Hyperkin Ranger is out.

[envytomdead2]

Finally! I can't wait to pick one of these up.

 

https://hyperkinlab.com/ranger-premium-wired-gamepad-for-atari-2600-retron-77-hyperkin/

[Special Teams]

Thanks for posting - been waiting for this!

[+cvga]

Is that a paddle and joystick built into the same controller? Does it have any other unique functions?

[+D Train]

 

[Flojomojo]

That looks good. The design doesn't look like anything else, which means "Atari" lawyers won't go after it. 
 

Happy to see that it can be flipped to right hand controls, because I don't think I have the left hand dexterity to work an old-style paddle. 
 

Bummer it doesn't work with the Flashback 9. Maybe I need a Retron77 now. 

[+Kaboomer]

4 minutes ago, Flojomojo said:

That looks good. The design doesn't look like anything else, which means "Atari" lawyers won't go after it. 

Yeah, I'm sure this is for when they lose the Atari lawsuit. Hope it works with the Retron 77 out of the box!  

[Flojomojo]

1 hour ago, Kaboomer said:

Yeah, I'm sure this is for when they lose the Atari lawsuit. Hope it works with the Retron 77 out of the box!  

And maybe the Retron77 will come in a new case as well. I wouldn't mind; the current one is butt-ugly. 

[envytomdead2]

8 hours ago, Kaboomer said:

Yeah, I'm sure this is for when they lose the Atari lawsuit. Hope it works with the Retron 77 out of the box!  

I had no idea Atari was suing Hyperkin.  I wonder if Atari has a leg to stand on since patents have expired? Atari should worry more about getting their vaporware box launched. 

[Flojomojo]

1 hour ago, envytomdead2 said:

I had no idea Atari was suing Hyperkin.  I wonder if Atari has a leg to stand on since patents have expired? Atari should worry more about getting their vaporware box launched. 

Read all about it here. The patents are long expired, but the shambling corpse wearing the skin of Atari is hellbent on defending its ancient trademarks. That's all they have. They don't make anything, certainly nothing new worth buying.
 

If they can't enforce their trademarks, then anyone could make Fuji t-shirts and Fred Chesnais wouldn't take a cut. Wouldn't that be awful. /s 

 

 

[AW127]

Looks nice and seems to be an interesting gamepad, especially with this paddle on the side and the switchable modes. The user can also hold it upright, when using the paddle. And when it works on a normal Atari-2600 and also on Atari-7800, i guess it should also work on C64, Atari-800, Amiga and Atari-ST? Maybe i buy one, it depends on, how much the shipping to Germany will cost.

[+D Train]

I want to hear how it is to play kaboom! with this.

 

the paddle placement doesn't seem optimal.

 

if anyone gets one, and really puts it to the test, please report back!

[+GoldLeader]

It looks to me like maybe you could hold it straight up (paddle facing up) to do paddle games,...At least for games where ya don't have to worry about the button much...

[+KaeruYojimbo]

23 hours ago, envytomdead2 said:

I had no idea Atari was suing Hyperkin.  I wonder if Atari has a leg to stand on since patents have expired? Atari should worry more about getting their vaporware box launched. 

I just assume that anyone doing anything in retro gaming is being sued by Atari until I hear otherwise.

[Mockduck]

The layout seems a bit odd, and wouldn't the dulled double-axe layout end up digging into your palms? Then if it was vertical for the paddle, wouldn't the cord get in the way? I love the idea, and maybe actual use will dispel this concern, but it doesn't seem particularly better than an old school controller or paddle. 

[AtariNerd]

I think if you turn and hold it so the knob is toward the top, but the button is facing away from you, so you can squeeze toward yourself, it might be more intuitive for those type of games

[TrekMD]

I ordered one from Amazon.  I had been waiting for this one for some time.

[eightbit]

Ordered one from Amazon as well. I am really digging Hyperkin's stuff lately. I recently received the Trooper and I am really loving that!

[+Nathan Strum]

Mine arrived today - I'll try to check it out tonight and let you know what I think of it.

 

Initial (non-playing) impressions: it's smaller than I was expecting, but it feels solid and well-built (except there's a bump in the sticker that covers it, so someone on the assembly line was a little off). Surprised that the stick is "analog", so I'm a little skeptical of that. There are no detents at the eight directional positions. I really like that it's ambidextrous so you can put the joystick on the right and the fire button on the left where they're supposed to be.   The paddle has a lot of resistance to it, so it doesn't spin as freely as standard 2600 paddles. But it really depends on the sensitivity of it and how it maps to the games as to how well that will work. Also, initially I thought the box had been partially crushed, but then realized that's just how Hyperkin designed it (with one corner "chopped off", like the RetroN 77 box).

[+sramirez2008]

I can't wait to hear your impressions. I purchased their Trooper joystick when it first became available.  For $15.00 I figured 'why not' and I like it.

[Battlefish]

On 11/30/2019 at 2:09 AM, D Train said:

 

I notice that in the retail version, they changed the decal from woodgrain to that three-stripe design. Better safe than sorry, I guess!

[+sramirez2008]

1 hour ago, Battlefish said:

I notice that in the retail version, they changed the decal from woodgrain to that three-stripe design. Better safe than sorry, I guess!

Not sure why they changed.  Their Trooper joystick has woodgrain, and it’s not like Atari had anything resembling the Ranger.

[Mike_2000]

Did they ever end up making the Y Cable for 4-player games like Warlords? I'm still definitely going to buy two of these, but I'd instantly buy 4 if I knew that I could use it as an alternate Warlords controller.

[+Nathan Strum]

Okay, I hooked it up to my 2600, and here's what I played in Joystick mode:

• Mappy
• Wizard of Wor Arcade
• Galagon
• Amoeba Jump
• Aardvark
• Pac-Man 8K (DINTAR816's)
• Tower of Rubble
• Chaotic Grill
• Scramble

In Paddle mode:

• Medieval Mayhem
• Super Breakout
• Kaboom
• Encounter at L-5
• Tac/Scan

So the decision to use an "analog" joystick is curious. It "feels" analog, but clearly it isn't because the 2600 doesn't support that. The good news is, it's very responsive, doesn't have much of a dead-zone, and isn't prone (too much) to inputting the wrong direction. For example, I had no problem navigating the tunnels in Scramble. Chaotic Grill, Galagon and Wizard of Wor Arcade played beautifully with it. Mappy and Tower of Rubble also played very well, but I had to adapt to the feel of the controller a bit more with those. Amoeba Jump also worked well, but took even more time to adapt. Aardvark and Pac-Man 8K... even though I could certainly play both just fine, I did find myself unintentionally reversing at times, and in the case of Aardvark, going down holes I didn't want to. This didn't happen a lot, but enough to make me wish they'd just put in a joystick where you had tactile feedback for the directions you were moving.

 

The top of the joystick is a slightly mixed bag. On the one hand, the hexagonal shape of it does help reinforce the direction you intend to move. I rest my thumb on the top of it, much the same way I use my modded 2600 joystick. So it felt very comfortable to me, except that the edges of the top were a little... acute. Not sharp (since it is rubberized), but I think rounding them off a bit would've helped with the feel of it. The fire button works very well. Overall, the controller was very comfortable to hold, and it's clear they put some work into designing it. The cable is nice and long.

 

I really like that this is ambidextrous. They did that part of it very right. Not only does the left/right switch allow you to flip the game pad around to have the button on the side you prefer, but it also reverses the paddle direction. I played the games with the paddle on the right side (holding the controller in my left hand), and it felt very comfortable. Thinking about it, I never hold my paddles completely flat anyway. They're always tilted a bit so they're comfortable. Being able to flip the direction of the paddle means you can always make the paddle feel right for the game you're playing. This is a really brilliant addition. The fact that you can switch between paddle and joystick with the flip of a switch makes using a Harmony cart very convenient.

 

As for the paddle itself, it feels much tighter than a standard 2600 paddle. The active range that you move it is pretty small (I didn't compare this to a standard paddle), and the paddle has some physical resistance to it. If feels like a more precision version of the 2600 paddle, and is really well constructed. Oddly enough, there is a center detent for the paddle, although it really doesn't help with anything, since like with 2600 paddles, you have to hunt for the zone that the paddle works in anyway. It responds to the smallest moves, without being over-sensitive. The paddle is effectively jitter-free. The reason I didn't say completely jitter-free, is because there are times, when you let go of the paddle, the onscreen paddle will twitch a single pixel back and forth, as if the 2600 is reading between two adjacent potentiometer values*. But it doesn't jitter anywhere like a dirty set of 2600 paddles does. It's really minimal. This is probably the best feeling, cleanest paddle I've used. Medieval Mayhem, Encounter at L-5 and Tac/Scan played flawlessly. Kaboom and Super Breakout were the games where I saw the occasional slight twitch, but it didn't affect the gameplay that I could tell (I should point out though, I absolutely suck at both of those games  ).

 

Had they made the joystick a proper 8-way stick, but with the same construction and feel, I'd give this a 10/10. As it is, it's probably closer to a 7/10. Maybe an 8. I think as a paddle, it's a winner. As a joystick, depending on the game, it can work really well, or you'll be unplugging it out of frustration (most likely in maze games). The ambidextrous design, size, comfort, and overall ergonomics of it are all plusses.

Hopefully, as they did with their RetroN 77 joystick, they'll consider revising the design a little. If they can nail down the joystick, and maybe knock a few bucks off the price, they'd have a real winner. That said, I can still see myself doing probably 80% of my gaming with it.

 

*I haven't cracked it open, but I suspect there's additional circuitry afoot, and this may not be a standard potentiometer, but rather something digital that's sending out pseudo-analog signals. But that's just a guess.

[TrekMD]

That's a great review of the controller.  I am eagerly waiting for mine to arrive.  I think it arrives tomorrow.

[NISMOPC]

I received mine this week. After watching Immortal Hancock's review of the controller and his comment about the multi-player adapter not being included in his version I ran across the same issue.

 

The controller does NOT come with the adapter to connect two Rangers to one port for multi-player games as Hyperkin initially reported. The box content mentions nothing of the adapter but the online description of the controller stated:

Quote

Use the included adapter to connect two rangers into one Controller port.

I contacted the seller, who contacted Hyperkin and the response was that it was an error in the description and no adapter is shipped with controller.

 

It would be nice if Hyperkin releases the adapter so that 2 to 4 can play.