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

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

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.

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.

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