RetroDuo NES/SNES Clone Official Thread. Castlevania III, StarFox WORK, SMRPG WARNING

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

OVERVIEW

The RetroDuo is a NOAC / SNESOAC “clone” system developed by INNEX in response to the minor incompatibilities that years of Famicom and Super Famicom clones have proven to produce.

Generally speaking, due to current, ongoing research by myself and others, while some minor incompatibilities have been discovered, the system has proven so far to be compatible to a greater degree than most other clone systems on the market.

HARDWARE / AESTHETICS / VIDEO / AUDIO

The RetroDuo is about 6 inches by 6 inches, and stands approximately 2 inches high. It currently is available in two finishes : black and red, and blue and white, both being mirror finish plastic similar to a Playstation 3.



The NES cartridge slot is in the rear of the unit, and the SNES/Super Famicom cartridge slot is in the front. The unit has a power switch which rests in the OFF position by sitting centered, and powers on the 8-Bit NES games by being pushed up and 16-Bit SNES/Super Famicom by being pushed down. There is also a reset button which has a spring loaded “click” when pressed.



The RetroDuo can run Super Famicom games (which have a different cartridge size/shape than US SNES games) from all regions with NO modifications to the systems hardware. It does not contain any plastic preventing this.

The unit comes with two SNES style controllers (also mirror plastic, which I find to be potentially slippery), and uses standard SNES controller inputs. Compatibility reports from owners show that the unit allows for standard official SNES controllers to be used in place of the included controllers. On SNES games, all buttons are mapped to their correct buttons, and on NES games the B button is mapped to the top-left Y button and the A is mapped to the bottom-left B.



Video output on the unit is standard composite A/V including stereo channels, as well as S-Video. Tests run by myself and other owners have provided the following results:



When using the composite A/V cables for both NES and SNES games, the NES games display with a superior, more “solid” resolution, while SNES games have a slightly lower-than normal resolution, and have been reported to have minor “crawling” artifacts on screen.

When using the S-Video cable for both NES and SNES games, the SNES games display with a much “crisper” resolution, however, the NES games display with minor “resolution tearing” (interspersed pixel color variations).

Neither setup has been proven to be distracting to the point of not being able to play NES or SNES games in their “lower fidelity” resolutions, however, OPTIMAL resolution choices are NES with Composite A/V and SNES with S-Video. Due to the fact that the unit will default to S-Video display if the S-Video is plugged into the unit itself, you will need to unplug the S-Video from the unit when selecting NES games on the RetroDuo.

SEE NES VIDEO COMPARISON PICTURES BELOW

Audio for both NES and SNES appears to have the correct hardware and sound emulation, and while some instrumentation on the NES (notably the MIDI-style percussion) sounds a bit flatter/tinnier than an actual NES, it does not appear to be missing any sound channels.

DP forum Satoshi Matrix has a great tutorial for improving the NES side's audio, check it out here: http://satoshimatrix.wordpress.com/2...tion-tutorial/

The unit is light, as most NES / Famicom clones tend to be.

The pin-sets on both the NES and SNES also appear to be much looser-gripping than most NES and SNES clones typically are, though this has not appeared to cause any issues with gameplay in any of my tests, providing games are clean.

SOFTWARE / HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY

Again, as far as other popular NES / SNES clones on the market go, the list of games that are 100% incompatible is generally small when compared to the complete software library for both systems. However, some of those titles happen to be popular, and highly revered milestones in both systems’ respective library. The Retro Duo does an amicable job of providing higher, near-complete compatibility of the list of titles that are non-compatible on other clones.

The RetroDuo also has proven to be compatible with devices that have given other clone systems trouble, most noteably : The Super Gameboy, as well as the NES Game Genie, and SNES Super Game Genie.

I have successfully run import Famicom games in the NES portion of the unit using a “HoneyBee” style cartridge adapter.

Recent tests run by DP Forum Member RemoWilliams have shown that the RetroDuo is compatible with both the Tototek SNES flash cart AND the www.RetroUSB.com "PowerPak" NES re-writable Flash Rom Multi Cartridge. Due to the unique nature of these products, this is a major mark in the favor of the Retro Duo console.




Through active testing by myself and others, here are a list of noteable games that have been reported “compatible” and/or "incompatible" on RetroDuo systems. (PM me with any updates to the list you have found!)

SPECIAL COMPATIBILITY NOTES/WARNINGS:

SNES "slowdown" reported on certain games : DP forum member and RetroDuo owner Nero99 reports that the SNES game "Demon's Crest" had noticable slow-down in areas containing a large amount of on-screen action while being used on a RetroDuo. This phenomenon was reported to severely impact the quality of gameplay, and was verified by Nero99 as specific to using the cartridge on a RetroDuo console, the same section of the game had no slow-down when used on an actual SNES. I'm awaiting further reports of games that have speed issues on the Duo vs. an actual SNES, and I will test the games in my collection when I have an opportunity.

SUPER MARIO RPG COMPATABILITY WARNING/EXPLANATION : One particular game with a legacy of difficulty in terms of use on not only SNES clone systems, but also in ROM DUMPING, as well as use on OFFICIAL SNES and SUPER FAMICOMS in regions other than the one native to the cartridge is SUPER MARIO RPG. Reports on various internet sites have detailed that this game not only is dependant on a Nintento SA-1 processor chip (resident on the cartridge board) but in the alleged SECOND and THIRD software REVISION contains code that checks for the region-coded “lockout” chip on the SNES/SUPER FAMICOM SYSTEM on which it is playing. Since RetroDuos (as well as other SNES Clone systems) do not contain these region-coded-chips, the ONLY version of Super Mario RPG that is reported (and has been verified via video) as “working” is SOFTWARE V1.0 (which does not contain the region lockout check). I currently do not know any way of verifying which version of Super Mario RPG a cartridge contains.

CURRENT RETRODUO COMPATIBILITY CHART - UPDATED 8/26/2008

FAMICOM (OFFICIAL & PIRATE)

Compatible

• Famicom 100-in-1 multicart (HK Pirate Cart) – (Game menu displayed on NTSC display with rolling effect as if it were in PAL, but once any game was selected, it reverted to correct display, did not interfere with cartridge being “compatible”.)
• Famicom Super Mario Brothers 2 (Famicom Disk Dump to HK Pirate Cart)
• Famicom F1-Race (HK Pirate Cart)
• Famicom Super Baby (HK Pirate Cart)

Incompatible

• Famicom Disk System Hardware (Opening "Disk Set" screen scrambled, games do not communicate with the RAM adapter properly.)

NES OFFICIAL

Compatible

• Castlevania III Dracula’s Curse (Verified working on video)
• Gauntlet - Black Tengen Version (Verified working on video)
• Chiller (Verified working on video)
• Pacmania (Verified working on video)
• Klax (Verified working on video)
• Batman 1 (Verified working on video)
• Startropics 1 & 2 (Verified working on video)
• Adv. of Bayou Billy (Verified working on video)
• Bible Adventures (Verified working on video)
• Sunday Funday (Verified working on video)
• Quattro Adventure - all games (Verified working on video)
• Journey to Silius (Verified working on video)
• Gilligan's Island (Verified working on video)
• Tecmo World Cup Soccer (Verified working on video)

Incompatible

• Rolling Thunder (Verified incompatibile on video)
• 720 (Reported)
• Battletoads (Verified, hangs after level 2)
• Paperboy (Verified)

NES REPRO/PIRATE

Compatible

• PowerPak FLASH ROM CART FROM RETROUSB.COM
• Vs. The Gonies REPRO CART FROM VIDEO GAME KINGDOM
• NWC 1990 REPRO CART FROM RETROUSB.COM
• California Rasins REPRO CART
• Earthbound Zero REPRO CART
• Drac’s Night Out REPRO CART

SNES OFFICIAL

Compatible

• Star Fox
• Stunt Race FX
• Super Mario RPG (Software Version 1.0)
• Chrono Trigger
• Donkey Kong Country
• Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
• Earthbound
• Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
• Mega Man Soccer
• Mega Man X
• Super Mario Kart
• Super Mario World (MINOR audio issues reported)
• Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
• Super Metroid
• Super R-Type
• Killer Instinct
• Super Mario All-Stars
• Final Fantasy III USA
• Final Fantasy II USA
  

Incompatible

• Kirby Superstars (Reported incompatible)
• Super Mario RPG (Softwave Revisions 1.2, 1.3)
• Demon's Crest (Plays, but noticable slow-down in areas containing a lot of on-screen activity.)
• Batman Returns (PAL VERSION)

SNES REPRO/PIRATE

Compatible

• Dragon Quest V REPRO CART
• SNES 7-in-1 Multicart (HK Pirate Cart)

SUPER FAMICOM OFFICIAL

Compatible

• Super Mario World Famicom PAL (some graphical glitches reported)
• Final Fantasy VI

Incompatible

• Terranigma (Reported incompatible, not yet verified, suspected due to region lockout checks, similar to Super Mario RPG.)

Here are some video reviews I made, if you are interested in seeing the unit in action.

RetroDuo Review Part 1

RetroDuo Review Part 2

RetroDuo NES Stress Test Part 1 (LIVE at the Digital Press Store March 2008!)

RetroDuo NES Stress Test Part 2 (LIVE at the Digital Press Store March 2008!)

Here are the NES MODE S-VIDEO/AV comparison shots. Low light used to avoid the camera flash washing out the screen.