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RETRO DUO GAME CONSOLE Company: Innex Released: March 2008 Category: Game Console Price: $44.99 Features: 7.0 Compatibility: 9.0 Quality: 6.0 Review by: Corbie Dillard ©2008 SUPER-NES.COM

The FC Twin Super NES/NES clone was the first to burst onto the scene, and while it played both Super NES and NES games, there were quite a few games that wouldn't function properly with the system. These were mainly games that used some sort of added specialized chipset inside the cartridge. Now comes the Retro Duo combo system. Its company claims that it will play any Super NES or NES title, even Japanese and PAL releases. I found that statement to be pretty bold, especially considering how many titles the FC Twin couldn't play, so I ordered one of the Retro Duo game consoles and decided to put it through its paces and find out just how good this system was and if it was as compatible as claimed to be. The Retro Duo comes packaged in a cheap plastic holder that immediately makes you wonder what type of quality this system is going to sport given the stripped-down packaging it comes in. Once you pop everything out, and you will have to work at it on some of the peices, you'll find all of the contents of the Retro Duo package. You get the console, two controllers, the 5v AC Adapter, an S-Video A/V combo cable, and the instruction manual. Now let's take a look at the hardware. The console itself is about the same size as the mini Super NES system. The Retro Duo is more rounded and is very shiny and glossy. The black and red color scheme (you can also opt for the blue and white model) seems like an odd color choice at first, but it does grow on you a bit over time. On the back side of the unit you have the S-Video output, the RCA outputs, and the power input port. It's pretty standard stuff. But for those wondering if you can use the standard SNES A/V cable, the answer is "no." The controller looks almost identical to the standard SNES controller, but it doesn't feel nearly as high-quality as the official controller does. The Retro Duo controller is also thicker than the standard controller and takes a little getting used to. Having said all this, the included controllers worked perfectly and if it bothers you too much you can always use the regular SNES controllers as this unit will use all SNES peripherals. Now let's talk about the cartridge slots. The first thing you'll notice is how tight the Super NES cartridge slot is. It doesn't take too much effort to insert a cartridge, it's trying to remove it that almost requires the use of a pry bar. Hopefully it will loosen up over time, otherwise I might stop using it since it requires so much force to remove a game cartridge. That much force can't be good for the contacts inside the cartridge. The NES cartridge slot is just the opposite. It's very easy to insert and remove cartridges, too much so, in fact. The cartridges also don't insert very far down into the unit and any slight movements will make the cartridge sway back and forth. If you're playing a game and it moves, even the slightest, it generally causes the game to freeze up. If you're going to use this thing for playing NES games, you'd better make sure you have this unit where it won't move at all. After locking up several games with very little movement, I just wouldn't trust this unit for playing NES games. I also found a lot of games that wouldn't pull up on the first few inserts, much like the problem when using the original front-loading NES system. My Nintendo top-loading NES plays them all perfectly, so I know it's not the games. If you're thinking of buying one of these in the hopes that it will play NES games more reliably, you'd better think again. I just wasn't impressed with either cartridge slot overall. Okay, now for the question that's going to be on most people's minds. Does the Retro Duo really play every game out there? I own over 200 SNES cartridges and about 95 NES games and I sat down with every single one of them and tried them all out on this unit. Here are the results. NES Games - Castlevania III was one game that would not play at all on the FC Twin so it was the first one I tried. It worked like a charm the moment I inserted it. And while every one of the 95 games I tried eventually worked just fine, I had to wiggle and re-insert many of the games multiple times in order to get them to come up on the screen. It was basically just a slight bit more reliable than my front-loading NES system. As for Japanese Famicom and PAL region games, I don't have any to try out on the unit as of yet, but I've ordered a few and I'll post the results on here once they arrive. SNES Games - Since there were over 200 games to try, this part took some time. I tried many of the games that won't play on the FC Twin first, like Super Mario RPG, Starfox, and the Mega Man X games. Every one of them worked perfectly. In fact, every game I owned worked...except one. Sadly, this is probably the one game that most people looking into buying this console are hoping will work. Terranigma would not pull up at all on this unit, despite the company's claim that all PAL region games will work with the unit. Other PAL games I tried worked fine, as did every single Super Famicom game cartridge I tried out. Terranigma uses a boot check that just will not allow it to play on any console that isn't either PAL hardware or a modded US Super NES system. (I guess I'll have to keep my modded Super NES console around a little longer after all.) The compatibility of this unit is outstanding, but the difficulty in removing the cartridges worries me enough to not recommend it over the official consoles. One unique feature of the Retro Duo is the system's S-Video output. This is a feature not even the official Super Nintendo consoles have, so I'm sure there are people wondering if this feature is worth the price of the system. In all honesty, no it's not. There is a slight upgrade in picture quality using the S-Video output, but it wasn't nearly as much of an improvement as I expected. I even took screenshots, one with the standard RCA video output and one with the S-video output and I could hardly tell the difference. In fact, some games like Donkey Kong Country and Super Mario RPG actually looked worse using the S-Video output as it made everything look really pixelated. I even went so far as to connect the unit to my Samsung LCD-HDTV using the S-Video output and it didn't look too good at all. Of course, it looks even worse using the standard A/V outputs, but I wanted to at least try it out. Do yourself a favor, stick to the good old-fashioned CRT televisions for the Super NES systems and don't waste your money on this console just for the S-Video output feature. It's not even close to worth it. The Retro Duo is a decent SNES console replacement, but I would certainly never recommend it over the actual Super Nintendo consoles. The quality isn't as good, the controllers are too bulky, and the cartridge slots are just not built very well. The unit will cost you about $45, but you can get a used Super Nintendo console for that much, so I'd say stick with the official stuff. And if you're one of those who are still looking for a console that will play the PAL Terranigma release, you're going to have to keep looking.

Retro Duo game console and controller Plays both SNES and NES games Now that's more like it!