huckleberrypie Wrote:How's the ping times, btw?
Ping time is 132ms, and site appears to load fast and quick up here.
Now, on to the catch up. Last weekend, I had an opportunity to get a new Famiclone. I had to choose between a Retron2 NES/SNES or FC Mobile II. But, thanks to scoring $90 in store credit with trade ins, I was able to get both along with the SNES port of Doom. Below are quick reviews of the two clones I got...
Here is the Retron2. I mainly got this because it has the ability to play Japanese imports (no plastic tabs in the slot) as well as looking like an odd SNES system. It also takes original controllers for both NES and SNES, with the ports being on the sides rather than front. Compatibility wise, it's rather good. NES has slightly off NOAC audio, but the picture quality is crisp and colorful. The SNES portion works great as far as I'm concerned. The only thing I could have against it is dual-mono audio, but all the notes and tracks sound accurate to a real unit sans stereo. I'm happy.
Now, time for the FC Mobile II. First impressions are... odd to say the least. I ended up getting a PAL unit packed inside a US box complete with 120v AC adapter. Another odd thing is that my games play a tad bit faster than a real NES or any other Famiclone. However, the games are still very much playable, but the music does have a higher pitch as a result.
I was able to confirm I got a PAL unit by using the AV output with an old off-brand LCD TV. The signal was ID'ed as PAL and displayed without a rolling picture. This means I can't use the AV out feature that much since the majority of US TVs are NTSC except for some of the off-brand Chinese sets. Now time for the very strange part. If the AV output is used, the games play slower than with the built-in display. In fact, my games play as they would if I had a PAL NES or Famiclone.
Does this make the FC Mobile II worthwhile to me? It might. Despite having the above issues, I can still play my favorite games on the system without many issues, and I only plan on using the system on road trips with the family. I can't really return the system for exchange at the present time.
It will probably work out in the end.
The FC Mobile II works with Castlevania III!