Let me know what you think!

Hah!

That’s fair. In my defence, an article like this takes me a good while to put together. I’ll start with the idea, jot down notes, get in touch with the developer and interview them at their convenience, then go through their answers and work out how to build that material into a story that still feels like their experience, using the quotes I like most to help bring it to life.

All the way through that process I’m drafting, redrafting and leaving myself little notes in the article. I tend to get ideas down quickly and tidy them up later; that’s just how I work. Most of the time it all gets cleaned up, but occasionally one of those awkward little notes-to-self survives the edit and sneaks into the finished piece.

That’s what happened here.

I will say, though, you could probably have made the point a little more kindly. I’m not pretending to be some flawless professional journalist. This is a hobby for me, and I do it because I genuinely love gaming, especially handheld gaming. I put a lot of time into these pieces because I care about the people and projects I’m writing about, even if the odd rough edge from my process slips through.

Even before I got to this part, I was thinking “if I want to play a GBA SP, I’ll just play one.”

That’s fair! I collect the originals too, although I’m more partial to the non-SP models, especially once they’ve been modded. But what I miss on the real hardware is save states, fast-forward, upscaling, and all the other modern conveniences you quickly get spoiled by. For roughly the price of one EverDrive (lovely things though they are) I can buy a very solid modern interpretation, throw every game I actually want on it, and have them loading instantly. Nostalgia is great; nostalgia with quality-of-life features is even better.

As for the A.I. side, also fair. I was fully expecting the pitchforks to come out over that bit. But after interviewing somewhere around 70 developers in the handheld scene, I’ve seen plenty of people who have been coding for decades use A.I. as exactly that: a tool. Sometimes it gives them breathing room, sometimes it gets them through the boring parts, sometimes it lets them spend more time on the bits they actually care about. I completely understand why the subject is sore, but gaming in 2026 pretending developers aren’t already using these tools feels a little like angrily shouting at the tide for coming in.

I’m in an odd position in that I only really fell into reviewing handhelds. Early on when I’d writing gaming articles and interviews, some of the companies started to reach out to me, which in turn led to others doing so. I only mention this because I had the unique intro to it all by actually befriending some people at each company. And now I’ve ended up in the odd spot of knowing what each company is working on, and has planned for around the next 18 months or so.

I only say this to give some context as to why I can’t tell you who it is exactly, but I do know one company looked into the stereoscopic 3D screens, and replicating them. I don’t know how far along they are, whether it is viable, or whether they’ll continue, but I do know at least one company is interested and had started work that way.

As it stands though, there’s nothing at all like that on the market!

This isn’t build for the 3DS. It is marketing specifically as a DS handheld, and with good reason. The screens matching in size give it away (both the same size = DS! Large top, small bottom = 3DS!). While it runs some, they’re not ideal on here.

You’d be better looking at AYN’s Thor or Retroid’s Duo (coming up soon)

Really interesting that you’ve got issues! I’ve got…far more than I care to admit (since I review them though, that’s a handy excuse!) and I haven’t had any issues with the batteries or any system failures. I’m sorry to hear you do!

No…nothing at all like Marathon. That was a (nice) old FPS, this takes what was known for being a FPS and changes it completely.

Here’s an image which might help you picture it better

You’re so welcome!

I interviewed Navi about Swiff, you might find that a little bit interesting too:

https://gardinerbryant.com/inside-swiff-an-interview-with-navivani/

Check the link! She does one for a Game Boy Color, and one for the AYANEO Vert. Aside from that it is things like iPods and the Xteink reader. I guess things all depend on what devices she himself owns so she can design them for them.

I’ll 100% pass on that a similar case for a RPC would be a dream to you, though!

Hey there, kuiskaaja!

I know this isn’t the ‘IRL’ part of things, but I had a couple people who I chatted to a bunch who desperately wanted the same thing, except…online. After recommending a bunch of options, in the end I revived an old (and abandoned) Discord server we had, and invited all my friends from the retro handheld scene there.

• Russ (RGC)
• Gamma (GammaOS)
• WhatCookie (RPCS3)
• Mothrip (Cocoon)
• ChrisCovers (Retroid)
• Camille (Eden)
• Nathan (iiSU)

…and just so, so, so many more. All the developers and creators I know joined in. So if you do want a (very small!) space to chat about handhelds with others, send me a DM and I’ll send you an invite :)

Thank you so much!

You mean why do I share a post in more than one community?

I prefer each community having their own post. It gives that space its own chance to shat about it. I just…don’t personally like cross-posting, that’s all

I hope so too! I really enjoy it, but as we all know, the prices on original 3DS consoles are just constantly going up (esp the ‘New’ series)

After all, this kind of dual screen device was thought impossible just two years ago, so there’s always a chance we’ll see some kind of true 3D brought in at some stage :)

The R36S is a pretty unique device. It is very low powered, by the retro handheld industry standards. It is very cheap (by anyone’s standards), and it is not built, maintained nor shipped by any one single company. The strengths of it is that it is so widely available, and one of the smartest developers I know (bmdhacks, who recently joined in as the lead dev for ARMSX2) swears by them. In fact I covered his work for the R36S specifically, not so long ago:

https://gardinerbryant.com/the-anatomy-of-an-impossible-port/

But it really is as entry-level-to-the-hobby as you can get. There are infinitely more powerful devices all over the place. This one, the RGSP is just…different. It is specifically designed to be about as good as you can hope for to play GBA games, but also covers most systems up to PSX.

Comparing the two is waaaaay too apples to oranges to make much sense here. While they technically do the same thing, they do it so differently that owning one over the other (or both) makes as much sense whichever way you cut it :)

“Excellent write-up! SBCGaming is one of the communities I miss most and I love your breakdown.”

Thank you! Sorry you’ve had to give up some communities, but it is nice that you’ve stayed strong and landed here in stead. I do share each retro handheld review I do on here, so you’ll see them over time as a (terrible) consolation prize! I have the TRIMUI Brick Hammer Pro U, the Retroid Pocket Nova, Anbernic’s RG 55G1 and…one more I forget still coming to review, too :)

“Should ‘Pro’ denote an upgrade? Probably; but things are really hinky in the electronic parts department, and a more comfortable playing experience is likely worth it to some.”

I think that is the finnicky part. No one really finds this a ‘Pro’ upgrade, but for what it does (especially PSX on this for me), it is a beautiful and fun time :)

Thanks for reading through and enjoying it. I appreciate it!

Thank you so much, you’re right! I appreciate it, edit has been made :)

(and sorry, weird thing to get wrong!)

Time for you to get it back out, maybe get a new adapter card for that micro SD, and then enjoy some games again!

(And yes, dead easy. Just copying two files over, not even ‘all the stuff’!)

Technically it is, but there’s a huge scene of influencers who have set up shop on there and run their own businesses. There’s a bunch who run ads, but you pay a crazy bit of money on top of what you’d pay on Aliexpress, just because they hope to rope in people who don’t know any better!

And like I said, if Etsy is more your scene, there’s a bunch there last time I looked!

Yes, there’s a bunch on Aliexpress (I’d probably recommend there over anywhere else, since their prices are the most reasonable and you get the same thing everyone does)

Etsy also has a bunch, as does Instagram. But again…you’ll be paying slightly more there

That title confusion is on me! I should have realized (this happens when you get too close to drafts on a subject and interview!), I’ll go back and edit that title a little to make sure the word ROMs is in there somewhere!

Sorry!!!