I FINALLY Understand the Retro Handhelds

[@emily_byars]

I'm obviously not a gamer myself, but as a reader a lot of this still rings true. Rather than reading on the Kindle app on my phone, I carry a separate e-reader with me - the interface is intended for reading, I focus better, and I read more overall. I think as we see the ramifications of phone addiction and doom scrolling, we're gonna see the pendulum swing back toward a preference for separate devices like this in our day-to-day lives.

[@mobshadic99]

I do think this is one of the best ways to sum it up though. These purpose built devices allow us to focus so much better than these devices that can do everything, especially our phones. The same thing is slowly happening to me with the e-reader thing too. I'm at the point where I'm about to buy a Boox palma or a similar device because I find reading on my phone to have too many distractions.

[@jamiemartin9322]

I didn't get it until last year, I had the same thoughts, I can use my phone, or my PC, or my Android TV box, my Chromebook, my Vita, my 3DS etc to emulate stuff. And I'd always been intrigued by Retro Game Corps etc but never wanted to spend the money because of all my mentioned devices. But a friend of mine got the Anbernic RG35XX and managed to convince me to get one too and now it's the device I use more to game now than anything else (have since upgraded to the 35XX Plus). It's incredibly convenient, fits in my pocket, and it's given me the chance to explore a bunch or retro games I've never got to, plus the homebrew scene and things like Portmaster on muOS means I'm never short of stuff to try And yeah, perfect for JRPGs, I finally played FFVI on this, and I'm currently going through a fan-translated Far East of Eden hack for SNES !

[@jaysolaris9272]

I don't own one of these handheld devices, but I've seen posts about them here and there on social media. I'm somewhat hesitant when it comes to emulation, mainly because of the setup process. PPSSPP was frustrating to get working and I've seen Dolphin being annoying sometimes when hanging out with friends. Despite all that, this handheld does intrigue me a little. The lack of time is something I sympathize with especially as a college student. I barely have had time to play anything I've been itching to get around to and a convenient device like this would keep me occupied between classes (and stop me from scrolling through social media...). Personally, I'll hold off on getting something like this for now since I do want to get into collecting physical games, but I'll keep it in mind whenever I need a solid handheld.

[@mobshadic99]

Yeah it's one of those things you don't know you need until you get it. I'll say the setup process kinda sucks but after that it's smooth sailing (assuming you go the custom os route). I don't think this gets in the way of collecting but rather supplements it especially if you're into ripping your own roms. There's cheaper handhelds out there to get you started (might make a video on it). I also plan on a backlog video soon that kinda helps with this exact thing.