The Power base converter isn't really a "cart off a cart" like the Super Game Boy etc, it's essentially just a pin adapter, the Genesis / Mega Drive does all the heavy lifting. There are no active components in it, just a few passives. You can make your own (and if the going rate for a Power base converter is anything to go by you probably should!). The Wii is a decent system for emulation, but it has the same problem all the systems before it had. It's still sub HD so a modern TV will butcher the video signal and it's not particularly powerful. If you're just wanting to play ROMs on a TV and aren't concerned with using original hardware, games or controllers, you'd be better off with an Ouya. It has power by the spade for retro emulation, it'll accept standard USB HID adapters (so you can use original controllers if you like) or you can use any HID compliant bluetooth controllers without any extra adapters. It has loads of emulators and is seeing lots of active development for things like front ends. Also HDMI video out so all the signal processing is digital end to end and free from interference or degradation. No use for a CRT obviously, but for modern flatscreens until FPGA boards grow in complexity to fit in these types of system there's no better way of getting that crisp AV direct from the 'system' onto a screen.
I still use CRT TVs and I hear the Wii can do nice 240p output. I would buy the Ouya but the damn thing only outputs HDMI.
On the Wii its does looks awesome in 240p,also on some emulators you can simply stream your games over wifi.
Yeah if you're going to game on a CRT a Wii is a good shout. They're cheap, easy to come by, easy to mod, output a good signal and Nintendo's Classic controllers are actually really good. There's some noticeable frame skipping on some of the more demanding systems and titles but considering you can pick up a Wii for about £40 and all you need to fully mod it out is an SD card (or an SD card and a cheap USB HDD) they are definitely worth the money.
AHHH Assembler it's been awhile. We don't always see eye to eye. Sometimes things resort to name calling but I think we can all agree the Retron 5 turned out to be an over hyped steaming pile of Retro Poo. Sadly there are people all over the place who aren't listening to the cries of "Save your money get a Super Retro trio instead." Granted that isn't a perfect option either but it is, a better more compatible one. Only reason I'm in the market for a high compataiblity clone is because I don't have the room for 3 more systems. I'll fit a PC Engine and Ouya in but not a Super Famicom, a Mega Drive and everything AND a Famicom.
I don't always agree with you but this time I do. Screw the Rétron 5. Forget about SNES vs Genesis, that war is over. The new war is Super Retro Trio Vs. Rétron 5. Choose your camp! The future of hardware based clones is at play!!
There is a 3rd option. An Oyua and a Retrode. But last I heard the Retrode was out of production and there is no NES or Famicom Slot on the Retrode. Here's what really gets me on the Retron 5 at Trade shows, they were demoing it with Street Fighter Alpha 2. Fast forward a year and a half Retail units...ALL FREEZE WHEN TRYING TO PLAY STREET FIGHTER ALPHA 2. What kind of smoke and mirrors show is that? Another deal breaker for me is that it won't play Repro Carts. I intend on getting a metric shit ton of Repro carts when I start rebuilding my 8 and 16 bit collection. I knew the second time it got delayed the Retron 5 was going to be just another con job by Hyperkin and I spent alot of time helping them promote it. If only I had the room I'd just get a Famicom, Mega Drive and Super Famicom. But I don't. For the time being, using my CD-R only Dreamcast to play NESTER DC with an old PS2 Mad Catz Retrocon controller has been a decent way to play NES and Famicom games. But I want to get a collection going. As it stands now I'm leaning toward the Ouya/Retrode + Famicom with an AV mod route. Or I may just get a Super Retro Trio for the Genesis and SNES slots and get Said AV modded Famicom for all that Nintendo 8 bit goodness.
I use my Xbox mosltly for emulating arcade games, as those are kind of hard to have in true hardware form.... But I really miss the scanlines. That is why I tought about the Wii. But then I fear it is not as powerful as my Xbox or emulators are not as good. Also, now that some people are offering CPU upgrade service for the Xbox it is even more interesting to stick to the big black box. If only it could output 240p.... There are apparently still a few people working on that. http://www.emuxtras.net/forum/viewt...id=97d2f1b4e34bc90d6025ec1483f94085&start=480
I love how hyperkin wants to aim to achieve 100% compatibility with all cartridges No emulator has 100% compatibility,what the fuck are they thinking.
yes i agree with you. The retron 5 does not work with repro carts, homebrew games, games like 33 in 1 things and games that you put into another cartridge like sonic game into sonic and knuckles. Also Pat the NES punk has had games that doesn't work and he has trouble putting the save state back onto the cartridge
How the hell would this thing READ a flash cart? The thing loads the entire rom into its memory, so the whole thing for a flash cart would be 4GB. It's easier to hack the thing to read roms from the internal SD card port. Why would people put so much stock into Hyperkin's clone consoles? Iteration after iteration they have always been proven to be not as good as Retrobit's stuff.
What does the xbox output? I used to have my xbox hooked up to my lcd (sony xbr40) but it looked ass, as expected. I had that thingy on there that changes the video output to ntsc (from pal) therefore allowing up to 1080i. When I hooked it up to the crt (sony 66cm trintron) it all fell to pieces not even allowing 480i (screen roll, rice fight). I haven't had a chance to really slog it out but it looks fine on the trinitron, much better than the lcd. Oh I should mention it is hooked up via component.
Because this time people thought it would be different. That MAYBE MAYBE this time they'd have a product that wasn't a total pile of ass poo. But that would be asking them to actually put effort into one of their products. You know what's really funny, Hyperkin follows me on Twitter and for the last week I have been doing NOTHING but bashing them. They haven't unfollowed me. They also aren't trying to play PR damage control either. They just simply don't give a shit. So why should we?
Some software emulators have 95-100% compatibility with commercial games,Genesis Plus GX for example - it has better compatibility than official Genesis 3 and runs every Sega CD game i have. But for clone emulator consoles it's not even close to 80% and usually there's (a lot of) sound and gfx glitches.
I'd ask if anyone has tried the Retrode and Ouya combo, then I remembered, the Ouya isn't well liked around these parts. (still getting one HA)
It outputs 480i on SD TVs, so no scanlines out of that thing. This is the only advantage of using a Wii as an emulator box I think. But It is a pretty big advantage in my book. Playing old 2D games in 480i just feels wrong. I noticed that too, I was looking forward to the Ouya initially and was planning to get one. Until I realized it would not work on CRT tvs.
