The Hyperkin RetroN 5!

[Serum]

Has anyone heard of the Hyperkin RetroN 5? It was a Christmas present I got a preorder for last year, but it kept getting delayed and mine is finally shipping today... it's a sort of "jukebox" system, it plays 10 systems, including:

NES
SNES
Sega Genesis
Master System (with Power Base Converter)
FamiCom
Super FamiCom
Mega Drive
GameBoy
GameBoy Color
GameBoy Advance

...it has a built in "rOS" GUI that allows you to update the machine and translate Japanese titles to English with files via SD card, among a slew of other features and I'm absolutely ecstatic to start playing mine when it finally arrives! I've got a bunch of old titles on all these systems, most recently I picked up a copy of Lawnmower Man for the Sega Genesis at a flea market, and of course my precious Harvest Moon on the various GameBoy systems.

It connects to HDTVs via HDMI cable, and has hi-res quality, a wireless controller and all sorts of sound and video filter options, too. Has anyone else got one of these?

[Phlibbit]

That thing looks awesome! The closest thing I have is a RetroDuo, which a friend got for me for Christmas one year. It plays both NES and Super NES games--it's pretty sweet. I imagine this thing is great.

Let us know your impressions after you've played some games on it. I'd like to know just how "HD" some of the games look. And I'm particularly interested in how Game Boy games look. Better than a Super Game Boy?

[ultimateemail5000]

Here is a really good in depth review of the system by none other than Pat the NES Punk.



Unfortunetly it sounds like a lot of games are not save compatible, and none only from this review I saw a video on IGN of a man who played Pokemon Red, up to the 4th gym, and stopped playing and he said it erased his memory when he started the game up.

Though I do think this is such a cool idea, at the same time its a bummer, especially if you don't have any old games. The prices on NES games now a days are just dumb. I remember you could buy SMB 1-3 for 10 bucks, now they sell for 10 bucks a piece. Not worth it. Why not just have a good ol fashion PC, a xbox 360 controller, and some roms, you are good to go.

[Serum]

It should be coming in the mail today or tomorrow, I'll let everyone know how it works.

@UE5K You need to use an SD card to save certain games, that problem was fixed with a firmware update.

[Serum]

Well, it came in the mail, today! I gotta say, it's pretty neat, so far! I updated the firmware on it and it seems to be running everything just fine. To answer Redstar's question regarding the "HD" I don't know if I'd call it "HD" but it definitely presents games from far older systems in a higher rez than you'd get from the actual system they were designed for-- the colors appear much more vividly and the image is crisper depending on the setting you have it on. I keep mine on "HQ2X," which I think means "High Quality Times Two," though I may be wrong.

No trouble saving anything, you can save the traditional way to the cartridge or use a flash save, the system has a built in 1.2GB of memory to save and I have an 8GB SDHC card in it that I'm also using to store updates in. I have yet to utilize the built-in GameGenie which you need to download the cheats for onto the SD card (I think) but I don't usually cheat on older console games unless it's unusually difficult. One thing I found really cool is that the GUI menu identifies the game you insert into the the slots before you load it, so I popped in "Phantasy Star IV" on the Sega and it automatically said the name of the game!

So far the games I've tested are...

Sega Genesis...

The Lawnmower Man
Beavis & Butt-Head
Shadowrun
Battletoads Meet Double Dragon
Phantasy Star II: The End of the Lost Age
Phanty Star III: Generations of Doom
Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium

Super Nintendo...

Shadowrun
Wolfenstein 3-D

GameBoy Advance...

Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town

...everything is fine, working more than nominally and I think it's pretty awesome, so far, like I said, I haven't had any problems. I gotta say this was worth the wait! And UE5K, to answer your question about why not just use ROMs with an XBOX360 controller-- there's a very fine line between ROM-gaming and real retro gaming and this machine is a sort of nice bridge between the gap-- let's face it, many SNESs and Genesises and NESs especially don't work anymore and the cartridges age a lot better than one might expect if they're taken care of, so why not use them if you can get a machine that runs them?

Oh, one more note-- the system really "hugs" the cartridges, there's no 'eject' button the way there might be on an older NES (non top-loading models) but if you gram the cartridge by the corner and pull it's not so hard to remove. But they are in pretty tight, which concerned me at first but again, after some testing it seems to be fine. I've heard some people complain that the tightness scratched their games internally but I've not had that issue at all.

[ultimateemail5000]

I'm honestly really glad to hear it's better than the reviews are. I have been curious about it, I think the idea is actually really cool. If I had all my old games still and or the cash to start a new collection or buy the system, I probably would. I have played ROMs in HD, without filters and that is by the best IMO. Especially if you are playing on a HD tv. This is actually an issue that Nintendo can not get right with their VC games. I spent 2 dollars to upgrade Mario 2 and it looks and sounds like crap. The more I play the volume turns down, and its not my TV, its mostly their NES games.

[Serum]

Tested a few more games, last night, everything works great with it! I popped in Metal Gear and Snake's Revenge on the NES, both worked perfectly, as did the original NES versions of Battletoads and Double Dragon. I'm going to try Doom on the SNES and Super Mario World pretty soon.