ANBERNIC Gaming Devices

[Neon Ignition]

Given these newest models close in on the £200 mark, they're still the cheaper option on the market but are getting closer and closer to where the base Steam Deck price lies so I wonder how these market themselves moving forward as their cheaper price and retro focus is the main draw but to leverage that you need to hamper their power

[dataDave]

I ordered a Miyoo Mini for my son's birthday (not until August, but will get it prepped between now and then) and it arrived a few days back. It's the new V2 version.

Despite feeling quite premium overall, with a really solid build and seriously great buttons and D-pad, I really wasn't happy with the performance. The screen seemed to ghost and trail a bit, the colour was off, and the stock input settings were quite laggy. Testing with trusty old Final Fight and Super Mario World was a total fail in both regards - SMW felt practically unplayable really, with what felt like quarter-second delays between button press and action.

Anyway...

I managed to get some time with it yesterday and installed Onion OS 3.8.3 which has made dramatic improvements to the display and latency. Everything looks crystal clear now with RetroArch running at 640x480, and the controls have tightened up tremendously. I can still feel that SMW is ever-so-slightly off, but CPS-1 Final Fight infinite combo spam with Guy more than passes my satisfaction test. To be fair I don't think I've ever been happy with emulating Super Mario World up until the MiSTer came along at least, but this is handling the software emulation as good as anything else I've sampled over the years.

The display looks so good now that I'm not even beginning to miss any form of scanline shader/overlay or such. Despite various systems and arcade boards putting out a myriad of resolutions everything I've tried so far feels 'native' when running on the screen. It's so small that you'd need a macro lens to notice any scaling imperfections if you're not holding it two inches from your eyeballs.

Onion OS also comes with RetroArch pre-configured with everything required to get the most out of the system. From controller settings and display/performance tweaks to 'auto on' if you desire, so that when the unit is powered up it'll go straight into whatever game was being played last right where it was left off - a bit like a suspend/resume. This is going to help out tremendously with my boy not having to navigate menus to get into a game while accidentally screwing everything up in the process.

I know this isn't the Miyoo Mini thread, but if you were looking for a worthy alternative to the 280V then this is probably it. I fully recommend it, especially for the €55 I paid for it (and it even came with the official red+black zip case).

[QualityChimp]

I've been circling getting one of these devices for a couple of years, but having that tiny G&W Mario Bros. in my pocket whilst on holiday swung it for me and after watching a bunch of reviews, I got a Miyoo Mini too.

It arrived last night and had a little blast on it. First impressions are that it's really good!
I played all the way through GB Turtles 1 and dipped into the arcade version, beating Rocksteady and Bebop on the first couple of levels. I then popped on Tekken 3 and completed the Arcade mode using King, doing his 10-hit combo with ease.
I couldn't spot any issues with the emulation.

Dipped into a couple of MAME games like R-Type and erm... Ninja Clive or summat - all good.
Found some Jackie Chan Vs. fighter and the sound was stuttery. Literally the first one with an issue.

All completely stock and I'm happy. I want to get the Onion OS, but don't want to brick it.

Only downside is it IS a small console. I definitely was cramping up after working my way through Tekken 3.

Got a screen protector with mine that I'm going to put on soon.

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[Asura]

I've been circling getting one of these devices for a couple of years, but having that tiny G&W Mario Bros. in my pocket whilst on holiday swung it for me and after watching a bunch of reviews, I got a Miyoo Mini too.

I'm tempted to get one of these too; they're sending out newer models now (this is almost certainly what you have) that fixed some minor gripes with the older ones.

I just held off because I ordered a Steam Deck, but I've no idea when that's coming.

[QualityChimp]

Well a 64Gb Steam Deck is $399 and this was £53.25!
It's the V2 with a 128Gb Micro SD card in it (you can select the size as you order).
Shipping was included and it took 15 days to arrive from China.
I used a seller on Ali Express with a high rating (there's a Chrome add-on to check) and with a screen protector.

They fulfil very different requirements, but for about £50, having a little gaming-on-the-go machine is definitely what I wanted.

[dataDave]

All completely stock and I'm happy. I want to get the Onion OS, but don't want to brick it.

Near impossible. The stock firmware is lousy, you won't look back.

I'd also look at replacing the SD card with something more reputable, before you pump more time into it at least.

[QualityChimp]

Cheers, dD.

I have a good card to swap out with, so I'll do that.
I found a good video too, so I should be sorted.

Love how loads of the arcade ROMs have posters or screen shots.
Hopefully they'll carry over too.

I was out at a shopping outlet place on Sunday for Father's Day and whilst the kids played on the playground, I played some cheeky TMNT, Ninja Warriors and R-Type.

Friday, I found myself playing Puzzle Bobble 4 for ages.

I just love the small form factor to pop it in your pocket.

[dataDave]

It’s great. I’m getting myself the clear black one as soon as I can. Been spending money like a MFer lately so need to slow down a bit.

[Asura]

It’s great. I’m getting myself the clear black one as soon as I can. Been spending money like a MFer lately so need to slow down a bit.

Have you seen several of them? The white one with the coloured buttons seems pretty cool.

[QualityChimp]

Have you seen several of them? The white one with the coloured buttons seems pretty cool.

That's the one I have. It has the aesthetics of a tiny Game Boy, but the coloured buttons of the New 3DS XL.

[dataDave]

Have you seen several of them? The white one with the coloured buttons seems pretty cool.

That’s the one I’ve got upstairs all Onion’d up and ready for the boy’s birthday. Hopefully mummy doesn’t complain about the size of the screen and how it’s destroying eyeballs.

[Colin]

Looks like a cool wee handheld, but surely it’ll cause horrendous hand cramps for any adult due to the size???

[dataDave]

Looks like a cool wee handheld, but surely it’ll cause horrendous hand cramps for any adult due to the size???

It's pretty good, although the shoulder buttons around the back aren't the best for long-play ergonomics. I'll still keep my v1 GBA handy for GBA games.

They're more or less the exact same dimensions as a regular pack of playing cards, so I went and got myself a leather playing card pouch to keep mine in when I eventually get it (the boy will get the cool red and black official zip case that it was shipped in).



I just need to decide which colour to pick now.

[QualityChimp]

I did the Onion upgrade yesterday and didn't brick the unit, so that's a great start!

Added all the consoles, then took off all the ones I have no interest in or ROMs for them.

I'm not massively wowed and I've got a bit more work to figure it out properly.

For example, CP1, 2 and 3 each have their own icon, but when I go in, it says there's nothing there, but I created a CPS1 folder under ARCADE and popped a game in and it lists it when you click the Arcade icon.
Maybe I'll just remove the CPS icons, but it's sloppier than the stock.

Thumbnails for the games - I had to create a folder under each ROMs folder called Imgs and pop the .png files in there.
Works for Arcade, but hardly anything else, despite there being loads of pics in the folder.

Some games don't work - I mentioned before a Jackie Chan game that had choppy sound on stock, but it won't even run on Onion. Just quits out.
In fact, the first game I tried, Altered Beast, doesn't even run (which had me worried nothing would run!)

Missing ROMs - In Arcade, it lists 70 games. I swear there were more in the stock version, but I've just looked at the original SD and that's not the case. Bit confused now!

Buttons - I probably need to do some investigation, but the default buttons have changed, so instead of the face buttons on the arcade games, it uses one face button and the triggers. Bonkers.

Menus - stock had the menu button call up a context menu, but now it quits the game when held. There's a button combo to enter the config stuff.

Power - the power button turns the whole thing off, whereas before it went to standby. Yeah, it guzzled the battery, but was useful when playing in chunks whilst doing something else.

Guess it just needs some tweaking, but I thought the Stock menus were better, if I'm honest.

However, I'm grateful for you encouraging me to upgrade, dD, as I know I just need to spend some time on it.

[dataDave]

You should probably try sourcing your own ROMs from a 'reputable' (lol) source. Maybe somewhere like archive.org, then see if they run/boot better.

The button configs for RetroArch should be optimised for each system, as such, the button combo for the config is in place because you shouldn't really have to config anything that much anymore. Screen settings and scaling within the emulator is also set optimally for the hardware.

The power button will indeed turn the system completely off now, but then RetroArch will create a savestate shortly prior to that, and then reload it again the next time you boot. So that's pretty great, and trumps the stock suspend feature which was broken/not fit for purpose.

So yeah, try to get some decent ROMs and organise them as best as you can. Unfortunately, I don't want to handle the boy's Miyoo too much right now, but I might take another look at the weekend because I also need to get some more ROMs across. Post any other pain points you find before then. I've not sorted any thumbnails yet, either.