Hello, gentle friends. I’ve put the wraps on another Anatomy of Games series: Metroid Fusion. If for some weird reason you have been following this site but not that one… maybe check it out?
I’ve also reviewed the Analogue NT, that fabulously expensive upmarket NES. I spent a lot of time working and reworking this article, because I had to deal with the issue of pricing, something I always try to sidestep. But, any conversation about the NT online eventually degenerates into people making drive-by “gee whiz” comments about the sticker price, which, yeah, is high. But it falls very much into the “boutique goods” category, a small manufacturing run of highly specialized hardware designed to meet the interests of a very specific fan base. I don’t know the actual economics of the NT, but my guess is that it doesn’t have anywhere near the tremendous margins people seem to assume. Boutique products like the NT are incredibly common in fashion, furniture, automobiles, music, liquor, etc.; but video gamers don’t see much value in their medium of choice, so this comes off as some sort of bizarre, alien invention. Anyway, it’s a pretty impressive device — definitely not for everyone.
In any case, I just want to spread the gospel of RGB-modded classic consoles and upscalers. Now that I’ve seen the light, I’m a huge fan. There are cheaper solutions than the NT, and if you have a substantial collection of classic cartridges, you should at least consider the prospect of seeing them in the best possible light.
I appreciate the recent focus on console RGB outputs — it’s a niche topic but it’s one that I know very little about and am pretty interested in. I know the Analogue NT is out of my price range, but I could see my way to maybe modding my old NES, someday.
I’ve bored you with this story a couple times already, but I’ve got a nice, reasonably-sized CRT TV that accepts component inputs but needs to be repaired. That’s how I’m hoping to play some of my old games at higher resolutions. Still need to do some reading up on converting RGB to component and all that business. (In the meantime, I stocked up on S-video adapters for all my old consoles back in the early 2000’s and those could work as a stopgap. Not applicable for the NES, of course, but good for the two generations that followed it.)
Don’t know if there are any more articles coming in this series or if you think there’s much else to tell at this point; you and your team have certainly gone into a lot of welcome detail already. But I’d love to see more if you’ve got any in mind.
Hey, no need to justify the purchase to me. I’ve been chasing a bit of visual fidelity myself. You’ve got an honest-to-goodness professional reason to do so, and if you don’t have the time and/or skills to install the NES RGB mod, this is a perfectly viable route to go.
I was a bit lazy with my own pursuits, although I’ve been tempted to get an XRGB-Mini at some point. I did snag a SCART cable and a RGB-to-Component converter for my Genesis gaming needs, because seriously, the Composite on that system looks awful. I’ve got the skills for most of the mods, just not much time!