Frequently Asked Questions

Great question. Our carts are 99.9% reliable. We’d say 100% but that depends on the hardware you are playing it on. On original hardware, if your 72-pin connector is dirty or damaged it may not play that well. Our multicart utilizes all 72 pins to play. With that said, our cart features full-version NES games. There are a few homebrews and unreleased games from Japan, but other than that, you should recognize all the NES titles.

The multicarts that have 500 or more are suspect to us; namely because they have a lot of obscure, possibly low-quality homebrew games. Without getting too technical, the reason our cart has only 122 or 143 games compared to those other ones is because true Nintendo (NES) games are large files and only so much can fit on the cart’s chip. When I see a cart that has 300, 500 or more, it has to be alot of “junk” games, in my humble opinion.

If you purchase our cart and it doesn’t “perform” to your standards after we try and troubleshoot the problem. We offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee return policy. You are covered anyway you look at it.

YES. All titles are full versions of the games, and ALL are in English.

Hope we don’t bore you here.
The Retron 5 is a hardware emulation. This allows the system to read the .CHR and .PRG Mask ROMs of the cart to determine which game it is. Once the game is read by the Retron 5, you can copy the entire game to an SD card and play at any time.
Our cart uses a 256MB chip to store ROMs. Due to the cart being a ROM, each game is assigned a sector and stored. It does not contain an EEPROM/Mask ROM with the information the Retron 5 can read. This will cause the game to be unrecognizable to the hardware and will ask if you would like to force load the cart. If you do this, it will be pixelated and mostly machine language graphics will appear.
Unfortunately, at this time, there is no way to create a multicart that can emulate a single game cart with a menu. The Retron 5 will not read any multicart due to its design, not just ours.
We are working on ways to get around this, but it may be a while we invent the technology.

Bottom line: Our NES multicarts will not work on any emulator-type console like the Retron 5.

Yes.

However, due to the nature of the multicart, there may be adverse affects on the games you are trying to modify.
This is something that cannot be fixed as the parameters of the multicart are not as a stand-alone game and changing the code on the Game Genie would result in different code locations on the multicart.
Basically, USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Click HERE.

The 395 multi-cart does have Super Mario Bros. 1.
It also has SMB Lost Levels, which was released in Japan for the Famicom and called SMB 2 there. It was never released in the U.S. because Nintendo felt it would be too difficult for American gamers. (Whatever! I beat it no problem when it was released on Super Mario All-Stars in 1993.)

As for SMB 2 and 3?
You have to purchase the 153-in-1.

We can’t make every cart have the same games or what’s the point. But, hey, the 395 has Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out, and the others don’t.

If you are playing on NES original hardware, take note:

The PCB (printed circuit board) on our cart is a just a little thicker to make sure there’s a good connection between the 72-pin contacts (NES original console) and our cart. It should be a snug fit, not a super tight fit.

If the 72-pin connectors have been changed on your original NES console, it will feel much tighter, but won’t affect your system.

122-in-1 CART BATTERY SAVE LIST:
Baseball Stars
Crystalis
Dark Lord (Japan/english translation)
Deja Vu
Dragon Warrior
Dragon Warrior II
Dragon Warrior III
Dragon Warrior IV
Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy II
Final Fantasy III
Happily Ever After (Unreleased)
Maniac Mansion
Metroid Plus (Homebrew)
Might and Magic
Star Tropics 1-2
Sweet Home
Wario’s Woods (auto saves randomly)
Legend of Zelda
Zelda II

153-in-1 CART BATTERY SAVE LIST:
Baseball Stars
Crystalis
Deja Vu
EarthBound
Final Fantasy 1-3
Kirby’s Adventure
Magician
Maniac Mansion
Might and Magic
Over Horizon
Sansara Naga
Shadowgate
Sweet Home
Star Tropics 1-2
Sweet Home
Uninvited
Legend of Zelda
Zelda II

You can only save one game at a time. This means that you will have to play all the way through a game that saves before moving to another. The reason is that the game cartridge is only capable of saving a single file. If you go to another game that uses a save feature, it will automatically erase your previous game save file. We recommend you play one battery save game at a time, beat the game, and move on to the next one.

There are a handful of games on each Sega multi-cart that are Japanese-only such as Battle Mania Dai Gin Jou, Hokuto No Ken, Mr. Osomatsu, Twinkle Tale, etc.

All the Sega games you know and love are full version, full English!

No, sorry.

However, there are a lot of games that use the password feature.

Both carts (the 196 vs. 126) share the following games: 

After Burner 2, Air Buster, Alien 3, Alien Soldier, Alien Storm, Alisia Dragoon, Altered Beast, Arcus Odyssey, Art Alive!, Batman, Batman Returns, Battle Mania-Dai Gin Jou, Battletoads, Bio Hazard Battle, Blockout, Championship Pro-Am, Chiki Chiki Boys, ESWAT: City Under Siege, Columns, Comix Zone, Contra – Hard Corps, Crack Down, Cross Fire, Dune The Battle For Arrakis, Dynamite Headdy, Elemental Master, Fatal Fury 2, Flashback, Flicky, Gaiares, Golden Axe, Golden Axe 2, Golden Axe 3, Grind Stormer, Gunstar Heroes, Hokuto No Ken, Jurassic Park, Kuuga, Mahjong Club, Mercs, Mickey Mania, Mr. Nutz, Mr. Osomatsu, Ms.Pac-Man, M.U.S.H.A., Puggsy, Raiden Trad, Rambo III, Ranger X, Ristar, Rockman-Mega World, Rolling Thunder 2, Shadow Dancer, The Secret of Shinobi, Shinobi III Return of the Ninja Master, Shove It!, Side Pocket, Skeleton Krew, Sonic The Hedgehog, Sonic The Hedgehog 2, Spider-Man, Splatter House 2, Splatter House 3, Street Fighter 2 Turbo, Streets of Rage, Streets of Rage 2, Strider, Strider 2, Super Hang-On, Super Volleyball, Tecmo World Cup 92, Tetris, The Lost Vikings, The Punisher, The Revenge of Shinobi , Thunder Force III, Tiny Toon Adventures Buster’s Hidden Treasure, Toxic Crusaders, True Lies, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, Vectorman, Volfide, Zero Wing

These games are exclusive to the 196:

Aladdin, Aladdin II, Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle, Atomic Runner, Awesome Possum, Bubble and Squeak, Bubsy, Bubsy II, Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse, Castlevania Bloodlines, Clue, Columns III: Revenge of Columns, Cool Spot, Crusader of Centy, Decap Attack, Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf, Donkey Kong 99, Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine, Earthworm Jim, Earthworm Jim 2, Ecco the Dolphin, Ecco The Tides of Time, El Viento, Eliminate Down, Eternal Champions, Fatal Fury, Gain Ground, General Chaos, Ghostbusters, Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, Gleylancer, Haunting, Hellfire, Herzog Zwei, Judge Dredd, The Jungle Book, Jungle Strike, Jurassic Park Lost World, Justice League, Kid Chameleon, Kokushin, Lakers vs. Celtics and the NBA Playoffs, Landstalker Treasures of King Nole, Last Action Hero, Light Crusader, The Lost Vikings, Madden 97, Magical Adventure, Mario Andretti Racing, Marko’s Magic Football, Marvel Land, Mazin Saga Mutant Fighter, Mega Bomberman, Mega Lo Mania, Mega Man: The Wily Wars, Mega Turrican, Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker, Micro Machines, Monster World IV, Mutant League Football, NBA Jam: Tournament Edition, NHL ’94, Out of this World, OutRun, Pinocchio, Pirates! Gold, Pocahontas, Populous, Power Instinct, Psycho Pinball, Pulseman, Puyo Puyo, QuackShot, Road Rash II, Rocket Knight Adventures, Rolo to the Rescue, Samurai Shodown, Shining in the Darkness, Saturday Night Slam Masters, Sonic 3D Blast, Spider-Man & Venom, Sparkster, Spot Goes to Hollywood, Squirrel King, Starflight, Steel Empire, Sub Terrania, Super Fantasy Zone, Super Mario Bros. 2, Superman, Syndicate, Target Earth, The Addams Family, ToeJam & Earl, ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron, Toy Story, Twinkle Tale, Uchu Senkan Gomora, Urban Strike, Valis III, Vectorman 2, Warsong, Wings of Wor, Wiz ‘n’ Liz, Wonder Boy in Monster World, X-Men II, Ys III: Wanderers from Ys, Yu Yu Hakusho, Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel, Zero Tolerance, Zombies Ate My Neighbors

These games are exclusive to the 126:

Assault Suits Leynos, Batman Revenge of the Joker, Battletoads & Double Dragon, Captain America and the Avengers, Crude Buster, Daisenpuu/Twin Hawk, Darius 2, Double Dragon, Double Dragon 2, Double Dragon 3, Ex-Mutants, Fire Shark, Granada, Growl, Heavy Nova, High Seas Havoc, Hook, James Bond 007-The Duel, Kyuuky Tiger, Maou Renjishi, Mega SWIV, Midnight Resistance, Ninja Gaiden, Phelios, Pirates of Dark Water, Pitfall Mayan Adventure, Power Monger, RoboCop 3, Rolling Thunder 3, Shui Hu Feng Yun Zhu, Slam Dunk, Space Harrier 2, Street Racer, Super Thunder Blade, Teenage Mutant Hero Fighters, The Second Samurai, The Smurfs, The Yang Warrior Family, X-Men, Yogi Bear’s Cartoon Capers, Young Indiana Jones

Yes.

When you open the on-screen “playbook,” you will notice that the portions of the play will be blacked out and not green (see images below). This is due to an issue with the ROM and cannot be repaired. Good news is that it does not affect game play.

In some instances you may lose sight of your cursor. If that happens, press left or right on the controller. Once you return to the main screen, you may notice that the outline changes to a garbled code. Again, this will not affect the game play.

There are a niche of diehard retro gamers that want to play their games on original hardware. You’re welcome 🙂

Here’s what we know about our NWC Replica playing on PAL NES systems:

YES, it will run on PAL systems. But the game will run 17% slower on PAL systems, and Rad Racer is glitchy. 

No. It will not work on the Retron 5, which is hardware emulation and so the system reads the ROM information on insertion. The data on our cart cannot be read by the Retron 5; therefore it rejects the cart.

Our cart will work on Retron 1-3 and the new Retron 1 HD.

DIP switch number 3 should be in the up/on position in order to play with the same 00:06:21:00 time limit used in the competition.

Also, controller 2 starts the game.

Does that help? If not, text me (Jeremy) at 970-640-1348 or email me at Jeremy@1UpRetro.com.

Download it HERE.

Right now, no. We are working on a solution. Stay tuned.

Most serious collectors (like myself) will NEVER have the opportunity to own the real NWC gold or gray cart. For one, they rarely change hands as those who have the cart hold on to them for dear life. Second, who has tens of thousands in chump change sitting around for one of these babies to come available?

Thus, we created an authentic replica/reproduction so that we may have a “placeholder” in our collection, until that one day I find a NWC gold or gray in the wild. (Sure!)

Our cheap, but not cheap-looking, alternative is something we display on our mantel, and something we can play on original hardware. We never pass it off as the real thing, and we are against anyone who does.

As to why it’s expensive … well, compared to the real cart, it’s peanuts. Second, the parts, pieces, labor, free shipping and everything adds up. The gold cart is more expensive because it’s hand-dipped in expensive gold paint.

No! Never!

Full disclosure: In the past, we have made NES repros of other games using donor carts such as Madden ’95, NHL ’95, etc. Even using unpopular common sports titles killed us a little inside every time we destroyed one. It’s like erasing a little bit of retro history one board at a time. We do not condone this practice.

Our cart has two major differences from the originals. The most obvious, and we mean OBVIOUS, is the colored DIP switch on the front of both our gold and gray NWCs.

Second, anybody who has the money to shell out 5 to 6 figures on an authentic NWC cart and doesn’t open the cart is a colossal idiot asking to get screwed. If you open our NWC, the “guts” are spectacularly different from the original NWC carts. A simple Google search will reveal this.

That’s not to say that we don’t frequently scan eBay and the like looking for scammers selling fakes. We have reported a few, well before we even started selling our own replica NWC cart. We do not tolerate folks passing any repros and replica carts as authentic originals and we are happy to call out any disreputable sellers who do.

We get criticism for having a great-looking, believable replica. And we would get criticism for a cheap-looking knock-off. We can’t win either way. You’re probably referring to Pat the NES Punk, who named us his Scumbag of the Week, for our authentic-looking NWC repro. Trash talk gets “views” and that’s the name of the game on YouTube.

With that said, we make no apologies for producing a world-class-looking NWC replica. What’s the purpose of owning a “knock-off” if it’s not a good one. As my wife says when she’s shopping for a great “fake” Louis Vuitton bag, she wants the best, most authentic-looking one. Not the one with the misspelling on the label or plastic hardware.

Plus, we have taken steps to establish differences in our NWC replica — the most obvious being the color of our DIP switch, which is totally different from the original. Second, if you open our NWC cart, the board and chipset are glaringly different from an original cart.

Pat the NES Punk’s real issue, I think, is that scammers will buy our product and resell it on eBay as fake. We get it. However, it boils down to “Caveat Emptor,” or Buyer Beware. If someone plunks down $10,000 or $100,000 on a fake NWC cart and doesn’t do the due diligence to authenticate it, then the buyer is an ignoramus, and the seller will have earned a special place in hell.

Easy fix. Look at the back of the console and turn the switch to 60hz, which is the DOWN position (down toward the front of the console).

The Retroid-16 is a new, affordable, SNES hardware clone. The Retroid-16 is NOT an emulation, which means it can display graphics at the same rate and resolution as the original. It also allows you to play European and Japanese games without modification, which an original SNES does not.

To play PAL games, you must flip the switch at the bottom of the Retroid-16 console to allow the European CIC to read.
Also, original SNES controllers can be used on the Retroid-16 as well as ANY accessory made for the original hardware. The body has the same shape as the type-2 SNES and button layout.

The output is S-Video and A/V (red/yellow/white cables). You can get an S-Video to HDMI converter/upscaler and the output is amazing.

Yes, as well as ANY accessory made for the original hardware.

Yes, this will definitely play Starfox, Starfox 2 (European) and Starfox Competition.
Because this is a hardware clone and not emulation, it will play everything that the original hardware will play.

The non-playlist is shorter and here is the reasoning behind it. The DSP-1 chipset has not been tested because we don’t have the version 1.1 copy of Super Mario RPG or Kirby 3. Once I can get my hands on those to test, we will have an answer. However, it will play the version 1.0 of Super Mario RPG with no problems at all. This is the SA-1 chipset.

Yes it does. It is region-free. This system will play U.S. SNES games, reproduction games, Japanese and European SNES games.

Our Retroid 16 is an exact clone of the SNES hardware. In fact, it is a hardware clone. Yes, it will work with the Everdrive, Game Genie, SuperBoy, etc.

It will work with anything the original SNES hardware works with.

Saving games is a function of the game itself and not the console. Any games that support saving will save as long as the game’s internal battery isn’t dead.

The Retroid is compatible with all TVs that support composite AV and S-Video input. If your TV doesn’t have these inputs, we suggest purchasing an AV or S-Video to HDMI converter, since almost all new TVs support HDMI.

Watch THIS short video.

Maybe. Maybe not. There are many third-party brands and the pin configurations are all different, so it could work depending on which one you have.

Therefore, we only recommend our part for use on original N64 controllers.