When my parents picked up the NES Challenger set for me back in April of 1989, I don’t think they had any idea on just how big of an impact it would have on me. From the moment I turned on my Nintendo Entertainment System, I was hooked. I fell in love with everything the system had to offer, from its large game library, graphics and music. The very first Nintendo system planted the seeds in me that would end up starting multiple careers for me in information technology, journalism and music composition. It’s been almost 27 years since my first time playing the system and while I’ve experienced many life altering changes in that time, one thing still remains: I’m still that 6 year child inside that can’t wait to play Mega Man’s latest adventure, or crack the whip one more time as Simon Belmont. In that same amount of time, technology has advanced tremendously, changing the way we play our video games and how we experience our entertainment. The rapid change in technology has certainly left the NES in the dust and attempting to plug in that old grey console to a HDTV can be tough on the eyes without some sort of modification to the system to make it output a higher quality video signal. A variety of companies have put out system clones that make it a little easier to play your classic NES games, but the prices for these systems often reflect what kind of quality you are going to get from them when plugging in your original game cartridges. Some of these range from dirt cheap, to affordable, to absolutely expensive. Finally though, we have a new challenger that has tossed its hat into the mix of clone systems and provides results that should please most NES purists. Enter, the Retro USB AVS Console.
The AVS will play both your NES and Famicom games, along with flash carts.
The AVS console was just released this month and features a variety of different features. For starters, its outputs a 720P video signal via HDMI, houses two different cartridge slots; one for NES games and the other for Famicom games and is easily updated and powered through its USB port. Let’s get a closer look at the system, shall we?