Newsdee

Actually I just noticed he also has NeoGeo/Supergun to USB adapters (i.e. MVS JAMMA with some extra buttons);. I was thinking of getting a 2600 adaprer and might pick one of these as well to save on shipping Maybe a weird question but has anybody ever done a USB HID->DB15 adapter? Why: some of my favorite sticks are USB and I have mostly anything->USB adapters, so if I can go the other way around I could use any stick with any device (assuming I have DB15->device adapters). I suppose mapping will be a pain, but better than connecting a second cable on the raw switches...

Have you tried using two "generic" USB gamepads with different mappings? I didn't check if that works... One thing I did was to get several of the same 3rd party pad so they can all use the same mapping. That plus a USB hub allows quickly setting up 5-player Bomberman.

I think I have the second edition of the Retron5 (how to tell for sure?) but still managed to destroy a pin of the SNES cartridge connector. It stopped working (couldn't dump carts) until I opened it and saw that all cart ports were connected and the SNES pin was shorting them all. So after cutting the pin I have a Retron4, which I guess is better than nothing. One thing I like about the Freak is that cart ports are detachable, which means you can still use the console if they break and (theoretically) one could upgrade the "brains" in the future.

I'm sure it's going to have Blast Processing!

Confirmed: the iBuffalo SNES gamepad works with the Freak. It also recognizes my Qanba Q4RAF arcade stick. With this I tested that it's possible to map any combination of USB buttons to open the in-game menu (i.e. one is not limited to e.g. NES buttons for example). There is a limitation to 10 USB buttons though, so in my Q4RAF I can use the "select" physical button but not the physical "home" button. Not big deal, there's buttons to spare on this stick

It uses file extensions: .PCE : PC Engine / TurboGrafx16 .BIN : Genesis/Megadrive .GB : Gameboy / Gameboy COlor .GBA : Gameboy Advance .SFC : SNES / Super Famicom .NES : NES / Famicom .SMS : Game Gear / Sega Master System / MK III All roms go into the same folder ( \RetroFreak\Games\ )

Retrolink NES pads have a hardware bug whereby the USB button 1 is always pressed. It's not connected physically but throws off devices which can't remap button assignment. The MiST FPGA has a small hack in the firmware specifically for it (for example). PS3-compatible controllers seems to work, a Royds EX stick and some south american pads (Dynacom) ran fine. I'd guess anything using basic USB HID with the stick/directions mapped to USB analog X/Y axis will work.

The RetroLink USB NES pad does not work with it :-( I think the (better) iBuffalo SNES pad works though, need to try it again to confirm. XBox gamepads (1st and 3rd party) do not work with it.

A good upscaler will convert a 240p signal to 720p or 1080p decently; I wouldn't call that "emulators". Recently I went to an old mall arcade and noticed some games had their monitors changed to LCD panels (probably cheaper). The old games (late 90s) were still fun to play; but it's a sad reminder that CRT are no longer manufactured (?).

The cheats file must be downloaded from the Cyber Gadget website. Look for a page called "Code" or something like that. Only catch is that the code descriptions are in Japanese :-/ The game DB dump is useful to find out CRC for a given game. Not sure how to generate codes from e.g. ZSNES, though; but I think its in "raw" format (not game genie or action replay).

Roms dumped with one unit will refuse to run on another with a message explaining why. I guess they "accidentally" forgot to only allow these ROMs to run, but I'm not complaining.

I took out cart adapter just in case (I wasn't using it).

I had my unit freeze a few times today when using filters in the PCE and SNES cores. I switched them off and it worked without problem after that. I kept using scanlines and didn't use the original resolution; so must be the filters that are CPU intensive...

Does switching off filters make a difference? You can also try turning on the "use original resolution" option to make sure the image isn't stretched. http://www.cybergadget.co.jp/support/retrofreak/trouble/7107/7106.html

What do you look for in "lag"? Is it input lag? I've noticed what seems to be fps drops in the GB and NES, plus what feels like sound lag in SNES. It could be game-dependent though. Megaman 2 had noticeably less fps than real hw but still plays fine. Street Fighter 2 Turbo on SNES the voice samples are slightly late by a few ms. For the use I'm giving to the machine it doesn't matter though. We've been rocking a few 4 and 5 player games on PCE, NES, and SNES. It's fun to see kids go from "wtf are these graphics" to then seriously get into Bomberman 94 or Gauntlet II

Did you upgrade to firmware 1.4 as well? My unit has been working fine so far; we've been playing a bunch of 4-player and 5-player games on PCE and SNES. USB hubs are recognized so you can plug a bunch of pads via USB. I picked up a few PS3-compatible pads which all work.

On the topic of adapting the molds/shell, the IndieGo has an interesting approach where they 3D print a mounting bracket for a Raspberry Pi that goes into a Mini-ITX box. Probably something similar can be done to snugly fit a PCB inside a Jag shell.

Not a fan of their description of "works up to 32 bit"; that's pretty meaningless except ruling out a 64 bit CPU...

Actually the MiST FPGA has many cores that were created/ported and are now maintained by other people than the original designer of the board (Till Harbaum). In particular the CPC, Amiga, PC Engine, and Atari 800/5200 cores are all projects run by individual people. Others were ported from the TC64 or FPGA Arcade boards, sometimes by Till but a few others as well. These cores were all done in open source, and the hardware itself is fully documented (with parts lists) so anybody with the knowledge could continue the work should the original authors give up on the projects or the board. In my view this is as good as having a PC + individual projects. The MCC216 has a bit of a bad reputation because they didn't publish their modifications of other people cores. But they also have some cores ported by other people (Atari 800/5200 for instance).

Merry xmas and thanks for the write-up, it's quite informative. A few comments: - Overheating: I gave one Freak as a gift and we've been abusing Bomberman 94 (PCE) for hours without problems; maybe the Genesis emu is more CPU intensive or maybe using the cart slot causes more heat (maybe the cart blocks airflow); something to watch out for. - In my experience modern TVs handle much better HDMI than other inputs (RCA or RF)so to compare video more fairly you'd need to use an external upscaler. That said, the end result is that the Freak will have better image than the original for "normal" people (who won't seek to RGB mod their stable of machines ). - Manual: there is an English online manual available from the main menu of the Freak (bottom right next to settings)

Until something better comes along the Retro Freak and Retron 5 hold the tiny niche of running carts with emulators. If it's "easy" to package these emus then I'd expect to see copycat systems; which best case will create the need to build something better (if people are willing to pay for it), or at worst ruin everybody's margins so nobody gets to profit too much from it in the end. To me the only better thing right now is the MiST but it has limited compatibility for many consoles. It's so open that you can download schematics and parts list from their wiki to build your own if you are willing. And it supports much more old-school systems (including computers), albeit some with limited support/compatibility. It doesn't support carts, but a Retrode with a PC would enable you to dump your own ROMs (except NES so far). Obviously its not so "out of the box" as the emu boxes (and lack e.g. save states) but is closer to real hw and easier to setup (and faster to boot) than a Win/Linux box.

I'm willing to give the Retro Freak guys the benefit of the doubt; especially compared to the Retron. I don't think anybody managed to get it right unless they sell a box without any software like an RPi or the MiST, and those are flagged "hobbyist" systems needing some knowledge to setup. The credits with emu authors appear automatically at some point during normal use of the Retro Freak. I don't have that unit with me right now but I'll check early January if it unlocks displaying the credits at any time (other easter eggs are unlocked and available after). It does credit them as "emulator authors" though. The user agreement appears on first startup and talks about "emulation aoftware" retaining their copyrights. Its a bit vague but they acknowlede there is something running under the hood of their frontend.

"Mark and Chris at River West/Coleco Holdings are also very behind this product (...) inviting us into their booth at Toy Fair which is where they want to officially begin rebuilding this brand in more concrete ways." This sounds like the Coleco name holders are planning more than one thing to "bring Coleco back"; the Chameleon might be just one among several other toys/products.

I have one since launch, so here's some impressions. For background I also own each of the original consoles, a Retron5, an RPi2, and a MiST FPGA. Summary: I like it quite a lot even if it has a few quirks and limitations. Build quality is OK, better than the Retron but less than an AV famicom. The whole console is a very tiny box with an add-on "shell" whose only purpose is to dump carts and provide one more USB port. If you don't care about dumping carts (e.g. visiting a friend) you can just use the internal tiny box, and yes it accepts roms from the SD. Modders could make a USB joystick with a little hole to put this box to play at somebody else's house. The usb adapter is a hub allowing to plug each controller independently (like a multitap). And it works with a regular PC as well, recognized as 5 independent usb controllers. Unless you already have all adapters, it's worth getting the Premium version to get one of these boxes. Only downside it doesn't work with NeoGeo controllers (the DB15 is wired to Famicom use). The emulators are decent, I would say in par with the Retron5. The system is much more user friendly than the RPi and its frontends (and faster to boot), and emulations seems to be in par of it as well. I find it more interesting to compare it to the MiST FPGA for the NES and PC Engine. The MiST has _much_ less game compatibility but what works runs really well, almost as good as real hardare. The Retro Freak runs more games but if you compare side by side you notice it has less FPS. I notice some slowdown in Gameboy Advance and Gameboy emulation, and the sound is a little lagged in SNES emulation. NES/Famicom and PCE emulation run very nicely as long as you don't do side-by-side comparisons to real hardware. In essence it's perfectly fine for casual use but purists should be aware of this and not expect higan-level quality. The "extra" features are similar to the Retron and most emulators: save states, patches, cheats, speed up. It has some easter eggs which are nice (won't spoil them) but nothing mind blowing. One flaw worth pointing out, but I'm really splitting hairs here: if you have a lot of ROMs on the SD (like 4000+) it will take a few minutes (2-3 maybe) to scan them on startup. Also I haven't found a way to "pagedown" on the game list; and you have to put all roms on the same folders separated by extension. If you curate your game list properly these aren't a problem. Another flaw is that it has limited controller compatibility so it can be hit and miss. PS3 and PS4 pads work but not Xbox 360. iBuffallo pads seem to all work (at least the two I have) as well as my Royds joystick and a no-brand Chinese SNES clone pad, but my Retrobit NES controller replica do not work. This would be fixed by firmware upgrade. I haven't tried asking the company for support though. One hidden/bonus feature is that it works out of the box with SMS/GG/MKIII roms, listed under the Genesis menu. Dumping them needs a separate adapter and I haven't tried any. The Retro Freak makers will sell their own in a month or two, and I suspect when that happens they might list them as a separate system in the main menu. There are Youtube videos of a Retro Freak running other emulators but I haven't seen any instructions on how to hack the firmware, so can't confirm it works. Bottom line... I like it better than the Retron5 and its more convenient/user friendly than the MiST and a custom Raspberry Pi 1/2.

I've ran that page through Google translate and they are very open about what they're using, provide a couple of download links for their forked versions, and ask to be contacted if anything is missing. Also, there's an easter egg displaying credits (won't spoil when it appears ) where they credit individual emulator authors. So it seems to me these guys are doing it right.