Must buy: Pocket ROM emulator

[Jormungandr]

Just saw this on ThinkGeek: Pocket Retro Game Emulator

How cool is that? Runs a good assortment of systems as well as music/video, and blowjobs. And 4 GB of space. And save states. Damn, if it only wasn't $100.

My SNES is kaput, so something like this makes me happy.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Sounds nice, but does it run the emulation flawlessly? I can do the same thing with my PSP but it lags a fair bit unless I disable the sound. Of course, I can turn on frameskipping to compensate for that, which is a nice feature they never mentioned in their writeup, so I'm guessing it can't frameskip. They also don't say anything about the hardware specs, and for 100$, I kind of doubt it's pushing anything powerful, so it's either going to be a shitty emulator for a lot of games, or shitty at media playing aside from games. (Or possibly both.)

 

[Silellak]

Sounds nice, but does it run the emulation flawlessly? I can do the same thing with my PSP but it lags a fair bit unless I disable the sound. Of course, I can turn on frameskipping to compensate for that, which is a nice feature they never mentioned in their writeup, so I'm guessing it can't frameskip. They also don't say anything about the hardware specs, and for 100$, I kind of doubt it's pushing anything powerful, so it's either going to be a shitty emulator for a lot of games, or shitty at media playing aside from games. (Or possibly both.)

I'm in the same boat. My PSP can run ROMs, but I'm less than pleased with the quality at times. Amusing that the SNES emulator struggles, but PS1 emulation is flawless.

I can't seem to find any user reviews of that Pocket Retro Game Emulator, but if it works, I might just have to indulge. The convenience of being able to just "copy and go" is worth the price for me.

 

[Rhalle]

Can it do MAME?

If it can, count me in for one.

 

[Stabwound]

Damn, $100 is a pretty cheap price.

Anyway, I can find hardly any actual reviews or footage of the thing, save from one crappy video on youtube. The SNES emulator looked pretty sloppy from the video, but it could have just been because it's a youtube video.

At any rate a PSP with custom firmware is a lot better than this thing, considering it can emulate pretty much everything up to and including GBA/PSX and has a screen that's about 50% bigger. The SNES emulator does, however, choke on certain games which I'm sure this little device does as well.

 

[Dire Roach]

If it doesn't have a manual frame skip/fast forward option, it's worthless.

 

[AlaCarcuss]

If you think that's cool - have a look at this baby:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandora_(console)

I tried to get a pre-order in, but was too late. They sold out in less than 24hrs. Theres more on the way though, as they ramp up production.

Hmm, link didn't work - cut and paste I guess

http://openpandora.org/

 

[rpgcodexusername]

the ds can emulate the spectrum

 

[mondblut]

They should someday make a DOS-based handheld. How hard would it be to produce a modern miniature hardware 100% compatible with 486 architecture?

 

[Trojan_generic]

They should someday make a DOS-based handheld. How hard would it be to produce a modern miniature hardware 100% compatible with 486 architecture?

There is already PocketDos (http://pocketdos.com/) that you can use with a Pocket PC or a smartphone. But at least on my 2-yr old smartphone it does not reach the performance of a 486, I would say it is on par with a 386DX. Unfortunately here these phones cost 250 euros and up. But it plays at least SSI Gold Box series, Civ1 and MOO1.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Kinda cool, but for the price it almost seems worth it just to spend a bit more and get a DS Lite and one of those piracy carts. That way you can do GBA and DS games, and then I'm pretty sure there are emulators for it as well.

 

[baronjohn]

Wowzers, now I can replay all those shitty games from yesteryear anywhere instead of paying attention to what's going on around me or simply enjoying a moment of peaceful reflection.

The wonders of modernity!

 

[Lockkaliber]

Kinda cool, but for the price it almost seems worth it just to spend a bit more and get a DS Lite and one of those piracy carts. That way you can do GBA and DS games, and then I'm pretty sure there are emulators for it as well.

I carry with me the entire gameboy catalogue, a hundred gba games and 70~ ds games all the time. There are SNES, Mega Drive and arcade emulators as well. I even think some people have made Doom and Heretic work on the DS. A pretty good handheld setup imo.

 

[Trojan_generic]

Kinda cool, but for the price it almost seems worth it just to spend a bit more and get a DS Lite and one of those piracy carts. That way you can do GBA and DS games, and then I'm pretty sure there are emulators for it as well.

Well, I was thinking of getting a DS as well, but then I now have to carry only my phone with me, which I would do anyway. But it is not worth buying a smartphone just for gaming; however, you get a phone with Internet + e-mail and WinCE applications as well.

 

[mahdi]

I did some research and found out some facts about this thing.

1. "Pocket Retro Game Emulator" is not its real name, it's called a Dingoo A320.
2. ThinkGeek is merely a reseller with a $20 markup.
3. Various Chinese import websites sell it cheaper.
4. The SNES emulator is indeed shit.

Do a search for Dingoo A320, there are a lot of reviews and youtube videos.

 

[Jormungandr]

I did some research and found out some facts about this thing.

1. "Pocket Retro Game Emulator" is not its real name, it's called a Dingoo A320.
2. ThinkGeek is merely a reseller with a $20 markup.
3. Various Chinese import websites sell it cheaper.
4. The SNES emulator is indeed shit.

Do a search for Dingoo A320, there are a lot of reviews and youtube videos.

Ah, that's disappointing. Oh well. Maybe I'll look into the DS cart thing.

 

[mondblut]

There is already PocketDos (http://pocketdos.com/) that you can use with a Pocket PC or a smartphone. But at least on my 2-yr old smartphone it does not reach the performance of a 486, I would say it is on par with a 386DX. Unfortunately here these phones cost 250 euros and up. But it plays at least SSI Gold Box series, Civ1 and MOO1.

Emulation is a different thing. Hey, there are even DOSbox ports for various handhelds in different stages of decomposition uncompletion. First, they never work 100% like original, even with all computing power of modern PCs (stuttering sound is very common, f/ex), second, having to have an $500 PDA with a computing power of a full-fledged 3 years old desktop to run games originally programmed for a computing power of a modern electric teapot kinda defeats the purpose. No, what I mean is hardware-level compatibility. Kinda like modern and tiny PSP hardware is backward-compatible with old and large PSX hardware. A 486 equivalent processor, DOS clone for operating system, VESA (or even plain old VGA) video chip, stuff like that. If someone could produce it cheaply enough, he would make a fortune. Or not?

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

The DS SNES (etc) emulators are generally shit, don't bother with those.