Ace_1

One of three positions: 1) Artwork 2) Programming 3) Quality control The third is especially if video game compilations are being developed because I notice a lot of them, especially those that are purely emulation-based, usually have some accuracy problems, more specifically in the sound department. If I notice a single flaw compared to the original versions of the games, I will make note of it and will not let any compilation released unless the games are 100% authentic(or as close to 100% authentic as possible).

I've performed an S-Video mod on my Super NES Mini, and I must say that the difference in quality is minimal. The Composite video is already so sharp and bright on the Super NES Mini that S-Video on it looks almost the same. The only difference is that there's slightly less color smearing and the edges of sprites are sharper. I don't know about RGB as I did not apply an RGB mod on my Super NES Mini.

This is pretty much the same thing as my RetroBit Retro Entertainment System, which means it should have accurate audio and video. One thing I did notice on my RES was that the video was actually BRIGHTER than an original Front-Loader NES, but the color saturation and the colors themselves are exactly the same as on a Front-Loader NES(maybe just a touch less saturated due to the brighter video). This is the clone in question(in the same paint job as my system - I've got an older RES, as it doesn't have the same box): eBay Auction -- Item Number: 180539319092 It's more expensive than the RetroN1, but I know this clone, and I know it's a good one. I have no idea about how accurate the RetroN1 is, but judging by the revised NOAC used in the Version 2 Yobo FC Game Console and in the RetroBit RES, I'd say the RetroN1 would be similar to that. No guarantees, however. And speaking of Yobo's revised FC Game Console, it looks like this: eBay Auction -- Item Number: 230497348132 The original model has gray buttons, while this one has red buttons. If it were blue, the buttons would be white, and if it were silver, the buttons would be silver. But the best way to recognize the revised FC Game Console is by the box. On the revised version, the buttons on the console pictured are red, while on the original version, the buttons are gray. You need to know this, as the older FC Game Consoles have the typical NOAC sound problems, heavily saturated video and some color inaccuracies. I would privilege the revised FC Game Console simply because of the controllers. I prefer those over the RetroN1 and RES controllers.

It was local. Found someone with a listing for this bundle online and picked it up today.

Picked up this PC Engine Duo-R bundle today for $200 Canadian. Includes a complete in box RGB-modded PC Engine Duo-R with one controller, power supply, A/V cables, all the paperwork and plastic bags, and the 3 games you see there: R-Type Part 1, Dragon Spirit and Emerald Dragon(I won't play that, as I HATE RPGs). This has now officially turned my incredibly unreliable TurboGrafx CD into a paperweight mixed with a TurboBooster Plus. And that's a good thing 'cause I was really getting fed up of the TurboGrafx CD's laser mechanism constantly jamming due to a gear(the problem gear that shatters) that gets stuck.

1 game: the arcade version of Gradius III. It's just too damn hard for me to beat that game without using an emulator.

If you can modify your consoles, RetroDuo hands down. It's the most compatible, but its NES sound output is EXTREMELY distorted due to RetroBit omitting 2 parts from the NES sound circuit. Unless you can do that, avoid the RetroDuo. Now, a little note on these Famiclones: very few of the modern Famiclones get the sound right. They are: -Yobo's FC Twin(those that have Yobo's name on the system) - some of these have minor distortion in the NES audio output -Yobo's FC Dual(you DO NOT want to buy this - it's a pure pile of crap) -Yobo's 2009-revision FC Game Console(these systems have a box that shows a White/Red FC Game Console with red buttons instead of gray buttons) -RetroBit's Retro Entertainment System -RetroBit's RetroDuo - NES sound is severely distorted, as mentioned earlier -*possibly* the new Tomee Retro Twin -Hyperkin's FC Mobile II And this is the list of the modern Famiclones: -Yobo FC Game Console(NES only) -Yobo FC Twin(NES and Super NES) -RetroBit RetroDuo(NES and Super NES) -Yobo FC Dual(NES and Super NES) -Innex Gen-X(NES and Genesis) -Hyperkin SG/FC Dual Action(NES and Genesis) -Yobo GN Twin(NES and Genesis) -Hyperkin FC Mobile(NES only) -Hyperkin FC Mobile II(NES only) -Yobo FC3 Plus(NES, Super NES and Genesis) -RetroBit Retro Entertainment System(NES only) -Hyperkin RetroN3(NES, Super NES and Genesis) -Tomee Retro Twin(NES and Super NES) (I may have missed a few 'cause there are A LOT of them) Not many Famiclones have accurate NES sound, as you can see. My recommendation is, if you can't modify your hardware, to get an FC Mobile II. If you can modify your hardware, get the RetroDuo.

There's a cheaper way to fix an NES cartridge slot than to buy a replacement. Just remove the old slot, clean the contacts with a little towel(sprayed with Windex) wrapped around a credit card, then bend up the bottom pins to tighten the cartridge slot. That's why most Front-Loader NESes fail: the cartridge slot bends too far down, which makes it impossible for the bottom contacts of the cartridge to make a proper connection with the cartridge slot's bottom contacts. You just have to bend up the bottom pins on the cartridge slot, but it's recommended to clean out the cartridge slot when you tighten the cartridge slot.

Stick to original hardware. Whether you want the Front-Loader or Top-Loader NES, it doesn't matter unless you're bothered by these: -Finicky cartridge slot(Front-Loader) -"Jail bar" artifacts in the video(Top-Loader) While both can be fixed, replacing the cartridge slot in a Front-Loader NES is much less complicated than fixing the "jail bar" artifacts of the Top-Loader NES, which requires rebuilding the video circuit off the motherboard. Now, I haven't done a full-fledged Composite mod on my Top-Loader NES nor have I rebuilt the video circuit, but when I do, I'll let you know. I will most probably keep the RF modulator in the system, but I will rebuild the video circuit off the motherboard and see if that changes anything. If I remember correctly, the problem with the Top-Loader NES having those artifacts is because of the motherboard's design, where components and traces are REALLY close to each other. Rebuilding the video circuit away from the motherboard should theoretically fix the video problems, but it would require soldering. If you're not comfortable with that, get a Front-Loader NES. If you want to go out and get a clone, however, get the FC Mobile II. It serves as both a portable NES and a home console with wireless controllers. Personally, I would have both an original NES for gameplay at home and an FC Mobile II for NES gaming on the go.

Thunder Force IV, plain and simple. I like intense, fast-paced music, and Thunder Force IV's got all that and more. My favorite tunes are these(recorded off original hardware, NOT an emulator): Battle Ship: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80gyutm4NIM Space Walk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFTlJc7WPXQ Simmer Down: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh2w2Jdziew My personal favorite, Metal Squad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bozH7pmOxiw And quite possibly my favorite Final Boss tune of all time, War Like Requiem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtikJ0KjQlo

I just mentioned in my previous post that new Yobo FC Game Consoles and the other variants sold by Hyperkin(FC Super Loader) and RetroBit(Retro Entertainment System - I own one of these). Now, let's see if Yobo will eventually bring in the corrected NOAC in the GN Twin and FC3 Plus. Those are the only two Yobo clones that still use the bad NOAC(Hyperkin MIGHT still use the bad NOAC in the SG/FC Dual Action - can anyone fill me in on that?).

Wow, where've you been? There exist NOAC-based Famiclones with the reversed 25% and 75% square wave duties corrected: -Yobo-branded FC Twin -RetroDuo(but two missing parts on the sound circuit pretty much kill the correct sound) -FC Mobile II -Yobo FC Game Console Version 2(this is the one with the solid color buttons and red power LED)/Retro Entertainment System/Hyperkin FC Super Loader(should be rated at 6V rather than 9V, as I'm pretty sure the old ones with the bad NOAC used a 9V power supply) Slowly but surely, the old NOAC is biting the dust. Currently, these clones are known to still use that NOAC: -Yobo GN Twin -Hyperkin SG/FC Dual Action -Original FC Mobile(discontinued) -Gen-X(I think it's been discontinued as well, as it's no longer available on Innex's website, where it once was) -Yobo FC3 Plus

A console based off some old arcade boards: -10MHz Motorola 68000 CPU -Custom 16-bit graphics processor with scaling and rotation capabilities -Yamaha YM2151 FM sound chip -VLM5030 PCM sound chip -3.57MHz Zilog Z80 CPU to control the sound chips -Cartridges can house custom sound chips(example: Konami wants to port Gradius, they can put in their custom SCC sound chip and the 2 AY-3-8910 sound chips that were used on the original arcade board inside the cartridge) -2MB of RAM -Pack-in controllers are like Neo Geo controllers: arcade sticks(but not as huge and with 6 buttons instead of 4) -2 controller ports(with support for analog controllers like flight sticks) -RF, Composite, S-Video and RGB outputs with Stereo sound Quite a beast of a console. Just thinking of that makes me want to build one with these specifications.

You can play your NES, SNES, and Genesis pads with it. It has 2 ports for each system on it. I like the sound of that. If the hardware proves superior to Yobo's FC3 Plus(mainly the NOAC; it'd better be, as Hyperkin seems to have ditched the old NOAC, but they might pull off another dick move like Yobo and return to the old NOAC like they did with the GN Twin and FC3 Plus), I'm going to pick up Hyperkin's 3-in-1 instead. If not, I'd just get the FC3 Plus.

NOTE: 60hz IS NTSC video. PAL runs at 50Hz, NTSC at 60Hz. If a PAL TV is compatible with 60Hz, it will most certainly work with an NTSC video signal. The reverse is true: I have an American NTSC TV bought in 2007 which works perfectly fine with a PAL 50Hz video signal, color and all, however, I do have a fairly old(about 10 years old) NTSC TV that will accept a PAL video signal, but in black and white. So if you have a recent TV, you should be able to get that NES working on your TV. If not, you'd have to buy a converter to convert the NTSC video into PAL.

MAME even has a fair bit of accuracy problems with Konami games(almost every game I emulate in MAME is made by Konami). Most of the time, the music is either too fast or too slow, the sound balance is wrong, the Stereo is backwards, and in the case of Salamander 2, the sound is weird, there's a graphical error, and lately, it won't even run full speed on my PC while it would run full speed on older versions of MAME. I'm currently running a self-compiled and modified version of MAMEUI v0.136 as a result. I demand nothing less than 100% accuracy with anything emulated.

ReviewTechUSA said that the FC3 Plus is compatible with Virtua Racing, however, nobody I've ever spoken to who own the FC3 Plus(new and old) has told me that Virtua Racing works on their FC3 Plus. Who purchased an FC3 Plus recently(new, not used)? I'd need to see the hardware for any difference between the newest FC3 Pluses and the older ones. As for the FC Twin, the oldest version with no Yobo branding had many more issues than those with Yobo branding. It used the old NOAC with sound issues and has some really blurry Super NES video on top of discoloring certain graphics. The revision I have is close to perfect on the NES side(doesn't work with Castlevania III, Rad Racer II and After Burner work with graphical corruption) and pretty much a direct replica of the Super NES. A third revision exits where the Super NES board was redesigned to have the Super NES sound circuit on the Super NES board, and the NES sound circuit is a little bit screwed up because like the RetroDuo, the NES side has distorted sound, but not as bad as the DISASTROUS audio of the RetroDuo. Did Yobo change the NOAC in the FC3 Plus, or is it still the old NOAC that doesn't sound right?

I've got a fair bunch: -Atari 2600/Intellivision/ColecoVision/The entire PC Engine/TurboGrafx 16 line: CONTROLLER CORDS ARE TOO DAMN SHORT! -Atari 5200: The 4-port model's stupid switchbox. Who designed that thing??? -Front-Loader NES: That cartridge slot is a real b****. Every time I get a broken NES, it's ALWAYS the cartridge slot that's bad. -Top-Loader NES: WTF, Nintendo?! RF output only when the Front-Loader NES has Composite AND RF??? And to make matters worse, there's LINE NOISE! You don't even get that on a Front-Loader NES! -Super NES Mini: No S-Video and RGB. Come on, the video encoder can output both S-Video and RGB, why not output it to the multi-A/V out? -PC Engine SuperGrafx/Sega CDX: What a mess! Wires go practically everywhere on the console! -TurboGrafx 16/original PC Engine: You have to buy an add-on to get Composite A/V out. WTF? -The entire PC Engine/TurboGrafx 16 line: ONE CONTROLLER PORT! That's the most retarded thing a game console manufacturer can do. -Sega Master System/Atari 7800: Pause button is on the console. Why, may I ask? What would it have taken to put the Pause button ON THE CONTROLLER? -Sega Master System: The worst D-pad on any controller I have ever seen. It's the most oversensitive D-pad ever made. Seriously. -Sega CDX: Weak CD-ROM drive. This thing has NUMEROUS issues reading any disc I put in it unless it's scratch-free. -Sega CD/Sega 32X: WHY THE HELL DO THEY NEED THEIR OWN POWER SUPPLY?! -Late Sega Genesis 1/Sega Genesis 2(most models): THE SOUND!!! THE VIDEO(Genesis 2 only)!!! It makes my ears and eyes bleed. -Sega Genesis 3: Broken compatibility. -TurboGrafx CD: ONE UNRELIABLE PIECE OF S***! Either a gear shatters, the laser dies, or the laser mechanism gets stuck. I have to fight with my TurboGrafx CD for 15 minutes before the laser mechanism gets unjammed. -TurboDuo/Sega Game Gear/TurboExpress: One word - CAPACITORS! -PlayStation: The laser sucks. Mid-game, music and FMV will start to skip. -PlayStation 2: Inconsistency between different revisions. -PlayStation 3: Removal of backwards compatibility. WTF, Sony? -Xbox 360: Oh jeez, where do I even start? It's about the most unreliable piece of s*** I have ever seen: Red Ring of Death, E74, numerous other technical problems, poor cooling system design, and the list goes on. -Nintendo Wii: USB ports are practically useless, and there isn't enough space on the flash ROM used by Nintendo as internal storage. -All GameBoys before the GameBoy Advance SP: Unlit screen. The GameBoy Advance in particular is impossible to see unless you're sitting out in the sun. -Frontlit GameBoy Advance SP: The frontlight is awful; the screen gets a nasty blue tint, isn't evenly lit, and the frontlight is useless in bright lighting conditions. -All GameBoy Advance SPs: Fragile. I dropped mine from a very low height, and the plastic cracked in multiple locations. It's also uncomfortable to hold. -GameBoy "Brick"/GameBoy Pocket/PlayStation Portable 1000/PlayStation Portable 2000: Blurry screen. Anything that moves fast like a Shoot-em-Up looks like s***. -Sega Game Gear/Atari Lynx/TurboExpress/Sega Nomad: 6AA batteries are needed to operate the damn thing!

Is it still going be a huge clunker like the original FC16 Go?

Picked up a little something I never expected to find yesterday: Atari Lynx Model 1 with 4 games(Ms. Pac-Man, Paperboy, RoadBlasters, Robo-Squash) Cost me $25CAD.

Never mind just the sound pitch being too high, but the games also run TOO FAST! The difference in speed is small, but it's a notable difference. Why? Because the CPU in the Super GameBoy runs too fast. I am not kidding; it's overclocked out of Nintendo's factory. A standard GameBoy "Brick" runs at 4.194304MHz, but a Super GameBoy runs with a faster clock at 4.295454MHz. It's running at barely 0.1MHz faster, and the sound pitch is WAY wrong, and the game run faster(in Nemesis, in particular, the faster clock of the Super GameBoy is VERY noticeable, since the music not only plays with a higher sound pitch, but it also plays too fast). If you get a Super GameBoy, you have to underclock it back to 4.194304MHz to get the authentic GameBoy experience.

I'll believe it when I see it. AtGames is probably the most stubborn clone manufacturer around. People have been complaining since the FireCore was released in Asia as the AtGames MegaDrive and Europe as the Blaze MegaDrive ALMOST 2 YEARS AGO and what has AtGames done? Aside from compatibility fixes, absolutely nothing. What's the point of fixing compatibility if your emulator's a piece of shit to begin with? Where's the logic in that? THERE IS NONE! What would it have taken for AtGames to pick up the hardware TecToy uses in Brazil, like the TecToy-580G found in Yobo's GN Twin and Innex's Gen-X, and put that in their systems instead of some stupid ARM processor running a software-based emulator that doesn't even work properly? Yobo knows that; they use reverse-engineered hardware in their clones, not emulation bullshit, although their NES hardware is hit-or-miss, some of their clones have very good NOACs(FC Twin, 2nd-generation FC Game Console), while others use crap NOACs with sound imperfections(GN Twin, FC3 Plus) that exist since Famiclones first started being developed, i.e. when Famiclones were using full motherboards rather than NOACs. While I can stand a few sound imperfections, something that sounds as awful as AtGames' hardware is something I just can't listen to.

The GENMobile is garbage. How can you even LISTEN the sound it produces?! It's so off-key it'll make any Genesis purist puke on the spot, then run away. Don't waste your money on that wanna-be Genesis piece of crap. THERE ISN'T EVEN A TRACE OF ORIGINAL GENESIS PARTS IN THAT THING!!! It's a software emulator(and a REALLY bad one at that) running off a 32-bit ARM processor. DO NOT GIVE ATGAMES YOUR MONEY; STAY AWAY FROM THEIR HARDWARE!!!

Found a video of the FC16 Go: Looks kinda bulky, but it seems like a really nice portable Super NES. I'm going to have to keep an eye out for that in my local flea market where I got my FC Twin and RetroDuo.

Guys, the RetroDuo and the new Yobo-jeweled FC Twins both use IDENTICAL Super NES hardware that's fully compatible with Super FX games and the Super GameBoy. Both clones have the same compatibility problems with SA-1 games and any other game that checks for a lockout chip because both clones lack a lockout chip. But I do give an edge to the FC Twin's Super NES side simply because the RetroDuo has such a shoddy board design that a ground loop in induced somewhere in the system, causing TONS of static interference in the video output on the Super NES side. No such thing on the FC Twin. Now, if you're talking about a RetroDuo vs. the ORIGINAL non-Yobo-branded FC Twin, that's another story. Those FC Twins were supposedly hit-or-miss with compatibility with special cartridges, and contains an older chipset than the one found on the Yobo-branded FC Twins and the RetroDuo that causes some discoloration problems, on top of the use of a blurry video encoder(the original FC Twin uses a CXA1145, while the new ones use a CXA1645, which outputs MUCH sharper Composite than a CXA1145, exactly like on the Sega Genesis, since different revisions use those 2 encoders). As for the FC 16 Go, it looks like an oversized DS, but I'd LOVE some Gradius III and Thunder Spirits on the go. I may pick one up when I go get an FC Mobile II and RetroGEN or GENMobile.