Production Fault Pushes Hyperkin RetroN 5 Launch Into Next Year

Bummer! I've got my eye on this machine. I like the idea of playing my retro games upscaled on the HD TV upstairs while the consoles are hooked up to a CRT TV downstairs. Also, I want to play my Japanese copy of Seiken Densetsu 3 without changing anything on my SNES or purchasing a Super Famicom.

Well, honestly, at least we know it's not being rushed.

Wow. Don't know if I can get it but Wow.

If Hyperkin is seriously delaying this because of defect issue then I surely may get this wonderful retro system after all. By doing this proved that Hyperkin is striving for quality rather than rushing the product just to get cash.

For me to be interested it would have to be 100% accurate which I doubt it is I suspect it just runs emulators. (If I couldn't tell any difference between it and higan/bsnes it might be interesting but I doubt they have mastered the intricacies of the Megadrive sound chip. (Quality hardware would just use one whatever yamaha chip it is).

@unrandomsam As far as im aware, it uses near indistinguishable hardware compared to the original consoles and does not use emulators. The only difference is, that it puts out the image via HDMI and other modern cable alternatives.
Im extremely interested in that console. And i sure hope that one day, the N64 gets added to that package, because the image quality my N64 puts out through its analog output on my HDTV is...poor to say the least.
And if im correct, a PAL N64 cant use any better output cables than SCART without any hardware wizardry.

I'll be picking one of these up next year. Spacing saving + HDMI makes it a no brainer for me.

It's a great idea. As a kid I dreamed of something like this. That controller looks horrible though. Hopefully you can get an adapter to use original controllers.

@Shworange
You don't need an adapter, it already has two NES, two SNES, and two Genesis controller ports.

This press release confirms that it will be poop. You can't produce something like this for $99 and expect it to be of high quality... Remember the OUYA, didn't think so

Now my question is can you play these games on an HD TV without messing up the picture? Because if you really can that's pretty incredible. Playing Gameboy games on a flatscreen, as well as every other retro system title.

That's a bummer, but at least they're taking the manufacturing fault seriously.

Have any of these systems gotten it right with sound reproduction yet? Every one ive checked up on is said to reproduce the sounds not spot on like the original systems.

I was under the impression that this plays from the cartridge but also has emulation features.

Well, that sucks.

I didn't even know about this, seems interesting! So it plays the cartridges, and has ports for all original controller?

@Einherjar I think they are using emulators otherwise they would state they have cycle accurate fpga simulations or whatever. If I wanted to use older consoles on an HDTV (Which I don't - I use them on a CRT with RGB scart which is totally fine) then I would get an XRGB of some sort.

Might be interested in one that is PC Engine because they don't have an RGB output afaik. Or Saturn.

(Saturn because the region free and 60hz mod looks very difficult and if you use an import one you need the RGB wired up different just hassle).

system of 2014 right here

I'm a big fan of the old consoles, especially the 16-bit era. I've been doing a bit of retro binging lately. I've chosen the route of digging out my old systems, as I never get rid of them. I just ran into my old NES this morning. There is something fun about the authenticity of using the actual machine. It helps that I had an XRGB2+ laying around that I used for something else years ago. I'm no emulation snob, however, as I think that has its place too. Some emulators do an excellent job, and without the need for the extra hardware to clean up a picture. It's good that systems like the Retron are available. Hopefully it ends up being a good product.

I wish Nintendo would just open the flood gates in the eShop and Virtual Console >:0 More retro games, dang it!!!

@unrandomsam graphics are well taken care of:
A nice article on how well Retron is actually working with retro fans and on the console itself to make sure it will be the best:
http://slashdot.org/topic/cloud/retron-5-plays-cartridges-from-five-classic-consoles/
And @Subie98 here's part of a comment that you can find below the article that I mentioned concerning the sound:
'And to the person concerned with the sound quality of the Retron3 they really made a big to-do about how much they are working on the sound on this one, showing off their new sampling system that supposedly makes the sound quality actually better than the original systems. It sounded fine to me when testing it, but it wasn't the best environment to really be able to notice much, and since I was unfamiliar with the game I was playing anyway I can't really speak to the specifics. There were a lot of features shown off as far as how the system will supposedly make the games look and sound better on newer HDTV's through HDMI, and I'm hoping/assuming that will also include ways to turn those things off and play the games as they naturally looked/sounded. But yeah, they were definitely trying to hype how good the sound will be, so if there were a lot of complaints about the Retron3 they must have taken them seriously (I wouldn't know about the complaints myself since this is the first retro console like this I've ever really looked into or considered getting). In all they really seemed to want this thing to be seen as a high quality system, and if they can pull it all off it should be pretty freaking cool.'

@TheRealThanos thanks. Id really like to have a few less consoles hooked up!

@Subie98 No prob.

In interviews, Hyperkin staff have said that Retron 5 will NOT be using software-based emulation. The improved accuracy (and increased price) compared to previous clone systems is because they are having components custom made for it rather than using recycled or off-the-shelf approximations of the original components. They say they won't release details due to not wanting their methods copied. I guess we'll see how accurate it is once it's finally released.