Retro Gaming Gadgets

The Generation NEX

The NES is quite possibly the worst designed system ever built. It's toaster like style of loading game cartridges leads to frequent breaking. It is also the system with quite possibly the best lineup of games ever. This means that even after more then 20 years, I still want to play my NES games, and to do that I had to frequently buy new 72 pin connectors to repair it. It was growing very tiresome, but it was the only way I knew of.

I believe I read about the NEX in a holiday gift guide from a past issue of EGM, I promptly bought one as well as the set of wireless controllers. 20 years had passed since Nintendo patented the NES design, since they never renewed it, it had expired. This meant the fine folks at Messiah Entertainment could come along and make a brand new NES, one that could actually play games without breaking. The NEX is exactly that, a dependable NES system.

Not only can it finally play your games without having to blow into the cartridge or hit the reset numerous times, it plays famicom (the Japanese NES) games via a port on the top, has support for all the original NES controllers, and has wireless support for up to 2 controllers. Combined with the 2 wired controller ports this means 4 person play on games like Ninja Turtles Arcade Game. Plus it comes with a price guide for every single NES game ever made so that you don't get screwed over on ebay while hunting down the classics.

There are downsides of course. The games go in pretty tight and can be hard to pull out sometimes, and not every game is compatible. Games that have extra chips and such in them like Castlevania 3 don't work, they have a compatibility list so that you can be sure of everything before your purchase. Also there have been some claims on the Internet that the system incorrectly wires the cartridge port in a way that could potentially damage NES carts played in the system as well as the system itself, though no one has yet to report this scenario ever taking place.

I've had no trouble with it and wouldn't have a problem recommending it, but if you are worried then you might not want to buy one, its definitely been worth it for me though. As of late, however, Messiah's website hasn't been working for me. I'm not sure if this means they have closed down or are just having problems. I put the links up anyway in case they come back up. For now though, you can easily find the NEX on Amazon by searching Generation NEX or Messiah Entertainment. Hopefully they haven't gone under because I'm looking forward to seeing what they came up with next.