Retrocollect has reported October 31, that the Japanese Retron 5, the Retro Freak was on sale in PlayAsia. And it sold out. It appears that this system also includes a Hu-Card slot as well, and lets you rip and save your cartridges to the memory. The controller ports is a separate USB adapter, which I really want. Has anybody got this system yet? What are their impressions? === I also noticed a "Columbus Circle Retro 3" on the PlayAsia page. Is it a hardware clone or a software based clone?
http://www.amazon.co.jp/レトロフリーク-レトロゲーム互換機-【Amazon-co-jp限定-コントローラー-1個、オリジナルカラー仕様】/dp/B00ZZ70KLC/ref=sr_1_3?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1446639583&sr=1-3 Does this ship outside of Japan? If so, why rely on play-asia?
So it's an Android box with cart slots? I've seen people go nuts over the Retron 5 but if it's just emulation then why bother? Just download the rom and keep your carts on a shelf, using something with GPU violating software kinda negates the legitimacy of using carts over roms. I think a lot of people just like the novelty value of using carts, the data dumping feature would be useful though. Personally I'd rather buy an Atom Windows box and use that, better quality emulation with no lag and can run N64 with all the fancy effects on.
I will never understand the appeal of these things. They're nothing more than a bunch of shoddily-implemented emulators in a cheap plastic box, the controller looks like garbage, and they're £130 (!). I understand why people like using emulators, I understand why people like using the real thing, this weird middle ground just seems like the worst of both worlds.
Exactly! If you have CRT TV, PVM etc, you can just softmod Wii and get perfect emulation, if you don't - then you can simply build a miniITX system and install linux or windows with emulators. For original cartridges you can just use original hardware - some will say "it won't last forever". Well yeah, but considering the quality, original console or even quality clone from 90s will outlive that junk by at least 30-40 years, you'll just replace caps after 20-30 years, that's all, in the worst case - replace/repair cartridge connector.
Shit... that about as much i'm gonna pay the modded Japanese Sega Saturn for! lol i'd rather stick with the Super Retro Trio thank you very much
Shoddy at best for hardcore players. Friend of mine has none of the real consoles and got a prototype for SNES that he tested on it, and he's convinced the cart is non-operational since the Retro Freak doesn't read it. Seems like this thing has about as good a compatibility rate as say the Retrode. It's not for everything.
Ill admit I was interested in the Retron 5, but then they screwed us in the UK around with the release of it to the point a lot of people lost interest, then the price went up. Then I heard it was all via emulation and it just rips the ROM from the cart Same with the Retro freak But its a Chinese clone machine so its probably more cack