Dream Emulation Handheld

[PapaGato]

I've recently been in the market for an emulation handheld. Comparing the available options has got me thinking about what my dream handheld would look like. I'm primarily interested in PS2 and Gamecube emulation. The Anbernic RG 477m has come closest to what I'm looking for but the metal shell, inline shoulder buttons, and LCD screen leave me wanting more. The RG 476H from Anbernic solves most of my issues but is slightly under powered for 6th gen emulation. Retroid Pocket has recently teased the "Nova" which depending on the price and included RAM might be a dream come true.

What would your dream emulation handheld look like? What would you be looking to play on it?

My dream handheld would have:

• A 4:3 OLED screen
• A Plastic shell
• Stacked shoulder buttons
• Enough power to run PS2 and GameCube games upscaled at full speed
• Analog triggers and inline analog sticks ala the Dualshock controller would be nice as well

 

[Dyne]

I have an AYN Thor Max and it comes pretty close for me

 

[PSVitaForever]

I'm not so good to describe how the screen and shell should be, but I would like to be able to play ps2 games without problems (I understand that right now asking for ps3 emulation would be too much, but I read that many of those Anbernic and similar can run many ps2 titles - but not all - good enough).
Reading wikipedia because I'm ignorant about "console generations", I would say an emulator where I can play the sixth generation without issues.
About its appearance, something like the Switch would be fine.

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 10:33 PM

I have an AYN Thor Max and it comes pretty close for me

Cool! I've looked for it, it costs more or less like a Switch 2... is it worth it?
(I have a Vita and 3ds with the mod, but I'm always happy to know more about these consoles).

 

[JoystickV2]

My dream handheld, oh man, that's a interesting question! I have always loved handhelds ever since childhood, but thinking about a "perfect one"...

• A nice OLED screen.
• Good battery life (doesn't need to last 80 hours, but y'know, at least more than 4 hours? Is that too much to ask in this economy? çwç)
• Solid face buttons that feel nice to click.
• Two analog sticks.
• Solid shoulder buttons as well (and two of them, for emulation reasons).
• Enough power to run PS2/GC and some fangames (like Sonic Robo Blast 2).

I know this is going to sound weird, but my main "dream handheld" thing is mostly about the games, because I always wanted to play certain games on handhelds, like Sonic Adventure, Sonic Heroes, Kingdom Hearts II, and some others.

 

[PapaGato]

I have an AYN Thor Max and it comes pretty close for me

If I didn't already have a 3DS and DSi it would probably be my first pick. What do you typically play on it?

Post automatically merged: Today at 12:36 AM

I know this is going to sound weird, but my main "dream handheld" thing is mostly about the games, because I always wanted to play certain games on handhelds, like Sonic Adventure, Sonic Heroes, Kingdom Hearts II, and some others.

Not weird at all. Thats what the handhelds are for! I really like playing the Resident Evil games on portables.

 

[FlantasticFlantasy]

the psvita already feels like the dream handheld because it's not bulky or long like the recent handhelds but thats not as important as the games! (for me anyway) but my dream emulation handheld would be similar to what JoystickV2 is talking about. and also be able to fit in your pocket like a psp or psvita.

 

[aquova]

My dream handheld would have:

• A 4:3 OLED screen
• A Plastic shell
• Stacked shoulder buttons
• Enough power to run PS2 and GameCube games upscaled at full speed
• Analog triggers and inline analog sticks ala the Dualshock controller would be nice as well

I think some of these are mutually exclusive unfortunately. If you have analog triggers, you'll have stacked shoulder buttons, so that's not a problem, but those systems tend to be not only larger, but a higher premium. Those higher end devices never do a 4:3 version, so you might have to give up on that and be happy with some black borders.

As for the best devices, I searched for many years and I can safely say the Steam Deck is by far the best. It's completely unlocked, powerful, and can play whatever emulators work on desktop. Your other options are either some of the emulation-specific devices like the Ayn Thor, which is a good choice, or going with a hacked version of an older console like a 3DS or Vita. I personally adore my Vita, and think they're a great choice, but you won't be able to emulate PS2 or Gamecube on it.

 

[GundamJehutyKai]

mine would basically be an RG slide but shrunken down, Given an OLED screen and a more powerful chipset so if can play PS2 and GC games. That's all I want, but the Retroid Pocket 5 pretty much covers all I need, especially with the Screen Addon for dual screen shenannigans

 

[contrail_]

-It needs to be able to output composite video, so I can hook it up to a crt tv if I feel like it. (very underrated feature; imagine playing the story segments of a final fantasy game on a crt, looking all authentic, then being able to do your grinding as you commute)
-A generic enough battery, so I won't have to tinker and retrofit a battery to it when its battery inevitably loses the ability to hold a charge. (looking at you, psp; I had to take out the umd drive and stick a generic li-ion battery in its place, then wire that to the original battery's pcb)
-Maybe just be dockable, where the dock outputs composite video and can connect a controller (or even a hard drive; thinkpad docking stations used to be able to take a hard drive instead of a cd-rom).
-Be able to take a usb joypad via regular usb type A.
-Be able to play videos (would pair well with the composite output; no hdmi necessary; just some port of kodi so it can play .mkv's)
-Small enough form factor, without being tiny like a gameboy micro or big like a switch. It needs to be pocketable.
-Running open source OS; there's plenty of good ones available.
-4:3 aspect ratio screen!
-3.5mm jack for headphones!
-Bluetooth only available while docked!
Yeah, you can tell I haven't used a lot of handhelds besides the psp.
I don't care that much for analog sticks, or a fancy oled display, those would be cool too, but not too important to me, unless said handheld could run ps2/gamecube games, though I realize that may be asking too much. Running ps1/sega saturn games without any problems is good enough for me; Dreamcast would be nice too! It needs to be able to run duckstation or mednafen/retroarch's beetle core for the psx; the pcsx rearmed core is okay, but it's not quite as good as those two. It wouldn't need to be that much more powerful than a raspberry pi 3; would be nice if it doesn't get as warm as one of those...
I realize it's an odd list of features, but then, that's why I'm posting it.

 

[chaikoopa]

The AYN Thor is basically my end game handheld. My only gripes are that bottom screen being 1:1 instead of 4:3. I could've avoided this issue if I just went with black, where the bottom screen can fade right into the all glass front. I got the rainbow color way cause I'm a sucker for the famicom color scheme. Maybe also having that bottom part being plastic instead of all glass would also be nice!

but for a single screen device my personal wish list is:
-Vertical form factor
-4:3 Aspect Ratio Screen @ 120 FPS
-Wii Classic Controller button layout
-Stacked Analog Triggers
-Enough power for up to PS2 & GCN + run some nice shaders on Retroarch for the classics
-Would love it to be a bit chunkier since I got big hands. I got the Anbernic RG 406V (BIG ASS HANDHELD) and was still unsatisfied with the girth, needed a grip for max comfort

I just basically want one of those classic Wii Portables but like turbo souped up lol. 406V was close but it was still off in some regards, and also sadly didn't last very long, the left analog stick got busted within like a month of use :[ .

Thor has been amazing tho, glad I hopped on with the first set of pre-orders when I did. Legit super close to perfect!