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Comment by ninetyninenine | Hacker News Reader

Anybody recommend the best (anecdotally) device to run this on?

I have a steam deck but I want something smaller and less power hungry for retro emulation but can run everything.

I have an anbernic rg35xx h - it's a great device; totally recommend it. It plays games up to ps1 with easy, it also works good in most psp games, maybe with a little frameskip on more resource intensive games.

Very good controllers and firm design. Great value for its price!

I have an Anbernic RG35xx too - another cool thing alongside the emulators is that it runs Pico-8, which is pretty cool on a little physical gameboy-esque device.

I've got a few from PowKiddy. They're all based on the Rockchip RK3566 SoC.

There are some other chips coming out that have decent Linux support too, but the majority of devices will have that one still.

You've got more than one? What's the reason for multiple devices all based on the same generation of SoC?

They're fun little tinker devices, cheap enough that you can get multiple and play around with different form factors or loan out to friends

The Anbernic RG35XX lineup are all good devices that are fairly budget friendly ($40-80 depending on sales and where you buy from). They all share very similar specs, just different layouts and controls. I'm partial to the RG35XX SP's clam shell form-factor, but other people like the RG35XX Plus that's akin to a gameboy color layout (but smaller) or the RG35XX H that's similar to a nintendo switch lite layout, including joysticks (but smaller). They can handle PS1 and older without any issues, plus some Dreamcast and N64 games.

On the higher end ($300-400), the Ayn Odin 2 is really the device to beat, although it's bigger, somewhere in between a Switch and a Steam Deck. It can handle some PS2, PSP, and even nintendo switch games - see https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XaPYEyTinKk7F2uTfgSD... for a community-sourced list of compatible games.

Retroid also has some nice higher end devices around $200-300. I have a Retroid Pocket 3+ that I really like, and while it's not compatible with Rocknix, some of their newer devices are.

Before making a purchase, check out the Retro Game Corps, he reviews prettymuch all of these devices and can help you narrow down what you want: https://retrogamecorps.com/ or https://www.youtube.com/c/retrogamecorps

What system do you want to emulate up to?

If most PS2 games and Gamecube games are good enough, you can grab an Odroid Go Ultra cheaply. It's what I used and suited my needs.

Keep SteamOS on your SteamDeck and come join the SBC debate and in https://old.reddit.com/r/SBCGaming/

First you need to define “everything”. It’s easy to get a device that runs every 2D retro game ever. But, moving up the 3D emulation ladder can move right past the SteamDeck into more power hungry devices.

Most RK3566-devices are a good bet. I have the Powkiddy RGB10 MAX 3 which runs Rocknix great.

The website has a page listing supported devices: https://rocknix.org/devices/

I am personally not familiar with any of the names there.

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