This aluminum, hand-crafted $500 NES is a thing of beauty

The maker of the Analogue Nt - a hand-crafted console that plays NES carts - wants you to appreciate its craftsmanship.

The Analogue Nt costs $499, and if you want to play in 1080p you'll need to add another $79 on top.

Oh, and if you want it in a red, blue or black finish that's another $49. You'll also need to pay for cables and controllers on top of that. And then crawl eBay for carts to stick in it…

Why would you spend that much? Well, the makers are hoping you'll pay for the quality, hand-crafted finish of the console, which begins shipping this week.

"We went through an incredible amount of effort to produce a product at this quality — we’ve always looked up to the standards of companies like Leica — and our ethos as a company is to be somewhat of a Leica of video game hardware. We think the Nt has achieved a remarkable level of quality — something never before seen in video games."

Here's some shots of it in detail, which feature "hand-routed connections, gold plated pins and tactile analog controls," according to the press release.