Hi, i am looking at getting a nomad clone, probably a genmobile (i also looked at the retrogen). Does anyone own one of these? I know the sound sucks, but I can live with that. I have some questions which I have been unable to find answers to on the net: * It plays PAL carts right? * What is the battery? Is it easy to find a replacement? * Any other comments? Cheers
I have a nomad clone. It's called a PSP running the Picodrive emulator EDIT: No but seriously, is the only benefit of Nomad & its clones just to play original carts on a portable?
When it comes to the handheld Sega Genesis consoles, all modern machines tend to have issues. Almost all have problems with the audio being a few octaves too low. The one that has correct audio emulation has a weird PS1/2/3 style button layout making use with 6 button games hard or impossible. The Nomad has a terrible screen. It ghosts too much. (I know owning one.) Then there's the battery life issue... Best bet. Forget this if you're looking for the perfect portable Genesis that plays carts. There aren't any. For the best one in my opinion, you could have someone from the moddedbybacteria website create one for you from the Radica TV legends P&P thingies. They can play a real cartridge since the on-board games connect to the deck-of-cards-sized PCB via the original Genesis address lines system. There's only a few games that won't work on it and these things are region free. Simple enough to use a 3.5" backup camera screen and batteries for a portable close to the size of these modern clones. I have the Super Street Fighter version with 2 of the 6 button controllers I'm currently working to connect the cartridge connector to then eventually make portable if the Everdrive MD will work on it.
One niche benefit of the original Nomad over most clones, is it can output RGB video. Rather than just composite. Pointless as that is for a portable where the console system costs less. Most PAL carts should work. At 60hz anyway. Some portables don't support PAL mode on their own screen (needing TV out to a compatible set). IIRC the modded Nomad I briefly had, went black and white if switched to PAL.
Do PAL games even fit on the screen? I thought because of PAL having a few extra lines the game would get letter boxed because of the PAL borders?
Videos Ive seen with PAL 50 modded Nomads shows there is a border around screen. That is if you meant the original one.
I have an NTSC Nomad that I had modded for 50/60Hz. When you are in 50Hz mode, the screen is scaled vertically for PAL, which means you get the standard blank areas at the top and bottom of most games. However, I found a nifty trick - start the game in 50Hz mode, then flip the switch to 60Hz once it's running. they only check for PAL when the cart first inits. Flipping the switch back to 60Hz makes the screen go back to "normal", meaning the games now fill the LCD completely.
Correct color with the factory LCD? That's interesting... As I was saying my Nomad with replacement LCD, didn't properly support PAL. It turned black and white.
I tested a LCD screen I have on several Genesis and my Nomad and they all went B&W. Funny thing is same screen displays properly on my Dreamcast. Perhaps the Genesis has a strange composite signal that some screens won't accept?
Maybe, but what I saw wasn't what you're thinking. Color in NTSC yet not PAL is a different situation. Of course since I no longer own it... We won't know more until someone else appears who's Nomad has both a non-factory LCD and 50/60 switch.
When you change the video mode, the VDP changes the frequency divider (by 15 on NTSC and by 12 on PAL), which means you're getting wrong chroma carrier frequency on the video encoder chip. Hence the B&W video. PlayStation1 consoles also suffer of this since they behave in a similar way when they change the video display frequency.
Seems the original LCD was NTSC and PAL compliant - I get the proper color in both 50 or 60 Hz modes. When replacing the LCD, you probably need to make sure the replacement can also handle both modes.
Correct, I have a post on sega-16 that shows how to do the colour fix on a nomad using a 4 pin oscillator. Some of the lcd replacement screens don't support 240p as the nomad is and tries to play it in 480i. I had a heaps fun time trying out different screens, some were b&w and another I tried drew more power than the standard screen.
Makes sense why it would work in both modes then. Most replacement LCDs people get are Y/C type instead of RGB. It would be nice to find a new RGB panel that would work. The original LCD really sucks.
