Well, I took the plunge, and sadly, I feel I've been ripped off. I went to my local GameCo. last week and purchased a [URL="http://www.yobogroup.com/consoles.html#"]Yobo Gameware, FC Console[/URL]. This one in particular had "USA Version" in big bright letters on the front of the box. It was against my better judgement but for some odd reason, I let the guy at the store convince me to buy it.
Anyhow, I got the console home and tested a few games, most of my collection does work with this thing. Tried Werewolf-good, tried Guardian Legend-good, Castlvania 3- got to the title screen and tried to star a new game and it forze right after the intro, tired Master Blaster-ok, sound is funny. Then the kicker--- I put in Super Mario/Duck Hunt and got a blank screen. Thinking that maybe it was dirty cart, I pulled it out and cleaned it, put it back in, and tried again. Nothing. Tried to pull it out and the game got stuck. I pulled and pulled and finally the game pulled free--- minus the ROM chip. I looked at the empty shell of a cart, then look at the console. The rom was still in there loosley rattling around under the cart door.
Upon further inspection, I looked at the 72 pin connector and one of thepins came out. This just infuriated me, so I very promptly packed everything up and went back to the store to try and demand a refund as I remembered quite distincly the clerk saying they guarantee everything they sell. I got there and spoke with guy whole sold it to me and explained the situation and then asked for a refund citing their guarantee. He said,"that's never happened before, let me call my boss. He called his boss, had a quick convo with him and then looked at me and said, "we don't do refunds." He then opened a new yobo box, pulled out the console and replaced mine and then got me another copy of Super Mario/Duck Hunt. He then said, "this is all I can do for you." He then walked away and proceeded to ignore me until I left the store.
Well, that sucked. Oh well, at least it's not a total loss. I've resigned myself to only play games on that thing with a Game Genie attached as I can remove games from the Game Genie while still leaving the Genie in the console. Heaven forbid I ever have to remove the Genie from the console itself. We'll see. I just feel like I've been ripped off. When a game store guarantees something, they usually allow for refunds. Hmpf, I'll never go back to that store again.
On a more positve note, this will reduce wear on my Toaster and I suppose I'll only use my toaster NES when I don't want to use the Genie or when I want to play a game that doesn't work on the Yobo. At least now I can use my Genie again as it was getting **** near impossible to get it to work on my toaster.
On a scale of 1-10 I give the Yobo FC console a 5.
Thanks for the report. Why don't you just fix your old toaster though? It sure is a heck of a lot cheaper than trying to find a clone that works. Nothing beats the real thing IMO.
I can see how pist you are. I would be furious if they would not refund my money for a heap of junk such as that machine. I would of forcd the manager to refund my money, or atleast of tried harder, but oh well, atleast you got your Mario/dunk hunt game replaced.
My NES dont really work either. I actually have two NES's but Every time I pop in a game its just a blank screen. But I dont try hard enough to get it working.
The general consensus of the "Yobo" from various NES/Famicom hardware expert communities is to all out AVOID IT! It is made of the cheapest parts and does not respond well to wear and tear.
It's also been told that most Yobo FC's only have a lifespan of two years, even when not played on excessively.
Replacing the pin connector on the original NES is definitely still the most reliable method, or actually getting a top loader. Can't blame NES players for wanting to try out these "clones", but it seems there still is no superior (or even satisfactory) replacement from the original console.
It's stuff like this that makes me wish Nintendo would still produce the NES top loader and sell it from it's website. At least that way, I can easly replace my NES. Oh well, I guess Nintendo's best solution is to let the rev d/l the old roms....
I guess that I'll find out if they work or not. I bought a friend one for Christmas along with Mario (1), Dr. Mario, Yoshi's Cookie, and Tetris 2. Hopefully, it was just one of those things because finding a top loading NES is a real pain. And of course, the one that I did find this year, I wrapped up and put "From Santa / To Me" on it!
Oh... the very first Sega Genesis that I bought back in Jan 92, wouldn't power up when I first set it up. I took it back and the second one worked perfectly until it got sold in 1997. So defectives do happen to the best of them.