RetroN5: Hands on first look

[Satoshi_Matrix]

The stuff I quoted came out of hyperkin's mouth, not mine.

Yet you seemed to have missed the point Brian Parker made that Hyperkin reps have repeatedly made idiotic statements, and therefore putting much stalk into statements from them that you can damage your system by looking at it funny is pretty foolish.

[On Retro-Bit]

You openly admit you don't know anything yet you still stand by recommending a product you have no actual experience with? Talk about the height of hubris.

I'm not even making such a statement, and I'm far more qualified to than you are. I've been working with Retro-Bit to help improve their product designs with fixes and alternations dating back to the Retro-Duo 2.0, the RDP, The Retro Entertainment System, NES RetroPort, RetroGen, Super Retro Advance, and most recently, the Gen-X.

I don't know what's up with DasCheap claiming they have Retro-Bit's newest product because Retro-Bit hasn't even sent me one yet, and I'm bloody doing engineering legwork for them. I'm hoping they took my analysis on the Retro Gen and Super Retro Advance to integrate some better engineering on the SRT. I suppose I won't know until they send me one. Still don't know what's up with DasCheap though, claiming they have stock maybe they do and Retro-Bit's been slow to respond for some reason. Ahh the joys of small companies.

Is this supposed to make me feel better about the company? They have no problem having incompetent staff working for them, even when this staff specifically interacts with consumers and potential customers.

Yes. Yes it should. Because it's not something the company publicly announced, but just a private conversation musing of a dude in a hotel room. Also, I doubt that it was truly a case of incompetence. Maybe the guy just wanted to cover his ass by speculating of what might potentially damage the system. It doesn't mean it's true, but it also doesn't mean he was lying. Speculation is just speculation. He then went right into talking about dirty carts afterwords, citing that as a possible cause. Ultimately I don't think it's worth paying any attention to that statement at all until it's completely debunked or confirmed. Only the release will do that.

They should still be designing their products to be idiot proof, like most manufacturers do. The same reason why companies put safeguards in place on appliances so people won't get injured or killed when using them inappropriately. Why do most console makers shape their cartridges so they can only be inserted one way? This is a console so there's a good chance kids will be playing with it, just design it well in case a kid doesn't follow the specific written instructions.

I agree, and this is why I feel strongly that the whole concern that you can damage your system by plugging multiple carts in at once will not turn out to be true.

My prediction is that the system will simply give an on-screen error message if you attempt to insert more than one cart at a time since the system works by reading the rom headers to determine what game is inserted. More than one game = more than one rom header = the thing won't know what to do.

Maybe that will cause the system to shut off. But "damage" it? Physically? Again, think about how the fuck that's even possible. The only exception being the NES and Famicom cart slots since they share the same data lines (same console, different cartridge ports), but even if there was crosstalk, it would be temporary only as long as more than one cart was inserted. I seriously doubt this will be anything of an issue at all.

Just to point something out, a friend of mine apparently damaged his Super Famicom by trying to play some problematic copy of Yoshi's Island. The game didn't boot up right, and after trying for awhile to get the game to work, his console doesn't boot games anymore. Not with any games, even ones that used to play on it. I haven't seen it in person to verify this, but this is what he told me. I'm going with the view that it can be possible to damage a console with cartridges in certain situations.

That sounds like a wives' tale. A "problematic" cartridge could mean anything, but since you said it was a Yoshi's Island cart, then I begin to suspect that perhaps there was some issue with the vcc line that caused the system to blow the fuse. Tell your friend to replace the pico fuse. 99% of "dead" SNES and Super Famicom systems just have a blown fuse.

[Tanooki]

Seems I almost stepped in a troll trap, good luck arguing against what I've already proven!

Dude just shut up, shut...up. You're the lone troll in this thread yet again trying to start shit. You seem to pop up in threads here and there since signing up and inevitable troll and act like a dick and piss people off. That's why you're getting the reaction you are in here with people telling you off or setting you to not even show up when you open your trap. Grow up already.



stardust I can't wait to see what you find out. Don't let anyone get you down just because they may prefer the Retron or something else irrationally since the device hasn't even been field tested by consumers yet. It could en dup maybe supporting less systems but being better than the Retron if you don't need the save/load state fluff and a/v filters.

[mercuryshadow09]

Dude just shut up, shut...up. You're the lone troll in this thread yet again trying to start shit. You seem to pop up in threads here and there since signing up and inevitable troll and act like a dick and piss people off. That's why you're getting the reaction you are in here with people telling you off or setting you to not even show up when you open your trap. Grow up already.



stardust I can't wait to see what you find out. Don't let anyone get you down just because they may prefer the Retron or something else irrationally since the device hasn't even been field tested by consumers yet. It could en dup maybe supporting less systems but being better than the Retron if you don't need the save/load state fluff and a/v filters.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Yeah, seriously. I give him the benefit of the doubt, I guess I'm just too nice to him giving his points validity by picking them apart.

[stardust4ever]

I don't know what's up with DasCheap claiming they have Retro-Bit's newest product because Retro-Bit hasn't even sent me one yet, and I'm bloody doing engineering legwork for them. I'm hoping they took my analysis on the Retro Gen and Super Retro Advance to integrate some better engineering on the SRT. I suppose I won't know until they send me one. Still don't know what's up with DasCheap though, claiming they have stock maybe they do and Retro-Bit's been slow to respond for some reason. Ahh the joys of small companies.

Well, here's the facts. I know I placed my order from DasCheap on Thursday the 24th, with a posted release date on Friday the 25th. A package was shipped on Monday 28th, with UPS tracking number. DasCheap may be a poorly built website, and customers in the past may or may not have had trouble with it, but fact of the matter is a package is currently in transit, and unless the DasCheap people are complete scammers shipping out bricks in the mail, it is only reasonable to assume that the package contains the Retrobit Trio that I ordered. I'll do an unboxing video when I get it. Play testing will come later. There are also some resellers selling them on Amazon at a markup, so I have reason to believe that the Trio consoles aren't slowly getting out to customers.

Baldwin Park, CA, United States 04/29/2014 1:28 A.M. Departure Scan
Baldwin Park, CA, United States 04/28/2014 5:25 P.M. The shipment has been dropped off and is now at a UPS Retail Location.
04/28/2014 5:19 P.M. Pickup Scan

[Tanooki]

Thanks for proving my point. I take it the huge douche cartoon is an animated image of yourself as the personality fits the posting. Good luck trolling, you're off the radar now.


Stardust looking forward not to a lame unboxing, but really curious to see how that thing performs.

[The Dord]

I just hope Retron 5 works well. Could be a little bit cheaper though as the $140 price is a bit high for me honestly.

[stardust4ever]

Did you just change your username again?

[BricatSegaFan]

Whoa what just happened here

[stardust4ever]

Whoa what just happened here

A troll with a Pacman avatar joined the thread.

[Gameguy]

That sounds like a wives' tale. A "problematic" cartridge could mean anything, but since you said it was a Yoshi's Island cart, then I begin to suspect that perhaps there was some issue with the vcc line that caused the system to blow the fuse. Tell your friend to replace the pico fuse. 99% of "dead" SNES and Super Famicom systems just have a blown fuse.

Console still powers on. It just displays a black screen. At least from what he told me.

[stardust4ever]

You are receiving this e-mail because you pre-ordered a RetroN5. Please read this e-mail to completion.



When is this dang thing coming out? Did I hear something about a price increase?



Currently Hyperkin expects the first shipment of RetroN5 to arrive mid to late May. However as some of you may have already heard Hyperkin is raising the MSRP from $99.99 to $139.99. Due to this significant increase in price we will require an additional payment of $40.00 before we can fill your pre-order. We have talked to Hyperkin about this trying to work out a compromise. Unfortunately Hyperkin will not lower the price, however we came to an agreement to that all pre-orders will receive an additional wireless controller with their order (normally $39.99). A long with this we will personally be giving $15.00 Gift Certificates with all pre-orders.



We will not be requesting the extra payment until the RetroN5 are on a palette and headed to our facility. However, obviously, your order will not ship until the additional payment is received. You will receive an e-mail when we are ready for additional payment. This e-mail will contain instructions on how to make this payment.



Cancellations and Refunds



If you would like to cancel your pre-order we completely understand. If you would like to cancel your pre-order for a full refund please reply to this e-mail with the pre-order order number or the e-mail address you use with the order. Due to the significant amount of time that has passed we are limited on how we can refund you. If you paid with PayPal we can send you a PayPal payment for the total of your order or we can issue store credit. If you used a Credit Card and are in the U.S. we can either mail you a check, send payment to a PayPal account, or issue store credit. If you used a Credit Card and are in not in the U.S. we can either send the refund to a PayPal account or issue store credit. Please let us know which method you prefer when requesting the cancellation.



One thing Hyperkin did make clear to us is that they will have a limited amount available for a while due to fulfillment of all the pre-orders that were taken. If you truly want the RetroN5 your best bet of getting one in the near future is keeping your pre-order. If you do not plan on cancelling your pre-order there is no need to reply to this e-mail.



In closing…



Please understand that this price increase was not a decision by us. We expressed our disappointment with Hyperkin’s handling of the RetroN5 to this point. They were apologetic about the situation and did work with us a bit to get pre-order customers the extra controller. They also assured us that the price increase was done because the hardware was changed to allowed increased compatibility, which significantly increased production costs. We do thank you for your patience and understanding regarding this situation and hope it has not soured you on future business with Stone Age Gamer.



Sincerely,

Ryan Cross

President

Stone Age Gamer LLC

Disheartening to say the least but a free controller and a $15 voucher for $40 isn't that bad.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

A troll with a Pacman avatar joined the thread.

dude. Seriously. What's with you?

[stardust4ever]

dude. Seriously. What's with you?

I'm not the one who started it. At least half my posts had something intelligent to add.

On second thought, if you see a post that's not intelligent, don't respond at all? I need to follow my own advice on that one, but it's soooo temping sometimes...

[Atarileaf]

Feel bad that SAG gets caught in the middle of this.

[stardust4ever]

Feel bad that SAG gets caught in the middle of this.

Hyperkin fails to deliver. I still feel if they should honor the Amazon preorders they should honor everyone.

[Zap!]

Hyperkin fails to deliver. I still feel if they should honor the Amazon preorders they should honor everyone.

I'm pretty sure they have no choice with Amazon.

[Tanooki]

Hyperkin could be forced to honor all preorders with a collective effort from online retailers. If the pool of them getting stock refuse to sell the things unless the prices, and also threaten to pull other Hyperkin product as well that would stop them in their tracks. If they lose most their source of income through online brokers of their goods who will then just peddle Yobo and Retrobit, they're screwed.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Yeah, Hyperkin has managed to situate themselves in one of those damned if they do damned if they don't situations.

I thought at first Retro-Bit staying relatively quiet while Hyperkin continued to build up their hype for their clone system was due to them not wanting to draw a lot of unwanted comparison attention to their hardware clone vs Hyperkin's HDMI emulation box, but it seems that staying quiet while hyperkin shoots themselves in the foot and has to run damage control has been a wonderful PR move for Retro-Bit, as this is the kind of thing that they just wouldn't do.

I still maintain that the two product lines are too different to directly compare, as the Retron5 will be more similar to the Ouya than it will SRT, but even so, you gotta tip your hat to Retro-Bit for their calm and collected approach rather than Hyperkin's mishandling of the Retron5 thus far.

[Tanooki]

They're digging themselves even deeper, check facebook. Now they have another excuse video up there, not really addressing again the problems. No apologies, no real reasons for the price increase or delays. Just more spin enough to make you think they need to take up jobs working in the 2016 presidential cycle for flinging pro grade bullshit that only looks great until you pick it apart and it's just making for even more angry thought out replies to it. I mean at some point you just need to shut up or nut up and get over it. Admit you were wrong, screwed with the price, lied about dates and the rest and put a date out and stick to it, or shut up and just release it and stop flapping your gums for any reason at all making things worse.