Flashbacks that use NES on a chip

[Velvis]

If I am not mistaken one of the Flashbacks uses a NES on chip. Does that mean each of the games was completely reprogrammed for what is essentially a completely different piece of hardware?

 

Why? and wouldnt development be way more expensive than licensing an emulator or even a hardware recreation?

 

or am I missing something?

 

[Flojomojo]

Yes, the original Atari Flashback, as well as at least one of the Intellivision x-in-1 handhelds used NOAC technology. Why? Probably because it was cheaper to re-create the old games for the existing hardware than to engineer a cheap board. That was 2004, long before cheap ARM-based boards, let alone Unix or Android hardware was in ready cheap supply. Technology marches forward, and the little mini-consoles or Pi-like machines we take for granted nowadays weren't always around.

 

I want to believe we will see cheap, thin, light laptops with nice embedded 3D graphics before too long, and the honking big "gamer laptops" will go away. As it is, we can run PS3-era games on sub-$200 hardware.

[thetick1]

I'm pretty sure the NOCs (Nintendo on chip) are EXTREMELY(like < $1) cheap when bought in large quantities from Chinese fabs who I am sure bundle in with manufacturing deals. Porting Atari games is not as bad as you would think as the NES uses the same processor architecture.

 

And if the manufacturer ignores licenses (very common in China) they can just download hundreds of hacks / modified games that will work very easily. Thus we have the world of very cheap NOC systems and hundreds of hacked variations of questionable quality, unlicensed classic games.

Edited June 20, 2018 by thetick1

[Flojomojo]

But in the case of the early Atari and Intellivision re-creations, they were done with the consent of the rights holders. Now they just use emulators, which to my eye are a lot more faithful ... if we cant have "2600 on a chip" like the Flashback 2 did.

[thetick1]

But in the case of the early Atari and Intellivision re-creations, they were done with the consent of the rights holders. Now they just use emulators, which to my eye are a lot more faithful ... if we cant have "2600 on a chip" like the Flashback 2 did.

"2600 on a chip" like the Flashback 2 would be much more expensive because the custom hardware design and testing. This why all the modern licensed Flashbacks I believe are ARM emulation and involve almost no hardware design engineering. They are all off the shelf parts from Chinese fabs. The NES knockoffs and mini arcades are certainly all off the shelf extremely cheap NOCs.

 

Just note the Intellivision Flashback was certainly an emulator unlike Atari Flashback 2 which was a modern hardware design. All the AT games products have the proper licensing.

Edited June 20, 2018 by thetick1