Hello everyone!
I've decided to get back to business of writing text reviews of Famiclones, that I have or had in collection and made a couple of videos on my second YouTube channel.
So, let's take a look at one of those clone systems.
Today we get the TriStar, which is an accessory for SNES that allows up to play NES and Famicom games. It also acts in a way, like an adapter to be able to play SNES games of any region.
It's worth noting that this is actually a PAL release of such device, called TriStar. There also exists the NTSC version of it, called Super 8. The main difference between these two mostly depends on the 8-bit hardware stuff, but we'll get to that in more details later.
The Super 8 version looks like this:
Upon grabbing it, we can see that on the top part, it actually has three cartridge slots, one for 60-pin Famicom cartridges, another one for 72-pin NES cartridges and finally the slot for 16-bit Super Nintendo / Super Famicom games.
You can play NES or Famicom games on it just fine. For a reason of not inserting two 8-bit cartridges at the same time, they have a little thingy that closes one of the slots. If two 8-bit carts get inserted, nothing good happens - you can choose only one cart to play in this case. But inserting 16-bit cart and 8-bit cart would be fine, no problems there.
Speaking of 16-bit cartridge slot, it's quite wide, and doesn't have any tabs that you prevent carts of different region to get inserted. So, you can insert here the North American SNES carts, and also European SNES and Japanese SFC carts.
And also, by the slot design, you can play not just the regular cartridges, but also the ones that require two extra tabs (but, by tech stuff, they might not always work too well, and with that, you'd need to desolder the unit, and make some soldering inside, in case the extra pin SNES carts behave weird).
On the back side of the device, you have the RF slot to connect the antenna cable, you have the cable, which you have to connect to SNES / SFC AV port, and then right next to it, you have a port where you insert your regular Nintendo AV cable, used for systems like Super Nintendo / Super Famicom, Nintendo 64 and Game Cube.
The setup is pretty simple.
Looking at the bottom part, we can see that the part with cartridge pins has rounded edges to be able to fit into Super Famicom or PAL Super Nintendo, and in order to use it with North American SNES, the two edgs have little notches to bypass the little tabs, found in the cartridge slot of the console unit.
So, this thing would work with all official Super Nintendo consoles. It also says on the sticker that it's PAL version. Neat.
Here's the comparison between two Super Nintendo cartridges of different regions, just so you could see the major difference.
The setup is really simple: you just insert this device into your 16-bit console, hook up that cable to SNES unit, get all other connections set, insert your game, and turn on and play.
One interesting thing to point out about this device.
On European Super Nintendo, The TriStar boots up fine, even without having all the needed cartridges inserted.
However, on Super Famicom, unless you inserted an NTSC game into 16-bit cartridge slot, it would just stay at the black screen.
Upon booting up, a pretty interesting screen greets up.
On my version, it just says "Tri-Star" and copyrighted to 1993.
Odd thing at first sight might be the string at the bottom of the screen, where it says: "This product is not manufactured, licensed, endorsed or distributed by Nintendo of America Inc."
We pay attention to "Nintendo of America Inc.", and notice something wrong.
Our Tri-Star is actually a PAL release, so it shouldn't really be saying "Nintendo of America Inc." at the bottom, but "Nintendo Inc." instead.
In fact, we also notice the blank spot, where copyright year is placed.
And with that, we should take a look at the boot screen of its NTSC release - Super 8.
It says "Super 8 by Innovation", and the copyright year is changed to 1995.
So, as it turns out, the PAL version might have been released earlier, than the NTSC version.
And the PAL version might be done directly by Tri-Star, and NTSC version is actually re-released by Innovation.
At least, that's what I see. If I am wrong, feel free to correct me on that.

In this review, I will only cover the 8-bit counterpart of this adapter, as for 16-bit one, we'll possibly talk about it later.
But, for demonstration purposes, it's worth showing off how it works and everything.
Here's the demo of a few Super Nintendo games, like Super Mario World, Super Mario All-Stars, Jungle Book. These are all North American carts, and these are actually working at full speed, even though it's a TriStar release, and it's played on my Super Famicom.


I currently don't have the photos of mine, where the SFC carts work on this device. The photos might be added here later.
But, you can trust me, the Super Famicom cartridges work here just fine, and in a way, for SNES games, TriStar / Super 8 would work like an adapter to play games of different regions.
Yet, it has some certain games, that possibly won't work on it, like Donkey Kong Country 2 for example.
Taking out the cartridges from SNES slot is not an easy task. You'd possibly need to put a lot of force to get them out successfully, so be careful with that, when you are done playing one game and you want to switch to another one.
Going back to the showcase of its 8-bit counterpart, hardware-wise it's basically an early version of Nintendo-on-a-chip, where the processor would be all programmed on UM6561 chip or similar ones, like on many Dendy Famiclones, released by Steepler on Russian market back in 1990s. The photos of TriStar insides will possibly be posted later.
One really important thing to discuss on this Famiclone is the controls.
It uses the regular Super Nintendo controllers, obiously. But how the buttons are mapped?
D-pad, Select and Start work the usual way, as on NES/Famicom controller.
B and A buttons for NES games are Y and B buttons on SNES controller. At first, it might be a little confusing to you, but eventually, you'd get used to this scheme. It's also pretty comfortable for your thumb finger as well.
It's a shame that there are no turbo buttons here. The X and A button would be perfect to use, if you need to use turbo buttons in games, like run-and-gun, shoot-em-up, etc., where you need the constant button mashing action.
And another shameful thing: there is no way to use the light gun with SNES. There exist a light gun, called Super Scope 6, but I doubt that it will work with games, like Duck Hunt, Wild Gunman, Hogan's Alley, To The Earth, Gotcha!, etc.. So, you may pretty much be out of luck to play them here, even if you make a converter from SNES controller input to NES controller output.
Same thing with other NES accessories that use regular 7-pin ports.
Going back to hardware stuff of TriStar.
It plays NES and Famicom games at PAL speed, but with NTSC sound pitch, just like on the most Famicom clones you'd see being released in European countries, where Nintendo might have not supplied the gaming market with its official goodies, and there were bootleg consoles and game cartridges instead.
Taking out Famicom cartridges is just as difficult as SNES ones, so take note on that, and be careful with your precious games.
The NES cartridges take out very easily here, no need to grab carts tightly and attempt to get them out of the slot.
Interesting thing of note: no matter if you use TriStar on European Super Nintendo, or North American Super Nintendo, or Japanese Super Famicom, the 8-bit games will always play at PAL speed. The 16-bit games will work fine at the intended speed. If you use the console, that's NTSC, and your device is PAL region, you just need to have the SNES/SFC cart inserted into slot in any way to get it boot up.
However, my TriStar doesn't play expansion sound chip, so the game audio, where the expanded audio is used, like Akumajou Densetsu or Gimmick, would sound inferior in comparison to official console.
But there is one good thing about this Famiclone: no swapped out audio duty cycle problem, like on many other clone systems. And you can clearly hear that, if you play games, like Super Mario Bros., or Kyatto Ninden Teyandee, or Duck Tales 2, where the audio difference is really noticeable.
I've decided to get back to business of writing text reviews of Famiclones, that I have or had in collection and made a couple of videos on my second YouTube channel.
So, let's take a look at one of those clone systems.
Today we get the TriStar, which is an accessory for SNES that allows up to play NES and Famicom games. It also acts in a way, like an adapter to be able to play SNES games of any region.
It's worth noting that this is actually a PAL release of such device, called TriStar. There also exists the NTSC version of it, called Super 8. The main difference between these two mostly depends on the 8-bit hardware stuff, but we'll get to that in more details later.
The Super 8 version looks like this:
![]() |
| Photo taken from "The Famiclone Shelf" Blog (thefamicloneshelf.blogspot.com) |
| 60-pin cartridge slot for FC cartridges & cartridge slot for SNES & SFC games |
| 72-pin cartridge slot for NES cartridges & cartridge slot for SNES & SFC games |
Speaking of 16-bit cartridge slot, it's quite wide, and doesn't have any tabs that you prevent carts of different region to get inserted. So, you can insert here the North American SNES carts, and also European SNES and Japanese SFC carts.
And also, by the slot design, you can play not just the regular cartridges, but also the ones that require two extra tabs (but, by tech stuff, they might not always work too well, and with that, you'd need to desolder the unit, and make some soldering inside, in case the extra pin SNES carts behave weird).
| RF connection, the cable that plugs into SNES unit, and the output for AV cable |
| Here's everything set up, and ready to get boot up. |
The setup is pretty simple.
| TriStar. Bottom Side. |
![]() |
| TriStar. Bottom Side. Better lightning. |
So, this thing would work with all official Super Nintendo consoles. It also says on the sticker that it's PAL version. Neat.
Here's the comparison between two Super Nintendo cartridges of different regions, just so you could see the major difference.
![]() |
| Japanese Super Famicom & North American Super Nintendo cartridge cases comparison. |
One interesting thing to point out about this device.
On European Super Nintendo, The TriStar boots up fine, even without having all the needed cartridges inserted.
However, on Super Famicom, unless you inserted an NTSC game into 16-bit cartridge slot, it would just stay at the black screen.
Upon booting up, a pretty interesting screen greets up.
On my version, it just says "Tri-Star" and copyrighted to 1993.
Odd thing at first sight might be the string at the bottom of the screen, where it says: "This product is not manufactured, licensed, endorsed or distributed by Nintendo of America Inc."
We pay attention to "Nintendo of America Inc.", and notice something wrong.
Our Tri-Star is actually a PAL release, so it shouldn't really be saying "Nintendo of America Inc." at the bottom, but "Nintendo Inc." instead.
In fact, we also notice the blank spot, where copyright year is placed.
And with that, we should take a look at the boot screen of its NTSC release - Super 8.
It says "Super 8 by Innovation", and the copyright year is changed to 1995.
![]() |
| Screenshot from SatoshiMatrix's review of Super 8 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIQ2Fij-W_E) |
And the PAL version might be done directly by Tri-Star, and NTSC version is actually re-released by Innovation.
At least, that's what I see. If I am wrong, feel free to correct me on that.

In this review, I will only cover the 8-bit counterpart of this adapter, as for 16-bit one, we'll possibly talk about it later.
But, for demonstration purposes, it's worth showing off how it works and everything.
Here's the demo of a few Super Nintendo games, like Super Mario World, Super Mario All-Stars, Jungle Book. These are all North American carts, and these are actually working at full speed, even though it's a TriStar release, and it's played on my Super Famicom.


I currently don't have the photos of mine, where the SFC carts work on this device. The photos might be added here later.
But, you can trust me, the Super Famicom cartridges work here just fine, and in a way, for SNES games, TriStar / Super 8 would work like an adapter to play games of different regions.
Yet, it has some certain games, that possibly won't work on it, like Donkey Kong Country 2 for example.
Taking out the cartridges from SNES slot is not an easy task. You'd possibly need to put a lot of force to get them out successfully, so be careful with that, when you are done playing one game and you want to switch to another one.
Going back to the showcase of its 8-bit counterpart, hardware-wise it's basically an early version of Nintendo-on-a-chip, where the processor would be all programmed on UM6561 chip or similar ones, like on many Dendy Famiclones, released by Steepler on Russian market back in 1990s. The photos of TriStar insides will possibly be posted later.
One really important thing to discuss on this Famiclone is the controls.
It uses the regular Super Nintendo controllers, obiously. But how the buttons are mapped?
D-pad, Select and Start work the usual way, as on NES/Famicom controller.
B and A buttons for NES games are Y and B buttons on SNES controller. At first, it might be a little confusing to you, but eventually, you'd get used to this scheme. It's also pretty comfortable for your thumb finger as well.
It's a shame that there are no turbo buttons here. The X and A button would be perfect to use, if you need to use turbo buttons in games, like run-and-gun, shoot-em-up, etc., where you need the constant button mashing action.
And another shameful thing: there is no way to use the light gun with SNES. There exist a light gun, called Super Scope 6, but I doubt that it will work with games, like Duck Hunt, Wild Gunman, Hogan's Alley, To The Earth, Gotcha!, etc.. So, you may pretty much be out of luck to play them here, even if you make a converter from SNES controller input to NES controller output.
Same thing with other NES accessories that use regular 7-pin ports.
Going back to hardware stuff of TriStar.
It plays NES and Famicom games at PAL speed, but with NTSC sound pitch, just like on the most Famicom clones you'd see being released in European countries, where Nintendo might have not supplied the gaming market with its official goodies, and there were bootleg consoles and game cartridges instead.
Taking out Famicom cartridges is just as difficult as SNES ones, so take note on that, and be careful with your precious games.
The NES cartridges take out very easily here, no need to grab carts tightly and attempt to get them out of the slot.
Interesting thing of note: no matter if you use TriStar on European Super Nintendo, or North American Super Nintendo, or Japanese Super Famicom, the 8-bit games will always play at PAL speed. The 16-bit games will work fine at the intended speed. If you use the console, that's NTSC, and your device is PAL region, you just need to have the SNES/SFC cart inserted into slot in any way to get it boot up.
| In case of TriStar played on PAL SNES, you don't need a SNES cartridge to be inserted. It'll play here just perfectly fine. |
However, my TriStar doesn't play expansion sound chip, so the game audio, where the expanded audio is used, like Akumajou Densetsu or Gimmick, would sound inferior in comparison to official console.
But there is one good thing about this Famiclone: no swapped out audio duty cycle problem, like on many other clone systems. And you can clearly hear that, if you play games, like Super Mario Bros., or Kyatto Ninden Teyandee, or Duck Tales 2, where the audio difference is really noticeable.
The early Famicom/NES games are out of question, they will work fine without any glitches or anything else unusual you'd expect.
For the purpose of checking out how they play, I threw it some of the multicarts from my collection, like Supervision 64-in-1 or Contra Function 168-in-1.
That Contra Function 168-in-1 is actually a pretty good multicart, known to those, who live in Poland and played 8-bit games on their Pegasus Famiclones, since that cartridge was incredibly widespread there. But as for my cartridge, I have a suspicion, that judging by the title "Entertainment Computer System", it was actually sold along with NES clones, titled as "Entertainment Computer System".
And, in fact, I own one in my collection, and when I have the opportunity, I will cover that console on my blog!
However, there exists another compatibility problem with this Famiclone and similar ones to it, and that's the picture problem.
You see that in regular games, the picture is actually pretty good. It might be slightly brighter, but colors are good and aren't washed out, you can see all the text just fine.
One of the video problems is the vertical bars, that can be seen in some places, like the sky. Just by looking at Super Mario Bros. or Super Mario Bros. 3, and taking a look at the sky, you can see that problem.
Here comes the "Famiclone Tests!" video, which has all the gameplay clips mixed together and uploaded as one video on my main AlexSRMD channel!
The time codes for making this video easier to watch for you! :)
[0:36] Super Mario Bros + Duck Hunt [NES, NTSC] [3:42] Super Mario Bros. 3 [NES, PAL] [10:46] Aladdin (SuperGame) [18:20] Lion King (SuperGame) [22:07] Prince of Persia [25:23] Jungle Book [31:10] Felix the Cat [39:12] James Bond Jr. (NT6056) [43:29] Doraemon /// 4-in-1 Tetris /// [57:05] Takahashi Meijin no Bouken Jima [1:00:20] Flipull [1:02:35] Tetris (BPS) [1:05:10] Tetris (Tengen) /// Super Cartridge Twenty-In-One / 20-in-1 /// [1:07:53] Road Fighter [1:09:49] Ice Climber /// 64-in-1 Supervision /// [1:10:58] City Connection [1:13:04] Lunar Ball [1:15:05] Lode Runner [1:16:24] Mario Bros. [1:17:07] Sky Destroyer /// 150-in-1 Real Game /// [1:17:45] Zanac [1:19:55] RAF World [1:21:24] Probotector II: Return of Evil Forces [1:23:45] Dropzone [1:25:30] Fishwar (Balloon Fight hack) [1:27:24] Cardcaptor Sakura (Tower of Druaga ROM hack) [1:29:20] Supper Popo's Adventure (Pocket Monster) /// 198-in-1 Real Game /// [1:33:20] Chip to Dale no Daisakusen 2 [1:35:06] Hudson's Adventure Island 2 [1:37:51] Darkwing Duck [1:41:40] Summer Carnival '92 Recca [1:43:13] Banana Prince [1:45:20] Shatterhand [1:49:20] Kyatto Ninden Teyandee [1:54:34] New Zealand Story /// 4-in-1 Pascar (Korean) /// [1:56:20] Super Mario Bros. 2 / Mr. Mary 2 (FDS Conversion) [2:02:10] Booby Kids [2:05:40] Hi no Tori [2:08:16] Argos no Senshi /// [2:09:23] Arumana no Kiseki (FDS Conversion) [2:13:20] Akumajou Densetsu [2:19:45] Gimmick (Reproduction)
Another incompatibility problem with this Famiclone occures on certain games, released by Eurocom Entertainment Software games, and Hudson Soft's Felix the Cat.
The picture is somewhat darker than it should be. As you can see, on my clone it's a bit dark, but you can still see the gameplay. I've seen much worse result, trust me on that.
Next interesting thing conserning Famiclones is that on certain clone systems that use UM6561AF-2, a few NES titles wouldn't work correctly. More particularly, Prince of Persia for NES starts glitching up, lagging like crazy, and therefore becomes next to impossible to play.
As you can see by the gameplay footage in the above video, Prince of Persia started up here successfully and it works just like it should.
And, if you like bootleg backports from superior systems, like Super Nintendo or Sega Mega Drive to 8-bit Famicom, and you want to play some games, made by SuperGame, particularly "Super Lion King" and "Super Aladdin", you are going to have one little problem. And that's the annoying green tilt, appearing on title screen, and in Super Aladdin, it also occures during gameplay.
The problem lies in color coding for NTSC and PAL systems, and one of the necessary colors, being red, is coded differently on NTSC - because of that, it outputs in green on PAL.
Finally, if you want to play PAL NES games on TriStar, be aware of a few things:
1) The sound pitch will be higher than it should be on PAL NES unit, so the music might sound a bit unusual to you
2) There are a few titles that will be incompatible with the Famiclone, as it's basically an NTSC hardware with forced PAL speed.
The titles, that wont work here: Aladdin (NMS Software), Asterix, Battletoads (EUR), Battletoads & Double Dragon (EUR), Beauty and the Beast, Lion King (Dark Technologies), Mr.Gimmick (EUR).
The other titles, which will work, but with glitches at certain spots: Smurfs - Stage 9 Bridge, Gargomel Boss Fight ; Super Mario Bros. 3 (EUR) - map moving
Those are the titles that I personally tested out with the use of EverDrive N8 flash cart. There might be other games that won't work at all, considering that this is NTSC hardware, even though it plays games at slower speed.
If you can share me other titles from European NES games that aren't compatible with NTSC hardware, including Famiclones like this, please let me know in the comments! I'll be glad to know that, and test them out for future "Reviews" on the blog.
As I mentioned earlier, no expansion sound chip if you want to try out to play games, like Akumajou Densetsu or Gimmick! The results can be perfectly seen on these two videos.
I don't have original Gimmick! cartridge - my copy is a fully working reproduction with expansion sound chip and everything. So, it's like an original deal, but a repro cart - I can't afford too much money on official cartridge, unfortunately.
The final thing I want to bring on for discussion here about this Famiclone - is the multicarts, that were released in 2000s-2010s and contain a large number of games on that.
One of the cartridges to test out is 150-in-1 Real Games. It's one of the first cartridges, if not the first one, to contain many good later NES titles and a few early games, almost without repeats.
However, it doesn't work on official NES/Famicom or early hardware clones, unless you modify the cartridge.
As the TriStar Famiclone is not a hardware clone, but uses a custom UM6??? chip to run the whole thing (early version of Nintendo-on-a-chip), the multicart passes by and all the games are playable here.
198-in-1 Real Game, which I also decided to test out, fixes that problem with incompatibility on official hardware, and works fine there.
And, remember me talking about problems with playing PAL NES games on PAL Famiclone? Well, there are a few PAL NES titles to be found on the cartridge, so we might as well check 'em out, how they work here.
As a bonus feature, I will also throw it my FDS conversion of Arumana no Kiseki / The Miracle of Almana. It was originally released by Konami for Famicom Disk System, and featured FDS expansion sound, making it sound superior to the regular NES game sound.
When converting this game into cartridge form, this game lost its beautiful FDS expansion sound.
But, it works okay, even without FDS sound. If I was to test this game through EverDrive N8 and launched Arumana no Kiseki FDS ROM there, the same results with sound would output - no expansion audio.
There might be some slight glitches with graphics, especially on Rygar game, but other than that, it works okay.
And with that, we shall make a conclusion on the 8-bit part of TriStar. Remember that this is my copy of TriStar device for Super Nintendo / Super Famicom, and the results may vary to you.
+ Plays both NES and Famicom cartridges without the need to use an adapter
+ Uses SNES controllers with a comfortable button scheme
+ Good picture quality in the majority of games
+ Good sound quality without damaged duty cycles
+ Plays about 99% of game cartridges from my collection
+ Games, like Prince of Persia, don't make weird glitches and are working fine
- Can't use NES accessories
- Dark picture in Eurocom Entertainment Software games and Hudson's Felix the Cat
- Annoying green tilt in some bootleg games
- Can't play some PAL NES titles, or plays them with glitches
- No expansion audio
I personally like this Famiclone for what it is.
What's your opinion on it? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.
Thank you for sticking around until the end and reading this review.
We'll be back soon with another Famiclone to review.
(C) AlexSRMD Productions (2019)
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For the purpose of checking out how they play, I threw it some of the multicarts from my collection, like Supervision 64-in-1 or Contra Function 168-in-1.
That Contra Function 168-in-1 is actually a pretty good multicart, known to those, who live in Poland and played 8-bit games on their Pegasus Famiclones, since that cartridge was incredibly widespread there. But as for my cartridge, I have a suspicion, that judging by the title "Entertainment Computer System", it was actually sold along with NES clones, titled as "Entertainment Computer System".
And, in fact, I own one in my collection, and when I have the opportunity, I will cover that console on my blog!
However, there exists another compatibility problem with this Famiclone and similar ones to it, and that's the picture problem.
You see that in regular games, the picture is actually pretty good. It might be slightly brighter, but colors are good and aren't washed out, you can see all the text just fine.
One of the video problems is the vertical bars, that can be seen in some places, like the sky. Just by looking at Super Mario Bros. or Super Mario Bros. 3, and taking a look at the sky, you can see that problem.
Here comes the "Famiclone Tests!" video, which has all the gameplay clips mixed together and uploaded as one video on my main AlexSRMD channel!
The time codes for making this video easier to watch for you! :)
[0:36] Super Mario Bros + Duck Hunt [NES, NTSC] [3:42] Super Mario Bros. 3 [NES, PAL] [10:46] Aladdin (SuperGame) [18:20] Lion King (SuperGame) [22:07] Prince of Persia [25:23] Jungle Book [31:10] Felix the Cat [39:12] James Bond Jr. (NT6056) [43:29] Doraemon /// 4-in-1 Tetris /// [57:05] Takahashi Meijin no Bouken Jima [1:00:20] Flipull [1:02:35] Tetris (BPS) [1:05:10] Tetris (Tengen) /// Super Cartridge Twenty-In-One / 20-in-1 /// [1:07:53] Road Fighter [1:09:49] Ice Climber /// 64-in-1 Supervision /// [1:10:58] City Connection [1:13:04] Lunar Ball [1:15:05] Lode Runner [1:16:24] Mario Bros. [1:17:07] Sky Destroyer /// 150-in-1 Real Game /// [1:17:45] Zanac [1:19:55] RAF World [1:21:24] Probotector II: Return of Evil Forces [1:23:45] Dropzone [1:25:30] Fishwar (Balloon Fight hack) [1:27:24] Cardcaptor Sakura (Tower of Druaga ROM hack) [1:29:20] Supper Popo's Adventure (Pocket Monster) /// 198-in-1 Real Game /// [1:33:20] Chip to Dale no Daisakusen 2 [1:35:06] Hudson's Adventure Island 2 [1:37:51] Darkwing Duck [1:41:40] Summer Carnival '92 Recca [1:43:13] Banana Prince [1:45:20] Shatterhand [1:49:20] Kyatto Ninden Teyandee [1:54:34] New Zealand Story /// 4-in-1 Pascar (Korean) /// [1:56:20] Super Mario Bros. 2 / Mr. Mary 2 (FDS Conversion) [2:02:10] Booby Kids [2:05:40] Hi no Tori [2:08:16] Argos no Senshi /// [2:09:23] Arumana no Kiseki (FDS Conversion) [2:13:20] Akumajou Densetsu [2:19:45] Gimmick (Reproduction)
Another incompatibility problem with this Famiclone occures on certain games, released by Eurocom Entertainment Software games, and Hudson Soft's Felix the Cat.
The picture is somewhat darker than it should be. As you can see, on my clone it's a bit dark, but you can still see the gameplay. I've seen much worse result, trust me on that.
As you can see by the gameplay footage in the above video, Prince of Persia started up here successfully and it works just like it should.
And, if you like bootleg backports from superior systems, like Super Nintendo or Sega Mega Drive to 8-bit Famicom, and you want to play some games, made by SuperGame, particularly "Super Lion King" and "Super Aladdin", you are going to have one little problem. And that's the annoying green tilt, appearing on title screen, and in Super Aladdin, it also occures during gameplay.
The problem lies in color coding for NTSC and PAL systems, and one of the necessary colors, being red, is coded differently on NTSC - because of that, it outputs in green on PAL.
Finally, if you want to play PAL NES games on TriStar, be aware of a few things:
1) The sound pitch will be higher than it should be on PAL NES unit, so the music might sound a bit unusual to you
2) There are a few titles that will be incompatible with the Famiclone, as it's basically an NTSC hardware with forced PAL speed.
The titles, that wont work here: Aladdin (NMS Software), Asterix, Battletoads (EUR), Battletoads & Double Dragon (EUR), Beauty and the Beast, Lion King (Dark Technologies), Mr.Gimmick (EUR).
The other titles, which will work, but with glitches at certain spots: Smurfs - Stage 9 Bridge, Gargomel Boss Fight ; Super Mario Bros. 3 (EUR) - map moving
Those are the titles that I personally tested out with the use of EverDrive N8 flash cart. There might be other games that won't work at all, considering that this is NTSC hardware, even though it plays games at slower speed.
If you can share me other titles from European NES games that aren't compatible with NTSC hardware, including Famiclones like this, please let me know in the comments! I'll be glad to know that, and test them out for future "Reviews" on the blog.
As I mentioned earlier, no expansion sound chip if you want to try out to play games, like Akumajou Densetsu or Gimmick! The results can be perfectly seen on these two videos.
I don't have original Gimmick! cartridge - my copy is a fully working reproduction with expansion sound chip and everything. So, it's like an original deal, but a repro cart - I can't afford too much money on official cartridge, unfortunately.
The final thing I want to bring on for discussion here about this Famiclone - is the multicarts, that were released in 2000s-2010s and contain a large number of games on that.
One of the cartridges to test out is 150-in-1 Real Games. It's one of the first cartridges, if not the first one, to contain many good later NES titles and a few early games, almost without repeats.
However, it doesn't work on official NES/Famicom or early hardware clones, unless you modify the cartridge.
198-in-1 Real Game, which I also decided to test out, fixes that problem with incompatibility on official hardware, and works fine there.
As a bonus feature, I will also throw it my FDS conversion of Arumana no Kiseki / The Miracle of Almana. It was originally released by Konami for Famicom Disk System, and featured FDS expansion sound, making it sound superior to the regular NES game sound.
When converting this game into cartridge form, this game lost its beautiful FDS expansion sound.
And with that, we shall make a conclusion on the 8-bit part of TriStar. Remember that this is my copy of TriStar device for Super Nintendo / Super Famicom, and the results may vary to you.
+ Plays both NES and Famicom cartridges without the need to use an adapter
+ Uses SNES controllers with a comfortable button scheme
+ Good picture quality in the majority of games
+ Good sound quality without damaged duty cycles
+ Plays about 99% of game cartridges from my collection
+ Games, like Prince of Persia, don't make weird glitches and are working fine
- Can't use NES accessories
- Dark picture in Eurocom Entertainment Software games and Hudson's Felix the Cat
- Annoying green tilt in some bootleg games
- Can't play some PAL NES titles, or plays them with glitches
- No expansion audio
I personally like this Famiclone for what it is.
What's your opinion on it? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.
Thank you for sticking around until the end and reading this review.
We'll be back soon with another Famiclone to review.
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