Do you have one of these? Do you use it? I want one but I’m afraid it’s going to end up another plastic brick in a drawer.
I have the RG351MP, it’s pretty nice. Solid aluminum too, so it doesn’t feel cheap, but not really ergonomic for long hours of play. That’s fine though, because this is the kind of device you carry around in your pocket for a short session during your commute, breaks etc. There’s quite a few choices of opensource firmware that you can load onto here, and most of them have this cool app called “portmaster”, which consists of native games ported over from other platforms - such as Prince of Persia (DOS), 3D Space Cadet Pinball (XP) etc, and they run really well.
My main issue with the 351MP is that although it claims to be able to emulate the Dreamcast and N64, it actually struggles with most games from those two consoles. Most notably, I wanted to play Rogue Squadron II (Dreamcast) on it and it was unplayable, the specs were too weak for it unfortunately. Which broke my heart, and I quickly lost interest in the device. I wanted a device that could comfortably emulate all consoles upto the Dreamcast, and the 351MP can only realistically handle upto the PS1.
I started looking for alternatives, and found similar drawbacks with most of these devices, none of them were capable enough to comfortably emulate the Dreamcast - unless I bought a pricey high-end device like the Aya Neo or the Steam Deck or something.
And then I realized, I could just get myself a cheap Android device from eBay (like with a bad ESN or some other non-impairing fault), pair it with a telescopic controller, and it’d be way cheaper + have better specs. So I did just that, got myself a cheap OnePlus 9 with a bad ESN for only $150 (SD 888, 8GB RAM), paired it with a Gamesir X2, loaded Dolphin emulator on it - and I was finally able to play Rogue Squadron II in all its glory - even managed to get an HD texture pack for it and it was glorious.
Eventually, I got myself a Galaxy Fold 4 as my main phone, so I didn’t need the OP9 any more - my Fold 4 had better specs, plus the large 4:3-ish screen made it perfect for playing those old games.
As for my old RG351MP, it’s still lying around, but I think I might sell it. The only advantage it has against my current setup is portability, but since I carry my Fold 4 everywhere, it’s not really that big of an issue. Sure, I can’t carry my controller everywhere either, but I’m not that desperate to want to be able to game everywhere and all the time (with physical controls).
TL;DR: Before buying a handheld, consider whether you really need that portability + physical controls, if you don’t need it everywhere, then your phone (+ controller) could do a better job than most of these.
There are so many! The PlayDate and some of the clamshell ones look really neat!
I am on the cusp of getting my playdate and I am very excited for it! Watching the devs in the community discord work is both inspiring and gets me excited for the creative games that are out for it and that are coming up.
Group 4 went so quickly, and 5 has started strong!
Indeed, and you’re 1000 orders before me 😅
LOL yeah, but at the current rate that’s only a day or two difference!
My 2DS is my retro handheld.
Steam deck is high on my shopping list. I would have bought it already if my phone and laptop both didn’t need to be replaced first.
Phones like 4-5 years old and laptop has problems with the keyboard and webcam.
It’s an amazing system. Valve is now selling refurbished models for a 20% discount. Presumably they’ll continue selling them in the future when maybe you’ve got room for it.
Yeah! I’m really looking forward to it.
What I expected when I read “Retro Handheld”.
I got the powkiddy X55. I only use it for ports. I really feel like the true power of these devices is in ports and native linux ARM games.
What good native Linux ARM games are there?
Ok we can categorise them:
- floss engines like raptor, am2r, quake, rvgl, sonic mania, devilution etc.
- mono / fna games like Stardew, Celeste, tmnt, etc
- freeware games like tyrian etc. There’s a game jam version of dome keeper as well.
Just look at portmaster for some inspiration.
Thanks, it looks like a pretty diverse range!
I just learned about the whole idea of retro handhelds the other day and I had no idea there were so many options! These look like they would be really fun, but I would have no idea how to load games onto them (because it looks like they don’t use cartridges for the most part?). That’s beyond my tech knowledge, ha ha!
I bought a miyoo mini plus a few weeks ago. It’s been good, I used to play snes/gba games on my phone when I used android, but now that I’ve moved to iPhone that’s much less possible (I know it’s possible - no need to tell me).
The miyoo hardware is good, buttons are clicky, screen is excellent, cpu could be faster but it can run the one psx game I had lying around (THPS1), so I’m fairly impressed.
The software was fine but installing OnionOS added some extra features which was nice - full english menus, OTA updates, the gameswitcher, etc.
Even though it’s another screen to stare at, I think it’s better than looking at my phone. I’ve uninstalled a bunch of games from the phone as well, after realising how frustrating and predatory modern mobile games are. I’m happy to not internet games on my phone and work my way through the massive library of games from the golden age of gaming. Not interested in grinding for drops or lootboxes in genshin, arknights or the other big mobage.
