Guest LiqMat Posted January 30, 2016 Share Posted January 30, 2016 (edited) 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). Oh, I am well aware, but by the time EWJ came out many games were well beyond just a few MB large. So when I read on the box 24 megs I assumed they crammed memory on the cart. After thinking about it after my post I remembered my 486 DX-33 only had 4MB maybe 8MB RAM around that time. Oh how I forget in such little time. Since getting my first Intellivision back in 1982 it still amazes me to this day what some of these game devs were able to do under such limited resources. Edited January 30, 2016 by LiqMat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LiqMat Posted January 30, 2016 Share Posted January 30, 2016 (edited) 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. I gotta be honest I grabbed one at that price and I do not regret it, but when it arrived by its lonely I did feel a bit ripped off, BUT now me and the wife boss can play Adventures of Batman & Robin (Genesis, Co-op) - YouTube together on original Sega controllers in HDMI off an SD card. Priceless. ...and listen to that soundtrack... sounds like NIN meets FM synthesis. Edited January 30, 2016 by LiqMat 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MotoRacer Posted January 30, 2016 Share Posted January 30, 2016 Really want one of those controller adapters. I too bought a standard system before Christmas. The lowered premium price is a kick in the gut as I would have easily spent more for that package of it was that cheap originally. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LiqMat Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 (edited) Ok. With tons of games in the list on the SD card is there ANY way other than just scrolling down which takes forever to get through the list of games.. It should have page flips or search by letter or genre. Scrolling down a list every time just seems so tedious. Edited January 31, 2016 by LiqMat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 The fact that there is no page up/down function is the worst part of this thing. I can't really understand how something like that could be left out of *any* UI, but I've seen this before unfortunately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 I gotta be honest I grabbed one at that price and I do not regret it, but when it arrived by its lonely I did feel a bit ripped off, BUT now me and the wife boss can play Adventures of Batman & Robin (Genesis, Co-op) - YouTube together on original Sega controllers in HDMI off an SD card. Priceless. ...and listen to that soundtrack... sounds like NIN meets FM synthesis. Yes, the controller adapters are slick because I can use real controllers. The problem with 3rd party USB controller adapters is the fact that every vendor of USB adapter maps the buttons different ways. As a result, you have to configure every USB device separately for each system. Only PS3 controllers, the stock RF, and the official controller adapter dongle have zero configuration options. Secondly, each device you plug in is listed as "other USB" and you must manually select a separate profile for each "other USB" device. Really this makes the configuration process extremely tedious, and you have to manually select the correct profile every time you play a sysystem with a different controller. So rather than set up and manually configure a half dozen different profiles for a half dozen different controllers, and select proper profile every time I connect a device, the controller adapter would be a God Send. I'm only doing profiles for my Cthulhu MAME controller and my NES30 pad. That gives me 4 options, RF, MAME stick, PS3, or NES30. Things would be further complicated if someone wants to play multiplayer with two "Other USB" devices. The Retro Freak identifies each controller by which of the three controller ports you plug in. But if you got two non-identical "Other USB 1" and "Other USB 2" controllers mixed up, you would likely experience issues. I am plan on going though "multiple controller adapter for multiple system configuration hell" multiple times, I'm not doing my RetroUSB NES and SNES and Genesis and N64 adapters, plus my third party PSX adapters for each system available. Screw 'Dat. Really want one of those controller adapters. I too bought a standard system before Christmas. The lowered premium price is a kick in the gut as I would have easily spent more for that package of it was that cheap originally. I would have totally bought that Premium bundle with the controller adapter for $30 more ($170 vs $200). $75 more ($170 vs $245) was a bit more extra than I was willing to pay at the time. Play Asia was apparently guilty of temporary price gouging on the Premium bundle due to increased consumer demand. I would still like to get a controller adapter but at $65 it is a hard price to swallow, especially if shipping adds extra on top of that. Ok. With tons of games in the list on the SD card is there ANY way other than just scrolling down which takes forever to get through the list of games.. It should have page flips or search by letter or genre. Scrolling down a list every time just seems so tedious. The fact that there is no page up/down function is the worst part of this thing. I can't really understand how something like that could be left out of *any* UI, but I've seen this before unfortunately. Another good reason why I'm glad I vowed not to preload the RetroFreak with external ROMs. Any games I load into the Retro Freak will be through the cartridge slot. Ironically this means my Retro Freak is a piracy free console. No backdoor loading of games I don't physically own. Also no giant sets containing thousands of ROMs. I'll just load games as I pull them off the shelf to play them, assuming they dump error free. = = = = = = = = Another slight technical issue is when it comes to dumping non-NES/FC repros or homebrews: Most of these custom games are not in the database, but the 16-bit homebrews and repros largely do not use custom mappers or require a ROM database lookup table in order to determine how to dump the game cart. As a result, many Genesis and SNES homebrews, hacks, or repros do in fact work. The only problem is the filenames of unrecognized games show up as "Unknown Game-XXXX" where "XXXX" is a hexidecimal CRC hash of the actual game dump. Looking at the filenames in the ROM list, if you acquire several such titles, there is no way to decipher which game is what. So suppose I dump several SNES ROM hacks from repro carts, I have no idea what to expect except by clicking on them one by one and seeing which game pops up. Just food for thought if you decide to dump a bunch of repro game carts and you later access the ROMs only to find you don't know what the heck game you're opening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newsdee Posted January 31, 2016 Author Share Posted January 31, 2016 There is a feature to dump the "game DB" XML to the SD, but I haven't found a use for it. Perhaps it allows renaming those "unknown" games? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LiqMat Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 There is a feature to dump the "game DB" XML to the SD, but I haven't found a use for it. Perhaps it allows renaming those "unknown" games? I just rename them on my computer as I come across the unknowns. I have also written to (probably in vain) via Google translate essentially begging (not really) Cyber Gadget to 1.) rework how the file system is organized so you don't have to scroll through hundreds of titles just to get to your game 2.) add a search function by (insert your search criteria here) for quicker and shorter lists 3.) and some sort of indexing so the bloody (no... I'm not British) console does not take so long loading that SD every time you boot. I know, I know, probably will fall on deaf ears and they will laugh at the silly American who has first world problems, but hell, it's worth a shot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LiqMat Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 (edited) If you have Sonic & Knuckles which has the "Lock On Technology" you can dump all 5 unique SD images to the Rertro Freak. I just tried it and it works great off of SD. So now I have Sonic 2, Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles, Knuckles the Echidna in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (alternate game when Sonic 2 is plugged into Sonic & Knuckles), Sonic 3 Sonic the Hedgehog & Knuckles (alternate game when Sonic 3 is plugged into Sonic & Knuckles). The Sonic 3 combo comes in at a whopping 4.1MB which is big for Genesis. It will even image to SD the animated "No Way" screen you get when Sonic 1 is plugged into Sonic & Knuckles since they will not work together. Kind of cool to have all the alternates as a separate SD image that you can easily access without using both carts together. Convenience of the almighty SD. One weird thing is when Sonic 2 is plugged into the Sonic & Knuckles it is named unknown so you will have to name it manually on your PC, but all the others name properly at plug-in time. Just wanted to let you know it works perfect on the Retro Freak. Edited February 1, 2016 by LiqMat 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LiqMat Posted February 4, 2016 Share Posted February 4, 2016 (edited) New firmware update and it fixes quite a bit including the overheat problem. You can download it without grabbing a request file off the console first, which is nice. https://storage.googleapis.com/retrofreak/RetroFreak-SystemUpdate-0.2.0.zip Update: So I tested it. Works great and I did not need the update request file from the console which makes it waaay easier. This update lets you hold the Y button and press up/down on the directional pad so the game list scrolls by pages rather than individual titles which makes it MUCH faster to get to your game if you have long lists like me. It also returns you to the previous position in the list when you are done with your selection instead of throwing you back to the top of the list. Oh thank you so much for that! They added a new category game area for the Sega Mark III/Game Gear for the upcoming adapter and appropriate roms. Looks like another update is coming when the adapter is released as well. There are some nice changes here for sure. Change list via Google Translate: 2016.02.04 [NEW]Version 1.5Application : ver1.5 (build2737)][ System Software : ver0.2.0]※ includes updates of the system software .Free space of about 180MB to microSD to be used in the update is required . · Added [GG / SG / MKIII] button to microSD menu. So far [MD] MKIII game that has been displayed in will be displayed in the [GG / SG / MKIII]. ※ The GG / SG-1000 games of action for is not supported. It will be addressed in an update at the time of gear converter released.* Added the Game Gear / MK3 / SG] in [game to play] of each [Operation]. So far [game to play: Mega Drive operation set in the game for the go which was MKIII is, [game to play: Game Gear / MK3 / SG] can be set in.· Added [RATING] button to microSD menu. The [RATING] within, all models of the game with a star (1-5) at the rate will be displayed.• In the game list has been changed to the specification for storing the last cursor position. (Valid until the power is turned off)• The game list and code list were added the following: a. (Only when the standard controller used)Press and hold the Y button ↑: page upPress and hold the Y button ↓: page down Fixed a bug that can not use the controller , which is registered to the player 3 or later at the family computer .Game Region set to when you change to other than [ Auto] Fixed a bug that is not displayed correctly .Body during the game play in some of the body becomes high temperature , has been resolved the problem that the freeze or reboot .- Improved the stability of the operation .- The database of game information has been updated .· Fixed a bug in the game of the operation part . Please check the [ here ] operation has improved the game in ver1.5. Edited February 4, 2016 by LiqMat 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted February 4, 2016 Share Posted February 4, 2016 I was able to get Sega Master System cards working with this new firmware update, so that's a positive. I didn't try straight up SG-1000 ROMs, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LiqMat Posted February 5, 2016 Share Posted February 5, 2016 (edited) I was able to get Sega Master System cards working with this new firmware update, so that's a positive. I didn't try straight up SG-1000 ROMs, though. Now only if this could dump carts to open ROMs this system would be perfect. Edited February 5, 2016 by LiqMat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadyLilith Posted February 6, 2016 Share Posted February 6, 2016 This is really frustrating me, I've poured hours and hours into trying to get Famicom Disk System games to run. I know it's possible because I know someone who has done so, and they have a video up. It keeps asking me to install the BIOS from an actual FDS unit. Is there a certain spelling/capitalization that BIOS has to be in? I have it as "BIOS", and then tried again as "Bios", neither worked. It's possible, since I had this issue with cheats not working until I renamed it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newsdee Posted February 6, 2016 Author Share Posted February 6, 2016 I forgot which emulator the Freak is running, but for FCEUX the bios must be named disksys.rom . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadyLilith Posted February 6, 2016 Share Posted February 6, 2016 I forgot which emulator the Freak is running, but for FCEUX the bios must be named disksys.rom . Thanks alot! I had it in capitals "DISKSYS.ROM", and was beating myself up wondering why it wouldn't work. Seems I was on the right track with the whole capitalization thing. I can even go back to using my 64GB card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadyLilith Posted February 6, 2016 Share Posted February 6, 2016 How do you flip the sides of the disk in FDS games? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted February 6, 2016 Share Posted February 6, 2016 If you have Sonic & Knuckles which has the "Lock On Technology" you can dump all 5 unique SD images to the Rertro Freak. I just tried it and it works great off of SD. So now I have Sonic 2, Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles, Knuckles the Echidna in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (alternate game when Sonic 2 is plugged into Sonic & Knuckles), Sonic 3 Sonic the Hedgehog & Knuckles (alternate game when Sonic 3 is plugged into Sonic & Knuckles). The Sonic 3 combo comes in at a whopping 4.1MB which is big for Genesis. It will even image to SD the animated "No Way" screen you get when Sonic 1 is plugged into Sonic & Knuckles since they will not work together. Kind of cool to have all the alternates as a separate SD image that you can easily access without using both carts together. Convenience of the almighty SD. One weird thing is when Sonic 2 is plugged into the Sonic & Knuckles it is named unknown so you will have to name it manually on your PC, but all the others name properly at plug-in time. Just wanted to let you know it works perfect on the Retro Freak. Yeah I dumped Knuckles in Sonic 2. You can get all 5 ROMs but you have to dump it 5 times. Also my Knuckles in Sonic 2 was recognised by the Rfreak. New firmware update and it fixes quite a bit including the overheat problem. You can download it without grabbing a request file off the console first, which is nice. https://storage.googleapis.com/retrofreak/RetroFreak-SystemUpdate-0.2.0.zip Update: So I tested it. Works great and I did not need the update request file from the console which makes it waaay easier. This update lets you hold the Y button and press up/down on the directional pad so the game list scrolls by pages rather than individual titles which makes it MUCH faster to get to your game if you have long lists like me. It also returns you to the previous position in the list when you are done with your selection instead of throwing you back to the top of the list. Oh thank you so much for that! They added a new category game area for the Sega Mark III/Game Gear for the upcoming adapter and appropriate roms. Looks like another update is coming when the adapter is released as well. There are some nice changes here for sure. Change list via Google Translate: 2016.02.04 [NEW] Version 1.5 Application : ver1.5 (build2737)] [ System Software : ver0.2.0] ※ includes updates of the system software . Free space of about 180MB to microSD to be used in the update is required . · Added [GG / SG / MKIII] button to microSD menu. So far [MD] MKIII game that has been displayed in will be displayed in the [GG / SG / MKIII]. ※ The GG / SG-1000 games of action for is not supported. It will be addressed in an update at the time of gear converter released. * Added the Game Gear / MK3 / SG] in [game to play] of each [Operation]. So far [game to play: Mega Drive operation set in the game for the go which was MKIII is, [game to play: Game Gear / MK3 / SG] can be set in. · Added [RATING] button to microSD menu. The [RATING] within, all models of the game with a star (1-5) at the rate will be displayed. • In the game list has been changed to the specification for storing the last cursor position. (Valid until the power is turned off) • The game list and code list were added the following: a. (Only when the standard controller used) Press and hold the Y button ↑: page up Press and hold the Y button ↓: page down Fixed a bug that can not use the controller , which is registered to the player 3 or later at the family computer . Game Region set to when you change to other than [ Auto] Fixed a bug that is not displayed correctly . Body during the game play in some of the body becomes high temperature , has been resolved the problem that the freeze or reboot . - Improved the stability of the operation . - The database of game information has been updated . · Fixed a bug in the game of the operation part . Please check the [ here ] operation has improved the game in ver1.5. This is excellent news. I'll have to apply it later. I wanna add I tested Atlantean (homebrew, Turbografx format) and it dumped but all I got was black screen. My copy uses the USA TG-16 pinout. Turbo and PCe have different pinouts which scrambles the ROM image, so it may be worth trying again with the import adapter when it arrives. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted February 6, 2016 Share Posted February 6, 2016 Paging functions - excellent! Ran the SG1000 ROM Yamato, seemed to work fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newsdee Posted February 6, 2016 Author Share Posted February 6, 2016 How do you flip the sides of the disk in FDS games? In FCEU it's part of the UI. Maybe there is an option in the OSD, but if not they might have hid it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted February 6, 2016 Share Posted February 6, 2016 How do you flip the sides of the disk in FDS games? Under controller settings / hotkey configuration you need to define 'FDS switch disk side' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rworne Posted February 6, 2016 Share Posted February 6, 2016 Just jumping in since I have a premium model: Start+Option switches sides on the FDS with the default key mapping. Also with the FDS: If you plugged in the FDS adapter into the Retrofreak to get the BIOS, it will not work (at least with December's firmware). I had to manually get a copy online and install it to work. As far as the pricing goes, last month in Japan I saw the premium model being discounted at retailers by about ¥2,000 (or about 20 bucks). So it's not all gouging. The "street price" did drop over the holidays. The controllers and retro adapter are not sold in retail stores - none of the major electronic chains sold them, and none in Akihabara either. Cyber Gadget's web site say they are exclusive to their store. So this is probably why they are pricey - only one source for foreign buyers at the moment. My unit has been rock solid. My only gripe is the Famicom slot is stiff and a few connectors are now misshapen (but still work). The latest firmware is a godsend with the page up/down capabilities, but you can also connect a USB keyboard for this and some other added functionality - I could swear that you can search titles with a keyboard. I'll need to check again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted February 11, 2016 Share Posted February 11, 2016 Well, not good news. It looks like the Retro Freak Gear Adapter from Play Asia is not going to be shipped this month, but Q2 2016, with a rough estimate of March 29, 2016. I can't imagine what the issue is since the latest firmware seems to allow everything to work as originally promised. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LiqMat Posted February 12, 2016 Share Posted February 12, 2016 Well, not good news. It looks like the Retro Freak Gear Adapter from Play Asia is not going to be shipped this month, but Q2 2016, with a rough estimate of March 29, 2016. I can't imagine what the issue is since the latest firmware seems to allow everything to work as originally promised. Yes... annoying since I paid for this back in early December. I hope this does not get delayed into oblivion like some vaporware products. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted February 12, 2016 Share Posted February 12, 2016 Well, since I upgraded the firmware the other day, I have some bad news. I was playing a ROM hack on it, Naked Princess Peach f***s the D*ck Nazis. Don't judge. It's a grotesque ROM hack of Super Mario Bros that was converted over to use the MMC5 mapper. Well I was playing it the other night, saved stated somewhere around World 3-4 and quit. Now when I boot the ROM, it crashes, and resetting gives me a blue screen. I can't figure out why it worked before but now it doesn't, and there doesn't seem to be a way to do a hard reset as it automatically saves the current state upon exit and loads said state as soon as the ROM is reopened. Reset function appears to be soft only (no option for "hard" reset) so it looks like I'm screwed. Maybe updating to firmware v2 caused the game not to work anymore, or changed the way state loading is handled??? If anyone's interested in playing it: http://www.baddesthacks.net/?p=1858 NA discussion thread: http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=32&threadid=157580 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newsdee Posted February 12, 2016 Author Share Posted February 12, 2016 (edited) In both the Freak and the Retron5, changing cheats invalidates save files. Perhaps the new firmware corrupted it? If you want to just delete the save to get the game to run, then activating a cheat could work. You can do so by adding a new entry to the cheat XML file, using the CRC of the game as reported by the game DB XML dump (menu option). Recovering the save is another story... maybe you can back it up to a PC and see if FCEUX can read it. Edited February 12, 2016 by Newsdee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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