RetroN5: Hands on first look

[treismac]

Update: The new system they sent me is a defective piece of shit too. Not only does it still not detect my SMB2 cart, it's also wrongly assembled as there's a rainbow of wires that belongs UNDER the board over it instead and overlapping the famicom cartridge port. Now I'm up to 3 so supposedly now I've earned a NEW system, not a refurb and I'm not sure which as I got conflicted emails but either they mail it first and I return with a sticker in that box or I use the weird email 3 hours later and print another freebie sticker and go back to UPS again. I have no idea what's up with that and it's Friday so they won't see that mail until Monday.

I'm so over this crap.


FYI -- I pulled my toploader out of the sterlite drawer it is just barely fitting within, fired up the cart (SMB2) perfectly without needing a cleaning and movement of it at all. Pure bullshit and I'm pissed off now.

So, how common are RetroN5 horror stories on par with Tanooki's? I thought you were in contact with Hyperkin advising them on compatibility issues. Why are they f*cking around with setting your system straight? I was toying around with picking a R5 up after a price drop, but now with all the widespread problems AND the price raise, I have no plans to touch the damn thing.

Sorry, by the way, Tanooki, for all of the bs you have gone through with your ordeal with Hyperkin.

I hate to say it, but that troll MyTurnToPlay's predictions seem to have not been not too far off base.

[tomm1313]

my machine took a dump a week after his.

I sent it back 1.5 weeks ago. According to the tracking number il have it back on tuesday which will be 2 weeks from when i sent it in to getting it back


it took a dump the same way. Reading NES carts.

[BetaWolf47]

So the system's junk and uses open source emulators without permission? (http://www.libretro.com/index.php/retroarch-license-violations/) I think I'll pass on this...

[Atarileaf]

They'll be raising the price by $20 soon too. Whether that means they'll start making working systems with more consistency is debatable. Sounds like their RMA department needs a complete makeover too

[ibain]

I've been playing Final Fantasy 6 Advance, and I'm almost through the game on the R5. Saves are working well, both to and from the cartridge. The only issue I'm experiencing is occasional sound issues. Every 10-20 minutes the music cuts out for about 1-2 seconds. I've never played it with the sound on with the GBA before though, so I don't know if this is a game issue or a R5 issue.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

That's a real headscratcher. Tanooki, you should contact Hyperkin and have them replace it again and this time have them test the new one before they sent it.

Also is your SMB2 a full pinned version or the more common re-release that has the middle pins missing?

I have the full pinned version and it works no problem on my Retron5.

[Tanooki]

My understanding is that when I asked the guy after the 2nd DOA I straight up questioned the $20 price increase, they said they went back and used sturdier parts that cost more which is why there's the increase. Take that as you will.

I don't hate the company. I hate the random bs I'm putting up with. #1 stops seeing SMB2 is even in the slot, another gets dicey to detect correctly. #2 arrives DOA and scuffed up, which they said was an accident. #3 I can see it was as it was packaged like new and clean, yet it too can't see SMB2 then I find wires over the famicom jack inside the slot. The tech was right though, the 3rd system had .22 application and 1.5 firmware on it instead of .20/1.0.

Here you can see the slot issue -> http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee167/tanooki-suit/IMG_0002_zps6d610245.jpg
7677
Now my question to everyone, am I the only one here with invisible SMB2 action going on? My SMB2 is from when it came out, no missing gap of pins on one side, full on both.

Also another related question, it worked fine through the 1.5 release I know that, I think 1.6 is where it went out because it wasn't on there and 2.0b6 it wasn't working either on the other one the other day. Is this is a software screwup or what? I have no idea.

If I end up with a 4th system that gives me shit depending on what it pulls I'm either going to demand my money back or I'll sell it to someone who is fine with the system as it is. I've still got my RCA'd up top loader with honeybee, my DK Set SNES is in the box again for now, and my GB micro and GB Player can handle the rest.

IBAIN: I've learned that sound issue is potentially related to a SYNC issue that should be corrected. Some people report that if you have the R5 setup to (if in slot) to default saving to a SD card and not the system itself, it causes those sync problems. I played FF6A extensively on the system after they had that SRAM/FERAM save eating issue that killed my game 3x over, so I got many hours on it with many firmware releases and it never desynched on me.


Myturntoplay was a pure ass, he just got lucky with the guesses to tick people off with the endless trolling wrecking conversations.

[ibain]

Interesting, Thanks Tanooki!

I'll start messing with it and see what happens.

[Tanooki]

I don't want to say too much yet as I'm not sure what all is going to happen, but my issue with the R5 went back to the head office in HK. Seems the tech somehow got ahold of that image of my messed up system I took from the US office and now they're stepping in it appears. Things are going to a level I never expected and all will be handled with very properly and in the best way possible it appears at this rate.

I'm curious to see when it all comes to an end when I find out more, but I think all will be good in the end.

I also found out that the SMB2 issue seems to be a growing issue among R5 owners, so it wasn't just my system so it could be a coding error or something going on with the firmware for awhile now as it used to work awhile ago from launch to a point.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Some people have also reported that the Zelda Oracle games on GameBoy Color and Kid Icarus on GameBoy don't work on their Retron5.

I've had none of these issues myself though. Super Mario Bros. 2 works flawlessly for me. I even posted a test video of it.

[Tanooki]

Did it work for you on firmware 1.6 through all 2.0beta and 2.0? I"m thinking perhaps it works with 2.1 and 1.5 and before.

[tomm1313]

i really hope my luck is better then Tanooki. i get my replacement system today....

[Tanooki]

Won't be hard to find that out, just look into the cart slot, then turn it on and see if the menu pops up. :D I'm curious if you got a later release one or not.

The newer systems have a slightly less wide black box it comes in, and they come with .22/1.5 game firmware installed already so it's very functional out of the box unlike back in June.

[tomm1313]

i really hope my luck is better then Tanooki. i get my replacement system today....

mine looks in good condition. All pins look good but it is clearly used...or i should say refurb.

it has screenshots and saves on it.

it was an original one: .20 and 1.0

[Tanooki]

Well the best I can gather is that if a board is jacked they just take the whole system and put it in a pile for parts or recovery elsewhere, then they take refurb parts which are the case, guts, and the other things and throw those in a box and send it back your way. The refurb cases are supposed to just show slight wear, definitely would be on the super scratch worthy black shiny top, and that's that. The second one I had, someone appears to have accidentally or whatever tossed a beat up broken one in a box and sent it as I can't figure it any other way.

[tomm1313]

yeah it all seems to be working. I did a factory reset of the machine with .22 and then installed 2.1 and then fast boot.

tested 3 or 4 NES games all worked. Figured ill try rest of systems this weekend.


SMB2J works...just comes up unknown for me

[Tanooki]

That's good, you have a version of SMB2j that uses mapper 0-4 being that it's a hack, or it uses one of those other high mappers that are installed into it. That game is very hit and miss on working.

[Gameguy]

it has screenshots and saves on it.
I guess they don't bother testing them out before sending them out to customers, if they actually repair them before sending them out(I think they forgot to for Tanooki's systems). It's pretty sloppy to send them out like that with previous owners content still on it.

[Tanooki]

The one with the exposed wires was the same. I had snap shots, saves, and so on for every system the unit natively supports (so whatever minus SMS since I doubt they have a powerbase lying around.) It also was at firmware 1.5 and .22 application.

[Atarileaf]

I guess they don't bother testing them out before sending them out to customers, if they actually repair them before sending them out(I think they forgot to for Tanooki's systems). It's pretty sloppy to send them out like that with previous owners content still on it.

I'm not surprised, this company SCREAMS "sloppy". For the prices they charge (and want to increase) they should damn well do their due diligence when repairing or refurbing someone's machine.

[Tanooki]

It appears the slop is US based from what I've been made aware of and I'm curious to see how that's being dealt with now that it has been exposed with my story and I'm sure others as well.

[Tanooki]

The Retron saga takes yet another twist but finally coming to an end.

Today I got my replacement for the one with the exposed wires. I was told I'd get a brand new total system in the box. That did not happen. I got a brand new box, the box for a black system (I had gray) and inside was just the papers and the black system only. I called them, woman was confused, I got a call back like 15min later from the guy who helped last time. Seems they ran out of gray systems to ship out for replacement so they just did the black one and the shipper didn't I guess realize the mistake. Now I get to hold onto gray a bit longer, they'll be mailing me a black controller, and when that arrives I'll just mail back the gray system box, gray system, gray controller, and I keep the rest. The black system when I fired it up was in fact brand new, booted up to the first time hello screen and the internal settings/storage were fresh and empty(no saves.)

I'm not upset about it, and that black one does not clash like gray, and it is stock with .22/1.31 firmware, so I put 2.0b6 on there for quick loading of games as I don't need the fluff 2.1 fixed. It took basically 2 months to finish, but it appears resolved so far. I need to really stress test it, and still SMB2 won't load but I've learned it's a general software failure of the system, some bug that got introduced with a specific (guessing 1.0, not 1.1) of SMB2 as many others report it doing the same. I threw in Akamajyou Densetsu and it was cool, still need to toss some SNES and GBA games in to round it out but I'm not concerned.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

so what you're saying is, that there was nothing at all wrong with at least two of the previous retron5 systems you had.

[Tanooki]

No, I didn't say that.

Original system SMB2 dead and Gargoyle's Quest 2 wouldn't load without putting up a fight as the slot as starting to fail being touchy to load games. Second system arrived DOA inside, beat up on the outside with a partly damaged click stick controller. Third system was factory defective, the wiring for the famicom game cart slot was installed over the slot the game goes into, not under the board, yet that one did load up Gargoyles Quest 2 just fine.

I'm on #4 now, and this black system seems fine the very little I've thrown at it, my kid was up and I hadn't the time or ability to properly run games through it yet.

SMB2 it appears has become an increasing problem, one version works, one version doesn't, and they don't have the broken cart handy in HK to run a comparison of the two releases to see why the hell it's not wanting to work on v1.31 and later.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

lol going through four Retron5s. The one I got has no issues. Maybe you just have bad luck?

Then again, I bought an Xbox 360 shortly after it launched in 2005 and it's never once had the red ring. To this day I can fire that up and it works just fine. Meanwhile I've had friends go through several.

[Tanooki]

Nah it wasn't me, is was their incompetence. I should have just had one swap and been done. You definitely got lucky with the launch 360, supposedly I think it was figured around 40% of those failed in time.

Edit -- I tried out DOOM, Wolfenstein 3D and my very rare Qwak aftermarket homebrew cart along with FF6A -- no issues copied to system, save copied back to carts, all solid. Wild Guns on SNES was fine, and NES SMB1, Kirby and Gargoyles Quest 2 with no issue. I think this should work out fine, probably could test chipped SNES games still but I've had my fill for now.

[dgdgagdae]

lol going through four Retron5s. The one I got has no issues. Maybe you just have bad luck?

I'm not sure why you're laughing at Tanooki, with all the posts you cried in about your pre-ordered unit not getting shipped when you wanted it to. You of all people should be able to sympathize with him.

[Gameguy]

I'm not sure why you're laughing at Tanooki, with all the posts you cried in about your pre-ordered unit not getting shipped when you wanted it to. You of all people should be able to sympathize with him.
Give it some time. His console isn't as old/used as Tanooki's when it crapped out. It could still happen in a few months.

[Tanooki]

Well it would be some ironic justice if it did eat it, especially since it could take him months to get another. :D The US office is pretty bad at getting things right the first and even second time, somewhat the third too. :D

[FoxHack]

Has there been any mention on when and or if we're getting GBA cheats?

[stardust4ever]

Tanooki, sorry to hear your Retron5 crapped out. After reports of broken firmware on launch, followed by broken systems, followed by stolen emulators, I decided it wasn't for me.

Special shoutout to Tanooki and Satoshi for beta testing the thing so that I don't have too! :evil:

In all seriousness, haven't been following much lately. Tanooki, I hope you get yours repaired or whatever. Satoshi, enjoy your system...

[Emuaust]

I've been giving my Retron 5 a real play testing and have come to the conclusion that it's an impressive bit of kit for American gamers, PAL gamers on the other hand, meh.

Terrangmia PAL has crapped out audio until the region is switched back to an NTSC region post boot, the cheats database pretty much has nothing for PAL games outside of the SMS. Last but not least I cant play pal copies of Sonic 3 or Sonic & Knuckles.

[stardust4ever]

I've been giving my Retron 5 a real play testing and have come to the conclusion that it's an impressive bit of kit for American gamers, PAL gamers on the other hand, meh.

Terrangmia PAL has crapped out audio until the region is switched back to an NTSC region post boot, the cheats database pretty much has nothing for PAL games outside of the SMS. Last but not least I cant play pal copies of Sonic 3 or Sonic & Knuckles.
And that's the main problem with this system. Because the emulator relies on CRC hashes to detect games, a large number of uncommon/obscure/imports/variants are going to get overlooked and have issues or downright not work as advertised. And that's saying nothing of the myriad of homebrews, hacks, repros, and pirates thrown into the mix. Retron5 has made great progress in adding support for previously unsupported games, but it will never be 100%.

I wish Hyperkin could have just gone the FPGA route and created a multi-in-one console that used FPGA cores instead, which could actually emulate the cartridge bus itself in realtime, boasting 100% compatability. Since an FPGA can be reflashed on the fly to support multiple consoles, they could keep costs down by not needing a separate SOAC for each system. And firmware updates could easily be provided for any hardware issues that come up, unlike traditional clones.

I for one, am super exited about the upcoming HDMI NES by Brian aka BunnyBoy at RetroUSB. I hope someday a non-infringing multi-sytem HD FPGA eventually comes out, with real controller/cartrige support for SNES, Genny, hell even Atari 2600/7800. No crappy stolen emulators or cart dumping needed...

[thom_m]

Fun little fact: there's a website (hypermega.com.br) selling this thing here in Brazil for - I kid you not - 899,90 goddamn (brazilian) bucks!!

[stardust4ever]

Fun little fact: there's a website (hypermega.com.br) selling this thing here in Brazil for - I kid you not - 899,90 goddamn (brazilian) bucks!!
Which translates to $360.62 USD. Not surprising they gave it a more than 2x markup considering the insane import fees over there are often more than what the product is worth. No wonder there is so much bootlegging going on there... *_*

[thom_m]

That website is apparently run by Hyperkin itself, or some officially licensed company. Taxes are surely one part of the issue, but I'm pretty sure that the retrogaming fad + vídeo games seen as a "premium" product here (remember the R $ 4k PS4) also play a role on that ridiculous price.

[Tanooki]

Tanooki, sorry to hear your Retron5 crapped out. After reports of broken firmware on launch, followed by broken systems, followed by stolen emulators, I decided it wasn't for me.

Special shoutout to Tanooki and Satoshi for beta testing the thing so that I don't have too! :evil:

In all seriousness, haven't been following much lately. Tanooki, I hope you get yours repaired or whatever. Satoshi, enjoy your system...

You're late to the show I've got one, oddly enough it morphed into a black retron5, but I do have one and it only took 2 months of stupid screwups and factory broken units. :D I played some butched SNES Wolfenstein on it today. It's so bad, it's good, like a rubber monster movie from Japan.

Haha HDMI NES, has he decided which decade he'll be releasing that in and what price? That thing has seen more delays than Rare releases on the N64 back in the day.

[stardust4ever]

You're late to the show I've got one, oddly enough it morphed into a black retron5, but I do have one and it only took 2 months of stupid screwups and factory broken units. :D I played some butched SNES Wolfenstein on it today. It's so bad, it's good, like a rubber monster movie from Japan.

Haha HDMI NES, has he decided which decade he'll be releasing that in and what price? That thing has seen more delays than Rare releases on the N64 back in the day.Glad to hear you finally got one that worked. I believe the HDMI NES will be in the $150-$160 ballpark. And it will work with 100% of NES and Famicom games and peripherals. No CRC checks, stolen EMU cores, or other nonsense.

No hard feelings to the people at NA I hope. Brian also makes some of the best NES stuff on the planet.

[Az]

Last but not least I cant play pal copies of Sonic 3 or Sonic & Knuckles.

What happens on these two?

[stardust4ever]

What happens on these two?Stack them together and you get a game so packed with awesomeness it will blow yer mind! :drinking:

[Tanooki]

I have no issue with Brian or various people who were supportive over at that site but the site itself and the mismanagement clique nature of it and key staff I have a problem with and I'm over it too. The only value the site has anymore is looking up technical stuff since the immature politics still seem to stay out of that. It has been pretty nice not having to be told I'm evil for various stuff they uniquely bash, shut down and ban over that rational people wouldn't care about.

You're right he makes solid stuff, I still have his Kid Dracula and Gradius II carts. I just just making the pity laugh there since it seems to be eternally slow to develop or delayed, whatever is going on there.

Yesterday I used the R5 a bit to play around with the so bad it's good mutilated game of Wolfenstein 3D. I get the nazis, but removing the dogs for giant mutant rats? :) It's so widely different and none of the stages are in the PC, plus thankfully it has a map, so it's actually quite fun despite the bad rap. It's like a good Japanese rubber monster movie, crappy but so bad that it's fun to watch and re-watch.

[Dire 51]

I just received an R5 as a gift, yesterday. Today, after testing (or attempting to test) some Famicom games after installing the latest update, the Famicom port is refusing to read any games, even ones that booted up successfully the day before. I have noticed that the games have been coming out of the slot very easily now, whereas they weren't before. Think the pins have gotten too loose to run the games? Any idea what can I do about this?

Interestingly enough, I pulled out an old Fami-to-NES converter I had and tested Fami games in the NES slot. Without fail, all of them are loading up perfectly.

Also, it seems that my SNES port is now giving me the same issues as the Famicom port.

[Tanooki]

Could be one of the minority of first run units with the sloppy pins which is annoyingly supposedly why they're upping the price for better parts.

I'd take a good look in the slot and see if anything looks bent or pressed flatter than it should be. If it is, get a safety pin and try and bend the things back towards center a bit more to add some tightness to it. I've never really heard about looseness only complaining about it being too tight.

[Emuaust]

Has there been any word on what the two empty cart slots on the mainboard where going to be used for?

Also lack of any chatter on GBA cheats makes me sad too FoxHack

[Dire 51]

Could be one of the minority of first run units with the sloppy pins which is annoyingly supposedly why they're upping the price for better parts.

I'd take a good look in the slot and see if anything looks bent or pressed flatter than it should be. If it is, get a safety pin and try and bend the things back towards center a bit more to add some tightness to it. I've never really heard about looseness only complaining about it being too tight.
I checked, and everything looks fine. I contacted Hyperkin's support line and they told me to do a complete factory reset, as shown here (http://retron5.in/node/4). I suppose there's a possibility that installing the update might have caused problems, but has that ever been confirmed to happen before?

[Tanooki]

Maybe maybe not. The original R5 I had before it went through all the failure fun initially worked with SMB2, but somewhere around the 1.3-1.5 updates the game decided to up and not be read at all by the system when it's in the slot but it did work in the early days. I think if you have a fubar enough bit of code somewhere in there it can make a cart act like it's not in the slot.

[stardust4ever]

I have no issue with Brian or various people who were supportive over at that site but the site itself and the mismanagement clique nature of it and key staff I have a problem with and I'm over it too. The only value the site has anymore is looking up technical stuff since the immature politics still seem to stay out of that. It has been pretty nice not having to be told I'm evil for various stuff they uniquely bash, shut down and ban over that rational people wouldn't care about.

Just yesterday NA deletd a tread I started concerning a problem I had with the majority of repro makers using the Official Seal of Quality and other official logos like the ESRB inappropriately. Not so much of a warning or explaination at all, just the entire thread vanished.
http://forum.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?172471-NA-Inappropriate-usage-of-the-Nintendo-Seal-and-ESRB-logo

[Tanooki]

More of the usual there, if it's not pro-big spender collector, pro-hypocritical support of the warez(repros) and homebrews they like, and the creation of stuff so tacky you can't confuse it for original, it's taboo, erased, or if you're lucky - banned. That's why there's so much love for there on various other gaming sites because if you're not neck deep into that stuff or VGAs ass you're in trouble eventually.

[Tanooki]

Hey I just noticed something I feel kind of bad about not realizing it a couple weeks ago.

That black Retron 5 I got, it's the new $20 more expensive new version of the hardware. This thing is solidly built! The top part that used to flex under the slightest pressure is now rigid like the rest of the frame. The system also has rubber caps that go into the ports on both sides of the system to keep those safe in transit and dust out of the things otherwise. The pins on them seem to be of nicer stock too from what I can tell, but I also didn't have bad ones either. It started out firm like a new legit period system, no death grip as people have noted. I know the $20 price hike was a crap stunt to pull, but it appears they've addressed the flimsiness issues with the system design flaws/issues on those aspects.

If you're in the market, buy one locally and pull it out of the box and give the top a push and look for the rubber caps, if it is that way, you got a winner.



By the way is there any trick to loading IPS files? I found a spare SD card I had no idea I had in my wallet of all things so I figured I'd park some fixes (CV2 retranslation w/map) and some Japanese to English patches for my famicom junk.

[stardust4ever]

Hey I just noticed something I feel kind of bad about not realizing it a couple weeks ago.

That black Retron 5 I got, it's the new $20 more expensive new version of the hardware. This thing is solidly built! The top part that used to flex under the slightest pressure is now rigid like the rest of the frame. The system also has rubber caps that go into the ports on both sides of the system to keep those safe in transit and dust out of the things otherwise. The pins on them seem to be of nicer stock too from what I can tell, but I also didn't have bad ones either. It started out firm like a new legit period system, no death grip as people have noted. I know the $20 price hike was a crap stunt to pull, but it appears they've addressed the flimsiness issues with the system design flaws/issues on those aspects.

If you're in the market, buy one locally and pull it out of the box and give the top a push and look for the rubber caps, if it is that way, you got a winner.



By the way is there any trick to loading IPS files? I found a spare SD card I had no idea I had in my wallet of all things so I figured I'd park some fixes (CV2 retranslation w/map) and some Japanese to English patches for my famicom junk.My local Game-X-Change has them for $139.99. Ayway to tell if tey are the improved or the old versions without opening the box?

[Tanooki]

Possibly but don't hold me to the following.

Check the size of the box. The black one I got compared to the launch gray it's slightly less wide and as a result the lettering on the back is changed a bit to fit the smaller area. I still think the best thing if it's in person is to see if someone will let you open the box and put a finger on the glossy top because if it doesn't bend, you're a winner.

[Tanooki]

I hope this works.
https://drive.google.com/#folders/0B_eUpCi7r6paaDdQb1p5TTEtM00

There's some images of what is useful, and bad news I don't have the older different box, I must have sent that one back to them. There's 5 images there showing the new bottom label, the back with the pinhole cover, the controller ports with the rubber caps, pushing down really hard on the formerly flimsy top, and the differing paperwork/stickers they included in this box compared to the original one (manual has their hippo mascot on back too, old didn't.)

[Leo_A]

Has anyone gotten the E-Reader levels for Super Mario Bros. 3 going on the Retron 5? Obviously you can't interface an E-Reader, but I'm talking about something like dumping your own cart and save file with the levels already unlocked.

One of you kindly offered to upload them to my own GBA cartridge, an offer I might still take you up on one of these days (Although I suspect a GBA Everdrive will give me access on real hardware), but it would be nice to see a Retron 5 save file of the game being uploaded if that's all it takes.

Not only could you access this material here, but you could upload the data with the E-Reader information back onto your cartridge if you so desired.

[stardust4ever]

Has anyone gotten the E-Reader levels for Super Mario Bros. 3 going on the Retron 5? Obviously you can't interface an E-Reader, but I'm talking about something like dumping your own cart and save file with the levels already unlocked.

One of you kindly offered to upload them to my own GBA cartridge, an offer I might still take you up on one of these days, but it would be nice to see a Retron 5 save file of the game being uploaded if that's all it takes.

Not only could you access this material here, but you could upload the data back onto your cartridge if you so desired.I think Retrode also works as well for copying saves, with correct adapter. I have a Retrode and a SMA4 but unfortunately I don't have an e-Reader.:monkey:

[leatherrebel5150]

Anything new with the Retron 5's? Any new updates/issues being worked on?

[Ze_ro]

The other day I was playing Star Ocean, using an IPS patch to play in English... I honestly didn't expect that to work, what with the S-DD1 chip and all... but it worked just fine. Sweet Home patched very nicely too.

I was pretty skeptical about what Hyperkin had been claiming, figuring it was just marketing BS... but I'm actually quite impressed with what the machine can actually do.

--Zero

[stardust4ever]

Obviously cheating, but technically you can make an IPS patch for anything, essentially rom loading on the Retron. ie, make a patch for Super Mario World that plays Earthbound.:evil laugh:

[nusilver]

Hasn't been an app update since 2.3, right? This board has been pretty quiet since all that messed happened with open source emulators. I guess I'll upgrade to 2.3 and see if the Oracles games, Mother 3, and Metroid ZM work any better than before.

[Tanooki]

News to me there was a 2.3 upgrade as I don't ever look. :) I don't see it on their site, just 2.2...typo? 2.2 did nothing of value for the public anyway, it's under the hood work to cover a hardware variant coming out due to changing out some parts for others as the license or whatever expired (so no it's not an upgrade.)

[nusilver]

News to me there was a 2.3 upgrade as I don't ever look. :) I don't see it on their site, just 2.2...typo? 2.2 did nothing of value for the public anyway, it's under the hood work to cover a hardware variant coming out due to changing out some parts for others as the license or whatever expired (so no it's not an upgrade.)


Yep, sorry, I meant 2.0 beta 3. :)

I've updated to the latest. Metroid: Zero Mission still slows down, Mother 3 battles still don't work properly, repro or original cart. I guess I just won't use the Retron 5 to play those games, which is a shame because they're two of my favorites. I messaged the Retron tech on Facebook the other day since they were supposedly working on the Metroid slowdown months ago, but haven't heard back.

[Tanooki]

Time of the year I would suspect you won't get much of a reply around now. They're working on coding up stuff as I said because of the hardware part changes so that the firmware works with both builds so until that's ironed out and completed up to the standard of the original there won't be any fixes and perks added but they'll return.

[Mechageo]

Is it worth getting the first edition if I can buy it used from a friend for $70?

I've heard so many bad things about it and I don't want to break it with normal use and have to buy a second generation one anyway later.

[Tanooki]

Total crap shoot. If $70 is chump change to you then I'd risk it, but if not I wouldn't waste your money. They're totally random if they break on you or not. Some use it a few times and a pin pops or bends or some games decide they're unwelcome to be loaded anymore, others will pound away at it for a many hours a week and no problems other than the chronic stuff like the super tight genesis grip (less on others), the flimsy top, and the poorly attached controller ports.

Having been through garbage with the first and eventually granted an early just off the line 2nd model they stick with today I wouldn't wish anyone to gamble on it. They do come up for sale now and again on amazon and ebay(used) so I mean you could still get that $140 original price if not less which makes the $70 hit against it not that compelling.

[stardust4ever]

Total crap shoot. If $70 is chump change to you then I'd risk it, but if not I wouldn't waste your money. They're totally random if they break on you or not. Some use it a few times and a pin pops or bends or some games decide they're unwelcome to be loaded anymore, others will pound away at it for a many hours a week and no problems other than the chronic stuff like the super tight genesis grip (less on others), the flimsy top, and the poorly attached controller ports.

Having been through garbage with the first and eventually granted an early just off the line 2nd model they stick with today I wouldn't wish anyone to gamble on it. They do come up for sale now and again on amazon and ebay(used) so I mean you could still get that $140 original price if not less which makes the $70 hit against it not that compelling.Yeah, my local game shop still sells them for $140. I'm sure by now they've long since sold out the original models, but I just can't see myself buying a Retron5 at this point. My SRT is still working great even if the NES controller ports are an Achilles heel. The stock 9-pin SNES inspired clone Genesis controllers are just as good as original SNES controllers, and the 6-button Genesis controllers also work great. Everdrive support are huge perks, and with famicom adapter, the Super Game Boy and Retro Advance Port, the only system it doesn't fully support that Retron5 does is Game Boy Color. And they didn't steal emulators either.

I'm saving up for various future FPGA based solutions. The HDMI NES is one. The RetroVGS is also rumored to get Retrode-like addons in the future to let it play original games using FPGA hardware emulation instead of Retron5 style software emulation.

[Tanooki]

I totally get the argument against the R5 if you want to run bootlegs, boots sold as repros to lie about it, multicarts, and copier carts completely. It just wont happen due to that stupid CRC registry on the thing. HDMI NES now thats a NA loving pipedream delayed how many years now? The sad thing is you cant even relegate it to the vaporware bin because it does in some form exist since the NA inner circle has some members who use and test what of it that does exist with that scoreboard feature. It would be nice if that did show up eventually, but the price surely will be cost prohibitive to most but the biggest collectors and competitors wiling to compete.

Id like to see a setup like youre talking about but one that was multisystem like the R5 and has a way like the 90s tools that will hot save progress, but not be emulated.

[Mechageo]

Okay, so I ended up buying the Retron 5 for $70 and I'm actually pretty glad I did.
Luckily for me, it ended up being (from my limited research) a second revision with sturdy cartridge ports and 4GB of internal memory.

Everything seems to work well, but some games just don't work. My Oracle of Ages for GBC and Mario+Duck Hunt+World Class Track Meet don't read at all.
I've cleaned them and everything.

It's on firmware 2.2, perhaps an update will fix it.

As a side note, I love being able to choose to not "Force Original Resolution" so that the game displays in 4:3. I love the scan-lines and the image filters, too.

What I don't like is the price of used games.
I have a Wii U with a SNES to Wiimote adapter and the eShop games are a lot cheaper. The problem is that they look super blocky and are forced into some sort of 1:1 picture.

I wonder if there's a way to smooth the image on the Wii U without setting the output to 480p.

Any thoughts about any of this?

[stardust4ever]

Okay, so I ended up buying the Retron 5 for $70 and I'm actually pretty glad I did.
Luckily for me, it ended up being (from my limited research) a second revision with sturdy cartridge ports and 4GB of internal memory.

Everything seems to work well, but some games just don't work. My Oracle of Ages for GBC and Mario+Duck Hunt+World Class Track Meet don't read at all.
I've cleaned them and everything.

It's on firmware 2.2, perhaps an update will fix it.

As a side note, I love being able to choose to not "Force Original Resolution" so that the game displays in 4:3. I love the scan-lines and the image filters, too.

What I don't like is the price of used games.
I have a Wii U with a SNES to Wiimote adapter and the eShop games are a lot cheaper. The problem is that they look super blocky and are forced into some sort of 1:1 picture.

I wonder if there's a way to smooth the image on the Wii U without setting the output to 480p.

Any thoughts about any of this?
The issue with some games not working is just part of how the Retron5 operates since it needs checksums in order to determine appropriate mapper to run games. Some obscure unlicensed, imports, ROM revision, or homebrew games may not get recognized or run at all.

Wii-U should automatically sidebar VC games run in Wii mode. For whatever reason, the Wii-U VC games have sharp pixels for SNES but NES games are blurry. I prefer the look of razor sharp pixels. Ideally, they should give gamers the option of whether or not to apply a filter, but this is nintendo we are talking about. Super Retro Trio works with ll three Everdrives (not powerpak) although it's got some minor audio and video issues with a tiny percentage of NES games. Mods are available to get Castlevania III NES and Virtua Racing Genesis running.

[Tanooki]

I can confirm both those games work, you've got some kind of a problem on your end there with those GBC and NES carts. I don't know what the issue is if you're using firmware 2.2 that shouldn't block them.

Force Original Resolution is pretty nice if you don't mind having your games not fill the screen as it just looks more like an old TV with the scanlines and stuff if you balance it right.

The price of used games is a huge headache for a lot of people due to the scalping and predatory flipping the last five years because before that virtually no one cared, and now non-gamers in mass get into it just to buy up the old prices on games and sell them as high as possible to people who are trapped, suckers, or just don't care. But at the same time, don't ever consider a Virtual Console game a good idea unless you just want to meddle with something in passing. Sure they're cheap, but you do realize you do not own them right? They're rentals. They may call them purchases, but you're just renting the game until they decide to no longer support the system you downloaded it to, and after that, you're screwed and your money is gone.

My thoughts, if you're super casual and don't care, rather pay $5 for a rental for a few years and be done with it, get rid of the Retron5 and your games. If you like to own what you have and use it as you see fit under your terms alone, keep it and just hunt harder for non-gouging prices. It's far less easy but more rewarding having a real game, and with the R5 you get the aspects of an emulator like the VC or the PC with all the save/load states, filters, hacks, translations and the rest.



You know I don't recall, but doesn't Virtua Racing work on the R5? I don't own it so I never really looked into it.

[stardust4ever]

You know I don't recall, but doesn't Virtua Racing work on the R5? I don't own it so I never really looked into it.I have no idea if the Retron5 emulates the Virtua Processor or not, considering it was only used on one game. 32X isn't supported at all, which is kind of crummy since the Retron5 could have easily been made to fit the cartridges and run them natively via the Genesis slot.

Virtua Racing can be made to run on the Super Retro Trio simply by adding a jumper wire to the Genesis port, but I can't be bothered to do that for one obscure game considering I have a real Genesis to play on. SRT does support Famicom adapter, Super Game Boy (GB), Retrobit's own Retro Advance Port (GBA), and SMS adapter (Power Base Mini converter by SAG), making Game Boy Color the only system supported by Retron5 and not SRT.

[Tanooki]

SRT has its own problems of accuracy though too, which is why I overlooked it awhile back going between their goods and hyperkin. Neither on a system on a chip side of things seem to give a damn about improving the problems either of their consoles have. At least the R5 can be flashed with firmware updates, but at the same time it just won't play nice with some fake carts, any flash carts, and a few other oddball things most people wouldn't even know exists so it's a trade off.

[stardust4ever]

SRT has its own problems of accuracy though too, which is why I overlooked it awhile back going between their goods and hyperkin. Neither on a system on a chip side of things seem to give a damn about improving the problems either of their consoles have. At least the R5 can be flashed with firmware updates, but at the same time it just won't play nice with some fake carts, any flash carts, and a few other oddball things most people wouldn't even know exists so it's a trade off.
Either way, it's half a dozen of one and six of the other Brian of RetroUSB even advertises his custom homebrew mapper as "will not work on stolen emulators such as the Retron5." Retrobit didn't steal emulator cores from open sourced projects like Retroarch either...

There is supposed to be a new Japanese console emulator (like Retron5) on the horizon that also supports PCE/Turbo Grafx. I'm waiting to see if it's any good or not. The Turbo ED v1.2 should even work with it in theory since it will autoload the previously flashed game card if no SD is present.:cool:

Besides, I'm using a Raspberry Pi bartop arcade (porta-pi) for all my emulation needs now. MAME rules...

[Tanooki]

Well if we're going to go there, theft is a gray area given the materials and research gone into those emulators, and if the rightful owners of those emulators have no reason to question the R5 there's no reason people should care either other than to score cheap and really sad political points over a console of all things. The only potential theft there was SNES9x and the Genesis emualtor and neither original author who could stop them bothered to complain so it's a nonissue. If retroarch bits used in the code were an issue, then instead of whining like a baby online the dude should have got a lawyer and tried to tie the console up in courts while seeking an injunction to keep the system off shelves until the issue was resolved (which likely could have broke Hyperkin in the process.) I'm glad they did what they did, and fuck that retroarch crybaby who tried and failed to start some attack over it as it proved he had nothing to stand on. Retrobit on the other hand is junk and have shoveled junk for years just like Hyperkin with their rebranded Chinese garbage, just less junky than the god awful trash that Yobo put out.

I'd rather have an emulator box than a shitty clone that doesn't interpret the games properly due to bad design. And why exactly is retrousb even a thing? It's just another crook shoveling games, some of which was not legal in any respect to do so like the Konami releases, the VS arcade games, SMB2j and others. He's a nice guy, but he's also a nobody except to a niche within a niche of game collectors/players who even know what the hell his company is or who he is too.

There is one you're right, it was covered on this site too somewhere about the R5, and while it does add the PCE setup, it removes the NES and only has famicom. It also forces a spendy addon to allow the usage of original controllers as an option which is another expense. I don't see that doing well outside of Asia without it being retooled as Americans will have no interest for the most part in a Famicom slot as they have NES games.

[calgon]

Harsh. All non-original consoles have their downsides. R5 still has noticeable lag and a controller designed by satan. SRT does has the graphical and audio issues but on the whole it's much better than any other clone.

I do wish we would get a revision of the SRT that at the very least corrects the noise from the genesis side.

A lot of us agree that virtual console isn't the best but sometimes (esp in the case of Ys book I and II on wii) it can offer a great deal on something you'd have to pay tons of cash for.

[Tanooki]

No it doesn't, at least if you have a TV under a certain ms in response time, or jack it into a computer LED/LCD as they don't have that issue. I'll give you the controller, it does lag being bluetooth and built like garbage, not comfortable either.

The VC is a mixed bag, and you're right, when I had the Wii I did have the TG16 Ys Book1+2 and that was a hell of a savings at $6 vs the price that disc let alone the DUO goes for now which are both outrageous. Dracula X you could throw into that one too.

[nusilver]

Hey guys! So, it's been awhile, but I just randomly checked on the Hyperkin website and saw a recent firmware update - 2.3 beta 3 (yes, 2.3, Tanooki, haha), posted December 9th, 2015. I updated it because I noticed a minor graphical inaccuracy on Final Fantasy 3 (in certain menus, the blue gradient disappears about halfway to the bottom and just goes straight to darkest blue).... anyway, 2.3 beta 3 didn't fix that, but it DID fix literally the BIGGEST problem I had with the system: combos in Mother 3 finally work correctly! WOOOOOOO!

Seriously, for as often as I use my Retron 5 (literally, ALL the time), this was a major problem to me and I'd lost any hope that they'd fix it. But they did!

I half wonder if they replaced the GBA emulator completely because of the legal troubles they were in, but then Metroid: Zero Mission still has a healthy amount of slowdown with many/large sprites. Still... this is great progress for me! Incidentally, Fantasy Zone (Famicom) now works for me too, where it never did before. So cool.