Retrogaming Hardware

[Beowulf]

I finally got around to writing these reviews: PowKiddy Q80 and Q90 Reviews

Not long after I bought the RG350 and started fiddling with it, I decided to see how the competitor systems stacked up and…probably spent too much money.

The PowKiddy Q80 is a clone of the PocketGo v2 and ran me $60 on eBay. It runs the same OpenDingux OS as the RG350, though with a slightly different emulator selection pre-installed (a newer version of Gambatte that allows for borders and cheat codes; GPSP instead of ReGBA by default). It also has the same problem that it doesn’t plug directly into a windows computer, but in this case, the External SD card doesn’t hold the main roms folder, so it takes more maneuvering to add roms or files to the system. It’s a similar-sized device, same 3.5” screen, only one analog stick (laid out PSP-style) but with both shoulder buttons. My biggest disappointment was that there’s a “Home” button, but it doesn’t do anything—not just that it wasn’t mapped to anything, but I don’t think it was actually connected inside the system. Power-wise, this can do pretty much anything the RG350 can (though I didn’t extensively test PSX games), but it’s clearly the budget option. (I think they actually stopped producing it subsequently.)

The PowKiddy Q90, on the other hand, which I paid $40 for on eBay and can still be had for around the same price, is pretty great for what it is. (It’s functionally a clone of the original PocketGo.) If you liked the original Game Boy Advance, it’s basically that model with a few extra buttons; and probably the smallest a handheld can get and still be comfortable for someone with adult-sized hands. It has a 3” screen, smaller than the RG350 or the Q80 and less smooth, but perfectly fine for games originally made for portable systems. It has a single analog stick and only one set of shoulder buttons, but that’s fine, because while it can boot PSX games, it can’t actually run them to anyone’s satisfaction. The screen is really too small for them, anyway. The battery life is a perfectly cromulent 4-5 hours. But the real thing I appreciated was that there are + and – keys in addition to the regular Start and Select, and the – key is actually a properly-mapped Home button! You can also press – from the main screen to suspend the system.

Again, it’s running OpenDingux (with a different front-end skin) and has the same slate of emulators available. GPSP is the GBA emulator by default (and it carries the bad scaling from that); it also features Gambatte, SNES9x4d, Fceux, and PCSX Rearmed. SNES emulation in particular has some of the choppy animation and laggy music problems the 9X-S demonstrated. If you fiddle with the settings (enabling frameskip, enabling transparency, setting to fullscreen), it’s still not perfect, but it’s much better than the 9X-S, and at least doesn’t seem to suffer the random speed changes. Save states are available, most of the SRAM saves seemed to function properly; no cheats unless you’re willing to fiddle around a lot.

Despite being underpowered as an emulation handheld from 2020, this is still for sale likely because it hit a real niche: It’s cheap and works really well as a pick-up-and-play tiny portable. Game Boy, GBA, NES and Game Gear games all work great and look fine at the screen size, and the compact size and lack of extra analog sticks means this actually fits in your pocket. I played half a dozen hours on it in 15-minute bursts just because it’s really convenient for that.

Overall: I’d actually recommend the Q90 to someone who just wanted to play GBA games on a small, cheap device and didn’t want to put much effort into it. The version I got was loaded with roms and required basically no setup. The Q80 was outclassed and is already forgotten.

 

[Beowulf]

Initial impressions for the Retroid Pocket 2+:

• I'm glad I invited a friend who actually understands computer hardware to help. He brought a proper IFIXIT set, and we needed it--the screwdriver included in the upgrade kit was good, but the tweezers were shit and there was no pry-tool. Also, I don't actually know how to (for instance) remove and reattach a ribbon cable, which this requires you to do.
• You need to replace the buttons. The upgrade kit comes with the buttons. The instructions don't tell you to replace the buttons.
• They give you the materials to turn the old PCB into a standalone emulator you can plug into a TV. They didn't include instructions for this (we had to find a Youtube video), and we couldn't actually get it to turn on because we didn't have a manual for it, either.
• When I ordered the upgrade kit, I should have ordered a touchscreen upgrade, too. This runs fairly standard Android, which means that you really need a touchscreen to maneuver everything into place. I ended up connecting a USB mouse through the C to A adaptor the system originally came with.
• There are two options for front ends once you've got it set up, and at no point does the system become "pick up and play"--I spent an hour figuring out controller settings and downloading RetroArch cores and I still probably have another couple of hours getting settings just-so for every single emulator. The RG350 just runs, y'know? This requires a lot of DIY.
• This has a wifi antenna and is running standard Android, so there's a lot of flexibility to what you can do with it and what you can install. But again--nothing about it is simple.

I'm sure I have other thoughts, but that's what comes to mind right now.

So then I paid another $20 for a touchscreen upgrade and $10 for a carrying case while I was at it. If nothing else, that meant Ben and I spent another afternoon having a good time taking the device apart and using a hairdryer to melt the glue attaching the old screen. Then at the end I had a fully-functional Retroid Pocket 2+ and a fully-functional Retroid 1 PCB that I could hook up to my external monitor via HDMI. Was this a sensible use of money? Probably not. But it entertained Ben and I for two full afternoons and, as my wife noted, if we’d been hanging out in a sports bar or something we’d have spent the same amount of money and not had toys to show for it.

So now I have a Retroid Pocket 2+, which has a proper touchscreen and is running a faster set of hardware than the original.

An interesting example of the power of the system but with the DIY involved: I needed to access the Google Play store in order to install and update several emulators, and it hit me that there were a number of Android games that I could probably install and play. Adventures of Mana was the first one that came to mind, in that it was fun but the touchscreen controls annoyed me, and sure enough, it runs beautifully (if a little small in the 3.5” screen) and recognizes the keypad automatically. Adventure Bar Story didn’t recognize the keypad, unfortunately, and I’m certainly not going to use touchscreen keypad controls on a device like this. (And that bodes poorly for other KEMCO games.)

Another nice thing is that, because I’ve figured out the HDMI output and attaching other devices, I can plug in a second controller and put the whole thing on the big screen, and have a two-player retro experience that’s easy to carry around.

And finally: The PSP emulation is better and the N64 emulation is significantly better; and this can run PS2 games (though I haven’t tested it thoroughly) and supposedly can manage GameCube games using the Dolphin emulator. With the touchscreen, emulating DS games is a little weird (you need to assign the shoulder buttons to let you bounce between the two screens) but totally feasible. It also has the Steam Link app, though I couldn’t get it to recognize Steam on my PC. Because each emulator is different, they vary on how easy it is to access save states and whether they support cheats; that’s just another layer of things to figure out.

Overall: If you’re willing to put in the time and effort, this device is really flexible and can do a lot. Obviously, you want to jump straight to paying $100 for the 2+ rather than paying nearly twice that and dealing with the upgrading process. I suspect I’ll use this system a lot more when I want the sense of accomplishment from getting something to work or when I specifically want to play something that doesn’t run on my easier handhelds. (And though I have the standalone RP1 PCB and can make it work…I’ll probably never put in the time and effort to make it something I’ll use casually.)

 

[Kazin]

Yeah, that looks fantastic already. When we have more room, I'm planning on doing that to a bunch of stuff (including a watermelon red N64 I got from Japan, of which the clear white plastic is a super ugly yellow). What light set up do you have there? I've debated getting something like that or those LED strips or whatever. I'm glad to see the hydrogen peroxide + black light works just as well for a non-youtuber as opposed to using that weird "retrobrighting" paste some people slather all over their stuff.

 

[Beowulf]

Powkiddy A66 / TRIMUI Mini Handheld Review

Remember the “thinner than paper” $10 emulator handheld that I played with a ways back? This is the successor to that, a higher-end device (at 4x the price) with a similar footprint intended to be as portable as a handheld can possibly be.

This has a pretty straightforward frontend with a united system of emulators divided up by game systems. Apparently it’s the “TRIM-UI” in the name. It has a dedicated menu button, easy and consistent access to save states, and seems to properly save SRAM. It also has a “favorites” and “recent plays” feature. Emulation for pretty much everything is smooth and pleasant, though I didn’t try PSX (it didn’t come with any loaded but has a section for them). It loads fast and you can do a save/shut down quickly, too. Everything about the setup says that they knew they were making a “pick-up-and-play” device and they wanted to make that as straightforward as possible.

(I would seriously consider flashing the TRIM-UI onto another device if I thought it would work--I like it much better than the EmuELEC that comes standard on the RG351.)

The other selling point of this device is that it’s tiny, pocket-sized for pretty much anything that has pockets and smaller than most cell phones. (Heck, it could probably fit in some wallets.) The tradeoff is that...it’s tiny. The screen, though sharp, is only 2” diagonally. The buttons are a little flatter and a lot more “clicky” than my ideal, and the L and R buttons are tiny, sunk-in nubs on the top of the system that are painful to use. The system is less than half an inch thick, which is great for portability but not actually that comfortable to hold; the less-rounded shape also contributes to that problem.

This doesn’t have a video output port like many of the other handhelds, which is unsurprising, again given the target audience. More notably, it also lacks a headphone jack, which the Q90 does include. It doesn’t even have a volume slider; relegating that to inside the UI. (The selection menu plays a beepy tune when you turn the system on, so you’ll want to jump straight to the sound menu to turn that down if you’re in a public place.)

The one I got (from AliExpress for $45) was loaded with Japanese and Chinese roms, but like most of these devices, it has an SD card that I could pop out and rearrange the contents of. Interestingly, there are a LOT of GB/GBC titles and SNES titles, but relatively few GBA games (an odd choice, given the form-factor) and relatively few NES games. I suspect that varies by seller and YMMV.

Overall: This is intended to be thrown in the pocket of your coat or purse to pull out and play while waiting for a bus. It’s tiny and runs well, but it’s not comfortable to play for a long time on. If I anticipate a long wait at the dentist or whatever, I’d be more likely to bring the Powkiddy Q90 because it’s still pocket-sized, but more comfortable to hold and with the bigger screen. And if I’m going to be playing for half an hour or more, I’d much rather have the RG350.

 

[Becksworth]

That rg503 looks tempting for the OLED screen, though maybe I'd be better off just modding my old Vita. Also I should be up for a Steamdeck soon. Might wait and see what the custom firmware is like.

 

[Beowulf]

That rg503 looks tempting for the OLED screen, though maybe I'd be better off just modding my old Vita. Also I should be up for a Steamdeck soon. Might wait and see what the custom firmware is like.

From what I've read, the RG503 doesn't actually run PSP games well, which would be 90% of the reason you'd want the OLED screen in the first place. I bought an RG552 and I like it a lot; it was more expensive but the beefier processor seems to be worth it.

 

[Becksworth]

I was also looking into the AYN Odin, as its in the price range the rg552 is in, but with much beefier specs. I was considering getting that, but between that and the Steamdeck I figured I'd stick to the latter for now.

 

[Kazin]

Wow, that worked extremely well. I'm going to have to do that as soon as I can. I have a Pokemon Mini that is a disgusting yellow, too, that I should take care of. Well done!

 

[Beowulf]

I was also looking into the AYN Odin, as its in the price range the rg552 is in, but with much beefier specs. I was considering getting that, but between that and the Steamdeck I figured I'd stick to the latter for now.

Oh, the Odin looks really sweet, but I've gotten the impression (perhaps incorrectly) that supply is incredibly tight and getting them at MSRP isn't really feasible. I might get one (or whatever the next hot thing is) in another year.

Unrelatedly, now I'm actually kind of tickled by the idea of whether you can flash TRIM-UI onto a larger cheap device like an X20 or something.

 

[Becksworth]

Oh yeah, they're definitely backlogged, especially with the issues in Shanghai I believe. I had backed the Indiegogo, but there were so many delays it got to the point that best case scenario I'd probably end up getting it and the Steamdeck at roughly the same time. Thankfully they were cool and accepted my request for a refund.

 

[ArugulaZ]

It's gonna seem a bit underwhelming next to some of the other feats on this thread, but I managed to install a new screen on a recently acquired PSP-2000. On the surface it doesn't seem like it's anything that's too difficult to do... you just take all the screws out of the case, swing the front of the system open, unfasten a few ribbon cables, then slide in the new screen and fasten its ribbon cables to the connectors on the motherboard. The big issue is that the cables are held in place with latches called bails, and they're ridiculously small on the PSP. I wound up breaking off the smallest of the bails (maybe 3 by 3 millimeters in size) and was forced to use that fancy Kapton tape Tito always talks about on his Macho Nacho channel to keep the cable (also redunkulously small and thin) in place.

It does work, though! Unfortunately, it feels like a Pyrrhic victory, as the new screen has a tiny black splotch on it (dead pixels?) and is blurrier than I expected, with the infamous PSP ghosting you'd see on early models of the system. I guess it's better than having a third of the screen covered with swirl patterns, as it was when I first got it, but nevertheless, someone really needs to make an IPS screen for this thing. I understand they exist for the PSP-1000, but not so much for this model or its successors.

 

[Kazin]

Congrats! And re: the IPS screen mod for the PSP-1000 - I bricked mine when trying to bridge a SUPER, SUPER tiny set of vias. It might be fixable, but it's going to be difficult. The screen works, but when I was putting it back together the bridge came undone, and when trying to fix it I got solder where it's not supposed to go. I also broke one of those bails and had to use kapton tape too haha. Luckily I have a working modded 3000, so for PSP, I'm good to go.

If they ever do make an IPS screen for the 2000, read the fine print to see if you have to bridge a stupid via or two.

EDIT: Also, I just bought a 50w UV floodlight because of Tegan lol

 

[Phantoon]

Nah, that's impressive. Taking apart any of the more recent consoles and putting them back together successfully is extremely difficult at times. People get hung up on the concept of soldering when often it's the easiest bit.

 

[ArugulaZ]

The Joycon wasn't the hardest thing I've ever fixed, but that old thumbstick blew up real good when I took it out of the controller. It burst into a dozen pieces without a shell to hold it together! Contrary to what the pawn shop claimed, no amount of recalibration was going to save this thing.

 

[Sarge]

I had to replace a PSP-2000 screen way back, and I don't disagree, it's a little more precarious than you'd think. I still don't think mine sealed up quite right - pretty sure one of the screw holes got stripped out. But it still works, and I managed to not get dust under there, so that's a win.

 

[ArugulaZ]

The CMOS battery in a Dreamcast, somewhat annoyingly, is rechargeable and can't be replaced with a standard coin battery. I don't know why they did this... I guess they figured that people weren't going to use the Dreamcast long enough for the battery to burn out, and just soldered it in. I mean, it could be worse... PS3s and PS4s have batteries buried deep within the systems, which create all manner of chaos with the DRM once they expire. Can you reach them to replace them? Maybe, but you're going to need a lot of skill and a little luck to do it.

 

[Kazin]

...huh? How would you recharge one of those batteries, anyway?

 

[ArugulaZ]

This guy. This guy is a masterhand at repairing old technology, like this old Space Invaders handheld game from Japan.

It wasn't good enough to merely replace the capacitors and solder broken connections on the circuit board, oh no. He removed the metal parts, gave them an ultrasonic bath that shook off most of the corrosion, nickel plated them to prevent more corrosion, bought tinted plastic to replace the broken screen cover, precisely reproduced the writing on the front of the screen cover with a UV printer, replaced the torn up instructions on the back with an exact replica printed on a silver sticker, and cleaned all the plastic parts so they functioned as well as they did in 1978 when the game left the factory. I am in awe. He didn't just replace the broken parts of this toy, he re-manufactured them.

 

[Sarge]

Wish I could help on that front, I haven't bought any switchers in years. Got an old Intec one that works like a champ, and I think a GE-branded auto-switcher for component stuff that I probably bought a good 15+ years ago.

 

[ArugulaZ]

Clive Sinclair deserves to spend the rest of his afterlife stuck in that pumped up Power Wheels he called the C5 for the way he designed the keyboard in Sinclair computers. Now I'm not a young pony at this rodeo... home computers of the 1980s will have esoteric typing rules that only make sense to that particular system, like when you type QUOTE on a VIC-20 and it puts you in a weird screen command mode that stays on forever until you hit QUOTE again. But the Timex-Sinclair 2068 and its British cousin the ZX Spectrum... man, the number of alternate modes for the keyboard and the fact that you have to USE them to enter commands or much of anything is bound to infuriate the touch typist.

You can't just type OUT, oh no sir. It's got to be one shift key followed by an entirely different shift key followed by an associated letter. IT'S THE SAME NUMBER OF KEYS, YOU DOPES! LET... ME... TYPE... THE DAMN THING OUT!! Programming this thing in BASIC must have been a test of patience even Job would have failed. It's like Clive Sinclair had a bitter divorce with Mavis Beacon and decided that his next computer would be especially designed to break her psychologically.

 

[muteKi]

About any input switch will work -- noise and lag are more sensitive to your choice of cables, generally, and even those don't add much at all.
I have one of these generic switchers with physical buttons. It's great. Requires no additional power, does everything I need it to.

 

[Yimothy]

I don’t have any specific experience with analogue switch boxes but I’d definitely go for a mechanical switch rather than anything automatic - I have a mechanical HDMI switchbox which I was able to open up and physically sever the CEC line for my MiSTer and fiddle with one of the other signals that was causing me trouble. A mechanical box is the electrical equivalent of physically unplugging the cable from one thing and plugging it into another, so it won’t need any power supply, won’t add lag, and won’t switch itself to the wrong input.

 

[Beowulf]

I actually have an offline friend who has a massive setup with all of his systems, and I asked about what he uses. His reply:

My setup is a bit complicated, but my goal was to have everything connected and ready to go, with a few button presses on a remote to get it switched over. I have multiple switches going into an HDMI switch, which then runs to my receiver connected to the TV.

Actually, now that I think about it, I actually have this diagramed out for my own reference.

This is a little outdated in that Framemeister has been phased out for the OSSC.

The SCART switch is a gscartsw. The component switch is Impact Acoustics Component Switch.

The HDMI switch is a 4x2 in/out switch, since I also run an HDMI to my PC when I stream retro gaming.

If folks have questions they want me to pass back to him, let me know. His setup is really impressive and N64 looked absolutely amazing on his gigantic screen.

 

[Ixo]

I think that diagram technically qualifies as a sphere grid.

 

[Phantoon]

Clive Sinclair deserves to spend the rest of his afterlife stuck in that pumped up Power Wheels he called the C5 for the way he designed the keyboard in Sinclair computers. Now I'm not a young pony at this rodeo... home computers of the 1980s will have esoteric typing rules that only make sense to that particular system, like when you type QUOTE on a VIC-20 and it puts you in a weird screen command mode that stays on forever until you hit QUOTE again. But the Timex-Sinclair 2068 and its British cousin the ZX Spectrum... man, the number of alternate modes for the keyboard and the fact that you have to USE them to enter commands or much of anything is bound to infuriate the touch typist.

You can't just type OUT, oh no sir. It's got to be one shift key followed by an entirely different shift key followed by an associated letter. IT'S THE SAME NUMBER OF KEYS, YOU DOPES! LET... ME... TYPE... THE DAMN THING OUT!! Programming this thing in BASIC must have been a test of patience even Job would have failed. It's like Clive Sinclair had a bitter divorce with Mavis Beacon and decided that his next computer would be especially designed to break her psychologically.

Lol, now you know why I never learned BASIC. No way I could handle that bollocks input method

The Spectrum was a hell of a machine outside of that - between it and the BBC Micro it kick-started home computing in Britain.

 

[Sarge]

Dadgum, that's quite the setup. Mine isn't quite as complex, but it's still kinda crazy when I decide to tie in the retro systems as well. In that event, I've got the RetroTINK 2X tied in on one of the HDMI ports. But usually, those systems are tied to a CRT in the same room.

 

[ShakeWell]

I actually have an offline friend who has a massive setup with all of his systems, and I asked about what he uses. His reply:

My setup is a bit complicated, but my goal was to have everything connected and ready to go, with a few button presses on a remote to get it switched over. I have multiple switches going into an HDMI switch, which then runs to my receiver connected to the TV.

Actually, now that I think about it, I actually have this diagramed out for my own reference.

This is a little outdated in that Framemeister has been phased out for the OSSC.

The SCART switch is a gscartsw. The component switch is Impact Acoustics Component Switch.

The HDMI switch is a 4x2 in/out switch, since I also run an HDMI to my PC when I stream retro gaming.

If folks have questions they want me to pass back to him, let me know. His setup is really impressive and N64 looked absolutely amazing on his gigantic screen.

That's... shockingly similar to my set-up, but I do have two TVs (CRT and flatscreen) and the gscartsw is going to both of them. I also don't use a receiver currently, and I upgraded from Framemeister to RetroTINK5x, but other than that... yeah, pretty close.

 

[muteKi]

I don’t have any specific experience with analogue switch boxes but I’d definitely go for a mechanical switch rather than anything automatic - I have a mechanical HDMI switchbox which I was able to open up and physically sever the CEC line for my MiSTer and fiddle with one of the other signals that was causing me trouble. A mechanical box is the electrical equivalent of physically unplugging the cable from one thing and plugging it into another, so it won’t need any power supply, won’t add lag, and won’t switch itself to the wrong input.

Did you need to sever the CEC line before it would work with MiSTer HDMI out, and where did you get the switch?

 

[Yimothy]

I thought I’d posted about this on TT, but I can’t find it so I guess I just posted it on the MiSTer boards. There are some photos and a link to the manufacturer of the switchbox there (though it’s available cheaper elsewhere), along with a description of the problem and how I fixed it.

Basically, I had a problem with the ground and +5v lines being connected in my MiSTer HDMI port when it’s turned off, which resulted in the ground draining the +5v from everything else connected to the switch so nothing would give a picture on my TV unless the mister was also on (which seemed to break the connection between ground and +5v). Nobody else seems to have this problem with their mister so I suspect it’s a stray connection in my USB board or else I’ve accidentally bridged something setting it up. The mechanical switch physically disconnects everything but the ground and +5v lines, so it didn’t fix my problem, but because I knew CEC caused a problem for some people I was happy to remove that from the switch and redirect the +5v line for the mister through that switch so it would disconnect if the mister wasn’t selected.

 

[Sprite]

I've got an old fat PS3 (non-BC) with the YLoD that's been sitting in a closet for years. There's an electronics disposal event happening next week and I was considering taking it there, though... I wonder if there's a better fate for it? I don't know if anyone wants these things for parts, and also don't know if there's a risk of exposing my data through there. Seems a shame to just pulp it, though.