Beat recently mentioned the GPD XD Plus and it got me thinking about weird little handhelds mainly used for emulation.
I'm kinda curious about the cheaper end of the spectrum, and there are a lot of sub-$100 MIPS-based handhelds.
None of them are quite what I want yet -- the RK2020 is powerful enough for N64/Dreamcast emulation but only has one stick (meaning two-stick PlayStation games like Mega Man Legends 2 are going to be a problem), whereas the RG350P has two sticks but isn't powerful enough for N64/Dreamcast emulation. The rumor is that there's an RG350P successor coming called the RG351P; if it can do everything they say, that might be the one to get. If you're in the market a sub-$100 Chinese handheld for emulation during a period where you can't leave your house anyway.
(Aside: There are a lot of web design trends I hate, but I think I hate the gray text trend most of all.)
Weird handhelds
Re: Weird handhelds
The Retroid Pocket 2 is getting a positive reception. It's Android-based (an old version, v6; apparently an update to v8 is forthcoming) and runs everything up to the Dreamcast smoothly, and can handle PSP games okay with frameskip. It can only display one screen of DS games, so that limits it to games where you don't really need both screens at the same time, but there are a fair number of those.
It costs $80 but it's been selling out.
The RG351P is available for order but I'm not sure if it's actually shipping yet; apparently there's been a problem with the wifi. Plus it costs more than the Pocket 2 and its hardware specs aren't as good; it has a weaker CPU and a lower resolution. That form factor may be more comfortable to hold, though.
It costs $80 but it's been selling out.
The RG351P is available for order but I'm not sure if it's actually shipping yet; apparently there's been a problem with the wifi. Plus it costs more than the Pocket 2 and its hardware specs aren't as good; it has a weaker CPU and a lower resolution. That form factor may be more comfortable to hold, though.
Re: Weird handhelds
I've found d-pad and analogue stick location to be the deal breaker, but which one you want in the rest position depends on which generation of games you intend to play. Analogue sticks are great for third person 3d and a misery of unwanted diagonals in 2d titles.
- beatbandito
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Re: Weird handhelds
Playdate announcement. Pre-orders coming in July with an exact date tba. Sending out this year, it sounds like.
Comes with 24 little toy/games for $179. Surprisingly only one seems to just be fishing.
The big news is they'll be releasing a free to use browser-based simple game maker tool sometime later this month which will be what to watch to determine if this is more than a fun toy.
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