Some very interesting Famiclones I've come across (without using NOACs)

Does anyone know about this? It's a real good looking Famiclone with VGA/RGB output and doesn't use a typical cheap glob top NOAC, but I have no idea how the creator managed to pull this off. Looks well made and it has a Cyclone II on it, I presume for the RGB and PPU functionality? I have no idea though. There's no info on this anywhere, seems like a very independent, unknown Chinese project:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DIY-Famicom-...EAAOSw5UZY9DZn


And then there's this Famiclone which you can completely replace an old, original Famicom board with and put this inside the Famicom case instead so you can get A/V output, it uses the real CPU and PPU too:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nintendo-DIY...AAAOSwMmBVtY1w

The 2nd listing looks like a plain old HVC-CPU-07 board made by Nintendo with the 2A03 and 2C02 replaced with clones and the old power/RF board replaced with a modern power/AV board.

That Cyclone II FPGA made one me think, "Wow, are they already bootleging the AVS?" I checked and the AVS actually uses a Spartan FPGA.

That said, it's pretty fascinating. I wonder if this is what Hyperkin meant when they said their upcoming NES clone console was "no emulation, just hardware!"

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Originally Posted by SmaMan

That Cyclone II FPGA made one me think, "Wow, are they already bootleging the AVS?" I checked and the AVS actually uses a Spartan FPGA.

That said, it's pretty fascinating. I wonder if this is what Hyperkin meant when they said their upcoming NES clone console was "no emulation, just hardware!"

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I thought so too at first that it could've been sort of an AVS clone. If the new Hyperkin NES clone will be like this, it'll certainly be better than the GamerzTek HDMI NES clone.

I, for one, would expect the RetroN HD to be an NOAC with a digital RGB output (yes, they exist) passed into an HDMI transmitter. There are some videos floating around of the system and guess what? It is another victim of the reversed duty cycle NOAC plague. In fact, here's one such video showing the problem:



At least Hyperkin were smart enough to add a toggle for aspect correction, something the 8-Bit HD lacks.

In regards to the clones posted by Roadkill, the discrete hardware design is basically just a re-engineered Famicom motherboard and power board with a crap UMC-based clone CPU and PPU. The FPGA clone, on the other hand, is actually a design that was made BEFORE the AVS, although clearly, the FPGA doesn't integrate the CPU at all. I'm a bit concerned with the direct connection of the CPU and its RAM to the FPGA; that's a possible 3.3V to 5V mismatch that could result in long-term damage to the hardware if the FPGA's I/O pins are not 5V-tolerant.

Regardless, I am rather intrigued by the mixed CPU/FPGA design, but at $175US, it's a bit of a steep price to pay for a curiosity.

What's the point of getting a Retron HD over a Retron 5?

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Originally Posted by QuickSciFi

What's the point of getting a Retron HD over a Retron 5?

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It's not stolen emulation

Why not just take the Retron 5 and remove everything but the NES/FC slots for this Retron HD? Instead of a crappy NOAC?

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Originally Posted by zetastrike

Why not just take the Retron 5 and remove everything but the NES/FC slots for this Retron HD? Instead of a crappy NOAC?

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Why not just get a Raspberry Pi instead of a Retron 5 so you won't be stuck using cartridges for stolen emulation

After viewing the video Ace posted, yeah the Retron HD does have a crappy NOAC. Ugh. Oh well, I'm still glad they didn't use emulation. I hate the Retron 5. I don't like the idea of being forced to use cartridges for emulation, as well as paying $170 for something that uses emulators that are available for free for many platforms. May as well go with a Raspberry Pi instead and get even better emulation and not be confined to using cartridges. Not to mention how unreliable the Retron 5 can be, especially the first version of it. But at the same time, I know it can appear to be a godsend for retro gaming noobs who don't know any better. However, there's another emulation based clone console out there called Retro Freak. It allows you to play both cartridges and ROMs. If I had to choose between the Retron 5 and Retro Freak, it'd most certainly be the Retro Freak.

I remember the very first nasty NOAC that I ever encountered many years ago. It was the N64 tristar64 Famiclone side NOAC, pure evil I tell ya! :yuck:

Not mine but here's a video, listen to the terrible sound when Mario dies around minute 1:35. The tristar64 was manufactured around 1998 so there were some ok NOACs in the market if I remember correctly. They definitely went with the cheapo/awful one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fsuZ3Dc2as

Many years later I replaced the NOAC board on mine with a much better one and still plays strong to this day, also fixed the SNES side nasty video encoder portion.

http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/...psqg5xaimf.jpg

This is the original FC NOAC and culprit :

http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6lvxbnkc.jpg

http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/...psbylrklgi.jpg

Neat! I've seen Satoshimatrix's YouTube video of his Tri-Star/Super 8 for the Super Nintendo that allows you to play NES, Famicom and SNES games on it and he praises the NOAC on it, and for good reason! The sound is extremely accurate, it plays every game he throws at it, and it even supports the VRC6 audio from his Akumajou Densetsu FC cart! So that's quite the downgrade on the N64... at least you were able to replace the NOAC though.

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Originally Posted by roadkill

Neat! I've seen Satoshimatrix's YouTube video of his Tri-Star/Super 8 for the Super Nintendo that allows you to play NES, Famicom and SNES games on it and he praises the NOAC on it, and for good reason! The sound is extremely accurate, it plays every game he throws at it, and it even supports the VRC6 audio from his Akumajou Densetsu FC cart! So that's quite the downgrade on the N64... at least you were able to replace the NOAC though.

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I also have the SNES Tristar/Super 8 and for its time it was quite good (probably better than most new current NOACs too :P ) but the Tristar64 FC NOAC is nowhere near it :shame:

There's a QFP NOAC I've been messing with and have a fully-working prototype going (though I ended up finding a bunch of errors on my PCBs... bleh) that seems to do quite well despite being not quite 100% accurate in regards to audio and some games acting up (PaperBoy, for instance, which refuses any controller inputs). It's UMC's UM6561CF-1, which is ironic when you consider UMC is responsible for the UA6527 clone CPU that started the entire reversed duty cycle plague that persists to this day in modern NOAC designs. This one has the two missing signals on the cartridge slot that cause the typical problem games requiring such signals to malfunction (Castlevania III, Rad Racer II, After Burner and its Japanese counterpart After Burner II), ensuring higher compatibility than most chip-on-board NOACs out there. Also, the chipset has a built-in audio amp, and it's quite good.

The only problem is the price and availability. It's hard to come by and RIDICULOUSLY expensive. A 3-chip batch cost me something like $90US shipped ($20US per chip plus shipping to Canada via DHL), which makes it impossible for me to make a decent NOAC clone that I can put up for sale at a reasonable price. It's a shame because the chipset is quite good even with its shortcomings.

The UM6561CF- (← insert letter here for region) has been around for quite some time ( came out right before the globtops hit the market and can be found in many of the late 90's Famiclones). I totally agree, is great for what is it and does :ok: . Did you found those in Aliexpress or the Russian site? I was looking for some replacements a while back.