Outstanding video review of that hard drive. I purchased that cassette tape 2tb drive from China you said was a gold mine. Do you think you can do a video on the specs and requirements a PC or mini PC would need to run up to Wii U, PS3 and Xbox? I am looking for reasonably priced computer ideas to be able to DYI a MegaCade for a game room. Thanks for your amazing content!!!
@@anonymousprofessor8866 You should totally check out ETA Prime here on youtube. He has done hundreds of videos with low cost, low spec pcs for the purpose of emulation.
Yes, I wouldn't install this on any computer I am going to use o the net, agreed, but if you have an old computer that is like windows 8 or 10, upgrade it a tad a nd use this then I don't see a problem, you can't judge this however without doing these things. So, its a poor review effort I must say. I get the point, but its really no point, either you test it or don't. You can't review something by not following the instructions. That would be like you reviewing the PS2 with only PS1 games.
I would reinstall it with retrobat keep the rom folder only so you don't lose all the games keep the content as well as in game info vid snaps and wheel boxart bezels.get rid of the dodgy stuff.retrobat comes with the emulators. that's what I would do with it.you got to watch you buy nowadays alot of fake stuff going about.
I don't judge You, but one can't really make a serious review without installing all the necessary files for a correct performance. Anyway thanks for the review.
Honestly, I don't have much of a moral issue with selling big rom collections when most of those games can't even be bought in a way that benefits the creators or rights holders. But claiming this thing includes a 75$ license for actively supported software, only to end up with a pirated one is just unacceptable to me.
I think there's a bit of irony in a program that acts as a front end to play pirated games, getting pirated, and people clutching their pearls over it.
non of the emulators aren't licenced either. yes they're free but under creative commons. They can't be sold on unless licenced comercially. and I'm sure none of us believe that happened either.
If I would get one of these it would be for the enormous games library! I wouldn't mind deleting all the EXEs on the HDD, just keep the games and emulate them myself The price is good for the HDD + the UGreen decent enclosure + the game library, for someone who knows their way around emulators, not a bad deal!
Just one little thing to improve this video and other similar ones you might make : open the thing up. Knowing what HD they're using is quite relevant for loading speeds.
The hard drive is full of pirated games, so I'm not sure what the point of getting upset about a pirated copy of Launchbox is. No honor among thieves, and all.
Noob questions probably, but how does this thing work if you already have a licensed copy of LaunchBox and BigBox installed on your system? Do you have to run their version of LB by directly accessing this drive or is there a way to get the licensed version to recognize and incorporate these games on it? Would all of the bezels and artwork carry over to the original licensed copy?
@@hannahvickery4683 mine since my internet is limited and ps2 GameCube files are large I bought a 2tb drive like this save time and going over (6 people lives in my house sharing internet)
The 4T HDD and the Bigbox license is already over 120 bucks if you gonna do this yourself. The rest will probably take weeks. Those PS2 and GC iso are pretty big. One can optimize these emulators if you know how. Over all...pretty good.
It's sluggish because it's over USB and settings aren't properly configured, instead you should've hooked up the drive inside of a pc tbh. Also the drive specs might need to be taken into consideration as well, it's aliexpress so I don't imagine it'll be a high end drive.
Are you going to take a look at the miyoo mini? Looks pretty compelling and a better pocket emulator than the RG280V. Would also be cool if it comes some exposure and had good CFW. Pretty high res screen and performance for the size.
"Includes a license to launch box", yeah, I immediately doubted that, so not surprised to see it really isn't. I understand that some people like the convenience, but I wouldn't trust the instructions/software on here either.
this was a good kinkank hard drive review. the thing i hate most is i didn't know it came in those horrible cheap external hdd cases from ugreen. seen many bad reviews from those at amazon. would prefer it be the seagate external hdd from my book or wd elements. my only gripe with the review is its little hard because it included dll files and directx. some people might not know where to get roms or set up any launch box or retro arch or have any emulation experience. these hard drives are for people who want a LOT of the retro games in one place and don't want to spend hours downloading these games. best review though glad to see some negative personal opinions and you showed how to set it up! M drive setting would caught me off guard cause I'm not a fan of reading, the read me notes. I also plan to buy the kinkhank 2tb external drive cause that looks like cute little cassette player.
Great video, thanks. The good thing about these discs is that they save the work of the downloads and already give it on a disc. The 12tb costs 300 euros with Hyperspin. Yo he comprado el de 2tb, con la forma de cassete.
Yeah, I would plug this into Linux or MacOS, put the roms on another drive, format this drive, and set it up myself. I would not just plug this into a Windows computer. I just do not trust any drives from China on a Windows computer.
So I bought one of these a couple days ago from techdweebs video would you say it would be worth it just to get it for the rom library and configure the front end and emulators yourself?
Just bought one of these and just to be safe scanned it for viruses, there were a couple of trojans viruses in there. Idk if I should go ahead and clear those viruses in the hard drive or if i should leave it as is to not mess up the set up itself
They took someones build. A guy named wolfanoz, shows his name on the startup screen for big box. He would not have allowed them to do this. Looks like they built off of it, and messed it up.
I would just find a NTSC ROM burner and setup the emulation myself. Done this with a multi DVDs back around the mid 00s. I had all arcade and cartridge based ROMs. Shame I lost the HDD I had it on.
Good god don't ever install anything from a pre-made drive. It doesn't matter if they tell you it's safe, bad practice! It's like reaching into a dirty hole with open wounds all over your arm!
it would have been better if you could just boot into it and everything just works, I've been looking for that kind of alternative with everything setup to just plug and play.
Tying Launchbox to an experience with having it basically pirated onto a crappy hard drive using someone else's pre-made image that was created on another PC is pretty unfair to Launchbox. I get that you don't like it, but presenting it as a janky rom dump in a direct comparison to making your own image on your own PC from scratch using competing software is disappointing. Having said that, I fully expect if you did a fair comparison you'd still prefer your favorites and that is 100% fine. Just not a fan of the juxtaposition. I run and enjoy Launchbox/Big Box because I started from scratch and was able to tailor it (very easily) along the way to my hardware and preferences. It is nowhere near the nightmare presented here. I think you'd still probably prefer Batocera for the reasons you mentioned, especially given your experience with it (again, no problem with that). We all prefer what we've spent the most time with and feel comfortable using, and so I prefer installing Launchbox to Windows. I don't think I'd make a video comparing my personal Launchbox build to a janky batocera romdump drive, though.
Hi Barry, it wasn't my intention to paint LaunchBox as bad, but that the configuration of LaunchBox is not done well on this product. I am a big fan of LaunchBox, and have lifetime licenses for both the Windows and Android versions. It does have its quirks, but once you have it set up it can be great. I've never gotten around to doing a setup video mostly because I've been knee-deep in handheld/Linux gaming for most of this year.
Scanned 20 percent of mine with webroot and so far 6 malware, be really really careful and do not connect to wireless or a computer you use for anything else !!
Love the channel and your content, I watch all of your videos and enjoy the vast majority of them even if the equipment reviewed aren't that interesting. That said I'm gonna have to put this video down and let it run on mute (I want you to get the play time) but holy crap this product is silly. They are actually selling a hard drive with files on it. Big fail on their part. I'm glad you made this video for people that wouldn't be as cautious they should be. But seriously, this is such a silly product. Good video though.
Ahh come now. Someone like me who has a low knowledge of PC's and came from Consoles I think ur under estimating the market. Many Peeps out there are gobbling these up as most have no idea how to get all this up and running from scratch. Alot of Dummies out there.
@@unorthdoxcleric6953 I appreciate the video and his opinion, and even acknowledge the people that this could be marketed to. I am happy he made this video for the specific reason that people could see that it's not the solution you're looking for. There are better, easier and safer options out there, and I believe that it's important that people can see what this really is. I appreciate Russ and what he does, and exposing this hard drive that in all reality could have spyware on it that could gain access to your computer, I think it's really important for people to realize what this is and how dangerous it could be to the customer. I was only saying that the video doesn't offer anything to ME, so I'm gonna put my phone down and do something else so that Russ gets the view time because I appreciate him and what he does and I really hope his fast channel growth keeps going up exponentially. I apologize that I didn't originally get my point across.
It's uber lame these oversea idiots took something like Launchbox and went ahead and pirated it..it's lame. Launchbox is worth paying for. It's worth supporting it.
Honestly, the info at 3:00 should be the end of the video. Any illusion of caring about preservation or accessibility are gone when they're pirating *and* reselling in-development software and lying about there being a license included.
@@nasman7492 There's a difference between a user choosing to load "stolen" decades-old software onto their own device, and a Chinese company selling the active-development work of both commercial projects and community members.
He didn't install a lot of dependencies required for nearly all the emulators to function properly, thats why he was having so many problems. All those dependencies are available online if someone doesnt trust the version supplied on the drive itself.
When I hear one of the most positive people I follow saying that he dislikes something more than like something, I am prepared for a massive disaster. Thanks for the video!!
@@GivemeBacon how many months will it take to do all that? I’m building a cabinet and thinking about just getting this because I don’t know how to set everything up
@@GivemeBaconi dont have all that free time, i am not a kid anymore and also not a bu/m. I work 5 days, 12 hours and in those 2 free days i do other stuff. This product is perfect for me.
This isn't an emulation product, it's a HDD with software loaded onto it... No idea how they can spin this off as an innovative new thing, I've been doing this for a decade or more!
@@LokiTheClever I thought this was a thing for wealthy people living in third world country's. If you can afford this but don't have internet infrastructure where you live why not buy it for gaming.
@@minarchisttrucker2775 Yup, that's exactly what it is. I wouldn't buy this but I can see the benefits for people who don't want to take the time to download everything. Of course, if you find a game that this doesn't include for whatever reason, you're gonna end up downloading stuff anyway but at least not as much.
Yep, this should have been a very short "Avoid this 🚩🚩🚩" video for a ton of reasons. We don't need to see the capabilities - it's stolen community work being pirated and resold on a sus af hard drive.
I've picked up a number of these plug and play boxes, for that part of my collection, over the last year. None of them come close to steping up to my original PC emulator I built for that purpose, a couple years ago. I use the Big Box front-end and it displays and plays Wii, PS 2, GameCube, N64, ect. with a display quality that smokes the original consoles. So far, these little boxs, are simply fun little novelties in a disply case. With this box we have a hard drive depending on the ability of the purchasers own PC. I appreciate the point because Kinhank can't produce a little, affordable box that plugs and plays these emulators like my PC. But it seems the experiences will be all over the place depending on the various performance capabilities of the different PCs out there. The inconsistencies will probably end up an eventual hit and miss nightmare for Kinhank.
Oh hell no! 1st red flag for me was seeing the Wolfenos logo. That person is a well respected poster in the retro gaming community who posts his builds for free on sites like Arcade Punks. These people are taking his or her hard work, modifying it, then selling it. That license is just wrong too. Too much fiddling around just to get it to work. Think I will pass. Thanks for the review.
Super interesting video, russ! In the future in videos like this, would you ming listing your system specs in the description of the video? At least cpu/gpu/memory? Thanks!
I built my own version of this using RetroBat. Super easy to set up and use. I added everything from NES to PS2 on an 8tb drive and it works flawlessly. A little time consuming compared to a premade system like this but, no security issues or any other problems.
8tb is enough for the full US PS2 library, along with every system released before it full library, Excluding Xbox and GameCube. I don't care too much for having a collection of GameCube games, because most games were released on the PS2. GameCube specific is like double digit number of games easy to just get those and not use much space.
A lot of games didn't play because... you didn't install all of the software? Would definitely recommend to use a separate pc with clean Windows install just for this... just in case the software wants banking info :) But the cost of video cards right now... sigh. The pirate license sounds like China but they say he its free! :)
For ordinary players, it is indeed a good choice to add a few dollars to the purchase of a hard drive to get a game device with tens of thousands of games. The focus is on the manufacturers' tribute and integration of retro games.
@@casedistortedI think he’s asserting that the creators are some morally superior humans who are doing gods work by “preserving” games. Personally I think they’re shady people looking for money.
I have the 12TB version and the roms are good. This guy didn't install dependencies required for some of the emulators to run, so entire systems-worth of roms werent booting for him.
Love this Channel and I am Super Happy with my Kinhank Mini PC with 61000 Games. What I would like to know is would this work flawlessly if u did everything that Kinhank said to do and if u should Update to the lastest firmware?
Based on some of the comments Russ, this is a tricky situation for you to consider in the future. I am of the camp that is fine with you showing the device because their deceptive marketing of the launchbox license could have tricked people and you basically debunked the legitimacy of it and you discussed several red flags that should turn people away. On the other hand, a lot of the video then focused on how well that improperly distributed software works, and many people might skip to that and buy it based on liking Big Box alone. Despite me understanding the video's context, I could see these types of products doing more harm than good for your channel in the long run. Just something to consider since I love your channel. As far as launchbox/big box goes, anyone reading this that has interest should buy the license themselves because that same lifetime license can then be used on basically any other devices you own. I use it on a custom arcade cabinet running a PC, and I would much rather spend money on an affordable license that I can personally own and manage and use on any new supporting device I buy, rather than giving this less ethical company money toward use of a shared license on this one product.
Guys. Dont get discouraged about Launchbox. It's a great product. You can setup Launchbox on a computer, add all your emulators, game files, and art work , then copy the entire folder to a 256gig or 512 gig usb ( the prices are CHEAP!!!) . Now you have your own portable Retro Game system that will safely work on a PC. When the Launchbox hard drive originally came out , USB drives were still very expensive but not anymore. If you want to give it to a friend remove your keycode and everything still works and your friend can get updates and everything. What doesnt work is the "BIGBOX" interface. Dont worry about it, you wont miss it. I did pay to support the project .
You shouldn't be promoting this product, which is what you're doing just by talking about it, regardless of whether you recommend it or not. Just showing it is going to end up selling them to someone who wouldn't have otherwise known about it. Launchbox is under active development and is a commercial product. Their inclusion of a license is illegal and that license will be banned. It's already been brought to the attention of the development team.
It wasn't as dramatic as I made it sound...I did verify it was their hard drive before plugging it in. That being said I did plug it into one of my crappy mini PCs first just to be safe :)
it defiantly has issues on mine it has a folder called team viewer remote pc access on it with TeamViewer exe inside why would i need that for retrogamers
Well i bought one of these not because it was pre configured or the launchbox license ( which i purchased my own) it was simply that internet is crap in australia and the multiple TB of roms for a fee on a disk was easier than spending months grabbing them all. I bought a new usb drive and leveraged the roms to create my own setup using my own license
Herein lies how we make excuses to use Emulators. At least for me (possibly): First, I was robbed by my roommate/boss of 30K and lost all my PC games due to other ridiculous things she did. Then I spent 2K on an HP Omen which has not worked right since the warranty expired. I spent more money replacing all the parts. Now I find it may be the SSD. Then I buy an XBOX 360 and it works fine until yesterday. Now it is blocked suddenly by my internet. Optimum could not help nor Xbox reddit ideas. So here I sit thinking, I spent so much money for Lemons. Do I buy this and put it on a dedicated computer just so I can at least play something? Nobody is offering to reimburse me for my troubles and loss. It's a fine line to cross. How much more money do I spend to risk what I need legallly?? I am going broke here to do what I love best.
Maybe the controls are backwards and the other various problems are at least partially due to your refusal to properly configure the system? You sit here criticizing something after failing to set up the files it calls for, and therefore you're in no position to make any claims in regards to its functionality. If you had been fair to it and followed the directions _then_ and only then you'd have a leg to stand on bitching about it not working properly.. There are plenty of workarounds that you simply refused to acknowledge such as running it in a VM so this "review" only serves to diminish your credibility, in my opinion.. And before you claim I'm stupid for suggesting it's not important to use some healthy skepticism and due diligence - I never said that. I'm saying there's plenty of ways around the "shadiness" you claim and hence you've only crapped on your credibility by being ignorant and deceitful in your half-cocked review. If you're so terrified of malware then maybe you ought to focus on that as a topic for your content rather than allowing your lack of vertebral fortitude effect so heavily your opinion on the topics of your dissertations while creating content which you imply is meant to be educating for those who are potential buyers of something like this.. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Jussayin
1. I agree do not trust those files but you should be telling people or offering links to get them directly they do need to be installed. 2. Moaning about controller mapping well they cant have all of them to how you want them (They would not even know which controller you would use) 3. Updating system does break things I have tested this myself (The frontend plus the emulators are very out of date) 4. Most of the Chinese builds like this use the same setup difference is intro/logo etc. 5. Space is limited which is why they do not have the newer consoles packed out with games (The people this is targeting I expect do not have PC systems good enough anyway so it's a marketing thing to sell the units) 6. Moaning about 8 sec boot come on that is being very picky 7. the sluggishness will be due to the files count and persons system also its running videos (Being outdated as well is reason why its old builds they use plus how do we know you have all the required files installed plus upto date drivers we dont its something you should have mentioned) 8. Cost ??? this is what it comes down to I have found these setups can be the same price if not cheaper over ordering just an external hdd in my own country plus you then need to spend hours downloading and setting up the systems. (Some people may not have these skills or even good internet.) 9. You can disable bezels it's in settings. Give the company proper feedback and realistic solutions hopefully they will listen to correct them in the future but I don't think they will but this is the whole point of them sending you this unit otherwise they should not bother.
I guess it's nice to get a bunch of games without having to download and find them yourself, but disabling your antivirus and installing different versions of software is a no go. I'd rather have just the ROMs on the drive and I'll source any emulators or frontends that I need.
I've been using launchbox with a lifetime license since the beginning. It really isnt difficult to get it set up. If anybody thinks this is a good deal you should just take that money and give it to launchbox themselves. It's a lot of fun to get it up and running and you can pick your own emulators, games, etc.
Exactly, plus the whole setting it up is at least half the fun. But I guess not everybody is like us and they want everything pre configured without having to spend any time of theirs. But it’s just lame, I honestly dislike those people, like gimme gimme gimme.
Its not "a lot of fun" to pick your own emulators and set everything up. You have to constantly update the emulators. If you find out about a new system, you need to research and find the emulator, download and set it up. Batoera or other emulationstation setups, the devs do all that. You don't have to set up anything. Just your controller and your done. I stopped using BigBox because Batocera has way too many advantages.
Yep...apparently you & I are the only ones who noticed that (was just about to post my own comment when I saw yours). Wolf probably wouldn't be very happy about this...
This is my problem with setups like this. They don't test the games to make sure they work. If I was doing this I would make sure the games actually work.
I wonder if they even included all the files/roms. I bet if you were to go into the rom section and the folders for the different systems, some of the games wouldn't actually have all the necessary data to run the rom for said game.
these things are definitely going to use the cheapest knockoff HDDs possible. Just like why you should never depend on any SD card that comes with retro devices
Good video, thank you for the review; while I know this question shouldn't go here, I have to know; did the creator of this drive get overlays working within graphical notifications? As far as I know after a certain version of 11.x that quit working when overlays are enabled and never got fixed. I've asked folks in Discord for LB and they say "it's just how it works now for Windows; notifications cannot be "always on top" when overlays are used." For example, see timestamp 09:45 where overlays are enabled and nice notifications appear from below. EDIT: Realized later that issue is with Retroarch versioning, not LaunchBox. Curious of what version of Retroarch is being used then, didn't see that in the video anywhere....
Support the actual LaunchBox development team here: www.launchbox-app.com/
Outstanding video review of that hard drive. I purchased that cassette tape 2tb drive from China you said was a gold mine.
Do you think you can do a video on the specs and requirements a PC or mini PC would need to run up to Wii U, PS3 and Xbox? I am looking for reasonably priced computer ideas to be able to DYI a MegaCade for a game room. Thanks for your amazing content!!!
@@anonymousprofessor8866 You should totally check out ETA Prime here on youtube. He has done hundreds of videos with low cost, low spec pcs for the purpose of emulation.
At least they have a warning ⚠️ label “Protect what you love” lol 😂
Yes, I wouldn't install this on any computer I am going to use o the net, agreed, but if you have an old computer that is like windows 8 or 10, upgrade it a tad a nd use this then I don't see a problem, you can't judge this however without doing these things. So, its a poor review effort I must say. I get the point, but its really no point, either you test it or don't. You can't review something by not following the instructions. That would be like you reviewing the PS2 with only PS1 games.
I would reinstall it with retrobat keep the rom folder only so you don't lose all the games keep the content as well as in game info vid snaps and wheel boxart bezels.get rid of the dodgy stuff.retrobat comes with the emulators. that's what I would do with it.you got to watch you buy nowadays alot of fake stuff going about.
I don't judge You, but one can't really make a serious review without installing all the necessary files for a correct performance. Anyway thanks for the review.
true...build an offline gaming computer just for this emulation and fully review it after opening all the files!
Honestly, I don't have much of a moral issue with selling big rom collections when most of those games can't even be bought in a way that benefits the creators or rights holders. But claiming this thing includes a 75$ license for actively supported software, only to end up with a pirated one is just unacceptable to me.
I think there's a bit of irony in a program that acts as a front end to play pirated games, getting pirated, and people clutching their pearls over it.
non of the emulators aren't licenced either. yes they're free but under creative commons. They can't be sold on unless licenced comercially. and I'm sure none of us believe that happened either.
@@richarddukard8989 your first mistake is assuming that everyone using emulators is pirating games
@@Hipno702 99.9% though... Just saying.
And even with that being said people still defending pirating games.vs the front end 😂
If I would get one of these it would be for the enormous games library!
I wouldn't mind deleting all the EXEs on the HDD, just keep the games and emulate them myself
The price is good for the HDD + the UGreen decent enclosure + the game library, for someone who knows their way around emulators, not a bad deal!
Agreed, that's probably the most redeeming quality of the whole setup.
Just one little thing to improve this video and other similar ones you might make : open the thing up. Knowing what HD they're using is quite relevant for loading speeds.
It would be safer to make a virtual OS to go with the HDD. The HDD will just contain the image and the files within it.
I'm happy with my m.2 128gb in an external case running Lakka. I don't support products like this but know I'm thankful for your video.
The hard drive is full of pirated games, so I'm not sure what the point of getting upset about a pirated copy of Launchbox is. No honor among thieves, and all.
Noob questions probably, but how does this thing work if you already have a licensed copy of LaunchBox and BigBox installed on your system? Do you have to run their version of LB by directly accessing this drive or is there a way to get the licensed version to recognize and incorporate these games on it? Would all of the bezels and artwork carry over to the original licensed copy?
These are good for having a good rom set without downloading them
lolno. in what universe is it easier to buy something like this and install the malware that comes with it than download a single romset file?
@@hannahvickery4683 mine since my internet is limited and ps2 GameCube files are large I bought a 2tb drive like this save time and going over (6 people lives in my house sharing internet)
@@steamdeckknights8978 N
The 4T HDD and the Bigbox license is already over 120 bucks if you gonna do this yourself. The rest will probably take weeks. Those PS2 and GC iso are pretty big. One can optimize these emulators if you know how. Over all...pretty good.
It's sluggish because it's over USB and settings aren't properly configured, instead you should've hooked up the drive inside of a pc tbh. Also the drive specs might need to be taken into consideration as well, it's aliexpress so I don't imagine it'll be a high end drive.
Launchbox is the truth. Copped a lifetime license. Been on it for a minute now 🔥
Are you going to take a look at the miyoo mini? Looks pretty compelling and a better pocket emulator than the RG280V. Would also be cool if it comes some exposure and had good CFW. Pretty high res screen and performance for the size.
This looks like something someone built living in there parents basement eating paste.
"Includes a license to launch box", yeah, I immediately doubted that, so not surprised to see it really isn't.
I understand that some people like the convenience, but I wouldn't trust the instructions/software on here either.
this was a good kinkank hard drive review. the thing i hate most is i didn't know it came in those horrible cheap external hdd cases from ugreen. seen many bad reviews from those at amazon. would prefer it be the seagate external hdd from my book or wd elements.
my only gripe with the review is its little hard because it included dll files and directx. some people might not know where to get roms or set up any launch box or retro arch or have any emulation experience. these hard drives are for people who want a LOT of the retro games in one place and don't want to spend hours downloading these games. best review though glad to see some negative personal opinions and you showed how to set it up! M drive setting would caught me off guard cause I'm not a fan of reading, the read me notes. I also plan to buy the kinkhank 2tb external drive cause that looks like cute little cassette player.
Great video, thanks. The good thing about these discs is that they save the work of the downloads and already give it on a disc. The 12tb costs 300 euros with Hyperspin. Yo he comprado el de 2tb, con la forma de cassete.
Pasaste de inglés a español en el mismo comentario? Me ha pasado, pero cuando me pasa, lo edito.
SO I presume non of the emulators are licenced either then. I can't believe they had the cheek to reach out. At least this can act as a warning.
Can you play this without a computer, so connecting directly to a TV or display?
Yeah, I would plug this into Linux or MacOS, put the roms on another drive, format this drive, and set it up myself. I would not just plug this into a Windows computer. I just do not trust any drives from China on a Windows computer.
Your right it lags on Xbox 360 games and I have AMD Ryzen 7- 7800X3D processor with a NVIDIA RTX 40 Series RTX 4090 with 24GB memory GDDR6X.
LaunchBox does at least make it easier than ever to setup emulation now. It's still not with out issues though.
So I bought one of these a couple days ago from techdweebs video would you say it would be worth it just to get it for the rom library and configure the front end and emulators yourself?
Just bought one of these and just to be safe scanned it for viruses, there were a couple of trojans viruses in there. Idk if I should go ahead and clear those viruses in the hard drive or if i should leave it as is to not mess up the set up itself
"there are definitely better ways to play retro games on a computer". What would you suggest is the best way?
They took someones build. A guy named wolfanoz, shows his name on the startup screen for big box. He would not have allowed them to do this. Looks like they built off of it, and messed it up.
I would just find a NTSC ROM burner and setup the emulation myself. Done this with a multi DVDs back around the mid 00s. I had all arcade and cartridge based ROMs. Shame I lost the HDD I had it on.
Good god don't ever install anything from a pre-made drive. It doesn't matter if they tell you it's safe, bad practice! It's like reaching into a dirty hole with open wounds all over your arm!
JUST TRYED COIN OPS LOADS GOOD IMAGES WITH ROMS ON ARCADE PUNKS AND LOOKS BETTER THAN LAUNCHBOX
Which controller do you recommend?
Xbox one or ps4 controller
Also they must not be doing much of any compression on those roms. Shouldn't take that much space for what I saw.
There is some compression, like with GameCube games, but others (PS2, for example) are not compressed.
Those games are playable straight out of the box? Or do you have to get to get those from some other site?
Out of the box. It is all contained in the hard drive built into the device.
it would have been better if you could just boot into it and everything just works, I've been looking for that kind of alternative with everything setup to just plug and play.
@@nasman7492 Sounds good :)
Emuelec too
Tying Launchbox to an experience with having it basically pirated onto a crappy hard drive using someone else's pre-made image that was created on another PC is pretty unfair to Launchbox. I get that you don't like it, but presenting it as a janky rom dump in a direct comparison to making your own image on your own PC from scratch using competing software is disappointing. Having said that, I fully expect if you did a fair comparison you'd still prefer your favorites and that is 100% fine. Just not a fan of the juxtaposition. I run and enjoy Launchbox/Big Box because I started from scratch and was able to tailor it (very easily) along the way to my hardware and preferences. It is nowhere near the nightmare presented here. I think you'd still probably prefer Batocera for the reasons you mentioned, especially given your experience with it (again, no problem with that). We all prefer what we've spent the most time with and feel comfortable using, and so I prefer installing Launchbox to Windows. I don't think I'd make a video comparing my personal Launchbox build to a janky batocera romdump drive, though.
Hi Barry, it wasn't my intention to paint LaunchBox as bad, but that the configuration of LaunchBox is not done well on this product. I am a big fan of LaunchBox, and have lifetime licenses for both the Windows and Android versions. It does have its quirks, but once you have it set up it can be great. I've never gotten around to doing a setup video mostly because I've been knee-deep in handheld/Linux gaming for most of this year.
Scanned 20 percent of mine with webroot and so far 6 malware, be really really careful and do not connect to wireless or a computer you use for anything else !!
And then they say turn of antivirus turn off windows defender, we no need IP :)
Love the channel and your content, I watch all of your videos and enjoy the vast majority of them even if the equipment reviewed aren't that interesting. That said I'm gonna have to put this video down and let it run on mute (I want you to get the play time) but holy crap this product is silly. They are actually selling a hard drive with files on it. Big fail on their part. I'm glad you made this video for people that wouldn't be as cautious they should be. But seriously, this is such a silly product. Good video though.
Ahh come now. Someone like me who has a low knowledge of PC's and came from Consoles I think ur under estimating the market. Many Peeps out there are gobbling these up as most have no idea how to get all this up and running from scratch. Alot of Dummies out there.
@@unorthdoxcleric6953 I appreciate the video and his opinion, and even acknowledge the people that this could be marketed to. I am happy he made this video for the specific reason that people could see that it's not the solution you're looking for. There are better, easier and safer options out there, and I believe that it's important that people can see what this really is. I appreciate Russ and what he does, and exposing this hard drive that in all reality could have spyware on it that could gain access to your computer, I think it's really important for people to realize what this is and how dangerous it could be to the customer.
I was only saying that the video doesn't offer anything to ME, so I'm gonna put my phone down and do something else so that Russ gets the view time because I appreciate him and what he does and I really hope his fast channel growth keeps going up exponentially. I apologize that I didn't originally get my point across.
Thanks for looking out for the less than tech savy people
I feel very uncomfortable about this. Launchbox is not for commercial sale.
It's worth it for all the games
wow just wow a retro gamer who now has a moral crisis because Kinhank did this....just wow...
As Jesus once said...ye, without sin cast the 1st stone
Well im sold into making a full business on facebook marketplace
This is a drive full of trouble. Period.
Oh shit, no thank you. Thank you for warning about this. No $ale.
It's uber lame these oversea idiots took something like Launchbox and went ahead and pirated it..it's lame. Launchbox is worth paying for. It's worth supporting it.
If you're too lazy to customize your own games..this is way to go..but then it will have a lot of crappy games too..
Hmmm... Glad I saw this video. Seems shady.
Yeah that's sketchy as hell. Nope!
Bought the 12TB, but wont be using on my everyday pc. Only will be used on a system with out any personal info on. Otherwise easy setup.
sounds like it might be worth it just for the huge collections that you can pull off the HD.
Exactly what I was thinking saves a lot of time just for the games
exactly just as i was think just using the roms
I think it is worth it if u don't mind that not everything is running perfectly.
That’s what I was thinking too.
The Emuparadise workaround has stopped working for me.
Oh man the first "no man, not gonna do it"
I mean it's kinda appealing just to get the roms and format the hard drive
Honestly, the info at 3:00 should be the end of the video. Any illusion of caring about preservation or accessibility are gone when they're pirating *and* reselling in-development software and lying about there being a license included.
@@nasman7492 There's a difference between a user choosing to load "stolen" decades-old software onto their own device, and a Chinese company selling the active-development work of both commercial projects and community members.
The "different version of DirectX" is a common version of DirectX 9. Some of the older emulators probably require this.
He didn't install a lot of dependencies required for nearly all the emulators to function properly, thats why he was having so many problems. All those dependencies are available online if someone doesnt trust the version supplied on the drive itself.
Never "run as admin", if you don't trust the source, even if your anti-virus doesn't ring the alarm ... it gives full access to your system
This is why you are better off using a cheaper laptop, upgrading it, and only using it fir gaming if you use this brick.
@@MrRondonmonmini pc is good?
@@GTA6postsYes it is but keep in mind they often have no GPU only decent CPU.
When I hear one of the most positive people I follow saying that he dislikes something more than like something, I am prepared for a massive disaster. Thanks for the video!!
It's the first time I've heard him say "no man, I don't wanna do it"
1 - Buy an External HDD
2 - Install your own emulators and games
Enjoy it!!
@@GivemeBacon how many months will it take to do all that? I’m building a cabinet and thinking about just getting this because I don’t know how to set everything up
@@GivemeBaconi dont have all that free time, i am not a kid anymore and also not a bu/m. I work 5 days, 12 hours and in those 2 free days i do other stuff. This product is perfect for me.
@@GivemeBaconNot everybody is a tech nerd with unlimited time on their hands, FYI.
This isn't an emulation product, it's a HDD with software loaded onto it... No idea how they can spin this off as an innovative new thing, I've been doing this for a decade or more!
They are taking advantage of the ignorance of hipster retro gamers, who will spend their money on anything
@@LokiTheClever I thought this was a thing for wealthy people living in third world country's. If you can afford this but don't have internet infrastructure where you live why not buy it for gaming.
I think its for people who have bad internet and don't want to spend a year downloading a terabyte of games
@@minarchisttrucker2775 Yup, that's exactly what it is. I wouldn't buy this but I can see the benefits for people who don't want to take the time to download everything. Of course, if you find a game that this doesn't include for whatever reason, you're gonna end up downloading stuff anyway but at least not as much.
@vipertxt hey get your truck and trailer washed at blue beacon lol
Ah making money off of game developers, emulatior developers and launchbox developers
Yep, this should have been a very short "Avoid this 🚩🚩🚩" video for a ton of reasons. We don't need to see the capabilities - it's stolen community work being pirated and resold on a sus af hard drive.
I've picked up a number of these plug and play boxes, for that part of my collection, over the last year. None of them come close to steping up to my original PC emulator I built for that purpose, a couple years ago. I use the Big Box front-end and it displays and plays Wii, PS 2, GameCube, N64, ect. with a display quality that smokes the original consoles. So far, these little boxs, are simply fun little novelties in a disply case. With this box we have a hard drive depending on the ability of the purchasers own PC. I appreciate the point because Kinhank can't produce a little, affordable box that plugs and plays these emulators like my PC. But it seems the experiences will be all over the place depending on the various performance capabilities of the different PCs out there. The inconsistencies will probably end up an eventual hit and miss nightmare for Kinhank.
Oh hell no! 1st red flag for me was seeing the Wolfenos logo. That person is a well respected poster in the retro gaming community who posts his builds for free on sites like Arcade Punks. These people are taking his or her hard work, modifying it, then selling it. That license is just wrong too. Too much fiddling around just to get it to work. Think I will pass. Thanks for the review.
Super interesting video, russ! In the future in videos like this, would you ming listing your system specs in the description of the video? At least cpu/gpu/memory? Thanks!
I built my own version of this using RetroBat. Super easy to set up and use. I added everything from NES to PS2 on an 8tb drive and it works flawlessly. A little time consuming compared to a premade system like this but, no security issues or any other problems.
8TB is enough for full PS2 library?
@@gmr2gnr all the ps2 titles in total are around 2-3 tbs so 8tbs is plenty.
@@gmr2gnr also don’t quote me on that but I did just a rough search on how big the ps2 library is.
8tb is enough for the full US PS2 library, along with every system released before it full library, Excluding Xbox and GameCube. I don't care too much for having a collection of GameCube games, because most games were released on the PS2. GameCube specific is like double digit number of games easy to just get those and not use much space.
@PiffMasterG too much work involved in that approach
A lot of games didn't play because... you didn't install all of the software?
Would definitely recommend to use a separate pc with clean Windows install just for this... just in case the software wants banking info :) But the cost of video cards right now... sigh. The pirate license sounds like China but they say he its free! :)
For ordinary players, it is indeed a good choice to add a few dollars to the purchase of a hard drive to get a game device with tens of thousands of games. The focus is on the manufacturers' tribute and integration of retro games.
manufacturers' tribute? What does that even mean?
@@casedistortedI think he’s asserting that the creators are some morally superior humans who are doing gods work by “preserving” games. Personally I think they’re shady people looking for money.
I think Launchbox should sue them for loss of revenue
Have you tested most of the Roms? If so, are they working? I wouldn't mind purchasing something like this simply for the Rom library.
I have the 12TB version and the roms are good. This guy didn't install dependencies required for some of the emulators to run, so entire systems-worth of roms werent booting for him.
Love this Channel and I am Super Happy with my Kinhank Mini PC with 61000 Games. What I would like to know is would this work flawlessly if u did everything that Kinhank said to do and if u should Update to the lastest firmware?
Rich is a pos and won’t answer!
Based on some of the comments Russ, this is a tricky situation for you to consider in the future. I am of the camp that is fine with you showing the device because their deceptive marketing of the launchbox license could have tricked people and you basically debunked the legitimacy of it and you discussed several red flags that should turn people away. On the other hand, a lot of the video then focused on how well that improperly distributed software works, and many people might skip to that and buy it based on liking Big Box alone. Despite me understanding the video's context, I could see these types of products doing more harm than good for your channel in the long run. Just something to consider since I love your channel.
As far as launchbox/big box goes, anyone reading this that has interest should buy the license themselves because that same lifetime license can then be used on basically any other devices you own. I use it on a custom arcade cabinet running a PC, and I would much rather spend money on an affordable license that I can personally own and manage and use on any new supporting device I buy, rather than giving this less ethical company money toward use of a shared license on this one product.
Works perfectly. You need a good computer and *updated* software, obviously.
Guys. Dont get discouraged about Launchbox. It's a great product. You can setup Launchbox on a computer, add all your emulators, game files, and art work , then copy the entire folder to a 256gig or 512 gig usb ( the prices are CHEAP!!!) . Now you have your own portable Retro Game system that will safely work on a PC. When the Launchbox hard drive originally came out , USB drives were still very expensive but not anymore. If you want to give it to a friend remove your keycode and everything still works and your friend can get updates and everything. What doesnt work is the "BIGBOX" interface. Dont worry about it, you wont miss it. I did pay to support the project .
You shouldn't be promoting this product, which is what you're doing just by talking about it, regardless of whether you recommend it or not. Just showing it is going to end up selling them to someone who wouldn't have otherwise known about it.
Launchbox is under active development and is a commercial product. Their inclusion of a license is illegal and that license will be banned. It's already been brought to the attention of the development team.
You plugged a random hard drive you got in the mail into your computer without a second thought? ... You know how dangerous that is right?
It wasn't as dramatic as I made it sound...I did verify it was their hard drive before plugging it in. That being said I did plug it into one of my crappy mini PCs first just to be safe :)
@@RetroGameCorps how do you verify it's their drive? I'm interested in buying this. Thanks!
Could I use the roms on this hard drive to make a batocera retro gaming computer? I have limited bandwidth to download roms.
Of course it's a scam. Besides licensing issues, nobody selling a legitimate product would use a mechanical HDD. Those went out of style in 1874.
This device is so shady I felt like one of the steps was going to be giving them your credit card info. Just dump it in the bin and move on.
You are buying a roms catalog and the hdd where they reside. Anything else is just for show.
Love your channel man, you are doing a great job! Thank you for everything you do. 👍
a very silly review....u refused to follow instructions and went on to complain about games not booting....
I think someones's not gonna get more kinhank packages anytime soon, lol.
Great video btw!
Lmao this is like plugging in usb drive you found on the street 😂🤣
it defiantly has issues on mine it has a folder called team viewer remote pc access on it with TeamViewer exe inside why would i need that for retrogamers
Lol
Well i bought one of these not because it was pre configured or the launchbox license ( which i purchased my own) it was simply that internet is crap in australia and the multiple TB of roms for a fee on a disk was easier than spending months grabbing them all. I bought a new usb drive and leveraged the roms to create my own setup using my own license
Herein lies how we make excuses to use Emulators. At least for me (possibly): First, I was robbed by my roommate/boss of 30K and lost all my PC games due to other ridiculous things she did. Then I spent 2K on an HP Omen which has not worked right since the warranty expired. I spent more money replacing all the parts. Now I find it may be the SSD. Then I buy an XBOX 360 and it works fine until yesterday. Now it is blocked suddenly by my internet. Optimum could not help nor Xbox reddit ideas. So here I sit thinking, I spent so much money for Lemons. Do I buy this and put it on a dedicated computer just so I can at least play something? Nobody is offering to reimburse me for my troubles and loss. It's a fine line to cross. How much more money do I spend to risk what I need legallly?? I am going broke here to do what I love best.
Maybe the controls are backwards and the other various problems are at least partially due to your refusal to properly configure the system?
You sit here criticizing something after failing to set up the files it calls for, and therefore you're in no position to make any claims in regards to its functionality.
If you had been fair to it and followed the directions _then_ and only then you'd have a leg to stand on bitching about it not working properly..
There are plenty of workarounds that you simply refused to acknowledge such as running it in a VM so this "review" only serves to diminish your credibility, in my opinion..
And before you claim I'm stupid for suggesting it's not important to use some healthy skepticism and due diligence - I never said that. I'm saying there's plenty of ways around the "shadiness" you claim and hence you've only crapped on your credibility by being ignorant and deceitful in your half-cocked review.
If you're so terrified of malware then maybe you ought to focus on that as a topic for your content rather than allowing your lack of vertebral fortitude effect so heavily your opinion on the topics of your dissertations while creating content which you imply is meant to be educating for those who are potential buyers of something like this..
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Jussayin
I LOVE negative reviews. Theres nothing worse than a reviewer who is only ever positive, because I quickly lose all trust.
1. I agree do not trust those files but you should be telling people or offering links to get them directly they do need to be installed.
2. Moaning about controller mapping well they cant have all of them to how you want them (They would not even know which controller you would use)
3. Updating system does break things I have tested this myself (The frontend plus the emulators are very out of date)
4. Most of the Chinese builds like this use the same setup difference is intro/logo etc.
5. Space is limited which is why they do not have the newer consoles packed out with games (The people this is targeting I expect do not have PC systems good enough anyway so it's a marketing thing to sell the units)
6. Moaning about 8 sec boot come on that is being very picky
7. the sluggishness will be due to the files count and persons system also its running videos (Being outdated as well is reason why its old builds they use plus how do we know you have all the required files installed plus upto date drivers we dont its something you should have mentioned)
8. Cost ??? this is what it comes down to I have found these setups can be the same price if not cheaper over ordering just an external hdd in my own country plus you then need to spend hours downloading and setting up the systems. (Some people may not have these skills or even good internet.)
9. You can disable bezels it's in settings.
Give the company proper feedback and realistic solutions hopefully they will listen to correct them in the future but I don't think they will but this is the whole point of them sending you this unit otherwise they should not bother.
Well, this time the irrepressible Chinese creative got lost in the wilds of marketing))))
I guess it's nice to get a bunch of games without having to download and find them yourself, but disabling your antivirus and installing different versions of software is a no go. I'd rather have just the ROMs on the drive and I'll source any emulators or frontends that I need.
Launchbox basic have to import roms this just means you dont uave to do anything but plug and play all games from any emulator
You say didn't install must of the suftwhere that's why must the game didn't playable u are worse review they shouldn't give u this hardware to review
I am so happy to see those 100k subs man you deserve it the most. Road to 1 mil.
Thanks a ton!
I've been using launchbox with a lifetime license since the beginning. It really isnt difficult to get it set up. If anybody thinks this is a good deal you should just take that money and give it to launchbox themselves. It's a lot of fun to get it up and running and you can pick your own emulators, games, etc.
Exactly, plus the whole setting it up is at least half the fun. But I guess not everybody is like us and they want everything pre configured without having to spend any time of theirs. But it’s just lame, I honestly dislike those people, like gimme gimme gimme.
Its not "a lot of fun" to pick your own emulators and set everything up. You have to constantly update the emulators. If you find out about a new system, you need to research and find the emulator, download and set it up. Batoera or other emulationstation setups, the devs do all that. You don't have to set up anything. Just your controller and your done. I stopped using BigBox because Batocera has way too many advantages.
Wolfanoz image from arcade punks
Yep...apparently you & I are the only ones who noticed that (was just about to post my own comment when I saw yours). Wolf probably wouldn't be very happy about this...
This is my problem with setups like this. They don't test the games to make sure they work. If I was doing this I would make sure the games actually work.
I wonder if they even included all the files/roms. I bet if you were to go into the rom section and the folders for the different systems, some of the games wouldn't actually have all the necessary data to run the rom for said game.
Unbroken Software LLC should sue, this is BS
then nintendo, sony, ubisoft, EA, activision, and every other game developpers should sue them. it's 100% pirated games
you need to use i5 intel core or higher and use high speed graphics card
someone should upload this torrent lol
14:08 At the bottom left there is an error saying Uncorrectable data sector number. It might be an error or fault in the external drive.
these things are definitely going to use the cheapest knockoff HDDs possible. Just like why you should never depend on any SD card that comes with retro devices
Good video, thank you for the review;
while I know this question shouldn't go here, I have to know; did the creator of this drive get overlays working within graphical notifications? As far as I know after a certain version of 11.x that quit working when overlays are enabled and never got fixed. I've asked folks in Discord for LB and they say "it's just how it works now for Windows; notifications cannot be "always on top" when overlays are used."
For example, see timestamp 09:45 where overlays are enabled and nice notifications appear from below.
EDIT: Realized later that issue is with Retroarch versioning, not LaunchBox. Curious of what version of Retroarch is being used then, didn't see that in the video anywhere....
Just move the notifications over the game play area. Thats what I do.
Sounds like shaking hand with devil