Watch out for the Dingoo A380e

[romanaOne]

I bought one of these on eBay, thinking it was a newer faster A320.

OMG, what a piece of junk. Nothing I installed would work with it and of the included emulators only the GBA worked well.

I did sort of like its size and weight. But that was the end of the honeymoon:

The battery, which is soldered to the board, was almost dead. It would not hold a charge at all. I got a refund for the $70.00 from the seller, who insisted that the A380e was not a knock-off b/c he got it from Think Geek. This device seems almost disposable in its build quality. I mean, you have to remove screws, pry open the case with a spudger, and solder 2 contacts just to replace the battery!

Anyway, I'm gonna stick with used Nintendo and Sony for all my budget handheld gaming needs: a knock-off of a knock-off is just too crappy for that price range when old PSPs and DSes are now less than $50.

Just curious: How well does the A320 work? As if I can ever get my hands on one for less than $50....

I'm primarily looking for SNES/NES/GBA + waaay old systems (Atari 2600, Coleco, TI99/4A, intellivision)

 

[the_randomizer]

Dingoo systems are very hit and miss with reliability and stability, as far as emulation goes, it can get the job done more so than the DS, but systems like Snes are lacking in emulation accuracy (esp. sound).

 

[Foxi4]

If you want on open handheld for emulation, get the GCW Zero - Dingoos are grossly outdated. If you don't care about openness, get a PSP.

 

[putamierda]

I have a Dindoo 320, and I've had it for two years now. It's an awesome system, very light and powerful. Games run pretty smooth and there are tons of compatible systems with a very decent compatibility ratio.
I also have a psp, a ds, and a Letcool N350JP, but my system of choice for retro gaiming is dingoo 320 hands down.

 

[DinohScene]

Snes are lacking in emulation accuracy (esp. sound).

I've gifted me Dingoo A320 to The Catboy.
I haven't ran into much issues with SNES and other "powerful" systems emulation.

 

[the_randomizer]

I've gifted me Dingoo A320 to The Catboy.
I haven't ran into much issues with SNES and other "powerful" systems emulation.

What I meant was Snes ports on that device are limited to older versions of Snes9x, prior to the cycle accurate S-SMP emulation being implemented (pre 1.52), so the audio is identical in terms of shoddiness to Zsnes, which has pretty bad audio comparatively speaking. I should do some ABX tests to let you know how bad it is, I mean, if it'll help that is.

The S-SMP (SPC700 audio processor) accuracy and timing are way off in Snes9x 1.43 and 1.51 but are pretty much perfect in 1.52 and above.

 

[DinohScene]

What I meant was Snes ports on that device are limited to older versions of Snes9x, prior to the cycle accurate S-SMP emulation being implemented (pre 1.52), so the audio is identical in terms of shoddiness to Zsnes, which has pretty bad audio comparatively speaking. I should do some ABX tests to let you know how bad it is, I mean, if it'll help that is.

The S-SMP (SPC700 audio processor) accuracy and timing are way off in Snes9x 1.43 and 1.51 but are pretty much perfect in 1.52 and above.

Eh still is emulation, you'll have to sacrifice somethings then ;p

 

[the_randomizer]

Eh still is emulation, you'll have to sacrifice somethings then ;p

1.52 is more demanding to port since it had massive code rewrites and other changes, a device like that doesn't have the power to run newer versions. I'm very picky and sensitive to audio emulation accuracy. My sensitive hearing's both a blessing and a curse Since I grew up with Snes, I know how it's supposed to sound and when I use emulators, well, I'll save that for another time, maybe I can make a blog entry about that

 

[DinohScene]

1.52 is more demanding to port since it had massive code rewrites and other changes, a device like that doesn't have the power to run newer versions. I'm very picky and sensitive to audio emulation accuracy. My sensitive hearing's both a blessing and a curse Since I grew up with Snes, I know how it's supposed to sound and when I use emulators, well, I'll save that for another time, maybe I can make a blog entry about that

Hmm, why not write it.
I'm actually interested about is as me view on emulators is that it'll never be perfect (except Bsnes and as of now)
So sacrifices have to be made.

 

[the_randomizer]

Hmm, why not write it.
I'm actually interested about is as me view on emulators is that it'll never be perfect (except Bsnes and as of now)
So sacrifices have to be made.

Yeah, I need to sort my ideas beforehand, what to topics to cover, emulator sample comparisons (mostly aural) why I think X is better than Y, etc. I want to make sure I do it right lol My view on emulation ain't perfect either, I'm just very picky when something isn't emulated correctly.

 

[DinohScene]

Seeing I own pretty much all the mainstream emulated hardware + ways to boot backups, I'm not picky with emulation at all ;p
Game runs?, great!
Game runs with choppy sound?, even better!
Game runs without choppy sound and runs 100% accurately, fantastic, but I'd rather play it on the original machine ;p
Can't beat nostalgics.

 

[nyder]

I have one of the original A320's and I love it. Battery last great, screen is fine, games play great.

It's small, light and great for when I don't want to have a lot of stuff on me, but need to kill time while waiting around.

And you can dual boot linux on it, so you have access to it's various software/games/emulators on it, which were generally better then the official emulators.

Here's probably my favorite thing about it. I can go months and months without using it, and still have a almost full battery when I do use it. Then I'll forget about it again, and still it will have juice a month or so later. Maybe I got lucky and got a magic battery, maybe pixie dust is real, I don't know, but I am happy.

 

[SSG Vegeta]

Sounds like a job for the New Nintendo 3DS & Super Card DSTWO