I've been using emulation on my phone for several years now and I got a retroid pocket 3+ recently for my kids to use on road trips. It's not as simple as using an old Gameboy yet, but it's darn close. I am still amazed that I can play almost any retro game at any time now. What a world we've grown up into. 😁
I always thought that about emulators. If I knew as a kid you could download every game for every console for free one day. Man. I probably wouldn't have done anything different though. Probably would just make young you depressed.
Thank you Coury & Try for the always cozy Sunday streams and the awesome (past) content. Hopefully you can get back in a groove and crank some new great episodes out this year!
I'm really happy you reviewed this. Real hardware just gets tiresome sometimes when you just want to play a certain game. I could be wrong but I think a lot of people against emulation tried it out years ago when it wasn't so good and never tried it again.
I jumped on the Anbernic train with the RG351MP and immediately went with one of the other OS's available (AmberElec). My d-pad diagonals were overly sensitive too, just like you said in the video. If you want to go through the effort you can actually tape over parts of the d-pad contacts on the board to get it to be more usable in faster games like Contra.
@@WhatAboutZoidberg Especially when some of the really fun stuff all but requires an Everdrive to play affordably on real hardware. EDIT: Looking at you Little Samson and Summer Carnival 92 Recca...
I would like to see you guys discuss disc resurfacing on CD-based games with various methods of removing scratches from discs using expensive tools to cheap crap like the SkipDr.
Coury , the filters are cpu based and the shaders are gpu based. You should use a sharp bilinear shader so you don’t have to use integer scaling to eliminate shimmering
OTG means that the port supports being a host and a guest. So you can plug it into a computer but you can also plug things into it and have it register them. Mice, keyboards, storage, etc.
I use my Steam Deck for emulation as I can go as high as X360, PS3, and NSW, but I recognize why these are popular. I remember when the original Bittboy released as an NES on a chip, and I guess it evolved into these handhelds.
Yeah I had a steam deck but it was a little to big to inspire me to take it along places. Honestly anything bigger than a PSP is a little to big for me. Nice having a small device you can whip out to play for a little while you have free time.
I think this format worked just fine Coury. I know you'd been wondering how to handle this type of video, and it was just as informative and entertaining as usual!
It's good to see you guys getting back to doing long-form game videos. While I love the Sunday night livestreams, videos like this are the ones that inspired me to create a gaming channel myself. Kudos to the work and quality that you guys put in and I wish you a million subs one day soon!
I've had a 353M for a few months now. If you want to squeeze more power out of it, use the Android side. There are 3rd part emulation Station type interfaces for Android but, performance of games are MUCH better(better driver level). I started moving a different way with Emulation, I got a GameVice Flex, and connected to my phone. RetroArch is there and same settings, and if you have a 1-2 year old phone, its like 10X more powerful than the 353m. You need to be on Android though. I just got a S23 Ultra, and the word is, it can emulate Switch games, so anything below it, is very strong. I've done up to Wii and GameCube so far and not a single studder. Nice to see a new video, it's been a while.
Now that you dipped your toes in software emulation (video-wise) would be great for a video using retroarch/batocera/lakka on more powerful hardware connected to a TV and compare to what you guys are used to, the shaders, run-ahead, variable refresh setting (to maintain the real hz of the consoles and handhelds) and lots of stuff.
Bought the RG35XX and I must say: for around $50 and with GarlicOS it's a really good Gameboy, Gameboy Color & more device. If I want to play with Shaders and more (CRT Geom ❤), Steam Deck is my favourite system these days. 🎉
Great little overview! After being a die hard original hardware pursuit for a couple decades I finally gave emulation a try last month as well. I got a Retroid Pocket 3+, an Anbernic RG35XX, and a Powkiddy V90 to see what emulation could offer at different price points and was really pleasantly surprised! It's not the perfect seamless plug and play experience of original hardware and an EverDrive, but I was really delighted by how much more capable and accurate these devices were than I was expecting. The Powkiddy V90 with MiyooCFW custom firmware could do everything Sega Genesis and below really well plus Game Boy Advance, the Anbernic RG35XX with MinUI custom firmware was pretty much flawless for everything PlayStation and below aside from a bit of screen tearing, and the Retroid Pocket 3+ with the Daijisho frontend could do all of those perfectly (including difficult to emulate games like SNES Super FX games and Game Boy Advance first-person shooters) plus N64, Sega Saturn, and Dreamcast upscaled to 2x their native resolution perfectly with no slowdown in any of the games I tried. You can also hot swap the HDMI out cable on the Retroid Pocket 3+, which makes it a really wonderful Nintendo Switch like experience. Emulation may be a bit labor intensive to set up and not always perfect at everything, but there is something kinda magical about having all your games for all your favorite systems on one handheld that you can take with you everywhere you go. I've been enjoying it a lot and am glad I gave it a try. =)
I don't know how exactly it works for this system, but generally speaking a shader is applied to the game directly where a filter is a post-processing effect applied to the video output. That's a bit of an over-simplifiction to make it digestible as a youtube comment, but it gets the idea across. You might find there's more difference in both capability and performance when dealing with polygon based games and higher end hardware emulation in general. For example, scanlines are very easy to do as a post-processing effect (ie as a filter) as you simply dim or blacken every Xth horizontal row of pixels. But as a shader it's more complicated, because the video signal hasn't been processed into horizontal lines to dim yet. But, of course, this only really matters if you're emulating a console beefy enough that these sorts of things might impact performance of the device.
Always good to see another video from Coury and Try and... oh my goodness, are Pis really that much now?? It was only a couple years ago that I picked up a kit for $100... 2020 really hit the electronics market hard, with lingering effects too... Quick edit: On The Go is a USB connector that's typically used for hooking something up to a phone - for example, if I were to use my USB keyboard or mouse with my phone, I need a small On The Go adapter to have it be recognized sometimes. I'd imagine this is for use with controllers made for smartphones, which could be handy if you want a "Switch-like" experience!
Ever since the origional black and orange RG350 hit the scene, Ive been heavy into the retro handheld scene. a year before that I bought a Pi3b+ and a nescase+ to use in my Chevy Avalanche ceiling mounted 7" screen during a cross country vacation with ma wife like 4 years ago. then I bought the RG350 to finally fulfill my dream of having a portable retro gaming device, I did have a sony erricson xperia play nearly 10 years ago which technically was my first handheld gaming system (installed a dozen systems plus 9860 games) but lost it after owning it for just over a year. I also bought the powkiddy V90 directly after the black version hit the market and I have installed CFW on both of them plus dozens of systems, well over 10K games and just love them both, the RG350 is GREAT for PS1 games and the V90 is great for everything up to SNES with a smattering of low demanding PS1 games, I only want one more device, something powerful enough to play God of War for PS2 at a full 60fps at 1x-1.5x resolution AT LEAST for an affordable price! And if 2023 is not the year for that, 2024 Will be. Edit: CFW or Custom Firm Ware is what makes these device go from ok to AWESOME, Stock firmware can REALLY limit a devices abilities, CFW can fix screen tearing, improve performance, allow for a friendlier and easier to navigare graphical interface fix or enable hardware like HDMI out or analogue stick accuracy and can potentially allow you to play FAR more games on them, but just like with PC, just because you have a powerful system you may not be able to play some systems, there is just not enough demand for some systems like 3DO to get groups of people to dedicate days upon weeks to get the system running in an acceptable manner, but most of the big systems that have hundreds to over a thousand games will never get left in the dust.
Its good to see content from you, Coury. I know its been a challenge. Also, I don't know if we'll ever see truly perfect Saturn emulation, much less on a handheld. If Srg320 perfects the Mister core, I'd think it could be essentially reverse engineered and better understood
Mednafen standalone is near perfect. The problem is it's command line, so I personally use Mednafee as a frontend. I use it all the time, I even use the Retrobit Saturn controllers with it. This is on a PC of course, not a handheld.
Yessssss. Been waiting for this episode. Outside of MiSTer, I typically play on original hardware but I absolutely love the RG35XX and the Retroid Pocket 3+...revisiting PSP games especially has been a treat
Just got my RG35XX in the mail today, loaded up like 2,000 mame roms and like 50 more PS1 games, on top of all the roms that came on the stock sd card. Garlic OS is some of the easiest CFW to get running ever lol. Got it done during my lunch break lol. Best $70 dollars I've spent in a long time.
@@Clos93 It's so good...so many of my friends and coworkers have picked one up since I bought mine. And I completely agree - one of the best $70 I've spent on gaming
And because of this I'm pretty sure that filters will drain the battery much faster compared to shaders. Filters are more likely to impact emulation performance too.
IMO the most counter-intuitive thing about the RetroArch menu is learning what options live in the Quick Menu - which afaik is only accessible while games are running and which is easy to accidentally back up out of, causing confusion. The Quick Menu has sub-menus such as Shader Options for visual effects, and Core Options where you will find settings that the core would have it were standalone program - internal resolution for PS1 games and disc read speeds and the like. Once you get that figured out and know how to get back to it after accidentally going a menu layer above everything pretty much makes sense, but getting to that point can take a while.
I enjoyed setting up a RetroPi at one point for a family member but the huge wealth of customisation needed to get things running semi-perfectly and the fact that some games or systems are very spotty was a big turn off. The big selling point for me with Analogue Pocket etc is the FPGA side of things. It's soooo nice to know that you don't have to worry when booting a game up and just makes the whole experience feel more "solid" for lack of a better word.
As an owner of a RG351M, I find it very difficult to enjoy even Genesis and SNES games on these sized systems. I found if you treat the console like a portable (Gameboy, Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket), you greatly up the enjoyment factor. and nostalgia. If they somehow figured out how to do a metal clamshell DS clone, with dual Slider sticks, this system would be incredible. The Nintendo 3DS had the absolute best DPad, sticks, and buttons for handheld gaming.
Great video, happy to see you guys cover this space. Would be great to see a follow-up diving into the community made OSes like JELOS and ArkOS for the 353M which have better performance and some other features. Android also has even better performance, can look great with a frontend like Daijishō, and can even run DS pretty well along with supporting the touch screen that doesn't work in the Linux OSes
The other night, I'm sort of falling in and out of sleep and the part where he launches the SD card just killed me. It was difficult to get to sleep after that!
My go-to input lag test has always been whether or not i can beat Soda Popinski… I severely notice the difference in emulation station/retroarch on my core i5 PC….
We are so close. For years, I’ve wanted a handheld to run the ps2 gen library seamlessly. I know we are close (and I understand that steamdeck exists, I just feel that it’s a bit outside an acceptable price range if your primary goal is ps2 emulation) That generation, the Dreamcast PS2 and og Xbox, had such a stellar library and it’s as far back as one can go and expect to find modern creature comforts in any form:) I mean, with free mcboot, I wouldn’t even mind if the hardware was a cutdown ps2. I’ve seen videos of handheld ps2’s but they have been more a curiosity rather than an actual product with any support. I can’t wait until amd’s 6800u is a mass produced cheap soc for handhelds like this…it’s not too far off
For me i'm still very in love with the RG 552.... It has the most gorgeous green out of all of them and don't get me wrong. I probably have in total like 15 different. Ambernics,along with my steam deck and aya neo 2021 pro... But like I said the screen on that beautiful little handheld is phenomenal.
I have a collection of original portable consoles plus an Analogue Pocket. None of those leave the house but I will grab one of my Anbernic devices to take with me in the truck to play while I'm sitting and waiting.
Another great video. I have been interested in these devices for a long time, in part because I want to make new games for them as much as play retro games on them. I don’t own either of the devices in the video, but do have the 353p from anbernic which has been my personal favorite so far. I find the more snes like style to the grip far more comfortable.
Nice change from covering only original hardware. Now a full blown episode on the Steam deck´s capabilities for retro console and retro pc emulation gaming might be a good idea if there is enough interest. Both handheld and desktop as a package. The possibilities on this thing are endless.
I’d really recommend looking into the Retroid Pocket 2+ or even more recent Retroid consoles! They work the same way as Ambernic consoles except they run PS1, N64, DS, PSP and even Dreamcast perfectly, and they’re cheaper!
I use the pixelate shader on all my 2d game. That way you don’t have to use integer scaling and making the screen too small. It gets rid off all the shimmer from uneven pixels and looks great.
Looks like Anbernic really sent out lots of their devices to the RUclipsrs. That's be honest, there are so many Chinese made handheld devices run on free emulation softwares. Most of them are running on lower end of SOC hardwares which are fine running old consoles from 8 bit to 16 bit. Starting from 32 bit consoles it's a hit or miss depends on what game you are playing. Those devices all look similar, either vertial or horizontal; for example RG35XX vs Miyoo Mini. All these Chinese companies have one common problem for making these devices which is they only know how to put necessary components together in a nice shell, but they don't have a nice software engineering team to optimize these free emulation softwares for their hardwares. 20:22 shows what an optimized OS can do better for the device. If you are familiar and very comfortable with configure Retroarch & Emulation, then it won't be much problem for you. If you are new and never use Retroarch emulator before, then you probably need to spend lots of time to learn how to configure to get the best result you desire. It's very time consumption and lots of hassles. Because these devices are all running on free emulation softwares, you actually don't need to buy any of them, all you need is your Android phone and any medium or high end Android phone can run better result then these handheld devices (Snapdragon 845 is recommanded for running PS2 games). But still you need to be comfortable configuring the settings.
I'm sure it's been mentioned in the comments elsewhere, but performance for a lot of the rougher systems (N64, Saturn, DC) will improve with custom firmware - and moreso on the Android side of things. Navigating Android is a bit clunky - but I frequently boot into it for the generally improved experience with more difficult-to-emulate systems. Having the hybrid approach isn't ideal, but IMO, worth the little bit of extra learning curve to get it set up and working how you want it. Can even do some visual enhancements for N64 there
Dammit. I was hoping that the dpad would be up to the quality they were before the RG353 line started. The 353VS is a GB shaped system with the same hardware, and apparently the same dpad flaw. I've got two of the 353VS and neither of them pass the Contra test, but if you can get around that they are awesome handhelds that weigh a bit less than the 353M from what I recall. These portables have come a long way since the days of the Dingoo A320 back in the 2000s. They are finally running Linux instead of Open Dingoo X as an OS so they can run full blown emulators. This is a major improvement. EDIT: Retro Game Corps is a great source for info, good pick for who to refer to.
The 35xs looks really interesting, and very affordable thanks for showing it off! Also that closing comment, yikes e_e Edit: I now have an RG35xx arriving later today!
How does it make you not worry about damaging it that it is made of metal? If anything, I feel more worried when dealing with metal devices. The glass part is vulnerable anyway whether the body is metal or plastic, and metal surface can be more easily scratched and the scratches are more conspicuous. If you drop it, plastic body doesn't usually get dents, because it has some elasticity, whereas metal body's corners can easily get dents. Also, if I don't put it very gently on my glass desk, it can dent my desk, unlike plastic devices which I don't worry about it at all.
For N64, Dreamcast, PSP and gamecube you need to use Android, you're choking performance using emulationstation, with M64Plus FZ, ReDream, PPSSPP and Dolphin MMJR2 do wonders and you will hardly see issues in any of them (except Dolphin)
For the RG35XX came just out the MinUI frontend. You should really try it. Through it, this thing becomes a real easy, quick on the go maschine, for some GB/C/A fun. Its almost a perfect Gameboy then.
Cool uncomplicated video, nice overview of both these Anbernic handhelds. Personally I think these handheld devices are great cheap portable solution, like for on vacations. RetroArch I've mostly used for old school arcade emulation, never used it to simulate a CD systems myself. Quality of the controls and screen are key with a good handheld. Btw, MVS NeoDriftout doesn't slow down like that so I can't see why the CD version should... but I also don't own the CD version.. ✌️
They keep updating these Chinese emulation handhelds. A year later they become obsolete with a new model. Hard to choose the right one. I'm perfectly happy with my modded PSVita at the moment until they finally nail 32X, Saturn, Dreamcast, GameCube, PS2 emulation.
Any emulation device that capable to play PS2/Dreamcast/PSP/GameCube means i didn't even ask for older consoles, obviously it will play NES, SNES, and Genesis smoothly.
Interesting and solid review of the product. Little curious if the product would of crossed yalls path without the company reaching out, but that doesn't matter too much. Just got my Anbernic RG35XX in and now I am questioning whether or not I want to sell my Analogue Pocket when I finally get it in after waiting for over a year now. The price point and availability makes it more of a daily carry over my Steam Deck or Switch OLED. I don't have to worry about it being stolen or broken on random trips because of the cheap cost. I don't have to bring too many accessories and it's light weight and takes up very little space. Co-workers are drooling over it and I wouldn't have to help them out like I used to on stuff like the Raspberry Pi or if they got a Analogue Pocket themselves. Curious to see where the next boom in retro gaming will come since I feel like since Pocket made the news, Chinese manufactures caught on and caught up within the year.
I really enjoy the Miyoo Mini. It is small, but that's what I like about it. Due to parts availability they now make the Miyoo Mini Plus, which is larger.
I wanted a mini. But it is what it is. Wanted something I could throw in my pocket like a wallet and forget about but wip out whenever I needed to kill some time.
I think it’s great that we get better displays and controls. But it really feels that CPU performance has been stagnating for years - my Odroid Go is several years old, cost well unter $100, but it feels like it still supports all the same systems than anything brand new - up to PS1. N64, Dreamcast, PSP, PS2, GameCube, Wii - good luck. Seems like a SteamDeck or other x86 handheld is the only real option for those? No ARM chips powerful enough in the $100 device range yet?
@@RFLCPTR Ayn Odin is the only one that is good in this category. Anything else, just get a steamdeck. Those 1200dollar devices are a joke. Anything lower, get the Anbernic 353m or p, or the miyoo/plus and the rg35xx. Those are the go to devices for easy quick. The Retroid Pocket 3+ is the only one that is worth mentioning. But its your decision if you rather get the Odin at that point. Its in all regards better, but a bit more expensive.
Over the past six months, devices based on the T618 chipset have been around for about $150 and those do N64, Dreamcast and PSP extremely well. This range includes the Retroid Pocket 3+ and the Retroid Pocket Flip and the Anbernic RG505 and RG405 (Powkiddy also has an option but just... don't get that one, it's a mess). So no, there's nothing at the $100 level that can do those systems well yet, but you certainly don't have to jump all the way up to the Steam Deck for them. Now, when it comes to PS2 and GC it's a different story. The AYN Odin Lite, Base and Pro can kinda sorta do those, but it'll require a lot of messing around with settings and acceptance that some games just won't work reliably. The Steam Deck really is the best option for those systems.
Thanks for the shoutout, glad you had fun dipping your toes into the handheld emulation world!
[Coury] Absolutely! Your videos were huge in helping me figure a lot of stuff out. Thanks for doing what you do!
@@mylifeingaming
You have nice toes
That seamless edit at 20:48 from the audio of the actual handheld into the song as background music... **chef's kiss**
I've been using emulation on my phone for several years now and I got a retroid pocket 3+ recently for my kids to use on road trips. It's not as simple as using an old Gameboy yet, but it's darn close. I am still amazed that I can play almost any retro game at any time now. What a world we've grown up into. 😁
Imagine showing someone this in 1992
Hell, even in 2002 or 2012. The advancements this stuff has made recently is huge.
Me from 1992 wouldn’t like it is too Chinese
The flaws of sw emulation? Lol ☮️
My 11 year old mind would have thought I was Marty McFly.
I always thought that about emulators. If I knew as a kid you could download every game for every console for free one day. Man. I probably wouldn't have done anything different though. Probably would just make young you depressed.
Thank you Coury & Try for the always cozy Sunday streams and the awesome (past) content. Hopefully you can get back in a groove and crank some new great episodes out this year!
I'm really happy you reviewed this. Real hardware just gets tiresome sometimes when you just want to play a certain game. I could be wrong but I think a lot of people against emulation tried it out years ago when it wasn't so good and never tried it again.
Emulation can often be better than the original hardware with, for example, FPS improvements, ROM hacks, translations, etc.
@@robbhays8077 To be fair the last two can be applied to real hardware as well
@@mr.whimsic6902 That is fair. Burn your own CD's for disc games but boy are Everdrives expensive...
I was emulating N64 and GBA games off my flash drive in highschool over 10 years ago. Folks just don’t wanna learn out of laziness lol
As someone who’s really into retro handhelds I’m really happily surprised to see you getting into this at least for this video
14:05 "If you know where to look"...combined with the video at the time...hahaha, love it!
I jumped on the Anbernic train with the RG351MP and immediately went with one of the other OS's available (AmberElec). My d-pad diagonals were overly sensitive too, just like you said in the video. If you want to go through the effort you can actually tape over parts of the d-pad contacts on the board to get it to be more usable in faster games like Contra.
You had problems with the MP? I don't recall ever having an issue with the 351V. Maybe they changed it? Or maybe I never tested it sufficiently?
I love your guys perspective on emulators. Id love to see more emulation related reviews!
Awesome you're covering this! The handheld scene has been exciting recently with devices like these.
Never expected this channel to review a device like this! What a nice surprise.
A real sign of the times. OG hardware would be amazing, but its hard to get people into that for the prices these days.
@@WhatAboutZoidberg Especially when some of the really fun stuff all but requires an Everdrive to play affordably on real hardware.
EDIT: Looking at you Little Samson and Summer Carnival 92 Recca...
I would like to see you guys discuss disc resurfacing on CD-based games with various methods of removing scratches from discs using expensive tools to cheap crap like the SkipDr.
Coury , the filters are cpu based and the shaders are gpu based. You should use a sharp bilinear shader so you don’t have to use integer scaling to eliminate shimmering
OTG means that the port supports being a host and a guest. So you can plug it into a computer but you can also plug things into it and have it register them. Mice, keyboards, storage, etc.
8:29 THATS GOOD
Nice to hear you shout out Russ and Retro Game Corps! One of my favorite channels of the last 12 months.
I use my Steam Deck for emulation as I can go as high as X360, PS3, and NSW, but I recognize why these are popular. I remember when the original Bittboy released as an NES on a chip, and I guess it evolved into these handhelds.
Yeah I had a steam deck but it was a little to big to inspire me to take it along places. Honestly anything bigger than a PSP is a little to big for me. Nice having a small device you can whip out to play for a little while you have free time.
I think this format worked just fine Coury. I know you'd been wondering how to handle this type of video, and it was just as informative and entertaining as usual!
I was literally thinking about buying this and wanted an in depth video thank you!
It's good to see you guys getting back to doing long-form game videos. While I love the Sunday night livestreams, videos like this are the ones that inspired me to create a gaming channel myself. Kudos to the work and quality that you guys put in and I wish you a million subs one day soon!
I've had a 353M for a few months now. If you want to squeeze more power out of it, use the Android side. There are 3rd part emulation Station type interfaces for Android but, performance of games are MUCH better(better driver level). I started moving a different way with Emulation, I got a GameVice Flex, and connected to my phone. RetroArch is there and same settings, and if you have a 1-2 year old phone, its like 10X more powerful than the 353m. You need to be on Android though.
I just got a S23 Ultra, and the word is, it can emulate Switch games, so anything below it, is very strong. I've done up to Wii and GameCube so far and not a single studder.
Nice to see a new video, it's been a while.
Thanks for mentioning the save file converter.
Is it weird that your theme now inspires nostalgia for me 😂 love the work you guys put in thank you!
Now that you dipped your toes in software emulation (video-wise) would be great for a video using retroarch/batocera/lakka on more powerful hardware connected to a TV and compare to what you guys are used to, the shaders, run-ahead, variable refresh setting (to maintain the real hz of the consoles and handhelds) and lots of stuff.
Bought the RG35XX and I must say: for around $50 and with GarlicOS it's a really good Gameboy, Gameboy Color & more device. If I want to play with Shaders and more (CRT Geom ❤), Steam Deck is my favourite system these days. 🎉
Great overview of those 2 more recent Anbernic devices.
I'm still on the RG351MP.
I would love you to do reviews of more of these handhelds
6:00 the SD card flying out made me laught a good bit
Your choices of games to emulate in the first section are much more interesting than most choose on RUclips.
Great little overview! After being a die hard original hardware pursuit for a couple decades I finally gave emulation a try last month as well. I got a Retroid Pocket 3+, an Anbernic RG35XX, and a Powkiddy V90 to see what emulation could offer at different price points and was really pleasantly surprised! It's not the perfect seamless plug and play experience of original hardware and an EverDrive, but I was really delighted by how much more capable and accurate these devices were than I was expecting. The Powkiddy V90 with MiyooCFW custom firmware could do everything Sega Genesis and below really well plus Game Boy Advance, the Anbernic RG35XX with MinUI custom firmware was pretty much flawless for everything PlayStation and below aside from a bit of screen tearing, and the Retroid Pocket 3+ with the Daijisho frontend could do all of those perfectly (including difficult to emulate games like SNES Super FX games and Game Boy Advance first-person shooters) plus N64, Sega Saturn, and Dreamcast upscaled to 2x their native resolution perfectly with no slowdown in any of the games I tried. You can also hot swap the HDMI out cable on the Retroid Pocket 3+, which makes it a really wonderful Nintendo Switch like experience.
Emulation may be a bit labor intensive to set up and not always perfect at everything, but there is something kinda magical about having all your games for all your favorite systems on one handheld that you can take with you everywhere you go. I've been enjoying it a lot and am glad I gave it a try. =)
What about hdmi, can you connect to external monitor and use 2 Co trolleys to play 2 players games?) Thank you in advance
I got mine back in November, I am so happy with it.
I don't know how exactly it works for this system, but generally speaking a shader is applied to the game directly where a filter is a post-processing effect applied to the video output. That's a bit of an over-simplifiction to make it digestible as a youtube comment, but it gets the idea across. You might find there's more difference in both capability and performance when dealing with polygon based games and higher end hardware emulation in general. For example, scanlines are very easy to do as a post-processing effect (ie as a filter) as you simply dim or blacken every Xth horizontal row of pixels. But as a shader it's more complicated, because the video signal hasn't been processed into horizontal lines to dim yet. But, of course, this only really matters if you're emulating a console beefy enough that these sorts of things might impact performance of the device.
Always good to see another video from Coury and Try and... oh my goodness, are Pis really that much now?? It was only a couple years ago that I picked up a kit for $100... 2020 really hit the electronics market hard, with lingering effects too...
Quick edit: On The Go is a USB connector that's typically used for hooking something up to a phone - for example, if I were to use my USB keyboard or mouse with my phone, I need a small On The Go adapter to have it be recognized sometimes. I'd imagine this is for use with controllers made for smartphones, which could be handy if you want a "Switch-like" experience!
That's wild, yesterday I was thinking I haven't seen a new video from you in a while!
Ever since the origional black and orange RG350 hit the scene, Ive been heavy into the retro handheld scene. a year before that I bought a Pi3b+ and a nescase+ to use in my Chevy Avalanche ceiling mounted 7" screen during a cross country vacation with ma wife like 4 years ago. then I bought the RG350 to finally fulfill my dream of having a portable retro gaming device, I did have a sony erricson xperia play nearly 10 years ago which technically was my first handheld gaming system (installed a dozen systems plus 9860 games) but lost it after owning it for just over a year. I also bought the powkiddy V90 directly after the black version hit the market and I have installed CFW on both of them plus dozens of systems, well over 10K games and just love them both, the RG350 is GREAT for PS1 games and the V90 is great for everything up to SNES with a smattering of low demanding PS1 games, I only want one more device, something powerful enough to play God of War for PS2 at a full 60fps at 1x-1.5x resolution AT LEAST for an affordable price! And if 2023 is not the year for that, 2024 Will be.
Edit: CFW or Custom Firm Ware is what makes these device go from ok to AWESOME, Stock firmware can REALLY limit a devices abilities, CFW can fix screen tearing, improve performance, allow for a friendlier and easier to navigare graphical interface fix or enable hardware like HDMI out or analogue stick accuracy and can potentially allow you to play FAR more games on them, but just like with PC, just because you have a powerful system you may not be able to play some systems, there is just not enough demand for some systems like 3DO to get groups of people to dedicate days upon weeks to get the system running in an acceptable manner, but most of the big systems that have hundreds to over a thousand games will never get left in the dust.
Its good to see content from you, Coury. I know its been a challenge. Also, I don't know if we'll ever see truly perfect Saturn emulation, much less on a handheld. If Srg320 perfects the Mister core, I'd think it could be essentially reverse engineered and better understood
Mednafen standalone is near perfect. The problem is it's command line, so I personally use Mednafee as a frontend. I use it all the time, I even use the Retrobit Saturn controllers with it. This is on a PC of course, not a handheld.
Yessssss. Been waiting for this episode. Outside of MiSTer, I typically play on original hardware but I absolutely love the RG35XX and the Retroid Pocket 3+...revisiting PSP games especially has been a treat
Just got my RG35XX in the mail today, loaded up like 2,000 mame roms and like 50 more PS1 games, on top of all the roms that came on the stock sd card. Garlic OS is some of the easiest CFW to get running ever lol. Got it done during my lunch break lol. Best $70 dollars I've spent in a long time.
@@Clos93 It's so good...so many of my friends and coworkers have picked one up since I bought mine. And I completely agree - one of the best $70 I've spent on gaming
I find it crazy how fast these things have become popular. Its great
Retro Games Corps have just reviewed the 405M, which looks a better proposition for anyone that wants Saturn/N64 emulation.
Shaders work on GPU, while video filters are "software rendering", i.e. rendered on CPU, -- AFAIK
And because of this I'm pretty sure that filters will drain the battery much faster compared to shaders. Filters are more likely to impact emulation performance too.
Uuuuh I'm liking the new camera angles corey! Looking good too!
IMO the most counter-intuitive thing about the RetroArch menu is learning what options live in the Quick Menu - which afaik is only accessible while games are running and which is easy to accidentally back up out of, causing confusion. The Quick Menu has sub-menus such as Shader Options for visual effects, and Core Options where you will find settings that the core would have it were standalone program - internal resolution for PS1 games and disc read speeds and the like. Once you get that figured out and know how to get back to it after accidentally going a menu layer above everything pretty much makes sense, but getting to that point can take a while.
6:00 I lol'd heartily
Ah yes, the SD card launcher functionality we all looked for.
Thanks for this video! Love seeing you guys cover stuff outside of the typical RGB series. This thing looks like a perfect bedside time waster.
I enjoyed setting up a RetroPi at one point for a family member but the huge wealth of customisation needed to get things running semi-perfectly and the fact that some games or systems are very spotty was a big turn off. The big selling point for me with Analogue Pocket etc is the FPGA side of things. It's soooo nice to know that you don't have to worry when booting a game up and just makes the whole experience feel more "solid" for lack of a better word.
Great video! I love it when you guys do hardware stuff! This video finally convinced me that I have to put GarlicOS on my RG35xx.
As an owner of a RG351M, I find it very difficult to enjoy even Genesis and SNES games on these sized systems. I found if you treat the console like a portable (Gameboy, Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket), you greatly up the enjoyment factor. and nostalgia. If they somehow figured out how to do a metal clamshell DS clone, with dual Slider sticks, this system would be incredible. The Nintendo 3DS had the absolute best DPad, sticks, and buttons for handheld gaming.
Great video, happy to see you guys cover this space. Would be great to see a follow-up diving into the community made OSes like JELOS and ArkOS for the 353M which have better performance and some other features. Android also has even better performance, can look great with a frontend like Daijishō, and can even run DS pretty well along with supporting the touch screen that doesn't work in the Linux OSes
The other night, I'm sort of falling in and out of sleep and the part where he launches the SD card just killed me. It was difficult to get to sleep after that!
Great overview as always! I may have to grab one of these some day.
Regarding the Neo Driftout slowdown, that does not happen on real CD hardware.
Nice to see new vid :)
My go-to input lag test has always been whether or not i can beat Soda Popinski… I severely notice the difference in emulation station/retroarch on my core i5 PC….
Mine has been the Tyson punches. They really bring out the difference between a CRT and a LCD with any noticeable lag.
We are so close. For years, I’ve wanted a handheld to run the ps2 gen library seamlessly. I know we are close (and I understand that steamdeck exists, I just feel that it’s a bit outside an acceptable price range if your primary goal is ps2 emulation) That generation, the Dreamcast PS2 and og Xbox, had such a stellar library and it’s as far back as one can go and expect to find modern creature comforts in any form:) I mean, with free mcboot, I wouldn’t even mind if the hardware was a cutdown ps2. I’ve seen videos of handheld ps2’s but they have been more a curiosity rather than an actual product with any support. I can’t wait until amd’s 6800u is a mass produced cheap soc for handhelds like this…it’s not too far off
For me i'm still very in love with the RG 552.... It has the most gorgeous green out of all of them and don't get me wrong. I probably have in total like 15 different. Ambernics,along with my steam deck and aya neo 2021 pro... But like I said the screen on that beautiful little handheld is phenomenal.
I have a collection of original portable consoles plus an Analogue Pocket. None of those leave the house but I will grab one of my Anbernic devices to take with me in the truck to play while I'm sitting and waiting.
Very nice discussion. BTW, what's the game running at 2:01?
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alligator_Hunt
Been looking forward to this video!
That is a video I did not expect to see.
Retro Game Corp & MLiG maybe?
Yeah, the RGC shout out was a nice touch to see. Dude puts some work into his videos.
Hand-held FPGAs? I didn't know those existed. I'll be searching your channel for more info! :)
[Try4ce] That would be the Analogue Pocket.
5:59 I LOLed :D frustrating if you can find it anymore afterwards :D
the f button is actually used to pay respects but cool that it does other stuff too
Always enjoy MLiG! Thanks.
I think I've spent more time messing with shaders in RA than I have actually playing anything lol
Love the quality of these videos.
I would love to see a portable Gamecube handheld that could play those tiny discs and other , preinstalled, retro games.
Never expected to see something like from yall but I'll take it.
Another great video. I have been interested in these devices for a long time, in part because I want to make new games for them as much as play retro games on them. I don’t own either of the devices in the video, but do have the 353p from anbernic which has been my personal favorite so far. I find the more snes like style to the grip far more comfortable.
@6.00 how many times have I fired an SD card across the room by doing that LOL !!!
Nice change from covering only original hardware.
Now a full blown episode on the Steam deck´s capabilities for retro console and retro pc emulation gaming might be a good idea if there is enough interest. Both handheld and desktop as a package. The possibilities on this thing are endless.
That's Good!
I’d really recommend looking into the Retroid Pocket 2+ or even more recent Retroid consoles! They work the same way as Ambernic consoles except they run PS1, N64, DS, PSP and even Dreamcast perfectly, and they’re cheaper!
Welcome back guys.
I use the pixelate shader on all my 2d game. That way you don’t have to use integer scaling and making the screen too small. It gets rid off all the shimmer from uneven pixels and looks great.
Looks like Anbernic really sent out lots of their devices to the RUclipsrs. That's be honest, there are so many Chinese made handheld devices run on free emulation softwares. Most of them are running on lower end of SOC hardwares which are fine running old consoles from 8 bit to 16 bit. Starting from 32 bit consoles it's a hit or miss depends on what game you are playing. Those devices all look similar, either vertial or horizontal; for example RG35XX vs Miyoo Mini. All these Chinese companies have one common problem for making these devices which is they only know how to put necessary components together in a nice shell, but they don't have a nice software engineering team to optimize these free emulation softwares for their hardwares. 20:22 shows what an optimized OS can do better for the device. If you are familiar and very comfortable with configure Retroarch & Emulation, then it won't be much problem for you. If you are new and never use Retroarch emulator before, then you probably need to spend lots of time to learn how to configure to get the best result you desire. It's very time consumption and lots of hassles. Because these devices are all running on free emulation softwares, you actually don't need to buy any of them, all you need is your Android phone and any medium or high end Android phone can run better result then these handheld devices (Snapdragon 845 is recommanded for running PS2 games). But still you need to be comfortable configuring the settings.
Well, this looks interesting!
Looks like the perfect portable console for retro games
I'm sure it's been mentioned in the comments elsewhere, but performance for a lot of the rougher systems (N64, Saturn, DC) will improve with custom firmware - and moreso on the Android side of things. Navigating Android is a bit clunky - but I frequently boot into it for the generally improved experience with more difficult-to-emulate systems. Having the hybrid approach isn't ideal, but IMO, worth the little bit of extra learning curve to get it set up and working how you want it. Can even do some visual enhancements for N64 there
they should have sent you a 353p or 353ps. it trades pocketability for comfort and ergonomics.
THE LEGEND RETURNS.
That’s good!
God dammit. Now I want this. Thanks Coury.
Dammit. I was hoping that the dpad would be up to the quality they were before the RG353 line started. The 353VS is a GB shaped system with the same hardware, and apparently the same dpad flaw. I've got two of the 353VS and neither of them pass the Contra test, but if you can get around that they are awesome handhelds that weigh a bit less than the 353M from what I recall.
These portables have come a long way since the days of the Dingoo A320 back in the 2000s. They are finally running Linux instead of Open Dingoo X as an OS so they can run full blown emulators. This is a major improvement.
EDIT: Retro Game Corps is a great source for info, good pick for who to refer to.
The 35xs looks really interesting, and very affordable thanks for showing it off! Also that closing comment, yikes e_e Edit: I now have an RG35xx arriving later today!
How does it make you not worry about damaging it that it is made of metal? If anything, I feel more worried when dealing with metal devices. The glass part is vulnerable anyway whether the body is metal or plastic, and metal surface can be more easily scratched and the scratches are more conspicuous. If you drop it, plastic body doesn't usually get dents, because it has some elasticity, whereas metal body's corners can easily get dents. Also, if I don't put it very gently on my glass desk, it can dent my desk, unlike plastic devices which I don't worry about it at all.
For N64, Dreamcast, PSP and gamecube you need to use Android, you're choking performance using emulationstation, with M64Plus FZ, ReDream, PPSSPP and Dolphin MMJR2 do wonders and you will hardly see issues in any of them (except Dolphin)
i'd rather play these big chunk of libraries on PC.
For the RG35XX came just out the MinUI frontend. You should really try it.
Through it, this thing becomes a real easy, quick on the go maschine, for some GB/C/A fun. Its almost a perfect Gameboy then.
Cool uncomplicated video, nice overview of both these Anbernic handhelds.
Personally I think these handheld devices are great cheap portable solution, like for on vacations. RetroArch I've mostly used for old school arcade emulation, never used it to simulate a CD systems myself.
Quality of the controls and screen are key with a good handheld.
Btw, MVS NeoDriftout doesn't slow down like that so I can't see why the CD version should... but I also don't own the CD version.. ✌️
They keep updating these Chinese emulation handhelds. A year later they become obsolete with a new model. Hard to choose the right one. I'm perfectly happy with my modded PSVita at the moment until they finally nail 32X, Saturn, Dreamcast, GameCube, PS2 emulation.
Any emulation device that capable to play PS2/Dreamcast/PSP/GameCube means i didn't even ask for older consoles, obviously it will play NES, SNES, and Genesis smoothly.
Interesting and solid review of the product. Little curious if the product would of crossed yalls path without the company reaching out, but that doesn't matter too much. Just got my Anbernic RG35XX in and now I am questioning whether or not I want to sell my Analogue Pocket when I finally get it in after waiting for over a year now. The price point and availability makes it more of a daily carry over my Steam Deck or Switch OLED. I don't have to worry about it being stolen or broken on random trips because of the cheap cost. I don't have to bring too many accessories and it's light weight and takes up very little space. Co-workers are drooling over it and I wouldn't have to help them out like I used to on stuff like the Raspberry Pi or if they got a Analogue Pocket themselves. Curious to see where the next boom in retro gaming will come since I feel like since Pocket made the news, Chinese manufactures caught on and caught up within the year.
I lost it when the micro sd card just popped out of frame XD
I really enjoy the Miyoo Mini. It is small, but that's what I like about it. Due to parts availability they now make the Miyoo Mini Plus, which is larger.
I wanted a mini. But it is what it is. Wanted something I could throw in my pocket like a wallet and forget about but wip out whenever I needed to kill some time.
I think it’s great that we get better displays and controls. But it really feels that CPU performance has been stagnating for years - my Odroid Go is several years old, cost well unter $100, but it feels like it still supports all the same systems than anything brand new - up to PS1. N64, Dreamcast, PSP, PS2, GameCube, Wii - good luck. Seems like a SteamDeck or other x86 handheld is the only real option for those? No ARM chips powerful enough in the $100 device range yet?
Ayn Odin is the closest.
@@RFLCPTR Ayn Odin is the only one that is good in this category.
Anything else, just get a steamdeck.
Those 1200dollar devices are a joke.
Anything lower, get the Anbernic 353m or p, or the miyoo/plus and the rg35xx.
Those are the go to devices for easy quick.
The Retroid Pocket 3+ is the only one that is worth mentioning. But its your decision if you rather get the Odin at that point. Its in all regards better, but a bit more expensive.
@@livinlicious for under $100, getting a PSP is also a good option.
Over the past six months, devices based on the T618 chipset have been around for about $150 and those do N64, Dreamcast and PSP extremely well. This range includes the Retroid Pocket 3+ and the Retroid Pocket Flip and the Anbernic RG505 and RG405 (Powkiddy also has an option but just... don't get that one, it's a mess).
So no, there's nothing at the $100 level that can do those systems well yet, but you certainly don't have to jump all the way up to the Steam Deck for them.
Now, when it comes to PS2 and GC it's a different story. The AYN Odin Lite, Base and Pro can kinda sorta do those, but it'll require a lot of messing around with settings and acceptance that some games just won't work reliably. The Steam Deck really is the best option for those systems.
An excellent option is the RP2+ which is a fantastic budget handheld.
I’ve only looked at the video thumbnail so far, but I can imagine they could have placed the thumb sticks in a worse location on the wider version.
Yay! New MLiG!
I would like to buy one, but in my country it costs 250 euro. I'm chronically ill and have low income, so that is a bit much for me. Great video!
I'm curious about the game at the 2:02 mark of the video. Could you share with me the shmup game name and console the game is on? Much appreciated!
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alligator_Hunt
@@jacoboguerrero7895 thanks for the help! Appreciate it
You can get playable performance on the more demanding systems with custom firmware.
I think Coury could take Yahel an a wrestling competition now.