Although every review or video that mentions it can run ps2 and gamecube. It can't. Also aethersx2 has been abandoned and is closed source. Also android sucks.
But so far its a really nice ps1 portable device. Usually I'd use my vita but I'm always worried about damaging it and they're not exactly in production so I wanted something more disposable with L2 and R2 buttons. Now i can play Abe's Odyssey/Exodus on the train :D
YESSSSS IVE BEEN TALKING ABOUT THIS FOR WEEKS.
Got this, and a laptop with a 3080TI in it before I got sacked, and guess what has been sitting in a corner since?
Got a 512gb card in mine thats almost fully loaded up. Playing the ps2 Hot Pursuit game at the bar as I type this.
RETROID GANG RETROID GANG RETROID GANG
I'm actually considering selling my steam deck for something like it. Ultimately the fact the steam deck handles the wiiu well doesn't make up for the fact that it's bulky enough that I never want to take it on my commute. Although i guess i could spend more time reading instead of playing games...
It's bulky but so much more ergonomic than the Retroid or Switch. Literally haven't touched my Switch since I got my Deck. I've pretty much only been emulating or playing GZdoom though, lol.
I mean, so, the Retroid 3+ is much more capable than it looks, and only about 150 bucks (USD). From what i gather, there isn't too much a difference between even a higher end emulation handheld and the Retroid (some games might benefit from higher end hardware, but unless you're dead set on running something specific chances are most wouldn't notice)
ayn Odin night be up your alley if it's available where you live. More horsepower but still portable. Although nothing quite beats a hacked switch.
I've been plowing through my ps1 and megadrive backlog with it. Very pleasant little device with surprisingly really nice buttons and analogue sticks.
Hell yeah! I got too download crazy lately, and now I'm doing that thing where I'll play 5 minutes of a game, save state, then try something else since i only had like 2 systems growing up.
Since you said ps1, you like Einhander?
I do the same and download hundreds of games just to look at a big library and play each one for a few minutes for maximum nostalgia.
I've not heard of Einhander but it looks like something I'd enjoy. Atm I'm playing through all the tomb raiders and just did all the ps1 armored cores.
Master of arena is my favourite and a really good followup to ac1. Project phantasma is just filler
Huh, weird! I've only had issues with the PSP emulator on it, and that was just due to some obscure controller setting I had accidently enabled. What exactly is it like...doing?
How do you have 3.4gb of NES ROMs? There were 1400 NES games and the largest one was under a megabyte.
all the actual nes games are like 20 meg overall if you got it of archive.org you have a lot of deleting to do
Ah gotcha. I assume it's on WiFi? I got the roms loaded on mine after I did the initial setup, so each app just had to scan the library then. Didn't have any issues with Dolphin or anything. With NES I'd imagine you'd be running through retroarch, which to my knowledge doesnt do box art or anything.
Also if I should just shut up please tell me, I'm not exactly
hereCurious, where did you get the rom pack from? Thinking about it more, good chance there might be some broken files
Usually I'd use my vita but I'm always worried about damaging it and they're not exactly in production so I wanted something more disposable with L2 and R2 buttons.
This, right here, is my biggest pet peeve about closed consoles. For the love of god release something so we can repair the old systems!
I think it was for this device but I believe retro game corps (on youtube) had a video on tweaks/hacks to get PS2/GC emulation running to a passable level. Worth a shot
I do follow him and I'm also a ps2 emu power user so know all the tricks. Problem with ps2 is some games are incredibly demanding to run while others not so much. Still doesn't solve the arm port being abandoned and closed source though. And games mentioned as being playable on retroid tend to have a very loose definition of playable, issues like major graphics bugs and constant drops below 100% speed with audio crackling are considered "playable" by some.
Fortunately my phone is powerful enough to brute force the ps2 library so i got an 8bitdo controller and mount for that.
Before I forget, here's a repo of every game ever made(not really but it's a ton): https://r-roms.github.io/
I have 2 other repos somewhere with more currated collections for up to N64 iirc but I'd have to find them. I just have the above bookmarked.
Also LPT: replace the stock sd card that these things come with if you can. They tend to crap out all the time.
Refurb 64gb steam deck and throw in a 1tb SSD is the best option for that. Comes out to about the same price as a new 64gb but with double the storage of the way more expensive 512gb. Pretty much everything works with proton except games with certain anti-cheat.
I love mine. The only thing I don't like is how clicky the buttons are. But that can be fixed if I cared enough.
I'm just biding my time until I decide to surge on a high end emulation machine or Steam Deck.
I can just sell a couple of my old video games and/or Magic cards for either purchase. (Edit: Any Hexbears wanna do a trade? 😀)
Hoping to have some GC capability so that I don't throw $60 at Nintendo in a few months to play Paper Mario: TTYD for the first time
Stuck in analysis paralaysis.
Yeah you need a Snapdragon 845 at minimum to emulate PS2 with Aethersx2. And I'd recommend looking at a Snapdragon 865 or above, so you can play at higher resolutions and framerates, or with better rendering accuracy. At unisoc tiger processor with two average big cores, combined with six poorly performing little cores and a Mali GPU (the processor in the retriod pocket 3+) is never going to emulate a PS2. Mali GPUs have pretty poor performance in the PS2 and GameCube emulation space as well, basically forcing you to use Snapdragon processors with Adreno GPUs.
With Aethersx2, it's basically a port of PCSX2 to Android, done by guy that made Duckstation. All the translation layers seem to be closed source, yeah. Also I'd recommend downloading one of the apks before they decided to abandon development due to harrassment, I think apkmirror may be helpful there.
Didn't realise it was the duckstation guy. Didn't he join the main pcsx2 team recently for the 1.7 release that has the duckstation UI?
Guess it tracks since the aethersx2 and duckstation android have identical interfaces
Yeah he did Aethersx2 under a pseudonym, but people figured out it was them due to the UI and some PCSX2 forum posts I think. After that there was some major fallout regarding death threats towards them, discord drama, entitled tech illiterate users, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Which is why development of aether is abandoned.
This handheld is so good!
My only Retroid handheld is the second model, and it sucks big time ☠️
Aside from the games I missed out on as a kid, I've also been playing Morrowind with OpenMW and loaded it up with some wacky ports. It's a good time.
Got to one of the final screens on Abe's Exodus 20ish years ago and got stuck and walked away from the game. Definitely loved what I played of it though and heard in a Retronauts podcast that Odyssey is even better.
It can run PS2 and GameCube, just not every game. I have a whole load of games on my Flip that run at full speed.
