Odroid Go handheld(with 320x240 screen)

[FinalBaton]

Does anyone own one of these?

I usually steer clear of handheld emulators and GB clones, but this is the first one that's tempting me.

-it has emulators for NES, SMS, GB, GBC and GG
-it has a 320x240 pixel LCD and you can select the pixel perfect real resolution for each system (so noscaling at all. this is pretty awesome, no other clone system like this prior, that I've seen, has this feature. they all had higher resolution screens)
-the buttons are apparently good
-you can program stuff for it using the arduino suite
-latency seems on the low side from reviews I've seen, but I can't say for sure since I haven't tried it myself nor seen any serious test. Take this one with a grain of salt
-it only costs $37 USD ($32 when bought directly from them)

Now there's some room for improvment still, for a start it runs at 60Hz and there's no adjustment possible, so say 60.08Hz systems like NES and GB/GBC run a hair too fast, etc. And it takes 10 seconds to load the bigger ROMs, and performance, while generally good, seems to have some hiccups here and there.

But for that price, I gotta say : I'm very tempted to pick one up for christmas. Or maybe I'll wait a bit so that the product gets improved some more? anyway, thought I'd share to bring this product to peple's attention, It seems to have potential

[SNK-NEO-GEO]

Link???

[FinalBaton]

Link???

A review(I haven't seen them all so maybe there's a better one out there :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UC5TS1INeNY

Purchase link from a distributor @37$ USD :
https://ameridroid.com/products/odroid-go-game-kit

Purchase link directly from them(no paypal though and it's an import I think?) @32$ USD
https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-go/

[Fudoh]

Is this the one that looks nice first, but then only has an internal composite connection to the display?

[FinalBaton]

Is this the one that looks nice first, but then only has an internal composite connection to the display?

oh damn, is this how it's wired??? if so that's disapointing native res is great but composite is a huge letdown...

[Fudoh]

no, maybe not. I just recalled watching a video review recently and that unit had the issue - don't recall if that was the Odroid one though...

[FinalBaton]

no, maybe not. I just recalled watching a video review recently and that unit had the issue - don't recall if that was the Odroid one though...

It'd be important to know regardless, thanks for bringing this potential issue to my attention. Let's see if we can figure this out...

[Fudoh]

OK, the one with the internal composite connection seems to be this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgLqqToDxsA&t=812s

The Odroid screen looks WAY better.

[Classicgamer]

My first thought from watching a few of those YouTube clips is that the 2.4" screen is far too small, even for a handheld. I have vivid memories of playing my Master System games on my gamegear as a kid and it's 3.2" screen was barely big enough to play at all (for games designed to run on larger screens).

Take a look at how small 2.4" is on a ruler and tell me if you would be happy playing bubble bobble or Mario on a screen that small...

Given that you can buy a Raspberry PI 3 and a 3.2" 240 x 320 screen for very little money, I would judge all handhelds with this info in mind.

Also, just because the screen is 240 x 320, doesn't necessarily mean it is being fed native res and refresh rates. I haven't watched all the clips yet though. Did they mention if the hardware was outputting 15khz with native refresh rates?

It's a shame the Neo Geo Mini has such a horrible analog thumb stick because they would have made a great emulator handheld.

[FinalBaton]

The screen size is important to consider indeed when thinking about buying this! I agree. It might turn some people off

there is an option to display all consoles at native resolution, as reported by many owners in various review videos' comment sections.

Also as I pointed out in first post, it all runs at 60Hz, so nothing run at the perfect speed



Regarding the screen's hookup(composite? RGB?), a reviewer wrote "The screen on it uses the ESP32’s SPI bus". whatever that means
EDIT : I searched info on "how to hook up screen to ESP32 via SPI bus" and I can find no mention of composite anywhere. only RGB is ever mentionned

[SNK-NEO-GEO]

Thanks for the link..For the asking price you can not ask for much..The GCW-Zero is my favorite emulators handheld due to the 4:3 screen.. it is not perfect out of the box but put a bit of lube inside the dpad and you are good to go.. I do wish for a successor with a bigger 4:3 screen and with the Open Pandora dpad. There are a lot of handhelds emulators devices out there but they just don't deliver what we need.

[Classicgamer]

I don't know much about these guys but they claim to build to order retro gaming handhelds with 4:3 low res screens of a decent size:

https://www.retromodding.com/products/b ... eeplay-cm3


The prices are a good bit higher but for me, it's either done right or not at all. I find no saving in paying less for something I wouldn't use because it doesn't work like I want.

With that said, I would probably go with a PI 3 / 3.2" 4:3 320x240 screen diy option to save the cash. They sell cases to build your own PI handheld on eBay.

I also have to think about how often I would really use such a device. I rarely travel without a laptop and at home I can play old console and arcade games through Groovymame on a large crt monitor at correct refresh with no tearing or missing detail.

I keep having to have that honest conversation with myself about whether these are cool novelty items or something I might use sometimes. My old PSP is in a draw somewhere unused for years.

[Ed Oscuro]

Hmm, that "warranty void if you open the console" thing. I guess they're not US-based, 'cuz that's not legal here. Also that price.

[bobrocks95]

Hmm, that "warranty void if you open the console" thing. I guess they're not US-based, 'cuz that's not legal here. Also that price.

Is it not? I've seen that on every modern game console though, including definitely US-based Microsoft. A recent ruling?

[FinalBaton]

I don't know much about these guys but they claim to build to order retro gaming handhelds with 4:3 low res screens of a decent size:

https://www.retromodding.com/products/b ... eeplay-cm3


The prices are a good bit higher but for me, it's either done right or not at all. I find no saving in paying less for something I wouldn't use because it doesn't work like I want.

With that said, I would probably go with a PI 3 / 3.2" 4:3 320x240 screen diy option to save the cash. They sell cases to build your own PI handheld on eBay.

I also have to think about how often I would really use such a device. I rarely travel without a laptop and at home I can play old console and arcade games through Groovymame on a large crt monitor at correct refresh with no tearing or missing detail.

I keep having to have that honest conversation with myself about whether these are cool novelty items or something I might use sometimes. My old PSP is in a draw somewhere unused for years.

It looks like you are not in the market for/not interested by these type of handhelds!

[FinalBaton]

Well I just ordered one. if I end up not being super satisfied with it, it'll at least make a good stocking stuffer gift for my 5 year old nephew. it definitely won't go to waste.

I have a GBC in my nightstandt that has seen no use at all since I bought it, cause the screen is too dark and I have yet to pick any cartridges for that system. The Odroid Go is gonna be WAY more convenient : bright screen and can load games via SD cards. It'll allow me to enjoy lots of GB games right away. It should prove useful. Let's see how it fares

I'll let you guys know if it's decent, and how good(or not)is the compatibility with ROMs across all systems.

[Classicgamer]

I don't know much about these guys but they claim to build to order retro gaming handhelds with 4:3 low res screens of a decent size:

https://www.retromodding.com/products/b ... eeplay-cm3


The prices are a good bit higher but for me, it's either done right or not at all. I find no saving in paying less for something I wouldn't use because it doesn't work like I want.

With that said, I would probably go with a PI 3 / 3.2" 4:3 320x240 screen diy option to save the cash. They sell cases to build your own PI handheld on eBay.

I also have to think about how often I would really use such a device. I rarely travel without a laptop and at home I can play old console and arcade games through Groovymame on a large crt monitor at correct refresh with no tearing or missing detail.

I keep having to have that honest conversation with myself about whether these are cool novelty items or something I might use sometimes. My old PSP is in a draw somewhere unused for years.

It looks like you are not in the market for/not interested by these type of handhelds!

I am undecided. I definately don't want one with a screen that is too small to use properly.

I have had an itch to build a mini something since I saw the Neo Geo mini and then found out I couldn't buy one because it had an analog joystick.

None of the ones I have seen to date are particularly exciting to me though.

[FinalBaton]

Well just before putting in my order I decided to make one last bit of research. And I discovered that the screen is apparently hard capped at 30fps... so yeah I didn't order one in the end.

I don't know if it's possible to use another 60fps-capable screen on this or not but... to have it out of the box like this is very, very disapointing. Thought I'd let everyone know since it's crucial info

I'll wait until they come out with a new version of this(hopefully they'll make one with a bit more power to emulate 16-bit systems and add a couple buttons, and also have a 60Hz screen)

[Classicgamer]

Well just before putting in my order I decided to make one last bit of research. And I discovered that the screen is apparently hard capped at 30fps... so yeah I didn't order one in the end.

I don't know if it's possible to use another 60fps-capable screen on this or not but... to have it out of the box like this is very, very disapointing. Thought I'd let everyone know since it's crucial info

I'll wait until they come out with a new version of this(hopefully they'll make one with a bit more power to emulate 16-bit systems and add a couple buttons, and also have a 60Hz screen)

That is quite a limitation. 60fps is an important requirement for gaming. It's hard enough trying to read blurry text on a large screen when they take 240p / 60fps games and make them 480i / 30fps. You just can't afford that loss in clarity on a screen that small.

It is increasingly obvious that diy is the only viable option. We clearly can not trust any of these companies to do it right. It's a shame.

Why is it so hard to make one that is capable of running old games at native res and refresh rates on a screen you can actually see and with a joystick with micro-switches....