RetroN 5 $129.99 with free shipping @ ThinkGeek - The RetroN 5 deals thread

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$129.99 with free shipping at ThinkGeek


Important Information
​Warranty registration - http://www.retron5.com/warrantyregistration_/
Patch Notes / How to Update (Last update 6/10/2014) - http://retron5.in/?src=98f13708210194c475687be6106a3b84

I've included the text from the pre-order era of this OP in spoilers for reference.
UPDATE 5/27/14: It's real this time. Hyperkin's June 6 release date is happening. Many mom and pop stores that have received their units have started selling them already, and many people who have ordered from Amazon (myself included) are reporting getting emails from Amazon notifying them that their orders qualify for release day delivery and are updating estimated delivery status to June 6th, no longer showing the "we need more time" placeholder. It's worth noting that so far only people who have ordered the grey unit from Amazon are receiving order updates (which coincides with Hyperkin reporting on their facebook page that they had shipped Amazon's grey preorder units, but Amazon had yet to place an order for the black units). All consoles that have been shown off online by reviewers, people who have been able to buy them before the street date, or Hyperkin themselves have all been grey consoles to this point. No word on black consoles. Another note: Chris Gallizzi of Hyperkin responded to an inquiry about Newegg orders by saying that he is not aware of any issues with Newegg's preorders, and they should be good to go for the launch.

UPDATE 5/22/14: Just one day after IGN and Polygon reported that Hyperkin would begin shipping units to retailers on May 22 (today as of this writing), Hyperkin essentially confirmed that. They have announced that the launch date for the long overdue RetroN 5 is June 6th, 2014. In a much quieter fashion (just by responding to a random person's comment) they confirmed this would be for North America only and that the console would launch in the UK in September. There is also one more small hitch. The rumor that the first batch of units would be only for mom/pop B&M retailers and that NO units from this batch would go to Amazon or Newegg has been gaining some serious steam. While Hyperkin has been responding to a decent amount of comments on their facebook page from excited fans, they continue to ignore questions about when Amazon orders will ship. So it seems those of us who preordered on Amazon still don't have a solid release date. Fulfillment could happen any time between June 6th through September or beyond.

UPDATE 5/21/14: IGN today reported that the RetroN 5 would begin shipping out on May 22 (tomorrow, as of this writing)! This coincides with Chris Gazzilli, Hyperkin's project manager, posting a picture on his facebook page of a massive shipping container full of RetroN 5 units. Ladies and Gentlemen, it seems hell may have just frozen over.

UPDATE 5/13/14: Hyperkin has listed the RetroN 5, and it's controllers, on their company wholesale store for authorized retailers to buy. The console (both colors) and controllers (both colors) are listed as sold out. I'm not sure if they were in stock and sold out quickly, or if they haven't been made available yet. Regardless, it's good news that the system is listed for the first time ever. Additionally, reviewers such as GameSpot and several youtube reviewers have received their review units, which appear to be retail units. The RetroN 5 seems to finally be around the corner. We'll see, but things look promising right now. One thing to note: the listing for the console on Hyperkin's wholesale page indicates that each wholesale box contains six units. If this is the case, it would seem to debunk the previous report of the console being shipped in quantities of four per retailer.

UPDATE 4/25/14: While this hasn't technically been confirmed by Hyperkin, I take it as fact. It's worth remembering that NOTHING has been officially confirmed by Hyperkin. Hyperkin has remained silent until unofficially confirming almost all known info in random interviews with various youtubers and forum members. Therefor, again, I take this as fact:

I spoke to Hyperkin today.

Here are the "unofficial" details.

The "end of May" release is a "soft" release. Meaning they really are waiting for the next batch due in the summer for the official real release. Amazon is NOT getting any of the units released at the end of May. Each retailer is only getting 4 units. Retail on the unit is $139.99 and $39.99 for the additional controller. The reasons for the price increase are both cosmetic and technical but if it works as it should then it should be a great retro system.

Our 4 are already taken with pre-orders. If you know any stores locally that are getting units, and you want one for end of May, then i suggest you contact them and put money down. Keep in mind that each store is getting 4 units only for the soft launch.
UPDATE 4/17/14: Hyperkin has increased the price of the RetroN 5, saying "north of $100, between $129.99 and $149.99". Alll pre-orders from Amazon should be honored via their pre-order price guarantee. I believe Newegg has the same guarantee, I am not sure about Stone Age Gamer or 8 Bit Classics. Think Geek still hasn't opened pre-orders on the unit, instead offering a link to be signed up for email notifications as to when it will be available. Also on the Amazon front, they have sold out or pre-orders. Furthermore, it is more likely you'll learn the ETA from Amazon, Newegg, or whoever you ordered it from. Hyperkin has gone on record of saying they will never again announce a hard release date for anything.

UPDATE 4/12/14: After Hyperkin denied the console was delayed again and vigoruosuly shoved the month of April up everyone's ass for half a year, today they delayed the vaporware console yet again. At the Midwest Gaming Classic, they did their annual presentation. They ignored the planned April 2014 release, but finally somebody in the crowd asked about it. The Hyperkin rep said it was releasing in "30 days, guaranteed". This is not the first time they used the word "guaranteed", last time was about April so this doesn't mean jack shit. So maybe it'll randomly show up at people's houses at the end of may, maybe it wont, and maybe my ass will fly out of my ass.

Retron 5 Delay History:
-Summer 2013 (which they continued to say after summer was over, claiming they meant "Indian Summer" or "California Summer"....i'm not making this up)
-December 10 2013
-Quarter 1 2014
-Quarter 2 2014
-First two weeks of April
-April 2014, guaranteed
-Gauranteed within 30-40 days of April 12, 2014
-June 6 2014

DELAYED. ANY UPDATES FROM HYPERKIN WILL COME ON THEIR FACEBOOK PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/HyperkinGames

UPDATE: In a recent interview, Hyperkin confirmed that the initial batch of units WILL NOT BE ENOUGH to meet day ome demand. Also confirmed was the ability for the system to act as a multitap. Example: in a four player SNES game, two players could use snes controlles, one player could use the retron controller, and one player could use a genesis controller. Interview can be found here.


Pre-order at Amazon (SOLD OUT)
Pre-order at Newegg: Black (SOLD OUT) or Grey (SOLD OUT)
Pre-order at Stone Age Gamer (DUE TO HIGH DEMAND, RELEASE DAY DELIVERY NOT PROMISED)
Pre-order at 8 Bit Classics (DUE TO HIGH DEMAND, RELEASE DAY DELIVERY NOT PROMISED)





UPDATE: Hyperkin claims that they opened up some packaged retail units and discovered some units had faulty pins. because of this, the Retron 5 has been delayed. No new release date has been announced, although Hyperkin has stated the unit will release in 2014 and that they are aiming for Q1. This is the Retron 5's third delay.

EDIT: Preorders are sold out at Amazon and Newegg.

Retron5 pre-orders have finally (about damn time) opened.

For those of you who have been following this console, you know it's quite highly anticipated and looks to be far better than any clone system released before.

For those unfamiliar, here's a little info:

  • It's one system that plays games for the following systems: NES, SNES, Genesis, Mega Drive, Famicom, Super Famicom, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance.
  • Two controller ports for each console will be built in with the system. It will also come with one wireless universal controller.
  • Outputs in HDMI and upscales for HDTVs. Early impressions and videos of this have been extremley postive. From the website: "The RetroN 5 will up convert the video signal to show clearer and cleaner images, with vibrant colors on an HDTV with a resolution output of up to 720p through the use of shaders. You will also be able to select the aspect ratio in our GUI, from the standard 4:3 to the HD ratio of 16:9."
  • Features a user interface (dashboard. Somewhat similar of the PS3 interface in appearance, in my opinion).
  • Features save states. From the website: "Most games did not allow for you to freely save your games. The RetroN 5 will allow you to save their games at any point during gameplay, and will feature an autosave feature upon shutdown. You will be able to load your saves at anytime during gameplay."
  • Button reassignment supported. From the website: "Users will be able to program the controller to assign buttons to their preference. In turn, the RetroN 5 will save these custom layouts, so that users will not have to constantly reconfigure the button configuration. This feature will also be available to people wanting to remap their buttons on their original controllers."
  • 100% game cartridge compatibility, without lag.
  • Sega Power Base Converter compatible, allowing Sega Master System games to be played.
More information is here. It may be a bit dated since this was from back when they first announced the console, but I figured it was the best site to link since it also featured some screenshots as well. http://hyperkin.com/blog/2013/03/retron-5-details-revealed-from-the-midwest-gaming-classic/ There is also plenty of info on Hyperkin's facebook page.

I've been looking forward to this for a long time, and i'm extremley excited that pre-orders are finally open. For one console that not only plays all of these console's games, but upscales them and features save states (either to the cartridge (if supported) or the console itself)...this seems like a great deal. And if you've been following the hype for the console, there is a good chance it could end up selling out. Hyperkin isn't a huge company and this thing has a TON of pre-release demand (just check out the comments on the facebook page). I like the look of the black one a bit better, because it seems to be the traditional console color nowadays. But I opted for the grey model because the black console and controller seem like they'd be fingerprint magnets.

Preorder either color here at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Hyperkin-RetroN-Gaming-Not-Machine-Specific/dp/B00DZIX3CQ/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1378958043&sr=8-13&keywords=retron+5 or here at Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=retron%205&N=-1&isNodeId=1&RandomID=65244712392254220130925161655

Here are pictures of the two consoles, since the pictures on Amazon aren't that great:

Grey:
Retron-5.jpg


Black:
e3_retron5_03550.jpg

 
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Is October 31st the official release date or is that a place holder?

I'd hate to preorder one thinking I have 8 weeks to think about it and then have them ship it out early before I cancel (if I decide to do so).

 
I'd rather have the real thing on a CRT television or a good emulator with a CRT shader like retroarch or higan.

I don't see the point in this. Its probably got all kinds of bugs and inaccuracies, especially with Genesis and super nintendo games,

These older consoles are not tHat expensive, its the games that are.

And if you want to use them on an HDTV you are better getting a framemeister xrgb mini so you have scanlines and better upscaling..
 
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I'd rather have the real thing on a CRT television or a good emulator with a CRT shader like retroarch or higan.

I don't see the point in this. Its probably got all kinds of bugs and inaccuracies, especially with Genesis and super nintendo games,

These older consoles are not tHat expensive, its the games that are.

And if you want to use them on an HDTV you are better getting a framemeister xrgb mini so you have scanlines and better upscaling..
This actually has built in emulator and uses some quality parts used in tablets/cellphones and basically works like PC emulation. It's not like prior clone systems which had generic hardware-- it has ARM parts. The biggest advantage to this is you get to use your actual carts and can use actual controllers. I just don't like how the system or controller looks (though you can use original controlls).

http://hyperkin.com/blog/2013/03/retron-5-details-revealed-from-the-midwest-gaming-classic/

If you want the genuine experience, then this isn't for you... but if you wanted the genuine experience, then you wouldn't buy a clone anyway.

 
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I'm now going back and fourth lol. I pre-ordered the grey model...i can't decide if I want to cancel and order the black one. I don't know which one i like better lol.

 
I still can't decide if I should keep grey or cancel and switch to black lol. I like the sleek look of the black, but I think it will be a fingerprint magnet. I like the blue/purple effect on the cartridge slots on the grey, but I think overall it looks more clunky and toyish. I'm not sure.
 
Why would anyone pre-order this? Why not wait for it to release and see if it gets decent reviews? I mean, it's not bringing any new games to the table like a PS4 or Xbox One. It plays old games, so why not wait and see if it does a decent job before throwing away $100? I'd rather own the old consoles individually anyway...

 
how exactly is this allowed to be made?  It seems like it would slaughter nintendo and sega whoring out their history in "virtual console" and "collections" every year.

 
It doesn't use ant copyright material. It is just s box that runs emulators and has slots to put cartridges in. Its kind of dumb. If you want to play an emulator just get an emulator.
 
Double post. Any PC you bought since 2006 will emulate these games better than this box and offer better visual options, basically.
 
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how exactly is this allowed to be made? It seems like it would slaughter nintendo and sega whoring out their history in "virtual console" and "collections" every year.
The licensing for the hardware expires after about 20 years, hence the focus on 8 and 16-bit systems. We'll likely see a Nintendo 64 clone in about 2-3 years probably!

Anyways, I just preordered the black model. I've been following their development for awhile, and I've been anxious for this. The GBA slot makes it even more great.
 
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The licensing for the hardware expires after about 20 years, hence the focus on 8 and 16-bit systems. We'll likely see a Nintendo 64 clone in about 2-3 years probably!

Anyways, I just preordered the black model. I've been following their development for awhile, and I've been anxious for this. The GBA slot makes it even more great.
I don't think it has anything to do with licensing, this is not a System on a Chip like the old NES clones, it's full emulation. This is no different than buying a cheap android tablet, loading it with emulators, and hooking it to a TV. If the licensing was an issue this wouldn't be able to play Game Boy Advance games.

I guess i just don't see who this is for. People who don't know better, maybe? Why spend $100 on this when buying a SNES, NES, and Genesis would probably be cheaper in the end, or the same price.

Also, on PC - emulators have come a long way.

[MEDIA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R199cOUx3w8[/MEDIA]

Get the retrode http://www.retrode.org/ and you can archive and save those games and save files as well as play games legally.

 
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Used this thing at E3 and it was pretty awesome.  They have built all kinds of filters into the system to make the games look like you want on modern TVs. 

They will ship these to Japan so I guess I will order one.  Think I need to go grey.

 
Hmmm - If I got this I'd probably get it for the GBA games (since besides a handful of NES games that is all I have for these systems - I was a PC gamer during all that time ;)).

 
Not sure if I should bite. Don't know if any of my NES carts still work. SNES carts would work. Already have a GBA player on the bottom of my GameCube. I guess the best part is HDMI and save states. Might pick it up because of that. Metroid Fusion would be nice on a HD television.
 
Why would anyone pre-order this? Why not wait for it to release and see if it gets decent reviews? I mean, it's not bringing any new games to the table like a PS4 or Xbox One. It plays old games, so why not wait and see if it does a decent job before throwing away $100? I'd rather own the old consoles individually anyway...
some people want things right away and have the money for it.. sometimes things like this have supply problems and only people who preordered get it on release.. others have to wait a few weeks. I'm pretty sure that's what happened with ouya.

 
I don't like the look but I'm interested in it.

As for the naysayers, why complain and fight it? If you don't like it, don't get it. You shouldn't even post, it's not like you're going to convince the ones that do want it, not to get it. It's just you spreading negativity.

It's a great solution for people that don't pirate games via a thousand roms. Maybe we have old carts that we wanna play, without dragging out every system every time. With this, I can keep my legacy stuff on display, and still play all my games.
 
There are devices at stoneagegamer.com (at least) that lets you play your actual carts on pc.  At $100, it is an emulation machine for those who want to use their original games but at the Ouya pricepoint. I don't know where people are saying they can buy all five consoles for less than $100, unless they get some pretty nasty ratty ones out of the garbage bin.  If the Vita TV comes out here at the same time, I don't know which to choose.

 
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In for one. I have a feeling these are going to be hard to get a hold of right aways. I have black and grey. Need to decide which color I want now. I'm thinking the grey ..
 
I insta-ordered a black console as soon as I saw they were available... but now I'm second guessing and pondering picking up the grey.  

Very cool looking device though, hopefully it really does come out a month before the new consoles steal all my free time.

 
I don't like the look but I'm interested in it.

As for the naysayers, why complain and fight it? If you don't like it, don't get it. You shouldn't even post, it's not like you're going to convince the ones that do want it, not to get it. It's just you spreading negativity.

It's a great solution for people that don't pirate games via a thousand roms. Maybe we have old carts that we wanna play, without dragging out every system every time. With this, I can keep my legacy stuff on display, and still play all my games.
Exactly. Plus, I don't have a PC hooked up to my TV. With something like this, I can throw my Genesis carts in and play on my TV.

 
Perfect timing - I've just started looking for original SNES and NES consoles, and wondering g where to put them. This is the perfect option for me, with a million added perks (handheld games? Yes!). Thanks, OP
 
This is really awesome. Finally plugging those carts into a all-in-one system with HDMI out. Can't get any better.

 
I'm pretty torn on this...it's seriously an awesome machine, but I don't have that many old carts lying around anymore and I have some Emu's on my Ouya that do all of this and more.

BUT - and this might be the biggest reason for me to get one - the Ouya controller lag almost kills some games. It's just a tiny split second lag, but it changes the way some games are played. I'm pretty certain the Retron 5 won't have this problem, but for $100 more? I already spent that money on various systems that play Emu's (combine with my small library of cartridges, the $100 for a Retron 5 doesn't seem smart for me)...

BUT IT LOOKS SO AWESOME. GRRRR

 
I'm going to keep my eye on this. I dropped a $100 for NeoGeoX  so I'm no stranger to spending $100 on things I'll never use. I'd probably just go for it if I didn't have the Vita TV preordered but I think its best to wait as I've never heard of this before.

 
I'd jump all over this if I had a bunch of NES and SNES games lying around, but I don't. This would be at least a 200-300 dollar investment to get the system and the games I want from Ebay.

 
What kind of a production run are they doing for this thing? I definitely want to buy one, but would just rather wait until I'm finished moving after Thanksgiving.

 
Pre-ordered the Grey!

Can't wait for the N64 patent/license to expire in two or three years! It's one of the systems that could really use the upscale and perfect compatibility with all games! :D

 
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