Trimui Smart Pro Handheld (pickle ports)

[Pickle]

Hi I bought one of these handhelds for only $55. Its actually turning out to be a decent and fun device. The device has a cross compiler released, supporting GLES1/2 and Vulkan,
Its using a Allwinner quad core. Based on a clock switch it overclocks to 2 ghz. It has a PowerVR GE8300 for the GPU. The screen is 1280x720. Runs linux (havent seen kernel source yet)
Really gives some nostalgia for the GPH devices.
I already have my hurrican port working with two builds with SDL1+EGL and SDL2 so development shouldnt be hard. It looks quite nice. It still has some rough edges. Id like to get around to doom, quake, etc.

But I plan to post port links as Im happy with them here in case someone else happens to have one. Unfortunately seems most of the discussion for these handhelds is on reddit and i dont want to post there.

 

[TeDaDeS]

Is it this console: https://mechdiy.com/products/trimui-smart-pro-retro-handheld-game-console
Looks a bit like the PSP / PS Vita.

 

[elw3]

Its a better psp really.
I tired using it, it has interesting unique buttons, but i cant get into the volume settings and it drives me crazy.
The PCM is clearly overdriven and the humming drives me insane.

Most discussions happen on hhg id say btw.

 

[Pickle]

Is it this console: https://mechdiy.com/products/trimui-smart-pro-retro-handheld-game-console
Looks a bit like the PSP / PS Vita.

yes that is it, and it probably close to the ps vita size.
it emulates up to n64 / psp / dreamcast (but really pushing it). I mainly wanted to use it for snes rpg's with the larger screen. I was also looking a lot at the anbernic models (rg35xx H and SP new clam case)
but the larger screen sold me on the trimui. I might get the SP if it drops to the $50 range as well.

Its a better psp really.
I tired using it, it has interesting unique buttons, but i cant get into the volume settings and it drives me crazy.
The PCM is clearly overdriven and the humming drives me insane.

Most discussions happen on hhg id say btw.

the volume is controlled by buttons?...im not sure about your comments about the sound. I wouldn't call the speakers ground breaking but I find them adequate. I dont recall a hum, maybe yours was defective?
what is hhg?

 

[elw3]

The volume buttons controll the software volume, but the hardware amp is set to too loud. It amplifies interference quite noticable, you can easly check this with the FN switch setting that turns it into a mute switch.
Mute, as opposed to volume 0, turns off the amp, you should notice how that constant noise stops.

hhg is the handhelds thread of 4chan.

 

[Pickle]

so i was able to get quake 1 to run and its a perfect 60 fps, very smooth looking. Only problem i cant get in game it segfaults
it plays through all the demos and i can move around the menu. im wondering maybe its 64 bit problem.

 

[Pickle]

well i think ill forgot about that other port since i have quakespasm working with gl4es/SDL2 and its working so far.

 

[b_o_b]

Does it have a media player? (e.g. mplayer - vlc) - haven't seen anyone mention it.

 

[elw3]

since last fimware update it can play videos, not great , but ok enough in case you wanna use it as a mobile TV.

 

[Pickle]

ive made some good progress.
Quake 2 is running quite nice with the GLES3 video plugin. Software mode also works. The GL 1.4 (GL4ES) is crashing, i dont know if its worth investigating, the GLES3 is nice.
I also figured out a feature to combine glBegin/glEnd in GL4ES was the cause for the quakespasm menu glitches. So that also it running good as well.
Both of these engines are quite nice with the current support, i really spent most of the time so far getting libraries cross compiled and everything pointing at the right spot. The support with SDL2 works with the joystick controls automatically.
I think Quake 3 is next on the hit list


Edit: well that was easy Controls arnt the best had to connect a usb keyboard and mouse.
at 960x720 demo4 is at 35 fps (with performance slider on)
at1 1280x720 is at 30 fps

quake 1 at 1280x720 demo1 is 34.3 fps
quake 2 at 1280x720 is 52.9 fps

 

[Pickle]

so change of pace I built chocolate doom which ive paired with my launcher. My launcher was designed to use SDL 1.2 software renderer and only update area's of the screen as things needed to be drawn. So it basically was at zero cpu when nothing was changing. The SDL 1.2 was just a blank screen. So im not sure if it was running but the rendering was broken. But its been fun to get back to working on the frontend launcher and make some improvements to it.
But i took the opportunity to add SDL2 support and that has worked great. Ive also have some other changes to get things looking nice on the larger screen. Im using the skin assets used in the pandora build.
Chocolate doom runs great, i included fluidsynth and i tried masterpiece.sf2 and sounds great. Setting up the engine is a little annoying, im having to do some manual changing of the cfg files.
The controls are not ideal, i need to play around with them some more. Its also annoying quitting the order screen wont clear on joystick events. Being able to run a usb keyboard has been quite helpful.

 

[Pickle]

i wanted to run sigil but chocolate doom wont run it, so i built gzdoom. Its runs but some wads are not stable, but it does work in gles 2.0 mode which looks good. It crashes on the doom1 wad pretty quickly. Doom 2 runs better.

 

[Nintendo]

Hi I bought one of these handhelds for only $55. Its actually turning out to be a decent and fun device. The device has a cross compiler released, supporting GLES1/2 and Vulkan,
Its using a Allwinner quad core. Based on a clock switch it overclocks to 2 ghz. It has a PowerVR GE8300 for the GPU. The screen is 1280x720. Runs linux (havent seen kernel source yet)
Really gives some nostalgia for the GPH devices.
I already have my hurrican port working with two builds with SDL1+EGL and SDL2 so development shouldnt be hard. It looks quite nice. It still has some rough edges. Id like to get around to doom, quake, etc.

But I plan to post port links as Im happy with them here in case someone else happens to have one. Unfortunately seems most of the discussion for these handhelds is on reddit and i dont want to post there.

I Love mine

 

[TeDaDeS]

Anyone experience with the smaller non-pro model-S version?
It feels like these two probably differ in many ways even though it's the same brand.

 

[Nintendo]

They're very different in almost every conceivable manner, but I really shouldn't judge it until I get one next month.
Meanwhile, let's check out a 1+ year old YouTube video from none other than...Taki Udon

 

[netcat]

I find the multitude of functionally equivalent retro gaming handhelds perverse. Especially since the game set is static. And they all seem worse than Pandora. Maybe retro gaming is super huge somewhere like Brazil or Nigeria

 

[Askarus]

I find the multitude of functionally equivalent retro gaming handhelds perverse. Especially since the game set is static. And they all seem worse than Pandora. Maybe retro gaming is super huge somewhere like Brazil or Nigeria

That, 100% that.
Most of them are Pandoras but worse. We have to give them credit for Dreamcast but that's it.
I have no idea how all those pretty much identical candybar devices can coexist.
(Actually I do. They are super cheap to produce in China and they can sell them with an insane profit margin here)

 

[elw3]

Fools, they are not for gaming but collecting.
Gotta buy them all!
(For reference i havnt even unpacked a quarter of those i bought)

 

[netcat]

No no no. Usb cables are for collecting. Portable gaming is for escaping reality.

 

[TeDaDeS]

The more the merrier I would think.
When everyone starts out with a nice handheld that can play retro games, they'll expect something better in the future when they can afford more expensive systems. Possibly they'll look into other devices like the Pandora or Pyra.

In the past we only had these things and this example is already a fancy looking version:

This got replaced with some handheld which have some cheap RockChip CPU inside running Linux or Android. So while I understand we don't want hundreds of similar cheap products, more affordable retro-gaming handhelds running Linux should be a good thing.