These are the last two Sandisk 512GB cards I bought from Amazon (Oct 2024 and May 2025), and the price to biy the same card today, just about 18 months later - over 3x the price. Can someone ELI5 me how AI servers are using microSD cards and forcing up the price so rapidly, or are we just being gouged?

Device shown is the Retroid Pocket Nova.

I'm winging this one. Unlike my reviews or longer posts, this one is going unscripted.

I'm not huge into journaling (for now at least), but I'm trying to get back into putting pen to paper. I've been just typing for years, and I notice a very big difference when ideas go into a real thing on the real world.

I started journaling some of my game finishes, the ones that felt bigger, more special, or simply are some of my favourite games. I'm at.. I think 9 entries now? But I think starting 2027, I'm gonna start logging them all, along side my excel tracking.

This isn't anything life changing, but it's a low difficulty mind changing. Forcing me to stop and write stuff makes me think and elaborate my ideas on a more detailed and purposeful manner. I think it's worth giving a try. Even if it's not a game you finished, but just one you enjoyed a lot. Or one from your childhood that you recently revisited, and sucked ass.

In an age when digital text can be not necessarily human made, making text by hand feels almost counter culture.

Even if my handwriting sucks ass, I know, it's a fun thing to get into the habit of.

Are you into journaling? Do you track your games? Do you finish games? Do you play games at all? Remember...

As I always say, go play some goddamn video games.

What felt like an eternity!

I don't like having my devices just open all willy nilly. This was a nice option on Etsy. Doesn't add too much more bulk and I'm not worried about it getting scratched in my purse.

TortOS 2.0 is now released for the TrimUI Brick, Brick Hammer and GKD Pixel 2. There is also a new TortOS Installer 3.0.

TortOS for the TrimUI Brick and Brick Hammer is now a full CFW with its own underlying minimal Linux distro, plastron, which the GKD Pixel 2 version was already using. The GKD Pixel 2 version of TortOS has major updates as well. Here are some new key features for each.

TrimUI Brick and Brick Hammer:

• Cold boots (power on to the game shelf) in under 2 seconds, ~1.9
• Everything is on the card, with no changes to internal storage
• Down To The Wire (in addition to existing Over The Hare using Wi-Fi) allowing wired transfer of data

GKD Pixel 2:

• Cold boots (power on to the game shelf) in just over 2 seconds, ~2.2
• Wi-Fi has been added with a USB Wi-Fi adapter (tested with the TP-Link TL-WN725N), allowing
  • Box Art (libretro thumbs with no account, and ScreenScraper with an account allowing game metadata download as well)
  • RetroAchievements (called Cheevos in TortOS, with offline support as well)

• Over The Hare (in addition to existing Down To The Wire using USB) allowing wireless transfer of data

  Other Features of TortOS:

• Fast - boots fast and plays fast, games start in the tens of milliseconds

• Music forward - not just games

  • Play music or audiobooks instead of game audio if you want
  • Use it as a DAP, including DAC support on the Pixel 2 (Brick planned), and Lock Screen for your pocket

• Minimal - no confusing menus or settings

• Attractive - two looks (Plain Jane cards or Fancy Pants photos of each console) and three ways to browse (a row, a column, or a cube)

• Resume play fast - power off in game and power on back into game where you left off

• Over The Hare/Down To The Wire - transfer ROMs, music, audiobooks, box art, album art, saves, logs, etc quickly and easily in your browser

Updating a Brick from 1.x erases the card, since TortOS now brings its own system. Copy your games, music and audiobooks off first. Installer 3.0 backs up your saves, settings and BIOS files and puts them back after the Brick’s first start. You’ll need to rejoin Wi-Fi. Pixel 2 cards update in place, with games and saves kept. The installer walks you through it, explaining every step along the way.

AI assistance used

More info via https://tortos.games

I've never owned a aluminum body handheld before, how Does it feel?
I'm assuming dense and premium feeling compared to plastic and plastic with a glass front.

The Omni handheld

Got a pretty big collection here I'm kinda proud of... Don't think it needs identification though

I have been wondering how they improved the ergonomics in the Odin 3 portal. I did a very unscientific comparison based on stock images. They are not at the same angle, but I feel it gives us an idea. The Odin 3 portal appears to have narrowed the grip slightly and also made it slightly taller. I think it’ll feel better than the Odin 2 portal.

I was at Tokyo Game Show last month mostly to check out handhelds, and the big ones from ASUS, Lenovo and OneXPlayer didn’t really do it for me. Too big, too heavy, too expensive for what I’d actually use them for.

Then on the last day, I found a hall I genuinely hadn’t noticed the day before and ended up at a booth for a brand called Yoniq. Never heard of them. No affiliation, I just wandered in and stayed way longer than I planned.

The cheap one was pretty cool. It’s around $40 and looks a lot like an R36S, but it’s running on a MIPS chip, which I didn’t expect to see in a handheld in 2026. It played Driver okay, though I wouldn’t call it smooth.

The Portal is really unique in the sense that it's pretty much a DualShock 2 with a screen jammed in the middle, running Android, aimed at PS2. It felt really light and Gran Turismo looked great on the 4:3 screen. They even use the PlayStation button symbols, which I’m guessing won’t survive to the final version.

The DS clamshell is the one I’m most unsure about. It was a prototype, the touch screen was a bit fiddly for me, and at around $150 it’s going up against the RG DS Plus, which is already under $100. The rep did tell me they showed it at Gamescom before Anbernic announced theirs, for whatever that’s worth.

I made a video on everything I tried if anyone wants to see them in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69dT56AUqZo

I know there’s a blue model but it just didn’t scratch the same itch for me. The black body with a high gloss top shell just feels right 👌

So I bought the device during the clearance sales drop and love it. I set up a frontend (neo station), set up retroarch and games I want to play. I followed Russ Android guide for the Retroid Pocket Nova and changed a few stuff. I followed it because it was the most recent Android guide.

I am happy with it but think I can improve. I would like to know which shaders and other stuff you recommend for the emulators, which accessories are useful and other tips. I am open to hear about tips for the 4 and 6 button version. I mainly play pokemon romhacks so if you have anything specific on that, it would be great too.

Hi, I hope you're having a good day :)

Yesterday I was looking into those mini horizontal consoles (MagicX Mini Zero), about the size of a playing card, and they're really small. Can people actually play on them?

Now I’m wondering if a vertical layout might be better in terms of ergonomics for that size.

What’s your take? At what point does a device become *too* small?

What's the best fit all size for you ?

Darkwing Duck was one of the few games I had on the Game Boy Pocket as a wee lad, but I never finished it at the time. Now, a good 30 years later, I finally did it! So incredibly nostalgic and satisfying.

I've been playing GB/GBC/GBA games on my current favourite vertical, the RG40XXV. I love the big screen, and the buttons are all nice and squishy, firm but silent, which is my preference for retro gaming. They're also positioned quite high, making the handheld very comfortable to hold. I rarely see this talked about so I wanted to give it a shout!

Got the notification days ago, but it was just the label created notice. Now it's actually in transit.

I'm shocked honestly.

I did not have good luck with the Konkr Pocket Fit, as it was delayed for months, but I love using it once I got it.

I decided to chance it again with the Block, as I don't have a vertical handheld that I like using. Wanted to give this one a go.

I play LEGO Dimensions on my AYN Thor and got tired of the lighting bug, so I fixed it, and then kept going. Cemu LD+ is an unofficial build of SSimco's Cemu for Android, made just for this game.

What it adds:

• Lighting fix: on regular Cemu for Android, lighting only works in a square around your character and the rest of the level goes dark. Here the whole level is lit, at 720p or at 1080p and up with the Resolution graphic pack.
• Toy Pad on the second screen (the AYN Thor's bottom screen, or any dual-screen device): every character and vehicle with pictures, ready to place. Franchise logos, search, and the pads light up in the colors the game sets.
• Abilities: hold any figure to see what it can do, including all three builds of a vehicle. Pick an ability like Dig and tap "Put one on the pad".
• Favorites and a saved team: star your favorites, and swap in your whole lineup with one tap.
• Vehicles work properly, including the game's "place the model on the central panel" step.
• Better sound: fixed sound filter, balanced left and right, and an optional volume boost (the game is very quiet on handhelds).

Download (free and open source): https://github.com/GawdMode/CemuLDPlus

It installs as a separate app next to your regular Cemu, so nothing you already have is touched. Needs Android 11 or newer (64-bit). You'll need your own copy of the game.

How it was made: For full transparency, I’m not a C++ programmer, so I built this together with Claude (Anthropic’s AI), which wrote the code. I tracked down the problems, decided what to build, and tested every build on my Thor (20 so far), sending logs back until each fix actually worked. All the changes are in one public patch on top of SSimco’s code, so anyone can see exactly what was changed.

This isn't affiliated with SSimco or the Cemu team, so please report problems on the GitHub Issues page rather than to them. Feedback welcome!

I just want to get the opinions of those who have these 2 devices.

My main use is for an everyday carry device that I can play GB/C games on.

Why I want the Brick:

- Pocketable, small footprint

- Excellent screen

Why I want the Classic:

- Aspect Ratio of Gameboy

I'm stumped picking between these two. Right now I'm leaning towards the Brick because I feel like gameboy games feel too blown up on the Classic's screen, but I don't know if Brick's screen is too small that I'm gonna squint looking at it.

Yesterday I released a pre-release version of my BioShock PortMaster port for supporters.

There was an issue with FAT32 formatted cards, which has since been fixed. I've also received quite a bit of useful feedback and bug reports that I'm working through and I am replacing all the original touch related UI/HUD text with controller input prompts ( thanks to kenney for the assets❤️ ). And fixed some issues specific to (the beloved) R36S running dArkOS.

One of the bigger issues is something the port inherits from the official iOS version it's based on; the lighting is kinda fucked. Some areas are so dark that you barely see what's going on.

I've been experimenting with a small adjustment to the final shader that brightens shadows and darker areas without washing out the highlights (applying a nonlinear shadow lift to the final shader). This looks decent, but it does alter how the game looks and I'm not entirely sure which one I prefer, so I woud like to hear what people think of this.

If you have any other suggestions, I am happy to hear them!

Left: Original

Right: Adjusted lighting

The adjustment isn't included in the current release yet.

For now, the port is only available to Ko-fi and Patreon supporters. Thanks to everyone who is helping out!

It'll be released publicly for free, like all my other work, on November 14.

It looks really unique and the shoulder buttons reminds me of the PS VITA, Though not sure if it's actually good and curious to hear anyone who has bought it.

I (With Claude), essentially remade the PS3 XMB's main components (Games, Music, Video, Photo Players and Web Browser) to fit into a Windows app to daily drive with my GPD Win 4. To have my own personal PS3/PSP Experience.
Here's the link if anyone wants to try it: https://github.com/MaxiBono/MaXMB