With the very possibility that Analogue can drop a sub $200 NT Mini with HDMI only and plastic enclosure I wonder if Bunnyboy has even considered making an improved AVS to counter such a product.  

I mean lets face it and I mean no offense when I say this, but if Analogue were to release such a product it would make the current AVS irrelevant.  It would objectively be the superior product at a similar price point.  So, I say why wait for your competitors to make a move that could potentially threaten your product?  I love my AVS, but I'd be a liar if I say I wouldn't sell it off if a cost reduced NT Mini were to be released. I mean the only other alternative would be for Bunnyboy to drop the price of the current AVS substancially.  Now, I know what you might be thinking, everything I said is just hypothetical and I agree, but its still a high possibility.  

What would you like to see in a AVS MK.2 if Bunnyboy even proposed such a product? 

What does the AVS need? Better 1080p support? If you have a 4K TV, you want 720p output. The Nt has more nice to have features, analog output that most people probably never use, more video scaling options that people probably rarely have set to something that isn't an integer scale, an audio player you mess around with once... The best feature is bringing up menus in-game, but again it's only something I cared about when initially setting it up.

Right now the AVS has NA scoreboard, horizontal interpolation, and correctly spaced controller ports which the Nt doesn't. If anything, the Nt needs a revision to fix the awful cart slot, incorrectly spaced controller ports, and inconvenient placed combined power/reset button. I’m assuming fixing the stupid aluminum case is a given  

Not to hate on either, I think both are great. The experience of playing them is virtually identical.

1080p support would be nice. Most 4K Displays handle 1080p just as well as 720p, sometimes even better in terms of input lag. With proper interpolation added non integer scaling is not a problem. Super NT proves that.

Being able to bring up the menu in game is incredibly convienent. Also, palette loading would be a sweet feature as well. I'm just saying Bunnyboy has to think of the possibility of a cost reduced NT Mini possibly threatening his AVS. And as I said before why wait for your competition to hurt you?

I think he'd just sell off what stock he has remaining and move on to other NES projects if it came down to it.

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Thats probably the most realistic thing that would actually happen.  

The best option is easily the HD kit mod for the NES, especially since everything seems to be compatible with it and no issues. The only downside is that it’s more expensive. After that, who cares?!?

As far as 1080p on a 4K, I understand the math, however 1080p on a 4K obviously has a better picture than 720p. If you try it sometime, I think you’ll agree.

It sure doesn't sound like you love the Nt.

Anyway, what do you mean by "incorrectly spaced controller ports"? I don't have either system, but I'm looking at getting one.
 

I imagine he's talking about the extra space between controller ports on the NT vs the AVS, which I believe is closer to the original design.




If that's the case though it's an incredibly silly complaint.

Right.... Talk about critical millimeters.

About the incorrectly spaced controller ports, it does make some accessories like the NES satellite not compatible. So its not just an aesthetic thing. Also, let's be real, the scoreboard is hardly used

Peripherals like the Four Score and Satellite don't work on the Nt or Nt Mini. 720p integer scales to 4K, 1080p does not... Come on guys if you're going to complain AVS needs to be better, at least understand what's good and bad!

And before someone says "Why do you need a Four Score, what a dumb complaint", it's a great controller extension and adds turbo! I always use one, except on my Nt of course.

Meeeehhhh. I'd STILL land in the "who needs a Four Score" camp. Use a different controller if you want turbo. You're really stretching when you call the Four Score your reason for needing something on a console that already has 4 controller slots.

I'd not say it's a dumb complaint, it's totally valid. It's just incredibly niche. I can count on one hand the amount of people who would ACTUALLY use a Four Score on an NT if given the option.

And yeah, Scoreboard was honestly THE reason I bought an AVS over an NT. And I am incredibly disappointed with that aspect of the system.

For $500, the Nt should cook my breakfast, in addition to being compatible with all my peripherals. I have no idea why they didn't fix it for the Nt mini. It's such a dumb easy thing. My main complaint with the Nt is the loosey goosey metal cart slot. I don't have much problem with the technology. AVS has dumb things too like the plastic flap design, especially when using a Famicom cart, although the front loading design means it doesn't have to sit on top of my entertainment center.

I think a cheap Nt would be stiff competition for an AVS sure, I just don't see what major improvements you'd need from the AVS that switch from one to the other would be worth it, besides better support for those legacy 1080p TVs  

Yeah to your point, I'm not sure the AVS NEEDS any improvements.

Agreed re: a cheaper NT being stiff competition for the current AVS, but really they'd just end up roughly on par with each other, once you take away the things that justify the NT Mini's price point.

Given that, he doesn't really need to answer Analogue with anything until Analogue actually announces something (which IMO if they had something in the pipeline, they would have done it by now.) It's not cheap to make these consoles, especially if you're essentially a one man operation.
 

I hate this board's software.  

1080p is an integer scale to 4K too.   

 

1080p, built in expansion audio, NSF player and palette loading would be enough to sway a person over from an AVS if the prices were similar. 

 

1080p raises the price too much (bunnyboy's already said enough on it), expansion audio for Famicom is already in it, NSF is nice but niche (wouldn't object to it.) Palette loading would be cool, but would probably need to reconfigure the Scoreboard software for it.

 

Oh absolutely. It really comes down to exactly which features need to be sacrificed to get it down to the same price point. I'd much rather an NT personally, but didn't have the scratch, so got an AVS. It does what I need it to do at the least.

They would have to at the VERY least make the Scoreboard software more easily accessible for it to even be worth porting to some "MK.2" version of the console, IMO. The fact that I have to have it plugged into my PC basically kills it for me, and I'm sure many others (judging by the lack of activity on it). If you could save your scores to an SD card to transfer over, or if the console had built-in wifi, it'd be salvageable.
 

That might have been true a year or two ago, but the Super NT is 1080p while also using a beefier FPGA, so that pretty much proves otherwise.   The Cyclone V used in the Super NT is around 2x more expensive than the Spartan 6 used in the AVS.
 

AVS does not have built in expansion audio, it merely has the ability to pass through on board expansion audio via carts.   Kevtris has all the major expansion audio chips implemented via FPGA so you can just load roms and still get expanded audio.  Thats the other feature, a stripped down NT Mini would still have rom loading.   The AVS just couldn't compete with that.

It would be in Bunnyboys best interest to not wait for Analogue to come out with a product that threatens the AVS, because he won't be able to answer back if a stripped down NT Mini gets released before an upgraded AVS.  Maybe, he doesn't care and will just sell off his remaining stock and that will be the end of it, but if he actually wants the AVS to stick around for much longer then might as well improve it while he still has the chance. 

Well, ROM loading over something like SD for the AVS is probably not in the cards no matter what. But a Powerpak has the NES rom loading anyway.

The other cores are unique to the Analogue NT, so I don't see how Bunnyboy could add them without getting them from Kevtris. He sold out his first run of AVSes, but the second run still has stock. It doesn't make sense to order a whole redesign if he's still sitting on a substantial amount of stock, especially if he has to pay upfront. He took a big chance with the AVS.