RetroGaming is constantly gaining in popularity, especially with the developments of single boards computer (raspberry pi, orange pi...) that enabled us to make homemad retrogaming consoles. However those required lot of knowhow on electronics and DIY. You may have seen "Gameboyzero" projects on internet and understand how difficult assembling one can be!
RetroStone 2 is here to bring you the best and most simple retrogaming experience.
You can use it to play to over 50 old video game systems : Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance, Super Nintendo, NES, Megadrive/Genesis, MasterSystem, gamegear, Atari, MaMe and so on. You can have a look here to all the supported systems.
In more technical terms they are basically SBC (single board computers) with all the peripheral needed to make a handheld console (screen, speaker, battery...), making it perfect to run Emulation Station/Retropie.
So yes, all your childhood video games on one handheld console, that you can plug to your TV, and play multiplayer. Yes that's a high five to my-10-years-old-self!
Play on TV !
Up to 4 players
Take it anywhere!
No more boring flights for you!
But wait! You are saying that we can play any game of our childhood, what does it mean exactly? Does RetroStone2 comes with games integrated?
Software : Retrostone2 is compatible with Retrorangepi (Retropie distribution for Allwinner processors. Thanks Retrorangepi team to have made a A20 version!!!). Retropie is an awesome emulation station software. It comes with a wide range of systems supported : Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance, Super Nintendo, Megadrive/Genesis, Atari, MaMe and so on. Check here all the supported systems.
The interface is very intuitive, and highly customizable. You can choose between a lot of themes !
Games : To install a game you need it's ROM file. A ROM file is a computer file containing all the game's data. You can legally download ROM of unlicensed games on the internet.
Some homebrew games of which makers agreed to have their games integrated into Retrorangepi :
Retroid, Run to Databay, Rope and Bombs, Into the BlueRetroid, Run to Databay, Rope and Bombs, Into the Blue
The Legend of Owlia, µCity, Nomoles
For licensed games legality of downloading ROM depend on your country. In some you need to have original copy of the game. In some others it may not be legal at all to download ROMs from internet.
Then to install the ROM simply transfer it with a USB stick to RetroStone.
Develop your own game, share them and discover other RetroStone user's games !
I think there's a lot of potential to develop and share your games! There's a topic on the 8BCraft forum dedicated to this. Let's make it more alive! 🙂
Also RetroStone2 is also compatible with most other A20 SBC OS (Armbian, Android...).
By connecting a screen, keyboard and mouse, your console becomes the perfect living room computer. Write a novel, surf YouTube or watch your movies on your big screen while kicking back on your couch.
Makers I have not forgotten you! RetroStone2 may come assembled but we left room for customization!
RetroStone2 has 60 GPIO and more interfaces like TVin/TVout available so that you can make your RetroStone2 unique!
- Screen is now a 3.5" IPS 640*480 DIGITAL vs the 360*240 flickering composite of the first model of RetroStone. That's 4 times more pixel! Some pictures to compare :
- PC screen protector added for product durability.
- Battery is a removable now, so you can change it and keep playing.
- Battery capacity has been increased to 4000mAh.
- ON/OFF button is push type now, pressing it launch a soft-shutdown. Saving you from SD corrupt of hard-shutdown.
- Better heat management and battery life : H3 is famous for overheating. Also as screen is driven by A20 directly we save the power that was used by the composite->RGB chip.
- Battery monitored directly by the CPU, enabling us to read battery remaining % capacity on the display! Also we can add an automatic soft-shutdown when battery is low, avoiding SD corruption of hard shutdown!
This is one big advantage of A20 over H3 is that it has a dedicated power management unit (AXP209), which communicate with A20.
- System is stable. Because we had some stability issues on RetroStone1 (boot/crash issues on some units) we conducted a lot of testing in order to make sure there won't be this kind of issue on RetroStone2. The boards boot 100% time and there's no crash/instability issues.
It can be :
- For yourself to have some good fun with friends.
- To make a gift to a special someone.
- To discover the world of hackerspaces, fablabs and SBC (single board computers).
Kickstarter backers could get their hand on the limited edition clear blue color of the RetroStone! Make sure to follow our facebook page and to suscribe to the newsletter to make sure to get future Kickstarter releases 😉
