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RetroN 77


jeremiahjt

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Something must have been wrong with your machine. In my experience, they snapped in firmly, but never too tight.

 

I have a Retro Duo that wrecked the first cartridge I put into it, so I haven't played with it since.

 

My Retro Trio is the same. It's insane how tight some games are. I wonder if there's an explanation for this as it's not just Hyperkin who are guilty of this.

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As an older gent who remembers how the Nintendo 64 cartridges originally fit, I can say that's just originally how it was. My cousins had one, one game, Pokemon Stadium I think it was, that one was always super tight. We had to have one person hold the console while the other pulled to get it out when we wanted to play something else. Took forever till we got it so we could pull it out with one hand.

This isn't my recollection at all.

Not sure if it's from years of use, but I've owned a total of three n64 systems over the past decade-and-a-half, and none f them ever felt "tight" in any way. My friends in high school had one and it did not require excessive force to remove games, though I've never had the pleasure of testing a "factory fresh" system. Perhaps you got a different lot or someone bent the pins inward to tighten the grip, but Iassure you it isn't typical based on my experience.
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Actually, we're fully aware of certain cartridge connector problems with our older systems. That's why about six months ago we introduced better connectors for all our new systems ("PinPerfect"). Our news stuff - Supa Retron HD, latest revision of Retron HD, Supaboy SFC and a few systems under development including the R77, will have these improved connectors. ;-)

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Actually, we're fully aware of certain cartridge connector problems with our older systems. That's why about six months ago we introduced better connectors for all our new systems ("PinPerfect"). Our news stuff - Supa Retron HD, latest revision of Retron HD, Supaboy SFC and a few systems under development including the R77, will have these improved connectors. ;-)

 

Thanks for coming here and addressing that concern. :)

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Doubtful, says "standard joystick and paddles" are the only controllers supported.

My guess is the emulator cannot actually negotiate two way communication with the joystick port in real time, making it receive only. So any controllers (AtariVox, keypad) that rely on the console actually polling the controller port probably won't function with it. Also we don't know how frequently the emulator polls the controller. If it's only polled once per frame, expect a lot of glitches from trackballs whenever it is rolled faster than one tick per frame. And trackball/driving controllers assume the controller driver is capable of reading multiple inputs at once. Also Genesis may be a factor too. Will the game detect the "extra" button? If reads paddles like the Stelladaptor / 2600daptor by redefining the inputs when a high logic signal is detected on pins 5 and 9, then Genesis won't function properly because the driver will assume paddles are connected... :P

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There are options in Stella to interface with AtariVox via serial port. If Stella can be programmed to interface that way, in real time, why not the controler ports in Retron77?

 

And what about StellAdaptor? It talks to it realtime also..

Edited by Keatah
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I was also wondering if the stated limitations in terms of accessories and supported cartridge types were due to software or ha. If it's a software limit, then the open source nature of this system will allow for community improvements.

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There are options in Stella to interface with AtariVox via serial port. If Stella can be programmed to interface that way, in real time, why not the controler ports in Retron77?

 

And what about StellAdaptor? It talks to it realtime also..

If the hardware in the controller port is listen only, then it can't interface controllers in real time. The Stelladaptor and 2600daptor do this yes, but suppose Atari used a cheaper microcontroller that only reads. It may or may not be possible to update the controller drivers to communicate effectively. AtariVox and keypad controllers rely upon the CPUs ability to write data to the controller port. We don't know yet if this is possible with the current hardware.

 

The only thing timing critical that the Retron77 supports is the paddle controllers, and these inputs need to be dumped low and then listen to how long it takes for the inline paddle pot to pull the signal high again via an internal capacitor. Then a raw data is sent to the emulator telling it how much time it took, and the emulator counts scanlines and tells the game code exactly where the input went high. Tehre is no realtime access where the emulator sends data to the controller or cart port as it is processed, so any specialty apparatus connected via the controller or cartridge port that requires specific input or output at specific times may not work correctly.

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Not dissing retron consoles, ALL nes clones have the death grip on carts. Yes the top loader had a decent grip on carts (when new, you could pick the system up by the cart) but it wasn t that hard to remove a cart from the console. And while other clones are tight, it seems only the nes clones have this (eventual pin breaking self destruct) grip on carts.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey guys,

I just receveid a mail notification from Hyperkin Labs announcing that :

You can preorder the RetroN 77 NOW at Hyperkin Lab.

Click HERE to visit the store page!

 

But the orange words aren't hypertext links ! That's lame ;)

That said, i saw in the top banner of the Hyperkin (not lab) site that the console will be available 7/7/18.

 

Clicking on the banner's ad only leads to another Preorder notification list signup :

https://hyperkinlab.com/retron-77-premium-retro-gaming-console-for-2600/

 

Andrew !? Where is the preorder Link ? Please, take my money !!!!

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Hey guys,

 

I just receveid a mail notification from Hyperkin Labs announcing that :

 

You can preorder the RetroN 77 NOW at Hyperkin Lab.

 

Click HERE to visit the store page!

 

But the orange words aren't hypertext links ! That's lame ;)

 

That said, i saw in the top banner of the Hyperkin (not lab) site that the console will be available 7/7/18.

 

Clicking on the banner's ad only leads to another Preorder notification list signup :

 

https://hyperkinlab.com/retron-77-premium-retro-gaming-console-for-2600/

 

Andrew !? Where is the preorder Link ? Please, take my money !!!!

 

Just confirming it was not some weird Email filtering glitch, I had the exact same issue, received same email and clicking where indicated to PREORDER / VISIT STORE PAGE did nothing. :(

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Is there an advantage to 'preordering' beyond getting one first and as a result betatesting the release firmware?

You'd supposedly get a better price, but Hyperkin consoles almost always go considerably below MSRP after release. The one time they actually went up was with the Retron 5, and I doubt Hyperkin would risk that kind of ill will again.

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