A retro gaming handheld in a Gameboy SP clamshell form factor? Where do I sign up!?
I personally signed up with KeepRetro who I have used in the past when I got my Miyoo Mini Plus. Other than long shipping times out of China I’ve had good experiences. This isn’t an endorsement, however, and your mileage may vary.
My transparent blue clamshell finally arrived in the mail a couple weeks later, and I was very excited. I had only recently gotten into retro emulation and loved how well classic console games worked in a portable format with modern hardware. My previous experience was primarily limited to the above mentioned Miyoo Mini Plus, so that will be the main comparison.
The Anbernic Rg35xxSP, with a name designed to stick in your head and roll effortlessly off the tongue, is fine. It can and I expect will be better, but for now, it’s perfectly okay.
The hardware seems pretty good. The build quality seems nice, outside of some rattly buttons when you shake it. The buttons themselves are nice and clicky, albeit quite loud. The screen seems nice, bright, and clear. The form factor is amazing and the hinge seems quite solid.
The software, tho…
Very likely I’ve been spoiled by Onion OS on the Miyoo, but the software on the Flippy Boi just seems not great. Stock OS comes with RetroArch which is great, but also has an entire “Game Room” section that uses standalone emulators that are, frankly, not good and best avoided. Having a main gaming section in a gaming handheld that is inferior to the secondary option seems a little icky to me.
RetroArch is excellent after some fixing. I spent some time on YouTube and Reddit doing tweaks and adjustments and changing settings and finally got it to a point where I was semi-happy with it. Then I switched to MuOS, which doesn’t officially support the Flippy Boi, and even tho a handful of features such as the hinge sleep option isn’t supported yet, generally is a snappier and more pleasant experience than stock, although the lack of a search option for ROMs seems like a gross oversight.
I also took the device apart to do a “tape mod” to quiet down the loudness of the buttons as well as a “foam mod” to stop the rattling of the shoulder buttons. After these physical modifications on top of the new, unsupported OS I was finally ready for some gaming while I finished chasing down little software gremlins as they popped their heads up, like getting auto-save on game exit to work.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s an excellent little device and I think with a little more time for third party software to bake it’s going to be an excellent device down the road. I’ll be keeping a close eye on MuOS development specifically and can’t wait to report back when device specific software is available!
Right now, if you’re the type of person that likes tinkering and tweaking settings until it’s exactly how you want it all to be, this may indeed be the device for you!
If you just want to play old games on a handheld device? As much as I enjoy the Flippy Boi’s form factor I find myself gravitating back to the Miyoo with the very excellent Onion OS.