RetroFreak: New competition for Retron 5 with PCE/TG16 support

[GohanX]

I think this is pretty cool, but I don't think I'd spend more than $80 on one.

[Black Tiger]

Tobias (Fudoh) got one and posted his first thoughts on it here if anyone is interested.

Thanks! It's interesting to see Tobias posting about his hobby somewhere that he isn't seen as the Devil Incarnate. 

From his description it sounds like the emulator that the RetroFreak guys are using doesn't do a particularly great job.

I forget the backstories, but others have talked about how he has burned bridges all over the internet, even before he started bootlegging PCE games.

[TR0N]

Bump ! It's out now i was wondering if any body here had one yet.Sure it's just emulation but i'm tempted by it beside it being able to play pce i could use a console that looks good on hdmi tv's.Before any ones says buy a XRBG mini i still don't have the money for one.

Retron 5: $300
XRGB3 Mini: $400

If you're fine with emulation, it's more convenient to get a small computer or android device and not waste time wearing out HuCards by sticking them in and out of a device which is just emulation. A TED would make the Framemeister cheaper in the short run.

Fake carts>Fake hardware

Only reason i'm tempted is convince that's all.Standard retro freak set go's for $179.00 it's not $300.00 and yes i have more then pce.Genesis,famicom and snes as well.Sure i still have a CRT but it won't last forever at this point.I still find the XRBG to be pricey currently.I wouldn't have a problem that the retro freak is emulation at all.

[TR0N]

eBay, with a suggested price hovering around $300 USD

There over priced on ebay while sites such as nin-nin-game.com and play-asia sell for less.

[martinine]

These would be so enticing if there were clone chips, etc. in the case, but if you want a decent emulator, just plug in a cpu or wii homebrew. I wonder what the cost breakdown would be, or even if there would be a market for a PCE/Turbo clone that used some hardware instead of emulation? It probably wouldn't be hard to make that chipset run SNES and NES games as well.

Either way, a friend of mine bought the last Retron, and the build quality is junky. I was seriously afraid the cart slots were going to ruin the contacts on my carts.

[Bloufo]

Either way, a friend of mine bought the last Retron, and the build quality is junky. I was seriously afraid the cart slots were going to ruin the contacts on my carts.

That's not the case with the revised models.

Top of system is hard plastic now, it doesn't bend with any pressure.
Better more durable metal on the cart pins (which in turn loosened the grip).

[akamichi]

I managed to pick up one of these.  It's an interesting piece of hardware.  It may not be for everyone especially If you already have an XRGB-mini with an Everdrive or some other similar solution.  I'd say this thing is mostly for people to consolidate their physical space while using original carts and accessories.  It just depends on the person I suppose.

Plugging in your own carts is pretty neat but after dumping them to SD, there's no point in ever using the carts again.  Since you can download full ROM sets and play them from SD, there's no real reason to have the cart dumper.  I like having it though.

Based on some of the dumps I've done, it seems that the dumps are encrypted and keyed to your specific console.  I didn't dig much into it, just making that assumption.  I'm probably very wrong.  At least, it wasn't possible to load dumped carts on an emulator on my PC.  I can only assume they wouldn't work on another Retrofreak either.  That's just more reason to not mess around with dumping carts.  The console recognizes dumps and downloaded ROMs equally from what I've experienced.

I can't comment much on the emulation quality.  I just don't use emulators that much.  Everything I've tried runs good enough.  Cyber Gadget maintains a list of games with problems.  It's not that big of a list considering the number of games total.

A nice feature is dumping your save games onto the system and re-uploading them to your original cart.  I haven't tried uploading back to any carts, but I did successfully dump many of my GBA saves to the system.

I also tried some homebrew games and translations via IPS patches and they worked as expected.  I think the patch feature is pretty nice since the console will apply the patch for you.

If anybody has any questions about the Retrofreak, I'll answer the best I can.

- akamichi

[Jibbajaba]

Where the hell is an XRGB Mini $400? I paid $315 for mine off of Amazon.

[BlueBMW]

I love the xrgb mini.  Even with an XM29 at the ready I still tend to play retro stuff through the xrgb.  It seems silly but it does that good of a job scaling.  Plus the meister mode scanlines look pretty convincing.

[Black Tiger]

Where the hell is an XRGB Mini $400? I paid $315 for mine off of Amazon.

Some Japanese distributor.

[RyuHayabusa]

This looks interesting but you'd still be better off just hooking up a PC up to your TV. I have an HTPC that I built years ago hooked up to my 51 in Hitachi that I use for emulation. There are so many games that you still can't play on the Retro Freak like Neo Geo, MAME, Laserdisc, Atari, and all CD games like TG-CD, Mega CD, Saturn, etc. Don't get me wrong, it looks like a cool piece of hardware but at the moment, until it can play CD games, I'll pass.