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Retron 5 contains multiple GPL violations, illegally uses Retroarch code
- Thread starter thefil
- Start date
CambriaRising
Member
Ah gotcha, didn't know if you thought Emulators were illegal or not. You can never tell with these discussions.
You do realize that selling and licensing fonts is big business, right?
undu
Member
It's not, however, some code they used have non-commercial licenses, which bars any third-partied from profiting with derived programs.
I don't think emulators themselves are illegal, but i do have plenty of reservations about their usage. Mostly when it comes to stealing ROM's and ISO's off the internet without paying the proper benefactors.
MAME, i can understand, mostly because nobody is gonna own an arcade cabinet normally. But for commercial grade consoles you can just buy with games easily accessible, it rubs me the wrong way the younger the console/software is.
Atleast own the game and use emulation through that if one is gonna do it.
His expanded stance was already dumb enough. He reasoned that, because it ran on any hardware, it was therefore hardware emulation. I.E. as long as the software emulator had hardware to run it at all, it was hardware emulation. He double downed by calling SOAC, "hardware emulation" in the same topic.
But of course, I've had to buy several myself to get some projects done.
I just found it amusing that they'd bring up Verdana as one of the many things that seem to be wrong with this whole project.
I think it was presented to show that they just didn't give a fuck from top to bottom.
7DollarHagane
Banned
This thing is trash and stinks of it even more so now.
Hopefully the end result is opening the platform up to better emulation and use.
I knew there was no way that hyperkin actually used their own r&d and cash to develop so many emulators that actually did a good job.
Hopefully the end result is opening the platform up to better emulation and use.
I knew there was no way that hyperkin actually used their own r&d and cash to develop so many emulators that actually did a good job.
I was going to get one but when I saw Game Sack review of and they opened the system up, it just looked so cheap and clearly wasn't worth buying.
Hmm not really, it just mean that they illegally took your money as you never got your product.
I would chase them up for a refund if I were you.
Hmm not really, it just mean that they illegally took your money as you never got your product.
I would chase them up for a refund if I were you.
entremet
Member
Too bad they didn't do their due diligence, because I think that type of machine is great for those who don't want to have a huge mess of retro consoles hooked up at all times.
Also consoles break, although the older ones are more reliable, it's nice having a back up system.
I never cared for PC emulators.
I guess I'll stick to the Wii Virtual Console for now.
Also consoles break, although the older ones are more reliable, it's nice having a back up system.
I never cared for PC emulators.
I guess I'll stick to the Wii Virtual Console for now.
close to the edge
Member
That's uncool. Open source software is something every developer should respect. The fact that there are open source libraries and frameworks available for pretty much anything you can imagine has helped software development a lot. Pretty much every developer has benefitted, directly or indirectly from OSS, so it should be obvious that you should give something back, if only credit and honoring the licenses that were used.
Pretty sure they knew what they were doing, it's why they kept insisting they were using hardware emulation when I asked them what emulators they were using. It's not like anyone expected them to make their own from scratch, I was just hoping they worked out a commercial license deal with emulators that allowed that. Apparently not.
Funny thing is I just bought one Friday.
Mutanthands
Member
Damn. Just bought one from ThinkGeek today.
Best we can hope for is that they open up the OS to open source development. With the Retrode gone, it would be an excellent platform to tweak for cartridge lovers, Android or not.
Best we can hope for is that they open up the OS to open source development. With the Retrode gone, it would be an excellent platform to tweak for cartridge lovers, Android or not.
Hyperkin said they might open it up after launch, hopefully they follow through on that. If the retrode is anything to go by, it should be possible to make plugin adapters for most of the missing cartridge systems if they open up the software side.
Who's gonna force them? I highly doubt there will be any legal action.
I don't. There are organizations dedicated to taking up small cases like this.
andrerobot
Member
I just tweeted this to ThinkGeek, I think they shouldn't sell a product that has been known to use unlicensed code.
...I'm like 95% sure the Retron 5 never had a kickstarter.
Elfforkusu
Member
Always enjoyable when a company flagrantly violating the GPL gets its comeuppance.
I remember some kickstarter was not affiliated with hyperkin but they had retron rewards, but I can't remember exactly what it is.
runnin_blue
Banned
So what does this mean for the future? I've been patiently waiting for someone to hack the Retron5 so I can dump my (owned) roms on there and keep my original cartridges in storage for preservation. As a collector, I cringe every time I have to yank a cartridge out of those bloody slots. Before anyone suggests it, I do own multiple copies of the original consoles but don't have the space to hook them all up. Hence why I bought a Retron 5.
If they "open it up", does this mean this is likely to happen sooner?
If they "open it up", does this mean this is likely to happen sooner?
You should have bought a retrode when they were available. I don't know how expensive they are now.
SerTapTap
Member
...this IS pc emulators.
Same. That's pretty shitty.
entremet
Member
The legalities are sketchy. At least with the VC I support the companies. eBay is still secondhand and full of bootlegs.
TheUnknownForce
Member
It would be nice if there were a console device which did all this without legality issues. I really like what my Retron 5 has done, so if there was one that does go out and do that, I'd certainly support it.
But with Retron 5 being the only real attempt to make a physical console with emulation ability current out there, it is hard to say no.
But with Retron 5 being the only real attempt to make a physical console with emulation ability current out there, it is hard to say no.
MrNyarlathotep
Banned
No they're not. Emulation is entirely legal.
What people do with emulators ranges from developing for hardware which would otherwise be outside of a developers reach, through platform shifting titles they own, to 0-day warez, but it doesn't make emulation in and of itself 'sketchy'.
Plinko
Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
The Retrode, for those confused:
The retro gamer's best tool
Any way to use N64 games with this?
runnin_blue
Banned
To be honest, I never heard of the Retrode until very recently. I still don't even know what it is.
Yes, you can either build or buy pre-built conversion cartridges that plug into the genesis cart slot.
It is a USB device that you plug your cartridges into and it allows you to interface with a computer and pull a copy the ROM and save data for backup. You could also get add-ons for other cartridge based consoles because the base device only works for SNES and Genesis. You can also hook it into emulators and have it run your cartridges.
The Shadow
Member
I wasn't a big fan of the Retron 5, namely because despite being a physical console, it's still just an emulator, not real hardware.
Went to reply to this earlier, but then my mouse died on me. =/
Anyway, I guess they can't all be winners. I'm not the biggest stickler when it comes to emulation accuracy. Not too put too fine a point on it, but yeah I've been using Retroarch for a good while now. It's really a joy to play around with.
Legality aside, the console did live up to the talk, my most played device these past months.
They probably figured that an open-source emulator wasn't going to go through the bother of hiring a lawyer to sue -- lawyers cost money, and while emulators are legal, they've still got a bit of a negative perception due to the 'piracy' aspect (though obviously the RetroN 5 is designed around real cartridges anyway). The question is -- will the libretro/Retroarch team prove Hyperkin right?
I'm guessing this is it:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pikointeractive/super-4-in-1-multicart-for-the-snes
That kickstarter is run by the same guy who runs retroquest which sells a bunch of repro games.
SocksForWoks
Banned
Very disappointing.
KojiKnight
Member
There are often organizations who will take up these claims for the general good of the FOSS community, but it generally has to be a pretty aggrevious offense. Whether retron is a big enough one or not... if I had to guess, probably not.
Atari + Majesco Entertainment didn't get away with it.
http://sev-notes.blogspot.de/2009/06/gpl-scummvm-and-violations.html
But sure, you are right. The product should be avoided as well.
sixteen-bit
Member
Shit hardware and stolen software. Double threat!
I checked the manual and website last night, the funny thing is the Retron 5 doesn't even disclose the OS it's running on. Do we think they've paid for an expensive commercial OS, or they're still just running Android on Linux like they apparently were during development? Even if they switched to FreeBSD or NetBSD, they'd still have to have the copyright notices.
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