http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2017/02/13/...e-a-virtual-console-for-all-of-your-old-games Let's see if this Kickstarter is not a scam.
It's NOT a scam; however, exactly where this places itself in the retail market is another story. Price and the need for modules aside, to me the most glaring thing is that you cannot (as of now) load your own ROMS/ISO's onto the machine.
Just a friendly (preemptive) reminder: Instead of spending money on this device and then sinking lots of time into "cracking" it, you could just build a (likely even more capable) HTPC-and-emulation machine instead, and be done with it. About ISOs - even without any modifications to the "console", I don't see why you couldn't burn a CD-R (or -RW) and then rip that onto the device ("iTunes style" - it's advertised functionality). Same with ROMs, at least if you have a menu-less flash cart (i.e. boots directly into and behaves like a specific game). Sure, it's tedious, but then again there probably won't be oodles of storage in that box either.
They show a SD card slot so that is likely where it'll be stored. One think you can say is that atleast it looks pretty nice. A good presentation will go a long way to sell it. But it still have to be very functional which no one will know about until someone actually has it. Emulation can be pretty good for many systems but there are still issues and some consoles don't have very accurate open source emulators available. They mention on their site something about being able to support games like those with the SuperFX chip but the way I read it they made it seem like it would actually use the chip in the cartridge which is bogus. The only way you're going to use the actual hardware in the cartridge is if you have a non-emulated SNES chipset. What they probably mean is their emulator intends to support emulating games that use those chips. Anyway, if performance and compatibility are pretty good it might do well for what it is. But I agree with RSO. Just throw together an emulation PC and find a pretty frontend if you want.
Billion dollar companies have trouble making a semi-reliable game system. I don't really trust these guys to make anything meaningful to be honest.
Yes folks, WE HERE can build devices or PCs to emulate. There is still a market for people who don't, can't, and won't do that. Trust me, there is! Many people simply don't want to mess with that. There's still plenty of holes in this concept though.
Sure, this thing is probably fine for the people that buy it for what it is (including emulation issues and all) and don't go beyond that. But once you start tinkering with it (in which case I'm going to assume that you have at least some degree of technical skill), you're not spending your time in a smart way imho. That's all I was saying.
They could also go the FPGA line. That could actually, if you ask me. Easier and probably even better, than just "another emulation box".
Easier? Not a chance. They can use open source emulator software to support the systems they need and not develop their own which would be very time consuming. With a FPGA approach they'd need to replicate all the logic going on in many systems which is much harder than writing a software emulator. And we aren't talking about writing an emulator, they are certainly going to "borrow" things like SNES9X and whatever other emulators they need.
Does this thing play N64? I'm trying to find a "legal" way to play my N64 carts on a PC/Raspberry Pi. I feel like my only option is to buy a Retrode 2 with the N64 adapter, but those are hard to come by these days.
There's a list of supported/unsupported systems on their site, which you seem to have missed? N64 even has a whole paragraph of its own. Spoiler http://retroblox.com/2017/02/08/everything-you-need-to-know/
I'm not saying they should or that it's a good thing. Obviously it would be better if it were using a FPGA and implementing cloned circuits. But that is beyond most of these projects' creators. Very few people have actually done that. But that isn't to say you couldn't make something nice with software emulation.
I'm sure you could. I would really like to get my hands on a RetroFreak, just because it would be a lot easier than taking a ton of different consoles when I travel. But unless they use an FPGA or some other method, it really would be a RetroFreak or Retron 5 with a CD drive, so where would any appeal be?
If this thing supports Nintendo 64 (Being the one and only retro console to do in forever) I guarantee it will sell like hot cakes no matter what!
Like Cobra, you also didn't read through their site. Nor took notice of the information I copied from there. srsly guys.
