Retro Handhelds |OT| Is that a Tiger in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

CrimsonTide

CrimsonTide

Banned
Bought one off Amazon for no reason. Pre-installed it has thousands of games. Its setup is pretty great.

UI looks great. Has all the buttons you'd want. Dual analog. WiFi. Back button triggers. Plays Dreamcast beautifully.

$50? I mean. That's impressive. No setup. No mess. Just power on and play.

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existensmaximum said:
Cool! The placement of the analog thumbsticks seems kind of low for that form factor? Is it comfortable playing?
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Feels fine. No. It's not going to feel like steam deck or switch lol. But it's fine. Sticks themselves feel shockingly good. Look it's a cheap device. Expected just 8-16bit stuff. But it's quite capable. The analog sticks also click in for extra functionality
 
Also the plus is no setup here. Just power on and you're gaming. On a dozen different retro consoles and games for them

NICE looking interface too. As you can see
 
 
I got a miyoo mini and a miyoo flip. They both are great. I have discovered that I don't like playing much beyond Super Nintendo with them as the steam deck is a lot more comfortable for joystick and shoulder button heavy games.
 
Come On Tars said:
I got a miyoo mini and a miyoo flip. They both are great. I have discovered that I don't like playing much beyond Super Nintendo with them as the steam deck is a lot more comfortable for joystick and shoulder button heavy games.
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Yeah. This isn't a device I'd genuinely care to play beyond 16 bit. I CAN on this $50 machine

But it's perfect for 8-16bit and also MAME. Tons of amazing arcade games here.

It CAN easily perform up to and before Dreamcast and even also handhelds like DS and PSP.
 
Using a 15 Euros R36S for GB, GBC, GBA, GG, PSP and NDS. Not a fan of home console emulation on small handhelds, Got a SFF with Batocera for the rest.
Best bang for the buck if you want to play everything on handheld is the Trimui Smart Pro for ~40 Euros in my opinion.
 
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My biggest question is why Sony and Nintendo let those Chinese manufacturers make money instead of releasing official retro consoles with hundreds of pre-installed games.
 
I have a Miyo Mini plus with onion OS and the tiny best set.

Best purchase ever. Game development can seize for all I care.

I am looking to purchase a retroid 5 to reach ps2 gaming but I wait to see if 6 will be better. It is not announced but it could be close. Anyone knows?
 
Parazels said:
My biggest question is why Sony and Nintendo let those Chinese manufacturers make money instead of releasing official retro consoles with hundreds of pre-installed games.
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Probably because Sony and Nintendo actually have to pay for the licenses, unlike the chinese manufacturers.
 
Yeah, there seems to be a raft of these on Amazon atm, priced anywhere from £39 upwards. Most are advertising 20,000+ games, which is mad really. Tempted.
 
Recently ordered the Ambernic RG 476H.
Wanted a handheld with a large 4:3 screen, and this looks like it will do the job perfectly. Was looking at the high powered metal version, but I won't be playing PS2, so I saved a few quid by getting the plastic one. Should hopefully be here by the end of the week.
Had a few of their other cheaper machines and they were great, but 3" screens were a little too small for me. This is 4.7".

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Markio128 said:
Yeah, there seems to be a raft of these on Amazon atm, priced anywhere from £39 upwards. Most are advertising 20,000+ games, which is mad really. Tempted.
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I'm having a BALL. The "no hassle" part is nice. As someone who's hacked a PSP decades ago and knows all about it

It's cool just to throw $50 out and get it all and nothing needed on my end. Just every game you can want retro wise.

Yeah I've got a Steam Deck. But so what? It's fun on these little machines to play some old school games
 
Ellis said:
Recently ordered the Ambernic RG 476H.
Wanted a handheld with a large 4:3 screen, and this looks like it will do the job perfectly. Was looking at the high powered metal version, but I won't be playing PS2, so I saved a few quid by getting the plastic one. Should hopefully be here by the end of the week.
Had a few of their other cheaper machines and they were great, but 3" screens were a little too small for me. This is 4.7".

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Ambernic is the "best" in the China retro machines. No question

How much was this puppy?
 
CrimsonTide said:
Expensive ish. But nice I'm sure. I've followed Ambernic for many years. They make high quality products
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It is a little more than I normally pay for them, but I do find good bang for your buck with their products. I've had the smaller £30-40 devices and they were awesome. The fact these cheap China handhelds offer such good buttons/dpad and then you have expensive devices like the Ally which has probably the worst buttons/dpad I've ever used, is nuts.

My Miyoo Mini + was probably my favourite, just a little too underpowered for the Swanstation core.
 
Ellis said:
It is a little more than I normally pay for them, but I do find good bang for your buck with their products. I've had the smaller £30-40 devices and they were awesome. The fact these cheap China handhelds offer such good buttons/dpad and then you have expensive devices like the Ally which has probably the worst buttons/dpad I've ever used, is nuts.

My Miyoo Mini + was probably my favourite, just a little too underpowered for the Swanstation core.
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Yeah. It's wild. My knock off device has a FANTASTIC dpad and buttons

Also it's powerful enough to run Dreamcast and below.

Personally I'm not tryna run PS2+. I can with my Steam Deck if wanted. But just wanted some FUN small device for some retro action pre loaded already for cheap.

We've came a long long way
 
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CrimsonTide said:
Yeah. It's wild. My knock off device has a FANTASTIC dpad and buttons

Also it's powerful enough to run Dreamcast and below.

Personally I'm not tryna run PS2+. I can with my Steam Deck oof wanted. But just wanted some FUN small device for some retro action pre loaded already for cheap.

We've came a long long way
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Definitely come along away.
I have a SD myself, but it rarely gets any use. 4:3 games on an actual 4:3 screen is also a major plus.

I'm donating my SD. Sure, I can sell it, but it feels nice to do a good deed once in a while.
 
Ellis said:
Definitely come along away.
I have a SD myself, but it rarely gets any use. 4:3 games on an actual 4:3 screen is also a major plus.

I'm donating my SD. Sure, I can sell it, but it feels nice to do a good deed once in a while.
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Love my deck. Use it for modern gaming.

Wanted to test the waters on the cheap handhelds for retro.

Wanted to get the cheapest that supports dual analog. WiFi. Bluetooth.

For $50. Couldn't be happier. No setup. Just turn on and play games. And that's all I asked for
 
Funny coincidence. I ordered a Miyoo Mini + last week and it's set to arrive soon. I was looking into Evercade at first, but I don't have the space for all those cartridges and I'd always be missing out on certain childhood favorite games. These retro handheld seem like a better fit.

It was difficult to decide which one to get since there's so many, and new ones are released regularly. Figured I'd rather have something small and portable without sticks if I'm gonna be playing up to PS1. I wish there were more devices with OLED screens though.
 
InterMusketeer said:
Funny coincidence. I ordered a Miyoo Mini + last week and it's set to arrive soon. I was looking into Evercade at first, but I don't have the space for all those cartridges and I'd always be missing out on certain childhood favorite games. These retro handheld seem like a better fit.

It was difficult to decide which one to get since there's so many, and new ones are released regularly. Figured I'd rather have something small and portable without sticks if I'm gonna be playing up to PS1. I wish there were more devices with OLED screens though.
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Evercade looks amazing. BUT… it's limited. Cartridge only. (Far as I know)

Miyoo looks gorgeous
 
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Got myself a few of them, Mainly use a Retroid Pocket 5 for retro emulation these days, know its a wee bit more expensive than these ones, but it really is an endgame device imo. Well, until my AYN Thor gets dispatched, but that's a story for another time.

I do currently have a Miyo mini plus, and an Ambernic RG34XXSP.

Honestly, you get what you pay for. The Ambernic feels really cheap, as does the miyoo mini. The screens on them don't lend themselves to the consoles they are trying to emulate either, so it depends how purist you are. If you want perfect integer scaling with a dot matrix shader, you ain't getting it with one of these cheap devices.

I believe these R36S don't have wifi either, so no retroachievements without using a huge wifi usb c dongle.
 
Have an Anbernic RG40XXV. Installed Knulli OS on it. Only cost me £60. Very nice device, can play up to N64, might struggle with the really tough stuff like Goldeneye or Banjo Kazooie only tested SM64 on it which runs fine. Setup with shaders too the games look great, even running PS1 at only native resolution it looks great on the 4" screen with a basic crt overlay.

For how cheap they are it's a bargain for running old games, it's a much better experience than playing them on your phone, or using a massive heavy steam deck just to play a GBA game.
 
Mownoc said:
Have an Anbernic RG40XXV. Installed Knulli OS on it. Only cost me £60. Very nice device, can play up to N64, might struggle with the really tough stuff like Goldeneye or Banjo Kazooie only tested SM64 on it which runs fine. Setup with shaders too the games look great, even running PS1 at only native resolution it looks great on the 4" screen with a basic crt overlay.

For how cheap they are it's a bargain for running old games, it's a much better experience than playing them on your phone, or using a massive heavy steam deck just to play a GBA game.
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Kinda my main reason for even buying. Just wanna boot up a silly NES or Genesis game without effort. It's really that simple.
 
Mownoc said:
Have an Anbernic RG40XXV. Installed Knulli OS on it. Only cost me £60. Very nice device, can play up to N64, might struggle with the really tough stuff like Goldeneye or Banjo Kazooie only tested SM64 on it which runs fine. Setup with shaders too the games look great, even running PS1 at only native resolution it looks great on the 4" screen with a basic crt overlay.

For how cheap they are it's a bargain for running old games, it's a much better experience than playing them on your phone, or using a massive heavy steam deck just to play a GBA game.
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Just bought one thanks to this thread.
 
Got an R36S first, then Anbernic RG35XX Pro (running Knulli), almost the same but with Wifi and HDMI Out. Nice to have it hooked up to a TV with a Bluetooth Controller.
AliExpress has some nice deals on these, just be careful which store to buy from, for R36S the Boyhom Store is best, otherwise you could get an even cheaper clone with less RAM.
 
$50 for a huge collection of ROMs and it comes with a handheld? Kinda interesting, but I already have a Steam Deck for emulation. Sounds like a really solid deal, though!
 
Paasei said:
$50 for a huge collection of ROMs and it comes with a handheld? Kinda interesting, but I already have a Steam Deck for emulation. Sounds like a really solid deal, though!
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Steam Deck lover here too.

Just wanted to see what these cheap Chinese handhelds bout

I'm impressed. For the money that is.
 
The Amazon link doesn't work (for me), but it looks like an R36S. I recently bought one of those too; it's a great little thing, but Dreamcast doesn't run that well on it^^
Anyway, if it's an R36S, you should clone the memory card; those cheap ones don't last long. I don't know about other devices, but I can imagine they come with similarly cheap SD cards.
 
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Miyoo Mini Plus with OnionOS is an amazing handheld. The ability to hotswap between game states is so good, almost like a handheld equivalent to Xbox's quick resume. It's also cheap enough that I can just throw it in my bag without worrying about it, which can't really be said for more premium options like the Analogue Pocket.
 
These little vertical devices can make your hands cramp after a few hours. I will buy a horizontal one with analog sticks if anything happens to my miyoo mini plus, which has thousands of games I legally dumped from my physical game collection.
 
Yes. I got two. And I have no time to use them.
Linux-based ones are great for plug and play. With Android it's a pain in the ass to configure Retroarch and just simply get DC or GC to boot a game. Standalone emulators are much simpler to use there.

The problem is, there's no jack of all trades there if you don't have a specific use for one such device. If you want to play everything something like the Retroid Pocket 5 can play, you'll always have to compromise (size, controls, screen ratio, etc). If you're only interested in something that can play up to PS1 well, on the other hand, there's way too much choice.
 
I went super deep into these cheap handhelds like 2 years ago with like 5 ANBERNIC ones because they were so cheap. I got about just every form factor before I started asking myself why I needed so many different versions of the same thing and went fully in getting a AYN Odin 2 Pro that plays everything and I haven't went back. Thing is a bit more expensive but I now have a switch like powerful emulation device that younger me would have flipped out over 25 years ago.

I gave all my other ones away to friends except my gbaSP lookalike and the 4 inch screen gameboy lookalike. Those I keep at work in case I want some quick gaming fix.

These handhelds are pretty awesome but heed my advice and dont go overboard with this just for nostalgia sake. 😂
 
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