I thought I'd break into something a little more light-hearted after the last few of my posts.
***
So I got a Retron 5 as an early birthday gift (no Xbone for me, but this was better anyway) from my wife, and I've been putting it through the paces. So, after updating it to the latest firmware and testing a pretty wide variety of games, how does it hold up?
I'm not going to bother giving it a real 'review', as the entire internet has done that already. This is more like an overview that I might continue to update as it updates - hence the title. If you want one, you probably already have intentions to buy it, and if you don't, then you don't need convincing. So I don't need to tell you that it's Android based, plays 10 consoles (with Master System being Power Base), blah blah...so let's hear about some things other people don't talk about.
As far as compatibility, it's flawless. It's played every game I've thrown at it, but I and my friends don't have super rare, obscure games, and not a lot of imports too. Obvious stuff like the Super Game Boy won't work, but there's really no fucking point for that anyway; same goes for Game Genie, since you can download and use all of the codes you'd ever want anyway. Sonic & Knuckles with carts works fine, as well, with the latest firmware.
More importantly, because nobody talks about it, the emulation is spot-on perfect. I have a feeling Hyperkin most likely used BSNES's source code, as well as other cycle-accurate emulators for the other consoles because it's amazing. 100% compatibility with everything you play. They did indeed claim this to be the case, but I believe it. Whatever the case, I was relieved to know the emulation itself was executed flawlessly, slowdown where it was originally and all that.
As far as input lag goes (something else NOBODY talks about), Hyperkin tells you to use Game Mode on the boot up screen right off the bat, so I at least know they've put some effort into this front (which says a lot more than other commercial HD emulation solutions). Of course, game mode doesn't always work to what you'd desire, but on my television it does. I didn't get a chance to test it with my monitor to see if it's reduced further, but it doesn't really matter, because...
It's very well done. Granted, there IS input lag, and I expected this just because of the nature of HD content, but it's there. Approximately two frames on non-game mode, one with it on; and this was done with the included wireless controller. It's slightly reduced by a few milliseconds - personally, unnoticable to me - if you use an original controller as opposed to the wireless one. If you are a complete purist for zero input delay, then I hate to disappoint you, but it's far, far better than what's on the PS3's PS1 emulator, if you want a point of comparison. Additionally, when I had my computer hooked up to my TV via HDMI cable and used my wireless 360 controller to play ROMs on emulators, then the input lag was much, much worse. So I can't really argue with the effort Hyperkin put in to make it a lot better.
Build quality-wise, it's not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. Sure it's cheap plastic, but it still looks and feels nice. It would be nicer if it was weightier, to make pulling out cartridges easier, but it's good enough. Truthfully, an eject button would have been really great, but I digress. Speaking of that business, it is quite hard to get cartridges out the first few times; but it's honestly no different than getting a new 72-pin on your NES and putting it through its paces. It's a lot more sensitive to dirty cartridges than your legacy systems though, so make sure to give you cartridges a thorough cleaning beforehand so it'll be read; you should be doing that to your collection anyway, heh.
To summarize and cap off this overview, the Retron 5 sets out to do everything you want it to do and a little more. Being able to have a savestate hotkey combo on your retro control pad is great, as is fast-forward and the like. Could you do everything and even more with an emulator? Absolutely. But if you want the easiest way to actually play your own collection, with all of its saves (which I assume you could back up on the SD card and use on a PC emulator if you so choose, but I've yet to test this), with all of the bells and whistles of emulation at an HD resolution, then the Retron 5 is not a bad deal at all. Look out though, because this bad boy is pretty hard to find. Thinkgeek gets shipments in the most frequently, so they're your best best if you wanna get one (usually in the black color, however).
***
So I got a Retron 5 as an early birthday gift (no Xbone for me, but this was better anyway) from my wife, and I've been putting it through the paces. So, after updating it to the latest firmware and testing a pretty wide variety of games, how does it hold up?
I'm not going to bother giving it a real 'review', as the entire internet has done that already. This is more like an overview that I might continue to update as it updates - hence the title. If you want one, you probably already have intentions to buy it, and if you don't, then you don't need convincing. So I don't need to tell you that it's Android based, plays 10 consoles (with Master System being Power Base), blah blah...so let's hear about some things other people don't talk about.
As far as compatibility, it's flawless. It's played every game I've thrown at it, but I and my friends don't have super rare, obscure games, and not a lot of imports too. Obvious stuff like the Super Game Boy won't work, but there's really no fucking point for that anyway; same goes for Game Genie, since you can download and use all of the codes you'd ever want anyway. Sonic & Knuckles with carts works fine, as well, with the latest firmware.
More importantly, because nobody talks about it, the emulation is spot-on perfect. I have a feeling Hyperkin most likely used BSNES's source code, as well as other cycle-accurate emulators for the other consoles because it's amazing. 100% compatibility with everything you play. They did indeed claim this to be the case, but I believe it. Whatever the case, I was relieved to know the emulation itself was executed flawlessly, slowdown where it was originally and all that.
As far as input lag goes (something else NOBODY talks about), Hyperkin tells you to use Game Mode on the boot up screen right off the bat, so I at least know they've put some effort into this front (which says a lot more than other commercial HD emulation solutions). Of course, game mode doesn't always work to what you'd desire, but on my television it does. I didn't get a chance to test it with my monitor to see if it's reduced further, but it doesn't really matter, because...
It's very well done. Granted, there IS input lag, and I expected this just because of the nature of HD content, but it's there. Approximately two frames on non-game mode, one with it on; and this was done with the included wireless controller. It's slightly reduced by a few milliseconds - personally, unnoticable to me - if you use an original controller as opposed to the wireless one. If you are a complete purist for zero input delay, then I hate to disappoint you, but it's far, far better than what's on the PS3's PS1 emulator, if you want a point of comparison. Additionally, when I had my computer hooked up to my TV via HDMI cable and used my wireless 360 controller to play ROMs on emulators, then the input lag was much, much worse. So I can't really argue with the effort Hyperkin put in to make it a lot better.
Build quality-wise, it's not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. Sure it's cheap plastic, but it still looks and feels nice. It would be nicer if it was weightier, to make pulling out cartridges easier, but it's good enough. Truthfully, an eject button would have been really great, but I digress. Speaking of that business, it is quite hard to get cartridges out the first few times; but it's honestly no different than getting a new 72-pin on your NES and putting it through its paces. It's a lot more sensitive to dirty cartridges than your legacy systems though, so make sure to give you cartridges a thorough cleaning beforehand so it'll be read; you should be doing that to your collection anyway, heh.
To summarize and cap off this overview, the Retron 5 sets out to do everything you want it to do and a little more. Being able to have a savestate hotkey combo on your retro control pad is great, as is fast-forward and the like. Could you do everything and even more with an emulator? Absolutely. But if you want the easiest way to actually play your own collection, with all of its saves (which I assume you could back up on the SD card and use on a PC emulator if you so choose, but I've yet to test this), with all of the bells and whistles of emulation at an HD resolution, then the Retron 5 is not a bad deal at all. Look out though, because this bad boy is pretty hard to find. Thinkgeek gets shipments in the most frequently, so they're your best best if you wanna get one (usually in the black color, however).