Another One!? - U8 "Budget" Handheld Game Console

[@jq8166]

Great video! I love the exploration of obscure aliexpress handhelds, it really gives us a way to know what to avoid and what's a hidden gem. You're doing God's work my friend!

[@OGTechNick]

Thanks for watching!

[@RetroGamingWithDeadfred]

Looks about as I had hoped. Mine should arrive this weekend. Great video man and happy near year!

[@OGTechNick]

Sweet! Thanks man. Happy New Year to you too!

[@Chingyufu]

He returned when the world needed him the most! The resolution on this handheld is indeed weird. On the aliexpress page you linked, the advertising pictures showed 800x680, but the text in their description says 800x600. I decided to take the images and import it into photoshop, isolated the screen, and measured an approximate aspect ratio of 5:3, which would imply a resolution of 800x480. God knows which one is correct. 😂 Did you test whether the speakers are stereo btw?

[@OGTechNick]

Lol. What’s up, my friend. Appreciate the insight. I think you’re right about the resolution being 800x600. I’m pretty sure the speakers are just dual mono, but I’m not 100% on that. I’m gonna play around with it a little more tomorrow so I’ll let you know if I figure it out. Happy New Year buddy!

[@suhtangwong]

480 sounds about right as there are many many cheap devices with that set resolution

[@OGTechNick]

@suhtangwong what’s up, my friend. I it is actually 800x600. I think 480 would apply to a 4:3 aspect ratio screen. I’m definitely not the smartest guy in the room though.

[@Chingyufu]

@@OGTechNick easiest way to verify is to take a screenshot(if the firmware supports it), import the picture into another device like a phone or PC to check the dimensions. I'm personally leaning towards 800x480 though, which is 5:3, or 15:9, which is just slightly less wide than 16:9. It looks in-line with your PPSSPP gameplay. You can see that it has slight black bars at the top and bottom, since they are trying to fit a 16:9 game into a 15:9 screen by pinching it horizontally. 800x600 would have been exactly 4:3 aspect ratio.

[@mattdavis9601]

I enjoyed watching this review. This U8 seems like a really nice handheld for the money. There's a handful of PS1 and Dreamcast games that have native widescreen support which would be pretty nice to play on here.

[@OGTechNick]

I’ve tested a widescreen hack on PS1 before and I wasn’t sure if it worked properly or not. The edges were jagged but the image looked good. I think it was crash bandicoot. I know you’ve given me a few suggestions on games before. Can you do that again for a few games that are good for widescreen hacks? Also, recommendations for games to play on wonderswan color. I played it recently and had a good time.

[@mattdavis9601]

@@OGTechNick - I only run widescreen PS1 hacks on Androids. I wouldn't know how they'd work on a Linux handheld. I enjoy a few PS1 games that had native widescreen from the factory though. Some, but not all, include: • The first "Colin McRae Rally" - Oddly this U8 handheld is preloaded with the sequel that removed widescreen. • "Toca World Touring Cars" aka "Toca 3" - In Europe this game had Libcrypt protection, so you might be better off getting the lightly tweaked American version "Jarrett and Labonte Stock Cars", which didn't have stock cars or the Jarrett and Labonte that stock car fans cared about. • "Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed" - This game gets bonus points for using the right stick as analog throttle and brakes. • "Ghost in a Shell" - Ha, not a racing game. • "Bloody Roar 2" - You like fighting games. • "Triple Play Baseball" - Want to remember when the Dodgers weren't the greatest team in baseball? Want to remember when the Angels were? Dreamcast had a few native widescreen games too. Some of them include: • "F355 Challenge" - It's a fairly hardcore sim racer and consequently is a pain to drive with digital trigger buttons, so map the analog L + R to the right stick in RetroArch. • "Tokyo Xtreme Racer 2" - I love this game so much. Did you hear that Genki is bringing back the Tokyo Xtreme franchise and the early access version is actually legitimately really good? • "Rayman 2" - IIRC the Dreamcast version is the only version that had native widescreen support. • A bunch of soccer games - I think pretty much every soccer game on Dreamcast had widescreen. I could be wrong. • "Metropolis Street Racer" - This is a dishonorable mention because you have to beat the game in 4:3 mode in order to unlock widescreen from the "cheats" menu. I've actually never gotten far enough to do it; but, I've read about others unlocking it. Or you could download a 100% save file from Game FAQs. EDIT: I forgot that you asked about WonderSwan. • "Final Lap Special" doesn't require any Japanese to play; but, it's a Game Boy Color style racing game that happens to be wide. The charm doesn't really hold up. • "Front Mission" - It's a tactical RPG that has enough English to make it playable. • "Tetris" - This will be especially fun if you pick up that one MagicX with the TATE mode buttons. It's a TATE mode Swan game. • "GunPey" and "GunPey EX" - It's a simple puzzle game made by Gunpei, the man who invented the D-pad when he was at Nintendo. The EX version is in color.

[@Curryking32000]

Pretty good for the price. Definitely worth a purchase.

[@New-Drone]

Great review and gameplay! It seems to be a good handheld. I like the white version the most!

[@OGTechNick]

Thanks! Appreciate you watching. Yeah, the white one does look nice!

[@CornyPuddle]

Your back!

[@OGTechNick]

I am! Happy New Year bud!

[@CornyPuddle]

@OGTechNick happy new year! Hope you had a good holiday break

[@turquoise001]

"what do you mess with me?, It's a test man that all" You're the best reviewer man!

[@OGTechNick]

😂 thanks!

[@lunsj]

No worries Nick. I clicked the Like button 100 times for you! 🤪

[@OGTechNick]

✌️😄💯

[@TheMysteryDriver]

$40 not too bad for what it is.

[@douglutz4916]

Im loving the r36h lately because its more comfortable than the r36s. But arkos is a huge reason. If its able to play gzdoom with mods, thats a yes for me. Tsp wont 😢. man i love what you do, glad youre still going, thanks!🎉

[@jaysonocampo6472]

It's not bad for its price.

[@robertwendal5894]

Trimui looks like the overall best buy even if it's slightly more expensive.

[@MrBrandonbarlow]

Only thing I don’t like about the trimui smart pro is that r3 and l3 don’t exist. Can’t push down the sticks

[@gluttonousmaximus9048]

I wish this handheld had a more beefy chipset so it could at least be good for more PSP titles.

[@OGTechNick]

Yeah. I feel you on that

[@michaelclatecki8157]

I just got the other one. I'm pretty impressed, although I just doodled around with it. Played God of war and actually played pretty good with no sound lol. I never plead the game but watched enough of these videos over a few years was a lot of consoles and almost all can't really play that game or 007. And I played a 64 game and play pretty good. I was pretty impressed with that other one. I forgot the name already.

[@degenerate8228]

This looks nicer than the r36h will it get arkos?

[@OGTechNick]

I have a feeling it will, but not sure yet.

[@MatEsp23]

Better spend 25$ more for the Trimui Pro? How about other OSes?

[@OGTechNick]

Yeah. I personally agree with that. Not sure about the OS situation yet. I have a feeling ArkOS will make it onto this one.

[@CaptainEseesE]

Could you upload and share the contents of the emuelec partition? I wonder if it is using the latest emuelec build for the k36 or an updated one.

[@OGTechNick]

I have a lot going on right now, but I’ll try to get it done. If I can’t get to it in time maybe @deadfred69 can help. He should be posting a review any day now.

[@rilkeda]

The resolution is 2 times gba.

[@daviddavidson8680]

The storepage says the resolution is 800 x 680. 2x GBA would be 480 x 320. This is 20:17, an unusual choice.

[@OGTechNick]

I’m pretty sure it’s actually 800x600. I could be wrong though. I don’t think it can be 2 times GBA because it has a different aspect ratio.

[@HoangDgNguyen]

clone of r36h?

[@OGTechNick]

Pretty close. It’s using EmuELEC instead of ArkOS and it has a wide screen instead of 4:3, but seems to have the same performance and chipset.

[@S1eepy1]

Thanks for your video, found your review on Aliexpress as well 😅👍

[@OGTechNick]

Oh no! Hahaha. You came across my secret Chinese advertising campaign. I don’t think AliExpress likes it because I can’t even say KZbin in a message with the seller. Y*uTube works great though. 🤣