Retrobit?

I'm in the market for an NES, and while I'm certain I could find one at a swap meet if not on ebay/amazon, I'm curious about the Retrobit line of aftermarket consoles. I see consistent reviews that the sound and even the color is off. It is apparently very light in weight. And the top loader on at least one version has multiple reviews of a very tight fit for NES carts.

Out of all those things, the sound reviews bother me most. But have any of you tried it? What did you think?

There's a store near me that sells them. I'm of half a mind to buy one and return it if it doesn't play my "mystery red cartridge" correctly. (A lot of clones can't run PowerPak, MMC5, or Rad Racer 2.)

But I have used a Retrobit replacement controller on an authentic NES, and its Control Pad was fairly mushy. And when a Control Pad is mushy, it becomes difficult to press straight to the side without inadvertently hitting a diagonal.

This happens a lot with the official dogbone controller, too. Extremely annoying on Rat Race stage in Battletoads.
Other than that the dogbone controller is great, but if you play Battletoads definitely don't use it ^^

I can't speak for Retrobit-branded consoles, but I can vouch for their replacement cables and such being quality of the lowest tier that technically works. What I mean by this is that I can grasp the end plugs with one hand, and the cable with the other, and lightly tug to tear them apart. A few bends and they are over.

I'm sure the clones are based on some of the same NOAC solutions that have been around for a while now, and would expect comparable compatibility. The controllers are, as tepples mentioned, forgettable.

How many times I hapened to tear something apart before seeing the notice : MADE IN CHINA

Yeah, that's about what I've gathered. They're a cheap, cheap company.

Instead of buying a Retrobit, or even an NES, I ordered a Raspberry Pi. I would have an enormous smile on my face if an NES just appeared on my desk, but between spending on that or on something that could run NES, C64, and everything else (and could even be used to "fix" a broken NES later on), the RPi won.

If your ultimate goal is just to "play games", then emulation is obviously the answer. Real hardware is for collectors, developers and very nostalgic people (moderately nostalgic ones usually get satisfied with emulation).

Hardware interests me to a point, but software usually matters a little more. Software is naturally free (until it's fenced off with a proprietary license) but hardware has supply and demand. Practically, I view these systems more as virtual machines which also have dwindling supplies of supporting (and often worn) hardware. Obviously, if it's genuine hardware you're after, NOAC is not what you want anyway.

Current law puts the equivalent of a strict proprietary license on everything upon publication unless otherwise specified.


If you're just looking for a virtual machine, use Java.

More seriously: At some point, the community will have to redefine the virtual machine precisely in order for the supply of hardware to be replenished. The wiki is a step toward this. But eventually, there will be few enough NES consoles left that the wiki will become authoritative. Compare to the original PlayStation, where an X-Files game depends on a silicon bug, and Sony found it worthwhile to break that game by implementing the spec correctly in PS2 hardware and PSP/PS3 emulation. I guess that's one reason for the new "Errata" page I started, which lists silicon bugs that must be worked around but must not be relied on.

New NES's can be ordered for hundreds of dollars. Are we hoping for a new run of hardware in the <$100 USD range? I'd absolutely love that, but I don't see it happening.

But yes, an emulator should be as accurate as possible to the hardware it's emulating... And the emulator is the virtual machine.

There is a bit of value in playing on real hardware, namely for me these things:

-No input lag from the emulator / operating system
-No output lag from the emulator / operating system / video drivers / display itself*

For this, even clone hardware can be a solution.

*of course some displays with real hardware will have this issue anyway

We have not only a lot of documentation in the wiki, but also schematics of the RF Famicom, and the layouts for the inside of the CPU, APU, and PPU chips, and a few people still have NES/Famicom hardware. All of these things can help with the emulation and with designing hardware clones.

You can design a game even if you have no intention to put in the cartridge and put in a real hardware, but if so you should still be aware that someone might do so, and if designing a NES/Famicom game it ought to be designed to work on a real hardware too in case someone is going to do that (I have designed a very small subset of the MMC5 mapper for precisely this reason).

Link please.
I have found no source that sells anything I would identify as a newly-manufactured NES or Famicom that costs that much. And the ones that cost less almost assuredly have some significant difference from the original silicon.

I believe someone's referring to NES boxes that were made during the NES's commercial era but have never been opened.

Well, if he's referring to new old stock that doesn't count at all.

Ah, is that what's on Amazon? Yes, for hundreds or even more than a thousand dollars, "New NES".

And of course I agree the software should work on the hardware.

OMG, so this just happened.

A Nintendo appeared on my desk.

Because my lovely wife ordered one and did not tell me, because after all, I'm working on a game for her... Oh my, yes!