Classicamiga Forum Retro Edition
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Thread: Retro Handhelds
Harrison 23:22 14th May 2021
It would be great to get one from them with a larger screen. And if it could be touchscreen even better. But like mentioned in that article, only if they increase the hardware capability. More powerful, with a larger display, I would definitely get one.

But I don't agree with his suggestion to move to Android. One of the reasons the Anbernic handhelds are so great is Linux. It makes it really stable, very smooth and easy ro usr and well supported in the community. I already have an Android Handheld with the RP2, and whilst it's a great little handheld it isn't as user friendly as the 351Ps Linux based OSs.
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J T 06:50 17th May 2021
The fact that portable handhelds made by independent companies can come even close to emulating a range of big and powerful consoles like the Dreamcast or PS2 (albeit they are ~20 years old) is still somewhat staggering to me.
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Harrison 11:18 17th May 2021
PS2 is still a way off, but will be amazing when it happens. But I do agree. Even with them being 20 years old, being able to build sub £80 handhelds that are high quality products, well supported and can run every game up to PS1 and Dreamcast is still amazing.

It is a great time for retro gamers. What with these handhelds and cheap RPi and Android boxes able to provide retro gaming at cheap prices.
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Harrison 09:29 5th July 2021
Interesting recent new firmware release for the Anbernic RG351 P/M/V range called 351Droid.

As the name suggests this is Android on the 351 devices. And it's Android 11 too. Quite impressive when you consider until now all firmwares on these devices have been Linux EmuElec based.

It's still in beta and things such as audio has some issues. The current build once installed is fairly barebones too at the moment, with minimal apps installed by default, and no play store. I think this is intentionally fine though so it's lightweight really to just add emulators, frontends etc to the system. You don't need all the apps and stuff a full Android system comes with normally as this is intended purely for gaming. But it does work and fully supports all hardware in the system. This I'm sure is for the hope other builds utilising this base setup will appear that are preconfigured with emulators and frontends setup and ready to go.

You obviously don't have a touchscreen, and at the moment (unlike the Retroid Pocket 2 which is Android based) there is no mouse pointer emulation, but it does support plugging in usb keyboards and mice to do this. You would only need to do this whilst setting up the system and emulators. Once you are just gaming you wouldn't need this.

Emulation speed is as you might imagine fairly similar to the hardware running is existing alinux based firnwares. But what this does is open up these Anbernic devices to a whole new system of apps and emulators. And as it's still in beta, but already working pretty well, I'm really looking forward to the final release.

You can check out an intro/preview to 351Droid here:

https://youtu.be/tqTdqTyLFMM
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Demon Cleaner 14:00 25th July 2021
I just came back from Finland, was there for almost 5 weeks, and I used my handhelds quite a lot, during the boring times at home

I took the Switch Lite, and played some nice stuff on it, having already over 100 games in my library helps, variety is definitely there. And I also took my PS Vita and played some PSX, PSP and Vita games, some retro emulation, but mainly I was playing Amiga games, and I can happily say that they work quite fine on the Vita.

I still didn't do anything with my RG351V, but I also didn't have time to do so.
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Demon Cleaner 06:11 15th September 2021
RG351MP coming:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaFzaQRXAns

But again, nothing really new, same old RK3326 chip, same old features, just doing nothing new at all since 2+ years now. Market is flooded with devices, but nobody seems to take it a step further, like perhaps Odin, Valve or the OneXPlayer, which are obviously for a different clientele.

Anbernic starting to be eventually the worst, always waiting some months, then bringing out a slightly different model, obviously a bit better one, but with same specs.
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Harrison 10:51 20th September 2021
The RG351MP is definitely the best RK3326 based handheld the date. But for anyone who already owns anything already using that hardware it's a bit pointless.

They have basically taken all the best bits from their 351 range and combined them to create the best version. If I didn't already own a 351P I would probably buy one. The larger screen that matches the V is a nice upgrade, as is the metal case. And the return of 2 SD card slots is nice. But it's not enough for any existing owner to upgrade. It's also missing the built in wifi. This time the excuse is chip shortage. Not sure because they have made the sides of the case metal, whereas the 351M has plastic sides, which was stated as needed for wifi to work.

I don't think Anbernic will ever be first to market with new hardware, but they are great at product design and quailty end products. I bet they are waiting for the Odin to see see if they can copy the hardware for their next generation.
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Demon Cleaner 11:07 21st September 2021
I got my RG280V, nice little device, and I ordered also an RGB10 Max, panda edition.
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Demon Cleaner 17:56 23rd September 2021
I set up the RG280V with the same image (Adan 1.0.3) than the RG350M, and also both have now the exact same 256GB SD card full of games. I almost prefer the 280, as it's really nice, although the screen is quite small. Daphne and ScummVM emulation are great though

I also hacked my slim PS Vita with the VitaDeploy method and it worked like a charm, although after having initial problems to connect the Vita to my PC, had to use some workarounds and eventually managed to get it working.

I finally set up the RG351V now, with the latest 351Elec image, and I'm also using a 256GB SD card in here, but the setup is a bit different here, as this uses EmulationStation, and the RGs use the Dingux based SimpleMenu frontend. But I have one of those Android boxes, the Super Console X Max, which uses EmulationSation and thus I can easily copy the games from that setup to fit the correct folders.

I have to say after trying the 351V out a bit, I'm a bit disappointed. Everything runs well, as it does on the 280 and 350, but trying to emulate something a bit higher, makes it struggle. Dreamcast is very slow, did not test a lot of games though, but the ones I tested didn't run well at all. Same is for PSP, doesn't even come close to be able to run them that they would be playable. Also Saturn is completely slow and almost unplayable. I still will have to find some games that run better, probably only 2D games. N64 is ok, but nothing groundbreaking, plus again some games don't run well at all. PSX runs well as it does on the lower models, so nothing new here.

I did also some tweaking to the emulators, but nothing really helps, it is how it is, we'll have to wait for a device with a higher end chip to be able to run 32bit emulation smoothly.

Next up will be my 2 PowKiddy consoles, RGB10 and RGB10 Max, although I think I keep the RGB10 in the drawer, exactly same console with smaller screen. Might sell it at a later point, although I have the yellow model which is quite cute
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Harrison 10:22 27th September 2021
The 351s need a lot of tweaking and playing around with settings to make more demanding systems work well. The graphics scaling and filtering make a massive difference to performace, especially in N64, DC, and PSP games. Complete guides to do this fairly quickly are I the various YouTube reviewers sites. RetroGameCorp especially.

But the reality is that's the power of current hardware. The Odin should be the first handheld to really push the performance to the next level. So long as this new start-up can deliver the product as promised. I think by this time next year we will have far more powerful hardware to play around with. Really looking forward to it.

But there will still be a place for these current systems. So many great 16bit games to play and these run them perfectly.
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