I will buy one when it is released. I have a few of their other systems and have had no issues with them.
I will buy one when it is released. I have a few of their other systems and have had no issues with them.
Yes, as stated in the rules, MyTurnToPlay does nothing but attack clones and supporters and therefore should be banned. I do not mind honest opinionated discussion, but this guy is nothing short of a hater, even if some of his points carry a certain level of validity. More than that, claiming to have future knowledge of the Retorn4 or any other system is nothing short of bullshit, plain and simple. Get this guy outta here.Originally Posted by treismac
When the system comes out, I and others will review it and bring you honest and unbiased facts about what it gets right, what it gets wrong and what it's has the future potential to fix.
check out my classic gaming review site: http://satoshimatrix.wordpress.com/
I'll be joining in on the unbiased reviewing of the system. I may be a bit harsh on Hyperkin as since the release of the RetroN3, I have a rather negative opinion of the company after all their recent screw-ups:
-Promise an NOAC that's superior to the one in the FC Mobile II for the RetroN3 Version 1, the finished product has a shit NOAC that's worse than what's in the FC Mobile II
-Release the SupaBoy, has severe squealing issues which persisted even in certain replacement units
-Revise the RetroN3 to make the RetroN3 Version 2 with improved NES compatibility (not accuracy, which makes no sense), but at the same time, Super NES audio is COMPLETELY screwed up
-Release the RetroN2, turns out to be no better than an FC Twin at a higher price tag (and in some aspects, is EVEN WORSE than the FC Twin, namely Super NES audio which is in dual Mono on the RetroN2 compared to full Stereo on the FC Twin)
-Revise the RetroN3 to make the RetroN3 Version 3, becomes a downgrade of the console as the Super NES audio was not fixed and the improved compatibility of the RetroN3 Version 2 has been REMOVED
You can see where I'm going with this. I don't have a favorable opinion of Hyperkin, but the RetroN4 looks to be a totally different beast than any of their previous efforts. It could either blow them all out of the water or be a complete piece of crap. We'll know for sure when it's released.
I've got cautious pessimism about this system, but I'd love for it to work well. Compatibility with the most games possible being of key importance to me.
A representative from Hyperkin responded to you in this thread and publicly verified that you do not have any access to a Retron 4, so consider this your first, last and only public warning.
You're a liar and nobody here cares about your opinion on clone hardware.
Cut the bullshit in these threads or face discipline.
"And the book says: 'We may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us.'"
Frankie_Says_Relax, why don't we just simply ban him? It's not like this is his first offense. The dude has on multiple occasions broken forum policy by spreading hate and disrespecting others for their opinions when it comes to clone hardware. I'm all for free speech, but there's a difference between saying
"I don't like ______ because ______ but this is of course, only my opinion"
and
"______ is crap, and anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot, and btw, I'm a prophet from the future bringing you the gospel that my opinion equals fact".
Why should we tolerate MyTurnToPlay any more? Just as his username suggests, he has had his turn to play, and now it should be game over for him.
Anyway, back on topic.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So guys, News!!!
Watch this video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OcNy7t17LA
Hyperkin has announced Famicom 60 pin cartridge support, changing the name to the Retron5. It has also confirmed GB and GBC support!
This means the RetroN5 will play natively support Famicom, NES, SNES, Super Famicom, Genesis, MegaDrive, GameBoy, GameBoy Color and GameBoy Advance games. It also may even support the Famicom Disk System, Sega Master System via the Power Base Converter and possibly the Sega 32X. That's a LOT of support right there.
It will feature six controller ports - 2 NES, 2 SNES, 2 Genesis. What's news is that players will be able to use any controller they want for any system! The example they give is that users will be able to use SNES controllers to play Genesis games. This is spectacular news and washes away the worries of what controllers will or won't work with GBA games.
The system will also feature AV (not S-Video too?) video outputs as well as the aforementioned HDMI. It will also have a USB port for charging the wireless controller. No more AAA batters makes me very happy.
The bluetooth wireless controller will have a six button layout similar to the Genesis, but will look nothing like the Genesis looking controller that came with the Retorn3. It also will not have a d-pad, but an microswitch driven click-stick, which seems similar to the NeoGeo CD. The NeoGeo Pocket Color has in my option the best click stick EVER, but using it in place of a standard dpad? That might work, but it might fall flat on its face. Impossible to tell without actually using it.
The wireless controller will also allow users to custom map the button layout, and it will save custom configurations. As well, button remapping will also be available for original NES, SNES and Genesis controllers! This is yet more good news. It means for example, Ninja Gaiden Trilogy for SNES can be remapped with a real SNES controller to use the Y & B buttons instead of the B and A as originally used. Also Famicom and NES games that have "reversed" controls like Challenger can be fixed, making them much more enjoyable.
The system will have an OS that will be more than just a digital system switcher. It will allow users to create save states, it will auto-save for when the system is suddenly turned off, will offer a "cheat menu" (which could mean built in GameGenie/Action Reply support) and also offer what Hyperkin is calling Manual & Passive Overclocking - gamers will be able to change the speed of their game anytime they wish, offering both slowdown and fast-forward.
These are all common emulator features. To see them in a dedicated console that plays actual cartridges is very, very welcome.
Confirmed: Retorn5 will up-convert video signals to a max 720p. Users can also choose the aspect ratio - you can choose the original 4:3 if you so desire, or stretch to 16:9. VERY WELCOME OPTION.
It will feature something Hyperkin calls "Audio Interpolation" which they claim will clean up analog audio for digital output. I'm not going to comment on this until what they are talking about myself.
Questions asked by the audience (as best I could hear due to poor audio):
Q: What will the price be?
A: We don't have a price point [at this time] but we will say it will be under $100.
Q: Will you be adding N64 game support in the future?
A: We have looked into that, and we won't make a comment as of this time.
Q: What is the release date?
A: Essentially, TBA, though they said they will announce something after June.
Q: Do you have a demo unit?
A: Yes, we currently have an alpha system that is running Street Fighter Alpha 2.
Q: Will the Retorn5 support firmware updates?
A: Yes, although how exactly is yet to be determined.
Q: Have you thought of adding support for other retro systems (Atari, Amiga, TurboGrapfx16/PC Engine)?
A: It's market depending. If that market grows, then yes. [this is marketing jargon for "no, probably not"]
Q: Will lag be an issue?
A: hard to tell what they said. I think they said essentially no, beyond what was there natively with the original games.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So yeah. As Ace's comment said above, Hyperkin has a lot of past baggage and so yes, a lot of retro gamers have legitimate concerns for the Retron4.....err, Retron5. However, based on the newest information Hyperkin has provided, things are looking brighter than ever for them and the community as a whole.
With all the announcements they made through, Hyperkin still didn't say a word about compatibility of past problematic games like Castlevania 3, Mario RPG and Virtua Racing for example. Still, that doesn't mean a thing at this point. Until it's actually released, predictions are completely pointless, either for or against individual game compatibility.
Anyone who says otherwise is full of it. It's like someone saying they can predict who will win the Superbowl - in 20 years from now. There's really nothing we can do but wait and see.
Hyperkin also didn't say anything about some other features. The alpha system shown doesn't have a reset button. This might be incorporated into the software itself though. With Famicom support comes a whole lot of Famicom only soundchips, so will the Retron5 be able to run these correctly? Speaking of which, they still didn't say anything about the NES/Famicom HD video output. I wish someone had asked if NES/Famicom games would run in 720p.
Regardless, for me personally, all this news pretty much confirms that Hyperkin is going to be running an emulation based, dedicated computer that will be extremely different from anything the market has seen thus far. Sophisticated emulation software that runs the original cartridges sounds like voodoo magic to me, and yet here apparently is. If Hyperkin can pull this off well, they have a real chance at being the dream system many of us have been wanting pretty much since childhood.
Last edited by Satoshi_Matrix; 03-23-2013 at 09:35 PM.
check out my classic gaming review site: http://satoshimatrix.wordpress.com/
I can't watch the video right now as I'm on my friend's 3DS XL, but by reading everything that followed, I only have two words:
HOLY SHIT
Either the RetroN5 will be the most awesome clone console to date, or it will be the most overhyped piece of shit to have ever been released since Famiclones first became legal in 2005.
I'll be honest, I'm looking forward to trying out the RetroN5. This will be the big one for Hyperkin; if they screw this up, any little shred of respect I have for this company will go down the toilet. On the other hand, if the RetroN5 beats out every other clone released so far, my hat's off to them, and may completely change my opinion of Hyperkin.
But won't you hate it on principal of it being an emulation machine and your hatred of emulation? Essentially, almost everything announced for the Retorn5 are similar features to what a modded original Xbox or Wii can do, only that it runs cartridges, not roms. For me personally, it sounds like the best of both worlds.
check out my classic gaming review site: http://satoshimatrix.wordpress.com/
Considering most commercial software emulation-based clones have generally been inferior to their hardware clone counterparts, I don't actually have high expectations for the accuracy of the whole thing, but if software emulation turns out to be superior to reverse-engineered hardware, I'll give that higher praise. It's not necessarily a question of principle, it's a question of the overall accuracy, and with the exception of the NES, reverse-engineered hardware has generally given better results in that regard. If the RetroN5 runs good emulators for each console which surpass any effort so far using reverse-engineered hardware, I'll put that over reverse-engineered hardware.
Addition of the Famicom cart slot is great, but it's unfortunate that no Famicom controller port was added.
They really need a SD card slot so we can load roms onto this or allow a USB thumb drive with roms to be plugged into the USB port (Which is hopefully one reason why it has one beyond just to recharge the controller battery and presumably for firmware updates). There's no legality reason why they can't impliment it and other clone companies have done so like AtGames with no repercussions.
That simple step, if the product is otherwise done well, would be a huge draw for classic gamers that otherwise face buying numerous expensive reprogramable multicarts that often have compatibility issues, can sometimes be confusing to setup, and often just refuse to work in clones.
I really doubt that they will surpass the Super Nintendo chip we see in things like the RetroDuo. I heard that the earliest version had colors off on the Super FX games, but the sound and video accuracy on my slightly later unit has been perfect and it plays 99% of the library.
Last edited by Leo_A; 10-20-2013 at 06:17 AM.
The reason why (IMO) clone consoles are going towards emulation is that 5voltage chips have been discontinued and no longer in production anymore. Those parts were usualy used on the consoles and cartridges. A solution i am using is voltage converters from 5 to 3.3 for my boards so the flash memory doesnt get burned. This means that those convertors limit the hardware and will raise the price of manufacturing. So the best solution is high accurate emulation.
You're thinking of the incredibly old GF-6970 series Super NES 3-chip chipset found in the FC Twin Version 1. That one had noticeable color inaccuracies not just in SuperFX games, but in other games as well. The TCT-970 series 3-chip chipset which appeared in legal clones starting with the FC Twin Version 2 in 2007 (and appears to be pin-for-pin compatible with the GF-6970 chipset - wouldn't be surprised if this was the base for the TCT-970 chipset) is a big leap ahead, but I did find one color inaccuracy with the chipset in Contra III's overhead stages. Basically, all the background colors are either too bright or completely wrong. Every single Super Famiclone with the TCT-970 suffers from this problem. Play Contra III until the first overhead stage and you'll notice the incorrect colors right away.
What I would like to know is how the RetroDuo Portable manages to get around the lockout chip check implemented in SA-1 games. I have a Japanese copy of Super Mario RPG which refuses to boot on most clones except if I were to fiddle around with the power switch, though on some consoles, it flat out won't work. On the RetroDuo Portable v2.0 I have, this cartridge loads first time every time. How does that work?
Okay, now you REALLY made me want to know exactly what kind of hardware the RetroN5 is using. All this speculation is flying around and there's no definitive answer from Hyperkin (WITH IMAGES, PLEASE!!!). I'm actually thinking it could be one of 3 things:
-Reverse-engineered hardware combined with some other hardware
-Software emulation
-An FPGA
Which of these do you think it is?
There is no way I can see that as a possibility. Production of NOACs, GOACs and the TCT-970 Super NES 3-chip chipset is still alive and well, and with the release of the SupaBoy a while back, that TCT-970 chipset was shrunk down.
Agree
Agree, I mean just go through his history of post and the percentage of them are hate posts, lies and calling everyone who suggests otherwise fools etc. He says things like "Go ahead and waste your money" blah blah, blah but he never just drops it after that, just keeps going, seriously with the majority of content he has contributed he surely will no be missed.
My DP Refs MaximumRD Classic Gaming and Computing Me in a Nutshell (NOT LITERALLY!) http://about.me/maximumrd
WHERE DID THEIR HAIR GO?
For their price point, an FPGA that could emulate something like the GBA is much too expensive. It seems pretty certain that it's software emulation.
Devices in this price point relying on emulation with modern hardware is well within reason these days and becoming pretty common.
Last edited by Leo_A; 03-24-2013 at 12:20 AM.
Here, here. Come on, Hyperkin. Go all the way with this one.
I understand everybody's frustration, and even though this seems like a slam dunk of a banning, ultimately this matter requires administrative conference.
I'm at PAX EAST with Digital Press all weekend and I've had really limited computer access. I'll drop the other admins a note.
"And the book says: 'We may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us.'"
In the video's Q & A session they are saying that games with slowdown ( he named Mega Man 3) can be "fine-tuned to work perfectly" with the RetroN 5, surpassing the original hardware. (http://youtu.be/5OcNy7t17LA?t=16m58s) Is this possible? Just the faintest possibility of two player River City Ransom without the slowdown becoming a reality is enough to make me shudder with delight.
I'm actually pretty psyched about what this might turn out to be now. Save states. Famicom slot. HDMI. The spokesperson sounded like Hyperkin was taking compatibility issues really seriously, which is, obviously, where the make or break point lies for the RetroN 5 to go beyond being just another crappy clone. The rest of the clone market will have to step up their game if Hyperkin knocks this one out of the park, which can only mean good things for the retro community. Hell, if they sell tons of these, maybe it'll catch Nintendo's attention, goading them to make their own official multisystem clone.
Also, apparently Hyperkin is open to suggestions for the RetroN 5. Pass 'em on their way either via Facebook or Twitter:
https://www.facebook.com/HyperkinGames?v
https://twitter.com/HyperKin
Personally, playing roms via a SD slot or usb drive is a biggie on my list. On a loftier note, being able to do netplay with other owners on RetroN 5s would be mind shatteringly rad, but this is almost certainly too tall an order. I'd like controller ports for the same system to stay on the same side of the console so the NES Satellite or Four Score can work with it.
By the way, if it is more or less universally acknowledged by critics that the RetroN 5 is in all ways kickass, I think it is only fair that MyTurnToPlay's should have to deep fry the system and record himself eating it in order to continue to be a member in this forum.
Last edited by treismac; 03-24-2013 at 02:07 AM.
Speeding things up isn't a problem. We've even seen commercial emulation projects that do that like the speed up modes on Atari Anthology.
But I really doubt you can fine tune it. What an ideal CPU speed is at one point of a game isn't necessarily the same elsewhere. Slow down would have to be consistent otherwise areas that didn't slow down would now run too fast if you speed things up to fix the slow moments.
So while I doubt it's of any real use for Mega Man 3, it might work out well for two player River City Ransom if the mode just runs slow in general like some multiplayer modes do. Another potential use is with un-optimized PAL releases.
I should learn to read. This already includes a SD card slot for saving save states.
So even less of an excuse not to do it. A USB thumb drive might've not been an option if the USB port is only there to provide power to recharge the battery. But with a SD slot, that doesn't matter since they can obviously read/write to the SD card if it's for storing save states.
Last edited by Leo_A; 06-23-2014 at 12:35 AM.
Keep in mind this is an early alpha system so the design could/probably will change. But also remember that the Famicom 15 pin ports are electrically compatible with the standard 7 pin ports used in the west and then with the AV Famicom. Almost all controllers and devices for the DB-15 port of the Famicom can be modified to work with the 7 pin connector, or an adapter can be made. This really shouldn't be any concern you have.
I do understand your point an see where you're coming from, but personally, I do not agree. While I wouldn't have an issue with Hyperkin adding in direct ROM support as an optional game input, I honestly don't feel it is needed nor practical. If you're going to be running an emulation machine that runs games directly off a storage device, at that point, you might as well use a modified Xbox or modified Wii, systems that are currently on the market and cost less than this fancy new device.
The entire point of the Retrorn5 is to serve the retro community by playing the physical cartridges we all collect, buy, trade, play and adore. An SD card sort of defeats the purpose. By adding in a SD card slot, I feel it would take something away. Still, as I said, I'm not opposed to the idea of direct ROM support like the awful AtGames clones.... just saying that it isn't necessary.
Thanks. It's not that we don't want any negative opinions of the Retron5 or anything else, we just want open discussion. For all the points I've ever read, MyTurnToPlay doesn't seem interested in discussion, only trolling. As long as the admin know that many of us are frustrated by his continued one dimensional viewpoints, I'm happy.
check out my classic gaming review site: http://satoshimatrix.wordpress.com/
Posting Permissions
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Similar agreements apply to other advertising or affiliate programs such as those from eBay, Google, etc.
Copyright © 1991 - Present of Digital Press. All rights reserved.
Reply With Quote
