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The question for any "gaming console" like this is "what advantage does this have over a jailbroken console of the otherwise proprietary kind". Anyone who'd us

by Jiro 5y ago

The question for any "gaming console" like this is "what advantage does this have over a jailbroken console of the otherwise proprietary kind". Anyone who'd use one of these things probably got a Vita or an early Switch already and has the technical knowledge to follow jailbreak instructions for them.

pjmlp 5y ago
If powered by ESP32 or Arduino, there is some old school appeal, specially when doing bare metal. Otherwise one is better off getting a used Android, a gamepad adapter, and just code away with the NDK/AGK.
kovek 5y ago
Someone stole my Vita and my Switch is not old enough… If I can get this on Amazon it would be awesome (for pokitto)
unfocussed_mike 5y ago
This is an IoT teaching tool that is designed to be gameable (mbed.org Scratch-type development, what looks like GPIO pins). Looks fun but it's not the only thing of its kind.
m45t3r 5y ago
Well,for one Vita is under-powered for some systems (like SNES). It has very good PlayStation 1 emulation performance though, thanks to its awesome PopStation emulator (proprietary emulator develop for Sony for PSP, that also runs on Vita thanks to backwards compatibility). Switch is much better of course, however only the old non-Mariko units can be jailbroken without modchips, and while I do like the hybrid design of Switch, I still think Switch as a handheld is bigger and heavier than I want for a portable console. This would be solved with Switch Lite, but all Switch Lites are Mariko. I quite like my RG350 to play old games (playing Final Fantasy VI right now), so much that my Switch is on its case for quite some time.
- Jiro 5y ago
  It looks like the Pokitto isn't even as powerful as a 3DS, and every 3DS is fully hackable. And a 3DS is nowhere near as hard to find as a Vita.
ginko 5y ago
A while ago I dabbled a bit in GBA homebrew development. I have to say that many of the modern open source handhelds aren't all that interesting from a homebrew development point of view either. Devices like the GBA, the SNES etc. have specialized sprite and tile map co-processors that are an interesting challenge to use, especially due to the very limited CPU and memory. Effects like Mode 7 perspective requires you to catch a interrupt to change the affine transform of the tile map at every scanline. That's fun! Many of the modern devices are just a fast CPU and an RGB framebuffer.
- mrmattyboy 5y ago
  I completely agree.. it's really interesting to have the limitation and have to work around them. Personally, I feel I can make a nice of-the-era game on an old console like the gameboy and feel accomplished. Anything simplistic, or rather, games made with a low artistic skill (at least that I try to make) on newer hardware just feels cheap/tacky to me. Not sure if I'm getting across what I mean, but having 8x8 sprites and limited colour palette means I don't have _as_ much to worry about, so trying to design a semi-alright looking player sprite doesn't take much effort (not that some people don't put in a lot of time and do incredible things with it)

by Jiro 5y ago

pjmlp 5y ago

If powered by ESP32 or Arduino, there is some old school appeal, specially when doing bare metal. Otherwise one is better off getting a used Android, a gamepad adapter, and just code away with the NDK/AGK.

kovek 5y ago

Someone stole my Vita and my Switch is not old enough… If I can get this on Amazon it would be awesome (for pokitto)

unfocussed_mike 5y ago

This is an IoT teaching tool that is designed to be gameable (mbed.org Scratch-type development, what looks like GPIO pins). Looks fun but it's not the only thing of its kind.

m45t3r 5y ago

Well,for one Vita is under-powered for some systems (like SNES). It has very good PlayStation 1 emulation performance though, thanks to its awesome PopStation emulator (proprietary emulator develop for Sony for PSP, that also runs on Vita thanks to backwards compatibility). Switch is much better of course, however only the old non-Mariko units can be jailbroken without modchips, and while I do like the hybrid design of Switch, I still think Switch as a handheld is bigger and heavier than I want for a portable console. This would be solved with Switch Lite, but all Switch Lites are Mariko. I quite like my RG350 to play old games (playing Final Fantasy VI right now), so much that my Switch is on its case for quite some time.

Jiro 5y ago
It looks like the Pokitto isn't even as powerful as a 3DS, and every 3DS is fully hackable. And a 3DS is nowhere near as hard to find as a Vita.

ginko 5y ago

A while ago I dabbled a bit in GBA homebrew development. I have to say that many of the modern open source handhelds aren't all that interesting from a homebrew development point of view either. Devices like the GBA, the SNES etc. have specialized sprite and tile map co-processors that are an interesting challenge to use, especially due to the very limited CPU and memory. Effects like Mode 7 perspective requires you to catch a interrupt to change the affine transform of the tile map at every scanline. That's fun! Many of the modern devices are just a fast CPU and an RGB framebuffer.

mrmattyboy 5y ago
I completely agree.. it's really interesting to have the limitation and have to work around them. Personally, I feel I can make a nice of-the-era game on an old console like the gameboy and feel accomplished. Anything simplistic, or rather, games made with a low artistic skill (at least that I try to make) on newer hardware just feels cheap/tacky to me. Not sure if I'm getting across what I mean, but having 8x8 sprites and limited colour palette means I don't have _as_ much to worry about, so trying to design a semi-alright looking player sprite doesn't take much effort (not that some people don't put in a lot of time and do incredible things with it)