Retron 5 Plays Repro & Homebrews: A list of what works and what doesn't
I tested all the repros I have that aren't sealed. I have repros and homebrews for a few different systems and I really wanted to put together an acurate list to help people out so please feel free to add to this thread.
Here is a link to the Google Doc, Please add to it
http://tinyurl.com/kuoa8v7
I made sure these games actually loaded and played correctly, as some would load, but not play.
Games on the left didn't work, games on the right did.
Here is a link to the Google Doc, Please add to it
http://tinyurl.com/kuoa8v7
I made sure these games actually loaded and played correctly, as some would load, but not play.
Games on the left didn't work, games on the right did.
Comments
I added some titles that I feel should be on there and tested. Among the most popular and arguably best hacks like Mario Adventure, Zelda Outlands, Mr. Gimmick + Return to Dino Land and Parallel Worlds Remodel
Originally posted by: bunnyboy
For your google doc you should add columns for retron version. Assuming they do system updates it will become far harder to keep an accurate list.
I figured for iterations I could add another sheet, columns would work too. I have left the doc open for editing. I trust the community here to only put in tested info
Originally posted by: Tanooki
Nice start, interesting to see what is and isn't working. You kind of have to wonder not so much with the NES but the others why they don't. And even then some people do carts up differently with new boards of chop shop mutilation of another game so that may affect loading/playability too maybe.
Yeah, by no means do I think this list will be consistent for everyone. The quality of work and how the work was done is going to make a difference I am sure.
Originally posted by: krankcolc
The ones on the right.
I think he meant which actual homebrews were played as opposed to repros?
This is one of my favorite features for the retron 5. For the other clones, if a homebrew didn't work, you were basically fucked. Thank goodness for the OS.
Originally posted by: drclaw411
One of Hyperkin's tech guys has taken notice of our thread and spreadsheet. He responded to somebody posting it on their fb page. He said most of the repros on this list that dont work will be made compatible with the first firmware update. He said they're already working on patching in repros and homebrews that people are letting them know don't work.
This is one of my favorite features for the retron 5. For the other clones, if a homebrew didn't work, you were basically fucked. Thank goodness for the OS.
Like I said in the other thread, exactly how do we know this guy is actually a Hyperkin tech guy?
Homebrews that use brand new mappers like Battle Kids or Study Hall, will likely never work.
Homebrew like battle kid and the like could work. It would depend if bunny shared the info, or one of many credible people out there with engineering talents to take a look at it and figure it out themselves and send that data to Hyperkin if they don't take it upon themselves to do it (less likely.) I think if they're approaching this on facebook already talking about firmware upgrade one to get stuff like this going, they may be seriously for now taking in complaints and wanting to address them to put most of the legit complaining to bed to just leave the hot air filled trolls with less to complain about.
Originally posted by: Tanooki
I never said it wasn't, just that it wasn't the usual subpar system on a chip junk which won't run various carts, mishandled audio and video(color) issues and the other popular complaints about such things. This one has the potential cheap Chinese junk or not with system patches to clean up a lot of stuff those garbage past clone boxes didn't bother to do.
Homebrew like battle kid and the like could work. It would depend if bunny shared the info, or one of many credible people out there with engineering talents to take a look at it and figure it out themselves and send that data to Hyperkin if they don't take it upon themselves to do it (less likely.) I think if they're approaching this on facebook already talking about firmware upgrade one to get stuff like this going, they may be seriously for now taking in complaints and wanting to address them to put most of the legit complaining to bed to just leave the hot air filled trolls with less to complain about.
It's been done already. Study Hall and Xmas 2013 have been assigned iNES Mapper #30. I have been in correspondence with the guy who figured it out, whose identity will remain a secret unless he comes forward to take credit. Fact is, the newer boards which use flashed based save data do not work the way normal SRAM games work. They actually have more in common with the FDS system in that regard, since the game data is stored on rewritable media. For example, Study Hall stores the high score tables in bank $06. To properly emulate such mapper, it is necessary to write changes back into the ROM. This would cause a lot of headaches for Hyperkin, and you definitely would not want to write the save file back to the cartridge, because the entire ROM is the save file. One wrong bit and the cart could be toast. However, during normal game operation, only the bank which contains the save data gets overwritten, so the chances of bricking the game on properly functioning hardware, original or clone, is minimal. Another issue with running a newer flash based game on the Retron5 is the CRC value which would change every time the "save" data is updated. Assuming the Retron5 uses CRC hashes to identify the game cart, it would create a new "unknown" entry every time the cart is inserted with updated save info. This is probably another reason why the Retron5 can't be arsed into supporting the Famicom Disk system.
Originally posted by: NastyRobbie
It's running this one just fine after the update! I'm stoked.
Finally! I got about 2/3 through this game and got stuck. You don't know how long I've waited to be able to beat this game. Now I finally can, with save states!
Originally posted by: Tanooki
I never said it wasn't, just that it wasn't the usual subpar system on a chip junk which won't run various carts, mishandled audio and video(color) issues and the other popular complaints about such things. This one has the potential cheap Chinese junk or not with system patches to clean up a lot of stuff those garbage past clone boxes didn't bother to do.
Homebrew like battle kid and the like could work. It would depend if bunny shared the info, or one of many credible people out there with engineering talents to take a look at it and figure it out themselves and send that data to Hyperkin if they don't take it upon themselves to do it (less likely.) I think if they're approaching this on facebook already talking about firmware upgrade one to get stuff like this going, they may be seriously for now taking in complaints and wanting to address them to put most of the legit complaining to bed to just leave the hot air filled trolls with less to complain about.
I dont know. I had a retron 3 a couple of years ago. Broke really quickly. NES pin connection was shitty. The SNES went out. Only thing that works on it now is genesis. All these retron systems imo are not made to last. Looking forward to see Bunnyboys. I know that will be a quality hdmi nes system not built to fail.
Here is my review on the Retron 5
Here is a brief summary of my thoughts
First of all I didn't really like the Retron 2 or 3. With compatibility issues and controllers that sucked I just could never fully endorse them. They also felt cheap. With the Retron 5 they have addressed these issues and brought new things to the table. The controller is great, I can't believe I'm saying that but I mean it. I actually like it. The OS is really intuitive and the updates are going to be awesome. I can be nothing but excited about this system. I'm more excited about this than I have been about any system in forever. So I hope you guys enjoy the review. It's not perfect or fancy but I figured people would want to get the opinion of someone who deals with Retron 2 and Retron 3 systems daily in a retail setting and has been in the local gaming community for a while, as well as collecting games as a major hobby. In my opinion it's worth every penny and is something I actually feel is well made. I've been blown away by it.
Originally posted by: NastyRobbie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y...
Here is my review on the Retron 5
Here is a brief summary of my thoughts
First of all I didn't really like the Retron 2 or 3. With compatibility issues and controllers that sucked I just could never fully endorse them. They also felt cheap. With the Retron 5 they have addressed these issues and brought new things to the table. The controller is great, I can't believe I'm saying that but I mean it. I actually like it. The OS is really intuitive and the updates are going to be awesome. I can be nothing but excited about this system. I'm more excited about this than I have been about any system in forever. So I hope you guys enjoy the review. It's not perfect or fancy but I figured people would want to get the opinion of someone who deals with Retron 2 and Retron 3 systems daily in a retail setting and has been in the local gaming community for a while, as well as collecting games as a major hobby. In my opinion it's worth every penny and is something I actually feel is well made. I've been blown away by it.
Awesome review, thanks. I'm glad someone likes the controller. I guess these other gamers were turned off by it because it was too clicky or wasn't mushy like the vintage controllers. Just because it wasn't what someone expected doesn't equate to suckage.
BTW, Have you tried any repro/homebrews? I guess NES homebrew/repro is the achilles heel of this console due to mapper hell. Even so it seems Hyperkin is dedicated to adding support to get more games working through firmware updates. Anything that doesn't use obscure or custom mappers should be possibile to get working in theory. Oh, and no flash carts, but doesn't that take away from the spirit of collecting?
Hammerin Harry and Ufouria PAL carts work great.
Mr. Gimmick PAL does not. It thinks a SNES cart is in backwards and says there is a power issue? Bummer.
Yeah my Chuck Yeagers doesnt work either ....but Fix it Felix does albeit unrecognized by the system.
Working
Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril
Drac’s Night Out
Sunman
Did not work
Dragon Feet – “No Cart Inserted”
Study Hall – “No Cart Inserted”
Super Mario Bros. Special – “No Cart Inserted”
Virus Cleaner – “No Cart Inserted”
VS. Excitebike – “No Cart Inserted”
Originally posted by: GibbyVA
I'll be testing a lot more homebrew/reproductions tonight. Here's eight NES I tried out last night.
Working
Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril
Drac’s Night Out
Sunman
Did not work
Dragon Feet – “No Cart Inserted”
Study Hall – “No Cart Inserted”
Super Mario Bros. Special – “No Cart Inserted”
Virus Cleaner – “No Cart Inserted”
VS. Excitebike – “No Cart Inserted”
Glad to see Battle Kid working. That's impressive.
So far Battle Kid 1 is the only homebrew I've had work.
Not Working
2 in 1 Geminim/Siamond – “No Cart Inserted”
8-Bit Xmas 2011 – “No Cart Inserted”
8-Bit Xmas 2012 – “No Cart Inserted”
8-Bit Xmas 2013 – “No Cart Inserted”
Action 53 – “No Cart Inserted”
Airball – “No Cart Inserted”
Assimilate – “No Cart Inserted”
Battle Kid 2: Mountain of Torment – “No Cart Inserted”
Chuck Yeager’s Fighter Combat – “No Cart Inserted”
Chunkout 2 – “No Cart Inserted”
Donkey Kong Pie Foundry – “No Cart Inserted”
Dragon Leap – “No Cart Inserted”
Free Fall – “No Cart Inserted”
Gemventure – “No Cart Inserted”
Happy Camper – “No Cart Inserted”
Homebrew World Championships 2012 – “No Cart Inserted”
Mike Ditka’s Big Play Football – “No Cart Inserted”
Mystic Pillars – “No Cart Inserted”
Nomolos: Storming the Castle – “No Cart Inserted”
Pirate Booty – “No Cart Inserted”
Sara Parker’s Pool Challenge – “No Cart Inserted”
Sneak ‘n Peek – “No Cart Inserted”
Super Maruo – “No Cart Inserted”
Super NeSnake 2 – “No Cart Inserted”
Tecmo Super Bowl 2014 – “No Cart Inserted”
The Grind – “No Cart Inserted”
Ultimate Frogger Championship – “No Cart Inserted”
VS. Castlevania – “No Cart Inserted”
VS. Duck Hunt – “No Cart Inserted”
VS. Hogan’s Alley – “No Cart Inserted”
VS. Super Mario Bros. – “No Cart Inserted”
War on Wheels – “No Cart Inserted”
Originally posted by: GibbyVA
32 more NES homebrew & reproductions tested. R5 was 0/32 on these. That's all of my HB/Repro atm, minus nwc/ncc/glider which are sealed and I don't feel like opening them just to test, with the results I just got.
So far Battle Kid 1 is the only homebrew I've had work.
Not Working
2 in 1 Geminim/Siamond – “No Cart Inserted”
8-Bit Xmas 2011 – “No Cart Inserted”
8-Bit Xmas 2012 – “No Cart Inserted”
8-Bit Xmas 2013 – “No Cart Inserted”
Action 53 – “No Cart Inserted”
Airball – “No Cart Inserted”
Assimilate – “No Cart Inserted”
Battle Kid 2: Mountain of Torment – “No Cart Inserted”
Chuck Yeager’s Fighter Combat – “No Cart Inserted”
Chunkout 2 – “No Cart Inserted”
Donkey Kong Pie Foundry – “No Cart Inserted”
Dragon Leap – “No Cart Inserted”
Free Fall – “No Cart Inserted”
Gemventure – “No Cart Inserted”
Happy Camper – “No Cart Inserted”
Homebrew World Championships 2012 – “No Cart Inserted”
Mike Ditka’s Big Play Football – “No Cart Inserted”
Mystic Pillars – “No Cart Inserted”
Nomolos: Storming the Castle – “No Cart Inserted”
Pirate Booty – “No Cart Inserted”
Sara Parker’s Pool Challenge – “No Cart Inserted”
Sneak ‘n Peek – “No Cart Inserted”
Super Maruo – “No Cart Inserted”
Super NeSnake 2 – “No Cart Inserted”
Tecmo Super Bowl 2014 – “No Cart Inserted”
The Grind – “No Cart Inserted”
Ultimate Frogger Championship – “No Cart Inserted”
VS. Castlevania – “No Cart Inserted”
VS. Duck Hunt – “No Cart Inserted”
VS. Hogan’s Alley – “No Cart Inserted”
VS. Super Mario Bros. – “No Cart Inserted”
War on Wheels – “No Cart Inserted”
Ouch.
Have you applied the update patch yet? Retron released a firmware update few days ago.
Originally posted by: stardust4ever
Ouch.
Have you applied the update patch yet? Retron released a firmware update few days ago.
Yup. That's the first thing I did after bringing it home.