Hyperkin is an American

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

peripheral A peripheral or peripheral device is an auxiliary device used to put information into and get information out of a computer. The term ''peripheral device'' refers to all hardware components that are attached to a computer and are controlled by th ...

manufacturer Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a ...

and

distributor A distributor is an enclosed rotating switch used in spark-ignition internal combustion engines that have mechanically timed ignition. The distributor's main function is to route high voltage current from the ignition coil to the spark p ...

, founded in 2006, based in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wo ...

. They distribute accessories for major gaming consoles, in addition to creating

clone Clone or Clones or Cloning or Cloned or The Clone may refer to: Places * Clones, County Fermanagh * Clones, County Monaghan, a town in Ireland Biology * Clone (B-cell), a lymphocyte clone, the massive presence of which may indicate a pathologi ...

consoles that play retro games with modern resolutions and on modern devices, most notably the

RetroN A retron is a distinct DNA sequence found in the genome of many bacteria species that codes for reverse transcriptase and a unique single-stranded DNA/RNA hybrid called multicopy single-stranded DNA (msDNA). Retron msr RNA is the non-coding RNA ...

series of clone consoles. As with most other NES clones, Hyperkin's NES clones (excluding the Retron5 as it utilizes software emulation) suffer from imperfect sound due to a design flaw in the sound hardware. In 2011, the company became the exclusive distributor of ''Dance Battle VS''. In addition, they released the Remotext, a

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of s ...

remote control In electronics, a remote control (also known as a remote or clicker) is an electronic device used to operate another device from a distance, usually wirelessly. In consumer electronics, a remote control can be used to operate devices such as ...

and

keypad A keypad is a block or pad of buttons set with an arrangement of digits, symbols, or alphabetical letters. Pads mostly containing numbers and used with computers are numeric keypads. Keypads are found on devices which require mainly numeric inp ...

game controller A game controller, gaming controller, or simply controller, is an input device used with video games or entertainment systems to provide input to a video game, typically to control an object or character in the game. Before the seventh generation ...

hybrid for the

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...

, and a battery-expanding attachment for the

Nintendo 3DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo. It was announced in March 2010 and unveiled at E3 2010 as the successor to the Nintendo DS. The system features backward compatibility with Nintendo DS video games. As an eighth-generati ...

called the Powerplus. They also created the Supaboy, a handheld

Super Nintendo The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a Fourth generation of video game consoles, 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South ...

. In 2016 Hyperkin released the Supaboy S featuring a bigger 4.3" screen displaying in the 16:9 aspect ratio, making games look stretched. The Supaboy S also introduces an NTSC/PAL switch, improving compatibility with PAL-region games. In 2018, Hyperkin released the Supaboy SFC, which is an upgrade of the Supaboy S with buttons resembling the

Super Famicom The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South Korea, 1991 in North America, 1992 in ...

and PAL

SNES The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South Korea, 1991 in North America, 1992 in E ...

. The Supaboy SFC also has the ability to switch between stretch 16:9 and letterboxed 4:3 aspect ratios by holding down the brightness button. In 2014, the company released the Retron 5, an Android-based console with five cartridge ports that allowed for play of five different types of retro games. The Retron 5 utilizes code violating the GPL and several non-commercial licenses. As it is an emulator, the Retron5 does not have the sound problems present in Hyperkin's other consoles. Hyperkin-RetroN-Console-Set

In 2017, the company released the Smart Boy, a

smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...

add-on that allows the device to play

Game Boy The is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America later the same year, and in Europe in late 1990. It was designed by the same te ...

games. The Smart Boy gained an official license by Samsung for use on their phones. They also released the RetroN 77, an emulation-based

Atari 2600 The Atari 2600, initially branded as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS) from its release until November 1982, is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977, it popularized microprocess ...

clone that can play most, if not all, of the original game cartridges in 1080p. In 2019, at E3, Hyperkin announced they will make a console that can play

Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo. The successor to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, it was released on June 23, 1996, in Japan, on September 29, 1996, in North America, and on March 1, 1997, in Europe and ...

cartridges in HD, and output to

HDMI High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a proprietary audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed video data and compressed or uncompressed digital audio data from an HDMI-compliant source device, such as a display controll ...

. The console is expected to be named the Ultra Retron. The release date is not known. It is not officially known yet whether the console uses an FPGA or emulation, however the unit demonstrated at E3 displayed a lightning bolt icon implying the console uses a

Raspberry Pi Raspberry Pi () is a series of small single-board computers (SBCs) developed in the United Kingdom by the Raspberry Pi Foundation in association with Broadcom. The Raspberry Pi project originally leaned towards the promotion of teaching basic ...

single-board computer instead of an FPGA. Additionally, the demo unit was displaying graphical artifacts only present in a Nintendo 64 emulator.

References

{{Reflist Video game companies based in California Computer peripheral companies Companies based in Los Angeles Video game companies of the United States