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- Sep 28, 2001
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We've had a few threads on the Supaboy in the past, and they've had various issues that have prevented me from buying one before. Well, lolifoxgirl picked up one a few weeks ago, and liked it well enough, which prompted me to give it a shot. $67 with free shipping on Monoprice, which is a place that takes returns no questions asked if I didn't like it.
Well, I got the thing today. The box had a copyright date of 2015 on it, I don't now if Hyperkin has done multiple revisions of this or just two, but this should be whatever the latest is.
I have to say, I quite like the thing! It's not perfect, but I'm having a lot of fun. It's worked with everything I've thrown at it, including regular games, my Super Everdrive, Starfox, I even plugged in a Super Gameboy 2 just to see if it would work (it did.) Here are my quick impressions, positive and negative:
+The thing is big, but it's actually quite comfortable. My old man hands are getting picky, and something not comfortable will hurt after a while. The buttons also feel nice.
-The dpad is really stiff. Not terrible, and certainly nicer than some of the generic SNES pads I've used, but not the same as the original. After a couple hours of play it feels like it's loosening up though. Lolifox said his had the same issue, but loosed up after a few days of play.
-The screen on this isn't great. It's certainly better than a Nomad or any other system you could have bought back in the day, and everything is easily visible, including small text. I can tell that it uses composite internally, as I see rainbow artifacts here and there. This is nitpicking though, it's not bad at all, and is a 240p screen at least. I wish I could turn the brightness up a tad.
+The sound is fantastic. The speakers themselves are meh (hey, it's a portable) but the actual playback is spot on. I was worried about this since some clones and emulators have issues with this. I haven't tried headphones yet.
+SNES carts are held very securely in the slot. SFC games are a little loose but the cart lock mechanism (which isn't really necessary on SNES carts) will hold them in place. Very nice for them to think of it, without that switch japanese carts would be floppy and unreliable in the portable. I actually thought my Everdrive didn't work at first before I thought about the switch.
+The Super Gameboy actually works pretty well on this. It's nice to be able to play the few SGB enhanced games on an actual portable like Donkey Kong. There's no point if you have an actual Gameboy nearby for non-SGB stuff, but if you don't have one around and get the itch for some Mario Land it's an option. The size on the screen is a little smaller than a Gameboy color.
So in conclusion, I love this little thing. It's not a perfect device, but it's the best way to play handheld SNES, I've never been happy with any SNES emulator I've played on a handheld, but this thing works nicely.
Well, I got the thing today. The box had a copyright date of 2015 on it, I don't now if Hyperkin has done multiple revisions of this or just two, but this should be whatever the latest is.
I have to say, I quite like the thing! It's not perfect, but I'm having a lot of fun. It's worked with everything I've thrown at it, including regular games, my Super Everdrive, Starfox, I even plugged in a Super Gameboy 2 just to see if it would work (it did.) Here are my quick impressions, positive and negative:
+The thing is big, but it's actually quite comfortable. My old man hands are getting picky, and something not comfortable will hurt after a while. The buttons also feel nice.
-The dpad is really stiff. Not terrible, and certainly nicer than some of the generic SNES pads I've used, but not the same as the original. After a couple hours of play it feels like it's loosening up though. Lolifox said his had the same issue, but loosed up after a few days of play.
-The screen on this isn't great. It's certainly better than a Nomad or any other system you could have bought back in the day, and everything is easily visible, including small text. I can tell that it uses composite internally, as I see rainbow artifacts here and there. This is nitpicking though, it's not bad at all, and is a 240p screen at least. I wish I could turn the brightness up a tad.
+The sound is fantastic. The speakers themselves are meh (hey, it's a portable) but the actual playback is spot on. I was worried about this since some clones and emulators have issues with this. I haven't tried headphones yet.
+SNES carts are held very securely in the slot. SFC games are a little loose but the cart lock mechanism (which isn't really necessary on SNES carts) will hold them in place. Very nice for them to think of it, without that switch japanese carts would be floppy and unreliable in the portable. I actually thought my Everdrive didn't work at first before I thought about the switch.
+The Super Gameboy actually works pretty well on this. It's nice to be able to play the few SGB enhanced games on an actual portable like Donkey Kong. There's no point if you have an actual Gameboy nearby for non-SGB stuff, but if you don't have one around and get the itch for some Mario Land it's an option. The size on the screen is a little smaller than a Gameboy color.
So in conclusion, I love this little thing. It's not a perfect device, but it's the best way to play handheld SNES, I've never been happy with any SNES emulator I've played on a handheld, but this thing works nicely.