Ali Express Emulator Consoles Thread

[Living Room Arcade]

@Albert said it's okay to discuss this.  So...

 

Do you have one of those inexpensive and interesting emulator consoles of the type that they sell at Ali Express?  

Or are you shopping for one?

Or just curious about them?

 

If yes to any of the above, let's all share and discuss here!

Edited January 5 by Living Room Arcade

[Flojomojo]

This is my new favorite toy, very SEGA friendly

 

Miyoo Mini and Anbernic RG35XX are pretty cool too 

I was pleasantly surprised by the Retroid 3+ which can easily run Dreamcast and Saturn games

and of course the papa of them all is Steam Deck, which is a hoking big thing but very nice. 

[+bent_pin]

Cool thread. I love cheap video games like this. I'll post what I have as I get to them.

 

This first one is one of my favorites, the X12. A gift from my girlfriend, this sucker boasts a 7" screen, a micro SD slot, and reliably plays NES and SNES games. It has other formats as well, but I haven't messed with them too much. I wish it played 2600,5200,7800 games though.

 

Yes Chumlee, it even has Battletoads.

[Tanooki]

Oddly enough, yes I do, but I bought it second hand off a local a couple years back.  It's the Anbernic RG351P.  It was a $100 handheld when it arrived some years ago and still sells for nearly that because it's one of the more high quality ones for functionality if you're not looking to get into 3D gaming on the go, though it can handle a majority of N64 games using a non-stock OS.  Mine doesn't run the stock one, it sucks, it runs AmberELEC.  The setup on it, which usually for android and many can be confusing, but using their website it stupid super stupid easy, basically copy and go, then add roms after easy.

 

The device is quite comfortable for a wide device but can wear on the hands depending how you use it in time, but mine as it was a second hand bundle not only game with the system and its charge cable, but also a nice storage case and a 3D printed comfy grip that's kind of between a nintendo pro controller and ps3 style handle which is great for long use.

 

THe screen, sound, buttons, sticks, d-pad are all on a nice higher level of quality than I'd think some sub $100 handheld from China would do, but there it is.  2D gaming if it's old computer systems, consoles, arcades and handhelds it excels at most excellently.  Where it falters is 3D, not GBA's rendered 3D on the games it does, but on actual 3D rooted systems.  PS1/Saturn are fine if you stick to 2D games, DC even not that i'd care to set that up or any of those.  N64 that strangely does work, when using a MUPEN64 build made for AmberELEC, then most games run at full speed and look great.  But enough of them do have some display issues or just don't work, think of N64 emulation from 10-20 years ago with all the weird plugins and some games chugging or failing where like 75-80% worked fine the rest were crap or dead.

I'd recommend it to anyone who wants a horizontal oriented under $100 handheld that works great.  It does have a vertical version of the 351 line so that's a possibility too.

 

 

I have though considered but likely would never do it, popping for a beefier one of this that can handle the GC/PS2 era level of 3D stuff, as beyond that just feels like a ridiculous waste to me.  But the more I reflect back on stuff, if one did so happen to run the 32/64bit mid-end of 90s systems 100% right that would be more than enough already.

[Living Room Arcade]

There's going to be an explosion of posts about this topic, aren't there?  Guys (like me!) have been waiting for a long time to share, haven't they?

 

This is my baby, the Arcade Box.  I bought it at Ali Express about a year ago.  

I use it to play Atari 2600, 5200, 7800, NES, SNES and lots of others.  The best it can do is PSP and PS1.  

Edited January 6 by Living Room Arcade

[scifidude79]

Public service announcement: Avoid Kinhank.

 

Seriously, I had one of the Kinhank "Super Console CUBE X3" consoles last year. I decided to give it a look. It looked like a mini NES, but it had USB ports under the cartridge door. It was an OK device, but it didn't do a lot for me. Unfortunately, the Kinhank devices suffer from a lot of the same type of problems from version to version. Those issues are basically emulation problems with a lot of titles, from Arcade to more demanding stuff like PS, Dreamcast, etc. They're also notorious for having the wrong games sometimes. IE: you'll go to launch a game and a different game will launch. After messing with that for a bit, I finally realized that I could have a better experience by simply taking RecalBox and a USB thumb stick, then using Balena Etcher to write it to a USB drive, dump some ROMs on it and use my VCS to play it. But, that's not to say you can't have a good experience with devices by other companies. I've heard the Anbernic devices are better than some of the others.

[Tanooki]

@scifidude79 Largely the Anbernic devices are great, but some get middling reviews largely due to so many coming out each year the tend to blend together and offer nothing new but form factor or a little give/take so reviewers get salty and played out on the repetitive nature of it.  But, I think they have to do this being the top asian emulator handheld they need to keep them coming or get washed out by others.  It's best to just hit retrododo as they're quite mostly honest on the stuff and break down the good and bad, even the right price on them as well as sites can vary.  THe other would be the Retroid Go Pocket line especially the 3's since they're getting up to where even Gamecube level of stuff is doable.  I haven't used them like the other, so I'm not sure how easy/hard it is for someone who doesn't know Android well can load them with stuff.  The Anbernics aren't that easy, unless you are good using memory card tools to partition stuff for boot vs play, which is what I had to do and never had before on mine when I got it.  Once that was set, and using AmberElec it was smooth sailing, no worse than tweaking a PC emulator.

[scifidude79]

1 hour ago, Tanooki said:

But, I think they have to do this being the top asian emulator handheld they need to keep them coming or get washed out by others.

That's the way the Asian market is in general. I actually did some shopping on AliExpress the other day, looking at computer components. It's incredible how many more brands there are making the same type of component versus what's available in Western nations. They're at the heart of where this stuff is manufactured, so these companies can just drop their wares on sites like AliExpress and then ship them directly from their warehouses to consumers. Not having to have distributors to sell their wares cuts out so much middle man, and it also means that there's more competition. After looking at this thread earlier, I got onto AliExpress again and got into the rabbit hole that is the emulation console scene. Wow, there are so many to choose from, and many of them look like they're essentially the same device, but with a few features different. It's a super competitive market.

 

I'm not going to lie, I might have bought one of the ones that looks like a mini PS5 just for LOLs, but all I could find of those were ones that output to composite video. It has to have HDMI for me to even think about buying it.

 

Edit: Ooh, never mind. I found one of the PS5 looking ones that comes with two dual sense 5 looking controllers and claims to do 4K (we'll see 🤣) and it has free 13-day shipping. It's in my cart right now.

Edited January 7 by scifidude79

[Sir Guntz]

any recommendations for emulator handhelds that can handle Gamecube?

[Tanooki]

1 hour ago, Sir Guntz said:

any recommendations for emulator handhelds that can handle Gamecube?

Honestly none of them can, at least not reliably like a PC emulator can on a legit computer, handheld, or even steam deck.  Even the $300 class of stuff like the fairly beefy Odin won't handle all the Gamecube games well, even launch stuff like Rogue Squadron 2 have problems.  But if you don't mind tinkering and it being a bit on the hit and miss side (more hit) something like the Odin, SD855, Retroid Pocket 3+, the RG405M from Anbernic, basically stuff with a T618 or T610 chip can do enough, just not everything or close to it.

Think of it how I said mine using amberelec +mupen build meant for it can handle like 70-80% of the N64 stuff accurately and at the right speed, but there's that chunk of real performance pushing/asking stuff it just will crap out on or not load at all, Gamecube with PS2/XB are in that class with the current end of handhelds short of getting into the steamdeck/full on PC setup.  You'll need to get into like N64 on Cube getting into many custom builds of GC emulator, hacks, and what not to inch that percentage up a good bit better, so depends on the work you want to put into it.  I've not dug that deep since mine has a limit of the 90s tech not 00s outside of the GBA.

 

Had this topic existed awhile back and not a problem fearing it taboo, which I guess is weird since we're not sharing roms, I'd have gone into this awhile back.

 

Sometime this year I think this Ayn Ayaneo handheld in a $300 tier class I read once comes out, those should be more than enough for Cube, but do you want to drop $300 or so on a handheld to do gamecube?

[Lord Innit]

I bought this one last year.  It's an Anbernic RG353M, and it handles 8 and 16bit perfectly well.  PS1 and PSP are decent too but I'm not really interested in emulating anything beyond 16bit.  

It has a nice metal shell.  It all fits nicely in to my jackets inside pocket so it has become my go to gaming device when I'm out and about.

[Living Room Arcade]

On 1/8/2024 at 2:32 PM, Lord Innit said:

I bought this one last year.  It's an Anbernic RG353M, and it handles 8 and 16bit perfectly well.  PS1 and PSP are decent too but I'm not really interested in emulating anything beyond 16bit.  

It has a nice metal shell.  It all fits nicely in to my jackets inside pocket so it has become my go to gaming device when I'm out and about.

Nice.  Those controls and that screen look really great.  Can you save your progress and continue your game later?  

[Tanooki]

7 hours ago, Living Room Arcade said:

Nice.  Those controls and that screen look really great.  Can you save your progress and continue your game later?  

I have the previous variant of that and not in metal (it's plastic) with the 351P and yes, you can.  Just imagine your basic generalized suite of tools a WIndows PC emulator has, or even various better flash kit/everdrives have.  Save/Load states are stock standard.  If a game has a battery historically speaking, save files are made and loaded all the same as far as the game thinks it should be.  Other things like your usual frame skip, tweaking audio quality, button remapping, etc are pretty basic things to expect.

[Lord Innit]

12 hours ago, Living Room Arcade said:

Nice.  Those controls and that screen look really great.  Can you save your progress and continue your game later?  

The screen is excellent, and for the first time ever I managed to get the supplied screen protector on without making a complete hash of it. 

Also, the buttons feel great and a nice bonus is the analogue sticks are hall effect.

[Living Room Arcade]

2 hours ago, Lord Innit said:

The screen is excellent, and for the first time ever I managed to get the supplied screen protector on without making a complete hash of it. 

Also, the buttons feel great and a nice bonus is the analogue sticks are hall effect.

I never tried Hall Effect analogue sticks.  Are they better?  

[scifidude79]

1 hour ago, Living Room Arcade said:

I never tried Hall Effect analogue sticks.  Are they better?  

The biggest advantage is that they're never supposed to develop stick drift. If that's true, then that makes them better.

[Ninjabba]

I've bought the Abernic RG353M as a present for a friend who really wanted to play some retro games but is a bit a-technical, so I thought I'll do him a favor and load this device with a ton of games.

 

After reading into countless reviews praising the device I can only say I was utterly disappointed by the overall experience of it. I installed whatever firmware was needed, the process felt sloppy and the result being some unstable (Android-based?) OS. Half of the time the device wouldn't boot up and required a reboot.. then trying to play some ROMs on the device..  definitely skip anything 32-bit, though it claims it can play it, the FPS is too low to enjoy the game. Sticking to the usual 8/16-bit emulators and still it would freeze up, corrupt save states and whatnot.

 

The Retroflag GPi Case 2 using a Raspberry Pi Zero on the other hand.. flawless! I never had an issue with this device.. the OS is stable, I am using the first Pi Zero so I am not sure if later versions would run 32-bit emulators smoothly, but the first Pi Zero is at least capable of booting them up.

[Tanooki]

@Ninjabba sorry but that seems more like a you issue, user setup issue, than the device itself.  I'm using the previous model of that as I said, and what you're saying isn't what I'm having for performance.

 

Android sucks.  Default setup on it also hampers the device and as such, sucks.  THIS is what should be used: https://amberelec.org/  The rules on how to set it up are borderline idiot proof, I mean it's one step south of impossible to fuck up Hakchi for the NES/SNES Classic Edition easy.

 

The only caveat depending on your model, mine has 1 memory card port, many have 2.  If you have one, you'll need to use a memory card formatter to in a way create a boot and game storage partition, then put X and Y in the right places.  That's really about it.  Otherwise if you have two, that second card is games, dump em on there like an everdrive and go.

 

Using AmberElec you can fire up their chosen stuff, and you have backups or options going between lame retroarch as the default or option depending if better stuff exists and all from not its crap menu but the one made for the OS which is very clean like those Pi setups.  With this CFW I use anything 8/16bit is in point 100%.  32bit like GBA, PS1, Virtual Boy, and some others again, on point.  That's where it stops though, you dig a bit more hefty it's like 70-30/80-20 like with N64 (think of how the emulators were stuck for like 10 years where like 25% of the library ran like shit or didn't at all, it's that, with the right Mupen build.  Saturn and DC screw that, not happening, anything as demanding in arcade, nope too.  You can even dig into DOS stuff as well if you want to attempt the setup.

 

That page shows you how to set it up, they already pre-set it up really with easy downloads where you can more or less just mindlessly unzip the file they have, drop the details to your memory card, let that thing custom flash it for you, and it's good to go getting your ROMs set etc.

 

That page also shows all of what will work, partly work, and from there you'll know what won't work and it lets you know this by the device as it works for numerous Anbernic options.

[Ninjabba]

18 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

@Ninjabba sorry but that seems more like a you issue, user setup issue, than the device itself.  I'm using the previous model of that as I said, and what you're saying isn't what I'm having for performance.

 

Android sucks.  Default setup on it also hampers the device and as such, sucks.  THIS is what should be used: https://amberelec.org/  The rules on how to set it up are borderline idiot proof, I mean it's one step south of impossible to fuck up Hakchi for the NES/SNES Classic Edition easy.

I remember trying a few options that were suggested by the manual/online fora. The fact that none of them worked properly is not really a "you" issue and more of a poor documented mess that was highly discouraging.

 

I looked back into the order and it was the RG351M, not the RG353M so I guess they fixed a lot of baby issues the past 2 years. Good to hear it works better now.

[Tanooki]

1 hour ago, Ninjabba said:

I remember trying a few options that were suggested by the manual/online fora. The fact that none of them worked properly is not really a "you" issue and more of a poor documented mess that was highly discouraging.

 

I looked back into the order and it was the RG351M, not the RG353M so I guess they fixed a lot of baby issues the past 2 years. Good to hear it works better now.

I got mine second hand locally for an irresistible price a year ago, didn't like his setup on it, had no paperwork, so I just went digging and the smart pointers repeatedly went towards AmberElec so I did that.  I don't think much of any of anything is documented well, they're largely sold to add/mod as you like but largely to be left as-is loaded with 1000s of games preset in the menu and left to work as well as they sloppily set it up to mass market the things.  I saw it had a lot more potential and found easy ways to do it, as I don't have the setup or real know how(tried to mixed at best results) editing/configuring bs android stuff at a command line level, so I went that route with the one drop of the one CFW.

 

Your device is the metal version of mine in plastic, so you should have identical performance.  I haven't used it in months, probably flat battery at this rate, but if you have some beef with it, I can give you settings for the emulators I bothered to setup to get the best work out of it.  N64 was the only one I largely tweaked and it was a chuggy default crap fest, and now stuff like F-Zero runs at 60fps and looks sweet.

[+frankodragon]

I usually watch Wicked Gamer's (Package from China!) review channel on YouTube for the latest of Aliexpress stuff. 

 

 

 

 

[Tanooki]

I'd take a nice FPGA cart running Sega Genesis/MD region free loading handheld that also wasn't gimped like Nomad that if you really wanted to get weird with it could fire up SMS/GG/32x stuff too with the nomads ability to link to a tv as well.

[Ninjabba]

15 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Your device is the metal version of mine in plastic, so you should have identical performance.  I haven't used it in months, probably flat battery at this rate, but if you have some beef with it, I can give you settings for the emulators I bothered to setup to get the best work out of it.  N64 was the only one I largely tweaked and it was a chuggy default crap fest, and now stuff like F-Zero runs at 60fps and looks sweet.

Thanks for the offer, I might get back on this but currently the device is MIA.

 

I gave it as a present to my friend 2 years ago and asked him recently if he still uses it because I wanted to try a few more things to make it more stable, but he said its somewhere in a box after moving. If he finds it back I will definitely give AmberElec a shot.

[Hwlngmad]

I still have an Anbernic 351mp.  It is a really solid device that emulates up to PS1.  However, since I now have a Razer Edge with a loaded up 512gb SD card with retro gaming goodness along with a Steam Deck OLED with a 1tb SD card loaded up with even more retro gaming goodness I will be looking to get rid of it soon.  Still, I do recommend getting one of them if one hasn't already taken the plunge on a device beforehand.  They are mindblowing, especially when one thinks about the fact that some of these now have the capability to emulate systems up to Dreamcast that cost less than a $100.  Truly awesome.

[Tanooki]

Do any of you have experience or use(Friends use) of the Logitech G Cloud?  I know it's overpriced at $350-400, but a friend of mine got one for damn near free, he is selling it since he ended up somehow by some grace of insanely stupid luck getting a steam deck for $125   I saw his listing, I could get it off him for $200, it's been powered up to check but was new before that.

 

I was thinking with my new PC, the i9 13000 series with the 4060 gpu on it which I run on a cable (not wifi though I could) would this run perfectly or have some clear latency problems with streaming steam link stuff to do my games off it away from this desk?  Also if not that, I know since it's an android core side loading is a biggie, anyone familiar with the hardware to say what emulation tier it gets to accurately without fps drops or bugs?