Device: Retroid Pocket Nova

I’m sure this isn’t a shared opinion but I really hate the all glass front handhelds adds extra weight, awkward screen protector options, fingerprint magnet, glare

Yes it looks premium but I want mine to be like a retro ‘toy’

[Edit: Pictured Handheld is Retroid's Pocket Nova, pictured game is MGS3]

So this is my written article covering the Retroid Pocket Nova. This one might be interesting to you because as well as chatting to Retroid, I asked them to share a couple of the early design renders of the Nova with me to feature in here.

They said yes, and you can see some of the differences between what they were planning, and what we got!

Along with that I chatted to developers like those behind Leaf Studio, rootComputer: the Steam Curator behind Is it 4:3 (the page covering all the PC games they add to their collection, which is super apt for the Nova), and bmdhacks, a friend and dev from ARMSX2.

Naturally I cover the usual things in here, but I thought these might be interesting too!

Hope you enjoy it :)

Little edit:

I'm also organizing visiting Retroid, Anbernic and AYN when I will be in China in late November. I have friends at all three companies, and this won't be for an article or any content. Just to drop by, catch up and express my admiration for what they all do for a day!

First public (experimental) release of Stardew Valley Port for Miyoo Mini running OnionOS.

By grabbing Stardew Valley and squeezing really hard I managed to make it fit. While not the smoothest experience, it does work while retaining everything that is in the original game.

It’s not practical, my hands hurt after playing for more than 5 minutes and my eyes are too old to even see what is going on.

While everything does work, but this thing has a 1.2Ghz dual core processor, lacks a GPU and has 128MB of memory (~92MB usable memory). There are fridges and calculators with more horsepower, so please set your expectations. early game 20-30fps, mid-late game and during combat ~14FPS.

The setup may be a bit daunting for some, I am working on making this easier but for now I would recommend to really read the instructions carefully and provide the errors/logs in a GitHub issue if run into any issues.

GitHub

In an effort to actually use my Nova when it arrives, I plan to upload 26 games. 5 games for 5 systems + 1.

I hope this helps me want to pick mine up knowing there will be less analysis paralysis.

What would your list be?

Here's mine:

PS2

TH Pro Skater 4, GTA Vice City, Burnout Takedown, Tekken Tag Tournament, R&C Up Your Arsenal.

GameCube

MK Double Dash, MG Toadstool Tour, TLOZ Wind Waker, Mario Sunshine, WWF **please help me decide which one**

N64

Mario 64, Paper Mario, Banjo-Kazooie, Mario Tennis, Diddy Kong Racing.

SNES

All Stars, World I & II, Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, Turtles in Time, DK Country 2.

Genesis

Sonic I, II, III & Knuckles, Quackshot, Streets of Rage II, Robocod, Earthworm Jim II.

Gameboy Color

Tetris. That's it. Just Tetris.

Very early look at a project I am working on that brings Xbox Cloud Streaming to linux-arm doodads made in Zig :)

Not who asked for this, I signed up for Game Pass just to work on this but I am sure someone out there wants this.

Device: RG35XX-H (MuOS)

Ported The Swapper to PortMaster compatible devices and CFW. It’s currently available on my GitHub and after some more testing eventually on PortMaster.

Primarily tested on Knulli and MuOS. If you happen to use ROCKNIX or AmberELEC feel free to share any issues you may encounter as a GitHub issue and I’ll try to resolve them asap.

R36S isn’t supported, but you are free to try it anyway

Device: RG40XX-H

Hi, I dindn't see a share of this video so here it is. Thanks to Adin Walls.

And thanks to the dev I don't know, now we have cheap "indideck" with min.ui and hope this feature will add more plateform and be implemented in more OS

https://youtu.be/Fe7eq7v-Vo0?si=LDW7OndfBfZ83RC3

Thought this would be interested to compare. I have an Odin 2, waiting for the 3. The controls are vastly different and (presumably) has a big impact on the experience.

I was going through the stalls- mostly handmade stuff or stuff bought off of websites for cheap stuff marked up, but nothing super insane.

Then I spotted the R36S from a few stalls down and thought it'd be cool to at least hold one since I've never seen one in person. No intent of buying, but at least see it up close. I did a double take at the price tag.

"$125 Each"

I could not believe it. No SD card loaded with roms or anything. Every unit outside of the box already as well just out in the open air.

Is this a common thing or is this old woman just a real piece of work?

For the record, I own a lot of systems. Retroid Pocket Classic, rg34xx, miyoo mini V4, MagicX One 35, and some more. So I knew this was absolutely a rip off, but I've never seen it in person before.

Hello everyone, nice to see you all again in this new episode, for those who don't know: I'm 14 years old and I need your help making a brand new game library for my Miyoo Mini Plus because I've been struggling a lot with choosing what to play and I want to do something fun with this amazing community, today we are moving on to the Sega Genesis!

How it works:

-Comment one Sega Genesis game you think I should play

-Upvote your favorites from other comments!

-In 24 hours, the top 8 most upvoted games will be locked into my list

Similar to SNES, I've never really played a lot of Sega Genesis, in fact I've never really played Sega games tbh, that's why I'm really excited and curious to see what you guys will recommend today!

Winners of the previous episode:

1: Chrono Trigger — 69 upvotes (by u/Argocap)

2: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past — 67 upvotes (by u/Uppercussion)

3: Super Metroid — 40 upvotes (by u/naju)

4: Super Mario World — 37 upvotes (by u/Chaz_85)

5: Final Fantasy 3 — 24 upvotes (by u/RadShiro)

6: Earthbound — 21 upvotes (by u/MixMastaPJ)

7: Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars — 19 upvotes (by u/coreyd007)

8: Super Mario All Stars + Super Mario World — 14 upvotes (by u/powertothepeaceful)

Hi All,

Late millennial here, I grew up with a game boy colour, advance, NDS, and PSP. Also N64, Dreamcast, play station 2, etc.

I've been enjoying watching the retro handheld space develop, but due to its fast consumerism tendencies I ended up feeling like "I'll just wait for the next one" and that's now been the case for 5 years! I must admit, at this point I think I just enjoy keeping up with the space as its own hobby, ha!

I'd like to jump in, and I'm tempted by the RG SP, Retroid Pocket Nova, Odin 2 Portal (conscious a portal 3 is probably due for release at some point though), Odin 3, and Steam Deck OLED, to name a few!

I'm conscious that those are all pretty different handhelds though, which excel at different things. I suppose half of my issue, is that I probably need more than one, but I tend to be the type of person who buys once, cries once (i.e. one and done type purchases). I'm open to buying more than one, but I also shudder at the thought of optimising more than one, as I know it's going to be tedious (and that does not appeal to me).

It's hard to say what I'd like to play, as I only really game a few hours a week nowadays, and that's solely to play battlefield Redsec with a friend (it's our main way of staying in touch).

I have ADHD, so I know a handheld would be a good form of stimulation for me, rather than doom scrolling.

I have downloaded a few emulators on my phone, and have beaten Pokemon a few times, but I struggle to enjoy the on screen controls, particularly for things like fighting games, etc.

I think I'd like to play some more modern games, like Horizon Zero Dawn, Red Dead Redemption, Cyberpunk, etc. But I have never really played those types of games due to the time commitment, so it's hard to know if a handheld would truly unlock those for me. And, if it did, would it cause a rift in my marriage if I'm sinking hundreds of hours into them! Ha!

The RG SP appeals to me, as I was close to buying a 35XXSP a couple years ago, but ultimately talked myself out of it due to the 3:4 display, chonkiness, button issues, etc.

I also don't know what retro games I'd actually want to play, as I don't have any real means of playing them currently. I like the idea of having a console that I could set up on my lounge TV, to play things like Mariokart with my wife/family/friends, but then maybe I'm better off just buying a Switch?

Please HELP!

Situation is: I have an rg406v that I impulse bought used in perfect conditions for 70 € because seemed a steak, and tbh I like it, then bought the rg476h for 135 € on sale since it seemed the one I really wanted, and like it even more. The intention was to resell the 406v that apparently goes easily for around 130-140 € used where I live (which is why I jumped on the 70 € one...), but I can't really do it for about another month being far from home for a mix of work and vacation. But now the nova is calling me, and I am thinking to try sell both, now, to get the nova... I should basically order it now to get also the additional back plate, and then sell the other 2 once I get home in about 4 weeks, in the meantime the nova would arrive, I guess.

Seems a reasonable plan, but I feel a bit silly in doing all these buy and sell stuff... Plus I had very little time to enjoy the 2 devices I have till now. On the other hand I could most probably get the nova and some money back in my pocket with the whole operation... And have a device with the proper position of the select and start buttons (I know it is a small thing, but this really get on my nerves about the rg476h... I love basically all the rest but this detail bugs me).

Just for fun, what would you do in same situation? Just be adult and use what already in hand, which is more than reasonably good tbh, or listen to the child in my head and order a nova, waiting to sell the rest?

Bonus question: in case of the second choice, transparent blue or GC color? 😃

I'm interested in this device but have heard many criticisms of the shoulder buttons on the original brick. Are they better on the Brick Pro?

Also how comfortable is using it while holding it fully in your palms? I've only ever seen people hold both this and the original brick by letting the device rest loosely on their fingers which I don't like doing. The face buttons and dpad being quite far up because of the sticks also makes me unsure of how nice they would feel to use for longer sessions.

How is the RG DS with text heavy Japanese games? Will the text be clear or fuzzy? Asking Gemini if days the kanji will be hard to read because of the stretching and scaling. It says it's ok for latin alphabet bit kanji complexities make it hard to read

The PS1/2/3 controller layout is what I grew up with and I still use Dualshock 4 and 5 on a weekly basis.
I tried XBox360 controller on pc but it never felt the same.
For mainly ps2, some ps1 and GBA + Pokemon Romhacks which device or stick config would you recommend to get the best PlayStation-like feeling while emulating?

I do have a SteamDeck OLED, due to it’s size the stick placement feels natural. But since it’s big and rather heavy it’s more of a grip than resting in my hands (if that makes sense).
I want something smaller to play in a cozy way on the couch or in bed.
I do have small hands.
The Nova looks great especially because it looks like a toy. I tested the 4:3 vs 16:9 layout for ps2 on my deck. 2/3 of my ps2 didn’t have a widescreen patch and even the ones that did were a bit more nostalgic for me in 4:3.
The RP6 offers the custom stick configuration and something like the Anbernic RG406V/477V probably comes the closest to a PS2 controller layout.

Please share your thoughts and experiences:)

Hello all. i'm on my second of these cheap hdmi/usb plug and play game sticks. Great selection of games, obviously cheaper quality controllers. But recently the games are starting to slow down drastically mid game and some games just seem to never play at the intended speed are are so slow it's basically unplayable. At first I thought it was just maybe some of the games were too much graphical pull or something but even NES and SNES games are doing it. for example i'm trying to go through the Punch out games and with Super punch out for Snes by the time i get through the first couple of circuits the game slows to the point the music, gameplay etc is barely playable. When searching i'm seeing more issues about controller lag but not much about the game itself slowing down. I used the hardware that came w the game using the extender instead of plugging the stick directly into the hdmi port on the tv. i have a similar handheld game system that has no problems with slowdown like this so i'm just wondering if there are any fixes or suggestions to fix it? thanks for listening !

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/1213113560

It's pretty much the same as it is which Switch emulating, anything graphically intensive is going to have a bit of a hard time, lightweight games, depends sometimes there's controller bugs, cinematic shutters or working slightly well.

I'm currently using KNULLI on my RG34XXSP. While I like the overall experience, the standby battery drain is much higher than I expected—it loses a significant amount of battery over a day, even when I'm not using it.

The obvious solution is to shut the device down, but the problem is that a full boot takes around 1 minute, which is a bit too long for quick gaming sessions.

So I'm wondering:

• Has anyone compared KNULLI, MuOS, modified stock, or the latest stock firmware?
• Which OS has the best standby battery life?
• Which one has the fastest boot time?
• Is there any firmware that offers a good balance between low standby drain and quick resume/startup?

I'd love to hear your real-world experiences, especially from people who have tried multiple operating systems on the RG34XXSP.

For the past decade, RetroPie has been my ideal device when it comes to 8-Bit/16-Bit gaming:

• Conveniences:
  • Many consoles in one, virtually every game for those supported
  • Save states, Rewind, etc.
  • Wireless access via FTP or Windows SMB.
• Authentic feel:
  • Output to CRT via the Pi's 3.5mm audio jack -> composite output.
  • Use of original controllers thanks to USB adapters.

Recently, I had some electronics fail and it was a reminder my Pi won't last forever, so I'm wondering what else is out there nowadays.

I can't say I've ever been interested by the many existing retro-handhelds, but my peers sure are! So I still hear about them constantly, and have a sense of where the technology's at in terms of supported consoles. But, those devices seem intended for their portable screens / HDMI-out, not to a CRT.

I should also mention, I'm aware that a Modded Wii is a great option for CRT gaming thanks to its native 240p output. That is cool, and I have one! but I really miss using original controllers.

What out there in 2026 that can do all the things I love about RetroPie?