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Dirt cheap Chinese knock-off handhelds

Started by dmillburn, April 17, 2018, 06:33:19 PM

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I'm still very impressed with the RG-350M after a couple of weeks. As mentioned before, the buttons and d-pad are absolutely spot on, but I'm also really enjoying how thick it is. It's been years since I've been able to hold a handheld properly comfortably without some sort of grip and the extra thickness means the cramps take a good long while to kick in. The metal feels nice and cool on my hands in these summer months too. Probably should have waited for the plastic one, but my missus spent £400 on a rabbit hutch, so I don't feel particularly guilty for it.

In terms of emulation, everything seems to run great. If I have any complaints it would be the screen modes for SNES and GBA. Nothing looks quite correct on those systems. Either blurry or with a horrible sharpness filter that makes things look a bit weird. Might need to play with it a bit more to find settings I can get on with.

Wonderswan is also a bit broken because you can't flip the screen in portrait mode. Whilst this is accurate, it means you're forced to use the left stick as buttons. In addition, the Wonderswan apparently had a 75Hz screen, so the timings go out a bit which is especially crap in Beatmania. I really don't know why I'm getting so hung up on a machine that has basically fuck-all games on it, and even fewer in English, when the entire GBA library looks like dogshit, but here I am, doing it all the same.

Overall, it's been a great thing to play with. Been playing through all my old Game Boy games again and they look, sound and control brilliantly on this thing. Have no intention of chucking this in a drawer any time soon, so the Raspberry Pi can be lonely a little bit longer.

Quote from: Huxleys Babkins on July 21, 2020, 04:27:40 PMWonderswan

Do you like shooting aliens? Judgement Silversword and Cardinal Sins got a really good port to console and PC. Eschatos, the spiritual sequel is all sorts of amazing as well - https://store.steampowered.com/sub/79117/

samadriel

Quote from: Huxleys Babkins on July 21, 2020, 04:27:40 PM
I'm still very impressed with the RG-350M after a couple of weeks. As mentioned before, the buttons and d-pad are absolutely spot on, but I'm also really enjoying how thick it is. It's been years since I've been able to hold a handheld properly comfortably without some sort of grip and the extra thickness means the cramps take a good long while to kick in. The metal feels nice and cool on my hands in these summer months too. Probably should have waited for the plastic one, but my missus spent £400 on a rabbit hutch, so I don't feel particularly guilty for it.

I got horrible hand cramps playing Streets of Rage 2 the other day, but I suppose it depends on the type of game, i didn't have much of a problem with hours of Ultima IV.  I do have a bit of a problem with the emulators not loading ROMs, there's a little crackle from the speaker and then zilch, a black screen and I have to reboot and try again.  Could be down to the emulators I'm using, or Simple Menu misbehaving.  SIGH.

Famous Mortimer

Another new device, the Powkiddy RGB10, but it seems like it's not quite right - it emulates N64, but there aren't enough buttons to do it properly.


Famous Mortimer

Retroid Pocket 2 is looking quite nice - https://retrododo.com/retroid-pocket-2/ - and can emulate pretty much every console up to the Dreamcast for under a hundred quid. I like the design, too (although I liked the design of the first one as well, but it didn't have any shoulder buttons).

Gurke and Hare

Quote from: Gurke and Hare on June 12, 2020, 02:06:38 PM
What would be the best one of these to get to play Amiga games on?

Ice cream! Ice cream!

(You can get past crack screens using the virtual keyboard or by turning on the option to use the left analogue stick act as the mouse temporarily)


Famous Mortimer

#96
Is the Megadrive version of Speedball 2 not as good? It's the one I remember playing to death when I was younger.

Now I want to play one of the many versions of Speedball 2 again.

Looks like review copies of the PiBoy DMG are making their way out there, and it looks pretty nice (if not exactly dirt cheap).

LanceUppercut

Quote from: Spiteface on June 16, 2020, 04:06:36 PM
My RG350M arrived this afternoon. This is where I ordered it from:

https://droidbox.co.uk/anbernic-rg350m-retro-console.html

just over a hundred for the unit and a 64gb SD card. Not sure of the legalities of that, as it's nicely packed with ROMs, a lot of stuff I was going to put on this anyway.

Had a few minutes to fiddle with it, and it does 16-bit and 8-bit stuff perfectly, as you'd expect. Arcade/Neo Geo is where it depends what you're running. Street Fighter III: Third Strike doesn't run well but I suspected that anyway. Garou: Mark of the Wolves works well and still looks great, so I'm sure yer KOFs will work as well. Garou pushed the Neo Geo to its limits back then.

Haven't experimented with PS1 but I hear it's good aside from a few. Shame Tekken 3 is one of those few, but plenty of other good fighting games and such to occupy me.

Getting the metal version was worth it. The extra weight makes it feel better quality than the plastic handhelds I've had. Nice D-pad, too. Something that's a dying art these days. That's why I already prefer this over my GPD XD, even if that's more powerful - nicer controls.

Does this have c64/ spectrum and amstrad on it??

Gurke and Hare

Quote from: LanceUppercut on July 30, 2020, 10:20:31 PM
Does this have c64/ spectrum and amstrad on it??

No, but this page is the page I used to work out how to install the Amiga emulator, and it also has instructions for Spectrum and C64 so I reckon it wouldn't be too tricky.

Been reading reports that the 16GB "internal" MicroSD card in the RG350 range is rather prone to failure, so I've ordered a replacement for a fiver that I'll clone it onto.

Also gonna try out the latest version of Gambatte that supports dot matrix emulation on the RG350m:

https://www.reddit.com/r/RG350/comments/hraoyb/the_latest_version_of_gambatte_supports_dot/

Jerzy Bondov

Quote from: Famous Mortimer on July 29, 2020, 09:09:51 PM
Retroid Pocket 2 is looking quite nice - https://retrododo.com/retroid-pocket-2/ - and can emulate pretty much every console up to the Dreamcast for under a hundred quid. I like the design, too (although I liked the design of the first one as well, but it didn't have any shoulder buttons).
Came close to ordering this yesterday but I'll be sensible and wait for reviews. Weird how the thumbsticks are different heights.

Apparently there's an RG351P launching at the end of next month that has the same power, but in the Anbernic form factor, so that might be worth holding out for.

Just loving how everything is instantly obsolete the moment it's released.

momatt

Quote from: Huxleys Babkins on July 31, 2020, 11:28:18 AM
Just loving how everything is instantly obsolete the moment it's released.

I know what you mean, but not so important when you're playing 25 year old games on them!

I was really close to buying a RG350, but as I never leave the house now it's not really worth it.

Famous Mortimer

PiBoy DMG looks chuffing lovely. As soon as I need to leave the house for something other than going to the shops, I'm going to get one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI_iBySxmXc

Quote from: Huxleys Babkins on July 21, 2020, 04:27:40 PMWonderswan

You seen this, babkins? It's amazing so far!
The download has a rom for the wonderswan and a standalone pc version - http://firelancer.ws/
Really good fun.

Famous Mortimer


Famous Mortimer

The Retroid Pocket 2 is $80 now, which is a lovely price for all that stuff.

Jerzy Bondov

I've had one on order for the last month, checking the website every day to see if it's been shipped. Since then I've read a few mixed reviews but overall it sounds good. You have to do a lot of tinkering to get the best out of it, but as it's Android I roughly know what to do.

Jerzy Bondov

I got my Retroid Pocket 2 yesterday. I think if you buy one of these you need to accept that half the fun is getting it set up the way you want it. It's a lot of work but if you enjoy that sort of thing you won't get bored. If you're of a mind that when you settle down for some gaming you expect to spend that time actually playing games, get the fuck out of here this thing is not for you.

The actual hardware is quite nice. What I like about it compared to the other things I looked at is the Switch-style shoulder buttons. Actually they feel nicer than the Switch, but the point is they aren't all just in a line along the top of the thing. I've got a joypad like that and can't get on with it. The left analogue stick is fine. It looks like a Switch one but you can't click it in. The dpad is not bad. Perfectly acceptable. The action buttons are good, a bit spongy but they do the job. The right stick is fucking absolute total dog shit. It's a sliding thing like on the PSP. It feels crap and it doesn't work half the time. Pure toilet. Do not buy this for twin stick games. The screen is lovely. Games look great on this.

For the money it's surprisingly high quality and you can get a lot out of it if you put in the work. A qualified recommendation.

Bazooka

I just ordered the ANBERNIC RG351P and it will arrive on Sunday, the Dreamcast emulation seems to be the biggest criticism, but I've watched some videos of DC games running on it and for the most part it doesn't look too bad. I tried looking for a list of all the preloaded roms but at 2k+ games  guess nobody has bothered to type it out.

Hand Solo

This bloke recommends the Retroid Pocket 2, though it seems to have its problems.

QuoteThe RG351P is just an Odroid Go Advance clone. All the things that is shit at emulating, the RG351P is just as bad. Technically it boots N64, Dreamcast and PSP but none of them are particularly pleasant experience with many games unplayable.
I'd suggest avoiding it and waiting to see what they release next.

Jerzy Bondov

The Retroid Pocket 2 is how I'm playing the games in my 1998 thread and it's been ideal. It has its issues but for the price it's hard to complain too much. The community is also quite active, on Reddit and Discord, so it's getting better and better.

Hand Solo

^^Yeah oops, I didn't see your post above mentioning it. I only watched the video last week when thinking about getting a handheld before deciding against it and sticking to my phone using either onscreen controls or my bluetooth controller.

Jerzy Bondov

No no it's cool, I like posting about it, I'm very happy with the thing

Bazooka

I managed to get the RG351P on sale, and the button quality was praised, but I'm sure there isn't much in between different systems. I watched a video of GoW Chains of Olympus and it was atrocious, but then I've seen footage of Powerstone, Ridge Racer and Soul Calibur running at good frame rates. If 1% of games are dodgy, I don't really care, I still have tons of actual PSP games anyway if I want the proper experience.

God of War is a tricky one to emulate which is why most serious tests will use that (and Midnight Club 3) as a benchmark (ie, if it runs this well, it'll run anything), but it does disservice to any device that can run 90% of the library well. Not to say that the RG351 can do that as I've never used one.

Bazooka

I agree with you.  It just arrived today, a day early, had a quick go on it, just short bursts and everything 16/32 bit is of course fine.  I tried Castlevania Dracula X on PSP and that was missing frames, there are only five Dreamcast games pre installed, and I want Phantasy Star on there,so I've ordered a new SD reader as mine is in my apartment in China.

Its a shame only the first batch of RG351p had the wireless antenna built in, that would have been nice but it's no deal breaker.


Famous Mortimer

The Retroid Pocket 2s are now on Amazon, if you want to pay an extra $30 for the modicum of protection they provide. I'm tired of posting about it as often as I have without buying one, so I'm going to see if my next paycheck can stretch a bit.

samadriel

Just curious, does this new Abernic RG with Dreamcast emulation, emulate GameCube? Just wondering whether Skies of Arcadia Legends would be handheld-ready yet.