It is, yes! Gamma uses DJ Khaled for his display picture everywhere, so this felt appropriate :)

So here’s my review on the 55G1 retro handheld.

The chip itself is pretty interesting: the CPU is capable, while the relatively weak GPU creates a pretty unusual performance profile, which by now is no shock to anyone here.

I also chatted with Gamma (the mind behind GammaOS) about what he’s been able to do with the RG55G1’s drivers and where he thinks there’s more performance to be found.

And I spoke to Camille, lead dev/creator of Eden (a Nintendo Switch emulator), about the G1 Gen 2, Switch emulation, drivers and how the chip compares with other Snapdragon hardware in his experiences. Obviously I review things too, but these are the two unique angles in my lil article here.

There’s a lot I really like about the RG55G1, but the $150+ price makes it a difficult handheld to place. I think the part I’m most proud of in this review is the image of Gamma on top of MC Hammer’s ubiquitous album cover, which I used for his section in here:

Oh hi!

I have not tried Armada-OS yet, but I have plans to do so in the future for an article. GameNative is enough for me. The latest update has made it dead-dead simple to just go to the settings cog after installation and select ‘use known config’ and it’ll pre-set it to work with your device (which was a saving grace testing games for this article!)

There’s definitely a ceiling on what you can play, but I’d recommend the RP6 so-so much. Out of all the handhelds I have (which is way, way too many because of reviewing and buying), I use the RP6 the most for the 16:9 games. It makes a beautiful device for widescreen PS2 upscaled to a crazy level, or PSP, or Switch, and of course PC games.

EmuReady is a good site to check if you want to see users’ tests. It is by no means exhaustive since it is just what users have uploaded to the site, but you can get a nice snapshot on what is possible with this link. I’ve selected just the Retroid Pocket 6 and Windows games for these results:

Here’s the link to check them out!

You can also try a YouTube search for PC gaming. Or do feel free to ask me anything. You can run Armada-OS on a micro SD card now, so you won’t need to reflash anything either. But again for me? GameNative is more than enough!

Removed by mod

Here’s the latest in my super long running series of developer interviews, this time with the team behind Cocoon, the Android frontend for retro handheld gaming systems (or phones!)

I find their team especially interesting because the trio have such distinct roles: development, UI/UX design and sound. I was so fascinated to learn early that they’ve even commissioned musicians and instruments specifically for Cocoon’s menu music. I mean, everything else as well, but that was taking things to the next level for me.

Anyway, it’s a super long and super detailed interview, so if you’re interested in software development, UI/UX, sound design, dual-screen handhelds, their history and how Cocoon is made, or just getting a behind-the-scenes look at how projects like this are done, there’s a lot to dig into here. Hope some here enjoy it :)

Well now I wish that was a thing!

(Sorry for any confusion!!!)

This is a small interview (by my usual standards!) with Jiayu, a girl in China who runs MagiGamer, a business she started making custom buttons and controls for various gaming handhelds. Tech, but with a custom twist :)

She makes buttons for things like the Nintendo Switch, 3DS & DS handhelds, the Steam Deck and her recent favorite: AYN’s Thor (as well as the Odin 3), and more.

I chatted to her a bit for some quotes to use in my AYN Thor article I shared here yesterday, but this is the full chat, only because I love the work she does and how she gives people an option to truly make a console unique for everyone. I thought it deserved to be shared :)

There’s plenty of behind the scenes pictures of the effort she goes to, and detailed pictures of the handhelds with her buttons installed. I thought this was a fun little one to share, hopefully you like it too!

___

If you followed the link above, that is for the Thor Pro, which runs them really quite well.

Plenty of YouTube demonstrations if youre curious. It has a strong chip, so it handles them well. Not quite Odin 3 levels (SD Elite), but, really well. PC emulation is a big thing for these handhelds.

I’m pretty sure the official TPU case does a lot of the work to keep it even when it closes:

https://www.ayntec.com/products/thor-tpu-shell

Back when I reviewed the Pro before release, that was a main point of concern for people (well, not so much the force of it as you write, more how it all hinges on one center point to diffuse the force!)

This case is raised on the edges, so when you close it, the edges of the screen rest on it, rather than having the sides of the top screen not in contact with the base of the handheld

I hope this makes sense with how I am describing it

I am so excited to share my interview with her!!! She’s the best :)

Here is a link for you to EmuReady, a friend’s site where users upload their own experiences and settings for running games. I have already filtered it by AYN Thor Pro and only games which run Great and Above, on Windows, so have a look! You might get an idea of what is possible!

If you don’t have the Pro, then use the drop-down box to filter it to your Thor model :)

I’ve had so many SP’s, but I think while I adore the form factor so much, the modern conveniences of things like save states, fast-forwarding, the display and all the other bits make this the logical choice…for me.

Physical it feels exactly the same in my hands, a perfect little boxy box :)

But seems like the tape mod is supposed to work pretty well?

I wouldn’t even call these the most clicky-clicky. They are a bit, but they’re really fine. Two layers will dampen that totally though, and you’ll have zero issues at all. I really can’t recommend this one enough, if you’re after GBA games as good as they can be!

This one solves that! Close the lid and it will suspend right there until you open it :)

And being Linux means that the battery life will be much better with that closed-lid suspension over what Android would manage!!!

Sony used these when they announced, launched and advertised the PSP!

I have a gallery of a ton of these giant PSPs they made in this article I did, if you wanna see more:

https://gardinerbryant.com/my-psp-scrapbook-part-retrospective-part-collage/

If it doesn’t, I highly recommend the OSTENT 1,400 mAh batteries. Higher capacity than the original and they work perfectly. 100% the one to choose!

Oh absolutely. This was exactly me for the longest time. I review retro handhelds, so I’ve had everything from the entry-level to the high power ones (like the Odin 3 Max). I thought you couldn’t get better than upscaled graphics and save states, but when I got a re-obsession semi-recently with the PSP:

https://gardinerbryant.com/tag/psp/

…I’ve realized that native hardware just has magic to it. The handheld is slim, the design is retro futuristic in the best way (in my eyes), the jailbreak and add-ons are invaluable and the experience is just fun. I’ve just reviewed the Retroid Pocket Nova, am reviewing the Anbernic RG SP, and have a couple more on the way, but that isn’t stopping me absolutely loving WipEout on my PSPs :)

So recently, I spent a fair time chatting with the creator of PSPunk, a website I’m sure many here might have visited. But that chatting (which ended up being an interview) pivoted instead to something a bit different from what I usually end up doing with articles.

Rather than just talking about the website itself, we ended up discussing the people who keep older gaming communities alive. We covered how PSPunk started as a simple custom firmware guide, why preserving guides and community knowledge is just as important as preserving games themselves, the modern PSP homebrew scene, and why the handheld still has such an active community more than 20 years after launch. You might recognize me from a few PSP articles I’ve done these last months, I just…think they’re neat:

It was also interesting hearing from someone who doesn’t consider themselves a developer or a major figure in the scene, just “a helpful user who creates guides.” I think that humility says a lot about projects like this, because every community needs people documenting, organizing and preserving information just as much as it needs people writing the software.

That and the ending (V for Vendetta) were the sections I wrote in this article. Because as soon as I saw the news, it was all I could think of :(

“For some people the choice to use a bot or not is a choice of having the job, or not.”

That would be Gardiner’s side of the article. I contributed by wroting two sections on this one:

• The Shadow of Fahrenheit 451, and
• “People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.”

Just to explain whose take is whose for this little article, at least.

But I do still think search would be nice

I gave them all my feedback, and they have said that firmware updates will bring this and other features in as improvements. This isn’t in users’ hands yet, so (ironically) my waffling review actually did some help for them and users who end up with them!