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[Lionel Mandrake]

There's a computer store near here that deals vintage games on the side. I went in today, to see what they'd added to their stock. Along with the classic systems, I saw that they were now selling Hyperkin systems such as...

The Retron 3 (NES, SNES, and Genesis all in one)

and the Supaboy

I had seen similar items at flea markets and such in the past. I had always assumed they were kind of in a legal gray area, and probably weren't made very well. But now that my SNES has apparently died on me, and I am without NES or Genesis, the Retron thing seems kind of interesting.

Reviews online look decent enough. And you can use the actual controllers over the stock one.

Still, the whole thing seems kind of too good to be true. Anyone have any experience with them or similar products for better or worse?

 

[JohnTinker]

Sweet merciful Jesus how much is the Supaboy? I want that

 

[Marvie_3]

Retron 3's are pieces of shit. Terrible quality.

 

[Lionel Mandrake]

Sweet merciful Jesus how much is the Supaboy? I want that

Google has is it between $50 to $100. I didn't see it in the store. They just had a big sign for it, so I assumed they were out of stock.

 

[Zwei]

Retron 3's are pieces of shit. Terrible quality.

It's hard to imagine that a 3-in-1 pseudo-console could ever be deemed shitty.

 

[Tain]

I've been using a Retron 3 for the past year.

Basically, it goes like this:

- Kinda cheap but not awful build quality
- Excellent-looking S-Video out on Genesis and SNES.
- NES visuals that, while better than most clones, are still not very accurate and are overall too dim through composite (the only output Retron 3 can use for NES).
- NES audio that can sometimes blow.
- Very slightly inaccurate Genesis audio (very close to a Model 2, I think)
- SNES audio that is mostly good, but sounds awful in Area 88/UN Squadron for some reason.

I defended the NES capabilities of the thing in the past (on NeoGAF no less), but I wound up replacing it with a Famicom, which looks way better. I'm still using the thing for MD/Genesis and SFC/SNES, and I do love that there's a region switch for Genesis, but I wouldn't be shocked if I phased it out for these purposes as well.

As far as I can tell, it's the best all-around clone system, so it all depends on your standards.

 

[bubnbob]

Dude I want a Supaboy. These are available in the public? I will totally rep that.

 

[Glix]

Sweet merciful Jesus how much is the Supaboy? I want that

THIS!!!!!!!

 

[Carl]

The Retron 3 (NES, SNES, and Genesis all in one)

What a horrible looking system

 

[G-Fex]

Dude I want a Supaboy. These are available in the public? I will totally rep that.

My local gamestore has them for 75.

I have the Retro Entertainment System, I love it, it's great. Top loader naturally.

For Genesis and SNES I just bought the Original Systems. As in the Genesis is a Model 1 and SNES is as well.

 

[Lionel Mandrake]

I've been using a Retron 3 for the past year.

Basically, it goes like this:

- Kinda cheap but not awful build quality
- Excellent-looking S-Video out on Genesis and SNES.
- NES visuals that, while better than most clones, are still not very accurate and are overall too dim through composite (the only output Retron 3 can use for NES).
- NES audio that can sometimes blow.
- Very slightly inaccurate Genesis audio (very close to a Model 2, I think)
- SNES audio that is mostly good, but sounds awful in Area 88/UN Squadron for some reason.

I defended the NES capabilities of the thing in the past (on NeoGAF no less), but I wound up replacing it with a Famicom, which looks way better. I'm still using the thing for MD/Genesis and SFC/SNES, and I do love that there's a region switch for Genesis, but I wouldn't be shocked if I phased it out for these purposes as well.

As far as I can tell, it's the best all-around clone system, so it all depends on your standards.

This sounds pretty decent to me. My standards aren't that high. I just want to be able to play my games.

 

[bubnbob]

Just bought a Supaboy off Amazon for $70 w/ FSSS

Now I can play Secret of Evermore on the toilet ;_;

 

[Lionel Mandrake]

My local gamestore has them for 75.

I have the Retro Entertainment System, I love it, it's great. Top loader naturally.

For Genesis and SNES I just bought the Original Systems. As in the Genesis is a Model 1 and SNES is as well.

This looks pretty decent.

Is there anything similar (i.e. a cheap alternative) for the SNES?

 

[G-Fex]

This looks pretty decent.

Is there anything similar (i.e. a cheap alternative) for the SNES?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0012NZK8G/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Same company I think.

 

[Parallax Scroll]

SupaBoy is a cool name.

 

[qq more]

I've been using a Retron 3 for the past year.

Basically, it goes like this:

- Kinda cheap but not awful build quality
- Excellent-looking S-Video out on Genesis and SNES.
- NES visuals that, while better than most clones, are still not very accurate and are overall too dim through composite (the only output Retron 3 can use for NES).
- NES audio that can sometimes blow.
- Very slightly inaccurate Genesis audio (very close to a Model 2, I think)
- SNES audio that is mostly good, but sounds awful in Area 88/UN Squadron for some reason.

I defended the NES capabilities of the thing in the past (on NeoGAF no less), but I wound up replacing it with a Famicom, which looks way better. I'm still using the thing for MD/Genesis and SFC/SNES, and I do love that there's a region switch for Genesis, but I wouldn't be shocked if I phased it out for these purposes as well.

As far as I can tell, it's the best all-around clone system, so it all depends on your standards.

Basically this. Although the audio in the NES wasn't really bad. It's just inaccurate. I wish the NES part of the system supported S-Video though

 

[Sophia]

Don't all of these clones usually have issues of some sort? I know the Supaboy has issues with Star Fox.

 

[Servizio]

Really, really glad this thread isn't about people who think they're retro gaming systems as a lifestyle and a sexual fetish.

 

[RumblingRosco]

I have the RetroN3 and have noticed that Maniac Mansion doesn't seem to work; anyone else have it not work for them as well? I'm aware that these clone consoles often have issues with certain carts, but I was a bit surprised with MM.

 

[DonMigs85]

Do the Super FX games and other games that use special chips run fine?

 

[krae_man]

I have different systems then those but they all work fine for the price. You will never have 100% compatibility. My Portable NES crashes while playing Duck Tales 2 and my Portable SNES has some issues playing Doom for example.

 

[Psxphile]

neat.jpg

needs brazzers logo shopped in

Is it as bad as the Sega Nomad at battery consumption?

 

[Reclaimer]

I owned a Supaboy for about a month before returning it to the seller on Amazon. Overall not of very high quality, but I would have been ok with it if it didn't freeze and loose saves so often.

Happy with:
+ + + Yay.. Portable SNES! Very rad that companies are doing this.
+ Looks like a large SNES controller! Cool.
+Seems to work when plugged into an external TV and used with original
SNES controllers, cool! Fully portable SNES!!
+Not very heavy at all


Neutral:
=Fairly tight cartridge slot can be scary to push a cart into because
of how tight it is. I guess it's better than a loose one, but I fear
for my cart's life some times.
=The LCD screen is acceptable. Decent color, brightness, about as nice as
an early DS screen. Still has blur and some motion issues, but not as
bad as I was expecting.
= I've heard complaints about the position of Start/Select, and I'm
fine with it. Quickly adapted.


Disappointed with:
- - - - Many of my games will randomly freeze and then loose their
saves. Yoshi Island, Zelda LTTP, Super Metroid, and a few others do it
often. Even Super Mario All Stars + World froze randomly and lost my
saves! These games work fine on my SNES, are super clean, and don't
have battery issues.
- Tried to be sure I wasn't bumping the system or anything by playing
through a TV with the supaboy on a table, and yoshi would still
randomly crash and loose saves. In the days before returning the Supaboy,
went through most of the game twice on my SNES just to test the cart, and it's fine.

- - Straight out of the box the screen had many fine scratches on the
top of the screen, and a few stains on the underside of the screen.
While these are generally unnoticeable while playing, it's still not
indicative of a quality product when you open a box to find that.

- - The sound really is pretty bad. Quiet volume would be fine if they
couldn't fit larger speakers into the system, but there is a
distracting buzzing that worsens already poor sound. It goes away if
you plug it into the tv, but I want to use my portable system AS a
portable.

- - As the battery runs down from fullly charged, more and more
problems occur. More screen flicker, more freezing, etc. And this
starts after only 30 min or so, and the quality degrades as battery
level approaches zero. Of which there is no indicator (even though
there is an LED on the front of the system), so the system just
glitches and turns off when it runs out.

- - I'm not really going to discuss the average-poor quality of
materials, buttons, dpad, etc. Those don't seem to matter if I can't
really play games properly on the thing.


Edit: thanks for the odd formatting, iPad!