looking for Retron 5 hack to play Roms

From what I have read in this thread, chromableed is just some guy whos hacked into the retron and noticed apparent copyright issues...

If thats true (and I have not missed something) - why should he be helping you at all? are you paying him to do investigation work for you? Surely its your job to investigate and protect your own copyright, not his?

Maybe I have missed something, but it certainly seems like you are trying to force someone to do the investigation work for you?

He doesnt need to care about your copyright or theirs, he doesnt want to post files from a company with the money to make his life a legal mess. Its not his fight, so why not be happy hes actually even pointed this out to you and go do your own dirty work? If Hyperkin do decide to make his life legally messy (while admittedly extremely unlikely), are you going to fund his defence as he was helping you? He is just looking after himself, which is the sensible thing to do.

I can assure you, as an outsider you are the one coming across as a massive dick to someone whos actually helping you. Dont try to force them to do something they are uncomfortable with. Hes under no obligation to help you at all. How would you feel if I told you to come wash my car today, would you feel obligated to come and do it?

 

I second this.

Seconded as well.

 

some people are coming across very demanding......he has already highlighted potential issues, and now he is bashed for not putting his neck on the line to give you files that he said he feels uncomfortable sharing, if anything you should respect that he shared the information so you could investigate yourself, not just try bully him into a position he already said he would be uncomfortable putting himself into, if you really want to pursue the matter yeah buying a hyperkin may be giving them money, but if your so confident you will shut them down you could consider it a good investment that will pay for itself in the long run

not to mention if you plan to take someone to court with this evidence you should at least make sure its legit by getting your own copy straight from the source.....for all you know it could be a lie, you dont want to try take someone to court based on what some random person on the internet says, do your own work, get your own proof and it will be a much stronger case....he has given you a good lead, it would be wise to follow it up

 

It's not the Nestopia core then at least. Probably the FCEUmm core indeed. It also bears pointing out that the current FCEUmm core is a rebased version - there was another repository before that was based on an older version. It's likely they went with that at the time, so there would be a difference in filesize with the current one.

I'm curious if there are any equivalents to the libretro API functions in there. Maybe they renamed them - like instead of 'retro_load_game', you'd get 'retron_load_game'.

 

This thread seems to be going very off topic. The topic is (forgive my cynicism) "is it possible to alter a commercially available product to play pirated ROMs I probably downloaded for free off the Internet?"

The very topic itself is potentially attracting unwanted attention of a legal nature. I would imagine that the Retron 5 was deliberately created to play cartridges, not ROMs, in order to minimize any legal issues with the big boys.

However, it seems to have turned into a discussion about whether code used in the device was "borrowed" without authorization from other products.

It's great to see people who worked on emulators here. We love to chat with other developers, share and learn information etc. So, for those of you who haven't been here long - welcome!

If you want to argue that your code has been used without authorization in this product, consult your lawyers. This thread is not the place to discuss it. Please keep the talk here to (the grey area of) hacking the device to play ROMs - if ASSEMbler feels it appropriate to even keep the topic open.

Whilst I don't want to discourage you from asking for help in identifying possible infringing code, it might be best to hold such discussions in private - take it to PM or e-mail. And please be civil!

 

It's possible to play ROMs in a roundabout way now with the newest beta update release (2.0 beta3) for the Retron 5. 2.0 beta2/3 added patch (IPS) support meaning you can also make and use a patch to convert from one game to another. The source rom needs the header removed (using something like SNESTOOL) if it's got one. I'm sure most of you are quite a bit more intelligent than me and can figure out the general process but rest assured I've tested with many different games and this method does work.

 

So just clear up the mess; someone let me know if i got it right:

this retron 5 is an android based machine that has cartridge slots for various systems.
You usually plug a cart you own and dump it in sd to play
to play the different systems it uses emulation (and seems it uses code that wasn't supposed to be used in commercial activities)
It's been asked if it can be hacked to play roms straight away like 10000000s android devices already do

being clear that here we support people playing the original cart on their original hardware,
and that there's plenty of ways to do the same in a cheaper way than dishing out 150$, i invite all to cool down a bit.

The concerns about the incorrect use of emulators code are or interest here and to us all, but let's not start a law argument here, so if possible just state your position and explain what fault you have found in the Hyperkin product.

After that use the conventional ways (lawyer, posting on their facebook, forums and mail the company) to get some responses that are of great interest to us all.

And keep us updated on the progress and findings. WE LOVE THE INFORMATIONS, WE DO NOT NEED THE ARGUING!

karsten

 

Right, so I am meant to get royally reamed by Hyperkin for using code I wrote? And do nothing?
People sicken me.

Strings are not enough. Raw Dalvik/ARM code is needed. Which means copies of the files which are then given to someone with experience in RE...............

 

No, you're supposed to go to your lawyer and sort out any legal dispute you may have.

This is not the Hyperkin forum. It's highly unlikely anyone here is involved. Even if they were, you need to sort it out the correct way. I'm sure we're all behind you in this - nobody wants to see anyone's code used without consent. However, there is a right way to deal with it - and even if said involved people were here, arguing on this thread isn't going to solve anything.

That said, we are very interested to hear what you find regarding what code has been used and how you get on with resolving this. Could you explain what code is purported to have been used without consent, what that code does, and how large a proportion of the fundamental code of the Retron 5 you think might be borrowed from others, for those less familiar with the situation?

 

If this is indeed based on the RetroArch architect i wonder if we could implement some of the shaders that retroarch uses, the system needs a decent scanline shader for sure. Ii wonder if its possible to update the cores used as i know the picodrive core up until recently in retroarch had audio issues that can be noticed on streets of rage intro, but has since had an update and the audio is now fine. Maybe PC Engine support could be added, not sure why they left that out.

People saying you could just get an andriod type based system for cheaper im not so sure this etirly true, the raspberry pi doesnt exactly run all games flawlessly for instance. You could get a device around the same price but what you have to remember these other devices dont allow you to plug in all your retro gamepads easily and the amount that the retron5 supports without any hassle

Looking at the legal implications, surely Hyperkin wouldnt be this stupid and think that noone would hack into the system and see these file names and types....heck they havent even tried to disguise them in anyway!

 

Retron 5 is essentially a cheap android box with dual core RK3066, some cartridge slots and controller ports, running a custom launcher and 'borrowed' emulators... If you use roms, you don't need the cartridge slots.. And if you have an old SNES / NES / Genesis / PS1 / PS2 whatever gamepad, you can get convertors/cables for connecting these gamepads to USB on eBay for maybe $5-$10 USD. Android TV sticks with the same RK3066 chipset are around 35 USD or you can get a better quad core one for around 50 USD.. The Retron 5 is around $140 USD excluding shipping, so just do the math.

 

This whole stolen/used-without-permission code debacle is very interesting. Maybe starting a thread about this could resolve some of the drama on that thread.

It's a shame if they used open-source/private code without consent and are now selling a device for great price based on this.

 

Those cheap usb to retropad converts are all shit and produce massive amounts of lag (i know ive tried them), the only decent device to get is this http://www.brunofreitas.com/node/41 which is $75 then plug the expense for each of the cables, so your probably looks at $100 just to be able to use your old pads, add in the $35 you say you can get a Android TV shick for and your at a similar price point!. Plus the fact that this isnt that clean and tidy of a solution waht with having to have adapters and cables sprawled across the floor, the fact that the lag when using the correct pads for each system on the Retron was fairly low is a massive plus point.


I have a HTC ONE mobile and that struggles with some more of the intensive SNES games where the Retron5 seems to play these fine so im not sure how the Android TV sticks would hold up, im guessing the retron5 may have some custom chips in place maybe.

The fact of the matter is the Retron5 is this the best solution for a hassle free all in one small compact unit if you have your own carts and retro pads that you want to use for playing retro games.

All i know is, i hope i get my Retron5 (im in the UK) before this shit storm really kicks up and the Retron5 could possibly get pulled from the marketplace

 

I have a Super SmartJoy and several cheap PS1/PS2 pad convertors (<2 euro) from eBay, and I never noticed any lag, so your argument sounds like BS.. That $75 device has a lot of extra circuits so in theory the lag could only be worse (are you the seller btw? that would explain why everything else sucks in your opinion).

Not sure what emulators you've been running on that HTC ONE mobile. If it has a Snapdragon 600 quad core cpu then it's much more powerful than the Retron 5, which has a cheap and dated RK3066 dual core chipset. There are no custom chips in place, coz it's already been determined that the Retron5 is running a version of RetroArch and for SNES games it's using the Snes9x-Next emulator core.

So the real fact of the matter is that the Retron 5 is arguably overpriced and you can run the same emulator cores with the same performance on a $35 device. For controllers, any cheap usb convertor will do, or you could get e.g. a Saturn USB controller or SNES USB clone pad, or a bluetooth controller like the PS3 / XBOX 360 ones.

Just google "super smartjoy + lag" and you'll read a lot of opinions of people who experience no input lag.. So it's just your opinion against many others..

But yeah, let's get back on topic.

 

Its not an argument its fact!, you obviously must have a high tolerance to input lag...either that or your stoned all the time!

Anyway lets get back on subject.

 

I'm glad to see progress is being made, in spite of the unsettling things we've found.

I think it got kind of buried in the previous page, but someone posted saying they'd hacked it to run ROMs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sCejfVUu9k

No detailed instructions on how it was done, though.

 

Nice looks like there's that in addition to the patch method now.

 

We're still going a bit off topic with all this talk of other Android emulation with controllers. Here are the threads you should be using:

Retron 5 ROM hacking discussion
You're in the thread

Retron 5 general discussion
http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?52027-Discussion-Retron-5

Android emulation discussion (including controllers)
http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?53570-Android-devices-for-emulation

Retron 5 source code discussion
http://www.assemblergames.com/forum...-5-source-code-discussion&p=773360#post773360

Let's get this back on topic....

It got buried because it contained a link in his first post (hey, how did you get away with it? lol) so the auto-moderation system hid it - and there had been several posts since when I approved it.

In the video comments, someone says: