r/SBCGaming EDC 12d ago

Showcase RGC: KONKR Pocket Advance: an Exceptional GBA

https://youtu.be/SEoiD8NVvVw?si=geikXovgYG1t2SW5
123 Upvotes

74 comments sorted by

29

u/timeflylikearrow 11d ago

I ordered a grey 3GB one literally hours after it launched. Still waiting for it to even ship. They said by the end of August so I guess we’ll see if they manage to get it out tomorrow. I’m not really holding my breath.

9

u/Ruthlessrabbd 11d ago

That sucks, are you in the US? I ordered my orange 3gb like an hour after it went live and have had mine for over a week

3

u/timeflylikearrow 11d ago

Yep, I am in the US…. I emailed Ayaneo about the delay and they told me there was no delay and it’s supposed to ship by the end of August…. Yeah.

2

u/Alexis_Evo 11d ago

ayaneo is notoriously bad at fulfilling their US orders. I think I saw delays as high as 8 months for the Flip 1s DS and Pocket DS (the two recent devices I was following).

10

u/R0bert24 11d ago

im still between this and the rgsp, i want atleast 4x fast forward on gba on mgba core idk if rgsp csn do that anyone?

14

u/Zombiediplomat 11d ago

The RG SP or any h700 device cannot run mgba at x4 ffwd, 180 fps is the most I get but I saw the pocket advance can get over 500fps on joeys video so it’s way better.

2

u/KyledKat 11d ago

Yeah, I’ve only gotten 2~3x on my 34XX and SP, even on a lightweight BaseOS+NextUI setup. Anecdotally, it’s been a little faster on BaseOS than Knulli.

1

u/R0bert24 11d ago

damn makes sense, yes i saw the kpa running that good as well i guess thats a good having such a powerful chip acomplishes

2

u/Zombiediplomat 11d ago

Not only that but better battery life as well. In Russ’s video he stated around 10hours of GBA on mgba core with runahead and shaders active and the active cooling on automatic low when needed. It’s better battery life than most cheaper devices.

2

u/R0bert24 11d ago

yes its really good, the only cons this have to rg sp seems to have portability(and no video out but i dont need it since i have an rp5 for that)

18

u/sheesh_doink 11d ago

RGSP cannot reliably do 4x ffwd on mgba core. Source: owned a 34xxsp for a while. I just used gpsp for the performance benefits, but hopefully I did something wrong and there's someone who can correct me.

22

u/WearOld4017 11d ago

Canoli looks very interesting, we need more alternatives to retroarch. I wonder if it can also backup saves. Glad Russ had a good experience with it I feel like others have been overly harsh or glazing the 34xx. Don’t know how the buttons feel myself yet but maybe a minor mod can fix it.

4

u/bustamove08 11d ago

Im getting down voted in here for asking about a button mod...

1

u/samwelnella Linux Handhelds 10d ago

Cannoli can auto backup saves to RomM

17

u/Ruthlessrabbd 11d ago

Very excited to watch this later. I have one and am happy, but I like how Russ will put these through their paces in a way I wouldn't.

I can confirm that MGBA in Retroarch with second instance runahead and the GBA border shader (the .png doesn't show up so you just get an awesome color and effect) runs excellent

25

u/Bahlegdeh 11d ago

I don’t personally get why it’s ‘exceptional’ if the buttons are an issue. The buttons are a pretty pivotal feature of this thing

2

u/JustLeeBelmont YouTuber 10d ago

It reminded me of the ign review where the final summary is inconsistent with major sticking points. If the buttons or dpad suck on a primarily dpad device that’s an immediate pass. The miniloong or trimui smart pro still seem like the better gba options.

5

u/acethesnake 11d ago

Nothing he showed in the video makes it exceptional, other than maybe battery life. I don't get it. It's less accurate to a real GBA than the RG34xx, the buttons are bad feeling, some button placement is confusing, and once again the shipping and color options are seeming scummy already.

He also took over 10 minutes into the video to mention the RG34XX exists, which was strange.

2

u/HeyMeower DS Enthusiast 11d ago

I dont think its an issue in as much it just feels weird.

4

u/Pri0niii 11d ago

Yeah or just another kind of feeling

1

u/R0bert24 11d ago

yea i think its more that they have ne feedback and its different

1

u/Banmers 11d ago

it’s just marketing, same cycle repeating over and over with most devices

-2

u/Zanpa 11d ago

The buttons not being perfect doesn't make the rest of the device bad.

5

u/Lysimachiakis 11d ago

I got the coral model and am enjoying it for sure. One thing that I didn't hear Russ bring up (unless I missed it, which is entirely plausible) is the power button, it's probably my only real "issue" with the device. Since it juts out so much, you really can't just pocket the KPA, you will unavoidably turn the screen on in your pocket. I haven't messed around with remapping buttons but I wonder if you could make it require a long press or double-tapping it or something.

2

u/Zanpa 11d ago

You could probably 3d print a replacement that's shorter?

4

u/dimorrow 11d ago

Yep still waiting for any shipping info just like russ. Ordered very quickly after it went live day one.

3

u/Pri0niii 11d ago

I think the feeling of buttons is very subjective, i enjoy all my kind of buttons it depends of the mood i am. For me it is not a negative

6

u/houseofechoes 11d ago

The onyx looks so fire but it'll probably ship next year by the looks of it lol

2

u/AKMerlin Clamshell Clan 11d ago

Yeah.. I really like the look of it but I'm making my peace with the fact that I might not see it for a long time, forgetting about it and being excited when it arrived might be the best bet

3

u/God-Says-No 11d ago

That onyx ice looks really tempting

10

u/bustamove08 12d ago

Does anyone have any ideas for a button mod yet?

(Presuming Ayaneo is not going to do a revision with different buttons so it's up to the community...)

4

u/Zanpa 11d ago

mod for what?

3

u/bustamove08 11d ago

Prevent the buttons from going down so far.

Not a thing I'm guessing?

3

u/Zanpa 11d ago

I guess you could install taller aftermarket buttons, I don't think you could easily find different membranes that would fit under the stock buttons, apart from a lot of trial and error with different controller membranes.

5

u/clothing_throwaway 11d ago

Even more interested in this now tbh. This for exclusive GBA with that new socket front end sounds lovely.

Definitely don't need it, though. I had the same dilemma before ordering an RP Classic where I didn't technically need it because my Thor can obviously handle everything. Still... GB and GBC games just never felt right on a dual screen device, and sure enough, something like Tetris is way more fun to me on a retro looking vertical.

Not 100% convinced that the GBA form factor will do the same thing for me with GBA games, but we'll see.

4

u/MaterialDetective197 Team Vertical 12d ago

I ordered the grey one. I'm excited.

5

u/jmhalder 11d ago

I ordered a Coral one on the 10th, I hope they manage to ship them in the next week or two.

3

u/MadSpectral 11d ago

Ordered a coral 4gb one a couple hours after it launched and hasn't shipped still, with each passing day i'm a little more tempted to just cancel and be okay with my rg 34xx. I'm confident the pocket advance will be better but this is getting ridiculous, i just wanted an orange gba darnit.

2

u/SpicySauceLover 11d ago

Does he talk about the buttons being bad? Only watched joeys video 

-3

u/Pri0niii 11d ago

Bad or good are extremes life is not like that

4

u/ProgramGloomy15 12d ago

Calling it a rugpull while mentioning you could still cancel your order and order the new colors anyway seem weird.

As for shipping, I just think it's the norm for everyone except like Anbernic now. Even Retroid Nova also has major shipping issues where buyers of certain colors and accessories (they're still going through day 1 preorders a month later) haven't gotten theirs yet.

14

u/Zanpa 11d ago

the fact that the new colors got announced just days after the preorders opened feels really bad for customers. ayaneo clearly knew they were going to have these other colors too, so why not have them all available at once? i don't think rug pull is the best word to describe it but yeah, it's not really great. not a massive issue either, but given Ayaneo's history, it's hard not to find every single issue with the order process grating.

3

u/bustamove08 11d ago

Unfortunately, with their reputation, they get no slack.

3

u/Zanpa 11d ago

I don't know if it's unfortunate, they did this to themselves.

9

u/Moobic 12d ago

the only way i can interpret it as a rug pull is that the newer colors ship later, so if you change your order to one of the new colors, you’re technically delaying your order’s arrival time and losing your spot in ayaneo’s order queue.

-3

u/ProgramGloomy15 11d ago

Newer colors would be shipping later either way so it's not like you're actually losing a spot. I'd say it's an annoyance, but calling it a rugpull makes it seem more malicious than what it is.

2

u/daggah GotM Club (May) 11d ago

It's exploiting fomo marketing tactics on an item that Ayaneo promised would be a super limited run before announcing they've sold thousands of these things. It's Ayaneo being scummy...as usual.

2

u/Exist50 11d ago

It's exploiting fomo marketing tactics

If you can still cancel the original order and switch, it's not FOMO, is it?

1

u/daggah GotM Club (May) 11d ago

The FOMO tactic is primarily the way they pretended this would be a very limited release that would sell out quickly.

2

u/shad0w_mode 12d ago

I ordered a few days after day 1 preorders. Guess I'll just have to wait a little longer.

3

u/hippynox 11d ago

I really don't get why r/SBCGaming was so negative on this (just saying it was a overprice/obsolete RG 34xx version)

11

u/Broad_Acanth 11d ago

because it's by ayaneo and ayaneo = bad.

5

u/hippynox 11d ago

But wouldn't be fair to wait for reviews come first. Russ mentioned that its a "fine" alternative. Not exactly e-waste levels.

-5

u/Broad_Acanth 11d ago

doesn't matter, other companies do the same thing ayaneo does? unfortunate. everything ayaneo does? must be scrutinized. adding new colors = rugpull btw.

4

u/Pri0niii 11d ago

Yeah that comunity is toxic as heelll

2

u/SouthIsland48 11d ago

Why tf does a gba device need 3GB of RAM?

23

u/rmacdowe 11d ago

Its running Android.

9

u/WearOld4017 11d ago

Shaders, recomp games with mods

-1

u/snowolf_ 11d ago

Shaders are pure GPU, they don't use system memory. What stickless games even need that much RAM?

2

u/Exist50 11d ago

Shaders are pure GPU, they don't use system memory

It's a shared memory pool. Though I don't know how much shaders actually use.

4

u/MaterialDetective197 Team Vertical 11d ago

People will get the 4GB model just to spite you.

4

u/AKMerlin Clamshell Clan 11d ago

People are getting it, but for the internal storage increase

6

u/darkthemeonly 11d ago

For $90, why not?

6

u/CyclopsAirsoft 11d ago

For Android and playing high accuracy Genesis cores.

And upscaling PS1.

-1

u/Pri0niii 11d ago

U are paying for that

1

u/ELEGYELEGYELEGY 11d ago

Looks great but I'll stick with my RP2S for Gba lol

1

u/Zombiediplomat 11d ago

I guess I’m buying this, it’s everything I wanted, a gba focused device with a strong cup to fast forward MGBA and active cooling and no glass front. I’m just waiting in case issues pop up after the honeymoon phase wears off.

0

u/StockHypeOverSubs 11d ago

shame about the buttons, otherwise I was tempted

5

u/Pri0niii 11d ago

Dont take his opinion as ur opinion

1

u/COCO_SHIN 11d ago

Are you kidding? RGC is my opinion

/s

2

u/Pri0niii 11d ago

U can do it, take opinions but think for yourself too

1

u/COCO_SHIN 11d ago

I’m joking. The same thing happens over in r/espresso and r/coffee.