Retro handheld emulator consoles

[67428f09ae81avoodoo47]

if you are into self-assembly without soldering, premium products, and retro handhelds, then it's time to pull out some 260+ bucks and get started.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExFJT5TjQ0c

should have little trouble with anything up to (and including) gen5 consoles, and looks great - no more cut corners anywhere (literally, as it's not necessary to cut out any corners to make the pcbs fit into the shell).

[67428f09aea28voodoo47]

looks like the RG300 is now available for $40 on ebay - big battery, custom firmware support, large screen (with no tearing), usable L and R shoulder buttons, decent emulation of everything up to and including PS1 (as always, PS1 2D and 2D/3D games are mostly fine, full 3D mostly not). yep, time to grab one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mmZM4May9s

also, after messing around these devices for more than 2 years now, I can safely say that anyone even half serious about this should always go for something that is either open source out of the box, or is hackable - the cheapest ones can be purchased for about $25. anything closed/unhackable is going to have too much stupid, so avoid unless you really just want to play NES Mario for $6.

[67428f09aee88voodoo47]

I wish someone would make a Nintendo 64 compatible handheld, with properly ergonomic controls.

the most powerful pi3+ based handhelds can do that, but those don't come cheap.

looks like they are almost there - good build quality, an open source system, IPS screen, hardware powerful enough to play PS1 and N64* games, and costs below $100:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzRXx534qHE

*the N64 emu is still alpha, but as it's opensource, chances that popular games will run ok soon enough are pretty good.

[67428f09af243JDoran]

It's great that portable N64 emulation is getting ever better and more affordable, but then you come to the problem of the non-ergonomic controls of so many hand-helds. Or, to be more specific, the non-ergonomic for 3D games controls. In the past I've bought a PSP, and an Android tablet with built in controls as I can't stand touch screen controls for games (a JXD S7800B) and both had great controls for 2D games, but the analogue sticks (which was actually a flat moving thing on the PSP) were terrible for 3D games. I've tried a couple of other handhelds that ran Android and had physical game controls built in, but again they just weren't erganomic, and I gave up for the time being on being able to play 3D games comfortably while at work or on a train.

Hopefully the focus of handheld manufacturers will move to also encompass better controls for 3D games. Personally, I still the think and ideal solution would be an XBox 360 style all-in-one joypad that contains all of the handheld's systems, except for the screen of course, as that would be provided (so I wish!) by plugging your glasses (spectacles) into the joypad, and your glasses acting like two TV screens.


Warning: Long moan coming up... I saw these glasses/monitors previewed *years* ago (probably knocking on a decade ago, by now) on some TV program on some cable or Sky channel very early one morning, and they were just normal glasses, that could be made to function with the vision-correct that normal glasses have, so they'd function as normal glasses to those of us who need them, when they're not displaying video images. They even looked like normal glasses, more or less (just the arms were thicker near your ears, I think) and with a wire to connect them to a computer.

But not only have they still, after all these years, failed to emerge commercially as far as I can tell, but I've not even seen anyone with any real commercial/world presence (such as Sony, Samsung, etc) preview anything like them. Virtual reality headsets are still headsets, when if this technology was genuine then you'd just need a pair of these glasses (albeit modified slightly, so they can attend to your full visual range, including your peripheral vision) and some earphones, and you wouldn't have a headset making you sweat. These type of glasses would be extremely popular, especially since two thirds of the population walk about with their eyes glued to their phone's screen anyway, and these glasses would make the phone's images look massive since they are so close to your eyes, and mean you don't have to keep your head and neck aimed down all the time, easing posture problems.

Has anyone here seen these glasses, or a similar project that actually looks to be still alive?

[67428f09af365voodoo47]

the technology isn't available yet, and won't get there anytime soon as far as I can tell.

anyway, just to make sure everything is clear, I wouldn't recommend getting the RG350 just yet, if N64 is the main interest - the emulator needs work, and the device is bound to go through a hw revision or two in the meantime.

[67428f09af4dcicemann]

I've recently got into Nintendo DS emulation. The second screen seems like more of a gimmick that barely any of the games I've tested on it have made effective use of. So far I prefer the GBA as that has more SNES-like games, but its certainly a good system. Looking forward to discovering what good games are out there for it.

[67428f09af5e9voodoo47]

the DS itself actually is a decent retro machine as well, if gen4 and older is all you need (and you don't mind buying the handheld second hand). I personally dislike the weird two screen touch format.

[67428f09af731icemann]

Already got a boxed 2DS that I bought years ago. But yeah I don't like the 2 screen system. It makes things quite annoying when playing games via emulators, as fitting 2 screens at once lowers how well you see things (since you need to look at it zoomed out).

The games I've tested so far have been a real mixed bag. Some look terrible and obviously made bad use of the DS's technical capabilities, whilst others make good use and seem like excellent games.

Played a bit of Phoenix Wright - Ace Attorney. That game looks and plays great. Feels like an old school adventure game kinda. Plants vs Zombies been playing A LOT of.

[67428f09af95bicemann]

Not retro in the slightest but I bought a Nintendo Switch yesterday. It cost so much ($475 AUD) that I couldn't afford to get any games for it. Did get some free ones off the online Nintendo store to test out.

Pros:
* Graphics - The graphics look great in 2D and 3D
* Sound - Sound is excellent
* Ability to use it on a TV as a proper console and as a hand held
* Huge library of excellent games already

Neutral:
* Joy-con Drift - As I only just bought the thing, this hasn't happened to me yet. And I sure hope it doesn't. Nintendo's lack of real response on this issue is concerning.

Cons:
* No manual - What the actual fuck. How can you not have a manual for a $475 system. That's completely unacceptable. I had to go online to figure out what half the stuff was for, and how to use it. Very bad form.
* No internet browser - The last hand held I bought, which was a Sony PSP back in 2004 came with one right off the bat. Why the hell would you not include an internet browser in a modern system? That's just stupid.
* No carry case - Again, my PSP came with one right off. Why force people to spend even more money.
* No head phones supplied with it - PSP, and Gameboy came with these supplied. They are so cheap, that it's so stingy of them to have not supplied one with it.
* Paid online requirement for anything online related for games - This should be free. That said it's only $30 a year, but paid DLC for a console is bad.

[67428f09afa93voodoo47]

they are having a sale at retromimi.com/collections/handhelds (I do prefer ebay, but I've bought stuff from there before, and have no complaints), ex. BittBoy v3 for just $30 (it pretty much can't get any lower than that for a non-stupid device), and the new RG350 for $86. various other types as well.

[67428f09afc0fvoodoo47]

bloody chinese capitalists, engaging in free market competition and bringing better and cheaper products to the customers every couple of months - behold, the PocketGo2, aka full PS1 emulation for $55 (can be ordered from the previously linked retromimi site).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwVbei2HAFI

this has the same cpu as the RG350, so N64 is possible as well.

[67428f09aff38vurt]

Might get one of these, would be really cool if its possible to play N64 games like Waverace.

The small screen can really be a big plus when playing these now rather ugly, low-res games.

[67428f09b00ecvoodoo47]

as mentioned in an earlier post, no need to rush a purchase if N64 is what you want, the emulator is not there yet, and chances of the handheld manufacturer churning out a revision or two in the meantime is pretty much 100%.

[67428f09b0291icemann]

N64 emulation for some odd reason has never advanced at the same rate, as that of other systems. PS1 - PS2 emulation is around 90% accurate (give or take) at this stage to compare.

PS3 emulation has a LONG way to go. Though it is advancing at about the same rate PS2 emulation did. PS2 emulation took about 10 years to get good.

Sega Master System - Megadrive and NES - SNES emulation got really good, really fast. With support only lacking for the more advanced chips not coming until many years later.

I will say, that now that I own an actual N64 console, the games on it are far more hit and miss than many of the other systems that I own. Anything done by Nintendo directly was top notch, but the rest are a real mixed bag.

[67428f09b048evoodoo47]

the way N64 handles cpu and gpu interactions is really annoying, making it hard to emulate on low performance devices, if memory serves - the devs say having a device based on the top of the line Jz4780 cpu available would help tremendously (dualcore, very decent gpu), unfortunately, no signs any manufacturer has plans to use it (top devices all use Jz4770 right now, which is singlecore, and has a weaker gpu).

on a slightly related note, just received the original PocketGo (barely two weeks after making the purchase, not bad), and the shell is of much better quality than the BittBoy, so apart from a bit of electronic humming, some screen tearing, and the slightly annoying need to soft-powerdown the device before switching it off, I have no complaints - even Quake runs nicely. definitely a winner in the $35 tier.

it's been a while since I've checked on the progress of PS3 emulation, but it was getting there, meaning a few selected/popular games were already fully playable and enjoyable (good framerates, in hires and with all the other bells and whistles) on a pretty regular gaming computer. so way to go yeah, but not that LONG, I think - the milestone of running commercial games fullspeed has already been reached.

[67428f09b06b5icemann]

Well for PS3 emulation the following games run nigh on perfect:

* Demon Souls - No surprises that this game was the devs primary focus for a good chunk of time. It's the systems killer app.
* Ni No Kuni - Amazing game. Damn fine animation by Studio Ghibli.
* Persona 5 - The devs of Persona 5 went after the RPCS3 devs with a DMCA when emulation of this one got good, stating that should be the only ones to deem which platforms a game can be run on. They didn't get very far with that (since emulation was ruled 100% legal in the courts back in the late 90s with the Sony vs BLEEM case), but all mention of the game was removed from the emulators website soon after. It still works perfectly fine in the emulator.

Work has been on-going of late in getting:
* Red Dead Redemption
* The Last of Us
* MGS 4

To a perfect rating. Of the above only MGS4 is about 90% good, with some graphical issues. The other 2 suffer from major graphical glitches and massive slow down. With each passing month, the status of those 3 improves however.

On the cool features end - The emulator a few weeks ago added in auto-updating. So no more having to go the website to download new versions. Just open the emulator, and it notifies you new updates. Very nice .

[67428f09b0a42Olfred]

Came across this video, and thought it might be of interest on here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmtakEUBuo8
If you already have a powerful enough mobile phone it might be interesting to just get the controller.

[67428f09b0b85magnothus]

my firware version is exactly like yours, but i dont have the ability to play SNES game, couldt get it to read the snes roms, doesnt come with SNES games also.. only nes and GBA games...
my firmware version is 1.1.10.120301

[67428f09b0ce4voodoo47]

not sure about what device you have in mind. or rather, in you hands.

[67428f09b136aSonic]

yaay, the X12 is finally here, and I have to say I'm quite happy with it, it feels less cheap than the X9, and a fair chunk of stupid has been removed - no more weird volume control, the emulator menu now has a separate button instead of being mapped to the left shoulder button (whoever came up with that deserves an extra sack of rice of whatever they're being paid with), the game browser icon is now at the A1 position. remapping the controls is still pita, and some undeletable fake games are still in, but that's not a big deal. a quite important thing is the added option to swap cds, which was not present on the X9 (so I would assume the X9 was only capable of playing one cd PSX games).

anyway, I can safely say that if you want a 30-something buck retro handheld emulator that will emulate pretty much all the retro stuff up to the 4th gen (plus some PSX), the X12 is a good bet.

Hello,
I also recently took a recent one (firmwere of mid-July 2019) I verified that it is compatible with all the games of SNES, NES, GC, GBA, MD, while it does not support SMS and GG, in the manual it is written that the games SMS and GG must be in GBA format, I tried to rename the file extension, they are recognized, but they don't work the same! and I don't know that there are SMS and GG romsets in GBA format ..?

The biggest problem for me, is to understand which roms set of MAME, FBA, NeoGeo or other, is compatible with this portable console, I have tried roms from different sets of different versions of MAME, and also the last complete set of FBA, and others .. but only a good part of the CPS1 roms and System-16 roms work and only a part of the CPS2 roms work, for example X-Men Children of The Atom, Vampire Hunter, Marvel Superheroes, etc .. of the CPS2 not work!
while the Neo Geo games even less! in practice it is as if the console only works with those game roms that are already pre-installed (it doesn't make sense, but that's how it behaves), for example of the Neo Geo there is the "Top Hunter" game pre-installed and in fact if the rom is added manually, it works perfectly!
in my case I created a "GAME" folder on the 32GB MicroSD card, but if I put a Neo Geo rom, which is not already pre-installed, for example "Samurai Shodown II", (I have tried several versions with different files inside the ZIP), during the upload it always says "unsupported format", while of the ARCADE roms of the MAME, (except some CPS2 and NEO GEO), none of them work! I tried "Hook", TNMT, Spdiderman, Bubble Bobble, The Simpson, and other classic ARCADE, but none of these MAME or FBA roms work!

Were you able to find compatible ARCADE roms sets?

Possible that compatibility with ARCADE games, CPS2 and Neo Geo persist is limited only to pre-installed titles?

I saw that in the internal memory of the console there is a folder called "FLASH", I guess it can be used to update the firmwere, perhaps it is possible to load a certain type of "cusotm firmwere", so that you can add specific emulators, to be able to to run ARCADE games without the limitations imposed by the internal OS?

[67428f09b19c3voodoo47]

first, I wouldn't recommend a closed source handheld nowadays unless it was dirt, dirt cheap (think $10-15), as you can get a BittBoy/PocketGo/RG300 for $30-40. the software not being idiotic makes a night and day difference.

the games SMS and GG must be in GBA format

you need a conversion tool that will wrap the roms into a gba compatible package, basically a SMS/GG emulator for gba. expect performance hits and additional problems (you are adding another layer of emulation).

no idea about arcade (and I got rid of the X12 a long time ago), but try checking what kind of format is being used by the included ROMs (if I remember correctly, the internal storage has some built in games that aren't accessible and are there to stay, but also a heap of extra ROMs that are accessible when you connect the console to a pc, and can be deleted or replaced. would try having a look at those). and no chance of a custom firmware, the cpu is proprietary.


also, snatched an IPS version of RG300 for $45, and boy they got the shell format soo right - it fits into my hands perfectly, all buttons in really comfortable positions. and the screen is great.

[67428f09b1af2voodoo47]

ok, this is nuts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LkZLFiFLd8

[67428f09b1bfdvoodoo47]

oh, a plug and play solution for the Saturn, not bad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j11SgTcagMY

[67428f09b1d17voodoo47]

ok, PS2 games on the new Xbox? yeah, that is cool, no argument there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psTunlgKOMM
5:27 seeing a first person shooter being played with a controller still makes me cringe though.