A Billion and a half questions conserning Famicoms and Megasi

My move from Emulating damn near everything To actual hardware is looking trickier after I found out that the Retron 2 doesn't play Castlevania 3 nor does the Retron 3 Rev 3

1 GAME yes 1 GAME has made all this tricky. and rather than make 1 thread for all my questions I'll just lump em all here.

1. If I go the Famiclone route Which one will play Castlevania 3? Do any of them play the Powerpak? If I get a famicom is there a paticular model I should be looking for obviously I want this to go through composite RF on an HD CRT would be a bit redundant. I was told to avoid the AV famicom for some odd reason I forget what.

2. I can get an SNES/Super Famicom and run the Retroport through it for now and find some portable something to play Castlevania 3 on later. But what about the Super 8? Could that run through S-Video? I know it runs Famicom and NES games plus all non PAL games (or ONLY Pal games if I get the euro version by mistake)

3. OK Now we get to the Genesis/ Mega Drive. The CDX seems to be my most compact option provided I sacrifice the 32x can that be modded for S-Video?
How about the X-Eye? and as for playing Mega Drive games on either of these what will I need? If I go full beast mode and get a Model 1 Genesis (S-video modded of course) 32x and Model 1 Sega CD. Is there any reason I should no get a Model 1 Sega/Mega CD or are they pretty reliable? and Lastly is the Sega Trio adapter decent (power suppily for all 3)

OK those are my million and a half questions on NES/SNES and Megasis matters

Stay tuned a year from now when I decide I need a PC Engine in mylife.

 

Don't goto "real hardware" only to buy shitty clones.

For NES/Famicom, buy a good old NES Toaster model. It can be modified easily for expansion audio which can be used in conjunction with a Famicom to NES adapter for Famicom carts or for use with the PowerPAK. The Toaster NES has good video quality. The only thing I can think of that is bad about the AV Famicom is NES devices like the Zapper don't work with it. Honestly if you just get a good Toaster NES and a PowerPAK you'll be pretty happy.

The Super 8 is a decent clone. But no, it has no support for S-Video at all. The Super 8 has an internal switcher to switch between the video feed in from the SNES and the NES clone video output. So you could connect your SNES with a S-Video cable and then connect the Super 8 separately with its composite cable. No NES or Famicom outputs better quality than Composite without other drawbacks. The Super 8 will run all NES and Famicom games, it will run both PAL and non-PAL. However the Super 8 is NTSC and will play PAL games as if you were playing them on a US NES system, slightly faster music and gameplay, games with critical timing may fail.

The Super 8 once again is a decent clone, better than any of the newer clones. If shelf space is an issue, it wouldn't be a terrible idea.

The CDX probably can be modded for S-Video. But so can other models. For MegaDrive games, the cart clot just needs to be wide enough to accept them, and some games require Game Genie (which can help with not needing to modify the cart slot) because you need to enter codes to patch out region checks. Just grab a Game Genie basically. I don't know about the model 1 Sega CD. The model 2 seems solid though. My brother was nice enough to drop mine on the concrete porch (it was in a box though) and it still worked fine.

If you really are serious about playing the games on original hardware, stay away from clones, get an analog TV or monitor. Anything that is a HDTV is digital and not so great for older game systems. If possible find a good CRT TV that has Component Video input. With that you can get a setup to convert RGB to Component and get much better video quality from the Genesis, Saturn, and other systems that have RGB.

 

Would I be better off just getting a Mega Drive rather than having to deal with Game genie codes and region checks? Or are some US Games locked? But then there's the issue of the Sega/Mega CD and my US copy of Slipheed.

 

There are games locked to US, JP, or EU. CD drives and retail discs both use lockout also.

The fourth region (50hz + Japanese) had full hardware support yet few consoles use it. Not included in some emulators either. That mode does things like play Streets of Rage as Bare Knuckle with PAL borders and speed.

In effect Genesis inherited its regions from Master System. Games who detect mode will on Power Base Converter.

 

I'm with MottZilla on this, just grab yourself an NES toaster there are many on eBay and other sites already modified.

 

Best means of circumvention would be? I assume there's some kind of mod for this. Like a switch or something.

I think I will. This all depends on if I can get a Super 8 or not

 

The best version of the systems for you depend on several factors.
Personally i am going the "mod the crap out of your consoles" route.
So for me the best console will be the one that becomes the best through modding.
Without modding the same console might be a lesser choice.

About Famicom:
The toaster nes is cool to have and easy to find but you have the crap fail-connector on it.
The AV famicom is probably the best machine after thorough modding. It has the advantage of providing the best image (no jailbar) if you ever want to RGB mod a FC/NES.
It has the no lightgun problem, however i hear this is fixed easily with a small mod.
My biggest apprehension with the AV is since I read somewhere that the sound balance for games with sound expansion chips is off compared to other FC version. Once again that might be fixed through modding. I had a Sharp famicom twin for a while and its ok but i noticed some small glitches when playing Legend of Zelda ( Nes cart + adapter ), such as music slowdown while scrolling from screen to screen.

I recently ordered the original FC as well as an AV from japan to complete my collection ( probably gonna be delivered next week) . I will then compare the audio on the different versions of the famicom and try to find a fix for the AV if i find the audio balance to be off.


About the Genesis im not very familiar with the "all in one" machines, honestly i think i would still go for the more traditional Genny + CD add on.
The best genesis out of the box is probably a non TMSS model 1 but if you are willing to mod, some other machines might be desirable. Especially if you want to go crazy and do the Crystal clear audio mod. In any case i recommend this thread to learn more about the many genesis revisions. Some of em are downright sucky and you just dont want them.
http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showth...-good-Genesis-1s-and-Genesis-2s-from-bad-ones

 

I was talking to Ace on You Tube before I came here. He went into a shit ton of detail on the genesis. and I was like UH.....what? The Genesis that Plays Everything is the most complicated part of this whole scheme.

Pretty much everything I'm getting I'm modding. the N64 I'm removing the blocking tabs. SNES Probably doing the same. I don't really want a front loading NES since it's bulky and takes up too much room that I don't have. (once I replace my XBOX the N64 will be on top of it) Famicoms are pretty compact so that's probably what I'm seeking Provided I can hook it up via composite (I have a free set in the back of the TV too so I'm good there.)

 

Toaster NES got that infamous loader mechanism. Heavily YMMV... All honesty I can't recommend putting up with it for serious use.
As much as it's a bona fide American cultural icon.

 

Like millions of others I had a front loader as a kid that eventually just stopped working. Fixing one seems like a pain in the ass too, besides my before mentioned "It's just too bulky"

 

LOL, thats so much him. Ace is pretty intense when it comes to attention to details. I certainly admire all the research he did on the genesis.

Im not yet into Megadrive imports, still working on my US collection. But then you can slightly mod the cartridge slot and play Jap imports with the region switch mod. It might be harder to get PAL stuff to work correctly but then im not much into PAL stuff. EXCEPT FOR MICRO MACHINE 2, DAMIT I WANT TO PLAY MICRO MACHINE 2!!!

 

Only the SNES version is region coded. Not Megadrive.

 

I just want Bare Knuckle and maybe the thunder force games oh and pulse man. Kind of reundant since I can play most of these else where but I have this Multi version OCD.

I should copy/paste some of what Ace said.

Genesis

nes/fami

:stupid:

*crying* I JUST WANT TO PLAY CASTLEVANIA III

 

Playing on the original hardware will always beat playing on a clone, for many reasons.

 

Honestly with the genesis the s-video mod is a little tricky and time consuming but really worth it, super good picture.Can't even go back to composite on it (jpn mega cd bios screen look beautiful in s-video) If you get one find one that has the high definetion graphics slogan on it and has no tmss screen, has the most compatibility and best sound. As for playing japanese games on it, easiest thing would just install a region switch on it, not really a hard mod to do I did it pretty easily and I am not even that great at soldering.

For nes av famicom is your best option I own one and picture quality is amazing on it, some special chip games I have also noticed certain sounds are lower but honestly not that bad. Now finding a converter that works with av famicom little tricky as one that is just bare bones board that works and most other adapters won't work on it(due to pcb height and thickness). Only both rad racer games have issues with converter. If you can find a top loader nes for cheap like I did, the mod to support external sound a lot easier to do than toaster. While it has the jailbar issue, if you do a composite mod on it like I got done for it amazing picture. I would avoid toaster if I were you, even after installing a new pin connector and cleaning contacts still have issues.

Some games even will reset still if lockout chip is not disabled. Top loader nes never. However it seems toaster is really sensitive to corrosion so I use the sand paper technique on carts pins, always solves problem with toaster.But remember it is harder to find converters for nes than it is for famicom.

 

I saw the Converter at Stoneage gamer so I'm set.

 

I've got Castlevania II. I play it on my original NES. Works perfectly.

Seriously, why stop halfway by buying a clone? They don't work as well as an original system, and it's not like original systems are expensive or anything. Plus, owning the original hardware is much cooler than some lame-ass clone system.

 

Some clones just look better and SOME people are charging near retail for original hardware.

 

Another thing that might be worth mentioning here, I remember reading somewhere that the Sega CD 1 had faster Seek time than the sega CD 2.
I made a small test when i had both and sure the model 1 was faster. I took noticeably less time to change tunes.
But then maybe my model 2 laser was worn a bit. Can someone confirm this?

I sold that model 2 long ago and kept the model 1.

 

Actually I've read totally the opposite. That the Model 2 CD unit is slightly faster than the model 1. So unless someone has done a real scientific test I wouldn't give those comments much weight. Does it really matter though? Obviously both units are supposed to play all games.