We NEED To Talk About The SF2000!

The SF2000 is a brand new budget retro gaming handheld modelled after a SNES controller. It does so many things right but is it perfect for the price?
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[@georged7627]

I was born in the 70s and had an Atari Commodore 64 a NES and so on, I have most of the Anbernic and powkiddy handheld devices and I cannot wait to get this little bad boy...playing games on these devices still blow my mind...no matter what I'll be happy with the sf2000 🙏🏽

[@petetherealrelentless6542]

I went from Atari to C64 as well but then to Amiga, skipping the 8 bit consoles.. what did you prefer out of the c64 and NES? I feel like the NES was better but not being able to pirate like commodore was horrible.

[@briancherry8088]

I loved the design of this one for the low price-tag and wondered if I really needed one. But seeing how popular they are becoming I wonder if this could ever be given a custom firmware to help its flaws. Could be a good investment... or a cool looking paperweight.

[@CoHostVic24]

I’m getting mine this week and I’m pretty excited because I’ve been wanting this device for awhile

[@michaeljodon]

I bought one for my 3 year old. She loves it and finally is ready to give me back my miyoo mini.

[@stefhannington2218]

I've bought one, been waiting about 2 weeks so far. I always expect hardware limitations with devices like these but for me just something that looks cool and can play gb and mame is all I need. Also some mega drive games are an added bonus.

[@petetherealrelentless6542]

I bought 3 of them.. I just put the new CFW on and now the entire MAME gamelist works and 99% flawless! what a little beast!!!

[@ChronikSpartan]

Awesome! I'll need to update mine!

[@aschmidt4429]

hi can someone help me How do I get Mame games that have been added to the stick to run? Thank you and greetings

[@pimpedoutstereos9747]

I think it’s a cool design and idea but I’d rather spend a bit more if it was more powerful so it can run all those retro games how they should run. For the price u can’t expect too much tho

[@ChronikSpartan]

Yeah I would happily spend more if it ran SNES and GBA better!

[@petetherealrelentless6542]

The whole idea of this handheld is to have a few on hand and give them to family and friends when they start eyeing off my Odin Pro and RG552 etc.

[@Briman2052]

@@ChronikSpartan Hey man, great video, but do you have the name of the soundtrack in the background? 🙏

[@johnmadison3472]

Nice review. To put things in perspective, it should be viewed as a portable GB/GBC/MD player that can play a few SNES & GBA. It's obviously aimed at the casual market. Definitely worth the money.

[@ChronikSpartan]

Thanks buddy. It is a massively fun device!

[@vincemartinelli9689]

Great video, thanks for uploading, I appreciate it!!! I have one question though. I have taken roms out of the individual emulator folders and put them in the ROMS folder so when I go to the game list feature my favorite games are there and I don't have to do all that scrolling. The games show up but none of them load. As I said I just took them from one folder on the SD card and put them in another. Any idea why they won't run when they are in the game list section????

[@ChronikSpartan]

Cheers buddy, really appreciate it! Could be each emulator is set up to look in their specific console folder.

[@SWPLGAMING]

I agree, and not bad for the price, Great video 👍🏾

[@ChronikSpartan]

Thanks bro

[@GeekyN8]

Shame it struggled with the games. If that ran the SNES games well at that price alone it'd have been a bargain

[@ChronikSpartan]

I think they've updated the firmware now

[@torq21]

I love the idea of this thing and DANG it does look good, but from the sounds of it I think it would be better just to spend another 20 and get the Q90 then you would have solid SNES and GBA emulation. I have the Q90 and have just been loving the GBA. It's fun to tinker with some PS1 games as well.

[@HardWhereHero]

can you add custom roms and artwork ? i know for a fact if you launch a snes game, leave and launch it again it will run at 60fps without stutter. Not sure what causes this but I seen a youtube video that showed that exact work around for the SNES Emulation. I bought it stickly for GBA roms. I wanna plat some of the old final fantasy remakes on this.

[@ChronikSpartan]

That's really interesting! To answer your question I've not tried to change roms to let you know. But I believe it is possible

[@wolfmancyprus]

How can I add roms ? I tried to put mame roms in the SD card and doesn't load..Please help

[@ChronikSpartan]

Have you unzipped them?

[@jossluiss]

I bought one and need a custom firmware for this, all i wanted was play gba and snes 😢😢😢

[@ronaldclayton4232]

Ive seen a couple of reviews with the OS tweeked somehow qnd the SNES and GBA games seemed run a lot better.I just ordered a new one from somebody here in the US for $23 so ill see what limits It has in a few days

[@ChronikSpartan]

Nice, I'd be interested to see if that could make a difference!

[@user-rf8ls3no4e]

How was the os tweaked?

[@ronaldclayton4232]

@@user-rf8ls3no4e I haven't looked into it for a while but what I seen wasn't a totally new OS.I believe it was just an update to the stock firmware that helped it handle Snes games a little better and changed the button layout for the Genesis so you aren't forced to use the shoulder buttons for C without having to change it in game.

[@Akg.Rachet69]

if i remember correctly the sf2000 has 1gb of ram if it had slightly more ram it could run gba nes and sega genesis games a little better plus its utilizing software for premium emulation so it doesnt have direct console software

[@ChronikSpartan]

I hear there are some good firmware updates

[@spakey1983]

Thanks for doing the review mate but I'll leave it emulation has to be perfect 60fps for me 👍

[@tickingtime]

Good review great gadget for the price but no brightness control

[@ChronikSpartan]

Yeah not perfect, but great fun!

[@vincentagustin3939]

is this a good pokemon handheld sir? want to play first gen pokemon.

[@ChronikSpartan]

For Gameboy and GBC yes, for GBA Pokémon still runs decent but not as smooth. So everything below Ruby and Sapphire runs great

[@vincentagustin3939]

@@ChronikSpartan thanks sir. Waiting for my console to arrive. Gonna play 1st and 2nd gen . Will try 3rd gen. I want to try rg505 but that's so expensive in my region SEA. This device is It's so dirt cheap. Perfect for my usage. God bless sir.

[@sacshellpolk4403]

$20 is a steal, for what you get. I ordered mine as soon as I saw it.

[@leelee7334]

I don’t think it beats out the fc3000.

[@Myjacob99]

They released firmware update that smoothes out the emulation problems

[@rickygrigoleit8269]

I've read that the games run a lot better when replacing the micro SD. The one that comes with the console is really slow.

[@jessragan6714]

I'm hoping that's the case, but you can't just dump the files from the old card onto the new one. You have to create an IMG file with the old SD card, then flash the IMG onto the new SD card for maximum time-consuming annoyance.

[@rickygrigoleit8269]

@@jessragan6714 yup lol. I get mine this week so I’ll let you know if the performance increase is worth the time and effort. EDIT: I managed to get the software flashed on the new card but the performance doesn't feel much better. The load times are faster though! This is way too much effort for some quicker loading times though. Do not recommend.

[@BeastCake1349]

@@jessragan6714All you have to do is copy the sd card onto a reliable Samsung or Sansdisk. Don’t have to do everything you said. I just straight up made a copy and it works fine.

[@jessragan6714]

@@BeastCake1349 This was a while ago. There was a bug (since fixed) in the Data Frog that prevented it from booting with a certain number of files on the SD card.

[@BeastCake1349]

@@jessragan6714That’s good to know

[@user-eg8ly7qh6o]

Tree build me this, cuz I can't get time off.

[@Luke-qs2cg]

Remember the law of diminishing returns applies to both expense, and cheapness. At some point, you simply can’t produce anything cheaper.

[@ChronikSpartan]

I would say that this is as low as you can go.

[@davejay6855]

If I spend double, triple, or even quadruple, can I get one that ACTUALLY WILL RUN SNES GAMES??? I don’t buy “all in one handhelds” since the JXD craze a decade ago, it was fine just not enjoyable. If I want something these days, I’ll just put it on my SteamDeck… …but I DO BUY dedicated handhelds. I have a handheld for NES/Famicom that looks like an NES style Game&Watch… I only play NES Games on it (and one Famicom game, Super Mario 2) and it runs them amazingly… I also have a Analogue Pocket that I will ONLY play GameBoy and GameBoy Color games on… …and I spent well over $200 on it… JUST TO PLAY GAMEBOY GAMES… …so I would GLADLY pay the same price or more than the Analogue Pocket for something like this that could ACTUALLY PLAN SNES Games. Is there a “Super Nintendo on a Chip” like the NES? Maybe the “SupaBoy” If so? Why do we not see it in handhelds like this?

[@ChronikSpartan]

You could check out the RG353PS, that's pretty cool for SNES. Also the SF200 seems to have workarounds and new builds that improve SNES gameplay

[@davejay6855]

@@ChronikSpartan I hope so, the only other one that looks close though is the “PocketGo S30” but even that doesn’t look as much like an SNES Controller as this does. I bought one of these a couple days ago, as well as a Rasberry Pi Zero. I’m just going to gut everything out of this unit except for screen. Will remove the CPU, LCD Controller, Analog Stick, Speaker, etc. and replace it all with the money I saved by this only being $20 instead of $200… basically gives me $180 to spend on upgrading EVERYTHING except the external case/screen and the PiZero seems small enough to fit all things considered.

[@absabs129]

surely the anbernic rg353p is the way to go.

[@kevinspahr6632]

It doesn't scream $20 cuz it isn't $20. Price ranges anywhere from $23 all the way up to $37

[@ChronikSpartan]

Close enough, I got mine for £18 before postage

[@gordanbabic8028]

they say it runs better with updated firmware

[@ChronikSpartan]

Yes, I need to update mine

[@SchmurtzAlex]

Is it a linux console ? Can we hack it ?

[@leelee7334]

It’s closed source. People have been looking into it but I don’t know if any developers are interested. Data Frog did release an firmware update.

[@leelee7334]

I believe this is a reshelled X60 game player. UI is marginal different. I’d like them to relook at ps5 controller concept. I wish the S30 and 353p had the RP2+ chipset or something above 3566. I feel like we are being tricked to pay too much for an inferior product by looking good.

[@kirkanos3968]

As for the buttons they are never right some have wrong concave. cheap yes, works yes, works good not soo much. Snes most games will not even run giving a "not for your famacon" and will not run, or get one lvl and then game over. Not any mario kart will be playable like most snes games might start fine but mins in will be a lag fest. The sound can be spot on or just plain WTF is going on even on NES. Also that is not MAME it is neogeo port and like all some work great some work not so well. Very sad nothing older then nes would work well for old systems. Lots of crazy weirdness from this but only 20 bucks so really not bad. PSA watch your playtime battery was reading full then bam needed to be recharged.

[@darylring898]

If SNES games are slow, boot up once, then press start and select and quit then boot up the same game...becomes much faster.

[@ChronikSpartan]

That's so weird!

[@darylring898]

@ChronikSpartan Actually works though...I also heard it has a secret Master system emulator, if you put master system games in the roms file it should play them.

[@FromWitchSide]

I'm sorry, but I have 0 trust in this product and rather limited trust in the review after watching it. The most important thing, the dpad, was only mentioned as "absolutely brilliant", while there are plenty of complains on dpad from the buyers. You do not mention if dpad has a pivot, while for plenty of people it is impossible to have fun on dpad without it. You don't test or even mention diagonals, and you don't do side to side transitions. In fact all the shots in the video show you pushing on a single cardinal direction and then lifting your finger to push onto another - for me that is a warning the dpad might be bad. Even some highly regarded and popular reviewers/youtubers have failed to report on issues with dpads - 8bitdo reviews are good test of youtubers in particular, only once I saw someone actually do the research, test and confirm issues with dpad on several models while all the big names failed to do so and even recommended the exact ones.

[@TrueBlueJMS]

It’s $20. Relax.

[@hatschmolo2923]

I got my SF2000 today. The dpad is big and really hard to press. Wont be good for any fighting game. But for Gameboy platformers like Wario Land its working as supposed

[@leelee7334]

@@hatschmolo2923thanks. I’m waiting for mine.

[@Xhalonick]

@@TrueBlueJMS true but also I'm sure the reviewer actually enjoys comments like this. Shows him what he needs to go into more detail about for next video

[@BigFatCone]

So take a look at a couple of more reviews? Retro Gaming Corps is perhaps trustworthy enough for you?

[@radovan_mladic]

Can it play SNES and Genesis games?

[@ChronikSpartan]

Yep, SNES slow, Genesis is good though

[@BigFatCone]

Anbernic RG353PS though.

[@ChronikSpartan]

Facts! They are a lot more expensive though

[@BigFatCone]

@@ChronikSpartanFor sure. I have the SF2000 as well, and it's really sweet for the money. But I've been a gamer since basically the NES days, I need some form of standards on my emulation. I got my 353PS with a 128 ROM card for say $100 shipped. I'd call that a bargain.