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History of video games/Platforms/Retro Freak

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History

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Background

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Chiyoda, Tokyo where CYBER Gadget Corporation is based.

CYBER Gadget Corporation, a Chiyoda Tokyo based company, was founded on July 19th, 2000.[1] This company would later go on to develop the Retro Freak game console, an emulation based console which played cartridges from older systems.[2][3]

Launch

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The Retro Freak console was was announced around 2015.[4]

By December 2015 the console was being reviewed by western outlets,[2] and was likely released sometime thereabouts.

Sales of the system were temporarily frozen for a software audit regarding the potential use of the not commercially licensed SNES9x emulator.[5]

A limited edition console was released on the 18th of March, 2020.[6]

Technology

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Compute

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The system is based on a Rockchip 3066 system on a chip.[7] This system on a chip contains a dual core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU clocked at an unknown speed, likely around 1.6 gigahertz.[8] This system on a chip also contains a quad core Mali-400MP4 GPU clocked at 250 megahertz.[8]

The system has 512 megabytes of total DDR3 RAM split across dual NANYA 1508 NT5CB128M16FP - DII chips.[9]

Unusually for a console, all computation occurs on a small removable microconsole, which can be separated from the cartridge reading module and used as a smaller standalone device, or as a larger console with the cartridge reading module, giving it the ability to read cartridges directly instead of relying on ROMs.[9]

Storage

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Onboard storage consists of 4 gigabytes of NAND flash made by Micron.[9]

The system was able to backup cartridges to a microSD card,[10]. The microSD card can also use to write a file needed to request firmware from the manufacturer, which can then be used to update the system,[9] adding a rather unusual step compared to typical firmware updates.

Software

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The system runs Android as an operating system.[11]

References

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  1. ↑ "Company Profile｜サイバーガジェット". www.cybergadget.co.jp. https://www.cybergadget.co.jp/CompanyProfile/en.html. 
  2. ↑ a b "REVIEW : Cybergadget's Retro Freak Console | SEGA Nerds". Sega Nerds. 16 December 2015. https://seganerds.com/2015/12/15/review-cybergadgets-retro-freak-console/. 
  3. ↑ Peterson, Joel (30 August 2017). "Review: Retro Freak Premium game console" (in en-CA). Destructoid. https://www.destructoid.com/review-retro-freak-premium-game-console/. 
  4. ↑ Plunkett, Luke. "Retro Console Promises To Play ALL The Games" (in en-us). Kotaku. https://kotaku.com/retro-console-promises-to-play-all-the-games-1705659623. 
  5. ↑ McFerran, Damien (18 February 2018). "The retro gaming industry could be killing video game preservation" (in en-gb). Eurogamer.net. https://www.eurogamer.net/the-retro-gaming-industry-could-be-killing-video-game-preservation. 
  6. ↑ Clewis, Mercedez (11 March 2020). "Retro Freak Celebrates Its 4th Anniversary With a Limited Edition". Siliconera. https://www.siliconera.com/retro-freak-celebrates-its-4th-anniversary-with-a-limited-edition/. 
  7. ↑ McFerran, Damien (19 December 2015). "Cyber Gadget Retro Freak Review" (in en). Trusted Reviews. https://www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/cyber-gadget-retro-freak. 
  8. ↑ a b Hinum, Klaus. "Rockchip RK3066 ARM SoC". Notebookcheck. Retrieved 20 September 2021.
  9. ↑ a b c d "Retro Freak Guide" (in ru-RU). arekuse.net. http://arekuse.net/blog/tech-guides/retro-freak-guid/. 
  10. ↑ McFerran, Damien (16 January 2016). "Cyber Gadget Retro Freak review" (in en). Eurogamer. https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2016-cyber-gadget-retro-freak-review. 
  11. ↑ McFerran, Damien (8 December 2015). "Hardware Review: Cyber Gadget Retro Freak". Nintendo Life. https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2015/12/hardware_review_cyber_gadget_retro_freak. 


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