it's a shitty emulator on a chip that will play basic stuff like SMB or Balloon Fight but chokes on more exotic mapper setups like MMC5 or 4 screen mirroring.
Those are not emulators, those are just Nintendos on chips, NOACs.
It's no emulation, it's not FPGA, it's literally just all NES chips on a single silicon.
They're "NES-On-A-Chip" clones. They won't play everything, but they are real hardware and you get the benefits of that. Considering how cheap they are, they're a pretty good deal. Clone consoles and a few chinese multi-carts is really not a bad way to /vr/.
NOACs have largely been the same for at least a decade, probably more. There's a couple different variations with minor differences, I think particularly in sound, I could be misremembering. The NOAC itself is an extremely mature platform at this point, irrespective of it's relationship to the NES. Some games with more advanced mappers like Castlevania III typically have issues, but if you're into weird Chinese shit, all those games are actually coded for NOACs and some won't run on real NESs, ironically.
One of the more common NES clones that I have come across is the PowerGames Penguin console thing. Which has glowing red eyes when you turn it on. But it does play NES and Famicom cartridges, but does have some compatibility issues, like all of them generally do. For 20$ It is what it is.
One of the more common NES clones that I have come across is the PowerGames Penguin console thing. Which has glowing red eyes when you turn it on. But it does play NES and Famicom cartridges, but does have some compatibility issues, like all of them generally do. For 20$ It is what it is. (You) >The Penguin is legendary among Famiclone collectors, I have the multicart that came with one, but didn't buy the penguin when I had the chance.
These use to be a lot more common. Like things I would come across in thrift stores, and whatever. I have seen them maybe 2-3 times. But maybe they are harder to come by now? IDK. But it is a NES clone.
>but if you're into weird Chinese shit, all those games are actually coded for NOACs and some won't run on real NESs, ironically
The most likely explanation for this is that the Famiclones don't require refresh of the OAM table (I know the Dendy did not) so those games will fail on a real NES.
I have my original NES from when it came out, and it still works. How many years is that? 38 years ago? Still works. I doubt whatever OP posted stops working in no more than a couple years.
They do, but I think they're multi-chip affairs, there's no "Super NOAC" that I'm aware of. From what I've seen they work quite well and many have S-video.
I had this, it was a piece of trash that just randomly worked on the best day. The controllers were trash too, idk maybe others have had more pleasant experience with it but I was glad as hell when I pieced together an snes.
>a working NES is like 50$ tops
It's not 2015, anon. And the NES is just a badly designed machine, a cartridge system shouldn't require constant maintenance. Every Famicom I've ever owned has been 100% functional 100% of the time, even the ones that look like they come from a mahjong parlor.
>Every Famicom I've ever owned has been 100% functional 100% of the time, even the ones that look like they come from a mahjong parlor.
In my experience Japanese take a lot better care of their stuff than Westerners. Do you know how many gross and disgusting PS1s I've seen before?
Agreed, and yeah I've cleaned my fair share of disgusting north american consoles.
Famiclones work ok as long as you just want to play Ice Climber or Castlevania (can't count on exotic cartridge hardware working) but the PSUs are sometimes junk and the PCBs aren't always good quality; often they have shitty caps or poor quality traces or solder joints.
We're talking about the super low quality ultra mass produced chinese electronics, I think lousy components and workmanship are expected. That said, there's virtually nothing inside a NOAC Famiclone to break, it's a glob, controller connectors, and Power and AV jacks.
Famiclones work ok as long as you just want to play Ice Climber or Castlevania (can't count on exotic cartridge hardware working) but the PSUs are sometimes junk and the PCBs aren't always good quality; often they have shitty caps or poor quality traces or solder joints.
You aren't wrong, but that's the kind of audience that probably has enough money to mess around and buy stuff like this, whether they still own real hardware, want a clone but not enough money to buy an AVS or Analogue NT Mini + games for it, or who knows.
I know the NES color palette is a little hard to pin down because different displays and PPU revisions varied slightly in the colors but the sound shouldn't be.
I guess the main selling point is that it's a hardware clone of the NES it's not emulation, even though they tend to only want to work with basic common mapper setups.
More modern ones are probably better. The one I have could not play Castlevanaia 3, but it has been reported the recent ones with native HDMI output can play CV3 without issue. While I would prefer the real thing, the clones get the job done when you're on a budget.
Anon, tell me after all this shit, someone just invented a new 72 pin connector. Not some pressure sensitive shit. it seems easy enough, after everything else, there has to be one.
They're shitty, but they allow anyone with even a slight interest in retro to enjoy it on a TV without needing to set up a PC emulator or pay the price for legitimate hardware. They're OK in my book.
are you guys talking about american based famiclones when you say they struggle to play more complex/bigger games? i had famiclones as a kid (as in they used japanese famicom carts) and they played everything i threw at it just fine.
i can't imagine the technology has gotten worse all these decades later.
Oh well, can't say I feel bad about Nintendo having their shit copied to frick seeing as to how the Famicom used a bootlegged 6502 and a reverse engineered TMS9918.
My understanding was that they were a licensed 6502 second source but for Japan only; disabling BCD mode was necessary to be able to sell it internationally and not pay Commodore royalties.
I have an old twinclone that does NES and SNES. It's servicable if you don't have the original hardware it just won't play every game properly and some games won't play at all. If it's all you can get or you want something so you don't have to drag your original hardware out of storage it'll do.
Nta, but for me emulation is a last choice. I'm not hatin it's just my preference, I've got a ps classic and 3 thumb drives just for games I'll never get but want to play.
It's literally a NES, just as shitty as the original but plays the games and outputs composite, what more do you need?
Yea
it's a shitty emulator on a chip that will play basic stuff like SMB or Balloon Fight but chokes on more exotic mapper setups like MMC5 or 4 screen mirroring.
Those are not emulators, those are just Nintendos on chips, NOACs.
It's no emulation, it's not FPGA, it's literally just all NES chips on a single silicon.
They're "NES-On-A-Chip" clones. They won't play everything, but they are real hardware and you get the benefits of that. Considering how cheap they are, they're a pretty good deal. Clone consoles and a few chinese multi-carts is really not a bad way to /vr/.
Hardware clones are not emulators.
Isn't it based on older Chinese NES clone hardware?
NOACs have largely been the same for at least a decade, probably more. There's a couple different variations with minor differences, I think particularly in sound, I could be misremembering. The NOAC itself is an extremely mature platform at this point, irrespective of it's relationship to the NES. Some games with more advanced mappers like Castlevania III typically have issues, but if you're into weird Chinese shit, all those games are actually coded for NOACs and some won't run on real NESs, ironically.
One of the more common NES clones that I have come across is the PowerGames Penguin console thing. Which has glowing red eyes when you turn it on. But it does play NES and Famicom cartridges, but does have some compatibility issues, like all of them generally do. For 20$ It is what it is.
The Penguin is legendary among Famiclone collectors, I have the multicart that came with one, but didn't buy the penguin when I had the chance.
>
One of the more common NES clones that I have come across is the PowerGames Penguin console thing. Which has glowing red eyes when you turn it on. But it does play NES and Famicom cartridges, but does have some compatibility issues, like all of them generally do. For 20$ It is what it is. (You)
>The Penguin is legendary among Famiclone collectors, I have the multicart that came with one, but didn't buy the penguin when I had the chance.
These use to be a lot more common. Like things I would come across in thrift stores, and whatever. I have seen them maybe 2-3 times. But maybe they are harder to come by now? IDK. But it is a NES clone.
i'd buy that just for the looks
They're from very prolific Famiclone manufacturer SUBOR, who still make (non-penguin, unfortunately) models today.
>but if you're into weird Chinese shit, all those games are actually coded for NOACs and some won't run on real NESs, ironically
The most likely explanation for this is that the Famiclones don't require refresh of the OAM table (I know the Dendy did not) so those games will fail on a real NES.
they are ok, i used a retro duo for years until it randomly stopped working
What do you think mate
Are there any good NES/Fami clone models to specifically keep an eye out for? Or are they all more or else on par with each other in terms of quality?
I have my original NES from when it came out, and it still works. How many years is that? 38 years ago? Still works. I doubt whatever OP posted stops working in no more than a couple years.
wonder if mysterious chinese bootleggers will ever move to SNES or higher
I thought SNES clones already existed for quite some time now, and not Analogue shit either.
They do, but I think they're multi-chip affairs, there's no "Super NOAC" that I'm aware of. From what I've seen they work quite well and many have S-video.
I had this, it was a piece of trash that just randomly worked on the best day. The controllers were trash too, idk maybe others have had more pleasant experience with it but I was glad as hell when I pieced together an snes.
a working NES is like 50$ tops, why would you bother with this crap when you have to use real NES controllers and cartridges with it anyway?
>a working NES is like 50$ tops
It's not 2015, anon. And the NES is just a badly designed machine, a cartridge system shouldn't require constant maintenance. Every Famicom I've ever owned has been 100% functional 100% of the time, even the ones that look like they come from a mahjong parlor.
>Every Famicom I've ever owned has been 100% functional 100% of the time, even the ones that look like they come from a mahjong parlor.
In my experience Japanese take a lot better care of their stuff than Westerners. Do you know how many gross and disgusting PS1s I've seen before?
Agreed, and yeah I've cleaned my fair share of disgusting north american consoles.
We're talking about the super low quality ultra mass produced chinese electronics, I think lousy components and workmanship are expected. That said, there's virtually nothing inside a NOAC Famiclone to break, it's a glob, controller connectors, and Power and AV jacks.
the hyperkin one with av / hdmi is serviceable
runs of 5v so portable cellphone charger could work in the middle of the forest
other than that I see zero advantages
just buy the real shit anon
>runs of 5v so portable cellphone charger could work in the middle of the forest
what the actual frick are you doing with your electronics anon
Famiclones work ok as long as you just want to play Ice Climber or Castlevania (can't count on exotic cartridge hardware working) but the PSUs are sometimes junk and the PCBs aren't always good quality; often they have shitty caps or poor quality traces or solder joints.
whatever. they're so cheap as to be essentially disposable. one breaks, you buy another one.
they're legit pieces of shit. Also that controller looks fricking terrible
what's the target audience for these things now?
poor kids would rather have a smart phone
people who want to play NES games for cheap with actual tactile controls
That seems like it would be 90% white or Japanese people over 30 if not 40.
You aren't wrong, but that's the kind of audience that probably has enough money to mess around and buy stuff like this, whether they still own real hardware, want a clone but not enough money to buy an AVS or Analogue NT Mini + games for it, or who knows.
I know the Dendy was confirmed to work with MMC5 but NOACs may not.
I had a Retron HD and it wasn't what I wanted. At best the sounds and colors were noticeably wrong but the game was playable. AVS was worth the money.
I generally avoid HDMI clones, as I have a better scaler than whatever shit is built in. That said, I love my AVS.
for the price it cannot be beat
also has AV for crtgays
I know the NES color palette is a little hard to pin down because different displays and PPU revisions varied slightly in the colors but the sound shouldn't be.
It's a question as to what of the 6-7 or so PPU revisions NOACs are copying. But I'd guess the common Rev E or G is most likely.
The same console will have different colors from TV to TV. It's less of an issue with the SNES since it uses RGB so colors are much more consistent.
the sound is exactly why chiptune gays use original hardware anonkun
I bet it didn't even work with LaGrange Point.
is there a specific technical reason why NOACs choke on MMC5? they're supposedly a complete NES on a chip not software emulation
It might be the cartridge slot not having all the wiring necessary for stuff like MMC5 but I don't know specifically.
what do you want out of this anon? why dont you just use your PC?
I guess the main selling point is that it's a hardware clone of the NES it's not emulation, even though they tend to only want to work with basic common mapper setups.
if it's not an original NES, it's emulation.
More modern ones are probably better. The one I have could not play Castlevanaia 3, but it has been reported the recent ones with native HDMI output can play CV3 without issue. While I would prefer the real thing, the clones get the job done when you're on a budget.
The first Everdrives couldn't do MMC5 either.
i have a bootleg zoga toploader
it does the job
Anon, tell me after all this shit, someone just invented a new 72 pin connector. Not some pressure sensitive shit. it seems easy enough, after everything else, there has to be one.
They're shitty, but they allow anyone with even a slight interest in retro to enjoy it on a TV without needing to set up a PC emulator or pay the price for legitimate hardware. They're OK in my book.
are you guys talking about american based famiclones when you say they struggle to play more complex/bigger games? i had famiclones as a kid (as in they used japanese famicom carts) and they played everything i threw at it just fine.
i can't imagine the technology has gotten worse all these decades later.
You might have had an older one that still had a separate CPU/PPU as opposed to the single chip NOACs.
There are cheaper ways nowadays to produce them than back then, but the quality's also worse, not that the manufacturers give a shit.
Namely, using a NOAC.
Oh well, can't say I feel bad about Nintendo having their shit copied to frick seeing as to how the Famicom used a bootlegged 6502 and a reverse engineered TMS9918.
Ricoh made a pirated 6502 and also disabled the BCD mode to circumvent patent laws.
My understanding was that they were a licensed 6502 second source but for Japan only; disabling BCD mode was necessary to be able to sell it internationally and not pay Commodore royalties.
I have an old twinclone that does NES and SNES. It's servicable if you don't have the original hardware it just won't play every game properly and some games won't play at all. If it's all you can get or you want something so you don't have to drag your original hardware out of storage it'll do.
>it just won't play every game properly and some games won't play at all.
Why not just emulate at that point?
Nta, but for me emulation is a last choice. I'm not hatin it's just my preference, I've got a ps classic and 3 thumb drives just for games I'll never get but want to play.
If you are implying the ps classic is not emulation you are wrong.
I'm not, I was trying to say that I do use emulation when I have to buy prefer the real stuff. Ps classic is my cheap emulator box.
>are those $20 NES clones all the same
Of course not silly little child
I guess the newer NOACs are better and can actually use MMC5.
CV3 is the only of the 20 MMC5 games that you need to play anyway, the rest are skippable.