The recently-released Super Nintendo Classic Edition is a fantastic way to replay 21 of your favourite 16-bit SNES games — but what about all the other classics that Nintendo excluded? If you’ve still got a stack of old Super Nintendo carts at home, the Analogue Super Nt should let you enjoy them on the fancy hi-def TV you upgraded to years ago.
All images: Analogue
The Super Nt is the inevitable follow-up to the Analogue Nt, a clone of the original Nintendo Entertainment System that featured upgraded guts and connectors so that you could easily play your 8-bit cartridges on a modern TV with a far higher resolution, but far less ports. Like the Analogue Nt, the new Super Nt connects to your flatscreen using a single HDMI cable instead of five or six analogue wires, and employs a custom chip to ensure those 16-bit graphics you fondly remember are perfectly recreated in all their pixelated glory on your hi-def display.
But unlike the Analogue Nt, which was machined from a single block of aluminium like your iPhone and MacBook, the Super Nt’s design looks more inspired by both the US Super Nintendo, and the Japanese Super Famicom — which is appropriate given the new console will happily play carts from either system, and from any part of the world, since there’s no region locking employed.
The Super Nt comes in four designs, including colour schemes inspired by the US Super Nintendo and Japanese Super Famicom.
On the front of the Analogue Super Nt you’ll notice that the original Super Nintendo’s proprietary controller ports have been carried over, which means that, if they’re still working, you can plug in and continue to use the same controllers you mastered Mortal Kombat with decades ago. But there’s Bluetooth inside the Super Nt as well, letting you connect a wireless controller so you can feel free to throw it across the room after a devastating loss, without the risk of your console getting yanked along for the ride.
8Bitdo has created four matching versions of its new SN30 wireless controllers to complement the Super Nt.
You can pre-order the Super Nt starting today for $US190 ($240), but unfortunately that price tag doesn’t include a controller. However, Analogue has teamed with 8Bitdo to create four custom-versions of the company’s new SN30 wireless controller to match the four designs of the Super Nt. So if you don’t have your original SNES controllers still kicking around, you’ll want to factor an extra $US50 ($60) into that price tag for a couple of wireless alternatives.
That means the Super Nt is considerably more expensive than the Super Nintendo Classic Edition, which we now know can be hacked to include more than just the 21 games Nintendo bundled. But if you’re not comfortable wading into the murky mysterious depths of finding ROMs for games you already own, or would prefer to pick up exactly where you left off on the SNES games you played as a kid, the Super Nt seems like it could be a satisfying scratch for a nostalgic itch.