WELL THIS IS INTERESTING.. Retron 5

[raygank]

A PSA on the topic of the cart slots: I found all the slots extremely tight at first. For example, it took a sickening amount of tugging to remove a Super Famicom cart, to the point where I thought I was going to damage the console. NES and Genesis carts were nearly as bad.

On someone's suggestion I disassembled some of my cartridges and gave their pins an extremely through cleaning with alcohol and the problem has completely gone away. The slots feel about the same tightness as genuine hardware now. I think the tightness of the slots is related at least in part to friction with corroded pins. I should note that the pins LOOKED perfectly clean, so even if you think your carts don't need it, if you haven't tried this I'd recommend giving it a shot.

*Knock on wood*, of course. I'm hoping I don't run into the issues some others have had.

[CRTGAMER]

Well, even after taking extreme caution in removing games, my NES slot pins have started to bend. Not only that, but the "death grip" hasn't loosened a bit, despite the bending. It still seems to read games okay when they're cleaned well, but I'm strongly considering an RMA request. As several others have said on here, how severe the slot tightness problem is does seem to be fairly random. Darn.

It seems to be just that, random, other than the Genesis slot being more tight for anyone because they didn't space it better for thicker sega boards. I'd just RMA it too if things are bending as that's a metal failure which won't improve or heal.

On someone's suggestion I disassembled some of my cartridges and gave their pins an extremely through cleaning with alcohol and the problem has completely gone away. The slots feel about the same tightness as genuine hardware now. I think the tightness of the slots is related at least in part to friction with corroded pins. I should note that the pins LOOKED perfectly clean, so even if you think your carts don't need it, if you haven't tried this I'd recommend giving it a shot.

*Knock on wood*, of course. I'm hoping I don't run into the issues some others have had.

A good idea. Cleaning to at least make the pins more slippery on the tight connector.

1. The tight connector grip on the NES and Genesis game carts has been brought up many times. Various review videos show a lot of force to remove carts, can't be good for decades old PCB contacts. I think a definite wait at the sidelines to see the next hardware revision to hopefully fix the death grip connectors. The trick with the higher MSRP price is to make sure to get that latest console with the conectors fixed (if there is even is a revision) and not one on the shelf already that has been marked up.

2. The way the Retron dumps the game cart rom to internal which kills any non official multi game carts including bootlegs and Everdrive SD Memory capable game carts. I think I read somewhere that the Supevision bootleg cart works since it a direct NES cart? Might have been mistaken since the Retron has to detect the individual games one at a time for the transfer dump. Not being able to run unofficial carts is another wait until its added purchase.

3. I posted this question earlier, does the Retron put out both Analog and Digital Audio thru the HDMI adapter? Not the digital Video but AUDIO; I think HDMI only normally only has digital video and audio. Not looking to convert the digital audio channel, just a straight cable adapter if the Retron has analog audio in the HDMI connection. This is for the DVI input of older HDCRTs which require separate analog audio input. HDMI to DVI adapter plus separate Audio RCA connectors can then be used.

HDMI Pinout - No Analog Audio in the Retron?



Nyco HDMI Pass Thru with analog audio RCA jacks

[BoneSnapDeez]

The pin connectors seem to be wildly inconsistent in terms of tightness. Or perhaps I have loosened some up. Hope not.

Genesis is a death grip. NES and Famicom are fairly tight. SNES actually feels a bit looser than I'd prefer - that is until you insert on of those games with a long PCB due to a Super FX Chip or whatever. Getting those in and out is ridiculous. GB/GBC/GBA games go in/out nice and smoothly.

[ExedExes]

All the slots on my Retron 5 are considerably looser now, even the Genesis slot. NES and SNES go in and out easy too.

[samsonlonghair]

Those no good filthy slots have gotten all loose over time.

[Tanooki]

CRT, on your #2. The Supervision 115in1 works. Any multicart in theory can work. The reason that one does, I own it, got to talking with the tech and we went digging and found online published code to get that cartridge to detect with the right mapper code. Any multicart can work, if there's a mapper code for the NES/Famicom stuff they can add in for it if what's up there is accurate. I can't say it would work for the SNES though or other systems as they each handle stuff differently and don't use NES iNES format headers.

[TSTR]

Those no good filthy slots have gotten all loose over time.

so drrty

[Gunstar Green]

The pin connectors seem to be wildly inconsistent in terms of tightness. Or perhaps I have loosened some up. Hope not.

Genesis is a death grip. NES and Famicom are fairly tight. SNES actually feels a bit looser than I'd prefer - that is until you insert on of those games with a long PCB due to a Super FX Chip or whatever. Getting those in and out is ridiculous. GB/GBC/GBA games go in/out nice and smoothly.

This has been my experience as well. I have no problem at all with standard SNES/SF games. NES is pretty tight but the size of the cart makes removal pretty easy though it's slightly tougher with Famicom games. The Genesis one is the only slot that gives me serious trouble.

[CRTGAMER]

CRT, on your #2. The Supervision 115in1 works. Any multicart in theory can work. The reason that one does, I own it, got to talking with the tech and we went digging and found online published code to get that cartridge to detect with the right mapper code. Any multicart can work, if there's a mapper code for the NES/Famicom stuff they can add in for it if what's up there is accurate. I can't say it would work for the SNES though or other systems as they each handle stuff differently and don't use NES iNES format headers.

Thanks! The Supervi8sion has a great collection of NES games as well as hacks of games and I think the only COMPLETE version (besides the original cart) of Tengen Tetris.

Very good to know that not only official title support, this leading to more possible support for homebrews and other compilation carts. I am guessing that each game off the multi cart still dumps one at a time or is it the entire cart at once? If one game at a time, the game cart menu is probably treated as a separate game rom?

[BoneSnapDeez]

After thinking that I would use the SNES controller for everything I now think it's more comfortable to use the proper controller with each game. For GB/GBC I use an NES controller and for GBA I use SNES.

I'm starting to dislike the R5 controller more and more. I don't even navigate the menus with it now.