Noac compatibility questions

[arfink]

Ok, I have been asking myself these questions in vain for several months and have found no answers on this forum that are acceptable to me.

1) Is it true that the NOAC has bad / innacurate sound? Is this always the case, or only in a limited number of defective units?

2) Is it true that the Noac cannot run some newer NES games like Castlevaia 3 properly?

3) Is it true that the NOAC cannot accept the audio input on the cartridge connector, so things like the famicom version of CV3 and the Famicom Disk System will not have extended sound support?

I have not been able to find acceptable answers to these questions anywhere, as I said before, so can someone who actually knows give me an intelligible answer?

Edit: oh yeah, whatever happened to the NOAC pinouts sticky? It seems to have gone away someplace where I cannot find it... Could somebody re-sticky it?

[psychotic_mechanic]

I know the colors are off a little bit with my yobo (the sky in SMB3 has a yellowish tint to it). I don't know about the sound issues though I don't pay that much attention to 8 bit sound.

[arfink]

Well, I played my friend's yobo, and hers has colors that look exactly like the NES, with no differences at all, but I did not bring any of my own cartridges to play on it, so I don't know all the answers. If she was a guy I would invite myself over to try the things I have in question, but she's not, and I am certainly not rude enough to ask myself over to her house. Psychotic, you always have japanese stuff, could you try it out? If you had a converter you could plug in the FDS or something and see if the extended sound would work, and as for CV3, well... I guess I can risk not being able to play one game on my portable, even if it is my all time favorite.

[psychotic_mechanic]

Last time I tried an FDS with the yobo the video didn't look right, but it was in a big pile of stuff on my kitchen table (had to put it up, wife said we had to eat or something on the kitchen table). I'll try to play with them a little bit tonight and check Castlevania 3 on an original famicom as well.

[gannon]

It really depends on the brand of NOAC, but most have varying results (even by the same product). It also depends on the cart connector's condition. Here's what we got when testing one NOAC that sgt. bowhack sold
http://portablesofdoom.org/beta/noac.php

[G-force]

I haven't had any trouble with my Super Joy 3 (red version) playing games. If I can get my hands on CV3 I'll try it out.

The sound has a bit of noise on Super joy 3's for some reason. On a speaker you don't notice it, but with headphones you definetly can.

[arfink]

Hmmm, interesting. I will have to develop my own compatibility guide for the Retrocon, and I have some of the special hardware needed to make the guide(as in testing purposes) I have noticed that some of the newer Noacs do not seem to be having many problems, which indicates to me that the manifcturing process is being further perfected. As for the extra audio, I could design a special circuit to mix the audio in if the Noac will not do it by itself.

[psychotic_mechanic]

A little bit of testing tonight.

-I can't get the NES 72 pin CV3 to work with an original famicom or the yobo (didn't try the superjoy) Sound plays for both, but absolutely no video. I picked the game up in a lot of boxed games from a thrift store and haven't even played it yet, so it's no big loss if it doesn't work.

-The FDS kinda works with the superjoy (video signal is noisy? with lighter color horizontal bars slowly descending on the screen) which was better than the yobo which had a bunch of extra sprites on the screen, even with repeated repositioning of the RAM cart.

I may try my 72 pin CV3 with the superjoy after dinner, but if it doesn't work with an original famicom, I doubt it will work with a "clone" of the hardware. This would explain the limited compatability of the NOACs, if they base the chip on the abilities of the Japanese system and are copying the hardware abilities. I didn't think it would be diffucult to accurately recreate the abilities of a 20+ year old game console.

[arfink]

Well, I have received my Retrocon unit, and my CV3 does not work with it. I also have some problems with some higher size EPROMs in my custom cartridges, which seem to work fine on a real NES. Have you tried any games with extended audio, like the famicom CV3 or some of the other Konami games. I was wondering if the NOAC mixes the audio itself, or if I should make my own mixing circuit.

[bioniclebert]

1) Is it true that the NOAC has bad / innacurate sound? Is this always the case, or only in a limited number of defective units?

2) Is it true that the Noac cannot run some newer NES games like Castlevaia 3 properly?

3) Is it true that the NOAC cannot accept the audio input on the cartridge connector, so things like the famicom version of CV3 and the Famicom Disk System will not have extended sound support?

1: NOACs Vary by type. My experience with NOAC's has been that some sounds are changed from the originals, such as the sound of mario jumping, or going down a pipe. (those are blantantly noticible in the NES portable I used) Other than that, the sounds were very close to original.

2. I've heard that it wont play castlevania 3 at all due to the famicom converter missing the center pins. I dont know if it will work with NOACs with the NES style connector on them already.

3. No idea, but I guess the other members knew.

[arfink]

Ok, I have confirmed the expanded audio question I had before. The Noac does not mix its own audio for the expansion pin on the cartridge slot, and some noac devices have a seperate mixing circuit while others do not. So, I guess I will just make my own mixing circuit on the retrocon. I mean, who wants to play Akumajou Densetsu without the extra sound support? BTW, I am playing these famicom games with a converter, which I built myself, so I know the lack of the extended audio is due to the design of the Retrocon.