Help with buying a Super Retro Trio

I'm thinking of buying a Super Retro Trio. I like that I'd have all 3 consoles in 1 shell along with just one plug and one AV connection. It'll save a lot of space in my room, I've gotten annoyed over the years with all the fat power adapters, lots of wires (especially with the Genesis and its add-ons) and at least 3 different AV connections. Plus I also have other consoles such as the N64, PS2, Original Xbox, Xbox 360, Wii, and the Xbox One.. so it's all really starting to add up on my shelf and I'm running out of space (and outlets). Combining 3 consoles into 1 would seem great. Also I tend to get rid of the real hardware of my retro consoles since they sometimes sell well when I refurbish/fix them, buy them again, and then repeat the same process of refurbishing/fixing them and selling them again. I'd like to stop that cycle. Well... maybe I'll continue to do that but it'd be great to just have a Super Retro Trio sit on my shelf and stay there while I fix other retro consoles.

So back to the topic of the Retro Trio, it's come to my attention that there are several versions/revisions of it, is this true? If so, which version is the best and how can I tell which version I'm getting when I buy one? When I bought the Retro Entertainment System, I could tell I was getting the older but better 2008 revision by looking at the boxes since both revisions had different box art. Btw I bought the RES because of how much space it saves compared to a front loader, and also because real NES consoles in general have skyrocketed in price lately, working or not. I do plan on getting an AVS someday but that's a whole 'nother topic.

I'll greatly appreciate any advice on buying the Super Retro Trio, thanks.

If you're fine with emulation/simulated hardware, you might as well stick to flashcarts for games (if you aren't already) and it will save much more space than consolidated hardware.

Yeah I already do that, I have absolutely no space to start a game collection. It's not that I don't want to buy the games, it's just that I really don't have any other choice. That's one of the things I think is so great about the RES, is that it supports the EverDrive (but not the PowerPak but that's ok). There's still a few cartridges I like to collect here and there that are sentimental to me or ones that I keep for testing consoles.

After doing some more research, I may just consider having SNES real hardware and then just settle for the RetroGEN for Genesis games on the SNES because I'm going to have two consoles anyway since I'll prefer using the RES over the Retrio Trio's NOAC. I could probably solder in a TRRS jack to my SNES so that I can unplug it from the RetroGEN and into the SNES everytime I want to switch playing from Genesis to SNES and vice versa.

Edited for RetroPort typo

RetroPort is for NES on the SNES. You mean to say the RetroGEN?

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Originally Posted by Thierry Henry

RetroPort is for NES on the SNES. You mean to say the RetroGEN?

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Yeah my mistake, I meant the RetroGEN. The Retro Trio has too much jailbars on it's S-Video for the Genesis anyway and I don't feel like having to fix it. Also I read the topic on here discussing the Retro Trio and Ace mentions that the SNES RAM chips on it are running at 5V instead of at their voltage spec of 3.3V which can lead to premature failure. I'll stick to the real SNES for sure, and the cleaner composite video of the RetroGEN.

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Originally Posted by roadkill

Yeah my mistake, I meant the RetroGEN. The Retro Trio has too much jailbars on it's S-Video for the Genesis anyway and I don't feel like having to fix it. Also I read the topic on here discussing the Retro Trio and Ace mentions that the SNES RAM chips on it are running past their voltage spec at 5V instead of 3.3V which can lead to premature failure. I'll stick to the real SNES for sure, and the cleaner composite video of the RetroGEN.

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If you're going that route, pretty sure (with the necessary converter) you can add Master System/Mark III compatibility in the mix as well.

Really? Sweet, I'll check that out. Does the Mega EverDrive work on the RetroGEN? I could use that instead of a converter.

Don't own an Mega EverDrive, so I can't say. There's probably some info out there that would confirm one way or the other.

I can confirm the Mega EverDrive v2 (now the Mega EverDrive X7) and the EverDrive MD v3 are both compatible with the RetroGen Adapter, although I suggest you apply the Virtua Racing fix I showed here at the very least.

The sound isn't the best, though. Due to small output capacitors and the presence of 200ohm pull-down resistors in the Super NES' audio inputs to the cartridge slot, some fairly noticeable high-pass filtering occurs, and on top of that, the audio circuit itself is not quite done right; its gain is extremely low (that means low volume) and the FM outputs are not attenuated properly (10Kohm resistors will not cut it, 39Kohms is the lowest resistance to use in my experience with the YM3438 inside GOACs, clone or otherwise).

Even the video circuit can be tweaked for better colors and brightness, though you might get a bit of the CXA1145's signature blur by doing this.