When I was in junior high school, my enthusiasm for electronic products was far less versatile than I am now. In the eyes of a student who is ignorant of the world, the charm of games is almost infinite.
When I was in elementary school, I was quite interested in handheld machine , and I also bought a second-hand "Brick GameBoy". After entering junior high school, waiting for the new "Handle Player Fan" and "Handle Player King SP" magazine every month has become the things I look forward to most after studying, to see what fun games have appeared and what interesting things have happened to those players with the same interests and hobbies as me.
▲ GBA SP. Image from: YouTube
However, game consoles were very expensive in that era, and they were a beast in the eyes of their parents. If you want to own a handheld console of your own, God knows how many student players like me have secretly saved money.
More than ten years have passed, and now I use any smartphone to perfectly run the games of that year, but the enthusiasm of that year can never be picked up.
What is the retro open source handheld machine?
Even though I have no passion for the past year, this feeling is still there in my heart. So when I saw the "retro open source handheld machine", although I knew that every little design was deliberately creating feelings, I was still attracted.
The so-called retro open source handheld console is a branch of the current handheld console circle. They use open source systems like Linux and modify them and run game simulators to play. In terms of form, they are very similar to Gam Boy and GBA in those days.
▲ GameBoy Advance. Picture from: Ars Technica
But these retro open source handhelds sold by Taobao and JD are not any handhelds we played when we were kids. If you have used an emulator to relive your old dreams on your computer or mobile phone, open source handhelds are an extension of this retro sentiment, but in the medium it is closer to the small handhelds we hid in the quilt and held in our hands after the lights were turned off.
light, small, good screen adaptation, easy to carry, good feel and cheap price. This is the reason why many people buy open source handheld consoles.
I finally bought a retro open source handheld, but in terms of form, I did not choose a horizontal handheld with a more reasonable design, but chose a vertical version of the Little Dragon King open source handheld similar to the Gameboy's form back then. What is the experience of
? What kind of games can you play
Retro transparent shell and small and portable size, plus the not expensive price, it can be considered as if you can't buy it, you can't buy it, you can't buy it, you can't buy it. When I really got
, I was still caught by Shock. The mold was not as rough as I thought at first (maybe because it was translucent), and the overall size was really only the size of the palm of the palm. Yes, it was not the part of your finger.
Say less nonsense, turn on the computer! In terms of
system, the most popular ones in China are TONY FW system and Situ system. In fact, they are all modified based on Linux kernel to be used to run game console emulators. The power-on speed is very fast, about seven or eight seconds, which is definitely much faster than the mobile phone, but it still cannot keep up with the boot speed of the native handheld phone.
This one in my hand has been cleaned up. There are nine old game console emulators built in total, including GCW arcade emulator , FC simulator, GB simulator, PS simulator, MD simulator, SFC simulator, GBA simulator, SNS simulator and PCE simulator.
You can choose to play PS or arcade emulator, but in terms of form, revisiting the GBA game that is originally a handheld console is the biggest purpose of my purchase of this machine, so let's start with GBA first.
Like all GBA emulators, if you want to play games, you need to load the ROM first. Unfortunately, there is no BIOS file, so there will be no GBA startup animation (Here is sentiment-50 points).
Since it requires a running system and game ROM files, these retro open source handheld consoles have TF card slots, and the little dragon king is on the left side of the body. Since the manufacturer gave a full game TF card (I was moved, all Chinese versions), you basically have everything you want to play, which has saved players a lot of trouble.
In the fragmented time of fast-paced life, I would like to play SRPG (strategic role-playing) games like "Fire Emblem" first, because the pace is very slow and can be fully played, and the degree of fun is not much related to the picture. Among the three works of Fire Pattern GBA, " Seal Sword " is generally a bit immature. "The Light Stone of the Holy Demon" system is the most mature but the plot is weaker, and the plot and system are even at a very high level. " Fire Sword ".
Of course, it does not mean that the handheld console of the Little Dragon King is not suitable for playing action games, but the buttons feel very comfortable. Several buttons are made of conductive rubber, which feels very close to GBA, and it is not a problem to play ACT games. However, the left and right shoulder keys, that is, the LR keys, feel arbitrary, very crisp and not elastic.
In terms of effect, this GBA emulator is very smooth. It has not been encountered with slowing down or frame drops. After trying the ACT game "ZERO" series, you can definitely play it smoothly throughout the entire process. Although the screen resolution of
is only 320×240, many people may not know that the GBA native resolution is only 240×160. Although it is not point-to-point operation, the GBA simulator of the TONY system has changed the rendering method, which is closer to the impression we see when using computer simulators. So in terms of effect, this machine and even all similar open source handhelds have an overall performance that is absolutely acceptable although the visual angle is not outstanding.
Because it is an emulator, it also has cheat-like functions such as instant archive. You can call out the emulator menu and adjust the brightness through the two extra buttons on the left. Unfortunately, it does not support GBA's classic "Gold Finger". There are also retro-flavored knobs on the right to adjust the volume.
I also tried MD, SFC and PS emulators, and found that in addition to some 3D games on PS, the simulation effect of 2D games can be said to be close to perfection, but the compatibility is still somewhat different from that of simulators on PC. For example, the archive of "Mega Man ZERO4" has been showing damage and can only be played with real-time archives. Some of this is a bug caused by the Chinese version.
Due to the limited size and cost of the body, these open source handheld machines are currently using replaceable batteries. The battery model of this Xiaolongwang in my hand is BL-5C, which is the model used by Nokia in 2009, and you can even see the words NOKIA on another spare battery I gave. Although the capacity of 1020mAh is not large, it can run games for five or six hours, which is slightly weaker than the GBA SP that could play for 8-10 hours back then.
From the experience point of view, at this price, unless you buy a second-hand PSP, it is difficult to find such a product that really has the feeling of a handheld machine.
Where do these retro open source handhelds come from? How are they sold
▲ Dingguo A320. Picture from: トロログ
What many people don’t know is that the rise of open source handhelds can be traced back more than ten years ago. For example, the domestic handheld Dingguo A320, which was released in 2008, was loaded with an old game console emulator through Linux ported by foreign developers, so that they can be sold out at home and abroad. In the meantime, some retro handhelds have appeared at home and abroad, such as the GCW Zero, which was successfully crowdfunded in 2013, and it was able to buy the last product last year, which is enduring.
But in the open source handheld machine circle, the name "Brother Zhou" must not be ignored. Because these new batch of open source handhelds that started last year are actually closely related to this "Brother Zhou".
▲ REVO K101+. Picture from: Nintendo Life
In 2016, "Brother Zhou" launched a retro handheld machine REVO K101+ that can hardly solve GBA. There may not be many people who know this handheld machine, but the design is quite mature and the mold is very good. The effect of using GBA is very good.
According to Zhihu user @Xie Zhou, the mold of this handheld machine was finally sold to other manufacturers by Brother Zhou, which gave birth to the popularity of open source handheld machines such as Retro Game in 2017.Last year and this year, more small manufacturers such as Xiaolongwang and miyoo have joined the ranks of retro open source handhelds, but whether it is horizontal or vertical, you can find a lot of shadows of "Brother Zhou" products back then. Although
can run GBA and PS, the configuration of these open source handheld consoles is quite low-end. Not only are the processors mostly made from eight or nine years ago, but they can even be said to be a bit weird. For example, the little dragon king in my hand uses the JZ4760B produced by Junzheng in 2011, with a dual-core 600MHz, and the old MIPS architecture is still used.
▲ miyoo handheld machine. Picture from: Jigsaw Review
Another better-buyed processor The miyoo brand uses is even older, and it is the F1C500S single-core 400Mhz ARM9 architecture processor. The latest architecture is just the Retro V3S with the Cortex-A7 architecture.
In general, in terms of hardware, the performance of these open source handheld consoles is quite weak, just like 2D games like GBA can run smoothly, and some performance-intensive 3D games on PS cannot be simulated smoothly.
Even though the performance is average, the sales of these open source handheld machines are pretty good. Models such as miyoo and Xiaolongwang in China have thousands of sales on Taobao and JD.com. In terms of ownership, Retro Game's sales worldwide are far higher.
: At the price of 300 yuan for the Xiaolongwang Open Source Handheld, the cost of the motherboard and plastic shell is not much, and the game is copied and ready-made. The system is also made by developers. Overall, it can make a lot of money by selling one.
Of course, handheld player players are considered niche, and there are even fewer parts that are willing to pay for retro handheld player. In terms of size, it may only be 10,000 or 20,000 yuan. It is really purely for selling feelings, so the price cannot be expensive. It is already a conscience to make products on this scale and leave without making a single wave.
Retro open source handheld machine is worth buying
Is a retro open source handheld machine a product worth buying? In terms of cost-effectiveness, a PSP or PSV can achieve a much better simulation effect (and feel) than these open source handheld consoles, but these retro gadgets still have a market.
Does it have a high threshold? Actually, there is no one. You can write a useful UI using an open source Linux kernel, use an ancient processor ten years ago, and run the classic games we remember without having to develop them ourselves.
hrough shell, ritualless TF card, and unlucky pirated ROM. The mobile phone not only has a larger and more beautiful screen, but also has a better simulator operation effect, but it can also be equipped with a professional peripheral handle to further enhance the feel. Rationally speaking, these open source handheld consoles do not seem to have much value.
But they are more exclusive than mobile phones and are only used to take care of games. At the same time, they are small in size and convenient to play games. Many retro colored or translucent shells will also evoke long-lasting memories in your mind. When picking it up, it seems that there is still a feeling different from the mobile phone and the computer. In it,
Open source handheld machines can also obtain better operating experience and smoother operating results through flashing , etc., which makes people regain the time when they were trying to flash their phones. Some enthusiasts also said that flashing the phone is their greatest pleasure.
But in the end, what we miss is the touch brought by the excellent games themselves, as well as the GBA covered in quilt and playing with flashlights, hiding NDS under the pillow, and half exposed PSP outside the table bucket and supporting it with legs during self-study. These years that can no longer be returned.
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