nes/snes retro duo! pics, review, hacking info 7/27/10

Includes but not limited to: SNES, Genesis, Sega CD, PlayStation 1, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, Game Gear and I guess the Virtual Boy.

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Life of Brian
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Post by Life of Brian » Wed Feb 20, 2008 8:35 am

In order to test for current draw, set your millimeter either to a setting that says mA or --->---- and put it in series with the power. For example, connect ground but put your multimeter between the positive end of the battery/power supply and where it goes on the board.

Does that make sense? You'll want to touch one probe to the positive part of your power supply and the other probe on the spot where it goes on the board.

Just make sure you think it through first and don't short anything.
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Post by lovablechevy » Wed Feb 20, 2008 11:08 pm

grahf that chip is extremely hard to read. but i think it says:

sec 709a
ka2198bd

are there any other chips that anyone would like to know what is written on them?

i will try to make the time tomorrow to use my multimeter. i think i understand what life of brian was telling me to do...

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Post by grahf » Wed Feb 20, 2008 11:53 pm

Thanks lovablechevy, that chip is a CXA1645 clone. Which means that yes, the video IC is on the SNES board. Awesome.

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Post by SZF2001 » Thu Feb 21, 2008 12:46 am

Man, now I wanna get rid of my Twin and play a Retro Duo. :(

It's served me well, but when I want to move onto bigger and better things...
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Post by kayard » Thu Feb 21, 2008 7:32 pm

Every time I see these units I always wonder why they use two separate cart slots. Are the pin configurations really that different? From the pictures I see it looks like it's basically the same slot with different pins removed. It makes you wonder why they can't both use the same slot with a built in SPST safety switch which would be inactive when a NES game is inserted and then Active when a SNES is inserted. I mean the cartridge shape of a nes cart would allow for this easily.

But if the pins are not spaced the same then this is just a dream.

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Post by Joel Schmidt » Sun Feb 24, 2008 12:35 am

I really don't see what the big deal is. The *ONLY* differences between this and the FC Twin is the Retro Duo has a nicer looking case and s-video support. In fact, the Retro Duo really is the exact same thing as the Play-N-Trade branded FC Dual that was released by Yobo in Fall '07, again just with a different case.[/i]

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Post by lovablechevy » Sun Feb 24, 2008 12:39 am

Joel Schmidt wrote:I really don't see what the big deal is. The *ONLY* differences between this and the FC Twin is the Retro Duo has a nicer looking case and s-video support. In fact, the Retro Duo really is the exact same thing as the Play-N-Trade branded FC Dual that was released by Yobo in Fall '07, again just with a different case.[/i]
no, it is not exactly the same. the fc twin has 3 boards and the retro due has only 2. the fc twin is not 100% compatible with games like castlevania iii. the retro duo has been proven to play those games. of course, it is still too early to claim that the retro duo has 100% compatibility, but it is much better than the fc twin so far. in theory they are the same thing. they both play nes and snes games, but they are quite different.

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Post by Joel Schmidt » Sun Feb 24, 2008 12:46 am

lovablechevy wrote:
Joel Schmidt wrote:I really don't see what the big deal is. The *ONLY* differences between this and the FC Twin is the Retro Duo has a nicer looking case and s-video support. In fact, the Retro Duo really is the exact same thing as the Play-N-Trade branded FC Dual that was released by Yobo in Fall '07, again just with a different case.[/i]
no, it is not exactly the same. the fc twin has 3 boards and the retro due has only 2. the fc twin is not 100% compatible with games like castlevania iii. the retro duo has been proven to play those games. of course, it is still too early to claim that the retro duo has 100% compatibility, but it is much better than the fc twin so far. in theory they are the same thing. they both play nes and snes games, but they are quite different.
You missed my point. Yobo addressed those issues by making the FC Dual last year. However, aside from the number of internal boards, I have to say that I never had any problems playing Castlevania III, Turtles III, Super Mario RPG or even Kirby on my FC Twin (purchased in January '07).

But there are some questions I do have. How long are the controller cables? My original Snes controller (with the 8 foot cable) is starting to die... and the cables that came with the FC Dual I got in November are about 3 feet long :( Also, the FC Dual will not play Nes games if a Snes game is also inserted. Does the Retro Duo also have this issue? I watched the videos and they show removing Mario Paint before showing off Zelda 2, but videogamecentral would not answer when I emailed them about that.

Oh and you can add another one to your list of compatible games: Seiken Densetsu 3 works perfectly without need of an adapter. (Of course it also works fine in the FC Twin after you modify the case a bit....)
Last edited by Joel Schmidt on Sun Feb 24, 2008 12:59 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by lovablechevy » Sun Feb 24, 2008 12:51 am

Joel Schmidt wrote:
lovablechevy wrote:
Joel Schmidt wrote:I really don't see what the big deal is. The *ONLY* differences between this and the FC Twin is the Retro Duo has a nicer looking case and s-video support. In fact, the Retro Duo really is the exact same thing as the Play-N-Trade branded FC Dual that was released by Yobo in Fall '07, again just with a different case.[/i]
no, it is not exactly the same. the fc twin has 3 boards and the retro due has only 2. the fc twin is not 100% compatible with games like castlevania iii. the retro duo has been proven to play those games. of course, it is still too early to claim that the retro duo has 100% compatibility, but it is much better than the fc twin so far. in theory they are the same thing. they both play nes and snes games, but they are quite different.
However, you missed my point. Yobo addressed those issues by teaming with Play-n-Trade to make the FC Dual. However, aside from number of internal boards, I have to say that I never had any problems playing Castlevania III on my FC Twin (purchased in January '07).

But there IS a question I do have, how long are the controller cables? My original Snes controller (with the 8 foot cable) is starting to die...

Oh and you can add another one to your list of compatible games: Seiken Densetsu 3 works perfectly without need of an adapter. (Of course it also works fine in the FC Twin after you modify the case a bit....)
they are 7' cables for the controllers.

i'm confused. do you own a retro duo? if you know seiken densetsu 3 works perfectly on a retro duo... how would you not know the controller cable length?

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Post by Joel Schmidt » Sun Feb 24, 2008 1:04 am

lovablechevy wrote:
they are 7' cables for the controllers.

i'm confused. do you own a retro duo? if you know seiken densetsu 3 works perfectly on a retro duo... how would you not know the controller cable length?
I don't have a Retro Duo. When you posted the pics of your system, I opened my FC Dual up and compared them. Everything is identical. Granted it is possible that the Retro Duo might have some different programming that could cause SD3 not to work, but I doubt they would do that.

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Post by lovablechevy » Sun Feb 24, 2008 1:16 am

Joel Schmidt wrote:But there are some questions I do have. How long are the controller cables? My original Snes controller (with the 8 foot cable) is starting to die... and the cables that came with the FC Dual I got in November are about 3 feet long :( Also, the FC Dual will not play Nes games if a Snes game is also inserted. Does the Retro Duo also have this issue? I watched the videos and they show removing Mario Paint before showing off Zelda 2, but videogamecentral would not answer when I emailed them about that.
i don't think there are any issues with leaving both games in. the power switch has two distinctive "on"s for nes and snes. i will test this out and post tomorrow.

and sorry, i was missing for most of what you were saying that you were talking about the fc DUAL. i just kept thinking fc twin. i don't know much about the fc dual at all. it's getting hard to keep all of these almost identical systems apart! :shock:

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Post by Joel Schmidt » Sun Feb 24, 2008 1:22 am

lovablechevy wrote:i don't think there are any issues with leaving both games in. the power switch has two distinctive "on"s for nes and snes. i will test this out and post tomorrow.

and sorry, i was missing for most of what you were saying that you were talking about the fc DUAL. i just kept thinking fc twin. i don't know much about the fc dual at all. it's getting hard to keep all of these almost identical systems apart! :shock:
Can you also check S-Video support with NES games? VGC's video claims S-V will not work with NES games, yet it works fine on the FC Dual. Not that you can really see a difference in quality, but still, it does work.


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Post by lovablechevy » Sun Feb 24, 2008 11:10 pm

Joel Schmidt wrote:
lovablechevy wrote:i don't think there are any issues with leaving both games in. the power switch has two distinctive "on"s for nes and snes. i will test this out and post tomorrow.
Can you also check S-Video support with NES games? VGC's video claims S-V will not work with NES games, yet it works fine on the FC Dual. Not that you can really see a difference in quality, but still, it does work.
you can have both games in and they will both play fine. interestingly, though, the instruction manual for the retro duo says to not have both games in at the same time.

ok, s-video with the nes side goes like this: if you only plug in the s-video and the red and white audio jacks, the picture is only in black and white for the nes. however, if you also plug in the yellow video jack to the s-video source, then it displays the color as it should. so, no, s-video does not work, but yes it does at the same time. i hope that makes sense!

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Post by SZF2001 » Sun Feb 24, 2008 11:40 pm

Oh God, I'm confused.

OK, so I own a FC Twin. Yobo, to be precise.

So there is also an FC Dual, and a Retro Duo?

Someone set it to me straight - I'm willing to throw my money down on which console is proven to play Castlevania III, Mario RPG, and every other game.

I'd like to get some games that haven't worked for the Twin, but now I don't even know if these two will work. D:
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Post by lovablechevy » Sun Feb 24, 2008 11:56 pm

SZF2001 wrote:Oh God, I'm confused.

OK, so I own a FC Twin. Yobo, to be precise.

So there is also an FC Dual, and a Retro Duo?

Someone set it to me straight - I'm willing to throw my money down on which console is proven to play Castlevania III, Mario RPG, and every other game.

I'd like to get some games that haven't worked for the Twin, but now I don't even know if these two will work. D:
yes, there are several in existence now-a-days.

the fc twin:
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the fc dual:
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the retro duo:
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i have no personal experience with the fc twin or the fc dual. but, the retro duo has been proven to work for castlevania iii. and i know that some fc twins play mario rpg. the retro duo does.

if you look here, some of the games that didn't work on the original fc twin have been proven to work on the retro duo.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fc_twin

like i said, i have no experience with the fc dual and joel schmidt is the first person i've read that owns one. maybe he can enlighten us. apparently it looks to be the same as the retro duo except cosmetically.

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