Retro-Bit Generations

[Andromeda Stardust]

Chances are that it's just Retro-Bit Generations guts powering each system, so I was mostly posting it for amusement value only.

 

If they could get a decently upscaled HDMI output from a SNES-on-a-chip though, I'd buy one. I thought the accuracy of the SuperNes side of the Retro Duo was excellent, but I'd bet money that it's similar hardware to their plug and play, powering the exact same lackluster SuperNes (And Genesis and NES) emulators.

The Retrobit Generations emulators are horrid. I'd take the system on a chip clones through an HDMI upscale over that garbage emulation. The Super Retro Trio was quite excellent. Judging by price alone, I suppose they have a Trio with an off-the-shelf upscaler chip for the HDMI. At least repros and most homebrews (excluding GT-ROM) will work on it, along with Everdrive. None of that stuff runs on a Retron5 or Retro Freak.

 

Also if it's a clone chip with upscaler, will it be any better than hooking analog clone system up to an HDTV? Do they line triple the output to 720p and preserve 4:3 aspect ratio, or simply do the 480i deinterlace and stretch mode like every cheap off-the-shelf upscaler?

[Atariboy]

I really doubt that after just entering the HD age with a product that emulates titles from each of the platforms in question, that they're now drastically changing course with their hardware for some new HD clone consoles that support original cartridges. If they had intentions of continuing use of hardware like a NOAC chip and adapting it for HD televisions, I imagine we'd of seen the Retro Bit Generations go down that route.

 

So betting on lots of similarities with the Retro-Bit Generations would appear on the surface to be the safe bet. What's gained by not doing it? They surely haven't had time to absorb the criticism of the Retro Bit Generations and have completely brand new hardware planned for these products that have been announced just weeks since it launched.

 

And since it's emulation, the cheapest course to make significant improvements if they desire is on the software side anyways, rather than scrapping it entirely.

Edited January 6, 2017 by Atariboy

[Tanooki]

Hopefully being emulators they aren't lazy and handle it like the garbage ATGames has shoveled for years with the Firecore Genesis emulator that gets no substantive fixes. I'd hope they'd take the criticism and have this box open like the Retron5 is where they can slap updates to the emulators to get the games working right in relation to the NES and their Gameboy handheld. They have to be using the same general guts as it cuts a lot of time, R&D, and part shopping costs.

 

Given their track record on clones I'm holding out entirely until well after the Gameboy appears and the fans tear it to pieces as there's so much that can go wrong on such a simple device z80 8bit GB or the old ARM7 GBA. Even outside that, you have to wonder about the quality of the screen, aspect ratio, audio being low muffled or off key, button comfort and response, etc.

 

I will say thanks to Jaleco being bellly up and them wisely cashing in I'm very VERY interested in that 10in1 GB cart and at $20 it's a no brainer.

[Andromeda Stardust]

If they can develop an ARM emulator that properly interfaces the cart bus and doesn't act as a glorified ROM dumper

 

***THAT DOESN'T WORK WITH ANY GAME NOT IN THE DATABASE OR RUNNING AN EXTREMELY COMMON MAPPER***

 

more power to them. Also the Gamerz Tek HD clone did use an upscaler and was a lot cheaper than the Retron5, but it sucked ass. The Super Retro Trio was the best clone system ever made despite widespread issues with the NES ports. Until then, I've got the AVS to keep me company.

 

NOAC clones: reproductions = works; non GT-ROM homebrews = works; everdrive = works

Retron5: reproductions = not working; nearly all homebrews = not working; everdrive = huge not working...

[IG-88]

Well, that didn't take long.

 

Another reason to stay away from this rig?

 

http://www.arcadepunks.com/nes-classic-hacked-nes-mini-hacked-already/

[Andromeda Stardust]

Well, that didn't take long.

 

Another reason to stay away from this rig?

 

http://www.arcadepunks.com/nes-classic-hacked-nes-mini-hacked-already/

NES Classic is nearly perfect already. If someone develops an "idiot proof" GUI solution for dumping and loading NES ROMs on the NES Classic Mini, I would jump on the idea.

 

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and recommend people not purchase the Retrobit unless they really want it for the bundled games. I wholeheartedly recommend the NES Classic Mini as a standalone plug and play device.

 

If anyone wants to hack a device to play ROMs, I would recommend getting a Raspberry Pi with a cheap enclosure from Adafruit. Plenty of ready-to-use SD card images of RetroPie you can simply flash to the SD card and loadROMs though a USB thumb drive. It's easy as "Pie" to set up, and you can buy an 8bitdo controller to use with it.

[StopDrop&Retro]

I might still get one just to make an entertaining review. They're down to around $30 on Amazon depending on the day.

[Flojomojo]

I might still get one just to make an entertaining review. They're down to around $30 on Amazon depending on the day.

 

Damn your oily hide! I'm actually tempted at that price. What the hell is wrong with me?

[dgdgagdae]

 

Damn your oily hide! I'm actually tempted at that price. What the hell is wrong with me?

You hate your $30!

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

I might still get one just to make an entertaining review. They're down to around $30 on Amazon depending on the day.

Oh please do love your reviews!

[Tanooki]

NES Classic is nearly perfect already. If someone develops an "idiot proof" GUI solution for dumping and loading NES ROMs on the NES Classic Mini, I would jump on the idea.

 

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and recommend people not purchase the Retrobit unless they really want it for the bundled games. I wholeheartedly recommend the NES Classic Mini as a standalone plug and play device.

 

If anyone wants to hack a device to play ROMs, I would recommend getting a Raspberry Pi with a cheap enclosure from Adafruit. Plenty of ready-to-use SD card images of RetroPie you can simply flash to the SD card and loadROMs though a USB thumb drive. It's easy as "Pie" to set up, and you can buy an 8bitdo controller to use with it.

 

Retro Freak, this year they're releasing a pair of 2 new bundle system packages. RF + NES Adapter, and RF+NES+ Controller Adapter Module.

 

This system can run multicarts, can run bootlegs, can run homebrew, nullifies the usefulness of a flash kit as you can toss roms on a SD card and it just runs them right off it making an everdrive ever-pointless. Price tag is the only foul point as it's over $200USD. http://www.cybergadget.co.jp/retrofreak/en.html They're also adding +4 systems with a Game Gear, SMS, Mark3, SG1000 adapter too as an option on the side.

Edited January 9, 2017 by Tanooki

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

Retro Freak, this year they're releasing a pair of 2 new bundle system packages. RF + NES Adapter, and RF+NES+ Controller Adapter Module.

 

This system can run multicarts, can run bootlegs, can run homebrew, nullifies the usefulness of a flash kit as you can toss roms on a SD card and it just runs them right off it making an everdrive ever-pointless. Price tag is the only foul point as it's over $200USD. http://www.cybergadget.co.jp/retrofreak/en.html They're also adding +4 systems with a Game Gear, SMS, Mark3, SG1000 adapter too as an option on the side.

I have one. Unfortunately I don't have the controller adapter so current options suck somewhat. But yeah, it's pretty cool. I was thinking about selling it though as I'd rather just play on original hardware.

[Tanooki]

I've been thinking along those lines too. I've actually got a RCA, stereo wheel, led light modded top loader for the NES, and I have a really dead mint cherry SNES Donkey Kong Set up on my wall in here complete in the box, a fantastic 1CHIP system I got shortly after moving back here a little over 4 years ago. Once I got the R5 I boxed up everything to protect it, but I do kind of miss it. Despite having that thing I still have the Genesis I got a little over a year ago plugged into the TV. I'm out of A/v jacks though but I do have a 2nd switcher box if it still works.

[StopDrop&Retro]

Oh please do love your reviews!

 

Thanks for watching! I'll most likely get one of these but two things are preventing me 1) I wonder how low the price can go. I'd hate the buy this at $30 and they go on sale at Dollar General for $10 a week later and 2) I might want to buy used anyways so I can make sure to get an early box with the multiple overlapping "____ games included!" stickers.

[hossbags2]

Is there a way to extract roms from the Retro-Bit Generations.....homebrew games that are on it

[BillLoguidice]

Is there a way to extract roms from the Retro-Bit Generations.....homebrew games that are on it

 

I would hope not, but I'm sure it's possible with enough effort. On one level, I understand your desire to use it on better hardware/emulation, but on another, those are actively sold outside the product. We really should support the efforts of hombrew devs and small-time publishers by actually getting money to them.

[phoenixdownita]

OK bought a retro-bit gen on Amzn for around 17USD shipped so why not and yes it is not particularly good.

 

I'd like to know what are the extensions for the games on the SD?

 

I tested .gb for gameboy, .gba for advance, .bin for Megadrive, .nes for NES/FC, .smc for SNES/SFC but what about the arcades? There's 5 of them according to this post

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/253811-retro-bit-generations/page-12?do=findComment&comment=3650113

if I want to try and add more what file/format should I use?

I tried a mame rom (from mame 0.159) in zip format, the zip file is listed in the UI but then I get invalid file format while loading [i tried 1942].

 

(I tried also .sms and .32x and .fds but none of them list up so I guess the emulators included are strict gb/gba/md/nes/snes and not sure what about the 5 arcades)

 

EDIT:

from here https://www.reddit.com/r/retrogaming/comments/5jhrpu/retro_bit_generations_hacked_here_is_how/

it seems it can play many CP-S games, some CP-S II games in zip format as well as some NeoGeo .... will try (it is a little painful to go thru MameUI to get the capcom/neogeo games rom file names then unpack the 7z files and repack as zip but hey ....)

[godslabrat]

 

I would hope not, but I'm sure it's possible with enough effort. On one level, I understand your desire to use it on better hardware/emulation, but on another, those are actively sold outside the product. We really should support the efforts of hombrew devs and small-time publishers by actually getting money to them.

 

The RBG really illustrates why that conflicts me. On one hand, I absolutely want legit retrogaming products to be profitable. On the other, the quality on this is so bad that it's literally insulting. It's like I want a refund for a product I didn't even buy. So... I don't want companies getting supported for releasing terrible products.

 

I'm sure there's a happy medium, and it involves bitching on forums.

[Flojomojo]

Nintendo did a nice plug and play, too bad it can't be bought for sane prices.

 

Help us AtGames Genesis 2017, you're our only hope

[Tanooki]

The mixed signals so far on the 2017 ATGames handheld Genesis has me concerned. I don't want another TV one or I'd have kept the non-tmss one I had months ago. I hope they fix the emulation-audio,saving, random problems with it.

[Bill Loguidice]

The mixed signals so far on the 2017 ATGames handheld Genesis has me concerned. I don't want another TV one or I'd have kept the non-tmss one I had months ago. I hope they fix the emulation-audio,saving, random problems with it.

 

Sorry, only the two HD consoles are substantially different.

[Tanooki]

Oh well, maybe next year. I can't stomach using the handheld as it stands now as those simple flaws should have been worked out years ago which is a shame. Thanks for the update.

[phoenixdownita]

OK bought a retro-bit gen on Amzn for around 17USD shipped so why not and yes it is not particularly good.

 

I'd like to know what are the extensions for the games on the SD?

 

I tested .gb for gameboy, .gba for advance, .bin for Megadrive, .nes for NES/FC, .smc for SNES/SFC but what about the arcades? There's 5 of them according to this post

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/253811-retro-bit-generations/page-12?do=findComment&comment=3650113

if I want to try and add more what file/format should I use?

I tried a mame rom (from mame 0.159) in zip format, the zip file is listed in the UI but then I get invalid file format while loading [i tried 1942].

 

(I tried also .sms and .32x and .fds but none of them list up so I guess the emulators included are strict gb/gba/md/nes/snes and not sure what about the 5 arcades)

 

EDIT:

from here https://www.reddit.com/r/retrogaming/comments/5jhrpu/retro_bit_generations_hacked_here_is_how/

it seems it can play many CP-S games, some CP-S II games in zip format as well as some NeoGeo .... will try (it is a little painful to go thru MameUI to get the capcom/neogeo games rom file names then unpack the 7z files and repack as zip but hey ....)

So I tried 1 CPS-1 (1941) and 1 CPS-2 (SFII Hyper) and they both work, 1941 being vertical is flipped (like Varth) and does not have the controls U/D <-> L/R pre-swapped (Varth is preconfigured so yeah they did it purposefully). My zip contains the J and U variants and it seems to pick up the U variant (not sure if there's a way around it, I like the original names of the SF II bosses and not the politically correct ones, the Mike Tyson lookalike is Mr Bison, period).

I also tried AndroDunos for NeoGeo but no luck .. still "Invalid File".

 

(as I was at it I renamed the genesis/MD rom I had from .bin to .smd and it still works fine).

 

In the end with a more powerful CPU (hence better emulation) and allowing the choice of vertical/horizontal for vertical games it could have been so much more, to be fair the selection embedded is on the weak side and imho they should have just had the arcade versions of whatever games they were trying to put there (capcom/irem/jaleco/data east have enough of an arcade selection even without capcom having to allow the SF2 series).

 

Given also the subpar emulation I am not even sure I'll enjoy the "novelty" games published by piko or even get a fair chance to evaluate them (I've always been curious to see those long lost proto/unpublished/china-only games ... even just for shit and giggles).

[PikoInteractive]

The Atgames hd teaser video showed a category with homebrewe games. I wonder who's they licensed or if those are their normall additional minigames they throw in.

 

I've been told that there may be a fix on the way to fix the snes timing issues on generations.

 

I guess generations should have been a holidays 2017 product instead of 2016.

[Bill Loguidice]

The Atgames hd teaser video showed a category with homebrewe games. I wonder who's they licensed or if those are their normall additional minigames they throw in.

 

It's just Good Deal Games stuff on the Atari products like in previous years. On the Atari portable, it's one of the Pac-Man homebrews instead of the original (which can of course still be played via SD card).