Ok, I am in search for a new mint famiclone. But I want it to have discrete chips, not the NES-on-a-chip crap. Are there any? Analogue Nt seems perfect but $499 is not what I'd spend on a famiclone.
Printable View
Ok, I am in search for a new mint famiclone. But I want it to have discrete chips, not the NES-on-a-chip crap. Are there any? Analogue Nt seems perfect but $499 is not what I'd spend on a famiclone.
Retro USB is supposed to be coming out with one this year that plays NES and Famicom games. I think it will be either a custom SOC or FPGA based design, not a crappy NOC. It's also going to have HDMI output. Who knows when it will happen. I think he's having trouble getting the manufacturing done. He's also making wireless controllers.
That's the right site. They sell the USB CopyNES and PowerPack among other things. They also used to carry the CIClone which was a PIC12F629 implementation of the NES lockout chip. Honestly I hadn't visited their website in a while, their current product offering is much smaller than what it was a few years ago. I clearly recall purchasing a few NES cartridge cases from them...
I'm torn on the Analogue. I would never buy it, but when you factor in build time, new part, plus the fact that is has RGB output directly you've already got some money sunk in per unit. Maybe not $500, but it's not going to be a sub $200 machine either.
You aren't going to find a modern Famiclone without an NOAC in it. Current clones are all based around multiple different flawed NOAC designs. RetroUSB's upcoming clone, if I remember correctly, will run on a Xilinx FPGA. I'd be curious to test this thing out once it's released.
In the meantime, I'm actively researching old discrete hardware Famiclones to find chipsets which will deliver perfect compatibility and accuracy. I plan on releasing a few discrete hardware Famiclones in the future, preferably with Viletim's collaboration, so that the clones can have integrated NESRGBs. I currently have found a Dendy CPU which looks to be a perfect replica of the 2A03 but with a different internal clock divider, and it would seem for a clone limited to Composite output, any clone of the 2C02 will work provided the video amp is adjusted for potential differences in color saturation. I will do some more experiments with the chips I have to get a working prototype clone put together at a later date.
What about the Retron5 (if that's the right one)? Even if the stock emulation isn't the best (I don't know), can't you swap it out for pretty much anything now?