retron 5 console[clone]

[jayjay06]

there is a demo of the retron5 gameplay http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vdB1sOe4iz0

[L___E___T]

Looks ok, gonna wait to see the thing - design looked fugly I thought but let's wait and see.

[jayjay06]

Retron5 hand-on

http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/11/hands-on-with-hyperkins-retron-5-emulating-nine-classic-consol/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFsf0hmaeXs

[naI]

Software emulation......  -_-

[Algo Fonix]

I just moved across country and had to leave the majority of my consoles back at my parents' place... so this would be a good solution for me.

[satoshi_matrix]

Software emulation......  -_-

This is exactly the direction they should be going, and all the power to them. Emulators can be updated, emulators can be perfect. Reverse engineered hardware is forever going to be whatever it is when you buy it. Games that don't work or sound errors or whatever else. This IS the perfect solution - the power and versatility of emulation coupled with solid state cartridge media.

[L___E___T]

There's that, but then if its essentially emulation with save states and filters, why bother with the cartridges?  Why not just do emulation generally?  That's what puts me off personally.  I'm not saying right or wrong so much, but it defeats the object for me.  I am guessing the SD card is going to be accessible storage as well when it releases - it's not the kind of thing they can really publicise though.

[satoshi_matrix]

I don't follow that logic. If you want to go purely emulation, then go ahead - there are dozens and dozens of devices that can do that from a modded Xbox to the brand new Ouya. The Retron5 is the fusion of the power and versatility of emulators with the physical solid state media of cartridges, the best of both worlds. If this doesn't appeal, you can spent well under $30 to get an Xbox and the materials needed to mod one and bingo, you can do most of what the Retorn5 can do purely through both hardware and software emulation.

Hyperkin's direction here is the smart option for those of us who have large retro libraries and who feel attached to ownership of something physical that's just lost when you purely emulate.

Don't get me wrong I love emulation and I think it's great - but I see it as a means to an end, not the ultimate goal. When I play a Famicom game I don't own, I ask myself if I like it enough to go and buy a physical copy - even though I've already got it free through emulation.

Maybe that's just me though.

[L___E___T]

No I do that too, but I like to play them on the original hardware.  That's what I'm talking about, if its not original hardware and has all the filters etc. to me that feels like emulation, which I have already.  The GBA bit is interesting but again I have that already through original hardware with TV out.

I'm not dissing the Retron, but I don't think a big library of carts and emulated hardware is the smart option, to me it's the wrong way round.  I like original hardware with an Everdrive, because its original hardware but also saves so much space.  The other way round seems odd to me.  If you already have a big library of games, I would expect to see the systems as well.

To clarify, what defeats the object for me is that it's not original hardware.
That, not cartridges is the main point of appeal outside of emulation for me.
Emulation is good for convenience, but there's nothing like playing on a real system with that picture and sound.  I like collecting games, but it's the playing as they were meant to be played that I like more. 

I think the Retron's strength and appeal is that it does all those systems in one go.  For people not yet into retro gaming, it has a lot of appeal there.
Post Merge: June 13, 2013, 03:59:57 pm
Thinking about it more, with the Retron the effort goes on emulating the hardware, not the games.  I can see the sense with that actually and also the appeal.  Under $100 too, sounds good.

[GohanX]

I agree with you for the most part, but since this thing has HDMI and filters I am hoping the emulation is accurate enough that it will make gaming on a HDTV not look like horrid ass.

[L___E___T]

"horrid ass" - best universal descriptor ever!

I think I'll probably buy one for convenience.  If it looked nicer it'd be a pre-order though.

[satoshi_matrix]

L___E___T I respect your opinions and share many of them. I don't think I'll ever get rid of my original hardware (Famicom, Super Famicom, GameBoy Advance SP, etc) but at the same thing Hyperkin is offering something that as you said, emulates the hardware, not the software.

Hyperkin has shown off and promises to deliver extremely accurate hardware based emulators with robust options. The difference between an SNES game running on the original hardware and an SNES game running on the Retorn5 are all in your head.

The system's capable of running everything in native 4:3 resolutions or can stretch or do whatever you want. You can add in soften or sharpen filters. Sound interpolation enabled or disabled. You can even add scanlines if you want.

Of course, this is all pre-release hype - nobody yet knows how accurate the emulators truly will be. All I can say right now is that if Hyperkin lives up to the potential the Retron5 has, it will officially eclipse not only all other clones, but also the original hardware of each system it does. It has potential to achieve greatness. Next we need to see what it actually does achieve.

[P]

Although I'm all for original hardware, if emulation is the only way to preserve that hardware, then this may not be such a bad idea after all. Many parts in the Famicom are not easy to find anymore and is probably not produced anymore. And for sound and graphics not being exactly the same in emulation, that is the case of real hardware as well. Different revisions of Famicoms have slightly different sound and video and many people don't consider it to be wrong, just different. They are all original Nintendo consoles anyway. Off course emulators should aim to be as accurate as possible though.

"Emulating software" doesn't make sense but I understand what you mean (after all emulation is about reproducing a certain hardware's behaviour in software on other hardware). Even though flash carts like everdrive runs the original games' code (the ROM) it has to emulate the hardware on the carts. This may not matter much for things like mappers but for example extra sound chips like VRC6 and FDS sound chip may sound off due to not enough accurate emulation.

[TanookiSuitSam]

Any more news on this thing? It already looks really impressive.

[jayjay06]

retron 5 has been delay to 2014 http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/28/hyperkin-retron-5-game-console-launch-delay/