Remember how much abuse you could give the old NES?

Whisper-Kitten · May 24, 2026

I mean you could beat on the sides and it would still work. Blow into unit in order to get it to work, and they still worked with the corrosion. Throw your controller at it and it would still work. My one friends Mother drove over his by accident, and while it looked terrible it still worked. Compare that to my Xbox 360 that I dropped once and stopped working. Lets all give homage to that superior construction. Also, I can't spell for the life of me it seems.

pukunui · May 24, 2026

Yes! Even our Nintendo 64 has been able to withstand a lot of abuse and still keeps on trucking ... but our Nintendo Wii? We've had two of those die on us for no particular reason over the years. One day the little red light goes out, and nothing we can do will get them to turn on again. Even Nintendo doesn't make 'em like they used to!

jdrakeh · May 24, 2026

It depends upon what model NES you're talking about. The later NES 2 (the top loader) was absolute garbage. If you were unlucky enough to own one, it was basically only a matter of time before it stopped working. And, as if that weren't bad enough, they removed the AV out, leaving the only video output option as RF. In 1993. Absolute trash.

Whisper-Kitten · May 24, 2026

jdrakeh said:
It depends upon what model NES you're talking about. The later NES 2 (the top loader) was absolute garbage. If you were unlucky enough to own one, it was basically only a matter of time before it stopped working. And, as if that weren't bad enough, they removed the AV out, leaving the only video output option as RF. In 1993. Absolute trash.

I forgot about that version of the nes. I don't think I have actually seen one in person though. Just in magazines.

aco175 · May 24, 2026

I still remember!

jdrakeh · May 24, 2026

Whisper-Kitten said:
I forgot about that version of the nes. I don't think I have actually seen one in person though. Just in magazines.

My childhood friend was unlucky enough to have one. It did have one upside (the infamous Nintendo lockout chip was removed). All of the other cost cutting measure such as the cheaper build quality and removal of features such as the AV out made that a kind of iffy trade off, though. If you wanted to play super niche 3rd party games not approved by Nintendo, it was good for that. BUT those games were of notoriously bad quality themselves, so I'm not sure that was a good thing.

MGibster · May 24, 2026

I remember looking at Madden '97 on the N64 thinking to myself, "Graphics can't get much better than this."

Behold the pinnacle of graphics!!

I imagine the NES is such a primitive device that it can't help but be robust. I'm pretty sure the Atari 2600 was designed to withstand a Soviet missile attack. No way was the West going to allow gap in video game preparedness.

Deset Gled · May 24, 2026

Whisper-Kitten said:
I mean you could beat on the sides and it would still work. Blow into unit in order to get it to work, and they still worked with the corrosion. Throw your controller at it and it would still work. My one friends Mother drove over his by accident, and while it looked terrible it still worked. Compare that to my Xbox 360 that I dropped once and stopped working. Lets all give homage to that superior construction. Also, I can't spell for naughty word it seems.

Well, you're leaving out the fact that the card edge connector used in the NES was long lasting on the NES side, but actually wore down the game cartridge a tiny bit with every use. Not to mention the issues with oxidization on the contacts. Or that the grey plastic was susceptible to damage from UV light (that's why lots of old units look yellow; they got too much sun). Or the fact that the only way to save data on a cart was with a battery that's effectively a ticking time bomb.

Meanwhile, it was trivial replace the optical drive or hard drive on the 360. And the abuse that I put my PS2 through was ridiculous. I soldered in it (mod chips), hotwired the cooling, even made it run Linux, and it switched back into factory mode every time I asked without the slightest complaint (ok, maybe some complaints when I accidentally left the fans out one time).

Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge NES fan. I have a nice collection of original hardware and games, and have spent way to much time replaying games via emulation. And I'll give you that the build quality on the NES was relatively good. But I think the rose colored glasses are helping a bit with the assessment.

When you get down to it, I think Sony is generally the best at hardware design of the big names. But all of them have had problems at times. The 360 had its big gaffes, for sure. And Sony has had its issues, too (vertical PS5 issues, etc.).

Zardnaar · May 24, 2026

MGibster said:
I remember looking at Madden '97 on the N64 thinking to myself, "Graphics can't get much better than this."

View attachment 437959
Behold the pinnacle of graphics!!

I imagine the NES is such a primitive device that it can't help but be robust. I'm pretty sure the Atari 2600 was designed to withstand a Soviet missile attack. No way was the West going to allow gap in video game preparedness.

That kinda looked meh even in 97.

3 years into PS1, Saturn had some pretty games as well.