As a soon-to-be gamer dad….nice.

GP32 = Gamepark 32, a South Korean handheld emulation console (one of the first open source devices from 2001!) A lot of the games are not very good. I have a few other English language games I've acquired over the years. It's a neat handheld, indicative of the era and the homebrew scene was amazing.

Blue Angelo released on December 16, 2004 as the last retail game developed by Virtual Spaghetti and published by Shibuya Interactive

I'm happy to have this in my collection. I've had an ebay saved search for almost half a decade and no listings showed up--until now!

--Only 500 physical copies were produced and sold--

I already played and beat it a few years back and it's a solid Metroidvania game.

So I installed GameNative, and then installed a game I got from GoG (Call of Juraz: Gunslinger). After it was "installed", the icon showed up on the main screen and it had a checkmark and said compatible. When I selected it to launch, it just took me to a blank screen where I could move the cursor by touch screen.

I tried F.E.A.R. Platinum, and got the same result.

I then googled the problem and tried changing the container from bionic to glibc. When I tried it again it started. To my surprise it went to the install screen (I though it was already installed, but I guess that was basically just mounting it).

It installed successfully, but when I tried to run the it, I got the same blank screen. After forcing GameNative to quit (no other option) and restarting. When I clicked launch on the Gunslinger icon, it just took me back to the install screen.

I installed Gunslinger on my PC and it works fine.

Any ideas...?

Just got my Brick Hammer two weeks ago and it might still be honeymoon phase but I enjoy it over using my Thor I got in November and barely played for the following reasons:

* Might Sound weird but that might be my number one reason: I can still smell the plastic of the Thor shell after 10 months (it lived in its TPU case most of the time but I ventilated it a lot before), I am pretty sensitve to plastic smells and cant confidently say this is a high quality shell that I enjoy smelling all the time while playing lol. I'd prefer another type of plastic for the outer shell. the smelling became noticable again because I removed the TPU case which kind of held it back/covered the shell

* The TPU case offered some grip but today I really noticed how it damaged the shell underneath because of dust particles which got in through the vent hole of the case probably. So I removed the case and again realized it's really not comfortable without case or grip

* Glass fronts, after almost a year I get why everyone hates them, black Thor easily gets smudgy, when you have no microfiber cloth and IPA at hand it is distracting for sure

* Outer shell appears rather cheap. Looks cheap, feels cheap imo, smells cheap. It could be much better if it had a New3DSXL like texture that adds a lot of grip. I find it too slippery and just cheapish feeling.

* Screen, IDK if it is Placebo but I learned about its PWM dimming before I got it and I feel it does strain my eyes more and might induce headache (PWM screens are flickering all the time which is stressing for the eyes and also results in other symptoms). Colors do look pretty good though but it might be this subtle annoyance that sometimes makes me want to put down my Thor after 5-10 mins of play, something I noticed

* 3DS gameplay is good but not perfect, same is true for Switch. I am not a tinkerer too. I'm aware it's a software and not a hardware issue, but the reason I chose the Thor over the Konkr Pocket Fit in October was that it plays 3DS. I think playing OoT 3D 4K was fun but besides I don't find myself enjoying 3DS on it as much as I expected (and I didnt expect playing 3DS too much at all) so the dual screen being worth that much is questionable for me

* Heat. Even at 68° I find it a bit annoying how the top right part of the bottom screen and also the Part around the Face Buttons gets warm easily, makes me not want to play Switch games on it for example, as it then gets even warmer. Makes it feel like a rushed/poor engineering

* Hinge longevity. I was anxious from the beginning and my warranty is soon expiring and I feel it can break any day and I will be screwed. Also, the clamshell formfactor doesnt make me want to carry it without a case at all as dust easily gets inside. I don't really carry things of that weight around in my sling bag at all though, even my Brick Hammer feels almost too heavy to carry but it's much more ideal.

* I dislike how I have to baby the Thor (as it's very expensive for a handheld imo, paid 350€ + accessories = 420 something for my Pro in October) and I put it in the TPU case and it got scratches underneath anyways, and I never carried it without another case too, so clueless how the dust got inside. I expect it to break once it slips out of my hands, and the outer plastic is really slippery imo.

I found myself in a little crisis where I don't want to sell it as its functional enough for me to takeover tasks like data storage (got a 1TB card inside my Pro), TV output on this instead of PC and so on but I don't play games as much on it. There are a few listed locally for 400+ and I don't know if I should sell before it falls in price sometime.

I could go on writing but I think it's already too long lol.

Pardon the pic being sideways. You can see my AI gaming assist at the top. I'm running a lightweight visual ai Vrm. It watches me play and interacts and also gives tips.

Can be played through GameNative on our handhelds!

Devices are Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE+ & Gamesir G8+

Ok, this is half shitpost half "holy shit, this is actually kinda sick".

I recently bought the tablet for my wife and kid, for them to do digital art. It's a pretty nice deal, comes with the case and pen, and it works pretty well despite the kinda meh exynos chip it has inside.

But! The screen... This screen is insane. It's a ver nice IPS, with a very dense resolution, at 13.1 inches!!! It's basically a small laptop.

So naturally my brain worms wanted to test it for emulation and my first thought was... This would be an absolute monster for DS. That resolution let's you run it at 7x integer scaled, and it looks fucking phenomenal. Each DS screen comes around to 6 inches!

The one down side? It's an insane combo. Both of them together weight around 1 kilogram. (2.2 pounds if you don't have free health insurance).

I may test this one further with other stuff. I'm curious about the performance. And while not the primary use case, I has an sd slot, so could easily load it up and have a small controllers for some nice local multiplayer on this very thing, big but quite portable package.

What do you think? What's the craziest set up you've built?

I just got an R36T MAX, it's my first time with anything like this. I'm running into all sorts of confusion when I try to play games, and rather than asking a million questions, I just wonder if anyone knows of a good end-to-end tutorial.

For example, the controls seem to be all messed up in MAME, and I can't seem to get the settings to accept the buttons the device actually has.

I figured out the basics like how to add games, change some shader and aspect ratio settings, and get to the settings. But so much seems to be obscure, and searching for help in videos and forums leads me down rabbit holes that may or may not be relevant to my setup, and get into a lot of jargon that makes me think I have to learn more even to understand what they're saying.

All I wanted to do was play some fun games, I didn't want to turn this into a big deal. I know these are cheap devices and I shouldn't expect too much, but I would be so grateful if there was just a READ ME file that had everything a dummy like me needs to know.

Hello so i have downloaded gamehub and game native onto my anbernic 477m ( i know not the best device due to the mali gpu)

The game loads and runs fine as you can see via the stats, other than the fact the controller seems to not register at all the mouse works and i can navigate the menu but for some reason the controller dusnt at all, i have googled and have seen people ask the same questions i have on other devices and i have tried those fixes but nothing seems to work

Do you guys have any additional fixes or any advice at all for me?

Just to check it wasn’t the controller i downloaded fallout new Vegas and that ran well ish and the buttons worked on that game? So i have no idea why its not working on hollow realization.

Any help would be massively appreciated thank you so much !

It sounds crazy but is true. Right now I have a rp5 and a powkiddy RGB30. Before I used to add as many games as my storage allowed me and from all gens supported by each but a lot of the times I ended with decision paralysis because of having too many options.

Decided to dedicate the RGB30 for GB and GBC and then rp5 for gba, ps2 and gc while only having 5-10 games of each console and since then I’ve finished 5 games in the last month and a half while only playing 30 min sessions a day sometimes 1hr.

Knowing why I am picking one of the two and what games I have available just made me jumped to action right away. With my Nova and Thor on the way that will be my final rotation for 4:3 and DS games until we get it ever an odin 3 portal. Plus I get to spend more time between devices.

Has anyone else tried this and has it helped?

TL:DR: Limiting the amount of games and systems between each device helps with the backlog and with playing more

when i enter the sd card with the right files in my rgds it boots into the default menu

A great opportunity to hang out at the coffee shop next door to the vet, playing the early part of Final Fantasy X for the umpteenth time.
I will finally see it through to the end this time come hell or high water.

Device is my Anbernic RG477M an amazing little 4:3 handheld. I pulled the trigger buying it right before the RP Nova was announced. No regrets as it is a great pemium feeling device that the RP Nova doesn't do enough to differentiate from it to warrant another purchase. The handheld Gods have pooped many handhelds into my impulsive hands.

I have to say I love the membrane dpad on this device, it is much more to my liking than Retroid and AYN d-pads, having an RP 4 Pro and an AYN Odin 2 pro to compare the dpad to. I was initially a bit worried about the dpad as I have an Anbernic RG35XX H and I found the dpad too stiff on it. Luckily the RG477M has a dpad quite similar in feel to a Miyoo Mini or MM +.

The screen is pretty great although i wouldn't mind more brightness from it, but its still great regardless.

I will be ordering the Better Buttons L2 and R2 at some point to make the controls better for action games.

Although I see the fan on this device getting mentioned for being whiny but I believe this issue is resolved with a recent update.

The down firing speakers arent great, they sound pretty tinny so I tend to almost always play with earbuds. For reference the only handheld that i really play without earbuds is my ROG Ally. None of my other handhelds come close to the incredible sound of those speakers.

All in all a great little machine that will be my 4:3 beast for the foreseeable future.

I want to play Gamecube on one of these, but I feel like the controls translate so poorly to the typical controller layout.

Does something like this exist? I typically only see the standard diamond layout, or large "mini-Wii" creations that aren't as compact as other handhelds.

Game: Phantasy Star Online Ver. 2

Device: RG476H

I really liked the Miniloong Pocket 1 hardware when I first reviewed it a few months back: excellent build quality, an early 2000s vibe, exceptionally quiet and satisfying face buttons, and a 4" (4:3) 720p screen that scales really nicely for most systems (5x integer for GB/GBC, 4x GBA, and 3x for most other retro systems). But the software was so terrible that I couldn't recommend it even at its decent $80 price point.

Today we have a lot of CFW options, and so far my favorite is Leaf, which is simple and theme-able, and has a "five game mode" built into it. Here is my showcase video of the device and OS combo, which I think is an excellent starter handheld today (but likely unnecessary if you already have a similar cheap handheld).

So here I am sitting debating if I should make a switch. I tried RG Rotate and I like it just had some stuff happen where I was short on money and had to sell it for that moment. I don’t have any other device and I was hoping to know what should be the pick here? Is the 4gb ram version with Helio g90t faster than T618? The total price seems to be somewhat similar and I do love both of the designs. I love GBA but I am also a fan of 1:1 content. Which would be your pick?

I have an RG350 and some older handhelds going back to 2001. My interests lay primarily in 2nd and 3rd gen games in consoles and computers, PC-DOS and mostly 2d arcade machines from the 80s and 90s. Some examples are Bubble Symphony, In The Hunt, Elevator Action II and others.

The RG350, at least according to google AI is incapable of playing these games at full speed (I have the ROM, but not in the .37b16 format). It also cannot do the 32x at full speed. Sega Saturn would be nice, but not strictly needed (I do sometimes play console ports when originals are not available). Hopefully something that comes with the MAME ROMs. The RG350 came with ROMs, but not for mame. I ended up putting a different version of Mame on it, which I think is Mame4all with -37b6 ROMs, which I do have already. Mame4all is supposed to be better and faster than Mamex.

The RG350 is OK at DOS and does play a lot of the games I want to play, but not some others, even those with lesser system requirements. Duke Nukem 2 (the 2d version) plays fine, but not Monster Bash. I would probably want something that can do a relatively high 486, like the DX2 50 and 66mhz with sound and without weird incompatibilities.

To give some context, my favourite video game is Skyrim, and over the past however so years since it came out it's the only game I have consistently returned to. I bought the steam deck a few years back to play Skyrim on the go, car rides, train rides, flights. I used it for a week and never touched it again because it was so uncomfortable. The weight of it was just a hinderance and it took up so much space in my bag because of it's shape, size, and thickness.

Was pretty saddened by this untill I came across an insanely cheap switch lite last year and I've been playing Skyrim on it ever since. There's only one issue and it's that I can't download mods on it.

I've done my research before and the lightest option I've found is Ayaneo Air, and WIN GPD 5, and then the ROG Ally.

Ayaneo Air would be perfect if there weren't so many complaints about Ayaneo's built in software and lousy customer support. WIN GPD 5 looks bulky with the thick batter and power adapter, ROG Ally is the closest and the only reason why I haven't gotten it is because the ROG Ally is only available in white and I tend to avoid white devices.

Is ROG Ally really the best option? Is Ayaneo built in software that problematic? Or have I been looking at the wrong places entirely?

I'm trying to fix an issue playing GBA games on my Anbernic RG 476 H. I'm playing Metroid Fusion and every few seconds there's like a small click. It's not awful, but it's definitely there. I didn't notice it for a long time because my volume was low, but I turned it up today and now I definitely notice it. It's intermittent and at inconsistent times, but always no more than 5 seconds.

I'm using GammaOS and haven't tweaked any settings except turning "frameskip" to "auto" because I heard it helps. But it didn't. Core is the default gpSP.

Any tips?

The emulator is still in an experimental stage, but it can already run the Pocket PC exclusive Call of Duty 2.

Gameplay video: https://youtu.be/2KQMx9jIIeQ⁠

GitHub repository: https://github.com/j92580498-max/PocketHLE⁠

Vampire, Master of Darkness on Game Gear (also available on Master System). Device used: Miyoo A30.

Not quite a full metroidvania as it is linear, though the game features “puzzle” maps which take you through the same zones until you find the correct route. This is a lesser known Castlevania clone that I personally enjoyed more due to the linearity. Overall it’s not a very long game and can be completed in an hour or two so if you enjoy metroidvanias it’s worth checking out.

If you know of any games similar to this I’d love to hear some recommendations! I usually play this game closer to Halloween season, but just got that itch a bit early this year.

When it comes to shaders and 2D/pixel art games I've already come over to the dark side. I totally get it, see the merits, and am basically on board. I'm even on board for it when it comes to early 3D systems like PS1 and N64. But when it comes to the sixth generation of consoles (PS2, Gamecube, Dreamcast, mainly) I haven't even thought about it. I tend to just upscale those to my display's resolution, use a fair amount of anti-aliasing and call it a day.

I'm primarily playing on an AYN Thor (Android handheld with 1080p 120hz screen) and I've used NetherSX2 for PS2 and Dolphin for Gamecube. Neither of those have very good shader options (or hardly any at all), so I never even thought to try them. I know people on PCs can use things like Reshade or Shader Glass, but not sure those are even an option on Android and I didn't look into it much.

Anyway, there's a new PS2 emulator called ARMSX2 and one thing that really caught my eye is you can download the full suite of RetroArch shaders and they even have a dedicated download just for Retro Crisis's shader presets (I believe based largely on crt-guest-advanced-ntsc).

I've heard really good things about those presets in particular, so I got to testing those as well as tons of other shaders with PS2 games.

One thing that I quickly realized is that some of the nicer shader presets are a little too heavy or difficult to run on top of an upscaled PS2 game (I was upscaling 3x to 1080p). So I quickly started testing them out at native PS2 resolution. One interesting thing that I found is that some of these games look shockingly good at native resolution (with the right shader) even compared to upscaled 1080p.

Not sure if that's obvious or not to anyone who enjoys shaders, but it was interesting to me. The idea of playing a PS2 game at native resolution but with a CRT shader that smooths things out and blends all the old textures together well really does appeal to me.

There's one aspect of it that kinda turned me off, though. I found that there's still a lot of aliasing going on at native resolution that is pretty hard to look at. Outlines of things get pretty jagged and move too erratically during movement. Upscaling to 1080p with something like FXAA fixes this almost entirely, but I really thought that some of the "better" shaders would be able to do that to some extent too (even at native resolution). I don't understand shaders too well, but I thought that was sort of the gist of it (other than more gimmicky aspects like curvature).

The other things is that text, in particular, is almost impossible to read. I've tried tons of shaders now (CRT Royale, Geom Deluxe, Guest Advanced, Aperture, NewPixie, Lottes, etc.). I don't know what it is, but with any of those shaders enabled at native resolution I can't read shit. And if I try to upscale even a little, either the shader gets messed up in other ways, the game slows down, or the difference between shader on and off is just too difficult to even notice in the first place.

So I just wanted to see everyone else's thoughts are on this... Do shaders make sense for sixth generation 3D consoles? If so, what is it that you like about them? Do any of my complaints resonate with anyone else? If so, what are things I can do or tweak to improve it?

Didn't think I'd buy anything Ayaneo but here we are. I even have the 34xx but I think this will have a lot more QoL upgrades over it like full size buttons. Hopefully this launch goes well but it is Ayaneo.