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Best Handheld Emulator Machine
- Thread starter ToonGoomba
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I beg to differ. Can't say much of other (Chinese) devices, but the gpd xd is a top notch device : decent clamshell design, best controllers I've ever touched on a handheld, snappy, responsive and even comes preloaded with emulators and games.
The PSP is a nice runner - up, and if price is a priority I'd go for it. But the Gpd xd plays psp perfectly, and there are more gems in the android store than you might think.
You have an interesting definition of the word perfectly. Personally, I'd avoid Android because my experience has been that many Android devices have perceivable latency issues either in input or audio. :/ Has anyone done latency tests on the GPD XD?
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My beef with PSP is that it can't even run the latest or at least, a decent Snes9x core with the superior S-SMP audio core.
I'm more interested in cheaper devices that WORK.
here are all the cheap devices i actually know about.
atgames atari flashback portable. this is great, darn near perfect emulation and you can add all the joystick games onto an sdcard. but.. it's only atari 2600 games.
genesis flashback portable. this has horrible sound emulation, and no one knows how to support battery backup on added games. reportedly the 2017 model can have the sound issue patched, but then you lose access to the built in games, and battery backup only works on built in games. and i has shovelware added onto it. The 2018 model STILL doesn't have the sound fixed.
bajillions of nes on a chip based handhelds. they pretty much DO work, but only do nes. some also have extended modes to run their own shovelware. and not all of them take sdcards.
Dingoo. this is rather expensive, but generally well received, and known to be quite hackable usually.
various cheap android based portable consoles. they are a real mixed bag, and i wouldn't buy any of them without being able to try them first, which is, of course, impossible.
here are all the cheap devices i actually know about.
atgames atari flashback portable. this is great, darn near perfect emulation and you can add all the joystick games onto an sdcard. but.. it's only atari 2600 games.
genesis flashback portable. this has horrible sound emulation, and no one knows how to support battery backup on added games. reportedly the 2017 model can have the sound issue patched, but then you lose access to the built in games, and battery backup only works on built in games. and i has shovelware added onto it. The 2018 model STILL doesn't have the sound fixed.
bajillions of nes on a chip based handhelds. they pretty much DO work, but only do nes. some also have extended modes to run their own shovelware. and not all of them take sdcards.
Dingoo. this is rather expensive, but generally well received, and known to be quite hackable usually.
various cheap android based portable consoles. they are a real mixed bag, and i wouldn't buy any of them without being able to try them first, which is, of course, impossible.
Okay, what do you want me to say? The most demanding game on the system has some drops, but your video shows that even that is doable. Depends on what games you want to play, I guess.
Okay, what do you want me to say? The most demanding game on the system has some drops, but your video shows that even that is doable. Depends on what games you want to play, I guess.
"Mostly really good, but the most demanding games have some drops"?
No need to oversell what it can do. Not trying to be petty about it, but it's too easy to take someone's word on how "perfectly" some is, make a purchase, and then later be disappointed because some of the games you specifically want to play are noticeable choppy to you*.If you want perfect PSP, probably a PSP or a PS Vita is the best route. I don't know if PPSSPP on Android can crank out 60 fps on God of War anywhere and/or what the performance requirements are vs what's required on x86. I get the impression it's better optimized on Android, so I wouldn't really be surprised if some day soon 60 fps on God of War for something like a GPD XD would be a thing. It's definitely a thing that rather impresses me about PPSSPP.
* I've had that happen a few times when it comes to SNES support.
i think gpd xd is the only handheld that can play 64 games near perfect. if you dont mind streaming and you have an decent pc you can also stream the emulators from the pc via moonlight on a gpd xd or ps vita
If you want cheap and are willing to put time into it, you can always build a custom portable with a RPi. That is what I am working on right now.
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Sure, there are dozens (if not hundreds) of case designs and instructions around for making your own Portable Pi. So long as you're half decent at DIY, have moderate soldering skills, and can follow directions you can get it all done yourself sometimes for a little under $150, depending on how you do it/what Pi you end up choosing.
One of my favorite designs is the PiGRRL2, which would be perfect for your requirements and only costs maybe $110-$120 to do yourself (unless you already own a Pi, that is, and maybe more if you don't have easy access to a 3D printer): https://learn.adafruit.com/pigrrl-2
The D-pad and buttons will be as good as you want them to be, and it looks close enough to an OG Gameboy that you could probably trick people who don't know any better that it's totally an official Nintendo product (that is, assuming you take care in putting it all together).
The only problem with using a Pi is input lag, generally speaking a stock Pi will hit like anywhere from 8-10 frames of input lag (depending on the game, display, and controller, of course, but this is around the average for the optimal experience without any tweaks). You can, however, reduce that with software tricks (and I imagine using a wired controller in this setup would also help, as well) to around 3-5 frames of input lag which is basically indistinguishable from the real thing at that point.
Assuming you're shit at DIY, or have no soldering skills, I would personally recommend a Vita over the PSP nowadays. They can be had for $100 (most places, anyways), are easy to hack (so long as it's on a firmware under the latest, which is 3.69), you can use Micro SD cards with an SD2Vita, the buttons are quite frankly fantastic, and (as far as I can tell) you get pretty great emulation for 16 bit consoles with little issues thanks to Retroarch at this point. Plus you can play nearly all PS1 and PSP games near perfectly, thanks to Adrenaline. The only thing really missing is N64 emulation, but beyond that it's pretty decent for a portable retro console.
Hmmm right now I would say the Vita if you like ps1/psp and weeb games if not, N3DS/N2DS emus everything Nintendo perfectly aswell
This is the cheap option
This is the cheap option
Last edited by Something whatever,
PSP and Vita are the best. You can basically play most of the history of gaming til n64. Which is just fantastic. Also there is GPD Win 2, which is windows 10 portable. Can play quite a few things, but costs like 800 bucks.
Last edited by Condarkness_XY,
I have a Sony Xperia Play that I played way too much before I discovered RetroArch... the basterd fell off my desk and now wont turn on.
I think that's the best thing you could possibly get for retro gaming. The buttons feels perfect and it has a decent ammount of power to even play Nintendo64 and some heavy Arcade titles with no real effort.
I think I might fix that smartphone just to play Gameboy games
I think that's the best thing you could possibly get for retro gaming. The buttons feels perfect and it has a decent ammount of power to even play Nintendo64 and some heavy Arcade titles with no real effort.
I think I might fix that smartphone just to play Gameboy games
Last edited by JuanMena,
Past me would be happy to know that we are finally able to play PS1 game on the New 3DS and that has since become my portable emulation handheld of choice.
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