Famicom World

Misc. => Other Gaming => Topic started by: nintendodork on August 15, 2010, 06:43:21 pm

Title: RetroZone's RetroVision
Post by: nintendodork on August 15, 2010, 06:43:21 pm
http://www.retrousb.com/product_info.php?cPath=30&products_id=87

I didn't know about this until I randomly decided to go to RetroUSB.com just now, but the RetroVision is a cartridge that lets you play original Game Boy games on your NES (and not ROMs either, actual carts.)  It also allows you to change the color palette of the game.  Frankly, I don't think this is worth the $125 pricetag because not only is it an exact copy of the Super Gameboy, it also doesn't support ROMs or anything else we haven't seen before.
Title: Re: RetroZone's RetroVision
Post by: 133MHz on August 15, 2010, 07:07:34 pm
Awesome use of a CPLD, but not something particularly useful, at least for me.
Title: Re: RetroZone's RetroVision
Post by: MS-DOS4 on August 15, 2010, 07:18:29 pm
Waste o' cash. I'd rather buy a PowerPak.
Title: Re: RetroZone's RetroVision
Post by: petik1 on August 15, 2010, 07:22:17 pm
For $125, I could go out and buy a gamecube, gameboy player, and a whole ton of games. This is a case of "Because I can".   ::)
Title: Re: RetroZone's RetroVision
Post by: manuel on August 15, 2010, 10:30:23 pm
Quote from: petik1 on August 15, 2010, 07:22:17 pm
For $125, I could go out and buy a gamecube, gameboy player, and a whole ton of games. This is a case of "Because I can".   ::)


You could probably get a SNES and a Super Gameboy in addition, too.  :D
The product itself is awesome and everything, but there are so many (cheap) possibilities to play Gameboy games already...
Title: Re: RetroZone's RetroVision
Post by: Jedi Master Baiter on August 15, 2010, 10:35:57 pm
I'll stick with my already obsolete GBASP. :(
Title: Re: RetroZone's RetroVision
Post by: petik1 on August 16, 2010, 05:39:17 am
Quote from: Jedi QuestMaster on August 15, 2010, 10:35:57 pm
I'll stick with my already obsolete GBASP. :(


When it comes to Nintendo handhelds, they go obsolete every 5 minutes  ;)

There should be a rating system on whether video game consoles are New, Classic, Vintage, and Other
Title: Re: RetroZone's RetroVision
Post by: satoshi_matrix on August 16, 2010, 05:59:29 pm
Jedi, you're not alone. I play my GBA SP almost daily.

It is the best Nintendo handheld of all in my opinion. Compact, good life, and plays somewhere around five thousand games.
Title: Re: RetroZone's RetroVision
Post by: Jedi Master Baiter on August 16, 2010, 11:14:31 pm
I would've probably bought a DS had it been completely backwards compatible with original GameBoy games. :-\
Title: Re: RetroZone's RetroVision
Post by: satoshi_matrix on August 16, 2010, 11:50:26 pm
the DS is more than powerful enough to emulate though. There's a great GB and GBC emulator for the DS called Lameboy.
Title: Re: RetroZone's RetroVision
Post by: Jedi Master Baiter on August 17, 2010, 04:11:15 pm
True. True.

Speaking of emulation.  Has anyone here tried one of those flash carts for the GBA?  I want to get one to play NES games.  Not sure how good they are. :-\
Title: Re: RetroZone's RetroVision
Post by: UglyJoe on August 17, 2010, 04:43:36 pm
Quote from: Jedi QuestMaster on August 17, 2010, 04:11:15 pm
Speaking of emulation.  Has anyone here tried one of those flash carts for the GBA?  I want to get one to play NES games.  Not sure how good they are. :-\


The emulators themselves are fairly competent, but the big problem is that the GBA's screen resolution (240 x 160) is smaller than the NES's (256 x 240).  This means you end up with squished graphics.  Check the screenshots here to see what I mean:

http://www.pocketnes.org/screenshots.html (http://www.pocketnes.org/screenshots.html)
http://www.pocketnes.org/res.html (http://www.pocketnes.org/res.html)
Title: Re: RetroZone's RetroVision
Post by: satoshi_matrix on August 17, 2010, 09:51:46 pm
I have an M3 "NDS & GBA Movie Player SD" which I bought quite a number of years ago for $95. It allows you to use standard SD cards to hold roms.

It plays PocketNES, which is an okay way to play some NES games on the go, but you're much, much better off with a PSP.

$95 seems like a lot, but consider most flashcards measure their size in megabits and you'll see the clear advantage of going with a 1 GB SD card.

The device plays GBA games in 1:1, it's realyl quite fantastic.

The device also has lameboy built in as well as emulators for the master system/gamegear. All you need to do is simply put roms for those systems on the card and they'll play.

Personally I think its incredibly silly that Gameboy and Gameboy color roms use the Gameboy hardware to run in an emulator rather than just using the hardware to play the games as they were designed for.

It's expensive, but this one flashcart is probably the best one out there for the GBA. It's fairly errelivent now, but with a Passme card, it can also run in DS mode and run DS roms. This is what I did before DS flashcards matured and exploded.
Title: Re: RetroZone's RetroVision
Post by: MS-DOS4 on August 17, 2010, 10:52:23 pm
Yeah, I've been looking to turn my PSP 3000 I never used into a emulator paradise. Do I need to buy that Pandora Battery to crack it?
Title: Re: RetroZone's RetroVision
Post by: UglyJoe on August 18, 2010, 04:13:57 pm
Quote from: satoshi_matrix on August 17, 2010, 09:51:46 pm
Personally I think its incredibly silly that Gameboy and Gameboy color roms use the Gameboy hardware to run in an emulator rather than just using the hardware to play the games as they were designed for.


The flash carts only have access to the GBA hardware.  They cannot bootstrap or access the GB hardware, afaik.
Title: Re: RetroZone's RetroVision
Post by: NintendoKing on August 18, 2010, 06:41:27 pm
Honestly, retrovision would be pretty awesome. I only own SNES for Super Gameboy, but retrovisions price is a bit to steep; I would be willing to pay 95$.
Title: Re: RetroZone's RetroVision
Post by: satoshi_matrix on August 18, 2010, 07:49:08 pm
Quote from: MS-DOS4 on August 17, 2010, 10:52:23 pm
Yeah, I've been looking to turn my PSP 3000 I never used into a emulator paradise. Do I need to buy that Pandora Battery to crack it?


No, you cannot flash a PSP 3000. You need a 2000. You might as well sell your 3000 and buy a 2000 instead.
Title: Re: RetroZone's RetroVision
Post by: MS-DOS4 on August 18, 2010, 07:50:00 pm
Oh, ok. Good thing this thing was a gift.
Title: Re: RetroZone's RetroVision
Post by: nintendodork on August 18, 2010, 07:52:44 pm
Quote from: The Uninvited Gremlin on August 18, 2010, 06:41:27 pm
Honestly, retrovision would be pretty awesome. I only own SNES for Super Gameboy, but retrovisions price is a bit to steep; I would be willing to pay 95$.
Why?  Especially if you already own a Super Gameboy.
Title: Re: RetroZone's RetroVision
Post by: MS-DOS4 on August 18, 2010, 07:55:47 pm
Actually it looks like they've cracked the 3000 model. I'll have to do a little research on it before I sell...
Title: Re: RetroZone's RetroVision
Post by: Epic_Lotus on August 18, 2010, 11:24:44 pm
Hey guys :) 

I actually own a RetroVision.  I got one in a trade over on NintendoAge.  It's pretty damn cool, I have to say.  Yes, it's pretty much just a piece of hardware made to see if it could be made.  bunnyboy (the designer) pretty much said so when he released it.  That said, it's pretty awesome to be able to play GB games on an NES.  Yeah, not worth it if you own a Super Game Boy or a GB Player, but hey, it's still pretty damn neat. 
Title: Re: RetroZone's RetroVision
Post by: satoshi_matrix on August 19, 2010, 11:45:00 pm
Can you change the game pallets on it? Does it support GBC games that were playable on the GB? Any game you tried that won't work?
Title: Re: RetroZone's RetroVision
Post by: jpx72 on August 19, 2010, 11:54:13 pm
I own the Supercard MiniSD (http://jpx72.detailne.sk/stuff_files/gb/sc.jpg) for my Gameboy AdvanceSP and in it's firmware is implemented the GoombaColor (http://www.dwedit.org/gba/goombacolor.php) GB/GBC emulator together with PocketNES emulator and also a PCengine emul and it plays GBA roms. A good cartridge indeed but I have problem with it - many of the cartridges bought over at Dealextreme were faulty and mine also - sometimes it freezes when playing GBA roms - so I must save more often...
Title: Re: RetroZone's RetroVision
Post by: L___E___T on August 21, 2010, 04:50:50 am
Lameboy definitely recommended, but I'd also really like this.  I have a gameboy flashcart but it's parallel port only, so I can't actually use it :S
Title: Re: RetroZone's RetroVision
Post by: satoshi_matrix on August 21, 2010, 08:51:33 am
Quote from: jpx72 on August 19, 2010, 11:54:13 pm
I own the Supercard MiniSD (http://jpx72.detailne.sk/stuff_files/gb/sc.jpg) for my Gameboy AdvanceSP and in it's firmware is implemented the GoombaColor (http://www.dwedit.org/gba/goombacolor.php) GB/GBC emulator together with PocketNES emulator and also a PCengine emul and it plays GBA roms. A good cartridge indeed but I have problem with it - many of the cartridges bought over at Dealextreme were faulty and mine also - sometimes it freezes when playing GBA roms - so I must save more often...


How much was it? I've never had any problem with my M3 Perfect SD. THen again, the thing cost $95. I guess you get what you pay for.
Title: Re: RetroZone's RetroVision
Post by: jpx72 on August 21, 2010, 11:37:21 am
Wasn't that cheap - paid 30euro for the SupercardMiniSD. And it comes without the SD card ...so another investment must be made.
But...is the M3perfectSD for the GBASP or it is for DS only? Cause I don't have DS...
Title: Re: RetroZone's RetroVision
Post by: satoshi_matrix on August 21, 2010, 08:14:18 pm
It's for both. It'll work great in any GBA, but it also allows you to boot DS games.
Title: Re: RetroZone's RetroVision
Post by: Jedi Master Baiter on August 22, 2010, 01:51:36 pm
So I should get the M3 Perfect SD?

Does it have the features the SuperCard Mini SD has?
Title: Re: RetroZone's RetroVision
Post by: satoshi_matrix on August 22, 2010, 07:56:15 pm
I'm not sure what the Supercard SD has, but the M3 Perfect SD has the following:

-Runs nearly every GBA game. The only games I haven't got to work on it are some hacks and some fan translations. Overall, this thing reads 99.9% of the GBA library, including the excellent fan translation of Mother 3.   

-You can use PocketNES Goomba and thingy to create your own NES "multicart" that is treated as a GBA rom.

-SAVE support. This is actually something a lot of GBA flashcarts don't let you do. The M3 Perfect uses 1MB save files per game, which sort of sucks, but you can rely of them.

-Built in emulators that allow you to run Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Sega Master System and GameGear ROMs.

-Fairly decent power consumption compared to some flash cards I've seen. I'd estimate it only drains about 1 hour or so away from the time you would get from a full charge playing a standard game.

-If used with a Passcard, the firmware supports DS mode, which allows you to run DS roms on a DS.

-reads .txt files
-reads video and audio files, but they need to be in a super specific file format. I never bothered with these.

-Limited to standard SD card size; SDHC won't work. I have a 1GB card in mine and it has about 35 GBA games and 20 GB and GBC games.
Title: Re: RetroZone's RetroVision
Post by: jpx72 on August 22, 2010, 10:22:13 pm
SUPERCARD info - http://eng.supercard.sc/manual/minisd_jj.htm
other - http://www.pocketheaven.com/ph/wiki/index.php?title=Supercard

problem is that this is a discontinued item AFAIK. And the problem about built in emulators is that you cannot change them untill the company releases new firmware (last one in 2008) or you can manage to make your own one. Sure you can do a GBA rom with built in emulator (in pocketNes and goombacolor it's possible).
And the biggest problem would be the great number of faulty cards all over the world so buying a 100% working one is really hard nowadays.

Otherway it's fairly simmilar to the mentioned M3Perfect
Title: Re: RetroZone's RetroVision
Post by: Jedi Master Baiter on August 23, 2010, 10:21:12 am
So do I not need the PassMe device if I don't have a DS?
Title: Re: RetroZone's RetroVision
Post by: satoshi_matrix on August 23, 2010, 10:26:35 am
Right. A Passme is a simple DS boot device that tricks the system into booting DS mode from slot 2, the GBA port.

As the GBA doesn't have a DS slot, you don't need a PassMe at all if you don't plan on using an M3 Perfect on a DS. The only thing the PassMe or similar allows you to do is run the M3 Perfect in DS mode which allows you to play DS games from the M3 Perfect. Otherwise, the DS will play it as if it were a GBA game.

That might be confusing so I'll clarify that again.

PassMe not required for GBA
PassMe not required to play GBA ROMs on M3 even when using a DS
PassMe only required to play DS ROMS on M3 when using a DS.
Title: Re: RetroZone's RetroVision
Post by: Jedi Master Baiter on August 23, 2010, 12:42:53 pm
Don't worry - everything was as clear as day.  Where I live. With contacts on.
Title: Re: RetroZone's RetroVision
Post by: MarioMania on August 26, 2010, 08:56:48 pm
I got a SNES + SGB, No thanks..if it were like $30 then yeah