RetroPAL

Back again!

2008-10-05T23:07:00.006+02:00

So, it's been awhile. This downtime has mostly been caused by me getting a Playstation 3. Not very retro perhaps, but at least I can play Castlevania: Symphony of the Knight and Kula World on it. Oh, and let's not forget the latest gift to us retro gamers from the 8-bit gods at Capcom, Mega Man 9. Suffice to say, I think it's awesome, thoughI am a bit embarressed by the fact that I've only beaten three bosses so far.

I've also acquired a Mega CD, and I'm planning to acquaint myself with Snatcher very soon.

Times are a-changin', plus controller weirdness

2008-08-19T12:08:00.005+02:00

Starting today, I'm switching the focus of this blog from just the Retro Duo to retro gaming in general. The main reason for this is that getting the Retro Duo really rekindled my love of old 8 and 16-bit era games, and yesterday I got a hold of a cheap used Sega Mega Drive. (That's a Sega Genesis, for those of you of the North American persuasion.) So, I'm going to start writing a bit about that system too, and any others I might pick up in the future. So, for starters, here's a weird object that came with my new black beauty:

Looks quite straightforward, doesn't it? Has all the buttons you'd expect from a six button MD controller, as well as slow motion (on the back) and turbo and autofire for all buttons. But there's something strange about it...

Have you noticed it yet? The D-pad is rotated 45 degrees to the right. And no, it's not just cosmetic, to press up you actually have to press up and right. It's really a damn shame, because the other buttons on the controller are really good and responsive. I guess the rationale was to make it a bit more ergonomic, but since every other video game controller since the NES have had controllers where straight up meant up, this is really hard to play with. I'm gonna give it a try though, I guess you can get used to it.

Famicom Yarou! Vol. 2, 7-in-1, Famicom

2008-08-17T14:36:00.006+02:00

Here's an interesting multicart. For starters, it's got a pretty unusual shape.

Here's how the cart looks from the front:

And here's the back.

And the menu screen:

It's not animated in any way, but there is music, in this case Battle Hymn of the Republic. But it's the games that are the weirdest.

You can't really guess from the names, but each game on this cart is a pirated version of another game, but with both graphics and music replaced. Let's go through the list:

1. Frog Prince 106
Super Mario Bros. Yes, the main character is a frog. He drinks magic potions to turn into a human boy with a baseball cap. Pretty weird.

2. Bounce Ball 200
Pinball. Not much to say here, the weirdest thing is that on the bonus screen, Mario holding the paddle is replaced by a safe on wheels.

3. Spar 301
Urban Champion. The characters seems to have been replaced with Orcs or Goblins.

4. Cobra of Sky 402
Raid on Bungeling Bay. Redone with a Sci-Fi theme.

5. Rescue Kuck 503
Donkey Kong Jr. Weirdest name on this cart?

6. Bounce 604
Mappy.

7. Surface Fire 705
Centipede.

Overall, a few good games with weird makeovers.

Super 8-in-1, NES

2008-08-11T21:58:00.009+02:00

Time to take a closer look at one of my pirate multicarts. I really like these things, as they're odd, weird and a great opportunity to play some games you've never seen before.

This one looks like this:

And here's the menu screen:

It's a bit more fancy of a menu screen than I've seen before. It's animated and sparkly, and has music.

Let's go through the games:

1. Super Contra
Or Super C, or Probotector 2. Good shooter.

2. Ninja Gaiden 2
The sequel to the game known as Shadow Warrior in europe.

3. Robocop
Yup, walking slowly and shooting at everything that moves, that's ol' Robo alright.

4. Double Dragon 2
No surprise here either.

5. Heavy Barrel
Here's where things get a bit interesting, I've never heard of this game before. It's an overhead shooter, in the Commando or Ikari Warriors style. Most games on this cart are japanese, but this one has all english text in game.

6. Fancy Bros. 2
Behind this "fancy" name hides good ol' Super Mario Bros. 2.

7. Super Mario. 3
Super Mario Bros. 3. No surprise.

8. Dead Fox
Another game I haven't heard of before. It plays exactly like Rolling Thunder, but with different graphics. Could be some sort of sequel to Rolling Thunder, I guess.

So, overall, a really good multicart. Some great action classics, both if you're alone or if you have a friend to play along with.

And here comes another one...

2008-08-06T17:04:00.004+02:00

Now I've found the first game I've seen that won't work on the RetroDuo at all. It's Kirby's Fun Pak, the european version of Kirby Super Star. This game just flat out refuses to run, and gives no signal to the TV at all. I've read that this is because it uses an SA-1 chip, which has stricter region protection. I've also read that you can remedy this by soldering a specific pin on the SA-1 chip to ground, but that's not something I'm prepared to try out just yet. So for now, it's marked up as not working at all.

A milestone has been reached!

2008-07-26T23:20:00.005+02:00

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.

Big compatibility update

2008-07-14T00:47:00.004+02:00

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!

European roadblocks

2008-07-12T23:26:00.005+02:00

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

2008-07-12T18:10:00.003+02:00

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.

It's arrived!

2008-07-11T18:39:00.003+02:00

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

2008-07-11T12:06:00.067+02:00

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

An introduction of sorts

2008-07-05T13:01:00.004+02:00

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!