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Knock-off emulation machines

Started by Famous Mortimer, July 27, 2019, 02:08:50 PM

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Famous Mortimer

I know there was a discussion about these last year, but I wondered if things had changed or there was a new contender on the market or something. I have a hankering to play old Metroid and Castlevania games and would like a nice cheap-ish device to do that on.

I know a few of you bought them. Lasting well? Easy to set up?

Kryton


I recently got a very cheap PlayStation Classic which is extremely easy to hack with Retroarch (Justin copy some files onto a USB and it runs off that) and you will have access to everything up to PS1, apart from the N64 which is a bit wonky. NES, SNES, Arcade, MD, MS, GBA. It's really easy to use.

They were on sale at Amazon for £16 recently so I'd say you could get one for twenty quid easily. I've used various devices in the past and while I've managed to get them running OK, the PS Classic is by far the easiest I've ever used and the performance has been rock solid for almost everything.

Replies From View

Don't you have a computer?  You can download an emulator to play different systems' games on it easy-peasily and for free.

Famous Mortimer

It's a bit difficult to pop a computer in my back pocket and have a go on it while I'm at work, though. Saying that, I might get Retropie running if I can find my Raspberry Pi - but the thing I was interested in was something like the...(I'm going to have to search through this entire forum because I can't remember) GPD XD? (12 pages back)

EDIT: fuck's sake, it's as much as a Switch. I might as well just get one of those.

NoSleep

The GPD XP is less than half the price of a Switch, surely?

$179 here:

http://www.gpdxd.com/product/gpd-xd-gamepad-black-32g/

Famous Mortimer

Maybe it's the US, but the GPD is $236 and the Switch appears to be $250. Oh, $300 from Nintendo's website. But still. Admittedly, games for the GPD would be cheaper.

NoSleep


NoSleep

I was thinking of getting one to play PSX games out and about.

NoSleep

Quote from: Famous Mortimer on July 27, 2019, 06:03:29 PM
Maybe it's the US, but the GPD is $236 and the Switch appears to be $250. Oh, $300 from Nintendo's website. But still. Admittedly, games for the GPD would be cheaper.

Maybe you're thinking of the GPD XP Plus. I was convinced by a youtube video that I don't need a Plus version and that the original is great in its own way.

Switch Lite is coming soon, £199. Would be a good shitload better and more comfortable to use, but obviously no free games.

willy crossit

have you got an android phone? you can get a lot of emulator apps, i've got a nice GBC one i'm playing link's awakening on.

only thing is the controls but you can pair a ds4 and use that

Spiteface

Anyone had experience with the newer GPD Win handheld?

It seems similar in size to the XD, but crams in a keyboad and basically runs Windows 10. Costs a lot more, but then it's more like a laptop thing than an Android device...

That said, I have an older XD, thinking of upgrading to the newer "plus" model as mine's got a fucked headphone port and some of those rubbery bits that cover up the screws have fallen out. D-Pad was a bit iffy (Have they improved them since?), but playing Street Fighter 3 on the bus was always good to kill time. Could always try selling the old one to CEX..

I know someone who's got a GPD Win and it cost them about seven hundred quid and it's like a really uncomfortable original DS that can play MGSV on an unplayably small screen. It's technically unbelievable, but practically useless. He literally never uses it and always plays on the Switch (where you can also get SF30th Anniversary Collection).

biggytitbo

I installed retropie on an old NUC and it seems to work quite well with an xbox one controller There are some weird black holes though, some mame installs are incredibly picky about what version of the roms they need, and lots of the newer systems require bios files which aren't always easy to get old of. It's always a mega piss ache to configure the control properly too, to the point where I almost think the ultimate game in all this stuff is getting an emulator to be set up correctly.

Elderly Sumo Prophecy

Quote from: The Boston Crab on July 27, 2019, 04:04:50 PM
(Justin copy some files onto a USB and it runs off that)

Oh I bet he did.

earl_sleek

I can't be arsed to watch the vid again to check the systems being looked at are in your price range, but these look interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5yPbzD-W-I&t=1s, and RMC is a good channel.

NoSleep

Quote from: willy crossit on July 27, 2019, 08:12:06 PM
have you got an android phone? you can get a lot of emulator apps, i've got a nice GBC one i'm playing link's awakening on.

only thing is the controls but you can pair a ds4 and use that

You can get a controller that your phone can sit in (cheap as well; $20 in this video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fa_catTIr8w

madhair60

Bit Boy PocketGo. Forty dollar. Free delivery. NES, GB, BBC, GBA, SMS, MD, etc. SNES is flakey.


NoSleep

Quote from: madhair60 on July 29, 2019, 11:07:28 AM
Bit Boy PocketGo. Forty dollar. Free delivery. NES, GB, BBC, GBA, SMS, MD, etc. SNES is flakey.

Pity about the SNES, but GBA probably makes up for that. I guess you meant to say GBC, not BBC (although I wouldn't be surprised if it could emulate the BBC, Speccy, C64 et al). I'm guessing PSX emulation is not so good, either.

I use a DS-lite with an Edge card for emulating early systems; every single GB & GBC game will fit into 500mb on an SD card. NES emulates well for most games (apart from Elite which always seems to present problems with emulation on other systems). It can't emulate the GBA even though it has an alternative port for GBA cartridges (or maybe because it has that port). SNES also flakey.

Pocket Go/Bittboy/LDK has a 30Hz display and suffers from screen tearing. For £35 you can't really expect for too much, but those would be deal breakers for me.

Consignia

Can't you get a PSP or something for a pittance? Probably would do you right for most of these things, and be a nicer piece of kit for the equivalent Android knock off.

MojoJojo

Quote from: NoSleep on July 29, 2019, 11:33:06 AM
I use a DS-lite with an Edge card for emulating early systems; every single GB & GBC game will fit into 500mb on an SD card. NES emulates well for most games (apart from Elite which always seems to present problems with emulation on other systems). It can't emulate the GBA even though it has an alternative port for GBA cartridges (or maybe because it has that port). SNES also flakey.

The DS runs in a completely different mode when it's running in GBA mode, which is why you can't run GBA games from the DS slot. You can use something like an EZFlash cart to run GBA games on a DS though.

madhair60

Quote from: Huxleys Babkins on July 29, 2019, 12:25:23 PM
Pocket Go/Bittboy/LDK has a 30Hz display and suffers from screen tearing. For £35 you can't really expect for too much, but those would be deal breakers for me.

They recently updated the firmware and this is basically gone now

madhair60

Quote from: Consignia on July 29, 2019, 12:48:35 PM
Can't you get a PSP or something for a pittance? Probably would do you right for most of these things, and be a nicer piece of kit for the equivalent Android knock off.

PSP is still a terrific emulation machine but requires proprietary memory cards, there are adaptors to use MicroSD but they're notoriously flakey as fuck.

madhair60

A hacked 3DS can run SNES very well but they're not the easiest sausages to get custom firmware running on.

PSP your best bet honestly.

Elderly Sumo Prophecy

Quote from: madhair60 on July 29, 2019, 03:46:50 PM
PSP is still a terrific emulation machine but requires proprietary memory cards, there are adaptors to use MicroSD but they're notoriously flakey as fuck.

They work fine.

madhair60

Quote from: Elderly Sumo Prophecy on July 29, 2019, 04:13:49 PM
They work fine.

You are one of the lucky ones. There is a shitload of misinformation about exactly which combination of cards will work, and myriad adaptor units so flimsy that they simply break in transit.

Famous Mortimer

Quote from: madhair60 on July 29, 2019, 03:45:56 PM
They recently updated the firmware and this is basically gone now

https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/review/3078476/bittboy-pocketgo-review

It looks lovely, if a tad limited in what you can play on it. Still, might be worth looking at.