RetroN5: Hands on first look

[Tanooki]

Not much you can do there, they have this dumb capcha bound download system wher eyou have to 'write sd update to sd card' when you turn it on, then feed that to the website, and it puts the update on the SD card. Then it goes back in the system and updates it.

[dgdgagdae]

You might get more of a kick out of it this way than if you had gotten it earlier since there's no point really in making videos showing it off and the OS seems to have made great strides since day 1. You can just settle down and play with the minimum of fuss with software issues or messing around with video editing programs and capture cards.

Oh, he'll probably make a video anyway. Is there anything to say about it that hasn't been said?

[Gameguy]

I got an email today that my Retron5 order has _finally_ shipped. So, apparently, when Hyperkin said June 6, they actually meant September 4th, which with shipping time will probably mean September 6 - three months later.

I haven't looked into this thread for awhile, I assumed it was already shipped to you. Just surprised it's been so long for you to get one.

Please note that as the IPS patch file format does not include any mechanism for verifying any data before or after patching, it is important that you use the correct IPS patch file corresponding to the target game. If an incompatible patch file is used then likely the game will simply fail to start. To make matters even more complicated, many older IPS patch files require that they be used with ROMs that contain headers, or are interleaved - neither of which may be supported here. The IPS must target the RAW game dump. Check the readme included with your patch to determine if it is suitable.

Just wondering, will games have to be patched every time you want to play them? Since the system erases games once the carts have been removed I'm curious about this.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Did Hyperkin every exactly in specific words ever state that Canada had a release day of June 6? I don't really remember seeing that if they did.

HA! Hyperkin has said absolutely NOTHING.

Their handling of this has been absolutely atrocious in so many ways.

And what do I get for all this waiting? Nothing, not even a discount as I feel I am entitled to. Not only was I charged the full $139.99 increased MSRP, but then there's an additional sircharge because I'm Canadian bringing the total to $149.99, then tax and shipping. All told, the Retron5 has cost me $175.57 USD, closer to $200 Canadian.

But its necessary I have direct experience with it so I can definitively speak on how it compares to the Ouya and even original Xbox through CoinOps.

[Tanooki]

Gameguy I have no idea, mine is disconnected. If my car hadn't had to go into the shop today I'd have it RMA'd in the mail due to my NES slot starting not to recognize games. I haven't seen anyone say it has to. My understanding in reading is that you copy the IPS to the system off your SD Card. Once it's there, hold the button down over the FILE and a box pops up and you basically click it ON. I think at that rate it just stays on unless you don't want it anymore.

Satoshi: If hyperkin never promised June 6th, and as you said they've said NOTHING. Then why exactly is it there fault? This is the fault entirely of anyone who from Canada who bought from a retail outlet that didn't bother to engage the company to realize that June 6 date was the the US market. The only thing Hyperkin is at fault for at this rate would be ignoring people like yourself who keep complaining repeatedly about it, some trolling their facebook like little kids and not addressing the fact their partners screwed up making up a fake date.

Hyperkin didn't charge you close to $200CAD that would be Amazon from the looks of it, and they fed you a lie on a release date because they had none. I think Canadians on the whole need to castrate Amazon for this garbage because Hyperkin never gave a date, their seller pulled a date out of their ass and it monumentally backfired.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

While yes, their partner network is at fault, ultimately it is Hyperkin that it is definitely at fault. There's a reason why 99.9% of companies don't have specific Canadian release dates - in almost all cases, things are released in Canada at the same time they are released in the States. Canada is geographically close and a major trading partner. June 6 for the US should have meant June 6 for Canada too. But shit happens, and sometimes there are discrepancies when things are released in Canada vs the US. But those differences? A matter of a few days to about a week at most.

This is a three month difference.

Hyperkin is principlely responsible for this fuck up, and it's grandiose even for them.

I bought a Hyperkin Supaboy 1.0 when it was released in the beginning of January 2012. I didn't get it until the end of the month. That delay was annoying but acceptable. But again, this has been a grand total delay of 92 days.

92 days of delays is at the very least 70 days longer than is reasonable for any reason. This is why I am so absolutely angry with Hyperkin and less so with any of their partners. It ultimately was Hyperkin that is responsible and inept.

[Gameguy]

Gameguy I have no idea, mine is disconnected. If my car hadn't had to go into the shop today I'd have it RMA'd in the mail due to my NES slot starting not to recognize games. I haven't seen anyone say it has to. My understanding in reading is that you copy the IPS to the system off your SD Card. Once it's there, hold the button down over the FILE and a box pops up and you basically click it ON. I think at that rate it just stays on unless you don't want it anymore.

Your console of approximately 3 months has died on you?

It was my understanding that every time a game is inserted the cart is dumped into the console to be played, when the cart is removed the game is erased from the console. With patching games the patch has to be applied to the ROM, if the console deletes ROMs when the cart is removed it sounds like it would have to be patched every time you want to play it, unless you never change games in the console. I'd like to know if this is true as it seems like a hassle to do every single time, having to patch it every time takes time.

92 days of delays is at the very least 70 days longer than is reasonable for any reason. This is why I am so absolutely angry with Hyperkin and less so with any of their partners. It ultimately was Hyperkin that is responsible and inept.

It doesn't really surprise me, not when I've read some reviews of the company from former employees. There's really not a lot to find out about this company besides directly from their website.

http://www.indeed.com/cmp/Hyperkin-I...rclick=reviewc

[Az]

Big new Beta 2.0b2 update you'll LOVE. Translation IPS patching of ROMS!l

YES. FUCK YES.

Never expected this in a million years and I absolutely love it.

At first I couldn't get anything to work but the trick is you can't have the game fast-load and apply IPS patches at the same time. You have to load the game, go to the settings and select the IPS file, then start the game as normal. When you start there will be no change.

Return to the main menu, remove the cart, and put it back in. There will be a message that pops up and says "pre-loading disabled due to IPS patch". When you actually start the game there will be another message that says "IPS patch applied", and you can then continue to shit your pants over how awesome this is.

That may sound a bit convoluted but I'd almost bet that completely disabling pre-loading would eliminate that issue entirely. Y's with FM sound? Streets of Rage Syndicate Wars? MKII Unlimited? YEP, YEP, and YEP.

Could somebody that owns UMK3 for MD pretty please see if Revelations or UMKT works?

[Tanooki]

Gameguy I wouldn't say it's dead, it's quite usable, but it's starting to get bitchy about NES games, maybe. It could be isolated, but whatever it is SMB2 being put in the slot gets no response, it's like it's not there. The other most the time will not dump right or pops up unknown which is unacceptable. Outside of that, for what I have put into it, everything is good, but I haven't the time to stuff around 200 games in/out of it to get a list of things to be certain it's not more wide spread.

As far as the patching goes. The patch stays on the retron5 in a directory. So with the newest beta it also has quick dump, so it'll load a SNES game up in a few seconds, then take another moment to patch it and load. It'll still be far faster than the old slow crawl of loading up a game so it shouldn't be an issue.


I have this also to share, another small beta3 update to 2.0 test cycle.
We have released the RetroN 5 v2.0 BETA 3 firmware build. Please note that this release is BETA and not STABLE; those of you who do not want to risk running into bugs should stick with the stable releases only. Changes since v2.0 BETA 2 include:

- Improvements to IPS patch support including ability to specify if a patch expects a header, and various other fixes
- Super Gameboy borders may optionally be displayed, configurable via Settings menu
- Misc game compatibility fixes (GB Space Invaders)

They've refined the application of the IPS patch some more so I have no idea if it's more streamlined or what.

Off the top of my head I've got Akamajyou Densetsu, Yume Penguin Monogatari, Mitsume ga Tooru, Moon Crystal, Parodius, Twinbee 3, Armadillo, Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa(hack may not work), Daiku no Gen San, Joy Mech FIght, Splatterhouse, and Wai Wai World 2 for Famicom which I know most have translations so I'd like to see that. The GBA games I have, the Japanese in them outside of Steel Empire aren't interesting or vital so I doubt there's patches so this would be all about the Famicom for me.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Tanooki, do you own Quest of Ki?

A friend of mine has a Retron5 and made made a repro of it and says the mirroring is straight up wrong on the R5. It's mapper 206. In version 1.31 Hyperkin lists they added support for mapper 95, which is a variant of mapper 206 specifically used for Dragon Buster 1.

If you have Quest of Ki, please try it on the Retron5 and let me know the results. Also if you have it, try Karnov. It's an NES 72 pin game that also uses mapper 206.

Apparently, the repro works fine on the real hardware but not on the Retron5. I want to confirm that Hyperkin's emulator doesn't properly support mapper 206.

[Tanooki]

Sorry I haven't owned Karnov in awhile, and the other I've never had.

[Az]

With patching games the patch has to be applied to the ROM, if the console deletes ROMs when the cart is removed it sounds like it would have to be patched every time you want to play it

Within the game settings there's an option to select an IPS file and toggle it on/off. Once you turn it on it applies the next time the game is loaded and will always be applied every time you insert the cart unless you manually turn it off. There's no additional delay for the actual patching but you can no longer use the fast-load option since it has to dump the entire game into memory before it can be patched.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Sorry I haven't owned Karnov in awhile, and the other I've never had.

Well, what about Tengen's Pac-Mania? That would also do the trick.

You're in contact with a guy who is in involved in updates with the Retron5 right? Please ask him about mapper 206 support. Apparently mapper 95 was fixed in one of the updates, which is a varient of mapper 206, but according to my friend, the R5 screws up the mirroring in 206 games such as Quest of Ki. Mapper 95 is a game specific mapper for Dragon Buster, but mapper 206 is more widespread.

[Tanooki]

I don't have that one either. I just own Afterburner, Indiana Jones, Road Runner, and Tetris. It's sealed up in a box now anyway, going out tomorrow afternoon for a replacement and then a week or two later I can play catch up.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

a replacement...retron5? whats wrong with the one you have?

tomorrow supposedly mine will ship.....I hope there's no problems with mine.

[Leo_A]

His evidently is starting to have a lot of trouble correctly reading NES cartridges.

[Tanooki]

SMB2 when put in the slot, might as well not be. It doesn't even see it enough to give me the unknown, or can't read error. Yet that's now what Gargoyles Quest 2 does like 80% of the time. There's no reason for it, they worked before. I know they did because my kid like Mario and since she's still not even 3 yet, SMB2 is a nice one to move around on because there's no timer. It'll go out tomorrow, and I'm fine with it. I got a few distractions going and coming anyway soon. I discovered Star Trek Online went free to play a few days ago so I'm using a little free evening time on it, and after or on the 9th I'm grabbing Destiny on Ps4.

[treismac]

How do Famicom games read on your Retron5, Tanooki? The same as NES games?

[Tanooki]

I really hadn't gone digging much after what happened, but I wasn't seemingly having issues with the other game cart ports so I have no idea. I got a bright light and really looked into that NES slot, nothing missing, bent in the least bit, tarnished, dusty...nothing. It just up and decided to start randomly flipping the bird to certain games.

If it wasn't for my kid I would have not even discovered the issue this soon as she's the one into the Mario games right now and 2 is easier to keep going since there's no death clock.

[nusilver]

IPS patching. Pretty cool, unexpected feature. Too bad they don't support UPS patching -- Mother 3 is still unplayable in English on the Retron 5 because it doesn't play at the correct speed on repro carts. Hopefully UPS will be added in the future.