-
Welcome to Talking Time's third iteration! If you would like to register for an account, or have already registered but have not yet been confirmed, please read the following:
- The CAPTCHA key's answer is "Percy"
- Once you've completed the registration process please email us from the email you used for registration at percyreghelper@gmail.com and include the username you used for registration
Once you have completed these steps, Moderation Staff will be able to get your account approved.
Retrogaming Hardware
I have a Retro-Bit Duo that I bought...15 years ago? It's not 100% fidelity, but it was really good and still works. They currently make Retro-Bit Trio consoles that play NES, SNES and Genesis carts. I cannot personally vouch for that exact device, but it meets all of your criteria, requires no additional work or setup, and comes from a good pedigree.
R36S Game Console
($42 on AliExpress)
I got this in a Black Friday sale on AliExpress for $42—I wasn’t expecting much and I didn’t think it was worth it for the $60 price tag I was generally seeing it at. It’s sort-of a clone of the Anbernic 353V, a vertical handheld with a 3.5” screen and enough power to play Tier 3 (N64, DS, PSP).
It’s a little more angular and a little less comfortable to hold than some of the other vertical systems, but big enough for large hands (unlike the Miyoo Mini Plus) and it has the analog sticks sensibly at the bottom. (Which you can press down for L3/R3 functionality, even.) The buttons are very “clicky” and hard; they work fine but aren’t the most comfortable ever. No touch screen, but that’s not a big deal here. It’s running ArkOS and EmuationStation, and takes about 20 seconds to boot up. Like the RG35XX, it has two SD card slots (in this case, both are occupied with the OS and games), and two USB-C ports (power and "otc," which I think is just to connect another data source. I don't think this does tv output or second controllers). It’s got the hard reset button, which is always handy.
My biggest complaint, which soured me unduly, is that this has a menu button that is a LIE—as far as I can tell, it does nothing. You need to press L3+R3 to bring up the Retroarch menu and Start+Select (twice) to exit a game. And that’s okay, it works fine, but there’s a button that could be conveniently pulling up the menu and…nope!
Like the TRIMUI Smart Pro, this gives you access to the full Retroarch menu, but it’s the annoying desktop version that’s a pain to navigate. (Except for Drastic and PPSSPP, which use their own custom menus.) That said, the cheat files are already there, and work nicely. Oddly, this leaves save states (and fast forward) in the RetroArch menu and you need to map your own hotkeys if you want them. Also, I don't think the “Last Played” collection actually works—it never seems to change.
All of the lower-end systems I tried work just fine. N64 runs...very badly, actually. Janky, glitchy, and Beast Wars eventually froze and necessitated a hard reset. I'm guessing it's a software issue, which implies to me that N64 could be made to run better by messing with RetroArch settings, though I’ll admit I don’t even know where to start, especially since the L3+R3 combination doesn’t work. (I found some commentary online that suggested going into the emulator settings and forcing it to use RetroArch and the Nintendo 64 – ParaLLEI core; which did make Mario 64 run better but wouldn’t load Smash Bros at all. And implies the hotkeys weren’t working on other games because it’s defaulting to a standalone emulator.) On the other hand, DS and PSP run shockingly well. The screen is a little small for the latter, and the former has a custom set of controls for Drastic, including mapping the right stick and R3 to the stylus, using L2/R2 to swap screens, and L3 for the Drastic menu.
So then I tried popped the SD card and adding a bunch of games for systems that weren’t already represented: Master System, Neo-Geo Pocket Color, Pokemini, Virtual Boy, Wonderswan, Lynx, Jaguar, MSX, and Pico-8. And the results were pretty good! The first five ran perfectly, with the only hiccups being that I needed to fiddle with display settings a little and the Pokemini doesn’t have splash art. MSX and Lynx wouldn’t run at all (I’m guessing the cores are missing) and Jaguar runs very slowly with graphic issues; so I removed those from the card after testing.
Pico-8 gave me errors asking for .dat files, which I suspected I could find and add, and yes, after checking out a RetroGameCorps guide and making a quick trip to itch.io for the correct version of the files, Pico-8 worked, too.
(I also dropped a few games in the “SNES Hacks” folder, and sure enough, it created a new collection. For that matter, there’s a function to create custom game collections in the UI which might be worth checking out.) Attempts to add my own box art didn’t work, but I suspect if I gave it access to my wi-fi the “Scraper” function might be able to find something. I may try that at some point.
Overall: I don't want to like this, because it physically feels like a cheap knock off and it has a fake menu button, but there's a lot here. This has most things you’d want right out of the box (except N64) and requires very little tinkering, so it’s solid price point competition for the RG35XX or Miyoo Mini Plus. (And for the discounted $42, it's a DAMN sight better than the m17!)
($42 on AliExpress)
I got this in a Black Friday sale on AliExpress for $42—I wasn’t expecting much and I didn’t think it was worth it for the $60 price tag I was generally seeing it at. It’s sort-of a clone of the Anbernic 353V, a vertical handheld with a 3.5” screen and enough power to play Tier 3 (N64, DS, PSP).
It’s a little more angular and a little less comfortable to hold than some of the other vertical systems, but big enough for large hands (unlike the Miyoo Mini Plus) and it has the analog sticks sensibly at the bottom. (Which you can press down for L3/R3 functionality, even.) The buttons are very “clicky” and hard; they work fine but aren’t the most comfortable ever. No touch screen, but that’s not a big deal here. It’s running ArkOS and EmuationStation, and takes about 20 seconds to boot up. Like the RG35XX, it has two SD card slots (in this case, both are occupied with the OS and games), and two USB-C ports (power and "otc," which I think is just to connect another data source. I don't think this does tv output or second controllers). It’s got the hard reset button, which is always handy.
My biggest complaint, which soured me unduly, is that this has a menu button that is a LIE—as far as I can tell, it does nothing. You need to press L3+R3 to bring up the Retroarch menu and Start+Select (twice) to exit a game. And that’s okay, it works fine, but there’s a button that could be conveniently pulling up the menu and…nope!
Like the TRIMUI Smart Pro, this gives you access to the full Retroarch menu, but it’s the annoying desktop version that’s a pain to navigate. (Except for Drastic and PPSSPP, which use their own custom menus.) That said, the cheat files are already there, and work nicely. Oddly, this leaves save states (and fast forward) in the RetroArch menu and you need to map your own hotkeys if you want them. Also, I don't think the “Last Played” collection actually works—it never seems to change.
All of the lower-end systems I tried work just fine. N64 runs...very badly, actually. Janky, glitchy, and Beast Wars eventually froze and necessitated a hard reset. I'm guessing it's a software issue, which implies to me that N64 could be made to run better by messing with RetroArch settings, though I’ll admit I don’t even know where to start, especially since the L3+R3 combination doesn’t work. (I found some commentary online that suggested going into the emulator settings and forcing it to use RetroArch and the Nintendo 64 – ParaLLEI core; which did make Mario 64 run better but wouldn’t load Smash Bros at all. And implies the hotkeys weren’t working on other games because it’s defaulting to a standalone emulator.) On the other hand, DS and PSP run shockingly well. The screen is a little small for the latter, and the former has a custom set of controls for Drastic, including mapping the right stick and R3 to the stylus, using L2/R2 to swap screens, and L3 for the Drastic menu.
So then I tried popped the SD card and adding a bunch of games for systems that weren’t already represented: Master System, Neo-Geo Pocket Color, Pokemini, Virtual Boy, Wonderswan, Lynx, Jaguar, MSX, and Pico-8. And the results were pretty good! The first five ran perfectly, with the only hiccups being that I needed to fiddle with display settings a little and the Pokemini doesn’t have splash art. MSX and Lynx wouldn’t run at all (I’m guessing the cores are missing) and Jaguar runs very slowly with graphic issues; so I removed those from the card after testing.
Pico-8 gave me errors asking for .dat files, which I suspected I could find and add, and yes, after checking out a RetroGameCorps guide and making a quick trip to itch.io for the correct version of the files, Pico-8 worked, too.
(I also dropped a few games in the “SNES Hacks” folder, and sure enough, it created a new collection. For that matter, there’s a function to create custom game collections in the UI which might be worth checking out.) Attempts to add my own box art didn’t work, but I suspect if I gave it access to my wi-fi the “Scraper” function might be able to find something. I may try that at some point.
Overall: I don't want to like this, because it physically feels like a cheap knock off and it has a fake menu button, but there's a lot here. This has most things you’d want right out of the box (except N64) and requires very little tinkering, so it’s solid price point competition for the RG35XX or Miyoo Mini Plus. (And for the discounted $42, it's a DAMN sight better than the m17!)
A couple of years ago I hacked my 3DS, and this year I picked up a "new" 3DS XL and set it up with injected CIAs of a ton of retro games. With a newborn at home I haven't had time to sit down in front of the TV to play games, so it's been great to pick up and play in the odd hours that I'm free.
I've been going downtown for work more in the last month or so, and I've been playing it on the train too. The other day I was playing Dragon Quest III on GBC, and it struck me that a 3DS XL, with the GBC game in pixel perfect mode, is kind of a bulky and clunky way to play while out of the house. When open, it's a huge plastic square with a blank screen on the bottom half and only a small portion of the top screen is even displaying the game.
I always see videos and articles about Miyoo Mini and other retrogame systems, and I started thinking about picking one of those up, just to use on the train. I started looking into it, and I kept running across comments about how they feel kind of cheap and aren't that comfortable to hold. Plus, I don't really want to spend more money or have more devices floating around.
Then, I saw someone comment that their favorite way to play retrogames is their hacked Vita. Man, I already had a hacked Vita 1000 sitting in a box somewhere. I originally discounted it because 3DS can play GBA games natively, and I wanted all of my Nintendo games on a Nintendo system. But, I figured I'd give it a shot. So I downloaded retroarch and spent some time figuring out how to set it up (why are there so many options?)
Anyway, it looks and runs way better than I expected and I wish that I had tried this out years ago. The higher resolution OLED screen makes a big difference. Games scale up to full screen way better, it has a smaller form factor, and the D-pad is great. the sleep mode and battery are super good too.
My only complaint is that the face buttons are a bit small, but overall it's very comfortable for this type of game. I saw some older comments complaining about performance, but it seems like the system cores have been improved recently because everything runs smoothly for me. the only games it struggles with are ones that push the boundaries of their respective systems, like Star Fox on SNES and Golden Sun 2 on GBA. Everything else runs as well as the 3DS and looks very nice.
I was happy to find a solution without having to buy any more devices. I played a bit on the train this morning & it felt good and was easier on my old eyes. Here they are side by side.
I've been going downtown for work more in the last month or so, and I've been playing it on the train too. The other day I was playing Dragon Quest III on GBC, and it struck me that a 3DS XL, with the GBC game in pixel perfect mode, is kind of a bulky and clunky way to play while out of the house. When open, it's a huge plastic square with a blank screen on the bottom half and only a small portion of the top screen is even displaying the game.
I always see videos and articles about Miyoo Mini and other retrogame systems, and I started thinking about picking one of those up, just to use on the train. I started looking into it, and I kept running across comments about how they feel kind of cheap and aren't that comfortable to hold. Plus, I don't really want to spend more money or have more devices floating around.
Then, I saw someone comment that their favorite way to play retrogames is their hacked Vita. Man, I already had a hacked Vita 1000 sitting in a box somewhere. I originally discounted it because 3DS can play GBA games natively, and I wanted all of my Nintendo games on a Nintendo system. But, I figured I'd give it a shot. So I downloaded retroarch and spent some time figuring out how to set it up (why are there so many options?)
Anyway, it looks and runs way better than I expected and I wish that I had tried this out years ago. The higher resolution OLED screen makes a big difference. Games scale up to full screen way better, it has a smaller form factor, and the D-pad is great. the sleep mode and battery are super good too.
My only complaint is that the face buttons are a bit small, but overall it's very comfortable for this type of game. I saw some older comments complaining about performance, but it seems like the system cores have been improved recently because everything runs smoothly for me. the only games it struggles with are ones that push the boundaries of their respective systems, like Star Fox on SNES and Golden Sun 2 on GBA. Everything else runs as well as the 3DS and looks very nice.
I was happy to find a solution without having to buy any more devices. I played a bit on the train this morning & it felt good and was easier on my old eyes. Here they are side by side.
Since I took this pic I found that Retroarch does have a 1:1 mode, which makes the image slightly smaller. It doesn’t make a noticeable difference in most games, but in games like Mega Man you can see on the health bar that all pixels are the same size. Still, the 1:1 mode gives you a lot more screen real estate and the stretched mode is clearer on Vita compared to 3DS. I’ll take some pics to show if I have a chance.
Anyway, Vita is an excellent retro machine. I’m still very impressed after putting in more time with it.
Becksworth
Aging Hipster Dragon Dad
So my AYN Odin 2 arrived and it's pretty spiffy. I was initially thinking I didn't need another Android handheld between both having a Steamdeck for higher end emulation and the Franken DS for lower end stuff. Honestly though, Steamdeck kind sucks for emulation. It's big and bulky, you have to deal with PC quirkiness in a handheld form factor, and honestly I'd rather use the available storage on my Steam library and a use another device for emulation.
This leaves a space for something to handle high end emulation: PS2, Gamecube/Wii, those edge case 3DS titles that didn't run well on the Franken DS, but don't really utilize the bottom screen, and more recently the fastly developing Vita emulation scene. So far the Odin 2 is just aces handling this class of games that was generally just out of the Franken DS'es reach. There is no XBox/360 or PS3 emulation on Android, but honestly the Steamdeck didn't run these well either, so we're a hardware generation or two away from those being easily emulated on a portable. Oh there is also no Wii U on Android. Okay Steamdeck, you can still be my portable Wind Waker HD machine for now...
There is also the case of Switch. Being they are both ARM systems, and the Odin 2 is based on a near decade newer chipset it can actually handle the Switch library supposedly pretty well, albeit the emulator is still a work in progress. I... don't know how I feel about this, the Switch being an active platform and all. I might dick around with Mario Kart 8 and Smash Ultimate mods on here just to try it out, but otherwise I think I'd rather use my OLED for this.
As a side bonus the Odin 2 can handle pretty much any modern Android game you throw at it on max or high settings, so it's also the ideal handheld if you want to play AAA gachas with a built in controller while not shelling out even more money for a flagship phone.
This leaves a space for something to handle high end emulation: PS2, Gamecube/Wii, those edge case 3DS titles that didn't run well on the Franken DS, but don't really utilize the bottom screen, and more recently the fastly developing Vita emulation scene. So far the Odin 2 is just aces handling this class of games that was generally just out of the Franken DS'es reach. There is no XBox/360 or PS3 emulation on Android, but honestly the Steamdeck didn't run these well either, so we're a hardware generation or two away from those being easily emulated on a portable. Oh there is also no Wii U on Android. Okay Steamdeck, you can still be my portable Wind Waker HD machine for now...
There is also the case of Switch. Being they are both ARM systems, and the Odin 2 is based on a near decade newer chipset it can actually handle the Switch library supposedly pretty well, albeit the emulator is still a work in progress. I... don't know how I feel about this, the Switch being an active platform and all. I might dick around with Mario Kart 8 and Smash Ultimate mods on here just to try it out, but otherwise I think I'd rather use my OLED for this.
As a side bonus the Odin 2 can handle pretty much any modern Android game you throw at it on max or high settings, so it's also the ideal handheld if you want to play AAA gachas with a built in controller while not shelling out even more money for a flagship phone.
Sarge
hardcore retro gamin'
Yeah, I expected I'd be playing a lot more PS2/GC stuff on Steam Deck than I actually have. I do think a smaller form factor would fuel my playing them more, and I figure in a couple of years I'll be snagging a smaller passively-cooled system that chews those systems up.
I feel like the fact that Android emulation options top out is the issue at the moment--but then, at the moment GS/PS2/3DS is the very top end of what I'm interested in emulating. Which 3DS games was the franken-DS having trouble with? I don't actually have a sense of what the most demanding games are.
Becksworth
Aging Hipster Dragon Dad
Mainly the real graphics pushers: Kid Icarus and Kirby Planet Robobot are the ones that pop out in my head. Then again emulator optimization was probably still part of the issue. Pretty sure Crimson Shroud wasn't pushing the 3DS that hard...
Still playing 8-bit games on Vita. It’s such a nice device. It’s small, but with a big screen. The D-pad is excellent. It’s comfortable to hold. And the sleep mode is great - it barely uses any battery & it wakes up instantly. And games look great on it.
I made one minor adjustment: I tightened the four screws on the back. It had been slightly creaky before, but now it’s much quieter and feels more solid. I only needed to make about a quarter-turn with each screw, but it feels like a big improvement.
I made one minor adjustment: I tightened the four screws on the back. It had been slightly creaky before, but now it’s much quieter and feels more solid. I only needed to make about a quarter-turn with each screw, but it feels like a big improvement.
An update on various handhelds I posted about a few months ago:
I gave away the Data Frog SF2000, and I sold the M17 Retro Handheld on eBay to recover some of my investment.
RG35XX: Koriki OS (v1.03) - I had a lot of hiccups when I tried to update Koriki; the 1.02 version loaded after a bunch of fiddling but the Gamestation/Batocera version of the OS wouldn't shut down, and when I switched it to Simplemenu psp and ds no longer worked. Then I realized that version 1.03 was available. I tried updating to 1.03 but it wouldn't boot, so I wiped the card and tried again but my computer wouldn't read the SHARE partition. Eventually, I needed to wipe the SD card again, image it, format SHARE as fat32 and resize it (and assign a drive letter!), then boot it up, then bring it back to load games on. That all worked fine and I think it’s basically at a mildly-improved state from v1.01. The same issues with NeoGeo, Pokemini and Pico-8 persist (at least in Simplemenu); N64, PSP and DS run shockingly well given the device specs. The biggest addition is the ability to switch to Gamestation as the frontend from the “Ports and Apps” menu, if you prefer that. You can switch back to Simplemenu from the Ports section in Gamestation. This still could be improved by mapping box art; I’ll have to decide if I’m in the mood.
I briefly swapped back to the GarlicOS card, which is admittedly better for fast pick up and play. I checked: GarlicOS hasn’t received any updates since last April and I doubt it will see any more. I also have the r36s for doing the higher-end systems on the smaller screen (and with all the buttons), which may influence how I use the RG35XX. For the record, Black-Seraph has GarlicOS 2.0 out in alpha, but only for the RG35XX+, not the original RG35XX.
TRIMUI Smart Pro - I did eventually figure out how to change the RetroArch UI to rgui: I needed to save the configuration and manually restart RetroArch. I also figured out how to manually add cheats within the RetroArch UI on the fly, which is handy on several systems. While I haven’t done a full careful battery life check, this seems to get about 4 hours on average. The system gets warm while playing, which is unusual--especially for GBA, which shouldn’t be particularly intensive—but in theory the firmware update addresses that. I happen to really like this device for GBA because that uses most of the screen real estate. Upon further playtesting, DS and PSP games can be a bit janky, especially compared to a more powerful device like the Retroid Pocket 3; but that’s less noticeable after I installed the firmware update below.
My attempts to manually changes settings to add Game Gear (which already had the core installed, even!) were ineffective. (I also couldn’t get a new Best folder past a certain point—I can make it exist with custom cover art, but I can’t get it to recognize all the systems I want.) Fortunately, Trimui posted updated firmware that took forever to download but was easy to install. With the new firmware, Game Gear and Lynx work properly. They added a Pico-8 emulator, but it doesn’t recognize my games. There are also cores for Sega Saturn, Openbor, EasyRPG, and a new version of MAME; I haven’t done anything with them. And as noted, there are clearly performance tweaks, too. I highly recommend updating your firmware if you’ve got one of these or buy one.
R36S Game Console - I’ve generally been happy with this. It also gets 4-5 hours of battery life, depending on the systems you play. I figured out that if you manually add lynxboot.img to the bios folder, Lynx runs fine. Nobody seems to have found a way to make N64 run better, though, and while the hot thing is switching the firmware, I’m not actually seeing a benefit to doing so. My biggest complaints about the system are all hardware-based (@#% fake menu button), and the software does almost everything I want it to.
And all of that said, I’m actually spending the most time on my Retroid Pocket 3. It’s up to about 170 total hours (the largest total after the RG350) and is still getting plenty of use, particularly with KEMCO games.
I gave away the Data Frog SF2000, and I sold the M17 Retro Handheld on eBay to recover some of my investment.
RG35XX: Koriki OS (v1.03) - I had a lot of hiccups when I tried to update Koriki; the 1.02 version loaded after a bunch of fiddling but the Gamestation/Batocera version of the OS wouldn't shut down, and when I switched it to Simplemenu psp and ds no longer worked. Then I realized that version 1.03 was available. I tried updating to 1.03 but it wouldn't boot, so I wiped the card and tried again but my computer wouldn't read the SHARE partition. Eventually, I needed to wipe the SD card again, image it, format SHARE as fat32 and resize it (and assign a drive letter!), then boot it up, then bring it back to load games on. That all worked fine and I think it’s basically at a mildly-improved state from v1.01. The same issues with NeoGeo, Pokemini and Pico-8 persist (at least in Simplemenu); N64, PSP and DS run shockingly well given the device specs. The biggest addition is the ability to switch to Gamestation as the frontend from the “Ports and Apps” menu, if you prefer that. You can switch back to Simplemenu from the Ports section in Gamestation. This still could be improved by mapping box art; I’ll have to decide if I’m in the mood.
I briefly swapped back to the GarlicOS card, which is admittedly better for fast pick up and play. I checked: GarlicOS hasn’t received any updates since last April and I doubt it will see any more. I also have the r36s for doing the higher-end systems on the smaller screen (and with all the buttons), which may influence how I use the RG35XX. For the record, Black-Seraph has GarlicOS 2.0 out in alpha, but only for the RG35XX+, not the original RG35XX.
TRIMUI Smart Pro - I did eventually figure out how to change the RetroArch UI to rgui: I needed to save the configuration and manually restart RetroArch. I also figured out how to manually add cheats within the RetroArch UI on the fly, which is handy on several systems. While I haven’t done a full careful battery life check, this seems to get about 4 hours on average. The system gets warm while playing, which is unusual--especially for GBA, which shouldn’t be particularly intensive—but in theory the firmware update addresses that. I happen to really like this device for GBA because that uses most of the screen real estate. Upon further playtesting, DS and PSP games can be a bit janky, especially compared to a more powerful device like the Retroid Pocket 3; but that’s less noticeable after I installed the firmware update below.
My attempts to manually changes settings to add Game Gear (which already had the core installed, even!) were ineffective. (I also couldn’t get a new Best folder past a certain point—I can make it exist with custom cover art, but I can’t get it to recognize all the systems I want.) Fortunately, Trimui posted updated firmware that took forever to download but was easy to install. With the new firmware, Game Gear and Lynx work properly. They added a Pico-8 emulator, but it doesn’t recognize my games. There are also cores for Sega Saturn, Openbor, EasyRPG, and a new version of MAME; I haven’t done anything with them. And as noted, there are clearly performance tweaks, too. I highly recommend updating your firmware if you’ve got one of these or buy one.
R36S Game Console - I’ve generally been happy with this. It also gets 4-5 hours of battery life, depending on the systems you play. I figured out that if you manually add lynxboot.img to the bios folder, Lynx runs fine. Nobody seems to have found a way to make N64 run better, though, and while the hot thing is switching the firmware, I’m not actually seeing a benefit to doing so. My biggest complaints about the system are all hardware-based (@#% fake menu button), and the software does almost everything I want it to.
And all of that said, I’m actually spending the most time on my Retroid Pocket 3. It’s up to about 170 total hours (the largest total after the RG350) and is still getting plenty of use, particularly with KEMCO games.
No, it's a Brimnes with drawers, so I can store my extra cables and controllers out of sight.
I suck at photography:
This is the Brimnes shelf with my controller mounts to the right. Guitar Hero controller mount is in the mail, will go to the left of this shelf. One of those PS4 controllers is going to be mounted to the wall under the Wiimote there when the mount gets here in the mail.
The black shelf my wife and I built around my CRT so I have room for my Gamecube, PS2, and (as it turned out) a new place for my Wii U controller, which had originally been mounted to the wall with the charger and everything, but had to be taken down because I put the new bookshelf there. Inside the cabinet there is my Super Famicom and Saturn on the top shelf, and Famicom and Disk System as well as some accessories on the bottom shelf (the Famicom is lit up because the composite out mod board I installed in it has a changing LED light in it that I kind of hate, but I needed composite out because I am not using RF).
A shot of the left side of my setup, with the LED lights in the background. I do not know how to photograph them! They look great in person, not all bright and blown out like in this photo. Systems in this photo - top left is N64, backup black Gamecube (lol) to its right, Wii U console, PS1, next row modded red Wii Mini, PC Engine, Retro USB AVS, Dreamcast.
And this is a shit picture of what it looks like in the dark from my chair. All of this looks better in person, I promise lmao
This is the Brimnes shelf with my controller mounts to the right. Guitar Hero controller mount is in the mail, will go to the left of this shelf. One of those PS4 controllers is going to be mounted to the wall under the Wiimote there when the mount gets here in the mail.
The black shelf my wife and I built around my CRT so I have room for my Gamecube, PS2, and (as it turned out) a new place for my Wii U controller, which had originally been mounted to the wall with the charger and everything, but had to be taken down because I put the new bookshelf there. Inside the cabinet there is my Super Famicom and Saturn on the top shelf, and Famicom and Disk System as well as some accessories on the bottom shelf (the Famicom is lit up because the composite out mod board I installed in it has a changing LED light in it that I kind of hate, but I needed composite out because I am not using RF).
A shot of the left side of my setup, with the LED lights in the background. I do not know how to photograph them! They look great in person, not all bright and blown out like in this photo. Systems in this photo - top left is N64, backup black Gamecube (lol) to its right, Wii U console, PS1, next row modded red Wii Mini, PC Engine, Retro USB AVS, Dreamcast.
And this is a shit picture of what it looks like in the dark from my chair. All of this looks better in person, I promise lmao
I love this. It's like... the best version of the elementary school TV cart.
Yeah, but I modded it to read stuff off a HDD so the only thing it's missing is online multiplayer, which I'm never gonna use anyway (well, that, and Gamecube functionality, but I have a real Gamecube for that). I just think it looks neat lol
I have a regular softmodded Wii stored away, too.
I just realized I didn't post my shelves, which are above the TVs. What a moron. First the one on the left above the HDTV:
From left to right: softmodded PSP 3000, Neo Geo Pocket Color with IPS screen, PC Engine GT with upgraded screen, clear orange Analogue Pocket. Behind them are some empty boxes that I don't know are going to stay there, same with the other side.
On the right, above the CRT and PS2/Gamecube. Left to right: modded Sega Nomad with upgraded screen, Game Boy Light (stock, but reshelled, not one of those super rare actual Famitsu models), modded Game Gear with upgraded IPS screen and rechargeable battery packs.
I think the above look cleaner without the empty boxes behind them. I do have space in the closet to put those boxes away, and am leaning towards doing so, so the handhelds stand out.
From left to right: softmodded PSP 3000, Neo Geo Pocket Color with IPS screen, PC Engine GT with upgraded screen, clear orange Analogue Pocket. Behind them are some empty boxes that I don't know are going to stay there, same with the other side.
On the right, above the CRT and PS2/Gamecube. Left to right: modded Sega Nomad with upgraded screen, Game Boy Light (stock, but reshelled, not one of those super rare actual Famitsu models), modded Game Gear with upgraded IPS screen and rechargeable battery packs.
I think the above look cleaner without the empty boxes behind them. I do have space in the closet to put those boxes away, and am leaning towards doing so, so the handhelds stand out.
Console shells come in weird colors and are too expensive (imo) anyway. Besides Gameboys, shells for stuff like SNES or Gamecube are over $100, that I've seen. I'd love a white PS2, too, but I'm not aware of any shell replacements for that system, outside buying one Sony made (ceramic white, iirc?).
Sure! My wife actually painted it for me before we were even engaged in 2015:
I love it a lot, especially because she painted it. She's done a couple paintings for me over the years, she's great.
Aw, I love this. Thanks for the full pic.Sure! My wife actually painted it for me before we were even engaged in 2015:
I love it a lot, especially because she painted it. She's done a couple paintings for me over the years, she's great.
Bought these off Etsy, they arrived today:
Pleasantly surprised to receive stickers for every system under the sun from this guy, rather than the 10 I thought I was limited to for whatever reason, I probably just misread his listing. In any case, this looks much better (and is easier to read at a glance for me) for switching between the seven goddamn s-video systems I have hooked up to the sole s-video port on my CRT TV (the AV2 button is just a passthrough to access the other switch, where the PC Engine/Dreamcast/Saturn/32X are).
These are behind my Gamecube, PS2, and Wii U controller, so they're not really visible or for presentation's sake, just ease of use. The nice part about the stickers is he gives you a bunch of different sizes, so you could make them presentable if you like. I'm considering putting stickers on the HDMI cables I use for my Gamecube and Retro USB AVS (although I don't have a sticker with that specifically on it, I'd probably just use one of the NES stickers I received), and maybe putting PS2 stickers on my component cables somewhere, just so I know what's what if I ever rearrange connections or something.
EDIT: I just realized, without intending to, I have the super successful systems on one switch (Genesis, PS1, and Super Famicom), and the relative obscurities on the other (in the sense that at least in one major territory, they didn't do well. In the 32Xs case, it's definitely all territories lol)
Pleasantly surprised to receive stickers for every system under the sun from this guy, rather than the 10 I thought I was limited to for whatever reason, I probably just misread his listing. In any case, this looks much better (and is easier to read at a glance for me) for switching between the seven goddamn s-video systems I have hooked up to the sole s-video port on my CRT TV (the AV2 button is just a passthrough to access the other switch, where the PC Engine/Dreamcast/Saturn/32X are).
These are behind my Gamecube, PS2, and Wii U controller, so they're not really visible or for presentation's sake, just ease of use. The nice part about the stickers is he gives you a bunch of different sizes, so you could make them presentable if you like. I'm considering putting stickers on the HDMI cables I use for my Gamecube and Retro USB AVS (although I don't have a sticker with that specifically on it, I'd probably just use one of the NES stickers I received), and maybe putting PS2 stickers on my component cables somewhere, just so I know what's what if I ever rearrange connections or something.
EDIT: I just realized, without intending to, I have the super successful systems on one switch (Genesis, PS1, and Super Famicom), and the relative obscurities on the other (in the sense that at least in one major territory, they didn't do well. In the 32Xs case, it's definitely all territories lol)
Last edited: