Considering I spent $60 for a 32 Mbit flash cart last summer, I would say this thing is a great deal. Man, people who pirate shit are cheap (hence why they pirate, I suppose).
I noticed that he's included FX Fighter in the list of incompatible games, did this actually see a release in some form?
Let's see I can play these snes roms nowadays in so many ways on so many platforms that I can't even count, even connect an original controller to the pc for use with an emulator is possible and cheap.. so basically I am paying 135 just for playing the same roms on the original system? and so a piece of mind.. I know its tempting don't get me wrong and it might be worth it price for the creators effort and whatnot but that doesn't make it cheap. Did I insult somebody's friend here? is it homeland made pride? hating cheap chinese products? what exactly is pissing most of you off when I say its expensive?
chalmo, FX Fighter is on the list simply because it is a SuperFX title. If a prototype exists it just will answer the question before it is asked by being on the list. I don't think any FX Fighter prototype has been dumped and distributed online though. port187, you are correct that there are many SNES emulators out now where you can play SNES games on many platforms. However the only emulator particularly accurate that exists is BSNES. It's only available on Windows and Linux platforms currently I believe. It also requires a very fast CPU, something in the range of 2ghz or faster. But it depends on what you prefer. If you will settle for an emulator like SNES9X ported to whatever platform and think that is good enough for you, great. But for me I prefer the real hardware or if I can't have that it will have to be the most perfect emulator available which for SNES is BSNES. Also I find it strange that you call it not cheap, then you call it cheap and chinese. So which is it, cheap or not? While I will say it is not "cheap" like buying a common used SNES game, it is "cheap" compared to buying say 50 popular SNES games. Anyway no one is telling you to buy this, it's just one more option for everyone to choose from.
Most emulators aren't entirely accurate. A lot of hacks only work on specific emulators and/or ONLY in emulators (or alternatively some stuff only works on actual hardware, thanks to some good ol' incompatibility). The more options there are for cross-platform testing of hacks, the better. Also, none of the alternative methods for playing roms costs less than what it'll set you back to get a RetroPAK. Your full-speed emulation enabled PC sets you back more, the PC converter(s) might set you back $20~30-ish a piece, various consoles that can emulate it costs more, etc... Of course, few haven't got a PC that is capable of playing SNES at good speeds these days, but not everyone have those hooked up to a TV, use them for couch gaming during gaming nights with the guys, see them as affordable gifts to partners struck by nostalgia urges, consider them an alternative to the real deal, etc... *DING DING DING* We have a winner! Anyway, I guess the bottom line really is; If you don't even see the point in playing something on original hardware - or know the inconvenience and price points of the alternative solutions for achieving the same results - you probably shouldn't even be window shopping for products of such nature nor comment in such a negative and ignorant manner on their purpose and price points.
As far as I understood this thing couldnt play all the games as well. I do thats why I said it's tempting but expensive, plus I much rather play the original games on the original systems. Still not sure what is pissing all of you off when I say it's expensive, but so be it.
It doesn't play a handful of games that relies on the use of special add-on hardware in the cartridge. Some of which still aren't even properly emulated (or require even more system resources to work than what's required for emulation of regular games). Of course, region protection might kick in on some games on certain systems too, I could imagine. If they actually manage to replicate the functionality of them, I'm pretty sure there'd be another noticable increase in the price and it'd probably require further add-ons to the actual cartridge, rather than just a system update (though, I'm not sure what the specs of the cart "in general" is, so it might be possible that it can handle some limited functionality of various add-on hardware if instructed properly to do so...)
The NES PowerPAK has been out for a long time and there has not been any permanent price drop. I don't think it's likely. The PowerPAK is produced on a tiny scale compared to the devices made by Bung and the UFO company and all the rest like CCL. Bung alone probably made hundreds of thousands of copiers which now can be had fairly cheap. But at the time they were new or if you were trying to buy a brand new never opened one they would probably cost more than the PowerPAK by a good bit. I can only figure that people see the GBA and DS pirate devices today that cost like 40$ and just assume like idiots that all similar devices should be that cheap. But they are made on a different much larger scale and are likely less complex projects as a whole compared to both PowerPAKs.
this is why i said 80, not 40$... it's just what i feel the right price for the item. I'm sure they would sell loads of those at 80$
Same thing I was trying to say, I would buy one for a lower price and maybe much more people would be tempted to do so as well. But saying this somehow makes us ignorant cheap chinese product lovers and idiots :thumbsup: I have a feeling the sales reps that work on comission for this product are active on this forum.
well everyone has its own "right" price i guess ... also this is a highly enticipated device so the price doesnt matter for me. as this seems to be a one man show company the price sure is ok
That's funny port187. RetroUSB is a one man company basically. I'm not aware that he is even a member of this forum either. You can have your own opinion of what you wish the price was and all. Believe me if it was $80 that would be excellent. But you know when you go to all the trouble to design and debug a product like this I would think you would be in the best position to set the price. Only RetroUSB really knows what every single component costs them as well as how much R&D type costs were. Really the way I see it is in comparison to typical backup units which do the same thing (plus cart dumping). The cost of a similar featured backup unit is about the same cost and more of a pain to use unless you spend alot more for a CD-ROM type addon. By the way the compatibility problem last I heard had been resolved so everything should be cool now.
I'm sure if the cost to manufacture and populate a small amount of boards (let's say 200) would cost about $50 per board (and that probably wouldn't include the compact flash reader). Also consider that a 1 GB compact flash cards cost $15-$20. The custom made cases probably would cost $10 each for such a low amount of items. So, suggesting a price of $80 is very unrealistic considering that would probably only cover the manufacturing costs, and I doubt this guy wants to sell these at-cost considering the amount of engineering required to produce this item. I mean, fuck, this thing can play virtually any SNES game without the need to replace the cart. This is infinitely better than Flash Carts produced by Tototek and Mash Mods, which cost $60 each and can only store one game at a time.
The 1GB card is a price to be added on top, also i have no clue on how you got your estimates. lastly, i just stated what would the price at wich i would instant-buy it and that i feel would be the right price point.
I'll admit, I got the price by looking it up on Amazon. As for the other prices, I worked in an electronics shop earlier this year, and manufacturing boards in small quantities is not cheap. $50 for a fully populated board is very likely close to reality. So is $10 for the case. I looked up the price for a Compact Flash card connector, and it comes to about $4 each if you bought a bulk quantity of them. Then there is the $1-$3 for a cart to sacrifice for the lockout chip. The other chips inside of it? Without knowing what they are, I can't say for sure the costs, but $2-$3 would probably be a minimum for a lot of them. Also consider the prototypes of this thing likely cost well over $1000 (the article on this in Nintendo Age states one stage of the prototypes cost over $700 alone). With all those factors, this thing will never cost $80, as it wouldn't cover the manufacturing costs for such a niche item. So keep hoping, it just isn't going to happen, though.
