Retro Handhelds Weekly: SEGA Might Be Back, ROCKNIX Returns, and GameNative Hits 1.0

Welcome to the latest edition of Retro Handhelds Weekly. This week, we saw a bunch of news in the world of hardware and software. Our writing team continues to be on an absolute tear, and there’s even a surprise or two sprinkled in! So sit back, grab a cup of coffee, and catch up on what’s happened this week in the world of Retro Handhelds.

Table of Contents

Hardware & Industry News

• The ROG Xbox Ally X20 Turns the Xbox Ally X Into a 20th Anniversary Showpiece: The ROG Xbox Ally X20 is being announced to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the ASUS ROG brand. To commemorate, along with the changes we’ll outline below, the Xbox Ally X20 sports a brand new translucent shell, complete with gold-colored buttons, and an Xbox Mode button that actually glows green.
• SEGA Might Release a New Retro Handheld, Cartridges and All: According to u/SeraphHS on Reddit (via Time Extension), “a company that’s done licensed Sega hardware before” is looking into launching a new retro handheld.
• Anbernic Board Revisions on RG40XXH (and other XX handhelds): It’s more bad news for those who’ve recently picked up an Anbernic H700 handheld. More proof has been provided by members of the community that Anbernic is downgrading the RAM in its handhelds. This time, an RG40XXH was found using a revised board, with the handheld now using DDR3 RAM instead of DDR4.

Apps and Software

• GameNative Finally Reaches 1.0 (Pre-Release): If you’ve been following the x86 emulation scene, the community has essentially landed on two main competitors: Gamehub and GameNative, with the OG Winlator and its forks still growing in the background. GameNative, originally forked from Pluvia, has been a major community effort to bring x86 emulation to the mainstream on Android with ease, and May 30th marks the pre-release of version 1.0, bringing many changes.
• Anbernic Releases an Update for Its Entire RG XX H700 Lineup: Anbernic has been on a roll as of late, releasing new updates for the RG477V, RG477M, RG DS, and now, practically the entire RG XX lineup. With this release, Anbernic is aiming to improve the overall stability, and as such, it includes a bunch of different bug fixes.
• Pokémon Crystal Inheritance Released With Time-Travelling Johto Story: Pokémon Crystal Inheritance, a ROM hack of the Game Boy Color classic built by developer dwg, has reached its full v1.0 release. The hack had been in beta since January and clocked over 1,000 downloads before its official launch, which arrives with a full suite of quality-of-life updates and a polish pass befitting a finished product.
• Armada is An Upcoming SteamOS-like Linux Distro for Android Handhelds: It’s not often that we see a new custom firmware arriving as an alternative for Android handhelds. However, Armada made its first appearance last week, with the creator saying it’s “built on the same foundation as Bazzite with device support borrowed from ROCKNIX.” Armada is currently touted as being a “prototype software,” but it can be tested on the Odin 2 family and the AYANEO Pocket EVO.

More Software News

Emulation Corner

Custom Core

• ROCKNIX Releases First New Stable Build in Over a Year
• MyMinUI-2026-06-06
• Armbian on RG-DS

Game of the Month

From the Writers

While there’s always a lot of news to cover and talk about, we also try to take a step back and give everyone something a bit different to enjoy. These are the more editorial-styled articles and reviews that you might have missed over the course of this week.

• Year One of the Nintendo Switch 2
• Fantech Zenith Pro Review: A Personal Upgrade
• Racing Retrospective? Forza Horizon 6 Review
• PortMaster May Roundup
• Building an Always-On RomM Server with the Acemagic Kron Mini K1
• Game of the Month: June Was Doomed From the Start

On the YouTubes

RH Partners

Looking for Deals?

The AliExpress Summer Sale kicked off on June 1 at 3 AM EST, bringing with it a bunch of new discount codes and ways to save big. We’ve listed the RH-specific codes below, but you can head over to Handheld.Deals to grab even more!

AliExpress Discount Codes

Deal Highlights

• New 8-Bit All-Stars Bundle: 30 NES Games for $30 (Regularly $289.87)
• Gravity Circuit: Free until June 14 on Steam (PortMaster Game)
• DSPico: $9.93 at AliExpress
• Anbernic RG Rotate: $77.56 w/ code RHH14
• GameSir Pocket Taco: $27.17 w/ code RHH3
• Anbernic RG DS: $87.21 w/ code 18RHHSS
• Miyoo Mini Flip: $49.54 w/ code RHH8
• AYN Thor: From $290 w/ code 58RHHSS
• MagicX One35: $72.14 w/ code RHH8
• Retroid Pocket 5: $162.92 w/ code 29RHHSS
• AYN Odin 3: From $295.52 w/ code 58RHHSS
• MANGMI Air X: $95.16 w/ code 18RHHSS
• GAMEMT PSK5000: $84.93 w/ code 18RHHSS

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