Re:CHIP Pro
by Retr0spectrum on Wednesday October 12, 2016 @03:28PM
(#12695785)
Your wish is granted: https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/pages/pyra/
The only catch is that it's completely custom hardware and therefore rather expensive.
It would be nice if something similar existed that you just plugged a Pi Zero into.
Ah I remember the Pandora, but it's a lot more complicated and cluttered than what I meant. A gaming handheld wouldn't need a keyboard, for example.
Probably because that would be a legal nightmare. You'd have to get approval from all the companies that made the systems you're emulating and the companies that made those games (sometimes they're the same company). And I doubt they'd be interested in supporting a system that will eat into their own sales.
WHY do we not have a good open-source gaming handheld based on one of these yet?
Smartphones have all but killed the traditional physical-buttons Game Boy/DS/Vita model. Gaming on glass sucks, but people generally don't want to carry around another device in addition to their phone. I'm looking forward to the Nintendo NX, but I'm afraid a proprietary platform won't be able to bring handhelds back again — it will just be too limited and locked-down.
Here's my wish/suggestion list for a modern handheld, for those of you that can build these things:
- Open-Source OS. (Android?)
- Bundled with emulators for all classic systems (C64/GB/NES/SNES/etc.) out of the box.
- A game store.
- Two joysticks, D-Pad, 4 buttons, 2 Triggers.
- 720p Touchscreen.
- AirPlay-like ability to play on my TV screen, or on a computer screen via a macOS/Windows/Linux app.
- SD card storage.
- WiFi.
- Ideally, Swift toolchain with a high-quality games SDK :-) (or at least Unity support.)
Don't need a camera. Don't need "apps" like browsers and media players or whatnot. Got 'em on the phone. Probably don't require Bluetooth either. Not sure about a microphone — may be needed for multiplayer chat.
The price point would need to be cheaper than any other handheld and most smartphones.. I wonder if the tech is there to make and sell something like this for less than a 100 bucks?