Looking for a emulator handheld, help?

warmo161 · Dec 21, 2018

Hi there, ive been looking around a few different devices such as a Vita and even a Clockwork gameshell, but what do you guys recommend?

Basically im looking for the cheapest machine that can properley run SNES games, thats it. It seems to me not many that can even do that until you go up to GPD XD territory, I even had the idea of buying a xperia play as they go for around £50 nowadays too

I have a PSP but thats hit and miss, and a 2ds that ive tested but aperently that wont do more complex games like Mario RPG

Chopsuey · Dec 28, 2018

I am looking for somethink like that to, but i think my standards are a little bit higher. And thanks for showing me the Clockwork Gameshell, looks amazing never heard of this.
You can check out RetroStone or the Raspiboy wich should be perfect for snes games.

romanaOne · Dec 28, 2018

You could get an RS-97 device. I got one a few months ago and I was really surprised at how well the "Useless Firmware" emulators work for Nintendo GBA, GB(C), (S)NES. Even PS1 emulation is tolerable.

I got one second-hand for $40 from an eBay seller in North America. Try to find it used: big stores are flooded with trashy knock-offs of this device that you are very likely to get a piece of junk for $50-75 if you buy from a big online store or monster eBay vendor. Don't bid unless there are pictures of the actual item and the seller can answer questions in fluent English.

There are probably not going to be any new CFWs for Ingenic RS-97 devices as people are frustrated with there being too many identical-looking hardware variants. This isn't a problem for me as the current state of "Useless" is good enough.

Odroid-go is a lot more reputable but too slow and limited and really barely adequate for GBC emulation. I have one and games run at about 80 percent speed.

PSPs are probably all falling apart by this late date; I know mine is

. I don't like how the screen looks on the PSP and, as I recall, SNES emulation was never great on PSP.

I dunno about Clockwork hardware, but the Raspberry Pi is likely running Emulation Station on Linux. This means you have a bunch of Linux crap slowing things down and customization will be involve the pain of hunting for files hidden in ~/.whatsit or /etc. I built a PiGrrl a few years ago and I was annoyed to find all sorts of dumb services like cupsd, samba, crond, enabled by default in the supposedly customized PiGrrl-Raspbian install disk image. In the end, I found the Model B+ (running Xorg and Emulation Station launcher) was just barely adequate for GBA emulation.

warmo161 · Dec 28, 2018

romanaOne said:
You could get an RS-97 device. I got one a few months ago and I was really surprised at how well the "Useless Firmware" emulators work for Nintendo GBA, GB(C), (S)NES. Even PS1 emulation is tolerable.

I got one second-hand for $40 from an eBay seller in North America. Try to find it used: big stores are flooded with trashy knock-offs of this device that you are very likely to get a piece of junk for $50-75 if you buy from a big online store or monster eBay vendor. Don't bid unless there are pictures of the actual item and the seller can answer questions in fluent English.

There are probably not going to be any new CFWs for Ingenic RS-97 devices as people are frustrated with there being too many identical-looking hardware variants. This isn't a problem for me as the current state of "Useless" is good enough.

Odroid-go is a lot more reputable but too slow and limited and really barely adequate for GBC emulation. I have one and games run at about 80 percent speed.

PSPs are probably all falling apart by this late date; I know mine is . I don't like how the screen looks on the PSP and, as I recall, SNES emulation was never great on PSP.

I dunno about Clockwork hardware, but the Raspberry Pi is likely running Emulation Station on Linux. This means you have a bunch of Linux crap slowing things down and customization will be involve the pain of hunting for files hidden in ~/.whatsit or /etc. I built a PiGrrl a few years ago and I was annoyed to find all sorts of dumb services like cupsd, samba, crond, enabled by default in the supposedly customized PiGrrl-Raspbian install disk image. In the end, I found the Model B+ (running Xorg and Emulation Station launcher) was just barely adequate for GBA emulation.

Hmm interesting, I’ll have a look into that RS-97, it looks exactly like my K101 but I assume it has completely different hardware inside?

I did have another thought of using my phone to play games but iOS is useless unless you pay for that iemulators site, then controllers are a issue :/

romanaOne · Dec 29, 2018

Yeah, it is nothing like Revo K101. I've got one of those as well. Not bad, but converting saves is a pain.

The, err, Coolboy/Coolbaby "Bastard K101" RS-97 is not a GBA hardware clone. I think "El Cheapo Ingenic SoC" would be a good description. It doesn't work with real gameboy carts even though they fit: the cartridge slot is really just a GBA-cart shaped microSD card reader. Kind of evil how the thing looks so much like a Revo K101.

I hate phones. But I have to admit old Android 5 devices are super cheap. Way cheaper than RS-97 knock-off junk or overhyped kickstarters destined for what might be called "premature collectability." Retroarch on Android is looking pretty good these days. You can even download it directly from the site without any app-store bullshit. If only phones had buttons, joystick, d-pad. (There is hyperkin smartboy gizmo, but it looks super-clunky, is pricey, and only works with newer USB-C phones.)

I guess if I were trapped on an island with only a solar charger and phone, I would be glad to have retroarch on my android phone. Meh, better than nothing.

warmo161 · Dec 30, 2018

romanaOne said:
Yeah, it is nothing like Revo K101. I've got one of those as well. Not bad, but converting saves is a pain.

The, err, Coolboy/Coolbaby "Bastard K101" RS-97 is not a GBA hardware clone. I think "El Cheapo Ingenic SoC" would be a good description. It doesn't work with real gameboy carts even though they fit: the cartridge slot is really just a GBA-cart shaped microSD card reader. Kind of evil how the thing looks so much like a Revo K101.

I hate phones. But I have to admit old Android 5 devices are super cheap. Way cheaper than RS-97 knock-off junk or overhyped kickstarters destined for what might be called "premature collectability." Retroarch on Android is looking pretty good these days. You can even download it directly from the site without any app-store bullshit. If only phones had buttons, joystick, d-pad. (There is hyperkin smartboy gizmo, but it looks super-clunky, is pricey, and only works with newer USB-C phones.)

I guess if I were trapped on an island with only a solar charger and phone, I would be glad to have retroarch on my android phone. Meh, better than nothing.

See, on the topic of android phones, that goes back to the idea of a Xperia play, although I dont think i could get on with 'touch' analague sticks
With hyperkin, what happened to their gameboy console? I thought they were planning to make a full clone of some sort?

One of my thoughts was just to be patient, I was planning to buy a second switch when Nintendo announces one with a bigger/better screen, then I would keep my OG one to hack for retroarch, seems like a good bet

At the end of the day, I dont feel comfortable in spending £150 on a random device where I haev no idea if it will get proper support and spares long way into the future, even with the gameboy pi projects, look awsome but are just too expensive

quacka · Jan 7, 2019

Get the first gen gpd xd. Would do what you need. I bought mine second hand for around 80aud.

I had cannoo, that was very good and small. Plays snes fine and it has very good joysticks for fighting games. Not sure if it’s easy for you to find this in your country.

You can also get waveshare gamehat and stick an raspberry pi in if you have a spare raspberry pi sticking around. The buttons and joysticks on this are horrible though. However the support for the raspberry pi and emulation are good.

I also have other devices such as nvidia shield portable/jxd s7300/3ds/switch/psp. If you can afford a switch, that would be the best way to go. Supports modern games and retro games at the same time.

commdante · Jan 10, 2019

Original Vita with OLED looks really nice and feels good in the hand (size/buttons etc). GPD was already mentioned, but personally I don't like the weight of a screen ontop the size of the console itself, although you could do a lot more with the keyboard variant ... also costs a lot more. Ergo I rather play GBA games etc on my GBA than on a NDS phat/lite.

Not saying NDS/3DS etc aren't nice handhelds with their CPU/GPU power and the new games they spawned etc ... but I wouldn't mind Nintendo just go back to GBA sized format, which is still my favourite handheld for it's comfort ... with Vita being a close second (or even beter, but not many games on it for me sadly and homebrew on it is a bit of a hazzle).

SLiV3R · Jan 21, 2019

The N3DSXL is the best imo.

Deleted User · Jan 24, 2019

warmo161 said:
Hi there, ive been looking around a few different devices such as a Vita and even a Clockwork gameshell, but what do you guys recommend?

GPD is a Good Choice, but i personally like something in the shape of a PSP or a mobile smartphone with Hardware Buttons, and what i am about to write is more then capable of doing SNES and Mario RPG! this is from my personal experience and with a custom Rom for these snail smartphones you will get the best Emulators experience for under 300$

i used to have this

and now looking to buy this

https://www.engadget.com/2017/07/03/snail-mobile-i7-moqi-much-gaming-smartphone-china/

a Snail Mobile i7 or Any Smartphone with a ''Snapdragon'' chip made after 2017 will give you the best experience and would have the ability to play:
PSX, PSP, NDS, GBA, SNES, N64, GENESIS, MAME, FBA, SATURN, DREAMCAST + Ability to play on TV or on the Go with TV out, and many more, only downside of this type of devices is Device Heat and Battery time, there are phones that can Play Game Cube games with Dolphin Emulator but that's a bit expensive.

ill add one more bonus to why i like gaming on Smartphones, you will have these benifits
- all your Emulators work well with sleep mode, and have quick save and cloud saves!
- you have the option to use individual emulators or Retroarch or a certain one for all Emulator cough.."chick.

with that said, ill write you 3 options depending on what consoles you want to play and what will be terrible emulated
SWITCH: your best choice if you can mod it, good for SNES, NES, GBA, GB, NDS, PSX, GENESIS+CD, 3DO, Mame, FBA, (Terrible N64 emulation, still experimental with lots of crashes and slowdowns) + Ability to play on TV or on the Go
PS Vita Phat model 1000: PSP, PSX, Vita Games, Genesis+SegaCD, PCE+CD, Final Burn Alpha 'Some games work' (Terrible SNES+GBA, Terrible Retroarch overall experience)

N3DS XL:if you get a New 3DS: 3DS games SNES,NDS, GBA, GB, Genesis+Sega CD. PCE+CD, FBA

so it all boils down if you want to play exclusive games made for each, like maybe you want to play 3DS games, or want Vita Games, Or Switch games Etc, Green is emulated perfect, Red is Terrible Emulation

oh and if you have 1000$ to spare, you could buy the ultimate POrtable Emulator that can also play PUBG and FORTNIGHT at the same time....!

slaphappygamer · Jan 24, 2019

with the vita, use emulators made for the psp and load adrenaline. the psp emulation scene was better than the vita. sure emulating a console from an emulated console is awkward, but is it (adrenaline) really emulation?

Ryccardo · Jan 24, 2019

slaphappygamer said:
is it (adrenaline) really emulation?

First, it's not just "adrenaline", the PSP mode is official - Adrenaline just adds the XMB, cfw, and advanced settings

It's a virtualizer, like PS1 on PS2, PS1 on PSP, or to a slightly lesser extent GBA/DS/i on 3DS - the Vita has an actual PSP processor inside, the other things (media engine, gpu, wifi, memory stick, accessories) are emulated or simulated

VGA · Feb 17, 2019

The PSP has a pretty good NES, SNES, GBA and Genesis emulators and probably the best PS1 emulation you can get. You want to get another handheld that has better SNES emulation and worse PS1?

Now if you want a bigger screen, there's a good reason

Spokenlastchance · Mar 8, 2019

VGA said:
The PSP has a pretty good NES, SNES, GBA and Genesis emulators and probably the best PS1 emulation you can get. You want to get another handheld that has better SNES emulation and worse PS1?

Now if you want a bigger screen, there's a good reason

The psp is actually horrible for emulating SNES that are not turn based. Playing Megaman x required tons of modifications, and I was still plagued by slow downs in places like Spark Mandrill. That was after trying every single emulator that they had. Snes9x_Euphoria, and s9xTYLcm_mod were the best, but I still wasn't happy with the quality. Mind you the Switches version of Megaman X is horrible as well due to slow down.

I honestly might suggest just using your phone to play SNES games. Most of the emulators on phones are constantly being updated. Besides that I haven't done any research on SNES mobile device, but seriously stay away from the PSP or the Vita for SNES live action games.

VGA · Mar 8, 2019

I have to disagree, as someone who played many SNES games and contributed a bit to an emulator effort, there are tons of games that are perfectly playable on the PSP 2000 and newer models that can use the Media-Engine optimised version. The best emulator when I stopped using my PSP was this one

https://github.com/173210/snes9xTYL/releases

But I see someone is continuing development here

https://github.com/esmjanus/snes9xTYL/blob/mecm/Release/Releases.md

You may have stumbled into some problematic games and got the wrong idea about the emulation quality and speed. SNES emulation on the PSP is great in my opinion.

Spokenlastchance · Mar 8, 2019

VGA said:
I have to disagree, as someone who played many SNES games and contributed a bit to an emulator effort, there are tons of games that are perfectly playable on the PSP 2000 and newer models that can use the Media-Engine optimised version. The best emulator when I stopped using my PSP was this one

https://github.com/173210/snes9xTYL/releases

But I see someone is continuing development here

https://github.com/esmjanus/snes9xTYL/blob/mecm/Release/Releases.md

You may have stumbled into some problematic games and got the wrong idea about the emulation quality and speed. SNES emulation on the PSP is great in my opinion.

As I said it's fine for tune based non action games, but when it comes to fluid fast moving games specifically like Megaman X it still has issues. You can get used to said issues, but if we're talking high quality it's not.

warmo161 · Apr 6, 2019

Spokenlastchance said:
As I said it's fine for tune based non action games, but when it comes to fluid fast moving games specifically like Megaman X it still has issues. You can get used to said issues, but if we're talking high quality it's not.

I've always had problems with SNES emulation (I think its because I expected better results) In the end I used my PSP to play PS1 games mostly

At the moment I'm thinking about some of these new chinese handhelds, for example the "LDK Game" would be good to know how good snes emulation on that is

Stwert · Apr 7, 2019

I'm thinking my next project will be a Freeplaytech kit probably the CM3 version. It's a circuit board that fits inside a GBA shell, attach a Raspberry Pi and you've got a portable RetroPie setup.

Of course you can do this without the kit, but this just makes it quicker, easier and cleaner and I'm all for saving time these days

(Though my next project should probably be to stop spending so much time scrolling through here and get some programming done instead. But, meh, work

)

romanaOne · Apr 9, 2019

It would be disappointing for me to have a RPi Zero in a GBA shell as it is probably too wimpy to be able to run a GBA emulator decently. The battery life will also probably not be great compared to a real GBA (with backlit LCD). $100 is too high a price for me, when you can just get a real backlit GBA for around the same amount..

Am I wrong about the zero's wimpy processor? Or has gpsp or regba or mgba (or some other GBA emu) gotten super-optimized for the zero recently?

VGA · Apr 10, 2019

romanaOne said:
It would be disappointing for me to have a RPi Zero in a GBA shell as it is probably too wimpy to be able to run a GBA emulator decently. The battery life will also probably not be great compared to a real GBA (with backlit LCD). $100 is too high a price for me, when you can just get a real backlit GBA for around the same amount..

Am I wrong about the zero's wimpy processor? Or has gpsp or regba or mgba (or some other GBA emu) gotten super-optimized for the zero recently?

Well if mGBA can't run games fullspeed then probably VBA-M can. If that can't run fullspeed, then VGA-Next is faster and should run fullspeed on the rpi zero. There is also gPSP as a final fallback.

Looking for a emulator handheld, help?

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