Believe it or not, 5 years go ridiculously fast when you’re building a community. On August 10th, 2020, Retro Handhelds started its journey towards… Greatness? And alongside the backing from other folks in the community, including RetroGameCorps (who’s also going 5 years strong), Rob the Retro Tech Dad, Team Retrogue, Shem, the community devs, and more, we’re all still kicking, fighting the handheld sickness, and producing more content than ever before. So to kick off year five, it’s good to take a look back at where we’ve come from.
Before we take a trip down memory lane, we asked Stubbs if he had something to say as our fearless leader (when Zu’s not around, at least):
I can’t believe it’s been 5 years already! Time flies when you’re obsessively comparing handhelds to find the ONE to rule them all. Here we are 5 years later, and some have found their unicorn, but for many of us still searching, we won’t stop until we find our precious.
Maybe it’s not about that now. Why are we still here? Why are you still here? Maybe it’s about something different now, maybe the hobby is more about setting up the handheld (and then the challenge of setting up another, or 10 more, trying out all the custom firmware options).
Maybe it’s about what kind of games you can relive from your glory days of endless summers, or what modern games you can stream, or play in this wild new world of PC handhelds. Or to help you access new levels of portability with ever-smaller handhelds.
Or, maybe it’s really all about the friends we made along the way, from playing games in GotX to debating endlessly over specs, or laughing along with (or at) the RH podcast shenanigans. We are loving what we do here, and we aren’t going anywhere. From writing articles on our website, to streaming and making videos, moderating our community, and chatting with all of you!
We can’t thank you all enough for being here with us. Members, readers, supporters, partners, staff, you are truly what makes RH what it is at the end of the day. Here’s to another 5 years of the fun, and madness, together!
StubbsIn the Beginning…
There was the Retroid Pocket 2. The entire reason RH got its start was to help build a community around the Retroid Pocket 2 of all things. A discord, a wiki page, a dream, and after a brief start, the podcast. Or at least the version one season one of it.
BRB Gaming, or later just the RH Podcast, got its first release on November 30th, 2020. Harkening back to the days of old, the original team was just there to talk shit, talk achievements, and talk Retroid Pocket 2 custom firmware. Believe it or not, 188 Episodes and then some later, the guys can still talk shit and custom firmware; just with a new rotation of faces (Except Stubbs, we love him too much).
The current cast and crew, as of 2025, include Stubbs, a Season 1 original; Rob, the Retro Tech Dad of Season 3 fame; Ban (that’s me), a regular as of Season 4; and Andrew, who made his debut in Season 5. AND, our illustrious producer, Sony, who makes all of our lives a lot easier week-in and week-out, even if we make him want to go a bit crazy. Let’s hope we can at least keep this cast and crew going for a bit longer.
The YouTube
In case you missed it, RH is more than just a pretty Discord; it also holds a YouTube channel with at least one pretty face. Originally a place for video podcast uploads, starting December 15th, 2021, live reviews, guest interviews, and teardowns became the name of the game, with a break for RH Daily (RIP), and the most terrifying thing of all. Zu Reviews.
Barrelling in September 2022, Zu terrified the world with $12 e-waste and hasn’t stopped since. The most prolific creator on the channel, Zu holds himself to a type of grind that worries me every night, and it’s almost as impressive as his ability to beat every last Game of the Month. If you’re still watching, though, you can catch the occasional clip or video from Stubbs and Ban (Hey, that’s me again), but our movements aren’t nearly as regular.
The Website
That’s where you are now. It’s a bit of a weird one, but in the last year has become my favorite part of the RH ecosystem. Originally a landing page for RH, it became a Reviews/GOTX/Discord Link video in late 2021 with articles from the OG’s like FlatFootFox, and eventually Rocket and Raven.
Fast forward to September 2023, and the (admittedly outdated) website was refreshed with what you’re seeing today. A bright blurple expansion of handheld news, reviews, and links to the RH Discord. Rocket and Raven are still kicking around, but in comes Ban (Oops) to help kickstart the news on the website, albeit at a mediocre pace. Skip to January 2024, Rocket and Raven are out, Andrew is in, and we’re churning out quality content on a weekly (and eventually daily) basis with the help of a whole new team, despite the disagreements we might get from Andrew.
While outdated, the about us page holds a lot of the faces you’ll see on the site, and soon it’ll hold the faces of some recent additions (Thanks, Jim and Kalkeg.) And we can only hope to keep things growing from here.
The Discord
The oldest of the bunch, but the one that holds the majority of our community. Sitting at 60,000 strong for our fifth year anniversary, the entire point of this RH fest is to really thank you all. Thank you for supporting us through Patreon, Discord, and YouTube, and to thank you for sharing every last bit of handheld knowledge you’ve got. And unfortunately, some other knowledge along the way.
RH has hosted channels for a number of creators, and it’s awesome to see them all thriving as well. The only hope is to get everyone growing for as long as handhelds are the ideal.
Here’s to five years of RH, and hopefully, here’s to five more. Thanks for having me.
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Congrats yall!
Happy Birthday RH!!!!
Happy Birthday 😀