Best portable SNES?

[guitarmas]

Hey guys.

 

I might be in the market for a portable SNES system that plays actual SNES carts. I'm trying to find one without any lag. Do you guys have any ideas or suggestions?

 

Thanks!

[Tanooki]

3 hours ago, guitarmas said:

Hey guys.

 

I might be in the market for a portable SNES system that plays actual SNES carts. I'm trying to find one without any lag. Do you guys have any ideas or suggestions?

 

Thanks!

I know it will cause a moment of revulsion when someone brings up HYPERKIN, but this is the super rare case, like a broken clock being right twice situation they struck gold.

 

Supaboy S / SFC / Black-Gold

 

It's a portable SNES handheld, but has a piss poor phones like jack cable that does shitty RCA video/audio too on a TV as well (which works since it has 2 dedicated SNES controller ports on the face.)

 

Yes it is a clone, but whatever Chinese deity they prayed to, or blew, whatever the case, wasn't lazy in making their clone chipset on this one.  It's 100% accurate or 99.9% close whatever the case may be.  And I'm serious.  I'm a serial OEM hardware clone hater, you really have to sell me perfection to make me even give something a chance, or I find it so utterly cheap I don't care.

 

THe original Supaboy had some serious problems with various games that used more one off special techniques causing visual and audio issues in a few titles, it also was incapable of using chipped SNES games correctly if at all, some systems worked (mine largely did) some didn't, where you could fire up a standard game, hold reset, jerk the game out and pop in a chipped title, and it would boot...sloppy, probably dangerous, but it did.  Yet it had a trash d-pad that didn't work right, I had to mod that too.  I got fed up with it over time and dumped it, but someone tipped me off to the clarity of the Supaboy v3 (the S/SFC) unit.  I risked it, and don't regret it.

 

The Supaboy S while still using a lower quality composite style screen isn't going to blow your mind, but it's as lousy as a CRT in quality anyway without the ghosting/color smear.  The speakers are audible, pretty good, just not super loud though.  Battery is a stock one you can off any chinese cheapo battery supplier, but they do last quite a few hours, and can hold a charge for years of disuse (fired mine up recently after 2-3yr layoff, worked fine.)

 

Games with special graphics modes like ASP which is a high res/transparent shadow thing which fails in other cheap clones and many emulators for years works.  Hi res mode has no glitches, Hi color mode has no problems, all chipped games, even the one off oddities work.  Fake simulated chips, the MSU for the FXPAK/SD2SNES even works 100% as well on the device.

 

It doesn't lag, doesn't have problems, unless you just get a lemon, I mean it's a cheap chinese import after all.  But if you get one that's fine, you won't regret it. Just buy it from an american retailer with a swap policy for defects if you're worried.

[guitarmas]

Thanks! I'll check out the v3 unit. 

[+GoldLeader]

I really like my FC 16 GO,  though I haven't played it in a long time.   I actually have a silver one and a red one.  I kind of broke the cart door on the red one as I clipped some parts to make it Super Famicom compatible haha...They have rechargeable Li-Ion batteries (and I did upgrade one of those)...

 

Can't believe they still sell them at $50-$60!!

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/202351237101?hash=item2f1d12d7ed:g:StIAAOSwKqBbMd8K

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/165361961161?hash=item26805748c9:g:3n4AAOSw8jhiHi4d

 

But I will say YMMV.

 

See, as a straight handheld they are kind of big and bulky...But I would set mine on some milk crates (just the right height) then play with the included wireless controllers and it was awesome!  The controllers are very light weight.  I also hooked it to a small portable DVD player screen and thought that was neato!  I was mostly playing RPGs so fast button presses and perfect D-pads were less of a concern.  I still liked the controllers even as they are unbelievably lightweight.

 

Just buy one and a Supaboy! 

 

 

[Reaperman]

20 hours ago, GoldLeader said:

I really like my FC 16 GO,  though I haven't played it in a long time. 

 

I also love that one--with the wireless controllers, because my onboard controls are garbage, and the form factor seems to like playing that way more. I pulled it out a few years ago, and the battery had swelled, so I threw the battery away and played without for a while. I'm sure the replacement battery I bought for it is also swelling somewhere right now

 

I don't think I've heard of any of the mainline snes portables (yobo, retro-bit, hyperkin) being notoriously laggy. Also the cheapo SNES-on-a-chips have always been strong contenders since they showed up. In those 3-way clones, SNES quality was always higher than NES or Genesis. 

 

IIRC the retro-bit SNES clones worked with their genesis, nes, and gba cart adapters--and might be worth a consider for that.

Edited May 23, 2022 by Reaperman

[homerj]

I’ve got a Yobo FC-16 Go too.  I like it for the most part.  The only game I’ve tried that didn’t work was Super Star Wars.  It was just a glitchy mess.  The wireless controllers that come with it are actually not bad at all.  I didn’t have mine long at all before the battery life went to crap & the battery itself swole up to the point that the battery door wouldn’t close without the screw.  The batteries are easily replaced though.  Also, i haven’t had a problem with the on/off/av switch but it has always felt like it could easily break so I’ve been extra gentle with it.  I think i paid $40.00 for mine 3-4 years ago at a local store. 

[+jgkspsx]

I really like the Black Gold.