Question about Flashback 1

[Velvis]

What was the reasoning behind using a NES-on-a-chip?

 

Wouldnt it be much easier to design a proper 2600/7800 emulator to run the existing game code rather than recreate 30 games from scratch for completely different architecture?

 

Not only are they ports but they are also supposed to play and look like the original system (rather than be the "NES version of Adventure" for example)

 

What gives?

 

[Mr SQL]

It had been considered impossible to emulate the Atari 2600 on Nintendo hardware because both systems both run at the same speed. 

 

Game Loader emulation technology may make this possible on the NOAC if the original Flashback can be flashed.

 

[Atariboy]

It was my understanding that the hardware to emulate the 2600 wasn't quite cost effective at the time for the price point that they wanted to meet.

 

Look at Activision Anthology on the Game Boy Advance hardware from three years earlier for an example. Most games run noticeably slow like River Raid due to the GBA not having quite the horsepower needed to run a solid 2600 emulator at full speed on hardware much more expensive than the Flashback 1. Nor was Legacy Engineering's 2600-on-a-chip yet ready, which came to fruition with the Flashback 2. Thus ports were required and the cheap and popular NOAC chip was selected to power the device.

 

In this era there was little to no emulation in plug and plays. For instance all those old Namco arcade themed plug and plays from Jakks Pacific were ports written from scratch to run on the modern hardware. Games were either ported to run natively on the plug and play hardware or in at least two non-NES instances the original hardware was recreated NOAC style on a single integrated circuit (The C64 DTV and of course the Atari Flashback 2). 

 

That changed in the early 2010's. The Atari Flashback 3 for instance was emulation based for an early example.

Edited September 8, 2022 by Atariboy

[Velvis]

Oh I see now. Seems like an odd product to create if the hardware or emulation wasn't there to support it. Seems like it would be expensive to hire programmers to essentially recreate the games from scratch. 

[CapitanClassic]

How expensive are Chinese bootlegger programmers?

 

https://bootleggames.fandom.com/wiki/Nice_Code_Software

[Velvis]

Wow. I'm assuming they are the same people responsible for those "arcade game" handhelds filled with 200 games that no one has ever heard of before. 

[Justin De Lucia]

They seem like the same company, given I recognize their games on several bootleg/unlicensed NES systems.