RetroN5: Hands on first look

[Tanooki]

The only thing nicest about Ice Nine is the sniper zoom. Perhaps DOOM and in turn also the similarly (same engine) coded Duke Nukem don't look slick blown up, but on the GBA they're the high tier non-polygonal 3D stuff. To be fair one thing I have noticed, and the GBA isn't at fault here, is that they raycasting '3D' engine that DOOM likes use on the GBA also look horrendous on all the other consoles too, and worse the larger the screen gets. SNES DOOM, PS1, Saturn, Jaguar, they're all pretty rotten since they're taking a 320x240 type setup and the larger the screen the blockier it gets. But when they're run on smaller screens or for the original on a 20" or less PC monitor they look great.

By far though with actual models Wing Commander trumped the V3D engine. When you're out of the drawn imagery on the ship (had to cut corners to fit the game) and in space everything but the cockpit is 3D models, even the shield glow when hit and explosions and it looks amazing. It still surprises me how well the fit that PC CD game onto a GBA cart, even retaining some of the speech too from in flight.

Don't get me wrong I think the series is definitely saying enough, more than enough perhaps at what you said 3 hours? But still it's covering things well enough.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Ah you just reminded me - I still haven't put together a playlist yet.

I'll go do that now. Tomorrow's video will mark the final installment of my extensive coverage.

The playlist is here:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...m-FNRNqjd_qQva

Including the Controller Chronicles HD episode on the Retron5 controller, the total play time across these ten videos is 4 hours, 63 minutes and 73 seconds.

And if that's not enough, there's also the test video footage I'm putting up daily too.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Nine days of reviews comes to an end with my final thoughts on the Hyperkin Retron5.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM2ehUARe-0

I have added a playlist that includes all videos in this series in case you missed an installment.

Thanks for watching everyone. This is the longest review series for a single product I've ever done, due to the sheer amount that needed to be covered.

[BTR]

Just another comment on future of systems like the Retron5:

Disc based systems might not only be held back by disc drives, but also by the lack of useable bios files.

There is currently no emulator that can run Sega CD games and PC-Engine CD games without bios files. All bios files are copyrighted code. Even bios files found on modchips are reverse engineered Sega code.

SSF runs saturn games without bios, but is closed source. Also, nothing new of course, but Saturn emulation is very demanding.

ARBEX and another PS1 emulator work (I can't recall now) run without bios, but Arbex is Windows only

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Right. N64 will happen, but I don't see Hyperkin ever adding disc games. Unless they only support disc images rather than discs themselves and tell users to provide their own BIOS files. But even that's unlikely.

[drunk3nj3sus]

I'd say adding N64 support is a ways off yet. N64 emulation on PC isn't even perfected so I doubt their's an open source android emulator capable of running most games properly.

A disc based unit may take awhile too disc drives are cheap but it'd require an open source emulator with a high compatibility rate and a reverse engineered bios which I haven't seen.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Right. Plus, N64 clones won't be legal for another two years, until when the patients expire.

[Leo_A]

Right. Plus, N64 clones won't be legal for another two years, until when the patients expire.

There are more recent Nintendo handhelds already emulated and included here, so I don't think that we could definitively state that N64 emulation is just awaiting the passage of a few more months.

Plus, don't forget the potential solution that I believe that I've seen you state about how they could work around rights issues by having the user side load emulation programs themselves rather than coming pre-installed.

And with all the delays here, I doubt that we'd see a Retron 5 successor until the Fall of 2016 anyways. That would make all of this a moot point, beyond the potential that there isn't a good enough emulator to utilize or the possibility that they just don't want to go that direction in the first place.

[JSoup]

Wasn't there some kind of SD card capable N64 cartridge in development at one point or another?

[Tanooki]

You talking about the everdrive 64? http://krikzz.com/index.php?route=pr...&product_id=54

About the side loading. I wonder, if it were thrown on a 'free' 1GB SD card in the box advertised as a 'free set of emulators' to side load into your R5 to do it all if that would skirt around the issue enough. I'm just thinking of the general peon factor of trying to coax someone online out of the box to set the system up instead of calling, facebooking, or emailing bitching they bought a useless brick that plays nothing.

Also kind of pissed at them, called yesterday to ask where my system replacement was and was told I'd get an email back about the tracking, which I didn't get. I did ask about the price increase, supposedly they redid something internally and made the systems more sturdy than the launch systems so they last longer and have less wear issues.

[drunk3nj3sus]

I think the "free" sd card wouldn't make it any more legit since it's still coming with a commercial product.

The best solution would be throwing a cheap wifi adapter in the thing and having it automatically download the latest firmware and the emulators once you set it up. Going through the hassle of having to transfer numerous firmware updates seems like a giant pain. Especially since a lot of people buying this may not be all that tech savy most probably just wanna hook it up and start playing all their old games.

Dunno why FCEUX NES emulator needed so many updates to improve compatibility unless the android versions crippled, It's played everything I threw at it including famicom translations that used real uncommon mappers.

[JSoup]

You talking about the everdrive 64? http://krikzz.com/index.php?route=pr...&product_id=54

Yep, that looks like it.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

I think the "free" sd card wouldn't make it any more legit since it's still coming with a commercial product.

The best solution would be throwing a cheap wifi adapter in the thing and having it automatically download the latest firmware and the emulators once you set it up. Going through the hassle of having to transfer numerous firmware updates seems like a giant pain. Especially since a lot of people buying this may not be all that tech savy most probably just wanna hook it up and start playing all their old games.

Dunno why FCEUX NES emulator needed so many updates to improve compatibility unless the android versions crippled, It's played everything I threw at it including famicom translations that used real uncommon mappers.

wait wait wait...
Downloading a 4MB file from a website, putting it on an SD card and then putting the card in the system and it automatically launching on its own constitutes "a giant pain"?

and you're talking about adding wifi and internet capabilities to the thing to make it easier for those who aren't "tech savy"?

lol.

just lol.

as to your final point, the NES/Famicom core itself hasn't basically had anything done to it. What has been refined is the cartridge recognition subroutines. Remember, the Retron5 isn't pure emulation. It has the critical difference of interacting with the cartridges first, which makes things more complicated.

[drunk3nj3sus]

wait wait wait...
Downloading a 4MB file from a website, putting it on an SD card and then putting the card in the system and it automatically launching on its own constitutes "a giant pain"?

and you're talking about adding wifi and internet capabilities to the thing to make it easier for those who aren't "tech savy"?

lol.

just lol.

Doing so once? not really but judging by Tanooki's posts when it was first released the firmwares been updated a dozen or so times to get it working how it was originally suppose to, logging on to wifi's a lot simpler than that.

Something that works out of the box (even if it requires wifi access) makes a lot more sense than something that requires internet, a sd card, & card reader to work as advertised.

[Tanooki]

Theoretically you're both right. Getting onto wifi, if you don't have something that interferes with it is idiot simple and suited for the lazy types as it's fast, but it can be a colossal nightmare if something fouls up. The download thing isn't hard, maybe, but it's far more work involved, especially with that capcha bullshit they force. Also as hard as it may be to believe, many people do not have SD card slots on their computers, so some people are just SOL when it comes to updates since you can't just cable it straight into a PC with the USB jack it has which also would be annoying too but at least with the SD card it's stable and no network configuring.

[Az]

wait wait wait...
Downloading a 4MB file from a website, putting it on an SD card and then putting the card in the system and it automatically launching on its own constitutes "a giant pain"?

Don't forget the larger mandatory 200+mb system update provided as a torrent.

[Leo_A]

They make USB SD card readers. I bought one years ago before they were common on computers, in order to write data to a MMC card for my Cuttle Cart II. Cost me perhaps $5 and was plug and play.

[Tanooki]

I can not remember the last time I had one that worked, but UPS tracking I finally got it from them and it should be here by end of day tomorrow. It will be nice to have the R5 again, hopefully this one will not be beat and works as it should. I'm not sure what I'll throw at it, but at least it'll be here.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Mario 2 that Retron5 Tanooki! You know you want to!

Doing so once? not really but judging by Tanooki's posts when it was first released the firmwares been updated a dozen or so times to get it working how it was originally suppose to, logging on to wifi's a lot simpler than that.

Something that works out of the box (even if it requires wifi access) makes a lot more sense than something that requires internet, a sd card, & card reader to work as advertised.

It's overblown. The firmware request dat file you need to upload to the server to download the file can simply be stored on your computer each time theres an update. And you know, just because there's a new update doesn't mean you would _have_ to update. I'm still using 2.0 beta 6. Firmware updates fix very minor things and often things that you won't even have; for example, the biggest thing one of the firmware updates in September added was the ability to play Dragon Buster on Famicom. If you don't have that game or don't care about that game, then the firmware update can be ignored and you can wait until the next one.

Wifi would have been simpler, but Hyperkin would have royally fucked that up if they tried it out of the blue and also it would have increased the price of the Retron5 even further. I'm glad they didn't do that. Really glad in fact.

Don't forget the larger mandatory 200+mb system update provided as a torrent.

That was a one time thing. System updates are very uncommon on devices like this. But then again, the 240MB update file isn't exactly the same as I dunno, a 14GB patch needed to play a game on PS4.

[CRTGAMER]

I think the "free" sd card wouldn't make it any more legit since it's still coming with a commercial product.

The best solution would be throwing a cheap wifi adapter in the thing and having it automatically download the latest firmware and the emulators once you set it up. Going through the hassle of having to transfer numerous firmware updates seems like a giant pain. Especially since a lot of people buying this may not be all that tech savy most probably just wanna hook it up and start playing all their old games..

NO, I prefer controlling any flash to chip updates. A very smart move by Hyperkin to have the Firmware Updates go thru the PC and then dumped to SD Card. So simple to pop the SD Card into the Retron 5 to update.

1. This ensures the complete Firmware is downloaded BEFORE updating the console flash chip. Less chance of bricking the Retron 5 due to an online connection lost. Any PS3 firmware YLOD horror stories out there?

2. As mentioned, all the Firmware Updates are backed up th the PC and can also even be dumped to a CDR. This is handy in case a second Retron 5 console is bought later on. Especially important if an update is needed many years later and the online support goes away.