By far my favorite stories and projects are that very kind!

Most of the actual news about this project has already been covered elsewhere, so this is really just me indulging my love of strange physical gaming media and the wonderfully impractical things people come up with.

I’ve always been fascinated by oddities from gaming history, and the idea of someone getting Doom and Super Mario Bros. working with VHS tapes was far too interesting for me to ignore.

So here’s a little/casual dive into GCVHS, the bizarre Action Max console from 1987, and why I think there’s something super curious about people finding new uses for old technology. Sometimes I just like writing about things because they’re weird :)

I recently had the chance to chat with SapphireRhodonite, the sole developer of SeedlessDS, for what I believe is his first proper interview about the project.

For anyone who hasn’t come across it yet, SeedlessDS is a newer Nintendo DS emulator for Android that’s been built with modern handhelds in mind, especially lower-powered devices and dual-screen hardware. It uses a reconstructed DraStic-based core, but Sapphire has built the surrounding experience himself, including the interface, controller-first navigation, library, save states, scaling options and dual-screen presentation.

It has been pretty pivotal for me while testing and reviewing the Retroid Pocket Duo Lite, where its lightweight approach and proper support for two physical displays have made it my preferred way to play DS games.

In the article we talk about Sapphire’s history with programming and the original DS, why SeedlessDS exists alongside WatermelonDS, what makes dual-screen emulation harder than simply putting one image on each panel, developing for modest Android hardware, and where he hopes to take the emulator next. Hopefully it’s an interesting read for anyone following DS emulation or the growing wave of dual-screen handhelds, or just development in general!

Depending on how you feel about things, PS5 emulation (wrong word, but gets the idea across) is actually gaining steam now

So give it a little time and play it away from a PS5 console?

I’m lucky enough to call both Russ from Retro Game Corps and Lee (who some of you will probably know better as Wild Lee from Venture Electronics) friends, which made this a particularly fun article for me to put together.

It’s a look at Lee, VE and some of the earbuds he sent me to try, including the Monk GTS and GTR (the latter designed specifically with retro gaming in mind, with Russ helping to bring it to life), but it also gets into the friendship and history between Lee and Russ, how they’ve worked together over the years, and a little of the story behind the people involved rather than a review on the earbuds. I’ve tried to make it as much about Lee and the strange, enthusiastic little world around VE as it is about the hardware itself. Hope some of you enjoy it!

Well, here’s my feature on spruceOS and where the project is heading with their 4.5.0 update. Rather than just running through a changelog, I wanted to get into why spruce has grown the way it has: the push toward that “one card to rule them all” idea, making the same SD card useful across more handhelds, the work behind dArkMoss/BaseOS, offline RetroAchievements, and how the project has expanded without losing the hobbyist spirit that made it interesting in the first place.

To put it together I interviewed all four members of the spruce team: SundownerSport, Ry, Arkun and Chris, all about their own parts of the project, how they work together, and what 4.5.0 represents for spruce going forward. There’s quite a lot in there about the technical side, but also about the people behind it and the wonderfully informal “follow the fun” philosophy that seems to shape a lot of what spruce becomes.

I like to interview developers in the retro handheld scene so people can get a peek behind the curtain about what goes on, so hopefully there’s something in here for anyone curious :)

Let me know what you think!

Hah!

That’s fair. In my defence, an article like this takes me a good while to put together. I’ll start with the idea, jot down notes, get in touch with the developer and interview them at their convenience, then go through their answers and work out how to build that material into a story that still feels like their experience, using the quotes I like most to help bring it to life.

All the way through that process I’m drafting, redrafting and leaving myself little notes in the article. I tend to get ideas down quickly and tidy them up later; that’s just how I work. Most of the time it all gets cleaned up, but occasionally one of those awkward little notes-to-self survives the edit and sneaks into the finished piece.

That’s what happened here.

I will say, though, you could probably have made the point a little more kindly. I’m not pretending to be some flawless professional journalist. This is a hobby for me, and I do it because I genuinely love gaming, especially handheld gaming. I put a lot of time into these pieces because I care about the people and projects I’m writing about, even if the odd rough edge from my process slips through.

Even before I got to this part, I was thinking “if I want to play a GBA SP, I’ll just play one.”

That’s fair! I collect the originals too, although I’m more partial to the non-SP models, especially once they’ve been modded. But what I miss on the real hardware is save states, fast-forward, upscaling, and all the other modern conveniences you quickly get spoiled by. For roughly the price of one EverDrive (lovely things though they are) I can buy a very solid modern interpretation, throw every game I actually want on it, and have them loading instantly. Nostalgia is great; nostalgia with quality-of-life features is even better.

As for the A.I. side, also fair. I was fully expecting the pitchforks to come out over that bit. But after interviewing somewhere around 70 developers in the handheld scene, I’ve seen plenty of people who have been coding for decades use A.I. as exactly that: a tool. Sometimes it gives them breathing room, sometimes it gets them through the boring parts, sometimes it lets them spend more time on the bits they actually care about. I completely understand why the subject is sore, but gaming in 2026 pretending developers aren’t already using these tools feels a little like angrily shouting at the tide for coming in.

It does yes!

Yes! You can pick which screen to use where, and disable either screen easily also. It leaves it all up to you!

“I wish they had gone with recessed sticks like that on the Nova”

I do know one accessory creator who sells on Etsy who is making recessed sticks, and I think there’s other options already out there, but that one is being addressed!

I love the in-line triggers on this Lite. I’ll find out soon enough which I prefer between the Duo and the Lite+, but I’d personally be sticking to DS/3DS titles with either of them, after my reviews are done. So the analogue triggers won’t be used at all.

Between the flat back/in-line triggers on the Lite and my two Thors (raised with the bumpy bits below the full triggers), I much prefer the flat of the Lite. It ticks that Nintendo-ish look and feel in my brain, and it is lovely.

Hi there!

The Brick Hammer does not have any DAC output, no. They’re wonderful to have as a retro handheld which also plays music, but as a device dedicated to high quality audio, you’re far, far better opting for a dedicated DAP.

The M30 you mentioned has:

• AKM AK4376: the main DAC. It’s a 32-bit stereo DAC from Asahi Kasei Microdevices, with an integrated Class-G headphone amplifier and support for sample rates up to 384 kHz. Manuals+
• JuLi2167: the DSP / audio decoding processor. Manuals+
• WM8965 and TPA6530: “dual decoding” or “dual DAC” arrangement.

While they’re not like…industry leading, compared to the Brick Bro, it will sound like a Lamborghini! But as you say, this will depend on the earpods you get. I’d recommend some nice IEMs! Even Moondrop Chu II’s are reaaaally cheap but give you a great sound :)

I’ve been spending a bunch of time with TortOS, the new custom firmware for the TrimUI Brick and Brick Hammer, so I chatted with its developer Geekstrada, who also works with Helaas on Leaf for the Miniloong Pocket 1.

My article goes into why he wanted TortOS to be deliberately small and focused, the Cover Flow-inspired UI, how he keeps emulator cores ready in memory to make launching games so fast, and why he’d rather support fewer systems really well than chase everything the Brick can technically run.

We also talk quite a bit about Muse, its lovely music side, and the old iPods and physical music collections that helped inspire it. I’ve been using my TortOS set-up with just three games per system and filling the rest of the card with music, which ended up feeling like a pretty perfect fit for what TortOS is trying to do.

Anyway, if you’re at all curious on this new firmware, or the dev side of it, then hopefully you like the article :)

I’m almost ashamed to admit that I just bought Hackers (1995) for $45.00 AUD a few days ago.

Almost, but not entirely.

I interviewed Vincent Lee, the creator of GetBetterButtons, for the third entry in my Artist Spotlight series, which focuses on people making physical things for the gaming community.

Vincent designs replacement buttons and controls for retro handhelds, but the process behind them is considerably deeper than I expected. He reverse-engineers handhelds, builds detailed CAD models and simulations, goes through dozens of prototypes, and even develops his own tools to help with the process. We also get into his aluminium “Endgame” buttons, how CNC machining changes what he can design, and why he thinks handheld manufacturers still get buttons and D-pads wrong.

There’s also a pretty interesting background behind the whole thing: before starting GetBetterButtons, Vincent worked in hardware engineering and product development at Bose, which I found fascinating.

If you’ve ever installed a set of replacement buttons in a handheld, were curious about the process, or wondered why some controls feel so much better than others, Hopefully you’ll enjoy this one!

This article on how to buy a dirt cheap ‘junk’ Sony PSP from Japan, and how to bring it back to life!

https://gardinerbryant.com/buying-a-psp-from-japan/

I love the Sony PSP, and any excuse I can find to write about them is fine by me. But I’m proud of this one :)

I’m in an odd position in that I only really fell into reviewing handhelds. Early on when I’d writing gaming articles and interviews, some of the companies started to reach out to me, which in turn led to others doing so. I only mention this because I had the unique intro to it all by actually befriending some people at each company. And now I’ve ended up in the odd spot of knowing what each company is working on, and has planned for around the next 18 months or so.

I only say this to give some context as to why I can’t tell you who it is exactly, but I do know one company looked into the stereoscopic 3D screens, and replicating them. I don’t know how far along they are, whether it is viable, or whether they’ll continue, but I do know at least one company is interested and had started work that way.

As it stands though, there’s nothing at all like that on the market!

I’m really glad you enjoyed it!

Thank you :)