Yeah I made this page yesterday and then didn't publish the post because I have the bad habit of coding directly in the NeoCities editor which I've learned isn't normal...haha.. Annnnnnnnnnnnywayyyy....I bought a Miyoo Flip for $60 on eBay and wanted to share some messy thoughts about it.
Some folks may remember my ye olde blog posts from over 2 years ago about my Retroid Pocket 4 Pro. A device I dearly loved and then the board fizzled out forever. It was my first foray into SBC gaming handhelds and I miss her dearly to this day. Shortly thereafter I picked up a Steam Deck-- and oof considering the prices right now I'm glad I did. That's been my primary gaming device ever since and it's caused all my other devices to gather dust. But while the Deck is portable I reallly missed the convenience of being able to throw an emulation device in my purse. The huge appeal of the RP4 was the PS2 emulation, and was primarily what I used it for. To the point that I swapped out the stock buttons for custom PS buttons. Then it fizzled out while I was running Animal Crossing. In all honesty it probably had something to do with using the wrong wattage charger but whelp it ain't coming back.
I've wanted to pick up another RP4 ever since but I don't want to go through the ordeal of a 3 month wait time so I've kept an eye on secondhand listings and I just haven't seen one yet that's a good enough price to justify it. If I ever do get around to setting the money aside I may peep at some other options like the RG-55G1. But that's a ways away, my husband is a teacher so the Summer is always tight money-wise. Mayhaps the new Nova will prompt many to ditch their old devices and I can snag one.
Anyway the Miyoo Flip. I bought it from someone on eBay who had little to say about it. Going off the feeling of the hinge I'm pretty sure this is a v2 (or a really lucky v1). The thing feels sturdy so I don't anticipate any hinge issues (famous last words). The person who owned it before me has SpruceOS installed but for whatever reason every attmempt to update the OS and firmware over wi-fi failed. So I popped out the SD card (nice of them to include it) and used the SpruceOS utility to update it which then begun 3 days of pain. I realize now that there was probably some disconnect between the Miyoo firmware and the OS version but too little too late. I got caught in a cycle of updating, trying new SD cards, device refusing to boot, laggy emulation, rinse and repeat. I finally got it to a place where everything from Dreamcast down runs well but the damn device will not connect to my home wi-fi. It connected at first but now it just... won't function. If I need to connect to the wifi the only way I can do it is via the hot spot through my phone.
You may be asking "Why don't you use a differnt OS?". I'm just too tired at this point.
Anyway, I do in fact like some things about it. It tickles the part of my brain that contains the ghost of my childhood Gameboy Advance SP. I really like the IPS screen. I'll go along with the crowd and agree that the thumbsticks are awkward. I knew I wasn't going to like them when I bought it but figured I'd live with it. They're not as bad as I thought but they're not good. I have a 3D printer so just popped out a few grips till I found one I liked. I'm currently using this one. I don't really know if the vents do anything but I feel better knowing they're there. It improves experience for sure, and makes longer playtimes less taxing on the hands. I think there is a ceiling here that a grip can only do so much with the square shape of the device and the location of the thumbsticks so YMMV. But, I have small hands so most handhelds work fine for me. The addition of the grip negates some of the portability of the thing so I usually leave it (the grip) at home. On it's own the Miyoo fits perfectly in one of side zipper pockets on my Sugarbones Star Bag .
There is likely more tweaking that can be done but most everything I've tried to run from Dreamcast down works very well. I'm a maniac who just delights in being able to take Sonic Adventure (best video game ever made) with me anywhere. It's a perfectly servicable and cute device but I wouldn't reccomend it for anyone's first retro handheld that's for sure. I'd say it was absolutely worth the $60 I paid for it. I've loaded it up with PS1 survival horror games (REs, AitD, SH) to get back to Survival Horror Summer.
LOCATION: Work
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