Gamers awaiting the upcoming release of Nintendo’s NES Classic Edition plug-and-play console got an early look at its underlying technology this week when GameSpot’s senior reviews editor Peter Brown tweeted a photo of the miniature unit’s internal circuit board.
Fans hoping to hack the console to run games it wasn’t designed to play may be out of luck, however, as the NES Classic Edition’s design will likely prevent any attempts at softmodding.
As expected, the NES Classic Edition does not share any hardware in common with its 1980s-era predecessor, the Nintendo Entertainment System. Instead, Nintendo opted to deliver its included titles via emulation, and the device’s internal configuration favors simplicity, limiting the options available to amateur console modders.
Notably, the NES Classic Edition stores its games and emulation software on a flash memory chip, making it difficult if not impossible to mod the system without physically cracking it open and breaking warranty in the process.
“Unless you want to desolder flash memory from the motherboard,” Brown said, “it looks like it’s impossible to add new games to NES Classic.”
“The NES mini will not be much fun to hack I’m afraid,” Twitter user ArcadeTV adds. “The 4GBit Flash has an OTP-Area with security features that are not in the Datasheet.”
Console modding enthusiasts once held out hope that the NES Classic Edition would be as easy to hack as Nintendo’s Wii and Wii U consoles. Hackers previously devised softmodding solutions for both consoles, allowing users to jailbreak their units to enable region-free gaming and homebrew support, among other unintended features.
Wii and Wii U softmodding technology later progressed to the point where users could mod their systems simply by inserting an SD card loaded with exploit software. Wii U users in particular have a lot to gain by modding their systems, as the console boasts the ability to play Nintendo’s entire library of GameCube games natively after jailbreaking.
The NES Classic Edition, which includes a selection of 30 pre-installed 8-bit games, launches at retail in North America and Europe on November 11.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.