I'm surprised no one mentioned the Analogue Pocket, especially if you had cartridges. It does have support for ROMs as well. One of the best features is that you can sleep your device on even original cartridges
After a long time of going to the Analogue website and looking at the Pocket, I ended up ordering one. I usually play on my GBA, but the Analogue Pocket is really promising as the best device to play the original GB/GBC/GBA cartridges!
was gonna come here to say this!
Every handheld made in the past few years plays GB/GBC/GBA at 100%.
Except the Playdate, which can't come close to full speed even with the original GB.
Miyoo Mini plus and Ambernic RG35xx are probably what you want. I have these two devices and the 353V, all three are quite nice but the MM+ and RG35xx are better to your needs and are probably better for beginners.
Personally I would go for the MM+. Definitely install OnionOS if you get a MM+ or GarlicOS if you go for thr 35xx. (JELOS is my pick for the 353V) These custom firmwares are far more polished and have more performance than the default OS and have tons of great features and community applications.
The PowKiddy Pocket 90 is fantastic, plays 16 bit and older games very smoothly, and has the nice clamshell design of the Gameboy SP, making it very practical for actually carrying in a pocket.
The one drawback is it gets unstable when the battery is low. But being aware of this issue helps.
A huge recommendation for the RG35XX. I got a the grey one and a DMG style skin from Sakura Retro Modding on Etsy and it's perfect for what I wanted. Finding some decent overlays for the dot matrix grid is easy, and it all plays perfectly.
All Gameboy Advances play GB, GBC, and GBA. The best GBA is the SP model AG-101 which has a factory backlight screen. However, there are tons of modifications available for Gameboys out there. I say get a used GBA and go to https://www.retromodding.com/ and go to town on it. Customize it the way you want
For ROMs only get a Nintendo 3DS or 2DS and install home brew software. And as a bonus you can play the entire DS and 3DS library as well.
Powkiddy V90. It's got the GBA form factor, a good and same proportion screen. reasonable software and CFW support. Reasonably priced and a very easy to replace battery if it should be needed.
I would either use a hacked Switch, or a Steam Deck. What about the Deck isn’t selling you? It’s a wonderful emulation machine, although definitely a bit pricey if that’s going to be the majority of your usage
Or just grab a flashcard for a Gameboy Advance/Color. Preferably with a backlight modded screen.
Yeah I bought an R4 card for the 3DS I already owned, for this purpose. Works like a charm, and as an added bonus I can also play NDS games on it. Didn't even have to homebrew the 3ds (although with the online services shutting down I guess there's not much stopping you from doing so anymore).
I find playing Nintendo games is always best on Nintendo systems. I use a hacked 3ds for all my handheld games including Gameboy, a hacked Wii U for Gamecube, Wii, and Wii U games, and a hacked Switch for everything else.
I do the exact same with my 3DS. I have at least 15 GB of emulated games.
I really like my Retroid Pocket 2+ for all gens of Gameboy, Game Gear, NeoGeo Pocket, Wonderswan, etc.
I'm currently playing the GBC game Oracle of Seasons on a PlayStation Vita. It can run everything up through N64 rather well.
I have both am R4 card for my 3DS and a 353V. Loving the 353 as it covers so many systems. Ripping all the games from my Dreamcast from back in college has been awesome. GB, GBA are flawless on that device
the question I would ask along these lines is which systems have a screen that can do a perfect integer upscale for GB games? so that the pixels are each doubled or quadrupled etc without ugly scaling issues.
Original GB/GBC resolution was 160x144, which you're just plain not going to find a perfect integer match for. You'll have to either settle for interpolation or black bars around all 4 sides. I guess the least-worst panel would be 1280x720, because at least that would perfectly fill the panel vertically at 5x integer scaling with just large pillarboxes.
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