What goes into creating cloned retro hardware?

[Bardoly]

No Turbo love again.   

I spoke with David with Hyperkin at MGC about the possibility of them putting out a console which could play the HuCards and CD games for the TurboGrafx-16 and the PC Engine, and he seemed very interested.  Hopefully something will come of it.

[Arkhan]

That'd be great.  Then, people at CCAG won't be like "I want this but has no turbob"

[Black Tiger]

It only needs to run roms and isos to make most people happy. I don't think that any new clones will ever have a CD drive.

[SignOfZeta]

No Turbo love again.   

I spoke with David with Hyperkin at MGC about the possibility of them putting out a console which could play the HuCards and CD games for the TurboGrafx-16 and the PC Engine, and he seemed very interested.  Hopefully something will come of it.

With all those systems supported this thing has to be all software emulation, right? At least, mostly? In that case adding TG-16 should be a snap, a lot easier than NES, SNES and Genesis which have to cope with add-on processors.

I can't imagine I would be satisfied with this though. Famicom...sure, but the SNES and GBA have a very specific feel to them that few emulators really handle correctly. Even Nintendo themselves, when they made the Gameboy Player for GC, basically just put a screen-less GBA in a box in order to make it as accurate as possible.

I imagine this will be a big hit with those duchebags that build MAME cabs just to attempt to impress people at parties.

"Dude, it has 1765 games in it!"

And he's never played any of then for more than 30 seconds.

That guy, he'll love this thing. It might lack in some ways for people more specifically devoted to quality.

[KingDrool]

I would love one unit that plays everything; no fuss. US/JPN, CD, SCD, ACD, SuperGrafx...all of it. And as long as it performed reasonably well and had a port to plug in real controllers, I'd be more than happy.

[DarkKobold]

The thing about the Retron 5, is that it is just an emulator system, that runs off cartridges instead of ROM files. At that point, the cart becomes superfluous, and you might as well hook up your computer to a TV and have a front-end that loads ROMs. It is in no way original hardware simulation (what an FPGA would be), as evident by things like save states and sprite-smoothing, which are impossible in real hardware. I have friends that abhor emulation, and yet are giddy for this device, which boggles my mind. 

I have no problem with emulation, I more have a problem with this PC with emulators being marketed as a replacement console. Plus, it seems rather silly to own cartridges and CDs to play on emulators.

[SignOfZeta]

Yeah, I felt the same way about that German device that lets you play SNES carts on your PC. It seemed hella cool for about 2 minutes when I eventually had to ask myself..."why?". Why dump the game every time I play it?

I think a lot of people who hate emulators are basically just pushing their pro-hoarding agenda. This thing still lets you hoard shit so it's cool with them.

[mac]

Well i feel it will be pretty cool if the emulation is done good and the hardware is not crap. Wireless controllers (junk), HDMI support, Slick GUI. Would rather pay more for a quality system with good controllers.

When you think about it if you wanted a direct clone of the Snes or Genny would it not be entirely unpractical ? Who is going to manufacture the 65c816, Sony's SPC700 etc.

If they make a Turbo version sign me up. The Duo isn't getting any younger and is becoming more expensive, harder to find everyday.

[DarkKobold]

Well i feel it will be pretty cool if the emulation is done good and the hardware is not crap. Wireless controllers (junk), HDMI support, Slick GUI. Would rather pay more for a quality system with good controllers.

Well, my disagreement with this, would be why not just build a really, really nice HTPC (Home-theater PC) with a good front-end, your own controllers, and the best emulators (like the perfect bSNES)... I used to be really into the MAME machines, and this is just MAME for consoles. If you are cool emulators, the cart requirement is silly, wastes money, time, and space. You could build an even better quality PC system to your own specs, and include PCE/TG, Commodore 64, Playdia, N64, CDi, or whatever, to your heart's content. You wouldn't need to spend $1,000,000 to get all the games for all the systems....

When you think about it if you wanted a direct clone of the Snes or Genny would it not be entirely unpractical ? Who is going to manufacture the 65c816, Sony's SPC700 etc.

Yeah, it would be totally impractical. The practical solution is emulation, but the argument boils down to "Why bother with cart slots?"

Yeah, I felt the same way about that German device that lets you play SNES carts on your PC. It seemed hella cool for about 2 minutes when I eventually had to ask myself..."why?". Why dump the game every time I play it?

I think a lot of people who hate emulators are basically just pushing their pro-hoarding agenda. This thing still lets you hoard shit so it's cool with them.

I think the only thing cool about that device is the ability to back up save RAM, and the ability to plug original controllers into your PC... the former isn't worth $70, and the latter can be done by a $30 item from RetroZone.

Also, as a professional hoarder, I take offense to your comment.