Retrogaming Hardware

[Kazin]

The Famicom 3D system works, and is actually pretty cool:

I got a good deal on this set (apparently unused? The plastic protective film is still on the glasses) along with a copy of Mega Man 2 (which I didn't already own). I plugged it in, and not only does it work with my wireless NES controller plug thing, it... works! In general! lol

I played a few minutes of Famicom Grand Prix II: 3D Hot Rally, and my Famicom actually looks like a 3D image. It's wild. I don't know how useful it'll be - I really suck at the game, so I barely saw any other cars, I'm not really sure why, but I only played for a few minutes. I'm definitely going to be messing around with it after work though.

 

[Kazin]

The Famicom 3D system works, and is actually pretty cool:

I got a good deal on this set (apparently unused? The plastic protective film is still on the glasses) along with a copy of Mega Man 2 (which I didn't already own). I plugged it in, and not only does it work with my wireless NES controller plug thing, it... works! In general! lol

I played a few minutes of Famicom Grand Prix II: 3D Hot Rally, and my Famicom actually looks like a 3D image. It's wild. I don't know how useful it'll be - I really suck at the game, so I barely saw any other cars, I'm not really sure why, but I only played for a few minutes. I'm definitely going to be messing around with it after work though.

Here's a quick review (almost first impressions in some cases) of the 7 Famicom 3D System games:

Attack Animal Gakuen - I absolutely suck at Space Harrier type games, so as cute as this is (you're a schoolgirl shooting down animals like kangaroos and flying alligators), I couldn't get very far in it. Seems cool, though.

Cosmic Epsilon - The MVP of the set, imo. It's a Space Harrier clone, too, but makes better use of 3D than Attack Animal Gakuen and isn't quite as hard, though it's still quite difficult. Easier to see enemy attacks/where you're aiming. Looks and sounds great, too.

Falsion - This game is a mess! I can't tell what is going on in 2D or 3D. I was hoping the 3D would make the game more palatable to me, but as is, it's far too difficult to figure out what the heck is going on, and the 3D isn't implemented well at all. Shame, because the music rules.

Famicom Grand Prix II: 3D Hot Rally - Pretty fun game, though man does it get difficult later in the races. 3D works pretty well, I'd say, though I get bored of the game before the races end, if I'm honest.

Highway Star - Never could get into Rad Racer, and 3D doesn't really help. Not a bad game, just less interesting to me than 3D Hot Rally.

JJ: Tobidase Daisakusen Part II - My other favorite game for the 3D system. Plays better than the first game, largely because there's only one speed, so you're much more in control and can concentrate more on the hazards than trying to basically guess how fast you have to be going to clear a huge pit, like in the first game. Fought a boss which was pretty cool, though I'm not sure when it's at the same depth as you - when it is, you can crash into it and die, which I did a few times. Playing it safe takes a bit, but I was able to beat it. I got killed in the next level by the stupid eyeballs that linger on the screen after you've already ran past them, which are annoying.

Fuuun Shourin Ken - Ankoku no Maou - No idea what's going on in this game. I mean it's a fighting game, but there's story and stuff and it sure ain't Street Fighter II, so I gave up pretty quickly on this one.

---

I think the Famicom 3D System is actually pretty neat, and wish a few more games were made for it. Funny story, I popped in my copy of the first Tobidase Daisakusen and was baffled why the 3D wouldn't activate when I pressed select - turns out that game is unsupported and had its own glasses that it came with, so I was wrong when I thought it had Famicom 3D System support too, heh. My eyes were getting tired though after nearly two hours of playing, which is likely because the system has a weird strobe effect as you play - sort of a flashing of the background that I think is a result of the way the system works, which means it's unavoidable (it's present in every game). I'll definitely play more Cosmic Epsilon, though, that game is cool as heck.

 

[ArugulaZ]

(enter the Konami code and the game gets pissy about it)

 

[Kirin]

My eyes were getting tired though after nearly two hours of playing, which is likely because the system has a weird strobe effect as you play - sort of a flashing of the background that I think is a result of the way the system works, which means it's unavoidable (it's present in every game).

Hmm, sounds like it’s maybe a time-interlaced 3D, where it’s rendering left/right views every other frame? Which wouldn’t be surprising as I doubt the Famicom has the power to render two screens at once.

 

[Kazin]

Hmm, sounds like it’s maybe a time-interlaced 3D, where it’s rendering left/right views every other frame? Which wouldn’t be surprising as I doubt the Famicom has the power to render two screens at once.

Pretty much - the glasses themselves do the work, as far as I can tell - they block vision between eyes one frame at a time, so only one eye is viewing the image per every frame.

 

[ShakeWell]

The Famicom 3D system works, and is actually pretty cool:

I got a good deal on this set (apparently unused? The plastic protective film is still on the glasses) along with a copy of Mega Man 2 (which I didn't already own). I plugged it in, and not only does it work with my wireless NES controller plug thing, it... works! In general! lol

I played a few minutes of Famicom Grand Prix II: 3D Hot Rally, and my Famicom actually looks like a 3D image. It's wild. I don't know how useful it'll be - I really suck at the game, so I barely saw any other cars, I'm not really sure why, but I only played for a few minutes. I'm definitely going to be messing around with it after work though.

Uh-oh, now you have to get the Master System ones. I'm sorry, Kazin, I don't make the rules.

 

[ArugulaZ]

It's good 3D for an 8-bit system! The depth of field is so convincing I thought I could actually see around objects in Space Harrier 3D.

 

[Kazin]

Uh-oh, now you have to get the Master System ones. I'm sorry, Kazin, I don't make the rules.

That means I'd have to get a Master System, dangit lol

It's good 3D for an 8-bit system! The depth of field is so convincing I thought I could actually see around objects in Space Harrier 3D.

This makes me want to, though. That's cool! I do own a few Master System games already, though nothing that'd take advantage of 3D, or an Everdrive... No. No! I won't do it!

 

[ArugulaZ]

Oh boy, this is tempting just out of morbid curiosity.

https://www.gizmochina.com/2023/04/06/data-frog-sf2000-gaming-handheld/

It's the SF2000, capable of PSOne Game Boy Advance and under emulation for thirty frigging dollars. It seems to be getting positive reviews so far.

EDIT: Make that $23 and some change. I just ordered one. Will probably need to wrestle with the bank about it, though.

 

[Patrick]

Cute!

 

[Phantoon]

Retro handhelds are great. I'm looking for my next one after my RG351V and may go for the RG405M. Quite a lot more powerful, metal shell

 

[Kazin]

Traded in some games I didn't want anymore (turns out New Play Control Pikmin is worth like $50 as a trade in! More than Octopath Traveler on Switch, which I think I got like $30 for? Who knew?!) and got, of all things, a Dreamcast. It's yellowed as hell, so it's being retrobrighted at the moment. Thing does work, and is a VA1, which means I'll be installing a GDEmu in it when it gets here from China. Came with a first party controller (which is still white, thankfully), the AV and power cables, and a working matching VMU, for $110. A little more than what I could get one for on eBay, but it meant that if the thing didn't work when I got home I could turn around and get a refund immediately.

Luckily I don't have to, because I rode my bicycle around all day today getting things I needed for retrobrighting this damn thing, because my wife is out of town with the car this weekend. First I ran out of tinfoil when I started setting everything up, so I went to the local co-op to get some more. Got back, got my setup all done, then discovered I didn't have nearly enough hydrogen peroxide, so I got to ride my bike in the other direction to Meijer to get some more of that, and I looked it up on my phone and found out I rode about 3 miles on my bike today in total lol. Thankfully I was super far behind on podcasts, sheesh.

 

[Beowulf]

Retroid Pocket 3

(Currently $120 direct from GoRetroid)

So, I was one of the suckers that bought the Retroid Pocket 3 when it was first announced; the Retroid Pocket 3+ came out two months later at a similar price point with better internals. Like other Retroid Devices, it takes some work to set up and doesn’t come pre-loaded, but it’s still really powerful for the price point.

They went a little off-book with the design so the controls are a little odd: You’ve got a PS1 button layout, with two analog sticks at the bottom, a D-pad on the left and ABXY cluster on the right. You have two sets of trigger buttons. The Start and Select buttons are a rocker on the top of the device, with the volume buttons on the left and a menu button on the right.

The system is running Android, which has its issues but I see some great advantages if you’re willing to put the effort into it. It doesn’t do “pick up and play” nearly as well as the various Linux/custom firmware devices. Right out of the box, most older emulation is using stock RetroArch, which I’ve noted isn’t my favorite. The realization that the Android emulators packed in with the RG552 were available on the Play Store was a lovely revelation, because I really like the flexibility those offer and the ease of using cheats and save states versus RetroArch. (Especially when you have a touchscreen to work with, which this does.) Snes9x EX+ is free and I installed it right away, but the full set (published by Robert Broglia) is on the RG552 so I got a “try before you buy” experience with them (NES.emu, GBA.emu, MD.emu). I ended up buying NES.emu and MD.emu, then MyBoy and MyOldBoy because they have a few features I think are superior.

In terms of things you actually want the greater power for: This has M64Plus FZ for N64 emulation. It’s beautiful and smooth. Tut the controller setup isn’t optimized for this device; I needed to assign a custom control scheme to avoid needing virtual buttons. PPSSPP remains the best PSP emulator on any platform I’ve seen; and ditto to DraStic for DS. Both run great; and the screen is wide enough that side-by-side of two DS screens is a decent way to play. Disappointingly, I had some real issues with DuckStation, specifically playing Symphony of the Night, when the visuals would spontaneously go black for a few seconds or the action would have slowdown. I’m guessing it’s a software/settings issue, because much weaker devices can play that fine. I did some preliminary tests with Dolphin (Gamecube) and Citra (3DS), but the internals here aren’t really strong enough to run those well.

In terms of non-emulation, this is running Android so you can go into the Play Store and get whatever you want. I tried Adventures of Mana and Romancing SaGa 3 and they are lovely to play with physical controls. (You are kinda locked into landscape view, though.) I also tried out Steam Link from my gaming PC, and that works great, I love it.

It occurred to me as I was testing this that I hadn’t done a proper test of the battery life of the RP2+, especially playing on Snes 9x. Turns out it can get about 7 hours of SNES playtime on a single charge over a three-day weekend. (Which is very good; that’s better than the RG350.) My only previous test had been having a second controller and HDMI out hooked up for playing 2-player via Retroarch, and that only got me two hours and change.

I was on target to get 5-7 hours of battery life when I did my first test of the RP3, but then dropped from 68% to dregs in a little over an hour of playing StarTropics on NES.emu. (I’m guessing something else was burning power in the background.) I’m going to run another test in airplane mode.

I was also inspired to finally build my “ideal rom collection”, as I have multiple directories filled with old roms, new roms, hacks, translations and the like for every system. And most of the handhelds I’ve purchased have come with their own rom collections, often a scattershot mix of duplicate titles and Japanese-language games that I don’t need. Because the Retroid Pockets don’t come with any roms, they’re a clean slate for putting on my ideal list. (And the emulators I’m using support “recent” and “favorite” lists, so putting 400 games in alphabetical order is perfectly sensible.) It turns out that my combined list of SNES games is about 550 files, dwarfing any other system’s list. I haven’t finished a NES list (I have the entire NOINTRO set, plus various hacks and things) but I need to decide whether I want the ~100 games I actually care about, or a full list of all ~1,000 games I could conceivably play.

The thing is, in my current ecosystem, the RP3 is directly competing against the RG552: Powerful enough to play N64 and PSP, wide enough to play DS, and with the Android emulators that make it easy to use cheats on the fly. Besides the weird Start/Select locations, the RP3 is more ergonomic. Because it’s just running plain Android and the wi-fi works, I can use the Play Store to get Android games on it (and Steam Link works, too). And it charges from a standard USB-C instead of the C-to-C high-power. Assuming the battery life issue doesn’t become an ongoing problem, I can see this getting longterm use. I’m not dealing with the upgrade kit this time, but I suspect that if you’re buying new you’ll want to jump straight to the 3+.

 

[Beowulf]

Anbernic RG35XX
($55 on AliExpress)

Anbernic introduced this “mini” handheld to compete directly wit the Miyoo Mini, but I really think it’s there to trounce all the cheap “pick up and play” PowKiddy handhelds.

First off, the screen is very nice. It’s got a 3:4 aspect ratio and looks very bright and crisp. The device physically reminds me of the Retro FC 500-in-1 I explored a couple of years ago; it’s a small Game Boy with a larger screen, and the triggers on the back are an interesting choice but they work reasonably. There’s both a nice, central Menu button and a reset button tucked away on the side; and I do love a dedicated menu button. (And neither is in a place you’d accidentally hit them.) It doesn’t have an analog stick, but it doesn’t particularly need one; and it does have L2/R2 triggers for the PS1 games that require them.

The base emulation software is very bare-bones: It’s set up for convenient savestates (and saves sram for everything except SNES, oddly; I need to fiddle with that) and to let you fiddle with the graphics options (so you never get locked into stretched images and there are a few filters if things don’t render correctly with one), but that’s about all. The OS is designed for easy, fast pick-up-and-play. It’s got recents, favorites and a search feature and they all work properly. The emulation is very good tier 2: Everything up through PS1 runs cleanly. Every system I tried had solid, clean emulation. The 64gb card I got had a lot of Japanese games; I’ll need to refill it for ongoing use, especially for rpgs and such. This system setup doesn't do cheats at all, but I could load up GGGuy hacked roms, so that’s something.

It comes with a screen protector and a charging cable (I didn’t buy it from the AliExpress seller who includes a case), and one microSD card with everything on it; though it has two microSD slots so you can have a card for swapping roms and saves between devices. There’s a mini-HDMI port which (with an adaptor I had to supply myself) did a lovely output to my portable monitor. I’m not sure you can get it to register a second controller properly, though. The battery life was claimed to be 4-5 hours; and I got about 4.5 hours in my testing before game speeds started getting wonky because the battery was clearly on dregs.

I got a Miyoo Mini Plus at the same time (which I’ll probably hold off on reviewing until I can upgrade OnionOS and try the full suite of emulators on it), but the RG35XX is actually more comfortable (at least for my big hands) because it's slightly wider. I think I generally prefer the wide system designs to the tall ones, and hand size is likely the reason.

Overall: I give them a lot of credit here for putting together an optimal version of what PowKiddy has been stumbling around for years: It’s pocket-sized with a nice screen and good battery life. I think “35XX” was a great name for it, because it represents a different evolutionary path from the 351 and 353 devices—instead of pushing the envelope to try to play later systems and add touchscreens, this evolved to be better at the original niche.

 

[Beowulf]

Anbernic RG35XX: GarlicOS

A fork of the OnionOS that fans made for the Miyoo Mini (and now comes stock on the Miyoo Mini Plus), GarlicOS is an alternate frontend for the RG35XX.

The advantages over the stock OS are that it supports more emulators, lets you over/underclock the system, exposes RetroArch menus and has the new auto-save and switch-recents menu. The biggest disadvantage is that it breaks the utility of the Menu button: Pressing the menu button dumps you out of your current game, and you need to remember Menu+button hotkey combinations to do things like expose the RetroArch menu, save states, activate fast forward, and all the like. Which I might tolerate if the utilities it exposes worked better, but every cheat that I tried crashed the system to a black screen and I needed the reset button. The fast-forward only activates through the hotkey combos. The save states (besides the most recent one) are more obtuse and harder to use for anything besides swapping games. The game selection menus are actively worse, not supporting pictures and not checking for the right file types. I tried manually changing themes, but I wasn't terribly enthused by anything I could find and you need to manually replace the theme files by popping the card.

Thankfully, I can just pop my original SD card back in and go back to the stock OS. But this really makes me squeamish about upgrading OnionOS on the MiyooMini+, because that already exposes RetroArch and does it with the proper Menu button utilities.</lj-cut>

Overall: No sir, I don’t like it.

 

[Kirin]

</lj-cut>

Off topic but dang, you're cross-posting to LJ? Haven't been back there in years but kinda miss that scene...

 

[Beowulf]

Off topic but dang, you're cross-posting to LJ? Haven't been back there in years but kinda miss that scene...

Dreamwidth, actually. I cross-posted to both of them through 2021 when LJ stopped accepting crossposts from DW, so I stopped bothering with LJ. I still have a small circle of college friends who occasionally post and some lurkers who read my reviews.

 

[Kazin]

Oh god I just realized that for when I'm able to order a Turbo Everdrive Pro, that will work with CD games on a Turbo Express... That's going to cost me bigtime. Dammit why do I have to like portables so much?!?!

 

[Sarge]

Don't do it! Don't give in to the temptation!

 

[ShakeWell]

Don't do it! Don't give in to the temptation!

Don't listen to Sarge, Kazin. DO IT.

 

[Kazin]

Don't listen to Sarge, Kazin. DO IT.

I can't get audio to work on my PC Engine CD along with S-Video, so I guess I'm working on it now lol

 

[Daikaiju]

Option 3: give me the money and I'll buy a Playdate.

 

[Sarge]

I can't get audio to work on my PC Engine CD along with S-Video, so I guess I'm working on it now lol

Haha, well, at least you'll have something going out to cover the costs! (PCE CD on Turbo Express would rock, I get the desire.)

 

[Kazin]

Sold a bunch of Wii and 3DS games I wasn't ever going to use again and got more than enough cash from my local game store to buy a Turbo Express (well, a Japanese PC Engine GT) from eBay with money left over, holy crap. It's supposedly working, has a picture of it running, and may or may not come with a copy of Bomberman '93, which would be rad, but not necessary as I still have an old Turbo Everdrive.

I'll let you all know how the inevitable recap goes lol

 

[Beowulf]

Miyoo Mini+

($75 after discounts on AliExpress)

Miyoo first produced the Miyoo Mini, a tiny handheld that was an improvement on the various tiny linux-based emulator handhelds that came before (like the PowKiddy Q90). That sold like crazy and they stopped being able to source screens, so they made the Miyoo Mini Plus, with a more standard 3.5-inch screen but the same internals.

So, my first impressions of this were spoiled because I got a bad SD card in my original order: I was instantly disappointed by the loading times when I first turned this on: 60+ seconds to turn on. 30+ seconds to load into a game. Loading time between menus. Weird pauses when I pressed the menu button. 60+ seconds to exit a game. I contacted the AliExpress seller and they offered me a replacement SD card and a free case, so a couple of weeks later those arrived and the problem seems to have been fixed. So keep in mind that this device is coming into reviews with a handicap because of that initial bad impression.

This is a head-to-head competitor with the RG35XX, with the same form factor and, entertainingly, the exact same rom set on the SD card. So it makes sense to run comparisons against them. They both do a great job with emulation up to PS1, they both have dedicated menu buttons, they both have recent and favorites lists for your games. They both look like tiny game boys for that nostalgia feel. The big advantage is that this comes with a stock version of OnionOS. It reminds me very much of TrimUI, though in this case it lets you have more access to the RetroArch backend (the “native menu”), so you can enable cheats or fiddle with the settings; but still makes save states easy to manage. I think there are arguments to be made that this version of OnionOS is “better” than the RG35XX stock OS, specifically because of that. (And unlike GarlicOS, when I added cht files to the SD card and activated them, the games ran properly! So the Miyoo Mini+ can support cheats if you’re willing to do a little legwork for them. It can also easily enable fast forward and turbo for systems that can spare the buttons, like GBA and NES.) OnionOS comes with a stack of “themes” already available, so you can swap the look of the menu without having to download anything new.

Side note, OnionOS doesn’t auto-refresh your roms list, as opposed to most other systems I’ve used. If you put new roms on this, you need to press select on the home menu when highlighting “games,” then choose “refresh rom” from the menu that appears.

Though this device’s screen seems to be slightly less sharp than the RG35XX, games still look beautiful, with default frames and overlays for systems that don’t scale to fullscreen. You can adjust the settings, though you have to do that through RetroArch, which is often obtuse and doesn’t necessarily make it clear what each setting does. I didn’t love the “GBA filter” this defaulted to for GBA games, but couldn’t figure out which setting actually controlled it. I also had issues changing input settings because the physical buttons aren’t necessarily named what you think they should be. (Which one is “button 11”? Who knows!)

The volume switches required significant pressure to activate, which is good and bad—you can’t accidentally nudge them, but you need to put effort into changing the volume. I think I prefer systems with a dial. This has a headphone jack, but unlike the RG35XX, no HDMI or component-out, so you can’t send it to a big screen. This doesn’t have a hard reset button, and only has one SD card slot (not that the RG35XX really needs the two, but it’s a thing to note).

What I don't love is the form-factor, as I have big hands. The RG35XX is slightly fatter and taller, giving you more room to grab and more space to put your extra fingers. This is a little more cramped and less comfortable to play for long periods. It has differently shaped L1/R1 and L2/R2 buttons, and that is an advantage—it makes it much easier to tell which button you’re pressing without looking.

I’ve heard there’s an upgrade to OnionOS in beta now, but it looks like the major “improvement” is the same change that GarlicOS made—it breaks the functionality of the Menu button in favor of hotkeys. So I was going to try it when it was out of beta, but given my experience with GarlicOS, I’m not going to bother.

My battery life test (mostly Final Fantasy Tactics, but also an assortment of SNES and GBA games) came out with more like 5 hours of life (or slightly more), versus the 4.5-ish the RG35XX was getting.

Overall: I think, on the whole, the Miyoo Mini+ is the winner for general recommendations. The form-factor of the RG35XX is somewhat more comfortable to me personally (for my hands and my eyes), but on the whole the system offers a lot more capability.

 

[ArugulaZ]

On a related note, my Data Frog SF2000 just arrived, and I'm ferociously ambivalent about it. Look, it cost $24. I'm pretty sure I've had Tiger handhelds retailing for around that price, and they didn't provide anywhere near the experience that this does. So yes, the emulation is iffy for select games and some sound channels in Genesis games seem off and the key configuration is set to some very weird defaults and they shouldn't have bothered with Game Boy Advance at all because it's clearly not fit for human consumption in this miserable state, but. But. It plays NES games pretty well, it plays Genesis games almost as well, it somehow plays CPS2 and Neo-Geo games very well. (But not CPS1 games. Bwa?) There are save states. There's thousands of games included by default. The D-pad is stiff, but the analog thumbstick makes up for it. And it's twenty-four dollars.

I can't hate this thing. It's far from perfect and completely pointless with a 3DS and a Vita and a Switch lying around the house, but the SF2000 represents amazing value for the price. You just have to be willing to slum a little. Judging from past experience, the diehard gamers aren't willing to slum, and will not want this even for the miniscule cost. Unfortunately, the less picky gamers who might want one of these to amuse themselves briefly aren't going to buy them from a niche retailer like AliExpress and wait a month for them to arrive. They're going to grab one of those crap My Arcade or AtGames handhelds from the endcap of an Office Depot or a Target or a Wal-Mart, and it's going to be a lesser experience than the SF2000 provides. Aside from the occasional curiosity purchase from oddballs like myself, the system basically has no audience.

 

[Beowulf]

On a related note, my Data Frog SF2000 just arrived, and I'm ferociously ambivalent about it.

I'm shocked that they somehow managed decent Genesis emulation but botched GBA. It must be a crap software issue, because I have yet to find any device that can't handle emulating GBA games--the crappy no-brand devices I was trying in 2019 could handle GBA just fine.

Also, thank you for buying one of these and sating my curiosity so I don't have to buy one myself.

 

[ArugulaZ]

Given your already healthy collection of niche portables, you really didn't need this one. I like the design of the SF2000; I just wish the processor was faster and the interface was more robust. It sucks not having the option to remap keys or turn off the bilinear filtering, and it sucks that they don't tell you which specific build of MAME or Final Burn it uses. I've tried installing more arcade titles but the SF2000 generally won't recognize them, getting stuck in a loading screen. The few that did get recognized were either too slow or wouldn't allow input.

I'd just use my PSP or Vita for arcade games, but MAME on PSP is almost as underwhelming as it was on Dreamcast, and the Vita forces you to use RetroArch. Forget about the 3DS; its own arcade emulators are horrible.

 

[Beowulf]

Powkiddy V90
($35 on AliExpress)

There are actually two form-factors for the Powkiddy Q90 device, and this is the second one, a clamshell handheld that strongly resembles the Game Boy Advance SP, only with more buttons and without a card slot.

My first impression was just that it was exactly what I expected: It’s just like the Q90, just with a different shape. The clamshell design is a sensible setup because this is another system that’s designed for pick-up-and-play, and you don’t even really need a case with this design. I have a cell phone belt holster for the Q90, but this can get shoved into a purse or pocket with less worry.

All the expected features are there: 2.8” screen (on the smaller side, but generally fine), both sets of shoulder buttons (thought they’re small and a little uncomfortable), a dedicated menu button, headphone jack but no HDMI out, USB-C charging. (The biggest disappointment is that closing the lid doesn’t put the system to sleep...it actually does nothing at all.) I don’t find the shape as comfortable to hold or play on as the candybar Q90, but that’s more a personal preference as I wasn’t wild about the SP, either.

As noted, the emulators on the stock version of OpenDingux are middling--SNES emulation is pretty choppy and GBA doesn’t always upscale correctly. As I also noted earlier, there’s a new OS you can flash onto a card relatively easily that improves both problems and gives you a bunch of new emulators to work with, including Atari Lynx and Pokemini. (Another 32 gb microSD card will only run you $5; still totally worth it.) This device (in either shape) does great with Game Boy, GBA and Game Gear titles that the screen size and button layout are ideal for. And hey, you can still get them for $30 on AliExpress, so still half the price of the RG35XX or Miyoo Mini+ (which are both superior in terms of emulation quality, but really need a case to match portability).

Overall: Still the best you’ll find for under $50. Now that I’ve tried it, I suspect I’m going to give this away when I find someone who’s nostalgic for their GBA SP. (And I’ll update it to the new OS first if asked nicely.)

 

[ArugulaZ]

The SF2000 just keeps creeping toward greatness. It's a goal it may never reach due to its wimpiness, but there are now fan-made scripts to add new games in their appropriate folders (instead of dumping them in an all-purpose User ROMs folder), change the button configuration, and turn off that annoying elevator music in the background.

Apparently all, or nearly all the software that makes the SF2000 tick is written on the SD card, in a file called "biserv.asd." That's EVERYTHING, including the emulators, the graphics for the interface, the key assignments, all of it. Right now the tech boys are tearing that file apart, trying to figure out how it works and what can be changed for the benefit of the user. It doesn't cover everything- there's currently no way to shut off the bilinear filtering and there's no way to add games for systems it doesn't support- but it's an encouraging start. And the presumed hardware is a MIPS chip (in the same family as the emulation proficient PSP, but faster) so there's hope a custom firmware will eventually be released that's better than the one included by default.

Also, there's good news and bad news about compatibility. Although the SF2000 uses Final Burn Alpha for its arcade emulator, it doesn't mean it supports every game that FBA does. Apparently this build is geared toward 68000-based systems (the Neo-Geo and CPS in particular), leaving the lion's share of older arcade games out in the cold. You just can't run them, even in the User ROMs folder. There have been rare exceptions, like Snow Bros (already included) and Rockola's Eyes, but so far, if you want to play Galaga or Donkey Kong on this, you'll have to settle for the NES versions.

The good news is that the Mega Drive emulator supports Master System games too (but not Game Gear games, strangely). Put 'em in the User ROMs folder or put them in the Mega Drive folder with a special tool, and blammo, the SF2000 takes to 'em like a fish to water. I'm not sure how Game Gear games converted to the Master System will work, as there's an existing tool that does this, but most of the Game Gear games were converted to the Master System on their way to Brazil anyway. The button configuration that works pretty well for Genesis sadly is a little less convenient for Master System games (although still better than jumping with the R trigger!).

It's never going to be fantastic, but the SF2000 has potential, depending on the amount of support it receives from homebrew developers. And we've already seen at least a little, so that's encouraging.