What's inside the NES Classic Edition

Sure, you can't find an NES Classic Edition anywhere on Planet Earth, but we think we can satisfy one of your primary reasons for waiting in line this morning with this collection of pictures. You, naturally, wanted to open it up and see what was inside.

Don't worry, it's natural! What's in there? Why is it so small? Is the controller identical to the original? We can't answer all of your questions, but this is a start.

The Nintendo subreddit has already been hard at work identifying the guts of the new NES Classic Edition. Here are the specs:

SoC: Allwinner R16 (4x Cortex A7, Mali400MP2 GPU)
RAM: SKHynix (256MB DDR3)
Flash: Spansion 512MB SLC NAND flash, TSOP48
PMU: AXP223

If you're not fluent in the world of ARM-powered systems on a chip — isn't everyone, though? — that's a lot more powerful than an NES (duh) and it's even more powerful than a 3DS. While it surely doesn't have to be this powerful, the market-based realities assure that buying a new chip at volume will be cheaper than designing a custom chip or something with less of a market.

Also, if you remained unconvinced that the NES Classic wouldn't be upgradeable, well ... it's not upgradeable. Not without some clever hacking and soldering skills which, yes, someone will probably figure out and it will be very cool.

But enough about this, let's get to the pictures!

Grid View

• Is this the NES Classic Edition or an original NES? Write your answer on a piece of paper and fold it up.
• It was the original! Here's the NES Classic Edition perched on top. It's adorable!
• Here's a shot of them side by side. Handsome!
• Can you tell which controller is which? No, seriously, we're asking.
• They're almost identical! Except for the controller port and the extremely short cord on the NES Classic controller.
• Look at that cord, it's ~tiny~.
• The entire box for the NES Classic Edition isn't as big as an original NES. @_@
• Speaking of, this is some very attractive packaging.
• Even better than the box is this poster that comes inside. You're an ironing and some foamcore away from perfect, 80s-appropriate basement art.
• There, that's the stuff. It's a tiny little circuit board covered by a heatsink, shown to the right.
• Let's get the controller in there.
• They're almost identical. Even the screws fit the other controller.
• The old top loader, opened up.
• For size comparison, you could easily stuff the NES Classic into an original NES top loader.
• Old school. New school.
• It's Nintendos, all the way down.
• <3