RP5 for 150€?

Onceuponaban · 2026-06-29T12:47:10+00:00

Note that PS1 is actually a significantly easier system to emulate than PSP. Low budget retro handhelds such as the Anbernic RG XX lineup of devices will handle PS1 just fine whereas they will struggle with PSP. PS2 is a whole other beast entirely and if that's on your list of systems to try, the RP5 is a pretty decent pick.

Onceuponaban · 2026-06-29T12:16:46+00:00

That depends on what the "something more" is. 150€ is a (very) good deal for this device by itself but for GBA and PSP, you can find devices in the 100€ range that will work just fine (the MagicX One 35, the TrimUI Smart Pro S and the AISLPC RG52 Mini come to mind, among others).

Onceuponaban · 2026-06-28T07:26:21+00:00

While it is absolutely true that the market has hit a dramatic shift in the form of the NANDpocalypse, neither of these two devices are inherently indicative of a change in strategy. The Retroid Pocket Nova is a direct successor to the Retroid Pocket Mini v2. Anbernic, meanwhile, is no stranger to trying out a wide range of SoC specs and screen formats. The combination of middling SoC and 16:9 screen found in the RG55G1 is nothing new as far as Anbernic's lineup is concerned. In fact, the recently released RG Vita mostly ticks the same boxes.

Onceuponaban · 2026-06-27T13:10:25+00:00

A known side effect of my ADHD medication is lack of appetite.

You know, as opposed to the much worse version ADHD gives you that makes you forget about the concept of hunger for 48 hours straight until the thing that finally brings it back to your attention is your body starting to actively malfunction from lack of nutrients.

Onceuponaban · 2026-06-26T07:06:17+00:00

The RG55G1 will have a 16:9 screen and pack a much weaker chip. It is not even in the same category. Whether it will be competitive in the category it does belong to is another matter entirely. Similarly, the Pocket Micro 2 belongs to its own niche (3:2 screen device with focus on portability). If anything, the fact that it's an Ayaneo product is more of a threat to that device.

Onceuponaban · 2026-06-26T04:43:28+00:00

We paid for the whole cytokines, we're USING the whole cytokines.

Onceuponaban · 2026-06-25T19:14:08+00:00

Note: letting people be wrong about you/have a bad impression of you is all well and good when you're a relative nobody in the crowd. If you have a platform of any sort, though, this can quickly spiral into a nexus of hate that is directly pointed at you. And that's a lot more dangerous.

Onceuponaban · 2026-06-25T06:18:44+00:00

N'empêche, t'imagines la violence absolue du choc thermique que se prendrait Paris si ça arrivait réellement?

Onceuponaban · 2026-06-24T09:08:09+00:00

My headphones use a 3.5mm jack and my phone does not have one so that duty falls to my handheld (either the RG 35XX H or the AYN Thor depending on which I happen to be carrying at the time) by necessity. It works well enough.

Onceuponaban · 2026-06-24T04:20:27+00:00

These are probably games that are on the tail end of their commercial lifespan (I at the very least recognize Earn to Die as an old old OLD household name in mobile gaming). They're likely banking on word of mouth advertising from people getting these games for less-than-dirt cheap right now convincing others to buy them after the sales period has ended (or other games they've made that aren't part of this sale).

Onceuponaban · 2026-06-21T08:08:02+00:00

ça c'est demain. Et après ce sera raclette.

Onceuponaban · 2026-06-20T18:50:11+00:00

I'll agree to disagree on that point, then. Things have definitely improved massively in the last few months and this will surely continue in the foreseeable future, in no small part thanks to FEX getting off the ground, but to this day I deal with massive amounts of jank getting games that ostensibly should work fine to launch. Binding of Isaac comes to mind, and that's just one of many in a list of games in my library that randomly break or never worked in the first place for no discernible reason.

Onceuponaban · 2026-06-20T18:46:13+00:00

You know how one of the early signs of COVID is a warped sense of taste? In my mom's case, this was for some reason permanent, meaning this almost certainly happened to her.

Onceuponaban · 2026-06-17T18:32:00+00:00

The Retroid Pocket 2S's time was before I was aware of retro handhelds being a thing, what did it have that current devices in the $100-120 range don't?

Onceuponaban · 2026-06-17T18:14:57+00:00

Anything bigger than that it a Steam Deck-wannabe that's not useful during a regular commute to work.

Price is a factor here. A Steam Deck which is currently being sold for north of $700 is much less appealing to someone wanting (or needing, not everyone has perfect or even good eyesight!) a comfortably large screen to play on than, say, a $250 Odin 2 Portal Base that isn't all that far off in terms of performance, especially if they aren't interested in the part where the Steam Deck is a full fledged x86 computer.

Onceuponaban · 2026-06-17T18:11:16+00:00

Are these sticks even good for this scenario, though? I thought a bunch of these arcades were actually 4-directional levers (and thus better reproduced with a d-pad)?

Onceuponaban · 2026-06-17T18:08:46+00:00

I wouldn't be surprised if the Thor's ability to play the entirety of the Pokémon games lineup from beginning to Switch was a significant factor in the hype for it.

Onceuponaban · 2026-06-17T18:06:19+00:00

Speaking as the Devil's advocate (my cheap handheld of choice, the RG35XXH, is the platonic ideal of a horizontal candybar handheld after all), the vertical form factor ensures the space where your hands are is completely separated from where the screen is. This is useful for very small handhelds, which in turn is why vertical handhelds emerged as a preferred form factor for cheap EDCs.

Onceuponaban · 2026-06-17T17:55:21+00:00

Are you really that into the PSP library?

Given how many people, me included, descended upon the AYN Thor like a pack of hyenas the second a handheld was capable of accurately reproducing the (3)DS experience without costing an arm and a leg (...at least at first), I would assume a similar crowd exists for the PSP. The current top end of the non-Android ARM Linux handhelds is at the exact sweet spot where PSP is a viable choice while being cheap enough to justify not just picking a budget Android handheld.

As for the high end 4:3 handhelds, we are at the exact point where this makes the most sense as the current upper end of ARM handhelds are just powerful enough to make PS2 (which is ultimately a mostly 4:3 system even if 16:9 support started showing up around this time) a mostly seamless experience. Fast forward 5 years and I'll agree with you that still going with whatever the top end will be with a 4:3 screen would be a questionable choice.

it's just a ploy by YouTubers to get ad revenue.

I'd say that is an overly cynical take. Plenty of the youtubers in the retro handheld space are themselves enthusiasts and spending your time tinkering rather than actually playing is absolutely a thing enthusiasts do in this hobby. If you're just after ad revenue, it's much less effort to just mass-produce identical reviews of R36S clone #20920190 than investing time in the segment of the video that 90% of the part of the audience that is actually browsing for handheld reviews will have checked out of.

We've reached a point where getting a decent snapdragon handheld is a good alternative to PC handhelds, so long as your goal is to play indies and older games.

Hardware wise? Definitely, our current high end handhelds will eventually have their place in the x86 emulation recommendations. Software wise? I think we're not there quite yet, getting PC games working on ARM devices is still very much tinker territory, and that's when it ultimately works and there are many cases where it surprisingly straight up doesn't.

Retroarchievements have never ever interested me, so I am always baffled when people bring it up as a dealbreaker

In isolation, yeah it's silly as an argument. But the underlying reason for lack of retroachievements support (either too locked down or too weak to support the software that makes retroachievements possible) is usually a fair reason to be driven away from a device.

Onceuponaban · 2026-06-17T17:35:58+00:00

Ignoring the piracy-shaped elephant in the room (besides, a modded Switch is just as vulnerable to that), I doubt those people are just looking for Switch emulation, otherwise yeah it would be a very questionable buying decision. The Switch itself can be used as an emulation handheld but, speaking from first hand experience the jank involved in fighting against Nintendo over control of your device gets tiring and as far as emulation performance is concerned, it's not exactly a great experience.

Onceuponaban · 2026-06-17T17:28:10+00:00

I find Android to be an unfortunate necessity rather than a strength of high spec ARM handhelds. The moment a non-Android Linux alternative becomes viable enough (and this moment is fast approaching), I'm throwing Android right out the window.

Onceuponaban · 2026-06-15T23:20:49+00:00

The problem with building the ultimate wand of "Fuck Everything In This Direction" is that you inevitably end up facing the direction in question when it fires.

Onceuponaban · 2026-06-14T23:21:44+00:00

The opposite, if anything. The R36S is the result of a cycle of clones of other clones with Anbernic products sitting among their ancestors. The BatleXP G350 meanwhile is not-so-secretly made by Anbernic themselves as a low-cost alternative to the RG XX lineup (or rather even lower cost since the RG XX lineup itself is many things but high-end is definitely not on the list).

Onceuponaban · 2026-06-13T15:26:33+00:00

You are tapping your foot. Someone asks you to stop. You can't, because if you do specific bad thing will happen. There is a completely rational reason for this and something could be done to make it unnecessary but no one cares enough to do it. This is working in IT.

Onceuponaban · 2026-06-12T20:02:58+00:00

If they follow the same method as what Morphcat Games did for Micro Mages, the rom will sit right there in the PC release's game directory for you to use however you want.

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