Hey, that's as good a reason as any. I'm super looking forward to the 35XXSP--a device I definitely don't need--simply because the GBA SP hits me in the nostalgia real good. I already have a MM+ and a 35XXP, but that form factor is what I'm after.
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Yeeeeeaaaaaaahhhhhh, I'm probably going to end up getting that one, too lol. These classic form factors get me.
Wanted to give a recommendation for the Beacon front end for anyone on Android. I had been using Daijisho but never cared for how busy it looked and I felt like navigating around the different systems wasn't very intuitive. It was usable but not as elegant as a dedicated retro OS like Onion IMO.
So I decided to give Beacon a shot and I've been enjoying it a lot more so far. It's not as customizable, but it is much simpler and I like how the UI works and looks. I know this is all subjective but I think this one feels like a proper console and not a launcher slapped on Android. Set up is a breeze and the scraper is more accurate than Daijisho in my experience.
Beacon is 2.99 USD on the Play Store but I think it was worth it.
So I decided to give Beacon a shot and I've been enjoying it a lot more so far. It's not as customizable, but it is much simpler and I like how the UI works and looks. I know this is all subjective but I think this one feels like a proper console and not a launcher slapped on Android. Set up is a breeze and the scraper is more accurate than Daijisho in my experience.
Beacon is 2.99 USD on the Play Store but I think it was worth it.
There are some youtubers where it feels obvious that they're positive so that they can get more review units (ETA Prime the biggest culprit imo), but I feel like Russ is just a more positive/optimistic guy so that shows up more in his videos. Hard to believe, but i feel like he's among the more critical reviewers in this space that I've seen. I think that's why he's gotten more of a following.
Not saying the always-positive reviewers are bad or anything, as they usually have a lot of good insights on the device. But sometimes it's a little.... excessive.
Am I one of the last holdouts that has been following this thread for a while and watching the various videos but still hasn't bought anything yet? I think I'm close to buying something. I have the Analogue Pocket but don't count it as in the same group as these handhelds, mind you.
Is there any way to pay for it outside of the play store? I installed GammaOS without Google Play Services on my RG405M to get better battery life. It has the Aurora Store but IIRC setting up your account with a 3rd party store to get paid apps is technically a violation of the Google ToS, and I don't want to risk a ban.
I guess I could set up a whole new Google account just for this purchase, but that feels like a chore.
I don't have an RGB30, but I did pick up an RG35XX H. What is appealing about it to you when you already have an RGB30? The CFWs are less developed right now, and the analog sticks suck (directional snapping, bad deadzones, etc.) if that's something you care about.
Performance wise they're roughly similar with maybe an edge to the RK3566 chip in your RGB30.
Doesn't seem like it. I can't even find a web presence for it outside of the Play Store and some Reddit posts.
I kept waffling thanks to this thread for a long time but ultimately ended up with a Steam Deck (and eventually upgraded to the OLED). It's chonkier than a lot of these devices, but for the times I do travel it fits well in my backpack and I don't really feel like I'm making any compromises. I do like the Retroid Pocket, especially with the 16-bit colors, but playing a game on a screen that size seems like a chore these days. For a while I was using a Razer Kishi + my Android phone and that felt like the lower limit of what I was willing to deal with in terms of display size.
TBH I don't know. The flat and compact format mostly.
But with a RGB30, MM+ and RG353V …. Hard to justify. But that new device envy is strong
I'm considering the same since, while I love the RGB30, it is taller than the RG35XX-H and has some harder angles at the edges. While the RG35XX-H is only slightly thinner, I think those other differences would make it more comfy to pocket. Besides, it would be nice to have a landscape 4:3 device to supplement the RGB30's strengths with taller aspect ratios.
However, I told myself I would wait until we get a PS2-capable, pocketable, 4:3 device so I don't end up with a handful of redundant handhelds. ^_^; We're about to get some very interesting devices under 60 USD, so we'll see if I'm able to stick to that.
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Is Ali Express safe? They've got a big sale going on right now and I was thinking of buying a RG35XX H. I can get it for $45.
It's safe. Half the poster here bought their devices on Aliexpress.
It's safe, but don't expect Amazon levels of service. The shipping can take a while and the tracking kinda stinks.
Yeah, these days Amazon is just Aliexpress but triple the price.
I forgot to mention that I have a Steam Deck but it's something else I don't consider as a retro handheld.
Pocket + a hacked Switch/3DS/Vita for edge cases seems like a good enough solution for me. I'll probably get a dedicated 3D retro handhelds in a few years though.
Interested to hear impressions here on the rg35xx h. I have a miyoo mini, but it's just too small and awkward to hold really for any length of time.
That sounds fair. I actually have a lot of handhelds, just none of the retro ones. Multiple 3DS and Vita portables.
Yep, that's kind of how I feel right now.
RGB30 works well with 4:3 devices, but isn't "optimized" for it.
But well, it's not like I already have a gigantic backlog of games perfect for the RGB30 to tackle ... :D
Damn I really want Garlic 2.0 to hit. I bought into the RG35 line and it's on the border of being too small for me but the fact that the MM is further ahead in software makes me tempted. They're all so damn cheap and easy to impulse buy.
I kinda want one of the RG horizontal ones with dual sticks haha
Once you start, you can't stop it seems ^^'
A lot of people like the Steam Deck and Miyoo Mini (Plus) combo. Obviously the Steam Deck can run any of these systems so something at the size of the Miyoo makes a good companion. For me, I enjoy both the Miyoo and Retroid Pocket 2S as a smaller handheld when I don't want to take the Deck with me.
The Analogue Pocket makes a good companion too and another retro handheld will introduce some redundancy, but what initially persuaded me to get one of these on top of my Pocket is that the Pocket only supports sleep and save states on the lighter cores, and can't play PSX and some other systems that a dedicated retro handheld can. The UI experience of OpenFPGA also isn't as pleasing as a UI with box art and/or screenshots, but that might not matter so much to you.
My son is loving the miyoo mini plus. He found my Zelda anniversary game and watch a few weeks ago and is obsessed with old NES games now. I showed him the miyoo and now can't stop playing it.
He is 5, so I have to pick the game for him since it has some not so kid friendly ones on it but I just bought a RG35XX for him so he is going to be happy once I get it in and configure it.
He is 5, so I have to pick the game for him since it has some not so kid friendly ones on it but I just bought a RG35XX for him so he is going to be happy once I get it in and configure it.
You've reminded me about the Pocket 2S, I think I might go for this!
I finally, finally, got SyncThing set up on my NAS so that the saves folder can be synced in real time across my Android-based handhelds, my tablet, and my PC. Every time I've tried to set it up in the past I would stare at the UI for an hour and give up because it really isn't intuitive. This isn't a perfect solution because some stand alone emulators are particular about where you put saves (looking at you Dolphin...) but for Retroarch and most others it is a solved problem now. I loaded up Donkey Kong Country on my PC, created a new save state, then as soon as I could navigate to it and launch it on my RP4 the save state had transferred over and was ready to use :)
Next thing to do would be to create separate sync folders for ES-DE's custom collection/favorite xml files, to keep that consistent across all devices. Also want to try doing all the scraped/metadata for all my games but that is a ton of data and I'm not sure the paths will all work out. We'll see. Retroarch config files would be cool too but I'm not sure the settings work out to be the same everywhere.
Next thing to do would be to create separate sync folders for ES-DE's custom collection/favorite xml files, to keep that consistent across all devices. Also want to try doing all the scraped/metadata for all my games but that is a ton of data and I'm not sure the paths will all work out. We'll see. Retroarch config files would be cool too but I'm not sure the settings work out to be the same everywhere.
I just got mine as a replacement for my Batocera powered RG35XX plus (dropped it, screen cracked. Still works fine and the cracks are not really an issue while playing but it just pains me to see it like that) and I have to say, for a mere 10 bucks more, H is much better.
I really liked RG35XX Gameboy shape but H feels much more solid, thinner, more compact, with better materials and ergonomics. Not quite "premium" ofc but it feels way less cheap, though obviously the components are the exact same (and those screens do tend to crack and shatter easily, so that's something to keep in mind).
Analogs are of course nice to have and it's configured out of the box to play vertical arcade games with the console rotated 90° CW and controls moved to right stick and rotated accordingly, which is huge for me (and one of the reasons why I haven't switched to a different OS yet).
Don't know how it compares to a MM though
For those with multiple handhelds, how do you handle save files? You transfer them or just finish the entire game on each system separately?
I've had mine for a little over a month now and it's been great. Size hasn't been an issue at all for me with it being around the size of a DS Lite. Buttons and dpad are good, though I found I needed to remap l and r to the "triggers" to make it more comfortable for me. I wouldn't call it the most comfortable device in the world but I've done a few multi hour sessions on the thing without any discomfort. The only big issue are the sticks which feel terrible due to being essentially locked to 8 directions with a massive deadzone. You can somewhat alleviate this by changing the deadzone and sensitivity settings in emulators but it doesn't do a whole lot. Neither does replacing the sticks. Apparently it's a software bug though so it might be fixed in the future hopefully. Sleep mode doesn't really exist either I guess. You can technically put the 35XXH to "sleep" but it just shuts off the screen essentially. It hasn't really bothered me though since I'll generally just fully switch it off when I'm not using it.
I've been using Batocera as my OS the whole time, never actually even used the base os, but it's overall a pretty smooth experience. The default settings are generally good, though it uses the XBOX button layout by default for some reason. This isn't too much of a hassle to change but it'll need to be done for every emulator and AFAIK can't be changed for the standalone N64 ones and needs to be done every boot for Drastic. Having such a nice looking interface makes it worth it though and scraping boxart and videos is super easy once you have a screenscraper account set up. I'm also a big fan of being able to add background music to the system. There's no dedicated audio player app but I've spent a decent amount of time just vibing to music while watching the screensaver go by.
The only other real annoyance I've had with Batocera is configuration. By default you're expected to just do all your configuration through Batocera itself, and that config gets loaded every time you launch a game. Unfortunately the options you're given by the OS to configure your emulators are extremely limited, with stuff like controls being completely absent for example. You can get around this in RetroArch using per game/core/directory overrides, and for standalone PPSSPP and Flycast by doing per game configs, but for the standalone N64 emulators and Drastic you don't have the option hence the aforementioned button mapping issues.
Performance is solid for everything up to PS1 for consoles and GBA for handhelds. You've got enough headroom for upping the resolution on PS1 games even. The only issue I've had with the really retro systems is some minor slowdown on Virtual Boy (like one or two frames, nothing major). DS, Dreamcast, N64, and PSP are nice bonus to have but aren't perfect. I haven't had many problems running any DS or Dreamcast games but a lot of games will need frameskip enabled, especially if you're running upscaled DS games. The lack of a touch screen limits you on the DS games you can play as well, with the sticks not serving too well in emulating the stylus. N64 is a little worse off, still generally fairly good but you'll need to fiddle around with different emulators depending on the game, and stuff like Perfect Dark is a complete non-starter. Dreamcast, PSP and N64 also suffer pretty heavily due to the stick deadzones as well.
PSP is probably the worst performing of the systems you can emulate here but you can get a surprising number of games into a playable state despite that. Slower paced stuff like rpgs tend to run pretty well out of the box, and any 2D games hasn't been an issue, but with a bit of fiddling I even managed to get one of the GTA games to a mostly playable state. It'll really depend on how much you can stand things like under clocking and frameskip though.
I think some people use syncthing, but I don't bother
Up until recently I would mostly play on each system separately but would occasionally transfer things over or back up the files. I try best as possible to have all the emulators save in the same location/file structure, which most let you do. For the android based devices I would use my file manager (SolidExplorer) to copy files back and forth between my devices and a share drive on my NAS. Fairly convenient but manual.
Syncthing is available on lots of platforms and is free, and you basically create a folder on every device and it runs in the background and makes sure everything stays the same on all devices it is installed on. This works better on some emulators (anything Retroarch...) than others (Dolphin, Duckstation) but at the very least it will put the saves on the device and you can then move them around locally as needed.
I don't know if it works the same on the linux-based handhelds I have or not (Miyoo, Arc) but I haven't used them in a while. Steam Deck should work but I haven't set that up that yet. One thing I'm not crazy about Syncthing is it seems by default to be running in the background all the time and I'd prefer just having a "sync now" button. Probably save some battery.
EDIT: another gotcha I just discovered - Duckstation versions it's save state files and since the Android build is so far behind the PC build, save states made on the PC won't work with the Android build. I guess I need to roll back the PC version I'm using to something older. But none of this is documented (and Duckstation developer seems pretty hands off on anything regarding the Android version so no idea when it would brought up to date either.)
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Keep them separate, even if I have the same game on multiple devices I try and stick with the same device for the same game during a play through.
It's not Linux, but the Retroid Pocket 2S meets the rest of your criteria.
I got a RG35xx H, it is well build but has it's flaws. It is not very confortable, sticks are shit (8 cardinal directions and not full 360, it is hell in 3d games), screen is too small, but quality is great. Bulild quality is good, stock firmware is good on performance but ugly as hell...
Great for it's price. Changing sticks does not fix the problem of sticks.
Great for it's price. Changing sticks does not fix the problem of sticks.
With regard to the AliExpress sale - Do I need a cheap RG35XX H if I have a Retroid Pocket 3+?
It sounds like it's on Anbernic to fix the sticks, and that's never going to happen. They shit out a bunch of devices and let the community pick up the software slack.
Need? Probably not. But if you want something more pocketable for playing up to PS1/N64, then it might be a good addition to your collection. I have an RP4P, but also a 405M, MM+, and 35XXP. There's definitely overlap, but I like each of them for specific reasons.
Seems to be more around the €$150 mark as far as I can see, unfortunately.
Is that actually any more performant than the RGB30? I thought it was pretty much the same.
Rg35xx h can do some Dreamcast and N64. But if you want to play those systems, you have to go a little higher in price. And maybe android too.