My thoughts on the new 150-in-1 NES multicart...



It's part of a series of new multicarts available direct from Aliexpress. I ordered a pair of NES carts with shiny new labels and bright red cases (one for me and one for a friend) and paid about $17 and some change a piece for them, or around $35 total with free international shipping. You can also them on reseller 'Bay where they typically go for around $50.

There are also 198-in-1, 340-in-1, and 400-in-1 multicarts available as well, presumably made by the same company, but it seems the higher the number, the less good games and the more crap filler. All of them except the 150-in-1 contain a fairly large number of poor quality unliscensed Chinese titles. The 150-in-1 skips these.

The game cart is largely filled with MMC3 titles along with a sprinkling of the best NROM games and some others likely converted or hacked over to MMC3. The games are largely arranged by series and genre starting with Rockman, so you don't have to hunt and peck around for games from your favorite series as the arrangement seems fairly logical and not haphazard. Tetris II is the same Tegnen version with the title screen removed that has appeared on countless other multicarts. You can't have an NES collection without some form of Tetris, and Tengen is my favorite version. Most of the "late great" unicorns are present as well, such as Little Samson, Flinstones 2, and others, with the notable absense of either Bubble Bobble and Bonk's Adventure. I would consider Bubble Bobble 1 & 2 as well as Bonk's Adventure to be required material, but I am nitpicking here.

Regardless, I'm honestly impressed with the amount and variety of games contained therein. Most of the must haves are there plus a fairly nice variety of obscure titles many gamers may not be aware of. Also each series of games featured is largely complete for the most part, with the notable absense of Castlevania III due to it's complex MMC5 mapper. There is even a Rockman board game available that was originally released only in Japan, translated to English for us to enjoy. I will definitely try it out sometime.

One thing that initially impressed me with this multicart is the inclusion of a save battery for one game, namely Kirby's Adventure, IMO one of the largest and most impressive platformers to grace the NES. Unfortunately that SRAM is also shared with other games, meaning that playing any other MMC3 game on the list which utilizes work RAM will essentially overwrite and erase Kirby's save data. This fact breaks my heart a bit, that all the effort the developer went through to include a save battery for Kirby's Adventure is wasted...

Selection of individual game versions leaves somewhat to be desired, as it seems haphazard as to which region of titles are included. A few games also have hacked title screen and some cheats or ROM tampering added. Super Mario Brothers 2 is clearly the PAL version. So is Parodius and Kirby's Adventure it seems, and quite possibly others as well. PAL games generally play fine but can be sensed by the increased tempo and sharp pitch of the game music. Parodius can be forgiven since the Famicom version used a custom Konami mapper and was never released stateside; however the others seem to be odd choice for inclusion with available NTSC ROMs with standard mapper.

Super Mario Bros 3 has much of the title screen removed and is actually a hack of the Japanese version with item select code and infinite time for starman. To select an item, press B to pull up the item menu and then hit SELECT to change the first item to whatever you want it to be. One caveat to this is that Nintendo put some anti-cheat measures into Super Mario Bros 3. If you defeat Bowser with the starman, the game will get stuck and not allow you to enter the Princess Chamber to view the ending credits. Similar side effects occur when using a Game Genie to cheat on the US version.

Turtles I has an odd glitch present as well. It is based on the Japanese port "Geki Kame Ninja Den" (Ledgend of the Radical Ninja Turtles) and has a Level Select code built into the title screen. Unfortunately the hackers broke the "Turtles I" ROM somewhat so that it runs flawlessly on NOAC clone hardware (tested on my Super Retro Trio) but has graphical glitches on a real NES or Famicom.

I hope you guys liked my little mini write up. The new 150-in-1 is brand new and has a build date of 2015 on the splash screen along with some line art ripped from Paper Mario. The menu has music and displays preview graphics from each of the 150 games. I give it a B- grade overall, which is extremely high marks for a pirate multicart. It would be considered perfect if only Kirby's Adventure save was not corrupted by other games using the save data as work RAM, and PAL region or hacked title versions of game ROMs were not chosen for inclusion.

UPDATE: Added two screenshots of the title screen and menu.

So it's a pre-loaded mini Everdrive??

How do they get away with this legally? I thought the reason EDs are legal is because you're just buying the cart itself. Then it's up to the consumer to load game roms (presumably from games they own) to the Everdrive.

I also think if you're going to pick 150 NES games, try to make a more solid list of quality games. It's a pretty good list but I think I could have come up with better game choices overall. I don't see any Zelda, Ducktales, Little Nemo, Jaws, Womp Em, Bugs Bunny BB, Silent Service, (insert quality game here) etc...?! Although I see game names I don't recognize so maybe they're named something else?

It's basically a pirate cart but new made.
They get away with it because they are based in China and don't care about laws lol.

 

That seems like an amazing multi-cart! Thanks for the heads-up.

Am I allowed to thread crap on these amazing new multi carts??? I mean, they're 100% illegal, are they not?

God... flashdrives and emulators were bad enough.... I guess I just never understood why someone would want a rip off copy of anything.

I might NEVER play Samson, I've accepted it. Why people feel the need to buy these multi-carts is beyond me. Nor would I want hack versions of the games to play. I just don't understand these.

Some people want to PLAY games not just collect them.  I am not a fan of pirated games but I will play an emulated Samson because I doubt I'll find it and I'll never pay the going rate.  It's very easy to understand that people buy these carts and use emulation to play games.  Not everyone is in this hobby for the sake of having the coolest most valuable collection.  For the record I own no pirate carts, and have less than 10 ROMs for emulation, and I have a pretty awesome collection, I just find opinions (berating takes,) like this grating and unfriendly to the community.
 

Do you have any additional observations or images about the menu? I've had some 100+-in-1's before, and what either made me sell them or never play them was that the navigation in the menu was garbage. Even a primitive UI can be done well. If you have 100+ games, navigating through the list shouldn't be a feat in itself.

You can PLAY any game on the very computer you're typing from. 

It's not about having the most valuable collection (for me), it's about having the genuine article.

I'm not being "unfriendly"... these multi carts are illegal. Right? So... I'm a dick for pointing out that carts like this can ruin a hobby? Our hobby.... The more prolific and reaching that these carts get, the worse it is for all of us, don't you see that?

Sure, this is a red multi-cart, but I bet you can get some pretty good single game reproduction carts from the very seller. If not that exact seller, other's on aliexpress. You know what's going to crash prices and interest? FAKE GAMES.

You don't need a new, fake, illegal, multi-cart. There were enough multi-carts back in the day, haha. If you want to play a game, there's other ways to do it without supporting pirate cart makers. Support retroUSB and get a powerpak if you want to play everygame ever on your NES system.

Why am I the only person who realizes this is a slippery slope for the hobby of collecting? I can't be the only one.

I'm not trying to thread crap or be "unfriendly to the community", I just don't think we should be promoting NEW, fake, illegal, bootleg, copies of the very (sometimes valuable) pieces of history/art that we are collecting in these video games.

Edit: I'm not attempting to thread crap, because I could make a thread entitled "My thoughts on the new 150-in-1 NES multicart" but then I would be told that the thread was already started, redirected with a link, and it would be locked. So instead, I'm typing my thoughts here....

To play, save money, shelf space, etc. 

I play emulators all the time because it's more convient than setting up a system or being tethered to a tv. 
 

Yes, exactly. Emulators. New 150-in-1 multicarts are unnecessary. Thank you.

Not my style, but emulators/flash carts are a lot better than the slippery slope that is reproduction games.

While in general I don't disagree with really Any of your points, you just came off as a snob.  

"God... flashdrives and emulators were bad enough.... I guess I just never understood why someone would want a rip off copy of anything."

Flashdrives and emulators are how people play games they can't find or afford, or a means of discovery as opposed to watching the talking heads on Youtube.   You aren't the only one who thinks this is a slippery slope, I do as well, but nobody is taking away yours or my Legit games.  WE will always be about legit games. 150 in 1 games are clearly not fakes, if it has Mega Man 1-6 on it, which it does, I'm not concerned about the value of my legit MM 1-6 carts plummeting in value.  I could care less because they won't. Getting fired up about fakes is one thing, crapping all over emulation and flash drives is another.
 

Lol, this.

"China don't care"

As stated, I know this is a RED, obviously fake, multi cart. But other reproductions are not as easily recognizable and often get sold as being real. There's threads on here all the time about "Another fake Hagane..." or "is this game legit??" Aliexpress is pretty much all single game reproductions, isn't it? Retro video game market-wise, of course.

I certainly didn't mean to come off so harsh or snobby, my bad. But I personally hate using emulators and haven't got an Everdrive or powerpak. If others want to use them, then that's fine with me.

I just posted above what I thought about emulators, probably as you were typing. I think the idea of Powerpaks and emulators is definatley logical and makes sense.

Reproduction carts are another story.

I saw the cart on alipress a few months ago, was briefly tempted by the price tag and the sexy red plastic. But then I pretty much remembered why I don't need a multi-cart. For me it's either a real game or nothing (and by nothing I mean a rom downloaded and freely enjoyed for no expense out of pocket). But I see this cart as a viable purchase for the everdrive crowd who can't afford to spend $100 or whatever. I don't think cheap multi-carts are any threat to the hobby either. Just another weird oddity for people to get giddy over.
 

Nope... just one step away from a reproduction Bonk.

Reproduction carts are bad. These make it worse. It's simple.

 

Word, as you said there are tons of threads about fakes already and I totally agree.  People who make them I think are scummy, people who buy them I find questionable at best.  I'd love to know the stats on the age demographic who knowingly buy fakes.  I assume newer younger collectors are fine with fakes and older collectors aren't, but I could be wrong...and am veering off the thread. 
 

Agreed 100%. I'd like to know as well. Ask aliexpress, haha...

That's one pretty big step that crosses right over the line from harmless novelty purchase to scummy bootleg. Not sure how they make it any *worse*.
 

Why not get a Famicom version of Samson? Mine cost about $60 a few years ago...oh, wait... I see. They're going for $200 now. GAH.

I need this! Anyone have the link to buy it?

I don't believe this will happen. I think fakes are both an effect and a driver of increased interest.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Ne...

There you go! , great multicart, I won't buy it because I have an Everdrive.

 

if anything, thats a really decent price.

Couldn't agree more. There is literally nothing positive about these. 

 

Yeah I started looking at them when they were around 100 but didn't have the money to spare. Once I saved up they were up to 140+ and I was hesitant to spend that much. Now at 200, no thanks.

Edit: I did get a Famicom panic restaurant for about 60 though. I'm happy to have that