this is such high production quality for an underground channel. i adore the history you've listed with handhelds. i never understood why, but handhelds always held a special place in my heart that home consoles just couldn't emulate. although maybe i got a little purchase crazy by getting the rg35xx plus, h, and sp. i highly recommend for anyone getting into this hobby to look toward the secondhand market. emulation handhelds have no collector's value; they're solely meant to be played, so you can find some pretty good deals if you look hard enough. i'll never forget the magic i felt when i first held the miyoo mini plus (my first emulation handheld) in my hands. before this hobby, i actually bought a bunch of oem handhelds (3ds, psp, vita) solely to homebrew them and run emulators. they're wonderful machines for playing the games they're made for, but they always fall a bit short when emulating other titles. still, you can take advantage of their built-in hardware to get spectacular performance. for instance, the 3ds can run ds and gba natively due to sharing similar architecture. the psp can emulate psx really well (due to their similar internals) and the ps vita runs psp and psx perfectly for the same reason. however, when it comes to actual emulation, the vita can't emulate the entire snes catalogue at full speed, and you need one of the new 3ds models to have great snes emulation. their limits are shockingly low when you consider the asking price, even if they're impressive in their own right. i think that's what made dedicated emulation handhelds so fascinating to me. sure, they're one-trick ponies, but their trick is pretty fucking cool
Thank you for your kind comments! I agree that these machines are great for emulating a large range of consoles. Like you, I started out by Home brewing a DS and have played around with a few different systems. One of the biggest advantages of these devices our features that original hardware has trouble emulating, such as save states. A lot of older games are much more difficult and/or if an outcome of an attempt could be assigned by luck, being able to flash back and restart immediately is a godsend. Thanks again for checking out my channel, I hope you are around for the next one! Pssst my next video is about Pokémon and lawsuits!
Heck yeah! I’m glad you’re rockin with the sp! After a few months, I like it a lot, but the buttons have begun to wear on me a bit. Not enough to stop playing, but just a little harder than I’d like. Thanks for watching, and hope you check out some other videos!
I love my RG35XX-H because vertical handhelds are more comfortable for me and it is still pocketable wich is a big bonus. It's really fun to play Banjo-Kazooie on it wich surprised me the most. DreamCast games like Rayman 2, House of the Dead and 2D fighting games are also great on it. Best purchase of the year for me! 😊
I've only just recently picked up a RG35XX myself and have already gotten a lot of mileage out of it, especially revisiting Pokemon. Great vid, consider me a new subscriber.
Thank you so much! I agree im using it way more than I thought I would, and it’s a lot of fun. I appreciate the sub as well! There’s lots of great TH-camrs out there, so I understand how valuable one’s entertainment time is. Hope I continue earning your viewership!
I always like hearing about other people's history with handheld gaming, especially in an age where bespoke handhelds are no longer really "a thing" outside of the Switch. As much as I love my Miyoo Mini and I love how much fun it is to play something like the PS1 game Devil Dice on a portable that just lives in my pockets no problem; it's never quite the same as having something like the GBA, with its own bespoke games made specifically for it.
Oooh, Devil Dice, I will have to check that out! I appreciate you taking the time to watch, and I agree with your sentiment. Playing games on the cartridge or OG disk has a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’ to it. 🤌
I didn't expect such a high quality video from such a small channel! Great work, I subscribed! As of game recommendations: I will always recommend the The Urbz: Sims in the City, specifically the GBA (or DS) version. It's a wildly underrated game that is nothing like the homeconsole counterpart. It has a simple, but fun story with memorable characters, goofy humor, mini-games, things and areas to unlock and IMO some of the best music you can find in a GBA game. It's my favorite GBA game that I played as a child and come back to it every once in a while. It's predecessor, Sims Bustin' Out (GBA version) is very similar and great fun as well. It's not as polished or memorable as The Urbz was, so I recommend Urbz over Sims Bustin' Out. However. SIms Bustin' Out is certainly worth playing if you crave for more after finishing Urbz. There is a Sims 2 game for the GBA as well that came out after The Urbz, but I haven't played that one yet.
Hey, thanks for being my 269th (nice) sub! 🙌🙌 Re: the Urbz, I remember seeing the ads and thought that it was WILD how many consoles that game came out on. I have the ads grouped next to each other under “video game ads that were cribbing off ‘Big Brother/Real World’ style shows.” I don’t remember if that’s how they *actually* played, but I will have to scare up a copy at my local swap meet! Thanks for the Rec, @jarnobot!
@@nightowlgmng I think I remember those ads as well. It came out on a lot of platforms indeed! Some games came out on even more platforms though. This reminds me how common it was back in those days for publishers to have multiple completely different games made under the same name to cater to all those platforms. Both Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets are a great examples of that happening. They each had 5 (!) different versions, released over 8 different platforms (PC/PS1/PS2/XBOX/NGC/GBA/CGB/Mac)! TH-camr Flandrew has some great videos comparing them all. I'd say Urbz plays like an adventure game with RPG elements. I think can see how it felt like a 'Big Brother/Real World' style show, although I don't think it plays like that. The world felt quite alive and the isometric perspective might help with that feeling as well. Good luck finding it! Hope you will enjoy it as much as I did :)
Shining Force 2 Phantasy Star 2 and 4 Golden Sun Chrono Trigger and Cross Mario Kart 64 plays extremely well on the SP, you just have to use the shortcut to use the D-Pad as an analog stick. Default firmware is menu+tap the power button.
Oh sweet, thanks for the tip! I’m playing through Golden Sun now, it’s been recommended by so many people! I’ve been meaning to check out shining force as well. Thank you for the recommendations!
Thanks for making this video , give a good insights for 35XXSP user. Please make video about RPGs on retro handhelds next , what would be the most recommended RPG to play?
Thank you for watching! That’s a great idea for a video, too, I’ll workshop the idea to see what I can come up with. I have a series called “Potent Portables”, so mabie for the next one I can do an RPG roundup!
armored core would work great on this because the controls were made with no joysticks in mind, advance wars 1&2 are great i also recommend the super famicom wars translation which is the og version and has great colors and different gameplay/units to make it stand out, megaman legends 1&2, final fantasy 6, Pokémon emerald, Pokémon crystal for the gba is a great fan game, metal gear solid but ive seen some people complain about stutters but you can probably change the settings or core to make it work because it ran perfect on my retroid pocket 2 which is years older than this device and ran android which was performance intensive
I actually SPECIFICALLY made sure to get the armored core games, and the psp games seem to run pretty smooth! I may also check out mega man legends, thanks for all the suggestions! 🙌🙌
It would be interesting to see a solution that has the fold *and* thumbsticks! I set up an Anbernic RG35XXH (seen in purple clear in some of the b-roll) and I liked the thumb sticks on that device. It was pocketable, but I was worried how the sticks might get worn out from being held in one position in the pocket for long times. Thanks for watching, I hope you come back to check out the next one!
I’ve done a whole video on the Minish cap before, so I didn’t want to force everyone to hear me talk about it again 😂. I’ve never actually beaten golden sun, so I’ll have to check it out. Thanks for the Recommendation!
There is a “video” folder on the sd card, and I added some tv shows to see what would happen. I don’t see a way to access the videos, and I don’t think it would be a comfortable viewing experience. The screen is only 3.5” and is square, so 16X9 video will be letterboxed. PSP games are similarly letterboxed, so if you see yourself playing a lot of wide screen content, I’d pick up a unit with at least one thumbstick too 👍
@@nightowlgmng Thank you for your reply. I ordered the device three days ago. In the meantime, I looked elsewhere and Techdweeb was watching Adventure Time on it with no problems. True, it did so without subtitles, so it remains to be seen whether it can handle subtitles.
@@Kodiak-1984 i checked for you. sadly in mine, it couldn't recognize srt file that came with the video file. so it played without the subtitles. you have to hardcode the subtitle onto the video with apps like handbrake or so. hope it helps.
Why does everyone say it’s just alright? I’ve been playing it and I’m having a blast but it’s my first Metroid game so idk if the others are just that much better
@tristancolson9635 It departs from a lot of series norms that make the games more fun. It might be the best metroid game to make these departures (better than Samus Returns, Other M, or Dread), but the lack of backtracking to unlock things in previous areas and having to listen to Adam to unlock abilities isn't as fun as getting to know the map and using that knowledge to your advantage, and gaining power-ups by defeating bosses and solving puzzles, imo. Have fun with Fusion, but just know that the fun there is not the same as other Metroid games have established, so your enjoyment of the other games in the series may differ.
@tristancolson9635 While trying not to get too spoilery, although Dread has some cool mechanics in it, some of those mechanics force you to keep moving forward and limit backtracking. Also, not so much metroidvania related, there are some strange story moments, and, because of the mechanics of the game, I don't recommend people who get anxious easily to play it for very long at a time. Your mileage may vary, but this is just what I've found.
😅 fair point! I should have been clearer: I think that historically there have been good experiences on phones. Games like fruit ninja and angry birds might not be hot properties today, but in their time they were excellent. I still will crack out “world of goo” and “kingdom rush” every once in a while, but I think the animal crossing mobile game has three currencies?
problem i have is,,, cant get the sn30 pro to work in OS and in RA at the same time... in RA you can set it as secondary but then the games see it as controller two so if i wanted to dock the 35xxsp and just use the controller tocontrol the whole thing it doesnt work. mind you that I have only tried on stoick firmware so far.. if you tell RA to use the sn30 as first controller it totally scrwes up RA and then even reseting the cfg wont work ... i need to try on a different firmware
It took me a few minutes to figure this out myself, so don’t feel bad! It’s not super well explained in the documentation. So: 1: push the menu and ‘B’ button simultaneously to bring up the retroarch menu. This should put you into the ‘quick menu’ header. 2: push down until you are selecting the ‘controls’ button and press the ‘a’ button. Now, assuming the sn30 pro is the first controller connected to the 35xx unit, it will be connected as the second controller. So you should go to the ‘Port 2 Controls’ option and hit the a button again. Select ‘mapped port’ and change that to ‘1’ and you should be good to go.
Now, this will only work on a per game and per system basis. If you wish to configure this for every game on a console, go back to the ‘quick menu’ and go down to ‘overrides’ and click the ‘a’ button again. You can then select ‘Save Content Directory Overrides’ to save these settings for the entire console. You can do this to apply screen overlays like gba and game boy overlays in this same way!
stay with stock os! :3 there is an option in settings of RA. setting - input - menu controls - all users control menu. then you can set up a cortroller port to always use your device input. for example, can put like player 8 (input) to device input, so even if you change player 1 to controller, you will always have control over your device. (it maybe placed differently cause RA keeps updating). best to watch this video. just about 11 minutes. hope this helps. How to pair Bluetooth controllers Anbernic RG35xxPLUS RG35xxH Stock OS controller guide. by DHR54 ^search in youtube.
@@nugudave thank you for adding the instructions for stock users! ☺️ I went right past the stock os and installed Knulli. I have the best folks in my comments! 🥳
this is such high production quality for an underground channel. i adore the history you've listed with handhelds. i never understood why, but handhelds always held a special place in my heart that home consoles just couldn't emulate. although maybe i got a little purchase crazy by getting the rg35xx plus, h, and sp. i highly recommend for anyone getting into this hobby to look toward the secondhand market. emulation handhelds have no collector's value; they're solely meant to be played, so you can find some pretty good deals if you look hard enough. i'll never forget the magic i felt when i first held the miyoo mini plus (my first emulation handheld) in my hands.
before this hobby, i actually bought a bunch of oem handhelds (3ds, psp, vita) solely to homebrew them and run emulators. they're wonderful machines for playing the games they're made for, but they always fall a bit short when emulating other titles. still, you can take advantage of their built-in hardware to get spectacular performance. for instance, the 3ds can run ds and gba natively due to sharing similar architecture. the psp can emulate psx really well (due to their similar internals) and the ps vita runs psp and psx perfectly for the same reason. however, when it comes to actual emulation, the vita can't emulate the entire snes catalogue at full speed, and you need one of the new 3ds models to have great snes emulation. their limits are shockingly low when you consider the asking price, even if they're impressive in their own right. i think that's what made dedicated emulation handhelds so fascinating to me. sure, they're one-trick ponies, but their trick is pretty fucking cool
Thank you for your kind comments!
I agree that these machines are great for emulating a large range of consoles. Like you, I started out by Home brewing a DS and have played around with a few different systems. One of the biggest advantages of these devices our features that original hardware has trouble emulating, such as save states.
A lot of older games are much more difficult and/or if an outcome of an attempt could be assigned by luck, being able to flash back and restart immediately is a godsend.
Thanks again for checking out my channel, I hope you are around for the next one! Pssst my next video is about Pokémon and lawsuits!
I have the same rg35xx sp as you and I freakin love it. Looks so awesome, plays so good. I’m so happy with it
Heck yeah! I’m glad you’re rockin with the sp! After a few months, I like it a lot, but the buttons have begun to wear on me a bit. Not enough to stop playing, but just a little harder than I’d like. Thanks for watching, and hope you check out some other videos!
More 👏 pocketable 👏 handhelds. Seriously I love my steam deck but I’m not realistically whipping that thing out while waiting in a line
@@Jolipolie YES! Though steam decks are very rad, you’d need Mary Poppins pockets to carry one of those around
Agreed 100%!
Same!
I love my RG35XX-H because vertical handhelds are more comfortable for me and it is still pocketable wich is a big bonus.
It's really fun to play Banjo-Kazooie on it wich surprised me the most. DreamCast games like Rayman 2, House of the Dead and 2D fighting games are also great on it. Best purchase of the year for me! 😊
I've only just recently picked up a RG35XX myself and have already gotten a lot of mileage out of it, especially revisiting Pokemon. Great vid, consider me a new subscriber.
Thank you so much! I agree im using it way more than I thought I would, and it’s a lot of fun. I appreciate the sub as well! There’s lots of great TH-camrs out there, so I understand how valuable one’s entertainment time is. Hope I continue earning your viewership!
I always like hearing about other people's history with handheld gaming, especially in an age where bespoke handhelds are no longer really "a thing" outside of the Switch.
As much as I love my Miyoo Mini and I love how much fun it is to play something like the PS1 game Devil Dice on a portable that just lives in my pockets no problem; it's never quite the same as having something like the GBA, with its own bespoke games made specifically for it.
Oooh, Devil Dice, I will have to check that out! I appreciate you taking the time to watch, and I agree with your sentiment. Playing games on the cartridge or OG disk has a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’ to it. 🤌
Such an awesome video! Thank you for sharing!
I didn't expect such a high quality video from such a small channel! Great work, I subscribed!
As of game recommendations: I will always recommend the The Urbz: Sims in the City, specifically the GBA (or DS) version. It's a wildly underrated game that is nothing like the homeconsole counterpart. It has a simple, but fun story with memorable characters, goofy humor, mini-games, things and areas to unlock and IMO some of the best music you can find in a GBA game. It's my favorite GBA game that I played as a child and come back to it every once in a while.
It's predecessor, Sims Bustin' Out (GBA version) is very similar and great fun as well. It's not as polished or memorable as The Urbz was, so I recommend Urbz over Sims Bustin' Out. However. SIms Bustin' Out is certainly worth playing if you crave for more after finishing Urbz. There is a Sims 2 game for the GBA as well that came out after The Urbz, but I haven't played that one yet.
Hey, thanks for being my 269th (nice) sub! 🙌🙌
Re: the Urbz,
I remember seeing the ads and thought that it was WILD how many consoles that game came out on. I have the ads grouped next to each other under “video game ads that were cribbing off ‘Big Brother/Real World’ style shows.” I don’t remember if that’s how they *actually* played, but I will have to scare up a copy at my local swap meet! Thanks for the Rec, @jarnobot!
@@nightowlgmng I think I remember those ads as well. It came out on a lot of platforms indeed! Some games came out on even more platforms though. This reminds me how common it was back in those days for publishers to have multiple completely different games made under the same name to cater to all those platforms. Both Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets are a great examples of that happening. They each had 5 (!) different versions, released over 8 different platforms (PC/PS1/PS2/XBOX/NGC/GBA/CGB/Mac)! TH-camr Flandrew has some great videos comparing them all.
I'd say Urbz plays like an adventure game with RPG elements. I think can see how it felt like a 'Big Brother/Real World' style show, although I don't think it plays like that. The world felt quite alive and the isometric perspective might help with that feeling as well. Good luck finding it! Hope you will enjoy it as much as I did :)
Shining Force 2
Phantasy Star 2 and 4
Golden Sun
Chrono Trigger and Cross
Mario Kart 64 plays extremely well on the SP, you just have to use the shortcut to use the D-Pad as an analog stick. Default firmware is menu+tap the power button.
Oh sweet, thanks for the tip! I’m playing through Golden Sun now, it’s been recommended by so many people! I’ve been meaning to check out shining force as well. Thank you for the recommendations!
Only 300 subs criminally underrated
Thank you so much!
Thanks for making this video , give a good insights for 35XXSP user. Please make video about RPGs on retro handhelds next , what would be the most recommended RPG to play?
Thank you for watching! That’s a great idea for a video, too, I’ll workshop the idea to see what I can come up with. I have a series called “Potent Portables”, so mabie for the next one I can do an RPG roundup!
armored core would work great on this because the controls were made with no joysticks in mind, advance wars 1&2 are great i also recommend the super famicom wars translation which is the og version and has great colors and different gameplay/units to make it stand out, megaman legends 1&2, final fantasy 6, Pokémon emerald, Pokémon crystal for the gba is a great fan game, metal gear solid but ive seen some people complain about stutters but you can probably change the settings or core to make it work because it ran perfect on my retroid pocket 2 which is years older than this device and ran android which was performance intensive
I actually SPECIFICALLY made sure to get the armored core games, and the psp games seem to run pretty smooth! I may also check out mega man legends, thanks for all the suggestions! 🙌🙌
that still doesn't solve how god awful the AC1 controls are lmfao. I say this as an absolute fan of ps1 AC games
@@nimlouth yeah but if you have a analog controllers there is modded roms that have analog support for the armored core games
ngl i thought u had thousands of subs, great work here
OMG thank you so much!
Oh dang I gotta try Sword of Mana. Also grabbed an RG35XXSP and I love it. Solid editing!
Thank you for the compliment! Yeah I foresee a BUNCH of gaming on this thing.
Great content! I hope that Anbernic will eventually release a GBA SP variant with dual analog sticks and maybe some additional raw power.
It would be interesting to see a solution that has the fold *and* thumbsticks! I set up an Anbernic RG35XXH (seen in purple clear in some of the b-roll) and I liked the thumb sticks on that device. It was pocketable, but I was worried how the sticks might get worn out from being held in one position in the pocket for long times. Thanks for watching, I hope you come back to check out the next one!
Nothing hits harder than Pokemon red on the lime green gameboy color
It was, as the kids say, “a vibe”
woa high quality content there
Thank you so much! Im working on a review of the Anbernic Arc next so make sure to check that out when it drops soon!
Can’t believe you didn’t mention Zelda the Minish Cap, Golden Sun, Golden Sun 2?
There have been soo many good games!
I’ve done a whole video on the Minish cap before, so I didn’t want to force everyone to hear me talk about it again 😂.
I’ve never actually beaten golden sun, so I’ll have to check it out. Thanks for the Recommendation!
Skill gap. I can easily believe it
I have a strange question. Can I watch animes with subtitles on this device?
There is a “video” folder on the sd card, and I added some tv shows to see what would happen. I don’t see a way to access the videos, and I don’t think it would be a comfortable viewing experience. The screen is only 3.5” and is square, so 16X9 video will be letterboxed. PSP games are similarly letterboxed, so if you see yourself playing a lot of wide screen content, I’d pick up a unit with at least one thumbstick too 👍
@@nightowlgmng Thank you for your reply. I ordered the device three days ago. In the meantime, I looked elsewhere and Techdweeb was watching Adventure Time on it with no problems. True, it did so without subtitles, so it remains to be seen whether it can handle subtitles.
@@Kodiak-1984 i checked for you.
sadly in mine, it couldn't recognize srt file that came with the video file.
so it played without the subtitles.
you have to hardcode the subtitle onto the video with apps like handbrake or so.
hope it helps.
@@nugudave thanks 😁
@@Kodiak-1984 😇
Great video! Did I build you a custom Game Boy at some point?
@@kerooseta Thank you! No, but I may reach out to you soon about some gear recommendations. I need to tap your expertise in the field!
Zack Fair*
Cloud Strife
Btw great review, subbed!
🤦 ugh you’re right I messed that one up. Thank you for subscribing despite this mixup!
Metroid Fusion is alright, but I think Zero Mission is the better Metroid game. Also, high-five for also having Sapphire on the GBA.
Why does everyone say it’s just alright? I’ve been playing it and I’m having a blast but it’s my first Metroid game so idk if the others are just that much better
@tristancolson9635 It departs from a lot of series norms that make the games more fun. It might be the best metroid game to make these departures (better than Samus Returns, Other M, or Dread), but the lack of backtracking to unlock things in previous areas and having to listen to Adam to unlock abilities isn't as fun as getting to know the map and using that knowledge to your advantage, and gaining power-ups by defeating bosses and solving puzzles, imo. Have fun with Fusion, but just know that the fun there is not the same as other Metroid games have established, so your enjoyment of the other games in the series may differ.
@ I see what you’re saying. How does dread stray from the Metroidvania archetype I was gonna play that next
@tristancolson9635 While trying not to get too spoilery, although Dread has some cool mechanics in it, some of those mechanics force you to keep moving forward and limit backtracking. Also, not so much metroidvania related, there are some strange story moments, and, because of the mechanics of the game, I don't recommend people who get anxious easily to play it for very long at a time. Your mileage may vary, but this is just what I've found.
Did'nt watch the video just wanted to say I love the title.
"There are lots of excellent experiences you can have on mobile phones"
Goes on to list everything fucking wrong with mobile phone gaming.....
😅 fair point! I should have been clearer:
I think that historically there have been good experiences on phones. Games like fruit ninja and angry birds might not be hot properties today, but in their time they were excellent. I still will crack out “world of goo” and “kingdom rush” every once in a while, but I think the animal crossing mobile game has three currencies?
problem i have is,,, cant get the sn30 pro to work in OS and in RA at the same time... in RA you can set it as secondary but then the games see it as controller two so if i wanted to dock the 35xxsp and just use the controller tocontrol the whole thing it doesnt work. mind you that I have only tried on stoick firmware so far.. if you tell RA to use the sn30 as first controller it totally scrwes up RA and then even reseting the cfg wont work ... i need to try on a different firmware
It took me a few minutes to figure this out myself, so don’t feel bad! It’s not super well explained in the documentation. So:
1: push the menu and ‘B’ button simultaneously to bring up the retroarch menu. This should put you into the ‘quick menu’ header.
2: push down until you are selecting the ‘controls’ button and press the ‘a’ button.
Now, assuming the sn30 pro is the first controller connected to the 35xx unit, it will be connected as the second controller.
So you should go to the ‘Port 2 Controls’ option and hit the a button again.
Select ‘mapped port’ and change that to ‘1’ and you should be good to go.
Now, this will only work on a per game and per system basis. If you wish to configure this for every game on a console, go back to the ‘quick menu’ and go down to ‘overrides’ and click the ‘a’ button again.
You can then select ‘Save Content Directory Overrides’ to save these settings for the entire console. You can do this to apply screen overlays like gba and game boy overlays in this same way!
stay with stock os! :3
there is an option in settings of RA.
setting - input - menu controls - all users control menu.
then you can set up a cortroller port to always use your device input.
for example, can put like player 8 (input) to device input, so even if you change player 1 to controller, you will always have control over your device.
(it maybe placed differently cause RA keeps updating).
best to watch this video. just about 11 minutes.
hope this helps.
How to pair Bluetooth controllers Anbernic RG35xxPLUS RG35xxH Stock OS controller guide. by DHR54
^search in youtube.
@@nugudave thank you for adding the instructions for stock users! ☺️ I went right past the stock os and installed Knulli.
I have the best folks in my comments! 🥳
@@nightowlgmng 😋🤗
i wish i was an early bird
My wife and kid are early birds, I don’t know how that happened.