My journey into the world of emulators has begun once again with the new Retroid Pocket 3+. The new emulation device scene that has popped up over the past couple years has really been interesting. Basically someone in China realized they had a bunch of smartphone spare parts and figure it out something to do with them. I've been dabbling in it off and on for over a decade now, so I thought it was time to see what all the fuss is about.

The first observation I have is that at this point in time, the updated systems are coming out fast and furious. Back in August I thought about picking one up. The Retroid Pocket 3 was just about to be released, and the Retroid Pocket 2+ had a nice little discount on it.

Just a few weeks later though, they announced the 3+ was going to come out, and it was a far superior device with a lot more power and a hard drive about four times bigger. This apparently pissed a whole bunch of people off who had just bought the standard 3. There's even one big reviewer of these systems out there who while giving the 3+ a nice review adamantly said no one should buy it because of how quickly the turnaround was.

That seems to be the norm right now though. These handheld emulators are going to see minimum to updates a year for the immediate future. It won't last too long I don't think, but it looks like the developers are finding ways to easily refine the setups and they're getting access to better and better cards.

Anyway, I'll be setting this up for another day or so, but I'm going to try and give some regular updates just in case anyone might be interested in picking one of these up for their kids or younger family members.
Posted by robio Wed, 30 Nov 2022 15:59:42 (comments: 31)
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Wed, 30 Nov 2022 16:37:00
Sounds like a fun project.
 
Wed, 30 Nov 2022 17:17:56
There have been a few hiccups so far, but so far so good. A lot of these devices come preloaded with games and all the software, but Retroid requires a lot of work, but that allows you a lot more flexibility when you work with the more powerful systems like GameCube and PS2.  I probably got another day of prep before I start playing anything.
 
Thu, 01 Dec 2022 14:44:16
Just for scale, I wanted to show off the Retroid 3+. As you can see below the entire device is roughly the size of the screen of the Switch. That makes it just about the size of the PSP. Good enough size for me. Just small enough that it actually still feels like a handheld console, which the standard switch really isn't.

vhofNLg.jpeg


The only two complaints I have at this point are pretty minor. The start and switch buttons are on the top of the device. Right next to the r1 trigger. Kind of an odd place for them, and you really can't easily reach them while playing. Fortunately the times when you actually need to use those buttons are pretty rare so not a huge deal.

The other complaint is with the case itself. As you can see I chose the NES style case. It uses a plastic that while I won't say it feels cheap, it just doesn't scream out super durable. There was an option for an N64 style that uses the atomic purple plastic that Nintendo was so big on at the time. That is supposedly a more textured plastic that feels more comfortable. In hindsight I probably would have gone with that now.

Still, this is overall a solid device. Fits comfortably in the hands and lightweight. It hits that sweet spot where it's not too small for an adult pair of hands, but not so big that it's cumbersome to transport or even play for extended periods of time.
 
Thu, 01 Dec 2022 14:56:04
I've also finished the setup for all the emulators then I'll be using it this time. I've got the Saturn and N64 ones downloaded, but at this time I don't really know what I'd be doing with them so I didn't complete setup. There's just nothing on N64 that I need to play anymore, and I don't think I even have anything for the saturn. Plus even the very best Saturn emulators can't play even half of the library at a passable rate, if they can play the games at all.

With the exception of the PlayStation emulator everything went extremely smooth. For some reason the default PlayStation emulator they provided didn't want to work in the Retroid Launcher (the program that houses all the emulators in one group). Ultimately I just opted to set it up outside of the launcher. That's not really a problem, as most of the value the launcher offers is strictly aesthetic.

Just some early impressions after messing around with it but not seriously playing anything for an extended period of time:

  • all of the 8 and 16-bit systems work like a charm. No surprise there.
  • the PSX emulator has an upscaler on it, so it's kind of cool to see that little bump in graphical improvement for a few of these games
  • the Dreamcast games play super smooth. Crazy taxi I'm super fast and didn't show any signs of slow down or tearing. It's so great to actually hear offspring's music while playing again.
  • I've only tried out two GameCube games so far, but aside from a little bit of slow down on thousand year door, they were both shockingly good.
  • PS2 games weren't quite as successful. I only spent extended time with Dragon Quest 8, and that seemed to be running it around 70 or 80% speed with occasional drops down to about 50%. So it's not great. There are some things I can do to optimize, so I'll spend some time with that and see if it works. It also pushes the system pretty hard and it gets kind of warm. I'll be curious to see what that actually feels like after 30 minutes.
 
Thu, 01 Dec 2022 14:57:07

Looks very much about the same size as a Switch Lite.  I'd ask if it doesn't feel off that the two joysticks are so low, but remembered that Playstation has them in that backwards configuration too.  Hrm

 
Thu, 01 Dec 2022 15:01:43
Yeah, that's not an issue for me. 20 years of dual shock PlayStation controllers have grounded into my head that this is the correct position.
 
Thu, 01 Dec 2022 15:03:36
Oh, there's one other feature I forgot to mention. Because this is ultimately an Android device, you have full access to the Google Play store. In my case, I've been buying stuff off of there for 10 years. So I can actually play all of my games from there. I've tested Stardew Valley and it seems great. So it should be nice to have a handheld version of that with actual controller support instead of just touch screen.
 
Mon, 05 Dec 2022 15:20:15
So this weekend I spent a solid chunk of time with the PS1 "classic," Tales of Destiny. I really enjoyed this game when it was released. Everyone was making 3D games, and then along came this 2-D game that looked great, and still had a new innovative battle system.

But GOD DAMN!!!!! The encounter rate for the battles is just ludicrous. They really padded the fuck out of this game. I did a little homework on the game's history, and the game was criticized for that even back then when I encounter rates were the norm.

I think that's actually what killed my interest in it the first time. When ToD originally came out I know I played really close to the end and then just quit. Anyway I'm not sure I'll proceed much more with this. I've enjoyed revisiting it, but after 10 hours of these battles, I'm not sure I can deal with another 30.
 
Mon, 05 Dec 2022 16:40:17

You make me want to purchase this. I wish I had the extra income.

 
Mon, 05 Dec 2022 17:32:33
One of the nice things about these devices is that they drop in price fairly quickly because new versions pop up on a regular basis. The predecessor to my RP3+ was $99 during Black Friday and it's only been out for 4 months.
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