HD Famicom Clone with 300 Built-In Games!?

In this episode, we unbox and test out the Retroad HD Famicom Clone with 300 Built-In Games, available from AliExpress.

I love playing and collecting imported Nintendo games from Japan. The Super Famicom was the first import system I ever collected for, but the original Famicom was not far behind. The games are amazing, and the wonderful thing is there's very little language barrier on the type of game I want to play. The original Famicom, however, is limited by having only RF output. They did later come out with a revised AV Famicom, and I do own a Sharp Famicom twin which has composite video output. Composite is better than RF, but what if you could get to an HDMI signal? That's what Retroad has done with their 8-bit Famicom Clone System.

When it comes to aesthetics, they absolutely nailed the looks and feel of the original Famicom. The red and cream color are recreated faithfully. The system includes two Famicom-inspired controllers, but they feature four buttons. Two of the buttons are regular A and B, and the other two are turbo. I didn't like the fact that the regular buttons are positioned at the reverse angle of a dog bone controller. This felt a little awkward to me. Also, controller 2 does not feature an integrated microphone, unlike the original system.

Set up was fairly easy, albeit no thanks to the missing manual. An AC adapter is included with a European-style connector, however, there is a US plug adapter included in the box. I did test this, and it worked fine, but I ended up using one of my cell phone chargers for simplicity.

The back of the unit features all of the main connectors and ports. It uses Micro USB for power, barf, composite video outputs if you would want to connect to a CRT, 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratio switch, and your HDMI output. The HDMI output is only 720p, so while it will look better than composite, don't expect miracles.

One of my first tests was connecting my copy of Super Mario Bros to the cartridge slot. Oof, those pins crunched a lot as the game went in. Hearing the sound of the pins being spread apart definitely concerns me about the longevity of this system. Upon firing it up and looking at it on three different screens simultaneously, my 65" Samsung TV, my Samsung 32" monitor, and my laptop, each one looked different than the other. With the brightness and backlight turned down, my Samsung TV looked decent, but my monitor and my laptop, not quite so much.

Upon starting Super Mario bros, one of the biggest issues that face budget clone systems reared its head, the audio issues. The coins in Super Mario Bros are an easy tell, and these were not correct. Disappointing, but not unexpected. I then went through and played several other games, Mighty Final Fight, Ducktales, and probably a dozen or so games for my Famicom library, and all of them had a slightly off pallet, and slightly incorrect audio, but responsiveness was decent. Also, not unexpectedly, the Famicom Disk System did not work.

One thing I did not remember until I was grabbing images and editing was the fact that this had 300-Games built in! I thought that I would receive a cartridge with ROMs on it, however, the ROMs were actually built into the device. That's unique. Scrolling through the games, most appear to be bootleg Russian titles, but completely playable. I don't own a copy of Punch-Out, and there was not a version on the system to play, disappointing as that is a good test of lag in latency.

Why it RoX:
- Nails the aesthetics
- Power LED
- Decent controllers
- Decent picture quality
- 4:3/16:9 aspect ratio switch
- 300 games included

What could be improved:
- Terrible color palettes
- Reverse duty cycle audio issues
- I don't like the button layouts on the controllers
- Short controller cables
- Cartridge slot pins have a terrible crunch sound
- A bit overpriced

Should you buy one?
I go back and forth on this, it's so easy to get a clone NES system, 60-to-72 pin adapter, and even a ROM cartridge with 300 ROMs on it for the same or less money as this system, and you get to play the entire NES library on it as well. But there's something cool about this looking like a Famicom, I can't deny that. I don't love the controller button layout, the pins concern me, and the fact there was no manual and cellophane just tossed on top of the controllers, not cool. But I can't deny I had fun playing the system, even with the inaccurate sound and less-than-ideal color palette. If this was less expensive it would be easier for me to recommend. For what it is, it's okay, far away from great, and there are definitely better options out there.

#Retroad #Famicom #Famiclone #HDMIClone