Reaperman Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 (edited) What are some things (hopefully realistic ones) that we'd really like to see the 'clone hardware' makers build instead of the usual yearly upgrade to last year's clone consoles/handhelds? I've got a few to list. Warning that my list starts out almost sane, but gets crazier toward the bottom. 2.4ghz wireless genesis controllers. We've finally seen a decent snes wireless unit, but genesis is even more useful since those controllers are compatible with our ataris/commodores and just about everything else too. Why good wireless nes controllers aren't available is also a huge mystery to me. Hardware upscaler. A device that upscales a variety of signals from our old game systems without introducing a lot of lag. Support for composite, s-video and scart rgb would be nice, as well as options for aspect ratio, and maybe filtering, or overlaying of 'scanlines.' We are all going to need one of these someday soon. A game gear console. Finally play those game gear games on a decent screen. Since it's closely related to master system (and genesis because of that) a 3-in-1 would be desirable, yes? A super gun. Why hasn't an inexpensive supergun been mass produced? There's almost nothing in them. It's not a huge market, but in addition to arcade boards, it would be pretty easy to slip 'on a chip' hardware onto boards that fit them too. Rack-mounted clones. Instead of having a top-loading form factor, what about a front loading one, and the ability to stack or rack clones together? Fewer video and power cables mean less clutter for us, which is a *huge* benefit. How cool would it be to have a nice, neat little stack of six systems sitting next to a TV? Edited March 25, 2013 by Reaperman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StoneAgeGamer Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 2.4ghz wireless genesis controllers. We've finally seen a decent snes wireless unit, but genesis is even more useful since those controllers are compatible with our ataris/commodores and just about everything else too. Why good wireless nes controllers aren't available is also a huge mystery to me. I agree RF wireless controllers are a good idea and if they were good would sell well. Won't be surprised if we start seeing them more and more. Hardware upscaler. A device that upscales a variety of signals from our old game systems without introducing a lot of lag. Support for composite, s-video and scart rgb would be nice, as well as options for aspect ratio, and maybe filtering, or overlaying of 'scanlines.' We are all going to need one of these someday soon. Yes. There actually is a product that does the scan lines I believe. A game gear console. Finally play those game gear games on a decent screen. Since it's closely related to master system (and genesis because of that) a 3-in-1 would be desirable, yes? Even though Game Gear wasn't a failure it also wasn't popular enough to justify a new portable being made most likely. Just not a huge market for it However with the new RetroN5 being emulation based it not completely out of the realm of possibility to see clone add-ons that can play Game Gear or other less popular systems on your TV. A super gun. Why hasn't an inexpensive supergun been mass produced? There's almost nothing in them. It's not a huge market, but in addition to arcade boards, it would be pretty easy to slip 'on a chip' hardware onto boards that fit them too. That's why. Rack-mounted clones. Instead of having a top-loading form factor, what about a front loading one, and the ability to stack or rack clones together? Fewer video and power cables mean less clutter for us, which is a *huge* benefit. How cool would it be to have a nice, neat little stack of six systems sitting next to a TV? Maybe once we can get a decent clone they can start doing this kind of stuff, but I doubt it. I like most of your ideas, unfortunately there is a reason why most of them won't be made. Its all about the Benjamins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickeycolumbus Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 I'd like to see them publish homebrews, or even their own original games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reaperman Posted March 25, 2013 Author Share Posted March 25, 2013 (edited) I like most of your ideas, unfortunately there is a reason why most of them won't be made. Its all about the Benjamins. Yeah, my ideas aren't perfect, especially in terms of the Benjamins. I'm just trying to spark some outside of the box thinking, since the clone release cycle seems to me to be stuck in a bit of a rut. For the sega game gear, I was hoping that it came nearly for free when genesis hardware was perfected and could piggy-back on systems with them. I'll confess that I don't know a lot about the relationship between master system, and game gear as far as genesis support goes. I'd like to see them publish homebrews, or even their own original games. Since a decent number of these systems have built in games, it's always amazed me that this hasn't been tapped very much (outside of the c64dtv and flashback 2). I'd imagine that most homebrewers would be thrilled to have that level of exposure. For cart releases, having one style of writable cart produced that's filled at the time of shipment seems like it *might* keep numbers high enough to be at least slightly practical--I can think of one certain store that does something similar to that Edited March 25, 2013 by Reaperman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godslabrat Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 2.4ghz wireless genesis controllers. We've finally seen a decent snes wireless unit, but genesis is even more useful since those controllers are compatible with our ataris/commodores and just about everything else too. Why good wireless nes controllers aren't available is also a huge mystery to me. I'm on board with this, but I'd gladly throttle back my expectations even from there. What about good quality repro controllers? The controller is the part of the console that sees the most physical wear and tear, and there aren't any great options for long-term replacements. Clone controllers are cheaply made. Buying old controllers for refurbishment is a crapshoot at best. Finding new old stock... highest probability of success, but costly and rare. I'd love some NES and SNES controllers that were well-made enough to pass for the Nintendo originals. Wireless is nice, but I'd prefer not to fuss with batteries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StoneAgeGamer Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 Yeah, my ideas aren't perfect, especially in terms of the Benjamins. I'm just trying to spark some outside of the box thinking, since the clone release cycle seems to me to be stuck in a bit of a rut. For the sega game gear, I was hoping that it came nearly for free when genesis hardware was perfected and could piggy-back on systems with them. I'll confess that I don't know a lot about the relationship between master system, and game gear as far as genesis support goes. The Game Gear actually does more colors than both the Genesis and the Master System can do (probably why there was never a Super Game Gear-like adapter made), however in the case of a system like the RetroN5 I don't see why Hyperkin couldn't make an adapter for it. If a Game Gear cart adapter is detected hen run it on the Game Gear emulator. Obviously the system's firmware would have to support it. I doubt they would consider this unless the R5 gets enough units out there and they feel production of such adapter would sell well enough. This, of course, is assuming they have built some type of forward thinking into the system for such possibilities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevtris Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 What are some things (hopefully realistic ones) that we'd really like to see the 'clone hardware' makers build instead of the usual yearly upgrade to last year's clone consoles/handhelds? I've got a few to list. Warning that my list starts out almost sane, but gets crazier toward the bottom. A game gear console. Finally play those game gear games on a decent screen. Since it's closely related to master system (and genesis because of that) a 3-in-1 would be desirable, yes? You mean this? Not to toot my own horn too much but it exists and it's done! Including that boss bezel around the play area. (yeah it plays SMS also and Colecovision). 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Gemintronic Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 You mean this? Not to toot my own horn too much but it exists and it's done! Including that boss bezel around the play area. (yeah it plays SMS also and Colecovision). Does this have cart slots? Could it be augmented to have keyboard/mouse support to turn it into an Adam and or MSX? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoon Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 I'd love to see somebody try their hand at a Commodore 64. Just a simple keyboard/box that can hook up to your TV, includes a couple disk drives, a tape drive, cart slot, and a couple controller jacks. And perhaps include an SD slot for quick saves/emulation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sqoon Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 A 5200 clone with new dependable controllers and a SD card slot. Ditto for a Colecovision clone. Those systems are getting seriously old with no new hardware on the horizon. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George35 Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 I'm surprised no one has mention this http://hyperkin.com/blog/2013/03/retron-5-details-revealed-from-the-midwest-gaming-classic/ yet. If its for real or vaporware, I'm not sure. But the HDMI output and Bluetooth controllers sound nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StoneAgeGamer Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 I'm surprised no one has mention this http://hyperkin.com/...gaming-classic/ yet. If its for real or vaporware, I'm not sure. But the HDMI output and Bluetooth controllers sound nice. You shouldn't be surprised because it actually was brought up several times already in this thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StoneAgeGamer Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 I'd love to see somebody try their hand at a Commodore 64. Just a simple keyboard/box that can hook up to your TV, includes a couple disk drives, a tape drive, cart slot, and a couple controller jacks. And perhaps include an SD slot for quick saves/emulation. Just because technology is older doesn't mean its somehow simpler or cheaper. You want a C64 clone with a couple disk drives, a tape drive, a cart slot, and SD card slot? Yeah I don't think so... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevtris Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 Does this have cart slots? Could it be augmented to have keyboard/mouse support to turn it into an Adam and or MSX? No because I'd have 12 or 13 cart slots on it by now. After 4 or 5 it gets ridiculous I think. I got keyboard/mouse support via USB though. I haven't implemented any computers on it yet for the simple of those two dirty words. D*** D****. they are very dirty words. Disk Drive. hehe. I will eventually give them a shot though. The 1541 is what stops me doing this C64. I actually have what amounts to a complete C64 already but the spectre of the 1541 drive scares me. I could do basic drive emulation I guess but then things like fast loaders won't work, and I would want them to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassGuitari Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 I'd love to see somebody try their hand at a Commodore 64. Just a simple keyboard/box that can hook up to your TV, includes a couple disk drives, a tape drive, cart slot, and a couple controller jacks. And perhaps include an SD slot for quick saves/emulation. So...a full-blown standard C64 with the addition of an SD slot? Why not something like a C64-on-a-chip (or just a C64 emulator) with a keyboard and SD slot? A 5200 clone with new dependable controllers and a SD card slot. Ditto for a Colecovision clone. Those systems are getting seriously old with no new hardware on the horizon. I'd like to see a 5200+7800 multisystem, myself. Actually 5200+7800+XL/XE. I don't see it happening, though. A Colecovision clone would be great, something like the DINA system (but better-made!) that could also run SG1000 software. But again, I don't see it happening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yell0w_lantern Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 (edited) I'd love to see somebody try their hand at a Commodore 64. Just a simple keyboard/box that can hook up to your TV, includes a couple disk drives, a tape drive, cart slot, and a couple controller jacks. And perhaps include an SD slot for quick saves/emulation. Turbo Chameleon with a docking station - pricey but it exists. Hack into into a case and voila! http://www.vesalia.de/e_chameleon.htm http://www.vesalia.d...6d687b355470746 You could hack a DT64 into a case and attach uIEC from Jim Brain. http://www.lemon64.c...eaa7fd3cd31334e http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eyf2LnTt7-M Edited March 26, 2013 by yell0w_lantern Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Algus Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 Battery backed high scores? A High Score card? Dunno how hard something like that would be to do, maybe just have the games automatically save state. Most of the features and stuff in the Retron 5 sound pretty good but one thing that I think we could do with as an improvement would be saving our high scores on some of the older consoles. I'd make it portable/be on a chip so I could take it to a friend's house...even though I'd be the only one of my friends who would actually have one lol. I would hope there's going to be a market for hardware clones as TV tech progresses because it is getting to the point where we aren't going to be able to hook up our old systems to new TVs anymore. My NES plugs into my TV well enough but the scaling issue gets pretty frustrating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ApolloBoy Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 Hardware upscaler. A device that upscales a variety of signals from our old game systems without introducing a lot of lag. Support for composite, s-video and scart rgb would be nice, as well as options for aspect ratio, and maybe filtering, or overlaying of 'scanlines.' Already been done: http://retrogaming.hazard-city.de/framemeister.html 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoon Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 Just because technology is older doesn't mean its somehow simpler or cheaper. You want a C64 clone with a couple disk drives, a tape drive, a cart slot, and SD card slot? Yeah I don't think so... I don't recall this thread being about cheaper. I also don't recall me saying this would be something cheap to build. I said "simple" due to the fact this would neaten-up a typical Commodore 64 set-up, not because it would be a simple project. Sorry if I offended you with wanting an all-in-one Commodore set-up, but there's really no need to be a jerk about it. So...a full-blown standard C64 with the addition of an SD slot? Why not something like a C64-on-a-chip (or just a C64 emulator) with a keyboard and SD slot? I've done some Commodore emulation over the years, and while I don't find it to be a bad alternative to collecting, I always go back to my physical Commodore collection. The idea of a keyboard/box that would hook up to a TV would be to save some space. Right now I have a whole desk dedicated to just Commodore. I have the space for it, but if I could eliminate the Commodore monitor/drives/datasette and use some sort of a Commodore tower that can hook up to a TV, that would give me additional space to hook up some extra systems on the desk. I threw the SD Slot idea on at the end based on all the feedback concerning the new RetroN 5 announcement. If there was a way to incorporate something like this in order to avoid lengthy save/load times, that would be bonus. And since emulation is always a hot topic with new systems/handhelds oriented towards older library of games, I assume that would be something a computer-oriented crowd would be extremely interested in. Personally, I'd still buy a system like this without the SD. Turbo Chameleon with a docking station - pricey but it exists. Hack into into a case and voila! Those are definitely cool! I've been contemplating on investing in a 1541 Ultimate-II, especially since the newer versions work with tapes. Heck of a waiting line compared to the Chameleon, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HammR25 Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 These guys probably needed a better name than "Awesome Controller". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reaperman Posted March 26, 2013 Author Share Posted March 26, 2013 Already been done: http://retrogaming.h...amemeister.html The thing about that one is that it's over $400. These kind of devices tend to be very expensive. I have a vga upscaler, and even it was quite high. Since this is something that we'll all need, I'm thinking under $100. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StoneAgeGamer Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 I don't recall this thread being about cheaper. I also don't recall me saying this would be something cheap to build. I said "simple" due to the fact this would neaten-up a typical Commodore 64 set-up, not because it would be a simple project. Sorry if I offended you with wanting an all-in-one Commodore set-up, but there's really no need to be a jerk about it. Hardly offended, your idea is just impractical, would cost way too much money, and would probably sell very poorly. Sorry maybe I misunderstood the point of the thread and I am just thinking too much from a business side of things. Don't take it personally that I critiqued your idea, no malice was intended and I apologize if I came off as a jerk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arkhan Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 They should build flash carts and crap, super cheap, for the real consoles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StoneAgeGamer Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 They should build flash carts and crap, super cheap, for the real consoles. They have made a few and they are often stolen designs and are terrible quality with absolutely no support. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Gemintronic Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 Everybody has the flash cart thing wrong. Fug super high priced super wang dang dongle flash carts. Give me inexpensive one off carts so people can swap homebrew like trading cards. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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