Remember back in the day when you had a Nintendo Entertainment System hooked up to a tube television, the connection over RF shaky, the excitement palpable? Nintendo's hoping you do, and wants you to recapture the feeling for $59.99.

On November 11, it will release the recursively named "Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition," a tiny little dedicated device packed with 30 of the greatest 8-bit hits. Pop in an authentically NES-style controller (additional ones sold separately for 10 bucks), plug into your flatscreen with HDMI, and you're back in your childhood. Pure nostalgic bliss.

But Nintendo is late to this party. Although plug-and-play retro gaming devices like Atari Flashback have been around since 2003, Nintendo waited until this year to jump into the nostalgia pool. So far, though, all indicators suggest it's doing it the right way. It's partnered up with the major Japanese game publishers from the 1980s to bring out a box filled not just with Nintendo's own hits like Mario, Zelda, and Punch-Out!!, but third-party classics like Ninja Gaiden, Mega Man 2, Tecmo Bowl, and even the original Final Fantasy. It's everything you loved about the original games, but better: for example, you'll be able to save your game progress on games that didn't allow it the first time around (hello, Castlevania).

On paper, this is a fairly robust implementation of the "tiny console" paradigm. Nintendo's got the right idea. And it will likely be a remarkable sales success. The similar Atari Flashback, now in its 6th iteration, has sold millions of units, and the company that produces it has expanded the line into tiny versions of the Colecovision, Intellivision, and Sega Genesis. The proof of concept is there, and now the console that was (and still is) an order of magnitude more popular than all of those is getting into the game.

Nintendo

Plus, Old Nintendo is arguably more popular than new Nintendo. Go to Hot Topic and count the number of retro Nintendo-themed T-shirts on the wall. The prices of actual NES cartridges are skyrocketing. Forget the fact that super obscure rarities only collectors care about, like Stadium Events, cost $8,000 or more; have you tried pricing out original copies of Super Mario Bros. 3 lately? It lists for $20-30, which is remarkably high considering how many copies are out there. Heck, that game is selling for half the cost of the new console. And it's not just adults who grew up playing the original who are driving up the cost. Recently at classic game shows, we've noted people buying copies of The Goonies II for NES because their 9-year-old kid saw it on YouTube.

The potential market for the NES Classic is wide, wide open, across generations and genders. Which, hmm, sounds kind of like the market for another sudden massive Nintendo hit: Pokemon Go. Like with its foray into mobile gaming, Nintendo took its sweet time to jump into the tiny-nostalgia-console market—likely because it hoped to use its classic 8-bit titles as extra content for its mainstream gaming consoles instead. But with Wii U sales predicted to be a dismal 800,000 units worldwide this year, Nintendo has wised up. Now it's going where the consumers actually are: on their smartphones, and making $60 impulse buys.

The question remains if shortage-prone Nintendo will accurately predict the demand this time. Or will this be another Amiibo situation? To be safe, if you're dying to relive your childhood holidays playing NES in footie pajamas printed with snowmen, you should probably buy one as soon as you can.