Odroid-Go Super: $80 Games Console That Looks Like a Switch, but Runs Ubuntu

I remember my first introduction to the hacking scene was installing custom firmware on the PSP. It allowed over clocking the processor to 333mhz which made god of war run smoothly

At $80, and likely an ARM processor, emulators have a larger game library. Wine doesn't work on ARM, and there are relatively few open-source games that stand out.

I couldn’t find the exact specs in the post, but it’s most likely unable to run Steam because of the processor in use. If you’re not familiar the screen shots are of a very popular emulation front-end called Emulation Station.

Related, a few years back I got in the hobby of building Raspberry Pi (Zero, 3, and 4) into Gameboy (original gen 1) shells. Economies of scale sure are nice, because even the raw materials for building one cost me more than $80.

EDIT: I found the specs (or someone quoting specs) and it looks like it is comparable to Raspberry Pi Zero and does not have wireless. That would make things like Steamlink a non-starter.

> Why not show off more legitimate ways of playing games on it?

While emulation gets a bad rap because of rampant piracy involved with it for most people, it's the piracy that makes it illegitimate and not emulation itself. There's nothing about emulation that requires piracy - e.g. Nintendo Switch Online has NES and SNES emulation without piracy. You can also dump cartridges [1] or buy legal ROMs [2] to play on this Odroid [3].

I understand the confusion, but please do be careful to speak about piracy when you mean to speak about piracy. Emulation is a technically interesting exercise that allows for the preservation and transformation of old video games.

[1]: https://www.retrode.org/about/

[2]: e.g. https://lesateliersphv.ca/en/extracting-roms-from-sega-mega-...

[3]: You might argue: "but few people actually do this". And you'd be right. Piracy for old game systems is just far more convenient. But that still makes piracy piracy and emulation emulation.

I agree— I have a PowKiddy RGB10 (knockoff of the previous generation, Odroid Go Advance), and it's wildly capable hardware, but the only native ports are either games that have been open sourced (Quake, Doom series) or have modern SDL recreations. Even running DOSBox is dubious because so much software of that era (even stuff like point and click adventures) just assumed a keyboard would be present for occasional but critically-needed use such as inputting the name of your save file. It wasn't until Steam Big Picture that there was any serious expectation of PC games being solely controllable from a gamepad. Basically you're stuck making up per-title keyboard mappings, and that sucks.

Anyway, the marketplace issue is a bootstrapping problem. None of the companies making these are set up to support an ecosystem of legitimate software delivery, and now the culture that's built up around them treats the availability of thousands of classic game ROMs as being part of the value proposition. So even if you were to try to start, it would be a challenge to break out of that and persuade owners of them not to pirate your lovingly ported indie games when they can play the entire SNES, Genesis, and GBA libraries for "free".

One final barrier is that although some do, many of these devices don't include internal wifi, I assume due to certification hassles. Instead a USB host port is included into which you plug a compact dongle. So this further complicates any delivery/DRM schemes, if you have to provide a system image with support for many possible wireless dongles, and perhaps some kind of offline-transfer scheme for those without a dongle or who don't want to use one.

All in all, it's a tough nut to crack; I'm not surprised no one has tried. The closest thing is probably Panic's Playdate, and they went with their own hardware, with much-reduced specs and a gimmicky crank, but at least having end-to-end control.

Emulation is legitimate.

To be fair, Hardkernel is actually really good about making their products hackable and making what they do open.

This model grew out of the original GO, based on ESP32. Look at how they've left GPIO accessible, offered a mini keyboard (no longer visible on the site) to slot into the GO and provided loads of examples and project ideas [1].

That makes sense when you're stretching the limits of very modest hardware. The difference is that the SoC powering the Advanced and this new variant is powerful enough for Linux distributions.

So I'd say the spirit is in the right place - they're not just smashing out cheap crap preloaded with copyrighted material. But this is their most "finished" gaming specific product, so they're not much point showing other things it is capable of. Are there really much in the way of legitimate Linux games which can be demonstrated to run on the hardware?

[1] https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-go/

Also, are we in a place where there are solid handhelds that can play n64 games well?

I remember Goldeneye always seemed to be a problem on them

An inexpensive and/or used Android phone paired with an attachable or BT gamepad.

I'd suggest checking out /r/SBCGaming/ (Single Board Computer Gaming) on Reddit to do some research:

https://www.reddit.com/r/SBCGaming/

I just bought a retroid and I like it. The hardware feels nice to hold and buttons works well. The software is just android 6, but I ready it can be upgraded to android 8. It comes with an app that, if you install, it runs an app on startup w/ many emulators and roms loaded. Its a bit underpowered for playstation but it could run games. It has a good community too

It's Chinese to security may be a concern, but you can run offline.

https://www.goretroid.com/

Check Taki Udon (https://www.youtube.com/c/TakiUdon/videos), it's a YT channel that reviews all those retro consoles.

Quick note: NDS will be tough to emulate on these low power hand helds, plus the dual screen to 1 screen will be awkward

I don't know, I think this is it.

I've played with a Raspberry Pi running RetroPie emulator that emulates most (all?) of the above. I could add batteries, a small display, build in controllers ... but you would have the Odroid essentially.

I have a RG350M and have been extremely happy with it. if it's too expensive, then the plastic-cased version of the same console is the 350P

The 3DS (especially if you can pick up a used one) is actually an excellent choice for access to almost all of Nintendo's handheld library after installing the custom firmware hack. DS and 3DS games are supported via cartridges and the rest can be found by installing the .cia files. I haven't tried NES and SNES games, but it runs GBA and GB games great.

IDK about DS, but a classic PSP (1000/2000/3000) with a modded firmware handles the others just fine, along with PSP/PS1 games. Think I might have played n64 on mine?

Has a replaceable battery, too.

For that list of systems, the Nintendo New 2/3DS models are probably the best choice. They require some softmodding [1], but after that can natively play DS [2] and GBA [3] [4]. The New 3DS also has great emulators available for NES, SNES and Game Boy [5], and has native ports of a few Nintendo 64 games. Being mass market devices, their build quality and QA are much superior to cheap Chinese devices or DIY Korean ones, and they're also widely and cheaply available on the second hand market in most western countries.

[1]: https://3ds.hacks.guide

[2]: Directly from the cartridge slot or using Twilight Menu https://github.com/DS-Homebrew/TWiLightMenu

[3]: Using "Virtual Console injects", see: https://3ds.eiphax.tech/nsui . Virtual Console injects for the other systems on your list will also work, they will then run in Nintendo's own emulators for those systems.

[4]: Just be sure to hold start/select when launching DS or GBA games to avoid bad quality upscaling and run them at pixel accurate native resolution.

[5]: bubble2k16's emulators can play pretty much anything on >New< 3DS models, use mGBA for Game Boy: https://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/List_of_3DS_homebrew_emulators

I got the rg280v because it's incredibly portable. I'm not sure about the battery life because I never want to play for more than a few hours at a time, but I haven't had problems. I would expect, though, that they're all built for you to go in with solder if you want to replace a battery. https://maya.land/rg280v/

The PS Vita is by far the best hardware for this if you can find a good used one.

It's not quite what you're asking for, but I looked into something like that for a while and didn't really find any I liked and wanted to carry around with me, so I ended up just installing retroarch on my phone and bringing along an 8bitdo sn30 controller.

I don't have a high end phone or anything but it's capable of playing everything up to the DS pretty well. I even got metroid prime to boot up on dolphin...though the framerate was far too low to play.

The sn30's pretty light and easy to carry around and feels pretty darn close to an actual snes controller. Battery life's pretty decent too.

DS Lite, with something like a SuperCard [0] (or whatever is being sold these days).

DS Lite directly supports both DS and GBA cartridges, has great battery life, and its battery can be easily replaced. And I love its form factor, folds nicely compact.

A micro SD card mounted in the SuperCard can be loaded with good emulators for NES, SNES, GB, Sega, and probably others. It's plug-and-play, no hacking of the DS Lite necessary.

[0] http://www.eng.supercard.sc

I have an older Bitt Boy in GB-like shell and it works quite well, it struggles a little with SNES. The battery is swappable but you'll get few hours out of it. Charges from micro USB.

https://bittboy.com/

(a good enough newish) Android phone, I'd say Poco M3 is the best budget choice ($130) and it's a perfect emulator https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=318&v=3rHHikNnjYQ&feature=yo...

Retroarch and Citra

Xbox wireless controller

Optionally this holder: https://www.amazon.com/PowerA-Moga-Mobile-Gaming-Wireless-Co...

I use a setup like this and can play everything perfectly pretty much

That guy's channel is great if you're in the market for a handheld or SFF PC for emulation or PC gaming. He does in-depth reviews like this of pretty much all of them that come out.

Same here, love it!

Wow, I can't believe it first came out 15 years ago. How is it holding up?

RG351P does look nice.

In the end, I just fall victim to no time for emulation, though picking up a Vita would be nice...

Would that not be the pinephone with the planned keyboard back cover?

I mean, hardware-wise, aren't most recent consoles general purpose computing devices, with game-optimized hardware controls anyway? For example, the Switch is a modified Nvidia tablet chip.

If you set up your PC with a joystick and no keyboard/mouse...

Eh, it's splitting hairs. Is the Pippin a game console? Is the CD-I? Is the OUYA? Is a PS2 still a game console if you boot Linux? Is a Gameboy with the Workboy keyboard still a game console?

All consoles are at the end of the day general-purpose computers. You're just arbitrarily locked out of using the machine you bought and paid for to run whatever you like.

Just get an android phone and a gamepad.