What is the BEST portable emulation device?

[Xanthe]

PSP 2000 is super great, and i've been emulating lots of games like a charm! Just pick up a 32 or 64 gb card and a MicroSD to Memory Stick Duo.

My only wish is if they made a a more powerful PSP GO. That thing would be such a beast

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

+1 for the Nvidia Shield, it beats out pretty much all other portable devices listed here except for maybe the GPD Win.

I own one myself, and it runs nearly everything PS1 era and lower, and the GBA+DS perfectly plus some Dreamcast and most PSP games are playable. I haven't tried N64 too much, but the latest builds of Mupen64Plus should also run a fair amount of games (that don't have graphical issues, anyways) just fine. Battery life is also phenomenal for the thing, you should get nearly 8 hours of constant playtime no problem, maybe an hour or two less if you played more demanding things like PSP or Dreamcast gamesm but that's certainly more than most handhelds for constant playtime.

There are a couple "flaws", one of them is it's not necessarily the most "portable" thing in the world, it's basically a slightly larger 360 controller that ways nearly twice as much as one. But so long as you have a backpack (or, if you don't mind bulky things, a hoodie ) you're definitely fine.

The other flaw is price, if you didn't cash in on these things when they launched in 2013 or when the price dropped in 2014 you're gonna have to spend a bit of cash to get one unfortunately. They had a more limited production and scalpers are going to be scalpers so of course the price just skyrocketed once it was discontinued and the tablet came out. People are trying to sell these things on eBay for anything between $250-$400, with occasionally some people who don't know any better trying to go for like $150 or so (but they get snatched up quickly).

Failing that, the Vita has had a native hack for about 7 months now, so that's probably your second best choice for the most part. You'll get everything SNES and lower running nearly perfect, native emulation of PS1 games run well for the most part but most 3D games have slowdowns. You can use PSP mode for PS1/PSP games, which will give you near-perfect compatibility for PS1 stuff but the visuals will be a bit more "gross" because it's being upscaled from the PSP's resolution to the Vita's. N64 is being worked on for Retroarch, and now that the Vita's GPU is being worked on we can get hardware acceleration which should make N64 games run a fair bit better than the PSP emulator will (and will probably give a boost to PS1 games, too, but we'll see). Price is also a bit of a problem mainly because of memory card prices, but it'll definitely be way cheaper than $250 for a Shield Portable

A PSP would work ok, too, but don't expect full perfection for SNES/GBA games. N64 runs...ok, but nearly everything lags so meh. PS1 games run good though

 

[p1ngpong]

Pretty much any mid to high end android phone with a small bluetooth gamepad.

Anyone who argues otherwise is a foolish fool.

 

[migles]

+1 for the Nvidia Shield, it beats out pretty much all other portable devices listed here except for maybe the GPD Win.

I own one myself, and it runs nearly everything PS1 era and lower, and the GBA+DS perfectly plus some Dreamcast and most PSP games are playable. I haven't tried N64 too much, but the latest builds of Mupen64Plus should also run a fair amount of games (that don't have graphical issues, anyways) just fine. Battery life is also phenomenal for the thing, you should get nearly 8 hours of constant playtime no problem, maybe an hour or two less if you played more demanding things like PSP or Dreamcast gamesm but that's certainly more than most handhelds for constant playtime.

There are a couple "flaws", one of them is it's not necessarily the most "portable" thing in the world, it's basically a slightly larger 360 controller that ways nearly twice as much as one. But so long as you have a backpack (or, if you don't mind bulky things, a hoodie ) you're definitely fine.

The other flaw is price, if you didn't cash in on these things when they launched in 2013 or when the price dropped in 2014 you're gonna have to spend a bit of cash to get one unfortunately. They had a more limited production and scalpers are going to be scalpers so of course the price just skyrocketed once it was discontinued and the tablet came out. People are trying to sell these things on eBay for anything between $250-$400, with occasionally some people who don't know any better trying to go for like $150 or so (but they get snatched up quickly).

Failing that, the Vita has had a native hack for about 7 months now, so that's probably your second best choice for the most part. You'll get everything SNES and lower running nearly perfect, native emulation of PS1 games run well for the most part but most 3D games have slowdowns. You can use PSP mode for PS1/PSP games, which will give you near-perfect compatibility for PS1 stuff but the visuals will be a bit more "gross" because it's being upscaled from the PSP's resolution to the Vita's. N64 is being worked on for Retroarch, and now that the Vita's GPU is being worked on we can get hardware acceleration which should make N64 games run a fair bit better than the PSP emulator will (and will probably give a boost to PS1 games, too, but we'll see). Price is also a bit of a problem mainly because of memory card prices, but it'll definitely be way cheaper than $250 for a Shield Portable

A PSP would work ok, too, but don't expect full perfection for SNES/GBA games. N64 runs...ok, but nearly everything lags so meh. PS1 games run good though

tom is so mad when he got the shield he needs to justify his purchase and is over compensating
(jk)

anyway, i remember some time ago there was a similair thread, asking about a purtable for emulation, people where speaking about the N3ds and i'm surprised no one mentioned it yet...
and no, i don't agree that the n3ds is a good emulation console (come on, it has 2 screens, instead a good normal one)
however it's a neat system to play gameboy games and nes

 

[ciaomao]

Open Pandora is the best portable console for emulation, for many years now. I even played mario64 last impact with it.

 

[migles]

Pretty much any mid to high end android phone with a small bluetooth gamepad.

Anyone who argues otherwise is a foolish fool.

but what if you want you know, "portable"
ok, get a controller with an arm to hold the phone and hope the thing doesn't let the phone fall and break it

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

anyway, i remember some time ago there was a similair thread, asking about a purtable for emulation, people where speaking about the N3ds and i'm surprised no one mentioned it yet...
and no, i don't agree that the n3ds is a good emulation console (come on, it has 2 screens, instead a good normal one)
however it's a neat system to play gameboy games and nes

Probably because everyone realized the 3DS is basically a foldable potato that can't even beat out a 13 year old handheld when it comes to emulation ;O;

 

[thealgorithm]

I would say New3DS is a decent one. As of writing this, all versions are fully hackable. Gameboy Advance, DS, SNES, PC Engine, Megadrive, Gameboy, running flawlessly via virtual console or via homebrew emulation (although not as optimised I guess). PSP is another favourite and the emulators created for that device were very polished and optimised.
PS Vita is good but its still in early stages for native emulation (e.g retroarch)

If you want power and compactness, then I would probably say to opt for either a GPD XD or an decent powered android phone with clip on game controller

 

[ciaomao]

Why should a GPD XD beat an open Pandora?

 

[abelxcane]

My only wish is if they made a a more powerful PSP GO. That thing would be such a beast

What were you looking to emulate? I have a couple of devices including a Xperia Play that I still use since it is small and it gets the job done. The highest console wise that I have played on it is the N64 and the ps1. Handheld wise the most recent handheld it runs is psp and DS (psp is a bit spotty with some games but what I have played it has played well with some setting changes). If you want a stronger portable devices the GPD XD and GPD Q9 are good. The N3ds and PS Vita are good too depending what you want to emulate with the added benefit of playing there native games as well as the PS Vita being able to play psp games now. Curious though what burned you on the Xperia Play?

 

[thealgorithm]

Why should a GPD XD beat an open Pandora?

Quad core 1.8ghz Cortex A7 core vs 600mhz core. 256mb ram, vs 2gb ram. Heavily more powerful Mali T760quad gpu.

Ofcourse, specs don't mean the whole story, but it sure helps

 

[ciaomao]

Quad core 1.8ghz Cortex A7 core vs 600mhz core. 256mb ram, vs 2gb ram. Heavily more powerful Mali T760quad gpu.

Ofcourse, specs don't mean the whole story, but it sure helps

My Pandora runs on 1.1GHz and the emulation support is hugh. It emulates the dreamcast, n64, DOS, ... oh and it has Cortex A8 +
PowerVR SGX GPU. The GPD is powerful I agree, but how about a keyboard for eg. Amiga or how about multiplayer support? Maybe the GPD Win or Open Pyra would be the best for me.

 

[Xanthe]

What were you looking to emulate? I have a couple of devices including a Xperia Play that I still use since it is small and it gets the job done. The highest console wise that I have played on it is the N64 and the ps1. Handheld wise the most recent handheld it runs is psp and DS (psp is a bit spotty with some games but what I have played it has played well with some setting changes). If you want a stronger portable devices the GPD XD and GPD Q9 are good. The N3ds and PS Vita are good too depending what you want to emulate with the added benefit of playing there native games as well as the PS Vita being able to play psp games now. Curious though what burned you on the Xperia Play?

The Xperia Play does a horrible job emulating if you ask me. The latency is unbelievable and it doesn't run at 60fps. I tried several custom roms and they all gave me the same performance. I had spent two days tweaking my Xperia Play with no increase in performance. I'm returning mine soon lol. I'd love to have a GPD XDA, but I'd rather buy one that is in the $120 range. They're about $180.

Open Pandora is the best portable console for emulation, for many years now. I even played mario64 last impact with it.

Where would I buy the Pandora. I've been looking for ages and their website is completey out of stock

 

[ciaomao]

The Xperia Play does a horrible job emulating if you ask me. The latency is unbelievable and it doesn't run at 60fps. I tried several custom roms and they all gave me the same performance. I had spent two days tweaking my Xperia Play with no increase in performance. I'm returning mine soon lol. I'd love to have a GPD XDA, but I'd rather buy one that is in the $120 range. They're about $180.


Where would I buy the Pandora. I've been looking for ages and their website is completey out of stock

Funny, I am struggling with myself to sell mine for ages. Make a reasonable offer, maybe we get together

 

[WiiUBricker]

People who are recommending the Shield Portable, you know it has long been discontinued, right? You can't get one unless you are willing to fork over $400 for a used device.

My recommendation would be a hacked Vita (preferably the OLED). Button layout is ideal, emulation is fast enough and the OLED screen doesn't have any ghosting and make games pop. Second recommendation would be an N3DS.

If it has to be Android, the GPD XD comes in mind, 3DS XL form factor and a decent SoC. However the build quality is shit, Wlan chip is placed just under your right hand palm which is weakening the signal and the display is a mediocre low color gamut IPS.

 

[hii915]

gcw-zero. For the most accurate experience possible. But is hard to find and pricy

 

[Deleted User]

Rasperry Pi can emulate up to N64. Not the entire N64 collection but most.

it can also do dreamcast, to an extent

 

[Xanthe]

People who are recommending the Shield Portable, you know it has long been discontinued, right? You can't get one unless you are willing to fork over $400 for a used device.

My recommendation would be a hacked Vita (preferably the OLED). Button layout is ideal, emulation is fast enough and the OLED screen doesn't have any ghosting and make games pop. Second recommendation would be an N3DS.

If it has to be Android, the GPD XD comes in mind, 3DS XL form factor and a decent SoC. However the build quality is shit, Wlan chip is placed just under your right hand palm which is weakening the signal and the display is a mediocre low color gamut IPS.

Would love to buy the shield portable but the thing is damn expensive. Probably the best device tbh

 

[abelxcane]

Would love to buy the shield portable but the thing is damn expensive. Probably the best device tbh

I think your Xperia Play may be messed up because mine doesn't do that at all. Why don't you try getting a refund. Also were you using retroarch or another emulator?

 

[the_randomizer]

Probably because everyone realized the 3DS is basically a foldable potato that can't even beat out a 13 year old handheld when it comes to emulation ;O;

Well, at least the 3DS has proper Snes audio emulation; Snes9x 1.43 sounds like shit on PSP XD It can't even get the sound effects right lol.

nVidia Shield K1 is good, I recommend avoiding those Chinese portable consoles, they're riddled with firmware issues.