Retrode, a USB game cartridge adapter

Retrode, a USB adapter for 16-bit Nintendo and Sega carts, may be preordered for $85 at the official website. Features include two controller ports for each platform, driverless operation with any emulator software, and plug-in expansion possibilities.

• [Mujokan]

  It’s nice for collectors, but unfortunately it’s damned difficult to get complete accuracy from an emulator. http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/08/accuracy-takes-power-one-mans-3ghz-quest-to-build-a-perfect-snes-emulator.ars

  Myself I’m happy enough grabbing ROM images off the web and plugging in a USB controller. I would be paying a fortune to track down some of the games I’ve played in the original format.

• [Trent Hawkins]

  Supaboy seems like a far better idea, since it does something useful (make the game portable) rather then doing the same thing as getting an old system or emulating it on the PC.
  http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/02/supaboy-portable-snes-the-most-fun-you-can-have-without-a-solde/

• [Rob Beschizza]

  A better idea is just downloading the ROMs.

  • [morkl]

    But, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, that’s ILLEGAL!

  • [travtastic]

    You’re not fooling me this time, Satan.

  • [blepom]

     Illegal unless you own the cartridge…I am on the clear, but at times I’d like to get the savegames from my old carts instead of starting fresh with a ROM. Something like this could probably help with that. I hope, otherwise it’s useless.

• [bcsizemo]

  Or go to the flea market/used video game store and pickup a Genesis and SNES for probably less than the $85…

• [Grim Beefer]

  I wonder if this thing could be hacked to make ROM images from carts you legally own AND to dump images into rewritable carts, capable of being played in any standard SNES/Genesis system. If so, sign me up.

  • [Mujokan]

    Naively I would think that if it works with any emulator as advertised, somehow it must be presenting the emulator with a straight ROM image.

  • [ddh819]

    it sounds like that is what this does – dumps the rom and mounts as a usb drive which an emulator could read from  - the rom could be copied to an sd card if you had that kind of flash cart