Hyperkin - Retron 77. HD Atari 2600?

[MaximumRD]

RECENT RETRON '77 NEWS - 

 

I am happy with this and definitely looking more forward to this than the "AtariBox  "

 

UPDATE ON RETRON 77 by the developer, Dr. Andrew Steel, at Hyperkin:

05/07/2018

 

"Hi Everyone!

 

First of all, our apologies for the delay and silence on our part. It's been a long wait, and we truly appreciate your support, as well as all the suggestions and ideas. The final hardware has been finally approved and submitted to mass-production, so it's not going to be a long wait from now on.

 

We hope for the Retron 77 to be a good product; now it's time to answer your questions, and to say clearly what it is (and what it's not).

 

Second of all, yes - we indeed licensed a very early version of Stella, but as many people here on this thread mentioned, re-inventing the wheel would be simply pointless, same as reaching out to every single contributor. That is why the R77 is going to be released as an open-source system with its source codes available for the community. Certainly, it comes with a stable and fully functional core that you won't need to tinker with, but if tinkering is your game, then we encourage you to do so. It comes with a nice yet simple GUI.

 

We heard your thoughts on the amount of money that thing should cost, and of course we understand that it cannot be too much. We aim for this system to be affordable, and while I cannot tell you the MSRP just yet (it will soon be officially announced), we are being realistic and community-friendly. We know how much the Harmony cartridge alone costs, and we hope for this system to be not very far from that. Also, we expect to open pre-orders soon.

 

As we promised, it comes with all the necessary switches. So if you want to toggle difficulty for both players, game mode, color and black-and-white picture, screen aspect ratio, quick-save and quick-load your game - all that is readily available. There is also a glitch switch that was added just for fun (you can change its purpose if you are familiar with coding).

 

The system will ship with our new joystick controller which those of you who came to E3 last year had liked a lot. There will be an interesting extra feature for the left-handed people (or the right-handed people who want a challenge) - another Fire button. Certainly, other standard joysticks (like our Cirka controller for example) are also supported, as well as Genesis/MD gamepads. Standard paddle controllers are supported as well. On the top of that, we have another interesting controller that we expect to release at the same time or shortly after the system: it's a combo gamepad that has a little paddle built into it. We went through a lot of prototypes, including a few things suggested in this thread, and decided to go with this option. It has a toggle switch to enable left-handed mode as well.

 

Certainly, there are many obscure controllers out there, but the system will not support any other types of peripherals out of the box. Again, in an equation where cost and development time (already long enough) are the main variables, we believe this to be a reasonable compromise...

 

The system takes standard cartridges (all those we tested with my guests at last year's E3 and a few more types). Since it's an open-source system, we thought it would be a good idea to equip it with an SD card slot to make it easier for homebrew developers to get on board. That SD card will also conveniently contain the operating system (and Stella) for easy testing. We decided to drop Harmony support in favor of the SD card because supporting it requires some higher-end hardware, and we believe its homebrew functionality is basically replicated with the SD card.

 

If you are a developer and you want your game to be included with the system (of course with proper credit given to you or your studio in the EULA file) - please reach out to our R&D team (developer@hyperkin.com) or me directly on Linkedin. Depending on how this goes, we might offer limited amount of devkits to a selected number of developers.

 

It supports hot-swapping cartridges (you won't have to power down the system to change your games). Save files are good for keeping high scores or getting to see just how crazy some games like Missile Command get past a seven-digit score.

 

So basically, we wanted this system to be a convenient way to play games off cartridges, with common controllers on an HD TV. It's homebrew- and community-friendly. It's not the ultimate all-in-one answer to just any request, yet it's a good way to put your games collection into some good use, and to preserve the legacy by introducing our kids to what we used to play back in the days.

 

With all that said, we at Hyperkin and me personally want to thank everyone on this thread. Your support has made this project possible.

 

Yours truly,

 

Dr. Andrew Steel

 

"Standard cartridges" means 4k/8k/16k games. There may be exceptions because our supply of cartridges is somewhat limited. 

"Homebrew support" means the system will play .bin files placed on the SD card.

 

The older version of Stella will not be used. We are fully aware of its limitations; that's basically why in spite of paying for that earlier version, we decided to go open-source with this project, and use a more recent version, and to share the source codes with the community."

 

[StormSurge]

I can't wait to pick one of these up. 

[Atari Creep]

 

RECENT RETRON '77 NEWS - 

 

I am happy with this and definitely looking more forward to this than the "AtariBox  "

 

UPDATE ON RETRON 77 by the developer, Dr. Andrew Steel, at Hyperkin:

05/07/2018

 

"Hi Everyone!

 

First of all, our apologies for the delay and silence on our part. It's been a long wait, and we truly appreciate your support, as well as all the suggestions and ideas. The final hardware has been finally approved and submitted to mass-production, so it's not going to be a long wait from now on.

 

We hope for the Retron 77 to be a good product; now it's time to answer your questions, and to say clearly what it is (and what it's not).

 

Second of all, yes - we indeed licensed a very early version of Stella, but as many people here on this thread mentioned, re-inventing the wheel would be simply pointless, same as reaching out to every single contributor. That is why the R77 is going to be released as an open-source system with its source codes available for the community. Certainly, it comes with a stable and fully functional core that you won't need to tinker with, but if tinkering is your game, then we encourage you to do so. It comes with a nice yet simple GUI.

 

We heard your thoughts on the amount of money that thing should cost, and of course we understand that it cannot be too much. We aim for this system to be affordable, and while I cannot tell you the MSRP just yet (it will soon be officially announced), we are being realistic and community-friendly. We know how much the Harmony cartridge alone costs, and we hope for this system to be not very far from that. Also, we expect to open pre-orders soon.

 

As we promised, it comes with all the necessary switches. So if you want to toggle difficulty for both players, game mode, color and black-and-white picture, screen aspect ratio, quick-save and quick-load your game - all that is readily available. There is also a glitch switch that was added just for fun (you can change its purpose if you are familiar with coding).

 

The system will ship with our new joystick controller which those of you who came to E3 last year had liked a lot. There will be an interesting extra feature for the left-handed people (or the right-handed people who want a challenge) - another Fire button. Certainly, other standard joysticks (like our Cirka controller for example) are also supported, as well as Genesis/MD gamepads. Standard paddle controllers are supported as well. On the top of that, we have another interesting controller that we expect to release at the same time or shortly after the system: it's a combo gamepad that has a little paddle built into it. We went through a lot of prototypes, including a few things suggested in this thread, and decided to go with this option. It has a toggle switch to enable left-handed mode as well.

 

Certainly, there are many obscure controllers out there, but the system will not support any other types of peripherals out of the box. Again, in an equation where cost and development time (already long enough) are the main variables, we believe this to be a reasonable compromise...

 

The system takes standard cartridges (all those we tested with my guests at last year's E3 and a few more types). Since it's an open-source system, we thought it would be a good idea to equip it with an SD card slot to make it easier for homebrew developers to get on board. That SD card will also conveniently contain the operating system (and Stella) for easy testing. We decided to drop Harmony support in favor of the SD card because supporting it requires some higher-end hardware, and we believe its homebrew functionality is basically replicated with the SD card.

 

If you are a developer and you want your game to be included with the system (of course with proper credit given to you or your studio in the EULA file) - please reach out to our R&D team (developer@hyperkin.com) or me directly on Linkedin. Depending on how this goes, we might offer limited amount of devkits to a selected number of developers.

 

It supports hot-swapping cartridges (you won't have to power down the system to change your games). Save files are good for keeping high scores or getting to see just how crazy some games like Missile Command get past a seven-digit score.

 

So basically, we wanted this system to be a convenient way to play games off cartridges, with common controllers on an HD TV. It's homebrew- and community-friendly. It's not the ultimate all-in-one answer to just any request, yet it's a good way to put your games collection into some good use, and to preserve the legacy by introducing our kids to what we used to play back in the days.

 

With all that said, we at Hyperkin and me personally want to thank everyone on this thread. Your support has made this project possible.

 

Yours truly,

 

Dr. Andrew Steel

 

"Standard cartridges" means 4k/8k/16k games. There may be exceptions because our supply of cartridges is somewhat limited. 

"Homebrew support" means the system will play .bin files placed on the SD card.

 

The older version of Stella will not be used. We are fully aware of its limitations; that's basically why in spite of paying for that earlier version, we decided to go open-source with this project, and use a more recent version, and to share the source codes with the community."

 

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NICE!

[Sabertooth]

This is a really exciting update. I dont love the look of the console but it does what I want it to do: plays my original cart games in HD, supporting OG peripherals and an SD slot to boot. Atari SA should be taking notes. First day buyer.

[Atari Creep]

So here is a very small nitpick, I wonder if driver controllers will work on it. Not a deal breaker either way at my end just a thought.

[Atarileaf]

So here is a very small nitpick, I wonder if driver controllers will work on it. Not a deal breaker either way at my end just a thought.

 

I thought it was mentioned that they would not, which is unfortunate if true. Indy 500 is a fantastic 2 player game.

[Starbuck66]

I just wish it would have released sooner, because I would have held off on asking for and getting a Flashback 8 Gold Activision Edition for Xmas... I wonder how many people will be trying to pawn their FB8 Golds when this thing is finally released?

[Keatah]

It's nice to see it coming together, my only beef is the aesthetically unbalanced front/rear distribution of the controls. If I were designing it I would have made all the controls visible, up-front. And the only two things on the back would be power & hdmi connectors.

[StormSurge]

Preorders are up! Mine has been successfully ordered.

 

https://hyperkinlab.com/retron-77-premium-retro-gaming-console-for-2600-hyperkin/

 

 

[Atarileaf]

Dammit they don't ship to Canada. You can only preorder if you live in the States?

[StormSurge]

Woo hoo!

[TrekMD]

Mine is on the way!

[jmjustin6]

Nice! Id love to hear your review on this thing. Good sound? Hows the HD really look?

Edited July 14, 2018 by jmjustin6

[TrekMD]

It arrived but I'm in SuperCon this weekend, so I won't be testing it until next week most likely. 

[RickR]

The reviews on-line that I've seen have been pretty brutal.  Mostly about poor quality of the console and the controller.  I'll be interested to hear your take, TrekMD.  Thanks!

[TrekMD]

Yes, I know.  I've already downloaded to files to update the system.  I'll use it without the updates and then with to make a comparison.  The updates address the limitation of titles displayed when using an SD card and a few other issues.  Despite the problems I've read about, one good thing is that if something is related to software, it can be fixed by the community.  As for the hardware, I've seen all sorts of negative comments about the joystick.  I will try it out but I'm likely going to need a replacement.

[jmjustin6]

Yea ive already seen alot of people post about their joysticks breaking after a few hours of use. Thats ridiculous!!

[RickR]

I don't think the joystick is a big deal.  It has real ports, so you can use any classic joystick (or paddles) you like.  And that part you mention about the software being upgradable sounds really good.  It's actually a really cool idea -- to pull the code from a cartridge and run Stella. 

 

A lot of times, I think the retro-gaming fan base is just way too negative.  It's only $70!  It isn't perfect, but it does what they promised it would.  I'm thinking of getting one.  Once I get your opinion, of course  

[TrekMD]

They will replace the joysticks, though.  They've redesigned them so you just contact them and they help you out. 

[Atari 5200 Guy]

John Hancock did a review of this system on YouTube.

 

As for Justin's response about the 7800's competition...it wasn't just those systems he mentioned the 7800 competed with. By the time the system reached my area it was up against the TG-16, Genesis, Game Boy, Game Gear, and the SNES was not far away. Who would want a 7800 when Sonic, Bonk, and Mario dominated the gaming industry? The 7800 simply couldn't compete because of poor timing as well as Atari seemed to neglect that releasing to many systems at once was creating competition for itself.

 

I'm surprised that no one has ever tried to make a 7800 clone yet. At least I've not seen or heard of one yet. Then again, it's a unique beast of a console. I've been studying it and have learned how to generate sprites on it. I've even pushed the hardware as much as I can by duplicating those sprites. I've managed to get 150 multi-colored sprites moving on the screen simultaneously before the system starts to slowdown and almost crash. Once I figure out the playfield and how to create scrolling backgrounds I will be doing some of my own development for the 7800.

 

As for the Retron 77, not to get of subject just now, it would be my choice over Atari VCS.

[Atari Creep]

So now that we have had time to play with our units I would like to know about any issues you may be having with yours.

 

Hyperkin had to replace my unit because a cart connector pin came loose. I have had my replacement unit for about a week and it too is having issues. The unit will not register left on ANY controllers I know work on other systems. (I tested as I went.) The joystick it came with no longer controls to the left or right in any system. Maybe it's just my bad luck that I keep getting faulty units. Sad that a brand new modern piece of tech cant hold it together but all my original consoles have ZERO issues.

[Scott Stilphen]

The bios on a friend's system somehow got corrupted and had to be reflashed.  I saw it working long enough to play 1 game.  It has a sharp video output, but beyond that, you're still using an emulator-based console, so it'll never be 100% identical to the real thing (of which there's still a million floating around).

[Sabertooth]

It looks like Zombie Atari is at it again.  Here's an article detailing the current litigation between Atari and Hyperkin over the Retron77.  A version of the article also appears at Bloomberg Law buy behind a pay wall. 

Who knows what this could mean for the Retron77, Trooper and Ranger. If you haven't jumped in, now might be the time. 

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=5878121d-c788-459c-83e6-8050964532f0

[Justin]

Competitors could get away with 2600 clones when the 2600 was the #1 video game system on store shelves, but now Zombie Atari is going to sue Hyperkin. Okay. Maybe Atari should release an actual Atari-compatible system with HDMI output for under $50 and this wouldn't be an issue.

[MaximumRD]

Yeah, so called "Atari" today are nothing more than litigation hungry holders of trademark / IP who just want to try and grab every bit profit they can. Also, they want to keep reselling the same crap over and over to the Atari faithful. The AtariVCS has yet to have a single unit reach an actual backers hands, the only people who have claimed to receive any units seem to be "friends" or family (IE: people connected) to the AtariVCS team, I remain very skeptical an actual backer will ever receive a unit, even if they DO it is nothing worth the price and certainly brings nothing new to the table but of course people want one because it has a woodgrain finish and an Atari logo on it. They have proven to be very heavy handed against anyone using the Atari name even though such projects are what keep interest and the legacy in mind and alive. They wont release a 2600 compatible with HDMI for $50 or under because they are not capable of doing so, so instead they want to sue a company that has done exactly that 🙄 They consider themselves as gatekeepers of the Atari brand but sadly it seems every move and decision they make just deteriorate the Atari brand and legacy more and more, SHAME. You damn well know even if they worked with HYPERKIN to produce the Retron77 they would have been $150 USD right from the get go.