This is my full interview with Geekstrada and Helaas, the two developers behind Leaf, the custom firmware for the MINILOONG Pocket 1 (which you might have seen Russ cover a couple of weeks back with a video, if you're into the retro handheld scene).

We chat about how they came together, why Leaf exists, the thinking behind its development, the Colorway Studio you might have used when buying Retroid's Nova, and the community growing around the project. It's a long one, but there's plenty in here about the people, ideas and tinkering behind Leaf.

I know these kind of interviews can be a little niche, but I think that so often people use these apps, programs, projects and builds without knowing the people behind them. I think I'm up to over 60 interviews now, so this is my tiny project of remedying that. Hope some enjoy it :)

Everyone says 90s RPGs were "dumbed down" for the West. The real reason? Video rental stores were illegal in Japan — and that changed everything.

The weird, rare Panasonic Q GameCube was a hybrid GameCube and CD/DVD player. Very few were sold due to the PS2's similar capabilities, but that makes the Q worth more now (of course)

Taken from bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/simplyaj.com/post/3mtq6av6yp226

Plus a sidenote from this person on DS games: https://bsky.app/profile/simplyaj.com/post/3mttai4jaz22j

Not sure on the technical details of exactly how long they last, but I've heard similar things several times before.

Always depressing to be reminded of this. Haven't had many fail, but honestly haven't tried a lot of my 3DS/Vita games in a while, so who knows.

If nothing else tho, it's nice to have an excuse to revisit some things. Once you boot it up, you might find yourself enjoying the reminiscing. :)

Hey All,

So I haven't soldered in over 10 years but just recently I dug out my old GB/GBC/GBA games and I found a number of them have dead batteries so all of my saves are gone for those games. 😭

I'm bought all the stuff I need to replace the batteries but the batteries themselves. Does anyone have a good place to get tabbed batteries? I was going to get them from amazon but wanted to see if there was a better place. I think most of the games I need to replace are CR2025's but there may be a few CR1616's too.

Hopefully this is the right community to ask this in.

Thanks!

Reports of the Raspberry Pi's latency have been greatly exaggerated...▶JOIN for bonus videos and early access:https://youtube.com/mattkc/joinhttps://patreon....

I've been slowly discovering new retro releases for Game Boy, NES, Sega Genesis and more, and been loving to try them out and supporting indi developers. Here are a few I found would love to see what your favorites are.

Walfie's Nonograms (GB): is absolutely amazing for a free game.

Echoes of the Unread (NES): just picked it up, and it looks like a fun platformer with a fun art style, good music, and a cool premise.

This is just a very small interview (at least by my standards!) with Chi from Mo-Corner, who makes beautiful handmade leather cases and sleeves for handhelds and other bits of tech (iPods, e-readers, handhelds).

I recently got one of her handmade leather sleeves for my RG Rotate, and absolutely love it, so I got chatting to her about the work that goes into making them. There's some really interesting stuff in here about the process, why she makes these things, and the thinking behind designing a case for something as oddly shaped as the Rotate.

I featured Chi's work briefly in my recent RG Rotate recommendations article, but there was a bit more to her work and the process behind these cases that I couldn't really fit into that piece. So I thought it'd be nice to share our chat in full here.

I know this is a little different from the usual handheld stuff I post here, but I really love seeing people making genuinely nice physical things for these devices, and Mo-Corner is a particularly good example of that. Hope some of you enjoy it!

I've just finished up a follow-up piece on the Anbernic RG Rotate (retro handheld), but since it has been so long since I reviewed the metal version of the Rotate which Anbernic sent me, I thought I'd pick up the black plastic version to use for the focus this time. I just wanted an excuse to look at some of the software and accessories that have grown up around the handheld.

For the article, I chatted to:

• Jarren, who created Clock God, a site which helps you customize the lock screen clock on the Rotate. • Maks, the developer behind RetroHrai!, one of my favorite frontends for the device. • NaviVani, creator of Swiff, an Android app that brings Flash games into the emulation world. • Chi from MO CORNER, whose handmade leather sleeves are crafted in Vietnam specifically for devices like the Rotate.

Along the way I also share some of the apps, accessories and little quality-of-life additions that I've come across.

This article is just about the people building things around the RG Rotate (which might be my favorite handheld of 2026 so far, or at least tied in that first-place with the Nova)

Anyway, hope someone here enjoys it :)

The adaptation of Sega's classic games hits Paramount+ on September 16, and (if the past is any judge), bittorrent on September 16.0001

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/50940646

Retro platforming fans are in for a real treat as Mr. Nutz and Mr. Nutz Hoppin' Mad make their long-awaited return in premium physical editions. Starring the adventurous red squirrel, these colorful classics capture everything that made the golden age of 16-bit platformers so memorable: vibrant worlds, imaginative level design, responsive gameplay, and plenty of hidden secrets to discover.

Originally released in the early '90s, Mr. Nutz quickly became known for its charming cartoon presentation and polished platforming. Players guide the fearless squirrel through six beautifully themed worlds, from lush forests and mysterious caves to icy landscapes, battling quirky enemies and collecting nuts to use as projectiles along the way.

Strictly Limited will release Mr. Nutz as a retro cartridge for Mega Drive, Genesis, and SNES consoles and Mr. Nutz 2 Hoppin' Mad as a retro cartridge for Mega Drive and Genesis. Please note that the SMD and SG versions will work on all SMD/SG consoles, but the SNES PAL and SNES NTSC versions will only work on their respective console variants.

I really wish I had an IRL friend that was into retro handhelds just like I am.

We could sit on the couch, hang out and play and show off our games and devices to eachother. Show how we've progressed in our games. Infodump about the weirdest facts related to Gameboys, DSs, emulator handhelds and so on.

But, I don't have any IRL friends who are at all interested in this stuff.

I'm sad :(

I have both of these handhelds and am trying to decide which to get rid of and which to keep for emulation. The Go already has custom firmware and a 128gb SD card but it loses connection from time to time because of a poorly connected ribbon cable. The 1001 is on stock firmware and needs a new battery.

(Reposted from reddit)

This is a small interview (by my usual standards!) with Jiayu, a girl in China who runs MagiGamer, a business she started making custom buttons and controls for various gaming handhelds. Tech, but with a custom twist :)

She makes buttons for things like the Nintendo Switch, 3DS & DS handhelds, the Steam Deck and her recent favorite: AYN's Thor (as well as the Odin 3), and more.

I chatted to her a bit for some quotes to use in my AYN Thor article I shared here yesterday, but this is the full chat, only because I love the work she does and how she gives people an option to truly make a console unique for everyone. I thought it deserved to be shared :)

There's plenty of behind the scenes pictures of the effort she goes to, and detailed pictures of the handhelds with her buttons installed. I thought this was a fun little one to share, hopefully you like it too!

I imagine they made these games mostly for themselves and didnt have to explain to family why they were called Booby Master.

I’ve just published a different kind of AYN Thor Lite feature, looking at why the lowest-spec Thor makes more sense in 2026 than it might have at launch. Back when this all started, AYN sent me the Thor Pro for review which clearly I loved and reviewed to high heavens, but I thought that with how things are at the moment (current cost-of-living conditions, the RAM crisis making prices skyrocket), the very base model makes more sense than ever. Mostly because the community surrounding the Thor has just grown and grown and grown, the things developers and makers have created are just incredible.

For any who don't know, the AYN Thor is a dual screen retro gaming handheld, which is first and foremost an amazing way to emulate 3DS games, especially with the cost of original systems rising so much these last few years!

So instead of the whole specs and performance angle, I wanted to look at what has grown up around the hardware, and I was lucky enough to speak to, interview and quote a whole bunch of the people making it happen, some of them friends and some of them just so lovely to want to chat with me:

• Moth (lead developer of Cocoon)
• Nathan (lead developer of iiSU)
• PlayTranslate's developer
• Camille LaVey (lead developer/creator of Eden)
• MithrilMods (behind amazing magnetic buttons/d-pads/grips on etsy)
• Kitsabble Creations (who created Pokémon-themed decal front skins for the AYN Thors, also on etsy)
• MagiGamer (whose custom-made buttons are the prettiest damn thing ever made)

Plus a few other community creators and accessory makers.

(Jiayu, one of the replacement button creators I chat to in this article, and her work!)

(as is tradition, my cat and my handheld of focus for the article)

I talked to them all about the software ecosystem, dual-screen development, Japanese games and translation, emulation on the Snapdragon 865, custom grips and controls, handmade buttons, skins, and all the other ways people have taken AYN's hardware and made it their own. My focus for this whole article was how AYN released a near-perfect handheld, but the community around it has now taken it and run with it.

I hope some in here enjoy this, at least to hear from some of the people behind the programs and projects you might know and love :)