Atari 2600 For the 21st Century? Hyperkin Retron 77 Review

In this video, we test out the Hyperkin RetroN 77 Atari 2600 HDMI-equipped clone system.Show more

During a livestream in the summer of 2020, one of our supporters, John Early, asked if we could test out the Hyperkin RetroN 77, a clone system designed to play the Atari 2600 catalog of games in 720P HD. I finally pulled the trigger and bought a unit.

While I did have a 2600 in the 80's, I've never had the passion or love for it as I have had for Nintendo or Sega system. As such, I've not delved into collecting for the system. The 2600's blocky graphics, poor sound, and generally crappy games are some of the reasons why I have never collected for the system. As such, I consider myself part of the audience Hyperkin is targeting with a system such as this; familiar with the console and library but not a purist for it.

After I finished filming my unboxing video, a weird thing happened. I couldn't get any games to read in the system. Like none. When you don't have a cartridge installed, the system should boot to the system menu, and it wasn't even doing that. Perplexed I tried updating the firmware, flashing custom firmware, nothing I tried worked. I exchanged the unit where I bought it at Live Action Games, and the replacement unit failed out of the box. This time I contacted Hyperkin directly for a replacement. I gave them all the info with what was going on, a copy of my receipt, and they sent me an RMA form to send the unit back. I was very disappointed that I had to pay nearly $15 on return shipping. As someone involved in customer service, this is something I have pushed against in my own fields. The customer has already been let down with the product failure, don't make them pay more for a device that failed, especially an out of the box failure like I encountered.

Nearly 6-weeks later I finally received my replacement unit. And, well, this also failed right out of the box. For those keeping score, this is 3 failures, 2 of which were right from the box. I tried 3 different TVs, 4 power supplies, going through and bypassing my capture card, everything I could think of and I don't get any display or audio. Finally, I downloaded the stock firmware to a different SD card, and amazingly, the system now worked. Firmware updates should provide new features or stability, they shouldn't be there for out-of-the-box core functionality.

With these issues finally out of the way, I got to try some gameplay. And, well, Atari 2600 games are just not great. I bought 10-games for the system for this review, 3 of which I could never get working, but the other 7 worked after cleaning. With the stock Trooper controller, I did feel that gameplay was ok, but in games like Pac Man, quick inputs were often not read or registered. I never had these issues with the Ranger controller, which worked much better across all games.

Speaking of the Ranger controller, this is a decent add-on for the system. The integrated paddle is an interesting option. I dig the 10-foot long controller cable, and for joystick games, it felt much more precise than the Trooper controller. The paddle option was decent, but I felt like I had to rotate it excessively to get the full range of motion. Less rotation for full travel would be nice, as would be a center or neutral position click or notch, similar to what RC transmitters have.

Why It RoX:
- Allows Atari 2600 Games to play in 720P
- 4:3/16:9 button
- Trooper Controller has a good feel
- Large community for custom firmware
- Can run ROMs from SD Card

What could be improved:
- 3 Out of the Box failures, QC is definitely lacking
- Aspect ratio must be set each time the system is power cycled
- Doesn't play cartridge, instead ROM is dumped to local memory
- Trooper controller didn't always feel precise
- Firmware update required to get 3rd unit to play

Should you buy one?
If the first Retron 77 I bought worked like the 3rd one after the firmware update from the box, it would have been easy to recommend. I cannot ignore the 3 system failures from the box, even if the 3rd unit only needed a firmware update. If these systems are QC'ed before being boxed or shipped, these should have been caught. I also have an issue with a manufacturer charging return shipping on a from-the-box failure. You've already disappointed a customer with the failure, don't make them have to pay more to get what they should have gotten from the box with what they've already paid. The Homebrew community has really embraced the Retron 77, and that's a good thing. Perhaps the reason for the popularity is the lack of competition as Hyperkin has this space pretty much to themselves. There's definitely room for competitors to enter the market, and push everyone to get better.

#Atari2600 #Hyperkin #Retron77 #AtariHDMI #AtariBox #AtariVCS

The footage used in this review are used under the Fair Use laws, referenced below:
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/107