It’s been awhile since we’ve seen Arthur in a livestream, but that changed earlier this morning during a “Sharing Session” for the KONKR Pocket Block and Pocket Advance. Although both of these handhelds have already been released, AYANEO took this time to unveil AYASpace 2, dubbed a “Pocket Museum.
This is a complete overhaul of the built-in launcher that AYANEO includes on its various Android handhelds, taking inspiration from some of the launchers that we’ve seen over the past few months. AYASpace 2 leans heavily into skeuomorphic design, complete with showcasing box art and cartridges of your library of retro games.
However, the launcher aims to offer much more than a fresh coat of paint, and you can find a list of the biggest new features below.
AYASpace 2 Feature Overview
- Recognition
- Games are recognized automatically, with no scraping chores. It goes by what is in the file, so renamed files are fine.
- Game Data
- Detailed game data is built in: names, years, genres and publishers, ready for you.
- Boxes & Carts
- Import a media pack and boxes and cartridges wear their original covers and labels in 3D, with the feel of holding them in your hands.
- Emulator
- The emulator is built in. No separate install, and no settings to work through first.
- Rewind
- A slip doesn’t mean starting over. Scrub over the timeline like a video, back to the exact moment.
- Sync
- Two handhelds on the same network can sync. Your saves and records travel with you.
- More
- Cheats
- Screen effects
- Key mapping and turbo
- Per-game settings
- Pick up where you left off
- Archives just work
- English and Chinese
- Save backups
According to the official landing page for AYASpace 2, this launcher is currently only available for three handhelds. These include the aforementioned Pocket Advance and Pocket Block, but you can also download it for the Pocket Micro 2.
We’ll definitely be taking it for a spin to see how it matches up to the likes of Socket and others that have also taken the skeuomorphic design approach. But in the meantime, we’re hoping that AYASpace 2 will eventually make its way to more AYANEO (and other) handhelds down the line.
- Category
- Launcher
- Description
- A multi-console launcher for Android handhelds. Bring your own games. It recognizes each one and puts it on show in a 3D hall.
- Download
- Download
