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[dracula_x]

I don't understand the point of this.

yep

More games?

you can order similar device from China for like $20-30 and it will work out-of-box without any "hacks"

 

[jshackles]

Sam from Ars here. Nice. I'd be curious to hear how performance in Castlevania III, Battletoads, Tengen Ms. Pac-Man, and Micro Machines is on this. (Those are slightly tougher to emulate, but the NES doesn't throw up as many emulation complications as other systems, so I imagine it'll render those just fine.)

Hi Sam,

I tested Battletoads (at least so far as the speeder bike section - my reflexes aren't what they used to be) but everything appears to be working fine. I used the savestate function on Battletoads before the bike section so I was able to get unlimited "retries" so I can report that the save / load functionality works and there weren't any graphical glitches or other complications such as input lag.

I haven't tried the others but I'll give them a shot and report back.

EDIT: Castlevania III works well and I was able to beat the first level no problem. No noticeable input lag at all. The only graphical issue I encountered was when I picked up the "cross item" that clears the screen, rather than flashing (like I remember on the NES) it did this weird white screen and then slowly started updating as the sprites moved - it's a bit difficult to explain. Either way, it lasted for about 2 seconds then it was right back to normal, so it definitely doesn't interfere much with playing the game but I thought I'd mention it.

 

[davidwhangchoi]

I was after this as well, mission accomplished

very nice!!! it goes well with the letter =)

just posting in case someone accuses me of not owning if i try it

 

[DonMigs85]

yep




you can order similar device from China for like $20-30 and it will work out-of-box without any "hacks"

Read what Mango Madness posted on the previous page

 

[thecjm]

I decided to give this a shot, was really wanting to see if it could handle something like Dragon Quest Warrior IV.

The process itself didn't take too long to accomplish, but I was following a machine-translated guide so I was sure to read and re-read each section carefully. I've done a few mods like this in the past and I understand electronics and programming so I thought it was worth attempting. I used Windows 10. The basic process went like this:

• Play Super Mario Bros (the first one) and create a save state in the first slot
• Hook NES Classic to computer's USB, load into dev mode (hold reset, then press power, let go of reset after 3 seconds)
• Use provided application to install USB drivers for the "Unknown Device" aka NES Classic
• Dump the console's uboot and kernel via USB using the provided Hakchi program
• Using the provided tools, recompiled the NES ROM file along with the chosen game's label image as a JPEG
• Unpacked the kernel file using Hakchi
• Copied the newly compiled ROM to the specified folder in the Hakchi directory
• Rebuild the kernel file using Hakchi
• Hit the "memboot" button in Hakchi, after which it shut down the console
• Restarted the console in dev mode
• Hit "Flash Kernel" in Hakchi, which took about 90 seconds

After that the console restarted and I had this in my menu!

Started up the game and it worked great. The volume is pretty high but there is a setting for that when compiling the ROM that I left at default but I'll probably lower on my next attempt. The graphics look sharp and everything appears to be working as far as I can tell - the only graphical issues I've seen are those that are present on the original NES so it appears everything is in order.

Next, I'm going to try flashing a few more games at once, then I'm going to try deleting an existing game. That is, if I can resist just spending a few days playing DQ4.

So it's about as complicated as setting up a RetroPie, but limited to 60 games?

 

[Carcetti]

yep




you can order similar device from China for like $20-30 and it will work out-of-box without any "hacks"

*cough* Really? I wanted a mini NES for my kids for some gaming history education but they sold out here on day 0.

 

[SonicMegaDrive]

Oh, baby. Now to figure out what 30 games to add.

Batman
Castlevania 3
Battletoads
Tetris
Contra
Tmnt
Tmnt 2
Tmnt 3
Mega man 1 and 3
Rockin kats
Ducktales
Rescue rangers
Darkwing duck
Rbi baseball
Bucky O'Hare
Shatterhand
Adventure Island
Dragon Warrior
Journey to silius
Bomberman 2
Mighty final fight
Double Dragon
River City Ransom
RC ProAm
Little Samson
Guardian Legend
Life Force
Blaster Master
Bionic Commando

Bam!

60 isnt nearly enough.

 

[jshackles]

Oh, baby. Now to figure out what 30 games to add.

You can also remove some or all of the built in games if you have something on the console that doesn't fit into your "Top 60"

 

[Chucker]

Got mine working, picked 60, flashed, tested.
All good.

Forgot to make Jackal one of the 60.
Rekt

Edit: Interesting, the "seizure protection" seems naked into the emulator. The lightning in the beginning of CV3 triggered it.

 

[SonicMegaDrive]

You can also remove some or all of the built in games if you have something on the console that doesn't fit into your "Top 60"

Lets see... Ice Climber's gotta go. If we can do FDS games I'd definitely replace Mario Bros. with that superior version. Hell, it definitely needs Super Mario Bros. 2 JP action.

 

[davidwhangchoi]

Got mine working, picked 60, flashed, tested.
All good.

Forgot to make Jackal one of the 60.
Rekt

Edit: Interesting, the "seizure protection" seems naked into the emulator. The lightning in the beginning of CV3 triggered it.

oh! Top Gunner is awesome =)

 

[Shiggy]

Great news. Now everyone can add Urban Champion.

 

[Chucker]

oh! Top Gunner is awesome =)

Yeah... I may clear out A few things now after I think about it. I could just listen to the music from that game forever.

 

[v1oz]

Russian hackers just have to spoil every party.

 

[AgeEighty]

You are a terrible poster, and can't be older than 13. Go away and never return.

Sure, I'll get right on that.

By the way, I'm curious to see if some kind of limit is reached on internal memory even before hitting 60 games, depending on the size of ROMs. And how titles with special considerations (battery save, coprocessor) are handled (or not).

 

[indask8]

Got mine working, picked 60, flashed, tested.
All good.

Forgot to make Jackal one of the 60.
Rekt

Edit: Interesting, the "seizure protection" seems naked into the emulator. The lightning in the beginning of CV3 triggered it.

Castlevania 3 works ?

Amazing, I thought they wouldn't bother implementing MMC5 since very few Nintendo games uses it.

EDIT: jshackles confirmed it just above I should have read the thread more closely.

 

[Chucker]

Castlevania 3 works ?

Amazing, I thought they wouldn't bother implementing MMC5 since very few Nintendo games uses it.

Yup, works fine afaik. Played up to the first fork in the path.

 

[Hermii]

you can order similar device from China for like $20-30 and it will work out-of-box without any "hacks"

The emulator wouldn't be as good, and you get to have all your nes games in one place.

 

[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

yep




you can order similar device from China for like $20-30 and it will work out-of-box without any "hacks"

C'mon. This is an official hardware. Forget the box from China that can play Commodore 64 games along with PS1 games. It's more fun and challenging tinkering with an official hardware. Hacks are fun. Life is all about hacks and doing what you're told not to do.

It shouldn't be this hard to understand. Like why was there a major backlash at Linux being removed from PS3 when you can buy a far efficient Linux machine for much less? It's because it's official.

It has Nintendo's Seal of Approval, and tinkering within that Seal is fun! I would love to own NES Mini for this hack.

 

[-shadow-]

I know that Castlevania 3 works, but do the Japanese versions of these games also work, or is the emulator actually limited to the NES itself? I'd love playing the Japanese release on the TV using this!

Edit: Interesting, the "seizure protection" seems naked into the emulator. The lightning in the beginning of CV3 triggered it.

I understand why the filter is there and I'm totally cool with it. But man Nintendo needs to give the option to disable it. Have it on by standard, that way they should've covered themselves from problems.

Edit: Anyone tried out a 50Hz ROM? I'm curious to see how the emulator would handle that. Just out of curiosity.

 

[Marty Chinn]

I know that Castlevania 3 works, but do the Japanese versions of these games also work, or is the emulator actually limited to the NES itself? I'd love playing the Japanese release on the TV using this!


I understand why the filter is there and I'm totally cool with it. But man Nintendo needs to give the option to disable it. Have it on by standard, that way they should've covered themselves from problems.

I'd imagine the emulator can't differentiate which region a rom is from.

 

[DonMigs85]

Nah. I'm good, thanks. And at least my posting is free of ad hominems.

By the way, I'm curious to see if some kind of limit is reached on internal memory even before hitting 60 games, depending on the size of ROMs. And how titles with special considerations (battery save, coprocessor) are handled (or not).

The mapper tells you if a ROM is unsupported, and I doubt space is an issue since there's no NES game bigger than 1MB.

 

[Jack The Nipper]

Is the emulation in this unit worth it?

Limiting factor of

60 games
Is the emulation actually better than other methods?

I'd rather just have more games unless this is just the best emulation ever.

But I figure it will be nodded further anyways. Always thought the emulators with a list and video of game playing was perfect

 

[AgeEighty]

The mapper tells you if a ROM is unsupported, and I doubt space is an issue since there's no NES game bigger than 1MB.

And what's the memory space on it again? Do we know what each title needs to have allocated for save states and such?

 

[GreekWolf]

very nice!!! it goes well with the letter =)


just posting in case someone accuses me of not owning if i try it

Iron Mike wrote that letter? That's ludacris. I take my hands off to him.

 

[VARIA]

This news really needs a separate tutorial thread like the Wii U softmod one.

 

[DonMigs85]

And what's the memory space on it again? Do we know what each title needs to have allocated for save states and such?

512MB,so I'm sure there's tons of room to spare. Savestates are also a few hundred kilobytes at most.

 

[AgeEighty]

512MB,so I'm sure there's tons of room to spare. Savestates are also a few hundred kilobytes at most.

That plus revelations about features buried in the UI make me wonder if they had grander plans for the NES Mini at one point, or if they designed it with future revisions in mind. I'd say updated releases look more likely.

EDIT: Then again, I just remembered someone saying that all the extra space is likely only because in this day and age the cheapest memory available was that size.

 

[RamaTheVoice]

And here I was thinking they should've shipped the EU version with Nintendo World Cup instead of Tecmo Bowl. Now I get to fix it myself!

Thanks so much for the instructions and game suggestions people, gonna get around to this ASAP!

 

[The_Super_Inframan]

Why not just buy a raspberry pi for less money if your goal is to play more stuff than Nintendo delivers with the classic?

 

[petran79]

Probably emulator does not support that many mappers, due to the limited amount of supported games.

Some games may not even run, apart from the popular ones

 

[chrislowe]

Only own 14 nes games myself so 60 games limit is far off anyway.
Playing shatterhand without composite-shimmersignal sounds nice.

 

[peanutbutterlatte]

I'm going to be all over an N64 classic by the time it rolls round...

 

[Chindogg]

Some guy in that reddit thread made a small program that does the majority of the work for you. including installing the USB drive. Get it here.

Warning: it will false flag your antivirus. Check it out and it's fine, whitelist it or ignore it if you wish.

 

[Mieu]

I think the whole NES library is only 4GB or something like that.

 

[Red Liquorice]

Cool. I assume it works with Famicom mini too?

 

[samn]

Well, I mean, if you're going to use a USB to install games on this thing, why bother getting it to begin with? Why not just stick with an emulator?

because I'd have to buy a steam link which doesn't work so well over my network or drag my gaming PC downstairs

 

[Mexen]

Can't we go deeper, hackers? Each slot occupied by a game in the UI is converted into a 'folder' instead.

Now each folder can 'contain' 60 games. 60 folders by 60 games = 3600 games.

 

[RamaTheVoice]

Can't we go deeper, hackers? Each slot occupied by a game in the UI is converted into a 'folder' instead.

Now each folder can 'contain' 60 games. 60 folders by 60 games = 3600 games.

Maybe this could be done with ROMs of multi-game carts?

 

[L.O.R.D]

Maybe this could be done with ROMs of multi-game carts?

This,I've seen ROMs that contains multiple games on one nes cartridge.
Maybe this will help.
For example,an icon that open homebrew menu to let you play more then 100 games.

 

[Kaneda Shotaro]

I think the whole NES library is only 4GB or something like that.

It's less than 1GB I believe

 

[The_Super_Inframan]

It's less than 1GB I believe

Way less

 

[StayDead]

I decided to give this a shot, was really wanting to see if it could handle something like Dragon Quest Warrior IV.

The process itself didn't take too long to accomplish, but I was following a machine-translated guide so I was sure to read and re-read each section carefully. I've done a few mods like this in the past and I understand electronics and programming so I thought it was worth attempting. I used Windows 10. The basic process went like this:

• Play Super Mario Bros (the first one) and create a save state in the first slot
• Hook NES Classic to computer's USB, load into dev mode (hold reset, then press power, let go of reset after 3 seconds)
• Use provided application to install USB drivers for the "Unknown Device" aka NES Classic
• Dump the console's uboot and kernel via USB using the provided Hakchi program
• Using the provided tools, recompiled the NES ROM file along with the chosen game's label image as a JPEG
• Unpacked the kernel file using Hakchi
• Copied the newly compiled ROM to the specified folder in the Hakchi directory
• Rebuild the kernel file using Hakchi
• Hit the "memboot" button in Hakchi, after which it shut down the console
• Restarted the console in dev mode
• Hit "Flash Kernel" in Hakchi, which took about 90 seconds

After that the console restarted and I had this in my menu!

Started up the game and it worked great. The volume is pretty high but there is a setting for that when compiling the ROM that I left at default but I'll probably lower on my next attempt. The graphics look sharp and everything appears to be working as far as I can tell - the only graphical issues I've seen are those that are present on the original NES so it appears everything is in order.

Next, I'm going to try flashing a few more games at once, then I'm going to try deleting an existing game. That is, if I can resist just spending a few days playing DQ4.

Thanks for the guide! Not too sure if I'll do it yet, but useful to know!

 

[Muskieratboi]

Remember guys, this is only the *start*.

The teardowns revealed that the NES classic has an AllWinner R16 SoC.

That's a Quad core Cortex A7 with a Mali400.

ARM CPU, sure, but Double the GFLOPS of the Wii.


Nintendo could make an SNES, N64 and Camecube Mini with exactly the same hardware. All they'd have to do was upgrade the NAND.

Hacking wise, it would be possible to get the thing running Dolphin.

 

[Cepheus]

I didn't expect this to get hacked so quickly. Awesome, but yeah, if Nintendo patches this out of future units sold, scalpers will be rolling in money.

 

[timshundo]

Remember guys, this is only the *start*.

The teardowns revealed that the NES classic has an AllWinner R16 SoC.

That's a Quad core Cortex A7 with a Mali400.

ARM CPU, sure, but Double the GFLOPS of the Wii.


Nintendo could make an SNES, N64 and Camecube Mini with exactly the same hardware. All they'd have to do was upgrade the NAND.

Hacking wise, it would be possible to get the thing running Dolphin.

I camecube

 

[GhostTrick]

Remember guys, this is only the *start*.

The teardowns revealed that the NES classic has an AllWinner R16 SoC.

That's a Quad core Cortex A7 with a Mali400.

ARM CPU, sure, but Double the GFLOPS of the Wii.


Nintendo could make an SNES, N64 and Camecube Mini with exactly the same hardware. All they'd have to do was upgrade the NAND.

Hacking wise, it would be possible to get the thing running Dolphin.

With that hardware, gamecube isnt happening. And N64 isnt guaranted for all games.

 

[GreenMonkey]

Maybe this could be done with ROMs of multi-game carts?

Yeah...maybe a ROM of an Everdrive somehow?

Wouldn't have the nice GUI though.

 

[Impotaku]

Wonder if it supports Mr Gimmick seeing as it has a rather unique mapper.

 

[valippo]

Has anyone tried this on a european nes classic mini?