RetroN 5 release updated to April 2014

Fudoh · Post by **Fudoh** » Sat May 31, 2014 12:02 am

A few days ago I got a shipping estimate from Amazon: June 6th.

lettuce · Post by **lettuce** » Sat May 31, 2014 12:07 am

Fudoh wrote:A few days ago I got a shipping estimate from Amazon: June 6th.

That from Amazon Germany??

Fudoh · Post by **Fudoh** » Sat May 31, 2014 12:11 am

No, Amazon USA, but it's less than 80 EUR including shipping AND vat/tax, so why not ?

LegoSlug · Post by **LegoSlug** » Sat May 31, 2014 2:50 am

It will be interesting to see how it turns out. Would be nice to have a good hdmi option for these games.

lettuce · Post by **lettuce** » Sat May 31, 2014 9:52 am

Fudoh wrote:No, Amazon USA, but it's less than 80 EUR including shipping AND vat/tax, so why not ?

Yeah don't think Europe will be getting these for a while, still can't complain seeing as I'm getting mine for £79

Fudoh · Post by **Fudoh** » Sat May 31, 2014 10:33 am

I watched the long video last night. Quite some problems with custom made carts (translations and such), but GBA looked awesome.

slk486 · Post by **slk486** » Sat May 31, 2014 6:14 pm

Yeah, frankly it's worth it for GB, GBC, and GBA alone. They should add the posibility to submit unknown carts to their db.
Just waiting for somewhere to preorder now.

lettuce · Post by **lettuce** » Sat May 31, 2014 6:22 pm

slk486 wrote:Yeah, frankly it's worth it for GB, GBC, and GBA alone. They should add the posibility to submit unknown carts to their db.
Just waiting for somewhere to preorder now.

Well the have release FW 1.1, which fixes a lot of those issues apparently.....

- Numerous NES/Famicom compatibility fixes (including improved cartridge detection logic and mapper support)
- Several SNES/Super Famicom compatibility fixes (including support for ExHiROM and "SpecialLoROM" games, and better cartridge detection logic)
- Fixed manipulation of cartridge saves on SNES "HiROM" games
- Fixed a bug preventing a small number of Sega Genesis cartridges from being properly detected
- Fixed a bug which resulted in scanlines getting distorted if the screen size was not configured to the largest setting
- Added the ability to optionally display scanlines at the main menu in addition to in-game
- Large update to game identification databases
- File manager copy now checks if the destination file already exists and prompts to overwrite if necessary
- Beginning of effort to support homebrew and repro cartridges
- More reliable manipulation of the front panel LED's
- Removed default mapping for "fast forward" feature, as the original button combination was conflicting with some games
- Fixed a bug causing the bottom line of Gameboy games' display to be cut off
- Many under the hood changes and fixes

Fudoh · Post by **Fudoh** » Sat May 31, 2014 6:49 pm

Removed default mapping for "fast forward" feature

oh, by the way - imo the fast forward feature in general is a really great idea.

slk486 · Post by **slk486** » Sat May 31, 2014 7:06 pm

It really is, but snapshots, so one can leave and pick up again immediately where left off, is a god send. I'm looking forward to someone getting into nitpicking on the emulation. How accurate is it?

lettuce · Post by **lettuce** » Sat May 31, 2014 9:03 pm

slk486 wrote:It really is, but snapshots, so one can leave and pick up again immediately where left off, is a god send. I'm looking forward to someone getting into nitpicking on the emulation. How accurate is it?

Well i was trying to really listen to the audio in that 2hr YouTube vid i posted as that is usually where emulation falls down, and it seemed spot on. The bit he said about Hagger's vocals being lower pitch was correct but that just how it sounds on the SNES version compared to the Arcade.

slk486 · Post by **slk486** » Sat May 31, 2014 9:22 pm

That's good. Yes, audio can be tricky to get right, but samples are easier than fm emulation, so Mega Drive and NES is where it's at

Seraphic · Post by **Seraphic** » Sun Jun 01, 2014 3:50 pm

lettuce wrote:
slk486 wrote:Yeah, frankly it's worth it for GB, GBC, and GBA alone. They should add the posibility to submit unknown carts to their db.
Just waiting for somewhere to preorder now.
Well the have release FW 1.1, which fixes a lot of those issues apparently.....

- Numerous NES/Famicom compatibility fixes (including improved cartridge detection logic and mapper support)
- Several SNES/Super Famicom compatibility fixes (including support for ExHiROM and "SpecialLoROM" games, and better cartridge detection logic)
- Fixed manipulation of cartridge saves on SNES "HiROM" games
- Fixed a bug preventing a small number of Sega Genesis cartridges from being properly detected
- Fixed a bug which resulted in scanlines getting distorted if the screen size was not configured to the largest setting
- Added the ability to optionally display scanlines at the main menu in addition to in-game
- Large update to game identification databases
- File manager copy now checks if the destination file already exists and prompts to overwrite if necessary
- Beginning of effort to support homebrew and repro cartridges
- More reliable manipulation of the front panel LED's
- Removed default mapping for "fast forward" feature, as the original button combination was conflicting with some games
- Fixed a bug causing the bottom line of Gameboy games' display to be cut off
- Many under the hood changes and fixes

Where do you download the firmware and what type and storage size of SD card does it use?
I found a gamestore still selling them for $99 a few weeks back and they had a 20% off coupon so I paid $80 shipped.

lettuce · Post by **lettuce** » Sun Jun 01, 2014 4:46 pm

http://retron5.in/documents/retron5-upd ... tions.html

Bit of a strange way to update the system.....but then what do we expect from Hyperkin

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Sun Jun 01, 2014 5:09 pm

Hyperkids obviously really proud and protective of their super seckrit programz.

slk486 · Post by **slk486** » Mon Jun 02, 2014 8:52 am

Wouldn't you be, if you successfully emulated Blast Processing?

Seraphic · Post by **Seraphic** » Wed Jun 04, 2014 8:10 pm

Did anyone else pre-order from vgmx.com for their Retron 5?
They never reply to my e-mails...

Einzelherz · Post by **Einzelherz** » Thu Jun 05, 2014 3:21 am

slk486 wrote:Wouldn't you be, if you successfully emulated Blast Processing?

Where's that damn like button...

evil_ash_xero · Post by **evil_ash_xero** » Sat Jun 07, 2014 10:16 am

How's the input delay?

Konsolkongen · Post by **Konsolkongen** » Sat Jun 07, 2014 10:51 pm

Anyone feel like taking a picture of the PCB once they get theirs? I'm only interested in the GBA-part of the system, so I'm curious how much it can be slimmed down. Would have to casemod either way of course, as this thing is ugly as sin

Fudoh · Post by **Fudoh** » Sat Jun 07, 2014 11:56 pm

Bob already did. Just click on the "teardown" link here: http://www.retrorgb.com/retron5.html

The small PCB in the back (with the "Rockchip") is the emulation core. Unfortunately the large PCB with the cart slots contains a FPGA on it's own, so I guess the "cart dump" happens there.

Konsolkongen · Post by **Konsolkongen** » Sun Jun 08, 2014 1:13 am

Thanks

lettuce · Post by **lettuce** » Sun Jun 08, 2014 1:16 pm

Do you guys think the Retron5 would have enough beans to use filters similar to what Retroarch uses for the Gameboy and GBA handhelds??......

Konsolkongen · Post by **Konsolkongen** » Sun Jun 08, 2014 9:45 pm

Wow that looks really good. But the Retron 5 might be limited to 720p, so it may not be possible at that resolution.

austin532 · Post by **austin532** » Mon Jun 09, 2014 2:47 am

Out of all the color palettes to choose I can't believe someone would want to play the original Gameboy puke green. I'm all for authenticity but that may be taking it to far.

BuckoA51 · Post by **BuckoA51** » Mon Jun 09, 2014 9:14 am

Do you guys think the Retron5 would have enough beans to use filters similar to what Retroarch uses for the Gameboy and GBA handhelds??

I think that's somewhat unlikely.

lettuce · Post by **lettuce** » Mon Jun 09, 2014 10:35 am

austin532 wrote:Out of all the color palettes to choose I can't believe someone would want to play the original Gameboy puke green. I'm all for authenticity but that may be taking it to far.

Well that is the original colour palette of the Gameboy, the black and white palette just dont look right for Gameboy games....and its pea green not puke green

BuckoA51 wrote:
Do you guys think the Retron5 would have enough beans to use filters similar to what Retroarch uses for the Gameboy and GBA handhelds??
I think that's somewhat unlikely.

Well it is Android based system isnt it and my jxd s7800b can use these shaders/filters so i would have thought that the R5 would be able to as well??

LSU · Post by **LSU** » Tue Jun 10, 2014 5:08 pm

Mine arrived broken, the Megadrive/Genesis port is dead and doesn't recognise any carts at all. So It'll have to go back.

And, seriously, what's up with removing the composite video out? That was definitely on the spec sheet when I pre-ordered. Isn't the whole point of quality emulation to be as close to the original as possible? How is HDMI out as the only option a good idea? I can't use this on my CRT. Me no like the lag, or the way it looks on a HDTV.

Such a shame, as it does have some worthwhile features. Very sad about the whole thing after waiting so long.

ms06fz · Post by **ms06fz** » Tue Jun 10, 2014 9:16 pm

Konsolkongen wrote:Wow that looks really good. But the Retron 5 might be limited to 720p, so it may not be possible at that resolution.

Game Boy's resolution is 144 pixels high, so scaling up to 720p is a factor of five. So for a filter like that (rendering pixel gaps between the pixels) each source pixel could occupy 4x4 screen pixels, with a one-pixel gap between source pixels. (roughly 36% of the display occupied by dark lines)

For GBA (160 source pixel rows) the scaling factor is 4.5, two source rows per 9 display rows if you're scaled to full-screen. So it wouldn't be as clean of an effect. But each source pixel would get roughly 3x3 pixels of uninterrupted display space, and then be partially occluded by one of the dark lines separating the pixels. (roughly 40% of the display occupied by dark lines)

For the other consoles (240 vertical lines, roughly) scaling factor is 3, so it could be 2x2 unoccluded display pixels per source pixel (55% of the display occupied by the dark lines) - probably still enough for a decent effect.

lettuce · Post by **lettuce** » Tue Jun 10, 2014 10:18 pm

LSU wrote:Mine arrived broken, the Megadrive/Genesis port is dead and doesn't recognise any carts at all. So It'll have to go back.

And, seriously, what's up with removing the composite video out? That was definitely on the spec sheet when I pre-ordered. Isn't the whole point of quality emulation to be as close to the original as possible? How is HDMI out as the only option a good idea? I can't use this on my CRT. Me no like the lag, or the way it looks on a HDTV. Such a shame, as it does have some worthwhile features. Very sad about the whole thing after waiting so long.

Yeah alot of people have been up in arms about the device not have composite video output, but i really dont think thats the market the Retron 5 is aimed at. I think its designed to be used with an LCD TV in mind, thing is if your concerned about the device not having composite then there a high chance you have a CRT type display, in which case why the heck are you even looking at the Retron5!!?

shmups.system11.org