# Nintendo Entertainment System

5 Hacker News commenters recommended Nintendo Entertainment System and 4 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend it for instant power-on and a large library of games that still work after decades. Critics point to input latency and sprite flicker.

## Why people recommend it

- Turns on and plays instantly (1 comments): "with the NES you could just hit the power button and start playing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48661560))
- Large library of fun games (1 comments): "countless hours of fun to play NES games" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49399123))
- Original units still working (1 comments): "my NES from 1990 is still going strong" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46042123))
- Good for a retro collection (1 comments): "I have a wonderful collection of retro consoles and games" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46479755))

## What people warn about

- High input latency (1 comments): "thanks to the absurd amount of latency" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47813479))
- Sprites flicker badly (1 comments): "how people could buy the NES/Famicom and tolerate its sprites flickering" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45873352))
- Not as tiny as expected (1 comments): "That wasn't as tiny as I expected it to be." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49149273))
- Likely inaccurate in places (1 comments): "probably inaccurate all over the place" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48233713))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Valve Steam Machine](https://hackerapproved.com/p/steam-machine.md): 326 recommend
- [PlayStation 5](https://hackerapproved.com/p/playstation-5.md): 121 recommend
- [Xbox console](https://hackerapproved.com/p/xbox.md): 62 recommend
- [Xbox 360](https://hackerapproved.com/p/xbox-360.md): 41 recommend
- [PlayStation 2](https://hackerapproved.com/p/playstation-2.md): 40 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Nintendo+Entertainment+System+console&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Nintendo Entertainment System", https://hackerapproved.com/p/nes/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).