Retro Handhelds General Thread

[JellyjamLu]

Steam Deck, sometimes when i'm not at my main PC I like to hook it up to the TV and play. Awesome handheld with decent flexibility.

 

[.xxxevious]

3DS all the way. I'm on mine almost every day.

I got an old hand me down PSP with a shitty old battery that gets you get like 30 mins of playtime before it dies if it's not plugged in. I really should just get a replacement though. PSP is a beast and there are way too many good games I still need to play

 

[ShinnAsukaYESTaylorSwiftNO]

2DS

 

[JusticeAvenger]

i've been playing my 3ds xl after rediscovering it from inside my closet. When i can spend good money on myself, i want to experience the modded psvita ecosystem.

 

[Pokenami's icon Pokenami Pokenami]

My modded 2DS XL and modded Vita for the most part.

 

[DikeMavis]

AYN Thor is the one...

 

[TruxtonTatsujin]

Steam Deck, sometimes when i'm not at my main PC I like to hook it up to the TV and play. Awesome handheld with decent flexibility.

Nice, I forgot about the Steam deck. I probably won't get one, but I do use my Vita to remote play some of my Steam games occasionally.

 

[Zerohour2k12]

I don't have one atm. But I used to have a GBA and PSP. Didn't have many games but I did play a lot.

 

[GrazieSez]

Steam Deck. I got it specifically to emulate handheld and 8/16-bit games. I'll also play some of my less resource intensive Steam games on there, too. I had Game Boys and DS's back in the day, but idk if I still have any of them. I do have a Game Boy Player on my Gamecube tho.

 

[Delta_T64]

My PS Vita, I've been using it more often after I recently fixed it's joysticks. (Also more modding lol)

I was going to buy a 3ds and mod it but I couldn't afford it, so I'm glad that I'm keeping the Vita alive.

 

[NeonKnights]

I have quite a few handhelds though a lot of them need to be repaired or modded.
The ones I use most are the PSP Go, DS Lite, Switch 1, Vita and the Steam Deck OLED.

 

[Clawsofdrakonian]

Currently my hacked N2DS because it's the only one working at this time. Before that it was my PSVita phat; I'm saving up for a slim to hack because my phat's board died on me around 2022.

 

[ThunderBoy]

The PSP 2000 is my most ever used handheld

 

[gekiganwing]

I get a decent amount of entertainment from a modded 2DS and a Miyoo Mini Plus. Both systems are small and reasonably durable.

I also like having a Switch 1 and an LCD Steam Deck. As nice as the devices are, they're a lot larger than they should be. Also, both systems go back into their cases right afterwards. I'm worried they'll get damaged.

 

[Turbo Kid]

The Ayn Odin line of handhelds (like the Odin2 Portal) are better than everything on the market, including handheld PCs like the Steamdeck. The Odin 3 is even running all kinds of modern PC games now with recent custom drivers. People have gotten stuff like Sekiro, Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart, Read Dead Redemption 2, and other stuff running on it. That's alongside great Swtich emulation via Eden/Citron

They are also lighter and more comfortable than any other handhelds I've ever had, particularly if you put a grip on them. And they have excellent controls

With the Ayn Thor, you can even get the dual screen experience for NDS and 3DS games. The only thing missing is the actual 3d effect.

Ayn devices > Switch 1/2 (the Switch 2 doesn't even have any games)
Ayn devices > Steamdeck (handheld PCs are heavy, uncomfortable and bring all of the headaches that are typical to PCs)
Ayn devices > every handheld ever made by Nintendo or Sony

 

[Jdan-S]

I have too many handhelds for my own good. I never sell anything, so I still have my DMG Game Boy, PSP, DS, Vita, etc. Anbernic releasing a new handheld practically every month didn't help either. But for now, the last handheld I bought from them is the one I pick up the most: the RG35XX SP.

It can run the same games as my other emulation handhelds, but the form factor combined with the OS makes me use more often. It set it up with Mustard OS (muOS). Whenever I want to stop playing, I just fold up the handheld and it'll go to sleep. Leave it alone long enough and it'll shut down, but not before saving the game's state. When I boot it up again, it'll resume my game. As a bonus, it can even function as a video player (via MP4 files on the SD card) and looks like a tiny version of those portable DVD players back then. It really feels like something from Y2K.

Its only flaw is that the R1/L1 buttons on mine are not very responsive, and I hope they don't fail eventually like the R1 button on my RG351P (I plan to try resoldering that sometime).

Another one I use often is the RG ARC-D. Nearly all of these retrogaming handhelds mimic Nintendo-style consoles, but this is one of the few that actually offers a Sega-style button layout and form factor. It's perfect for Mega Drive/Genesis, Game Gear, and Master System. The dpad also makes it ideal for classic shoot-em-ups and other ARCade games, which is what Anbernic was going for when they named this.

Finally, I bought a Steam Deck just last year. As a handheld enthusiast and Linux user, I'm still tinkering with it and seeing what I can make it do.

 

[PhrawzT]

I was using my Analogue Pocket all the time, but lately have switched over to my Vita.

 

[JustLooking456]

Just my Switch 1 for now. My 3DS finally bit the dust, RIP.

 

[Fietto!]

The 3DS.

 

[BrawlMan]

My 3DSXL and RG35XXH. More so the latter at this point, but the 3DS get used when I am in the mood for a DS or 3DS game.

 

[hazys]

Nowadays, just my Retroid Pocket 5 and my modded 3DS.

 

[Morgan Katarn]

Have not used a handheld sense the 2DS when it came out. Yes I got the 2ds because that first model had no hinges that could break and well having a fews DS consoles that always broke in the hinge 2ds was the best and no stupid silly 3d function.

I own a Switch but I have not touched it sense I bought it. The console is weak as fuck scrolling the store is laggy as hell I bet if the store front had a fps counter it the fps would be 15-20. Honestly it´s pure shit.

Then lets not get started on the price of games and never having sales on first party games. And most third party games I rather play them on PS5 or my PC.

The switch being the second best console of all time proves that people are stupid and buy in to brand name more than quality.

But yeah I have not used a handheld properly for 13 god damn years. Honestly I rather use a laptop and just emulate a GBA or NDS. But also I don´t have a need for a hanheld I don´t travel much to have the need to use a hand held. And when im home why pick a small ass screen when I use my 2 25 inch screens or my Laptops 15inch screen.

I don´t even game on mobiles becuse.
1. Small ass screen where I lose 50% of the screens to my damn thumbs that are large.

2. Touch controll suck ass and honesly touch controlls are very slippery. And im not paying sevearl 100 bucks for a phone just to add another 50-100 bucks for a Bluetooth controller that maybe does not even work with all games.

3. 90% of the game are just pure garbage quck buck showelware and the 10% of the good games are just ports and are better played on PC or consoles Like Stardew valley or Minecraft and some phone games like Genshin or Wuther wave´s just better on my PC.

So yeah 13 years "over a decade" sense I properly played on hanhelds.

 

[Don Patch]

I tend to agree the PSP just feels better than most handhelds.

That said, I tend to use my 3DS more than even my new stuff.

 

[Eughlius]

If we're talking pure handhelds and not ones made for emulation, I grew up on a hacked PSP and much later upgraded to a hacked VITA. The VITA is probably the best pure handheld there is for that sort of stuff (though the n3ds and its ability to play DS roms makes them pretty close.)

That being said, I grew up on the PSP so it has home turf bias. That, and I have a deep appreciation for the PSP GO. So small but the same amount of utility as a PSP. Only recently did emulation handhelds of the same portability start to overtake it. Perfect for RPGs, even some of those shitty ported VNs if you don't mind the eye strain.

I moved to the Steam Deck when it launched and stayed there (amazing device btw) until about 2 years ago but its size made it a bother to take anywhere. Recently I finally caved and bought a Retroid Pocket Flip 2 and honestly the experience has been fantastic. It's like this great synthesis of the portability of the 3DS and the capabilities of the steam deck. I can play most of what I want, even most PC games I want to play (though those are mostly Visual Novels.)

Being a huge Linux guy I also find the new proton/fex frontier for android very cool, it reminds me of Linux gaming pre steam deck days.

 

[Cerberus9]

I currently have the *new* 3DSxl and a Anbernic RG34xx. I'm planning on getting either an Odin or a Thor soon.