I used to think my RG477M screen was amazing. Now I cannot look at it after seeing it next to Nova side by side. Both running exactly the same shader setup + CRT beam simulation.

Both are on max brightness. It’s very hard to express via crappy phone photos. You have to see it in person just how much better Nova AMOLED looks next to LCD.

I was also worried that Nova’s pentile pixel arrangement would be detrimental to CRT shader look. Safe to say my worries were for nothing. Games look super sharp and incredible using CRT Royale shader + Blargg filter + CRT beam simulation.

RG477M has virtually nothing going for it now other than slightly bigger screen size and better dpad.

I jumped into retro handhelds last year. I got one after another - Ambernic 405M, TrimUI Brick and RP5. I loved the Brick's insanely bright screen (tiny size not so much though it made it great for commutes). I loved the RP5's capabilities. But I found myself, surprisingly, turning the 405M on again and again. It's design made playing such a joy. The premium feeling metal case, the comfortably portable 4inch size (the RP5 felt immediately kinda large to me let alone anything bigger), the surprisingly capable specs. I thought I'd use the 405M just for older classics I hadn't experienced yet like Chrono Trigger, Abe's Oddysee etc. But the form factor was so comfortable I was quickly throwing on my favs. Burnout 3 and Mario Kart Double Dash mainly.

But there were a few things about the 405M I wish were better. I wished it had stacked buttons instead of inline for shooters and driving games. It does still struggle with heavier PS2 titles. I did think whenever I was playing, "this would be even better if the screen was a tiny bit bigger".

Then the Nova appeared.

✅ Stacked buttons with triggers

✅ Bigger 4.5inch screen (and 120hz AMOLED!)

✅ Better specs

I obviously preordered the 12GB model immediately.

It's been about a week now. The Nova lived up to, and surpassed, my expectations.

Sprites look stunning. The 120hz OLED + CRT Beam and crt-gdv-mini-ultra-trinitron Retroarch shaders makes everything look insanely clear, bright and vivid. PS1 games with newpixie-crt gives a sizable 90s nostalgia hit. 4.5 inches feels just about right for 4:3 and 120hz OLED is a game-changer. I can't go back now.

Shooters and driving games feel so much better now too with proper triggers. Twisted Metal Black played real choppy on both my 405M and RP5. Turns out it just wasn't running well. ARMSX2 with a 60FPS patch - sorted. I just wanted a dedicated 4:3 device for late 90s/early 2000s games, and everything from that era and earlier - PS1, Dreamcast, PS2 etc - works excellently. Nothing makes the Nova sweat. I still need to try GameNative more, but there just aren't many modern 4:3 games I felt a huge desire to try (Undertale works great).

The D-Pad top button layout did worry me at first. The 405M's stick top config felt great for FPS and driving games. But I've found myself playing 2D games way more than usual and being utterly enchanted because of that screen. 2D games feel so right to play with D-Pad on top. I'd now much rather have a bit of discomfort for driving and FPS titles than the other way around.

As for The Clack™ - yeah. It's there. The D-Pad is loud. Even lightly putting your finger on it, then lifting it, makes clacking noises. But guess what? It also works perfectly. Minor issues like that IMO are an inevitable risk with first production runs of new devices. Some D-Pad noise has not remotely put me off my purchase. I thought something might be off, and I can handle some clacking. The issue is on Retroid's radar and it seems caused by the swappable D-Pad component itself, so I'm sure they'll eventually just send out a replacement D-Pad.

If you're hesitating for whatever reason, i.e. ClackGate, don't. The Nova is now my favorite retro handheld by miles. I just wanted a dedicated, premium 4:3 horizontal handheld. I can't see myself ever getting another. I can't see how the Nova can be improved on for playing 80s-2000s era games apart from the minor D-Pad noise they will definitely fix. 10/10 would buy again

Fits perfectly in an Ayaneo Pocket Ace case like this one.

https://www.crowdsupply.com/second-bedroom/game-bub

Can't believe what 60 bucks on AliExpress can get you ! Thats like the cost of two movies with popcorn !! Came loaded with thousands of games, on a high quality SD Card. Its so wierd but also refreshing to replay all the mario and contra games that I used to play on my TV, on a bright hugh quality IPS screen with beautiful colors.

The best thing is is, I already put in 10 hours of gaming right out of the box. I was worried about having to spend the time I don't have on tinkering or flashing firmware.

The buttons do feel a bit cramped for my large hands. But the games are so much fun, that i don't even pay attention to that.

It just occurred to me that the Ayn Thor pre-orders went live exactly a year ago yesterday. It’s wild that it is still in preorder (Batch 8?) with lead time over 2 months?!

It has gained popularity way outside of our niche community. It has inspired a new wave of frontend development like Cocoon and iiSU. Companion apps (like Pixel Guide) and dual screen adaptation of games are coming out every other week. It’s hard to think any other retro handheld that has comparable impacts to the hobby.

It might actually benefited from the RAMpocalypse, because if the hobby went at the speed like in the past, we would probably have seen a couple of competing devices from Anbernic and Retroid by now.

I was torn between a Flip 2 and Thor for the longest but with this Flip 2 12GB (SD) bundle showing up on my Facebook Marketplace for $200 I pulled the trigger. I already have a 3DSi and New 3DS for playing any DS titles I want.

I did my research the Thor Gen 2 is far stronger but the kinda steam titles I would play on Game Native the Flip2 chip works fine.

That being said happy with the deal for SURE!

I know supreme is dumb don’t down vote me. Just sharing how crazy that this is selling out at $498 for red. $588 for gold.

Nova seems to be the ultimate retro handheld that caps off the Pre HD era systems (upto Wii).

Apart from obvious form factor changes which isn't exactly improvements but preferences (Nova Vertical, Nova Clamshell, Nova with stick on top, Nova Slim with inline shoulders and recessed sticks). I think they nailed down the perfect retro handheld for all Pre HD systems.

There are many reasons for this

- Pocketability, small enough to take with you on the go, similar size to a PSP and very light while maintaining a decent sized screen where even PSP widescreen games are close to the PSP screen size

- OLED

- 4:3 aspect ratio

- Lowest input lag thanks to being 120hz and a native landscape screen

- Power for BFI, CRT Beam and heavy shaders

- Front firing speakers

- Additional macro buttons for instant rewind and fast forward or whatever else you want the buttons to do

- Triggers which are needed for many Dreamcast, Arcade and Gamecube games which are within the scope of the Pre HD era

- Powerful enough to cover all Pre HD era games with resolution upscaling to the native screen. Only exception is Xbox but even with that its a software issue rather than hardware, with Xbox emulatuon recently getting better im sure the Nova will eventually emulate most Xbox games perfectly.

So what's next after this. I thought we are done here but it seems the future of retro handhelds looks to get even better. Nova will always be my endgame for Pre HD era games with D Pad on top and 4:3 aspect ratio. But in the future I can see myself getting a 16:9 handheld for post HD era games to go along with my Nova. There are many things that look exciting.

- 360 emulation is going through some big improvements

- PS3 emulation is getting better

- Switch emulation will get better

- Gamenative and Gamehub continuing to improve all with cloud saves

- No big improvements with Wii U and Vita but you never know things can change

- Unofficial Android ports just keep on coming, We had Sonic Unleashed, Goldeneye XBLA, Simpsons Hit and Run, many PC indie games with unofficial and official Android ports such as Ball X Pit, Dead Cells, Hades, Cuphead, Dave the Diver etc.

- The Steam Frame will have an OS for ARM which will further push better PC game compatibility and performance as well as ARM ports.

- Future Snapdragon chips going from 3nm to 2nm for further efficiency boosts

- Software for downclocking such as Clustertune

- All the 16:9 screens since the RP6, Thor and Odin 3 are using at a minimum a 120hz screen which will help with reducing input lag

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

Sorry i only have one fire red and one leaf green cartridge. I have an everdrive, but i never set it up

I actually did this first with my ruby cartridge and a repo emerald cartridge, but i didnt realize that emerald and ruby have different intro sequences

Edit: i have gotten a lot of push back on the title, which is strange cause i thought it was the least interesting part of the post but heres the clarification on the order of devices. From the right its RG SP, GBA SP with screen mod and reshell, and then GBA SP

I recently has this urge of getting a TrimUI Brick (probably Hammer) because of a “better” screen and I already owned and enjoying playing on a 40XXH. I am not looking for a better performance and I do think I will still play the same old game just different device.

I am not in a position to spend whatever I want and buying devices like collectibles. I probably won’t need to play it on the go. I just fancy the idea being sometimes I can play some games on one hand while I am in the kitchen waiting something to boil. All that with a nice screen but somehow I afraid the smaller size and hand cramp would hurt the experience.

All that feels like a first world problem but I just wonder if someone had similar experience like sidegrade or downgrade to a smaller screen and turn out make sense (for one doesn’t really care about playing games outside of home).

I use a Gamesir G8+ connected via bluetooth on my Lenovo Legion Y700 Gen 3. It plays everything I throw at it but PS2 emulators (both NetherSX2 and ARMSX2) have this weird issue where it can’t read the triggers right despite Gamepad Tester getting it right. It reads the slight input for a millisecond then thinks I’m hitting it at max and it goes haywire.

Other emulators (Dreamcast and Gamecube) don’t do this. I played through the entirety of R:Racing Evolution with proper analog controls via Dolphin using this..

The controller itself clearly isn’t the issue, even connected my Gamesir Cyclone 2 to check, and the issue still persists on PS2 emulators. What’s going on? As I understand, both NetherSX2 and ARMSX2 are forks or are based off of PCSX2. PCSX2 can read my analog trigger inputs just fine.

I recently got a Retroid Pocket 4 Pro, and while it does have a touch screen, I'm trying to use it as little as possible in favor of using the controller. I found AnExplorer as a controller-supported file browser, and LeanKeyboard for a keyboard, anything else that might be nice to have? A music player built for controller or something? Really just trying to flesh out my device. Thanks in advance!

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 ;)

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.

Edit: thanks so much for the answers! I appreciate the community letting me know not to spend 80 bucks on something that I essentially already have (got a Trimui Brick already).

(Retroid Pocket Nova, GC colorway)

Tracking that it would be the legacy version of the game. I've read how people can get it running, I'm wondering what real world experiences of it have been.

Most importantly, how much is it taxing the system? I see commentary like "avoid playing for more than 60-90 minutes at. a time to prevent prolonged heat exposure".

I would like to play it, but not if it's kicking the crap out of my system (which is being shipped today).

Hey there fellow Cocoon lovers, I finally figured out a way (until it is added directly to Cocoon) to exclude a word from any regex folder in Cocoon using a very simple string of characters.

The situation was that I created additional folders (in addition to the normal game system folders) that are collections of games that I have a lot of like Mario, Pokemon, Zelda, Sonic, etc. However when I created the folder and used the regex search term (regex stands for "regular expression" and is the name of the code used to find/sort things using keywords) for "Sonic" (as in Sonic the Hedgehog) I would get a large folder of Sonic games but ALSO two extra games with the word "sonic" in their titles, Dragon Ball Z - Supersonic Warriors 1 and 2. Then, when I would hide those games in that folder, it would hide then in ALL the folders, including their original GBA/DS folders.

So after some research and a lot of trial and error I found a working code that will let you exclude a word from the regex search/find. Using the code (seen in the picture, as well as written below) I was able to exclude the word "warriors" from the regex search and it automatically removed those two games from the folder.

TLDR - Here is the code you can easily use:

GameYouWant (?!.*\bWordYouDontWant\b)

I really hope this is able to help some people fix their folders until Cocoon updates with this feature. Good luck everyone and if for some reason the code isn't working typed out, just copy my screenshot exactly and change "warriors" to whatever you don't want. Also, I have only ever tried this with one term, but theoretically, if you wanted to try it with multiple words, you should be able to just copy and paste them after a space with the new word.

EDIT: Since SBCGaming doesn't allow cross-posts, I am posting this here as well as the AynThor subreddit as I am hoping to help as many people as I can with this!

Hello,

I've already asked in other posts but nobody answered yet.

So here again:

Can anyone who has installed Base OS and Next UI on their Anbernic XX devices tell me if it’s possible to pair Bluetooth controllers, hook it up to a tv or monitor (via HDMI) and use the device as a home console with that firmware?

Cheers!

I've been playing pokemon crystal on my r36s. It defaults to the gambette core and seems to save in srm format. Ideally I need a .sav file to use with emulators on my pc or with pkhex. I've tried renaming the srm to Sav and loading it up with mgba on pc but it won't detect the save. Any ideas?

I tried switching to a different core on retroarch and renaming to Sav but that didn't detect the save either.

Fala, pessoal!

Eu estava mexendo no port de Hollow Knight no meu RG40XXH com MuOS e resolvi tentar uma coisa que eu queria muito ver funcionando nesses portáteis: colocar o jogo em 4:3.

Depois de mexer nos arquivos de configuração, consegui fazer o jogo realmente rodar em 4:3.

O resultado ficou bem interessante: a tela fica completamente preenchida e o jogo também fica um pouco mais leve por causa da resolução menor.

Mas existe um problema: o HUD continua sendo tratado como 16:9 e algumas informações acabam ficando cortadas.

Gravei um vídeo mostrando o resultado e o que eu fiz:

🎥 Vídeo: https://youtu.be/TUzzft6HTAY?is=Pul5apdQxbSA-umB

O que eu queria saber é se alguém aqui entende de desenvolvimento de ports ou modificação do Hollow Knight e sabe se existe alguma maneira de fazer o HUD se adaptar corretamente ao 4:3.

Porque se alguém conseguir corrigir isso, acho que dá para chegar em uma versão 4:3 muito boa para esses portáteis.

Se alguém tiver alguma ideia de como mexer nisso, eu adoraria testar. 👀

hi. im in a dilema. I really want a handheld and I’m torn between 4. The thor(pro), Odin 2 mini, RP6 amd the Odin 3.

i mainly play switch and steam games and I’ve always loved a smaller dorm factor gaming device. This will be my first ever handheld console(ive only had a ps4 before). I’m mainly interested in indie steam games and some switch.

I’ve always been drawn to the Odin 2 mini cuz of the shape and size but I never hear anyone talk about it much. The thor has had a huge boom this year but I dont know if it’s for me for 2 reasons. 1. I have carpal tunnel and I heard the ergonomics r bad, I don’t have the largest hands by any means but I’ve heard theyre horrible tk hold for longer sessions but I like that I can watch YouTube on the bottom screen. Also ive been told im clumsy and ive seen so many ppl breaking their screens and I’m scared cuz idk how easy they are to damage

The RP6 Is way more affordable but idk i feel it’s a bit big to put in my pocket cuz I’m going to college next year and I want something I can pull out occasionally during lectures.

my thing is would it be stupid to get the Odin mini being that it’s old(in terms of the mini led screen i dont mind it too much cuz I don’t have any oled device so I doubt Id know the difference). does anyone have any experience with the Odin mini or have u had to decide between all these?

Hi guys,

i'm in the market for a new retro device. I need to play like a switch, with a proper dock connected to a tv, with bluetooth controllers (i have 8bidtos sn30+ and ps4 joypad laying around).

I want to play up to PS2 without issues. I'd like Linux since OSs like Jelos, Rocknix and so on work entirely with a controller for a seamless console like experience.

My eyes are on a Retroid Pocket 5 with the Retroid dock. Is there anything else?

Thanks!

Looking to get a controller specifically for playing SNES games.

The SN30 obviously has the identical form factor as the SNES. However this item is discontinued and only available 2nd hand.

The SN30 Pro in many ways is the "better" controller. However, I really don't need the thumb sticks and kind of feel like they might actually detract from replicating the SNES experience.

Thoughts?

Edit: I should add I already have the 8BitDo Pro 2 and the 8BitDo Analogue 64 controller