Retron 5 (aka 4)

[JDavis]

I wrote up a detailed review a few days ago for the guys over at The Retro League podcast, and they posted it on their new site today.

It's already slightly inaccurate because I mentioned the cheat database not being up yet at the time, which it is now.

[TyrannicalFascist]

Nice review, JDavis. Pretty much sums up my feelings as well.

I do wonder if there's any reason they couldn't add controller support for Sega Master System, Atari 2600, 7800 and even Colecovision controllers. If they all fit in the same port, isn't it just a firmware update needed to recognize them? Then they could set it up so you could have custom controller profiles you could name for each controller. The last 3 controllers I mentioned might be nice for some of those arcade compilation carts on GBA. I'd be especially impressed if they could add 2600 paddle controller support!

In fact, it looks like there's a lot of controllers that fit the "DB9" port: Amiga, Commodore, MSX, 3DO?... http://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=controls:sega_atari_msx_x68000

[lcvolt]

after all these years complaining for having a yellow snes and dirty nes cartridges, people still bought a gray console. i chose black, dont mind the wait.

[Ozzy_98]

Nice review, JDavis. Pretty much sums up my feelings as well.

I do wonder if there's any reason they couldn't add controller support for Sega Master System, Atari 2600, 7800 and even Colecovision controllers. If they all fit in the same port, isn't it just a firmware update needed to recognize them? Then they could set it up so you could have custom controller profiles you could name for each controller. The last 3 controllers I mentioned might be nice for some of those arcade compilation carts on GBA. I'd be especially impressed if they could add 2600 paddle controller support!

In fact, it looks like there's a lot of controllers that fit the "DB9" port: Amiga, Commodore, MSX, 3DO?... http://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=controls:sega_atari_msx_x68000

These are the kind of comments that makes me wanna write a book, and some people misread it as showing off, but oh well.

Most of the older DB9 controllers are compatible with each other, sms, 2600, ect, but there's some tricks.  The genesis controller for example does not have a pin for each button.
http://pinouts.ru/Game/genesiscontroller_pinout.shtml

This isn't a very clear read on that site, but in a nut shell, pin 7 is the magic line (There's no select button on sms, so that one marked select is not for a button!) If there's no power sent down pin 7, pin 6 is button A, and pin 9 is the start button.  If there's 5 volts on pin 7, pin 6 is the status of button B, and pin 9 is C.  When you plug a gens controller into say an Atari 2600, there's no power on 7 and 6 is the button, so it always reads button A on the gens pad.

The 7800 pinouts are different, 5 is right button, 6 is active when any button is pressed, and 9 is left button. I'm not sure though on how the logic works, whenever I use a gens pad on a 7800, I remember you have to hold a button to STOP firing, so they have some funny logic there.

Firmware wouldn't help for some of these changes unless the controller port was designed to be switched to ground or anything else ass needed via a pretty complex setup. 

[sheep2001]

All very true, but as it's emulation and not a real machine, firmware, or software in the Emulators CAN be revised to allow other controllers, but it's pretty niche, and I can't see them writing it in. (Unless enough people ask for it I guess)

[marioxb]

Nice review, JDavis. Pretty much sums up my feelings as well.

I do wonder if there's any reason they couldn't add controller support for Sega Master System, Atari 2600, 7800 and even Colecovision controllers. If they all fit in the same port, isn't it just a firmware update needed to recognize them? Then they could set it up so you could have custom controller profiles you could name for each controller. The last 3 controllers I mentioned might be nice for some of those arcade compilation carts on GBA. I'd be especially impressed if they could add 2600 paddle controller support!

These are the kind of comments that makes me wanna write a book, and some people misread it as showing off, but oh well.

Most of the older DB9 controllers are compatible with each other, sms, 2600, ect, but there's some tricks.  The genesis controller for example does not have a pin for each button.
http://pinouts.ru/Game/genesiscontroller_pinout.shtml

This isn't a very clear read on that site, but in a nut shell, pin 7 is the magic line (There's no select button on sms, so that one marked select is not for a button!) If there's no power sent down pin 7, pin 6 is button A, and pin 9 is the start button.  If there's 5 volts on pin 7, pin 6 is the status of button B, and pin 9 is C.  When you plug a gens controller into say an Atari 2600, there's no power on 7 and 6 is the button, so it always reads button A on the gens pad.

The 7800 pinouts are different, 5 is right button, 6 is active when any button is pressed, and 9 is left button. I'm not sure though on how the logic works, whenever I use a gens pad on a 7800, I remember you have to hold a button to STOP firing, so they have some funny logic there.

Firmware wouldn't help for some of these changes unless the controller port was designed to be switched to ground or anything else ass needed via a pretty complex setup. 

So in a nutshell, SMS, 2600 and I think Colecovision controllers already do work on this thing.

Also, that Genesis pinout must not be right because I have played 2600 with a Genesis controller, and the entire dpad works (not only up and down), and I think the B button, not A. So maybe the pinout is correct, but the "normal" is select with +5v, rather than GND.

[SnesGuy]

after all these years complaining for having a yellow snes and dirty nes cartridges, people still bought a gray console. i chose black, dont mind the wait.

The grey will probably darken over time, but the yellowing was nintendos plastic mix at the time (from what I understand the yellowing is from a fire retardant? I could be remembering it wrong)

Besides nintendo products I don't think I've ever seen grey plastic yellow.
The finger prints and dust on the black version would annoy me to no end on a daily basis though.

[sheep2001]

after all these years complaining for having a yellow snes and dirty nes cartridges, people still bought a gray console. i chose black, dont mind the wait.

The grey will probably darken over time, but the yellowing was nintendos plastic mix at the time (from what I understand the yellowing is from a fire retardant? I could be remembering it wrong)

Besides nintendo products I don't think I've ever seen grey plastic yellow.
The finger prints and dust on the black version would annoy me to no end on a daily basis though.

Commodore amigoas did.  Although they started off beige.  In fact I think  c64's and Vic 20's did too.

[McFlynn]

after all these years complaining for having a yellow snes and dirty nes cartridges, people still bought a gray console. i chose black, dont mind the wait.

The grey will probably darken over time, but the yellowing was nintendos plastic mix at the time (from what I understand the yellowing is from a fire retardant? I could be remembering it wrong)

Besides nintendo products I don't think I've ever seen grey plastic yellow.
The finger prints and dust on the black version would annoy me to no end on a daily basis though.

Oh grey plastic will yellow.  Technically all plastic will yellow eventually.  I'm not a huge toy collector, but I've got a small shelf of older Transformers so I'm a little familiar with the topic.   The yellowing is something-something-oxidation.  (I've long forgotten the specific details.) But white plastic is really susceptible to it.  Especially cheaper stuff.  For example I have some deep blue plastic thats turned bright teal due to yellowing.  Some batches of plastic are just more susceptible, which is why some SNESes are turning now and others aren't yet.  Sunlight exposure also speeds it up.

[SnesGuy]

I've seen plastics yellow slightly, but usually nowhere near the snes, and usually they're much older. 70's to mid 80's.
Now sunlight and heat will destroy everything. I live in the desert, and I've seen some plastics start turning to powder in less than a year if left outside in direct sunlight. If in a storage building 1 - 2 years. other plastics become more fragile than glass.

The extreme yellowing of the snes is abnormal, and have seen grey plastics older than it look fine.
Also the fact that sometimes only certain parts of the shell yellow. (I had one, top half almost looked new, bottom half looked orange)

Like I said previously I seem to remember hearing it was an additive in their plastic, not in all batches, that caused the yellow. probably causing rapid oxidation.

There's no reason to assume the retron 5 in grey will yellow anytime in the near future. I would be amazed if the day 1 models still work when yellowing becomes a problem.

[JDavis]

Aaaand there's a new firmware update. Here's the changes, from Hyperkin's Facebook page:

- Greatly improved manipulation of Gameboy/Gameboy Color cartridge saves
- Added support for SNES S-DD1 carts (Star Ocean)
- Added support for Sega Genesis cartridge mappers (fixes Super Street Fighter II)
- Fixed SNES "Super 4 in 1 Multicart" soft reset problem
- Tweaked the overscan operation
- Compatibility fixes (Super Metroid, Phantasy Star IV, Beyond Oasis)

Retrying the games that wouldn't work before, and these ones now work:

Super Metroid
Out of This World
Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow
Sonic Classics (Reset option now resets to the main menu instead of just resetting whichever of the 3 games you had selected as before)
Sonic & Knuckles + Sonic 3

Sonic & Knuckles' lock on isn't completely fixed yet, though:
Connecting Sonic 2 to Sonic & Knuckles brought up "Unknown Game" and gave a blank black screen if I tried to play it.
Connecting my Sonic 1 (which the RetroN still doesn't recognize as being inserted) just booted up Sonic & Knuckles. Again, this seems to just be an issue with my Sonic 1.
Connecting Sonic Classics pulled up the "Unknown Game" message, but playing it gave the expected "NO WAY! NO WAY?" screen with the full set of Blue Sphere levels as you get on an actual Genesis (S&K sees Sonic Classics as Sonic 1)
Anything else I tried connecting to S&K... just registered as S&K with nothing connected, instead of the "NO WAY" screen with a single level.

As for the overscan stuff, the vertical amount appears to be tweaked a little. Garbled graphics are still visible on Bionic Commando, but less so. Blaster Master's only got a single pixel line at the bottom that's sometimes the wrong color. It no longer stretches the cropped image to fill the normal area when "Force Original Resolution" is on. Also, the option has changed from "Overscan" (on crops the edges and off does not) to "Display overscan" (on shows the edges and off crops them)... Basically the opposite.

[strideredge]

So far I've had 2 games not get recognized. SNES Aladdin which is probably saying more for the cart as it didn't even detect a cart was plugged in and Super Baseball Simulator 1.000. Super Baseball came up with unrecognized and went to a black screen when trying to boot it.

Decently happy with the lag though. Super Mario World and Punchout were plenty playable on my tv in game mode.

[JDavis]

My SNES Aladdin works.

I've got mine hooked into a computer monitor, so display lag is basically a non-issue for me.

[TyrannicalFascist]

Wow, another update! I'm pleasantly surprised how quick they are keeping to their promise of doing these updates.

Here's what I've found:

Sonic & Knuckles + Sonic 3 -- Recognized, works (Sonic 3 & Knuckles)
Sonic & Knuckles + Sonic 2  -- Unknown cart, black screen
Sonic & Knuckles + Sonic 1 -- Recognized, works (No Way? No Way! Blue Sphere game)
Sonic & Knuckles + Sonic Spinball or Sonic 3D Blast -- Recognizes as Sonic & Knuckles only. I would imagine the same is true of any other Genesis game as JDavis found.

So they still need to fix Sonic & Knuckles + Sonic 2, but this is great progress, and I'm glad they remembered to include the No Way game support. It may or may not be worth mentioning that my Sonic 2 cart says Not For Resale. I don't know if that affects anything or not. I don't own Sonic Classics, but it sounds like they only added No Way Blue Sphere game support to Sonic 1 and Sonic Classics (which JDavis said S&K reads as Sonic 1 anyways). Which is fine. I don't see a reason to add that to any more than the Sonic 1 game combination.

No change in support for my 2 reproduction NES games or Super Game Boy yet, but I didn't really expect any.

I also picked up a couple games yesterday:
-GBA Video - Pokémon Volume 3 (Pokémon, I Choose You/Here Comes the Squirtle Squad) -- Recognized and works fine
-GBC The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages -- Recognized and works fine
-GB Kirby's Dreamland 2 -- Recognized and works fine, and even displays the Super Game Boy-enhanced color palette

I'll update my list on page 18. Probably also worth mentioning is that I think the cartridge slots are loosening their grip a bit since I first got it. Genesis seems to be on par with my SNES slot now, and NES is a little easier to get out.

[Ozzy_98]

Also, that Genesis pinout must not be right because I have played 2600 with a Genesis controller, and the entire dpad works (not only up and down), and I think the B button, not A. So maybe the pinout is correct, but the "normal" is select with +5v, rather than GND.

You know I think you're right, I'm pretty sure it's B now you mention it.  I'll have to check that.