|
A few weeks ago I mentioned a new NES clone that was released recently. It is manufactured by SuperUFO, who some of you might remember from the SNES and N64
days for their CD64 and Super UFO game copiers. RetroCon, or Retro Console, is released under the Blaze brand.
So, today I got my hands on a RetroCon in a nice black color, I like blue better but oh well, hehe. I have to be honest and say that this is the smallest
Nintendo clone I've ever seen.
The RetroCon is a little bit smaller than a regular NES cartridge, the height is about 3 carts stacked on top of each other, it's seriously too cute, hehe. The
mainboard inside the console is only takes up half of the space, a clear sign of "NES-On-A-Chip"...
On the front of the console there are ports for two joypads, which are included in the package. I'll get back to the joypad later. As said, the clone is a NES
clone and not the typical Famicom, if you want to play Famicom games, you need a converter.
On the backside there's AV output and something I've never seen on a clone, a switch to togle between PAL and NTSC output, a very nice feature.
Unfortunately the
PAL output doesn't seem to be true PAL, the typical games that causes problems on an american NES, like Aladdin and Beauty & the Beast, doesn't work on the
RetroCon, see the pictures below.
 
My homemade carts seems to work flawless though... lucky me I guess :-)
 
Another not so fine and dandy ting about the RetroCon is the colors, which seems a bit "washed out", like red never becomes totally red. But that automaticly
brings me on to the price. The RetroCon cost just under US$15, I doubt you'll find any other clone that cheap!
The console is very cute and makes a perfect test unit on my desk as it doesn't require a whole lot of space on my messy desk :-)
The RetroCon controller is very well made, the D-pad is very accurate, bravo. The joypad features the usual clone turbo buttons, but also two shoulder buttons
like a SNES joypad does. At first I didn't know what to use these for, they work as normal A nd B buttons, but in some games it's actually more comfortable to
use the shoulder buttons.
My thoughts of the RetroCon? well SuperUfo has always made some cool packaging and the console itself it just too cute, having bought a NES clone for less than
US$15, I can live with the blurred colors and the missing real PAL emulation. The joypads was probably the biggest surprise, I love them and I kinda wish they
came with normal joypad jacks, so they could be used with a real NES, instead of just the usual famiclone jacks.
Well if you want a nice little compact, not forgetting cheap, NES clone, the RetroCon is definately the one to go for.
I ordered mine from www.superufo.com
|
)
)
)
)