PerfectDark

The WipEout Game You Had to Buy a Movie to Play I stumbled across this while looking through old PSP physical releases and ended up going down a bit of a rabbit hole. In 2005, Sony released a version of the movie Stealth on UMD that also had a playable, exclusive version of WipEout Pure on the same disc, complete with a Stealth-themed track and a craft based on the film’s fighter jet. I ended up writing a little piece about what was on the UMD, why Sony was experimenting with movie/game hybrids at the time, and what survives of this very strange release today. It is a super light little read, but when it comes to PSP’s these days, there’s woefully few of those! Hopefully some in here find it amusing :)

The Anbernic RG DS Plus Is The Best DS Handheld Yet I’ve just published my time with the Anbernic RG DS Plus, the bulk of this is the usual review things, but of some note was that I got to chat directly with Anbernic about the device and their take on it: why they revisited the original RG DS, the new NNDDSS emulator and some of the design decisions behind the Plus. The RG DS Plus itself is Anbernic’s second iteration of making a NDS-focused retro handheld. I love this one so much. I also spoke with the devs behind Cocoon, who are working on bringing Cocoon (a super 3DS-ish front-end/launcher for dual screen handhelds) to the RG DS Plus very soon. Just a bit of a chance to look a little beyond the hardware itself and at what this could mean for dual-screen Linux handhelds going forward, Cocoon for the DS Plus isn’t far off now (they’re moving from being Android-only to both Android and Linux!) If you’re interested in the RG DS Plus, DS emulation or where these weird little dual-screen handhelds are heading, you might like this one!

The Anbernic RG DS Plus Is The Best DS Handheld Yet

Leaf Developers Geekstrada and Helaas: The Full Interview This is my full interview with Geekstrada and Helaas, the two developers behind Leaf, the custom firmware for the MINILOONG Pocket 1 (which you might have seen Russ cover a couple of weeks back with a video, if you’re into the retro handheld scene). We chat about how they came together, why Leaf exists, the thinking behind its development, the Colorway Studio you might have used when buying Retroid’s Nova, and the community growing around the project. It’s a long one, but there’s plenty in here about the people, ideas and tinkering behind Leaf. I know these kind of interviews can be a little niche, but I think that so often people use these apps, programs, projects and builds without knowing the people behind them. I think I’m up to over 60 interviews now, so this is my tiny project of remedying that. Hope some enjoy it :)

They’re super different handhelds, despite being ostensibly the same thing! I have two of the Thors from AYN. One is the Thor Pro they sent me back before release to review, the other is the low-end entry model, the Thor Lite. And to me they perfectly nail the 3DS requirements. Obviously you can run DS games to your heart’s content as well, even the Lite model has more than enough power to run them. The DS Plus has the advantage of two screens matching size (the original DS had the same size top and bottom screen), and the resolution is exactly 4x that original size. So (this isn’t upscaling), what you get is 4x ‘integer scaling’. It will present the pixels perfectly! The Thor Pro will run anything from Switch to the WiiU, PS3, PC game emulation, 3DS upscaled like you wouldn’t believe. But it is designed to be wonderful at everything, and has a price to match that. The DS Plus is super affordable and perfect with DS games. The included stylus you store in the body is the icing on the cake to me! Power? Upscaling? Emulating any and all systems? AYN’s Thor. DS? Older low performance systems like PSX, GBA, SNES and so on? DS Plus.

I’m not entirely sure if it is the exactly same gap size, but the screens do match with the action. The best example is Sonic (Rush, I think it is called?). The action matches sync on both screens, there’s no Hz misalignment as we saw on the RG DS back last year before release (and the patch which fixed it!)

I *know* it is just a headline, and it is a good one. But I still want to slip in here to say that RetroDECK was actually released for Steam Deck a few weeks before EmuDeck.

Maybe it is finally time for open-source(ish) dating to make an impact!

(It won't. I tried it a couple years back and it is a ghost town!)

Thank you! That is such a nice comment to read :) I don’t have one of Miniloong’s either, but this duo’s infectious enthusiasm really has me considering it. Really glad you enjoyed reading along, you’re who these articles and interviews are for :)

I’m almost ashamed to admit that I just bought Hackers (1995) for $45.00 AUD a few days ago. Almost, but not entirely.

This is a deceptively ‘easy’ one to answer. I spent a few years exclusively covering the Steam Deck. It was my travel handheld until I got into retro handhelds (and then since then…reviewing them!). Carrying something like this around is a breeze. While it is bigger than the original RG DS, it is inherently portable (and protects its own screens by design, too!) The question is what kind of systems you want to emulate? DS & 3DS? PS2/Game Cube and below? Switch? If you want to relive the 3DS and DS libraries, you’ll need a far more expensive AYN Thor. Or even Retroid’s newly launching Pocket Duo handhelds - which will be on the way to me to review shortly! But if you just want to enjoy literally thousands of Nintendo DS games, some 3DS, PlayStation, GB, GBC, GBA and more…then the RG DS Plus is for you! I really, really love this DS Plus, it feels ‘right’ to me, it really is like if Nintendo took another swing at these. I’m testing some custom firmware for it now, called GammaOS (he just released it a day or so back, and has updated it thrice since then!), so you’ve got options. If you want to ask me anything about any retro handheld though, I’m on Discord with a username of perfecteddark if you need any advice!

You can check the size comparison with the DSi / DSi XL with this website here: retrocatalog.com/compare/…/dsi-xl But systems like Genesis and SNES are a breeze for this one. It is a bit bigger, so I suppose that depends on your pocket size! Jacket pocket? Yes! Jeans pocket? Probably not!