So Anbernic sent me their RG DS to review.
- They had a terrible desync issue for the first week-and-a-bit (you might have seen some YouTube reviews showing this). Which meant the top screen went to 40Hz after 30-40 seconds, while the bottom screen kept 60Hz. Basically that means DS games ended up looking awful and mismatched.
- They updated it a couple days back, which fixed that issue!
- Other issues are there (shortish battery life, the unit can feel warm - no big deal to me - other systems emulate either nicely or poorly
(cat tax, this is my cat Ciri with the RG DS)
Then I forgot to move my finger from closing a car door on it, which left me with a REALLY deep cut in my index finger, on the top joint. The second half of this review was SO hard to type up. Typing right now is not fun either.
So writing this up has taken me…20 mins?
OR
You can just ask me RG DS questions here, I’m happy to laboriously type responses if you’d prefer that method :)
Nice we have been talking about the device in the retro gaming corps discord channel. Looks like a lot of fun. If my miyoo mini plus ever dies this will probably be my next handheld.
That’s the one!
Russ had his video out pretty quick, and while some issues aren’t fixed, some were with the update Anbernic pushed out.
Its getting some hate, and some is deserved, but I can’t help but just love this device!
I was just about to say that I usually trust Russ will all my retro gaming handhelds, but I’ll gladly take a second opinion. Glad to see that you follow him as well and aren’t afraid to put your own thoughts out there. Nice work!
He was right, about a whole lot. But he also ran it and reviewed it as it was sent to him, which was broken and requiring an update.
Thankfully both Anbernic and Gamma have fixes now. Gamma’s is actually far more extensive. But for a retail experience, its fine.
I maintain that as a modern DS, its wonderful. Emulating everything else…not so much. I wouldn’t buy this to play PSX or SNES, but I would for DS.
Thanks for reading my review :)
Nice! Glad to see you are enjoying the device.
We regularly joke that Anbernic comes out with new devices every couple of months in every way shape and form factor. Not exactly a bad problem, but they often have issues with quality control. But if you get a refund and new device it usually works out.
How was the banana?
Potassium + PerfectDark = doom and destruction. Banana for illustrative and measuring purposes only.
It did look good though?
I don’t understand, but I trust that you do.
And yes. It did indeed look good. Would eat/10
I get asked this question a fair bit! Each time ive shared a review recently I added a banana pic. I tend to get asked what my review of said banana is.
But I have an autoimmune disease where potassium is terrible for me! So…I never know how good these bananas are :(
Ahh. Bananas are nice, but you’re not missing out on all that much tbh. Just kind of sweet mush, really. There are nicer fruits out there lol
And my b for being one of many goofs making the same old joke in your direction :P
They don’t taste like penicillin!
This can’t handle 3DS titles, right? Not that it matters; my N3DS XL is still going strong
Nope. Well, technically it could with a handful of very very light 3DS titles. But its just not powerful enough for the 3DS.
You’ll want a Thor for that. I’ve been using it instead of my N3DS.
Does it work with a ds stylus or is it capacative touch only? The ds had many titles that required finer precision than you could reliably get from a finger or modern touch stylus. Pokemon ranger also would have torn my finger to shreds lol
They’re just (basically) two 4" phone screens, one above the other. So its only going to be modern capacitive stylus like is pictured.
That’s the ‘trade-off’ with these. You get modern and bright, upscale screens but you lose that original stylus input.
That said, I’m obsessed with the DSi consoles, and I’ve actually enjoyed using this stylus on it. Or, whatever misgivings I initially had disappeared after an hour or so, when I got used to it.
Does it work with port master?
My friend is a dev for PortMaster (spoiler, interview coming soon with klops and the team!), and he has one of these.
So…‘maybe’? Unsure for now, maybe is all I can say.
Excellent! That’s my one gripe with MMP. I want to play stardew/balatro on a small handheld darn it!
Thanks for sharing this review, it’s great to see your reviews and interviews here.
I’ve seen a similar recent DS-emulation system review and they were playing Rhythm Heaven, and what really looked like it would bother me is the emulation input latency (it appeared roughly 10-20ms). Have you played Rhythm Heaven or other latency-sensitive games and do you notice any input delay?
I’ll test that game for you!
Will come back here and edit this comment with my findings :)
Wow, thanks!
