Oops, I might have messed up the display icon for the article, I’ve since fixed it, but what you’re seeing here is the thumbnail for Xanadu, not Shining Wind X!. This is a great example of me not being an expert at websites and still learning how to use NeoCities! Fixed now though :)

This morning’s little article is about Shining Wind X, a kinda obscure Sega RPG from 2008 that was released exclusively for Japanese mobile phones and has recently been recovered by preservationist YuviApp. It’s a follow-up to the PS2 game Shining Wind, but takes a different angle: turn-based tactical combat, and it’s one of those games I think plenty of Sega fans might never have known existed.

What I find super interesting is how much gaming history is effectively trapped in Japan’s oddball old mobile phone ecosystem. There were some pretty ambitious games released for these devices, like spin-offs from major franchises, and many of them became inaccessible when the original download services shut down.

I tend to think about preservation in terms of old cartridges and discs, but there’s this entire library of mobile games that could easily disappear without people putting in the effort to recover them. I thought this was a lovely little example of why that work matters, and really enjoyed learning more about it!

This is for my NeoCities site experiment, not my usual site!

For anyone unfamiliar with it, DroidDeck is a relatively new, open-source Android application that lets you run Valve’s actual Steam client, along with PC games from your Steam library, on supported Android phones and handhelds. Rather than just launching individual Windows games through something like Winlator, it brings much of the familiar Steam Deck experience to Android, including Steam’s interface, Proton compatibility, controller integration and more. It does all this without needing to root your device or replace Android with another operating system. It’s still experimental, but the progress has been pretty amazing so far.

So I’ve been chatting with the people behind DroidDeck over the last couple of weeks, and I’ve finally put together what turned into a pretty lengthy feature about the project, its history, and the people making it happen.

I interviewed The412Banner, Max, xXJSONDeruloXx, Kimchi and Astro Sky, digging into everything from their earliest experiences with gaming and development to how their separate experiments with Linux, Gamescope and Steam eventually came together. What started as a way of getting the actual Steam client running on Android has grown into something way more ambitious, and I really wanted to tell the story of how that happened rather than just write another overview of what the software can do.

We also got into the technical challenges, the ridiculous pace of development (it updated and changed a few times while I was writing this!), their approach to AI-assisted coding and automated testing, the importance of open source, and where they hope to take DroidDeck in the future. There are some personal stories in there too, particularly about the early breakthroughs and the excitement of finally seeing things work. It’s a long read, admittedly, but I wanted to give everyone involved the space to tell their side of the story. I’m really grateful to all five for taking the time to answer my many, many questions, and I hope you enjoy getting to know a little more about the people behind a project that’s quickly become one of the more interesting developments in Android handheld gaming!

And just to be transparent, since I know it’s a subject people have strong feelings about, DroidDeck does make use of AI-assisted development.

We discuss that openly in the article, including how the developers use AI tools, automated testing and code reviews as part of their workflow.

I hope you still enjoyed the read, even if it ended up being completely different to what your pre-caffeine brain saw!!!

Some of the ports we’re seeing in the retro handheld community lately have been great, and I love seeing developers push these little devices beyond what they were ever intended to do. But I’ve definitely noticed what feels like a growing amount of ‘port-slop’, with new projects appearing seemingly every few hours, many of them feeling more like quick experiments than anything particularly worthwhile.

I’m not against the experimentation at all, but I do wonder if we’re reaching a point where quantity is starting to overshadow quality. Anyway, I put together a short opinion piece about it, just my own thoughts on something I’ve been noticing lately, especially here with my favorite old system: the PSP.

I’ve been looking into a lovely little preservation project involving EverQuest Online Adventures, the PlayStation 2 MMORPG that shut down way back in 2012.

Developer Ahmad Hassan (B-Ted) has been working on something called EQAI: an effort to bring the game’s original 2003 character models back into its later Frontiers version. It turns out this is way more complicated than simply swapping a few files, involving all sorts of reverse engineering of the PS2’s graphics and memory systems.

It’s still a work in progress, but I find something really appealing about people putting this much time and effort into preserving the little details of online worlds that disappeared years ago. So I’ve written a short piece about the project and the wider community working to keep this forgotten corner of gaming history alive :)

Absolutely!

But it really is still sad to see it confirmed

Really sad to hear that BioWare is closing its doors after 31 years. I can’t say it’s entirely surprising given how difficult the last decade has been for the studio, but it’s still a shame to see another enormously influential name disappear from the industry. This was the developer behind Neverwinter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2, among so many others. What an incredible run of games they had :(

I’ve written a little piece looking back at BioWare’s history, some of my favorite games from their glory days, and how depressing it’s becoming to see so many studios shutting down. Whatever you think of BioWare’s more recent output, I think gaming is a little poorer without them.

Clearly the news has been covered and re-covered, so this is just a brief look over their work.

Not that you need to, but if you ever want a wonderfully sleek, small and metal vertical handheld, not unlike the Miyoo Mini (I own a V2 Mini myself), look into the TRIMUI Brick Hammer!

There’s a recomp of Wind Waker HD for Wii U, but I tried the same (regular version) game in Cemu and it played beautifully!

But the emulator itself is quite immature compared to the other systems in emulation, so it is very much a game-by-game basis

I think to me my dream was the Duo bit with the in-line triggers. At least before I got to using it. After all of this is said and done, the Duo is just a beautiful handheld.

Duo Plus or Duo, I really don’t think you’ll be disappointed for the price this runs at.

The best part for you is that the 3DS commands a good price these days!

Well here’s my Retroid Pocket Duo review! Retroid, the company, has released their higher-end Android-running retro handheld. AMOLED displays in a dual-screen form factor which can handle emulating Nintendo DS and 3DS games, and some more above that.

As part of it, I’ve been chatting with the developers behind Eden, Eden Duo, SeedlessDS and Cocoon about their work, the challenges of dual-screen gaming on Android, and where they see things going from here. I’ve incorporated their perspectives throughout the review, alongside my usual hands-on testing and thoughts about the hardware itself.

I’ve also spent plenty of time testing everything from Nintendo DS and 3DS through to PSP, GameCube, PS2, Switch and PC gaming, seeing where the Duo does well and where the limitations start becoming apparent. There are some fun things I found when reviewing, and a few things I’d still change. Above all, though, Retroid has once again managed to make a handheld that feels nicely playful (something I love about their handhelds), and ‘Nintendo-like’, and I’ve had an absolute blast reviewing it.

As ever, this is a written article (and a very long one at that!), so if you’re a fan of older gaming-style sites and features that aren’t videos, this might be your kind of read. Hope some of you enjoy this!

Most of the actual news about this project has already been covered elsewhere, so this is really just me indulging my love of strange physical gaming media and the wonderfully impractical things people come up with.

I’ve always been fascinated by oddities from gaming history, and the idea of someone getting Doom and Super Mario Bros. working with VHS tapes was far too interesting for me to ignore.

So here’s a little/casual dive into GCVHS, the bizarre Action Max console from 1987, and why I think there’s something super curious about people finding new uses for old technology. Sometimes I just like writing about things because they’re weird :)

I recently had the chance to chat with SapphireRhodonite, the sole developer of SeedlessDS, for what I believe is his first proper interview about the project.

For anyone who hasn’t come across it yet, SeedlessDS is a newer Nintendo DS emulator for Android that’s been built with modern handhelds in mind, especially lower-powered devices and dual-screen hardware. It uses a reconstructed DraStic-based core, but Sapphire has built the surrounding experience himself, including the interface, controller-first navigation, library, save states, scaling options and dual-screen presentation.

It has been pretty pivotal for me while testing and reviewing the Retroid Pocket Duo Lite, where its lightweight approach and proper support for two physical displays have made it my preferred way to play DS games.

In the article we talk about Sapphire’s history with programming and the original DS, why SeedlessDS exists alongside WatermelonDS, what makes dual-screen emulation harder than simply putting one image on each panel, developing for modest Android hardware, and where he hopes to take the emulator next. Hopefully it’s an interesting read for anyone following DS emulation or the growing wave of dual-screen handhelds, or just development in general!

I’m lucky enough to call both Russ from Retro Game Corps and Lee (who some of you will probably know better as Wild Lee from Venture Electronics) friends, which made this a particularly fun article for me to put together.

It’s a look at Lee, VE and some of the earbuds he sent me to try, including the Monk GTS and GTR (the latter designed specifically with retro gaming in mind, with Russ helping to bring it to life), but it also gets into the friendship and history between Lee and Russ, how they’ve worked together over the years, and a little of the story behind the people involved rather than a review on the earbuds. I’ve tried to make it as much about Lee and the strange, enthusiastic little world around VE as it is about the hardware itself. Hope some of you enjoy it!

Well, here’s my feature on spruceOS and where the project is heading with their 4.5.0 update. Rather than just running through a changelog, I wanted to get into why spruce has grown the way it has: the push toward that “one card to rule them all” idea, making the same SD card useful across more handhelds, the work behind dArkMoss/BaseOS, offline RetroAchievements, and how the project has expanded without losing the hobbyist spirit that made it interesting in the first place.

To put it together I interviewed all four members of the spruce team: SundownerSport, Ry, Arkun and Chris, all about their own parts of the project, how they work together, and what 4.5.0 represents for spruce going forward. There’s quite a lot in there about the technical side, but also about the people behind it and the wonderfully informal “follow the fun” philosophy that seems to shape a lot of what spruce becomes.

I like to interview developers in the retro handheld scene so people can get a peek behind the curtain about what goes on, so hopefully there’s something in here for anyone curious :)

Hi there!

The Brick Hammer does not have any DAC output, no. They’re wonderful to have as a retro handheld which also plays music, but as a device dedicated to high quality audio, you’re far, far better opting for a dedicated DAP.

The M30 you mentioned has:

• AKM AK4376: the main DAC. It’s a 32-bit stereo DAC from Asahi Kasei Microdevices, with an integrated Class-G headphone amplifier and support for sample rates up to 384 kHz. Manuals+
• JuLi2167: the DSP / audio decoding processor. Manuals+
• WM8965 and TPA6530: “dual decoding” or “dual DAC” arrangement.

While they’re not like…industry leading, compared to the Brick Bro, it will sound like a Lamborghini! But as you say, this will depend on the earpods you get. I’d recommend some nice IEMs! Even Moondrop Chu II’s are reaaaally cheap but give you a great sound :)

I’ve been spending a bunch of time with TortOS, the new custom firmware for the TrimUI Brick and Brick Hammer, so I chatted with its developer Geekstrada, who also works with Helaas on Leaf for the Miniloong Pocket 1.

My article goes into why he wanted TortOS to be deliberately small and focused, the Cover Flow-inspired UI, how he keeps emulator cores ready in memory to make launching games so fast, and why he’d rather support fewer systems really well than chase everything the Brick can technically run.

We also talk quite a bit about Muse, its lovely music side, and the old iPods and physical music collections that helped inspire it. I’ve been using my TortOS set-up with just three games per system and filling the rest of the card with music, which ended up feeling like a pretty perfect fit for what TortOS is trying to do.

Anyway, if you’re at all curious on this new firmware, or the dev side of it, then hopefully you like the article :)

I interviewed Vincent Lee, the creator of GetBetterButtons, for the third entry in my Artist Spotlight series, which focuses on people making physical things for the gaming community.

Vincent designs replacement buttons and controls for retro handhelds, but the process behind them is considerably deeper than I expected. He reverse-engineers handhelds, builds detailed CAD models and simulations, goes through dozens of prototypes, and even develops his own tools to help with the process. We also get into his aluminium “Endgame” buttons, how CNC machining changes what he can design, and why he thinks handheld manufacturers still get buttons and D-pads wrong.

There’s also a pretty interesting background behind the whole thing: before starting GetBetterButtons, Vincent worked in hardware engineering and product development at Bose, which I found fascinating.

If you’ve ever installed a set of replacement buttons in a handheld, were curious about the process, or wondered why some controls feel so much better than others, Hopefully you’ll enjoy this one!

I’m really glad you enjoyed it!

Thank you :)

Here’s my interview with OpenSauce and PabloMK7, the two developers behind Azahar, and as far as I can establish, this is the first and only interview the pair have done together about the project.

We talk about their very different routes into programming and 3DS development, their time working with Citra, how Lime3DS and PabloMK7’s fork eventually came together as Azahar, and some of the difficult problems involved in emulating the 3DS hardware accurately. We also get into what makes the original 3DS systems so interesting to emulate, and the new wave of dual-screen Android handhelds like the AYN Thor and Retroid Pocket Duo/Duo Lite that are bringing fresh attention to 3DS emulation.

There’s also plenty here about open source, preservation, the homebrew scene, and where they see 3DS emulation going next. It was a really interesting conversation, especially getting both sides of Azahar’s story in one place.

Hope some here enjoy it!

Warning, it is a bit of a long read, probably best for those who like articles instead of short form!