Author Topic: RetroBlox : Another new Play-Everything "Retro" Console  (Read 16989 times)

elmer

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Re: RetroBlox : Another new Play-Everything "Retro" Console
« Reply #135 on: May 30, 2017, 10:45:25 AM »
They've asked for money? How much are they asking? I am curious about this but would hope to hear specs before I heard the price haha

I've not seen them asking for money, yet.

I'm going to guess that the Kickstarter and pricing announcements will come during E3.

It'll be interesting to see if the basic hardware specs have changed since April ... I kinda doubt it, but maybe.

If not, then the comparison (for me) will be this ...

https://www.amazon.com/Tinker-board-RK3288-1-8GHz-Mali-T764/dp/B06VSBVQWS

$78 including case and power supply, from an internationally-known manufacturer.

Sure ... the RetroBlox POLYMEGA will offer an immediate out-of-the-box experience (if it ships), but it'll be basically the same ARM-emulation at the end of the day. And it will be DRM-protected, and not run ROMs.

Gredler

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Re: RetroBlox : Another new Play-Everything "Retro" Console
« Reply #136 on: May 30, 2017, 10:48:46 AM »
If not, then the comparison (for me) will be this ...

https://www.amazon.com/Tinker-board-RK3288-1-8GHz-Mali-T764/dp/B06VSBVQWS

$78 including case and power supply, from an internationally-known manufacturer.

Thanks for the link to that ASUS board, what OS can you put on that thing? I will start researching it, looks rad.

I love the ASUS products I've purchased elsewhere.

And it will be DRM-protected, and not run ROMs.

ew.

Necromancer

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Re: RetroBlox : Another new Play-Everything "Retro" Console
« Reply #137 on: May 30, 2017, 11:19:01 AM »
It can run Roms from flash carts... They just won't have access to all of the big features like a physical cart would.

Wait.... what?  Are you saying it'll detect flash carts and gimp how they work compared to real hueys?
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Gredler

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Re: RetroBlox : Another new Play-Everything "Retro" Console
« Reply #138 on: May 30, 2017, 11:36:40 AM »
I think I remember them mentioning something about backing up carts, adding manuals or labels or something based on the carts, or downloading cheats? I am getting more curious about it after hearing it will play flash carts, but will it load roms from SD cards?

Black Tiger

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Re: RetroBlox : Another new Play-Everything "Retro" Console
« Reply #139 on: May 30, 2017, 11:44:00 AM »
How can a "repro" console "elevate retro games to a new level" if it can't do everything that the consoles it's pretending to be can do?

You save much more space and time with a handful of consoles plus flashcarts than a single repro console and thousands of carts + hundreds of pricey repro carts required just to run any kind of fan translation or even the simplest of hacks.

Unless this thing retails for $50, I don't see what kind of market it could target other than casuals who don't plan on ever buying more than one or two games for any of the supported platforms. But that would still defeat the whole point of a device that lets you plug physical games into it.
« Last Edit: May 30, 2017, 11:47:27 AM by Black Tiger »
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Gredler

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Re: RetroBlox : Another new Play-Everything "Retro" Console
« Reply #140 on: May 30, 2017, 12:52:42 PM »
Still waiting to hear about online play, so I can get worked over by Arkhan and Dark Kobold at the same time.

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elmer

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Re: RetroBlox : Another new Play-Everything "Retro" Console
« Reply #141 on: May 30, 2017, 01:13:27 PM »
Thanks for the link to that ASUS board, what OS can you put on that thing? I will start researching it, looks rad.

It's the same CPU, running at the same speed, with the same ... everything really, as the original RetroBlox prototype that they showed. The huge difference is that it doesn't come with the cartridge slots and controller ports build into it.

Most folks can just buy cheap USB-to-whateverjoypad adapters if they care ... or someone could wire up the I/O pins on the Tinker Board and write a driver ... just like nullity's peeps have done.

As for the OS, it runs a customized version of Debian linux if you need to use it's 4K HD video-playback hardware, or you can run a more-standard Debian distribution and run whatever you like on it, such as RetroArch and all of its emulators.

The RetroArch guys are working on adding support for it to their stand-alone Lakka operating-system-plus-emulators-and-do-everything-out-of-the-box ... but it's not there quite yet.

The point is ... it's open, it's supported, it's fixable, but you're actually going to have to read some web pages to get it working.

The POLYMEGA promises to be a closed-environment one-stop-shop solution for something that's basically-the-same-but-may-be-better.

We really don't know at this point.

You can probably tell from my language, which basic approach I personally prefer ... but that's not important.

The critical question (IMHO), is whether these guys can actually pull off what they promising. If so, then there are potentially a lot of people who would be happy with this.

ClodBuster

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Re: RetroBlox : Another new Play-Everything "Retro" Console
« Reply #142 on: May 30, 2017, 06:07:05 PM »
If I want to play original cartridges on my PC, I just plug in my Retrode cartridge reader in one of the USB ports. Reads SNES and Genesis right from the start as well as reads/writes SaveRAM, and has two ports for both SNES and Genesis controllers built in. With adaptors, I can even load GB, N64 and Master System cartridges, the N64 one features two N64 controller ports as well.

I know some people build prototype adaptors for Hucards and NES carts, and there's support for them in the Retrode firmware.

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GohanX

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Re: RetroBlox : Another new Play-Everything "Retro" Console
« Reply #143 on: May 31, 2017, 02:09:24 AM »
They've asked for money? How much are they asking? I am curious about this but would hope to hear specs before I heard the price haha

I've not seen them asking for money, yet.

I'm going to guess that the Kickstarter and pricing announcements will come during E3.

It'll be interesting to see if the basic hardware specs have changed since April ... I kinda doubt it, but maybe.

If not, then the comparison (for me) will be this ...

https://www.amazon.com/Tinker-board-RK3288-1-8GHz-Mali-T764/dp/B06VSBVQWS

$78 including case and power supply, from an internationally-known manufacturer.

Sure ... the RetroBlox POLYMEGA will offer an immediate out-of-the-box experience (if it ships), but it'll be basically the same ARM-emulation at the end of the day. And it will be DRM-protected, and not run ROMs.


I'm now more interested in this Tinkerboard than the Polymega.

Dicer

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Re: RetroBlox : Another new Play-Everything "Retro" Console
« Reply #144 on: May 31, 2017, 08:44:35 AM »
So minus CD's the Retro-freak will continue to be the de-facto machine if you want an all-in-one games compatible device?

Seems that's the vibe I am getting anyway.

Once retro-poly-whatever went to secure proper bios'es and crap the drm was assured, and sorry but not being able to pop my current streamlined rom collection over with my legit hard owned copies all at once is big ass deal breaker for myself, and assuredly plenty of others.

Oh well, it sounded kinda neat, but as i have said all along, this was never gonna go very far.

I could still be proven wrong, but that opportunity is closing quickly.



bob

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Re: RetroBlox : Another new Play-Everything "Retro" Console
« Reply #145 on: June 02, 2017, 09:41:16 AM »
people seem to care way too much about this thing (one way or the other).
majors has a buddy that summed it up perfectly when we were talking about tobias shit, and it kind of applies here too.  "These arent being made for people who know anything about this stuff".

i mean, good for them if they make it and sell a few, but exerting any energy on reverse-engineering the insides of essentially nothing is a waste of time.  accusing them of stealing anything or how it compares to other knock off systems is pointless.  if you think its a dumb idea or want to feel like you "figured it out", then just move along.

Dicer

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Re: RetroBlox : Another new Play-Everything "Retro" Console
« Reply #146 on: June 02, 2017, 10:24:37 AM »
people seem to care way too much about this thing (one way or the other).
majors has a buddy that summed it up perfectly when we were talking about tobias shit, and it kind of applies here too.  "These arent being made for people who know anything about this stuff".

i mean, good for them if they make it and sell a few, but exerting any energy on reverse-engineering the insides of essentially nothing is a waste of time.  accusing them of stealing anything or how it compares to other knock off systems is pointless.  if you think its a dumb idea or want to feel like you "figured it out", then just move along.

Harboring the "only post if you have something good to say" mentality isn't good, at all...

We should be allowed to discuss/debate any topic that comes along, it is a discussion forum after all, if I was carefully curtailed thoughts and a have mind I'll apply for another NEOGAF account.

That said I didn't try to be negative about this product, I just say the direction it was taking a mile back and promptly pumped the brakes, there is a slim chance something good could still happen but I don't see it coming over the horizon.

bob

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Re: RetroBlox : Another new Play-Everything "Retro" Console
« Reply #147 on: June 02, 2017, 11:38:41 AM »
people seem to care way too much about this thing (one way or the other).
majors has a buddy that summed it up perfectly when we were talking about tobias shit, and it kind of applies here too.  "These arent being made for people who know anything about this stuff".

i mean, good for them if they make it and sell a few, but exerting any energy on reverse-engineering the insides of essentially nothing is a waste of time.  accusing them of stealing anything or how it compares to other knock off systems is pointless.  if you think its a dumb idea or want to feel like you "figured it out", then just move along.

Harboring the "only post if you have something good to say" mentality isn't good, at all...

We should be allowed to discuss/debate any topic that comes along, it is a discussion forum after all, if I was carefully curtailed thoughts and a have mind I'll apply for another NEOGAF account.

That said I didn't try to be negative about this product, I just say the direction it was taking a mile back and promptly pumped the brakes, there is a slim chance something good could still happen but I don't see it coming over the horizon.

ha, my response wasnt directed specifically at you.
i'm just sayin.
and its not a "post only if you have something good" angle i was going after.  im just surprised lots of people care this much about it.  its amusing how people have jumped all over what is essentially a concept with prototype.  at this point it doesnt really matter what the innards are since they prob arent final.

Gredler

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Re: RetroBlox : Another new Play-Everything "Retro" Console
« Reply #148 on: June 06, 2017, 09:34:15 AM »
Was fun to check out, worked really well from what we tried, still curious to learn more - but outlook is positive given what I was shown.

rrob78

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Re: RetroBlox : Another new Play-Everything "Retro" Console
« Reply #149 on: June 06, 2017, 10:00:52 AM »
Was fun to check out, worked really well from what we tried, still curious to learn more - but outlook is positive given what I was shown.
Same here, got to play some PC Engine Street Fighter II Turbo, little to no lag with the physical hucard in the system. I was impressed, was digging the crt & rgb filters.