RetroGaming

I've just finished up a follow-up piece on the Anbernic RG Rotate (retro handheld), but since it has been so long since I reviewed the metal version of the Rotate which Anbernic sent me, I thought I'd pick up the black plastic version to use for the focus this time. I just wanted an excuse to look at some of the software and accessories that have grown up around the handheld.

For the article, I chatted to:

• Jarren, who created Clock God, a site which helps you customize the lock screen clock on the Rotate. • Maks, the developer behind RetroHrai!, one of my favorite frontends for the device. • NaviVani, creator of Swiff, an Android app that brings Flash games into the emulation world. • Chi from MO CORNER, whose handmade leather sleeves are crafted in Vietnam specifically for devices like the Rotate.

Along the way I also share some of the apps, accessories and little quality-of-life additions that I've come across.

This article is just about the people building things around the RG Rotate (which might be my favorite handheld of 2026 so far, or at least tied in that first-place with the Nova)

Anyway, hope someone here enjoys it :)

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/50940646

Retro platforming fans are in for a real treat as Mr. Nutz and Mr. Nutz Hoppin' Mad make their long-awaited return in premium physical editions. Starring the adventurous red squirrel, these colorful classics capture everything that made the golden age of 16-bit platformers so memorable: vibrant worlds, imaginative level design, responsive gameplay, and plenty of hidden secrets to discover.

Originally released in the early '90s, Mr. Nutz quickly became known for its charming cartoon presentation and polished platforming. Players guide the fearless squirrel through six beautifully themed worlds, from lush forests and mysterious caves to icy landscapes, battling quirky enemies and collecting nuts to use as projectiles along the way.

Strictly Limited will release Mr. Nutz as a retro cartridge for Mega Drive, Genesis, and SNES consoles and Mr. Nutz 2 Hoppin' Mad as a retro cartridge for Mega Drive and Genesis. Please note that the SMD and SG versions will work on all SMD/SG consoles, but the SNES PAL and SNES NTSC versions will only work on their respective console variants.

The adaptation of Sega's classic games hits Paramount+ on September 16, and (if the past is any judge), bittorrent on September 16.0001

I really wish I had an IRL friend that was into retro handhelds just like I am.

We could sit on the couch, hang out and play and show off our games and devices to eachother. Show how we've progressed in our games. Infodump about the weirdest facts related to Gameboys, DSs, emulator handhelds and so on.

But, I don't have any IRL friends who are at all interested in this stuff.

I'm sad :(

(Reposted from reddit)

I have both of these handhelds and am trying to decide which to get rid of and which to keep for emulation. The Go already has custom firmware and a 128gb SD card but it loses connection from time to time because of a poorly connected ribbon cable. The 1001 is on stock firmware and needs a new battery.

This is a small interview (by my usual standards!) with Jiayu, a girl in China who runs MagiGamer, a business she started making custom buttons and controls for various gaming handhelds. Tech, but with a custom twist :)

She makes buttons for things like the Nintendo Switch, 3DS & DS handhelds, the Steam Deck and her recent favorite: AYN's Thor (as well as the Odin 3), and more.

I chatted to her a bit for some quotes to use in my AYN Thor article I shared here yesterday, but this is the full chat, only because I love the work she does and how she gives people an option to truly make a console unique for everyone. I thought it deserved to be shared :)

There's plenty of behind the scenes pictures of the effort she goes to, and detailed pictures of the handhelds with her buttons installed. I thought this was a fun little one to share, hopefully you like it too!

I imagine they made these games mostly for themselves and didnt have to explain to family why they were called Booby Master.

I’ve just published a different kind of AYN Thor Lite feature, looking at why the lowest-spec Thor makes more sense in 2026 than it might have at launch. Back when this all started, AYN sent me the Thor Pro for review which clearly I loved and reviewed to high heavens, but I thought that with how things are at the moment (current cost-of-living conditions, the RAM crisis making prices skyrocket), the very base model makes more sense than ever. Mostly because the community surrounding the Thor has just grown and grown and grown, the things developers and makers have created are just incredible.

For any who don't know, the AYN Thor is a dual screen retro gaming handheld, which is first and foremost an amazing way to emulate 3DS games, especially with the cost of original systems rising so much these last few years!

So instead of the whole specs and performance angle, I wanted to look at what has grown up around the hardware, and I was lucky enough to speak to, interview and quote a whole bunch of the people making it happen, some of them friends and some of them just so lovely to want to chat with me:

• Moth (lead developer of Cocoon)
• Nathan (lead developer of iiSU)
• PlayTranslate's developer
• Camille LaVey (lead developer/creator of Eden)
• MithrilMods (behind amazing magnetic buttons/d-pads/grips on etsy)
• Kitsabble Creations (who created Pokémon-themed decal front skins for the AYN Thors, also on etsy)
• MagiGamer (whose custom-made buttons are the prettiest damn thing ever made)

Plus a few other community creators and accessory makers.

(Jiayu, one of the replacement button creators I chat to in this article, and her work!)

(as is tradition, my cat and my handheld of focus for the article)

I talked to them all about the software ecosystem, dual-screen development, Japanese games and translation, emulation on the Snapdragon 865, custom grips and controls, handmade buttons, skins, and all the other ways people have taken AYN's hardware and made it their own. My focus for this whole article was how AYN released a near-perfect handheld, but the community around it has now taken it and run with it.

I hope some in here enjoy this, at least to hear from some of the people behind the programs and projects you might know and love :)

It uses the same chip and display as the RG34XXSP, and it looks like the only functional differences are all downsides. You don't get sticks and the screen is also a bit dimmer/less saturated, despite on paper being the same spec, and there is also less RAM. Being a newer device, it's also more expensive too.

The other differences seem to be aesthetic, the metallicy finish is neat, but the colours are not nearly as interesting as the GC purple, Pikachu yellow, or deep blue. You also have less forehead in favour of a chin as well.

It's kind of neat if you want an alternative with no sticks, but the higher price for an effectively identical product isn't great.

For context: I have basically 0 experience with anything pre-PS2 except that I had a PS1 as a kid with a few games. Never had an official gaming handheld console, Gameboy, DS, PSP or anything like that.

I've recently started playing the GBA game Crash Bandicoot 2 N-Tranced on my R36S (Chinese low end emulator handheld) that was collecting dust and wow, the game boots up blazing fast!

It's very convenient as I don't want to leave the thing on sleep mode, as that drains battery.

Is this how it was like on the real console too and how were the loading times on the previous Gameboy and Gameboy Color? How about the NES and NES? Were the handhelds more optimized to be picked up on the go: were the PSP loading times short too?

I remember having to wait quite a while on the PS1 and PS2 and that is still a thing on an emulator on an actual gaming pc while this 27€ handheld boots GBA games so so fast.

I'm replaying A Link to the Past (or as I've taken to calling it, Zelda III), and I've tried to 100% it from memory. Unfortunately, I wound up one heart piece short.

Before going to look up a guide and going through that checklist, I thought it might be fun to ask fellow humans.

What are some collectibles in this game or any others that you tend to miss, or just had trouble finding initially?

I'm really happy with this thing. I was considering getting the RG SP but it was a solid $20-30 more expensive, since it's the newest model. Meanwhile, good offers were being made for the 34XX-SP which is basically the same device.

Initial impressions:

• The yellow model looks great IRL. It's less saturated than in the picture.
• 4:3 games are really not that small on the screen, the bezels aren't an issue like everyone says they are.
• Controls are great, they're clicky but not annoying or loud. The bumpers are way better than the ones in the RG35XX-H. I'm surprised how much I love the thin D-pad. The only thing I actively dislike is how loud the function button is.

I had the luck to stumble across Swiff recently, a project that brings Flash games back to modern Android devices, and its developer NaviVani was kind enough to let me interview her for both this piece and an upcoming article.

Swiff is a really interesting project for anyone who grew up with Flash games, but also for those who never got to experience that super weird but also super creative era of the internet. In my interview, we talk about NaviVani's own history with Flash games, the challenges of preserving and running them today, the retro handheld community, her love of the RG Rotate, and where she hopes to take Swiff in the future.

If you have any fond memories of Flash games, or just want to discover some of what the old web had to offer, I think you'll enjoy this one :)

He's a Nintendo fan... At a Nintendo game? How does that work? He sees Mario at the streets and goes "Holy crap, it's Mario!"?

Dragon Hopper is every bit as good as I always imagined it would be, and Zero Racers is great to have too!

Sharing because Kayin's talk about achievements made me think about why do I even accept them in games at all so I disabled them in Steam (the only way to do this is by disabling the whole overlay =_=) and found that I don't miss them at all.

What's you opinion on RetroAchievements, and achievements in general?

Review for Secret of Mana on Super Nintendo from Super Play 15 - January 1994 (UK)

This issue can be found here:
https://www.outofprintarchive.com/catalogue/superplay.html

#retroGaming #Nintendo #SNES

Context: Working Designs was a studio that localized several Japanese games for western markets in the 1990s. Besides translation, they would often increase the difficulty of the games they translated

Pleasantly surprised by Chopper Command, I will definitely putting in some time on that one.