Retrostone 2 is coming soon

[h3mingw4y]

now with the fast raspberry 4 out i think sadly a underpowered retrostone 2 is not going to kickstart it ;(

i would like to see a injection molded retrostone casing for the raspberry 4 with dual sd card support the bigger the better
no more enthusiast only software support but mainstream support. one has to say the retrostone images
lack support for so many things ;( i think the image quality will not go up with the rs2 but more or less down with
less processing power

the raspberry 4 will certainly advance the emulation scene...

the retrostone has the best design by far in the emulationstation handhelds. please bring it over to mainstream.

i would like to upgrade my retrostone with a raspberry pi 5 in a few years by only swapping the board.

please consider a dual sd card case like the gpi pi zero case

best regards, h3m

[raikon]

So, when are we going to know about the specs on the new Retrosone? The design? The price? When will it be available?

Is there anything you can reveal?
The SOC, will be a chip allwinner or will it be something different?

Whatever it is I'm eager to know.

I am interested in buying something portable to play games from older consoles, mostly 8/16/32 bits.

After searching the internet and seeing various alternatives, what remained in my mind was the retrostone.
After entering the forum I saw that the second generation is being planned... Now I'm waiting.

[raikon]

Was said by the admin that he was setting it up for Armbian. So Broadcom Soc is out of the question. So I only see the following alternatives:

.Allwinner H6 = Quad-Core ARM Cortex-A53 @ 1.8 GHz/Mali-T720 MP2 @ 600Mhz
.Amlogic S922X Processor (12nm) = Quad-Core Cortex-A73 (1.8 Ghz) and Dual-core Cortex-A53 (1.9 Ghz) ARMv8-A architecture with Neon and Crypto extensions / Mali-G52 GPU with 6 x Execution Engines (846Mhz)
.Amlogic S905 SoC = 4 x ARM Cortex-A53 1.5Ghz 64bit ARMv8 Architecture @ 28nm/ARM Mali-450 MP 700MHz
.Rockchip RK3399 = Dual-Core Cortex-A72 Quad-Core Cortex-A53 CPU MALI-T860 MP4 GPU
.Samsung Exynos5422 = Cortex™-A15 2Ghz and Cortex™-A7 Octa core CPUs/Mali-T628 MP6 (OpenGL ES 3.1/2.0/1.1 and OpenCL 1.2 Full profile)

[pajay]

No worries about delays. Put up the kickstarter only when you're ready, no rush.

Having had more time with my RS1, I'm less disappointed with the screen. I agree that it's hard to see small text, but that's only a problem in menus, for games there's almost never an effect (affect?).

I really have fallen in love with the thing, and I'm a guaranteed supporter for whatever the RS2 would be. Yeah, tech keeps marching forward, and the Pi 4 is a big leap, but practicality steps in at a certain point and having the Retrostone as a prebuilt device that can handle all the retro games I want up to PSX is incredible.

For real Pierrre-Louis, thank you so much for what you're doing. The RS1 is an absolute accomplishment and I'm proud to be an owner.

[Webandme]

Kickstarter is here

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/58 ... ng-console

[norgei]

Kickstarter is here

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/58 ... ng-console

Yeah , started 2 days ago, and main goal already achieved. At 50 000€, a customization kit, at 100000€, onboard wifi added, 150000€, onboard bluetooth added in addition to the wifi, 200000€ & 500000€, surprise . It will be my first KS because I don't wan't to wait the availability on the site , and I want the Clear blue version of the Retrostone 2 Pro (my first Retrostone is Clear Red)

The shedule :

- September 2019 : End of crowdfunding

- October-november 2019 : Production

- December 2019 : Product certifications (CE and FCC certifications)

- End of December 2019 : Shipping to you guys!

More time before going on production needed if we reach the stretched goals of on-board wifi/bt

So, the improvements of the Retrostone 2 compared to the first Retrostone are :

- screen is now digital with a better definition, 640x480 vs the 360x240 flickering composite screen of the first Retrostone

- polycarbonate screen protector added for product durability

- battery capacity has been increased to 4000mAh

- battery is removable now

- ON/OFF button is push type now, pressing it launch a soft-shutdown. Saving you from SD corrupt of hard-shutdown

- new single board computer, this is a Retrostone Pi2 runs an A20 processor which is 2 cores 1.0GHz

- 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.

There are versions of the Retrostone 2, the normal edition and the pro edition with the following features :

- 8GB NAND onboard memory for better boot time and better reliability. So idea is to have the operating system on the NAND and ROM library on the SD card.

- SATA M.2 (2242 form factor) connector : This enables you to add a SSD to your RetroStone 2, this enables you to add up to 1TB !

- joystick connector : This small FPC connector enable you to add a P**3000 joystick very easily (only need to drill a hole in the case).

- resistive touch panel connector : Currently RetroStone2 does not have a touch panel as I have not found suppliers willing to work for small quantity yet. However in the future a touch glass may release, having the connector will enable you to upgrade it easily when it release.

- additional glass protector : Your unit will ship with the polycarbonate screen protector, however we'll ship along a glass screen protector. So depending on your preference you can change to the glass protector.

- 64GB SD card instead of the 8GB (or 16GB with facebook share free upgrade! See below)

And like for the first version, a limited Clear Blue edition color of the RetroStone 2 is available on Kickstarter only. Available both for normal and pro versions. You will choose color after the end of Kickstarter, we'll send you a survey.

If you want to know more about the Retrostone 2, follow the KS link .

[deerwings]

Would it be possible to get the case lengthened at the bottom by about another 1 inch? The current one is a little 'short' and the Retrostone 2 appears to have the same dimensions. Even if it's empty space inside (which could give room for any additional mods users might want to add!) the slight addition of length would make the unit much more comfortable to hold!

[zxdunny]

Would it be possible to get the case lengthened at the bottom by about another 1 inch? The current one is a little 'short' and the Retrostone 2 appears to have the same dimensions. Even if it's empty space inside (which could give room for any additional mods users might want to add!) the slight addition of length would make the unit much more comfortable to hold!

I've been asking for this since I got the 'stone 1. Looks like the RS2 is going to be the same stubby look, and will still feel like it will fall forwards out of your hands while playing

[deerwings]

Would it be possible to get the case lengthened at the bottom by about another 1 inch? The current one is a little 'short' and the Retrostone 2 appears to have the same dimensions. Even if it's empty space inside (which could give room for any additional mods users might want to add!) the slight addition of length would make the unit much more comfortable to hold!

I've been asking for this since I got the 'stone 1. Looks like the RS2 is going to be the same stubby look, and will still feel like it will fall forwards out of your hands while playing

Yeah, I had to file off a sharp bit of angular plastic around the bottom left screw hole because it was digging into my hands during play. If it was another inch longer, it would have been perfectly fine. I'd even be happy to pay for a replacement shell for my Retrostone 1 that was an inch longer on the bottom of it were available!

[zxdunny]

Would it be possible to get the case lengthened at the bottom by about another 1 inch? The current one is a little 'short' and the Retrostone 2 appears to have the same dimensions. Even if it's empty space inside (which could give room for any additional mods users might want to add!) the slight addition of length would make the unit much more comfortable to hold!

I've been asking for this since I got the 'stone 1. Looks like the RS2 is going to be the same stubby look, and will still feel like it will fall forwards out of your hands while playing

Yeah, I had to file off a sharp bit of angular plastic around the bottom left screw hole because it was digging into my hands during play. If it was another inch longer, it would have been perfectly fine. I'd even be happy to pay for a replacement shell for my Retrostone 1 that was an inch longer on the bottom of it were available!

If someone would whip up some 3D models, I'm sure we could make our own cases... That would rock.