Any New Handheld Emulators WITHOUT Android?

[Nicholas Noble]

Curious about this.

I have a GPD XD, and I like it well enough. It's the first (and only) handheld I've had that could emulate SNES and Genesis games accurately. It has my respect for doing that.

But honestly, I like emulating games on my Revo 101 or PSP a lot more. I like that the emulator software was designed for a stable and predictable operating system, and that both the operating system and the emulator were designed for the specific hardware that I'm using.

I wish that more handhelds were like the Revo 101, w/ a custom operating system tailor-made just for them and a specific console's library of games (the Revo 101 was specifically made to be a GBA emulator).

Any chance anything like that is still made these days?

 

[The Real Jdbye]

There are plenty of Chinese emulation handhelds and you can get decent ones for as little as ~$30. Not focused on a single system though, it doesn't really make sense to do that if they're using emulation. Hardware clones like the K1 GBA and K101 Revo are still being made though, such as the stuff Analogue puts out, and the in progress N64 FPGA project.

 

[notimp]

Yes, currently RK2020 and RG351P (second one in the premium for no reason category) are fully linux based, and basically run retroarch with emulation station as a frontend (so 'the retropie default' if you are familiar).

Both will play 'some dreamcast and some N64' titles at 'close to full speed'.

Screen is pretty small and 3:2, and not 4:3 though.

Best one of those little portables currently is the Retroid Pocket 2, as it has a 4:3 screen and the best performance for both N64 and Dreamcast games, but it is Android based.

But even on android, you can always setup and run Retroarch - which would provide you with a UI experience like the one you want.

Downside of the Retroid Pocket 2 is boot time (which is around 1 minute). RK2020 and RG351P are much faster in that department.

RK2020 (buy a v2) is most interesting, because of the pricepoint (around 60-70 USD shipped), at which point, you really could just buy one to play with it in concept. It and the RG351 have the same chip, the retroid pocket 2 has a slightly better one. (Helps with N64 and Dreamcast.).

Next generation of those cheap ARM chips will be the interesting one. (When you should get DC and N64 full speed at the around 70 USD mark, in a handheld form factor.)

On larger screen devices I'm out of the loop currently. (They arent whats mass produced currently, but I have a hunch, that they will be once DC games can be run fullspeed on handheld devices for that pricepoint.)

 

[notimp]

Arctually, the Retroid Pocket 2 also has an OS/frontend that would make it equally as userfriendly as the other two (just has to be enabled).

The 1+ minute boottime still remains as an issue though..

edit: Watch this for reference:


and this:


And any one of the videos in the RK2020 thread.