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
this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2023
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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.
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.
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.
Biggest downtime is shipping is one year.
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.
Been really loving my Miyoo Mini Plus since OnionOS has retro achievements.
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.
In the same vein, there's the Super Game Boy for SNES. As well as the Japan-only Super Game Boy 2.
There are even some games that have custom color palettes and/or screen frames when played this way.
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've had some problems using Lemuroid on an Android device. I can save the game, but then there seems to be some chance for it to forget that the save existed. I am not sure what caused it -- there were no other issues with the phone, so my only guess is that maybe it has something to do with the phone shutting off the emulator to try to save battery? I never experimented with it enough to figure out what the cause was definitively.
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!
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.
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.
I love my little rg35xx !
I play GB, GBC and GBA games on my moded 3DS with TwilightMenu++.
I use a steam deck personally. It can play retro and modern games.
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.
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
The Switch and Steamdeck are too big for me. Maybe the Switch Lite would be an ok size? I'm not crazy about the horizontal layout with the controls on the sides of the screen, much prefer the GameBoy / GBA SP vertical design with the controls below the screen.
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
the question I would ask along these lines is which systems have a screen that can do a perfect integer upscale for GB games? so that the pixels are each doubled or quadrupled etc without ugly scaling issues.
Original GB/GBC resolution was 160x144, which you're just plain not going to find a perfect integer match for. You'll have to either settle for interpolation or black bars around all 4 sides. I guess the least-worst panel would be 1280x720, because at least that would perfectly fill the panel vertically at 5x integer scaling with just large pillarboxes.
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).
Powkiddy V90. It's got the GBA form factor, a good and same proportion screen. reasonable software and CFW support. Reasonably priced and a very easy to replace battery if it should be needed.
I'm currently playing the GBC game Oracle of Seasons on a PlayStation Vita. It can run everything up through N64 rather well.
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 have the miyoo mini and love it for casual always in my bag gaming. The plus might be better for longer playtime due to comfort. Miyoo is great because it has a pretty large community with customising to onion os for qol features.
am I allowed to suggest an handheld emulator? cause the Anbernic is awesome. it plays GBA, GB, and GBC games really well. N64 games are a crap shoot - like mine will run Super Mario really well but runs Majoras Mask poorly in town areas. mine also has loads of old arcade emulators and games
I enjoy a lot GB games on both my RG351v and the Miyoo Mini v2.
I think the Miyoo Mini plus would be ideal since I tend to go for the Anbernic one because of Retroachivements, and my Miyoo can't so those because of the lack of wifi antenna.
I really like my Retroid Pocket 2+ for all gens of Gameboy, Game Gear, NeoGeo Pocket, Wonderswan, etc.
Steam Deck and RG353V might be a bit overkill for what you're looking for. RG35XX might be a good choice, very similar to the Miyoo Mini+, but its readily available. Powkiddy V90 is super cheap and could handle gameboy pretty well, it looks like an GBA SP. I have an RG351MP which feels premium and is great for gameboy titles
Honestly, there are a ton of handhelds out there that you'd be perfectly happy with, you might want to decide on a form factor and price point and go from there.
Holy crap thanks for all the awesome recommendations! I've become a Lemmy fan! ♥
I have both am R4 card for my 3DS and a 353V. Loving the 353 as it covers so many systems. Ripping all the games from my Dreamcast from back in college has been awesome. GB, GBA are flawless on that device