--- title: TinyNES Review – A Super Niche NES Console | daily.dev description: The TinyNES is a niche open-source NES console that combines original NES CPU and PPU chips with modern components. Unlike typical clone consoles or FPGA-based... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/tinynes-review-a-super-niche-nes-console-mvuasmo1d twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: TinyNES Review – A Super Niche NES Console | daily.dev og:description: The TinyNES is a niche open-source NES console that combines original NES CPU and PPU chips with modern components. Unlike typical clone consoles or FPGA-based... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/tinynes-review-a-super-niche-nes-console-mvuasmo1d og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/mvuASMO1d.png og:image:alt: TinyNES Review – A Super Niche NES Console og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # TinyNES Review – A Super Niche NES Console **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary The TinyNES is a niche open-source NES console that combines original NES CPU and PPU chips with modern components. Unlike typical clone consoles or FPGA-based alternatives, it uses genuine (or compatible) 6502-based CPU and PPU chips, socketed for easy swapping. The rest of the board is new, resulting in cleaner audio/video output, though it only supports composite video with no HDMI or RGB option — unless you have a rare RGB PPU variant. A future solderless RGB add-on module is planned. The device is crowdfunded and targets a very specific audience: retro enthusiasts who want authentic NES hardware behavior without the quirks of emulators, FPGAs, or video signal add-ons. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community take How the wider developer community reacted, aggregated from 1 discussion and 22 comments across hackernews (as of 2026-08-08). **TL;DR:** The community is generally enthusiastic about retro NES hardware and modding, sharing practical tips on RGB output, HDMI adapters, and flash carts, with a side thread about the TinyNES product's availability and a creator showing up to address concerns. **Sentiment:** 55% positive · 35% mixed · 10% skeptical **The case for** - Wireless 8bitdo controllers and HDMI upscalers (e.g., RAD2X, RetroTink) significantly reduce friction and make retro hardware actually playable. - Flash carts and simple adapters are great 'friction removers' that encourage people to actually use their old consoles. - GBA mods (better display, SD card cartridge) are cheap (~$50) and highly recommended for travel gaming. - The TinyNES creator confirmed units are shipping soon and teased a solderless RGB upgrade board. **The pushback** - Many people find they lose interest in retro gaming quickly after revisiting it, making hardware purchases feel wasteful. - Getting old consoles to output clean RGB/HDMI is expensive and often requires soldering skills. - The TinyNES has had fulfillment/communication issues, leaving at least one backer without updates for months. - The article is from Feb 2023 and covers nothing new. - The claim that some NES PPUs natively output RGB is disputed — commenters say no retail NES had RGB output from the PPU without modification. **By community** - hackernews (mixed): Enthusiastic about retro modding and practical solutions, but tempered by skepticism about emulation claims, product availability issues, and the age of the article. **Hottest debate:** Whether modern emulation is truly indistinguishable from original hardware, with one commenter flatly dismissing the 'not as close as real hardware' concern as not based in reality. **Open questions** - Which specific NES PPU revisions actually support RGB output natively, and which retail consoles shipped with them? - When will TinyNES units be reliably available through Crowd Supply/Mouser? **Highlights** > If you're referring to a toploader NES (NES-101), it does not support RGB out of the box, and actually only has an RF-out jack back there. A top-loading Famicom (Famicom AV, HVC-101) instead has the Multi-Out port similar to the SNES, N64 and GameCube. However, it doesn't support RGB out of the box, and needs to be modified. You can modify a NES-101 for RGB output as well, the issue is for the NES-101 you also need to also add the Multi-Out port to replace the RF output. Typically the NESRGB board is what most folks will add to support RGB output. Again, for an NES-101 you have to physically add the Multi-Out port as well. -- ----- With a Multi-Out port you now have new options for suitably modified consoles to go from the Multi-Out to Mini-HDMI with something like the RAD2X which has a vastly simplified RetroTink multiplier/upscaler inline to give you a "plug-and-play" HDMI output that detects Composite, S-Video or RGB and outputs appropriately without any need to configure. That cable works across the Famicom AV, SNES/SFC, N64 and GameCube. It adds about 53 microseconds of latency, or ~1/315th of a frame. However you can still do Multi-Out to Composite, Multi-Out to S-Video, or Multi-Out to RGB if you wish to use some other multiplier/scaler such as an OSSC or anything else you have. This video by RetroRGB will go over things: https://youtu.be/O4HBvpRIwa4 -- ----- Long story short, you can have an amazing picture, with a simple HDMI adapter, on nearly any old console at this point. You have to either learn to solder, or you can pay someone to do it. There's a lot of options from simply buying an upscaler and plugging whatever you have in, to modifying for maximum image quality and/or ease-of-use. Generally, I recommend most folks "keep it simple" or at least have the "easiest to use" option (in lieu of maximum quality) on hand. If you can take it out of storage, hook it up, and start playing within 2 minutes, generally that removes the friction you'd have and you'll actually play it. Flash carts are also a great "friction remover". For those who like their old Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance, remember that the SNES had Super Game Boy/2, and the GameCube had the Game Boy Player (also supported GBA). There's a lot to be said for playing those handheld games on a TV, with a wireless Nintendo WaveBird controller. Though for those chasing what's possible, those options exist too, but trade off that "pick-up-and-play" factor :) > — [GoofGarage on hackernews · 1 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49150709) > I make these! Hi! Mouser (Crowd Supply) is backordered, but coincidentally I’m shipping units to them in two weeks! Also, RGB Generator coming soon (solderless RGB upgrade board that still uses the original PPU chip; like NESRGB but better, cheaper, and tiny) > — [loglow on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49151754) > This part stood out. Afaik there is no NES with RGB output from the PPU. Those PPUs are only found in the PlayChoice-10 arcade hardware, and while they can be swapped into a NES, they are rare and expensive. The alternative is the NESRGB mod, which replaces (part of?) the PPU with custom logic. > — [kilpikaarna on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49151687) > Similar issue for me -- I kept my childhood collection and slowly added to it, but hardly ever actually played anything -- until I got a Retron 2 HD that can handle both NES and SNES games, outputting to HDMI. And then I got the wireless 8bitdo controllers that can work with the original NES/SNES ports, because fuck cables (briefly tried using OG controllers and it was awful). Now I actually play the games a decent amount, and my wife plays Tetris or Dr Mario all the time. > — [TulliusCicero on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49149912) **Source threads** - [hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49147760) · 33 points · 22 comments ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Making A Retro\(ish\) Game Console From Scratch](https://daily.dev/posts/making-a-retro-ish-game-console-from-scratch-ltbc64ddx) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Someone built a Simpsons-style retro TV that plays NES games and 90-minute movies on a tiny display](https://daily.dev/posts/someone-built-a-simpsons-style-retro-tv-that-plays-nes-games-and-90-minute-movies-on-a-tiny-display-rp2omsgpv) · XDA Developers · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Miniaturizing The Atari 2600 Console](https://daily.dev/posts/miniaturizing-the-atari-2600-console-jbefwhtkg) · Hackaday · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Bit-Hacks Pixel Dungeon](https://daily.dev/posts/bit-hacks-pixel-dungeon-rwpb3ueug) · Two Stop Bits · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#gaming](https://daily.dev/tags/gaming), [#fpga](https://daily.dev/tags/fpga) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/tinynes-review-a-super-niche-nes-console-mvuasmo1d) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"TinyNES Review – A Super Niche NES Console","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/tinynes-review-a-super-niche-nes-console-mvuasmo1d","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/tinynes-review-a-super-niche-nes-console-mvuasmo1d"},"datePublished":"2026-08-03T02:00:45.150Z","dateModified":"2026-08-08T05:17:17.918Z","description":"The TinyNES is a niche open-source NES console that combines original NES CPU and PPU chips with modern components. 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