Sorry for the repost! Had a viewer point out a really silly editing mistake I made, so I pulled and corrected it. Here is the (hopefully) finished product!
First I was really interested in this but when I saw how bad it performs in GameBoy Advance games (the main reason I would use it) I was immediately out.
Plenty of gameboy advance with V2 gorgeous IPS screen on the market (original GBA style but with backlit IPS screen, 60hz), for less than the cost of this! In fact, you could get that AND an everdrive X5 for roughly the same price as this POS. This will allow NES/GB/GBC emulation, and of course *native* perfect GBA gameplay. I was going to get that but decided to go for a top spec android phone to just do it all (rog 2). That said, I still might get it, as have a lot of GBA carts I bought to play in my DS lite.. The problem is I never liked the DS lite form factor with the clamshell, so, yeah, i'll eventually get the GBA. People are selling them with brand new screens and full refurbished inside, honestly they look brand new.. Amazing.
Manuals with multiple languages are standard in Europe. It is rare to find a manual that is in one language Also it is known as the MegaDrive in every other part of the world as that is is correct name.
I guess that makes sense since in Europe there are so many countries with different languages so close to one another. In north America, we usually see English and Spanish, and if in canada, legally french also needs to be included.
@@Restalgia Exactly. It is cheaper to have one manual and the games themselves to have multiple language choices and sell that all over the continent than make multiple games for each country. This has been happening since the 8 bit days of the 80s.
In regards to the poor GBA emulation; did you add the GBA BIOS file? The GPi Case has the same problem with Yoshi's Island on SNES but the GBA version runs just fine with the BIOS. That thing runs a lowly Pi 0. I know optimization is key here but damn...
Why would anyone buy this? This device is useless, especially if you compare it to much better alternatives. Why would you use a micro usb cable slot in 2020 instead of USB-C? It can't be the cost, since this thing is expensive. Also, instead of downgrading the cpu to make it worse, remove these unnacesary usb slots, 1 is fine, you don't need 3. Then, performance: 4000mAh battery is nice, but what does that mean, if a expensive device like this can't play snes and gba? Why the heck does ps1 run well but both snes and gba don't? Doesn't make sense to me at all. Also you said ps1 runs well, is that the case for every game? Because some games demand more performance, I would suggest testing every device like this with Tekken 3 and especially Bloody Roar 2, that game is to my knowledge the most demanding ps1 game. I get that people want a product that feels premium, because most china devices feel like crap, but sacrificing performance that much just to make it look pretty shouldn't be a priority. I hope this company one day releases a very powerful device, because in terms of design they are good enough. Oh and I think the bad performance could be caused by the higher resolution? Other devices ran everything fine, but they were 240p with a similiar cpu and gpu.
Feels bad man, I was frantically looking for my wallet when I assumed the second model must surely be able to play N64 games by now. Then he said it's less powerful than the original so now I'm going back to tinkering with my GPi case
I'm still waiting for my RetroStone2 Joystick version, they are going to ship it during the following weeks. Yes, they made one with joystick for N64 games and if I recall correctly the maker said N64 will run. Why there'd be joystick if that's not the case? Retrorangepi has some updates and I presume more coming and they will fix some of the issues described. N64 and GBA both have better performing emulators than the defaults, I didn't see any mention of those or attempts to run them in this video. I hope for the best since I already ordered this on September 2019.
You don't know what you're talking about. The device is great and plays all 2D consoles perfectly - yes SNES and GBA as well. He must have set his up wrong. USB C is shit. I've had the port bust on loads of phones. Bad design.
I know, right? I almost feel bad because it's only a few minutes in when he says it's actually even less powerful than the original and I said "well, I'm out"...I'm actually still tempted by the original one though
The reason was put down to low power usage of the selected board. Plays most 2D games fine. I think it was a good choice as the console lasts ages on a single charge and plays most games perfectly. GBA is perfect on mine so not sure what this guy is doing. Just wish arcade games were easier to run on this.
The screen is gorgeous and the form factor is good. Too bad about the other baffling design decisions. Look at what the Odroid Go Advance is doing with a Rockchip based solution. Playable N64 and PSP! If not Rockchip, the Compute Module 3 would have been a great choice as well and easily worked into this form factor. Pass on this.
LOL, at 2:54 you can hear when they patched a voice over his bc he may have made a mistake, man if you get something wrong just let us know but don't try to trick us
I honestly don't understand a lot of the choices made in the implementation of this product. As far as I can tell, the known competitors to this out perform it. In the case of the GPi case, its software is way better optimized. This has convenience over the GPi, but so do the Chinese handheld emulator market. This has emulation station as a front end over those Chinese handhelds, but they have arguably comfort of horizontal layout and button placement comfort over this. As well as being more powerful, newest gen open source with a community behind it doing optimizations, and the like. You said this was the pro edition, though it doesn't have the joystick. This could be an engineering sample so I can understand. Still, for whatever this has over the GPi and current gen Chinese handhelds, is the downsides worth paying 3 times as much? Seriously?
So from my understanding the pro model, has the option to add a joystick for an extra charge. The base model does not have the port soldered to the board, but the pro model does.
The installation takes really lot of time because the manual is very confusing with lot of options and not straightforward. This must be improved from my perspective !!! I bought the pro version and so far i could not find any instruction how to install on SSD.
i honestly don't understand why he went for that chip... especially since lots and lots of people did express their concerns about that while the unit was still in development. His refusal to step up performance wise was the reason i finally backed out of the startnext campaign and decided not to support the product. Watching the lackluster performance of the unit mow, i'm glad i didn't invest. Huge missed opportunity right there.
Hang on, now I am confused.. they claim quad core 1.2 ghz on their own Kickstater page, and you say 1.0ghz dual core. Which is it? Regardless, I can see it can't do SNES special chip games, which means it's weak crap.. You might as well get an RG350 for less than half the price in this case, if you want something small and "all in one".
Well I ran a test on his version running Starfox and my Snes9x emulator on my 3.5Ghz PC. The result? Retrostone 2 was pretty much the same as my PC. Maybe 2-3 frames per second slower but it wasn't much.
When it comes to the best portable emulation machine look no further than the psp. Btw it seems Playstation emulation is extremely buggy on the mini Genesis. Eboots keep crashing constantly and majority of Eboots arent even supported, i found out you have to use bin/cue files for 95% of PSX games. I wonder if the PL team will fix PSX emulation with a patch. Also was anyone able to run psp games on the mini Genesis?
Complete underpowered rubbish for the price.. Anyone buying this over a $200 android phone needs head examination (IMO). Thanks for the info. The real problem here is that retro game hardware devs continue to make sometimes exotic products with premium buttons and build, yet with the cheapest SOC on the market.. If people are paying this much, don't they get it that they'd pay a bit more for a good cpu/gpu SOC?
Sorry for the repost! Had a viewer point out a really silly editing mistake I made, so I pulled and corrected it. Here is the (hopefully) finished product!
First I was really interested in this but when I saw how bad it performs in GameBoy Advance games (the main reason I would use it) I was immediately out.
Plenty of gameboy advance with V2 gorgeous IPS screen on the market (original GBA style but with backlit IPS screen, 60hz), for less than the cost of this! In fact, you could get that AND an everdrive X5 for roughly the same price as this POS. This will allow NES/GB/GBC emulation, and of course *native* perfect GBA gameplay. I was going to get that but decided to go for a top spec android phone to just do it all (rog 2). That said, I still might get it, as have a lot of GBA carts I bought to play in my DS lite.. The problem is I never liked the DS lite form factor with the clamshell, so, yeah, i'll eventually get the GBA. People are selling them with brand new screens and full refurbished inside, honestly they look brand new.. Amazing.
Mine plays GBA games absolutely fine.
Manuals with multiple languages are standard in Europe.
It is rare to find a manual that is in one language
Also it is known as the MegaDrive in every other part of the world as that is is correct name.
I guess that makes sense since in Europe there are so many countries with different languages so close to one another. In north America, we usually see English and Spanish, and if in canada, legally french also needs to be included.
@@Restalgia Exactly.
It is cheaper to have one manual and the games themselves to have multiple language choices and sell that all over the continent than make multiple games for each country.
This has been happening since the 8 bit days of the 80s.
In regards to the poor GBA emulation; did you add the GBA BIOS file? The GPi Case has the same problem with Yoshi's Island on SNES but the GBA version runs just fine with the BIOS. That thing runs a lowly Pi 0. I know optimization is key here but damn...
seems like itd be worth it for half the price.
Those two blue lights at left of screen would drive me crazy.
Why would anyone buy this? This device is useless, especially if you compare it to much better alternatives. Why would you use a micro usb cable slot in 2020 instead of USB-C? It can't be the cost, since this thing is expensive. Also, instead of downgrading the cpu to make it worse, remove these unnacesary usb slots, 1 is fine, you don't need 3. Then, performance: 4000mAh battery is nice, but what does that mean, if a expensive device like this can't play snes and gba? Why the heck does ps1 run well but both snes and gba don't? Doesn't make sense to me at all. Also you said ps1 runs well, is that the case for every game? Because some games demand more performance, I would suggest testing every device like this with Tekken 3 and especially Bloody Roar 2, that game is to my knowledge the most demanding ps1 game. I get that people want a product that feels premium, because most china devices feel like crap, but sacrificing performance that much just to make it look pretty shouldn't be a priority. I hope this company one day releases a very powerful device, because in terms of design they are good enough. Oh and I think the bad performance could be caused by the higher resolution? Other devices ran everything fine, but they were 240p with a similiar cpu and gpu.
Feels bad man, I was frantically looking for my wallet when I assumed the second model must surely be able to play N64 games by now. Then he said it's less powerful than the original so now I'm going back to tinkering with my GPi case
PCSX ReARMed is heavily optimized for 32 bit arm
I'm still waiting for my RetroStone2 Joystick version, they are going to ship it during the following weeks. Yes, they made one with joystick for N64 games and if I recall correctly the maker said N64 will run. Why there'd be joystick if that's not the case? Retrorangepi has some updates and I presume more coming and they will fix some of the issues described. N64 and GBA both have better performing emulators than the defaults, I didn't see any mention of those or attempts to run them in this video. I hope for the best since I already ordered this on September 2019.
3 usb ports are for multiplayer mainly
You don't know what you're talking about. The device is great and plays all 2D consoles perfectly - yes SNES and GBA as well. He must have set his up wrong. USB C is shit. I've had the port bust on loads of phones. Bad design.
Whenever there's a 2nd version of a product isn't it usually...more powerful? How does this get a CPU downgrade?? Makes no sense.
I know, right? I almost feel bad because it's only a few minutes in when he says it's actually even less powerful than the original and I said "well, I'm out"...I'm actually still tempted by the original one though
The reason was put down to low power usage of the selected board. Plays most 2D games fine. I think it was a good choice as the console lasts ages on a single charge and plays most games perfectly. GBA is perfect on mine so not sure what this guy is doing. Just wish arcade games were easier to run on this.
The screen is gorgeous and the form factor is good. Too bad about the other baffling design decisions. Look at what the Odroid Go Advance is doing with a Rockchip based solution. Playable N64 and PSP! If not Rockchip, the Compute Module 3 would have been a great choice as well and easily worked into this form factor. Pass on this.
LOL, at 2:54 you can hear when they patched a voice over his bc he may have made a mistake, man if you get something wrong just let us know but don't try to trick us
Haha yeah, it did it quickly, but it was just an slight oversight on my end in post.
Expensive and under powered... i will pass on this.
I honestly don't understand a lot of the choices made in the implementation of this product. As far as I can tell, the known competitors to this out perform it. In the case of the GPi case, its software is way better optimized. This has convenience over the GPi, but so do the Chinese handheld emulator market. This has emulation station as a front end over those Chinese handhelds, but they have arguably comfort of horizontal layout and button placement comfort over this. As well as being more powerful, newest gen open source with a community behind it doing optimizations, and the like.
You said this was the pro edition, though it doesn't have the joystick. This could be an engineering sample so I can understand.
Still, for whatever this has over the GPi and current gen Chinese handhelds, is the downsides worth paying 3 times as much? Seriously?
So from my understanding the pro model, has the option to add a joystick for an extra charge. The base model does not have the port soldered to the board, but the pro model does.
What’s the point of one of these if it can’t reliably emulate snes and gba, that should be the bare minimum if your making an emulation devicd
It can run SNES and GBA fine. Not sure what this guy was doing. Runs fine on mine.
The installation takes really lot of time because the manual is very confusing with lot of options and not straightforward. This must be improved from my perspective !!! I bought the pro version and so far i could not find any instruction how to install on SSD.
I tried playing smash on my retrostone 2 and it was jittery as hell, the audio was horrible, it was uber slow. Agree. Not a good experience.
To expensive 😔 !!
i honestly don't understand why he went for that chip... especially since lots and lots of people did express their concerns about that while the unit was still in development. His refusal to step up performance wise was the reason i finally backed out of the startnext campaign and decided not to support the product. Watching the lackluster performance of the unit mow, i'm glad i didn't invest. Huge missed opportunity right there.
Hang on, now I am confused.. they claim quad core 1.2 ghz on their own Kickstater page, and you say 1.0ghz dual core. Which is it? Regardless, I can see it can't do SNES special chip games, which means it's weak crap.. You might as well get an RG350 for less than half the price in this case, if you want something small and "all in one".
The a20 is a dual core chip for sure.
Well I ran a test on his version running Starfox and my Snes9x emulator on my 3.5Ghz PC. The result? Retrostone 2 was pretty much the same as my PC. Maybe 2-3 frames per second slower but it wasn't much.
What a pity the low performance CPU. SNES doesn't really need that much CPU. Yet the A20 can't handle it.
When it comes to the best portable emulation machine look no further than the psp. Btw it seems Playstation emulation is extremely buggy on the mini Genesis. Eboots keep crashing constantly and majority of Eboots arent even supported, i found out you have to use bin/cue files for 95% of PSX games. I wonder if the PL team will fix PSX emulation with a patch. Also was anyone able to run psp games on the mini Genesis?
My Retrostone 2 don't have M.2 than mSata port
The m.2 connector was only on the pro edition
@@Restalgia I have pro version and have mSata port not M.2 port. You have written wrong bro
Complete underpowered rubbish for the price.. Anyone buying this over a $200 android phone needs head examination (IMO). Thanks for the info. The real problem here is that retro game hardware devs continue to make sometimes exotic products with premium buttons and build, yet with the cheapest SOC on the market.. If people are paying this much, don't they get it that they'd pay a bit more for a good cpu/gpu SOC?
Why do you say segga? The splash screen in Sega games pronounces it Sayga.