Supaboy S

[Tanooki]

Ok so Street Fighter Alpha 2 was a complete pass. I tried Doom and Star Fox 2 on carts and they wouldnt play but all the FX games would work through the SD2SNES. That could easily just be a contact problem. Ill have to find my SMRPG cart to test SA1.

 

Just tried out SMRPG and it worked perfect right off the bat. I could never get it to work with the original Supaboy

 

 

I have the original Supaboy and have played the following FX chip games without issue:

 

Stunt Race FX

Dirt Trax FX

Vortex

 

The only real issue I had with it is when I used the Game Genie cartridge. The system needed to be plugged into an outlet even if the battery was fully charged. Otherwise all I would get is a blank screen when I turned it on.

 

Alright I think you two convinced me there, thank you both sirs. It seems they finally got out of the trash with their design from the v2 model with the busted controls and questionable if just not loading of special chipped games outside of the DSPs. Like I said before the one I had since they all ranged in craptitude on what it would run I could hot swap SA1 games with a standard cart using that reset button and they'd work and FX was either busted, or on a timer basically. The comments here show now that for others they didn't work at all or did, and now on the 'S' they just work. That screams to me someone bothered to get a new vendor, actually tried to QA it before release finally, or I don't know what but some things came together to get it basically right.

 

I may just have to use that floating ebay 15% off discount going on this evening and snap one up for couch play.

[Tanooki]

Well I did it, someone had one up there and it was new with offer, got them to take $60 shipped, and then take another 15% off that for the coupon. That's low enough I feel good either way having that around.

[profholt82]

Tanooki, if you don't mind, I'd like to hear your thoughts about it after you've messed around with it a bit.

[Tanooki]

I actually have been using it a little, got a couple hours on it and tested it even another way I hadn't thought of (mobile 2P play.)

 

It came here on Monday and I ran through the initial partial charge over about 2 hours and oddly enough I haven't actually used a real cartridge in it as I went straight to placing a SD2SNES in the slot. Because you ask I just put a few select real games in there, chipped stuff mainly to see if it would be a problem like the older earlier 2 units from a few years back.

 

The short of it is, Hyperkin has done something they've rarely done right with their cheap ways, third times the charm they did it right. I could do a real review if people want it as I wrote them years ago as an online job for a time.

 

It would be easier to throw out negatives than positives here, and one of them is an optional depending how uptight you are about aspect ratio.

- Bulky and heavier than other handhelds

- Volume on high isn't super high

- Aspect ratio is wrong, fills screen (I like it in full disclosure) and Supaboy SFC (v4 or more like v3.1 adds a button to switch it but fixes nothing else.)

- Cart slot is set tightly to where non-OEM media is a snug fit trying to get it in

- Poor viewing angle if you shift it somewhat to any of the 4 sides as it phases out

 

Positives are better here

- Clean screen with good use of color

- Audio seems to be clean without issue even on the dual speakers

- CHIPPED games do NOT fail. SA1, FX1-2, SDD1, C4, DSPs 1-4 - no more flaky hit and miss or straight fails *

- Happy using flash kit (I have a SD2SNES initially used it first)

- Controls are no longer broken on the D-Pad **

- Despite weight/bulk it is comfortable to use and play, even all button using games like SFAlpha2.

- Cart slot is tighter than the old model, a shake won't wobble the game causing it to lock up

- Battery life is now more like 10hrs, not 2-3hrs

- You can play 2P games using a controller in port 2 and a player on the handheld itself. Played TMNT4 with my daughter the other day until the battery went out.

 

 

* The v2 I had of the Supaboy would not run SDD1(SFA2), FX1/2 games either for some ran like an audio reset demo kiosk (Starfox, Stunt Race), worked fine (Doom), or glitched/broken immediately (Yoshi's Island), and SA1 failed or needed a reset button hold swap trick to boot up. They all work now. The old version was further sketchy as some systems ran some stuff more than others, some wouldn't do the swap trick I did to run SA stuff while mine did.

 

** The D-pad in the first 2 was internally setup on 4 inch long stilts down to a lower board. There was no rocker/interrupt inside so you could push all 4 button directions at the same time. This would glitch games causing them to lock into a direction, almost impossible to do circular motions, or you'd get other odd behavior. Shooters and fighting games were mostly hopeless. The V3 model has one board, the underside of the D-pad is like a legit SNES controller where it has a rocker nub in the center so you can't push all directions. I've tried shooters and fighting games, easily played as on a real deal system.

 

 

Unless I'm missing something that sucks about it at this point, I'm finally not disappointed with a Hyperkin console product that's not emulator based (not that the R5 was great either.) The only thing I have not tested is the A/V cable to the TV as it's pointless for me as I have the SuperNT. I got this for lazy couch play and other uses away from the TV my console is on. Also the battery I think took around 4 or so hours to charge, but less than 5. So it has about a charge time of 1/2 the battery life from max to empty.

[Video]

Nice, if you got any of the real problem carts, I'd like to know how that works. I don't see any reason it should, but it may work with a Rom on a multicart, but not the physical cart.

 

Nice they fixed the d button, and battery life. The screen will bother some people, but it's snes on the go.

[Tanooki]

I don't have any carts that are a problem. I guess if I had the time and care to I could go through the 55 or so games I do have as I've got the special chips stuff mostly covered in the US games (SA1, SDD1, FX1 and 2, DSP1.) I don't have C4(MMX2/3, or DSP2 for Dungeon Master as 3 and 4 are JP releases.) I also don't have the odd chip that just Top Gear 3000 uses either but I haven't read anything online that it fails either or DSP3/4.

 

I think if anything random poor QA quality making something just fail out of the box or shortly after would be the only honest gripe. The LCD is a preference issue, and is overcome with the SFC model so people can play in a box instead of a rectangle.