Mike Chi talks us through his incoming upscaler
After being incredibly impressed with Mike Chi’s RetroTink-5X (both Nick and Darran own one) the team is now looking forward to the incoming RetroTink 4K. Creator Mike Chi explains how it has all come together.
Why make an upscaler that targets 4K?
I think there’s really two things… [sharp pixels and CRT simulation]. One of the big things is, you have optimal sampling, but you never quite get the right proportions, but with a 4K you can use linear scale directly from the console to 4K and basically get all that at once. So that’s the sharp pixel side. The other thing is at 4K you have a lot more pixels to work with for CRT simulation. So you can create not only scanlines, but CRT shadow masks and aperture grills at 4K, which look a lot better than 1080p because you have more detail to work with.
How long has the RetroTink 4K taken you to create?
I think I started at the beginning of last year. So, if you add everything up I would say probably about a year and a half of development time. But you have to keep in mind that a lot of this is building on stuff that was done for the 5X… So if you think about it that way then I’d say a couple of years.
Are there any major learnings from the work on your previous RetroTink models?
Yeah, I think a lot of the 4K really is 5X on steroids. So a lot of the FPGA development on the 5X, which basically starts from there and you make it work for 4K, right? That’s not to downplay the amount of work it does, but it was a good starting base.
Various people within the retro community are currently testing the device. How helpful are these tests in getting the device to where you need it to be?
The help has been exceptional. If you compare this state of maturity or the firmware of the 5X in terms of features, and especially bugs versus what we’ll hopefully see, with the 4K it’s gonna be night and day. The 4K is gonna be a much more mature and polished product just because it has been tested so thoroughly. I would say the value that the testers have provided in the feedback, in terms of adding useful features to make the user’s life better, as well as fixing bugs, far exceeds the value of the hardware that I sent. So I’m immensely grateful.
