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Netflix's Hack Day, an event sponsored by the streaming giant to allow its developers to play around with the Netflix code, has managed to produce one of the most innovative ways to watch Netflix - on your old 8-bit NES console!
The Nintendo Entertainment System was originally launched in North America in 1985, 22 years before Netflix launched their now ubiquitous streaming product. With 8-bit color graphics (a color palette of up to 48 colors, and 6 grays - think something much worse than GIFs), and having been retired more than 12 years ago, it's hardly the most obvious platform to receive the latest port of the Netflix app.
But leave it to programmers with too much time on their hands to do just that, with the NES version of Netflix allowing users to select browse through Netflix's video library, and even play the intro to the Netflix Original series House of Cards (again, all in 8-bit 256 color glory).
Of course, that's all it does. The NES never had Internet function (mainly because the Internet, at least as we know it today, didn't exist back then) and so everything that the demo shows is actually working off a game cart, one that obviously have limited storage.
Still, it's all in good fun, and just one of the many cool, funky and outright ridiculous ideas that sprang forth from the latest Netflix Hack Day.
The Nintendo Entertainment System was originally launched in North America in 1985, 22 years before Netflix launched their now ubiquitous streaming product. With 8-bit color graphics (a color palette of up to 48 colors, and 6 grays - think something much worse than GIFs), and having been retired more than 12 years ago, it's hardly the most obvious platform to receive the latest port of the Netflix app.
But leave it to programmers with too much time on their hands to do just that, with the NES version of Netflix allowing users to select browse through Netflix's video library, and even play the intro to the Netflix Original series House of Cards (again, all in 8-bit 256 color glory).
Of course, that's all it does. The NES never had Internet function (mainly because the Internet, at least as we know it today, didn't exist back then) and so everything that the demo shows is actually working off a game cart, one that obviously have limited storage.
Still, it's all in good fun, and just one of the many cool, funky and outright ridiculous ideas that sprang forth from the latest Netflix Hack Day.