Doyodo RetroEngine Sigma Is a Linux-Powered Classic Video Game Emulation Console (betanews.com) 91
BrianFagioli quotes a report from BetaNews: The Nintendo NES Classic is quite an amazing console. True, it is not as powerful as modern game systems like Xbox One and PlayStation 4, but it comes pre-loaded with many classic NES titles. Unfortunately, its strength is also its weakness -- those pre-loaded titles are the only games you can play. You cannot load other games, so you are stuck with what you got. As an alternative, some folks use software emulation and ROMs on their computers to play countless video game titles. Of course, there are moral concerns here, as you are often downloading the games illegally -- unless you own the physical copy, that is. Even then, it is a gray area. Today, a company called Doyodo launched a new Linux-powered emulation console on Indiegogo. The device not only plays NES games, but Atari, Game Boy, PlayStation 1, Genesis, and more. You play using USB controllers. In addition, it can serve as a media player (with Kodi) or a full-fledged Linux desktop. Some other features include 4K video playback, Wi-Fi networking built in, and a compact and portable design. There's even a deluxe version that ships with Bluetooth, an extra controller and 32GB of storage; the basic configuration includes just one controller and 16GB of storage. You can view the Indiegogo page here.
The real strengths of the NES Classic (Score:5, Insightful)
1) It's simple
2) It's plug-and-play
3) It's cheap (or rather, it will be when you can find them in stock)
Most other emulator consoles only succeed at #3. Most people aren't going to hunt down ROM's from skeavy pirate sites or buy overpriced old cartridges just to play old games. They want something they can just buy, plug-in, and play.
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People will pay more than $60 for a single cartridge of one Mario Brothers game (or $5 for a downloadable version for their Wii). The NES Classic is a helluva bargain by comparison.
Re:The real strengths of the NES Classic (Score:4, Funny)
I read somewhere that it's something used to make sandwiches.
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So decide that people can learn command line stuff and find ways to teach them. I usually explain super-user as a wizard, great powers but capacity for destruction too and therefore how sudo is usually 'safer'. In the same vein, apt-get is just an install and often it's more tro
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The other great thing about the NES Classic is that you get proper NES controllers with it. Playing on the keyboard or with modern controllers isn't the same.
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A keyboard is definitely a lousy way to play Nintendo, but I've never had a problem with a USB game pad. In fact, more buttons can be nice for some auto-fire features, and the rounded contours are a lot gentler on the hands.
So it's illegal then? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Let's be honest here. How many people are going to buy this thing and only use ROM's they've made themselves from their own cartridges and discs? Hell, how many people would even know HOW to make ROM's for this thing?
As with pretty much all 3rd-party emulators, the creators know full well what it's going to be used for.
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The NES didn't have a BIOS. Neither did most of the other pre-32-bit era consoles.
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They will probably get around it by saying you have to put the firmware on the SD card alone side the ROMs, leaving it up to the user to provide it.
Lawsuits off the starboard bow! (Score:2)
What's the over/under on time until these people are sued into oblivion for contributory copyright infringement?
Looks like RetroArch (Score:3)
This is pretty much exactly what you get with RetroPie [retropie.org.uk]. I wonder if the 4k video is limited to x264 or can it do HEVC (kind of doubt it)?
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There is definitely a market for this though.
I almost bought a Pi3 for this purpose, but then saw that you can compile retropie on Linux, so I did so on my machine.
Now I have it up and running, and it's mostly straight-forward... lots of config files if you need to tweak something. But when something doesn't go right, it's not so easy to troubleshoot. e.g. Vector MAME games weren't playing. Got that figured by using a different emulator, but now on Star Wars I can't get it to insert coins. Looks like oth
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This is pretty much exactly what you get with RetroPie [retropie.org.uk]. I wonder if the 4k video is limited to x264 or can it do HEVC (kind of doubt it)?
Except RetroPie, A Raspberry Pi 3 (with integrated Bluetooth) and a quality wireless controller will set you back significantly less than $70 (the lowest-priced option Retroengine available). Sure, you don't get the Cool, Genesis-looking enclosure, but I already have a *real* one of those. I just slapped an Atari sticker on my Pi's lid.
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That's not the weird kickstarted android box with some exclusive games that got destroyed by the raspi.
That's the weird kickstarted linux box with no exclusive games that got destroyed even harder by the raspi.
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AFAIK Kickstarter has some regional/banking requirements that Indiegogo doesn't.
MAME on ARM SBC (Score:1)
Looking at the specs, it appears that this is likely just a build of MAME that runs on a single board computer with an ARM chip. It may be a quad core chip but due to IPC speed limitations, only one core can be effectively utilized by emulators. You'll get better performance out of a Raspberry Pi 3 but this does come in a fun case.
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Stating a fact is flamebait? lolwut? Owning a game does not give you a license or right to download a second copy from the Internet. Just like I don't have the right to download the Beatle's White Album from The Pirate Bay simply because I own the LP.
Let me guess, the person who modded me down probably also thought adding that "if you're law enforcement you can't to my FTP/DCC server" text held any legal weight?
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Moderator probably thinks USA law applies in all countries.
Moral question of emulation (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course, there are moral concerns here, as you are often downloading the games illegally -- unless you own the physical copy, that is.
These games have often been out of print for decades, and legally exist in the wild only on outdated hardware. Is it not equally immoral to wait for the copyright to expire on these games to copy them, when the technology to do so may not exist in the future? Why is protecting a copyright on something that has been out of print, presumably determined by the publisher to be unprofitable somehow "moral".
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So by this logic it's moral for me to violate the license of older versions of GCC, Linux, etc. simply because they are out-of-date, unsupported and thus being equivalent to an "out-of-print" game? Why should I have to wait until the copyright expires?
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Silly AC. "Information wants to be free" only applies to proprietary software not GPLed code.
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You are changing the argument from content to license. Does not compute.
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Except that use of "content" is always governed under a license.
Re: Moral question of emulation (Score:3)
Children have never noticed that early Linux is not GPL. Just as the same for early GCC, binutils, gas, emacs, bison..,
Are you me?
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For the same reason it's not moral for me to take the Linux 0.9 source code and turn it in to a proprietary product even though it's long obsolete and most of the code was probably rewritten years ago in modern versions of the kernel. Just because I want to do something does not make it legal or moral.
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The original length of copyright in the United States was 14 years, and it had to be explicitly applied for. If the author wished, they could apply for a second 14year monopoly grant, but after that the work entered the public domain, so it could be used and built upon by others.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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Companies have been protecting the copyright on their old games because they can now sell them again on modern consoles, via classic game collections and the Nintendo Virtual Console.
While they mostly tolerate individuals pirating ROMs, because there isn't much they can do about it, they do go after people selling discs pre-loaded with the emulators and some games. I imagine eBay will get lots of reports of people selling this thing in a similar manner.
Call me when its actaully built and mass produced (Score:2)
until then my money stays with me.
Retropie (Score:2)
So..........they're selling a retropie box?
You can tell from the shots its obviously just a skin for retropie, even the feature set gives it away. So they are using the cheapest PI-esque chipset they can get to keep their markup high enough for a profit. When you could just get an rpi3 and get bluetooth built in for the same price and have a faster board
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The only thing this looks like it has going for it is the smartphone-based setup. But then again I haven't dived into RetroPie in a few months so maybe that's just some open-source/free software project they've forked or modified.
Either way RetroPie is a bit of a pain in the ass to setup. If these guys have made it easier than it may be worth the slight markup.
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RetroPie a pain in the ass?
You flash the image to a blank SD card, and the first time it boots up, it expands to fill the entire card. Then you plug in a blank USB stick and RetroPie will create the relevant ROM folders. After you populate the USB stick with ROMs and plug it back into the RetroPie, it will copy the ROMs over to the correct folder and make them available in the menu.
On first bootup, it'll go straight to the controller configuration, and it's very easy to go through for additional controllers