RetroN 5 Console Revives NES And SNES-Era Classics

Steven Bogos

The Taco Man
Jan 17, 2013
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RetroN 5 Console Revives NES And SNES-Era Classics


The console is capable of playing NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, Game Boy Advance and Famicom cartridges of both PAL and NTSC format.

Love playing retro games from the NES and SNES-era, but are sick of having all those consoles clutter up your living room? Or maybe your new-fangled HDTV is struggling to deal with the decades-old machines? Hyperkin has you covered, announcing the RetroN 5 retro-gaming console. The console can play games designed for the NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, Game Boy Advance and Famicom (Japanese NES). It can play games from both PAL and NTSC regions, and supports HDMI output with up to 720p resolution.

Just as the GBA supported Game Boy Color and Game Boy games, and the Genesis supported Sega Mega Drive games, so to will the RetroN 5. Super Famicom (Japanese SNES) games will also work in the SNES slot. This means the console can play games from nine different systems. The Famicom slot is the latest addition to Hyperkin's line of RetroN consoles, with the company stating that "we found that we could incorporate one more cartridge slot without hindering our current developmental cycle."

Six controller slots line the sides of the console, supporting controllers from the NES, SNES and Genesis. As well as being able to use any controller for any system (for example, you can use a SNES controller to play Genesis games), the RetroN 5 comes with its own unique wireless controller. The new controller has a Microswitch Directional Pad instead of a traditional directional pad.

The console also supports save states for games of every system. This means that you can save your game at any point in time by accessing the console's main menu. The console also autosaves your progress whenever you shut it down.

Hyperkin says that the RetroN 5 does a great job of tidying up the sounds and visuals of the games it plays. It supports both standard 4:3 and widescreen 16:9 aspect ratios, and makes use of audio interpolation for a smoother, cleaner audio output.

Hyperkin has offered no news of when the new console will launch, or how much it will cost.

Source: Hyperkin [http://hyperkin.com/blog/2013/03/retron-5-details-revealed-from-the-midwest-gaming-classic/]



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Something Amyss

Aswyng and Amyss
Dec 3, 2008
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Is this the one Checkpoint jokes about a week or two ago?

The features actually seem fairly nice, though I'm not sure I care enough about retro gaming to have one.
 

Clive Howlitzer

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Jan 27, 2011
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An emulator in a box, basically. I suppose it isn't surprising someone would finally get around to doing this.
 

Lord_Jaroh

Ad-Free Finally!
Apr 24, 2007
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This is a very cool idea. Now if only the cartridges themselves didn't have a lifespan. I think you can replace the batteries in some of them, but I don't know if that will save some of my old NES games. Maybe the cartridges could be re-released in some way...?
 

Shoggoth2588

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Aug 31, 2009
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This sounds great but I would probably end up getting it specifically to play the few Famicom games I've grabbed...and as a placeholder until I can get my hands on a GBA player for my gamecube. I'll have to keep an eye on this bad boy.
 

Colt47

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Oct 31, 2012
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Lord_Jaroh said:
This is a very cool idea. Now if only the cartridges themselves didn't have a lifespan. I think you can replace the batteries in some of them, but I don't know if that will save some of my old NES games. Maybe the cartridges could be re-released in some way...?
Oh man I know what you mean. I've got old Gameboy Games that date back to ancient times and I've got no clue if they even have a charge anymore. A lot of companies are re-releasing the classics anyway on different platforms (The 3ds has been getting all the classic megaman titles), but there are lesser known ones like Final Fantasy Legends that just aren't getting re-released, and were actually pretty fun games.
 

Saregon

Yes.. Swooping is bad.
May 21, 2012
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This seems cool, maybe I can finally replay some of my old stuff. So, the thing about it supporting save states, would that mean that it can play cartridges where the internal battery has died? Or does that mean that the cartridge is unplayable as well as losing its save states? No matter, might be worth changing that battery for this thing.
 

Smooth Operator

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Oct 5, 2010
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Well that is nice and all but who is paying for all those licenses?
Emulators get away with it because it's under the table stuff but the moment you make commercial products these companies will be chewing your ass.
 

Scrythe

Premium Gasoline
Jun 23, 2009
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Clive Howlitzer said:
An emulator in a box, basically. I suppose it isn't surprising someone would finally get around to doing this.
We are talking about Hyperkin, a company that took a hex editor, threw it into an orange USB stick, and called it a "Game Genie".

You can purchase this hex editor for the low, low price of $30.

Did I mention the orange 1GB USB stick?
 

The White Hunter

Basment Abomination
Oct 19, 2011
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Lord_Jaroh said:
This is a very cool idea. Now if only the cartridges themselves didn't have a lifespan. I think you can replace the batteries in some of them, but I don't know if that will save some of my old NES games. Maybe the cartridges could be re-released in some way...?
If you used the old front loading NES the problem is that that bent the pins on the carts, you can get those repaired and cleaned though, I think retroware.tv ran a series of articles and videos about cartridge repair and cleaning a while back if you're interested. Might be an idea.

The batteries are just used to store save data aren't they~? Pretty easy to replace iirc and a lot of my Mega Drive games batteries still live to this day.
 

Baneat

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Jul 18, 2008
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How does it work? To smoothly emulate with perfect accuracy on the snes you need like a decent ivy bridge i5 or better so what exactly is it doing instead? Got little shrunk down consoles in there so it doesn't need to emulate? Just using an inaccurate emulator on an ARM pc?
 

Vault Citizen

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May 8, 2008
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It is cool. If it comes with optional controllers that look like the controller the various systems that you can play the games of on this thing it will be perfect.

edit - never mind I have just learnt that it comes with controller ports. I will be slightly embarrassed if I see that in the original article later

further edit - yes the original article does say that, that is embarrassing
 

cidbahamut

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Mar 1, 2010
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Now we just need some halfway decent third party controllers.

I've yet to find anything that feels as good as the first party SNES controllers.
 

Megacherv

Kinect Development Sucks...
Sep 24, 2008
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Clive Howlitzer said:
An emulator in a box, basically. I suppose it isn't surprising someone would finally get around to doing this.
You know it's not a new thing, they've had older models (such as the Retron 3).

Also, "...the Genesis supported Sega Mega Drive games...", yes it did, because they were the same damn console...
 

Canadamus Prime

Robot in Disguise
Jun 17, 2009
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Sounds great, but if it uses the actual cartridges I have to wonder how it manages to pull all that off.
 

nekoali

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Aug 25, 2009
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This does look interesting, being the all in one gaming system. Of course you could always do all of this with emulators now, but nobody would recommend such questionable legal tactics would they?

If it's not to expensive, I might have to pick one of these up. I still have some GBA games laying around, and you can always find old game cartridges for sale online and at flea markets/yard sales...
 

StewShearerOld

Geekdad News Writer
Jan 5, 2013
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cidbahamut said:
Now we just need some halfway decent third party controllers.

I've yet to find anything that feels as good as the first party SNES controllers.
Actually, I'm pretty sure you can just plug in your old SNES controllers.

I have a Retron 4 and love the thing, if only because it helped clear a lot of space on my shelf by allowing me to put three old consoles into storage.

The battery pack issue is a problem, though. I mostly focus on buying old side scrollers and other games where save features aren't present. I.e. the first game I picked up after getting my Retron 4 was the Genesis X-Men game. So much fun!
 

C117

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Aug 14, 2009
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Oh man, it's almost worth buying it just to be able to play all of my old GameBoy-games again...

Guess I'll wait for the price tag before I make up my mind.