RetroN5: Hands on first look

[Satoshi_Matrix]

OP is actually 100% correct on Retron 5 not having composite input. Hyperkin actually scrapped the composite, and made the console HDMI only.

That makes sense, since the Ouya also is HDMI only and no Android device natively produces composite anyway, and composite inputs would mostly go unused for the majority of the people who buy it. Why use composite when you can have HDMI 1080p? Well, other than hardcore gamers who claim to notice input lag with the non-game mode HDTVs. Those in that group have my sympathies, but you guys are in a tiny minority compared to most who don't notice/don't care.

I was hoping Hyperkin would have S-Video, but that wasnt even ever planned it seems.

With the ROM dumps apparently being temporarily, I only have one question: If you save the in game (not talking about save states), does it save to the cartridge?

first, it's important to note that the following is speculation based on what's been revealed and how other Android devices work such as the Ouya. I may be mistaken about some of this, but I strongly suspect I'm not.

Hyperkin has stated the RetroN5 will have some amount of built in storage capacity for savestates. It's extremely likely that will also be true of battery backed s-ram storage. Most emulators create a a dummy .sav file (or some other extension) to store battery-baced sram saves from cartridges. They are independent of savestates which are created manually.

In all likelihood the RetroN5 will follow this as well. Game saves will not be dependent on the cartridge. Now, it's possible Hyperkin could add a manual feature to upload the cartridge s-ram to such a .sav file or even the reverse and put a generated .sav file back to the cart, but I highly doubt that it will actively use the cartridge for pretty much anything once its been dumped to rom.

Wow... the whole ROM dumping and header database thing is absurd.

If it doesn't interface directly with the cart then games with bank switching, SRAM checks, and other times weird copy protection schemes won't work unless the emulator has those routines patched into it on a case by case basis.

If games require a valid header to be checked against a database then weird shit like unlicensed games and multi-game pirates won't load.

It's not absurd at all. This is how emulators run roms. Everything you mentioned - bank switching, s-ram checks, copyright protection schemes (like EarthBound has) are all dealt with in rom and run by the android based emulator. Just look at how PCs have been emulating cartridge games flawlessly for years. The only thing the RetroN5 is doing differently is requiring the cart as the source of a rom rather than the internet for the source of the rom.

But you're right; it's very possible that some unlicnesned games, particularly multi carts and flash carts will not work. Giant questions loom about those things right now. They might boot anyway, with the RetroN5 saying "unknown game" or they could refuse to work. Only time will tell on those.

Well the Retrode, which works similar to this, can write to cart save file. However I think the Retrode only supports SNES/SFC games saves. Maybe Hyperkin went beyond that and allows saves to other carts.

The Retrode also does Genesis, and has adapters for other consoles too. It's possible Hyperkin will adopt uploading and downloading sram to and from the cart and RetroN5, but they have no compelling reason to.