Lyth

That's possible, yet I haven't seen any. I know the NOAC boards are quite small, so it's feasible. However, this one is a special case of cloning, as they've actually cloned the box design and general advertising in a sense. I may pick it up and try it out.

Not surprisingly, China is already cloning the FC and NES Mini's. However, they seem to just be a NOAC inside a smaller shell, as there's no HD capabilities. Yet, I've seen FC and NES clones that have HD output here, so I bet there will be a more "true" clone of the product in the future. As you can see here, they've even copied the box design, with a few slight changes.

Here in China, we have online thrift shops, which are pretty much the same as "AS IS" stores on eBay. Last haul, was a bit of a while ago, but I picked up: 2x Game Theory Admirals (NOAC NES/FC clone handheld that's shaped like a big GBA). Has composite video out too! Came in squashed retail boxes, but didn't include the pin adapter for normal games. Ended up making my own. Screen quality is meh at best, and the audio is very tinny, but it's neat to have one of the more uncommon FC/NES handhelds from China! Not my pic, but this illustrates the weirdness of this thing. The cart adapter slot, is basically just a pin extender, and is super wobbly. Not sure if there were ever proprietary games created for this thing.

Hi, That's Byemu's site. Byemu (Peter) is our hardware guy, who has been working on the project since it's conception. He's quite skilled and has experience in creating dumpers/flashers, and flashcarts. While the design of the Lythium prototype is similar to some of his current products (some of which, are were developed concurrently with Lythium and based off of it), our prototype's firmware, functionality and end purpose is vastly different. Additionally, our next prototype will have the Lythium Modular Connector attached, as well as a better quality slot and USB connector, and we'll showcase the cart slot adapters soon (which are developed solely by Byemu, solely for Lythium). Additionally, most of Byemu's products use an ft232 + atmel Atmega MCU, while our Prototype (and final product) is based off of the STM ARM CPU. A few current products of Byemu's use the STM ARM CPU, as they were developed concurrently, and acted as a stepping stone to Lythium.

I'll have to get back to you on this. Bare with me, as we need to make some headway into Atari support. Our general aim is "as long as it can be dumped, and there's an emulator for it; it can be played". Obviously, there's more to it than that, but that's our goal in a nutshell. We'll strive to continuously add support for more features, systems, games, and such, as much as we can technologically do. After our console launches and grows, continuous support will be added to improve the future set. Additionally, we'll allow for third party & fan-made adapters to function with our console, as we want to inspire people to use our console as they see fit.

I'm not sure if I'm understanding your question correctly, apologies. In terms of general support, we will be supporting the consoles on the list in first post, as well as aiming for at least Atari 2600. However, we would love to support consoles that the community can suggest. In terms of scope, we can try supporting most cart based consoles (and should be successful), as long as we can find a supplier for the slot, and as long as there is an emulator for it.

Don't hate me for this, but I actually have fond memories of Swordquest Fireworld. It was one of the first games that I played on the 2600, so it has a bit of a special place in my heart. Okay, you can hate me a little for that. We're now looking into Atari 2600 support. As long as we can find a supplier for the connectors, then we'll be good to go on that forefront.

It is similar in some ways to the Retron 5 or other competitors, although we can detach the Core and use it in devices where Retron 5 or the others would be unusable, like on laptops and HTPC setups. All while abiding by GPL, and providing official support for more systems (at proper voltages too). And adding to that, we're actively trying to connect to the retro gaming community, and providing easy to use software for less experienced customers. And yes, no nonsense. About the Atari, thanks for the insight. I'll take a look! We'd love to add support for that! Gotta love playing Warlords and Swordquest.

Hi! Lythium is compatible with Non-Removable Media Flash Carts, which are the same types of carts that dumpers can flash to. In a sense, like a blank, re-writeable cartridge, that can be written to by the device. Hi guys, We realize that some products on crowdsourcing platforms such as Kickstarter, lack feasibility and sustainability, due to not having a prototype and shady business practices. That observation, is why we waited until we were past the initial prototype stage, to start unavailing our product, and aim to be transparent as possible. We are choosing Kickstarter for a source of funding, as it gives us a platform to pre-sell our products, to generate funds for the longevity and success of our business, while retaining creative control.

Morning guys, just woke up. Excuse the time difference on my end. We are aiming to support at least Atari 2600, and possibly other classic systems, however we need to secure a manufacturer of those cart slots. If any of you know of a manufacturer/supplier, or a place to get those, you can PM me. I'd love to add that support, as I am a fan of it. We'll try our best to add this functionality. Our Engineer confirms that this is possible, if we can secure a supplier for the slot. So we'll be on the lookout for that. I appreciate the feedback so far! Thanks to you all. I've seen that in Asia, simple "flash carts", which don't have any SD technology, seem to be popular due to price. Which are pretty much a blank cart, for repro and some homebrew games. (The way we explain them in China is a "Single ROM flash cart") Additionally, we want to give people an option to put their homebrew ROMs on a cart, by using this device. Imagine Lythium to have the feature of a cart writer, that people can use with the relatively cheap, non-flexible storage flash carts, that existed before the SD ones. (For example, those 256M GBA cards). However, this is a subset of our main goal and features, which we hope to grow as well. We need to test out flash cartridges that exist on the market, to see compatibility. I want to make note, that we can and aim to produce blank/flash carts in the future, as our part of our team has experience doing this. Thanks for the compatibility feedback! These prices on here are preliminary, and we're trying to get them down as much as we can. We'll be sure to keep you guys in the loop, on any developmental steps we make.

Hi! If you so choose, you can use Lythium as a ROM dumper with the provided software and then play those games with other emulators. As far as I can tell, the controller adapter will work with other emulators. Also, every Lythium bundle includes cartridge adapters for every console that we support (see the above list). I've edited the first post to make this clear as well. Great! I've got my eye on you as well! I see you. Just kidding! Lythium provides users with a way to play and backup ROM + SRAM data from the cartridges that they own. This means users can continue their saved games, on cartridges they used to play, and relive moments. This is especially applicable to all of the cartridges that have SRAM batteries that may expire soon. People can backup their saved data, and keep it! It goes without saying, that users may own games for consoles they don't have, and Lythium gives them an "all in one" solution to that issue. Lythium in a sense, is a also some-what portable by design, as the user doesn't need a TV to operate and play on the Lythium Core system, and can use their laptop or PC. Lythium also provides homebrew developers and enthusiasts, to use one device as their ROM + SRAM dumper and/or flasher. Additionally, Lythium can provide users a way of sharing their high scores (via screenshots), gameplay screenshots, etc, directly to social media. We aim to have a strong feature-set at launch, and are happy to incorporate features that the community suggests. In a nutshell, you are correct. I can't say much about what our competitors may provide, however, we aim to offer N64 and GBA connections at proper voltage (3.3V vs 5V). Additionally, we officially support all of the above games and features (as stated in the first post), and are happy to have third party add-ons created for Lythium. Lastly, our design incorporates a social media based feature-set, as well as the above mentioned modular aspect, to expand it's features and market, as we continuously develop with the community in mind. In a sense, Lythium is a USB based cartridge interface, that can be used with your PC, or stacked on a module to make it a standalone console. Edit: It's late here in China, so I'll be off to bed now! My team members (Foxlet and Habbasi) will take over intermittently. There may be some delays in response, rest assured.

Hi all, As some of you may or may not know, I'm the founder of a small company which is finalizing development of a Retro Game Console, and soon to be launching on Kickstarter. I've created this post here, as we believe it's important for us to connect directly with the community for transparency and development reasons. We fully understand the past situations with other game consoles that created bad reputation for parts of the market, and that pushes us even more to provide a fantastic product to our customers. Introduction of Myself As some of you may have seen from my introduction post here, I'm a Canadian who has been living in China for the past 4 or 5 years. I'm a graduate of Computer Systems, and have been in the retro gaming community for about 10 years, most notably BenHeck and AssemblerGames. I'm from way back when people like Palmer Luckey were creating console portables, heh. Also, Like some of you, I grew up playing various retro consoles (most notably N64 and Genesis) with my family. Previously, I've worked short contracts with Square Enix/BigPoint, Microsoft and Mockworld. For Square Enix/BigPoint, I was a community moderator for Gameglobe, and for Microsoft I was an EN/FR SEO coordinator on the Bing project. Lastly, for Mockworld, I was QC tech for their Shockwave based games. I'm also a certified (TEFL/TESOL) English teacher, and previously have worked as a volunteer English teacher, as well as Foreign Leader at a few Middle Schools and extra-curricular facilities. Introduction of RetroATK RetroATK (short for Retro Attack), was founded by myself back in 2015, as way to start providing the growing retro game market with quality hardware. During these last 2 years, we've grown internally and have staff members in China, Germany and America. For example, our Engineer is known in some circles for creating various dumpers for NES, SNES, GBA, N64, NeoGeoPocket, and flash carts for GB and Wonderswan. Our website is: https://www.RetroATK.com *Please note, our website is currently pushing updates. So you may see some abrupt changes!* Our Core Team Myself - Founder and Marketing Peter (Byemu) - Engineer and Hardware Expert Carlos (Foxlet) - Software/Product Designer and Marketing Hameer (Habbasi) - Software Engineer & UI Developer Hameer's Introduction Hameer is a Pakistani engineer with a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering and is currently pursuing a Master's in Information and Communication Engineering from TU Darmstadt, Germany. He has been programming as a freelancer for 3 years and has worked professionally for a year in the past. Peter's Introduction Peter, also known online as Byemu, is a hardware engineer, living in Shanghai, China. Peter has developed dumping hardware for consoles such as WonderSwan, N64, GBA, SNES and more, for the Japanese and Chinese market. He has also developed flash carts for the applicable systems as well. Carlos' Introduction Carlos is a software developer currently joining the RetroATK team to deliver the Lythium console according to the community's needs. Our Product: Lythium Lythium is a stackable modular retro game console, that has been built from the ground up, with the retro community in mind. As you can see below, Lythium has 3 major modular components, which exist to fit the various needs of our customers. Lythium Core is a USB based device which is capable of dumping SRAM & ROM, and can instantly play cartridges through our Windows/Linux/macOS client. While, the Lythium Controller Hub is a stackable add-on, to allow for native controller usage. Lastly, the Lythium Standalone box is a stackable add-on that allows the user to use Lythium on their TV, just like a traditional game console. So, no matter the situation, Lythium can fit your lifestyle. Lythium was developed, to fill the needs of various retro gaming enthusiasts, which means it supports ROM & SRAM dumping out of box, from an easy to use interface. Additionally, it supports instant game playing through the Core & Pro bundle, as well as the option for dedicated controllers, through the Controller Hub. Lythium supports a wide range of different consoles, and we aim to constantly add new console support to it, upon request from customers. Lastly, Lythium's front-end software is multi-platform, and can run on Mac OS, Windows, and Linux. Lythium's software is created with the community in mind, and will be able to push screenshots, and other information to social media platforms. We are also aiming to provide small contests which the community can partake in, through our social media platforms, in order to encourage users to connect while playing. Supported Consoles NES Famicom Master System SNES Super Famicom Genesis/Megadrive TurboGrafx 16 / PC-EngineGame Gear Gameboy/Gameboy Color Wonderswan / Wonderswan Color NeoGeo Pocket Gameboy Advance N64 More Consoles possible upon Request! Lythium Modules Lythium Core (Base module) Lythium Controller Hub(s) Lythium Standalone Lythium Bundles (Prices are preliminary) Lythium Core (Base Unit + All Cartridge Adaptors) - $120~ USD Lythium Premium (Base Unit + All Cartridge Adaptors + Controller Hub) - $160~ USD Lythium Pro (Base Unit + All Cartridge Adaptors + Controller Hub + Standalone Module + Homebrew Demo Cart) - $300~ USD Specifications CPU: STM ARM @ 75 Mhz (Core), x86 CPU (Standalone) Memory: 2GB (Standalone) Storage: 32GB (Standalone) - Preliminary Dimensions: 108 x 62 x 23mm (Core), 130 x 130 x 23mm (Standalone) - Sizes are Preliminary and subject to change. Modular Connector: Lythium Proprietary Connector FAQ Is Lythium just another "ARM Emulation Box"? Fortunately, it is not. The ARM CPU on the Lythium Core base exists to handle PC to Lythium communication, as well as interfacing Lythium with Cartridge side. We chose the STM ARM processor to handle these tasks, as it is flexible enough to do so. Additionally, the Lythium Core base PCB is custom designed, and the firmware running on it is custom made. So, in other words, the Lythium Core base is not an "off the shelf product that runs Linux". It is designed entirely from the ground up, by our team. The Lythium Core uses your computer's hardware as it's performance platform, and the Standalone base uses our x86 compatible platform. Additionally, the Lythium Standalone Base uses an x86-based system integrated with our software, powerful enough to give users an excellent gaming experience. The software for Lythium Standalone is not locked down or TIVOized, and able to be changed to a third party software. Why Kickstarter? Currently our product is past the prototype stage, and Kickstarter gives us the opportunity to generate interest and customers. This allows us raise funding directly for meeting mass production scale, while retaining exclusive rights over our product. In other words, this allows us to raise funds directly from the community, so we retain creative control, which doesn't always happen if you seek private investment at this stage. It's also worth mentioning that Kickstarter gives us a platform to share our progress, and connect to a large scale of customers, effectively and concisely. Why is the cost so low, compared to other similar consoles? We are working directly with component manufacturers, to provide high quality components for a reasonable price. Additionally, we have a strong relationship with many of our parts manufacturers, due to our staff members working with them for many years, to date. Lastly, since we have a team in China, we are able to communicate directly with the manufacturer, and bypass any middle man or service. Why different versions of Lythium? As mentioned, Lythium is the first truly modular retro gaming console. Right out of the box, this allows for customers to "build their setup" in the way that they want. We realize that different customers require different setups, depending on their lifestyles, and this allows us to provide that. All Lythium bundles ship with the Core module. Additionally, we will sell the other modules separately, so you can upgrade your experience as you see fit. Why modular? Designing our console to be modular, goes hand in hand with the reason for having different versions (see above). However, a modular design also allows us to continuously develop new add-ons for the console, therefore extending the feature set of the console. Also, Lythium is designed and developed with the community in mind. So in turn, we are open to idea of third party add-ons, created by the community, that can connect directly to Lythium. What's the current stage of Lythium? Currently, we have finished 2 major prototypes of our PCB board, and are finalizing our release candidate version. Concurrently, we are also finalizing our concept shell design and retail box. Lastly, we have finalized our beta version of our firmware and GUI. As we develop our product, we will continuously post updates to this thread, to keep everyone in the loop! What's the large scale plan for Lythium? After our Kickstarter, we will prepare and set the console to be mass produced and marketed. This means, a high quality molded or CNC shell, with an eye catching retail box, as well as targeting online and retail customers. Additionally, we will be manufacturing under appropriate safety and quality certificates such as CE/UL and RoHS. After this, you can expect to see us connecting with trade shows and conventions, as well as promoting the creation of third party addons. All of this is in order for us to really provide product that not only lives in the community, but also among it. Lastly, we will continuously update the console's firmware and software to remove bugs, and add support, to create a more joyful gaming experience for our users. What about the front-end software? The front-end for Lythium is developed in Qt and is compatible with Windows, macOS and Linux. It uses libretro's API for its emulation back-end. Because of the nature of the libraries it uses, it will be licensed as GPLv3. This will allow the community to look into the software and analyze it. On the standalone unit, the user can choose to install a modified firmware of their liking (although the resulting operation may not be supported), preventing Tivo-ization of the included Lythium software client. We have gone through the trouble to make sure everything we are developing is legal and that we don't violate any licenses, open-source or otherwise. What's the Future of RetroATK? In the future, RetroATK will be entering the Hong Kong Cyberport or Science Park Initiative, in order to grow at a stable pace, and to increase our industry connections. Additionally, this will allow us to receive grant-based funding and seed mentorship, so we can become larger and more powerful. And, As per our growth, we will also aim to provide additional products to the retro gaming community. In other words, you could see a portable version at some point. How can RetroATK avoid the problems encountered by previous crowdfunded retro consoles? From day one of public presence, we are aiming to be as transparent as possible with the gaming community and backers. This is quite unprecedented, as some other developers have chosen to use marketing mumbo-jumbo and hide behind the walls of the internet. Additionally, we are developing our system with license agreements in mind, and are in compliance to license agreements. Lastly, with the cooperation with the retro gaming community, and government initiatives, our presence will continuously grow and we will always stand by our community. In other words, this all means we will continue to develop with the community in mind, while respecting the hard work that the community has done before us.

Love that game! Haven't played it in years, thanks for the reminder! *Incoming tears due to how hard the game is with the dpad*

In terms of accurate emulation, Gameboy is pretty damn spot on, due to Beware's bgb emulator. However, I do also believe that emulation doesn't always have to be "accurate" to the actual architecture, as long as it's functional and enjoyable without emulation related bugs. Obviously, the more accurate, the better. But a lot of stuff is enjoyable to the general public, while remaining "not perfect". I, personally, really enjoy Gamecube emulation, although most games require tweaking to run well enough on my minimal build.

Mario Kart 64 for sure, way too many fond memories associated with this game. I remember going over to my friends house and playing this on a projector in his backyard. Good times, haha.