Saturday, July 26, 2008

A milestone has been reached!

Today, I've come across the first game that have compatibility issues that actually affect gameplay. It's Starwing, the european version of Star Fox. The problem with this game is that a certain spot on the screen, a vertical bar slightly right of the center, is distorted and shows a completely different area of the screen than it should. This makes it very hard to play the game correctly, as it's pretty hard to see enemies and obstacles to the right of your Arwing.

I've installed a 50/60 hz switch on my Retro Duo, and with this switch set to 50 hz mode, the game looks as it should... except it's in black and white. Switching back to 60 hz makes the vertical bar come back. So, this is the first game I can put down on my compatibility list as playable, but with serious issues.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Big compatibility update

I had some friends over today, and they brought some games with them, resulting in over 35 new games added to my compatibility list. Go check it out!

Saturday, July 12, 2008

European roadblocks

So, what are the mayor caveats you should have in mind when considering buying a Retro Duo to use in Europe? Well, there's two major things to consider.

1. Power
If you order a Retro Duo from the US, it will come with an American power supply. In many parts of Europe (if not most parts) the thing will simply not fit into a regular wall plug. There are a few things you can do to circumvent this.

Easiest and cheapest would be to buy an appropriate travel power adapter, like this one from DealExtreme. With this, you simply plug the original power supply into the adapter, plug the adapter in the wall and play. But, and this is a big but, I've read accounts from people who have tried this, and they claimed that this procedure fried their console. Since European current is 230V and American current is 110v, the power supply is getting a higher current than it should, which could be disastrous. True, it does say on the label that the power supply is compatible with 230v, but better safe than sorry, I say.

The next alternative is to get a universal power adapter. You know, one of these:

You have to be really careful though, as you must get one that perfectly matches the kind of power the RD wants (5V DC) or risk damaging the console. I have one of these, but the one I have only outputs 4.5V or 6V, so it's a no go. (It does have a 9V setting though, making it perfect for the original NES and SNES!)

The last option, and the one I'm using, is to get a 230V to 110V stepdown transformer, like this one. These devices converts the power from 230V to 110V, making it completely safe for any device that runs on 110V.

2. Video format
The Retro Duo is a pure NTSC machine, and so you must have a TV that can display an NTSC signal in order to use it. Most modern European flatscreen TVs can handle NTSC signals, but many older TVs only support the hybrid PAL60 video format, if even that. This problem is much harder to get around, there are devices that can convert between video formats, but that will lose you some image quality. So, in summation, you want to play the Retro Duo in Europe, make sure your TV is NTSC compatible.

A few quick notices

First off, with the svideo lead connected directly to the TV I notice the exact same behaviour others have reported, that is great video on the SNES side using svideo, and somewhat crappy NES video.

Secondly, it seems to me that the left/right audio channels may be swapped. I don't know, it might be somewhere in my connections.

And finally, I added a bunch of japanese SNES games to the compatibility list.

Friday, July 11, 2008

It's arrived!

My girlfriend is playing the original Super Mario Bros for the first time on it right now.

First impressions:
  • It's incredibly light!
  • The controllers are really stiff, I'm probably getting some old SNES controllers for it.
  • The sound on the NES side sound a little different compared to the real NES.
  • The video with only svideo connected looks crap on both NES and SNES. That might be because I have it hooked up to a SCART adapter. I'll try connecting it directly to my TVs svideo input and see if there's any difference.

Well, all this is no real news, but hang on, more is coming!

Retro Duo compatibility list

The list should be pretty self-explanatory. Working games will be marked in green, partially working games will be marked in yellow, and non-working games will be marked in red. All games have been tested and confirmed by me personally.

Number of games tested: 118

Last update: 2008-10-17

NES PAL Europe
PAL NES games run quite a bit faster on the RD than on a regular European NES.
  • Batman The music is a bit distorted.
  • Battle of Olympus
  • Blue Shadow
  • The Bugs Bunny Blowout
  • Dragon's Lair
  • Faxanadu
  • Fester's Quest
  • The Goonies II
  • Jack Nicklaus' Golf
  • Journey to Silius The game works, but the music sound is way off.
  • Kabuki Quantum Fighter
  • The Legend of Zelda
  • Micro Machines This game should usually require a regular NES game plugged on top of it to work. It works even without that on the Retro Duo.
  • Mike Tyson's Punch Out
  • Nintendo World Cup
  • Pro Wrestling
  • Section Z The game works, but the top part of the screen doesn't scroll properly.
  • Solar Jetman The graphics a a tiny bit distorted in the landing sequences.
  • Solomon's Key
  • Solstice
  • Star Tropics The dialogue screen looks a bit messed up.
  • Star Wars
  • Super Mario Bros. This is pretty hard to play at the higher speed.
  • Sword Master The game works, but the music sound is way off.
  • Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles The game works, but the music sound is way off.
  • Top Gun
  • Trojan The game works, but the top part of the screen doesn't scroll properly.
  • Wrath of the Black Manta
  • Wrestlemania Challenge
  • Yoshi's Cookie

NES NTSC America
  • Blades of Steel
  • Duck Tales
  • Gargoyle's Quest 2
  • Ghosts n' Goblins
  • The Guardian Legend
  • Ice Hockey
  • Ikari Warriors
  • Pro Wrestling
  • Rad Racer
  • Rescue - The Embassy Mission
  • Section Z Works perfectly, unlike the european version.
  • Spy Hunter
  • Stealth ATF
  • Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt/World Class Track Meet
  • Tiger Heli

NES Japan
Japanese NES carts doesn't fit the Retro Duo's NES slot without a 60 to 72 pin adapter.
  • Double Dragon 3
  • The Legend of Kage

NES Pirate
  • Rockman (Mega Man) 3
  • Famicom Yarou! Vol. 2, 7-in-1 Famicom cart. More info here.
  • Golden 32-in-1 Famicom cart.
  • Skate or Die Famicom cart.
  • Super 8-in-1 More info here.
  • Super Mario Bros. 3

SNES PAL Europe
  • Arcade's Greatest Hits - The Atari Collection 1
  • Best of the Best Championship Karate
  • Goof Troop
  • Hole in One Golf
  • Kirby's Fun Pak Refuses to start, only shows a black screen.
  • The Lawnmower Man
  • The Legend of Zelda - A Link to the Past
  • Parodius
  • Rise of the Robots
  • Shaq-Fu
  • Sim City
  • SOS - Sink or Swim
  • Starwing This game has serious graphic issues. See this post for more info.
  • Super Game Boy It took a lot of tries to get this to work. The upper connector might be going bad though.
  • Super Mario World Some graphic glitches on the title screen.
  • Tetris & Dr. Mario Works only in 50 hz mode. Which is problematic, since it will also be in black & white unless you have an RGB mod on your RD.
  • Virtual Soccer
  • Wing Commander

SNES NTSC America
  • The Blues Brothers
  • Ka-Blooey
  • Killer Instinct
  • The Legend of Zelda - A Link to the Past
  • NHL '94
  • Out of this World
  • Stargate
  • Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World
  • Super Mario Kart
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Tournament Fighters

SNES NTSC Japan
  • Bahamut Lagoon
  • Battle Dodgeball - Tokyu Gekitotsu
  • Blackthorne
  • Chrono Trigger
  • Der Langrisser
  • Elfaria
  • Eye of the Beholder
  • Far East of Eden Zero
  • Final Fantasy - Mystic Quest
  • Final Fantasy IV
  • Final Fantasy V
  • Final Fantasy VI
  • Final Fight Guy
  • Final Fight 2
  • Fire Fighting
  • The Firemen
  • Front Mission
  • Front Mission - Gun Hazard
  • Rock n' Roll Racing
  • Romancing SaGa 3
  • Ryuuko no Ken (Art of Fighting)
  • Seiken Densetsu 2 (Secret of Mana)
  • Septentrion
  • Sid Meier's Civilization
  • Sim City Jr.
  • Starfox
  • Street Fighter II
  • Street Fighter II Turbo
  • Super Donkey Kong (Donkey Kong Country)
  • Super Gatchapon World SD Gundam X
  • Super Castles
  • Super Street Fighter II
  • Syvalion
  • Tactics Ogre - Let Us Cling Together
  • Tales of Phantasia
  • Wonder Project J

SNES Pirate
  • Super Ball 6-in-1

Saturday, July 5, 2008

An introduction of sorts

Hello and welcome to RetroPAL. In this blog I'll chronicle my experiences with the Retro Duo I just ordered for myself, but which hasn't arrived yet.

Other people have written about the Retro Duo before, but no one have given a really detailed account from a PAL perspective so far. AFAIK, the Retro Duo is a pure NTSC machine, even though it's compatible with PAL games. That being so, many gamers living in PAL land has been wondering if the Retro Duo is worth it for them. Well, that's a question I'm hoping to help answer.

I'll be back once the RD arrives!