Vapourware retro handhelds / SBCs?

[agris]

I've been looking at these as a solution to play old amiga, atari and commodore games as well as some old console stuff. It seems like there's a lot of poorly made trash systems for sale, and that (no surprise) the quality of the software support for a specific hardware set is really what makes them shine.

There's broadly two worlds of these from my naive point of view: those that run Linux and those that run Android.

Some Linux examples:

Linux systems

RG351MP

Powkiddy Max 2

Both of those systems use the same RK3326 chipset, so the differentiator (to my mind) is the screen size/resolution, the quality of the button, and that the Anbernic does not have built-in WiFi or Bluetooth. The Anbernic system is much more popular and the software support is more robust.

RG351V

Some Android examples:

android systems

Retroid Pocket 2+

Powkiddy X18S

Then there is Analogue, who is selling higher build quality items with their own custom software that people can crack open and install their own stuff onto. The most famous one isn't even out yet, you could call it vapourware.

Analogue FPGA

Analogue Pocket

Anyone have experience playing old (mid 90s or earlier) CRPGs on these? I'm a bit concerned about handling m+kb emulation, but some old dungeon crawlers may play well on them b/c of the type of interface.

I bought a linux-based Powkiddy Max 2, it hasn't come in yet but the software support looks to be a bit of a dumpster fire. The audience for these appears to be zoomers or millenials who want to be zoomers, so the documentation is piss-poor and spread out over discord. I can't find dedicated forums to mine for info, like any self-respecting lurker would do to educate themselves.

Between ArkOS, RetroArch, EmuELEC, OpenDingUX and RetroOZ - it's not clear to me what firmware will play best with my hardware but we will see.

 

[agris]

On terminolgy you're mixing things up a bit.

Thanks for the detailed reply, I certainly was.

One reason I didn't go with an Android system is that Android seems like a lot of overhead for a dedicated emulator. Maybe I'll end up regretting my decision.

Do you have any experience emulating early to mid 90s CRPGs on your handhelds? As I mentioned in my OP, I'm a bit worried about how the kb+m emulation will shake out with the limited input options, but I think as long as I can setup right-analogue to be mouse emulation and the game had a decent-enough mouse driven UI, I should be ok. One of the first sets of games I'll probably evaluate are SSI gold box, ravenloft, or even dungeon master. Old blobbers seem like they would take well this form factor.

edit:

Your RGB10 Max 2 is a shell revision of the first RGB10 Max, meaning the internals are identical and custom firmwares work identically on each.

Also, critically, the buttons are new. I understand the feel of the dpad and triggers in the max1 was not great, the max 2 buttons are supposed to be much better. We will see how well it fits my large american hands.