If you’re a fan of retro gaming, you’ve probably heard that the NES’ expansion port never saw any official expansions. But for those with the NES-001 model who’ve been itching to make use of that port, there’s exciting news. RetroTime has just launched pre-orders for a new gadget called the “NES Hub,” now available through 8BitMods, and it even comes with Bluetooth capabilities.
This NES Hub is quite a nifty expansion, as it brings Bluetooth controller support to the NES along with upgraded audio features. What’s more, it boasts its own add-on system. There’s even a “SNES Add-on,” which lets you hook up wired SNES and 15-pin Famicom controllers to your trusty old NES.
Now, if you’ve got your sights set on both the NES Hub and its SNES Add-on, mark your calendar for December 2024, when they’re expected to ship. The full setup will set you back $83.31, with the NES Hub priced at $57.28 and the SNES Add-on costing $26.03, before taxes. With the NES Hub, you can connect a whopping four Bluetooth controllers at once. And if you’ve tweaked your NES to play Famicom games, the Hub can kick it up a notch with Expansion Audio mode, providing more audio channels for certain Famicom games.
For those who might not know, the Famicom, or “Family Computer,” was the Japanese original of what we know as the Nintendo Entertainment System— complete with Internet connectivity for non-gaming uses across the pond. Imagine checking stock prices on the Famicom! While Japanese gamers were exploring the online world from the get-go, American gamers had to wait until the Sega Dreamcast and Microsoft’s Xbox for similar experiences.
Bluetooth support, on the other hand, became a staple much later, arriving with the Seventh Generation of consoles in 2005, like the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo Wii. Considering the NES hit the shelves way back in October 1985, a full 14 years before Bluetooth made its debut in 1999, it’s pretty cool to finally see this modern feature grafted onto the classic hardware. It certainly narrows the gap between playing classics on the original machine versus through emulators like Nintendo’s Virtual Console or on a PC.
Of course, this is a pretty niche product, and naturally, the price reflects its unique appeal. But if getting better controller support for the NES is on your wish list, the NES Hub might just be the perfect solution for those lucky owners of a compatible NES-001 model.
