Super Console X

[Mauricette Atencio]

I'm on the fence about getting one. I see a lot of these retro consoles for sale pre-loaded with games and such. While I am interested, I'm shaky on getting one due to the mixed reviews I hear. Some people love these and others claim the ones they bought broke quickly.

The problem is that enthusiasts did such a great job making the various software configurations (RetroPie, EmuELEC, all the Android Emulators, etc) that you can basically create a "retro game console" from any cheap computer board available.

This in turn has lead a lot of groups (seems mainly chinese manufacturers and "get rich quick" peeps?) into making their own "Retro Handheld" or "Retro Console". There are just so many of them now... and they all mostly perform the same. You have to wade through a massive pile of them to find the 1 or 2 that are worthwhile. On top of that, they keep making new revisions of the same ones or completely new models with slight tweaks that (generally) improve the item.

Honestly? It's just a mess as getting one at any point is generally invalidated within a few months or even weeks when they release the revised version that works better.

I've had a chance to play with the Super Console X over the last couple of days. I bought it from an Alibaba seller for about $60 US plus shipping from China; it took a good four weeks to arrive. It's essentially an Android TV box running EmuElec. Some group has gone to a great deal of trouble to configure about 40 different emulators and a wide selection of games on it. I have an old Raspberry RetroPie configured with several emulators, and I would say that this is essentially a faster, more polished version of that. For example, I had a heck of a time getting Atari 5200 to run on my RetroPie, my Vectrex emulator has some screwed up sound effects, etc. None of that with the Super Console X.

It generally does a good job of emulating most systems of 32-bit or lower. For example, I tried out a few NeoGeo, Atari Lynx, Vectrex, 2600, etc. games and they all ran quite well. Only a few PSX and Dreamcast games are included, and those run reasonably well, but I am suspicious that the creators may have cherry picked games that ran well, and left out games that do not. I haven't had a chance to test this hypothesis out, though. The SCX definitely struggles with the Nintendo 64; a couple of N64 games I tried out had sporadic lag, minor video glitches, and not so minor audio problems.

I don't think the Super Console X does anything that someone with a little patience and tech savvy can't configure on a Windows machine, but there is something to be said for a small convenient device that you can plug into your large HDMI display. Would I recommend it? I think if you want something a bit casual to just hookup and play some retro game, sure. Or perhaps if you were considering getting a RetroPie, and would like to get something similar that is ready to play out of the box. YMMV...

I recently purchased one of these, and 1st impressions are generally positive. Growing up with an Atari 800XL I was excited to see over 5,000 Atari 800 games included on my version. Problem is a lot of these require a keyboard to play in one way or another. You can access a virtual keyboard on some of the other PC emulators, but don't see one for the 800. Has anyone else with one of these had success finding a virtual keyboard?

Just taken delivery of the Super Console X Pro. I was mainly interested in the old C64, Spectrum, Amiga and Atari Games. Lts of these require the use of a keyboard, especially the old Spectrum and C64 which are basically useless without a keyboard. I plugged in a USB PC style Keyboard which does not seem to work. Has anyone had any success with connecting or configuring a keyboard to work with these emulators?

I purchased the Super Console X and received it about two weeks ago, and it has been running great! Except, just the other day, I found that none of the games have sound anymore. I still get sound from the main menu game selection screen, but no "in-game" sound. Does anyone know what could be causing this?

Hi. A little late to the topic, but just wanted to let everyone know that I have a USB keyboard plugged in to my Super Console X and it works great with the Atari 800 games I have tried so far. However, my keyboard obviously doesn't have START/SELECT/OPTION/RESET. I assume there is some way these keys are emulated by whatever emulator the SCX is using, but I don't know what that is. Does anyone know what emulator it is using under the covers or have a guess as to how these keys are emulated?

EDIT: I think I answered my own question. The first emulator I researched, Atari800, seems to use Function Keys (F2,F3,F4) for Option, Select, and Start. I had to find the "Fn" key to get them to work, but now I am good.

I am very late to the game, but mine came with tons & tons of games. The Atari 800 emulator is a bit tricky in that even with the USB keyboard it doesn't seem properly mapped to start, option, etc. & a lot of the games don't seem to work. I seem to have better luck with the same program on my Wii. I kind of wish there was a better, dummy proof Atari 800 emulator that easily knew how to run the different Atari format files for these systems.

I will say the C64 emulation and ease of use is awesome. I have already spent quite a few hours on it.

I wouldn't recommend it unless you've got extra money to throw away. I have a friend who plugged in a USB keyboard into a brand new Super Console X and the thing malfunctioned. It got stuck on a black screen after trying to set the keyboard controls.Actually had to return it after and get a refund.Cool concept,but it's poorly designed with cheap materials.

I recently purchased one of these, and 1st impressions are generally positive. Growing up with an Atari 800XL I was excited to see over 5,000 Atari 800 games included on my version. Problem is a lot of these require a keyboard to play in one way or another. You can access a virtual keyboard on some of the other PC emulators, but don't see one for the 800. Has anyone else with on had success finding a virtual keyboard?

battlezone works perfefctly w/ my wired 3do controller so im happy but yea most dont work. also this thing proves further how superior VCS is, the 5200/7800 game play better than ever before here w/ this controller but still cant live up to the VCS.

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The console is already working but now I have another problem after restoring the factory settings the cooler stopped working and the red light turns on but when I turn off the console the cooler turns on and the blue light turns on the same happens when I enter Reboot from NAND the blue light turns on and the cooler turns on but when I enter Reboot to CoreELEC the cooler turns off and the red light turns on below is a link to the video Download files - Filemail

We know them, we love them; on occasion we mock them. We spend great swaths of time pounding away on our controllers trying to dodge 100 lightning bolts to gain the Ultimate Weapon. Then we turn around and spend great swaths of time watching friends and family pound away on their controllers doing the exact same thing. We debate at great length whether they live up to the name that they appropriated from tabletop gaming. Occasionally, we wonder what it might be like on the other side of the screen.

Console roleplaying games hold a special place in geekdoms heart, which almost inevitably led to the creation of Super Console. This tabletop roleplaying game by Colin Fredericks is designed to emulate the experience of console roleplaying games, creating a house of mirrors where art imitates life imitating... well, Final Fantasy. The inevitable cross-format crash of pixels and dice could have been a sloppy hack-job of slavish aping and unrecognized assumptions. Luckily, though, Fredericks has invested a great deal of insightful analysis to the genre and implemented clever mechanics in his game to produce a play experience that emulates rather than imitates, and allows the players at the table to enjoy the house of mirrors rather than get lost within it.

In the interest of full disclosure, Fredericks and I have swappedreviews. His is of my game Full Light, Full Steam. Our goal was to give others an honest look at both games, and I have tried to be as objective as I can in this review. This is a review of the PDF version of the book.

The designers abiding love for the genre is plain on every page of the book, both in the specific examples of play and in the underlying structure built into the game. No game of Super Console takes place anywhere near the real world; the world of Super Console is one which is defined by the game. History is the product of humanitys struggle with Evil, which has been lurking in the background, plotting and planning in every Age. Towns exist to resupply the heroes and point them in the direction of the local fragment of plot and/or Boss monster that must be fought. Heroes do not travel the world, they move around on the World Map. And everything, absolutely everything in the world, has a level.

The extent to which your game plays up the genre conventions of console roleplaying games is entirely up to you. The game provides strong guidelines for four flavors of play: Silly, Console, Mixed, and Brutal. Silly games focus on the absurdity of save points, empty-headed townsfolk, and having the thief steal a monsters pants in order to acquire a health potion. Console games the default accept the oddities of the genre and move on, concentrating on enjoying the emulation of the genre. Mixed games the most interesting option to my mind also accept the strangeness of the genre but attempt to examine their ramifications: if a save point brings people back from the dead, where do they go in the mean time, and whats so important that they give up the afterlife to come back and fight monsters? Lastly, Brutal games are hardcore, tactical bruisefests using the combat system as a robust chassis for proving player skill and savvy. The four flavors are threaded throughout the book, one of many methods of customizing your game to your preferences.