NESMaker helps you make hardware-playable NES games – no coding knowledge required

With fond memories of The Legend of Zelda, you may have managed to track down a Nintendo Classic Mini: NES, to relive the glory days of gaming. But that won’t scratch the itch regarding a game you’ve had stuck in your head for years. NESMaker (from $36) gives you tools to make it a reality. Without writing a single line of code, you can design heroes and the monsters they duff up, fiddle with maps, AI and front-ends, go all Hollywood with your narrative skills, and then delve into other genres, such as platformers, brawlers and blasters. Best of all, get the full toolkit ($88) and you can squirt your creation on to an actual cartridge and shove that into a real NES (or compatible system), thereby proving not only that you’ve got amazing game-design skills, but also that you were clearly born a decade or two late.

Craig Grannell Contributor

About

I’m a regular contributor to Stuff magazine and Stuff.tv, covering apps, games, Apple kit, Android, Lego, retro gaming and other interesting oddities. I also pen opinion pieces when the editor lets me, getting all serious about accessibility and predicting when sentient AI smart cookware will take over the world, in a terrifying mix of Bake Off and Terminator.

Areas of expertise

Mobile apps and games, Macs, iOS and tvOS devices, Android, retro games, crowdfunding, design, how to fight off an enraged smart saucepan with a massive stick.