RetroN5: Hands on first look

[Satoshi_Matrix]

I'm curious as to how the Retron5 is supposed to run SNES SA-1 games (SMRPG, Kirby Super Star, DreamLand 3) and Sega Virtua processor (Virtua Racing). Those games are notoriously difficult to dump yet Hyperkin claims they work. While we are at it, anybody own VR7 Lagrange Point for Famicom?

I've got it. I'll test all the chips you spoke of when I get mine.

I have a question that could probably only be answered by someone who's had hands on experience with both systems but I bought an Ouya recently and am loving it for emulation, in fact it emulates MORE systems than the Retron 5 but my question is - if someone already has an ouya is the retron 5 still worth getting and if so, why? I honestly want to know because even though I have an ouya, I haven't ruled out the retron 5 but wanted to make sure there's a compelling reason to do so.

Practical reasons? If you already have an Ouya, there is no practical reason to buy the Retron5. As you said, the Ouya does far, far more than the Retron5 ever will. (don't forget, in addition to all the emulators it has over the Retron5, it also has 800+ games developed for the Ouya, plus multimedia apps)

So then it comes down to your attachment to physical media, and the size of your collection. Though unconfirmed, it is speculated that the RetroN5 will not work with flash carts, and as a result will only be useful to people with a sizable collection of original cartridges. If that's you, and you find yourself wanting to insert your cartridge rather than booting a rom, then and only then is there a reason to have the RetroN5.

I'm buying one because I do have a sizable collection, but also because I'm curious about it. It's very possible that after my review, I'm going to sell off a good number of my physical carts like EarthBound. My actual attachment to the physical cartridges of my childhood just isn't what it once was.

I suppose the big advantage over the Ouya are the native controller ports. Unless you buy adapters that may or may not be available, you can't use original controllers on the Ouya. On the Retron 5, you have three pairs of original controller ports by default at no extra expense and with no setup or compatibility hassles.

While it's true the Ouya doesn't have native support for retro game controllers like the RetroN5, that's a very minor thing to fix. The Ouya is crazy open source, so you can literally use any USB controller for PC/360/PS3 or controller adapter you want. Most often, I use a $15 SNES to USB adapter to use a real SNES controller with the various emulators.

You could get a series of adapters to use whatever you want on USB. They make adapters for pretty much everything, even Vectrex controllers. Or you could just use a PS3 controller, or the original Ouya pad. Neither are really bad choices.

In practical terms, I can't think of much else the Retron 5 has going for it over the Ouya. But the rumored addition of N64 support in next year's model would be an advantage since judging by Satoshi's video on YouTube, N64 Ouya emulation is its infancy. If playing N64 titles appeals to you (Which after watching you on YouTube and reading your post for years would kind of surprise me), a future Retron 6 might be a better proposition come late this year or 2015 if done well and if homebrewers don't make strides in that area on the Ouya before then.

The N64 emulation on Ouya has improved since I last made videos on it. PS1 emulation as well. There's even a beta Dreamcast emulator for Ouya now. The thing about N64 emulation is that it differs depending on the game you want to play. Some games that were completely unplayable a few months ago have done a 180 and are now fully playable and better than on the real hardware, such as the almighty Doom 64. Other games are buggy, while others still play just fine. I'm sure that a year from now the N64 emulation will be much, much better. The thing to keep in mind about the Ouya is that none of the emulators are static. They all have periodic upgdates. For example, the MegaDrive emulation recently got upgraded for analog stick sensitivity adjustment for After Burner which actually used an analog stick on the real MegaDrive hardware.

So the Ouya kinda sucks at N64 emulation then? I was sort of thinking about getting one just for that purpose.

It depends on what you want to run. Some games run perfect, some are okay with some glitches, some are unplayable. I wouldn't recommend buying an Ouya solely to play N64 emulation. There's so much more it can do and far better, from a bunch of free awesome retro inspired games to multimedia apps to some paid but totally awesome games, and then of course the emulators. i think the Ouya is a pretty awesome little box, and certainly much more established than any of the other microconsoles out there. The rumored Tegra 4 Ouya will probably be able to handle N64 emulation better, but don't count out the current Ouya just yet. Development is constant on that thing.

I hope I don't come across as an jerk for asking this again, but why is there no date yet with April (the company's release date for months) two days away? I am sorry for being that guy, but I really don't think it's an unreasonable question, especially since I pre-ordered. Hell, even if they say April 30th, that's fine. But for Heaven's sake, say something.

It's fucking Hyperkin. They're a tiny company first and foremost, and a lot of the time they do they don't seem to have any idea what they're doing. I would suggest following their facebook page. That seems to be where they post info.

This really, really needs to be fixed. For what it's worth, right now when I have to feed my 7800 emulation fix I use Wii7800 on Wiibrew, which does a fine job.

Oh, I guess I never noticed. I'm sure one will crop up eventually, but the 7800 community is tiny. Are you sure 7800 support isn't in RetroArch?