Retroblox

[Flojomojo]

It's time for some fresh hardware that doesn't primarily run off a Pi.

Are you selling or what? You have the scent of a sales guy when you say things like that. Not impressed.

[Lyth]

Are you selling or what? You have the scent of a sales guy when you say things like that. Not impressed.

 

Haha, no no no.

 

I'm talking about in general, a lot of these Kickstarter projects are based off of a Pi, and make profit off of it.

 

There's other boards out there, that are more powerful and appropriate for more projects. Just my opinion, as I've seen a lot of botched products.

Edited February 5, 2017 by Lyth

[godslabrat]

When I realized this was about to happen, I decided that in order to believe in this thing, I wanted to see them commit to either price, specs, or supported systems. I figure, with less than two months until the Kickstarter, one of those three items should be reliable. Well, then this happened:

 

 

So that's a solid "no" on pricing and wiggling away considerably from a supported system list. About all they can do now is give some specs. If they don't, then what we've seen here will have been totally worthless.

[retroillucid]

 

 

 

Paging retroillucid. Paging retroillucid to the front, please...

 

Probably used for their OS? who knows?

Not exactly sure why it's there?

We didn't gave them any demo

Would like to know why it's used there, it is very odd

 

But again, NONE of our games are going to be bundled with this in ANY WAYS

[Lyth]

 

Probably used for their OS? who knows?

Not exactly sure why it's there?

We didn't gave them any demo

Would like to know why it's used there, it is very odd

 

But again, NONE of our games are going to be bundled with this in ANY WAYS

 

I hope they issue an apology for doing that, as they are advertising their console with your game(s), and are turning a profit (or atleast interest, for now) from it.

 

I wonder if someone can reach out to them about this. Might be better if you do it as well, to protect your asset. Maybe?

 

Damn. :\

Edited February 5, 2017 by Lyth

[Tanooki]

Still maybe the concern here since he was brought up in here enough times would be that with that menu on the retroblox, at random occasions kind of like the Toasty guy on Mortal Kombat, MK will pop out and gleefully yell Chameleon! and temporarily the retroblox logo will get replaced while he's up.

[godslabrat]

The question comes down to... WHAT was shown here? A production-ready unit? A PC running the software? An Rpi with a snazzy front? What are we supposed to think we saw here today?

[StopDrop&Retro]

Speaking of the devil, this just went up 20 minutes ago...

 

[omnispiro]

Injection mold tooling is really expensive, so I doubt they developed molds for every single thing they are displaying at Socal, if they are planning on crowdfunding this box.

 

On the other hand, 3d printing is looking great these days and for sure cheaper than injection mold tooling. So at this point we will never know what's inside this box.

 

 

Finally, I wonder what would Nintendo say if they see their software displayed on retroblox's UI?

Edited February 5, 2017 by omnispiro

[Andromeda Stardust]

Speaking of the devil, this just went up 20 minutes ago...

 

https://youtu.be/eZB5XAPnw7I

Pity they don't support USB HID Gamepad, which is univerally compatible unlike the proprietary MS only X-Input.

 

Finally, I wonder what would Nintendo say if they see their software displayed on retroblox's UI?

Yeah that's a great way to get sued / C&D orders. Nintendo are vehemently against unauthorized usage of their vintage IP.

[omnispiro]

Pity they don't support USB HID Gamepad, which is univerally compatible unlike the proprietary MS only X-Input.Yeah that's a great way to get sued / C&D orders. Nintendo are vehemently against unauthorized usage of their vintage IP.

I know, C&D is a taste of what Nintendo Lawyers will do to them.

[Andromeda Stardust]

I know, C&D is a taste of what Nintendo Lawyers will do to them.

Using copyrighted screenshots to show off the "emulator-in-a-box" device you are selling goes right up there with peddling bootleg Disney merchandise at a 'con.

 

If Disney can sue tattoo artists over depictions of their characters, Nintendo can do the same for showing off illegally downloaded ROMs running on an emulation device.

 

That was one of the stipulations with the Retron5, that the device could only be allowed to play the games for as long as the cart was physically plugged in.

[keepdreamin]

 

There's other boards out there, that are more powerful and appropriate for more projects. Just my opinion, as I've seen a lot of botched products.

 

All botched except yours, right?

 

Publicly postulating about a competitor's product that has yet to actually hit the market, while you yourself are gearing up for sales of a similar device (that hasn't yet hit the market) reeks of a slimeball sales pitch. So basically, not great for PR there, bud.

 

The fact a rep from Retroblox isn't in here throwing out SWAGs left and right about your console means they're already a bit more respectable in my mind.

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

All botched except yours, right?

 

Publicly postulating about a competitor's product that has yet to actually hit the market, while you yourself are gearing up for sales of a similar device (that hasn't yet hit the market) reeks of a slimeball sales pitch. So basically, not great for PR there, bud.

 

The fact a rep from Retroblox isn't in here throwing out SWAGs left and right about your console means they're already a bit more respectable in my mind.

Let's wait until both parties have an opportunity to show off their stuff before we jump to conclusions. Lyth may be trolling softly, while Retroblox has been mostly silent since he signed an account here.

 

But merely bragging about one's own product or critiquing that of someone else, isn't indicative of value until both parties reveal their hands. Until then they are both wearing Poker Face.

[xiaNaix]

From their Facebook and Instragram pages. Judging the specs, this is just one of those cheap ARM boxes you can order from Alibaba with adapters for the various controller types. Thanks but no thanks.

Edited February 5, 2017 by xiaNaix

[Andromeda Stardust]

From their Facebook and Instragram pages.

Definitely not another Chameleon!

[StopDrop&Retro]

From their Facebook and Instragram pages. Judging the specs, this is just one of those cheap ARM boxes you can order from Alibaba with adapters for the various controller types. Thanks but no thanks.

 

Those cheap Alibaba boxes don't run in Linux. If they're being honest with that then this could be interesting. Linux gives very little lag. It just seems to be a platform a lot of businesses avoid because when you're selling software an open platform works against you.

 

Not to say I'm letting my guard down. All this time they're hyping their device they never released their specs but apparently it's all printed on a sheet at their booth? It doesn't make sense.

[xiaNaix]

 

Those cheap Alibaba boxes don't run in Linux. If they're being honest with that then this could be interesting. Linux gives very little lag. It just seems to be a platform a lot of businesses avoid because when you're selling software an open platform works against you.

 

Not to say I'm letting my guard down. All this time they're hyping their device they never released their specs but apparently it's all printed on a sheet at their booth? It doesn't make sense.

 

Sure they do. They caught on to the Linux thing a while ago to push their more expensive Kodi boxes.

[elmer]

From their Facebook and Instragram pages. Judging the specs, this is just one of those cheap ARM boxes you can order from Alibaba with adapters for the various controller types. Thanks but no thanks.

This looks like it's the board that they're using ...

 

http://www.armdesigner.com/MINI3288_SoM/

[xiaNaix]

This looks like it's the board that they're using ...

 

http://www.armdesigner.com/MINI3288_SoM/

 

Nice. So the advantage of this over any other emulation-based box with USB controllers for various systems is literally nothing. Probably won't take long for their frontend software to be ripped either. lol

[godslabrat]

If the emulation is top-notch, if the prices are fair, and if it supports the "gap systems" in my setup, I'd be on board.

 

That's a lot of IFs though. Especially for something that's still Really Very Geniunely Suspect.

[elmer]

Nice. So the advantage of this over any other emulation-based box with USB controllers for various systems is literally nothing. Probably won't take long for their frontend software to be ripped either. lol

Why do I get the feeling that the cable on the PC Engine board in that photo is supposed to plug in to the pins on this SBC board???

 

http://www.boardcon.com/EM3288_SBC/

 

 

They seem to be a huge step up from the RetroVGS goons, and have actually bought an SBC, written some software for it, and have at least one prototype interface board (that may or may not work).

 

There's nothing that seems to be "rocket science" in what they're trying to do, it's just a question of how far along they are, can they finish it all off, how much money do they want to charge for it, and do enough people care?

 

Oh ... and then, do folks have faith that it would actually be built solidly-enough to not self-destruct in 6-months?

[godslabrat]

Yeah, it doesn't bother me at all that the board is off-the-shelf. What I want to know is, does the hardware hold up to serious use and does the software support the systems that interest me?

[Keatah]

If the emulation is top-notch, if the prices are fair, and if it supports the "gap systems" in my setup, I'd be on board.

I wonder if they have expert emulator programmers on staff? No?

[Keatah]

Using copyrighted screenshots to show off the "emulator-in-a-box" device you are selling goes right up there with peddling bootleg Disney merchandise at a 'con.

If Disney can sue tattoo artists over depictions of their characters, Nintendo can do the same for showing off illegally downloaded ROMs running on an emulation device.

That was one of the stipulations with the Retron5, that the device could only be allowed to play the games for as long as the cart was physically plugged in.

Wonder if this could affect z3k?