Emulation catch-all

FridgeGremlin wrote:

Life has been a dumpster fire lately and I bought a Retroid Pocket 3 last month and just got it in. Really liking it so far. Pretty solid, great screen. Performance-wise, it's not a powerhouse but it's a nifty little device.

I purchased one a few days ago. Once I get it in I’ll compare notes. Hope you enjoy it and hope things look up.

Aw thanks guys. Hope you both are doing well.

As for the RP3, I did manage to get HL2 installed on it. It runs... Ok? Just wild to see that game running on a weird little handheld haha.

JohnKillo wrote:

I hope life gets better. From one dumpster fire to another.

That was in the Hallmark card I gave my wife.

I have tried to install RetroArch before and given up. I downloaded it the other day, and the community has been really busy. Everything feels integrated, and the GUI is really easy to use. I was surprised after the hours I've spent in the past trying to get this to work, that I install it now and I'm up and playing in 10-15 minutes. Plus they've added achievements to the games, which is an amusing addition, and gives me another reason to play these old consoles and arcade titles. Nice job.

Any classics is should give a try? I recently played through the GBA Metroids, Castlevania Aria of Sorrow, and Minish Cap. Would love some recommendations.

"Things the RP3 can run" is a pretty wide spectrum of gaming to pluck recommendations from. Over the last couple months I've played through Final Fantasy Tactics (first time finishing!) for the PS1 and Link's Awakening DX for the GBC (umpteenth time finishing) on my little emulation handheld. I'm currently playing through the Namingway Edition ROM hack of Final Fantasy IV, which tweaks the translation, restores some of the abilities removed in the North American SNES version, and adds a dedicated run button, and that's been a blast from the past. On the RP3, you might see if the PSP version will run okay, I hear good things about that version.

Yeah. It depends on what you’re into. I’m most familiar with the GBA library and have tons of recommendations there. You’ve already played a few I would recommend. I would also recommend Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Tactics Ogre: The Night or Lodis, Advance Wars and Advance Wars 2, Fire Emblem, Yoshi’s Island, WarioWare Inc.: Mega Micro Games and others.

If you decide to try out DS on it (which it sounds like the RP3 can run) there are more Advance Wars, some of the best Castlevania games, random stuff like Cooking Mama, Professor Layton and many other great games.

If you do wind up trying any DS titles on the RP3, be sure to let us know how it goes. I admit to being curious, despite suspecting that running 3/DS games on anything but a 3/DS is likely to be a klunky experience due to the very specific configuration of displays and inputs inherent to those systems. I also don't own an emulation handheld with the horsepower to handle DS very well anyway, so that opinion might be a matter of sour grapes, who knows. (-:

I would agree overall. DS software is so purpose built for that hardware that it feels, generally, like you’re shortchanging the overall experience on single screen consoles.

That said, my experience with emulating DS games so far has been that the system either doesn’t have the horsepower or doesn’t have a decent touchscreen. Not so much that the second screen is absolutely essential.

I could wrap my head around some games (Mario Kart, Castlevania) running fine on one big screen and one small screen as long as the system has the power. So far most reviews seem to indicate the RP3 can.

So I got a AYN Odin Pro and wow this thing is really well made.. but now what? It's an Android device so how do I get emulators on there? Are there official ones on the Android App store? I sorta thought this thing would be running some custom OS.

That guide will get you there. Oddly most of the best emulators are ones you sideload. At least I did. And I have my Odin setup to play GameCube and some PS2.

RG353V. Come here already. You’ve been on a slow boat from China for over a month.

It's a marked improvement over the RG351V, even if only in how it fits and feels in hand. Plus the transparent purple looks and feels better than expected--oddly similar to the transparent purple Odin.

I’ve got it. RG353V.

1. The transparent purple is gorgeous. The buttons feel better than the RG351V.

2. Custom firmware was a bit of a pain. ArkOs just didn’t want to work. I don’t know what happened. Stock is “fine”. It isn’t bad but there is a little bits and pieces that rubbed me wrong. Jelos was the best choice for me. It felt the most like AmberElec in terms of ease and speed. It liked most of the 2nd card and “most” save games. It was snappy and fast.

3. Ever single one (CFW) has a different idea of where to put psp saves game folder. Fudge. ANBERNIC? They had their own folder. ArkOs? In the psp folder. AmberElec is in the gamedata folder. Jelos? In a separate higher folder that isn’t easy to access and not documented. Why?

4. V version comes with dual boot and the Android part can be useful but not nearly as good as the Linux part. I’m glad it’s there for a few little features and the NDS/PSP emulators.
Touch screen is fine.

5. PPSSPP on Android had Vulkan and OpenGL on other firmwares. Runs fantastically.

6. SNES looks wonderful as well as GBA.

7. Plays Blood port is a plus.

8. Supports more modern Wi-Fi 5gh.

I’ve dumped my feeling out there. I love it so far and wish documentation of the firmware was better.
Jelos took a dumb and took my 2nd sd card with it. Going to rebuild... =(

Overal 8/10 so far.

Emulation thoughts: The SD card on my RG351 went bad or my iPhone can’t see it. Not terrible but unexpected.

Playing more Mother 3 and Trails in the Sky SC. Still kept my Ayn Preorder but I don’t expect it to come this year.

I'm pretty sold on this. I do have a Steamdeck preorder in but no news on when that might actually come through. Also, this is a nice option for on the go with its more compact size and better battery life. So, I can see owning both devices.

I should give an update since people might be looking into devices around Christmas time.

So I ended up selling my Odin. It was really good, but once I purchased a Steam Deck, the Steam Deck could do all the high end things the Odin could do (PS2, Gamecube) and do it much much better.

I also sold a couple of other older systems I no longer needed and purchased a Retroid Pocket 3. The Retroid Pocket 3 is incredible and it’s now my “low end” emulator system. It can handle DS games really well, GBA games look great on it, it’s still fairly pocketable and the screen is incredible.

Because of this I’m recommending the RP3 (or RP3+ if you’re patient) for systems up through the N64. It should be possible to get a RP3 for fairly cheap on eBay these days as well, due to the RP3+ releasing.

DSGamer wrote:

I should give an update since people might be looking into devices around Christmas time.

So I ended up selling my Odin. It was really good, but once I purchased a Steam Deck, the Steam Deck could do all the high end things the Odin could do (PS2, Gamecube) and do it much much better.

I also sold a couple of other older systems I no longer needed and purchased a Retroid Pocket 3. The Retroid Pocket 3 is incredible and it’s now my “low end” emulator system. It can handle DS games really well, GBA games look great on it, it’s still fairly pocketable and the screen is incredible.

Because of this I’m recommending the RP3 (or RP3+ if you’re patient) for systems up through the N64. It should be possible to get a RP3 for fairly cheap on eBay these days as well, due to the RP3+ releasing.

So that processor (RP3) is in the POW Kiddy X18S Ultra and in the Anbernic 505 as well. The POW Kiddy has the same build quality as the previous X18S and the Anbernic one has just been announced. Choices are a plenty.

RP3+ has that processor, to be clear. The RP3 uses the same processor as the RP2+.

The Anbernic RG503/RG505 have that Vita OLED screen, but people probably remember that screen more fondly than it deserves, especially resolution-wise.

It remains to be seen if the RP3+ uses dome switches (clicky) or rubber conductive pads (softer) for its controls. My RP3 is from the earliest batch and has the dome switches, which I find to be fantastic. The Indigo color scheme also makes it look like an even tinier Switch Lite.

I think that screen is pretty overrated, having had RP3 and a Vita at the same time. The RP3's screen is absolutely astounding. I don't know which buttons I have. I have the ones where they included a kit to replace them if I wanted. I don't remember if the default was done or not. Either way, the RP3 is a great machine and I can recommend it without reservation. Especially given how gorgeous the screen is.

I must admit, the RP3+ looks pretty swish as well. Glad I don't need to buy right now! Definitely need to read up some more, watch a few videos etc. Have you done any PSP/DC on the RP3? It seems like the RG353V should be PSP/DC capable (with a few caveats on the PSP side) but presumably the RP3(+) would be more so. Another common point of comparison is that the wider screen on the RP3 is more suitable to widescreen gaming, like on PSP, while the screen on the RG353V is a bit better suited to traditional 4:3 games. However, the RG353V screen doesn't scale as well to a variety of 4:3 resolutions. Another point, the RP3(+) comes with Android 11 which is supposedly an outdated version of Android. But, as someone who doesn't use Android, I have no idea if this matters at all. Additionally, custom firmwares are often mentioned here and elsewhere. I have no experience with these but if you use them, are you basically completely replacing the shipped OS? Or is it something that sits on top of the OS (either Android or Linux).

Pictures of the indigo RP3+ do look pretty.
IMAGE(https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0321/7516/1479/products/4_e12b198f-7b96-4cb7-a853-e5119e384baf_1024x1024@2x.jpg?v=1667899004)

The RP3 is nearly perfect for the PSP. Screen ratio wise it’s great. The display is spectacular as I gushed earlier. The processor I’m not sure about. So far I’ve played a handful of games and they run well.

I’m sure there are some community spreadsheets out there that catalogue what runs well and what settings are required. I know for a fact that God of War doesn’t run well and that Outrun struggles. Those are the really hard games YouTubers always use as a point of comparison. So far I’ve tried Jeanne D’Arc and Tactics Ogre and they seem fine so far.

This appears to be the definitive compatibility sheet.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

The custom firmware is an interesting subject. What they generally mean is something other than what came with the device and they’re usually referring to the Linux-based handhelds, not Android.

Devices by companies like Anbernic come with an OS that’s often not optimized, slow or hard to customize. Custom firmware usually just means a variation of the similar Linux firmware (usually offshoots of EmuElec) that’s been optimized and unencumbered.

With an Android system like RP3 and RP3+ the Android experience will be a little less easy to setup than Linux, because of all the apps that individually need to be configured, but for better or worse Android is almost required for better DS emulation as well as N64 and higher end platforms.

So the new Anbernic model 505 is about 149 USD. That’s a fantastic price compared to their previous 552. Im interested.

DSGamer wrote:

The RP3 is nearly perfect for the PSP. Screen ratio wise it’s great. The display is spectacular as I gushed earlier. The processor I’m not sure about. So far I’ve played a handful of games and they run well.

I’m sure there are some community spreadsheets out there that catalogue what runs well and what settings are required. I know for a fact that God of War doesn’t run well and that Outrun struggles. Those are the really hard games YouTubers always use as a point of comparison. So far I’ve tried Jeanne D’Arc and Tactics Ogre and they seem fine so far.

Okay, you sold me, now where do I enter your referral code so you get your commission :).

JohnKillo wrote:

So the new Anbernic model 505 is about 149 USD. That’s a fantastic price compared to their previous 552. Im interested.

The RG505 is the successor to the RG503, not the RG552. The RG552's 5.36" 1920x1152 5:3 screen has a high enough pixel density that almost everything will look good on it. I would never say the same about the RG503.

Mr GT Chris wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

The RP3 is nearly perfect for the PSP. Screen ratio wise it’s great. The display is spectacular as I gushed earlier. The processor I’m not sure about. So far I’ve played a handful of games and they run well.

I’m sure there are some community spreadsheets out there that catalogue what runs well and what settings are required. I know for a fact that God of War doesn’t run well and that Outrun struggles. Those are the really hard games YouTubers always use as a point of comparison. So far I’ve tried Jeanne D’Arc and Tactics Ogre and they seem fine so far.

Okay, you sold me, now where do I enter your referral code so you get your commission :).

I would check out that spreadsheet first. I dipped back into Tactics Ogre after posting this and had some trouble. Jeanne D'Arc still runs great.

I'm still really liking the RP3. I've been playing some Game Pass games on it and it's been a pretty good experience. Vampire Survivor works great and I played a few minutes of Pentiment an it seems like a great fit.