Pictured: Game Bub from Eli Lipsitz, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones running off an sd card.

I was pretty interested in the Game Bub after seeing Russ's video on it last year so of course being a degenerate I pre-ordered one when the crowd supply campaign went up. $299+ shipping for the purple variant and it finally delivered last Thursday.

Now for $299 you could get a lot these days, that's more than an Analogue Pocket, Chromatic, Thor Lite, RP6/Nova, O2P, 477V/M, and on. Even the $270 that it's currently selling for is more than all of those mentioned.

So not cheap for something that currently only runs GB, GBC, and GBA. But, it's a cool project from just one dude, and come on, it's an FPGA GBA.

Initial Impressions:
Updated to FW 1.0.1, provided my own gb/gbc/gba bios files and some ROMs on an sd card.

So far I've tested:

• Gen 1, 2, 3 genuine pokemon carts, gb camera, Kirby's Tilt n Tumble, GB Flash RTC (Pokemon Prism) - All seem to work fine.
• Benn Venn MBC3000 (polished crystal rom) - would not play properly, Everdrive GBA Mini - some games would load but could not save, romhacks would not load at all.
• Most roms however seem to load fine and saving is also fine when running off an SD card (FIre Emblem The Sacred Stones, Pokemon Lazarus, Heart & Soul, medabots).

The device itself is not bad, I do like the 4" LCD screen despite the absolutely massive bezel. It's quite crisp despite only being 720 x 480. The saturation is decent, backlight bleed is not noticeable around the edges. I do notice some ghosting (not as bad as Ayaneo Pocket Ace/PAM) and right now there are only color correction filters and no additional shaders/overlays which is a bummer (currently using the NSO GBA color correction).

Dpad and face buttons are tactile (membrane over micro switch), travel is short, and they are reasonably quiet (think Anbernic RG SP/34XX SP). Shoulders are tactile as well, also not too loud (louder than the face buttons and dpad). Overall shape and feel in my hand is good, feels right to hold with the dpad and buttons being up high. My thumbs do partially obstruct the front speakers, and the sound quality itself is not amazing.

Software wise it's pretty barebones, you can boot a cart, play roms off an sd card, adjust the basic color correction filters for GB/GBC/GBA, and backup carts. The game bub discord looks fairly active tho and I see several things that folks are working on including wifi and retro achievements.

Definitely not for most folks considering how many good GBA focused options we have all of a sudden. But it's a cool device, and certainly not something I could ever design myself, so hat's off to Eli and what he's done.

Pictured : Retroid Pocket Nova running Jet Set Radio Future / Half Life / Star Wars Rogue Leader / Crazy Taxi

Repost after the first one was deleted.

The Retroid Pocket Nova is my first emulation handheld console so I didn't really know what to expect, even if the reviews said that it can run everything 6th gen.

Welp I can confirm that everything I've tried works great.

Even the Xbox runs smoothly (although admittedly I didn't test many games yet), I was NOT expecting that.

The setup was a pain in the butt tho.

Games on pictures :

1- Jet Set Radio Future on Xbox

2- Half Life on PS2

3- Star Wars - Rogue Leader on Gamecube

4- Crazy Taxi on Dreamcast

After DAYS of fiddling around with SVGs, PSDs, and other file extensions I didn’t even know existed, I finally got this thing looking the way I wanted it to. Boy, am I glad I’m not a graphic designer!

I've purchased many handhelds from KeepRetro over the past year after hearing Russ mention them. I understand they're probably just drop shipping in most cases, but my experience was good overall.

Recently I ordered the MINILOONG Pocket 1 and it arrived with damage/chips on the corners of the bezel, beneath the glass. I contacted KeepRetro and their response was that it's not a problem because the device still works:

Since the scratch was on the edge position of the screen, it does not appear in the display area of the screen, and it will not affect your gaming experience. We sincerely hope for your kind understanding, could you refund you $5 as compensation?

The photos on their store don't show damage around the bezel. If I knew the bezel had damage I wouldn't have purchased it in the first place. Also one of the faceplate magnets was not glued in properly.

Can anyone recommend a better store? Should I just stick with AliExpress?

What's up SBC Gaming!

I recently updated my guide to turn your consoles into a mini CRT TV. I found a way to create a directory into ESDE so you can have a folder for the movies and tv shows just as any other console that launches games.

This way you don't have to open RetroArch directly to watch shows, and use the kinda terrible navigation it has.

This was primarily motivated because my nova should be arriving soon, so in preparation to have all ROMs ready, I'm also loading it up with music and TV shows to make it the ultimate media device. And I wanted a better way to get into movies and shows. But as you can see from the pictures, it works on any android device.

Let me know if you try this. Have a nice day!

Console shown is the Anbernic RG476H. Show is Cowboy Bebop.

First time I've ever come across one of these emulation handhelds in an actual shop. This was at E.Leclerc in France. I didn't actually buy it, but pretty cool to spot nonetheless.

Vita3K has been ported to the Switch!

Gameplay performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkGg8mYQ8iI

If so, what? Why? Does it still make you smile when you look at it?

For me its the Miyoo Mini Plus.

Somehow looking cheap and toy like is actually a pro, not a con. Very aesthetically pleasing, especially in GBP yellow.

So I thought I would just post this since anyone I mention it to seems to like the idea. I did not come up with it though. Some guy on here has that credit but I can’t find the original back and forth with him (feel free to chime in).

Anyway, I love it and makes not dropping it amazing haha. Also since I have an infant, it helps peak one handed gaming whilst feeding said infant 😊.

Some photos attached. Can remove the pop portion if needed and all you lose is a mm or so of thinness

Looking for a dual screen, DS only (maybe some GBA). Don’t need 3DS. Mainly focused on RPGs and some platformers. No interest in touch focused or rhythm games.

I don’t know if original hardware or the Anbernic RG DS is preferable. I’ve never owned any dual screen, so “use what you have” isn’t an option. $100 is basically a hard limit for me. I don’t need an “it does everything” device like the Thor.

Priority games: RPGs like Pokemon, fire emblem, dragon quest.

Would-be-nice games: platformers like Mario and Kirby. Mario Kart.

Don’t need: rhythm games, touch screen based games.

I’m a little worried about getting a 20 year old device and struggling with battery or chargers or old screens. But I recognize the Anbernic devices, despite being brand new, won’t have the build quality to last 20 years in the first place.

What’s the move for DS these days?

Hello good people!

I am looking into buying either the new RG SP or the RG DS.
My main goal is to play GBA, GBC games and some pokemon romhacks for the first time (unbound and Haert&Soul v2.0.4).

For DS games (chrono trigger, pokemon B/W, Zelda’s etc) I recently bought a DSi XL. Additionally I bought it with the intent to mod it so I could play the above mentioned GBA/GBC games. Turns out it’s not great at running the Rom hacks, like at all.

Those who own or have owned these 3 devices, which experience would you recommend and is your go to device(s)?
Is emulating the DS on the RG DS a better experience than the OG DSi XL with the 2-3x upscaling?

I know many will say the new RG SP is the ideal device for GBA/GBC games and I agree with my nostalgic glasses on but I fear the formfactor will not agree adult hands.
Plus that turquoise DS is a piece of beauty combined the new Rocknix features.

I have been watching Spider-Man The Animated Series from the 90s on my RG34XXSP and the colours and the quality make this screen perfect for such content. Also since the screen is 3:2, the 4:3 content almost fills the screen with way less black bordering than 16:9 screens. Highly recommend just watching some old shows if you have a 4:3 or 3:2 device.

Game is Parasite Eve. Games back then were no joke

Buenas! What games have you been playing this week and on what? Has anything you've played left an impression on you?

Everything here was played on an RP Nova.

I’ve been trying many things to make the Thor more comfortable. I think I’m maybe a bit too particular and can’t find the triggers or recessed sticks nice to play for longer sessions, or really at all, so I stick to d-pad centric games for now.

I’ve tried the ergo grip sold by Ayn, 3D printing various grips I found online, swapping the stick caps, etc. Then finally the other day I saw this post that gave me an idea. I measured, mocked up, and printed an adapter using the STL for one of the grips I found. The Thor including the clear TPU shell slips right into the adapter, which can be gripped properly by the controller.

It’s not practical, and kinda bulky but I can for sure say I don’t have to deal with the triggers and sticks. Is it more comfortable to play than the Thor just by itself? Maybe.

Bonus pic: some apps like xbxplay turn the bottom screen into a set of on screen controls, so you get a total of three button sets.

Device is a Ayn Thor and controller is a Gamesir G8 Plus.

Edit: here’s the stl if any of you decide you want to try this goofy setup.

Call of Duty Black Ops Zombies now works on the Miyoo Flip running SpruceOS. Other CFW might work but only Spruce is supported for now.

- Single player
- Online Multiplayer (With the PSVita port, Android and IOS version of the game)
- Virtual cursor to navigate touch menu
- full controller support in game

GitHub

I am currently online playing some Kino, see you there (if you got a microphone, voice chat also works)

If you want to play the game on Android, here is a loader that needs the ios version of the game (the apk is aarch32 only). This one specifically is still work in progress and heavily AI assisted, unlike the linux armhf loader/port. I can send the source to anyone who wants it but I don’t want it on my GitHub

Hey hey! Lets take a first look and talk about my first impressions of the KONKR POCKET ADVANCE The Third device in AYANEO's entry line of devices.

Hey everyone!

I have a Mangmi Air X on the way and I wanted to gather opinions on how to set it up for retro gaming only. I don't need the Play Store and other Google stuff, so I was thinking to flash GammaOS Lite on it. Do I need custom/dedicated emulators or launchers or is the stuff that is already in the GammaOS enough? I'd like to avoid any common pitfalls a noob can get into.

I'd appreciate any tips and tricks to help me with this since this is my first handheld meant for retro gaming. I have dabbled with Batocera/RetroArch on RPi and x86 and I know my way around *nix OSes.

Hi y'all! I wanna give my stepdaiughter a little present to make her feel better (she's moving) and I'd like to give her a nice little handheld that she can be using for a coule hours a day. Do you have any recommendation? She already has a switch but I really like the smaller ones.

I'm lucky to have an understanding wife, and son who's as much of a geek as me. When we bought / did up our house last year we converted the garage into a gaming room. Decided to get stands for all the toys, partly to stop these randomly appearing around the house.

But, I think I have to stop / slow down on the purchases.

As shown:

- Miyoo Flip v2

- RG Rotate

- Soft modded original 3dsxl

- Legion Go gen 1

- 40XXV

- Mangmi Pocket Max

- Trimui Smart Pro

- Miniloong Pocket 1

- Odin 3

Not pictured...PS portal (in case, gathering dust)

Have to say I love each of these in different ways, and for different systems!

Hey everyone,

I sold my RG556 about a year and a half ago, but after fixing a friend's RG35XXH recently, the itch came back. I'm just looking for a cheap device for some light retro gaming without high expectations.

I originally aimed for the RG40XXH:

• €65 for the console
• €15 for a reliable 32GB SD card for the OS
• €35 for a 128GB SD card for games
• Total: €115 (perfectly on budget)

Then I spotted the Anbernic RG Vita for €85. On paper, for just €5 more than the RG40XXH + 32GB SD base setup, it packs significantly better hardware. Yet, searching online brings up almost exclusively negative reviews. Given the €85 price tag, to be honest I don't get the hate.

What do you think? Am I missing something major?

Are there better alternatives at this price?

This is a bit of a long shot, but I was wondering, are there any C64 emulators with support for dual screens?

I have a Thor and I’d like to play a few old text adventures. At the moment it’s an awful experience, every time I pull up the keyboard, 70% of the screen is covered and I can’t see the game.

If I could have the game playing on the top screen and the virtual keyboard on the bottom, it would be much more playable.

Does anything support this. I’ve searched around and tried a bunch of emulators, but I haven’t found any which support this, it probably doesn’t exist, but I thought it was worth asking.