Hyperkin’s Five-in-One Retro Gaming Console

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Hyperkin Retron 5

Hyperkin Retron 5

Retro-gaming is alive and well in many different forms, from virtual arcades on consoles to ports on smartphones to emulators to ‘TV games’ and new compatible hardware. But old gaming systems don’t work with HDTV systems. Enter Hyperkin’s Five-in-One Retro Gaming Console the Retron 5. The Retron 5 brings classic consoles to life – and works with HDTV systems!

The Retron 5 showed up at CES last month but was largely passed over for more flashy hardware. Now that the dust has settled and the Q1 release date for Retron 5 is approaching, some information has emerged.

Here are some details from Gazidmo:

This strange beast of a console showed up at last month’s Consumer Electronics Show 2014 where its creator and manufacturer Hyperkin showed off a finalized model. The Retron 5 has been in the works for some time and will succeed the popular Retron 3 model which merged three retro consoles into one – a machine that Hyperkin hope to champion in every was possible.

Sporting not one, not two, but five separate cartridge slots, the Retron 5 is able to play thousands of original retro videogames for the Nintendo Entertainment System, the SNES, the Game Boy Advance, the Sega Genesis/ Mega Drive and the Japanese exclusive Nintendo Famicom.

But that’s not even the best part.

Go and talk to anyone that has dusted off an old video game console and tried to hook it up to a modern high-definition television. Their tales of woe will include blurry pixels, washed out colors, a mess of cabling and, in some cases, modern televisions that don’t recognize old gaming hardware at all.

Hyperkin are confident that they’ll do away with all of those issues by having the Retron 5?s video and audio output over a single HDMI cable, offering a 1080p signal for the best possible picture on current HDTVs. The device also comes with a single bluetooth controller to reduce on cable clutter, although original retro controllers can still be plugged in.

Hyperkin Retron 5_a

Here are some key features:

• The ultimate system for an old-school gamer
• 5 cartridge slots: NES, SNES (and Super Famicom), Genesis (and Mega Drive), Famicom, Game Boy Advance (and Game Boy Color and Game Boy)
• Output: AV output, a USB port to allow for charging of the wireless controller, an AC Adapter to power up the system, and a HDMI output for HDTV connectivity
• Bluetooth wireless controller with Dpad, 6 face buttons, 2 shoulder buttons, a start and select button, 4 LED light indicators to display the player number, a Home button, and 2 programmable Macro buttons
• 6 controller ports: 2 x SNES, 2 x Genesis, and 2 x NES
• Universal chipset so region locks and compatibility aren’t an issue
• Up converts video signal and does audio interpolation to provide better than original experience
• Batteries: Bluetooth wireless controller has rechargeable lithium ion battery than can be charged through any USB port via the micro USB cable

There are pre-prder pages at Amazon, ThinkGeek, and NewEgg – and the MSRP of Retron 5 is $99.99 … which is a pretty sweet price.

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About the Author

Michael Anderson
I have loved technology for as long as I can remember - and have been a computer gamer since the PDP-10! Mobile Technology has played a major role in my life - I have used an electronic companion since the HP95LX more than 20 years ago, and have been a 'Laptop First' person since my Compaq LTE Lite 3/20 and Powerbook 170 back in 1991! As an avid gamer and gadget-junkie I was constantly asked for my opinions on new technology, which led to writing small blurbs ... and eventually becoming a reviewer many years ago. My family is my biggest priority in life, and they alternate between loving and tolerating my gaming and gadget hobbies ... but ultimately benefits from the addition of technology to our lives!