MotoRacer Posted February 15, 2016 Share Posted February 15, 2016 Either "Genesis" or "F-Zero" was a typo. Cosmic Stardust stated the following on page 2 of this thread I've stayed away from the Retro Freak, primarily due to the fact it appears to run very similar software as the Retron 5. The Retron 5 has substantial lag, especially for its SNES emulation, so I wasn't willing to spend $200US+ on another console with lag. I meant that F-Zero was an example of where you'd see lag easily, didn't mean it was a Genesis game And that kinda proves my point with golden's statement. There is ZERO and I mean ZERO lag on SNES games (well, for any system, but I know for a fact there is none on the SNES). They might be using similar software, but it doesn't mean it's going to run as badly as something made by freakin Hyperkin out of all companies. Let's put it this way. I hate clone consoles. With a passion. They never seem to do things right, and you're always severely limited. There's a reason why I bought this. It's the first time I feel like someone actually had any amount of passion behind their hardware and did things right for once. If you know anyone near ya who has one, try it for yourself. You'll walk away impressed. Really impressed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldenegg Posted February 15, 2016 Share Posted February 15, 2016 Sounds like I should pick one up then. Looks like I could easily sell it for the original purchase price, with little issue, should I not like it. I'll place an order for it once my tax return arrives. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted February 15, 2016 Share Posted February 15, 2016 Sorry if I missed this somewhere, but has lag improved with the latest firmware? Cosmic Stardust stated the following on page 2 of this thread I've stayed away from the Retro Freak, primarily due to the fact it appears to run very similar software as the Retron 5. The Retron 5 has substantial lag, especially for its SNES emulation, so I wasn't willing to spend $200US+ on another console with lag. I've been playing a lot of Game Boy and PCe/Turbo lately and haven't noticed any lag as of late, but I may have adjusted to it. Sometimes you have to play a game on CRT then immediately play it on EMU to notice a difference. It's possible the situation may have improved since firmware 2.x update. I have not played any Genesis or SNES games since the update, but only Genesis ever had bothersome lag. I'll play some Genesis pinball sims later, possibly a round or two of Dragon's Fury or Dragon's Revenge, as lag is very apparent when playing pinball sims due to the precise timings involved in aiming the ball. I'm camped out at my Fiance's house so I cannot test the Retro Freak right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newsdee Posted February 16, 2016 Author Share Posted February 16, 2016 In the old firmware performance was better without filters (they tended to cause overheating). They seem to have fixed that with the latest firmware. I also have a Retron5 but broke the SNES pins. I keep it to play NES games but the Freak is a step above because its more open. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldenegg Posted February 16, 2016 Share Posted February 16, 2016 I'll play some Genesis pinball sims later, possibly a round or two of Dragon's Fury or Dragon's Revenge, as lag is very apparent when playing pinball sims due to the precise timings involved in aiming the ball. I'll be very interested to hear how the pinball games work for you. I won't be ordering the system until the end of March, so I still have time to make up my mind about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LiqMat Posted February 16, 2016 Share Posted February 16, 2016 There will also be another supposed firmware release when the cart adapter is released next month. Who knows what that will bring. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MotoRacer Posted February 16, 2016 Share Posted February 16, 2016 In the old firmware performance was better without filters (they tended to cause overheating). They seem to have fixed that with the latest firmware. I also have a Retron5 but broke the SNES pins. I keep it to play NES games but the Freak is a step above because its more open. Maybe that's it. I hate filters, makes games look odd, so I never used them. That would make sense if they hurt performance, thus some users are complaining about lag and what not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leods Posted February 16, 2016 Share Posted February 16, 2016 Is there an Option on the Retro Freak to just make it automatically start a cartridge that's plugged in? I have a 4yo daughter that couldn't operate menus, but she definitely can turn a console on and insert cartridges. Not sure if I get a Freak or just a Super Famicom. (I already have a modded genesys..) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
<<<Andrew>>> Posted February 16, 2016 Share Posted February 16, 2016 Is there an Option on the Retro Freak to just make it automatically start a cartridge that's plugged in? I have a 4yo daughter that couldn't operate menus, but she definitely can turn a console on and insert cartridges. Not sure if I get a Freak or just a Super Famicom. (I already have a modded genesys..) Yes there is. Under the system menu -> "Auto-start cartridge on insertion" Also just to say I have not noticed lag either. I think it probably does depend on your TV/Monitor though. Obviously the lowest lag you will see is what your monitor adds. Game mode or similar will have best results if your TV/Monitor has it. Another nice thing compared to physical (un-modded) console is that the RetroFreak is region free - so will play carts from all regions easily. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leods Posted February 16, 2016 Share Posted February 16, 2016 Yes there is. Under the system menu -> "Auto-start cartridge on insertion" Also just to say I have not noticed lag either. I think it probably does depend on your TV/Monitor though. Obviously the lowest lag you will see is what your monitor adds. Game mode or similar will have best results if your TV/Monitor has it. Another nice thing compared to physical (un-modded) console is that the RetroFreak is region free - so will play carts from all regions easily. Yeah. Totally. I have 20 super famicom games here. I live in Pal regoin. It's an even bigger pain in the ass to Play imports than normal. With this I have more Options. Seems like a great simple Idea. I can have one single System plugged in, one single Controller and just let the Kid stick cartridges in there and Experiment with different games. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newsdee Posted February 16, 2016 Author Share Posted February 16, 2016 The Freak is great for kids. I brought mine to the xmas family gathering with a USB hub and 4 generic USB controllers (identical so their setup is trivial) and it worked great for Bomberman (SNES, PCR) and Gauntlet II (NES). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leods Posted February 16, 2016 Share Posted February 16, 2016 (edited) I have a ton of good usb Controllers and arcade sticks lying around here. I also have a decent library of Game Boy games, and interest in some NES. I do guess this Thing might just be the perfect console to go under my TV. I also love to have save states. I have to admit it. Some games are fun to Play, but having to start from the beginning every single time gets tedious. So a couple save states to practice on a later stage can be a huge Bonus. I don't quck save every 5 seconds, but saving a state at the beginning of a Level in games with limited continues can be the difference between keeping playing or just putting the Controller down and go do something else. I wonder why Hyperkin didin't do this as the Retro Freak. They were pretty Close to having a great System, but they just missed some pretty Major Features. Edited February 16, 2016 by leods Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted February 16, 2016 Share Posted February 16, 2016 Another update from Play-Asia. Looks like they're estimating June 1, 2016, for the ship date of the Retro Freak Gear Converter (for Game Gear / Sega Mark III /SG-1000 Game Soft). So yeah, it continues to go in the wrong direction. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MotoRacer Posted February 16, 2016 Share Posted February 16, 2016 (edited) That's great to hear. Wish we had an update on their other stuff, though I gave up on the controller adapter. And I'm not going to pay a premium to get it because play Asia is greedy. Actually, the ibuffalo famicom (read: not super famicom) USB pad is a godsend. I freakin love it. Makes playing nes, PC engine, sms, and gg games feel great. Dare I say the dpad is even better than their super famicom pad. Edited February 16, 2016 by MotoRacer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 Also just to say I have not noticed lag either. I think it probably does depend on your TV/Monitor though. Obviously the lowest lag you will see is what your monitor adds. Game mode or similar will have best results if your TV/Monitor has it. I use an ASUS 1080p PC monitor with virtually no percievable lag. They may fixed lag issues with recent 2.x update but I remember the Genesis/MD games being a bit sluggish under the v1.x firmware. I need to retest. Another update from Play-Asia. Looks like they're estimating June 1, 2016, for the ship date of the Retro Freak Gear Converter (for Game Gear / Sega Mark III /SG-1000 Game Soft). So yeah, it continues to go in the wrong direction. Ouch. Good thing I have the PowerBase Mini to use, hehe. In other news, I've been playing my original GBC Tetris DX cart on the Retro Freak, currently maxed out at level 30. Yes, I am using save states for insurance purposes, but I'm good enough that I can play somewhat perpetually at that speed. Eventually as always happens, the game will throw me garbage or I have a moment of lapse concentration leading to a Game Over, which necessitates loading from a previous state. I usually save state right as I get a Tetris or whenever the playfield blocks are very low to the bottom, so I don't screw it up. I made it to 2 million points and I plan on continuing until I roll the score at ten million. When I get close, around 9,900,000 or so, I'll set up a tripod to see what happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
<<<Andrew>>> Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 That's great to hear. Wish we had an update on their other stuff, though I gave up on the controller adapter. And I'm not going to pay a premium to get it because play Asia is greedy. Actually, the ibuffalo famicom (read: not super famicom) USB pad is a godsend. I freakin love it. Makes playing nes, PC engine, sms, and gg games feel great. Dare I say the dpad is even better than their super famicom pad. I have a couple of the iBuffalo SNES pads and they work quite well too. They are much better built quality than some other SNES clones, but still not quite right, the buttons somehow are not perfect IMHO. I actually prefer the build quality of the 8BitDo SNES bluetooth controller which works as a wired USB controller as well. http://www.8bitdo.com/sfc30/The buttons feel better and its a bit heavier which sub-consciously gives a good quality feel. A friend also bought their FC30 Pro controller which is more like a modern controller and was very happy with the build quality too: http://www.8bitdo.com/fc30pro/ I still prefer the standard SNES controller though which works well using the controller adapter from the deluxe RetroFreak. So much so that I will probably eventually buy another one at some point when they are easily available. Its a pain that the Gear Converter is delayed, but I would prefer they get the hardware right than ship something sub-standard. So far I have been very pleased with the quality of the RetroFreak. One question I have - has anyone found or tried a converter which lets you play NES (as opposed to Famicom) carts in the RetroFreak? I'm pretty sure something like this should exist, but not seen anything. Not a huge issue for me, as most carts in HK are for Famicom, but would like to have the option to play both. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 One question I have - has anyone found or tried a converter which lets you play NES (as opposed to Famicom) carts in the RetroFreak? I'm pretty sure something like this should exist, but not seen anything. Not a huge issue for me, as most carts in HK are for Famicom, but would like to have the option to play both. Yes, you just need a NES/FC converter like this one. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Play-NES-Cardridge-on-Famicom-console-adapter-converter-PLUG-PLAY-in-Shell/301816374241 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 It's possible the situation may have improved since firmware 2.x update. I have not played any Genesis or SNES games since the update, but only Genesis ever had bothersome lag. I'll play some Genesis pinball sims later, possibly a round or two of Dragon's Fury or Dragon's Revenge, as lag is very apparent when playing pinball sims due to the precise timings involved in aiming the ball. I'm camped out at my Fiance's house so I cannot test the Retro Freak right now. I popped in Dragon's Fury (Dragon's Fury and Dragon's Revenge are excellent Genesis Pinball sims) and noticed the lag issues I observed from before. Then I remember I had left Super Eagle filter on. I turned off the filter and it improved the laggy flipper mechanics dramatically, and the game felt 1000x more responsive than before. So I would advise at this time not to use the filters on the Retro Freak when playing Genesis. Probably better to turn them off altogether to reduce latency and heat. Also I have more good news. My totally awesome radical bodacious tubular Famicom 8-bit Music Power cart booted fine in the Retro Freak and runs great with new 2.x firmware. It is currently unrecognized but dumps and plays great. I am jamming to the tunes right now. Here is a long play recorded from my own AV Famicom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUih1OjG0XM They are sold out on Play Asia but you can still find them on resellerbay... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MotoRacer Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 Glad turning off filters helped. I never ran any filters, which was why I was so confused about over heating and lag complaints, as everything felt perfect to me and the system ran cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheClassyGamer Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 Well, I finally gave in and ordered one. I've been reading this thread quite a bit so hopefully I'll be able to get it all figured out and up and running once it gets to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
<<<Andrew>>> Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 Yes, you just need a NES/FC converter like this one. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Play-NES-Cardridge-on-Famicom-console-adapter-converter-PLUG-PLAY-in-Shell/301816374241 Ah great thanks - they are even based in HK. Always hard to actually find things in HK even though they ship globally from here, often don't want to deal locally as they make more money shipping it overseas! I popped in Dragon's Fury (Dragon's Fury and Dragon's Revenge are excellent Genesis Pinball sims) and noticed the lag issues I observed from before. Then I remember I had left Super Eagle filter on. I turned off the filter and it improved the laggy flipper mechanics dramatically, and the game felt 1000x more responsive than before. So I would advise at this time not to use the filters on the Retro Freak when playing Genesis. Probably better to turn them off altogether to reduce latency and heat. Also I have more good news. My totally awesome radical bodacious tubular Famicom 8-bit Music Power cart booted fine in the Retro Freak and runs great with new 2.x firmware. It is currently unrecognized but dumps and plays great. I am jamming to the tunes right now. Here is a long play recorded from my own AV Famicom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUih1OjG0XM They are sold out on Play Asia but you can still find them on resellerbay... Glad the latency has improved. Makes sense that the filters may slow things down a bit. Well, I finally gave in and ordered one. I've been reading this thread quite a bit so hopefully I'll be able to get it all figured out and up and running once it gets to me. Cool - let us know how you find it. Hope you enjoy it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 Putting developer credits in an easter egg might seems fun and i dunno how hard it is to make it appear (could you make a picture of that screen and share it ?) but to me it's still a lack of respect for people who provided 90% of their product software free of charge for the company and a lack of respect for the original software licenses. This should have been explicitely mentionned in the console menu (for example the first time it is started) to acknowledge they are using open-source emulators (and by doing this saved a lot of money from software development.) I got the Easter Egg tonight. You earn it by dumping 100 carts with the Retro Freak. It plays funky music in the background while displaying a lovely nostalgic story about when you were kids playing games and now you can play the games as adult, yadayada... The grammar is very clear and concise (assuming you have the menu set to English) and it does wrap up at the end crediting the authors. I wish I could figure a way to retrigger it. Possibly delete a couple ROMs off the SD so my installed total dips below 99? Need to set up a tripod and record this if it's possible to display it again... I don't have that SFX clip, just the dog one. From what I gather, it's based on how many games you install. I got the SFX Dog at 50 and a video at 100. I think that it only counts actual carts you install, not ROMs, since I think I'm at 150 now and didn't get anything. Don't know about an SFX "dog" effect at 50. Pretty sure I don't have it. Could someone give us the lowdown about unlocking this stuff? It definitely counts carts installed but alas I've hit the big 100 Easter Egg above. My 50th game may have beed a ROM I added to the SD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newsdee Posted February 18, 2016 Author Share Posted February 18, 2016 I can confirm the credits is at 100 carts. I don't remember which one unlocked the small NES game but it was much less, like maybe 25-30. Maybe they need to be Famicom games... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldenegg Posted February 19, 2016 Share Posted February 19, 2016 I just placed an order for a Retro Freak. If I'm not happy with it, I'm sending all of you a bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MotoRacer Posted February 19, 2016 Share Posted February 19, 2016 I just placed an order for a Retro Freak. If I'm not happy with it, I'm sending all of you a bill You wont have to worry about that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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