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Hyperkin's Retron 5 gaming console brings your classic cartridges to the big screen

Hyperkin's Retron 5 gaming console brings your classic cartridges to the big screen

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hyperkin retron 5 official
hyperkin retron 5 official

Good news for fans of old video games — accessories maker Hyperkin is unveiling a retro console that will play almost any cartridge you can throw at it, reports Slashdot. Named the Retron 5 for its five slots, the machine will handle the same trio of NES, SNES, and Genesis cartridges as its predecessor, the Retron 3, as well as Famicom and Game Boy Advance games — not to mention Mega Drive, Super Famicom, Game Boy Color, and original Game Boy titles. HDMI out means you’ll get a clear, digital signal to your HDTV, and Hyperkin says that it will upscale your games to 720p. There are a bunch of built-in niceties, like the ability to save and resume at any point in the game, overclocking to speed through slow parts, and a PS3-like interface for configuring controllers and picking what to play. You'll also have the choice of saving your game to the console, to the cartridge, or to some kind of removable storage, presumably an SD card.

Reps from Hyperkin said that it would be less than $100

There’s no firm price, but at the Midwest Gaming Classic this weekend (video below), reps from Hyperkin said that it would be less than $100. That will include two Bluetooth wireless controllers, but an array of six controller ports on the console itself will let you use your old pads if you’d rather. There’s no firm release date, but Hyperkin says it will be “sometime after June.”