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Unlike the Retron 5, however, the Retroblox won't accept all cartridges out of the box. The base unit ships with a "Hitachi LG Data Services" DVD drive for playing CD-based games, but cartridge-based games will require the additional purchase of "Element Modules." These modules add a cartridge slot as well as a pair of controller ports compatible with original controllers for the system being emulated.

Having to swap out a module to play on a different system is decidedly less convenient than the all-in-one approach of the Retron 5, not to mention it's potentially more expensive depending on how much Retroblox charges for the additional modules. However, the Retroblox is capable of adding games to a "digital collection" by copying ROMs directly from cartridges and CDs onto an SD card inserted into the system. Users can then play that game in the future without having to reinsert the module.

The inclusion of an SD card slot and two USB ports hints that the Retroblox will be able to play ROMs downloaded directly from the Internet, but the company is staying quiet on additional details until a later date.

Retroblox is promising that players will be able to stream their gameplay directly to Twitch and YouTube from the console, and they'll have the ability to upscale games all the way up to 1080p resolution with support for "virtual displays" that will replicate the look of a CRT television.

Retroblox also says that games using on-cartridge expansion chips—like the Super FX chip used by numerous SNES games—will be compatible with the system. It even goes as far as to say the Retroblox will offer "full hardware compatibility with every game in their classic games library," a feat that no emulation-based console has so far been able to pull off.

Naturally, there are a few things to be sceptical about with the Retroblox. For example, all of the teaser images appear to be renders. Oh, and it's launching via a crowdfunding campaign in April 2017 (which is when we'll get pricing, specs, and a full list of compatible systems, too).

For some peace of mind, at least two industry veterans are heading up Retroblox: Bryan Bernal and Eric Christensen. Bernal boasts a career in games stretching back to the release of Ratchet & Clank and Resistance Fall of Man on PlayStation 3, while Christensen has worked at the likes of Insomniac Games, Zynga, and Bluepoint Games as a programmer and engineer.

The Retroblox joins an increasingly crowded market for retro consoles. Last year saw the release of the Analogue Nt—a console that took the guts of an original NES and repacked them in a slab of solid aluminium—and the RetroUSB AVS, which used an FPGA (field-programmable gate array) to mimic NES hardware at a very low level. The latter approach results in a far higher level of hardware compatibility and performance compared to the emulation used even by Nintendo's own NES Mini, although original hardware remains the optimal way to play old games.

On that note, Ars is working on an extensive guide on how to get the best out of old consoles on modern TVs. Look out for it in the coming weeks.