Last updated: 03JUL2021
The GKD Mini is an impressive little device, with some unfortunate caveats. Let’s dive into my review of the device, and some tips to get the most out of your experience.
Continue reading “GKD Mini Review and Starter Guide”
Over 50% of the US phone market share comes from the iPhone, but it is rarely seen as a gaming device. In this video, let’s look at standalone games, Apple Arcade, and how to use streaming to transform your iPhone into a gaming handheld with some help from the BACKBONE ONE controller.
This is the first of two videos. In the next video, we’ll focus on retro game emulation and sideloading your own apps.
Continue reading “Review: iPhone as a Gaming Handheld”
In today’s video we will swap out the buttons on each PowKiddy RGB10 Max model for a cool effect. Even better, PowKiddy even sells the “panda” mod version already! We’ll also fix the screen lifting issue, and try out some CPU heatsinks.
Buy the RGB10 Max
Spare buttons and case
Copper shim heatsinks
B7000 glue
iFixit toolkit
Last updated: 07AUG2021 (see Changelog for details)
The GameForce Chi shouldn’t exist — its design is garish, it runs the agin RK3326 chipset, and it looks like it traveled through time from the 1990s to reach us here in the 2020s. But somehow, it all seems to work out in the end. So in this guide I’ll show you how to set the device up, some tips and tricks, as well as a teardown video.
Continue reading “GameForce Chi Guide”
Last updated: 29MAY2021 (see Changelog for details)
The sixth generation of video game consoles, which included the PS2, Nintendo Gamecube, Xbox, and Sega Dreamcast, was a transformative period for both gaming and televisions. Standard (4:3 aspect) TVs were eventually replaced by widescreen (16:9) aspect ratio displays during this time, and many console accommodated this shift. A few Dreamcast games, such as Rayman 2, natively supported widescreen televisions upon release — all you have to do is go into the game settings and change it to 16:9 instead of 4:3. Most other games were natively scaled to 4:3, but many 3D titles on the Dreamcast can be altered to stretch into anamorphic widescreen. This is possible because these games render the 3D environment beyond the 4:3 displayed on a typical TV, and through various hacks we can unlock widescreen Dreamcast for over 100 titles.
These instructions are primarily written for the RetroOZ firmware on the ODROID Go Super or RGB10 Max in particular, since it has a lovely 16:9 screen, but the RetroArch widescreen hack cheats can be implemented in other firmwares such as EmuELEC, ArkOS, and 351ELEC for RG351P/M devices (or other devices with screens wider than 4:3). There are three basic methods:
So after a brief hiatus, the 351ELEC team has now reformed, and they already have an update for their custom firmware on the Anbernic RG351P, RG351M, and RG351V devices. Let’s check out the new updates!
Continue reading “351ELEC REBORN — It’s Back!”
Last updated: 30NOV2021 (see Changelog for details)
UPDATE: PortMaster has recently created a one-stop shop for all things related to running ports on retro handhelds. I recommend checking out their website and my most recent PortMaster guide instead of the guide below; I’m leaving this page up for posterity’s sake only. To get started, head over to their Games tab, find the game you want to run, and check out their instructions on that page. If you run into any issues, their discord server is also a great place to start.
Let’s figure out how to play Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove on various retro handheld devices. We will primarily focus the install guide on the RG351P and RG351M, but additional instructions for other RK3326 devices are also found below.
Anbernic RG351P (ArkOS final, TheRA, 351ELEC)
Anbernic RG351M (ArkOS final, TheRA, 351ELEC)
Anbernic RG351V (ArkOS, TheRA, 351ELEC)
Anbernic RG351MP (ArkOS, TheRA, 351ELEC)
PowKiddy RGB10 (ArkOS)
GameForce Chi (ArkOS)
RK2020 (ArkOS)
ODROID Go Advance (ArkOS)
ODROID Go Super (The RetroArena, RetroOZ)
PowKiddy RGB10 Max (The Retro Arena, RetroOZ)
I’ve been playing this game for a few days now and I really love it. It reminds me of a cross between the Duck Tales and Mega Man NES games, with some lite RPG elements. Fair warning, the games are pretty difficult, but there are cheat codes available if that’s your thing.
Big shoutout to developer JohnnyonFlame for getting this port up and running on these devices. He’s also the developer who made all of those awesome Super Mario 64 ports possible! If you have the means to do so, please consider donating a coffee to show your support for his work.
Continue reading “Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove on Retro Handheld Devices”
Last updated: 14APR2023
Today we’re going to check out how to take a cheap Android TV box and set it up as a dedicated gaming device. For less than $50, this machine is the best value you can find for retro gaming on your TV.
Continue reading “Review and Guide: HK1 Box”
Last updated: 02MAY2021
The ArkOS custom firmware final release has now arrived for the Anbernic RG351P and RG351M devices. Now that development has stopped for these platforms, here is a definitive guide to set up and tweak this powerful operating system to meet your needs.
Continue reading “Guide: ArkOS Final Release for RG351P and RG351M”
Last updated: 31JUL2024 (see Changelog for details)
This tutorial will show you how to safely and permanently jailbreak/mod your device so that you can run RetroArch or other emulators, plus load backups of your PS Vita, PSP, and PS1 games. Note this will work on any firmware version of PS Vita, up to and including 3.74.
This guide is intended for the PS Vita 1000 and PS Vita 2000 models. The PS TV setup is mostly the same, but there are some slight differences in the process; because I’ve never used a PS TV, I would recommend looking at the VitaHacks guide. This tutorial is written for Windows users, it is possible to jailbreak a Vita using Mac/Linux by following these instructions.
Note that each of these tutorials are written in a specific order. For example, you will need VitaShell installed to run certain tools, and so those instructions are found above the other tutorials. Long story short: if you just jump into a specific section and it references things you don’t understand (like VitaShell, or VPKs, etc.), then scroll up a bit to find those particular instructions.
Continue reading “Guide: PlayStation Vita”
Retro Game Corps 