Acadia18
Autocross Champion
If you want an SNES-like experience, the SNES Mini is great for emulating SNES games. You can pretty much fit them all on, and get to easily use licensed controllers. It's fantastic.
6
Any here into retro gaming?
- Thread starter Chogokin
- Start date
If you want an SNES-like experience, the SNES Mini is great for emulating SNES games. You can pretty much fit them all on, and get to easily use licensed controllers. It's fantastic.
Acadia18
Autocross Champion
I saw this thread get bumped by spammers recently, and figured I'd post on the topic and kind of just ramble.
I recently got into the "retro handheld" scene that has been blowing up recently, and went down the rabbit hole hard.
Since I wasn't sure how much I would actually use a device, my first purchase was an R36S. It's a linux based device, which is a rip off\clone of a different device. You can usually get them for around $35 on AliExpress. And honestly, for the price, I think it's a great little device. The build quality is less than stellar, but it does work. Simpler PS1, N64, and Saturn games will run on it, but really, it's best for anything below that. I played through Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on it, and it handled most of it flawlessly. I think it's a fantastic entry point for "my first handheld".
When I saw how cool it was, and really started looking into the hobby, I decided to upgrade. I still wanted the vertical style, so I decided on the Anbernic RG405V. Anbernic is one of the larger players in the retro handheld scene. While the R36S could easily fit into a pocket, this is pushing that limit. Despite looking similar in size, it's quite a bit chunkier. The build quality is far better than the R36S, and a bit more powerful. This would handle PS1, N64, and Saturn fine, and could even get into Dreamcast. People say it'll do PS2, but I tried several PS2 games, and nothing was remotely playable. At this point though, this is getting off of Linux and on to Android. The funny thing about that, is the $35 Linux device worked great out of the box. Turned it on and you can start playing. The more expensive Android devices, you have to go through entire setup processes. It's not, you can follow along a setup guide on YouTube and be done in an hour, but I just think it's entertaining that the cheap devices are pick up and go, and the more expensive ones aren't. Played through FFVII on this device.
Anyway, at this point, I decide I want something more powerful. The king in this arena is the Ayn Odin 2, a $370 retro handheld powerhouse. But I don't want to spend that much, so I buy an Anbernic RG556 for half of that. This is a fairly brand new device that just came out. I was originally hesitant to go to a horizontal device vs. vertical, but once you want to get more powerful than the RG405V, you kind of have to. I was drawn to this one because all the reviews said it was basically the most comfortable handheld they've used, and it has a OLED screen where most others have an IPS. This is the upper limit on what I wanted size wise. It's not pocketable in a normal pocket, but will fit in a front hoodie pocket. And this is a great device. Like everyone says, it's comfortable. Battery is good. And it handles stuff up through Game Cube, Dreamcast, 3DS, some PS2...
But like everything, I got bored slightly, and didn't like knowing there was still power left on the table. So I did what I should have done after seeing how cool the R36S was and started down this path, and bought an Ayn Odin 2. The device is a beast. An actual Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 cpu, vs some Zhong Zhong Unisoc CPU. Will play just about any Android emulation there is. Hell, this thing can do Switch emulation (some games).
Now, every time I've gotten into conversations with people about this, especially when I get to the point where I was looking at an almost $400 handheld, people always usually say the same thing.
"Bro, just get a Steam Deck? Why wouldn't you just buy a Steam Deck?"
(not my pic)
The Steam Deck is fucking massive. It's a fantastic device, but far larger than what I want.
Anyway. Since there isn't really any development on Android emulation for PS3\Xbox\Switch (after the lawsuit), and the Odin 2 runs pretty much everything available now fine, it's fairly "future proof". Even if a new one comes later this year using the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 or something, there really won't be a reason to upgrade. So I think the Odin 2 should last me a while.
And that's my ramble on retro gaming and handhelds. Time to get off the toilet.
I recently got into the "retro handheld" scene that has been blowing up recently, and went down the rabbit hole hard.
Since I wasn't sure how much I would actually use a device, my first purchase was an R36S. It's a linux based device, which is a rip off\clone of a different device. You can usually get them for around $35 on AliExpress. And honestly, for the price, I think it's a great little device. The build quality is less than stellar, but it does work. Simpler PS1, N64, and Saturn games will run on it, but really, it's best for anything below that. I played through Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on it, and it handled most of it flawlessly. I think it's a fantastic entry point for "my first handheld".
When I saw how cool it was, and really started looking into the hobby, I decided to upgrade. I still wanted the vertical style, so I decided on the Anbernic RG405V. Anbernic is one of the larger players in the retro handheld scene. While the R36S could easily fit into a pocket, this is pushing that limit. Despite looking similar in size, it's quite a bit chunkier. The build quality is far better than the R36S, and a bit more powerful. This would handle PS1, N64, and Saturn fine, and could even get into Dreamcast. People say it'll do PS2, but I tried several PS2 games, and nothing was remotely playable. At this point though, this is getting off of Linux and on to Android. The funny thing about that, is the $35 Linux device worked great out of the box. Turned it on and you can start playing. The more expensive Android devices, you have to go through entire setup processes. It's not, you can follow along a setup guide on YouTube and be done in an hour, but I just think it's entertaining that the cheap devices are pick up and go, and the more expensive ones aren't. Played through FFVII on this device.
Anyway, at this point, I decide I want something more powerful. The king in this arena is the Ayn Odin 2, a $370 retro handheld powerhouse. But I don't want to spend that much, so I buy an Anbernic RG556 for half of that. This is a fairly brand new device that just came out. I was originally hesitant to go to a horizontal device vs. vertical, but once you want to get more powerful than the RG405V, you kind of have to. I was drawn to this one because all the reviews said it was basically the most comfortable handheld they've used, and it has a OLED screen where most others have an IPS. This is the upper limit on what I wanted size wise. It's not pocketable in a normal pocket, but will fit in a front hoodie pocket. And this is a great device. Like everyone says, it's comfortable. Battery is good. And it handles stuff up through Game Cube, Dreamcast, 3DS, some PS2...
But like everything, I got bored slightly, and didn't like knowing there was still power left on the table. So I did what I should have done after seeing how cool the R36S was and started down this path, and bought an Ayn Odin 2. The device is a beast. An actual Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 cpu, vs some Zhong Zhong Unisoc CPU. Will play just about any Android emulation there is. Hell, this thing can do Switch emulation (some games).
Now, every time I've gotten into conversations with people about this, especially when I get to the point where I was looking at an almost $400 handheld, people always usually say the same thing.
"Bro, just get a Steam Deck? Why wouldn't you just buy a Steam Deck?"
(not my pic)
The Steam Deck is fucking massive. It's a fantastic device, but far larger than what I want.
Anyway. Since there isn't really any development on Android emulation for PS3\Xbox\Switch (after the lawsuit), and the Odin 2 runs pretty much everything available now fine, it's fairly "future proof". Even if a new one comes later this year using the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 or something, there really won't be a reason to upgrade. So I think the Odin 2 should last me a while.
And that's my ramble on retro gaming and handhelds. Time to get off the toilet.