design.  You had to pre-order the console and your account was charged immediately for the full price.  With the delays some have accused Analogue Interactive of running an unannounced Kickstarter-like campaign to raise interest-free financing.  Considering that the aluminum used for the enclosure and the high quality PCB assembly are large parts of the manufacturing cost, this charge has some merit.  To Analogue Interactive's credit, they offered full refunds to pre-order customers dissatisfied with the wait.  I can imagine some felt unhappy with their money tied up for over a year, but from what I have read, by-and-large most customers have stayed loyal. Analogue Interactive has made regular updates to its pre-order customers.

The superficial mainstream media also deserves some criticism.  A media organization finds a story about an interesting new product to be released and its competitors parrot it and that is often the last you hear about it from these sources.  Often you if do a search for the product, you will see little beyond the articles all originating around the same date.  Information about failed and long-delayed products is frequently harder to find.  You would think that if a media entity felt that this device was so sufficiently newsworthy to devote a substantial article, there would be reviews all over the place by now since it started shipping some weeks ago  There are none.

Analogue Interactive has released the occasional photo to keep up interest in the console and attention from the media.  However, if a photo is worth 1,000 words, a frame of video from the Analogue Nt is worth about 60,000 words.  It took well over a year from the initial taking of preorders to get video.  Last month IGN received a unit with an HDMI mod but at a particularly inauspicious time.  Their reporter received a unit on the first day of E3, and was only able to do a video unboxing.  No games were played on the unit.  I doubt that he had NES cartridges lying around in his hotel room in Los Angeles (but he certainly had a very nice looking pool table in his suite).  Moreover, there was so much other current generation news to cover at E3 and the week following it that there would be no time to make videos about the Analogue Nt.  You can watch the video here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDo0hUHM82s

Since the IGN video, Analogue Interactive released a pair of unlisted Youtube videos to its pre-order customers.  The first showed off the HDMI Mod, and I have given the link above.  The functionality of the HDMI Adapter Upgrade had been a questioned feature because the older photos of the Analogue Nt only showed an analog video out port.  It was presumed that the HDMI Adapter Upgrade would act like a mini-Framemeister.  However, the video shows that the now-internal Adapter is licensed directly from kevtris' design, implicitly confirmed by the man himself.  (My skepticism of the release of the product was mostly eliminated at that point.)  Analogue Interactive has also released a second unlisted Youtube video showing gameplay footage from Mega Man 2 without the HDMI Mod menu, it can be viewed here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN6qtbWRC5Y.  Analogue Interactive is to be commended for doing the HDMI Adapter right by going with the Master of 8-bit Nintendo Hardware's (kevtris') design.    

Another individual attached to the website USgamer has received an Analogue Nt and did an unboxing video a few days ago.  His unit did not come with an HDMI Adapter Upgrade, so the hole where the HDMI port is supposed to sit is empty.  Unfortunately his video is no longer available.  According to the Analogue Nt user guide, you can send your HDMI-less console back for an upgrade at any time.  That user had a Framemeister, but the Framemeister is a jack-of-all trades while the HDMI Upgrade is designed specifically for the NES and its unique video output.

No one else has done an unboxing video, which suggests that people are still waiting.  Those who ordered the HDMI Adapter Upgrade may still be waiting because as of this date kevtris has not reported that he is done squashing bugs with his design.  If those bugs are hardware in nature, then Analogue Interactive may not have a final board to ship to customers.  Recalls are expensive for large companies and and a small company may get killed either from the cost of a recall or the bad publicity if they do not initiate a recall after a major bug is discovered.  

One other point of criticism about the Analogue Nt is the warranty period offered by the company.  They only offer a 90-day warranty on all their products.  By comparison, the big three, Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony offer a one-year warranty on newly purchased consoles.  Considering that the core of the Analogue Nt is using used chips with unknowable prior use or abuse (did a prior Famicom owner try to get to new minus worlds in Super Mario Bros. by switching in and out a Tennis cartridge while the console was on?), the short warranty period is not particularly inspiring of confidence.  Not to mention that the Analogue Nt costs more than any of the current consoles, providing an industry standard one-year warranty would show appropriate confidence in their product and keep faith with customers.  

While unboxing and video capture footage videos are great, a full and real review from an unbiased and knowledgeable source is beyond due.  There are so many questions with using this device that have not been answered and cannot be answered without a reliable review of the whole Analogue Nt experience.  Even the User Guide, found here : http://www.analogueinteractive.com/pages/resources, can only answer so many questions.

For example, do the controller or cartridge connectors exhibit a Grip of Death?  Can you select palettes without the HDMI Upgrade Adapter?  Are there any issues with the FDS RAM adapter sitting flush on the slightly curved surface of the Analogue Nt?  What about more exotic devices like the Bandai Datach Joint ROM System?  Cartridge games like Zelda require the user to hold reset as they turn the power off to avoid RAM corruption, so how does the Analogue Nt deal with that?  Is there really a NESRGB board and an HDMI board inside the fully-upgraded Analogue Nt (seems kind of redundant)?  Is the Famicom Expansion Port sufficiently recessed for peripherals?  What is the experience like using the audio mixer buttons (the User Guide is a bit vague)?  Can you get expansion audio from the 72-pin cartridge slot using the pin 51 method?

There are some things an Analogue Nt will not do.  It will not play troublesome NES PAL exclusive games like Elite, Aladdin and Asterix properly and other PAL releases will run too fast.  That would require replacing the CPU and PPU with the PAL versions and changing the clock crystal.  The Analogue Nt can be opened with a slotted screwdriver, but doing so will void your warranty and there is a sticker on the bottom that acts like an anti-tampering seal.  It may not work with cartridges that require a lockout chip in the system like the Nintendo World Championships 1990 or Nintendo Campus Challenge (1991) cartridges.  Considering how rare those cartridges are (26 total confirmed to exist), their owners can find other ways to play them.  I do not recall kevtris getting the Zapper to work on his HDMI Mod, so it and other devices that rely on the refresh rate and scanline phosphor decay characteristics of a 15kHz CRT (R.O.B., Famicom 3D System) will not work on any LCD TV.  It must passthrough sampled ADPCM speech synthesis from cartridges in the Moero Pro Yakyuu series, no one has ever attempted to emulate that.  

Too often, one sees mainstream press coverage of the NES, whether it be a retrospective or a review of a new homebrew game.  While they may show a genuine front loader, they always actually show gameplay using a hardware or software clone.  There is no hardware clone made in recent decades that can accurately reproduce all the NES's quirks, and many get the basics wrong as with the reversed duty cycles for the pulse wave channels.  The Retron 5 is a popular choice these days because it can accept cartridges from the most popular system and display them via an HDMI output, but it is running on Android and using emulators of variable quality to run games.  Putting the game in the system is only necessary for the Retron 5 to dump the ROM to emulate it.  The bankswitching hardware inside the cartridge must also emulated or the game will not work.  The Retron 5 may also not run games it does not recognize if they use new or unknown bankswitching techniques.  Running on emulators means putting up with inaccuracies and lag.  Using the Retron 5 is something of a morally questionable choice considering that some of the emulators the company used, including the one used for the NES (FCEUmm) violate the terms of the emulators licenses.  More information can be found here : http://www.libretro.com/index.php/retroarch-license-violations/ and it is truly reprehensible to violate the rights of individual programmers who do not have the resources to protect their rights. 

If the Analogue Nt is successful, despite its high price tag, we could see a revitalization of the closest way in which the NES and Famicom were intended to look, sound and play in modern times.  In fact, it looks to produce a better experience than Nintendo's own current limited offerings on the Wii U Virtual Console.  One hopes to have more information online about the console in the upcoming weeks, so hopefully some of the questions above can be answered.  If you have the money to spend and did not get in on the first batch another batch is apparently available for preorder, but don't expect to see it anytime soon (remember those TV commercials with allow 6-8 weeks for delivery, welcome to the modern version of that).

Blinking Light Win - A Quality Solution to your NES Front Loader Woes

Who likes it when their NES constantly blinks on and off?  Anyone want to relive this particular memory from their childhood?  Didn't think so.  The front loader NES's achilles heel must be the cartridge connector.  In this blog entry, I will first discuss the problem and then a potential quality solution, the Blinking Light Win.

The Problem

The reason why the front loading NES blinks on and off is because the lockout chip is causing the system to continually reset itself.  The lockout chip can control the reset line and will activate it repeatedly it unless it is in constant communication with an identical chip inside a cartridge. In order for the cartridge's lockout chip to communicate properly with the system's lockout chip, it needs a good connection from the pin connector.  Too often, the NES pin connector cannot provide it.

The lockout chip has 4 pins dedicated to it.  Even if the lockout chip has a proper connection, the pins that connect to the CPU and PPU bus may not.  The NES 72-pin connector has 56 other pins that may also be in use by a cartridge at any particular time.  If the connector or the cartridge pins are corroded or dirty, reliable contact between the console and cartridge will not be made, leading to solid color screens on powerup, in-game crashes and glitchy graphics.  Again, the NES's pin connector too often does not have solid contact with the corresponding cartridge pins.

So, what is the problem?  The problem is the way the cartridge pins are supposed to make contact with the console connector pins.  Inserting any type of PCB contacts into a slot is OK so long as the PCB is supported, whether horizontally or vertically.  If Nintendo had designed the cartridge slot so that all you needed to do was to simply insert the cartridge into the slot, I seriously doubt the front loader would acquired such a reputation for unreliability.  However, Nintendo went one step further and decided it would be a good idea to require the user to have to push the cartridge down until a latch caught the spring-loaded tray for both sides of the contacts to make a connection.

This is the point where unnecessary wear occurs on the console connector.  A cartridge connector's pins get pushed back normally when a cartridge is inserted, this is built into the design.  But for a NES, the bottom row of cartridge pins get pushed twice, one when you insert the cartridge, a second time when you push the cartridge down.  This has the unfortunately effect of putting way more extra strain on the pins then they should have.  The consoles pins can be bent to the extent they are unable to make contact with the cartridge pins or in extreme cases knocked completely out of alignment.  A crude visual representation of the manner in which the console connector makes contact with the cartridge pins is here :

Nintendo's brilliant design was intended to mimic the function of VHS players of the time. In the mid-80s, when VHS players were gaining their way into households at a fast rate, they typically used tray loading mechanisms similar to compact cassettes, just oriented vertically instead of horizontally.  In an old-style VHS player, when you hit the open button, a trap would pop up in the top and you would place your video tape into it and push it down until it closed.  As is well-known, Nintendo wanted to distance itself from the previous home video game systems that had given themselves a poor reputation for quality and value.  So Nintendo designed its NES into a boxy two-toned gray shape to fit in with VHS players, cassette decks, TVs and home stereo systems of the time.  It even came with separate composite A/V outputs, something never seen before in a video game system.  The NES stood for the Nintendo Entertainment System, the games were officially called "Game Paks", not "Cartridges" and these Game Paks were long and thin and loaded like VHS tapes.

At first, a console would play fine.  After a while, however, the blinking light and/or solid color screen would appear.  At this point, players would typically blow into their cartridges and consoles.  This worked OK in the short term to clear dust and improve conductivity with saliva deposits, but over time the corrosive nature of saliva would do damage to both connectors.  Nintendo's cartridges did not have gold plated contacts, which are more resistant to corrosion.  Another thing players would do is to insert a second cartridge into the console above the first, pushing down the game even further and perhaps improving the contact.

Earlier Solutions

Nintendo became aware of the problem and offered certain solutions.  It released a cleaning kit containing a cartridge with an edge covered in cloth and cleaning wands for cartridges.  Nintendo instructed the user to use water and wait for an hour after cleaning for drying off.  Howard Phillips of Nintendo of America later explained that it did not instruct users to use isoprophyl alcohol, a superior cleaning agent, because they were worried that kids would set themselves on fire!  Nintendo also set up service centers that could replace the pin connector, although there was a fee that could be incurred if the console was out of warranty.  Finally, in 1993, Nintendo released a new design of the NES at a budget price, the Top Loader.  The top loader's connector was much more reliable, but the console looked radically different from the front loader, did not have composite A/V outputs, its video output looked washed out and the video had noticeable jailbars by comparison.

One other unofficial but popular solution was to use a Galoob Game Genie.  The Game Genie was a cheat device that fit in between the console and the cartridge.  Because it added an extra two inches to cartridge, it could not be pushed down and aesthetically looks unpleasing because the cartridge sticks out of the NES. The Game Genie's PCB is substantially thicker than a NES game cartridge's, allowing it to make contact with both sets of pins inside the console connector without needing to be pushed down.  Unfortunately, this made it very, very difficult to use a Game Genie with a Top Loader, and Galoob released a now-rare adapter for top loader owners.  Even if you used no codes, the Game Genie is incompatible with games that manipulate the V-RAM mirroring on the cartridge in unusual ways like Castlevania 3 and Gauntlet and the other usual suspects that fail to work in cheap NES clones.

After the NES was retired, third party companies came in with unlicensed replacement console pin connectors.  The NES was built so the console connector was easily replaceable.  However, these connectors developed a reputation for having a grip of death on the cartridges, making it very difficult to remove the cartridge from the system.  They also had a reputation of wearing out very quickly and becoming worse than the original they were intended to replace.  At least with a genuine Nintendo cartridge connector, the cartridges were always easy to insert and remove.

The Blinking Light Win

In December of 2014, a company called ArcadeWorks launched a kickstarter campaign to build a reliable replacement NES connector.  They called this product the Blinking Light Win (BLW) and the kickstarter campaign was very successful.  They sought to raise $15,000 and actually raised $44,080.  Instead of trying to clone Nintendo's part, they designed a connector where the cartridge would simply plug in and play without having to push down.  They also designed a replacement plastic tray piece to replace the original spring/latch mechanism.  This replacement piece keeps the cartridge in place, its pin connector from shifting and people from breaking the pin connector by preventing them from pushing down.  The creators of the BLW intended to make a quality product where they pins would not wear out over time.

In late June of 2014, backers finally began receiving their kits.  One of the reasons for the delay is because ArcadeWorks added a lockout chip clone to every BLW connector (kickstarter stretch goal), ensuring that the lockout chip in the console would make a reliable connection with something it could recognize.  Also, unlike the official Nintendo chips, this lockout chip clone (NTSC/PAL-A/PAL-B/Asia) is region selectable by power cycling the system.  The default setting is NTSC.  There is no need to snip pin 4 on a front loader NES with BLW.  This makes it usable with consoles from any region, but it won't make games designed for PAL timings like Elite or Aladdin work in an NTSC console.

In the kit comes the cartridge connector, the replacement tray, a pair of stickers and an instruction sheet.  The only tool you need to install it is a standard #2 Phillips head screwdriver.  The screwdriver cannot be too short, otherwise you won't be able to reach the screws in the recessed holes on the bottom half of the NES case.  In the past, some people have done intensive mods like removing a Game Genie connector from a Game Genie and soldering it to the edge connector of the NES PCB, but the BLW was designed to make the mod as easy as possible.  No wires, no soldering here, no complexity here.  All you have to do is to unscrew the case, unscrew and remove the RF shield and original tray loading mechanism, pull off the original connector, push on the BLW connector, align the replacement tray and screw it in, screw back in the RF shield and the top half of the cover.  This kit is ingenuous.  Note that the replacement tray does not have a metal bar across the top, unlike those seen in the preview pictures like these :

One of the two stickers the kit comes with says "KEEP CALM AND DON'T PUSH DOWN" and the other one has a BLW graphical logo.  Not only are they a nice touch and reportedly of high quality, but they also remind people, if placed on the system, that the system has been modded and they should not push down.  This is important because considering the millions of NES front loaders made, there is no reason to assume that any particular NES would have one of these installed unless you knew what to look for.  The longer KEEP CALM AND DON'T PUSH DOWN fits very nicely on the lip of the front loader in front of the tray mechanism.  The font is Nintendo appropriate.

Most of the reviews I have seen online have remarked on the good build quality of the product.  However, most have also noted that the cartridges are much more difficult to remove than a true Nintendo connector.  ArcadeWorks indicated in its Kickstarter that's product would not have a death grip.  More recent revisions of the BLW should have a slightly less tight connector.  On the installation instructions paper that comes with the kit, the company explained that it made a compromise between the ease of removal and getting a good connection between the connector and the cartridge every time.

It is important to remember that this kit has to work with cartridges have have been around for twenty to thirty years already and have been used and abused.  It also has to work with unlicensed cartridges which did not use facilities up to Nintendo's manufacturing standards.  One reviewer commented that the grip strength of the BLW is similar to the cartridge connector in the NES top loader.  However, the top loader has the advantage of allowing the user a lot more room on the cartridge to grab it when they want to remove it.

While the kickstarter campaign ended in January, the BLW is also available from the ArcadeWorks website for $29.99 : https://www.arcadeworks.net/blw  Some kickstarter backers have complained that people have been obtaining these kits from the site earlier than they have received them.  This device will be in high demand because it does what it claims to do, is reasonably priced, easy to install and the reviews have been very positive.  ArcadeWorks states that current orders will be shipping at the end of July due to high demand.  I suspect that used video game stores and ebay resellers are probably buying these in large quantities so they can sell the piles of front loaders they have lying around.

Regarding the lockout chip, this is a useful feature when you are using unlicensed cartridges.  While Tengen cloned Nintendo's lockout chip, other companies like Camerica, AVE and Color Dreams used discrete circuitry to defeat the lockout chip by stunning it with negative voltages.  Nintendo got wise to these efforts and released its last front loader PCB revision, NES-CPU-11, with extra resistors and diodes to nullify these efforts.  If you have one of these PCBs, you may find that unlicensed cartridges will not work on it unless you disable the lockout chip or installing a BLW.

The BLW's board design is rather simple.  Except for the built-in Lockout chip, it is merely a pin extender.  The lockout chip stands in between the cartridge and the console's lockout chips, preventing communication between the cartridge and console's chips.  In the very first units shipped, the lockout chip was soldered to the pins on a separate PCB.  On the current units, it is surface mounted to the BLW's PCB.  The PCB sends the lockout chip's reset line to the cartridge, allowing for proper operation of the NES World Championships 1990 and the Super Mario Bros./Tetris/Nintendo World Cup cartridges.

Not all may be perfect, however.  krikzz, creator of the EverDrive N8, has criticized the "ridiculously thin wires at power supply lines" of the BLW.  While the traces are slightly thicker than the regular signal lines, he has raised concerns that the thinness of the traces may lead to instability when using an EverDrive because it is a much more complex device than a regular cartridge.  He suggests soldering thick wires to pins 1, 36 and 72 to solve any instability issues.

Conclusion

So why do I not have one yet?  The chief reason why is because my front loader's original pin connector works very well.  I mainly use it with an NES PowerPak these days, which I have owned since 2007.  I no longer blow into cartridges and use 99% isoprophyl alcohol to clean my cartridges.  99% is available at electronics stores, but 91% can be found in drug stores.  Even if you own a BLW, you need to keep your cartridges clean.  Keep scrubbing them with alcohol and Q-tips until you no longer see black on the Q-tip. Make sure to use both wet and dry applications of a Q-tip.  Alcohol evaporates much more quickly than water, so you can try your cartridges instantly.  Cartridge contacts in very poor condition may require electric contact cleaner or pink erasers.  Ultimately, the BLW is a very good product, is still readily available from ArcadeWorks and should be the new standard for NES replacement pin connectors.