Does anyone have any info on if someone is working on any new AVS titles? The originals are fine and all but I'm interested to see what people can come up with using the the extra power and features.

Not sure what you mean by extra power and features.

RetroUSB and other publishers (KHan, etc) are pretty much always developing new games.

I thought the AVS had a faster processor and better sound that could be used for games, but I might've been mistaken.

The main virtue of the AVS is to be as accurate to the original NES as possible. It's not really "more powerful" in that sense. It does have extra sound capability to play the enhanced audio of some Famicom games, such as Akumajō Densetsu. But I don't know if any hombrewers are taking advantage of that.

Also you can adjust the sprite limit, could be useful for homebrews but then you miss out on the market that uses original NES systems

Or you find creative ways to benefit both  .

How would an NES with extra power and features be different from an SNES?
 

As a dev, would people genuinely be interested in AVS optomized games? Now is the time!

Yes. Absolutely interested.

Other than extra sprites, I'm not sure what new games could tap into. I am curious if it is possible for a game to detect an AVS or extra sprite mode turned on. Even so, people should program the game around the original's limitations. Antiflicker mode is boss though. I keep it on and helps a number of games. Also seems to reduce slowdown in rare instances.

I'd be interested in AVS/NT enhanced games. The extra features could simply be added to the options menu with the game booting up on default NES mode.

yes. When I eventually get an AVS 

Definitely not.  I love the AVS, but if I can't play the game on original hardware and get a similar experience, I won't buy it.

That's pretty much the line too. "Optimized" improves the experience, but it still has to be designed for the NES. People who have used odd peripherals have had to face this problem all along, such as when allowing SNES Mouse or Vaus support. Different controllers improve the experience, but you still have to give people a way to enjoyably play the game if just using standard controllers. You basically end up building two games in a way that does not permit either to suffer. That keeps them within sight of each other, if done well.

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I've got four or five ideas about how to make some small enhancements to certain projects or types of games, perhaps I'll draw them up and get some opinions on them later in the week.

I'm still confused, at what, if anything, the AVS supports that the standard NES/Famicom doesn't, besides extra sprites and Four Score Pro support (and the four score is a modded accessory that will work with any NES). Homebrews have already come out that improved/smoother display using extra sprites, Scramble being a good example, but bitd games were improved as well. It also seems some games suffer slightly less slowdown with extra sprites enabled, but what other magical features (beside scoreboard) does the AVS do that an NES or FC can't? Don't forget also the Analogue NT Mini uses a different FPGA solution to AVS (though it also supports extra sprite mode) and is a somewhat popular competing option. If any extra features were added to AVS hardware, it may break existing games or become buggy, and unless NT and AVS cooperated, the userbase would be fragmented even among owners of HDMI systems (HiDef NES, NT Mini, or AVS).

I simply don't see what functionality exists within the firmware that can be taken advantage of besides extra sprites. And relying on this mode being toggled on for proper operation would make the game a glitch fest on an original NES, or even an AVS / NT Mini with the extra sprites turned off.