The Hyperkin Retron 5. A Retro Gamers Heaven.
Announced just the other day, Hyperkin’s Retron 5 can play original cartridges from 9 different retro consoles, yes! 9!
The RetroN 5 was officially announced at MGC on 23rd March. It is a console where you can play 9 different retro consoles, and will be coming in June. Here are the consoles you are able to play:
- NES
- SNES
- Surper Famicom
- Genesis
- Mega Drive
- Famicom
- Gameboy Advance
- Gameboy Colour
- Gameboy
Controllers
At the side of the console, there are 6 ports for controller input, SNES, Genesis and NES (2 each). Something else which is very interesting, is that you can use a SNES controller to play Genesis games, which is highly convenient if you randomly own a SNES controller and just decided to buy Genesis games.
But that’s not all. The console also has it’s own wireless Bluetooth controller, sleek and modern looking but also has that classic look to it. You may think it’s a bit ugly, but remember, it has to accommodate for 9 different systems. It has a connectivity distance of 15ft, like all controllers nowadays it features a D- pad, shoulder buttons, 6 face buttons a home button and 4 LED lights (for player number, believe it or not.) It will also have a lithium ion battery which can be recharged by USB, via micro USB.
The home button functions like the PS3 with two functions, to connect the controller to the console, and also to access the user interface.
which brings me on to………..
My OCD is kicking into overdrive, why can’t those banners be in line!
User interface
The UI may not be as fancy as the infamous XMB or the pretty Live area, but it is very simple, clear and easy to understand. Which is just want from a system like this, quick to access and good for simple people like me! 🙂
The RetroN has some interesting features, one of the most annoying things about the Gameboy games I played was the saving. During some games, the save points were what it seemed like, light years apart. With the RetroN 5 however, you can save state at whatever time you like, and even better when you switch off the console, the system makes a save state automatically on its own!
Now if you were to buy a SNES, NES, Genesis, Gameboy /Colour/Advance and more and somehow engineer them to work on your TV, you’d be spending quite a bit. Well no, the RetroN will cost around $100/£65.
[Convert to your currency here]
As well as producing 9-in-1 consoles, they also supply accessories and spares to pretty much every console apart from the beloved PS Vita 
here’s there official website;
Here’s the MGC announce presentation;
The Super RetroN 9000
(picture from http://www.youtube.com/user/16bitghost)
EDIT: Thanks to DeathOfChaos (lol) he reminded me that I left out the rear of the console! So here it is.
How will i connect it to my tv!!
I was assuming the USB port was for transferring game saves, but they say on their website that it will be for ‘USB port to allow for charging of the wireless controller’
This bit is really cool, The RetroN, like all consoles have used HDMI and AV output, but this is where it’s different. Many people say they can’t see *much* of a difference when converting from AV to HDMI, but on the RetroN 5 the difference is huge (from what they showcased anyway) see below!
It does seem a little bit squished though.
They have also improved the sound quality of the system, which sounds very nice for modern day use, although the vocal quality is still reasonably hard to understand (it always was on retro games) the sound quality has still been improved dramatically.
can i overclock it?
Of course you can! a great feature of this is also how you can speed the game up, so if you for some reason want to finish that 100 second fight in 50 seconds, You can do so.
*Squeels like a raptor*
This is everything that most old school gamers have wanted since forever! heck this not existing is the whole reason emulation for the PC started! I hope they can sell enough of these to break even though, games are incredibly expensive to get these days for the best ones.
I would totally buy this, actually. Something left out though is the schematic for the rear of the console:
http://hyperkin.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Pic-5.jpg
There’s an HDMI port, that’s pretty freakin’ sweet!! That is like the final driving point that makes it a must buy! I have so many retro games and playing them via HDMI would be pretty awesome 🙂
Hey DeathOfChaos!
Thanks for this I am editing it in right as we speak!
well, not right now because im replying to you. but you know what i mean
Hmm seems pointless unless you have games for it. Now there so much $$. They should put a rom loading fuction through usb etc. This is for the old gamers that kept there games all this time and wanna relive some old days.
Hypocrite, you don’t have any old games, I don’t think there are many people out there with original retro games
No I have alot of old snes games and gbc but for some games im not gonna spend $900 on mario lol but I would love to play my old classics on my hdtv. Its an awsome device but it seems if u have no games then u cant use it.
900$ new, I can get the game for like 3$ used at a shop that I know
Incorrect. There is a fairly large community of retro game collectors. I happen to be one. I currently have 52 Genesis, 78 SNES, 47 NES, 32 PS1, and over 150 PS2 games.
I agree with mystic bc I have no games :, ( that are that old and I would love to play the classics on my HDTV insted of my psp.
Heh, gotta say it : What is incorrect? You CAN play this with NO games? What a waste putting all those cartridge slots on it :-> I do wonder though if the gbc interface allows you to change the colors as did the SGB for snes…. neon green, black, yellow and red always made games a little more intresting.
The only cool thing about this is that you can use the original controllers. other then that, this isn’t to awesome (to me anyway) since any pc can do this (aside from the controllers), and probably do it better. there targeting a VERY niche market, so i’m curious as to how many they sell.
Well not bad for $100. I bought a retrobit nes/snes console for like $60 a year or so ago to play all my old carts and then got a gensis adapter for it for like $15 to play those. If you are in to the oldies check out a wesite called retrogate store. They make flash carts for all the old systems that let you put roms on an sd card and then play all of it. I am buying the N64 and gensis one for my birthday next month…….good stuff if you like old school gaming
That’s awesome. I checked out the site and found that most of the cartridges equal to roughly how much the console itself costs, lol. Though to get this Hyperkin AND a cartridge for each system and just pre-load them all with ROMs, that would be absolutley the BEAST of a retro arcade system, lol. You would never have to switch cartridges out of the system, so there wouldn’t be any kind of erosion or anything like that on the cartridges or cartridge ports, lol. That would look amazing sitting in front of my Television in the living room :O
Famicom = NES, Super Famicom = SNES… It’s not 9 systems, and you are the only source I have seen claim it to play the games of 9 systems.
Just guessing, since I only had a SNES, Genesis, etc. (US consoles), but the article may be technically correct. Presumably, based on the image, Famicom and NES carts won’t fit in the same slot without some modification. So while, on this system, Super Famicom and SNES carts can be used in the same slot, technically the Famicom/NES and Genesis/Megadrive slots are serving two purposes, so it *kind of* uses games from 9 consoles.
But I don’t believe that there was a region lock on either SNES or NES, so presumably a hardware(well, really just plastic) hack existed to play JP region games on all of those consoles.
no, actually there WAS a region lock. I had one of those adapters. You had to insert 2 games into these, one game of your region and the game from another region you wanted to play. If it was just for the shape of the cartridge this had not be neccessary.
the reason to claim 9 is because Super Famicom and Snes aren’t the same. They are the same generation but if you bought a Super Famicom you can’t play PAL games in it.
The reason to separate them as 2 consoles is simply not all games were released everywhere which makes the supply of games different to both and the same goes for the normal Famicom and Nes off course
Or you can do a simple 15 minute mod with a switch to swap your console between PAL/NTSC with the flip of a toggle.
Oh, and use some snips to remove the little plastic dingles inside the cartridge slot so the pal carts will fit.
Famicom games had different sized pins so if you wanted to play them on a nes you needed an adapter. This allows for native play.
The only problem with these hack chinese fake consoles is they’re NEVER 100% accurate, and can’t play all games.
The only way they could be would be to include actual hardware from the systems they run.
That means it needs:
Zilog Z80
Sharp LR35902
Ricoh 2A03
Ricoh 5A22 (and SPC700)
Motorola 68000
ARM7 TDMI
Also, proper bus and memory configurations for each console.
this is useless…my computer can play all of this with emulator…it dont waste money at all this way..LMAO
until you buy the cartage to usb adapters
then you’ll be spending plenty of money just like the rest of us that like our old cartage collections….
my snes and genesis to usb adapter ran close to $80usd back in the day. and those are the cheap *** ones that can’t save to the cart…..
not to mention the usb controllers or usb to console controller adapters….
nothing ever beats playing with original controllers
man i miss my snes-doctor….
A PS2, PS3, PSP, & PS Vita can play all these. The PS3 also has an HDMI port & can also play PSP & PS2 games. And the PS4 will do the same thing when it’s hacked. The PSP & Vita both are portable & play PSone games, & the Vita can play PSP games & will play PS2, PS3, & PS4 ones shortly. Forgot about N64, Gamecube, NDS, & many more having games that can be played on other devices.
I don’t know what I just said but this console is useless, unless there are noobs in emulators or because it’s cheap… Well it’s not cheap because you have to buy the games, whereas with emulators they’re all free.
gameboy i was going get one gamecube jus to play pokemon red on the tv
Damn $900 for SMW. I still got mine along with my other SNES games. It was my first system so it is beyond cherished. I actually have it parked right in from of my bravia with a analog video switch to select between that or the wii. The only thing that is so damn ugly about it is the power brick. I leave it unplugged 99% of the time because it would otherwise use up two slots.
You can get Super Mario World for $10.
battlefield 4 gameplay the graphics will blow your mind away http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzoHKb5fNuk
Isn’t that supposed to be illegal? unless if they have an agreement with Sega and Nintendo
Well, maybe Nintendo, but Sega isn’t around anymore. (A company pretty much bought the name so they could smack SEGA all over their products.)
wat?
What in the heck are you talking about? Sega is still very much around, no one bought them! Do research before spewing nonsense… we live in the age of misinformation.
Sega only develops games now, & no, no one bought that f***ing name. 🙄 And why would these companies complain if their no more selling games are being sold out again? 😉
Nope. The patents on the original hardware have expired, which means that anyone can now make third-party hardware that is 100% compatible.
I see
looks like *** to me… 😛 waste of money
They also sell PS Vita memory sticks, from 8Gb to 32 Gb, for a maximum of $99, travel kit, carger dock, etc, but they are listed at PSP / Other.
I don’t get it. The cable you get with the Vita already works like that. What does the adapter even adapt?
Mega Drive = Genesis
never buying another hyperkin product again. the supaboy was a piece of ***
Why buy this? My rgh Xbox 360 and hacked ps3 can do this , waste of time
what mod did you use to insert 9 different console cartridges into it ?
A hard drive and ROMs.
He meant this supports cartridges, but Minimur, digitally is better, takes no space, easier, faster, & definitely free. 🙂
Well it deffently and update from the Retron 3 which the contoller is a 6 button Sega Mega Drive, but the buttons are set backward on the Mega Drive lol.
so its like a super duper ultra Nintendo all in one entertainment system extravaganza machine
I will definetely buy this while I still own NES and SNES. Because I want to have a 9 in 1 console in my living room, this is going to save alot of space in front of my tv lol.
Get a PS3.
and this is different from my ps2 because?
You can save yourself 80 bucks by going with retrobit nes only.
Being a heck of a retro gamer, i must say this is cool! Nay, AWESOME!!! Why? Think about it… You look at every other Cartridge playing “spoof” console and they look rediculous… This looks like a next-gen console with an awesome UI when you play it… Id get it definetly!
Pretty useless since I can already play all those games on my PSP for free 😛
they are kinda too late. However, they would make lots of money having a system that plays N64, Cube, PS1, PS2, and Xbox 1 though. Most ppl have already gotten rid of their old cartridge games though due to perfect emulation on pc (because consoles don’t do emulation right anymore without messing the game up). Having these games and those games that I listed above + some unlisted sega console games, it would be the ultimate console for ppl who want to recollect the cartridges. The thing is, this would all be for naught if you can’t save your saves to an SD card or something considering catridge batteries aren’t reliable and can destroy your progress.
I love the old stuff and still have working consoles and a lot of carts for all this stuff but truly emulators do kind of render it less important. That and if you have a hacked Wii which is like sooooo easy to do then you can play most of the oldies and goodies via VC. I still crave the old 2D platformers but find Nintendo still gives me most of what I need for my fix on the NDS/3DS as they keep putting out Mario 2D x.x and new castlevania games and now stuff on the eShop. For those that have x360 or play on your PC please check out Mark of the Ninja which is hands down the best new 2D platformer I have played in a long long time and one of the best of all time. Same company that makes Shank 1/2 but a much better game. I have talked to them on FB and asked if they would bring to handhelds or PS3 but they said unlikely because Microsoft published it so only x360/PC. Still if you like 2D, stealth, Ninjas, hand drawn art and everything cool in the world then buy this game and play it!
I’d buy it. Not bad for $100.
pure nostalgia
Where is heck is PC Engine and Atari??????
As good as this is with the hdmi features, a true collector will want the original console and controller to play their games. Great if you got money to burn, is buy a ps3, vita or a good computer. Cannot top them. For $900 what a Pc you can buy.