(Game Sack theme music)
- [Joe] Hello, and welcome to Game Sack.
We're back with more modern accessories
for retro gaming.
- [Dave] That's exactly right, Joe.
Geez, I haven't said that for a long time, have I?
- [Joe] That's true, I wish you'd say it more,
because I like being right.
Anyway, we've got some cool stuff,
and first up is something really nice for the PC Engine.
This cool device is the Super SD System 3,
from Terra Onion.
And I'm just gonna call it the SD3
for the rest of this review.
It sells for 240 euros, which is about 280 US dollars.
This attaches to the back of any PC Engine-based console
like the CoreGrafx or the SuperGrafx.
And yes, it will attach to a TurboGrafx-16.
And that's all it does, the end.
Just kidding.
This is actually several things in one.
Firstly, it has a video port
so you can use a Sega Genesis model 2 video cable,
and yes, it supports RGB, as well.
It also has a Micro SD card slot.
And what can you put on this?
Well, lots and lots of PC Engine
and TurboGrafx games, of course.
So yeah, it's basically like an Everdrive.
You can run HuCard games from both regions
on any console, no problem.
And of course, it can run SuperGrafx games,
but only if you have it attached
to an actual SuperGrafx.
Oh, and it's also an optical disc emulator,
and that means you can run CD games
off of the SD card, as well.
In fact, your console will think that it has
a CD drive attached.
This right here is awesome,
and it's sorely needed, as the mechanical CD drives
begin to break down, and become harder
and harder to fix, thanks to the lack
of sourceable parts.
It can run regular CD, Super CD,
and yes, even Arcade CD games.
And they load super fast, too.
Check out how fast it goes from stage to stage
in Gate of Thunder here.
- [Game Announcer] Stage clear.
- [Joe] This even makes games like Cosmic Fantasy 2
actually playable.
The original disc felt like it loaded
every time you blinked, but playing it on
the SD3 here, it's as smooth as butter.
However, it can actually be too fast
for a couple of games,
like Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective.
On the original disc, the laser could only read data
so fast, and as a result, the video would pause
every second or two.
The developers knew this, and that's just how
the game was designed to work.
- I gather that he was reassigned
to cover the case from here
because he had some familiarity with the murder in Egypt.
- [Joe] But on the SD3 there's none of that,
so the video gets ahead of the audio,
and it gets out of sync before you know it.
- I gather that he was reassigned to
cover with an odd duck,
but thanks for your help Henry.
- [Joe] Other games that use FMV like
It Came from the Desert and the Japanese game
Gulliver Boy are fine though.
(speaking Japanese)
The menu is kind of weird the first few times
you navigate it, as you need to press the RUN button
to enter folders.
The select button toggles between HuCards and CD games,
so if you want to play a CD game,
be sure to switch it over first.
There are several different options you can choose from,
but be sure to enable the Arcade Card
and just leave it that way.
Well that is unless you run into a game
that doesn't happen to work well with the arcade card
for some reason.
You can also select a version of the system card,
which you'll have to provide your own images for.
For example, you're gonna wanna press
System Card 1.0 if you want to play the CD version
of Altered Beast.
It simply will not work correctly with any other version.
You can also dump your own HuCards which is handy.
Just check the box, turn the system off,
insert your HuCard, power it up and dump it.
You can use popular apps like IMGBurn
to rip your own CDs to the BIN in CUE format
and store them in a named folder on the card.
The SD3 also has virtually unlimited backup RAM,
so you'll never have to worry about running out of space
to save your game.
Finally is the CD block volume.
This lets you adjust how loud CD audio
and the ADPCM sound is.
This is because some games will have distorted audio
at 100 percent.
Whatever digital to analog converter they're using,
doesn't really have enough dynamic range
to handle really loud sounds.
If you lower this to 60 or so,
the distortion will be gone.
Here's a good example of 100 percent volume
versus 60 percent in Ys Book One and Two's
opening narration.
- [Game Narrator] Ys, the seemingly tranquil paradise
suddenly pulled from the height of its civilization,
to the empty abyss of infinite isolation.
Ys, the seemingly tranquil paradise
suddenly pulled from the height of its civilization,
to the empty abyss of infinite isolation.
- [Joe] However this also messes up the balance
between the CD audio and the console's PSG sound,
and the music might seem too quiet
compared to the sound effects.
(loud PSG shooting over quiet but really good music)
As I said before, the SD3 offers an RGB video output.
The video quality is mostly fantastic.
However, I've noticed some slight video noise
in dark solid blues and greens like here
in the opening of Lords of Thunder,
or the green in the background on the first stage
of Bonk's Adventure.
It's not horrible, but it's not
perfect either.
However, you'll never notice it on a CRT,
but you might with an upscaler.
Also when I put the SD3 on my TurboGrafx-16,
the noise is even worse.
Still it's hard to notice on a CRT,
and some games like Gradius II here,
it's hard to even notice on an HDTV
through an upscaler.
So your experience might be noisier
or even less noisy than mine
depending on what system you hook it up to.
I think it's likely that the SD3 isn't
getting enough power from the console.
A good solution might be to design the SD3
so that it provides power to the console
like a normal Interface Unit does.
Not the other way around like it currently works.
Still the SD3 is a fantastic piece of hardware,
and it goes a long way to keeping the TurboGrafx-16
and the PC Engine scene alive.
(sweet game music)
(holy water sounds)
(wolf howling... and dying)
- [Dave] Okay one down & that thing is actually really cool,
but man it's not cheap, but it is cool.
- Yup
- I think maybe the diehard collector
would find it interesting, and you know
it's useful for sure.
- [Joe] I agree, and we've got another thing that's useful
coming up right now, and you're gonna talk about that?
- [Dave] I am
- [Joe] Let's check it out.
(rock music from Super Off-Road on SNES)
- [Dave] Here's the Super Nt from Analogue,
which is a Super Nintendo clone.
You can get it at Analogue's website
and it costs 189 US dollars,
and you can choose from one of four designs.
We though this gray one looked really cool,
but most people seem to think the translucent one
is the best.
More power to 'em.
It comes with a console, HDMI cable, USB cable
and a power adapter.
You can use your own Super NES controllers
or you can buy a 40 dollar wireless controller
when you buy your system.
First off, I've gotta say that the SuperNt is amazing.
It outputs in 1080P, 720P or 480P.
It doesn't cut any corners,
and what you get for the price is truly amazing.
First of all, the console itself is small and sturdy.
It doesn't feel like a lightweight piece of junk.
It easily fits both Super Famicom shaped cartridges
and US Super Nintendo shaped cartridges.
The cartridge port is fantastic,
and not as prone to glitches as the one
on the Nt Mini which we covered a while back.
You also have an SD card slot for updating firmware
and uh, other things.
The only thing that it doesn't have is an analog output
for a CRT television.
This of course leads to the systems only incompatibility,
and that's with the Super Scope which of course,
needs a CRT.
Designer Kevtris has commented that he'd
like to make an HDMI to analog video adapter
which would enable Super Scope compatibility.
That'd have to be some really fast
digital to analog conversion to retain accuracy.
But honestly we'll probably never see that.
As far as game play and compatibility go,
we haven't noticed any issues that
haven't already been fixed.
The games run perfectly. There's no lag that we can detect,
and the experience is very smooth.
You can enable more sprites on screen,
but we haven't found any reason for that.
Too bad you can't reduce the slow-down on some games,
but that's okay, as it's just as authentic
as playing on a real Super Nintendo.
The video quality is of course fantastic,
once you dial the settings in,
but even out of the box it looks great
without adjusting anything.
The audio is always a concern for us here at Game Sack,
and it's replicated very well here.
(Castlevania music)
(whipping)
Being that the Super NES uses a sample based format,
it's not a difficult system when it comes to
reproducing the audio.
(ActRaiser music by Yuzo Koshiro)
Of course the console can run any
Super Nintendo cart out there
as long as it also runs on the original system,
and all of your favorite peripherals
besides the aforementioned Superscope work great.
Yes, that even includes the Super Game Boy.
Oh and flashcards like the SD2SNES as well.
This is the real deal.
Sadly, there's no save state option here.
Nor is there any way to transfer a save file
from a cartridge over to the SD card for safe keeping.
That'd actually be a pretty neat feature,
especially if it could be transferred
back to the cartridge after a battery was replaced
for example.
Oh well, the original consoles don't exactly
offer these features either.
As far as the system menu goes,
getting around is pretty simple,
but we had to change the font
to make it easier to read.
Of course it's all up to you what you prefer.
It also supports cheat code entry
direct from the menu.
There are plenty of options for your screen size,
but if you want it to be a perfect four times scale
for your 1080P screen, first make sure
advanced mode is checked.
Then go under Video, then Width and Height.
Set the width to 1170 and height to 960.
Then go back out and into Scalers
and make sure the Disable V Iterpolation is checked,
but not the H Interpolation.
This will give you a great four by three image
in a 1080P window with no shimmering artifacts
when games scroll.
There's also hotkeys that'll call up the menu
during a game when pressed.
This defaults to down plus select.
Here you can adjust the image
and see the effects in real time.
You can make it fill your entire screen
if that tingles you in your sensitive spots.
Or, shrink it down as far as the menu will let you.
The Scanline feature from the Nt Mini is back,
but it's been improved.
As far as audio options go, there's a
negative three decibel cut you can enable
if certain games are too loud and distort.
Also be sure to enable cartridge audio
and just leave it enabled all the time.
Otherwise, you won't hear any sound from your Super Game Boy
and some games on the SD2SNES.
(Castlevania II music)
You could also play with the LED colors
if you're entertained by such trivial things.
We prefer a solid red like the original system,
but you can make it pulsate if you need it to be
a bit more distracting.
And don't forget to save once you've made
all your adjustments.
The worst thing about the Super Nt,
is that if you update your firmware,
all of your settings will have to be entered again.
This is a pain, and I wish they could
save the settings to the SD card
to be restored during the update
so we don't have to keep going back
through every thing each time we update the firmware.
Still if this of all things is the most
horrible issue that effects it,
then you've gotta figure that the console is pretty good.
There is jail-broken firmware out there
that will let you run Super Nintendo ROMs
from the SD card, but only games
that don't use special chips of any kind.
And no, the system doesn't have cores written
for other console like the Nt Mini does.
Still this is simply the best Super Nintendo system
you can buy and it's way cheaper
than getting a real console, modding it
for clean RGB, and then getting a Framemeister or whatnot.
We've been using it a lot for the show
as well as for episodes of Playing with Sacks
that we've been making,
and it hasn't let us down yet.
If you've been on the fence about this,
rest assured you'll be satisfied.
This is absolutely the best way
to get into the Super Nintendo for the first time
all over again.
(more Castlevania music)
Follow Game Sack on Twitter @GamesSack
and @GameSackDave on Instagram
@gamesackofficial and check out our Patreon if you want.
- [Joe] Awesome. I love the Super Nt as well,
like you said we've been using it for a while
and it's performed fantastically if that's an actual word.
- [Dave] Sure, it might as well be 'cause fantastically
is a good word to use for that thing,
it's just solid, it's well built, it's just really cool.
- [Joe] It really is.
- [Dave] Do they have something like this for the Genesis? Maybe?
- [Joe] I don't know, kinda? Let's take a look.
(electronic drums from the exciting game Whip Rush)
- [Joe] This is the Sega Genesis Flashback
from AtGames which currently sells for about 70 dollars
or more new, and far less used.
It comes with a scaled-down version of
the model one Genesis, two wireless controllers,
an HDMI cable and a power supply.
It's also the first one of AtGames' Genesis consoles
to have a built-in HDMI output which will give you
720P directly to your HDTV.
So how is it?
Well, how do you think?
First, let's mention the included controllers.
They run on a pair of AAA batteries.
Batteries not included by the way.
As controllers go, they feel okay,
and there's a menu button and a rewind button
to help you if you screw up in your game.
But the worst thing has got to be
the bright blue light that shines in your eyeballs
every time you press the D-pad or any button.
Fortunately, you can use your own Genesis controllers
if you like, but you give up the in-game menu options.
Powering it up, you're greeted by a menu
with a bunch of built-in games for the Genesis, Master System
and even the Game Gear.
It has 85 total games built in,
but many of these are brand new bonus games
that absolutely nobody wants.
We'll get to these in a minute.
I really like how they couldn't source
the proper box art for Sonic the Hedgehog
and had to use the NOT FOR RESALE box.
Classy.
The menu is kind of clumsy but you'll get used to it.
The system also has a cartridge slot so you can play games
that aren't built in.
When you power it up, it downloads the ROM
into system memory so yes it's emulation,
and crappy emulation.
Anyway after that, you just press the A button
on the icon and you're playing your game.
You can even fit Japanese MegaDrive games into the slot
and they'll work.
Even games that are region protected like
Thunder Force IV.
Even SunSoft Mega Drive games will fit.
Yeah, that's right it's absolutely playable
in the very loosest sense of the term.
But how about Virtual Racing,
which uses the SVP chip? Does it work?
Nope.
How 'bout the Game Genie?
The menu sees it and launches it,
and lets you put in the codes,
but when you try to start the game
it just resets the Game Genie.
So no, it doesn't work.
The EverDrive? Of course not.
You just get a black screen.
Master System games using a power base converter?
Nope.
32x games won't directly fit,
but how 'bout with an actual 32X?
Well, it loads the game ROM, let's see what happens
when I launch it.
Oh, just a black screen.
Of course.
In order to start one of the built in games
just highlight it and press the A button.
And oh my god, prepare for your
eyeballs to be destroyed!
First of all, the games run at 40 frames per second,
at best. Yes, I counted.
And they're not even consistent.
That means frames are dropping seemingly at random
all the time.
The screen is also scaled poorly.
Just look at the unevenness of the dithering here.
That should be displayed as a perfect checkerboard.
It also means that the scrolling has
nasty shimmering artifacts in every direction.
It's punishing to look at,
and even worse to play.
Look at me trying to play Shadow Dancer,
a game I normally excel at,
but I'm dying a ton here.
Here's how I normally do it on a real Genesis at this part.
(Shadow Dancer music)
I thought it might be the wireless controllers
causing lag, so I used a Genesis controller
and nope, same thing.
It's the frame rate and also the system itself
is just so damn laggy.
There's also a scan line feature,
but of course, it sucks.
I mean why wouldn't it?
It's not even consistent scan lines,
I mean look at that, how did they screw that up?
Oh and of course, the sound is messed up
and some things just don't sound correct at all.
(laggy jumping noises)
The music often can't even play at a consistent speed.
Oh yeah, and the sound effects aren't even in sync
with the game. Listen.
(shooting)
So, just for fun, here's how Thunder Force IV
sounds on my real Sega Genesis.
(amazing music which sounds better than perfect)
And here's how it sounds on the AtGames Flashback.
(staticky LOL-worthy music)
There are save states and stuff like that
that you can use if you're so inclined.
Master system games play in a smaller window,
and they've never looked or sounded so bad.
They don't seem to run at the proper speed either,
and the sound is very scratchy and dull.
(music sounding like it's played through a cheese grater)
The Game Gear games play in a border
that resembles an actual Game Gear somewhat,
but again, they're choppy and the sound is rough.
Back to the built in games.
These are a treat for any masochist.
And of course, we've gotta try Mr. Balls.
I don't know what's going on here,
and honestly I don't really care.
Or, how 'bout Bomber?
This is the worst Bomber Man clone
that you're ever gonna play.
Actually, just do yourself a favor,
and don't play it.
How about Fight or Lose?
Okay, I guess I'll fight.
Oops, I lost.
Jeez, that was the crappiest fighting game
I ever played.
This thing is super awful
and it's embarrassing that Sega keeps licensing
their name and their games to AtGames.
I even feel sorry for the poor HDMI cable
for having to pass this garbage through it.
Not only that, but AtGames is making
Sega's official Mega Drive Mini.
I tell ya, someone at AtGames must be
giving someone at Sega really good blowies
for this to keep continuing like this.
Sega, quit being dumb.
Fire AtGames and step up your own damn game.
(Thunder Force 3 music, but kinda broken)
- [Dave] Well, yeah Joe, I can see all those points
this thing is yeah, it just feels flimsy
and I mean
- [Joe] That'd blow away in the wind
- [Dave] Totally dude, you gotta hold onto this if
you're walking outside.
And there's no volume slider, I mean what the...
- [Joe] You do not want a volume slider on that thing.
The sound is just awful.
- [Dave] Yeah, yeah for sure.
- [Joe] Anyway, we've got one more device
and it's a little bit of an oddity.
I mean it's not something you'd expect to see,
but let's just get into it.
(Gamecube opening jingle)
- [Dave] Here's the Action Replay for the Gamecube.
And yes, the Gamecube qualifies as retro now,
so damn we're old.
You may be wondering why we'd cover something like this.
Yeah, it lets you select cheats for games and stuff.
But I wanna talk about the version of
the Action Replay that comes with
the SD Media Launcher memory card adapter.
These are harder to come by, but it's what you want.
This little device just plugs into slot 2
and lets you run HomeBrew off of an SD card.
If the Action Replay sees this as it boots,
it automatically loads up a file browser
showing the contents of the card.
There's a lot of things that you can do with this,
but there's two specific apps I'd like to talk about today.
The first one is called Swiss.
This will let you boot games from several different sources,
but we'll be looking at running retail games
from the disc drive.
Once Swiss is running, you can open up the lid
and swap out the disc, and then tell it
to reset the DVD drive.
Your game is recognized and
you can make some interesting changes
before you start it.
You can force the video mode,
which is the main selling point for us here
at Game Sack.
Even games that don't support 480P can be
forced to run that way.
It's native 480P and not deinterlaced garbage.
It doesn't affect the frame rate or performance
of the game either.
Oh and this works with the entire Gamecube library.
No longer will you have to play a game
in cruddy interlaced mode.
Of course you'll need the Gamecube component cables
or the e*o*n HDMI adapter to take advantage of this feature.
You can also force 4:3 only games
into 16:9 widescreen mode.
You can apply this to only the 3D polygons,
or both the polygons as well as the 2D assets.
Either way, you'll get mixed results.
You might see more pop up especially near the sides
of the screen as these games just weren't developed
to be drawn wider than they are.
Also not everything gets adjusted animorphically
and sometimes things just don't quite fit on screen.
Still it's fun to mess around with,
and it works better on some games than others.
Tales of Symphonia, it does indeed
give you a wider view most of the time,
but the text becomes stretched.
Personally, I'd rather play the games
in the aspect ratio that they're designed for,
but like I said, it's fun to mess around with.
(engine roaring)
The second app I'd like to mention is the GBI,
or the Game Boy interface.
If you have a Game Boy player attached to your Gamecube,
this will make things a ton better.
Nintendo is not and has never been a fan
of sharp pixels, and as a result
the Game Boy Player offers up
some pretty blurry visuals at best.
As seen here with component cables at 480P.
But load the GBI straight from the SD card,
and you won't need the disc at all.
Plus it forces the Game Boy Player to output
a very clean and unfiltered 240P with no scaling applied.
It looks fantastic, well unless you hate sharp pixels,
then you probably won't like it much,
but this also gets rid of all the frills
of the Gamecube disc, like border frames
and other stuff that you really don't need.
It comes in a variety of flavors
with varying levels of latency,
but this one seemed to work perfectly for us.
If you want it slightly blurrier,
then yes, you can use the Swiss app to force
Nintendo's Game Boy Player disc to
boot into 240P.
This will help tremendously but it won't be as sharp
as the Game Boy Interface,
and it will have a touch more lag.
If you're on a CRT, doing it either way
offers a much better experience than
you can get with the disc alone.
I'm glad to see there's a lot of
interest in the Gamecube.
(shooting)
(explosions caused by the previously-mentioned shooting)
- [Joe] Yeah it kind of feels weird to cover something
like an Action Replay on Game Sack.
- [Dave] Yeah, it really does 'cause it's
like a memory card.
But you know, it does its job, it works well,
it's easy to use, but the only downfall
is using the Gamecube controller on
GameBoy Advance games,
but that's something completely different.
- [Joe] Plus you have to use the Gamecube component cables,
or an e*o*n HDMI adapter if you want to get
the 480P visuals.
But, it is what it is.
Some people hate that phrase,
I might be one of 'em and I just said it.
But what devices would you like to see us cover
in the future? Let us know, in the meantime,
Thank you for watching Game Sack!
(Game Sack ending theme music)
- [Joe] It's common knowledge that the AtGames
Sega Genesis Flashback is an absolutely horrible device.
But hold on, we found some uses for it.
Such as a doorstop.
Or a tire chock.
You don't want your car rolling away do ya?
Or a hammer tester.
(banging)
- [Dave] It works!
- [Joe] Is something just out of your reach?
- [Dave] There it is.
Come on, I want it.
So close, come on.
- [Joe] Use it as a stepstool.
- [Dave] Sega mouse, ew I didn't want this.
- [Joe] Are you busy soldering but you have no place
to rest your soldering iron?
The AtGames Sega Genesis Flashback can help you.
(sizzling)
And, as a beverage holder.
I mean, who wants to drink out of a pesky bottle?
So see? It is useful!
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