Modern Retro Handheld Game Players thread

[yakumo]

Yeah pretty much on point.

 

[Cheeko]

Totally random aside (that Retroid Pocket looks great) but in amongst GTA and Mario, Zelda et al he randomly demos Zapper, a game I worked on during my work placement year at Uni, it’s even one of the levels I made, I didn’t even think anyone knew that game existed anymore. Hah.

[earlymodernsteve]

Really tempted by the Pocket 2+, despite having cfw Vita and 3DS sat at home. Just looks like a lovely dedicated device. Got a Steam Deck preorder but didn't get on that until a few weeks after it launched so probably won't see it this side of 2023. I've also got a Powkiddy A12 which is a nice desktop stick arcade but menus are mostly in Chinese and updating it is a real ballache. Thing is, I know I'll end up mostly playing on PC but something draws me to these devices.

[Phantoon]

On 07/01/2022 at 16:29, yakumo said:

Yeah pretty much on point.

 

He's slightly harsh. From my experience the RG350/351s do work out of the box (like he says part way through). They just work a lot better when you tinker. Powkiddy are infamous for quality issues, and the A20 is a fairly bad example. Unfortunately they produce this stuff for the Chinese market and they don't have the same history with the games that we do. We revere them and know how they should be, they've generally had shonky copies as they've not had official releases until relatively recently.

 

They do fire out these things with shocking software, and expect the community to fix it. The community are absolute heroes and unlock the potential of them.

[bear]

I think that video kinda sucked to be honest. There was more effort put in to the ad for cock pills than there was the rest of it. Glossing over the upgrades added to the Retroid 2 plus compared to the standard 2 and the claim people backed the Odin because they thought it was being made by Aya was just lazy. 

[bradigor]

That was a poor video, the comparisons he made just make no sense either.

[bear]

I got my 351MP today. Lovely piece of hardware it has to be said. 

 

Retro Game Corps have a video up showing how to get setup with 351elec so I'll be doing that before fiddling much more with the machine. 

[bear]

I didn't install 351elec until Friday as I couldn't resist fiddling about a bit with the handheld itself on Thursday. Considering it came from a UK based reseller in Droix I was a bit surprised that it still came with a MicroSD card loaded with thousands of different games. Its very easy to spend a few hours going through menus and loading up some random title that just catches your eye.

 

Moving on, I got 351elec installed and its a lot better than the software the MP comes with. Biggest difference was with GBA games as the emulator is setup a lot better. Image quality is a lot better using 351elec so its a very worthwhile upgrade. 

 

I've put a small selection of games on the system now and I'm playing through Super Metroid now. 

 

 

 

[bear]

People are getting their AYN Odins by the looks of things so we might see reviews of the finished product this week. I'm not planning on getting one but it looks like a very interesting machine. Could be a fantastic device for streaming Xbox games. 

[Robo_1]

6 hours ago, bear said:

People are getting their AYN Odins by the looks of things so we might see reviews of the finished product this week. I'm not planning on getting one but it looks like a very interesting machine. Could be a fantastic device for streaming Xbox games. 

 

Really on the edge between going for broke and pre-ordering a Steam Deck which may arrive at some point this century or grabbing this.

 

Very keen to watch the reviews.

[Robo_1]

So the verdict is in on Odin and "bloody brilliant" seems to be the general sentiment!

 

 

The above video is basically a system by system montage of games. From what I can tell, it can handle everything up to PS2 quite convincingly.

 

The 3DS emulator needs work and there was some stuttering on some of the heavier PS2 titles but yeah, for €259 this packs a hell of a punch.

[Phantoon]

11 hours ago, Robo_1 said:

So the verdict is in on Odin and "bloody brilliant" seems to be the general sentiment!

 

 

The above video is basically a system by system montage of games. From what I can tell, it can handle everything up to PS2 quite convincingly.

 

The 3DS emulator needs work and there was some stuttering on some of the heavier PS2 titles but yeah, for €259 this packs a hell of a punch.

I'd be wary of Taki. He's a decent guy but he's been involved in Odin since very early on and he has a history of exaggerating how well these things run games. He was saying that Gamecube was good on the Retroid Pocket 2+ and that seems to be a vast overstatement in my opinion.

[Robo_1]

1 hour ago, Phantoon said:

I'd be wary of Taki. He's a decent guy but he's been involved in Odin since very early on and he has a history of exaggerating how well these things run games. He was saying that Gamecube was good on the Retroid Pocket 2+ and that seems to be a vast overstatement in my opinion.

 

Yeah, that's why I was so enthusiastic about the RP2 + initially. Still need to watch more videos on that one.

 

Was unaware of his involvement with Odin. I'll bare it in mind! Still very early days for the Odin, hopefully a range of independent videos come out soon.

 

I'm mulling between this and just going all out on a Steam Deck.. even if I probably wouldn't receive that until September!

[David Kenny]

Just pre-ordered a Retroid Pocket 2+. Not totally sure why because I really didn't like the initial version, except this does seem to have resolved most of the things I didn't like about it. And even though I didn't like the Retroid Pocket 2 that was mainly to do with the OS, the form factor was really nice and this one looks similarly elegant.

 

Anyway it's just within the price range where I don't mind taking a punt. I'm sure it will do everything up to 16 bit pretty perfectly but tolerable Dreamcast performance would be a bonus as I fancy playing through Skies of Arcadia again, without listening to my Dreamcast howl.

[Phantoon]

22 minutes ago, David Kenny said:

Just pre-ordered a Retroid Pocket 2+. Not totally sure why because I really didn't like the initial version, except this does seem to have resolved most of the things I didn't like about it. And even though I didn't like the Retroid Pocket 2 that was mainly to do with the OS, the form factor was really nice and this one looks similarly elegant.

 

Anyway it's just within the price range where I don't mind taking a punt. I'm sure it will do everything up to 16 bit pretty perfectly but tolerable Dreamcast performance would be a bonus as I fancy playing through Skies of Arcadia again, without listening to my Dreamcast howl.

You should be in luck. Everything I've heard says it's a huge improvement

[Robo_1]

Full review of the Odin:

 

 

 

Seems like a balanced review to me. The bottom line appears to be that it's a well made device with a few control issues. Seems very capable for everything up to Gamecube and Wii, with about half of everything up to PS2 being considered playable.

 

Lots of videos in the review and he's promising a lot more in the future. I am impressed at some of the PS2 stuff though. Games like Jak & Daxter and God Of War seem perfectly playable at 720p if you're prepared to live with cycle skip and a few other tweaks.

 

When these become widely available it may well put me back on the fence between this and the Steam Deck, particularly if the Deck is still months off and theres more than a €200 price difference.

[Phantoon]

Yeah, if Russ likes it, I'm sold. I'll have to get one, it looks amazing. It's incredible that they've managed to pull this off on what looks like their first go. Compare and contrast to the likes of PowKiddy...

[DarkCrisis]

Decided to order a AYN Odin Pro instead of waiting until the end of year for Steam Deck, the smaller form factor and the cheaper price has pushed me over the edge.

 

Streaming Gamepass and emulation seems spot for what I’m after and was particularly impressed by the impressions online over past few days.

[Paulando]

1 hour ago, DarkCrisis said:

Decided to order a AYN Odin Pro instead of waiting until the end of year for Steam Deck, the smaller form factor and the cheaper price has pushed me over the edge.

 

Streaming Gamepass and emulation seems spot for what I’m after and was particularly impressed by the impressions online over past few days.

Where from, their funding page? How much was postage, and is there any indication how much tax would be (if it isn’t added on already)?

[DarkCrisis]

Ordered through Indiegogo page as still seem to be taking orders, shipping was around £25 but no idea on taxes I guess that will be added when it arrives, all in probably looking at £260.

[DarkCrisis]

I guess if it £260 for Odin Pro and £350 for Steam Deck then not as good a deal as I thought but I still prefer the smaller form factor and better battery of Odin over Steam Deck.

[AK Bell]

Pulled the trigger and ordered an Odin Pro. Anyone got theirs yet considering they were meant to be out last month? 

 

The dock for it sold me in the end. Reading around and it's not the best quality but it will likely work. I read a couple of reddit comments saying games were laggy on it but it might have just been them.

 

Looking forward to sticking in a GameCube controller. People have bother with the WaveBird but I got plenty of wired ones in an attic somewhere too. 

 

This video here shows it working with what looks like no lag between device and screen. It went nuts first time until sticking in a Switch (which technically works) and then putting the Odin back in. But I reckon it's because he booted it up with every device under the sun plugged into it.

 

Also, quite clearly Zelda OoT was running at just 19FPS with not much on screen. Hopefully that will get a boost. It really looks like it needs a firmware update to not display both screens at the same time.

 

 

 

[rexel1]

6 hours ago, AK Bell said:

Pulled the trigger and ordered an Odin Pro. Anyone got theirs yet considering they were meant to be out last month? 

 

The dock for it sold me in the end. Reading around and it's not the best quality but it will likely work. I read a couple of reddit comments saying games were laggy on it but it might have just been them.

 

Looking forward to sticking in a GameCube controller. People have bother with the WaveBird but I got plenty of wired ones in an attic somewhere too. 

 

This video here shows it working with what looks like no lag between device and screen. It went nuts first time until sticking in a Switch (which technically works) and then putting the Odin back in. But I reckon it's because he booted it up with every device under the sun plugged into it.

 

Also, quite clearly Zelda OoT was running at just 19FPS with not much on screen. Hopefully that will get a boost. It really looks like it needs a firmware update to not display both screens at the same time.

 

 

 

I was considering one, mainly for the docking aspect. Russell at RGC gave it a good workout and the docking aspect is really poor, mainly due to the connectivity options with controllers and having to set them up each time you dock the machine or change controllers.

it sounds like that’s a problem that’s due to using Android and individual emulators so not something that can be easily fixed with a custom OS.

 

totally put me off ordering one (for now at least!)
 

 

[routeburn]

Anyone used the Miyoo Mini?

I'm not interested in trying to run complex 3D retro games, but am really after something for 2D SNES, Arcade, GB, GBA, NGPC etc. that's nice and compact

[Giddas]

On 22/02/2022 at 00:59, routeburn said:

Anyone used the Miyoo Mini?

I'm not interested in trying to run complex 3D retro games, but am really after something for 2D SNES, Arcade, GB, GBA, NGPC etc. that's nice and compact

I got one recently and my first impressions are it’s great! It’s tiny but fairly comfortable for me, controls and screen are good.

 

I believe it’s hard to come by right now though.

[AK Bell]

For the price of a Miyoo Mini, might you be better off looking for something like a RG351V on the cheap now everyone is trying to get the machines that do 3D well? 

 

Or look back in this thread about the v90 Powkiddy that is about half the price if you run it on Miyoo. They're not quite as good, in hindsight of getting it it's a shame it's only 320x240 so GBA scales up badly by 1.5 pixels (only really notice on text), but it plays 99% of 2D stuff really well and great to just throw in a bag.

 

On that, I've noticed v90s on sale for less than £15 ... anyone know if they're any good or bad knockoffs of this cheap knockoff? The one I bought is legit and from the link here, and still holding steady at £30-ish

[routeburn]

As I suspected, the supplier on Bang Good cancelled my Miyoo Mini order. It seems there are supply chain problems.

 

So I ordered a Retroid Pocket 2+.

[christaylor]

Late to the party as usual, but I picked up an RG351P recently (from here) and have been experimenting with it over the last few weeks.

 

Reflashed it firstly with the ELEC351 v2 OS, which is definitely FAR more user-friendly than the default OS it comes with, and then added a load of roms I already had from when I was playing with PC emulators years ago. It's mainly a nostalgia tool for me, so loaded it up with some Atari 800/Amiga/SNES/MD/ScummVM/classic MAME roms.

 

For anything up to 16bit stuff it seems perfect, and even Mario64 runs pretty much perfectly as far as I can tell (it certainly matches my fading memories of it), but it does struggle with some of the more advanced N64 stuff, though that doesn't really bother me for what I wanted to use it for.

 

It also seems to be the perfect GBA emulator, the form factor more or less identical, and loads of great versions of classic Nintendo series were released on it, and quite a few Amiga games were also ported to it (Wings, IK+, Lost Vikings, Speedball 2, Soccer kid etc.).

 

 

[Paulando]

9 minutes ago, christaylor said:

It also seems to be the perfect GBA emulator

Yep, absolutely this. I have several GBAs (modded original, SP, GB Micros etc), but the RG351P is the best thing to play GBA games on. The screen is bright and gorgeous, with none of the smearing you get on the OG hardware. Great battery life too.

[christaylor]

9 minutes ago, Paulando said:

Yep, absolutely this. I have several GBAs (modded original, SP, GB Micros etc), but the RG351P is the best thing to play GBA games on. The screen is bright and gorgeous, with none of the smearing you get on the OG hardware. Great battery life too.

Yeah I've still got my original awesome GBA SP famicom ed (imported from Lik-sang iirc!) with an EZ flash cart, which is now basically redundant.