Retron Jr.

[dj_convoy]

I like (some) Hyperkin products... But I dunno.

 

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2020/01/this_cube-like_console_play_will_play_every_game_boy_game_on_your_tv

 

Yes, I realize the Analogue Pocket will likely cost three plus times as much, but it's going to probably be there times as useful. Perhaps Hyperkin should have passed, this time. 

[dj_convoy]

Plus, thinking critically, the handful of us with Retron 5s left already have this exact same functionality.

[DragonGrafx-16]

The fact that it's HDMI only kills it for me... I'll just live with only being able to play Game Boy games on my TV using the Super Gamy Boy with the benefit of it not being emulation.

Edited January 8, 2020 by DragonGrafx-16

[Newsdee]

Its a shame that we never saw an update of the Retro Freak. I vastly preferred it over the Retrons.

[envytomdead2]

Hyperkin is hit or miss. I have the Retron 3 and the Retron 77. While I like both, they both have their short comings. I am leary of their cart dumping solutions. They don't seem to have the attention to detail to make that viable. The Retron 77 succeeds largely due to the efforts of the Stella team and the fact you can easily add the Rom if the cart fails. That being said if it was $50 or under I might bite, especially if a game gear adapter is introduced.  As someone said this is basically a partial retron 5 which I have heard there were issues the gba games. 

[Tanooki]

23 hours ago, envytomdead2 said:

Hyperkin is hit or miss. I have the Retron 3 and the Retron 77. While I like both, they both have their short comings. I am leary of their cart dumping solutions. They don't seem to have the attention to detail to make that viable. The Retron 77 succeeds largely due to the efforts of the Stella team and the fact you can easily add the Rom if the cart fails. That being said if it was $50 or under I might bite, especially if a game gear adapter is introduced.  As someone said this is basically a partial retron 5 which I have heard there were issues the gba games. 

There weren't really issues with GBA too much, there were to start, but it dragged out more painfully on the 8bit side.  The coder was fairly responsible, but he was on contract from Hyperkin and they, well, not so much.  Basically the dumping solution didn't play nice with how saving worked and if you tried to work a save back to the cart and not just internally (I think it was that, maybe both to system too) it would corrupt the data and bye bye progress.  GBA had it to start, but that got cleaned up faster than the other.  Ultimately in the end the Gameboy side of the R5 was the most stable and reliable of what they did without things failing to work, whining about CRC issues internally, lagging, audio issues, etc.  It wasn't atrocious, but it wasn't 100%, maybe 90% nice but as time would roll on the systems were plagued with the ability to decide to up and hate a game one day and never load it again.  That's when I dumped the damn thing when it insisted my SMB2 game wasn't legit I've had since the day it came out, and then a few others, and it went out the door.  I used my old hardware awhile, then got a HiDefNES kit put into my top loader, problem solved.

 

Hyperkin is poor on build quality that lasts, and not good on firmware either unless they well and fully contract out without screwing with the author like the Atari one.  The only truly reliable hardware they've ever cooked up or farmed out to get right was the Supaboy S and SFC, not the original or redbox v2 model which were dumpster fires.  S/SFC run anything you throw at it, even fantasy MSU-1 through a SD2SNES and without errors popping up.

 

I doubt I'd trust them on the GB thing but if it was really really cheap, maybe, as a carry about solution but I already can use a Super GB or GB PLayer in HDMI anyway (Super NT, GC2HDMI ext on GC.)

[cybercylon]

I gave up on getting a working Retron 3 back in the day and settled for my money back.

 

I didn't have much luck with the Retron 5 either. My NES games were very unreliable on it even though that POS put a death grip on them. One can make a long list of problem with the SNES and Genesis games. You can start with sound that is way off, 7 frames of lag, etc. Then you have that garbage controller....

 

I understand that some people don't want to spend money on something like an AVS or a SuperNT, etc. They want cheap solutions just to play a few games that they remembered when they were younger. There is nothing wrong with that. If Hyperkin marketed their products that way at a better price point, gave warning that games may not necessarily play accurately as people remember, etc. I would have less of an issue with them. The problem is that I still see the Retron 5 being sold for $130-$150, and it annoys me that people don't know what they are getting into. It is a crappy, cheap emulator box. The Retron Jr. won't be much better.

 

(Plus, Hyperkin sells products such as their PC engine/TG16 AV adapter that might damage the console...).

 

 

[envytomdead2]

1 hour ago, cybercylon said:

I gave up on getting a working Retron 3 back in the day and settled for my money back.

What kind of issues did you have the Retron 3? I picked up a used one for $25 and like it quite a bit. It has played almost everything I have thrown at it. Plus I like the s-video with the RetroTink. My main compliant with it is no S-video for the NES

[Tanooki]

2 hours ago, cybercylon said:

I understand that some people don't want to spend money on something like an AVS or a SuperNT, etc. They want cheap solutions just to play a few games that they remembered when they were younger. There is nothing wrong with that. If Hyperkin marketed their products that way at a better price point, gave warning that games may not necessarily play accurately as people remember, etc. I would have less of an issue with them. The problem is that I still see the Retron 5 being sold for $130-$150, and it annoys me that people don't know what they are getting into. It is a crappy, cheap emulator box. The Retron Jr. won't be much better.

 

(Plus, Hyperkin sells products such as their PC engine/TG16 AV adapter that might damage the console...).

Damn straight.  And I'm sure you've seen it, you can pick up second hand SuperNTs now for $150, the upper end that ratty Retron5 sells for new and even when they're $120-130 on the lower side new, that's barely a margin worth whining over when you're getting flimsy dodgy garbage built consoles with stealth cart dumping and software problems.

 

WTF -- PCE damging a/v device?! >:[

[envytomdead2]

I agree the retron 5 is way too much money and from what I heard too unreliable. I have two cheap system on a chip clone. The retron 3 and Retro bit res (av only).  I have found both of these to be fairly reliable, compatible and a cheap way to experience these consoles. I think Hyperkin should stick with their systems on a chip and keep it at $50 max. Not sure why they keep clinging to the cartridge dumping emulation route. The Retron 77 turned out well but that was only because of the Stella team being actively involved. 

[cybercylon]

2 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Damn straight.  And I'm sure you've seen it, you can pick up second hand SuperNTs now for $150, the upper end that ratty Retron5 sells for new and even when they're $120-130 on the lower side new, that's barely a margin worth whining over when you're getting flimsy dodgy garbage built consoles with stealth cart dumping and software problems.

 

WTF -- PCE damging a/v device?! >:[

 

I am referring to this gem:

 

https://www.hyperkin.com/av-adapter-for-turbografx-16-hyperkin.html

 

The problem is there are no circuits in this thing, so there is nothing to amplify the AV signal or to prevent any current or voltage from feeding back right into the expansion port. I could be overstating how it might damage a system. Maybe feedback like that doesn't happen often (maybe crap TVs do this//). But this thing is $20, so would it really cost them to add something to amplify the signal and have some protection? Talk about cutting corners.

 

 

1 hour ago, envytomdead2 said:

I agree the retron 5 is way too much money and from what I heard too unreliable. I have two cheap system on a chip clone. The retron 3 and Retro bit res (av only).  I have found both of these to be fairly reliable, compatible and a cheap way to experience these consoles. I think Hyperkin should stick with their systems on a chip and keep it at $50 max. Not sure why they keep clinging to the cartridge dumping emulation route. The Retron 77 turned out well but that was only because of the Stella team being actively involved. 

 

That is exactly what they should stick with, but like everyone and their grandma, they are now into those HDMI cables (like Pound, LevelHike... I wonder if this crap comes from the same place.

 

As to the problems I had with the Retron 3, the first one... one of the cart ports was DOA. With the second one, I don't remember exactly what the problem was. This was several years ago.

[Tanooki]

16 hours ago, cybercylon said:

 

I am referring to this gem:

 

https://www.hyperkin.com/av-adapter-for-turbografx-16-hyperkin.html

 

The problem is there are no circuits in this thing, so there is nothing to amplify the AV signal or to prevent any current or voltage from feeding back right into the expansion port. I could be overstating how it might damage a system. Maybe feedback like that doesn't happen often (maybe crap TVs do this//). But this thing is $20, so would it really cost them to add something to amplify the signal and have some protection? Talk about cutting corners.

 

 

 

That is exactly what they should stick with, but like everyone and their grandma, they are now into those HDMI cables (like Pound, LevelHike... I wonder if this crap comes from the same place.

 

As to the problems I had with the Retron 3, the first one... one of the cart ports was DOA. With the second one, I don't remember exactly what the problem was. This was several years ago.

To the first part towards my comment, ugh, yeah I've seen that before now that I see the link and I wouldn't touch it.  You could be overstating it but surges and feedback can happen at any time so yeah they cheaped out.  It couldn't cost them more than a couple of cents per unit to add a basic part to boost/shield the back end of your now $100-150+ base system as even the PCE/CG1+2 units are hitting asinine prices due to the SSD3/UperGrafx2 like solutions.  I'd love it if someone with half a brain like the one you brought up in part to, POUND would do something for far less ($30~) instead but that still would gobble up that port, or hopefully just feed through the RCA jacks.

 

The source of most of that stuff I think comes from about the same bin, but even if you source things from similar places it still comes down to the quality control department of the buyer on what they want and what they put an order in for.  A factory in China could cut every conceivable corner and do like some of those crap HDMI conversions cables do, whch is basically nothing, and you get a muddy garbage signal that may even lag.  Or you could get one that really processes wisely and filters all it can and gives a nice crisp image over HDMI which like the Pound cable does to really improve the hell out of the old PS1 signal (yet it darkens the brightness on PS2 due to how it works (system) internally differently a bit while using the same jack.)

[Pixelboy]

Looking at the Retron Jr, I'm actually considering getting that instead of the Analogue Pocket. At first, the Pocket will be mainly marketed at a portable handheld, but I already own a perfectly working GBA, so the only thing that makes the Pocket interesting to me is the Dock component, which as I understand it, won't be immediately available on the Pocket's launch day. Not only that, but I'll probably have to buy a third-party controller to use the Dock, so that's one more expense added to an already expensive FPGA-based gaming system.

 

The Retron Jr may be emulation-based, but if it runs my small collection of GBA carts (Zeldas, Metroids, Castlevanias, etc.) without any issue, and also runs the GB and GBC games I'm interested in (Mega Man, Bionic Commando, Blaster Master, Gargoyle's Quest, Link's Awakening + Oracle games, and many more) why wouldn't I consider it? I'm not the kind of guy who's going to piss on a clone console just because it doesn't run some obscure Japanese games. If the system is plug-and-play in nature, runs the most popular GBA/GBC/GB games in a satisfactory manner, has a lower price tag, and includes a serviceable controller in the box, all that sounds like a winning proposition to me, personally.

 

Of course, I understand that Hyperkin has a certain reputation that invites caution, and the fact that the Retron Jr won't play multicarts is a negative point. But still, I'll be keeping an eye on this one, and I will actively seek out reviews of the system once it's released. If the reviews are good enough, I'll definitely be tempted. And who knows, once I own a Retron Jr, I may decide to hunt down some of my favorite Game Boy carts on eBay, just for the pleasure of playing them on a modern HDMI TV. 

 

 

[envytomdead2]

14 hours ago, Pixelboy said:

Retron Jr won't play multicarts is a negative point.

Someone actually told me that they were able to play gba multicarts on the retron 5. Actually come to think of I believe John Hancock had a video for GBA SMS/GG multicart (I have the cart its awesome) and he said he was playing on his retron 5. If this thing could play that and the price was low I might bite. 

 

 

[Pixelboy]

42 minutes ago, envytomdead2 said:

Someone actually told me that they were able to play gba multicarts on the retron 5. Actually come to think of I believe John Hancock had a video for GBA SMS/GG multicart (I have the cart its awesome) and he said he was playing on his retron 5. If this thing could play that and the price was low I might bite. 

 

 

By multi-carts, I actually meant flash carts. Those are confirmed to not work on the Retron Jr in this interview:

 

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2020/01/feature_hyperkin_explains_why_its_next_console_is_bringing_the_game_boy_to_your_living_room

 

[Tanooki]

Multicarts work, some do, primarily those that don't use anything strange to work.  That's why basically no multi-cart works for the 80s/90s stuff.  They'd use interesting headers, byte switching tricks beyond the menu to fire up the game, etc.  So their crap emulator would download what it could see, which would be the header, so a game typically if it started didn't, it just started the menu and nothing else.  Later stuff like from the 00s (GBA) they just work because it's one master file, not split junk beyond the stated limits of the hardware.  SO if you had something like that popular GB+SMS 100in1 cart, it works, because it's just one fat singular GBA rom on there with standard check to it.

[Pixelboy]

Just saw a video on YouTube about how to update the Retron 5 firmware via SD card. I assume the Retron Jr will offer the same kind of thing, in addition to the expected configuration settings (button assignments, screen resolutions, etc.). Looks promising, but I'll still wait for the reviews from the early adopters.

 

[godslabrat]

Even ignoring how scummy of a company Hyperkin is... I just don't see the appeal here.  There are a half dozen ways to play gameboy games on a TV nowadays, and none of them are particularly expensive.  Most also offer to play other formats as a bonus.

 

This thing has to be super cheap to have a point at all.  I'm thinking $49.99 or bust.

[Flojomojo]

On 1/8/2020 at 6:23 PM, DragonGrafx-16 said:

The fact that it's HDMI only kills it for me... I'll just live with only being able to play Game Boy games on my TV using the Super Gamy Boy with the benefit of it not being emulation.

I saw a picture of the back panel and the composite cables caught my eye -- I had the exact opposite reaction as you, no HDMI, no thanks. But there are both, so everyone should be happy. Except those who can't display 720p images, I guess. 

 

 

On 1/22/2020 at 10:26 PM, Pixelboy said:

Looking at the Retron Jr, I'm actually considering getting that instead of the Analogue Pocket. At first, the Pocket will be mainly marketed at a portable handheld, but I already own a perfectly working GBA, so the only thing that makes the Pocket interesting to me is the Dock component ...

I've got a nice GBA (several in fact) as well as lots of knockoffs. Playing games isn't the point of the Analogue Pocket, playing them in style on nice hardware is. Same reason people buy fancy cars. "Luxury GameBoy" sounds pretty nice to me, especially in an age of cheap plastic and cruddy screens. 

 

12 minutes ago, godslabrat said:

This thing has to be super cheap to have a point at all.  I'm thinking $49.99 or bust.

Yup. Maybe $59.99. If it were nicer looking, I'd be tempted. It's cute, but I can feel the cheapness just by looking at the pictures. 

[cybercylon]

52 minutes ago, godslabrat said:

Even ignoring how scummy of a company Hyperkin is... I just don't see the appeal here.  There are a half dozen ways to play gameboy games on a TV nowadays, and none of them are particularly expensive.  Most also offer to play other formats as a bonus.

 

This thing has to be super cheap to have a point at all.  I'm thinking $49.99 or bust.

I really can't ignore how scummy they are. Plus, these days I guess I am spoiled with analogue products, ODS, everdrives on said analogue device or real hardware.

 

To be honest, I really didn't get into handhelds until the PSP, 3DS, etc. I was in post graduate school research back in the GBA's day, so I didn't have much time for games period, let alone on the go. So, maybe someone that was really attached to the older gameboy systems back in their glory days might get something out of this, or it is just is likely that said person will get frustrated when  the sound isn't quite what they remembered or the graphics are off/glitchy.

[Flojomojo]

GameBoy emulation is pretty good and doesn't need much hardware. The PocketGo has a 10-yr old processor and is like $30 and a nice IPS screen. This Hyperkin thing should be decent. 
 

What happened to Hyperkin's GameBoy clone, anyway? The one with the wrong screen ratio? It was expected more than a year ago if I'm remembering right. 

[+wongojack]

1 hour ago, godslabrat said:

Even ignoring how scummy of a company Hyperkin is... I just don't see the appeal here.  There are a half dozen ways to play gameboy games on a TV nowadays, and none of them are particularly expensive.  Most also offer to play other formats as a bonus.

 

This thing has to be super cheap to have a point at all.  I'm thinking $49.99 or bust.

Half a dozen, really?  Retron 5 is one.  Gameboy player for GBC, Super Gameboy.  What else?  I'd like to know.

 

What I'd really like is a way to play original DS games on my TV.  Where's that?

[Flojomojo]

11 minutes ago, wongojack said:

Half a dozen, really?  Retron 5 is one.  Gameboy player for GBC, Super Gameboy.  What else?  I'd like to know.

 

What I'd really like is a way to play original DS games on my TV.  Where's that?

Maybe those are the main ways to play original cartridges. That's slightly more important for GBA games than others, if you value storing your progress that way. But that's not the whole universe of GameBoy. 
 

Virtual Console on Wii U has some GBA and DS games for purchase and download. I would think Switch will do that before too long as well. 
 

Emulation of the entire GameBoy line is pretty good, so Raspberry Pi comes to mind, as well as the Ingenic-based Chinese handhelds like PocketGo. https://obscurehandhelds.com
 

Analogue Pocket will have a dock and will be the fanciest GameBoy in town when it comes out. 

[Pixelboy]

15 minutes ago, wongojack said:

Half a dozen, really?  Retron 5 is one.  Gameboy player for GBC, Super Gameboy.  What else?  I'd like to know.

There's also the jailbroken NT Mini, although it doesn't play GBA, just GB and GBC.

 

Quote

What I'd really like is a way to play original DS games on my TV.  Where's that?

Nice idea, but you'd need some kind of touch screen somewhere in that hardware equation...

 

EDIT: Both DS screens on the TV screen, and a USB mouse for the stylus, usable on the bottom screen as a cursor.  That should work. 

 

Edited January 25, 2020 by Pixelboy

[godslabrat]

2 hours ago, wongojack said:

Half a dozen, really?  Retron 5 is one.  Gameboy player for GBC, Super Gameboy.  What else?  I'd like to know.

 

What I'd really like is a way to play original DS games on my TV.  Where's that?

There are also the retrobit gameboy cart adapters.  And the GBA consolizer.  And the soon to be analog system.  
 

I thought the GB clone with the wrong ratio was the RetroBit one, and they gave a really weasely excuse about being afraid of stepping on a Nintendo trademark or something.  I don't buy it, personally.