Retron 5 (aka 4)

[Lord_Britannia]

One thing I want to know before I buy one - Does it have FDS compatibility?

its unfortunate but I dont ever see a clone on the FDS ever being made to market in the US mostly because famicom gamers are a very small (but strong) base here in the states and the FDS in an even smaller subsection within that. From a marketing and profit POV it wouldnt make sense for a company to put money into R&D to replicate the original hardware to a group that is just not there.   Although that would be awesome lol

[videogametrader]

One thing I want to know before I buy one - Does it have FDS compatibility?

its unfortunate but I dont ever see a clone on the FDS ever being made to market in the US mostly because famicom gamers are a very small (but strong) base here in the states and the FDS in an even smaller subsection within that. From a marketing and profit POV it wouldnt make sense for a company to put money into R&D to replicate the original hardware to a group that is just not there.   Although that would be awesome lol

I seem to remember some FDS games being put on cart to play on a normal system. Is that possible?

[Dr.Agon]

Famicom Disc System? I very highly doubt it.

why not? AFAIK the FDS connects to the Famicom cart slot, if this has an FC slot it should be able to run the FDS?

[videogametrader]

Famicom Disc System? I very highly doubt it.

why not? AFAIK the FDS connects to the Famicom cart slot, if this has an FC slot it should be able to run the FDS?

If thats how it connects then it should work.

[wiggy]

One thing I want to know before I buy one - Does it have FDS compatibility?

its unfortunate but I dont ever see a clone on the FDS ever being made to market in the US mostly because famicom gamers are a very small (but strong) base here in the states and the FDS in an even smaller subsection within that. From a marketing and profit POV it wouldnt make sense for a company to put money into R&D to replicate the original hardware to a group that is just not there.   Although that would be awesome lol

I seem to remember some FDS games being put on cart to play on a normal system. Is that possible?

Should be able to. Games like Zelda were FDS in Japan, but obviously not here, so I can't see why it wouldn't be possible.

[wiggy]

The bigger disappointment than the lack of N64 is the lack of 32X support, since the 32X carts have the same pin-out as Genesis carts.

The reason, sadly, is that nobody's made a decent 32X emulator for Android yet. Thankfully, the Retron 5 will do firmware updates, so once someone makes a 32X emulator Hyperkin can just patch it in.

Honesty, I'm willing to bet that it's because the N64 is harder emulate, unlike the GBA which isn't at all.

[Nacho3]

Famicom Disc System? I very highly doubt it.

why not? AFAIK the FDS connects to the Famicom cart slot, if this has an FC slot it should be able to run the FDS?

I guess I was more thinking of FDS support as if you have a game for it you could play it on this system, not hooking up the FDS to it.

[Dr.Agon]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famicom_disk_system

wikipedia confirms fds attatches to the cart slot
THERORETICALLY, you could make your own retron 6, with an additional famicom cart slot and the fds perminantly hooked up, you'd just need a switch to "turn off" that extra slot if you wanted to play a FC cart...

[Lord_Britannia]

One thing I want to know before I buy one - Does it have FDS compatibility?

its unfortunate but I dont ever see a clone on the FDS ever being made to market in the US mostly because famicom gamers are a very small (but strong) base here in the states and the FDS in an even smaller subsection within that. From a marketing and profit POV it wouldnt make sense for a company to put money into R&D to replicate the original hardware to a group that is just not there.   Although that would be awesome lol

I seem to remember some FDS games being put on cart to play on a normal system. Is that possible?

Im not experienced in repro carts (if thats what your asking)  But Nintendo of America did convert some FDS only games to Cartridge games with there US release a couple being Zelda 2, and Doki doki panic which became Super mario 2 here in america which then got a re-release in cartridge only in JPN as Super Mario USA. It sucks though I really wish they created a peripheral for the NES

[Lord_Britannia]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famicom_disk_system

wikipedia confirms fds attatches to the cart slot
THERORETICALLY, you could make your own retron 6, with an additional famicom cart slot and the fds perminantly hooked up, you'd just need a switch to "turn off" that extra slot if you wanted to play a FC cart...

I was also thinking in the sense of FDS support on the system itself rather than plugging one into the retron. 
Im not an trying to claim to be an expert on this so please please call me out if im wrong just going of the bit of info ive researched
 I know the FDS goes into a famicom slot but even still im still skeptical about that fact alone being enough to make it work on the retron5, because by that logic the sega 32x and all its games should also be compatible.  Reason being is im willing to bet that there was something in the FDS that Synthesized with something specific in the famicom to make the whole process acceptable or even just work in the first place, the principle is the same as when you put an nes cart in the nes slot the 10nes chip in the cart corresponds to the 10nes chip to the nes-001 to make the thing work which is why people to the pin4 mod sometimes.    Clone consoles have always had compatibility issues, ive heard mario RPG is a good example but I dont have a copy to test that                          Not trying to knock the beauty of the idea  that shit would be amazing but  i just dont see it

[Dr.Agon]

32x should be possible, all they'd need to do would be to add support for it into the megadrive emulator, then release some type of cartridge adaptor so the carts actually fit.

im more concerned about handheld compatability, why no neogeo pocket, wonderswan, game gear or lynx support?
last time i tried, 5-6 years ago, emulators for those were pretty good, if not perfect.

[CrimsonEnigma]

32x should be possible, all they'd need to do would be to add support for it into the megadrive emulator, then release some type of cartridge adaptor so the carts actually fit.

im more concerned about handheld compatability, why no neogeo pocket, wonderswan, game gear or lynx support?
last time i tried, 5-6 years ago, emulators for those were pretty good, if not perfect.

Remember that GB / GBC / GBA compatibility was sort of a last-minute thing that was only added once they found out the had enough room to put the slot in. With luck, they'll release another system later that adds support for some more handhelds.

[Dr.Agon]

what about a system that just did hand helds? i'd buy one!

[videogametrader]

32x should be possible, all they'd need to do would be to add support for it into the megadrive emulator, then release some type of cartridge adaptor so the carts actually fit.

im more concerned about handheld compatability, why no neogeo pocket, wonderswan, game gear or lynx support?
last time i tried, 5-6 years ago, emulators for those were pretty good, if not perfect.

Unfortunately we will probably never see compatibility for these systems. There just isnt' enough people that want that compatibility to make it a worth while investment to develop. Its a shame. A good Game Gear or Lynx portable would be great.

Maybe a kickstarter for something like this if someone can figure out how to do it.

[JDavis]

(Sorry about the bump, been away from the site for a while)

32X carts have the same pin output as Genesis carts (which is why Genesis carts can be played through the 32X), so as long as the cart slot on the Retron 5 can accommodate them (which is all in the case design), it'd just be a matter of patching in an emulator if one is ever produced.

As for the Famicom Disk System, it SHOULD work mostly fine with the Retron 5 in theory. Unlike the 32X (which adds extra processors and stuff), the FDS basically just copies the needed game data to the RAM Adapter (the part that connects to the cartridge slot), which is then read like any cartridge would be.