# History of video games/Platforms/Retro Freak
## History
### Background

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

### Launch

The Retro Freak console was was announced around 2015.
By December 2015 the console was being reviewed by western outlets, 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.
A limited edition console was released on the 18th of March, 2020.

## Technology
### Compute

The system is based on a Rockchip 3066 system on a chip. This system on a chip contains a dual core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU clocked at an unknown speed, likely around 1.6 gigahertz. This system on a chip also contains a quad core Mali-400MP4 GPU clocked at 250 megahertz.
The system has 512 megabytes of total DDR3 RAM split across dual NANYA 1508 NT5CB128M16FP - DII chips.
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.

### Storage

Onboard storage consists of 4 gigabytes of NAND flash made by Micron.
The system was able to backup cartridges to a microSD card,. 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, adding a rather unusual step compared to typical firmware updates.

### Software

The system runs Android as an operating system.

## References

* ↑ "Company Profile｜サイバーガジェット". www.cybergadget.co.jp. https://www.cybergadget.co.jp/CompanyProfile/en.html.
* 1 2 "REVIEW : Cybergadget's Retro Freak Console | SEGA Nerds". Sega Nerds. 16 December 2015. https://seganerds.com/2015/12/15/review-cybergadgets-retro-freak-console/.
* ↑ 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/.
* ↑ 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.
* ↑ 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.
* ↑ 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/.
* ↑ McFerran, Damien (19 December 2015). "Cyber Gadget Retro Freak Review" (in en). Trusted Reviews. https://www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/cyber-gadget-retro-freak.
* 1 2 Hinum, Klaus. "Rockchip RK3066 ARM SoC". Notebookcheck. Retrieved 20 September 2021.
* 1 2 3 4 "Retro Freak Guide" (in ru-RU). arekuse.net. http://arekuse.net/blog/tech-guides/retro-freak-guid/.
* ↑ 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.
* ↑ 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.