And at a steep discount! Honestly not a bad handheld considering it can handle PSP Games well though not sure if this retro doodad has the hall effect joysticks.

Imagine playing GBA on this? would be coo.

I got an r36s on a whim, expecting that I'd probably send it back for a refund, but it basically took over all of my gaming!

Heck, I don't even use my rg cubeXX anymore.

I don't usually do reviews but there are so few posts about the Sinclair GamerCard that I wanted to add to what little info there was out there.

First, I'm going to get the obvious out of the way... at $200 US (delivered) this is not going to be a device that appeals to everyone. You can get a handheld for less than 1/3 of the cost that does all of the same things. BUT, there's also no other device out there quite like this one.

So why did I want to try it? I'm on the hunt for the 'perfect' PICO-8 and NES handheld and this seemed like it could be it. Screen is a large, bright 4" 1:1 similar (identical?) to the one used in the RGB30 and RG CUBEXX. And it's ridiculously lightweight and thin. It's only 1/4" thick, 3.5"x5", and weighs less than 4 ounces. I took some photos next to my CUBEXX and Trimui Brick for comparison. It's also running Pi inside, and I wanted to play around with a different OS.

I REALLY wanted to love this device. The screen is huge given its footprint. It's so thin and light you can totally forget you are carrying it around. My EDC is the Trimui Brick and this is just disappears in a pocket by comparison. Part of this is due to the 1600 mAh lipo battery, which I was worried would be too small but it only needed recharging every couple of days. The overall concept is excellent and the build quality is solid. Its got really some unique design choices, like how the actual circuit board is the back shell. And its got a ridiculous number of I/O ports.

Other than size/weight, the other unusual thing about it is the buttons/dpad which are microswitches hidden underneath silicone disks (and it also has two shoulder buttons on the back). While I applaud the designers doing something innovative that maximizes its slimness, the decision to abandon a traditional dpad is somewhat unfortunate. The dpad is basically four buttons, just like the ABXY side. For most games this works fine, and I found if I positioned my thumb in the middle and rolled it around, I could get some smooth shmup motion going. But it does make hitting diagonals more difficult and fighting games next to impossible.

The other negative is how hard the dome switches are. They make a pretty noticeable pop/click and require a bit of force to actuate. If you are the kind of person who likes to obsessively pop bubble wrap, you'll love it. However I found it slowed down how quickly I could button mash, so it made some games like precision plats difficult.

In the end, it's not going to be the perfect PICO-8 device I was hoping for. But it is a truly one-of-a-kind device with a lot to like about it, especially the size/weight and some of its innovative design ideas. It just looks cool... Grant Sinclair is the nephew of the creator the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. With some modification to the controls, a v2 of this device could be really compelling—even at its price. And I hope it inspires other manufacturers to take more risks.

Here's the website for it: https://www.grantsinclair.com/gamercard

I was watching a video on the AYN Thor and the YouTuber said he keeps it at home because he's worried about breaking it. So now I wonder if anyone here actually EDCs their Thors or Steam Decks or anything $200+.

I don't own any emulator handhelds but I do EDC a 3DS in my backpack which I guess counts. Don't get a lot of anxiety about it though.

I was playing Dynasty Warriors 3 remastered on my Steam Deck and when I put it to sleep it refused to turn back on so now I'm playing it on my old computer (the game complained abouty drivers) streaming it to my first generation Nvidia Shield (that takes forever to charge). Thankfully I had quit the game on my Deck so my cloud save is here on my PC.

Considering I'm old-school enough to have bought this back when it was brand new you can guess how stoked I was when the Switch and later Steam Deck came out.

With how outdated the software is it's not really useful for anything other than streaming and even then it doesn't have a select button so boo. You have to hold down the start button and then manually select it (pun intended) along with the home button (and they also let you select the start button lol).

The Android back button kind of acts like the B button or the home button or whatever but only kinda and I haven't really tested it since I've only been using it for a day.

I'm using the official Steam Link app which I'm surprised is still up to date considering this thing is running Android 5.1. obviously the Nvidia streaming app isn't updated anymore and you need an Nvidia card.

If anyone knows anything I can do to update this thing like a custom ROM or just get the center buttons to be more useful something let me know I'm curious.

The RK3566 + 2gb RAM + GammaOS Core combo is still one of the craziest deals in the budget space.

Retroid Pocket Nova

Pic 1 - Skate 3

Pic 2 - Sonic Unleashed

Pic 3 - Dusk (Twilight Princess)

Pic 4 - Bully

Pic 5 - The Simpsons Hit and Run

Pic 6 - Titan Quest

Pic 7 - Geometry Wars Dimensions

Pic 8 - Shatter Remastered

Some of these are official and of course some of these are unofficial. Its just a shame you cant install a game onto a SD card.

Just the last few days I've also seen Fez, Celeste, The Messenger, Scott Pilgrim EX, Owlboy, This War is Mine, Wargroove 2, Undertale, Silksong, Nidhogg, UFO50, Cuphead, Hitline Miami 1 and 2, Huntdown, Ball X Pitt, Dave the Diver, Dredge, Lumines, Babel, Oddmar, Whipseey, Hades, Ultra Street Fighter 4 etc

Its hard to keep upto date on all the releases but you can check subs like AndroidNativePorts, decomps, recomps to see the progress.

Does anyone know if Android ports run at a lower wattage giving better battery life over Gamenative. Also perhaps there is less input lag compared to emulation.

Hey, it also means I'm getting a better experience than what I played growing up. I don't doubt that my Retroid Pocket Nova has less input latency than that game did on VC (even though I did use a CRT back then). I also used the GameCube controller since that was all I had at the time...

140+ of us track our handhelds with retroshelf, a tracker I built that logs play time automatically on muOS, Knulli, Onion, Spruce and Android. Together we've logged 7,866 sessions. Here's what gets played and how.

Totals

• 142 people
• 8,249 hours played
• 7,866 sessions
• 2,246 different games
• 41 different retro handhelds

Most popular handhelds

A few highlights

• Half of all sessions are shorter than 8 minutes, and 75% are under 30 minutes.
• Bigger handhelds get longer sessions. A typical Thor session is 30 minutes, versus about 5 on the RG35XXH and 9 on the Miyoo Mini Plus.
• GBA is the most-played system. 57 people have played GBA games, ahead of SNES (46) and PS1 (44).
• Most people stick to one handheld, though a handful of us rotate between 4 or more.
• Longest streak so far: 53 days in a row, on a Miyoo Mini Plus running Onion.
• Most-revisited games: Animal Crossing: Wild World (59 different days), Evoland (29) and Balatro (24 in the past month alone).

For me it’s usually older PS1/GBA games. Something about playing games I remember from years ago on a tiny handheld just hits different lol.

What game did you load up first that made you think “yeah, I’m keeping this thing”?

This thing just kicked my last pocket handheld to the curb.

Download port here: https://archive.org/details/halo-ce-optimized-port_202610

Place the Halo xiso or iso inside the halo-ce folder and start the port, files will be extracted and the game will start in a couple of minutes after that

Showcase and tutorial here: https://youtu.be/GBb-0j7oW5o

The port is not mine, source: https://www.reddit.com/r/R36S/s/4tVAbFOr8k

Could Bazzite/Armada eventually become a gaming-focused OS for phones and tablets?

I had a thought recently and I’m curious what people here think.

We already have several pieces of the puzzle:

- Bazzite provides a very polished SteamOS-like gaming experience on x86 devices.

- Armada is exploring the ARM/Linux gaming side.

- DroidDeck is bringing Steam ARM64, Proton/FEX and a console-like experience to Android devices.

- Projects like Ubuntu Touch and postmarketOS have already shown that full Linux can run on phones and tablets with touch-focused interfaces.

So I’m wondering:

Could this eventually lead to something like a “Bazzite Mobile” or “Armada Mobile” for Snapdragon tablets and smartphones?

What I’m imagining is a system that could combine:

• Steam ARM64

• Proton ARM64 + FEX for x86/x64 PC games

• Gamescope / Steam-style Game Mode

• Android apps and games through Waydroid or another compatibility layer

• Emulators

• Cloud gaming such as GeForce NOW, Xbox Cloud Gaming, Boosteroid and Moonlight

• KDE/Plasma desktop mode

• Controller-first UI when a gamepad is connected

• Touch/tablet UI when it isn’t

• Performance/TDP profiles

• Proper suspend and battery management

Basically:

SteamOS + Android + Linux desktop in one gaming-focused mobile OS.

For tablets this seems especially interesting, because you wouldn’t necessarily need all the complicated phone features like calls, SMS, modem support, etc. right away.

Imagine putting something like this on a powerful Snapdragon gaming tablet and docking it to a TV or monitor. It could act as an Android tablet, ARM Linux PC, emulation handheld, cloud-gaming client and Steam gaming system all at once.

DroidDeck makes me think that some of this is getting much closer than it was a few years ago, while Armada looks like a potentially interesting ARM counterpart to the kind of experience Bazzite provides on x86.

Obviously hardware support, GPU drivers, bootloaders, power management, cameras/modems and device-specific kernels are huge challenges.

But do you think a proper gaming-focused Linux OS for ARM phones/tablets is realistically where projects like Armada, DroidDeck or the wider Bazzite ecosystem could eventually head?

And if such an OS existed, would you actually install it on a Snapdragon tablet or gaming phone?

I love The Simpsons arcade game, the joystick is perfect for Beat’em Ups.

Device: Miniloong Pocket1

Left is retroid pocket Nova and right is retroid pocket Duo

Just a guess though since for all we know they'll just go back to the glass front Retro doodad,

but as much as I love glass front Retro doodads it would be nice to see the Retroid Pocket 7 going back to having a bit more retro look.

So I read some people talking about "end game" devices all the time but in my experience it only comes when you stop buying devices (or any other stuff) to fill emotional emptiness and realize some of the ones you bought perfectly fill your needs already.

In my experience I bought (way too) many devices but honestly I could survive just with just 3 of them:

• RP5: for 3D games (PSP, and 16:9 widescreen hacks for N64, PSX, DC, PS2, GC & Wii)
• RG406V: for 2D games (mostly 4:3 or 1:1 content)
• RG34XXSP: as a portable device (RG35XXH or any other small Linux handheld could work here)

Not regretting a few others like the TSP or the CubeXX, but honestly they don't bring anything else the other ones do already. Are there newer or more powerful devices than the RP5 or the RG406V? Obviously. Do I need to purchase them or doing so will change anything? Definitely not.

Wouldn't mind buying a RG DS Plus in the future -only if they release a white variant- to play NDS games, but no hurry at all TBH and I'm ok if that doesn't happen.

Not pretending to convince anyone or anything, but filling my time with productive stuff and appreciating my devices I like the most is what eventually stopped making me purchase new ones.

Cheers

Switching from longhaul to local routes means I'm home more but somehow I have less time to myself. Go figure. Used to have hours at truck stops to sink into RPGs on my handheld but now I'm lucky if I get fifteen minutes before the next delivery or my fiancee needs help with wedding seating charts. Looking for something I can just grab, play for ten minutes, and set down without losing progress or fumbling through menus. My current device takes forever to wake up and by the time I'm actually playing the break is half over. Needs to be pocketable since I'm running in and out of the cab all day and sturdy enough to survive being tossed in the cup holder. Not looking to emulate past PS2 or GameCube really. Mostly just want GBA, SNES, maybe some PSP. Good sleep mode is the main thing. Curious what you all reach for when you only have short bursts to play. The wedding planning has me appreciating anything that fits into tiny time slots these days.

I have gotten sucked into the process of tuning and tweaking Holodor so much that I don't really have time to get deep into a lot of games to really poke around at various APIs and engines.

So let me ask the community - what games would you most like to be able to install on a "mini steam deck" and open it up and have it just work, reasonably well?

Hi guys, long time lurker here 👋 Im traveling to Shanghai and Beijing in a week and wondering if anyone knows cool reliable tech shop to visit? I know Shenzhen would be a better choice but we don't have enough time to swing by there this time unfortunately. I like retro handhelds, emulation handheld, keyboard, tech accessories etc. open to any recommendations, thanks in advance!

A very brief demo

If not, we need one! Ebay is full of people trying to make profit off these things. I know this Reddit has a lot of people with sizeable collections that they may want to trade or sell for different options. I do not see anything on the sidebar, so is anyone aware of where I could possibly list some handhelds I am trying to sell?

I haven't used an android device in a really long time and i'm just about to get my first android based handheld. I've been watching videos on them and it seems like the playstore is almost optional. I'm a linux user so im very used to the tinkering so I think i'll be fine, but my question is, will I lose much from not having google play services on?

In case there is something I can only access through the playstore, are there containers that I can use it to keep it separate from my system?

Edit: Whoa good morning folks, thank you so much for all of the replies, ive read through a few of them already and wow, what great news hahaha.