Emulation catch-all

I really want to stay in the sub $300 range so it seems like Odin Lite, Loki Mini Pro Intel 8505 and the AYA Air Plus I3 model are my best choices. The Android OS on the Odin Lite will have the least overhead and the best battery life whereas the other 2 are more powerful and will allow me to run Windows games. However I could also just stream most of my games to the Odin Lite from my pc via Steam Link/Moonlight or through gamepass/Geforce now.

The battery life is something I hadn't thought of, great point. Windows seemed like an advantage to me for the occasional indy title or classic game that doesn't need a lot of power. On the other hand, I only have one Windows license and I want to keep that for the occasional thing on my Mac if possible. Unless the handheld ships with an OEM license?

Mr GT Chris wrote:

The battery life is something I hadn't thought of, great point. Windows seemed like an advantage to me for the occasional indy title or classic game that doesn't need a lot of power. On the other hand, I only have one Windows license and I want to keep that for the occasional thing on my Mac if possible. Unless the handheld ships with an OEM license?

I believe it comes with a windows license. For the Intel ones would require it and AMD could go without it for Steam OS.

Im really waiting the AYA Neo Air with the I3. As a emulation device and maybe playing JRPGs would be so cool. Dreaming.

So Anbernic had a pretty good sale on their web site a while back, and I ordered an RG300X for $55 and I'm not even sure why except that it was cheap and I was curious. I guess I've definitely got the bug now.

It showed up yesterday. What a weird little device. It feels like it fell through a wormhole from a universe just slightly different from our own. It has corners. Why does it have corners? I thought the NES was the last time anyone had the silly idea that people wanted corners on things that are supposed to fit into their hands. Since then, everything's been rounded. Except this weird little thing.

And the face buttons are arranged so that instead of A, B, X, and Y being arranged in the four cardinal directions right, down, up, and left respectively, they're in this weird formation rotated maybe 20 degrees clockwise from that arrangement. Why? Who asked for that? I have no idea.

But it has all these cool little touches, too. I guess the color scheme is supposed to evoke the Famicom, but the nostalgia I have is for the NES, so to me, the red-and-gold-and-chrome color scheme makes it look like someone's idea of a hot rod. It's loud and obnoxious and I love it.

And I don't know why the screen being perfectly flush with the face of the device makes it seem so cool and classy, but it totally does.

I don't know that its horizontal form factor actually makes it any more ergonomic than my RG280V because of the silly corners, but it's not much less pocketable-- a little longer but a little thinner, not much heavier-- and the screen is noticeably nicer, true 640x480 instead of 320x480 with half-height vertical pixels, and with dual front-facing stereo speakers instead of the 280V's weird mono back-firing speaker.

It's weird and dumb and I kind of love it.

I'm going to roll the dice on an Ayn Loki Mini Pro. I'll be waiting till at least Q4 though. Seems like a good option, especially without access to something like the Steam Deck.

Yeah, I just got the RG351V from Anbernic's sale. It just came in on Friday. I'm still fiddling with the settings, but it has just felt great playing some old games on it. And I hooked up Retro Achievements, which give some cool little achievement popups every now and then.

So far I'm most strongly interested in replaying my favorite Gameboy games, and wow, is this one perfect for that. It feels very similar to what I remember as a kid, especially after tweaking the screen to have that Gameboy green color.

Get the custom firmware Amberelec or ArcOS for it. It is so good.

I went ahead and put Amberelec on it. I didn’t even really mess around with the default firmware at all.

Nice. The screen is so nice on that one. The colors really pop. I carry an rg351p right now because of mostly playing GBA games, but if I didn’t I’d carry my 351v instead.

Mr GT Chris wrote:

I'm going to roll the dice on an Ayn Loki Mini Pro. I'll be waiting till at least Q4 though. Seems like a good option, especially without access to something like the Steam Deck.

Which model? The Intel or the AMD version?

FWI: Ayn is offering the i3 1215u version for an upgrade fee.

I bought a RG351p during the sale. I'd forgotten that when you have PPI that low, you have a screen door effect from being able to see the gaps between pixels. I wish it still had the built-in Wi-Fi, but otherwise it's a terrific GBA player.

Digital Foundry installed Windows 98 on Xbox Series X|S via emulation, opening the door to a golden age of PC gaming - and even 3dfx Voodoo Graphics are supported!
@Dachsjaeger revisits classics including Quake, Quake 2, Half-Life, Turok and more...

Holy sh*tsnacks.

JohnKillo wrote:
Mr GT Chris wrote:

I'm going to roll the dice on an Ayn Loki Mini Pro. I'll be waiting till at least Q4 though. Seems like a good option, especially without access to something like the Steam Deck.

Which model? The Intel or the AMD version?

FWI: Ayn is offering the i3 1215u version for an upgrade fee.

I went with the i3 1215u upgrade and 16gig of ram. Which pushes the price up but still cheaper than some of the more deluxe models from Ayn and others. I looked hard at the Loki Zero that they just announced and it looks quite nice (especially with the free +4gb of ram if you order in July). But the price difference between the Loki Zero (with the 128gb storage option) and the base Loki Mini is not a lot and I wondered if I’d be satisfied with Windows 10 performance on the Zero.

In the end, if I can play up to PS2 along with my backlog of Steam games (which I’ve stopped adding to but still somehow have 100s) along with some of all these free Epic games I’m amassing, I’ll be pretty happy.

Mr GT Chris wrote:
JohnKillo wrote:
Mr GT Chris wrote:

I'm going to roll the dice on an Ayn Loki Mini Pro. I'll be waiting till at least Q4 though. Seems like a good option, especially without access to something like the Steam Deck.

Which model? The Intel or the AMD version?

FWI: Ayn is offering the i3 1215u version for an upgrade fee.

I went with the i3 1215u upgrade and 16gig of ram. Which pushes the price up but still cheaper than some of the more deluxe models from Ayn and others. I looked hard at the Loki Zero that they just announced and it looks quite nice (especially with the free +4gb of ram if you order in July). But the price difference between the Loki Zero (with the 128gb storage option) and the base Loki Mini is not a lot and I wondered if I’d be satisfied with Windows 10 performance on the Zero.

In the end, if I can play up to PS2 along with my backlog of Steam games (which I’ve stopped adding to but still somehow have 100s) along with some of all these free Epic games I’m amassing, I’ll be pretty happy.

Same here. The AYA pricing seemed a bit strange with the 100 dollar shipping and the very short first couple get the good pricing and the rest will get a more expensive price.

Apparently the Playdate can play GB games...just not well...yet? Not something I'd buy just for this functionality considering the cost and how non-optimal it is for GB games. Still cool tho.

pandasuit wrote:

Apparently the Playdate can play GB games...just not well...yet? Not something I'd buy just for this functionality considering the cost and how non-optimal it is for GB games. Still cool tho.

It’s feels like you can but should you type of deals.

Sometimes the seeing if you can is the fun part, not the doing of it once you can.

When I jailbroke my Wii back in the day, I installed a homebrew DVD player. It turns out Wii discs really were just DVDs that spun the other way 'round, and the only reason the Wii couldn't play DVD movies is that Nintendo didn't want to pay a four bucks a unit license fee to whatever consortium licenses out the standard.

So I installed this weird fork of VLC that could spin discs the other way and play DVD movies, and I played like 5 minutes of Galaxy Quest and then realized that my toaster can play DVDs and this wasn't actually a good experience but darn it, I was curious to see if it would work and it did.

The Wii disc part is interesting.

I hear you, but when I saw that video about the Playdate my first thought was that the person was missing the point / just churning out content for the clicks. He knows very well that there are an infinite number of really awesome retro handhelds that play GB games (amongst other consoles) at a fraction of the price and roughly the same size.

Just clicked around the video a little and, yeah, was that a paid sponsorship? Because the little bit I listened to, it seemed like he was talking like viable, actually-playable Gameboy emulation was ever a thing that was possible on that device, and if there was a "okay, that was a fun gimmick, but by the way, here's what you want to look into if you ACTUALLY want to play some Gameboy games" section, I couldn't find it.

Very cool that somebody went through the trouble to get Gameboy kinda sorta almost running on the thing. Less cool the way that video presents it. I could easily see someone watching that video, picking up the device thinking that they're going to be playing some Pokemon and not knowing that there are better alternatives, and being really disappointed with what showed up.

I think most fairly influential reviewers of the Playdate have loved it as a novelty and a throwback to bite sized gaming. I didn’t get the impression that it was a paid sponsorship. It just felt like a lazy gimmick to enter the normal review via the emulation angle when clear the answer is “no, this isn’t for emulation”.

That video was mostly about how cool the Playdate is and how much they wish there were more people developing for it. The video name and thumbnail are definitely clickbait tho.

pandasuit wrote:

That video was mostly about how cool the Playdate is and how much they wish there were more people developing for it. The video name and thumbnail are definitely clickbait tho.

Overall, yes. But the initial hook for the video is "Can the Playdate run Gameboy games?" The answer is no. It was obviously going to be no. It's no. There are better devices for that that HE'S reviewed. It was silly.

It's like those articles that get posted on content mills.

"Is LeBron James going to try out for the NFL?"

Spoiler:

LeBron was video taped playing catch last week, but no, he's not about to leave his pursuit of a 5th NBA title at 37 to try out for the NFL.

"Is Steven Spielberg getting ready to make a Marvel movie?"

Spoiler:

In an interview Steven Spielberg expressed admiration for some Marvel movies, but not, he's not set to direct one.

Mr GT Chris wrote:
JohnKillo wrote:
Mr GT Chris wrote:

I'm going to roll the dice on an Ayn Loki Mini Pro. I'll be waiting till at least Q4 though. Seems like a good option, especially without access to something like the Steam Deck.

Which model? The Intel or the AMD version?

FWI: Ayn is offering the i3 1215u version for an upgrade fee.

I went with the i3 1215u upgrade and 16gig of ram. Which pushes the price up but still cheaper than some of the more deluxe models from Ayn and others. I looked hard at the Loki Zero that they just announced and it looks quite nice (especially with the free +4gb of ram if you order in July). But the price difference between the Loki Zero (with the 128gb storage option) and the base Loki Mini is not a lot and I wondered if I’d be satisfied with Windows 10 performance on the Zero.

In the end, if I can play up to PS2 along with my backlog of Steam games (which I’ve stopped adding to but still somehow have 100s) along with some of all these free Epic games I’m amassing, I’ll be pretty happy.

I was pushed to that CPU as well because of that ETA prime video. The emulation was pretty good and PS3 was pretty good as well. I'm being hopeful though.

Next-gen Dreamcast VMU 'VM2' coming soon from DreamMods
IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/Pwj7Lf7/vm2-adv.jpg)

So cool. I played the Skies of Arcadia mini game a little back in the day.

Ohhh yes please. Here's the page to register your interest.

https://www.dreammods.net/stay-tuned...

I love the growing trend to release not only new physical games but also new hardware for classic systems! The 8-bit/16-bit microcomputer scene is really amazing too.

Hey anyone know of a good guide on how to install DOSbox on a 3DS? Apparently it can be done but I can't find a good way to do it.

Thank you.