Retron 5

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Retron 5

Postby Wolf Bird » Mon Aug 25, '14, 1:24 am

We just got one of these…well, actually, it's our second, it's just that the first one we got wouldn't boot, so we had to return the thing. Fortunately, the store just simply exchanged it.

http://www.retron5.com

I think it's a pretty neat piece of tech. The idea is that it plays retro games (it can play NES, SNES/Super Famicom, Genesis, Famicom and Game Boy) in HD, as it goes through HDMI output. The company behind it, Hyperkin (the same company that made the SupaBoy, which I've talked about a few times) seemed to create it with the idea of making it possible to play retro games on more modern technology, considering that old TVs that work are hard to come by (and will only get harder to find) and old systems to play cartridges are not the easiest things to acquire either. So they made the Retron 5, which is the fifth iteration of their Retron consoles. It has its own controller, but also has controller inputs for Genesis, NES, and SNES.

We tried it out last night. I don't think I've ever seen Super Mario Brothers 3 look so clean, and so crisp, with such great sound quality. It auto-save states when you exit a game, and even remembers the save state when you put a cartridge back in. It can save files to its own memory, and pulls the game data off the cartridge, but it can't upload save file onto the cartridges. It seems that's glitchy, but something that can probably be patched in future updates.

Has anyone heard of this, or Hyperkin in general?
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Re: Retron 5

Postby S4Blade » Mon Aug 25, '14, 11:49 am

My friend at work was talking about this and he has a bunch of old game cartridges, so he plans on buying one of these. Unfortunately the only cartridges I own are for my old GBA games and I can play them on my DSI.

I think it's a good idea for people that still have cartridges though.
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Re: Retron 5

Postby PathfinderCS » Tue Sep 2, '14, 12:25 am

I've heard of similar systems; and I think CGR has reviewed a few of them. It might be a good idea for me to acquire one eventually as it's hard to have all these older systems that I own hooked up with the newer ones I still play.

Still, I'm waiting for the day that old Atari carts accepted. :p
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Re: Retron 5

Postby jessie » Tue Sep 2, '14, 1:09 am

Picked one up at Classic Game Fest. Works great! It actually works with 9 systems and if you have a Power Base converter will work with an additional system! 1. Genesis 2. Mega Drive 3. SNES 4. Super Famicon 5. NES 6. Famicon 7.Game Boy 8. Game Boy Color 9. Game Boy Advance 10. Sega Master System (with the Power Base Converter) I hope they can add support for the 32X soon! The 32X works with Genesis games inserted so It seems like a firmware update for the 32X. Why they did not unclude Atari, and Colecovision support is beyond me! :)
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Re: Retron 5

Postby Wolf Bird » Tue Sep 2, '14, 11:01 pm

Unfortunately, when I tried play my Crusader of Centy save on it, the data got corrupted. Wouldn't load on Genesis either. Maybe a battery issue, but it was fine just days earlier, so we submitted a bug report.
Next Pokemon game(s): Pearl
Last finished Pokémon game: Shield
Other games: Skyrim Special Edition (Switch), Spyro Reignited Trilogy (Switch & PS4), Okami (Switch & PS4)
Other gaming goals: completing a Living Pokedex (minus some event Pokes) and going through at least 1 game per generation

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