Bill Loguidice Posted January 22, 2016 Share Posted January 22, 2016 They're baaaaaaaaack.... -------->>>>>> http://www.play-asia.com/retro-freak-controller-adapter/13/708vvx The pricing is brutal. I suddenly don't mind having bought the Premium model. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LiqMat Posted January 22, 2016 Share Posted January 22, 2016 The pricing is brutal. I suddenly don't mind having bought the Premium model. Completely agree. Two should have come in the premium bundle IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LiqMat Posted January 22, 2016 Share Posted January 22, 2016 (edited) I noticed the first batch of stock controllers are already waiting for a stock refresh. That sold quick. Note: Nevermind... realized my order has yet to ship and I am realizing they had it listed as "in stock" when I bought some, but now it is pending stock arrival. Annoying. Edited January 22, 2016 by LiqMat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted January 22, 2016 Share Posted January 22, 2016 Completely agree. Two should have come in the premium bundle IMO. I'm not here to sing the praises of the RetroN 5, but for all the belly aching people did over the higher price at release over what they originally announced for that (fortunately I was locked in at a lower price due to a related Kickstarter), investing in the Retro Freak is a whole other level of expensive. I'm sure a lot of that has to do with the lack of a "real" US distributor rather than just importers, but still. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atariboy Posted January 22, 2016 Share Posted January 22, 2016 Now that we have several owners here, has anyone else experienced overheating issues like someone mentioned a few weeks ago? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted January 22, 2016 Share Posted January 22, 2016 Now that we have several owners here, has anyone else experienced overheating issues like someone mentioned a few weeks ago? No issues that I've seen, I've let it run for many hours running various systems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LiqMat Posted January 22, 2016 Share Posted January 22, 2016 (edited) I'm not here to sing the praises of the RetroN 5, but for all the belly aching people did over the higher price at release over what they originally announced for that (fortunately I was locked in at a lower price due to a related Kickstarter), investing in the Retro Freak is a whole other level of expensive. I'm sure a lot of that has to do with the lack of a "real" US distributor rather than just importers, but still. If the Retron 5 had the SD support like the Freak it would be my system of choice, but... I like them both, but the Freak is where I play the games since I don't have to put wear on my carts. The Retron 5 is my cart testing unit when I resell. Edited January 22, 2016 by LiqMat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted January 22, 2016 Share Posted January 22, 2016 No issues that I've seen, I've let it run for many hours running various systems. Me either, and I have mine in a cabinet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted January 22, 2016 Share Posted January 22, 2016 They're baaaaaaaaack.... -------->>>>>> http://www.play-asia.com/retro-freak-controller-adapter/13/708vvxOOS. The pricing is brutal. I suddenly don't mind having bought the Premium model.If you don't mind my asking, how much was the price while they had them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted January 22, 2016 Share Posted January 22, 2016 Now that we have several owners here, has anyone else experienced overheating issues like someone mentioned a few weeks ago?I haven't experienced overheating issues since I opened mine Christmas morning. I've been keeping it on a clean hard shelf in my game room. The brain unit does get a bit warm during use though, but no issues since day one. Could have been the firmware update that fixed it, but the more likely culprit: I may have hastily set it up on the carpet in our living room Christmas morning, which would explain a lot... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadyLilith Posted January 22, 2016 Share Posted January 22, 2016 (edited) OOS. If you don't mind my asking, how much was the price while they had them? I ordered mine (Premium) from AmiAmi for about 23,580 JPY. I remember it being cheaper when I bought it when converted to USD cause of currency differences. Still a good deal cheaper than the Retron 5. Edited January 22, 2016 by LadyLilith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted January 22, 2016 Share Posted January 22, 2016 I ordered mine (Premium) from AmiAmi for about 23,580 JPY. I remember it being cheaper when I bought it when converted to USD cause of currency differences. Still a good deal cheaper than the Retron 5. I was reffering to the standalone controller adapter. I paid $169 for my RetroFreak Standard, plus $21 shipping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LiqMat Posted January 22, 2016 Share Posted January 22, 2016 (edited) OOS. If you don't mind my asking, how much was the price while they had them? 65 US dollars + shipping. They sold out in less than 24 hours. Crazy. I also tried to order the cream console colored stock controllers for 24.99 each and they sold out before I could hit the checkout button. The black controllers sold out super quick as well. Seems Cyber Gadget is having a bit of demand on their hands. Edited January 22, 2016 by LiqMat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 That's a lot. I'm curious if that was the recommended price or if Play Asia marked it up. It's currently a $30 surcharge on the Premium bundle, which itself has dropped $45 since I bought the standard. I would have bought the Premium for only $30 more, but not at $245. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LiqMat Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 That's a lot. I'm curious if that was the recommended price or if Play Asia marked it up. It's currently a $30 surcharge on the Premium bundle, which itself has dropped $45 since I bought the standard. I would have bought the Premium for only $30 more, but not at $245. It is a bit high. The Retron 5 is easily the better value, but the TurboGrafx cart support and SD cart dump features were the selling point for me on the Freak. The Retron 5 including two of each classic controller port at their low price point is amazing as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newsdee Posted January 23, 2016 Author Share Posted January 23, 2016 (edited) Now that we have several owners here, has anyone else experienced overheating issues like someone mentioned a few weeks ago? Yes. I had it crash a few times when running for a long time with filters (e.g. hq2x). Running without filters fixes it. Scanlines or scaling do not seem to impact it, at least. Edited January 23, 2016 by Newsdee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 I tested two "adult" Sachen / Hacker Int. games on my Retro Freak. Soap Panic (Japan region Bubble Bath Babes) and AV Pachinko DO NOT WORK. Cartridge not inserted... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 I tested two "adult" Sachen / Hacker Int. games on my Retro Freak. Soap Panic (Japan region Bubble Bath Babes) and AV Pachinko DO NOT WORK. Cartridge not inserted... Here's a weird little update for you regarding two Sachen games in my possession. As it turns out, Soap Panic was for a while in the No Intro database as a bad dump missing the second 32kb of CHR banks. This was the Famicom version of Bubble Bath Babes. AV Pachinko, on the other hand, does not have a clean dump publicly released yet. Both of these Sachen carts said "no cart inserted" when I attempted to plug them in. But if I plug Soap Panic into a cartridge adapter piggybacked on top of another cartridge adapter (Famicom -> NES -> Famicom) the game dumps and runs quite well. And it dumps the full entire CHR bank. I know this because I play tested the game, and all 12 pinups have intact graphics, meaning the CRC database used by the Retro Freak is fairly current, within the past few years. Otherwise I'd of ended up with an incomplete CNROM dump of the game, and all girls past the forth pinup would have been corrupted. And as expected, AV Pachinko throws an error when inserted with the adapters, as expected because it isn't in the database. This gives me a clue that perhaps certain games that are completely undetected by the Retro Freak (Soap Panic (FC) by Hacker, Psycho Pinball (MD) by Codemasters, and a few others) may not be internally wired the same way as licensed releases. The piggybacked adapters alter the wiring somehow and the game runs. Neat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newsdee Posted January 29, 2016 Author Share Posted January 29, 2016 New cheat DB file is out: http://www.cybergadget.co.jp/support/retrofreak/codefreak/ Unfortunately the cheats names are in Japanese... I wonder if it would work if we run the XML through Google translate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LiqMat Posted January 30, 2016 Share Posted January 30, 2016 (edited) Have you guys, in your cart dumping exercises on the RF, come across games like Sega Genesis Earthworm Jim where on the box it says "24 megs of play action", but the bin file is only 3MB? Is the bin compressed? Seems odd. I also ran across the Sega Genesis Alien Storm cart not dumping properly when I first plugged it in and then a second try worked. A tiny bit flaky I find it. Noticed the limited edition black controllers are back in stock, but they are $10 more now. I bought two @ $24.99 each and now they want $34.99. That's a little steep for those controllers IMO. http://www.play-asia.com/retro-freak-controller-online-shop-limited-edition-black/13/709pur Edited January 30, 2016 by LiqMat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newsdee Posted January 30, 2016 Author Share Posted January 30, 2016 Marketing tactics. "Megs" refer to megabits (Mb) not megabytes (MB); 3MB for a 24Mb ROM would be right. Even the Neogeo used bits, if I'm not wrong their bigger carts were shy of 100MB before the CD era. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LiqMat Posted January 30, 2016 Share Posted January 30, 2016 (edited) Marketing tactics. "Megs" refer to megabits (Mb) not megabytes (MB); 3MB for a 24Mb ROM would be right. Even the Neogeo used bits, if I'm not wrong their bigger carts were shy of 100MB before the CD era. Wow! Yeah, on the box it just says "megs" not Mb or MB to keep it nice and vague. Even still it amazes me they crammed Earthworm Jim into 3MB. Edited January 30, 2016 by LiqMat 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadyLilith Posted January 30, 2016 Share Posted January 30, 2016 Hmmm...I downloaded the cheats file from the Retro Freak website, followed the instructions, but it says the cheat databases aren't on the SD card. I get the same problem when trying to run FDS games, even though I have the BIOs in the correct spot. Does anyone know of a solution or am I just doing something wrong? Also, is it possible to just rename the Retron 5 XML files so that the cheats come up in English? Or has that changed (the codes being in Japanese)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newsdee Posted January 30, 2016 Author Share Posted January 30, 2016 Wow! Yeah, on the box it just says "megs" not Mb or MB to keep it nice and vague. Even still it amazes me they crammed Earthworm Jim into 3MB. There were many neat tricks; compression algorithms weren't very advanced then (or you needed too much CPU power) so for example they used modified MIDI-style music for songs, or tilemaps for backgrounds, etc. If you look closely usually main characters are much better animated than the rest because you are more likely to notice, etc. Only the NeoGeo and arcade games had the brute force to pack more/bigger art in the game (and looked and sounded amazing as a result). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted January 30, 2016 Share Posted January 30, 2016 Have you guys, in your cart dumping exercises on the RF, come across games like Sega Genesis Earthworm Jim where on the box it says "24 megs of play action", but the bin file is only 3MB? Is the bin compressed? Seems odd. I also ran across the Sega Genesis Alien Storm cart not dumping properly when I first plugged it in and then a second try worked. A tiny bit flaky I find it. Noticed the limited edition black controllers are back in stock, but they are $10 more now. I bought two @ $24.99 each and now they want $34.99. That's a little steep for those controllers IMO. http://www.play-asia.com/retro-freak-controller-online-shop-limited-edition-black/13/709pur I'm just waiting for the controller adapters to come back., at a price that's not ripoff city. The premium bundle has dropped $45 from $245 to $200 since I initially bought the standard before Christmas. Play Asia doing a bit of price gouging initially it seemed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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