Hyperkin's RetroN 1 HD - 720p HDMI NES Clone review by RetroRGB 

I think the design team didn't quite understand when the accounting department asked them to "cut corners". Their slogan should be: "Hyperkin: cutting corners in every conceivable way."

Not playing non-original a non-issue for me... I agree, somebody needs to come out with like a 99 dollar price point NES somewhere in between this and the AVS, get the price down by no controller, no cables, and mass production. It would have been great if the NES classic mini would play carts...

Well, the AVS is 170 bucks and available on pre-order, the Analogue Nt is 449 bucks and on pre-order as well. This is 39.99 and you can get it today. I'd fully expect both the AVS and Analogue to blow it away. I think a more fair comparison, while staying within its target market, would be to compare it to an original NES and a clone NES, both hooked up via composite, on a flat panel LCD to the RetroN1 HD hooked up via composite and via HDMI. The RetroN1 HD could still very well be terrible in that comparison, but I think it sets a more reasonable expectation of who would be buying this product. I suspect the majority of the target customers either have some NES carts laying around, or may be in the market to pick up a handful of their favorites and are looking to play it on a modern TV. These folks are not spending 170 or 449 bucks on a console to play NES games. I am disappointed to learn that the controller is lousy, as I actually like the look of it and it appeared that it could be more comfortable than a traditional NES controller. I wonder if the PCB is similarly sized and would allow a hardware swap...

I'm glad you did an in depth review. So many youtubers, including a well known "81" are giving it great reviews but they're not even mentioning the obvious terrible sound quality, and they have in game footage running!. Based on the inside they really got it as cheap as possible. I didn't even realize how off the color pallet was. Your the only one who has pointed out that it doesn't work with the everdrive which is something that at least one of those reviewers should have brought up. It's very bizarre that nes clones are still using that NOA chip. Meanwhile why is it so hard for these clones to get the sound right or at the very least pretty close. Hyperkin just keeps throwing things at the wall. Only product I'm interested in they have coming up is the snes mouse that is laser based but even then that might end up being shoddy.

fpga's have us spoiled.

How is Hyperkin still on the market?

The Retron HD NES video quality looks similar to the same quality on the Wii U VC. Same colors but contrast a bit darken probably to prevent seizure I guess.

Thanks for the review. I was curious to see what was inside these things. The video from your cameras seemed a bit blurry. You may want to lower your camera exposure just a bit, and adjust contrast/brightness to compensate for the darker image (at least that's how I overcame this issue when I stream).

Really nice review. Thank You for taking the time to push this out. I don't know why you got thumbs down on it. It was straight to the point. As always I watch retrorgb to keep up on everything console related!

Bob, if GamerzTek's competing console, the 8-Bit HD, is in any way similar to the RetroN HD, that scaler is NOT using Composite video at all, but what appears to be some form of digital RGB. On the 8-Bit HD, Composite is either taken straight from the NOAC and sent to the yellow RCA output or encoded directly at the HDMI transmitter and sent out to the TV that way. The first 8-Bit HD revision uses the former, the second revision uses the latter. I retraced the entire video circuit on the first revision and found Composite didn't touch the HDMI transmitter at all, in fact, there seemed to be 3 different signals that looked like some sort of digital video when probed with an oscilloscope going into the HDMI transmitter. As a matter of fact, there exist some NOAC designs with digital RGB as part of an interface to directly connect a TFT LCD screen on such chipsets. I found some datasheets of such chipsets, and I wouldn't be surprised if at least one such NOAC is being used on these HD Famiclones. Something worth investigating, in my opinion.

I just picked this up yesterday and I have to say for the price it really isn't a bad deal. To me it works just fine there's no control lag the only two complaint I have is that the color palette on many games can be off slightly sometimes a bit more than that. My second complaint is it doesn't do well when I turn on my surroundsound system. If the audio is coming straight out of my TV its fine but once I turn on the surroundsound it gets a bit choppy I don't know if anybody else has that issue.

Bob, your honest and in-depth review is informative and appreciated. Regardless of the brand, none of these cheap clone systems are anywhere near adequate. Regardless of the brand, something is always wrong. It can be any combination of the sound, the color or the included proprietary controller (many systems don't have the ability to use original controllers). I've had a few of these cheap clone systems over the years and have been done with them until FPGA. Its taken years to get it right with the FPGA systems, but you get what you pay for (and then some with the Analogue NT Mini on JB Firmware). I do think Nintendo has the right concept with their "Classic" series of consoles, but Lucy pulled the football on Charlie Brown with the first offering. Nintendo prematurely stopped producing the NES Classic before many of us could get one. Prices are ridiculous on ebay now. We shall see what happens this fall with the SNES Classic. Right now, the best "cheap" alternative is Retropie or just emulating on a PC, but those options require fiddling and configuring. As retro gamers, maybe we are too hard core? Obviously these cheap clone systems sell to a more casual market, because so many are being produced and are eventually updated. There are even several brands to choose from. None of them are for me, including the Retron 5 and the Retro Freak. Sorry for writing a book.

Sent here from Twincadia. Glad I found ya, killer review dude.

great review Bob and appreciate the honesty

I like mine, even with the audio and color flaws. I am currently using it as my main NES box, not all of the games sound and look bad....the few that don't I play on it. I own a retro trio and have my functional and mint condition NES in storage...and I use retropie..I got the 8-Bit HD just to see for myself on how bad it was...I put it back in the box and returned to Amazon within the first 2 minutes.

Even though some people are making great suggestions (like compare this to a real NES) - this is easily the best review of this device on RU-vid. Thank you, Bob.

Thanks for the excellent system breakdown and review! I had seen some of the positive reviews on RU-vid as well and agree that they are unwarranted. Keep up the great work!

Seen some positive reviews on this and was swaying towards it, then came across your channel and this is how a review should be done! All of the other guys/girls didn't even realize that there was a pal switch at the bottom! Subbed and thanks for a great video 👍 will not be purchasing!

I only have one question, where can I get that sick t-shirt? 😁

By the way, part of the reason the sound difference bothers you (and me) more than others is probably because of your musical background. As a music lover I can definitely relate.

The 8FPS frame-rate sent me into an epileptic seizure, Bob.

Thank you for finally making a review of this console with criticism! All the early reviews of this console had everyone say "oh it's not perfect but it's not bad, sound is a little off but not bad, all in all a great cheap entry level NES". All those reviewers had their RetronN1 HDs sent to them from Hyperkin to review so of course they're going to keep the criticism of the console to a bare minimum. Btw wow, that screen shot of SMB3 makes the first level look like it's going to rain in that level lol. Also, I had no idea this didn't even work with an EverDrive, almost any clone works with the EverDrive so that's surprising. Ugh, such a crappy clone, thanks for the all extra info that was not mentioned in the early reviews.

to me that scaler chip looks very much like the chip used in the cheap compostie to hdmi boxes from ebay.

By the way, if you are doing a shot where the subject is going to remain about the same distance from the camera throughout, see if the camera has a "focus lock" option. I use that for some of my unboxings and it really helps.

I think I can understand why someone might recommend these because of the low price, but essentially I agree with your review. It was great to see the side-by-side comparison with the AVS, but the AVS is an excellent system costing 4-5(?) times as much without even including a controller. I would never attempt to argue specs or technical stuff with you, but I disagree with your assertion that the AVS is the next step up after this. China has been busy for one, and besides that, the AVS is one of the very best for compatibility and accuracy. I personally prefer it to the super expensive metal thing that you also mentioned, but then I've never owned one of those. I think I am rambling. Thank you for the review. Oh now I remember--I wanted to ask about input lag. Any emulation system is a risky purchase because of that as much as anything else, in my opinion. As much as people complained about the NEO GEO X, the thing that bothered me most by far was the input lag on every TV I tried with the exception of one CRT using composite. Can you give me any information about input lag on this thing? Thanks again for all your great videos!

It's not upscaling composite output because the composite ouput on that system colors are better than the HDMI. Unless the conversion from composite to HDMI is messing something up.

Had the chance to grab one recently, glad I passed on it after seeing this. Thanks Bob!

I know this video is over 2 years old now but the non Hdmi version for whatever reason does work with the everdrive

If only the AVS wasn't basically impossible to order from Europe. :/ Not that this is going to push me to purchase a Retron... Just saying it's a real shame.

No surprises. Hyperkin does what they do yet again.

For the price I think it's worth it for someone like me. I'm not particularly interested in NES from a collector point of view (like I am with other consoles) but I do have dragon warrior from my childhood still kicking around. I have a dozen systems I could emulate it on including a pi with a nes classic clone case, an nes classic modded, snes classic, nvidia shield, etc etc. But paying $35 (canadian) for this system just to put electrons through this old cartridge again and see it work is worth it. It also looks pretty cool. NES's are about $70 where I live so I think this worked well for me. Especially for an old RPG where latency doesn't really matter.

I don't know if it's been said but some parts of the video could've used some background music maybe? It felt too silent at times. It might just be me though... Nice work on the camera setup though! Good stuff.

With no everdrive support I guess you didn't run the 240P test suite then...... Could you tell if the internal scaler applied unnecessary deinterlacing? Thanks for the review.

Most likely is composite upscaled to HDMI, the NES unmodified can only do composite at best, I think when I get an 8 bit Nintendo I'm going to skip the NES and all clone systems and get an AV Famicom.

One of the most honest reviews I've seen. I'm re sharing this.

I would assume that the AliExpress HDMI NES and Famicom would basically be the same thing. I dont see why they would put any research into making a better product.

Wow. They gota step up there game. You should do a review on that retrotrio coming out also with hdmi.

Great review. There's so many channels out there that don't seem to be doing in-depth reviews on this device post-release. Hell, for that matter, there's very little to go on via Amazon reviews as well. I've seen tons of pre-release videos, but none as good as this one. I'd love to see a clearer video of what carts do and don't work, addressing input lag, and audio clarity between games. It would be interested to see if perhaps a Game Genie would fix some of the compatibility issues some have ran into. While I've been PATIENTLY waiting for a goddamn AVS since January (Thanks China and lack of updates), I scored one of these to be shipped before the weekend. I hope at least It'll be better than the "8-BIT HD" NES Clone from GamerzTek. ANYTHING is better then that piece of shit.

Call it "the cut Conner Company".

Could you please! Measure to which pins the composit video and audio are going to on the HDMI converting chip?

Thank you for the honesty Bob

7:14 - So why did you use that as your comparison? It makes no sense...

How is lag? - I'm simply looking for something lower in lag for my Grandma to play just Dr. Mario on an HDTV and simpler to use than a Pi. Picture and Audio doesn't need to be perfect for her use case.

Great review by the way I got mines a couple weeks ago and now when I plug in the controller to the console. Doesn't even work so I try to use an NES controller it worked fine. And just recently my kids drop the consul on the floor by mistake and now nothing works the game runs but you can't press start on the controller on both controllers the NES and a hyper can controller . And all I got to say is this must be cheap parts. If my Nes drop it would probably still work. Any possibility do you think that the control parts can be fixable?

any reason that your video capturing is a jittery sub-30FPS slideshow in a video that is evaluating video quality?

I have heard the Hyperkin 6 button Sega Genesis controllers are okay...

brb, going to pick one up for £20 ($25). I quite like the CRT emulation this thing does (wink emoticon), and it works with 500-in-1 carts, right?

thats is the difference in getting a 40 dollar clone and a 200 clone. its is really not a good comparison if you ask me. its like comparing a 100,000 dollar car to a 10,000 dollar car, they are both cars but really two different classes!

I wonder what signals are going to the video PCB. Would be cool if the video PCB could be reprogrammed and re-purposed for console HDMI mods. Maybe a QSB could feed RGB/component into the video chip if it accepts it.

WHAT ABOUT THE COMPOSITE VIDEO OUTPUT ON A CRT???

it's, not high quality for sure, but it is majorly cheap and is a decent way to play some zapper games on a crt if you have a gun and no original console. I have also seen reviews where 500-in-one multicarts were shown to work on it.

holy hell that framerate during the unboxing is something else.

Why is your video stuttering and interlaced sometimes?

I disagree on the controller. Maybe you got a bad one, because I find it a quality and comfortable controller. But the rest of the review is valid.

whats with the combing effect in the video (like its interlaced)

Seems like they would have straitened the emulation thing out, put in some cheap android capable hardware in, run an NES emulator...they could figuratively sell it for $40. I have a chinkshit android phone that runs NES and it only cost $20. Strip away the screen and all that extra stuff, use a stripped down Retron 5 cart interface..and you have a capable clone. I figured NOACs would be gone by now. Also why don't these NOAC clones come with a famicom port along with an NES port?

W t h ? With that Nes Chip ?

Great review Bob. I knew that I'd pass on it just from Hyperkins own live demos. The music and sound effects were all wrong for the original SMB and Zelda. When asked about it, the marketing guys claimed that it was still beta hardware. As for the other "youtube guys" that are recommending it, it's one reason why I'm really starting to pay less attention to a lot of the "popular" retro youtubers. Most of the time, they are either outright wrong, or just far from thorough. Keep up the good work buddy!

Thank you for calling out Hyperkin for what they are, a cash-grab company that doesn't care about quality

I absolutely love mine. Yes I know the colors are a little off, but compared to the other clone consoles that are not emulation and within the same price range, the music is far superior to the others. I've heard the other cheap offerings and the sound quality is nowhere near as loud or clear as this one. So I'll take the better sounding cheap console over the other none emulation cheap consoles better color choice. I'm currently using it as a stepping stone while I wait to get the funds to get my original NES modded for RGB. I can only afford one big purchase at a time and the next one is going to be the framemeister. I'll have to wait a whole nother year to get the NES RGB modded around $200 from what I can tell.

Rambling feedback incoming because you seem so open to it.... First, let me state that I agree with you that this is a waste of money for people chasing a high quality retro gaming experience. Because some of this will probably sound like I'm defending the product or Hyperkin when I'm not. I really appreciate all the hard work you do and don't want to dissuade you in any way from making awesome useful videos. I think I would have appreciated the user experience review before the hardware inspection. From my perspective it's more important to know what the user experience is rather than how it's achieved. And I thought you mentioned in your bitbuilt roundup that you were going to front load reviews with things that most people will get hung up on so they could tune out as you go deeper. I know you have history with Hyperkin. But this review seems to draw a bit on that and I'm not sure that's good for newer viewers. As a new'ish viewer of only 4 months. I've heard you mention Hyperkin in a bad light a few times. But I'm currently lacking specifics on their major shortcomings other than stolen code at some point. To expand on that. When you mentioned that the first thing you noticed was how bad the colors look. The NES color palette is so poorly defined that it sounded like a generic subjective fanboy statement. In contrast, mentioning how soft the output is was much more useful. And the zoomed in shot of link in legend of zelda brought the review right back into highly objective space. Later in the review you made the statement that you're pretty sure it's just upscaled composite. That is super concise information that would have helped closer to the beginning to summarize the video quality. For the audio comparison. I really think you should have a stricter tolerance for apples to apples comparison. I know that you're a musician, so I assume your hearing is much more tuned than my own. But I couldn't actually hear the difference between the SMB3 examples. And I though the Castlevania example was shocking until you mentioned it wasn't actually apples to apples. I found the unboxing to be highly positive. And calling out the beveled corner weirdness was interesting. Especially when that beveling clearly messed up their controller decal. I found the hardware review to be most useful when mentioning it was 10 year old technology. I actually had no idea that there were system on a chip designs that old. Calling out the right dpad problem was useful data. Calling out the nice feel of the plastic was also useful to me. I didn't even notice that you didn't do a lag test until I read other comments. I guess I assumed it was 2-3 frames like most emulation. I have to agree that it would have been useful to see. I'm also curious if the controller works with a real nintendo system. Just as something to salvage in case of buyer's remorse. Again, thanks for making this review and all the generally awesome content you produce! Hopefully some of this makes sense. Trying to nail down subjective vs objective reviewing is hard.

Hyperion products are trash. I remember buying the 3 in 1 for genesis S video output.... it broke in less then a day. I've never brokennany console on my life save for the breakfast a few times due to over use

Ainda bem que vi seu vídeo antes de comprar, jurei que esse console era um ideia descente, mas não passa de mais um lixo. Obrigado.

Does this play homebrew & repo carts?

WTF this think have no pink color?!

Great review. After owning a Retron 5 and watching this, I wouldn't touch another Hyperkin product with a 10' pole. Even if it had a condom on it....

Dude I was thinking about getting one of these but you kinda changed my mind lol.

Saw the close in and went "well thats composite shittily upscaled to 720P" and then thats what you said hah

There’s no way it’s composite being scaled the video quality is far too good for good for that to be the case. It’s just a system on a chip that was made for use on those cheap little handheld portables that produces a digital video output originally meant for TFT screens being converted to HDMI.

A glorified system-on-a-chip is what this is!

I didn't expect it to be great but that just looks bad.

composite to HDMI encoder....... OMG how lazy and how low they can go..? Thanks for review. I save my few bucks here. :( what a disappointment this is..

Finally a decent review for this thing!

don't turn it on take it apart!!!

I have one of these and honestly if it wasnt for videos like this nobody but the most anal of people would even notice the difference in color and sound.

I thought this came with preinstalled games. 😔

Wish I had watched this review before I bought this piece of junk.

Thanks for the review. Classic example of you get what you pay for!

No surprise. Cheap Hyperkin crap is garbage.

Saw couple of them at Frys today, glad I skipped it!

It really looks and sounds like shit.

even Nesticle does a better job

Audio sounds terrible - waste of $

surprised you didnt touch at all on input lag? anywho these products and the reviews of them remind me a lot of specialty coffee. A lot of people just dont care about specialty coffee and are cool with drinking commodity coffee, and thats okay. I cant talk to them about the man virtues of drinking responsibly sourced, carefully roasted, carefully prepared coffee because at the end of the day, they just need to get caffeinated on the cheap