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Odroid-Go Super: $80 Games Console That Looks Like a Switch, but Runs Ubuntu

• boramalper 6y ago
  I copied the title from OMG! Ubuntu!, whose coverage[0] I enjoyed more but thought that the crowd might be more interested in the original announcement. [0] https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2020/12/odroid-go-super-ubuntu-handheld https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2020/12/odroid-go-super-ubuntu-h...
• mariuz 6y ago
  ETA PRIME video : Odroid Go Super First Look, Test & Teardown https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN-FjshTM1c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN-FjshTM1c
  • Splognosticus 6y ago
    That guy's channel is great if you're in the market for a handheld or SFF PC for emulation or PC gaming. He does in-depth reviews like this of pretty much all of them that come out.
• imtringued 6y ago
  The hardware looks impressive but it worries me that the first photo is basically just showing off a bunch of emulators. Why not show off more legitimate ways of playing games on it? I personally have never used steam big picture mode but it feels like it would be a good fit.
  • timw4mail 6y ago
    At $80, and likely an ARM processor, emulators have a larger game library. Wine doesn't work on ARM, and there are relatively few open-source games that stand out.
    • francis_t_catte 6y ago
      Steamlink, however, does work on ARM. :)
      • manyxcxi 6y ago
        I’ve never tried Odroid but Steamlink, even on a Pi4 is not without flaws. Pi3B+ wired has been mostly unsatisfactory for me and Pi Zero W/Pi3 wireless have been nearly inoperable. Have you had a different experience? If so- what have I been doing so wrong? I’d love to get it to work on a Pi.
        • francis_t_catte 6y ago
          I used a USB AC-wifi dongle on my Odroid-Go Advance, and the performance/latency was about the same as my genuine SteamLink on a gigabit wired connection. The main problem with the Odroid-Go Advance was the screen resolution and size making most UIs unreadable or a chore to use. The screen resolution increase on the Super might help with that though; I plan on getting one once they release, so I guess I'll find out.
          • manyxcxi 6y ago
            Screen resolution problems make a lot of sense. I’ve built a few Raspberry Pi gameboys lately with a 3.5” 640x480 screen and they look great but text is _tough_.
      • goda90 6y ago
        Actually, it only works on Raspberry Pi or Android, not other Linux ARM systems. I've been frustrated by how closed off it is because I'd like to use it on my PineBook Pro.
    • DCKing 6y ago
      > Wine doesn't work on ARM. You'll be delighted to hear that that's not entirely true - there is a Linux x86-on-ARM emulator Box86 [1] that allows you to run Wine apps [2]. While your expectations should be realistic, it's made to defer as much as possible to platform native implementations so there's a bunch of things you can run! [1]: https://github.com/ptitSeb/box86 https://github.com/ptitSeb/box86 [2]: e.g. here's Warcraft 3 on a Raspberry Pi 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85bfzDSWHNQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85bfzDSWHNQ
  • manyxcxi 6y ago
    I couldn’t find the exact specs in the post, but it’s most likely unable to run Steam because of the processor in use. If you’re not familiar the screen shots are of a very popular emulation front-end called Emulation Station. Related, a few years back I got in the hobby of building Raspberry Pi (Zero, 3, and 4) into Gameboy (original gen 1) shells. Economies of scale sure are nice, because even the raw materials for building one cost me more than $80. EDIT: I found the specs (or someone quoting specs) and it looks like it is comparable to Raspberry Pi Zero and does not have wireless. That would make things like Steamlink a non-starter.
    • deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    • CameronNemo 6y ago
      I am pretty sure it is not comparable to the RPI zero. The SoC this is based on is Rockchip rk3326. Dual core A35 @ 1GHz each, g31 (bifrost) GPU. RPI zero uses the older arm11 cores.
  • DCKing 6y ago
    > Why not show off more legitimate ways of playing games on it? While emulation gets a bad rap because of rampant piracy involved with it for most people, it's the piracy that makes it illegitimate and not emulation itself. There's nothing about emulation that requires piracy - e.g. Nintendo Switch Online has NES and SNES emulation without piracy. You can also dump cartridges [1] or buy legal ROMs [2] to play on this Odroid [3]. I understand the confusion, but please do be careful to speak about piracy when you mean to speak about piracy. Emulation is a technically interesting exercise that allows for the preservation and transformation of old video games. [1]: https://www.retrode.org/about/ https://www.retrode.org/about/ [2]: e.g. https://lesateliersphv.ca/en/extracting-roms-from-sega-mega-drive-genesis-classics-bought-on-steam-on-linux/ https://lesateliersphv.ca/en/extracting-roms-from-sega-mega-... [3]: You might argue: "but few people actually do this". And you'd be right. Piracy for old game systems is just far more convenient. But that still makes piracy piracy and emulation emulation.
    • mikepurvis 6y ago
      An excellent video on this subject from YouTube commenter Nerrel, who also highlights Sega's decision to sell legal ROMs through Steam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj9Gk84jRiE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj9Gk84jRiE And related from the same author, is the effect that the emulation modding/patching community has on how we view low effort re-releases such as the recent 3D All Stars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0d82ZJ4sd4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0d82ZJ4sd4
    • hakfoo 6y ago
      The other aspect is that emulation makes for defined expectations. I think this is the appeal of modern home-brew. There's established constraints and conventions from the platform. Saying "you can run SNES games on it" frames the product well. I'm not expecting to run games which need full keyboard/mouse or RTX3080 calibre graphics, but I do expect a good experience with little pixel-art graphics and a D-pad plus four buttons.
  • mikepurvis 6y ago
    I agree— I have a PowKiddy RGB10 (knockoff of the previous generation, Odroid Go Advance), and it's wildly capable hardware, but the only native ports are either games that have been open sourced (Quake, Doom series) or have modern SDL recreations. Even running DOSBox is dubious because so much software of that era (even stuff like point and click adventures) just assumed a keyboard would be present for occasional but critically-needed use such as inputting the name of your save file. It wasn't until Steam Big Picture that there was any serious expectation of PC games being solely controllable from a gamepad. Basically you're stuck making up per-title keyboard mappings, and that sucks. Anyway, the marketplace issue is a bootstrapping problem. None of the companies making these are set up to support an ecosystem of legitimate software delivery, and now the culture that's built up around them treats the availability of thousands of classic game ROMs as being part of the value proposition. So even if you were to try to start, it would be a challenge to break out of that and persuade owners of them not to pirate your lovingly ported indie games when they can play the entire SNES, Genesis, and GBA libraries for "free". One final barrier is that although some do, many of these devices don't include internal wifi, I assume due to certification hassles. Instead a USB host port is included into which you plug a compact dongle. So this further complicates any delivery/DRM schemes, if you have to provide a system image with support for many possible wireless dongles, and perhaps some kind of offline-transfer scheme for those without a dongle or who don't want to use one. All in all, it's a tough nut to crack; I'm not surprised no one has tried. The closest thing is probably Panic's Playdate, and they went with their own hardware, with much-reduced specs and a gimmicky crank, but at least having end-to-end control.
  • sneak 6y ago
    Emulation is legitimate.
  • tweetle_beetle 6y ago
    To be fair, Hardkernel is actually really good about making their products hackable and making what they do open. This model grew out of the original GO, based on ESP32. Look at how they've left GPIO accessible, offered a mini keyboard (no longer visible on the site) to slot into the GO and provided loads of examples and project ideas [1]. That makes sense when you're stretching the limits of very modest hardware. The difference is that the SoC powering the Advanced and this new variant is powerful enough for Linux distributions. So I'd say the spirit is in the right place - they're not just smashing out cheap crap preloaded with copyrighted material. But this is their most "finished" gaming specific product, so they're not much point showing other things it is capable of. Are there really much in the way of legitimate Linux games which can be demonstrated to run on the hardware? [1] https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-go/ https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-go/
• kop316 6y ago
  In a nostolgic way, it reminds me of my Playstation Portable I had. This was before I could afford a smart phone, and I was able to run homebrew on it. I actually really miss that. Aside from playing games, I could check email, use a web browser, play music, basically most things you would want to do with a smart phone. I also was in school that was blanketed with WiFi, so I effectively never lost access to the internet with it.
  • nknealk 6y ago
    I remember my first introduction to the hacking scene was installing custom firmware on the PSP. It allowed over clocking the processor to 333mhz which made god of war run smoothly
    • kop316 6y ago
      Maybe I should buy one again. I sold that one (I think I made money on it too...) When I got a smart phone because I could do everything that the PSP could do on a smartphone. But...I do miss having it.
• dfxm12 6y ago
  I guess in the strictest dictionary definition, this is a console that could play games, but is a general purpose computing device really what we colloquially call a "game console"? After all, we don't call our PCs game consoles...
  • torginus 6y ago
    I mean, hardware-wise, aren't most recent consoles general purpose computing devices, with game-optimized hardware controls anyway? For example, the Switch is a modified Nvidia tablet chip.
    • majewsky 6y ago
      The Switch is a game console not because of the form factor or because of any particular piece of hardware. It's a game console because I can just take it out of the box, put a game cartridge in and start playing. It's not a BOM thing, it's a UX thing.
      • dfxm12 6y ago
        Exactly. There's more to a game console (or any computer) than its hardware. And further, a Switch is not a general purpose computer because the system, both hardware and software, is designed to be locked into certain uses.
    • timw4mail 6y ago
      The PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series _ are even closer to the average computer with x86 hardware.
  • corin_ 6y ago
    If you set up your PC with a joystick and no keyboard/mouse...
  • Splognosticus 6y ago
    Eh, it's splitting hairs. Is the Pippin a game console? Is the CD-I? Is the OUYA? Is a PS2 still a game console if you boot Linux? Is a Gameboy with the Workboy keyboard still a game console? All consoles are at the end of the day general-purpose computers. You're just arbitrarily locked out of using the machine you bought and paid for to run whatever you like.
• AstroJetson 6y ago
  Wonder if they will come out later with a version with more memory on it. Switch has 4GB. The ability to get to the Linux core is a pretty cool deal, this would make a great controller for robotics rather than using people's phones.
• 5560675260 6y ago
  This looks really interesting. What would be the best way to get notified about Odroid's release? Besides monitoring their forums.
  • schmappel 6y ago
    I just went ahead and set up a Google Alert: https://www.google.com/alerts https://www.google.com/alerts
• intsunny 6y ago
  I wish these systems would have six action buttons on the right hand side. Perfect for N64 emulation.
• CameronNemo 6y ago
  Unfortunately mainline support on this hardware seems to be lagging. I guess it is less important because of the limited use case of the device, but it is lame that getting modern mesa (which does support the GPU!) running would be a PITA.
• simmons 6y ago
  A number of devices in this category seem to have popped up recently. I picked up an RG351P a few weeks ago, which I'm guessing is similar to this device. It really is a lot of fun playing around with it, and it's hackable like a Raspberry Pi.
  • rootsudo 6y ago
    RG351P does look nice. In the end, I just fall victim to no time for emulation, though picking up a Vita would be nice...
• rjsw 6y ago
  I have a GP2X [1], which is a similar form factor. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GP2X https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GP2X
  • kchr 6y ago
    Same here, love it!
  • rootsudo 6y ago
    Wow, I can't believe it first came out 15 years ago. How is it holding up?
• k__ 6y ago
  Half-OT: Can someone recommend a hand held console that runs NES/SNES/GB/GBA/DS games and has a good battery life or maybe even a replaceable battery? I always get ads for such consoles, but the reviews are all bad.
  • cgb223 6y ago
    Also, are we in a place where there are solid handhelds that can play n64 games well? I remember Goldeneye always seemed to be a problem on them
  • sb057 6y ago
    An inexpensive and/or used Android phone paired with an attachable or BT gamepad.
    • slezyr 6y ago
      Yeah, XBox Gamepad + Phone holder[1] is the best combo for your hands. I don't think, that it's comfortable to play on these small consoles. 1: https://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/8bitdo-Mobile-Gaming-Clips.jpg https://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/8bitdo-...
  • kidfiji 6y ago
    I'd suggest checking out /r/SBCGaming/ (Single Board Computer Gaming) on Reddit to do some research: https://www.reddit.com/r/SBCGaming/ https://www.reddit.com/r/SBCGaming/
  • bko 6y ago
    I just bought a retroid and I like it. The hardware feels nice to hold and buttons works well. The software is just android 6, but I ready it can be upgraded to android 8. It comes with an app that, if you install, it runs an app on startup w/ many emulators and roms loaded. Its a bit underpowered for playstation but it could run games. It has a good community too It's Chinese to security may be a concern, but you can run offline. https://www.goretroid.com/ https://www.goretroid.com/
  • rayrag 6y ago
• Relys 6y ago
  Get this working with Moonlight or Steam Link.
  • slezyr 6y ago
    Just get an android phone and a gamepad.
• yboris 6y ago
  Slightly related, PiStation: Looks Like PS2, runs Raspberry Pi https://www.tomshardware.com/news/raspberry-pi-playstation-2-project https://www.tomshardware.com/news/raspberry-pi-playstation-2...
• 1MachineElf 6y ago
  Looks like a nice Ubuntu device. I wonder how OpenMW performs on it.
• ethanpil 6y ago
  Even at $100 more, i'd love to see one of these as a mobile device with a pop-out keyboard and Wifi/SIM slot. I think that's what's been missing in the open phone community. Something decently priced and decently designed.
  • CameronNemo 6y ago
    Would that not be the pinephone with the planned keyboard back cover?
    • CameronNemo 6y ago
      > we’re well on our way to build the keyboard prototype. [...] We have also finally been given a time-frame for delivery from the design-house and factory; as things stand today, the PinePhone keyboard should be available in April this year. [...] For the time being, I leave you with render of the keys and a suggested keyboard layout. Please let us know what you think in the comments section https://www.pine64.org/2021/01/15/january-update-happy-new-gear/ https://www.pine64.org/2021/01/15/january-update-happy-new-g...