The TrimUI Brick is the best SBC device I've used so far

sbc games

"SBC games", or "Single board controller games", is basically an emulation station where you can play a ton of games on.

Your options are:

• Emulation station console (like this Hard Drive article). Raspberry Pi, an old Xbox One or Series with dev tooling set up, an old laptop, etc.

• Your phone, with emulators installed on it, and a controller connected, or

• A handheld device probably shaped like a Gameboy.

I'll focus on the handheld devices.

the ones i tried and don't like:

Anbernic used to be the default name here, but...

• The Anbernic site is scammy and spammy, with popup after popup after popup
• Anbernic sneaks in an "Insurance" at every step, which I am highly certain immediately sold my email and phone number to a spam campaign under "17Track"
• Their devices aren't even the best any more.

In a handheld SBC device, I want at minimum:

• A non-Android Linux OS

• Support for a good alternate OS (I like MinUI, but there's something called NextUI now? Knulli? )

• Hardware which can emulate at least up to PS1 games (Castlevania: SotN)

• The PS1 controller set (dpad, face buttons, start, select, and four shoulder buttons).

• Plus a few nice things all of these already have nowadays (speakers, headphone jacks, SD card slots, USB C charging).

In a tariff-induced frenzy, I ended up making gifts for my friends in the form of ROM-packed handhelds, worried they'd triple in price. In doing so, I took the opportunity to try out:

• The Anbernic RG35XX Plus, which imitates the form factor of the GameBoy

• The Anbernic RG 34XX Plus, which copies the form factor of the GameBoy Advance exactly

• The Miyoo Mini Plus, which is shaped like a tiny GameBoy

• The Miyoo A30, which is shaped like an old Game-and-Watch, plus a joystick,

• The TrimUI Brick, which is shaped like a small GameBoy.

All of these are basically equivalent in terms of their ability to emulate old consoles on a decent display, and the RG35XX Plus is nice for being the largest of these all. I wish someone made a handheld console at least as large as the GameBoy Color, or even as large as the original brick GameBoy.

But as I've said earlier in this post and earlier last year, Anbernic is a shit company you should never purchase from again. Their devices are fragile and fucky, Anbernic is spammy and scammy.

The Miyoo A30 is collecting dust on a friends shelf (sad, I painstakingly set up their favorite Hamtaro games on speed-dial) while the Miyoo Mini Plus (in translucent purple btw) is going to great use by a trans girl who is playing MANY Super Metroid mods. The GBA-shaped RG34XX is back on my shelves after lending to a friend, along with the RG35XX Plus. If anyone wants to borrow these and you live in the US, feel free to take these off my hands. They are nice, but not my preference, and Anbernic leaves a bad spam-flavored taste in my mouth.

i love my trimui brick :

\While working on a fangame / homage, it's nice to be able to jump around and research the source material, in the form of loading emulators and save states. So, I'm mostly playing for about 30 minutes at a time, max.

Since getting it, I've been using the TrimUI Brick exclusively. I love da TrimUI Brick. It's a bit on the small side, but the device feels solid and the buttons are clicky and nice. People complain about the diagonals on the D-pad but I haven't had any problems.

It also comes with replaceable shoulder buttons, which might be nice if you care strongly about that.

TrimUI also offers a "TrimUI Brick Hammer", which is the same exact device, in a metal frame instead of plastic, with a "Brick Pro" coming soon which adds two joysticks. It appears to make for a larger device (nice!) but the sticks make it bad for pockets (sad).

something something portmaster

This is a big asterisk for me. These devices can play games like Celeste, Shovel Knight, Undertale, etc. but I don't know how to figure out how to put them on here.

The people who are figuring out how are at Portmaster, but they don't support the MinUI firmware I'm on, and I don't care to fuck around with changing the firmware again.

I see that Godot games are being ported, and I would love to figure out how to target my TrimUI brick with my game. It would make for a good performance target.

I'll find an afternoon to spend on this eventually. I have a whole other "minimum things" I want in a firmware, like fast-forward and save states.

other devices

I am already saturated in devices and I hate spending money. But if I were looking for my first device, the Retroid Pocket Classic might appeal to me (although it's on Android). Ayaneo makes very expensive freaky looking premium handhelds which I'd be interested to try but couldn't justify spending >$300 on. The Analogue Pocket is well-regarded for emulating hardware using FPGA. 8BitDo makes very good controllers, and they have recently announced their "8BitDo Flippad".

The GameSir Pocket Taco is the same idea and would also be appealing to me. I already have an old smartphone that I keep disconnected from the internet, and I could just be using that instead.

The Nintendo Switch (or Pro 2) with the Virtual Console is a nice enough emulation station, and I imagine so is true for the various Steam Deck clones out there... But they're huge.

My dream device would have buttons as nice as the TrimUI, sized anywhere between a GameBoy Color to an original GameBoy. If it had joysticks, they would be 3DS-style "circle pads", so that it could fit in my pocket.

It'd be very nice if these devices shipped with an acrylic- or injection-moulded plastic case for throwing these in a pocket. Not to absorb shock, but to prevent buttons and screens from being damaged by pocket ditritus. Some of these ship in case with woven-plastic and mesh which I so very much hate the texture of