Emulation catch-all

I actually ordered the RP3+ so I guess it’s still up in the air as to what games it will support. Technically I do already own two Tactics Ogre capable platforms :).

That appears to be the safer bet for PSP coverage.

Anyone have thoughts on getting, say, an RP3+ now if I'm going to end up getting a Steam Deck later? Any reason to have both?

carrotpanic wrote:

Anyone have thoughts on getting, say, an RP3+ now if I'm going to end up getting a Steam Deck later? Any reason to have both?

I have an RP3 and a Steam Deck and the RP3 is really portable. I treat it like a slightly larger GBA that can also play DS and other consoles. I throw it in my pocket when I’m out and about and love it for that.

I'll probably have my Steam Deck with me from time to time (whenever it finally ships) and, since I have a backpack, carrying it won't be such a big deal. But I'm guessing the overall size and weight along with the battery drain will deter me from making it my main commute device. On the other hand, the RP3+ will probably stay with me all of the time. It should be light and easy to use and be chargeable multiple times from my existing power brick.

Mr GT Chris wrote:

I'll probably have my Steam Deck with me from time to time (whenever it finally ships) and, since I have a backpack, carrying it won't be such a big deal. But I'm guessing the overall size and weight along with the battery drain will deter me from making it my main commute device. On the other hand, the RP3+ will probably stay with me all of the time. It should be light and easy to use and be chargeable multiple times from my existing power brick.

I think that is a good compromise. So far the best of these is the RP3+. It seems the others have pretty big negatives to be placed 2nd and third.

In other news watching performance tests on the X18S Black and Anbernic’s 505 on YouTube. It has tempted my expectations of the devices a little. It should play the lower half of the higher emulation devices okay to bad. If it can do GC and PS2 JRPGs then I will be happy. I just want my Loki Mini now more than ever.

Someone needs to make a handheld that has OLED buttons so you can have them swap to whatever you are emulating.

I would probably do Xbox style buttons and do iconography on the case for PS buttons.

carrotpanic wrote:

Anyone have thoughts on getting, say, an RP3+ now if I'm going to end up getting a Steam Deck later? Any reason to have both?

Finally got my confirmation email for the Steam Deck (64gb), Japan orders due to start shipping on Dec 17. Looked at the ¥60,000 price, man, I do not remember it being that much when I ordered it. Had to cancel. I just don't need it right now. The RP3+ should more than entertain me for the time being.

Did you get your RP3+ yet?

Nope, ordered but no shipping notice.

This year has been pretty great with handheld gaming. I’ve been thinking that there have been expensive handhelds and pretty great budget ones as well. You could buy a sub 100 dollar one and play a ton of systems. I want the mid-fi system to come and be a cool balance of a Aya with a decent price price.

Based on the videos I’ve watched of the RP3+, I think it just squeezes into that mid tier. It will be interesting to see how well the dedicated Android games compare to my iPhone. And of course my iPhone only has touch screen controls.

Was thinking of getting the RP3+ or something but decided against it. I just got a steam deck that plays everything. I thought about having the rp3+ as a more portable option but did the math and I don't travel enough at the moment to make it worth it and I also have a multiple portables like the DS and PSP I still play with from time to time.

Buts me wants it. So precious, soooo preciousssss. yessss yesss. me wantsss it ssssso much.

Mr GT Chris wrote:

Based on the videos I’ve watched of the RP3+, I think it just squeezes into that mid tier. It will be interesting to see how well the dedicated Android games compare to my iPhone. And of course my iPhone only has touch screen controls.

Iphone has relaxed a little and you can connect your Xbox/PS controllers. Games have to support it.

I went the other way and went for the RG505. They added the play store and I can go get my upscale ReDream there. The slow boat from China strikes again.

It is funny how fast these things are coming out. On the other hand all of them seem to be slow to ship.

JohnKillo wrote:

Iphone has relaxed a little and you can connect your Xbox/PS controllers. Games have to support it.

Doesn't really work for my commuter lifestyle :).

In other news, trying to get the Adam image onto the RG350/280V has been tough. I can’t get past the loading screen.

Edit: I got it to work. I can do Retro arch. PS1/Sega CD doesn’t show up? More tinkering on devices

Just got a shipping notification for the RP3+. I presume it is coming from somewhere in China so maybe a week? Hopefully it all goes smoothly!

Mr GT Chris wrote:

Just got a shipping notification for the RP3+. I presume it is coming from somewhere in China so maybe a week? Hopefully it all goes smoothly!

I’ve heard they ship fast. You will like it.

I’m on team RG505. That CPU is pretty fabulous. It’s bottom tier on PS2/GC but plays JRPGS well enough. I got Front Mission 5 to load on it. Happy. Going to try other games on it.

I’ve been spending some time tweaking my rom library. I’ve read that it’s best to match the names used on the libretro thumbnails. But I noticed that they replaced the ampersand character with an underscore. I did a search and found a 2019 big report about Retroarch not handling ampersands properly but also no indication of a fix. Does anyone know if this is still a problem?

Following on from the above, I do have a lot of roms where the first part is (now) correct according to thumbnails.libretro.com but also have extra info, usually based on a patch I've added. A typical example would be something like:
Final Fight CD (USA) - with arcade colors.chd
Final Fight CD (USA)(Arcade colors)
Final Fight CD (USA)[Arcade colors]
or variations on the above. I'm hoping the extra info won't mess up the auto-fetching of game info. Anyway, if I get the chance, I'll see about putting Retroarch on my Mac and try to figure out if everything is working properly.

It shouldn’t. The best front end for Android is Daijisho. If you use that it’s very robust at finding games and I believe it can check the hash of the game as well.

JohnKillo wrote:

I’m on team RG505. That CPU is pretty fabulous. It’s bottom tier on PS2/GC but plays JRPGS well enough. I got Front Mission 5 to load on it. Happy. Going to try other games on it.

Let's not turn this into the dumbest console war yet.

Kurrelgyre wrote:
JohnKillo wrote:

I’m on team RG505. That CPU is pretty fabulous. It’s bottom tier on PS2/GC but plays JRPGS well enough. I got Front Mission 5 to load on it. Happy. Going to try other games on it.

Let's not turn this into the dumbest console war yet.

I don't think most console wars start with, "hey, I heard you bought the console I didn't buy! I bet you'll love it!"

hbi2k wrote:
Kurrelgyre wrote:
JohnKillo wrote:

I’m on team RG505. That CPU is pretty fabulous. It’s bottom tier on PS2/GC but plays JRPGS well enough. I got Front Mission 5 to load on it. Happy. Going to try other games on it.

Let's not turn this into the dumbest console war yet.

I don't think most console wars start with, "hey, I heard you bought the console I didn't buy! I bet you'll love it!"

It’s the same processor. Other than screens/stacked shoulder button/battery; it’s pretty much the same style of system. I’m happy for Mr Gt Chris. If I didn’t buy the other sight unseen I would have gone with their choice.

DSGamer wrote:

It shouldn’t. The best front end for Android is Daijisho. If you use that it’s very robust at finding games and I believe it can check the hash of the game as well.

That's cool! I assume the hash won't work though because most of my roms are patched in some way. But it sounds like with the tweaks I've already done to the names that there shouldn't be any problems.

JohnKillo wrote:

It’s the same processor. Other than screens/stacked shoulder button/battery; it’s pretty much the same style of system. I’m happy for Mr Gt Chris. If I didn’t buy the other sight unseen I would have gone with their choice.

Yeah, can't wait! For me this is an upgrade from the PocketGo V2, which was great value but nowhere near as powerful and had some super annoying quirks.

Mr GT Chris wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

It shouldn’t. The best front end for Android is Daijisho. If you use that it’s very robust at finding games and I believe it can check the hash of the game as well.

That's cool! I assume the hash won't work though because most of my roms are patched in some way. But it sounds like with the tweaks I've already done to the names that there shouldn't be any problems.

Definitely. Daijisho also allows you to enter in manually alternate names to look up album artwork, etc. Won’t help with Retroarch, but it will help with the launcher. Let us know how you like it.

Loki mini pro should be in the beginning of Q2,2023.

I got this little bit of info if you are interested in a Loki.

DSGamer wrote:

Definitely. Daijisho also allows you to enter in manually alternate names to look up album artwork, etc. Won’t help with Retroarch, but it will help with the launcher. Let us know how you like it.

The RP3+ arrived, yay! Unfortunately a bit of a shitshow so far. I’m sure a lot of it is down to my own lack of Android/Retroarch experience but…

I’ve tried 3 Retroarch versions so far. The recommended nightly build, the Playstore version, and the version included with the RP3+. The problems seem to be consistent across all of them.
- the big one is that it just hangs on a black screen when called from Daijisho. Daijisho seems to work fine with every standalone emulator I’ve given it. The exception to this is FinalBurn Neo. I thought it might be due to a missing core but I’ve tried adding all possible cores and Daijisho also seems to know when a core isn’t there.
- SegaCD and TurboCD games don’t load at all from inside Retroarch. I converted the games to CHDs, could that be a problem?
- Inside Retroarch itself, it’s directory scanning seems to only find half my stuff. Presumably due to chksums not matching for the patched files. But when I tried a manual scan it gave me a list of hidden macOS files. What?! No DS games at all.

I’d prepared my cd games as CHD files but I’ve now realized that Dolphin and PPSSPP don’t accept those. Whoops! Back to the drawing board there.

One thing I’ve noticed is that many of the standalone emulators are only available as a paid version or have a paid version to unlock features or remove ads. I don’t mind paying if it’s quality, so any advice here?

On the plus side, the games I’ve tried on standalone emulators so far, N64, Dreamcast and PS2 have all performed at or above expectations.