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- If you were born in the 80s, then there’s a pretty
good chance that your first gaming memories were
made with the Nintendo Entertainment System.
Whether you call it the NES, “Original Nintendo,” or
just “Nintendo,” there’s no denying that this 8-bit
machine and it's amazing library played one of the
biggest roles in evolving video games into an
enduring cultural cornerstone.
For me, the NES remains perhaps
my most-played retro console.
But it’s certainly not without its flaws,
chief among them that it can only output
composite video at best, and that’s not pretty,
especially on modern TVs.
Nintendo loved to show giant pixelated sprites on
the label art for its earlier NES titles, but sadly, the
system just can’t produce that kind of quality? well,
not normally, anyway.
Let’s take a look at what the
NES hardware is really capable of.
Welcome to RGB202.
(theme music)
- Nintendo released the Family Computer,
better-known as the Famicom,
in Japan in 1983.
A redesigned and rebranded version of the
hardware was then released in North America in
1985 as the Nintendo Entertainment System,
famously bringing home video games back to
popularity following the American video game
industry crash of 1983.
The NES was also distributed in Europe and other
regions using the PAL video standard,
where it faced much steeper competition from
home computers like the Commodore 64.
The NES and Famicom run on microprocessors
developed by a Japanese company called Ricoh.
The Picture Processing Unit, or “PPU,”
provides the system with a palette of 54 colors,
displaying up to 25 colors at once.
Most notably, the NES lacks good options for yellow,
but the corrections for this,
through modification or emulation, don’t look all that great.
The NES’s color limitations are both a weakness,
as well as an accepted facet of each game’s
intended “look.”
As for the actual video output, Ricoh’s NES PPU is
only capable of generating composite video?
and as you know by now, that means sub par quality.
And as if it needed to be any worse,
the origina model of the Famicom has only one option for
connecting to your TV?
a single cable pumping both audio and composite video
through an RF modulator.
The NES on the other hand has an RCA composite
video port and a mono RCA audio port
on the right hand side of the system,
which produces better quality than RF.
However, every NES shipped with an RF modulator,
and since televisions at the time
commonly had no inputs other than for an RF signal,
this is how most people played the NES.
When Nintendo released the Model 2
or “Top-Loader” NES in 1993,
they actually removed the composite video output,
leaving RF as the only option...
which is a real shame because the
Top-Loader is known for being way more reliable at
connecting with game cartridges
than the old Front-Loader.
The similarly-designed Famicom revision,
released in Japan around the same time,
actually did the reverse?
it added the familiar AV multi-out port
that’s used on the Super Nintendo, N64,
and Gamecube, giving Japanese Famicom fans an
option other than RF for the first time ever.
This unit is commonly referred to as
the “AV Famicom.”
But don’t be fooled into thinking you can plug any
connection beyond composite and a cleaner video signal.
It just doesn’t work.
S-video is sadly not an option.
Still, if you’re interested in Famicom carts,
this is absolutely the model to get.
For the everyday NES fan, composite video using a
standard RCA cable is absolutely the way to go.
You can split the mono audio signal into two RCA
cables using a Y-adapter like this.
They cost around 5 bucks.
Using this method, the image is certainly
less noisy than RF, but the edges are still pretty rough?
if you want something more, let’s take a look at how you
can push the NES and Famicom’s
video quality beyond their limits.
- If you’ve watched our RGB101 video
and the rest of the RGB Master Class series,
then you already know about RGB video and how it’s so much
cleaner and sharper than composite video.
You’ll also know about the various cables and
devices that can be used to receive the signal,
like professional video monitors,
or video scalers like the Framemeister.
A lot of retro consoles that are traditionally hooked
up with RF or composite video are actually
generating an RGB signal that the
composite video is derived from.
But when it comes to the NES and Famicom,
the on-board Ricoh PPU is generating
composite video and that’s that.
There’s a method around this limitation
that modders have performed for some time.
Nintendo used to make arcade machines
called the PlayChoice-10.
They feature interchangeable boards that play up to
10 NES games on one machine.
And it just so happens that the PlayChoice-10
features an RGB picture processing unit,
also manufactured by Ricoh.
If you know what you’re doing, you can use it to
replace Ricoh’s composite video PPU
on the NES or Famicom motherboard.
So that’s pretty neat, but there are some issues.
The PlayChoice-10 uses a different color palette,
so colors won’t look quite like they should.
There’s also the matter of the mod
ruining a legacy arcade machine,
or consuming limited unused replacement parts,
as well as being pretty expensive due to availability.
Getting better video quality out of the NES has
been a pretty tough nut for the modding
community to crack.
In fact, it’s only been in very recent years that a
superior solution has been developed.
The major breakthrough has been thanks to
Australian modder named Tim Worthington,
who developed and sells a custom board
that’s called the NES RGB.
Now, remember, we’re not modders,
and don't fully understand its operation.
But the gist of it is that the NES RGB doesn’t
replace the original PPU,
but rather works alongside it.
If you’re into learning how to do the installation yourself,
Tim's website has plenty of documentation.
He also sells the NES RGB board on his website.
Depending on your model of NES or Famicom,
you may need to select a fairly cheap
adapter board with your purchase.
Tim has distributors in other regions around the world,
so it’s possible you can hire
their modding services like I did,
or find another reliable modder to help you out.
If you don’t already own the NES or Famicom that
you’d like to have modified, a more convenient
option might be to buy a pre-modded system on
eBay by searching for NES RGB.
The mod even adds S-video support to your console,
which looks great on my CRT!
You can access the RGB signal using a SCART
or JP-21 cable that’s designed for Nintendo consoles.
You can then convert to the proper connector for
whatever RGB-capable device you use.
If you’re unsure which cable to buy,
the NES RGB mod does support CSYNC,
which is a pure sync signal that generally provides
cleaner picture results than other sync methods.
A switch can be installed with the NES RGB mod that
allows you to toggle between various color modes.
We prefer the default,
which is an attempt to accurately recreate
the NES palette with RGB color values.
If you’d prefer no switch, then you can ask your
modder to lock output to a particular palette.
So which system is the best
candidate for modification?
Well, it’s your choice, really.
Coury bought a pre-modded NES Top-Loader,
which is a great option for its reliability
over the classic Front-Loader.
I decided to go for a mod with my AV Famicom
because I already had this NES to Famicom
cartridge converter, which works perfectly with
every North American cart that I’ve thrown at it
aside from Castlevania III and Jackal.
A modded Famicom also means that I can play
Disk System games in RGB,
which is pretty neat too!
Now here’s Coury with a
few more interesting considerations.
- A partnership between Nintendo and Sharp
resulted in three very unique systems?
first, the very rare the Sharp Nintendo Television,
which has a built-in NES cartridge slot,
and is said to display a slightly higher quality image
But the Japanese version, the Sharp C1,
actually uses an RGB picture processing unit.
Second, is the Twin Famicom,
which supports both Famicom cartridges,
and Famicom Disk System games in a single console?
And finally, the Famicom Titler,
which actually supports RGB and S-Video,
in addition to allowing users to add custom text
to the image for the purpose of creating videos.
Unfortunately, it’s also super expensive these days,
so it’s not really a viable RGB option except
for the most dedicated of collectors.
There’s also the matter of the French NES,
which included a SCART cable and has a port labeled “RGB,”
but we’re told that the end result
is still just composite quality video.
As hardware patents have expired in recent years,
you’ve probably seen clone systems like the RetroDuo,
which plays NES and Super Nintendo carts.
These systems run on hardware similar to the originals,
but slight differences can cause
compatibility issues in various games.
They may also have S-video ports,
which work with Super Nintendo games,
but unfortunately, none of these systems
support NES through S-video.
The RetroN 5 outputs cleaner video because it runs
on emulators rather than a cloned hardware.
The Analogue Nt is different from a cloned system,
in that it’s built using processing chips from actual
NES and Famicom console,
then rebuilt into an aluminum case.
It outputs RGB video, optionally scaled to HD over HDMI,
using a custom solution developed by Analogue Interactive.
Meanwhile, the Super 8-bit is a similar RGB-capable system,
which also uses repurposed chips
from the original hardware.
There have also been other projects that
attempt to work 1080p scaling and HDMI output
directly into the console itself.
Of course, one of the simplest official methods for
playing NES games is through Nintendo’s own
Virtual Console service, but unfortunately,
Nintendo’s emulator for NES games fails to impress.
On both the Wii and Wii U,
the image is noticeably darkened,
and pixels are excessively blurred.
Check out how the Wii U Virtual Console compares to
NES composite and NES RGB through the Framemeister.
This treatment of NES games is even more bizarre
due to how much brighter and sharper systems like
Super Nintendo and GBA appear on Wii U.
But much more interestingly,
NES Virtual Console on the original Wii hardware,
can actually output at
an authentic 240p resolution over component,
which is great for scalers and CRTs.
It’s still not as good as what
you can get out of the NES RGB,
but think twice before you transfer all of
your Virtual Console games to the Wii U.
- So that’s the Nintendo Entertainment System.
If you’re looking to play real carts on real hardware,
it’s unfortunately not the easiest or cheapest
console to get great video quality out of.
And you know, I guess I can see the argument that
fuzzy composite video is just how
NES games are supposed to look.
I mean, I dealt with it for most of my life,
and I didn’t think any less of the system.
But thanks to a creative modding community,
if you want razor-sharp pixels
generated by real NES hardware,
that dream is now available for everyone.
(theme music)