Favorite Retro Gaming Handheld/What's Everyone Playing?

I cannot overstate how amazing this looks in person. :flushed::star_struck::anguished:





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Btw I plan on doing a hot wash Rainbow Patina to the raw brass at some point :grin::star_struck:


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Well good news bad news this is the second SteamDeck to randomly black screen and boot loop literally sitting in the steam store sale while watching tv. -_- what’s worse is I can load to the hold “…” button boot function to restore point/+boot menu only all four options and bottom option to completely wipe device data (factory reset) crash part way through the running script to actually restore/wipe the device. :melting_face::triumph: I’ve tried to race to beat the crash loop time to no success. Going to try and make a flashed usb image with the Steam OS to reinstall but if it’s crashing on a loop I doubt I’ll make much progress without opening the case, if I can’t access the SteamDecks hard drive powered off via usb to a pc. Looking like another RMA steam support ticket. >~> really tempted to buy a 1TB OLED SteamDeck with affirm just for the hope of avoiding this issue on the new device since I haven’t seen any posted black screen etc issues with it so far.

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That’s the bad news out of the way, just wanted to point out that it seems at random and for no reason any 512gb SteamDeck can just :face_with_symbols_over_mouth: itself to death and be unable to restore via bios menu and safe mode restore points. :melting_face:

Goods news is I turned on my “New” 3DS and updated Luma to current to safely update to Nintendo’s current attempt to mess with modding community via updates and while doing this updated Twilight menu ++ and randomly decided to try booting the only game that’s never been able to work with it. Golden Sun Dark Dawn. Apparently in Sep it was updated and now as far as I’m aware it has complete DS library compatibility along with patched rom hacks, bug fix roms, and translated roms.

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As for my brass boy project, I’m waiting for some displays and parts to come back into stock in US modder stores and find a not insane scalper priced donor gba sp off sleezebay :weary: Decided I want to go with a Famicom HISPEEDIDO IPS V5 3.0 INCH LAMINATED LCD.
I think the Famicom red display border and metallic gold text will look nice with the brass to give it a bit of a refined look. Being a literal drop in display now I can always swap it out for a black or white IPS display with holographic text if I want to play around with aesthetics.

As for the patina, when i decide to do that I’m going to reverse mask a triforce onto the top display panel cover so that it stays shiny raw brass to contrast sharp against the patina’s colors. :star_struck: (it’ll also be easy to swap out for different plates for customizing if I want to later on.)
Little touches I’m going to do, is use some gun blueing compound to darken the visible outer screws that would otherwise be kinda glaringly plain and silver looking otherwise. Along with some internal QOL choices like clean cable pathing and management of solid core wires, it’ll be a nice and easy build. :blush:


EDIT: (since no one’s been posting and I can’t post again :grimacing:)

I’ve been Impatiently excited for the screen to arrive so I got a few QOL bells and whistles to round out the brass boy mod while I wait.
Diffuser for the power/charge LEDS and gold ano Ti fasteners for the top plate cover to match the brass better than the stock silver ones. :yum::star_struck:
Since I got this beat up special edition at hand anyways, I’m probably going to use the original L/R shoulder buttons to match the V5 screen I got since it’s the same border and text color as this donor Famicom edition SP.
Standard headphone jack and usb-c charging port to finish off the mod and not have to use the plug covers. :hugs:





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I still play my ps vita quite a bit

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I like small things… Just got this in today - the RG Nano!


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If we’re going in the way back machine, the Game Gear was the bomb!

“Portable,” backlit color screen, and ONLY took x6 AA batteries for a whooping 4 hours-ish of life.

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Sadly, at the time I had my Game Gear, rechargable batteries were not feasible so I had to live with being tethered to a wall wart. Thankfully now I can enjoy longer Game Gear sessions on both my RG Nano and RG351MP.

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Anybody have any experience with the GBA macro? I have a DS lite with a busted hinge that I am thinking about modding :thinking::thinking:

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I’m still playing hollow knight. Think I’m going to be there for a bit.

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Game has a huge amount of content. And its so well done, its brought me back for 3 full rounds.

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I didn’t do many handhelds. My kids still do though. Thought I’d share the only handheld I ever remember owning.

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Been there, done that. Kids today don’t understand, the struggle is real. Rechargeable batteries!?!?! Who can afford that!
Mine were the Mattel variety.

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This may be an unpopular opinion, but the Steam Deck is a pretty sweet retro console (emulator). As someone who wants to play some of the games they never got to growing up (“Video games are bad for you” and “Video game violence?! Not in my house” household) BUT also doesn’t have the time anymore (ie responsibilities as an- ugh- adult) it’s pretty effortless to just dive into games while also having some modern amenities for the R E S P O N S I B L E A D U L T.

I’d love to keep a 2 week session open on a Legend of Zelda game, but y’know, that costs money. I was able to finally finish Sarge’s Heroes, one of the few games I was able to get, thanks the the SD.

In summary, Steam Deck is pretty dope for retro gaming, even if it’s only in spirit of retro gaming.

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I just have a switch and I’m pretty happy with the hardware. Software is ok.

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I would get a switch if the selection of retro games was larger and didn’t cost a subscription. On my SD, with retro gaming emulation, basically all I’m missing is modern console exclusives, so I’m pretty happy about that. I’ll just steal my wife’s switch if there’s a switch exclusive I really want to play

That being said, I did have one around when they first launched and the SD wasn’t even a thing yet, the switch was pretty dope since they had opened it to third party devs

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Purple Analog Pocket with the Beefy Retro grip is just an amazing powerhouse of a handheld.

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How is the Analog? Is it worth the hefty price tag and wait times?

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If you have a collection of cartridges you want to play then it’s 100% worth it. Being able to put the device to sleep or load a save state on my carts is an amazing QOL improvement. It’s a good emulator but comparable to others on the market. The OS is nice and polished and I haven’t run into any issues with I yet. I will say the d pad is a little mushy and look some getting used to, but the stellar screen makes up for it imo.

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