On 2017-11-14 05:22 PM, Scott Elcomb via talk wrote:
"GameShell is the world's first modular, portable game console with a GNU/LINUX embedded operating system. …"
I suspect that Adafruit's PiGrrl might've beaten them to it by a couple of years, but details, details. Selling a machine that requires you to scavenge abandonware ROMs for RetroArch is inviting all sort of legal challenges by copyright holders. Not all dormant publishers are quiet: up until recently, Ultimate (later RARE, and now part of MS) would do all they could to keep their old games off archive sites.
It has a modular gameboy-like form factor based on Clockwork Pi (Quad Core A7), 512MB RAM and a 2.7in RGB display.
Things I like about this: * Likely faster screen than most Raspberry Pi TFTs (except the new and nice Pimoroni ones) * Proper battery charger, unlike the barely-able-to-run-a-Pi3 one specified for PiGrrl * Sound! The PiGrrl's sound is hacky, and if you've ever tried to add a speaker to a Pocket Chip, eww. Things I'm not so sure about: * Totally new board, which claims to run Raspbian, but would need tweaks to enable Mali over VC. Remember what happened to the Via APC Raspberry Pi killer…? No? Exactly. * That chipset's gonna get *hot*, and the lovely acrylic case will not like that. Many RetroArch emulators run the CPU in a tight, busy loop, so cooling's a must. * The $99 price to Canada is really $126 (CAD) + import duty/taxes + import fees, so around $160 all in. * We can do so much better than 320×240 screens these days … I recently built a tiny gaming rig for work based on a Raspberry Pi, a 2.8" TFT and a small Rii wireless keyboard. It's a mess of cables, but it's very small and capable: https://elmwoodelectronics.ca/blogs/news/big-retro-gaming-little-box cheers, Stewart