Retrogaming Hardware

[Beowulf]

New Project X Handheld
($30 on AliExpress)

This is the knockoff Playstation Portal that I got for a lark when it dipped to $30 on AliExpress. (And yes, I know I said I was pretty much finished with handhelds, but I was bored and they were cheap and seemed like I’d get a few hours of entertainment out of some weird new things.)

This looks like a Playstation Portal the same way the Powkiddy X2 looks like a Switch—it might fool people as a stage prop but any close examination reveals the ruse. It’s got a cheap, plasticky feel and it’s oddly light for the size. The grips are moderately comfortable, but it feels like that’s by accident rather than design. The buttons are fine; not terrible but not great. The analog sticks aren’t terribly well-placed and not particularly well calibrated. This charges from USB-C, and it’s got HDMI out and a micro-USB port for a controller, so you could use it as a TV box. No headphone jack, though.

The way you know it’s a bottom-of-the-line device is that it’s running that stupid proprietary OS that dates back to the 6X and 9X-S handhelds from five years ago. I think they improved it a little: You can save states, you can soft reset games. You can switch the screen between full (necessary for arcade) and scale (necessary for consoles), and you can remap (some) of the buttons. The faceplate swaps A and B and X and Y with each other, which is very annoying—especially since the button remapping thinks they’re labeled like a Playstation controller.

There are two main pages with a dozen games each, then a third with the lists by emulator. If you want to jump straight to old favorites like Squirrel fig, Rush n_Att, or Legend of, they’re easily accessible. (One page is arcade games, one is NES games.) This also has a set of other “apps”, like video and music players, a photo viewer, an ebook reader, a calculator, and even a stopwatch. And an Internet Explorer icon labeled “Browser” that’s just an internal file browser. (This doesn’t have wi-fi, what are you thinking?)

There are plenty of roms on the internal storage...well, sort of. It has 13720 NES roms, which means they start repeating after 700 or so. 1800 GBA roms is only 70 unique games. 7680 GB games, they start repeating after 400. 4240 Genesis roms, 200 unique games. 8420 arcade roms, 420 unique games. Oddly, the SNES section doesn’t actually limit to SNES roms, so all 40400 roms are in that list (including the SNES ones, though I don’t have a good way of counting unique titles). Probably ~2000 unique games at the end of the day. Most of these are the Chinese roms, too. Entertainingly, the only copy of Super Mario Bros is labeled “M Diapers” (and is a hack that takes you straight to the Minus World), which is a first in my experience. This didn’t come with an SD card, but there’s a slot for one, so you could actually load it with good roms. And at least it has a search feature?

The lower-end systems this runs (NES, GB, GBA, SNES, Genesis, arcade) pretty much run fine, so it’s a step above the old 9X-S in that regard. (The music for SNES and Genesis gets a little scratchy, the framerate isn’t always rock-solid, but it’s playable.) There are 180 (really 9) PS1 titles on here, and they run a little janky (and the background music is missing), but they’re also playable. As is standard for this crappy OS, it doesn’t save SRAM and there aren’t any cheats or fast-forward or anything like that. Oh, and no dedicated menu button, we push Start + Select like real men.

I didn’t test it extensively, but given how quickly the bar went down during my tests, I’m guessing you’ll get at most 4 hours of playtime out of a full charge.

Overall: This was a blast from the past (...five whole years ago), but in a world where you can get a R36S for basically the same price and it’ll run real RetroArch and everything up to DS well (And even PSP/N64 badly), there’s no reason anyone else should ever buy it.

 

[Beowulf]

DY14 Arcade Game Machine and Power Bank
($30 on AliExpress)

Another variation of the power bank handheld, as opposed to the Game Console Power Bank DY19 that I previously reviewed. This one was the same price ($30 on AliExpress) but overall delivered less value.

Most notably, this one is a horizontal handheld, which I like better than the vertical ones when all else is the same. It has six face buttons instead of any shoulder buttons (that are remappable, but pretty much all incorrectly mapped by default), and both an analog stick and a d-pad. It doesn’t have the metal bottom and the shell is a different plastic (making it pretty comfortable to hold), but it does have the two built-in charger cables (USB-C and lightning), a USB-C port to charge the device and a USB-A port for output. Plus there are two micro-USB ports for controllers, and a A/V out port for RCA cables so you can hook this up to a TV. So you could use this as a mini game box if you wanted.

(As a side note, I’m guessing there’s an abundance of bottom-of-the-line game controllers with mini-USB plugs available in China; a lot of low-end devices that want to double as TV game boxes seem to have them as the controller option. The PowKiddy X39 Pro is the only handheld device I can think of that had full USB-A ports intended for controllers.)

Unfortunately, it’s otherwise not great. Like the DY19, it plays NES, SNES, GB, GBA, MD and various arcade systems. The controls are mushy and the buttons aren’t terribly responsive; sound is stuttery and for some SNES games it just cuts out all together, while the speed of emulation changes periodically. Not that the emulation on the DY19 is fantastic either; this is just mediocre in a different set of ways—and the fact that lousy buttons make it harder to play arcade button-mashers counts extra on the negative side, because it’s not like you’d play a big rpg on either of these devices.

And finally, as near as I can figure, it only holds about 3000 mAh. (The box claims 4000 mAh, which is honestly still small given the size of this.) The DY19 has a bigger battery (claims 6000 mAh, probably really 4000 mAh) but is still a more compact form-factor. This is bigger and more angular; it’s not going to fit in one of my random generic cases and it’s less comfortable just rattling around a cango pants pocket. It’s also just as janky in terms of gameplay, and while it lacks the TV box feature, nobody’s going to use that anyway.

As an example of use: I brought the DY19 with me on a ski trip, because it fit neatly in one of my pockets and doubled as both an extra battery for my phone (cold and bad reception tend to drain it fast) and a bit of spare entertainment. When I was done skiing, I played Tetris and some arcade beat-em-ups in the lodge while waiting for my son to finish his ski lessons. It was more convenient than having two objects (a spare battery and also a small handheld) especially since the charging cable is built in so it can’t get lost. And it’s cheap, so I don’t really care if it gets lost or damaged (as opposed to a $100 handheld that I’d be upset to crack on a fall). I also brought it to a camping event, where it served the same purposes. The DY14 is overall worse in either scenario.

Overall: Disappointing! The DY19 is a better choice if you want the combo battery/handheld.

 

[Beowulf]

Miyoo A30
($30 on AliExpress)

The makers of the Miyoo Mini bring us this tiny little horizontal candy bar with a 2.8 inch screen; clearly they believe that smaller handhelds are the ideal. This is the smallest system I’ve used since the original Trimui Mini; it’s even more compact than the Powkiddy Q90, and it’s shockingly good.

It came with a case, a charging cable, and a USB-C-to-headset dongle. (It doesn’t have a headset jack.) I think I may have gotten a slightly defective power button—it doesn’t depress. I can press on it to turn the system on or off, but I’m not sure what it’s actually registering, and that’s somewhat unnerving. It’s reasonably comfortable to hold, and I think I actually find it more comfortable than the Miyoo Mini+ because the horizontal layout means there’s less need to wrap your fingers awkwardly around it.

I lost track that I had ordered this without an SD card, so I tried swapping in the SD card from my Miyoo Mini+, only to discover that one had started to go bad. So I’m going to need to flash fresh SD cards for both of them, irritatingly. Ah, well, at least that means I can put my Ideal Roms List on from the get-go.

There was a lot of complaining that the stock OS had badly optimized emulators and features, so in turn there’s a grand selection of alternate operating systems, and I decided to go ahead with the “Better Than Nothing” update to stock. It keeps the standard Miyoo menu (with “Native Menu” access to Retroarch) but also has standalone Retroarch cores where the hotkeys take you straight to the Retroarch menu. I’ll admit that I find Function + X annoying as a way to get to the menu when a single-tap would be a perfectly fine option, but most people seem to prefer hotkeys. The Function button (at the top of the device) isn’t terribly well-located, but again, it’s manageable, and there isn’t a lot of real estate to work with on this thing.

My first tests indicated that SNES runs beautifully and cheats work. Of all the lower-end systems I tried, only Lynx didn’t run properly. (I’m betting it’s missing the bios file and I could drop that in.) Pico-8, doesn't work either, and I suspect that's also a missing bios somewhere. N64 ran decently and NDS ran pretty well (though the screen is very small for it), which says they’ve done a good job of optimizing the system settings. It’s easily on par with the RG35XX-H in terms of performance, just smaller.

My biggest complaint about BTN is that it doesn’t let you hide unused icons in the games system list, so there’s an overwhelming list of systems and half of them are empty. It does have a game search (and favorites list), though. I might eventually try Spruce or one of the other custom OS options, but I'll admit I kinda love the Mario theme BTN offers.

Overall: This is finally something that I think can take the place of the Powkiddy Q90, a candy bar that's reasonably comfortable to play on that can fit into pretty much any pocket, but is cheap enough you don't mind if something happens to it. It plays more systems and fixes a bunch of flaws the older system had (it plays SNES perfectly, it upscales GBA properly, and can even manage some N64 and DS). And even buying a fresh SD card to load separately, you can’t argue with the price.

 

[Yimothy]

I’ve been thinking of getting another retro handheld. I’ve got a PocketGo V2, which is a few years old now. I mainly use it for travel on the basis that I won’t be too upset if I lose it. I find each time I break it out the buttons are a bit unresponsive. I’ve cleaned them a couple of times, but I’ve also found they get better with a bit of use. Still, it’s kind of dodgy on the whole.

I’m looking at the Retroid Pocket 2S, which costs a little more than I want it to and is already a year old so probably wildly out of date in the space, but apparently has pretty good sticks (not that I’d use them for most of what I’d be playing on it - I have a strong preference for d-pads for digital input), a decent screen, and runs Saturn games ok. It takes its power cable at the top, which I like (bottom is ok for old fashioned power only plugs that have right angle connectors and can rotate freely, but not for USB-C). I dunno. Is it the right choice? There are so many options, it’s really hard to figure out what each one offers.

 

[Beowulf]

I’m looking at the Retroid Pocket 2S, which costs a little more than I want it to and is already a year old so probably wildly out of date in the space, but apparently has pretty good sticks (not that I’d use them for most of what I’d be playing on it - I have a strong preference for d-pads for digital input), a decent screen, and runs Saturn games ok. It takes its power cable at the top, which I like (bottom is ok for old fashioned power only plugs that have right angle connectors and can rotate freely, but not for USB-C). I dunno. Is it the right choice? There are so many options, it’s really hard to figure out what each one offers.

Buddy, you're in luck! I've tried a lot of them and can help!

Important questions:

• What system(s) do you care about being able to play? (Besides Saturn--how much do things like N64, DS, PSP, or Gamecube matter to you?)
• Do you have a strong preference for Linux vs. Android? (Do you want to be able to play other Android games?)
• How much do you care about screen size vs. portability? Does the ability to tuck the handheld into a cargo pants pocket matter to you?
• Do you care about being able to connect it to a TV?

 

[Bongo]

Another question to ask is: Do you know, or are you willing to learn, how to configure and use RetroArch?

 

[Purple]

I got talked into grabbing a Retroid a while ago and got burned real bad. Shipped to me broken. R button does not move. Contacted support to see if I could send it back or get info/tools to open it up and try to fix it myself and maybe replacement button caps because they came in the wrong color/style. Basically just got a go to hell response. Complete waste of money.

 

[Yimothy]

System-wise, mostly older stuff. I’d like a portable Saturn and PS1, plus SMS/MD/SNES/etc. Also MSX, if it’s there, but I’ve found using actual computers on keyboardless devices not that great. I’ve never been interested in N64, I still have an actual DS and PSP, and for GC and PS2 I have my GPD Win3, which also covers me for TV out. I also have an analogue pocket, so when I’m at home that’s my main device for playing older games handheld - I sometimes use the pocketgo instead for games where I want save states on systems that the AP doesn’t have them for.

My main use for it is on airplanes and in hotel rooms. I don’t want to carry it around with me normally, so I want something that’ll go in my bag rather than a pocket but I’d still prefer closer to PSP size than like Switch. The 3.5” screen on the pocketgo is adequate but I’m open to bigger.

I don’t really know the difference between linux and android in terms of user experience on these things. I’ve never owned an android device, not particularly interested in android games. The pocketgo is opendingux (edit: actually I’m using cfw, but I think it’s mostly similar to dingux) and it’s fine but not great. I’d like to be able to move files on and off over wi-fi, or at least via cable rather than having to take the memory card out. I have minimal retroarch experience. I am open to a bit of tinkering to get things going (true Yimmers fans may remember I contributed some code to the MiSTer SMS core to get it to display how I wanted) but would generally prefer plug and play, or at least to be able to set it up once and not have to be going back and fiddling with it all the time for different games/systems.

I feel like quality control is likely to be a risk no matter which device I go for, though Retroid support not helping at all is worth knowing in advance. I’d like a good d-pad as a higher priority than good sticks, though both would be nice of course. Buttons that work reliably and don’t make too much noise. I think I prefer L2 and R2 behind L1 and R1 rather than next to them, even though it makes the device bumpy. I’m pretty sure I prefer a horizontal form over vertical or clamshell.

And of course, the key factor: it has to have a price that makes it no big deal if I lose or smash it while travelling. Probably what I should be doing is taking a Bluetooth controller and playing stuff in retroarch on my phone (the loss of which would be a big deal but which I always have with me).

 

[Beowulf]

System-wise, mostly older stuff. I’d like a portable Saturn and PS1, plus SMS/MD/SNES/etc. Also MSX, if it’s there, but I’ve found using actual computers on keyboardless devices not that great. I’ve never been interested in N64, I still have an actual DS and PSP, and for GC and PS2 I have my GPD Win3, which also covers me for TV out. I also have an analogue pocket, so when I’m at home that’s my main device for playing older games handheld - I sometimes use the pocketgo instead for games where I want save states on systems that the AP doesn’t have them for.

Okay, here's a thought: The Anbernic ARC-D. The Saturn emulation isn't perfect, but you can find it for $100 and it hits pretty much all of your list.

Apparently the Saturn emulation on the Retroid Pocket 3+ was good, but those are hard to come by at this point. That does imply that the Retroid Pocket 4 (non-pro version, $150) should handle it well, too. That's a little pricier but has a bigger screen and also meets your other requirements. (My experience with Retroid wasn't like Purple's, but then, all of my orders have arrived working and correct, so I haven't needed to deal with their customer service.)

You can get excellent PS1 and earlier on something like an RG35XX-H or Trimui Smart Pro (both $50-60 on Aliexpress), but neither of them can manage Saturn. Saturn is apparently like the Atari Jaguar, where actually getting accurate emulation is much harder than it seems like it should be and isn't particularly well-optimized.

 

[Sarge]

Saturn emulation has always been a bear - so many chips to emulate and get timings right between them. It's also why the system was much harder to code for. Very much overengineered and yet underdelivered on what folks at the time wanted.

 

[Yimothy]

I started out thinking of the RG35XX H, but its saturn performance looks dire. I did look at the ARC, I like the Saturn layout and bigger screen, but I was a bit put off that it supposedly doesn’t support Saturn all that well either, though I looked at some videos that seemed tolerable though so I don’t know. Also given one of the things I want to know is how loud the buttons are it’s infuriating how many review videos will have the guy pressing the buttons and talking about the sound they make but they won’t shut up for a second so I can hear the sound itself. Anyway, I’m fairly tolerant of poor performance so it might be ok. Not sure if I want to give up on analogue controls completely, though. I’ll probably get some PS1 use out of it, and while I know very few PS1 games actually require dual analogues there are a few on my to-play list that benefit from them.

Beowulf, you suggested the ARC-D, what do you see as the advantage of that over the ARC-S? Is having the option of android as well as Linux better? Does the extra memory make a difference? Is the touch screen useful for the OS? I’m inclined to go for the cheaper option unless there’s something I’m not seeing in the pricier one. The D looks to cost about as much as the RP2S, and if I’m paying that much I think I still prefer the latter. You also mention the RP4, but I think the 2S is about the upper limit of what I want to spend.

 

[Beowulf]

Beowulf, you suggested the ARC-D, what do you see as the advantage of that over the ARC-S? Is having the option of android as well as Linux better? Does the extra memory make a difference? Is the touch screen useful for the OS? I’m inclined to go for the cheaper option unless there’s something I’m not seeing in the pricier one. The S looks to cost about as much as the RP2S, and if I’m paying that much I think I still prefer the latter. You also mention the RP4, but I think the 2S is about the upper limit of what I want to spend.

From what I've read--I haven't tried them--the extra memory in the ARC-D does make a visible difference in Saturn performance. (And yes, a touchscreen is always useful when you're using Android.) The RP2S will probably do Saturn at least as well as the ARC-D, and it's also an Android handheld, so yeah, if that's what's really caught your eye, go for it.

 

[Yimothy]

My RP2S has arrived. Gotta say, it’s a nice looking device - feels much better than my old PocketGo. I am kinda wishing I’d used the time it took to get here preparing for it, as in figuring out which emulator versions I want, how I’m going to get them on there, that sort of thing. Holding it in my hands running through the initial setup, I’ve gotten paranoid about the possibility of malware on it. I haven’t given it access to my home network. I don’t have an account for the play store and I don’t particularly want to make one anyway, so I might wind up sideloading everything via the sd card in which case I don’t think it needs network access. For now I’ve gotten to the preloaded apps screen, decided it’s too hard, and turned it off. I think I’ll wind up putting on all the preloaded apps, loading my SD card with my games, and go from there, updating when things don’t seem to work as well as I want. Probably I’ll wind up letting it on my network just for convenience in transferring files eventually.

 

[Yimothy]

I got over my paranoia and allowed this thing to get online, and although I’ve spent a lot more time fiddling in menus than playing games, it does seem to basically work. No idea how well it’ll perform beyond some basic boot tests, but that’s a Saturn game I’ve got running there.

 

[Yimothy]

I’ve had some more time to play around with my new handheld, I think I’m making some progress. There are a lot of frustrations, I’m not sure how many are due to my unfamiliarity with android that will go away when I figure out how to use it properly and how many are actual problems. The file managers I have on there, one I think is the android default one and the other is MiXplorer are each frustrating in different ways. For example, I put the android version of openMSX on, but in its menu when I try to open a file it would go to set directories on the device’s inbuilt storage, and I could only access a limited portion of my files through it. In particular, I couldn’t get to the SD card where my software is stored. So I wanted to change the config file so that the default directory would be the one on the SD card (/storage/170F-3662/MSX/, which… why can’t it just be D:\MSX\?). The easiest way to do this would be to navigate to that directory in the file manager, copy the path to the clipboard, and then paste it into the file. Except I can’t find a way to copy a file path in either of those programs. Is this because it can’t be done, or is there some way to do it that I just haven’t found yet? So I wound up taking a photo of the screen with the path displayed and manually writing it into the file, which involved using the on screen keyboard which takes up so much screen space that I could only see one line of text in the config file at a time, and not always the one with the cursor in it. Once I had it in there once, I wanted to copy/paste it to the other two fields where I needed it (ROMs, floppies, and hard drives), but I couldn’t get the touch controls to select more than one word at a time. Eventually I turned on the virtual mouse and was able to highlight better with that. I’m able to move the cursor in the file with the d-pad, so presumably there’s some way I can hold a button and have it highlight text while I move the cursor, like using shift and the arrow keys in windows, but I haven’t figured it out yet. Obviously the real solution to this is to do my file editing on my PC with a real mouse and keyboard, but I’d like to be able to achieve stuff on the device itself. I think my problem is I want to be able to do everything with the controller buttons and have touch as an optional supplement, but android seems to be designed as touch first, buttons second.

Retroarch’s playlist system is also bugging me. It scrapes files based on checksums, which works great for cartridge based systems and single-track discs, but it means my self-ripped PSX, Mega CD, and Saturn games are often not showing up because although I have the data tracks matching the redump database, getting audio tracks to match is very complicated and doesn’t matter that much to me so my overall files are slightly different. Hacked ROMs don’t always get found either. There is an option to scrape by file name, but the names have to follow a particular format which mine don’t because I ripped them myself and I don’t want my file names to include regions unless there’s a particular reason they should (for example, Saturn Grandia where I have the rip of my Japanese copy and also the English patched version I made from it), and because I prefer to have “The” at the start of the title rather than at the end. Also for some reason some of the files it did manage to scrape were entered incorrectly - like a four disc game where all four discs are labelled “(Disc 4)”, or Sol-Feace which for some reason came up as Wolfchild. You can manually edit the titles in the playlist, but doing so disconnects them from the scraper database so the thumbnails disappear. I think the playlist format would be a lot better if it had two title fields - one for the “official” name in the database and then a seperate display title. I’ve used an online playlist editor to at least get my files into playlists, but it would be nice if there was an option to select a file and then search for the database entry you want to match it to manually. The system as it is seems designed for people who have downloaded no-intro or redump romsets (which is probably most people, to be fair) rather than people like me who’ve dumped their own stuff. Anyway, ultimately it just means the thumbnails aren’t working which is something I would have said I don’t care about at all a few days ago.

As for the actual game-playing? Seems pretty good so far. I went with the RP2S because it seemed to have the best controller hardware in my price range, and I think that judgement was sound. I haven’t tried any more high-end stuff on it, like PS2, GC, or Switch, but what I have tried seems to work pretty well. Saturn is maybe not going to work as well as I’d hoped, but it seems pretty game-dependent. I’ve been trying to play Dark Savior. The retroarch beetle core seems to run it very well but at about a third of the speed it should go at. The yabause core starts off well but once I go into gameplay the screen just stays blank. The yaba sanshiro core runs at full speed but the text boxes display behind the gameplay so you can’t read them. I’ve got the standalone Yaba Sanshiro 2 app, but it requires either CHD or zipped images so it won’t accept my cue/iso rip of DS. All my other Saturn games are in CHD so I know at least Die Hard Arcade seems to work well in YS2. I can probably zip up my image on the device, or else I can get around to CHDing it and try it out. The demo version of that emulator only lets you use 3 games so I haven’t gone very far with it yet. It’s fairly cheap so I might just buy it eventually. I’ve also tried DS in saturn.emu, where it runs at about 15fps but must be frameskipping or something because although it looks a bit jerky it seems to be going full speed and is pretty playable. The only problem there is that after twenty minutes or so playing it the device was reporting a cpu temp of 80 Celsius, which seems like a lot. The back was a bit warm though not 80C, but it’s plastic and has no obvious vents aside from the speaker holes on the front so I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a lot hotter on the inside. I dunno what the safe limit for this kind of device is, but I’m sure that kind of temperature is at least bad for the battery.

Edit: I compressed my Dark Savior bin/iso and was able to run it in Yaba Sanshiro 2, which seems to be getting pretty consistent 60fps and keeping the CPU around 60-70C. Which still seems pretty hot, not that I can feel that much heat coming off it.

 

[Beowulf]

Retroarch has grown on me as I've learned how to manage its quirks, but it really does take a lot of getting used to, because it's full on nonsense like that. I'm still more likely to open up standalone SNES9X or PPSSPP on my Retroid Pocket 3 than to use Retroarch, even though that's integrated into the frontend.

Saturn is unfortunately one of the systems that nobody seems to have mastered "pick-up-and-play" for, yet. Five years ago you needed to do this "try a different emulator, find a different rom" nonsense with most systems; now a $50 device has you pretty well covered for anything pre-N64 (what I usually call "tier 2") but you still need to futz and fiddle with things like Saturn. (And N64 on most devices, for that matter. And don't me started on Jaguar--I have yet to find anything Android or Linux-based that can play that perfectly.)

 

[Patrick]

I finally gave in and put Retroarch on my Vita last year, and it really does take some getting used to. Now that I have things set up the way I want, it's great. But yeah, there are so many counterintuitive and confusing options.

EDIT: Also, YouTube keeps recommending videos about retro game devices, and every now and then I think I should pick one up. Then I compare them with what I can already do on the Vita and realize that I don't need one. But man, the draw of buying new devices is strong.

 

[Sarge]

Is there a way to get full-speed Super FX on Vita? I remember it being an issue the last time I messed around with it.

If you were going to roll with one, I think a good choice would be one of the Retroid Pocket devices. I got my brother a RP3+ for Christmas, and it feels a lot like a Vita, d-pad included.

 

[Patrick]

I’ll check tomorrow. I tested a few games when I was setting up Retroarch, but the only SNES game I played in full on it was Super Mario World.

 

[Patrick]

The only game I have loaded up that uses Super FX is Yoshi's Island. The start screen with the rotating island was a bit choppy and there was a slight pause when revealing new zones, so it seems like FX is still an issue.

I tried out the GBA version and it ran noticeably better. GBA games also take advantage of the wide Vita screen, so I'd go with that version if I was going to play Yoshi's Island.

But yeah, if you wanted to play other Super FX games you would need to look elsewhere.

 

[Sarge]

Cool, thanks for the test!

I've found that GBA is rock solid on a lot of devices - probably less to have to synchronize which lessens the emulation complexity.

 

[Yimothy]

keeping the CPU around 60-70C

I wound up cracking open my retroid because of the high temperatures it was reporting:

I was thinking of drilling some holes in the shell over the cpu to let some heat out, maybe even trying to install a fan or something, but it’s a pretty compact device and I don’t think there’s space for a fan unless I mount it on the outside. You can buy little devices that clip on to phones to cool them, either with just a fan or with like a refrigerated surface. I think with this plastic shell in the way there wouldn’t be much point to either, but if I put in some vents a fan might be of use.

Anyway, just looking at the board it’s not clear where the CPU is. Under one of those rf shields, presumably. So I got my dinky little infrared thermometer and started pointing it at things while the system was running. Neither of the shields was reporting very high temperatures - high 20s Celsius to mid 30s. The battery was also giving mid-30s readings, which seems pretty good though of course I had the shell off. The area of circuit board between the shields above the battery was giving me readings in the 40s though, so I think maybe the CPU is on the other side of the board. I don’t want to disassemble this thing any further to go looking. I have noticed since that the warmest external part seems to be the screen, which could be heat from the CPU behind it, or could just be that the screen conducts heat better than the plastic shell.

Running the thing with the back off in front of a room fan on its highest setting got me greatly reduced temperatures on the device’s internal reporting - high 40s instead of 60-80C. But it’s not a very practical way to game. With the shell on in front of the fan it was high 50s, so still somewhat better. For now I’ve reassembled it and I’m gonna try to stop worrying - I’ve played almost all of Dark Savior for Saturn on it and it seems to work well. It’s still reporting temperatures higher than I’d like, but aside from maybe shortening the battery life I don’t think it’s gonna break anything. Other systems run much cooler, too.

 

[Kirin]

Just curious, why is that shot showing an on-screen d-pad while running on a device with real buttons?

 

[Kazin]

It's an android based device, so the emulators have touch screen controls built in. I'd imagine they could be disabled, and probably only pop up when certain buttons are hit.

 

[Yimothy]

Yeah, I was using one of the emulators that doesn’t run Saturn very well to try to drive up the temperature, so I hadn’t bothered going though the settings to disable on screen controls. I think they came up when I touched the screen to get the temperature display to show.

 

[Beowulf]

Powkiddy V10
($35 on AliExpress)

This is a squat and remarkably square device, which is more screen than anything else. The unusual form-factor was the reason I bothered with it, as it’s mostly just another device in the $30-40 range that plays the standard range of classic systems.

You’d think the squat controller setup would be uncomfortable, but at least for my hands, it was wide enough to not cause issues most of the time. (I had a little hand cramping when I was trying a speed challenge in Castlevania repeatedly, but regular play was fine.) The minus button is a hotkey button, defaulting to the now-standard controls (hotkey+X to bring up the Retroarch menu, hotkey+Start to exit games, etc). The plus button doesn’t seem to do anything. The biggest problem I had with the buttons is that there’s no volume knob: I’m sure there are hotkey controls somewhere, but the only way I could find to change the volume was to go into the EmuElec settings menu outside of a game.

It runs EmuElec and reminds me a lot of the R36S in terms of implementation. The one I got came well-loaded with lower-end systems but didn’t try to pretend DS, PSP or N64 were going to run well. (Also, without analog sticks, controlling any of those would be awkward.) It gives you full access to Retroarch for save states and cheats and additional hotkeys, in addition to things like fiddling with the video settings.

Everything I read about this said it was a great system for GBA games, and that did hold true. The screen shape is ideal (3:2 ratio) and the size is good (3.5”). The fact that this doesn’t have any analog sticks doesn’t matter when you’re using a system that never had them. That said, that aspect ratio is not optimal for pretty much anything else, especially consoles that were intended to be played on a TV. And while yes, GBA games are beautiful and run well on this...GBA games run well on practically everything. It was apparently one of the easiest systems to emulate. And I feel like the recent explosion of clamshell systems using the GBA-SP form-factor have probably sewn up the market for people who are just looking for a GBA experience.

Overall: This picked one thing to do well (play GBA games at 2X resolution on a small form-factor), but that’s kind of the only selling point. It’s not quite compact/pocketable enough to compete with one of the 2.8” screen micro devices at the same price point, but a RG35XX-H or Trimui Smart Pro has it beat on power and capability for only slightly more money. I like that it’s a little different, but I think it’s trying to stand out in a niche that’s already pretty saturated.