Would you buy a Super Famicom Turbo?

[Leon Retro]

It just wouldn't work or happen for so many reasons. It's a nice idea, and I've asked a similar question here before, but it's only for a very small user group in the grand scheme of things. None of the manufacturers would ever do it as there isn't any financial viability to the idea to make it worth their while, either regarding hardware or software, that's the reality.

As much as I appreciate that 90% of gamers would probably say "it could never happen", or "it wouldn't work", I would bet ?1000 that if Nintendo did create what I've proposed, with all the games listed from Nintendo and other publishers, that nearly all retro gamers would be eager to get their hands on it. Once the "that's a stupid idea" hurdle had been jumped, people would soon accept it as a new, cheap console offering something different.

When you look at the global retro gaming scene, it's huge. I don't think many people would have predicted 15 years ago that retro gaming would become so popular. I'm sure that most gamers, like I did, thought that retro gaming would be a tiny niche. But the popularity of old machines and games - and also indie games - shows that people do crave 8 & 16-bit experiences.

So, why I chose Nintendo, is because they have the money and franchises to make something like this happen. As a respected name in the gaming world, they could recognise the potential of a 'retro console' and deliver something truly inspiring. There really is potential in this idea.

But, of course, I know this sort of thing would never happen. This thread is just food for thought, not to be taken seriously. It's just a bit of pie in the sky fantasy.

[nakamura]

Of course if won't work. Fun to talk about though. Like I said in another thread, producing spectacular games under limitations is really impressive. The 16bit era was rife with that.

[Leon Retro]

I

I'm sure many of us would go bananas for it.

I've changed my mind and want to join in your dream. I would buy this SFC Turbo II' if it did what you're hoping for and had decent devs on board

There's plenty of room in my dream world.

Yeah, I also think that lots of people(especially retro gamers) would go "bananas" for a new retro-inspired Nintendo machine that has games like Super Mario World 3, F-Zero Turbo, Super Mario Kart 2, Zelda(in lovely top-down 2D). And maybe third-party titles like Contra, Castlevania, Actraiser etc.. from other publishers. Even Sega could get on board. Not forgetting SNK Playmore.

There really is a lot of potential for such a machine to inspire a new wave of 16-bit gaming. It wouldn't be about making indie games, but all about creating top quality 16-bit games that maybe better what we got back in the day. I'm sure that lots of gamers would think that's a beautiful vision.

And, who knows, maybe the appeal would stretch beyond just retro gamers if Nintendo delivered inspiring marketing. The popularity of simple mobile games, shows that lots gamers enjoy games that offer something different to the big hitters like COD, GTA etc.. A well-made "throwback" console with cool new games, really could grab people.

[dataDave]

Does it have RGB out? 240p would look ****e over HDMI, unless it had built in shaders of course.

[Leon Retro]

Does it have RGB out? 240p would look ****e over HDMI, unless it had built in shaders of course.

Yeah, it would have to be upscaled to 480p or 720p because of LCD screens. I'm not an engineer, but I think you could put a scaler chip onboard and maybe have the option for scanlines. That sort of thing is probably simple to implement. That way, the game would still render at 240p, so there's no strain on the system. Upscaling would be done in hardware.

But, of course, using a CRT or Framemeister, 240P would look great.

[Team Andromeda]

There's plenty of room in my dream world

That's all it ever be . You should just be thankful that you were around and grew up in that age of gaming . It's never going to come back and Retro only seems huge and a big deal to us, to most other gamers they really couldn't careless. Also Just because you shove a number 2 to the game titles doesn't mean they'll be any good either as the Teams that made Axelay and the like have long gone, not that its a cert if the teams were still around they'll ever be able to recapture the magic ... as there's never been a 2D Castlevania game or Mario game that's come close to Mario IV and Castlevania IV and that's from the people that made those games .

I do think Neo Geo X was on to something though and like the idea of the ZX Spectrum Handheld .... I love to see something like that done for the classic consoles only with real hardware inside each unit , a screen to rival the latest phones/tablets with a SD/RAM to download all you classics roms too , HDMI output and a nice inbuilt up scaler,ports of for all your classic controllers to be plugged into (if you wish it) . I really like to have a Handheld Snes or Saturn and the like with the ability to play every game I wish anywhere and everywhere , just like taking your mobile everywhere you go . To have the ability to uploads saves,videos and ghost replays to the a community built around those handhelds . I love to see that, but that's a dream .

What really could and should happen is NCL to port more of Snes classics to the 3DS and Wii U and not charge over a ?5 per title and would love to see a corp buy the rights to SNK, Cave and RAIZING shooters Ect. To bring Arcade perfect versions of the likes Ibara, Souky, Last Resort, Battle Bakraid,Battle Garegga, Pulstar, EDF and so many more classic shooters to XBLA and PSN

[Colin]

I think you're vastly overestimating things with your "millions of retro gamers".

[Asura]

I do think Neo Geo X was on to something though

That was a real shame, but also daft. Good idea in theory, but they were marketing to probably the pickiest of core gamers. That hardware had to be flawless.

[Team Andromeda]

That was a real shame, but also daft. Good idea in theory, but they were marketing to probably the pickiest of core gamers. That hardware had to be flawless.

It was a nice and good idea . Should have had real hardware inside the unit and a far better screen . They might have been on to a winner then , but we'll never know

[QualityChimp]

I can categorically say I would definitely buy one of these on day one.
Thankfully, I don't have to put my money where my mouth is as this 'ain't ever gonna happen!

On a different tack, imagine if Sega, fresh from their questionnaire about how "Sega in the '90s was known for its brand, but after that, we've lost trust, and we're left with nothing but reputation, We'd like to win back the trust and become a brand once again." (Sega games CEO Haruki Satomi), decided it was time to get back into the hardware market and came back with a new console similar to what Leon Retro suggested but for Sega...

[Strider]

Yeah the Neo Geo X is certainly the right idea. It was caught between a rock and a hard place though. Too expensive really for the casual market who buy the plug-in mega drive type systems, but not quite polished enough to appeal to the original Neo Geo crowd. It's better since the update, but it's let down in portable form by the really ropy screen.

I wouldn't be surprise if they take another stab at it now there's a new owner in charge of SNK who wants to aggressively target its back catalogue.

[Team Andromeda]

Also would be nice, but no doubt impossible . Was if we had some print re-runs of various classic games be that for Neo Geo, Snes , Saturn or what ever .... Priced at sensible prices of say ?20 to ?30 per cart or CD so we could either get to enjoy the games we sold, get that classic game that had a limited release back inthe day for our classic systems and also kill off those bastards that sell retro stuff for silly prices on e-bay

[Colin]

SNK doing reprints of AES carts would be the best thing to happen to retro gaming, ever. Indistinguishable from the originals please just to really **** all the hoarder collectors and price gougers over.

[Baseley09]

SNK doing reprints of AES carts would be the best thing to happen to retro gaming, ever. Indistinguishable from the originals please just to really **** all the hoarder collectors and price gougers over.

That would be end of days amazing. A few thousand run of Metal Slug & Turf Masters please.

[Strider]

We were just discussing this. Imagine if you had the option of buying officially licensed games like Contra Hard Corps or Wild Arms and all it cost was ?40. I'd be well up for that.