Another technology related piece, but this time, it is gaming related!
Recently, I bought a RetroGame RS-97 for 50 bucks, usually those Chinese handhelds are pure trash *cough* BittBoy *cough*, but this one got a small community going and improving it, and it was really cheap! I couldn't refuse a niche deal like this, I am a sucker for obscure hardware and I really wanted a dedicated, cheap emulation machine I could take everywhere without worrying about breaking or getting it stolen.
(No, it is not a K101, I swear!)
The specs aren't anything special for today's standards, which why it is so cheap:
Shell: Revo K101, including an useless GBA slot (which acts as a microSD reader) and an useless EXT port (which you can mod for Serial). It also has a TV out port (but it looked horrible on LCD I tried).
Screen: 3 inches, 320x480 (it has a weird ass resolution, more into it below).
CPU: Ingenic JZ4760 circa 2010 (Remember the Dingoo? It used a similar one).
RAM: 128M DDR2.
Storage: Internal 4GB (It is a microSD slotted on the board, you can replace it) and an external microSD on the "GBA slot".
Battery: BL-5B 890mAh (Standard Nokia phone battery), lasting about 3 and something hours.
Build quality is surprisingly good for a cheap handheld, likely due to the use of K101 shells. Buttons are a bit mushy compared to Nintendo's semi-clickly ones, but you get used to them quickly.
As for the built-in software, it comes with emulators, image viewer, video player, music player, ebook reader and a file browser. I will focus on the emulators here:
Is it enough for a casual user? Probably, but I am not a casual user, and the reason I bought this was the custom OpenDingux firmware. Nowadays it is quite easy to install it anyway, a few weeks ago you had to open the handheld up and replace the SD with a flashed OpenDingux image on a bigger SD, now you can just run a installer on the stock firmware that allows dual boot from the external SD slot.
Installing Dingux gives you more, better emulators, and source ports (and a better menu IMO, GMenu is way better than whatever comes with the stock one), fixing pretty much every major issue pointed above, no weird screen resolution, perfect sound on Mega Drive. So far I have used PicoDrive (Sega CD works, but 32X is a no go), ReGBA (even beat Battle Network 1 using it), PocketSNES, Temper (PC-Engine), FBA GCW0 (Arcade), Oswan (WonderSwan) and RaceOD (Neo Geo Pocket), SNES is still iffy but an improvement over the stock one and WonderSwan is laggy (47/60fps). I heard PS1 is playable if you stick with 2D games and deal with some frameskipping. Some people have been trying to mess with the kernel to see if they can improve performance, but that's a WIP.
So, is it worth it? If you want an inexpensive handheld for tinkering with, retrogaming on a budget, or as a gift to someone, it is really good and seems to keep improving. If you want something more powerful, the GPD XD or the GPD Win are better options.
Recently, I bought a RetroGame RS-97 for 50 bucks, usually those Chinese handhelds are pure trash *cough* BittBoy *cough*, but this one got a small community going and improving it, and it was really cheap! I couldn't refuse a niche deal like this, I am a sucker for obscure hardware and I really wanted a dedicated, cheap emulation machine I could take everywhere without worrying about breaking or getting it stolen.
(No, it is not a K101, I swear!)
The specs aren't anything special for today's standards, which why it is so cheap:
Shell: Revo K101, including an useless GBA slot (which acts as a microSD reader) and an useless EXT port (which you can mod for Serial). It also has a TV out port (but it looked horrible on LCD I tried).
Screen: 3 inches, 320x480 (it has a weird ass resolution, more into it below).
CPU: Ingenic JZ4760 circa 2010 (Remember the Dingoo? It used a similar one).
RAM: 128M DDR2.
Storage: Internal 4GB (It is a microSD slotted on the board, you can replace it) and an external microSD on the "GBA slot".
Battery: BL-5B 890mAh (Standard Nokia phone battery), lasting about 3 and something hours.
Build quality is surprisingly good for a cheap handheld, likely due to the use of K101 shells. Buttons are a bit mushy compared to Nintendo's semi-clickly ones, but you get used to them quickly.
As for the built-in software, it comes with emulators, image viewer, video player, music player, ebook reader and a file browser. I will focus on the emulators here:
- CPS
- NEOGEO
- GBA
- SFC
- MD
- FC
- GBC
- SMS
- GG
- GB
Is it enough for a casual user? Probably, but I am not a casual user, and the reason I bought this was the custom OpenDingux firmware. Nowadays it is quite easy to install it anyway, a few weeks ago you had to open the handheld up and replace the SD with a flashed OpenDingux image on a bigger SD, now you can just run a installer on the stock firmware that allows dual boot from the external SD slot.
Installing Dingux gives you more, better emulators, and source ports (and a better menu IMO, GMenu is way better than whatever comes with the stock one), fixing pretty much every major issue pointed above, no weird screen resolution, perfect sound on Mega Drive. So far I have used PicoDrive (Sega CD works, but 32X is a no go), ReGBA (even beat Battle Network 1 using it), PocketSNES, Temper (PC-Engine), FBA GCW0 (Arcade), Oswan (WonderSwan) and RaceOD (Neo Geo Pocket), SNES is still iffy but an improvement over the stock one and WonderSwan is laggy (47/60fps). I heard PS1 is playable if you stick with 2D games and deal with some frameskipping. Some people have been trying to mess with the kernel to see if they can improve performance, but that's a WIP.
So, is it worth it? If you want an inexpensive handheld for tinkering with, retrogaming on a budget, or as a gift to someone, it is really good and seems to keep improving. If you want something more powerful, the GPD XD or the GPD Win are better options.
Or others