I have recently purchased a used retro duo and after reading this entire post I have some new information to add.

First. I live in the US and am using us based games, I have a new revision date on the board of my Retro Duo to add to the discussion.

My board has a manufacture date of 5/23/08 as shown in the attached picture (I can't seem to add a photo to this post for some reason).

I have tested over 40 NES ntsc titles and found some disturbing results.

Most 3rd gen or later games produced by either Sunsoft, Konami or Tecmo have anywhere from minor music issues to piss poor music reproduction (that I don't really qualify as music).

Examples are as follows:

1. Batman R.O.T.J. = poor base and missing instruments
2. Batman = terible static in the music and missing isntruments
3. Journy to Silius = poor base and static
4. Ninja Gaiden 2 = Static, Missing instruments, off key
5. Castlevania 2 = nothing but minor base beats playing, not even music
6. TMNT 2 = static, missing base, off key
7. TMNT 1 = static, missing base, off key
8. Castlevania III = so far off from the original its not even worth listening to!

As for the Super nintendo side of things they seem fine. I only have 1 game (Monster Maker 3) to test this with but it plays exatctly like the original SNES unit. Sound effects, music and all.

I am rather dissapointed with this purchase and expected better from this company.

yes, nobody has claimed that the nes emulates sound perfectly, or even correctly for that matter. it's simply been proven that this is the best noac (or at least was at the time, i haven't tested any newer ones) available. it is emulating the nes hardware, after all. when cramming everything into 1 chip, something ends up not being right.

My retro duo playes castlevania III just like the nes same with zelda II, gauntlet, gauntlet II, mario I, mario III, snes super mario world. It actually plays these games better than the nes the game play is much faster and smoother. Maybe it's my nes age but the retro duo works much better. When I have time I will check the date on the board. Also both nes and snes slots hold the game really tight.

nothing plays nes better than...nes. And you are wrong. Mario 3 is not like on the nes. the sound is more bloopy, and some songs (example would be map of world two) don't sound nearly the same as on the actual nes. Overall, it's a good nes clone, but not good as the nes.

I will have to do more comparing. Maybe it's my ears but it souns damn near perfect to me. But it could be my original nes has seen better days. Anyone been able to get a nes zapper to work yet. I tried but with no luck. used VCC+5v and GND and blue and purple wires go the terminals not used by the controller and it didn't work.

Chevvy : thanks a lot for your answer. Seems my RD is broken, and I'm getting a new one.
As for the PAL games I played, here they are :

- Super Mario Kart
- Earthworm Jim
- Earthwom Jim 2

And the only one who wouldn't run :

- Secret of Mana

I'll be receiving a TopLoader NES too, to try it with my PAL games. I'm looking for other systems like this who plays PAL games, so do not hesitate to tell me if you know some.

I have two Nintendo top loading NESes. The original will also play games from other regions with the lockout chip disabled.

I got my Retro Duo a few months back; was leaving it boxed until I make my system with one in two project's time - however LOB asked me to test to see if the PAL version Super Mario Kart on the SNES worked, so I put a 7805 on a PSone power supply and ran the system off that 5.05v supply - the game works fine. Then, out of interest, tried my NTSC Super Mario RPG Seven Stars - a game that is supposed to cause problems with the Duo - worked fine, as did Yoshi's Cookie, NTSC on SNES. Also tried Spot and Yoshi's Cookie, NTSC versions of NES carts, worked fine.

Boxed it up again, but pleased with it!

mario rpg works? I heard that only certain copies work on the retro duo. Apparently there were three versions of mario rpg. the only difference being one of the chips on the game cart. Only one of the three versions will work, but the only way you can tell the difference between the three is by the numbers on the chips.


I don't know if this is true or not as most people have had their copies worked. Maybe the other two versions are harder to find. Obviously I don't own the game or I wouldn't be stating this. Of course, as I said before, this may not be true because I just heard it from somebody on gamefaqs.

Hi,

i am new here. I got my Retro Duo today, the limited edition in red/gold. (looks awesome)
I live in germany and play pal games on the Retro Duo. So i want to add some info to your compatiblity list.

SNES PAL
Super Gameboy perfect no problems, works instantly
Super Mario World good minor graphic glitches, flickering in some scenes
Super R-Type perfect
Super Castlevania IV perfect
Hyper Zone perfect
Jurassic Park perfect
Plok don't work checks lockout chip and refuse to run with "not allowed" message

By the way I finally got to make PAL NES games work.

You've got to push them really hard into the slot, or it won't work. So, I could play Castlevania 1 and 2, Batman and Super Mario 3. All of them worked well.

Btw, lovablechevvy I'd like to ask you if I can use the information here on my site ? I'm building a fansite dedicated to retro-gaming systems (I just bought the Top Loader NES, and I'm going to buy the new Megadrive when it's released in a couple of month), and I'm trying to write a table with PAL / NTSC US / NTSC Japanese informations alltogether. I would of course give full credit to this list and the users who contributed to it.
What do you think of this ?

that is perfectly fine. just give credit to each contributor.

i'm gonna try to update the list today. i'm way behind in doing so... sorry everyone!

edit: ok, the list has been updated

Great !
Thanks a lot, that's very nice. I've already build the site so that it gives full credit to everyone contributing to the list.

Ok, so it seems I have a lot of work ahead of me then, just gathering all of the information on your forum...
The site will be online shortly, I'll give you the url so that you can give me your opinion (please ).

Again, thanks a lot.

Screw the retroduo.


Buy a refurbished nes and snes and just keep it up to date with new gear.
now that's what u say 110% capability

I get big bucks for those on ebay. I sell them here at a discounted price if anybody wants one.