The Retrode is a USB adapter for legacy

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

s that enabled the use of

game cartridges A ROM cartridge, usually referred to in context simply as a cartridge, cart, or card, is a replaceable part designed to be connected to a consumer electronics device such as a home computer, video game console or, to a lesser extent, electro ...

and controllers with

emulators In computing, an emulator is hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the ''host'') to behave like another computer system (called the ''guest''). An emulator typically enables the host system to run software or use peri ...

. Technically, the Retrode could be considered a ROM dumper in that it could create a copy of the cartridge content. Unlike most such devices, the Retrode could be operated without drivers or special software under the most popular operating systems. It further allowed the emulator to directly access the game data through the file system, eliminating the need to create a

ROM image A ROM image, or ROM file, is a computer file which contains a copy of the data from a read-only memory chip, often from a video game cartridge, or used to contain a computer's firmware, or from an arcade game's main board. The term is frequen ...

as a separate step. By default, the Retrode was equipped with cartridge slots and controller ports for the

SNES The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South Korea, 1991 in North America, 1992 in E ...

and Sega Genesis (also known as Mega Drive outside North America) game consoles; support for cartridges and controllers for other systems could be added via so-called plug-in adapters that users can buy online or make themselves.

History

The device was originally conceived by Matthias Hullin in 2009 during a discussion on USB accessories in a user forum for the Pandora handheld gaming console. Hullin prototyped the envisioned operation principle by wiring an

edge connector An edge connector is the portion of a printed circuit board (PCB) consisting of traces leading to the edge of the board that are intended to plug into a matching socket. The edge connector is a money-saving device because it only requires a sin ...

to an AT90USBKey evaluation board running a custom firmware, and prepared a demonstration video. After receiving significant coverage through various press outlets, Hullin developed the proof-of-concept (working title "snega2usb") into a product that was later manufactured by Retrode UG in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. Retrode UG ceased manufacturing the Retrode in the summer of 2013. The Retrode got licensed to OpenPandora GmbH in Germany and is available again since March 2015. The Retrode from 2015 is the second hardware revision. For each of the two hardware revisions, the transition from prototype to mass production was enabled through crowdfunding (pre-ordering). A comprehensive write-up by a Retrode user documents the history of the project.

Technical properties

The Retrode was based on an Atmel AVR microcontroller (AT90USB646) with an integrated USB interface, connecting to cartridge slots and game controller ports via the microcontroller's

GPIO A general-purpose input/output (GPIO) is an uncommitted digital signal pin on an integrated circuit or electronic circuit (e.g. MCUs/ MPUs ) board which may be used as an input or output, or both, and is controllable by software. GPIOs have no ...

pins. Its updateable firmware was based on the LUFA library by Dean Camera, and was developed mainly by Hullin with the help of a few users. The device enumerated as a composite USB device consisting of a

USB mass storage The USB mass storage device class (also known as USB MSC or UMS) is a set of computing communications protocols, specifically a USB Device Class, defined by the USB Implementers Forum that makes a USB device accessible to a host computing devi ...

endpoint and one or several USB

game controller A game controller, gaming controller, or simply controller, is an input device used with video games or entertainment systems to provide input to a video game, typically to control an object or character in the game. Before the seventh generatio ...

s. Access to the cartridge contents (typically a

ROM Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * ...

chip with the game itself and optionally also a battery-backed SRAM to store game progress) was provided through files on the USB medium. A number of device parameters could be edited through a configuration file. The first commercial version of the Retrode featured an aluminum profile enclosure with two slots to accommodate SNES and Sega Genesis game cartridges. Internal soldering pins allowed users to retrofit up to four ports for SNES controllers. The successor model, the Retrode 2, used a plastic enclosure with a dust cover, and had four controller ports built in—two for each system, SNES and Sega Genesis.

Consoles supported

References

{{Reflist Video game hardware

History

Technical properties

Consoles supported

See also

References