Say what you will about Anbernic’s continued commitment to the Allwinner H700 chip, but this has turned out to be one of the best chips for retro handhelds. Don’t believe me? Check out the latest video from Rob the Retro Tech Dad, where he manages to get GameCube games running on an Anbernic RG34XXSP.
But before we can continue, a word of caution:Â Temper your expectations. While it’s possible to play GameCube games, performance will vary.
This isn’t something that everyone will be able to do, even with the latest build of muOS installed. Instead, it requires a custom build of muOS Pixie, along with a fast microSD card, and a custom build of Dolphin that has been modified for the H700 chip.
After walking us through the installation process, Rob further explains how this was made possible, before diving into his patented Games Showcase. Here’s how each game fared during the showcase:
- Aggressive Inline: 10-25fps
- Cubivore: 35-55fps
- Frogger Ancient Shadow: 42-59fps
- Gotcha Force: 22-34fps
- Pac-Man World 2: 16-25fps (5fps or worse in cut scenes)
- Pac-Man World Rally: 11-25fps
- PC Genjin: 46-60fps
- Pikmin: 6-24fps
- Puyo Puyo Fever: 22-33fps
- Rampage Total Destruction: 25-30fps
- Rayman 3 Hoodlum Havoc: 16-25fps
- Serious Sam Next Encounter: 16-25fps (may drop to 0fps with many enemies or explosions)
- Wario World: 20-47fps
- Warioware Inc. Mega Party Games: 46-50fps
- X-Men Legends II: 9-17fps
- X2: Wolverine’s Revenge: 16-25fps
As you can see, there’s a lot of variance when it comes to performance. But that’s not the point of this video, as it’s really to talk about how a ~$60 retro handheld is capable of playing GameCube. Not just boot into a game, but actually play games. It’s absolutely mind-boggling.
For chuckles, I followed along with Rob’s video to get Dolphin running on my own RG34XXSP. I’ve only tried one game so far, Backyard Baseball, and now I’m going to be up all night focusing on this, instead of trying (and failing) to match Zu going 3/3 in Games of the Month.
Just like the Surface Duo, thanks a lot, Rob.
Those interested in doing this for themselves can follow along with Rob’s video, and I’ll have a written guide here on RH in the next day or two. In the meantime, there’s a Compatibility List that you can check out if you want to see if your favorite GameCube (and Wii) games will run.
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