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The NES Classic has a CRT filter to make games look properly old school

The NES Classic has a CRT filter to make games look properly old school

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Plus, a ‘pixel perfect’ mode to make them look crisp and clean

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Nintendo’s NES Classic Edition is a fairly straightforward device: it’s a tiny version of the classic console, with 30 games built in so you can play them easily on a modern television. It doesn’t have much in the way of frills, but today Nintendo is revealing a few new features for the device.

Most notably, it will offer three different display options. One, which Nintendo calls "pixel perfect" mode, cleans up the visuals so that they look crisp on your high-definition TV, while displaying them in a square format. Nintendo says that many of these 8-bit games look better in this mode than they do through the Virtual Console on the Wii and Wii U. Another mode sharpens up the visuals slightly, while maintaining the 4:3 aspect ratio of the original NES. Perhaps most exciting, though, is a mode that adds a CRT filter to emulate the look of playing the original NES on an old tube TV. It’ll even include scan lines.

Dr. Mario in "pixel perfect" mode (left) and with the CRT filter on (right).

While the NES Classic won’t let you expand on the base collection of 30 games — which includes the likes of Zelda, Super Mario, and Final Fantasy — it will let you sort the games in multiple ways. You’ll be able to filter out games so that you can find two-player titles to play with a friend, and you can also organize the collection alphabetically, chronologically, or by most recently played.

As Nintendo announced back in July, the NES Classic will offer multiple suspend points, allowing you to save your progress in a game, even if the original NES incarnation didn’t include save functionality. The company now says that each game will include four save slots, which should give you plenty of flexibility if multiple people are using the console. Each game will also be able to display a QR code that you can scan to bring up the original instruction booklet.

NES Classic

Aside from that, there isn’t a lot about the NES Classic that we don’t already know. It’ll come bundled with an HDMI cable and a NES-style controller, which can also be used with a Wii or Wii U to play Virtual Console games. (The controllers will be sold separately for $9.99.) The NES Classic is also compatible with both the Wii remote and Wii U Pro Controller if you need a second controller for two-player games.

The real question, though, is just how hard these consoles will be to find. Popular Nintendo products, from the original Wii to its Amiibo figures, are often in short supply, making it difficult or impossible to just walk into a store and buy one. That’s something Nintendo is hoping to avoid with its plug-and-play NES.

"We don’t want all of these ending up on eBay," says Nintendo of America’s David Young. "We do want to have these available, but a lot of it depends on the market. We know it’s going to be pretty popular, and we’re trying to account for that, but a lot of it will depend on what the consumers really do."

The NES Classic Edition will be available on November 11th for $59.99.

NES Classic
NES Classic

30 years of Legend of Zelda