RetroN5: Hands on first look

[Sega Warrior]

Anyone with the R5 have some freetime and a decent library of games, time to waste, or accessories to screw with?

The tech confirmed to me that the SNES Mouse worked out of the box with Firmware 1.0 and that they added more easter eggs to the system with a smile but would 't havnot say what leaving them to be discovered.

I think we were issued a challenge and I'd love to know what they cooked up.

So far we know the vaus controller is out, for now, until he gets one mailed to him or found locally to add it. And we know they snuck the SNES mouse from launch to work the menus a bit like a computer. I do know if you stick that horrible Deadly Towers game it jokes on you for it. It will say 'we recommend another game' with a frowny face before you click to load it.


I don't keep accessories around, my limits are the zapper and an ascii pad(snes) I got on Sunday which is awesome but that's really it. It would be interesting if the power pad got added like he talked about, or if one of those other weirdo accessories from the vibrating jacket to the zapper (pranking for putting in there?) were in it.

I don't have many accessories to test either. I have heard a lot of people talk about SNES controllers not working right and being unable to map them correctly. Do you know if the tech is fixing that issue also?

[Tanooki]

I'm aware of the button mapping issue, it was repaired along with the GBA and NES which were backwards too, and SNES was flipped and backwards. Since then they've also allowed the mapping now of Select and Start to something else too on the R5 pad.


Ok I've got a paid of updates if anyone wants this. The first anyone with GBA can have, they've added a tester for EEPROM save support read and now finally WRITE back to cart. This is the same update as the last link but adds EEPROM. http://retron5.in/?src=e369853df766fa44e1ed0ff613f563bd

That update above will get you rolling on a ton of the popular GBA games that use it from Street Fighter 2X, DOOM1+2, Grand Theft Auto, and a lot more. Just be smart and use it on a game you don't have a critical save on in case it nukes it.


Now here's one you have to PM me on as I'm allowed to share this, but not on a public forum with a large easy download because a big WARNING is involved here. Here's the deal, they've dug into the firmware on the system side of things and droped the startup time from 5 seconds to .5 seconds when pushing the power buttons. Huge I know! I"m directly quoting the tech here so read along.

We've prepared an update which will reduce the time you need to hold the power button to switch on the RetroN 5 unit to about 0.5 seconds (as opposed to the original ~4 seconds). This is still undergoing internal testing and we cannot at this stage deem it 100% stable nor suitable for a widespread public release. If you would like to test then please feel free, but take note that while we cannot think of any possible ways that this could fail, there is still the off chance that it may somehow corrupt the firmware on your unit thus forcing you to perform a factory recovery procedure. If you would rather not take this risk then we recommend you wait for the public release of this patch.

If you're interested: to install, download and extract REDACTED, PM me for the link! and then install like you normally would with a RetroN 5 system firmware update. After the installation you will not see any difference in the reported version numbers but you will notice that the unit will switch on much quicker than before.


That's all I've got for now. I've been without power since 9PM last night and got it back around 90min ago. Straight line winds took down a 50year old maple and splattered it all over 2 other trees, power poles and lines, a couple peoples fences and backyard. The mess is there, but the lines are back or I'd have shared this last night. ;) If I go quiet again today they had to pull junk to fix it, or another storm rolled in which was predicted but it's sunny at the moment.

[Tanooki]

In fair disclosure.

I updated the new system firmware, the quick boot is instant. Just push the button and release and the lights go on and it powers up nicely. I think the disclosure is just there to cover their butts, but that makes sense since someone could flip out.

EEPROM seems to work so far. I've toyed with DOOM 1, DOOM 2, Super SF2X Revival (JP), Final Fight One(JP), Sim City 2000, and Grand Theft Auto. They both copy correctly to system and copy back to the cart with no issue. I can't say it's not 100% solid or not, but so far it has worked for me. I was surprised using the pocketheaven.com release list to find that 1/2 the GBA games I have use that save type so this was big for my interests.

[nusilver]

sent you a PM :)

[Tanooki]

It's all yours, have fun with it. It's nice being able to just push the button and not hold it anymore. If any NA members were the good people who liked the updates I did over there before the issue over nothing, feel free to contact me on here for the link as it will not be cross shared back over there.

[omegadevil]

I just got the Violinist of Hamlin repro, put it in the retron and it showed unknown cart as usual and I selected to play anyway but the retron goes into an infininte loop where it will load the cart, reach 100% and start the process all over again. Kind of sucks. I was looking forward to playing it. Has it happened to anyone with repro carts? Can someone let the R5 Tech know about this.

[Tanooki]

Do you know those who made the cart if it is an original new board or what game was killed to make it? The problem with a lot of bootleg repros is that they use random junk and one copy of a game may work and another won't. I could let him know the game isn't going, but if he's got a legit cart from Japan and it's fine, it won't help.



By the way so far so good on the requests I've had with the fast boot, seems the disclaimer was a cover your butt warning, nothing has gone bad so far.

[omegadevil]

Do you know those who made the cart if it is an original new board or what game was killed to make it? The problem with a lot of bootleg repros is that they use random junk and one copy of a game may work and another won't. I could let him know the game isn't going, but if he's got a legit cart from Japan and it's fine, it won't help.

I don't really know who makes the cart but I believe they mentioned that they used new boards. I have purchased from them before and all the other games worked fine. Some repros were recognized and some were not but they all played and they played fine before any updates to the Retron were made. I do appreciate you letting the tech know. Maybe in another update I'll be able to play it.

[Tanooki]

I passed it along a moment ago.

Presents!
http://retron5.in/?src=1c383cd30b7c298ab50293adfecb7b18

Preview build of v1.5 of the game firmware, should be finalized during the week most likely.

[nusilver]

Tanooki, thanks for providing the preview build last night. It does, indeed, turn on after pressing the power button in for only half a second or so, and I haven't run into any issues so far. Since I have no idea what type of save my Mother 3 repro is using (certainly not the flash type of the original), I'll probably test that one tonight just to see if there's any progress with it erasing saves.

Otherwise, the system has been a joy to use. I'm actually on the 6th Dark World dungeon in Link to the Past because I've been enjoying re-experiencing my games in HD without having to buy a Virtual Console release... the first time since 2002 since I've gotten this far in the game, and the first since the 90s that I've played through the SNES version.

The only weirdness I've noticed so far is that in the 5th dungeon, there's a room where you have to kill two Stalfos Knights and the game slows down on that screen, at least until the two Knights are dead. I put my SNES away after all my games tested fine so I don't have an easy way to test... does anyone remember this slowdown in the original?

Otherwise, yeah, I'm loving it.

[Tanooki]

I can't say for certain if it lags, but it almost sounds familiar as I remember something with big objects messing with the game before which is no surprise as it's an earlier release and stuff like that happened. It seems you're really digging the fix so that's good.

I've been feeling the same hitting up GBA stuff of course that stumbled some with the damned SRAM issue and EEPROM not working at all until the other day. Now that is up I can start playing DOOM, DOOM2, GTA and some others on there which is awesome. I have been when the mood suits throwing random 8 and 16bit Nintendo games (famicom too) at it and it's just a nice fun tool to experience games with. It's a shame so many people were dicks about it over at NA because it's 'not a real console' and that it is a bastard that shouldn't exist since it's an emulator using carts. So fed up with the uptight control freak rabid collector crap and it's a nice bit of fresh air not dealing with it anymore.

[omegadevil]

I passed it along a moment ago.

Presents!
http://retron5.in/?src=1c383cd30b7c298ab50293adfecb7b18

Preview build of v1.5 of the game firmware, should be finalized during the week most likely.

Tanooki thanks for passing it along and for the preview build. The retron just keeps getting better and better. If only we could add cheats to the cheats database.

[Tanooki]

It could happen, he seems pretty open minded to lots of things once they get down to more free time with ironing out more priority stuff. I had brought up user entry of mappers for nes/famicom stuff and so on and he said he was wanting to do that so maybe that will come eventually just like maybe manual cheat entry. It's hard to say really but I do pass ideas along.

[nusilver]

I can't say for certain if it lags, but it almost sounds familiar as I remember something with big objects messing with the game before which is no surprise as it's an earlier release and stuff like that happened. It seems you're really digging the fix so that's good.

I've been feeling the same hitting up GBA stuff of course that stumbled some with the damned SRAM issue and EEPROM not working at all until the other day. Now that is up I can start playing DOOM, DOOM2, GTA and some others on there which is awesome. I have been when the mood suits throwing random 8 and 16bit Nintendo games (famicom too) at it and it's just a nice fun tool to experience games with. It's a shame so many people were dicks about it over at NA because it's 'not a real console' and that it is a bastard that shouldn't exist since it's an emulator using carts. So fed up with the uptight control freak rabid collector crap and it's a nice bit of fresh air not dealing with it anymore.

i hear you. i've never had any bad experiences there but i have witnessed some of it. it's definitely close-minded to dismiss clones in general. i haven't found a clone i loved before this, though, so i think that may be part of the perception problem. that and the launch reviews based on sloppy firmware.

[Tanooki]

You and I are on almost the same page. I've messed with clones on display going back to the 90s and they were all universally crap for the NES and the SNES with many games just not running and more with the wrong color palette or sounds that were missing or just plain off(ranging from a little to horrible.)

The first exception to the rule for the most part to my surprised was also Hyperkin, their revised v2 of the Supaboy. It's not perfect, and I had to mod my own systems d-pad with a 2 cent fix to make it work like a real SNES pad, but the list of games that won't run on it at all amounts to Stunt Race FX(Starfox2) which resets in 5min(a 1/3 of the FX games bomb using this board like a timer, Yoshi's Island bombs, SF Alpha 2 tanks, and not much else. All the NES funk I've thrown at it including CV3 run great. The SA1 games with their copy protection of sorts don't boot natively but like 10% of the time, but if you pop another game in, press and hold reset, slide in the SA1 game and release reset they do. It helped me build some trust to pop for the Retron 5 and I don't regret it one bit.

All the reviews were quick to review launch/pre-launch systems and just tore into it with the .20 system firmware and 1.0 game firmware which were atrociously buggy and lacking which made it seem worse than the shittiest Yobo system. Had they had 1.4 out and .22 at launch for a hard release this month instead of the soft launch trickle, the reviews online with be very much favorable with just certain specific titles, dislike of the controller which is personal taste and same with the cheat system too, and unreasonable whining about pirate flash carts and bootleg(repros) which only the most piratey and super collector types would are about let alone be aware of. Even the amazon reviews by the time of v1.31 of the firmware perked up into the 4 star range on average. Sadly amazon still hasn't erased all the bogus early reviews from people spewing hate, lies, and garbage about something they couldn't have even touched let along bought which wer emore than 1/2 the reviews up until 2 weeks ago.

[DonSilvestre]

Tanooki, thanks for all the inside info! I just picked up my Retron 5 last night at a local game store. I am LOVING the NES and GameBoy modes. Can't believe I'm playing NES on my HDTV in this quality. Unfortunately I'm noticing some decent input lag ONLY for SNES using a classic SNES controller. I don't notice any lag at with NES and GameBoy, and even weirder, I don't notice the same SNES lag when I use the included wireless controller.

Am I insane? I swear I'm not imagining it, especially since NES feels so flawless. Can you bring this up with your contact and see if there's a solution incoming at all? I'm wondering if it's due to more horsepower being requires to emulate SNES, and therefore there's an increase in the time it needs to process a classic controller or something.

You guys can feel free to tell me I'm insane and imagining it too, but I'm not! :-)

[ibain]

I've also been playing a lot of GBA games after getting the Retron 5. I can't believe how good they look and sound, after playing them on the SP/DS all these years.

It's also too bad Hyperkin didn't release with 1.4. Most of the negatives have been fixed by now.

[Tanooki]

I've brought up input lag before more than once. It has been looked at, and it's not the system, at least not at a basic level. It is possible you could hit an emulation hiccup if the hardware and the OS decide to randomly do something dumb (like Windows always does all the time.) The controller if anything that comes with it should have more lag if any than a legit one directly into the port because you're dealing with bluetooth. I haven't had any input lag issues, but I also shopped the TV I got earlier this year around a bit for the lowest input lag possible on a consumer TV outside of paying over 2x the price on a smaller Sony model with some special chips inside (22" for $600 at 18ms vs my 29" for $250 with 25ms lag.)

The system itself has strong hardware considering what they're running with the emulator. You got a dual core Rockchip at CortexA9 ARM 1.6ghz chip and with that a 250mhz mali-400 gpu and 2GB of speedy DDR3 ram as well according to the tech. The system to even give more overhead was capped at 720p but the basic setup of the processor is made to do 1080p for tablets and other android devices. According to the tech they're not near tapping out the machine even running the most gnarly stuff like the FX2, SA1, or the SVP chip that Virtua Racing on Genesis uses.

This is the chipset from the maker: http://www.rock-chips.com/a/en/products/RK30_Series/2013/0808/312.html

Something to consider, you're thinking the SNES is the hefty one here, but it's not alone. You got the Genesis which while less complex in the audio and visuals is on the main cpu clocked notably faster. Also there's the GBA which I guess depending on how they did it could be less or more taxing than any as it's a 16mhz ARM7 chip in there, a much more basic ARM chip than the R5 uses.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but it could be your TV causing it or a preception problem. Did you turn off any form of processing, filtering, or other garbage on your tv and pop it into game mode? None of these games other than the GB stuff were made for a LCD screen so they do not account for input lag so they're overly sensitive.

[Az]

This is a weird thing I noticed and although it isn't really a problem, I could see it possibly being an issue on a unusual setup like a HDMI to component converter or maybe a splitter.

If you don't have your TV turned on and turned to the right input the console doesn't attempt to load any carts. That's how it is on the two sets I've hooked mine to, anyway. If you turn the console on before the TV, or turn it on while the TV is displaying a different input onscreen, it just sits with all five system lights lit and doesn't load any carts you put it.

[DonSilvestre]

I've brought up input lag before more than once. It has been looked at, and it's not the system, at least not at a basic level. It is possible you could hit an emulation hiccup if the hardware and the OS decide to randomly do something dumb (like Windows always does all the time.) The controller if anything that comes with it should have more lag if any than a legit one directly into the port because you're dealing with bluetooth.

Something to consider, you're thinking the SNES is the hefty one here, but it's not alone. You got the Genesis which while less complex in the audio and visuals is on the main cpu clocked notably faster. Also there's the GBA which I guess depending on how they did it could be less or more taxing than any as it's a 16mhz ARM7 chip in there, a much more basic ARM chip than the R5 uses.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but it could be your TV causing it or a preception problem. Did you turn off any form of processing, filtering, or other garbage on your tv and pop it into game mode? None of these games other than the GB stuff were made for a LCD screen so they do not account for input lag so they're overly sensitive.

Yeah, I have my TV in game mode with absolutely EVERYTHING turned off. I've been lamenting the horrors of input lag since I bought my first HDTV 8 years ago, so I was careful in the one I chose this time around as well. It's a Panasonic ST30 series TV with roughly 31 ms input lag (has a "great" rating on display lag dot com). I haven't messed with Genesis or GBA yet (in truth I've only tried Mario games on NES and Mario World on SNES is what I'm feeling the lag on). I don't understand why I'd feel like Mario 3 was flawless and Mario World was lagging unless like you said, it's an emulation hiccup, but I'm feeling it consistently on every level. It's not unplayable or anything, just not perfect. I SWEAR the wireless controller (and I know that should introduce more lag) responds better. Not sure how I can prove it, I just can tell it feels better and more precise. I'll try some other games and see if it persists. Maybe I'm insane, or maybe Mario World just isn't as responsive as I remember it being, though I've had no issues playing the Wii U Virtual Console version, which is supposed to be notoriously laggy. Oh well.

[Tanooki]

AZ so this isn't straight HDMI but a splitter dumbing the signal down and it fails to fire up as you said is that right? I just pasted your report in a message to the tech. I'm not sure what all they'll do about it, but it's interesting.

Don very weird. Around v1.2 or 1.31 I had a problem with Yoshi's Island, was testing it when it was reportedly fixed (died in world 2 on the yoshi copter) and the lava loaded castle in world 1 running down the long hall it dropped frames and skipped up on up a bit here and there. Not really sure what was up, tech didn't either, but I have not noticed it since so that's why I said it could be some random garbage android is causing or they fixed it in 1.4.

[DonSilvestre]

Played some Donkey Kong Country last night and couldn't really perceive any lag, same with Megaman X (though that game crashes on 1.4, I think I've seen you reference it being fixed in the 1.5 test). Tried Mario 3 on Super Mario All-stars and that felt perfect to me as well (thought that would be a great way to prove my point if it felt wonky on SNES but great on NES). So maybe it's just something with the way Super Mario World is being emulated in 1.4. I don't know!

As a whole, however, I'm loving this system and don't regret the purchase. As more and more of these updates roll out, I'm excited to watch it get better and better.

You mentioned it has the overhead to do 1080p - will Hyperkin ever give us the option of going 1080p, even if the emulation suffers a small bit? I'm wondering if outputting straight to 1080p (my TV's native resolution) might shave another ms or two off the input lag.

[Tanooki]

I'm glad you're enjoying it like I am. Yes MMX is fixed in that 1.5 preview build, grab it and you're set, it probably is the final build anyway unless they slide something last minute in there I'd think.

The rockchip is capable of it, but while it is, I have no idea that much about the total setup they used if it is capable over the board to do it or not, but I could see it as something to add later if it's possible given it wouldn't impact performance on any resource hungry games.

You know what would make for an interesting test, the SMW+SMAS combo cart. I've got that one. I'm not sure but I follow what you're saying about native tv resolution, but since the 1080p tv's natively do 720p as well I doubt you're suffering for it. THe pain comes from non-normal HD resolutions where it needs to be resampled up to something the modern TV can handle. The R5 being what it is just sends a pure signal straight over HDMI so I'm not sure you'd get anything.

Last night I put down 3 stages of Metal Slug Advance, man I suck and always will at it, and I was fine even using the wireless controller on that one.

[DonSilvestre]

I'm glad you're enjoying it like I am. Yes MMX is fixed in that 1.5 preview build, grab it and you're set, it probably is the final build anyway unless they slide something last minute in there I'd think.

The rockchip is capable of it, but while it is, I have no idea that much about the total setup they used if it is capable over the board to do it or not, but I could see it as something to add later if it's possible given it wouldn't impact performance on any resource hungry games.

You know what would make for an interesting test, the SMW+SMAS combo cart. I've got that one. I'm not sure but I follow what you're saying about native tv resolution, but since the 1080p tv's natively do 720p as well I doubt you're suffering for it. THe pain comes from non-normal HD resolutions where it needs to be resampled up to something the modern TV can handle. The R5 being what it is just sends a pure signal straight over HDMI so I'm not sure you'd get anything.



Yeah, I thought the combo SMW+SMAS cart would be a great test as well - so I pulled out my copy. Unfortunately it isn't recognized and doesn't boot up at all on the R5 at the present *sad trombone*

Might be a problem cart you should let your tech friend know about! Thanks for all your insight on this, if I run into other bugs or issues, I'll let you know/be sure to ask about them. It's great having a contact on the "inside" (that's what she said).

[nusilver]

Just wanted to pop in real quick as I've had a chance to actually *play* a few GBA games on the Retron 5 now, and things aren't universally rosy here as they are with every other platform I've tried on it.

Wario Land 4 and Minish Cap are both fine, which is great. What isn't great is Metroid: Zero Mission, which is one of *the* must-own games for the system; it slowed down pretty badly once the fight again Deorem (the giant centipede) started. Just to make sure, I tried fighting the same boss on an actual GBA and there was no slowdown at all. I wonder if the system software can be updated eventually with a new GBA emulator that can actually handle larger sprites and extra particles? I guess I'll write to Téch.

[Tanooki]

Interesting about SMW+SMAS, I'll try mine as soon as I can. I'll pass it along with the rest to the tech.

[tomm1313]

All the reviews were quick to review launch/pre-launch systems and just tore into it with the .20 system firmware and 1.0 game firmware which were atrociously buggy and lacking which made it seem worse than the shittiest Yobo system. Had they had 1.4 out and .22 at launch for a hard release this month instead of the soft launch trickle, the reviews online with be very much favorable with just certain specific titles, dislike of the controller which is personal taste and same with the cheat system too, and unreasonable whining about pirate flash carts and bootleg(repros) which only the most piratey and super collector types would are about let alone be aware of. Even the amazon reviews by the time of v1.31 of the firmware perked up into the 4 star range on average. Sadly amazon still hasn't erased all the bogus early reviews from people spewing hate, lies, and garbage about something they couldn't have even touched let along bought which wer emore than 1/2 the reviews up until 2 weeks ago.

you do gotta keep in mind. You are a big part of it being where it is. if they would have waited till now we could have still ended up with something like it was 2 months ago. you putting dedication in to work with them and make this system good helps out all of us.

i do hope they find a way to have people rereview it.



now if only we can get a retrode like plugin for n64 or 32x :)

[Tanooki]

I think I'm putting in more effort than I should, but since I paid for it I want it right. I've already got one hating troll on the hyperkin page accusing me of being on their payroll since they're straight lying about the thing and I argued with them. :)

[DonSilvestre]

Tanooki, if they happen to be looking for more testers "in the wild" or more people to give them feedback, I'd be happy to contribute as well. I'm happy to keep funneling feedback through you as well, but I'm really excited about the potential of this product (HDMI retro system with original controllers is something I've wanted for yeeeaaaaaars), it's single handedly getting me back into collecting carts (after a massive sell off of most of my 200+ cart collection about a year ago). So anyway, yeah. If they want more people testing this stuff and giving feedback, I'm happy to participate. If not, I'm also not even remotely offended.

[Az]

AZ so this isn't straight HDMI but a splitter dumbing the signal down and it fails to fire up as you said is that right? I just pasted your report in a message to the tech. I'm not sure what all they'll do about it, but it's interesting.

No mine is straight HDMI from the console to the TV. I meant that I could possibly see it being an issue if someone has an unusual setup and their console powered up but wouldn't load a game, it's not a problem or issue with me but just an oddity I noticed. It will sit with all 5 system lights still lit and say "loading" until you put the TV on the right channel, then it goes through the system carousel lights and says "loading cart".

I've tried it on 2 different brands of TVs and 2 different brands of HDMI cords and it acted the same way. I do have my console set to always go to the menu and not auto-boot if a cart is inserted if that makes any difference.

[Tanooki]

There's no secret to it. Here's the tech's facebook account through hyperkin -- https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100005440995949

Go there, then send a message and offer up your services as I'm sure he'd be cool sending you builds as the more who can help the more nice the thing can be as everyone has a different cart collection somehow.


Az wow, thought it was the other way dumbing it down. I'll pass that alone immediately after I post this response as that just sucks.

[Az]

Az wow, thought it was the other way dumbing it down. I'll pass that alone immediately after I post this response as that just sucks.

Does everyone's console do that or is it just mine?

This is of course with the auto start when cart inserted turned off. Put a game in and turn the unit on but don't have your TV on. It should sit there doing nothing with all 5 system lights lit, when you turn your TV on it will cycle through the system lights then stop on the cart you've put in and dump it. It's as if it's waiting for the signal handshake from the TV before it proceeds with anything. I just thought that was weird since I've never seen any HDMI device act like that.

[Tanooki]

Hmm I just did what you said.

My switcher box isn't powered so I have to unplug the R5 if i want to use the WiiU/PS3. I had the TV off, powered it (R5) on with Gradius NES inside. All the 5 lights were on and that's it. When I turned the TV on and then put the hdmi cable in, the system showed it was already up on the main menu and then loaded the game into memory a moment later.

So mine does the same.

[nusilver]

Yeah, I thought the combo SMW+SMAS cart would be a great test as well - so I pulled out my copy. Unfortunately it isn't recognized and doesn't boot up at all on the R5 at the present *sad trombone*

Might be a problem cart you should let your tech friend know about! Thanks for all your insight on this, if I run into other bugs or issues, I'll let you know/be sure to ask about them. It's great having a contact on the "inside" (that's what she said).

Hey guys - I scrolled backward to find this one - I have this cart and it works fine, so I don't know if it's really a problem cart. Have you tried cleaning it? I know that sounds like a dumb suggestion but I had to clean a few of my games to get them to work - once they were cleaned, they were perfect (and recognized, too.) I also tested it with all 5 games and found zero issues/input lag/etc.

[Tanooki]

I've got to second that, forgot to post it last night before taking off. I own SMAS+SMW and it loaded up 100% normal, detected the name on the menu and played fine on the various games and its menu.

[Ozzy_98]

What about pal carts? Do they play the incorrect speed when played on the retroN 5, or do they play full (NTSC) speed?

[DonSilvestre]

I've got to second that, forgot to post it last night before taking off. I own SMAS+SMW and it loaded up 100% normal, detected the name on the menu and played fine on the various games and its menu.

Ah. Well of course I should assume that carts I haven't put in a system in a couple years probably could use a good cleaning. Yeah, I'll try it again tonight and see if I detect any lag in the control of SMW. Thanks for the tips dudes.

[Tanooki]

Ozzy I don't have any, but I heard they work and at the correct speed too.


If SMAS+SMW wasn't cleaned, yeah it would be a good idea. Even games just sitting in there sleeve for a few years can be finicky. You could always be 80s cool and give it a good blow. I hate to admit it but being lazy I've done it a few times not wanting to dig out my cleaning stuff and it worked. The R5 is admittedly a little more testy with funk on pins because it's not just connecting to play the game, it's connecting to download it, and if anything misreads it won't play at all or come up unknown if it can't match CRCs with the database inside.

[nusilver]

Interestingly enough, I've witnessed the Retron 5 dump roms incorrectly on dirty carts, bringing up garbage on title screens and eventually leading to hard locks. Not a huge deal, just an interesting observation.

I just finished Link to the Past on the Retron 5. Happy to have an excuse to replay the game for the first time in 12 years... fantastic experience on the Retron 5.

[Tanooki]

Like I said, no surprise. It has to get a clean contact to read it all to drop it properly into memory so the game runs since it's not just playing off the cart itself. It's the tradeoff to get many of the features the system has over junky system on a chip setups that are so poor.

[ibain]

I picked up two Japanese Gameboy games this week from a thrift store. Unfortunately, the Retron 5 doesn't play them. I know they never said it would, but darn, I hoped I could play them on it!

[stardust4ever]

I picked up two Japanese Gameboy games this week from a thrift store. Unfortunately, the Retron 5 doesn't play them. I know they never said it would, but darn, I hoped I could play them on it!
Game Boys are not region locked so there's no reason why they shouldn't work, aside from failure to add EVERYTHING to the database. :roll:

Hyperkin really needs to work on their database and mapper detection to get more "unknown" games working. The NES mapper 0-4 was a positive first step in the direction, but they've got a long way to go yet. Hang onto those carts; they may work further down the road...

[nusilver]

I picked up two Japanese Gameboy games this week from a thrift store. Unfortunately, the Retron 5 doesn't play them. I know they never said it would, but darn, I hoped I could play them on it!

Clean 'em. There's no reason these won't work.

[Tanooki]

There's two reasons I can think of with a third in the distance. They're either not in the CRC database or they're dirty, and the stretch would be really nice bootlegs.

I found Bible Adventures earlier ago today in the box for a buck. I'll throw it in and see what happens on mine sometime today as I'm curious if the Wisdom Torture games work. :)

[ibain]

Problem Solved!

Thanks guys!
They were just dirty. Now I can play the exciting game of Zoids Densetsu, whatever that is.

[RPG_Fanatic]

Has anyone else tried Dragon Warrior on the Retron5? The music gets louder then goes quiet all the time. I know the cart isn't dirty because my copy was brand new (H seam sealed) I just opened it up to play it. Has anyone else have this happen?

[stardust4ever]

I know the cart isn't dirty because my copy was brand new (H seam sealed) I just opened it up to play it. Has anyone else have this happen?
Kudos to you. Games were meant to be played. :D

[Tanooki]

I second that, none of the vga hardon sealed game hoarding going on there. Sure it's not an expensive game but for what it is, it's still fairy good so I could only guess why that is happening and I hope you enjoy it.


Retron 5 firmware 1.5 went live about 2-3 hours ago if anyone didn't trust the stuff I sent and want the official build. Unless I hear from the tech otherwise I'm going to guess my preview build is the same.

[RoryDropkick]

It appears to be. I hope the other firmware gets released soon as well, the power button fix really improved the bootup times.

[omegadevil]

I updated my system with v1.5 but my system doesn't turn on as quick. It still takes about 5-8 seconds to turn on and I still have to hold the button until the lights turn on. Am I doing something wrong? I thought It was supposed to be you press the button and release and the system turns on.

[Tanooki]

1.5 is the gaming firmware. The update they're talking about to have it power on in 1/2 a second holding the power button as far as I know it a stand alone test I was handing out unless they bundled it somehow?

[RPG_Fanatic]

I updated my system with v1.5 but my system doesn't turn on as quick. It still takes about 5-8 seconds to turn on and I still have to hold the button until the lights turn on. Am I doing something wrong? I thought It was supposed to be you press the button and release and the system turns on.

Same here! I updated to the 1.5 and It's still the same as before 5-8 seconds.

[tomm1313]

the power button was application not the gaming part of the system


i updated to the power button then the 1.5 test firmware and im good to go with quick power on

[Tanooki]

I've sent him the link to the quick boot, it still is a working link I had from awhile back. There is a disclaimer of do it at your own risk, but there should be no risk, it's a cover your ass type thing since it's not officially out.

[omegadevil]

Thanks for the link Tanooki. I just installed the update on the Retron and it starts up soo quick. This is how it should have been released!. I really wasn't expecting it to be that fast.

[Cryog]

Tanooki, please send me the link !!!

[T]

I just got an email from Amazon. My unit shipped today.

Does anyone know if they latest updates will be installed or
does every system start at the same point and require the same updates?

[Satoshi_Matrix]

I just got an email from Amazon. My unit shipped today.

Does anyone know if they latest updates will be installed or
does every system start at the same point and require the same updates?

I would be greatly surprised if you don't get the 1.0 firmware. Hyperkin has been doing all it can to get the units shipped since the June 6 "launch". Nobody would have taken the time to update the firmware, or you'd be waiting yet much much longer.

[Tanooki]

Well actually I'd be almost surprised if it was 1.0 on there. The tech told me that whatever comes in they were supposedly going to intercept them and put the latest at the time firmware on the system before packaging it back up and shipping them out to their buyers(amazon, etc.) Maybe it will have 1.31 on it if you're lucky. Let us know it will confirm if the tech was given a line of crap or not.

[Tanooki]

Hey for those of you with this thing, got a request if you own GBA games, or people at least with GBA games in general.

I've been doing some digging and I'm starting to think that the R5 never actually had an SRAM bug killing the saves. I did not know this about in 2002 Nintendo quit with the batteries and they quietly replaced SRAM with FeRAM Ferroelectric RAM which doesn't need the battery. Supposedly it's super similar in design/function to SRAM other than the battery being out of the picture.

I'm seeing reports online of some stuff like the FF titles and some others being listed as SRAM but when opened up, they have no battery, so they're actually using FERAM.

Does anyone here have suspected SRAM games and a triwing and can check to see if they're FERAM? Also does anyone maybe have a hint where to find the FERAM specs in relation to the GBA if they're even out there. This appears to be what is causing the foul up perhaps. I haven't run this by the tech as I just figured it out doing some digging here.

[badinsults]

Pretty sure Final Fantasy IV (one of the last GBA games) uses this.

[Tanooki]

I think all the FF games use the same save type as it's cheaper than using a flash or eeprom chip. THough reported wrongly as sram by pocketheaven's release list they all are of the same type so perhaps whatever thing they used to pull the data mislables FeRAM as sram v113 type?

[Az]

I noticed something today on the SMS side. I don't know at what point the updates changed this, but now if I remove the SMS cart the system (converter still in the console) the console doesn't detect the cart being removed. This means you either have to completely remove the PBC or power cycle the system to change SMS games. I know for a fact the console did not do this a few updates ago. It probably has something to do with the programming on their cart detection routines changing and inadvertently causing this hiccup.

Also, I hadn't read this mentioned anywhere, but the console *does* map the pause button to your controller, so you don't have to walk up to the console and physically press the pause button on the converter. Definite plus. Those FM tunes? At first I didn't like them since they were so different from what I had ingrained in my memory from childhood, but now that I've actually sat for a length of time and listened to them, man are they such an improvement. Although only a handful of games utilize it I can see myself never going back to the regular MD hardware for these particular games.

[Tanooki]

I heard about the start button thing, a wise choice as it was just so so dumb Sega did that. I hated having to sit on the floor near the thing in case I wanted to pause it when I had one a couple years ago. As far as playing without the game the PBC isn't the only thing that works with. So far only with one converter, the Honeybee and none other, if you fire up a Famicom game using that in the NES slot, once it dumps the game you can remove the famicom cart and it will behave just fine as long as the Honeybee stays in the slot.

I finally got word back from the tech, the silence of the last week was that they got super busy pounding away at fixes and bugs I guess with the device. They did look into that thing about the SRAM vs the FeRAM thing I had brought up and found while the tech is different, how the BUS and operations work is identical so if both fail, both fail, it's not one or the other, so they have a crew working at figuring out what went wrong to fix up the save issue once and for all and could have a test build out in a few days/shortly to see if it's finally repaired. Basically any feedback people like me who bundle up stuff, or single people sending in reports they're fixing them and most of the feedback the techs are receiving has been positive so they're not being whined by trolls like their hyperkin facebook page does fortunately. So the save issue and stability improvements I guess will be what to look out for in the next version down the pipe.

[omegadevil]

Hey Tanooki, do you know if the Retron 5 supports the 74HC257 mapper or a mad1 chip? I recently purchased an snes Alcahest repro that didn't work on the Retron that had the same loading problem where the game comes up as an unknown cart and when you select to play the cart it starts the loading sequence again. I asked the creator about it and they mentioned that they use the 74HC257 mapper or a mad1 chip for creating carts.

Edit: spelling

[Tanooki]

I have no clue, but I can pass it on. I just try and get things fixed, I don't work on it so I have no access to that stuff without asking.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

I haven't been following too too closely, but since I should be getting my preorder unit soon (June 6 launch my ass) I wanted to ask about GBA games. I know GBA game saves have vanished for people who copy the sram to the system and then attempt to export it back to the cart. Is that still an ongoing issue? There are games that I want to play on the RetrOn5 like Final Fantasy VI Advance, but not if it's gonna cost me 80 hours of progress by deleting the save. Is it possible to play the game and not copy the sram to the system and only to and fro the cart itself?

[Tanooki]

Re-read my last post or the one before I forget, but yes it is, but it is right now with a team on it trying to fix the problem. SRAM and FeRAM have a random lower frequency bug that corrupts the save data causing it to be erased or broken so the game erases it for you(like Square games do.) EEPROM and FLASH save games and all other various games save formats are fine as far as I understand it(not seen any Sega complaints, but I don't have any to test.)


Yes it's possible to play. Just don't copy the save (by default system will do it the first time a game is new to the system) and you're fine as it auto saves a quick save file to the system if you jump out of the game, and also it has a true multi-slot save/load state mechanism too. If you don't care to play it on a GBA you can just play it on the system and save/load state your way through it, and if you do, just wait until it's fixed and then you can copy the save to the cartridge. By default the R5 will even if you use a 'real' save will just store it to the system anyway so the cartridge is safe in that respect, it's something to do with the reading and writing that causes the problem.

[Az]

Has anyone confirmed SMS SRAM games working properly? I've still yet to find any that are recognized properly. They all work and have the right header name but none are detected as having SRAM so you can never import/export saves and you have to rely on savestates rather than actual saves.

[lordloss]

I'm honestly pretty confused. NA is where hardcore collectors buy/sell. I wouldnt think anyone would want a retron since they would have every console anyway.

[Tanooki]

Not everyone there is that full of themselves or rude, there are some members there though they are waning that actually care more about the games than the dick measuring contests. I got over being the hard core collector a decade ago as I was forced to part most of it off and it just changed how I thought about it all and there are quite a few others there too that are that way who just like to talk games or just play them over running up the totals they're worth and for those they wanted or had already bought the thing like me.

[Eternal Champion]

Geez, for the price this thing is going for, and the hassles you guys are dealing with, the novelty (to me, anyway) of playing my small NES/SNES/Gen/GBA library on a modern TV hardly seems worth it.

[nusilver]

Geez, for the price this thing is going for, and the hassles you guys are dealing with, the novelty (to me, anyway) of playing my small NES/SNES/Gen/GBA library on a modern TV hardly seems worth it.

It's not really as bad as all that. Most games boot and play without issues. We're just waiting on proper handling of save files (especially for GBA games). In the mean time, I play with the "copy save to retron5" function off for now, and it's not making me enjoy things any less.

Having said that, I have about 250-300 games compatible with the system, and it's replaced my SNES and Famicom as my main retro gaming machine. Not something I ever expected to say about a clone. Too bad I can't use my flash carts on it.

[Tanooki]

Nusilver down to the wording beat me out on that comment. The GBA SRM/FeRAM saving is being repaired at the moment, and they seem to be pretty busy as they've been quiet online for a time now and I hear little worth mentioning the last couple weeks which is why I haven't done an update of any real value.

I put up my modded top loader and my dk super set snes(back in its box) and the sharp nes tv is still wired in because it is what it is and the n64 is plugged into it so it works right. A foolish mistake really to blow the thing off because the most is fails at anymore at this rate is some hit and miss stuff with some random game, the SRAM issue being fixed, and that all the bitchers and moaners will never be satisfied it won't use bootleg(piracy warez) consistently or run their flash carts(ever.)

[Az]

Hooked the Ouya back up last night to do a quick comparison and it seems the SNES emulator on the RetroN5 runs a bit better than SNES9x on the Ouya. With no filters they looked virtually identical, with HQ2X enabled the Ouya chokes with slowdown and frameskipping while the RetroN5 seems to handle it (or any other filter) without any problems.

I'll have to leave the NES for the weird mappers and MD for the 32x/CD, but if they improved the cheat engine to support RAM codes and support your own code input I'd have no reason to leave my SNES hooked up.