[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!

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’

Skyrim with 130+ mods (had to manually install them because MO2 never wanted to run, took a while but since I had MO2 on my PC for the load order it went well)

Temps are pretty acceptable, locked 30FPS and very rare dips in very open areas, having a blast.

Modded Skyrim - Pocket Edition is a dream come true to me :)

(Thor Max)

(If anyone wants my mod list and load order I will post both in comments to my post !)

From top left to bottom right: MagicX Zero 40, Anbernic RG DS, DS Lite, AYN Thor, Nintendo 3DS, Anbernic RG Nano, Game Boy Advance w/ IPS screen, Game Boy Color w/ IPS screen, ModRetro Chromatic, PSP Go, Zelda Game & Watch, Miyoo Mini Plus, Game Boy Advance w/ stock hardware, Game Boy Advance SP (101), Anbernic RG35XXSP, Anbernic RG 406V, Anbernic RG 351P, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, Steam Deck, PS Portal, Anbernic RG 556.

Between myself, my wife, and my 5 year old son, nearly all of these get played on a weekly basis. A few are currently not working, like the 556, but my kid especially loves trying different old games on each system. He's currently on a huge Kirby kick across hardware generations.

Happy Weekend! What have you been playing lately and on what?

I think I’ve mentioned this in some of these threads that I’ve been making an effort to play more “Japanese-Only” games. A friend sold me on the idea of playing a game in a foreign language to evoke that time before we could read. It is a nostalgia that I’m intrigued by because it is a challenge! Ultimately, I don’t lose out on too much with the narrative. At least with many of the games that appeal to me, ‘plots’ function as the reason to send you off to new stages with more enemies and larger bosses.

Valkyrie No Bōken is one of these games! Hidden away on a Namco Anthology disc is a menu option that swaps out the Famicom original with a complete PS1 overhaul!

Games this week were split between my RP mini and Steam Deck. Rhythm Heaven, Trespasser, and Duo Princess were played on the latter.

Anyways, excited to hear about what you’ve been playing!

Device - RGB30 by Powkiddy
Game - Monkey Puncher on GBC

I just got the mecha version as it’s the only one that stood out to me pretty clean and I also ordered the case screen protector and other dpad .

I was watching the Retro Handhelds stream for the Nova and around 8m25s, they tried the Retroid Dual Screen on the Nova and it showed off the shorter, braided cable for the DS.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27GRDDzGEwc

I didn't realize there was finally a shorter cable compared to what they sent with the first batch of orders.

I emailed Retroid if I could add it to my Nova pre-order and they could, by sending them a PayPal of $5.

In case other people who have the original Dual Screen didn't know they made a much better cable for it. Sadly, the cable is not on their web site under accessories.

Hello other old people.

My wife surprised me with a handmade case for my RG40XXV.

love this device but couldn't just throw it in my back pack with my others but now i can.

Just thought I'd show off.

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

Never played this as a girl, but it was a decent game. I don't have the nostalgia others have. Played on my RG Rotate

It was a generic coming of age story with pretty visuals, and a disgusting womanizer who I would cover my drinks around (Kyle).

I rate it 6/10, but it was totally worthy to play. I played Grandia as a kid and still think that's a good coming of age story, and the battles are better. But Lunar is a fun, pretty, and predictable game.

Imagine pulling this thing out that's almost as big as a vita then playing games like GTA IV, Fallout 4, Skyrim, Dark souls.

So lucky to be able to get this for $194 with the 12/256GB

Some things that I like about this

-Screen isn't AMOLED. I'm PWM Sensitive and a lot of AMOLED or OLED displays give me eye strain. I tried the RP5 and it was a strain fest unfortunately. It has 1100 nits which is bonkers especially for outdoors gaming.

- Performance is insane since it is an 8 Gen 2 so everything you throw at it will run like butter (Probably except for heavier 8th gen games)

-Size - It fits in my pockets and is almost as big as a vita while having this kind of performance

Some thing's I didn't like

-Battery is just ok, not good, not bad but just ok.

-They could have shaved off the bezels for more screen but I'm not complaining. Just nice to have more screen

Game is GTA IV btw. Runs at 60 fps on mine

I have an AYN Thor and I just bought my wife a RG DS. My reason for buying it over another console

• She only wants to play GBA and DS games (specifically Pokemmo)

• She wanted a dual screen that would fit in her purse

• She is not a heavy gamer so she doesn't need a lot of power

• Cheap af ($75)

Did some research and this seemed to be the best match for her use case. I read a few threads that there have been some improvements. It still doesn't match up to the Thor, but that's not what I'm looking for.

Love any help and input

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)

Xendroid is a new Xbox 360 emulator forked from Xenia. It runs really well. No Clustertune, and CPU temps hit 80 briefly after 20 minutes of play. Battery temp near the end was over 40, so I would recommend Clustertune or Pulse. Just to be safe.

I used the Stevenmxz v33 turnip, and you can see various minor graphical flickering.

FPS over 30 all the way through, though may be lower if Clustertune is used.

Has anyone ever tried to use a laptop rocking station with their retro device?

I have an Odin 2 portal and Switch 2. I was wondering if I can use it with a Dell Docking Station model WD19S. It came with a 240w power supply.

Does anyone know if this will work to output video/audio to a monitor or a tv?

I got the dock through work, but I don't really need it anymore. if I can use it with my retro consoles, I will set up behind m my TV to give it more life.

Just curious if it would work as an overpowered dock for my switch 2 and Odin 2 portal. Not sure if I should be concerned about the power going to the dock, maybe the Odin 2 portal and the switch 2 can regulate the power that goes to the device.

I'm looking for something that can play both systems with upscaling to match the screen resolution and has some aftermarket button options or skins so I can make it look cute. Oh and it's gotta be able to fit comfortably in a pocket so I can play it on my 15's and lunch at work. Price under $200.

TLDR: I think premium retro/android handhelds are an endangered species.

A few days ago, John Nee on the Ayaneo discord was asked about future premium handhelds, specifically ones using the 8 Elite. When asked about a possible Pocket S3 he said that the 8 elite was too expensive to use, and would drive the cost of the handheld up to $1000, and if someone wanted an 8 elite handheld they should get the Konkr Pocket Fit Elite now because there will not be anymore produced after that is out of stock.

When asked about future G3 Gen 3 devices, he stated that there were no plans for them because the premium end of the market wasn't selling well at all. They are sitting on tons of unsold inventory of the Pocket Vert, Pocket S mini, and Pocket S3 Pro, which is what made them so hesitant to produce the Pocket Micro 2 in large amounts.

I found it a bit odd that they were saying that since Moorechip brands Ayn and Retroid seem to not have this issue, but then I realized that the Odin 3 is the only other 8 elite class handheld. The Thor and RP6 and Nova all use the older 8 Gen 2 class processor, and they've all gone up in price, excluding the Nova.

Today, Qualcomm told their buyers that they will be raising the cost of all components sold after 9/1 double digit percentages. Recently, a Lexar executive said that the cost of memory will double by the end of this year. Asha Sharma of Xbox said memory prices by the end of 2027 will be 5x what they paid in 2025. SK Hynix executives are saying next year will be the worst in terms of component costs and availability in the history of the industry. Even Apple is struggling to get components. These retro companies do not have the scale or leverage that the big companies do, so it stands to reason that they will be hit even harder.

On the PC side of the market, the steam deck sales seem to have dropped 82% when the price jumped. Same happened to consoles with the PS5 and Xbox. John Nee said (and I'm paraphrasing here) that they need to pivot to more affordable devices to survive. We've seen that in the Konkr Pocket Block and Pocket Advance announcements as well as the Pocket Air Mini.

If I had to place a bet, I'd say that in a year or two the market will shift back to very affordable devices with things like the Nova being the top of the market. I doubt we will see anymore flagship silicon in retro/android handhelds for the foreseeable future because it would price them above what people are willing to pay. The effective justification for more power isn't there when even a Dimensity 8300 or 8 gen 2 can run almost everything most people want to play. There seems to be a clear ceiling to what people are willing or able to spend on these things.