yaros wrote:
Thank you koitsu. It is weird to find out about top loader. I came to Canada from Ukraine 4 years ago, and I didn't know top loader even existed before I started digging into NES dev. I was expecting top loader to be not just smaller but better, plus A/V should give much better picture than RF. Interesting what caused Nintendo to ditch A/V output.
Then you'll find this just as interesting:
1983: Famicom (HVC-001, i.e. the original) released -- RF output only
1985: Front-loader NES (NES-001, i.e. the original) released -- A/V and RF output
1992: Top-loader NES (NES-101, a.k.a "NES 2") released -- RF output only
1993: AV Famicom (HVC-101, a.k.a. Famicom AV) released -- A/V output only
Are you planning on doing development with an
actual dev board (i.e. a cartridge modded/rewired to support an EPROM/EEPROM), or will you be using a
PowerPak or
EverDrive N8?
When you're ready for real alpha or beta testing of your game/thing, be sure to have people test it on actual hardware if possible (read: not PowerPak or EverDrive), *and* have someone test it on an AVS, as well as a RetroN 5. You want to make sure your thing works on everything as possible. PPU quirks and mapper compatibility are the two areas that tend to vary.
If you asked me me personally, mano y mano, which NES to go with, I'd tell you this (and this should not become a topic of debate, because it's just an opinion):
Just buy an original
unmodded NES-001 and be done with it. Yes, it has a more finicky cartridge connector than the NES-101, but the NES-101's RF-only and is subject to the "jail bar" problem that, to my knowledge, nobody has solved 100% reliably, 100% of the time, on 100% of the revisions that suffer from it (the vast majority do; the ones which don't are extremely rare and involve a completely different PCB layout done by Nintendo, apparently done near the *very VERY* end of the NES-101's lifetime (hence why they're so rare)). I say
unmodded because there are a ridiculous number of systems now that have had dodgy and crappy mod jobs done to them of all sorts; those stupid "stereo" mods are the worst of the bunch, but botched up S-Video or component or HDMI jobs are common too. A lot of these dodgy jobs involve heavy use of hot glue, so your NES ends up
looking like this. By going unmodded, you know you're getting something that hasn't been screwed with, and thus is pristine.
If you really want a modded NES (excluding the stupid "stereo" mod), then the only one I'd go with would be one with the
HiDef NES mod done by Kevtris and
Game-Tech (for either NES-001 or NES-101 -- doesn't matter). I don't particularly like the
NESRGB (matter of personal opinion), and you won't find
anyone selling the
PC-10 mod (not to mention that PPU is not quite the same as what's in the commonplace NES). If you wanted the NES modded, then pay someone professional to do the mod -- get it done by Game-Tech or someone he or Kevtris recommends. Pay the money for a proper job, don't rely on some teenager who learned how to solder on Youtube and loves hot glue.
Otherwise, I'd suggest considering
RetroUSB's AVS. While this isn't a "real" NES, it's basically the entire NES (CPU and PPU) emulated at the hardware level using an FPGA, so you could call it a "NES clone" if you want. It's done by bunnyboy (a name you might know; he also made the PowerPak) and is very a good product. Well, except for the controllers -- those are awful, get yourself a real NES controller. ;-)
I wouldn't suggest the RetroN 5 for development -- you might as well just stick to emulators on your PC/Mac/whatever.
I'm actually in the process of getting rid of all of my NES games (almost all gone!) and NES + Famicom hardware, and plan on using my AVS + PowerPak exclusively. I try hard to get homebrew games on actual carts too, just because I believe in supporting those efforts. If I encounter a game which doesn't work quite right on the PowerPak or AVS, then I'll do my best to try and get the cartridge.