Best handheld to handle emulator etc.

[MajorasSoul]

Hello,
I am new to this forum so I am very much a n00b,beta whatever you want to call it to these forums.
Well anyway, I dont know why, but the 3ds XL had gone on sale and out of impulse i bought it, especially after hearing about running emulators on it. Now that I have it and i can run emulators on it, ive found that i am very disappointed with the compatibility and the functionality of the 3ds when it comes to running emulators.
So my question is:
1. What is the best handheld console for running emulators
2. How is the console in terms of functionality and compalibilty?
3. How easy is it for an "average joe" to hack/play emulated games on it.(I'm pretty bright when it to comes to tech, but i dont want to go head first into something until I'm fully assured that i can hack it)
4. I'm pretty much done when it to comes to handhelds anymore, whatever console i do get to emulate its strictly going to be to play emulated games, Specifically Gameboy Color games, GBA games, snes games and i would love for it to play n64, but i would understand if the console couldnt play n64 games.


Also please don't tell me android phone, i know i can emulate on my phone, its just my battery life is shitty enough without me trying to play games on it, and i like physical buttons touchscreen buttons dont quite cut it.

Thanks in advance guys!

 

[Rydian]

The 3DS's power is not usable, flash carts only run in DS-mode, which means they only have the power of the original 2004-model DS. This is why I heavily suggest against a DS for emulation.

Specifically-for-emulation devices like the Dingoo and such often come pre-loaded with emulators, no hacking them needed. They're made for people like you that just want a portable emulation machine. Of these, the GCW Zero looks to be the most powerful and well-built.
http://gbatemp.net/threads/gcw-zero-handheld-pricing-announced.348700/
It does have some downsides like a resolution that makes a few games have unreadable text and such, but overall it's compatibility and power looks to be much higher than most others.

 

[MajorasSoul]

That looks pretty good Rydian, but I was wondering if maybe there was something maybe a little cheaper, but still functions well and plays a majority of emulated games specifically gba games and snes games, I can always play n64 games on my laptop with my xbox controller I guess

 

[Rydian]

Well PSPs are pretty cheap to get used and play most GBA and SNES games fluidly... something even cheaper would be the DSTwo flash cart for the 3DS, it has it's own onboard CPU that's more powerful than the limited power given to normal flash carts in DS-mode, and it can actually play some GBA and SNES games fullspeed... but that's currently a worse option than the PSP for most games.

As for other dedicated-hardware devices, I don't have much experience with them.

 

[MajorasSoul]

I don't have much experience with psps but if they can pay most games fluidly then I might have to look into it, I think my older brother left one lying around I know it works cause I saw him using it I don't think the ac jack works though cause when we tried to charge it, it wouldn't lol.
Ahh well it would probably be cheaper to buy another one than rather fix the one I have.
Thanks Rydian, appreciate your help.

 

[Rydian]

Most games I've played run fine on the PSP, just note that the PSP's emulation scene is pretty much dead, so compatibility/speed is unlikely to ever improve... thus people having such interest in newer devices, but none of the newest game handhelds are hacked fully, so that leaves the dedicated devices.

 

[MajorasSoul]

I'll take that into account but as long as it can fluidly run most gba and snes games I should be fine. If anything I can always look up a compatability list for snes and gba games on the psp and base my decision off of there.

 

[Taleweaver]

Also please don't tell me android phone, i know i can emulate on my phone, its just my battery life is shitty enough without me trying to play games on it, and i like physical buttons touchscreen buttons dont quite cut it.

Sorry, but I'm still going to put one here: sony xperia play. Not sure how well it handles N64, but I've just played some Zelda on the train back here. The physical buttons are certainly good enough for gaming.

For anything else, I can't add anything that hasn't been said. I'd mention the JXD, but I don't have personal experience with it.

 

[Satangel]

PSP, definitely. Amazing device to play emulated stuff on, great.

 

[MajorasSoul]

Yeah at this point I'm looking towards getting a psp 1000,2000,3000 or the psp go for my handheld emulation needs.

 

[Qtis]

The PSP 3000 or PSP Go would be your best bets. The 3000 is a bit larger, but the PSP Go has 16 GB internal + expandable with memory cards. Personally I think the PSP Go is a bit too small for my hands, but if I was a youngster/teenager, it could be the optimum size.

ps. Getting a PSP Go dock could make it a sort of hybrid mobile/TV console as it can be connected to the TV via Component out.

 

[MajorasSoul]

The dock isn't something I'm really interested in cause I emulate games on my pc and connect it to my TV through vga cable or hdmi, and play them with my wireless xbox 360 controller