NES-on a chip not only doesn't suffice in achieving approximations of 2600 games but it also lacks in NES emulation itself. The sound is just horrible and just does not approach true NES / Famicom sound. The compatibility of the NES-on a chip for NES emulation is also far from 100%. One can observe than by trying out these cheap famicom/nes clones that often have a whole load of illegal nes game rips on some sort of rom chip - some only offer the built-in games other actually feature a cartridge port - often compatible with Jap/US games - but not all.

I own a portable NES machine looking a little like a gba that is based on the NES-on a chip principe, it features a cartridge port only accepting non-existing mini versions of nes cartridges. It came with an adapter allowing certain games to run: Bomberman, Captain America, Gunnac and a 71in1 multicart all run, most of my other original Japanese carts don't.

Perhaps approximation of the 2600 experience can still be achieved by creating better ports of the games, because I do think that they've done a pretty bad job of porting the ones on the Flashback-1 machine. In the end only people infatuated with the gimmick will buy the keychain and true retrogaming fans will shy away from such a device. I for one would have loved to get a true 2600-on a chip keychain device, but I still would have frowned with the add-on-stuff allowing one to actually play the games on a tv-screen.

-= Mark Vergeer - Armchair Arcade editor =-