SNES Classic - Sold Out Everywhere, Round 2

[Sho]

It will be much much shorter than that. Since the manufacturing process doesn't include aluminum and instead is made of plastic, it cuts down severely on the time needed to put these things together, as well as cost.

I would say put your money on no later than 1-2 months, and they will likely have double the orders on the way. The fact that they sold out without any real press or coverage on it is a very big deal. Once the embargo is lifted on Feb 7th, the interest in this console is gonna skyrocket through the roof. They will want to capitalize hard on this fact.

[Roranora]

My Life in Gaming's Super NT review and Kevtris interview

https://youtu.be/d_OW_t9RXEM

[Sho]

Finally got my own Super NT:



Gonna finally run it and compare with the SNES Classic & hackchi mod, an original SNES, and a modded SNES Jr. through the Framemeister.

[Souj]

Forgot to post this, but yesterday my Best Buy had about a dozen snes classics in stock.

[Spider-Dan]

Yeah, I walked into a local NorCal Target and they had a bunch of SNES Classics in stock. Scalpers are in for some lean times on this one.

[Sho]

Just going to say, the Super NT is amazing and worth the purchase. There are however, a few caveats that need to be addressed as well.

I'll do a complete write up when I come home from work.

[Corrderio]

Finally got my own Super NT

I swear you're an addict to the SNES.

Anyway, when does Nintendo normally announce restocks? Dug around a few stores over the weekend and still nada.

[Sho]

I swear you're an addict to the SNES.

Anyway, when does Nintendo normally announce restocks? Dug around a few stores over the weekend and still nada.

I am, I make no qualms about it, haha. XD

Also, follow this guy on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/Wario64?lang=en

Wario64 is always on the ball when it comes to dropping release schedules and information. Sometimes hours faster than Nintendo and various retailers.

[mistmonster]

I am, I make no qualms about it, haha. XD

Also, follow this guy on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/Wario64?lang=en

Wario64 is always on the ball when it comes to dropping release schedules and information. Sometimes hours faster than Nintendo and various retailers.

I hate twitter.. but it's so worth it to follow this guy. I never miss anything cool.

Classic SNES seems to be up at gamestop right now

https://www.gamestop.com/snes/consol...trV1iCZfaCN4SA

[Corrderio]

I am, I make no qualms about it, haha. XD

Also, follow this guy on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/Wario64?lang=en

Wario64 is always on the ball when it comes to dropping release schedules and information. Sometimes hours faster than Nintendo and various retailers.

Nice. Been craving some LttP but still no VC news for Switch.

[Roranora]

I can't pick a color for the Super NT.

the black looks good, classic would match its brethren, and the transparent is surprisingly good

[Sho]

I can't pick a color for the Super NT.

the black looks good, classic would match its brethren, and the transparent is surprisingly good

I honestly don't think you can go wrong with any of them. I personally found myself bouncing around from color to color until I settled on black. And even then, I may purchase a Classic version for the bedroom, lol.

[Roranora]

I ordered the black one and my first 8bitdo controller.

[Spider-Dan]

I'll do a complete write up when I come home from work.

[Sho]

My bad bro! I'm actually still writing it. It's quite extensive! XD

[Sho]

So here's my unbiased review on the Super NT. The long and short of it is that this machine is absolutely amazing, however this comes with a few caveats. I'll describe as much as I can below. Sorry if it reads like a review that's all over the place -- it's been a while since I've written something so extensive, lol.

As soon as you get the unit, it's recommended that you update the firmware to it's most recent version available (at the time of this writing it's v4.1). This is so as to increase compatibility with specific games and to stamp out bugs. Kevtris has made the promise to tackle every single bug that comes across his path in the development of the Super NT.

Console:

The Super NT console is very small across and wide (laying a cart over it flat will cover about 75% of it's surface area), but deceptively heavy for it's size. It weights about 1.20 lbs, and feels sturdy for it's form factor. There is a rubber bottom that covers the underside of the console and allows for a decent grip on most non-slick surfaces (the screws to unbolt the machine are hidden under this rubber, which is stuck on by adhesive). The gateway slot to insert games have pretty solid dust flaps, and the space below allows for virtually any cartridge (and a few 3rd party addons) to be inserted. However, a problem lies in the cartridge connector -- all carts feel very wobbly and flimsy when connected, if you choose to move it around. I would personally use both hands to insert and remove carts, since there is no Eject button. Thankfully, there is no death grip on your carts similar to the first rev Analogue NT as well as various clone consoles. There is an LED to the right of the console, which is pretty bright, and can be RGB modded internally. The system also comes with two pack in titles, Super Turrican: Director's Cut & Super Turrican 2.

The console itself can and will virtually play any cart, be it OEM, reproduction or any of the 3 regions' variations of cart (SNES, SFC, EU). All 2100+ games are supported, as well as the Satellaview games, should you be able to get them on a cart. Furthermore, all flash carts are also supported, outside of SNES PowerPak, which was non-working as of 4.0 without patching in unofficial firmware. The current popular flash cart is the SD2SNES, which allows for a great deal of the library to be accessed as well as the MSU-1 chip, a theoretical chip which was actualized into the FPGA of the SD2SNES, which allows for storage and streaming of large files (up to 4GB), mainly used for CD-like music quality and video onto patched ROMs. Finally, the Sufami Turbo, Super Gameboy & Super Gameboy 2 and various Disk copiers can also be played on the console, allowing for a much more expanded playable library. Also various multitap ports are all supported -- I used my Bomberman Multitap and was able to set up a 5 man match on Bomberman 5. However, while Light Gun games will run normally, they cannot be played due to gun incompatibility with LCD and LED televisions.

The console itself is littered with multiple options to customize within the UI, to suit your experience. The console comes with it's own built in opening jingle and animation, but this can be disabled, allowing you to boot directly to the menu, or boot the game up directly from the cart that's loaded. The aforementioned LED on the console can can be RGB tweaked and modded to suit your taste, from within the UI (you can also upload LED profiles as well from an SD card). Kevtris also managed to add a few hotkeys that can be accessed from using your controller, which allows for console resetting, SNT menu access, and confirm/select from within the console's UI. Unfortunately, there is no option to power on/off the console using the controller -- the Super NT's predecessor console, the NT Mini, had an FPGA chip that specifically handled the process of remotely turning on and off the console by keeping the controller ports active and listening for inputs. This of course was not passed on to the Super NT to save on costs. Finally, there is an internal NTSC to PAL switch that can be changed depending on the if you have an NTSC game or a PAL game. This function can also be used during gameplay, but caution should be advised that it will obviously speed up or slow down the game, depending on it's native region settings.


Controllers:

From the outset, the Super NT console does not come with any controllers at all -- you'll need to supply your own. This was done to cut down on costs for producing this unit in comparison to other clone consoles. However, despite this, for the typical consumer, this could already be seen as a yellow flag, if nothing else. Thankfully, both wired and wireless, OEM and aftermarket controllers are exceptionally plentiful, in the market and you shouldn't have a problem finding what you want to suit your fancy, if you don't already have a few laying around. The retro controller maker 8Bitdo has teamed up with Analogue to produce their own branded Bluetooth wireless controllers that are match the colors of each of the 4 variants of Super NT. These controllers also come with a Bluetooth receiver that is molded to fit the form factor of the SNES controller port. The receiver in and of itself is also special as well -- if you wish, you don't necessarily have to pair the 8Bitdo controller to it -- PS4, PS3, Wii U Pro, Wii Mote, as well as any other combination of 8Bitdo-branded controllers can also be paired to the receiver, allowing you many different ways of playing your Super NT wirelessly. If you don't wish to purchase the Super NT, this controller & receiver could also be used in any original SNES or clone console instead. In any case, the receivers are not hot swappable during gameplay due to the voltage that they drive -- unplugging them while the system is on can lead to bad things.

The controller's buttons have very tactile and natural feel, while the L & R triggers are slightly clicky, but responsive. The D-Pad could be seen as a minor downside, depending on who is using it -- while it is responsive, it's profile is slightly raised, and this minor change could throw off some people who are used to the slightly lower profile of an OEM SNES D-Pad or it's clone copies. Thankfully if this is an issue, the D-Pad (as well as all other buttons) can be replaced with OEM or aftermarket parts to suit your taste. You could also place some electrical tape along the pads to restrict the range of the D-Pad being pressed down, suppressing some of those incorrect inputs that might come about. The controllers themselves are very responsive to it's accompanying receiver, and inputs are registered with very minimal latency. However, there IS latency that exists and people who are sensitive to input lag or play timing dependent games may notice incorrect inputs or lag. In this instance, it will always be better to use a wired controller.

Video:

Next would be to discuss the video output. Another caveat can be seen here -- there is also only one video output on the back of the unit, and that is HDMI, similar to the SNES Classic. However, the picture is properly upscaled to full 1080p (by proper integer scaling) if you so desire, as well as 720p and 480p, all of which can be run at 60hz or 50hz, depending on your monitor (the Super NT will detect the possible outputs your monitor can display). The resulting image will come out crisp and beautiful, with perfect, sharp pixels that crushes clone consoles as well as the SNES Classic, and rivals and exceeds the output of a properly modded SNES & Framemeister (or OSSC) set up. In the menu, the Resolution, Screen Size, Scalers, and Scanlines can be set to preference. It was mentioned on Analogue's twitter account a while back that a DAC solution would be sold at a reasonable cost to allow for purists to be able to use the Super NT with CRT television sets, allowing for light gun games to be used as well.

Resolution is handled as stated above, while for the general screen sizes can be set to various aspect ratios -- 1:1, 8:7 (default), 4:3 for 16:9 & 4:3 for 16:10. I've seen that many will be just fine with 8:7 as is. For the scaler features, you can set scaler settings that are very similar to what is seen in emulators -- HQ2X/3X/4X is supported as well as Scale 2X & Scale 3X. All scalers are used to smooth out the pixels that are displayed. There is also an X-Ray scaler feature that was added on just because. Interpolation was also added and is on by default, but can be disabled off by the vertical or the horizontal. Kevtris added this feature to negate any screen tearing as the screen scrolls vertically or horizontally, and it's one of his prized additions. Kevtris spent over a month just working on the Scaler function alone to ensure functionality.

The scanline feature has also been added, but in it's function, it matches (but not exceeds) the scanline functionality seen in the Framemeister. Normal or Hybrid scanlines can be used, and you can dial in the depth, similar to the Framemeister. The big addition to this however is the Gamma Boost -- you can turn on this feature to brighten the image upon using scanlines, allowing for a much brighter image than what is seen in a Framemeister set up. There has been discussion on various forums that leaving Gamma Boost on regardless is a good idea. Moving beyond this, there is an ADDTIONAL function known as "Advanced Mode" -- in which it adds additional functionality to the video features. Since Interpolation was added, allowing for reduced and negated shimmering effects, the advanced features can allow you to stretch the image to a size that you like, ignoring integer scaling altogether. The Width, H. Position, Height, & V. Position can be adjusted, and the Super NT will set a comment if your scaling matches an integer scale. There's also a cropping feature that was also added, but little use may be seen in this, and it came as an added feature of the internal scaler being developed.

Finally, Advanced Mode adds two final options, "Extra Features" & "Buffer Mode," however it's use is only limited to few select titles. "Extra Features" allows to display 64 sprite tiles per line over the 32 normally displayed by the SNES. Sprite flicker isn't a big deal with the SNES in the first place, and this could be left on forever without issue. Mode 5 & 6 Interlacing can be also disabled for a few titles, but it's limited mainly to Ranma 1/2, a game that sets itself to interlaced mode upon play. Pseudo Hi Res blending is also pretty much limited to games like Kirby 3, which will blend pseudo hi-res objects and textures with in the game itself (clouds, water effects), mimicking a similar effect that was active when playing on a CRT. The final mode, "Buffer Mode," allows you to select one of three modes for use during game play, Zero Delay, Fully Buffered, and Single Buffer modes. Zero Delay is set by default -- the system renders the games in real time, so inputs should register as soon as they are pressed. Zero Delay really shines on any monitor that has very low (21ms) delay, usually OLED models under Game Mode. Fully Buffered allows the Super NT to run at the original speed of 60.08Hz, allowing for a more "authentic" experience, at the expense of the system dropping an active frame every 10 or so seconds. Single Buffer allows for no dropped frames, but causes a very visible screen tear to creep up the screen every 10 seconds instead. I personally recommend the Zero Delay, while speedrunners will likely find themselves playing with Fully Buffered. Laypeople who just want to play won't likely see a difference in any of the modes and should just stick with Zero Delay. Comparing Zero Delay to the Framemeister, the Framemeister has to take extra processing time due to having a Low Pass Filter built in, adding to the latency on the video chain. This comes out to be a 1-2 frame difference, between the FM and your monitor. Having a console that is virtually lagless out of the box is a boon for any one getting into the retro gaming/SNES scene.

There is some buzz going on in the Shmups & AtariAge forums (where the Super NT's lead engineer Kevtris dwells) concerning the video output of the Super NT. A prominent person in the retro scene, Firebrandx, has made mention that the Super NT actually does not properly display the correct RGB values. He has taken a few screen caps, comparing it's output to Higan, an emulator that is known for it's extreme accuracy to the original SNES and it's output. He relates the issue mainly to a gamma setting that Kevtris used. Kevtris has also made mention that he set color values by "eyeballing" his PVM, which could have been part of the problem of accuracy (not cross checking with Higan). Analogue has made an official statement that the color issue is being worked on, and the problem should be solved in short working order.

Audio:

The audio is simply awesome, and is a very well received feature at the moment with Super NT owners. The Super NT samples the 32KHz audio signal internally and interpolates it to a clean 48KHz signal. Since there is no analogue down-conversion analogue like in the SNES, your ears are treated to a vibrant digital signal that's free of any audio hum or buzz that is generated from a digital to analogue process. However, a negative could be seen in how the Super Gameboy/2 works -- since it's more or less the internals of a gameboy built into the cart, the systems internal functions are also handled by the cart and not the SNES (or in this case, the Super NT). This leads to a very simple audio pass-through for the Super Gameboy to the Super NT -- audio buzz included. Thankfully under the Audio settings you can completely disable cartridge audio or lower/raise the audio to taste. Aside from this minor nuisance, the audio simply kicks, sounds great, and is miles above various clone consoles.

Conclusion:

Should you buy the Super NT? Without talking about the below feature and simply based on the featured merits, I'd say that the Super NT is a solid purchase for people who already have a large library of SNES titles, or is interested in getting into collecting for the system. You will find no better looking console right out of the box, and surely you won't find a clone system that is so fully featured with nearly 100% compatibility right out of the box. In this sense, there is no point in getting an upscaler set up and original console, as almost all of the features you'd want in that will be in this console, for about 200-400$ cheaper. If you DO have an upscaler, the argument could go both ways -- you could do without having the Super NT and be just fine, or wait til the Jailbreak feature is more fully fleshed out. HOWEVER if you are not so much interested in such premium settings, you could just as well settle for the SNES Classic, hack it, and pack it up with 100-300 of your favorite titles for cheap. If you want the best possible experience with one of Nintendo's most beloved gaming eras, the Super NT is well worth the purchase.

---

Jailbreak:

Today on 02/14/18, Smokemonster uploaded a custom jailbreak feature for the Super NT, allowing for SNES ROMs to be played off of an inserted SD card. You simply set up the root and folders on the SD card, plug the card into the Super NT, and the jailbreak function will be immediately available to you. No special graphics chips are supported yet, though it's no longer an impossible task to make this happen. Despite that fact, the jailbreak allows for ROMs to be played, immediately increasing the value of the Super NT by leaps and bounds in comparison to not only all clone consoles & the SNES Classic, but now it invalidates the need to purchase flash carts like the Super Everdrive & Super PowerPak. If you have either of these two flash carts and are greatly interested in the Super NT, I would sell them immediately to get as much value as possible from them before purchasing. However, the SD2SNES flash cart still reigns supreme, due to it's compatibility with not only the MSU-1 chip, but just about every other graphics chip outside of the SFX/SFX2 chip. When comparing the SNES Core to the SNES Classic, the SNES core is at a disadvantage yet again due to lack of chip support, but it's accuracy for the current games that can be run is a cut above the accuracy that a hacked SNES Classic will drive. By comparison the accuracy for games within the SNES Classic's emulator can be enhanced in various ways, but the problem lies in the fact that constant tweaking will be needed to achieve this. This is also done on a case by case, game by game basis, which can lead to a very tedious slog to get all of your games running decently well. None of these problems are a factor for the Super NT, and any in-game bugs that do come up are squashed in short order by Kevtris within official firmware updates. There is no support for other console cores yet, though with how the Github's formatting is displayed for this jailbreak, there are plans to add more in the future.


What is interesting about this jailbreak is "how" it came about. Previously with the Nt Mini, Kevtris appeared a week after the consoles release and added a jailbreak function himself to the console, allowing for almost 20 different 8-bit consoles to be played by the Nt Mini (including the Sega Master System, Gameboy & Gameboy Color, Atari 2600/7200 as well as NES ROMs), all in properly upscaled vibrant RGB. Other functions were also added such as NES ROM dumping, as well as built in Game Genie cheats. Overnight, this transformed the $449 dollar premium NES console into something that was much more valuable to the retro community. This also lead to a precedence being perceived by the community (I was also part of this group), to see this magic once again be implemented into the Nt Mini's successor, the Super NT. However, what has been happening for the last few months, is that Kevtris has been completely mum on any jailbreak features being added, even to well known players in the retro gaming community ho are usually in the know of these things. The mindset is that of Kevtris simply being under an NDA set by Analogue and possible fall out over releasing a jailbreak for the Nt Mini after production. Smokemonster, a certain figure in the emulation scene, is known for being something of the spiritual successor to the No-Intro group, a group of coders and enthusiasts who made it a goal to create ROM packs of entire consoles, complete with with fully clean, and headerless ROMs for easy use and acquisition. Smokemonster hasn't partcularly been known as a person who is a programmer in general or even an engineer. And yet he was the one to release the jailbreak feature for the Super NT instead, while Kevtris is continuing to remain mum and closed on answering any questions. The general consensus is that Smokemonster has now become the middleman for Kevtris' jailbreak patches and advancements, and that we will see much more of his work soon.

[Sho]

Finally got around to installing the Jailbreak for the Super NT.



Initial jailbreak and I can say it pretty much kicks the crap out of the SNES Classic, even with the current bugs it has (a save bug). With a few more patches, I'll straight up say that it invalidates the Classic completely, as well as most flashcarts. There are rumors that full support for the NES and other 8-bit consoles are also on the way as well.

[Roranora]

pretty sweet, I'll have to see about this when the Super NT shows up, maybe early next week

I need to collect and curate a rom collection

[Spider-Dan]

The release of this has changed the game greatly for me:

Spoiler: show

I bought one. The image quality could be better - it's equivalent to a cheap component cable, with the occasional appearance of the wavy lines you get from poorly shielded cables - but it doesn't do any upscaling, and so appears to be lag free. I ran some input lag tests with the (emulated) Mega Drive 240p Test Suite ROM and the results were about the same as what I get on a CRT.

This is kind of a tough decision for me, because I LOVE SCANLINES and the OG Xbox emus (I have?) can't insert them. But my emu suite for OG Xbox is just... incredibly robust. With scanline support, I would have zero hesitation in saying that it absolutely destroys every emu solution out there. I'm not sure if any of you have heard of ResurrectionXtras, but basically, for all the cartridge-based consoles (+PCE/Duo CD) there are built-in preview videos for each game, scanned manuals, internet walkthroughs, JPG maps, Game Genie/Action Replay codes, and even TV commercials. It's beefy.

So with the introduction of HDMI cables for OG Xbox, if there turns out to be a way to do scanlines, that's GG for everything else in my book as far as emulation is concerned. My ROM lists are fully curated already.

[Sho]

That's pretty tight bro. I've never liked the XBOX as a console, but I like how all emulation solutions keep getting better and better on these older consoles. This cable is in the same vein as HD Retrovision cables for the SNES & Genesis