SydLexia.com - The Forums :: View topic - The Retrode (Play GEN/SNES directly on your PC)

Posted: Jan 04 2012 06:42 am

http://www.retrode.com/

Basically you can go ignore the actual console and still play the carts without controllers, use the controller without the game, or use both the controller and carts.

Posted: Jan 04 2012 11:21 am

Apparently I'm not the only one who read Paper, Rock, Shotgun. I was just going to post this.

A little more info:

It a USB device, that has a SNES cartridge port, a Genesis/Mega Drive cartridge port. 2 SEGA controller ports, and 2 SNES controller ports.

You use any emulation software you want. So it basically reads the cartridges like a jumpdrive, and serves as a SNES/Genesis to USB adapter.

All in all pretty cool. However, the $80 price tag seems a bit steep. For that much, you could just buy one of the FC Twin consoles, and play both on your TV.

Posted: Jan 04 2012 01:40 pm

Why would I bother? If I own the game, I can ethically use the ROM. The emulator is going to process it the same either way. Might as well just buy a usb controller adapter.

Posted: Jan 05 2012 02:19 am

You could ethically play the ROM if you dumped it yourself from your own cartridge.

Joined: Apr 09 2008 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 3112

This looks like one of those things that kids in '80s TV shows would hook up to their computer, then get sucked into their favorite video game.

Joined: Mar 18 2010 Location: Tuonela Posts: 299

How's the audio/video -quality?

Posted: Jan 05 2012 09:53 am

The audio/video quality would depend on your own computer I would assume.

Posted: Jan 05 2012 01:25 pm

The-Excel wrote:

You could ethically play the ROM if you dumped it yourself from your own cartridge.

I dunno about you guys but I can ethically play any rom without having paid a penny for the actual games!!

As far as A/V quality I think the important question is accuracy to the originals, not general quality. I guess it's going to run the game through an emulator anyway, so odds are it'll be pretty accurate.

Posted: Jan 05 2012 01:53 pm

The-Excel wrote:

You could ethically play the ROM if you dumped it yourself from your own cartridge.

You're thinking of legally, I think.

Posted: Jan 05 2012 02:53 pm

I don't understand. The USB thing doesn't have any onboard emulation? What good is it then? I'm pretty sure none of the emulators I use can read that thing, seeing as cartridges don't actually have .smd and .smc files on them. Even if they can, it seems like a waste of time. Oh boy, I'm playing Kega with an actual cartridge instead of a ROM. La-dee-fucking-da.

If it was a plug and play device with its own emulation software and interface, then I'd be interested.

Posted: Jan 05 2012 03:11 pm

I bet you either on board or with included software it dumps the cart. Maybe if I get bored I'll check their site and see.

Posted: Jan 05 2012 03:28 pm

I just checked out the instruction manual PDF document in their site and it looks like it does dump ROM's.

Posted: Jan 05 2012 03:35 pm

I'm glad you got bored before I did lol. Looks like a lot of work went into this thing. While I think it's useless, I hope they at least recoup their investment.

UsaSatsui's Youtube Channel · Posted: Jan 05 2012 04:03 pm

Jack Slater wrote:

The-Excel wrote:

You could ethically play the ROM if you dumped it yourself from your own cartridge.

You're thinking of legally, I think.

No, he's thinking of ethically. You can't legally dump roms.

Posted: Jan 05 2012 05:30 pm

UsaSatsui wrote:

Jack Slater wrote:

The-Excel wrote:

You could ethically play the ROM if you dumped it yourself from your own cartridge.

You're thinking of legally, I think.

No, he's thinking of ethically. You can't legally dump roms.

That would make this product illegal then, would it not?

UsaSatsui's Youtube Channel · Posted: Jan 05 2012 06:49 pm

Jack Slater wrote:

UsaSatsui wrote:

Jack Slater wrote:

The-Excel wrote:

You could ethically play the ROM if you dumped it yourself from your own cartridge.

You're thinking of legally, I think.

No, he's thinking of ethically. You can't legally dump roms.

That would make this product illegal then, would it not?

Yes it would, at least in the United States.

Posted: Jan 05 2012 07:15 pm

This device is from Germany and so is the online store. Does that serve as a loophole in any way?

Posted: Jan 05 2012 07:46 pm

Not for Americans. I dunno what the laws in Germany are, they are usually better consumer advocates over in Europe FWIW.

UsaSatsui's Youtube Channel · Posted: Jan 05 2012 10:20 pm

Jack Slater wrote:

Not for Americans. I dunno what the laws in Germany are, they are usually better consumer advocates over in Europe FWIW.

Several countries (including Germany, apparently) do not make it illegal to copy ROM images (or rather, they have ruled it is not illegal or it has never been brought up), and therefore such devices are legal there.

The court ruling is also very old and based upon the theory that a ROM chip is a permanent medium and therefore not as subject to the need of a backup as a floppy disk. This is pretty outdated thinking if you ask me.

If a case were brought today, it could very well end up differently.

Posted: Jan 05 2012 10:25 pm

I'm not going to sleep any better I dumped a game myself instead of downloading it off the web, unless it had a save file I was really proud of.

Posted: Jan 06 2012 06:45 pm

They need to do two things:

1) Charge less than $80 for it ($40 or $50 would be reasonable)
2) Make it fit the Power Base Converter, so you could also play Master System games.

Posted: Jan 06 2012 07:24 pm

Skinr wrote:

1) Charge less than $80 for it ($40 or $50 would be reasonable)

You have to understand that these are being produced in limited quantities. It's basically scale of economies at work: when more of a product is produced, it lowers the cost of each unit. Since we're talking about a small company here, it's kinda necessary to charge that much.

Skinr wrote:

2) Make it fit the Power Base Converter, so you could also play Master System games.

This is definitely a good idea. I used to have one of those but I can't remember if the overall shape would be able to fit on this device.

Posted: Jan 06 2012 09:32 pm

I think the power base converter 2 would work. You might have to flatten out the bottom above the Genesis cart a bit as I recall it being slightly curved.

Posted: Jan 07 2012 09:32 pm

I know the Power Base Converter would work technologically speaking. Even on an actual Genesis, it's just a pass-through device, since the cartridges are different shapes.

As for the price; yeah, I understand the economics. That's why I'm hoping this gets a wider release; I'd love to see this on the shelf at my nearest locally-owned game store.