Don't suppose you care to crack it open and post pics of the boards? The model number on the ribbon attaching the screen to the board would be extra nice to have.Originally Posted by Choses
Don't suppose you care to crack it open and post pics of the boards? The model number on the ribbon attaching the screen to the board would be extra nice to have.
I took some pics of the inside. I'm not sure what is the ribbon you're talking about, maybe it's deeper in the system.
http://oi39.tinypic.com/2uzwcpw.jpg
http://oi42.tinypic.com/s1jg1u.jpg
http://oi44.tinypic.com/2rxjjm8.jpg
http://oi43.tinypic.com/de30pz.jpg
http://oi42.tinypic.com/30t5ll3.jpg
interesting. looks very, very close to the Pokefami DX - same chips, same wiring of the sound and image board to the speakers; etc.
take a look at this picture (sorry it's horrible, i need to replace the camera lens) - notice the white numbers that you can't read that are running along the ribbon connecting the screen to the board? I'm curious if you've got the same exact screen as the Pokefami DX - if you can flip the screen up and check, that'll tell us. If not, no worries - I've got a red one pre-ordered as well.
How's the sound now that you've had more time with it? Are there horizontal lines pulsing on the screen when you turn the volume up and music is playing?
Thanks for opening it up.
The sound is not so great overall. It's my only portable SNES so I can't compare it, but I think it could be better. And there's that uncomfortable noise coming from the speakers.
As for the screen, there are no lines when the volume is at its loudest.
I think I prefer not opening it again. I don't want anything bad to happen to it.
Just got my RetroDuo today. I'm full of piss and vinegar as it's not all I had hoped for, but thankfully it is a step up from the Supaboy in many regards. The audio for my unit seems as near to perfect as its gonna get. It is MUCH better than the Supaboy.
But I'm curious if Choses can help verify some of my findings.
I'll need time to work on a full review but here's my findings so far:
The controllers it comes with are excellent, easily the best clone controllers I've ever used. They feel light, yet solidly built and capable of taking some punishment.
Castlevania III does NOT work. There are severe problems with the audio until the titlescreen, the intro is filled with graphical garbage/glitches, and then the game crashes when actual gameplay should begin.
The NES Powerpak does NOT work with the RetroDuo Portable.
As expected, the NOAC seems to be in the NES to SNES cartridge adapter.
The NOAC sound doesn't seem wrong, but it does seem like its being over-amplified. It's been a while since I had a stock RetroDuo, but I think it might be the same issue all over again. I wonder if an audio dampener can be made to correct this?
The Supaboy buzz is nonexistent in most games, but you can still faintly hear it in certain games like Super Mario World. What is present is barely audible, unlike the Supaboy's which becomes difficult to ignore even after several minutes of gameplay
-Some of my games have wavy lines through them like there's major sych issues. I thought this might have been caused by something loose internally, but its not something that happens across the board. For example, it occurs with the Super GameBoy every single time I've tried it, but it does not have this issue with Donkey Kong Country 2.
-The same deal as the Supaboy, the RDP doesn't seem to properly reconize sweeping diagonal dpad inputs in shumps. In fact, testing it with Zelda, pressing down right actually began to give me the opposite input of up left! What in the hell?!
-Like the Supaboy, Composite video output is dark and grainy.
I'll be testing it further and write up a lengthy detailed review of it, but these are my initial findings.
Last edited by Satoshi_Matrix; 02-09-2012 at 06:43 PM.
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Hey there. Have you tried using headphones? Does this make the wavy lines go away? And can you explain what exactly you're doing in shmups with the d-pad? I had a youtube user email me about the Pokefami DX and specifically tested diagonals with R-Type III and Gradius 3; I rolled around in several directions and things seemed great to me.
They are great. Well, one of mine is great. The other doesn't register down-right diagonals. I'll open it up to check the problem. Other than that, they are great controllers. They feel good in my hands and are very responsive. Almost as good as using original SNES controllers.The controllers it comes with are excellent, easily the best clone controllers I've ever used. They feel light, yet solidly built and capable of taking some punishment.
I do hear a buzz, and a high-pitched sound, but I don't know if it was worse with the Supaboy as I didn't try it. What I don't like is that the buzz and high-pitched sound are still present when I listen through headphones. As for the screen, I don't see any wavy lines, it's all good.The Supaboy buzz is nonexistent in most games, but you can still faintly hear it in certain games like Super Mario World. What is present is barely audible, unlike the Supaboy's which becomes difficult to ignore even after several minutes of gameplay
-Some of my games have wavy lines through them like there's major sych issues. I thought this might have been caused by something loose internally, but its not something that happens across the board. For example, it occurs with the Super GameBoy every single time I've tried it, but it does not have this issue with Donkey Kong Country 2.
I tried Gradius I & III, and Zelda ALttP. Moving diagonaly is not always easy, and it will sometimes move in the opposite direction like you said. I don't really like the Dpad, and the ABXY buttons are too far from each other. I will mostly play with the controllers !-The same deal as the Supaboy, the RDP doesn't seem to properly reconize sweeping diagonal dpad inputs in shumps. In fact, testing it with Zelda, pressing down right actually began to give me the opposite input of up left! What in the hell?!
From all the games I tested, only two didn't work : Kirby Super Star and Super Mario RPG (obviously). I thought the first release of Mario RPG worked on clones ? I do think I have a first release.
Also, the sound when playing NES games is very bad. There's a lot of "grainy" noise.
Overall, I still like my RDP, I always wanted to have a portable SNES and here I have it. It's not perfect, but it's still good.
Red RDP delayed to 2/28
Just got an email from Aaron at DC; the red system's been delayed to 2/28. It was supposed to ship tomorrow.
On one hand - bummer! On the other, I can afford other things right now instead. Sorry I won't be able to compare notes with you guys yet!
Mine should be here tomorrow... seeing as how I exchanged the Supaboy for it I'll try to compare the two a little bit. Shame though, it sounds as though the RDP isn't as good as it was supposed to be. Maybe I'll get the Pokefami next?
Holy hell. With all that and it's still a step up from the Supaboy? Does the Supaboy give you Hepatitis C or something?
I dunno. This makes the RDP sound awfully bleak. I don't think I can justify the bones on this thing even if I do like the overall design.
I'm pretty easy to please, so if this is better than the Supaboy I'll probably need to add it to my collection.
As far as the Hep C is concerned, I've been using the Supaboy for a day or two with no protection and I'm testing negative.
the Supaboy that I got from Hyperkin as a RMA replacement for my first unit (which was part of the prototype batch) does NOT have any buzzing at all, and honestly, that makes a world of difference for me. I don't think that the D-Pad is as bad as some people who claim that it has issues with diagonals (that may be a case-by-case unit-by-unit issue).
I'll bring it to the next NAVA or Podcast and you can see for yourself.
"And the book says: 'We may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us.'"
Well, none of this sounds very appealing to me. Maybe I'll just stick to the FC 16 Go.
It's a real shame that all these clone makers can't get it right.
If these were all $25 novelties, I would cut them some slack, but for the price they're charging, I'd rather get a Dingoo or something.
Alright guys, reply time!
When I say wavy sych-loss lines, I'm talking about horizontal lines that go through the entire length of the screen, not just on the edges. They only occur in certain games (Super Mario World, Yoshi's Island, and Super Gameboy confirmed so far). Putting in headphones does absolutely nothing.
I'm just simply playing it and finding that the dpad just doesn't respond when you roll and shoot. The Supaboy has this issue too, but with the supaboy the controls just simply lock up and refuse to do anything. - on the RDP, they reverse! So for instance, if your flying down right and the controls lock up, you start flying up and to the left even while you hold down the dpad in the complete other direction. The only way to fix this is to let go of the dpad completely and resume. I've confirmed this occurs with Super R-Type, Axelay, UN Squardron and Gokujou Parodius so far. It likely effects ALL shooters, but I haven't been able to confirm this or not. You can just use an SNES controller or one of the two controllers the system comes with to get around this, but just like the Supaboy, this thing is suppose to be portable. Imagine if you couldn't use the dpad on the PSP and instead had to use some sort of controller coming out the USB port or something. It's ridiculous.
That being said, I do really like the shape and form factor of the RDP. its FAR better than either the FC-16 GO or the Supaboy. The stand, the dongle thing to connect controllers, the way cartridges snap into place, it's got a lot of things going for it. Don't take my initial post to reflect my final verdict. I was just giving a breif initial impressions overview of the problems since I had high hopes that this would somehow be problem-free.
Hm. Both of mine work perfectly. They use the same size and style dpad as a real SNES and I think they're comfortable and the shoulder buttons feel really nice. I hope you can get the other controller working. While you have it apart, please take us some pics. I would take mine apart, but since you said that you're going to do that anyway....
Try playing Super Mario World, Yoshi's Island or the SuperGameBoy. All three will have very visible problems.
I'm somewhat morbidly glad to hear that someone else has experienced the same freaky reversal of controls that I have. It's so weird - I am completely at loss to think of any way to explain that. I love the feel of the RDP's built in dpad and the buttons are alright as well, but I wholeheartedly agree that the ABXY buttons are too far apart. Its much more difficult to reach from the Y button to the A button than it should be.
I'm glad you mentioned that because I forgot to! My made-in-mexico Mario RPG 1.1 WORKS with the RDP! It does NOT work on the SupaBoy, FC-16 GO or the standalone RetroDuo. This, coupled with the fact that the screen doesn't have sych issues, makes me very pleased with the RDP and is a big step in the right direction.
For me, this is by far the most disappointing aspect, though I'm hopeful some tech-head amongst us can weasel out a solution. the standalone RetroDuo has a similar audio defect with the NES side, and this can be cleaned up by adding in a simple audio dampener. I'm hoping something similar can be rigged for the RDP. As I said before, the NOAC is in the cartridge adapter.
Wow man thats pretty cool. How does it feel to be the ONLY PERSON to have a Supaboy without audio issues?
As much as I want to, I honestly can't really argue against that. Despite its crazy short battery life and crappy screen, the FC-16 GO has the best sound, the best video output to a tv, awesome wireless controllers and is also the cheapest of the three (four if you count the PokeFami DX)
There's no way this would ever happen. the profit margin for these devices is likely extremely low. I seriously doubt Yobo, Hyperkin or RetroBit are making that much money selling these. I'm not trying to defend the companies or anything, but I'm just saying that you are being completely unrealistic if you expect reverse engineered hardware clones to ever be cheap, especially handheld ones.
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What he's saying is that had these been cheapy novelties then the problems wouldn't be much of an issue but for the price they're actually charging people should be able to expect the hardware to be mostly problem-free. Incompatibility issues with some games aren't even the real problem. But when they're charging nearly $100 for something, there's no excuse for consistent audio problems and reversing controls. I don't mind paying $100 for an SNES portable. But if I'm going to shell that out the thing better work right.
Last edited by TonyTheTiger; 02-10-2012 at 09:42 AM.
Well, the only one in the DP community perhaps, but surely not the only PERSON.
As Tofu stated, they identified and corrected the buzzing issue in production and the batch after the initial run has that corrected. There's probably tons of them in the wild without that issue.
Any post-prototype batch that still buzz was likely based on some mix-up during manufacturing where they used old parts or packed/shipped prototype stock.
Based on reports in these threads that those who sent their units in immediately got buzzers back I waited a good couple of months after the issue was rectified to send my unit in for replacement.
When I did make a move to get my unit replaced, I didn't have any major issues with contacting their customer service department .... so I guess I feel fortunate that I didn't run into any trouble.
Based on reports of high-pitched squealing with the RDP I'm going to similarly wait for a V2 with these as well.
"And the book says: 'We may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us.'"
there is really no buzzing issue with SNES games on the RDP.It sounds pretty much exactly like the FC-16 GO. The issue is in the NES games. I can't put my finger on it exactly - its like there is audio distortion in the square waves. Perhaps this can be corrected, I don't know. It is very disappointing that the NOAC isn't the same one used for the RetroDuo standalone since Castlevania III doesn't work. I can successfully get Akumajou Densetsu to boot without major graphical errors, but the square waves are heavily distorted, and none of the expansion channels the VRC6 provides come through at all.
Oh and while I'm talking about the NES adapter, it does the weirdest thing! For WHATEVER REASON, RetroBit mapped the NES B and A buttons to the SNES B and A buttons!! You might think this makes sense, but no! When Nintendo designed the Super Famicom controller, they deliberately mapped SNES Y to NES B and SNES B to NES A. This was done because early in development, the Super Famicom was originally going to be backwards compatible with the Famicom. Even after the Famicom support was dropped, Nintendo still stuck to the Y and B structure for the vast majority of games starting with Super Mario World.
This choice on Nintendo's part worked out great for clones like the RetroDuo which use SNES controllers to play NES games. On the RD, you just plug in a real SNES controller and away you go, using Y and B.
So yeah, it is extremely odd that RetroBit would have gone out of their way to override that and remap the inputs to B and A on the SNES pad. This makes NES controllers modded to work on the SNES or RetroDuo useless on the RDP since NES B corrisponds to SNES Y, and this adapter leaves Y unmapped.
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So, I take it that the RDP uses actual SNES controller inputs, or does it use proprietary controllers that you opened and did wire traces to the button maps?
Actually, I see that the unit has a mini USB controller adapter.
So, does this effect using REAL SNES pads on SNES games, or just real SNES pads on NES games where the Y doesn't function?
Last edited by Frankie_Says_Relax; 02-10-2012 at 01:01 PM.
"And the book says: 'We may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us.'"
I tried Super Mario World and Yoshi's Island, and the screen was perfect. I wonder why your RDP has a problem with that.Try playing Super Mario World, Yoshi's Island or the SuperGameBoy. All three will have very visible problems.
I got my RDP today, turned it on and almost immediately boxed it back up. A lit green pixel was dead center and so I decided to return it and get a new one. I played around with it briefly and was impressed by SNES compatibility. Also, the controller attachment is very very tight. And like Satoshi Matrix has been saying though, the NES sound is weird. Not bad, but weird. However, the one thing I noticed is that my screen was not as crisp as my Supaboy screen..... and yes I removed the plastic screen protector XD. Overall, I'm waiting for a new one now I suppose.
Oh, and Genesis games seem to play pretty well too with the Retrogen. Not great because it is a rather cheap GOAC, but the adapter works just as well as it does on my SNES.
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