Jon_TWR t1_j5h3at2 wrote on January 22, 2023 at 11:27 PM

Reply to comment by GatoradeNipples in Radxa Rock5 Model A is a credit card-sized single-board PC with RK3588S and up to 16GB RAM (starting at $99) by giuliomagnifico

> widely-available emulator handhelds

The Steam Deck?

GatoradeNipples t1_j5h3s7k wrote on January 22, 2023 at 11:30 PM

Stuff like the Steam Deck and GPDWin and etc is kind of its own separate class from what I'm talking about.

The devices I'm referring to are generally very small, top out around $200ish in price, generally manufactured in China, and specifically geared towards playing retro games (usually running some variant of EmulationStation or a home-rolled libretro frontend, with a select few having a proper OS of their own or running Android). As it stands, these basically top out at Dreamcast and PSP (and some games in either library don't run very well).

Jon_TWR t1_j5hl16t wrote on January 23, 2023 at 1:29 AM

I mean, yes…but Steam Deck is $400, and can emulate through the PS3/Xbox 360/Switch.

Some games might have some issues, and I could be wrong but I feel like it’ll be a while before an ARM SBCcatches up to the power/tdp of the Steam Deck.

jay9e t1_j5hqzkg wrote on January 23, 2023 at 2:11 AM

The steam deck is also pretty huge tho. The form factor is not quite the same.

AkechiFangirl t1_j5ine70 wrote on January 23, 2023 at 7:01 AM

Well he said tops out at $200ish in price but that is the absolute max. Most of the market is in the 50-100 dollar range and imo they don't compete with the steam deck. Something the size of the DMG Gameboy (or, in the case of some of the mini handhelds like the Miyoo mini, the size of a Gameboy cartridge) with excellent battery life is simply not in the same product category as the Steam Deck. Sure, the Deck can emulate a few of the more recent consoles (as well as y'know, PC games) but it is absolutely massive, has a battery life of like, 5 hours max if you're playing NES games or whatever, and this one is personal taste but the dpad kinda sucks for retro games. Like, it's usable but I don't really want to play any platformers on it.

RiderExMachina t1_j5j70pk wrote on January 23, 2023 at 11:29 AM

The main difference here is that the emulator handhelds the other person is talking about run ARM CPUs where the Steam Deck is still using an x86_64 processor.