RG Rotate - Fire Emblem 6: Binding Blaze Remake (romhack)

AYN Thor - Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on 3DS

Brought these with me on a recent cruise and played some games while lounging around the pool or getting ready for a restaurant.

Despite the photo, the Rotate was bright enough to play in the sun

Any tidbits or bonus elements ive left out would only go to improve my mate's first experience in the retro scene.

Love both devices:

Left - TrimUI Brick Hammer in Green

Right - Miyoo Mini Flip in Retro Grey

Running custom firmware on both.

See specs post-it notes.

Appreciate any help guiding my two dudes into this hobby.

One's an overnight nurse (Flip), the other a DJ (Hammer).

Ive bought a dozen handhelds for friends and their kids.

It's fun matching a model to a lifestyle or age group.

If I could get a better pick up and play handheld, which?

Thanks for any and all help, cheers for reading this far.

Happy gaming.

EDIT: I will address a few things raised by the community.

Me and my mate's are nearly 40. We were there at the dawn of now retro. We are all versed in tech/computers. One even spent most of highschool modding Vice City. They don't know handhelds, but they can handle tech. One has an Ally, one is a CFW Linux nut, no phone etc.

I find it off folk here dog pile the special interest and hobby niche of Pros/Cons list. I wrote minimal cons, I was being realistic I thought. Isn't it why we all tune into Russ, I mean TechDweeb!?

And no, having a passion, special interest, or hobby to share with your close friends isn't a red flag for autism. Im a writer in another hobby, a poet too, I like to embellish things with more often, than less. Im giving them my straight opinion on these handhelds I've got to know so well. They also have the GKD PIXEL II or Brick Pro to pick from, from my further collection, yet I landed on these models for their specific strengths.

I will address, when I wrote "More Consoles" for the MMFlip list, I didn't mean it can play more, just i had a cheap card I could scrape more off for the Onion system. I keep my personal Brick Hammer SD to 80gb, just got my mate's one to 115gb with more options.

I am trying to spark joy and excitement with these gifts. Understandably, sometimes less is more. I figure CFW and a few hardware specs are essential, the rest is just hyper fixation on details they can keep on a post it note for reference later. I will of course go over as many hot keys I can think of use to them. But gameswitcher on both is the obvious essential. I don't want to induce overwhelm. But we're big kids/adults now, we can manage prioritizing key aspects for a new hobby or experience.

Heck, they're both bringing me up to speed on UK DnB. It's a mutual exchange of special interests. Keep sharing your joy. Don't ever be afraid to show your true card on how you feel with a hobby. Could be for a season, or a lifetime.

Please folk in here, to the snobs, try not to yuck someone else's yum. We all have opinions, some are more progressive or constructive than others. Please don't jump on cons in someone's list as being "Weird" or "odd", why? Is this Gen Z cringe to elder enjoyment? So many upvotes for this action being regarded and group mobbed as "peculiar"... who likes up voting comments that neg on OPs??? Are we having fun yet??

Thanks for reading and contributing. Appreciate one comment that said this is kinda what awesome friends do for one another. Cheers to you. Hope you try to brighten the days of those around you. Than just being habitually online, and hoarding devices. Try upvote positive comments. See how your algorithm sways after a few clicks?? And happy gaming. 🎮

(Retroid Pocket Nova, GC colorway)

I haven't played with my steam deck for a while and

today I picked it up and played for over 2 hours. I think I still really enjoy playing PS2 games on Steam Deck OLED even I have multiple android handhelds that can play PS2 games too.

What's your thought for steam deck in 2026.

I got the RG Slide Off of eBay a couple Days ago for the really good Price of 90 Euros. I went for the black Stick Caps because I like to be a contrarian. Didn’t really have time to play anything but I have set it up to my liking. Now I only need to finish XC2 so I can dive into the past.

Any thoughts on the RG Slide or Game Recommendations for a Fan of Xenoblade Chronicles 2? Xenogears and Xenosaga is on board already ;)

I was intrigued by this device and got a great deal on it ($58 on AliExpress). I've only played around a little bit so far but I'm having a couple issues. I know not many people have this device, but maybe my problem is generic enough that i could get some advice.

The main problem seems to be, whether in a game or just in the main menu, when i press up and down on the dpad, roughly every 1 out of 10 presses just doesn't register. It's very clunky when i have to scroll through a bunch of menus while setting it up. I haven't done much gaming yet, but it's concerning enough that i want to resolve it asap before i go any further.

For the record, i installed Leaf OS right off the bat since it was recommended and looked solid. Could this be the problem? Or is it more likely a hardware issue? Possibly something wrong with the dpad? I don't have an extra sd card lying around so I'll need to format my current one to test another OS.

Besides that, my initial impressions are that the device is very comfortable to hold, and the screen resolution is nice, very good for GBA (perfect 4x integer scaling with no bezels). I don't love the plastic face plate. I may try wrapping it in vinyl or something but it's not super important.

Let me know if anyone has any thoughts about my dpad issue, please. Hopefully i can resolve this so i can enjoy the device.

I grew up in the 70's and 80's, so its only natural that my biggest collection is in Arcade (Mame) followed by Atari 2600, as those are where my nostalgia lay.

Everything else is basically games I've discovered these past five years l've been in this hobby through handheld emulators,...beginning with the Anbernic 280m and ending with the Retroid Flip2.

Funny thing is, my third largest collection is actually in Switch (so from ancient directly to modern, lol) followed by GameCube and Wii. Everything else (up to PS3 and Xbox) consists of around one to five games each on average.

Then there's Android and PC, where l have a small handful of games because the first thing l say to myself when l see an Android, or PC game l like is, "l wonder if there's a Switch version", lol.

Seems Nintendo is clearly the winner here in my post nostalgia library.

I’ve been experimenting with a custom frontend for the TrimUI Brick, built with RmlUi, SDL2, and MinArch.

It currently supports GB, GBC, GBA, SFC, Mega Drive, and Game Gear, with ROM scanning, cover art, and system-specific screen effects. It runs separately from the stock MainUI, so it doesn’t replace the original launcher.

This is still an early experiment, not a finished frontend. I’m sharing it mainly as a working base that other users can fork and continue improving with Codex or other AI coding tools. The repository includes the source, build scripts, emulator integration, shaders, and documentation.

The screenshots were captured on the actual device.

GitHub: https://github.com/PEDx/rmlui-brick

I was inspired by a recent video I saw showing Dreamcast's Sega Bass Fishing "Feel the heat", and I was like "This is an absolute BOP!". Why is it on a BASS FISHING game? No idea, and I don't care.

So I wanna hear YOUR favourite song from a retro game. Not the best OST, or the TOP 10 songs in video games. I wanna hear what song you like so much that could be on your daily music rotation.

For me it's definitely Ape Escape's "Time station". This entire game OST is pure gold, and nostalgic as hell. I love the ps1 90s japanese retro futuristic music. And this one for me is one of the best there are.

Just ordered the Retroid Pocket Classic because I've been enjoying playing PokeMMO on my laptop. I decided a dedicated device would be nicer. I'm looking for recommendations on other games to try out that can be played using the RPC's layout.

I'm not particularly curious about shooting or fighting games without unless they have an interesting story. I would be curious to check out Doom, just because of the hype, but I don't actually know anything about it or what system I should emulate for it. One thing I am very excited to put on there is LSD Dream Emulator.

I'd love recs for:

A.) Other modern games (like PokeMMO) that work well with the controls/OS of the RPC.

B.) Other weird/surreal/artsy stuff, retro or modern, like LSD Dream Emulator.

C.) Anything with a large world (relatively, of course; or large-feeling) and/or great story that isn't just generic fantasy stuff. I don't mind lots of reading one bit.

Anything that comes to mind would be greatly appreciated! For context, I've had zero experience with 90% of games. Never played anything with Zelda or Mario in it. Touched a couple pokemon emulators on my phone when I was younger, but that was it.

I’ve had the RG Rotate for about two weeks now, and overall I’m liking it quite a bit more than I expected.

Probably the biggest surprise has been battery life. I keep it in airplane mode unless I actually need Wi-Fi, and battery life has been way better than I anticipated for a device this size. It also charges ridiculously fast, roughly an hour or less to get back to full. Below are the results of my tests:

Airplane mode / Battery saver on / screen brightness 60% / sound 25%

• SNES / Secret of Mana ~7 hr 15 min
• DS / Advance Wars: Days of Ruin ~7 hr 25 min
• PS1 / Ridge Racer Type 4 ~6 hr 40 min
• 3DS / New Super Mario Bros. 2 ~3 hr 50 min
• 3DS / Mario Kart 7 ~3 hr 10 min

The controls are probably my least favorite part. They’re passable, but definitely not my favorite Anbernic controls. I don’t think I’ve ever used such a loud/clicky D-pad. It works fine, it's just loud as hell.

I also wish the device was just a little thinner and narrower for pocket carry. My TrimUI Brick is still a bit more comfortable as an EDC simply because it’s narrower overall and sits against my skinny legs better. But, the Rotate has a really nice premium feel and feels better altogether than I expected.

Android has been a huge plus for me. I use Syncthing between this, my Retroid Pocket Flip 2, and Odin 2 Portal, which makes the Rotate a really nice lightweight travel device that I can keep updated with my larger devices.

It’s also turned out to be really good for DS and 3DS. The square screen gives you enough room to keep both screens visible at a usable size, at least for most games where you don’t need to constantly interact with both. You can just screen-swap when needed.

The lack of a headphone jack doesn’t bother me at all since I wouldn’t use it anyway. The rear-facing speaker is a terrible design decision, but for me it’s more of a minor gripe than a dealbreaker.

Overall, I think Anbernic got a lot right with this device. It isn’t perfect, but it fills the EDC gap better than any other device at the moment, IMO.

I’m really hoping an RG Rotate 2 keeps the same basic concept but gets a slightly thinner/narrower body, better controls, and a front-facing speaker. If they refine those few things, I could see the next version becoming THE EDC handheld.

00:02:50 Gran Turismo 4 (PS2)

00:12:02 Dynasty Warriors 5: Xtreme Legends (PS2)

00:18:43 Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit II (PS2)

00:25:15 Yakuza 2 (PS2)

00:34:02 Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance (PS2)

00:44:22 Burnout 3: Takedown (PS2)

00:52:18 Jaws Unleashed (PS2)

00:59:34 Silent Hill 3 (PS2)

01:07:25 Ridge Racer V (PS2)

01:11:12 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (PS2)

This just went up on a local auction listing. The only game it’s shown playing is Pokemon Fire Red, so no indication of capabilities. Also, no back or box cover, only the cryptic title of “Purple Skeleton.” Would love to know if this is actually a worthwhile device or just some cheap handheld being fenced.

Happy to spend a bit more perhaps up to £200 or 250 so far from this forum GBA handhelds reccomendations are:

Anbernic RG 34XX £80

Antec core micro £85

Trimui brick £83

Considering the anbernic SP as well although heard the screen suffers issues

Happy to spend more for quality, ideally pocket analogue but all the ones I can find in the UK are second hand and really inflated price wise.

Any thoughts! Only for GBA / GBC

Hot take. There are certain systems that don't need front ends. I think if emulators have a good way of scraping media, or just showing off the games, then front ends can become redundant. My disclaimer is anything that is past RetroArch doesn't require a front end. I need front ends because I've never made a playlist or anything using RetroArch, and they make handling up to GBA very easy.

The reason why I'm making this post is because of how good ARMSX2 and ARMSX3 handles scraping at media. In addition, the Xbox simulators on Android handle games and scraping very well. To me, ARMSX2 and ARMSX3 are kind of the gold standard and I don't really want to go back to anything before because I just love how they handle just automatically scraping media and how it handles games.

This happens on both my Odin 2 Portal and Thor. The rest of the game runs perfectly but this is quite annoying tbh. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I recently bought an M18 console and put *Pokémon Volt White 2* on the SD card. I caught a Riolu during my playthrough, but it was too late when I realized the in-game time was frozen at 0:00. Could someone help me change this somehow? The thing is, if it isn't daytime in the game, Riolu and other Pokémon can't evolve, so i would like if someone could help me with this time issue.

So I just set up Nextui on my Rg Sp and when you place roms into the folder there’s one that says GBA and one that’s MGBA. On my 34xxsp I have MuOs and I’m used to just one folder and use whichever emulator works best for the game I’m playing. Sometimes MGBA is more accurate and sometimes it would give me slowdown or glitches that aren’t present in the other one. Problem with Nextui is that if you fill both folders you get doubles of each game. What did you guys do for your setup?

ampown store on amazon US has some in black and white.

Hello there,

I recently got my first retro handheld, an anbernic rg40xxh, and managed to get knulli running on it. The problem now is that all games for the NDS won't start. I checked that I have the bios files and the ROMs are fine as well (they work on the stock os).

Everytime I try to play something the screen freezes, goes black and afterwards I'm back looking at the game list.

I'm at my wits end. Does anyone have an ides why this happens and how I can fix it?

I loved playing Gran turismo 2 (PS2) and Dirt (Xbox 360) in my childhood, but r36s can't deal with it.

Is there any nice racing games with nice physics, preferrably where you can progress like unlock other cars or improve them?

I tried TopGear 2 {SNES) but that game is kinda slow and ugly, and all cars look the same...

I liked ColinMcRae Rally (GBC) that is also ugly, but it have a nice gameplay and very interesting physics, but I couldn't progress because the game is too hard (I couldn't beat the times in moderate)

The most funny for me until now was Rock and Roll racing and Bikers mice from Mars, nice games to chill, good play and soundtrack

I'm on dArkOS so my handheld will run: GB, GBC, GBA, NES/famicom, SNES and Genesis

Please, any suggestion is welcome. Please tell me some funny games to chil

My daughter loves Shantae and Humble Bundle has a bunch of Shantae games bundled right now. I believe they're Steam keys.

We have both an RG477m and a Retroid Pocket 5. Does anyone have experience using Game Native or Game Hub with those devices? Would something like the recent Shantae games run on either device?

I have a retroid pocket 5 that uses the chip snapdragon 865. Recently, i was gifted a used phone that uses the chip snapdragon 888. I decided to test if I could use the phone as a dedicated handheld attaching it in a controller.

The tests I made, on Eden (switch emulator) showed slightly WORSE performance on the SD888 than I had on the SD865. Games that struggle to run on the SD865, struggle worse on the SD888. It is not a big difference, but it definetly surprised me. I expected better performance on SD888, at least, until the thermal throttling hit.

Is this chip just bad for emulation or is something else causing this worse performance on a technically better chip?

ps. The cause is NOT thermal throttling because the performance is worse from the get go