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Best handheld system for retro games/emulation?

Window

Window

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,283
There's many classic games that I've never played but would love to. I was counting on VC support for the Switch to catch up on Nintendo classics but seeing as how that now appears to be unlikely I was curious to know if there's any good handheld emulator systems, similar to the Retron or SNES classic but in portable form. Or even a DIY solution using something like a RPi or a phone+controller attachment combo. I know the Switch has Retroarch homebrew support but I'd rather not risk bricking my system.
 
Alric

Alric

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,947
I personally think my phone but I'm sure others will have preferences. I just know ds and psp games look amazing and play perfectly on here.
 
Strangelove_77

Strangelove_77

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
13,392
The Vita is great for emulation. Not just because it runs well but because it's a Vita - great screen, feels good in your hands and the buttons(especially the d-pad) is top notch.
 
Tohsaka

Tohsaka

Member
Nov 17, 2017
6,794
Vita, especially since you can downgrade everything now pretty much if needed.
 
Andromeda

Andromeda

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,846
Vita is the best. Truely portable, powerful enough with responsive / low latency controls which is very important for emulation.
 

Mhj

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 30, 2017
879
I love my GPD XD Plus.
 
fiendcode

fiendcode

Member
Oct 26, 2017
24,925
Homebrewed n3DS, Vita and Switch seem like the best options atm. GPDWin2 beats them all for actual emulation but has worse controls / build.
 
Aters

Aters

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
7,948
On Vita you can play PSP and Vita games. On 3DS you can play DS and 3DS games. It comes down to what games you want to play.
 

Yamajian

Member
Oct 30, 2017
1,146
GPD Win 2 seems like the most powerful handheld at the moment that can run most things a PC can. Pretty pricey though.
 
OP
OP
Window

Window

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,283
Is there any HH system which can support Dolphin? I imagine that's still a few years away I guess.
 

Deleted member 45957

Guest
GPD Win is the answer when it comes to overall versatility.
Everything up to Wii/PS2 generation and PC games.
Needs a bit of tinkering, but so does hacked consoles.

Edit : Hacked Vita offers the best handheld experience, as the engeneering for this console is above everything else. Less possibilities though, but for 8/16/32 bits gaming it's dope.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Deleted member 54320

User requested account closure
Banned
Feb 28, 2019
617
London
I use my Nintendo Switch and Retroarch, pretty much the perfect handheld once modded.

PS1 and N64 titles are pretty much all good to go.
 
GingerbreadMan

GingerbreadMan

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,296
GPD Win for accuracy.

Homebrewed New 3DS is good enough though very affordable. You have hardware backward compatibility with GBA and DS games. Most GB/C and SNES games work fine with VC Injection and you have good emulators for NES, MegaDrive and PC-Engine (and that handful of SNES special chip games).

Personally I have:
- New 3DS for DS, GBA, NES, SNES GB/C, MD and PCe
- Wii U for Wii and GameCube games (you can play GC and Classic Controller games on the GamePad)
- PSP for PS1, might upgrade to Vita
 

Nuclear Muffin

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
4,721
Isn't the New3DS better for emulation because it has a more powerful CPU? That's what I remember hearing anyway.

Outside of PS1/PSP games (using the Vita's native compatibility), New3DS should outperform Vita in most cases.

Anyway, Switch has the most potential, once the hacking scene really gets going, but GPDWin 2 is your best bet right now.
 

Deleted member 16876

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
39,148
Vita and PSP are perfect for this. Both are small devices that run almost everything aside from Dreamcast, N64 and beyond.
GPD can somewhat play latter hardware but is expansive.
 
Weston

Weston

Member
Oct 29, 2017
399
Another vote for GPD XD Plus

I've been tempted to buy a GameShell Clockworkpi lately. They seem a little pricey for what you get and the shoulder button solution looks subpar. However they look awesome and the fact that their modular is cool ever though they haven't done much with them yet.

ad5e4d7f3fc48b94b6c7954d0170c3e2_original.jpg
 
bangai-o

bangai-o

Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,527
I was considering getting the 2DS for this.

nintendo2ds-screen.png


The youtube reviews say it is comfortable in the hands.
 

Deleted member 11370

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,494
A few options that I use:

The Nintendo Switch is the best overall system for portable emulation. It's easy to setup and very powerful. It works great with most consoles, including NES, SNES, GBC, GBA, MAME, NeoGeo, etc. N64 is making ton of progress really fast, too. Sadly, I don't think PSX or PSP are good on the Switch just yet.

Conversely, the PS Vita/Vita TV are great solutions for PSP and PSX. Not so much for other consoles. It works just fine, but there are better options, like the Switch.

The New 3DS/2DS are great systems for GB, GBC, GBA, NES and SNES. Master System and Genesis work great too. Be sure to get the "New" models, as the extra power does make a huge difference in SNES games.

The regular 2DS (pictured above) is great for GB, GBC and GBA games. I found one by accident while I was cleaning my girlfriend's appartment (the previous tennant must have left it there, I guess) and I turned it into a GBA machine. It's awesome!
 
fiendcode

fiendcode

Member
Oct 26, 2017
24,925
Nuclear Muffin said:
Isn't the New3DS better for emulation because it has a more powerful CPU? That's what I remember hearing anyway.

Outside of PS1/PSP games (using the Vita's native compatibility), New3DS should outperform Vita in most cases.

Anyway, Switch has the most potential, once the hacking scene really gets going, but GPDWin 2 is your best bet right now.
Click to expand...
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At native clocks n3DS should perform slightly better but you can overclock Vita up to 494MHz (from 333MHz) to improve it substantially.

Really both are fine for anything up to 16bit. Past that both have some issues depending on the platform, and thanks to native compatibility GBA/DS are better on 3DS and PS1 is better (and PSP possible) on Vita. For emulating beyond 16bit generally you'll probably want a Switch though.
 
low-G

low-G

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,144
I needed something very small, cheap, and with decent emulation.

I recently got a Bittboy (NEW model) for $40, and it is quite good for NES emulation.

Pros:
Very high quality screen, games look beautiful.
Invisible pixel ratio issues with NES games.
Very small. (can fit in a small pocket, virtually weightless)
Plays ~85% of good NES games -- including some titles & homebrew I didn't expect to work
I got it for $40 total.
Very good latency.
People will probably hack it for even better emulation soon, if not already (old model was hacked well).
Battery life is good.

Medium:
Buttons just OK. (Better dpad than a 360 controller, or a Atari Lynx; worse than a SNES / NES)
Save states aren't great (don't seem to save palatte / sprite state, so it takes some work to load a state sometimes).

Bad:
The games that don't work -- Castlevania 3 doesn't work great and Battletoads doesn't work at all. Rampart doesn't work...
No In-game saves (have to use save states)
GB emulation pixel ratio is bad and cannot be fixed -- could have been trivially fixed


I WOULD like to get a good emulation handheld that was extremely portable, reliable, and not too expensive... The main thing I'd want is better emulators and SNES compatibility. I don't want something that goes so far to have thumbsticks unless they can keep the weight / form factor way down.

Switch is WAY too big, terrible for portability, and low games selection (unless hacked). 3DS is a bit bigger and clunkier than I like for portability, also very unreliable (had problems with 3DS hardware). PSP wasn't as reliable as I'd like. Never owned a Vita...
 

Nuclear Muffin

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
4,721
fiendcode said:
At native clocks n3DS should perform slightly better but you can overclock Vita up to 494MHz (from 333MHz) to improve it substantially.

Really both are fine for anything up to 16bit. Past that both have some issues depending on the platform, and thanks to native compatibility GBA/DS are better on 3DS and PS1 is better (and PSP possible) on Vita. For emulating beyond 16bit generally you'll probably want a Switch though.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Good point. I guess it just comes down to what you want to play.
 

Deleted member 1476

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
10,449
I'm using a New 3DS now and it feels really great, GB/GBC/GBA/NES/SNES/DS/3DS/Master System/Genesis are good enough for me. I'm waiting for the Switch revision so I can buy it and unlock my old one.
 
OP
OP
Window

Window

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,283
Weston said:
Another vote for GPD XD Plus

I've been tempted to buy a GameShell Clockworkpi lately. They seem a little pricey for what you get and the shoulder button solution looks subpar. However they look awesome and the fact that their modular is cool ever though they haven't done much with them yet.

ad5e4d7f3fc48b94b6c7954d0170c3e2_original.jpg
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This seems pretty cool but yeah it does appear to be a bit limited in functionality for its price. Surprised there's not more kits like this out there.

New 3DS + Vita seem like pretty good options but I do like the appeal of a single system being able to handle everything like the GPD Win. The GPD Win looks like it would be a pain to actually play on though. Button layout doesn't look ergonomic.
 
OP
OP
Window

Window

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,283
Alric said:
I personally think my phone but I'm sure others will have preferences. I just know ds and psp games look amazing and play perfectly on here.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Since you're the only to mention this so far, what systems are supported well on phones? Do you use some sort of controller attachment with the phone?
 
Cats_Schrodinger

Cats_Schrodinger

Member
Oct 29, 2017
3,006
Switch.

You can grab an exploitable one now, but it will be problematic in the future. It has an insanely active scene, ton of progress. Everything up til PS1 is probably going to be working, N64 is already good, with updates almost weekly.

The Vita is nice, but the scene is dead. Things are going to stay the way they are now probably, N64 is not going to happen. Anything under that is fine. Its strongest point is PS1, which is great.
 
Rosebud

Rosebud

Two Pieces
Member
Apr 16, 2018
43,583
I want to hack my Switch for emulation, but I'm afraid of being banned and lose acess to my games and the store (which is silly, but happens lol)
 
OP
OP
Window

Window

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,283
Cats_Schrodinger said:
Switch.

You can grab an exploitable one now, but it will be problematic in the future. It has an insanely active scene, ton of progress. Everything up til PS1 is probably going to be working, N64 is already good, with updates almost weekly.

The Vita is nice, but the scene is dead. Things are going to stay the way they are now probably, N64 is not going to happen. Anything under that is fine. Its strongest point is PS1, which is great.
Click to expand...
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Definitely keeping track of progress on Switch but I'm concerned about losing online store access.
 
Cats_Schrodinger

Cats_Schrodinger

Member
Oct 29, 2017
3,006
Window said:
Definitely keeping track of progress on Switch but I'm concerned about losing online store access.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

The ban is not certain, you can totally avoid it. (I did, and I've been playing around with it for the past 6 months).

The only downside that you can't easily switch between your clean Switch and CFW Switch. If you back up everything before going CFW, and never go online with CFW you will be able to flash your old data back and go online again. This is a lengthy process (32 gigs of pure binary data being copied), but it's as safe as it can get. When you put your clean NAND backup back, there is absolutely zero trace the console has been fiddled with.

It works, just a bit cumbersome and of course you cannot share any kind of information between your CFW "state" and clean "state". Nothing, including saves can be transferred. It will just go back to the state before being CFW.

If you don't intend to use the online features with CFW and you are fine going offline for the duration and you are just worried that you can't restore it back, there is no need, this process already covers it.
 
GingerbreadMan

GingerbreadMan

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,296
Joey Ravn said:
A few options that I use:

The Nintendo Switch is the best overall system for portable emulation. It's easy to setup and very powerful. It works great with most consoles, including NES, SNES, GBC, GBA, MAME, NeoGeo, etc. N64 is making ton of progress really fast, too. Sadly, I don't think PSX or PSP are good on the Switch just yet.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
If I used my Switch only for emulation, what chances would there be to get banned? Also, is there a simple guide like 3ds.guide?
 
Hugare

Hugare

Banned
Aug 31, 2018
1,853
Vita 4 life

PS1 and PSP libraries are awesome.
It also runs SNES just fine. I'm sure it's not perfect, but it runs very well with no slowdowns every game that I enjoy (chrono trigger, donkey kong, super mario world).

The dpad and screen are amazing.
 

Deleted member 11370

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,494
Feffe said:
If I used my Switch only for emulation, what chances would there be to get banned? Also, is there a simple guide like 3ds.guide?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Pretty high. You have to be running CFW, and that connects to Nintendo servers. Either that, or you "ban yourself" by taking the console offline. The best option is to buy a secondary Switch for homebrew and keep your main one "clean".

https://guide.sdsetup.com/
 
Cats_Schrodinger

Cats_Schrodinger

Member
Oct 29, 2017
3,006
Feffe said:
If I used my Switch only for emulation, what chances would there be to get banned? Also, is there a simple guide like 3ds.guide?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Fairly simple, reddit switchhaxing is a great place to start.

If you go online on CFW and do not install nsp files (not necessary for Retro), chances are lower that you get a ban. Still, Ninty will see you and can easily ban you if things change.

If you don't go online with CFW you won't get banned. If you have a "clean" backup (it's basically a must), you can install your backup and make your switch "clean" again, then you can go online again without worries.
 
IMACOMPUTA

IMACOMPUTA

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,534
low-G said:
I needed something very small, cheap, and with decent emulation.

I recently got a Bittboy (NEW model) for $40, and it is quite good for NES emulation.

Pros:
Very high quality screen, games look beautiful.
Invisible pixel ratio issues with NES games.
Very small. (can fit in a small pocket, virtually weightless)
Plays ~85% of good NES games -- including some titles & homebrew I didn't expect to work
I got it for $40 total.
Very good latency.
People will probably hack it for even better emulation soon, if not already (old model was hacked well).
Battery life is good.

Medium:
Buttons just OK. (Better dpad than a 360 controller, or a Atari Lynx; worse than a SNES / NES)
Save states aren't great (don't seem to save palatte / sprite state, so it takes some work to load a state sometimes).

Bad:
The games that don't work -- Castlevania 3 doesn't work great and Battletoads doesn't work at all. Rampart doesn't work...
No In-game saves (have to use save states)
GB emulation pixel ratio is bad and cannot be fixed -- could have been trivially fixed


I WOULD like to get a good emulation handheld that was extremely portable, reliable, and not too expensive... The main thing I'd want is better emulators and SNES compatibility. I don't want something that goes so far to have thumbsticks unless they can keep the weight / form factor way down.

Switch is WAY too big, terrible for portability, and low games selection (unless hacked). 3DS is a bit bigger and clunkier than I like for portability, also very unreliable (had problems with 3DS hardware). PSP wasn't as reliable as I'd like. Never owned a Vita...
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Click to shrink...
I got a new bitboy last week. There's CFW out already and adds support for GBA and fixed a lot of the problems you mentioned I think.
https://boards.dingoonity.org/other-game-systems/bittboy-cfw-guide-v1-v2/
 
Adamska

Adamska

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
7,042
I can vouch for the Vita. You can play pretty much any system up to PS1/GBA on it without a hitch, and it's really easy to get it to work.
 
topplehat

topplehat

Member
Oct 27, 2017
905
Austin, TX
Vita is great (OLED screen makes some of these games look really good). Unfortunately it won't emulate all systems so it really all boils down to which systems you want to emulate.
 
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