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.
If there’s one thing we know about retro handhelds, it’s that there is always something new around the corner. Seriously, it’s “worse” than smartphones, as some companies release new handhelds every other week. On the bright side, at least there’s no shortage of options.
LEGO Game Boy That Actually Works
Do you remember back in August when we covered a Game Boy Color mod that featured a transparent PCB? Well, Natalie the Nerd is at it again, but this time, turned the newly-released LEGO Game Boy into one that actually works.
The best part is that this isn’t just a Raspberry Pi stuffed into the LEGO kit, but is using an actual Game BOY CPU PCB. Simply incredible.
8BitMods Unveils The VMUPro
The Sega Dreamcast‘s Visual Memory Unit (VMU) was ahead of its time, a memory card with a screen that played mini-games and showed in-game data. Thanks to the efforts of 8BitMods, the VMU is being resurrected as the VMUPro, aiming not only to be the perfect accessory to your Dreamcast, but also its own retro gaming machine.
TRDR+ Is the Zombie Handheld That Refuses to Stay Dead
Do you remember when Soulja Boy rebranded the Powkiddy A19/Retroid Pocket 1 and sold it as the TRDR Pocket? What about when the TRDR Pocket 2 was released in 2022, with the only significant change being a new array of colors? Well, it seems like we might be in store for a third iteration, currently named the TRDR+.
Don’t get me wrong, hardware is definitely fun and exciting to talk about. But what good is an awesome handheld if it doesn’t even work? That’s where software and custom firmware come into play, so here’s everything you might’ve missed this week.
LairLauncher / iiSU DS
There have been quite a few updates about the new and upcoming LairLauncher/iiSU DS just in the past week. Patreon subscribers can now try out an alpha build of the launcher, giving you an idea of what’s to come.
Meanwhile, over on the iiSU Discord, the “official iiSU Development Team” was introduced, comprised of huesos_96 (SapphireRhodonite), and six other members from the iiSU team. Things are moving at a rapid pace.
GameHub Could be Spyware
There seems to be a growing concern amongst some in the community about the permissions that GameSir’s GameHub app requires. The latest of which comes from a post on r/EmulationOnAndroid, going into great detail about said permissions. At the same time, this same user claims they are going to release a modded version of the app, removing all of those permissions. However, there are plenty of risks that go along with that too.
Microsoft Xbox Game Pass/Cloud Gaming
Microsoft has been in some hot water this past week, as the company announced a massive price hike to its popular Game Pass service. Previously, Game Pass Ultimate was priced at $19.99 per month, but now, that’s been bumped up to $29.99 per month.
Meanwhile, neither the Game Pass Standard or Game Pass Core membership tiers were affected. As a result, people flooded Microsoft’s servers trying to cancel their memberships, with quite a few being unable to as the servers were overloaded.
Mole Mania DX: Play Miyamoto’s Puzzler in Color!
Mole Mania, a moderately obscure Game Boy classic, has received a full-color fan remaster! This cult classic, made by legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, is playable in color for the first time since its original 1996 release!
Fixed bug with games with an apostrophe in their title and sped up pak loading by only loading list of screenshots on launch, and then building individual games’ screenshots when choosing that game.
Bezel reflection not blurred on some hardware (some GPUs do not support the reuse of render targets or array fetching within a for loop – fixed)
When saving BMP image files, the red and blue color components were swapped (fixed)
Reset disables multi-SID (fixed)
Gameplay replaying does not handle multi-SID settings correctly (fixed)
SID read-only registers (POTX/POTY/OSC3/ENV3) were not saved in the state files nor in the gameplay recording files (fixed)
Improvements
Emulation and rendering are now running in separate threads, which should help eliminate lag on slower PCs
Rewritten sound synchronization to eliminate pops and clicks, audio latency has also been reduced (can be fine-tuned in the config file)
More stable scope and spectrum analyze
New Features
64-bit compile in separate executable, which may or may not be faster on your computer
Experimental NTSC VIC-II model (unfortunately I don’t have any NTSC C64, so I could only rely on the VICE test programs, so not everything works properly yet, but in general it’s somewhat functional)
In SID player mode, NTSC tunes will automatically switch to NTSC VIC-II model
Gameplay recordings can be rendered as image sequences with audio in a separate WAV file, for creating video files with external programs (sound output is muted during rendering)
SID video rendering function in SID player mode even with visu
alizers as image sequence + WAV (automatically records the music from the beginning and stops at the end if the HVSC songlength database is available)New visualizer mode that shows only the oscillators, without the mixed output.
Game controller support (beta with very primitive functionality and not yet mappable, I will improve it soon)
1351 mouse emulation with mouse, touchpad or analog game controller (mouse grab is only activated in fullscreen mode)
Improvement: D-Input controllers such as DualSense, DualShock, and Nintendo Pro controllers should now have right analog stick support
Improvement: You can now launch a game directly from the Game Discovery Center using a keyboard or controller mapping
Improvement: When importing ROMs during the Welcome Wizard, LaunchBox now sets the platform’s Game Folder to the folder you imported from, instead of using the default location
Improvement: The new Auto-Import Media settings are now properly respected during realtime scans
Improvement: Unselecting all image types during the Welcome Wizard is now more accurately respected during first-time imports
Improvement: Startup Videos and Theme Manager previews now properly follow your selected video engine setting
Improvement: The Storefront Manager now opens instantly, with login checks handled in the background instead of delaying the window
Improvement: All HTTP calls have been upgraded to HTTPS for improved security and reliability
Various improvements to secondary display handling on Android.
Fixed an issue where, if a secondary screen was disconnected during emulation while using the Vulkan renderer, the emulator would still attempt to use the disconnected screen, causing various issues.
Technical
Our pre-built macOS binaries are now built using macOS 15 Sequoia + Xcode 16 for both x86_64 and ARM64.
Game installations are now shown in the new installation dashboard, in addition other relevant locations like the library side bar etc. The dashboard allows you to view the status of and manage installs in the following ways:
Cancel installations
Immediately install a queued installation, pausing the currently active one
See installation speed and progress at a glance for all installations
Meson 1.9.0 provides mixed linking of Rust and C objects. As a side effect, this also allows adding dependencies with “sources: …” files to Rust crates that use structured_sources().
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.
Review: Amazon’s “Premium” Micro-Consoles
If you’ve spent any time at all on ad-supported gaming websites, you’ve probably started to see AI-generated gadgets (below) in thumbnails that, upon further scrutiny, are clearly bogus. Usually, pictured “devices” suffer from confusingly placed controls, awkwardly premium-looking materials, and screens that are either oddly huge or perfectly square.
In the UK, where I live, we have a long-running radio program called Desert Island Discs. In this show, which was first broadcast in 1942, guests are invited on and asked to select 8 audio recordings. The ones they would choose to be with them if they were stuck on a desert island, with the hope that these would give an insight into the participant’s character and history.
How to Improve ES-DE: Switch Emulation, Streaming and Quick Device Set up
I recently got a new Android handheld, and while setting it up with my preferred Obtainium/ES-DE setup, I realized that, when I set up a device with ES-DE, there are three customizations I make in order to improve ES-DE, and that these are not widely known improvements.
Fantech Nova 2 and Shooter III X Review: PlayStation or Xbox?
Fantech seems to be following a number of other controller makers this year. Dumping out a lot of controllers in an attempt to see what sticks. They’ve had this in their EOS line, as well as the Shooter III. They’ve also had less-than-stellar releases like the Revolver III. This time, though, they’ve sent me two controllers that want to strike the interest of console players. Particularly, the Xbox and PlayStation crowds.
September’s PortMaster drops include a deluge of games across a variety of genres. The month’s offerings included titles from independent developers, open-source projects, and fan-made creations, and we’re here to recap for anyone who missed it. Games noted with an asterisk are recommended by yours truly.
Game of the Month: Omakase October Leaves it all to Rapid
“Omakase”, which in Japanese roughly translates to “I leave it up to the chef”, is an experience in which customers place their trust in the chef of an establishment to curate and serve a meal, usually with a very seasoned or respected chef.
None come more respected in the Retro Handhelds Discord than Rapid99, the ever-present overlord of the GotX program who is responsible for curating all the images, coordinating all the voting and threads, and (mostly) ensuring peace and enjoyment for all who participate in GotX.
When it comes to monitors, usually it’s set to be one and done for a long while. But for some reason, in the competitive world of monitors, they decide to send out a new model once a month in the hopes of getting you to upgrade for something that’s just one step better than before.
And in this case, INNOCN has sent me out the 25M2S to see if that could entice you, or in my case, see if it’s an even better option for retro gaming. So is it worth your time? Or your money? Let’s see.
Why I’m Excited For Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles
Despite calling it sharing both a writer and a game world with two of my favorite games of the 00s (Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy XII), I never encountered Final Fantasy Tactics until 10 years after its original release. The game wasn’t officially released in Europe (where I live) until 2007. Despite this, I took to the game immediately and have held it close to my heart ever since.
Radical Retrospective: Skate Park City Heroes, Attack!
True, honest-to-goodness hidden gems are hard to come by. Radical Retrospective has covered some obscurities in its brief existence, but in almost every case, the games were either good for their time, good with some caveats, or, in some cases, not goodat all!
Once in a while, though, the endless mining and grueling research unearths a true winner, a game I will not only wholeheartedly recommend but am sincerely excited to pick up and replay after this article is done.
Don’t think that the writers are the only ones getting things done. The RH video team is constantly working on new videos, and now’s the best time to subscribe.
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