HDMI-Out & Online Leaderboards Heading To The Nintendo NES

Any retro gamer today will no doubt tell you about the frustrating issues faced when using classic consoles on modern HD televisions. The Nintendo NES, however, is ready to meet modern requirements and then some. Retrozone is currently creating a custom board for the NES which will bring HDMI-out and online high score leaderboards.

Behind closed doors the Nintendo NES mastermind RetroZone, NintendoAge's webmaster Dain and several others have all been working collaboratively towards the unthinkable. Given that the Nintendo NES has never offered a video signal clearer than the fuzzy output of composite leads, the arrival of a modification from these aficionados offering pixel-perfect classic gaming on a HDTV is something dreams are made of.

Built to work with the more desirable Nintendo NES Top Loader, this currently unnamed device will sit within the console's casing and directly tap into PPU for a true 480p digital output. The result, as you'd very much expect is beyond words - seeing Super Mario Bros on a 40" display without a single blur in sight is remarkable.

But that's not all, beside the HDMI-out port is a mini-USB port. This small addition to this already advanced modification is being dubbed the 'Scoreboard'. Once the Nintendo NES is connected to the PC via a USB cable, the Scoreboard will automatically submit any high score gained during gameplay to NintendoAge's soon-to-be-launched online leaderboard service.

While this all seems too good to be true, pre-modified systems are expected to be ready for general sale sometime around April. Be sure to keep a close eye over the on-going development thread at NintendoAge, as who knows what will hit Nintendo's 8-bit system next.

Link: HDMI-Out and Scoreboard Modification for the Nintendo NES Development Thread