Hey y’all. First post on Lemmy!
I want to go back and play my favorite GameBoy games, and want to find the best way to do this on a handheld device. I have lots of cartridges, but ROM support would be nice! I’ve looked at Steamdeck but I’m not sold on it yet… the Analogue Pocket looks lush but expensive. The Miyoo Mini Plus looks promising, and the RG353V almost looks too good to be true. I specifically want to play GameBoy and GameBoy Color games, bonus points if it can do GameBoy Advance.
What say y’all?
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I’m surprised no one mentioned the Analogue Pocket, especially if you had cartridges. It does have support for ROMs as well. One of the best features is that you can sleep your device on even original cartridges
After a long time of going to the Analogue website and looking at the Pocket, I ended up ordering one. I usually play on my GBA, but the Analogue Pocket is really promising as the best device to play the original GB/GBC/GBA cartridges!
100% If you have the money and the patience to wait for them to ship, the Analogue Pocket is amazing. Feels good, looks good, great screen - and plays awesome.
was gonna come here to say this!
Oooh being able to sleep the device mid-game is pretty nice. I’ve been putting off buying a Pocket cause it’s a more expensive option, and rarely seems to be in stock when I’m hankering to buy one.
I’ve wanted one of these for a while but don’t do much mobile gaming so it’s hard to justify the purchase. I do, however, have a SuperNT and love it. They make great products.
Biggest downtime is shipping is one year.
I find playing Nintendo games is always best on Nintendo systems. I use a hacked 3ds for all my handheld games including Gameboy, a hacked Wii U for Gamecube, Wii, and Wii U games, and a hacked Switch for everything else.
I do the exact same with my 3DS. I have at least 15 GB of emulated games.
I didn’t consider using newer Nintendo hardware to play these old games. They definitely have “that feel” to the controls. Any good websites to check out or keywords to search for to help figure this out?
If you want to use a 3ds check out this guide Then search for “gameboy on 3ds” on google. mGBA, Injection and open agb firm should come up. gbatemp is a good ressource.
Yup, that’s definitely the way to do it. That guide is the most comprehensive, and most noob-friendly for 3ds hacking.
If you decide to go the 3DS route and you already have one, make sure to not let it connect to wifi before you hack it. The final update Nintendo released not too long ago disables the ability to jailbreak.
Yeah I wanna mod a game and watch for that reason.
Miyoo Mini plus and Ambernic RG35xx are probably what you want. I have these two devices and the 353V, all three are quite nice but the MM+ and RG35xx are better to your needs and are probably better for beginners.
Personally I would go for the MM+. Definitely install OnionOS if you get a MM+ or GarlicOS if you go for thr 35xx. (JELOS is my pick for the 353V) These custom firmwares are far more polished and have more performance than the default OS and have tons of great features and community applications.
The PowKiddy Pocket 90 is fantastic, plays 16 bit and older games very smoothly, and has the nice clamshell design of the Gameboy SP, making it very practical for actually carrying in a pocket.
The one drawback is it gets unstable when the battery is low. But being aware of this issue helps.
All Gameboy Advances play GB, GBC, and GBA. The best GBA is the SP model AG-101 which has a factory backlight screen. However, there are tons of modifications available for Gameboys out there. I say get a used GBA and go to https://www.retromodding.com/ and go to town on it. Customize it the way you want
For ROMs only, the absolute best way to play is to get a Nintendo 3DS or 2DS and install home brew software. And as a bonus you can play the entire DS and 3DS library as well.
FYI the Nintendo DS can play GBA games, but it does not support GB or GBC.
I know you said you wanted handheld, but for anyone else reading my absolute favorite way to play is with a Gamecube and a Gameboy Player! It actually plays all GB, GBC, and GBA games! Gameboy Players can be cheap, but the boot disc is expensive. To get around this there is home brew software for the Gameboy Player that is very good, although I haven’t tried it myself. To use it you need an Action Replay and a cheap SD card to GC memory card adapter. The software will boot the Action Replay first, then boot whatever is on the SD card. (I bet there are ways to load roms too but I haven’t looked). I play with a Raphnet SNES to Gamecube adapter.
Every handheld made in the past few years plays GB/GBC/GBA at 100%.
Except the Playdate, which can’t come close to full speed even with the original GB.
Or just grab a flashcard for a Gameboy Advance/Color. Preferably with a backlight modded screen.
Yeah I bought an R4 card for the 3DS I already owned, for this purpose. Works like a charm, and as an added bonus I can also play NDS games on it. Didn’t even have to homebrew the 3ds (although with the online services shutting down I guess there’s not much stopping you from doing so anymore).
I love my little rg35xx !
GB emulation is one of the lightest, so you are drowning in choices. YouTube channel Retro Game Corps has a number of great videos and comparisons for both high and low end emu devices. Check one of their buying guides, it may give you good ideas! https://youtube.com/@RetroGameCorps
A huge recommendation for the RG35XX. I got a the grey one and a DMG style skin from Sakura Retro Modding on Etsy and it’s perfect for what I wanted. Finding some decent overlays for the dot matrix grid is easy, and it all plays perfectly.
If you have an Android device: Get the Gamesir X2 Pro. It turns your phone into a Switch-like device. It even has a USB-C connection, so there’s no input lag. I love this thing!
I would either use a hacked Switch, or a Steam Deck. What about the Deck isn’t selling you? It’s a wonderful emulation machine, although definitely a bit pricey if that’s going to be the majority of your usage
IMHO with an average Android phone and a 20/30$ gamepad, is your best bet. I use an Ipega Red Spider and I love it!
I bought a gameboy color and a EZFlash cart and can play any GB or GBC games on it.
My one was pre-modded with an IPS screen but I have also modded one myself and it wasn’t overly difficult.
There’s something about playing on an original Nintendo machine lol
I use a steam deck personally. It can play retro and modern games.
