VideoGame_Discussion

I have a retron 5 and a retrofreak, and between the two I strongly prefer the retrofreak.

The retron 5 ports are not the greatest quality. Make sure you clean any game you put in there or you can risk damaging the system. The plus side to the retron 5 is the NES port, whereas the retrofreak you would need a NES to Famicom adapter. Retron also has a wireless controller but it is 100% poo do it doesn't add any value.

The retro freak ports are much better quality in my experience. It also supports turbografx/pc engine hucards. Its controllers are wired USB, and the pack in controller is a competent snes controller clone. Certain versions do come with a controller adapter to allow you to use original snes/nes/genesis/pc engine controllers.

There is also a budget version of the retro freak that only takes snes games I think. If you are getting one, you probably want the full set otherwise why not just use original hardware if you are only using it for one console?

Here is what the "full set" box looks like
https://www.ebay.com/itm/124929653255

Both systems have a separate adapter available for 8 bit sega games. Both do Master System cards and game gear cartridgrs. Hyperkin's takes US/EU Master System carts, Retro Freak's takes JP Mark III/Master System/SG-1000 carts. I can confirm that the hyperkin converter DOES work on the retro freak. The retro freak converter is a bit out of my price range sadly so I can't comment on how well it works.

Both systems essentially load the rom from the cart into memory and play via emulation. Both allow for rom patches (translations etc), cheats, and save states. The retro freak does allow you to copy the game to an SD card so you don't have to pop it in every time. The retron does not have that feature (although with a custom firmware who knows). I have read that the retro freak encrypts the roms when they are ripped so you can't just copy them to a computer after that and run them, but I haven't looked into that in any detail or tried it myself.

I've had a couple issues with GBA emulation on the retro freak. Activision Anthology seems to run a little slow, and Magical Vacation has some music playback issues (the sounds are slightly off due to the emulator being used). Every other game I have played on it for any supported system has been quite good.

For PAL Master System games you may need to go into the settings and adjust the playback region to get them to display properly.

I was OK with mine. Had to return my first one because a few of the controller ports didn't work. As said above,the wireless controller is crap so hope you have actual retro console controllers. Use a cheap game from each system to test the cartridge slots for grip of death. If it has it, buy dielectric grease, apply a tiny bit to the bottom of the cheap games and put it back into the trouble slot and the grip of death should be gone. Hopefully that isn't an issue anymore since I have had my retron 5 for 3+ years.

Tiredman wrote:

I have heard that the grip of death has been fixed but will make sure once I get it. I got the Hyper Beach edition so it did come with a SNES type controller and not just the crap one.

Thanks @Tiredman