I need a new device. What is the best choice?

[Chip]

Both the vita and N3DS are easily hackable (assuming you're on a vulnerable firmware), and both will handle everything up to the 16 bit era just fine. If you go with the N3DS, you will also get native DS and 3DS gameplay. If you go with the vita, you get flawless PSX and PSP emulation through adrenaline, plus native vita gameplay. If you go with the vita, the only thing you need to purchase is a vita-to-microSD adapter. If you go with a N3DS, you will only need to purchase a cheap DS flashcart if you wish to play DS games. Obviously both require microSD cards, if you don't have one lying around.

I have both, and both are quite good. I do somewhat prefer the vita for it's nicer, higher contrast, higher resolution display. However, there are more compelling games (IMHO) for the DS and 3DS than for sony's handhelds. For purely emulation of older systems, it's basically down to your personal preference of form factor.

 

[Swordfish II]

Pyra is the device of eternal optimism. If the currently 'in the works' case revisions work out, I expect to see mine in early August. Pre-Pre-Orders would then be October-ish?

There is a lot of IF in that, but the majority of the work has been done at this point.

2020 here we come

 

[slackland]

First, thank you for your ideas.
To get a good PSP or PSVita in mind condition and/or a long life Battery is hard to find. And I don*t like the through...
My investigation about the emulators I used says, that the most matching is with dingux.
PicoDrive, SNES9x, GPFCE, GNUBOY, ZXPandy.
I don't know how interchangeable Savestates on others emulators are.
For PSX I can save to virtual memcards and change it to psx4all.
So, that I prefer a Dingux device. Here are differences between JXD, SPMP8000, Ingenic JZ..., etc.
I don't look through there...

 

[Wally]

Get the PSVita from Japan

 

[b_o_b]

What I really like are some of the homemade Rasberry Pi handhelds. Unfortunately most of them lack the quality needed. Case is usually not very well executed, gamepad / buttons are also a problem and battery life is lacking. That said, there is a ton of rpi information out there and this could be the best option for retro-gamers once the quality improves.
Having a system that is future proof, easy to fix and 'always' have replacement parts would be the system of my choice.
Pandora still works fine for me, but it is a matter of time until one of the essential parts is damaged beyond repair and I need to look for something else.

This one is really nice: screen too small though for my taste and would like to see better battery life.

 

[Chip]

I've seen that video, and I'm really disappointed that they put that much effort into recreating a GBA case specifically for the freeplay CM3, but didn't add L2/R2 buttons or allow for a larger battery.

 

[asimov-solensan]

First, thank you for your ideas.
To get a good PSP or PSVita in mind condition and/or a long life Battery is hard to find. And I don*t like the through...
My investigation about the emulators I used says, that the most matching is with dingux.
PicoDrive, SNES9x, GPFCE, GNUBOY, ZXPandy.
I don't know how interchangeable Savestates on others emulators are.
For PSX I can save to virtual memcards and change it to psx4all.
So, that I prefer a Dingux device. Here are differences between JXD, SPMP8000, Ingenic JZ..., etc.
I don't look through there...

I'm not sure any device running dingux is able to do fullspeed psx. Aside that psx4all is way worse than pcsx on pandora. But if you get one that does it, let me know please.

 

[levi]

I've seen that video, and I'm really disappointed that they put that much effort into recreating a GBA case specifically for the freeplay CM3, but didn't add L2/R2 buttons or allow for a larger battery.

I'd say the bigger miss for PS1 emulation is the lack of even a single analogue stick. Plenty of PS1 games only used one shoulder at most, but once the dualshock got released, everything after that point works best or sometimes only with an analogue stick.

But the sticking point for me there is price. That case is glorious to look at and so cheap, which makes it even more galling that the PCB with the buttons on costs so much (although maybe it also includes that LCD and battery which isn't so bad I guess).

 

[Chip]

There really isn't room for analog sticks, and there were only a few (less than 10) games that absolutely required analogs. Also, you can't really fault the case makers for the PCB price, because the case makers aren't selling the PCB.

 

[levi]

Yes, I wasn't intending to criticise the case makers, so sorry if that was the impression. It's just as someone who was previously interested in putting one together myself, looking at the BOM that single PCB seems too expensive compared to the CPU board which does the heavy lifting, and the case which gives you the initial bling and the long term feel of the thing.

And yes, there might only be a few games that don't work without dual shock but plenty of games that are borderline unplayable without, such as wipeout 3.

 

[crazyhorse]

Recently hacked my latest firmware 3.70 Vita, it was really easy using fintrinity.Now loving playing the old psp games you couldn’t get on the psn shop.

 

[spud42]

Recently hacked my latest firmware 3.70 Vita, it was really easy using fintrinity.Now loving playing the old psp games you couldn’t get on the psn shop.

which demo did you use?
just got my memory card today so i can use trinity and downgrade the firmware...

 

[crazyhorse]

Search wololo fintrinity, i used ape escape psp.

 

[Chip]

Another thing to consider - the switch mini is likely to be released before the end of the year. We have no hard details, but rumors abound. I assume nintendo will be closing vulnerabilities that have allowed the full-size switch to be relatively easily hacked, but they've never released a fully secure system, so it will only be a matter of time.

 

[spud42]

Search wololo fintrinity, i used ape escape psp.

cheers, managed to get it to work last night. havent downgraded yet. still learning this system. i have the PSP full of emulators and PS1 games.
have a SD2vita card on its way and a 32 GB SD card to put in it. just need to do some reading on how the vita works with adding games etc.

 

[crazyhorse]

yeah i downloaded vita homebrew browser and pkgj vpks and installed them from vitashell.

 

[slackland]

Hi, I hat good news.
Because the Forum Software says I was a bot, I must delete the links.
My new device become that:
„Waveshare Game Hat“
Gme-hat. The design and handling are not very well, but it runs „retropie“ because a Raspberry Pi work on it. You can plug‘n‘play all Raspberrys (2, 3, 3+), except pi zero. You need a another HDMI connector.
The Battery power (about 1 hour pi3/ 2-3 hour pi zero) are very tiny (LOL), but you can play with cable.
Display (3,5 inch) has a resolution about 480x320 and are playable.
This is not really a Pandora killer. It‘s not a plug‘n‘play device. You must mess about a lot of it. But I like it.

The next device I look interesting are that:
„Retro mini Retro Game RG 300“.
Retro Game RG 300. A good old Gameboy design. It runs with opendingux and it seems to be powerfull enough to run PSX. The screen (3 inch) will have a incredible resolution about 960x480. We will see, if they do there promise.
At the moment I will order it to Germany without any big problems. Our customs are very strict and make a lot of trouble…

I have 2 interesting Gagets. That is I search for.

 

[spud42]

yeah i downloaded vita homebrew browser and pkgj vpks and installed them from vitashell.

i got trinity working and downgraded the firmware to 3.60. i have used WinSCP to FTP to the vita and transfered some things in the guide . i can use vitashell to install vpk's.
my last question is. how do i use the SD2VITA card? i have a 32GB microSD card in it but i cant see it in vitashell.. only the 8GB vita memory card i had to buy.

 

[levi]

https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/review/3078476/bittboy-pocketgo-review

This is the older device from the people that seem to be making one of those midi gameboy things for their next project. Dunno if they're the people I've seen making those things before, or another also ran, but this thing is apparently built well and runs everything up to (but not really including) PS1. The only downsides that review notes are the kind of thing that happened with the Pandora, even to this day.

 

[crazyhorse]

i got trinity working and downgraded the firmware to 3.60. i have used WinSCP to FTP to the vita and transfered some things in the guide . i can use vitashell to install vpk's.
my last question is. how do i use the SD2VITA card? i have a 32GB microSD card in it but i cant see it in vitashell.. only the 8GB vita memory card i had to buy.

I don’t use sd2vita but i think you need a plugin for it to work.Download autoplugin from the homebrew browser and its in there.