GameForce ACE

[austere palm]

Pictures from Jutleys

[acoustic umbra]

Looks like a worse rp3/+

[spiral path]

Yeah, kinda expected this to be as unique as the first one

Function/home buttons probably suggest Android

[austere palm]

It's very generic looking sadly

[jade prairie]

Ya basic

[clear flare]

top joystick and back/home buttons on the front are nice to see

(granted I'd want top dpad if it were gonna be my only retro handheld, but I already have a 353VS)

but yeah it's hard to say it's a 'worse' rp3+ without knowing price and specs

it could be a better rp3+

it looks like it might have a real cooling system which could mean a better SoC

analog shoulders is an upgrade from the RP3+ as well

this could be more or less gameforce beating retroid to making the RP4

[acoustic umbra]

When I said looks I meant the look of it. NOT the SOC or anything. Just look of it. If they keep that huge GAMEFORCE on the bottom. It will look bad to me.

[kindred matrix]

Looks pretty good NGL

Hopefully it isn't a vita style dpad

As for the looks looks, the green one is pretty sick

[clear flare]

green one?

[acoustic umbra]

Maybe grey one?

[clear flare]

I dunno I'm colourblind enough that I don't do well with subtle colours

but it looks grey to me

I wish more manufacturers would do bright/fun colours but not transparent

like every single rit dye job on the miyoo mini+ looks great

red, mint green, purple, etc

coffee brown even

[deft ocean]

based on the size of the usb c port relative to the rest of the device, this looks like it will be larger than rp3/3+

[clear flare]

probably a 5.5" screen?

[deft ocean]

don't have exact measurements though. I'm eyeballing it

yeah probably

[clear flare]

looks roughly similar in size (just from eyeballing a usb port) to the x28 from powkiddy

the x28 is more interesting visually and has front firing speakers though

so if this is also t618 and isn't much cheaper then who cares

[deft ocean]

lol

these guys were late to the game for rk3326

they very well may be for t618 as well

[clear flare]

the cooling makes me think something else is going on

d900 in a form factor smaller than the odin lite would be nice

[deft ocean]

funny thing is

d900 doesn't even need active cooling

the active cooling setup was designed around sd845. odin lite owners never really turn the fan on

[clear flare]

oh that's wild

makes me think the odin lite could've been significantly smaller if they hadn't re-used the shell

[deft ocean]

true that. people are hoping for that chip in the next generation of retroid products

[clear flare]

506 is gonna be d1200

but tbh I hope somebody makes something more KTR1 sized

but the KTR1 itself if it ever comes is looking a little pricey for the specs

[deft ocean]

not sure if d1200 is thermally efficient enough to work on small handhelds. the XP+ has the same chip and I recall from a review that it needed the active cooling setup it has

[spiral path]

I mean, this is probably a stretch, but the cooling made me think of the heatsink on RG405M

[deft ocean]

hmm come to think of it there isn't a 506 thread

are there any news on that one?

[acoustic umbra]

I heard a rumor that it might be a 3588. All I can say

[clear flare]

there's a screenshot of max zhou saying the 506 is d1200 with a 1080p oled

that's basically all we got

might not even be real

[spiral path]

Yeah, I think when this was first mentioned, Stubbs said that Gao Fengs sent Thor an RK3588S SBC for doing some software work

I don’t know, passively cooled RK3588S seems a bit too optimistic. But truly awesome if this is the case

[clear flare]

does this definitely not have a fan?

[austere palm]

Definitely not a T618 right? It has an HDMI port

[spiral path]

RP3+ has one though

[austere palm]

Brain didn't work, you're correct

[acoustic umbra]

So does the X18s

[radiant girder]

it's a worse RP3+ cuz it don't got a vita pad

[tidal oriole]

Should be a 3588 device

It was when Thor was working with gao on an early sbc

[tidal oriole]

Ah already mentioned, nice. Yes this

[austere palm]

The design is pretty good for a 3588, everything makes sense

Besides the start and select, how does everyone screw that up

[spiral path]

What’s wrong with them?

[austere palm]

Annoying to hotkey with

[spiral path]

Seems like one of the few devices that doesn’t have them on the opposite sides of the device

[austere palm]

I like them on opposite sides

Left hand select, right hand a face button

Works great for all hotkeys

[spiral path]

IMO it’s better to map the function key for the hotkey actually, since it doesn’t conflict with the games that do use the select button

[austere palm]

Thought that was just a back button

Works fine then if it's function

[spiral path]

I’d imagine ES could map any button to whatever

Don’t think a dedicated back button is useful there either

[austere palm]

Yeah, looking at the full render it's labeled FN

Don't have much to nitpick here besides the giant GAMEFORCE logo. No grips, but it's trying to be pocketable

[brazen kayak]

Down firing speakers, poor start and select placement, huge Game Force logo, no contoured grips, yeah this one is a pass for me regardless of what the chip is

5 inch or bigger screen and pocket ability don't mesh, commit to one or the other. Either you go for pocket ability which needs to be a smaller device or you commit to ergonomics which needs contoured grips not this weird hybrid that satisfies neither

[olive notch]

i think 5 inch can be pocketable-ish if you can hit vita screen to body ratio. this doesn't quite seem like it does.

[austere palm]

Don't see why you couldn't, it's smaller than most phones

Speakers are annoying but there's no room so I'll forgive it

[olive notch]

it will certainly be bigger than my phone, anyway

[clear flare]

If they're gonna go pocketable don't have shoulder bump outs and give me inline

if they're gonna add the shoulder bump outs they may as well do grips too as long as the grips don't protrude beyond the shoulder bump outs

all that matters to me for pocket-ability is dimensions at their widest point

which this and the RP flip and the RP3+ already kinda throw in the trash with stacked shoulders so you may as well go full ergo

[scenic girder]

Why didn’t they make it super 90’s like the first one? Everyone is doing the same thing, need to be different to stand out from the crowd.

[clear flare]

I could do without the leds but fun colours would be nice

[little nexus]

hopefully these are just some basic colors while they show off the fundamental design

[flint path]

Which was custom though

[radiant girder]

You can turn off the leds though on the GF1

[spiral path]

So according to Taki this is RK3588 #1022121382982721576 message

Pretty nice, the original Gameforce had a very wide software support

[hollow nymph]

Just pictured the heatsink in the pi400 lol

[next path]

D1200 would be dope.

[clear flare]

Wow, a 3588 at the 5.5” size would be dope

The orangepi one is too big

[hollow nymph]

The 3588 is the new t618. I have 0 issues with this

[clear flare]

linux CFW strikes back (while still letting android users stick to android)

[high trail]

Hardly can compare the t618, which is basically an android only soc. RK3588 has much more interest in the broad Linux community, not just handhelds.

[hollow nymph]

I mean it will be as common in handhelds

[high trail]

More common

[clear flare]

I'm interested in how small someone manages to make a 3588 handheld

not expecting 353 series small but hopeful we can get RP flip small

[high trail]

To power hungry to be in a tiny device

[clear flare]

is there any sign of a 3566 successor on the horizon?

[hollow nymph]

I know radxa and opi and all having a board with this chipset. I just mean this is the second rumor in a span of a week. Maybe even powkiddy

[clear flare]

powkiddy already confirmed they have a 3588 planned

I'm thinking it might be what's in the max 3 pro

[hollow nymph]

Ive only seen a youtube comment about future plans

[clear flare]

yeah but that comment is from the official powkiddy channel

[high trail]

Once pancsf is merged into mesa and mainline Linux is available should be a nice platform. Works well as is but lots of untapped power.

[hollow nymph]

I know it is inaccurate on many levels...but i cant wait for the arm decks 😄

What kind of battery life can we expect? On full load

[clear flare]

TDP is 12w for the SoC so it isn't much less power use than the steam deck SoC when running full tilt on both

and frankly you may want to overclock this and go higher than that

so personally I'm expecting battery life numbers more in line with x86 handhelds than rk3566 ones

[kindred matrix]

Wait. Wasn't x55 the max 2 successor?

[little nexus]

nope, just a whole separate thing outta nowhere

[kindred matrix]

Oof, if that's the case I don't care if it can do perfect GameCube, I'm not buying lol

[little nexus]

i mean, it looks like it should be

[kindred matrix]

Powkiddy moment

[little nexus]

but the max 3 is completely different

and apparently the max 3 pro will be pretty different from that as well

i guess you can't expect much from a company that still plays to the fake nintendo switch market

it's more like their good devices are a surprise

honestly relieved that they're not talking about an x86 handheld anymore

[clear flare]

I'm curious where people are using these handhelds for more than 3 hours without access to electricity personally

obviously if someone makes a 3588 with like a 10wh battery that would be really bad

but I never go below 70% battery on my 353VS

[kindred matrix]

It's more like

I play for 40 minutes

Put it in my bag

Play for 40 more minutes

Put it on the table

Want to play for an hour... Oh it's dead? eBay it is.

[clear flare]

the steam deck lasts like 4+ hours unless you're running it completely dimed on a AAA game

I expect a 3588 to be the same

[little nexus]

yeah i played death's gambit for like 3 hours straight once on the lowest-end aya neo air

[kindred matrix]

I need at least 6h of gaming time in a device so I can safely forget to charge it a couple of times

[clear flare]

I played nobody saves the world for over 4 hours on my deck without plugging in

[kindred matrix]

I have ADHD so I often forget shit like that

[clear flare]

I plug in my 353VS when I go to bed at night so it has basically never dropped below 70% outside of when I intentionally discharged it down below 20% so I could see if my colourblind ass could tell the difference between the green light or the red light

[clear flare]

Jutley who apparently has insider info suggests more news about this is coming this weekend

[ruby summit]

Disappointed that this wont't be like the OG with upgraded buttons - I actually quite liked the shape and colors of the original.

[gleaming shore]

https://tenor.com/view/hhgf-gif-25031041

[clear flare]

https://tenor.com/view/kool-aid-man-kool-aid-juice-gif-8291586

[versed pond]

God damn I would buy this just for the stick placement alone

The rest of the device has to be solid, of course

[minor oak]

and stacked shoulder buttons, too

[dark gorge]

Feels like nothing new with all that's out already. If a device isn't pushing into xbox/ps3 territory, its already at the bottom of the pack

[signal sky]

i really hope e get news this weekend, this handheld just seems to be perfect, almost too good to be true

[signal sky]

so i assume there was no news that weekend right? or was there something not posted here?

[radiant girder]

no

[versed pond]

Dammit

Out of all the recent handhelds this is the one I want an update on most badly

[signal sky]

same :=)

[gleaming shore]

You think we will ever get a dedicated PS3/Xbox Linux handheld

That's not just windows handheld with Linux on it

[clear flare]

Deck 2 whenever that comes

[dark gorge]

An Xbox handheld would be easy. Would just be a really good Intel unit with 48cu iris/uhd graphics or something as equivalently beefy(sd888?). Ps3? Ehhhh.... Good luck with that. Nothing in arm has the power for titles like The Last of Us.

[radiant girder]

I hope for a Deck Slim sooner

[dark gorge]

even if cxbx had full library support, that's still a lot of GPU beef needed for heavy titles. The best arm GPU (Nvidia Kepler in the switch), is still only mid-tier and will get you up to Blinx the time sweeper before you need more power.

[gleaming shore]

but it would have horrid batt

[acoustic umbra]

hurry up powkiddy

[clear flare]

this isn't a powkiddy product

[radiant girder]

that means they should hurry up faster

[spiral path]

Elon Musk slow down please

[clear flare]

WTT: My dying social media app for your 3588 handheld

[uneven osprey]

Elon musk is already very slow

[dark gorge]

Pingzi make more pls.

[acoustic umbra]

Hurry up powkiddy

[clear flare]

Again, this is not a powkiddy product

[worthy niche]

Where are the nipples?!?

[acoustic umbra]

Really wish powkiddy wasn't so slow

[little nexus]

bro are you just gonna keep necroing threads to say hurry up to the devs who aren't reading these

[clear flare]

Or to the wrong dev entirely

[acoustic umbra]

DING, DING, DING.....

[versed pond]

Why is it so hard for any of these companies to make a device where the left joystick is on top? The RP3+ Would be the perfect device if it was. Credit to the KTR1 for giving people a choice at least

[clear flare]

the orange pi one is stick top

[versed pond]

Will it be pocketable? Looks like its gonna be too big for me

[clear flare]

I think it's gonna be 5.5" screen

so probably not

pocketable top stick is just the 405m afaik atm

oh or RGB20s

[versed pond]

Im looking for something with a 16:9 aspect ratio unfortunately. If the KTR1 had it that would be my go to frankly

[clear flare]

hrm, pocketable + top stick + 16:9 is hard

[versed pond]

If the odin lite was just a bit smaller it would be gold to me

[clear flare]

x18s black edition

[versed pond]

Nah that device is garbage lol

[acoustic umbra]

Why is it taking powkiddy so long to release this

[brazen kayak]

they had to outsource their chips from africa

the kids can only go down into the mines for so long...

[acoustic umbra]

https://tenor.com/view/head-in-the-sand-gif-12598832

[acoustic umbra]

Any update for the second coming?

[dark gorge]

people that have version 2/black-edition have already comfirmed the problems from version 1 are gone.

[dark gorge]

comments aside, it's an amazing tv-box+handheld.

[acoustic umbra]

You have a gameforce 2?

[tropic spade]

I'm watching this and the Orange Pi handhelds closely. I'm sure they're both still a ways away, but I'm really hopeful. Just need to know some prices!

[acoustic umbra]

We can only hope. Taki mentioned this SOC in his latest video.

[kindred matrix]

Why is 3588 taking so long

[clear flare]

Hasn’t it only been like 8 months since it even showed up in customers hands on SBCs?

[kindred matrix]

I have no clue actually, I just know that ever since I got into this hobby in March people keep saying "3588 aaaany day now!"

[spiral path]

Well, one of two companies that are working on RK3588 handhelds, has never made a handheld before (Orange Pi), the other is a one-man operation (Gameforce)

[flint path]

Orange pi probably ahead of them

[acoustic umbra]

I think they been out long than that. I remember seeing this SOC over a year ago. Here is a article that is older. https://www.cnx-software.com/2020/11/26/rockchip-rk3588-specifications-revealed-8k-video-6-tops-npu-pcie-3-0-up-to-32gb-ram/

[spiral path]

I think Orange Pi 5 came out in December, so it's true that affordable SBCs ($150 and below) have been a thing for just 8 months

Before that we only had fairly expensive industrial boards from Firefly, as far as I remember

[acoustic umbra]

Oh on SBCs. Sorry misread. This SOC hasn't be on SBCs for long.

[gleaming shore]

Release date when

[orchid pumice]

Is this the sequel to the Chi?

All the character of the first one gone 😔 now transformed into another generic slab.

[radiant girder]

ye that's right

[acoustic umbra]

Will this be less than 399?

[wanton patio]

I don't think it looks that premium

[clear flare]

no way they can sell a 3588 for 399

my guess for 3588 handhelds is between 200 and 300

[orchid pumice]

The only thing Gameforce Chi had going for it was it’s X factor, the aesthetic, didn’t it have something crazy like 10 LEDs inside.

[acoustic umbra]

Can some post the taki pics in here. I can't remember where they were.

[flint path]

This?

[clear flare]

did we ever find out what size screen that is?

I'm really curious how portable this is gonna be

I guess the non-recessed sticks kill any hope of it being pocketable regardless of footprint

[orchid pumice]

Imagine a handheld where you press a button and the buttons retract inside the shell and doors close and a shutter goes over the screen.

This is the new X Factor GameForce 2 should have 😂

[worthy niche]

It’s so tactical 🫡

[acoustic umbra]

Will people still pay 300 for this when you can get higher end android or a steam deck?

[austere palm]

Hopefully it's more like $200

[clear flare]

Yeah, if 3588 costs as much as s8g2 something is wrong

[acoustic umbra]

the other one is at that price.

[clear flare]

What other one?

Current estimates for the orangepi are more like 225-250

[austere palm]

The TJD T80

[clear flare]

Oh that thing is a joke

Isn’t it like a 10” screen?

[austere palm]

But we know how much 3588 boards cost, it's not like it's a mystery

[clear flare]

I’m expecting 199-249 range for the first run of normal sized non-gimmick 3588 handhelds

From orangepi/gameforce/maybe powkiddy

[gleaming shore]

yes. for linux. and yes im aware that steam deck is also linux, but i dont have to wear the fanny pack to carry the steam dekc

[clear flare]

I definitely prefer Linux to android but I’m still not paying s8g2 prices for a 3588

And I’ll probably want to run android on a 3588 until Linux gpu drivers improve on that side anyway

Honestly I dunno if I care enough about gc/ps2 or newer to need anything more powerful than a t618/s922x

My nostalgia kinda caps out at n64 and psp

So if the max 3 firmware continues to improve I might actually be done until my steam deck warrants replacing for pc games

[limber fjord]

Ooh lala

[long cape]

These Handhelds from China REALLY need to stop copying the Nintendo Switch. 😕

[gentle delta]

agreed, definitely

[clear flare]

What form factor do you want?

[long cape]

@clear flare Something Ergonomic that isn't the Nintendo Switch. Like maybe the Wii U or a smaller Steam Deck. Hell I'll take a Thick Chocolate Bar shape with Stacked Shoulder buttons over this form-factor.

[clear flare]

Damn, I thought you were on team vertical/fat gameboy

[acoustic umbra]

I think the rk3588 handhelds will be DOA. If they don't come out in the next 30 days

[tepid cedar]

You think so?

They seem to be performant in the right ways

[light verge]

If they make 3588s handhelds <200$ it will be great imo

[acoustic umbra]

If these come out at 300 plus then yes. If they are less than 200 they might have a chance.

[tepid cedar]

for sure, price is going to make or break it... I don't think we've seen a price for any of the 3588 devices yet though?

[light verge]

https://www.tjd-gaming-handheld.com/

This is the only one I know but the price is terrible

[tepid cedar]

yeah, that is terrible, haha

[acoustic umbra]

What I am using most of my info for.

[tepid cedar]

at $200 it would be amazing, at $300 it's dead

[clear flare]

Which means it’ll probably be somewhere in between

[light verge]

Given how ayn can sell a Gen 2 handheld for <300 it 'should' be no problem

[acoustic umbra]

Looks like gameforce will be late to the party again

[kindred matrix]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say no.

EU tax would take a $300 chinese handheld all the way up to $369 for me... If I throw in $70 more I can get a Steam Deck.

$200 before tax is the most I'd pay for a GameCube/PS2 machine

Until Android gets good games and working WiiU/original Xbox or something else that would greatly expand the library, or until the cheaper Linux handhelds can run Steam games, I don't see a point in spending Steam Deck prices for something less capable

[tepid cedar]

Same boat, $200 is what I'm hoping the 3588 devices will weigh in at. Otherwise there are just better options.

[light verge]

This one seems to be in development hell for almost a year now. We should have seen it in october last year

[clear flare]

Based on what? We barely had rk3588 SBCs at that time didn’t we?

[light verge]

Taki teased it in the the retro handhelds podcast last year and said it should be ready next month ~nov

[spiral path]

Now, this is from mid-August, but at least seems like it's not dead

Now, given that Android seems to be pretty solid on RK3588, I'd assume the issues are not really on the software side, though

[light verge]

Soon™

[austere palm]

https://gameforce.fun/products/gameforce-ace-rk3588s-gaming-handheld

Up for pre-order

GameForce ACE

$159

[deft ocean]

is that the correct link? shows the og gameforce

[clear flare]

Does it have a touchscreen? What’s the screen res?

[austere palm]

Switched it out for the correct link

[clear flare]

I would like some screen details before handing over cash lol

[deft ocean]

decent amount of ram

[austere palm]

1. don't think so
2. No idea

These just popped up

[clear flare]

The 3566 version looks silly cheap

[deft ocean]

they have a blog

https://gameforce.fun/blogs/news

[austere palm]

I'm seeing $30 shipping

[deft ocean]

of course there's no information

[austere palm]

On my address

[deft ocean]

did the preorder page go up early or something? there's not really enough information to go off of

[thorn marsh]

first actual shipped RK3588 handheld?

[deft ocean]

seems so

very well priced too

[thorn marsh]

well save for the shipping

[clear flare]

Resellers to the rescue I guess

[thorn marsh]

cool tho

might kickstart other companies to FINALLY jump on the 3588 train

[clear flare]

Good price precedent to set since powkiddy will try to beat it and have free shipping

I’ll give up wifi to save $50

[acoustic umbra]

with a little more info. I might throw some money at this.

[light verge]

Looks like the 3588s will make powerful devices finally affordable. Now where is the rp4 with a 3588s for 169

[light verge]

I would still wait for some reviews first. The original gameforce had not so good buttons

[acoustic umbra]

Better than the KtR1 . I have a sickness. So...........

[clear flare]

yeah they want 30 USD to ship to me and no indicator on what that shipping service actually is

I'm in Canada so if they use some stupid private courier like DHL they'd extort me for more on top of that in brokerage

while everybody's else's $10-15 4px shipping works great

[vital fossil]

$30 shipping for the ACE and Indie
$15 for the Chi

[clear flare]

yeah I'm hoping this is a page that went live too soon and is not finished

because that shipping is absurd

and there are no details on anything

[vital fossil]

Btw Chi is now $65

USD

[willow geode]

Preordered both, living on the edge.

[vital fossil]

[willow geode]

By the way shipping was a flat $30 combined for both

[clear flare]

lol I guess that's the only way to get a good shipping price

buy two

maybe I should preorder 10 to get $3 shipping

[gentle delta]

woah, 160?

gimme a few

[clear flare]

160 + 30 for shipping lol

[signal fiber]

oh man

[clear flare]

expensive shipping and brokerage fees from DHL are making me a -stan

[signal fiber]

why doesn't it have absurd 90s aesthetics?

[clear flare]

I spent $35 including shipping on a v90

[clear flare]

I know, I was really hoping they'd have at least one 'fun' colour alongside black and white

like give me an urban camo print or turqoise colourway

[light verge]

I'm out

[clear flare]

I really hope the shipping is not correct

and that the page just went up early

because they should be able to do just do $15 4px like anbernic/retroid

to my door in canada

[earnest saddle]

$30 to UK too

[gentle delta]

same for spain

hopefully lower at launch

[gentle delta]

no way i'd buy this at launch though, this is really different from the chi situation

[lilac kestrel]

Love to see 3588 show up

But im waiting for reviews

[thorn marsh]

I'll wait for the usual suspects to announce their stuff and I'll get one once I watch the reviews on here and they praise the machines

[acoustic umbra]

People say when do get a 3588 handhelds. One starts to show up and everyone is like I don't like the shipping. NO ONE will ever be happy.

[gentle delta]

well, it's just too expensive shipping

but even then it would be a good price

[light verge]

Yeah the rp3+ was the same price for me with shipping and taxes. 189

[true vault]

it basically gonna be a d900 tbh so with shipping this doesnt really move the needle.

[acoustic umbra]

I saw so many messages about how good it is. How people can't wait to have powerful Linux. Now the price scares people away?

[austere palm]

All the Linux nerds will show up, have patience

[gentle delta]

if this does linux gamecube and ps2 without much tinkering, i'll definitely get one

[true vault]

true I get the linux angle but for me I dont care about either linux or android im fine with both

[gentle delta]

but being the first one, don't wanna be too quick about it, i'll wait for the reviews

[deft ocean]

yeah rk3588 handhelds in general aren't really for peeps who don't really prefer linux over android or care about dual booting

[true vault]

I figured I was hopeful for closer to 150 price than 200. but its gonna be cool to see the chip

[lilac kestrel]

Oh at this price and with linux im all in, just wanna see if the device itself is worth it

[hollow nymph]

Android performance should be better with ps2 but linux for all the blackmagic fuckery

[gentle delta]

just seems weird to me that their first was the chi which was so weird, and then they'd make something so average looking and being the first with a chip instead of showing up kinda late with the 3326

[light verge]

I think this was the device from the rg podcast last year which was reffered as 'takis friend device'. So I'm pretty sure he will be one of the first to review it

[deft ocean]

lol yeah gameforce was the last company I'd expect to release this kind of handheld with this kind of timing

[gentle delta]

are we gonna get an "I created the Gameforce Ace" video?

[true vault]

when can we expect review units?

[gentle delta]

if it ships mid october i'd expect review vids up around the first few days of october

[true vault]

thats surprisingly quick might grab it just have something while I wait for other devices

[tepid cedar]

Well shit... under $200 for a 3588

[clear flare]

We don’t even know if this will support Linux yet, or the screen specs

It could be an android only handheld with a locked boot loader for all we know

[tepid cedar]

would you buy at $180 $190 and free shipping? haha

[clear flare]

I mean that would be $10 cheaper

But yeah at $190 I’d be in if reviews are good and it supports Linux

[tepid cedar]

ah, misread the price

[clear flare]

But I need specs and OS info

[earnest saddle]

As someone fairly new to this, is the RK3588 much of a jump from the T618 then?

[hollow nymph]

Shouldnt all distros work thats available for the orange pi 5?

[tepid cedar]

do you already have a T618?

[clear flare]

Oh and I need to know what courier they’re using

[clear flare]

That can’t really be assumed no

[earnest saddle]

Flip on its way to me.

[clear flare]

Bootloaders, power controllers, display drivers, etc

[deft ocean]

more GC/PS2 playable

it's comparable in perf to SD845

[acoustic umbra]

specs

[gentle delta]

yeah, i probably would, just saying if the price is really that, and the shipping can be the same as other stores, it could be even cheaper

[clear flare]

Screen res? Are they hall sticks?

The page is obviously not finished

hell we don't even have the screen SIZE

[acoustic umbra]

It is actively getting updates as we talk

[thorn marsh]

"Don't worry, sweetie c:"

[clear flare]

it's 3" 427x240

[hollow nymph]

Wha

[clear flare]

I'm joking

[thorn marsh]

1.5"

[clear flare]

it looks like it's probably somewhere in the 5-ish inch range

[gentle delta]

looks like a 5 incher to me too

maybe 720p?

[clear flare]

but it could be a 4.7" iphone 7 screen (1344 x 750) like the RP3

or it could be a 5" 854x480 like the MAX line

or it could be a 5.5" 720p like the x55

[tepid cedar]

well... if they send out review units, and they're decent, that price is going to be really nice

[gentle delta]

if i could choose, i'd say 5,5 powkiddy screen

looks smaller to me though

[tepid cedar]

5" is my guess

[lilac kestrel]

Hopefully with touchscreen

[tepid cedar]

or it has big ass buttons

[thorn marsh]

6.2" 1440p 144hz AMOLED with gorilla glass victus

[clear flare]

on one hand with the protruding sticks and triggers its not gonna be pocketable regardless so bigger = better, on the other hand I'd rather have 854x480 than 720p for emulation

in this power bracket anyway

since most of the systems I'd be emulating on it are 640x480 native res

[hollow nymph]

Is the indie the same size?

[clear flare]

looks like the exact same shell

just a different mobo

[hollow nymph]

So the screen has to be budget

[split stag]

unless they just reused photos haphazardly

[clear flare]

top stick and widescreen on a 3566 is still weird, no matter how much russ likes the x55

[split stag]

im not totally convinced about that dpad

[gentle delta]

yeah it's basically an even more budget x55, kinda weird

[tepid cedar]

powerful enough for widescreen hacks?

[gentle delta]

i hope that doesn't affect build for the ace

[hollow nymph]

Its fine for streaming and some android games i guess.

[clear flare]

the 3588? definitely for a lot of older stuff

the 3566? hard to say

[clear flare]

that's just a preorder price and they're charging $30 for shipping so even the preorder is actually $15 more than the x55 (with powkiddy shipping is free and they always have a $5 off coupon)

and full price will be $45 more than the x55

which is frankly kinda stupidly priced for a 3566

[hollow nymph]

Depending on mouth feel id pay 45 more

If its a better shell than the x55 i mean sure

[gentle delta]

oh, i missed that these are only for preorder

guess it makes sense

so how much will the ace be full price?

[clear flare]

I just do not understand why you'd pay $130 for a 3566 widescreen when that's max3/rp2s/405v territory

[clear flare]

they claim $199.99

obviously they could be doing the same thing powkiddy does where the 'preorder price' just becomes the 'on sale' price after launch and they never actually charge full price

[tepid cedar]

yeah, no interest in the 3566 based device, RGB30 is the king of that chip now, lol

[gentle delta]

maybe a bit debatable with the controls

i like rg503 controls much better, but the concept of the rgb30 is just too cool so i'll sell it

[tepid cedar]

it fails contra test, but hasn't been a problem for me yet really, and seems fixable with the usual tape mod that many devices need

[gentle delta]

definitely the worst one i've had for this, but yeah, fixable at least

i suppose the ones that have supposedly "good" dpads with hard to do diagonals have no solution

[tepid cedar]

no solution for the screen either, haha

[clear flare]

I still have no idea how miyoo manages to make the best dpads of all time in a cheap device

[gentle delta]

it's definitely not an issue for me

[tepid cedar]

but back to this, 3588 under $200 is exactly what I was hoping for

[true vault]

the win600 was the goat dpad for me

[gentle delta]

yeah, now i'm sort of bummed i bought 3 handhelds in the last month

[hollow nymph]

Isnt it 70?

[gentle delta]

but well, i really have to see the reviews for this before i trust it

[clear flare]

the non-preorder price

is $100 USD plus $30 USD shipping

[hollow nymph]

Holy...

[clear flare]

even the preorder is actually $100 once you add it to your cart

[tepid cedar]

I've been teetering on getting a T618, but I really wanted to see the price the on the 3588 devices. At the very least, this sets the bar for other 3588 devices.

[clear flare]

yeah I'm in the same boat as you @tepid cedar - this gives me a good reason to wait and see on the next gen rather than just buy a t618

though the RP2S is quite affordable

[gentle delta]

it's been very smooth for me, and i love streaming games to my rp3+

but yeah, for emulation exclusively it's definitely more clunky

have to smudge up the screen pretty often

[clear flare]

but yeah, I want screen specs, clarification on shipping charges/method, whether jelos et al are getting dev units, whether the bootloader is locked, whether it has a touchscreen, and reviews on controls quality

does it have a fan?

is the fan loud?

absurd to ask for money without answering any of these questions

[gentle delta]

and actual performance, cause if it's just more ps2 and gc but not full ps2 and gc, i don't think i'll bother

[clear flare]

3588 should be full ps2/gc outside of maybe specific compatibility outliers

it has the raw power for it for sure

[true vault]

its not gonna be full ps2 tbh

[gentle delta]

also, it might come with android exclusively and be closed source, right?

or is linux confirmed?

[thorn marsh]

People say that a Linux 3588 build would probably be pretty powerful

[clear flare]

right now I'd expect better performance on android until the 3588 gets mainlined

the 3588 right now is held back on linux by a lack of good GPU drivers

[thorn marsh]

Rip

[clear flare]

my assumption is that the 3588 handhelds are gonna be a better out of the box experience on android until the linux CFW options catch up

[spiral path]

I think this should be more Powkiddy-style, e.g. it will run whatever community cooks up

Slaminger said he had a dev unit a few months ago

[kindred matrix]

So is there a legit chance that this will play 90% of GameCube library (NTSC ROMs) or should I just not care?

[light verge]

It should do 90% of gamecube at 1080p

[kindred matrix]

That's great news

I'll wait for Russ to get one

If he says it can play GameCube well, I'll buy it

And skip the 405M

[true vault]

I would temper expectations a lot. It’s the same cpu wise as a d900

[light verge]

True. It's always better to keep your expectations in check. But there a some emulation performance videos on youtube and it's looking good for gamecube emulation

[true vault]

It’s gonna do good for gc. But not 4x majority of library

[kindred matrix]

As long as I can play WindWaker and Twilight Princess at at least 720p with no slowdowns, that's my standard for a good GameCube device

[tepid cedar]

my guess is that it has a 720 screen anyhow, so no need for 1080, heh

[gentle delta]

i'm fine with 480 even if it runs well

[clear flare]

yeah native res is fine for dc and up imo

I'd want a good screen for it though

like I'd actively prefer 854x480 for this over 720

[gentle delta]

those huge bezels kinda worry me

screams old display

[clear flare]

it actually looks a lot like the OGU display

which is 854x480 5"

so here's hoping

for reference

[gentle delta]

oh you're right

and that's a good one?

[clear flare]

imo yes

the max 3 screen is the same size/res too

its basically a 405m screen but wider

[kindred matrix]

I assume this isn't gonna do PS2?

Seeing as even the Odin Lite can't really run most PS2 games well and this is supposed to be slower

[clear flare]

3588 should do quite a bit of ps2 but it's gonna come down more to software support than raw power

[true vault]

My guess was a 5” panel from the hands on video

[clear flare]

a lot of the 3588 benchmarks you see out there are from shit software situations

[light verge]

It will do alot of ps2. But some of the hardest to emulate are out

[clear flare]

but frankly given the aether (abandoned closed source emulator) situation ps2 is probably gonna stay x86 territory for me

[kindred matrix]

This honestly will be the dealmaker for me

[half oar]

How hyped are you Kehoe? Finally a 3588S device

[true vault]

If u liked d900/845 performance expect that tbh

I wouldn’t go in thinking more than that

[clear flare]

pretty hyped they're finally coming, unsure if this is the one I actually want to buy

[delicate prairie]

I see it as around Odin base/pro, cpu abit faster than the 845 and about the same GPU (though Mali)

[clear flare]

not enough info yet

[kindred matrix]

If this can play FF12, God of War 1 and 2, GTA: San Andreas and the PS2 Sonic games, I'll buy it

If not, a 405M and Steam Deck it is

[delicate prairie]

Hoping the orangepi one will be cheaper, though 199 is a decent price

??? It's worse than the d900 on 2 cores, quite a lot better on 4 cores.

[clear flare]

I'm hoping someone makes a more pocketable form factor one

[kindred matrix]

I want a beeeeg one

[clear flare]

like a max 3 shell with a 3588 (and wifi) would be sick as hell

[light verge]

But the 3588s has 4 perfomance cores which are better for ps2 emulation. I think the d900 only has 2?

[kindred matrix]

6" 16:9 or 4.5" 4:3 would be ideal for GC and PS2 to me

[clear flare]

honestly if the anbernic 406 rumours are correct that sounds like the ultimate gc/ps2 device

[true vault]

Website could be wrong though 😂 it’s the internet

[light verge]

Yeah it's wrong😅

https://i.mediatek.com/dimensity-900

[kindred matrix]

What are the rumours?

4" is a bit small but I could live with it

[tepid cedar]

assuming the screen is the same size, the buttons are kinda big, but the sticks are kinda small

[clear flare]

d1200 and either 960x720 or 1280x960

[clear flare]

that render must be wrong then, no way they found sticks even smaller than the OGU ones - it uses vita style sticks even smaller than switch sticks

[true vault]

Wait the 406 is a thing

I thought they were doing a 506?

[kindred matrix]

Not bad, are there any d1200 handhelds out there to check performance?

[true vault]

Xp plus and pocket air

[tepid cedar]

lol, if you match stick sizes it's huge!

[light verge]

Rumours are that they are doing a 506 1080p
406 960x720

[true vault]

I’m guessing the 506 will be cheaper?

Due to a plastic shell or is it gonna be reversed this time

[light verge]

The rumour was that the 406 will be cheaper than the 405 so it should be plastic. For the 506 there is nothing yet. But the 506 was rumoured to get a 1080p oled display so I guess that one will cost more

[kindred matrix]

Looks pretty hot performance wise

If it's under $200 I'll get that

[clear flare]

it might be a 6"

the OGU buttons are tiny so I wouldn't use those as a real reference

[true vault]

Any guess if they fit active cooling in this

[clear flare]

but the OGU sticks are probably the smallest these sticks could possibly be

[kindred matrix]

I would have said $220 was the bar for me a month ago but my currency went down 8% so 💀

[gentle delta]

i suppose anbernic would make a more budget one and then the premium metal one, like with 505 and 405

[clear flare]

supposedly the 406 will be cheaper than the 405m

so definitely plastic

but yeah that would put it also under $200 even after shipping

[past lintel]

For sure; I actually love the Win600 DPAD more than basically all my other devices.

Definately will wait for reviews/more details before I grab one of these, but really glad to see a new chip.

[gleaming shore]

This is......very well priced

Holy moly

I was fully expecting this to cost odin2 base or so

[clear flare]

keep in mind they're charging $30 flat rate shipping right now

[spiral path]

Haven't seen this posted

Indie board on the left, Ace board on the right

So I guess Ace uses M2 for storage, while Indie has an internal TF1 slot (which is kinda weird)

[gleaming shore]

Still lower than odin2 base

And that's odin2 base before shipping

[clear flare]

it's not completely unheard of but I hope they aren't shipping it with a shitty knockoff sd inside that's gonna die on you immediately and/or they have some way of flashing/imaging the card without removing it

like the way you can mount the funkey S as usb storage

[gleaming shore]

I'm worried for batt life on this thing

[clear flare]

did they post what size battery is in it?

[gleaming shore]

Nah, but most things I've seen with this is a like a mini PC or android box, which means can pump more power into it for more performance. I'm worried it won't translate well into batt life if we want the similar performance

[clear flare]

yeah, I'm hoping a 3588 this large would have a 7000-ish mAh battery

or at least 6000 to match the orangepi 3588

[tepid cedar]

internal TF1 gives me hives

[tepid cedar]

we haven't seen a price on the orangepi yet, have we?

[clear flare]

nope

[true vault]

Btw for those curious discount code obscure still works u get $8 off

Making it $182

[wild estuary]

Play! Is coming along also not sure about nethersx2 it's made some small gains.

[split stag]

Wasnt GCW0 made this way as well? Also many cheap pocketbook ebook readers are setup with internal sd card.

[gleaming shore]

is that android or linux

[clear flare]

if it's d1200 it'll be android only

mediatek hellscape

[gleaming shore]

https://tenor.com/view/dumping-trash-daniel-labelle-frustrated-garbage-trash-gif-27186872

[half oar]

There is no more Linux

[minor oak]

is that bc mediatek haven't provided kernel whatevers or is just bc no one has ported it yet?

[sterile totem]

As much as i like to see more competition in rk3588s, the thickness in the mockup does not make sense. Rk3588 needs thick heat sink in the minimum. T80 thickness seems more realistic.

[vital fossil]

Jokes on you they put a fan in there

(I don't actually know that)

[foggy crest]

Unless Qualcomm goes full open source... we're going to have to ride this rk3588 wave for a while. For Linux.

[foggy crest]

That does look like a 4pin pwm fan connector next to the chips.

[vital fossil]

Well maybe theyve got one in then

[sterile totem]

I guess heat pipe with a fan.

[gleaming shore]

wait this isnt linux?

is there a possibility of linux on this?

[foggy crest]

Android so far. We won't know about Linux until they release source code and devs get them.

All Rockchip stuff supports Linux....but it'd be hard to bring up without kernel source.

[modern tundra]

Shipping was only $15

And thanks to whoever said to use code obscure, saved $8

[gleaming shore]

oof

then not for me until Linux is ready for this

[modern tundra]

https://tenor.com/view/future-ram-ranch-gif-18120355

[light verge]

Someone could message them and ask for the full specs. There is a contact formular on the site

[true vault]

They have an email

I tried reaching out about it

[quaint wadi]

I keep going back and forth on this thing. The lack of detail for something you can pay for is really odd.

But what we do know seems amazing.

[true vault]

It’s down to $167

If your US

And the use the code

“OBSCURE”

[modern tundra]

Yeah that's what mine cost

Was it more before?

[true vault]

It was $182 when I ordered with code. I reached out to cancel so I can reorder with the cheaper shipping it was $30

[quaint wadi]

Naether or whatever is called seems to be ok though.

Is it because you don't like what happened with the Dev, or because you'll need moe pricey D1200/Snapdragon gen2 performance to do PS2 well?

[delicate prairie]

i will likely stick to x86 for ps2 as well once there is a budget handheld that can do 3x appears. maybe whatever comes after the mendocino, like a Zen 4C only APU. unless development on android continues

the original author of aethersx2 seems to be still committing updates for pcsx2 👀

[earnest saddle]

Changed from $30 to $15 shipping to the UK now.

[delicate prairie]

its $10 only to asia (SG), probably 4px. though even retroid charge $15 for that

[quaint wadi]

Well....more and more this is looking hard to mess up.

[light verge]

It's 25$ shipping to germany

[quaint wadi]

Yeah, same here. I don't feel the need to upgrade my T618 until something d1200 power at under $200 and (and ideally clamshell) comes along. Which may be a while.

If I didn't have a T618 or a more powerful device though, this thing would seem very interesting.

[light verge]

I sold my 3+ a while ago and I'm in for a new handheld. I prefer a symmetrical analog design so I'm gonna wait what the rp4 will bring. But the gameforce 2 is still very tempting for the price

[quaint wadi]

I still don't get why people say they are waiting for the RP4 😄

Literally nothing is confirmed about it, no price, no date, no specs, no form factor....

You may as well say you are waiting for....something 😛

[light verge]

If they release a rp4 this year it will be teased in 1-2 months. I can wait 😅

[quaint wadi]

Aye, retroid are no ones for hanging around are they? Tease it, and open pre-orders a month later.

Then you play the shipping game. Will you get it first, or a month later? Dunno, depends randomly on the colour you bought.....

[dull turtle]

bc they generally like what retroid does with their products, but they wanna wait for more power/different form factor/better inputs?

[quaint wadi]

That's the thing though. The pocket 1/2/3/flip have all been wildly different in form factor. The 2S was a step back in power. What if the RP4 is a mini laptop that comes out at $500? Or a $50 Vertical RG35XX competitor?

It could literally be anything.

And that's assuming it's actually any good.

I sort of get why people hold off for announced stuff that will arrive soon. But holding off for....something 🤷‍♂️

[dull turtle]

eh

the flip was more of a sidegrade

the big jump from 2 to 3 was widescreen

1 was just.. idk

but if you look at how long they were selling the 2 and 2+, how long theyve been selling the 3/3+, and how they're going with the 2s

for most of the time they've been around, they've been in those two form factors

but honestly if the rp4 ends up being an upgraded rp flip, sure whatever

i'll just wait for the 3s then

[quaint wadi]

That would be my ideal scenario 😄

[light verge]

Half of the handheld game is the waiting game lol

[dull turtle]

i mean, either way they're probably gonna stick with the 3 form factors theyve got going

[quaint wadi]

https://tenor.com/view/nods-yes-not-wrong-its-true-story-valid-point-gif-14782869

[dull turtle]

whether they call the clamshell or the candybar the rp4, the other one is gonna get an upgrade as well surely

[quaint wadi]

🤷‍♂️ Maybe. But 1/2/3 have all been different form factors. So maybe 4 will also be a different form factor? 🤷‍♂️

[dull turtle]

i dont see where else they'd go with it

maybe a psp go kinda thing?

but that's just a downgrade from the flip in terms of practicality and robustness

i cant see them going back to 4:3 screens either

[quaint wadi]

Vertical, clamshell, slide screen, a bigger 30cm long console.....there's loads they could do

[dull turtle]

especially as they pump more power into these things

[dull turtle]

getting into the 6 inch size range puts them squarely into competition with ayn

(their sister company, remember)

[quaint wadi]

They deny that

[dull turtle]

and sure its not the first time two sister brands have had overlapping products

but in a market as niche as this it'd be a bit silly

[quaint wadi]

Reddit rumour that got out of hand

[dull turtle]

there are legal documents proving it lol

and they use identical components

(exception being the flip, which has sliders and for some reason a completely different dpad)

but the dpad is the same, the sticks are the same

the odin 2 looks like it's using rp2s sticks

[quaint wadi]

Yeah, so they they have similar suppliers, they are all based in Shenzhen.

[dull turtle]

in a market where everyone has different dpad designs?

idk i dont buy it

in any case, being sister companies under the same parent company doesnt really change much of anything

apart from it being a bit weird if retroid started stepping on ayn's toes

[quaint wadi]

As you said, it's not unusual to have competing brands owned by the same company, that's how the car industry works. There is no reason to deny it if it were true.

It's like the Anbernic/powkiddy are the same company thing 🤷‍♂️

[quaint wadi]

It's not like retroid have their own R&D/manufacturing division. These companies just tender a general idea and subcontract design and contruction.

It's why the are all in a specific city in China, that's where all the subcontractors are.

[keen lintel]

I still think this is too good to be true..
For this price, at least in my region, it's the best performance/price ratio device by quite the margin...
And being linuxable makes it so much more tempting

Anyone could find specs for this?

[quaint wadi]

This, and what's on the website is all we know, I think?

[light verge]

The website will be updated the next few days

[keen lintel]

Yeah, that's not much too go by 😂

[thorn marsh]

I kinda wanna pull the trigger but I know that waiting will give me better results

[gentle delta]

oh, comes with analog triggers too, I didn't realize

if all is good it might replace my rp3+ since i like streaming to it but it's not as good without analog triggers

[acoustic umbra]

It has been confirmed by someone working for Retroid that it is coming out in Q4 of this year. Maybe we will get info in the next couple weeks

[vapid wyvern]

I just wanna know the damn screen size lol

[acoustic umbra]

Looks to be 5in

[keen lintel]

5.5 or bust 😅

[gentle delta]

i hope powkiddy makes a better successor to the x28 with that screen

[clear flare]

I'd settle for a firmware update that fixes the stick calibration

[gentle delta]

i meant for rk3588

keep the overall design but improve the controls

[clear flare]

actually for the 3588 I'd like to see them make 'x18s but good'

widescreen clamshell 3588 with linux is the dream

[gentle delta]

that would be a cool one too

x88

[clear flare]

somehow despite all of powkiddy's other flaws they're the only ones that seem to be good at making hinges?

[gentle delta]

yeah, pretty amazing

that's the only hinged model they made too?

oh v90

[clear flare]

yeah they're 2/2 on good hinges now

[quaint wadi]

Technically 3/3, if you count the x18 and the x18s as different devices. Which they sort of are. Ish.

[acoustic umbra]

X18s and X18 are the same shell. So I would count it as one.

[clear flare]

yeah, 2 hinge molds, both making good hinges

[quaint wadi]

Yeah, I guess I can go either way though. The the retroid 3 and 3+ had the same shell I think, most don't count them as the same device, although maybe they should.

[acoustic umbra]

X18s will bite you. That is real

[quaint wadi]

That is true.

[tepid cedar]

@clear flare going for a GameForce Ace or holding out for a 406? haha

[clear flare]

I need so many more details on the gameforce

we don't even know how big it is lol

absolutely embarassing to be asking for money without listing basic specs

[tepid cedar]

haha, I guess we have a bit over a month to figure it out

[quaint wadi]

Honestly, this really makes me want to get it less, even if it does turn out to be good.

People put up with a lot in this space. But really. Make some effort.

[signal sky]

wow shipping already in mid october?! i really hope they send out some review units soon, this looks almost too good to be true

[keen lintel]

Yeah they're banking on the first rk3588 thing hard..
At least for now se know this has:
.analog L2/r2
.rk3588
. HDMI out.

Is that really it? 😅

[modern tundra]

That's actually more than Anbernic has at the same price tbh

[austere palm]

I will say that I didn't see anyone have any problems at all with Gao Feng with the GameForce Chi

So there's some confidence

[acoustic umbra]

It was over a year ago I was DMing with Thor! over this device. I am hoping they release a little more info for the preorder people. With shipping down to 15 dollars makes this look very good. IMO

[thorn marsh]

Shipping is still 25 dollars for me

[foggy crest]

I haven't decided on if I want just the rk3588 or both. The 3566 with analog triggers should make a good streaming device with good battery life.

[half oar]

Battery life? We don't even know if it has a battery yet

[tepid cedar]

uses a crank

[gentle delta]

playdate ports?

[acoustic umbra]

double A. is what my money is on.

never need to charge the device ever

[half oar]

I hope it's C batteries

[floral marten]

man so weird seeing a preorder for a device where the only thing we know is cpu

everything else is a mystery

[clear flare]

We also know Ram and emmc size lol

[quaint wadi]

It's like the brand noticed we just talk about chips and price as the main features, and went, well, that's all they need anyway... 😄

[clear flare]

But yeah screen?

[floral marten]

yea like the price is pretty appealing

though then again i have no idea about how the quality of gameforce stuff is

[quaint wadi]

But everything about this just screams, we have a new chip, we need to get it sold before anbernic/powkiddy/retroid get theirs out.

[floral marten]

^

it really does

[quaint wadi]

They've only done one before, that was a bit rubbish.

[floral marten]

lol

so its powkiddies second removed illegimate child

[quaint wadi]

Russ reviewed it. I think it won him over by just being so dumb.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqEkOOpqxoI

[foggy crest]

I love my sherbet orange chi....

[quaint wadi]

I bought a V90 and REFUSED to get the black, that actually looks vaguely grown up.

NO, my toy will look like a toy.

[foggy crest]

And a m.2 slot for fast expandable storage. I wonder if other manufacturers will copy that too.

[half oar]

2230s have gotten cheaper

[tidal oriole]

Ordered the Ace

Nice to see it finally coming out

All we had was that Nova PCB to go off of, hoping for more colorways, where is my Spoiled Milk or Nickelodeon Green??

[vital fossil]

Don't forget Traffic Cone Orange

[dark gorge]

yeah, this should be a great android handheld for 6th gen and playstore nutters.

absence of screenmapping though... i guess you could use Octopus. 😕

[clear flare]

What makes you think there’s no screen mapping?

[foggy crest]

Price. 🤣 you gotta pay more for screen mapping.

[dark gorge]

yeah, this is pretty cheap for what its worth, you're getting arduino controls, a shell, and a touchscreen stapled directly to the sbc

[orchid pumice]

Cool they have a different name. This thing dev did not vibe with the Chi style.

[acoustic umbra]

I miss that this doesn’t have that Chi style.

[clear flare]

They should’ve done at least one fun colourway

[quaint wadi]

Probably them just rushing, and taking whatever design was available quickly. Standard candybar in black and white.

This has to be the most underwhelming launch ever for a reasonably pricey console?

It's been on sale for a few days now, and they have not managed to put its size on the website yet?

I don't trust a company that can't manage to put basic information on its own website.

[foggy niche]

it's like a gashapon, preorder and find out what you get

handheld loot box

[quaint wadi]

It really is...

[foggy crest]

I think we just discovered the site early.... before an official announcement.

[quaint wadi]

🤷‍♂️ If they are going to put it online and take peoples money, they need to have their stuff together. Or not put it online. And certainly not go live with pre-orders.

They've talked about the "gameforce 2" before, so it's not exactly a surprise.

And even cutting them slack for that...they've been getting preorders, they knwo people have found it now. They could at least put basic details like the size online.

They have put a video up now though

https://gameforce.fun/

GoW looking smooth....but also, GoW without any enemies on the screen.

🤷‍♂️

[keen lintel]

Honestly, for me every day that goes by without any details is a bit of interest I lose on the device, all this time they're taking to disclose the rest of the specs makes me think they might not really be on par with the rest of the annoucement..

[vapid wyvern]

I literally just want the screen specs, which they have to already know otherwise there's no way they're shipping in October if they don't have screens lined up

[quaint wadi]

It's probably 5.5 inch. Past that....🤷‍♂️

The fact I am using a shrugging person emoji on pretty much every post on this channel sort of sums up the situation.

It might be good, but 🤷‍♂️

[acoustic umbra]

The lack of information is concerning at this point.

[quaint wadi]

And the entirety of their track record is one janky console released 2 years ago. Which sort of suggests they have been out of the game for a while.

TJD vibes about this one. Great specs, but.....do you trust them to deliver?

[vapid wyvern]

If it's 5.5 then I def don't give a shit, I really just want an rp3+ replacement. But yeah who's to say the controls won't be squishy and awful or the screen is some stupid resolution

[quaint wadi]

You would hope Gameforce were the people to say that.....and yet, they don't 😄

To be completely fair, assuming it is actually 5.5 inch, that's not hugely different to the 3+.

Probably just makes it Odin sized or something.

[clear flare]

Still rp3+ is pocketable for some people, this probably won’t be with analog triggers, protruding sticks, and a 5.5” screen

[quaint wadi]

Agreed. I am not sure the extra 3 cm or whatever it ends up being will make a massive difference, but the triggers and sticks are a fair point.

[keen lintel]

If it is 5.5 then it's for me, I rock the fanny pack 😅

[quaint wadi]

https://tenor.com/view/animated-greeting-card-yoy-are-amazig-gif-21555153

[keen lintel]

If it had a 7000mah battery it would be perfect.. this chip is a bit power hungry isn't that right?

[clear flare]

Yeah, we need battery size

If the 3566 one and the 3588 one use the same battery either the ace doesn’t have enough or the indie battery life will be hilariously good

[gentle delta]

this still looks 5" to me

[clear flare]

If so the sticks are hilariously tiny

Like make the ogu vita sticks look massive tiny

[deft ocean]

think we could get a feel for the size of this device from this video? #1103790234451324928 message

[acoustic umbra]

I think they working on this for over a year.

[quaint wadi]

I don't get it then. How can you work on a console for over a year, and start pre-orders without telling people basic details?

They've rushed something, surely?

[keen lintel]

I already tried to do that with my x55 on hand to try and figure out the size of that screen but the bezels and as Pope mentioned too, the sticks are confusing to me, it seems to have or a small screen or the dudes hands are small sized...
Or maybe i just cant tell 😅👌

[hollow nymph]

The screen truck pulled in and they dont have the money to pay the man. He wont even let them see what screens are on the truck without the cn¥¥¥

[deft ocean]

luckily I noticed something interesting about that keyboard

I have a lenovo laptop with a near identical keyboard. I'm sure keys are the same size too

[dark gorge]

I don't need yet another high-powered handheld, since i have like... 3(win600, s20/ipega, XP+). the indie is pulling my strings in the same way the OGU did, but i look at my Vita and think "you are my new ogu."

[deft ocean]

I can approximate

[dark gorge]

conflicted

[somber flower]

Full specs from the website:

GameForce ACE (RK3588s) Handheld

Name: GameForce ACE (RK3588s)
System: Android 12 (LineageOS)
SOC: Rockchip RK3388s
Rockchip 64-bit 8-core 4Cortex-A76 + 4Cortex-A55
GPU: ARM Mali-G610 MC4 within built-in AI accelerator NPU
Support OpenGL ES3.2 / OpenCL 2.2 / Vulkan1.1, 450 GFLOPS
NPU computing power up to 6 TOPS
Memory: 8GB LPDDR4 2166 MHz
Storage: EMMC 128GB, TF Card Slot, M.2 Interface NVME 2242 , Built-in and Expandable
WiFi/BT: WiFi 5, 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, 2.4GHz/5GHz dual-band WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2BLE
Screen: 5.5 inches, 1080P 19201080 resolution, IPS Touchscreen
Speakers: 21W Stereo. Mic, Earphone Port
Video-out: MicroHDMI
Joysticks: 2* Hall Joysticks
Heatsink: Full CNC Heathink with 30mm30mm4mm Fan
Battery: 5500 mAh
Charger Port: Type-C, PD2.0 20W
Size: 212mm91mm16mm

[deft ocean]

Nice! I was just about to say it seemed about 21cm long

[dark gorge]

lineageOS? now we know its jank. that made up my mind.

[somber flower]

5.5 inch screen at 1080p

[somber flower]

Yup

[hollow nymph]

They managed to cough up the money to the screen truck man

[somber flower]

Just 16 mm thick

[vapid wyvern]

And an active fan? That's... A thing

[quaint wadi]

That all seems pretty solid

[dark gorge]

this is the KTR1-killer

[vapid wyvern]

Nah too big

[quaint wadi]

I'm not sure that think needed a killer to die on it's ass.

[dark gorge]

kek

it took Foughtimor with it as it died. yeesh that drama....

[somber flower]

Active cooling, yes

Full CNC Heathink with a Fan

[vapid wyvern]

5500mah battery and active cooling tells me this thing is not gonna be a battery life king

[deft ocean]

yeah it won't be

[dark gorge]

lineageOS is great for debloat, but you will need to sideload -everything- and maybe use the Aurora store.

[somber flower]

The chip itself is 8nm so it will not get that hot

[dark gorge]

if you're cool with that, it's a good deal. the good thing about that is the playstore can't watchdog and autoblock your sideloads from running/installing. the BAD thing is if you're an mmo player, you need to manually delete and do full installs every time there's an update.

[light verge]

Is the aurora store working again? Last time I tried it there was a problem with anonymous logins

[hollow nymph]

Still more than most phones not sure where to cram in more battery

[somber flower]

The Fan in this case will be something to suport stable performance for long periods

[dark gorge]

tbh, cutting corners at the software side was a good choice. people will figure it out.

[quaint wadi]

It's like getting a mate to do your plastering, and it's not a great job. Tricky situation.

[light verge]

If the buttons and sticks are solid I would preorder it.

[somber flower]

This console can be awesome, finaly some good GC and Wii performance

Hope for a review soon

[split stag]

So both are android only? Sigh..

[acoustic umbra]

Oh I am sure. Something is rushed.

[quaint wadi]

Well, at least they are now have specs and a demo video of a prototype. So after a few days of pre-orders, they have caught up to where they should have been a few weeks before pre-orders opened 😄

[dark gorge]

well both this and the Indie have the exact same bodies, pcb shapes, peripherals, and cooling systems. that's a first

[quaint wadi]

Just noticed their shipping date has sort of slipped. Was mid to late oct. Now just late oct.

[acoustic umbra]

I think because the Chinese government limits internet use. Sometimes these companies have trouble updating their pages or get their internet turn off when in the middle of it. Just a theory I have no real evidence beside that the CCP is evil

[light verge]

I think techtoytinker and some other devs were working on linux for the device a while ago but I don't know if that's still a thing

[quaint wadi]

RECORD SCRATCH.....

They have the same battery.

[dark gorge]

(gameforce cuts corners to save money)

[quaint wadi]

I would say stuff but.....I am not sure about the rules on politics here.

[dark gorge]

we're staring at the production triangle when it's good to us. A product can either be good, quickly made, or cheap. I think Gameforce chose to evenly distrobute

[acoustic umbra]

Best not to say. Maybe I said too much. I just need to figure out what color I want

[light verge]

I would go for the white one

[quaint wadi]

You've not got a massive amount of choice there 😄 Black, or black and white

[acoustic umbra]

Best thing about Chi was it was different than anything else. Which gave it its own space. Unfortunately this doesn’t have that going for it

[clear flare]

And it’s directly in the middle - 5500 is kinda small for a 3588 and pretty big for a 3566 lol

[quaint wadi]

Yeah. This ones design is, well, the most basic console design you can get really. Zero personality. But good specs. Sort of the anti Chi.

[clear flare]

Hall sticks, 1080p screen

If reviews are good and jelos gets dev units and supports it so I’m not stuck on Android I think I’ll bite

[quaint wadi]

If the buttons and feel etc are rubbish, there's a chance the indie could be the better console here. You can be more forgiving on build quality at that price point.

[clear flare]

I don’t have a use for a widescreen 3566 outside of portmaster though

[tepid cedar]

even if it's stuck on android, you could slap daijisho on it for a decent interface

[clear flare]

Yeah but if it’s stuck in android I may as well wait for the rp4

Or 406

Linux is the whole reason I want a 3588

[light verge]

Yeah the buttons will make or brake this one for me. They really should have sent out some reviews units

[clear flare]

They presumably will/have

[dark gorge]

are there solid reasons you want linux more?

[clear flare]

I want to use ES

[quaint wadi]

It has a touchscreen, could be a good DS machine.

[tepid cedar]

truth, even PS2 I tend to prefer in 4:3

[dark gorge]

lineageOS will be a blank slate. you can set it up any way you want, compared to having limited control in ES

[quaint wadi]

I mean, in theory the original X18S was amazing, first T618 etc....

[dark gorge]

let's not talk about x18s v1(no l3/r3, with broken buttons/os/screen) or v2(broken screen/os and improved-but-still-broken buttons)

[clear flare]

Does that include installing portmaster and ES?

[dark gorge]

if slaminger comes around, sure. he's planning on working on the indie and the ace

[clear flare]

I do want an android handheld at some point just for variety/covering more bases so something that can dual boot would be great

Lineage 🤝 Jelos

I assume gameforce will be sharing the source code for their lineage fork so others can work on it

[dark gorge]

i think slaminger and his 4.x kernel stuff generally sets the groundwork for "can this be a linux handheld" with new stuff, unless the emuelec dev steps up

[somber flower]

This will help to boost the production

[clear flare]

I think for Linux on the 3588 to actually compete with android it’ll need to be mainlined

I mean hell the 3588 is powerful enough that with the right kernel dev work you could run full desktop Linux on it

I don’t know why you’d want to

But you could

[dark gorge]

both this and the indie have enough to run desktop linux.

[deft ocean]

-10 social credit

[somber flower]

Maybe gameforce suport a dual boot in the near future, because the chip can run linux

[foggy crest]

Yes, you can run Linux in Android with virtualization. 😑

[dark gorge]

kekkles

slaminger and retroarena for the long run.

[gentle delta]

damn this sounds good

i was wrong about 5 inch

2242 slot sounds fun

2tb emulation machine

[dark gorge]

now you can suffer choice paralysis to the nth degree. what a world

[gentle delta]

as if it wasn't already bad enough with 6 handhelds with 1000 games each

oh well

it's great for ps2 and gamecube though, can easily have a hundred games for each

[light verge]

100 good gamecube games

[quaint wadi]

Could be worse. Wii U.

[gentle delta]

well, almost the whole catalog

[quaint wadi]

Were there 100 games on the Wii U?

[gentle delta]

i see 225 roms in [REDACTED]

[light verge]

'There are 795[a] games on this list, 206 of which were released physically on a disc.'

[gentle delta]

so counting shovelware probably over 400

oh, damn

[tepid cedar]

I want this because it's the first 3588 device in the price bracket I want them in... but I don't want it because it's the first 3588 device in the price bracket I want them in.

[gentle delta]

that's not much

[quaint wadi]

I looks at a list of roms for the Wii U, for purely informational purposes, obviously. And I genuinely thought I had clicked on the wrong link. There didn't seem to be enough games there.

[gentle delta]

same, i'll wait

[deft ocean]

yeah there are like maybe 30 wii u games worth playing

and most of those got switch ports lol

[gentle delta]

the good ones are really good though

[quaint wadi]

This is one of those things I look at, and think, the design is rubbish, it's clearly rushed out, but the specs and price are amazing.....

This console could be the next big thing, or rubbish, or anything in between 🤷‍♂️

[gentle delta]

we'll see when russ says "yeah man, i wanna review it"

[clear flare]

looks at my max 3 and wonders if I have the fortitude to do it again

[gentle delta]

i'm pretty optimistic about it, tbh

[clear flare]

Don’t get me wrong I like my max 3 now but it did not see a lot of use when it first arrived

[gentle delta]

i suspect gameforce is just a spin off some other big handheld company, just to have more competitors

[quaint wadi]

Also, I know nintendo consoles are always dominated by nintendo games. But the Wii U.....it's like they were enforcing a semi ban on 3rd party developers.

[quaint wadi]

https://tenor.com/view/john-malkovich-all-in-gamble-gambling-casino-gif-4488332

[deft ocean]

despite all this, all 20 of us wii u owners still love it

[clear flare]

I think the wii.u just didn’t sell well enough to attract 3rd party devs - mostly due to consumer perception that it wasn’t much different from the wii

[deft ocean]

backwards compatible with every console before it

[gentle delta]

and there were barely any sales - mostly due to consumer perception that it wasn’t much different from the wii

[deft ocean]

plus there's this thing called pretendo which allows peeps to play online again

[clear flare]

https://tenor.com/view/spider-man-we-one-gif-18212100

[tepid cedar]

i wish I never sold it

[gentle delta]

iirc it was around 12 million? 10 times less than switch, damn

[quaint wadi]

I genuinely thought it was a wii add on. I am not the only one.

[gentle delta]

it had terrible marketing

[acoustic umbra]

I love my WiiU. Great family gaming console

[clear flare]

I have one I haven’t turned on in a few years

I could hack it

[gentle delta]

i still haven't ever had a nintendo console

but almost every handheld

[clear flare]

I had nes/snes/n64/wii/wii.u

Skipped GC

Skipped switch if that counts

On handheld I only ever had the gameboy pocket+colour

[quaint wadi]

If you literally nail nothing else in your marketing, the most basic fact you need to get across for a new console....THIS IS A NEW CONSOLE.

[gentle delta]

i have switch, but i count it as a handheld

[quaint wadi]

Still time....

[gentle delta]

switch is great, but honestly with the newer handhelds i don't have much use for it

[quaint wadi]

It really is a handheld you can dock. As Mortal Kombat fans recently found out 😄

[foggy crest]

At least we're at a good spot where all of the handhelds use the same joystick style and connection. You can usually swap in what you like.

[gentle delta]

just play through some nintendo games from time to time, haven't yet finished botw or totk

[acoustic umbra]

I never had a gameboy. Had a game gear that my dad wound buy batteries for lol

[clear flare]

I’m good with the steam deck for non-pocketable, thanks

[quaint wadi]

Fair

[clear flare]

Might trade the deck for a legion go if that is closer to a switch

[gentle delta]

lmao

i'm definitely keeping the deck, i just find it too neat

[quaint wadi]

The legion will probably be able to do switch games better than the switch can. For all but the top 20% hardest games or whatever anyway.

[clear flare]

Yeah I’ll probably keep the deck until it’s old enough to not warrant selling it when I buy a beefier x86 (likely a legion go 3 or ally 3 or something by then)

[gentle delta]

if it's true that windows is developing a handheld windows, i might go for one

[clear flare]

Another couple years and my desktop and deck will warrant replacement at the same time - hoping to just jump to using one APU based solution for both by then (tiny laptop, handheld, portable mini Pc rig?)

[gentle delta]

right now, steam os works very well even if i have to skip a few games

also steam input is just insane

[quaint wadi]

My plan with the Legion. Or maybe Rog Ally if they ever fix the SD card issue and the legion is rubbish.

[foggy crest]

Oh, the Windows 11 for the Indiedroid Nova should work on this....🤔

[keen lintel]

And this comment just sold it to me... it checks all the boxes, and if by any chance the controls dont click with me i'll just swap them

Using my x55 as a comparison, if the buttons are like that im good.. only the triggers are slightly annoying..

Everything eles seems good, even lineage os is absolutely fine by me although when Linux is ready I might jump on that.....

[clear flare]

Just want to confirm the lineage fork they’re using isn’t a closed source fork

[deft ocean]

closed source lineage sounds like an oxymoron to me lol

[clear flare]

Everything else on the spec sheet looks good other than mildly disappointing battery size

[clear flare]

Closed source Linux is too but the handheld companies find a way 🙄

[deft ocean]

touche

[keen lintel]

I really dont think that will be the case...
It charges at 20w at least se have that

But yeah I guess it doesn't hurt to wait and confirm that too

[jade hemlock]

Isn't it possible to just flash opengapps?

[clear flare]

No matter what open source OS they started with devs will want the kernel fork for controls+screen

[atomic locust]

This is really tempting. But I want to know what kind of battery life to expect with this with it only having a 5500mah battery.

[clear flare]

I’m very curious to see real world battery tests on both ps2/gc (where I expect it won’t be great) and below (where I have no idea what to expect)

[jade hemlock]

Linux is going to be the determining factor for me

[hollow nymph]

Dunno if the armbian squad seen the s variant

[jade hemlock]

This might be the first ARM steam handheld if there is Linux available

[jade hemlock]

It'll be at least a year I think before that is shipping + working

[hollow nymph]

I told nico in march to keep it in mind for the opi handheld

Didnt know at that point that it was the s

Obvious now as it is cheaper

An arm game store would be totally epic

But im daydreaming and 10 hours into my shift 😄

[jade hemlock]

Why not just steam with a translation layer?

I want to play my backlog on a handheld

[hollow nymph]

Wish there was a way 😄

I know about google play

But imagine a game thats not ad based

And targeted for a specific chip

This could have been the raspberry pi ... but never happened so chances are f... all

Ignore me too much coffee

[jade hemlock]

Box86/64 work pretty well these days ?

[hollow nymph]

Hit or miss

But AoE2 bust be dope on 5 inches lol

[jade hemlock]

Really?

Stuff like Doom 2016 is working now

https://github.com/ptitSeb/box86-compatibility-list/issues?page=1&q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen

[hollow nymph]

Thats a nice list

Been a while i touched a pi looks like

[light verge]

That would make alot of 2d indie games playable

and that's the only thing I would want from such a device

[acoustic umbra]

Red Hat, anyone?

[hollow nymph]

I see what you did there

[lyric pecan]

I'm excited, 5.5" screen and plays most of PS2 (hopefully). I wish they'd added molded grips though, seems silly to have the shoulder buttons flare out and not have a little extra meat in the palms. 5.5" is almost too big to be 'pocketable', may as well go for comfort.

Eager to see some reviews and kind of shocked that they didn't put some devices in the hands of reviewers already if they are actually releasing in a month. But then the whole rollout/announcement kind of seemed uncoordinated.

[hollow nymph]

They had to pay the screen truck man

[light verge]

https://gameforce.fun/blogs/news/gameforce-ace-and-indie-pictures-test-devices-2023-09-21

[quaint wadi]

Why do these companies always put their consoles on plants?

[austere palm]

It's incredible how cheap this looks

[tepid cedar]

i kinda like the bevelled edge

it makes it slightly less a Switch Lite

[austere palm]

Some of that old GameForce charm with that incredible low quality look

Screen looks good though

[hollow nymph]

I thought we were done with the name under the screen bezel thing

[quaint wadi]

Gameforce vs Powkiddy X55 (aka, the infamous knock off switch)

[hollow nymph]

Cant wait to play that parachute game

[quaint wadi]

Seriously though. Of all the Powkiddy aesthetics....that one?

[hollow nymph]

Has to be some financial reason imo

[quaint wadi]

That was the driving force behind a lot of the Powkiddy X stuff 😄

What can we get the cheapest manufacturers to make, so we can rebadge as a Powkiddy......and we do that.

https://youtu.be/HiBJw4Z9lsM?feature=shared&t=609

[hollow nymph]

They aint too bad at capitalism despite the circumstances

[acoustic umbra]

This dpad is acting up my RP2 PTSD

[austere palm]

It's already flawed by sloping inward

Not a lot of hope

[hollow nymph]

Snooping around at reborn os territory

Their arm division migrated