I know emulation is easy, but we have a couple no chain gaming places here that have games for a buck or two. Though it might be cool to go pick out games with my son to play each week or something. I know the retron 3 has some pretty so so reviews on amazon. Just curious if anyone has an opinion.

Found this comprehensive article on it:
http://slashdot.org/topic/cloud/retron-5-plays-cartridges-from-five-classic-consoles/

And the official website of the 3 with a nice video review:
http://hyperkin.com/retro-system-retron3.html

It's a SoC ARM5. It may be running an emulator under the hood though,
which means it's nothing else than grabbing the ROM on the fly.

But as long as the emulation is good that won't be a problem,
and using your own controllers is very attractive.

Worth waiting a bit for the 5.
It adds HDMI and save states, and apparently fixes sound issues from the 3.

You should wait for online reviews though in case of deal breakers.

The NeoGeoX looked super promising,
but it turned out to be a some version of FBA in a Dingoo (=linux handheld) with a sexy skin...
For the same price, you can get a better open source handheld console (better emulation and more systems)




[download a life]

Retron3 is junk, it's out of date system on a chip crap.

Retron5 uses emulation which they've been testing for awhile now bragging 100% compatibility(I don't believe it, probably close though.) The system has a boot menu, you can pick which one you want to use:
Famicom
GBA
NES
SNES
Genesis

The system like the R3 has all the real game controller ports, or you use their bluetooth controller that does it all. The system has HDMI (R3 doesn't) for visual and audio output, plus it also saves states on every game you play to fire it up later where you left off. It also has some interpolation going on like zsneswin, etc use to enhance and clean up the audio over a stock system.

Nothing beats an original piece of hardware, but this should be finally something acceptable to run old stuff and very well without being strapped to a PC of some sort and comes in at under $100.


Billy Connolly - Statement of the Century
"If women are so bloody perfect at multitasking, how come they can't have a headache and sex at the same time ?"

> Retron3 is junk, it's out of date system on a chip crap.
>
> Retron5 uses emulation which they've been testing for awhile now bragging 100%
> compatibility(I don't believe it, probably close though.) The system has a boot
> menu, you can pick which one you want to use:
> Famicom
> GBA
> NES
> SNES
> Genesis
>
> The system like the R3 has all the real game controller ports, or you use their
> bluetooth controller that does it all. The system has HDMI (R3 doesn't) for
> visual and audio output, plus it also saves states on every game you play to
> fire it up later where you left off. It also has some interpolation going on
> like zsneswin, etc use to enhance and clean up the audio over a stock system.
>
> Nothing beats an original piece of hardware, but this should be finally
> something acceptable to run old stuff and very well without being strapped to a
> PC of some sort and comes in at under $100.
>
>
> Billy Connolly - Statement of the Century
> "If women are so bloody perfect at multitasking, how come they can't have a
> headache and sex at the same time ?"
>

> Retron5 uses emulation which they've been testing for awhile now bragging 100%
> compatibility(I don't believe it, probably close though.) The system has a

It does have potential.
They seem to be getting it right by offering save states and "overclocking".

Years ago I fully played Phantasy Star 1 on an ARM device.
These two features made playing the RPG much more enjoyable
(skip random battles by reloading, or do more grinding quickly in turbo mode).

It would be amazing if they included a USB port to plug to a PC,
to use it both as cart reader and joypad adapter...

But probably too expensive to add at that price point.




[download a life]