I just finished reading this and wanted to say that I really appreciated the detail and effort put into this. It really reminds me of the stuff I would engross myself in as a teen. Nice work!
The Odin 3 Portal seems like a fantastic device for my needs. I’m planning on emulating locally and streaming AAA and other steam games from my desktop PC using Apollo/Artemis.
I’m wondering if you have any experience with such a setup? My major worry with a device like this is the lack of VRR. Did you experience any screen tearing when using it?
Thats really kind of you to say!
I know for a fact that Russ will cover streaming PC games in his review. He was at a wedding over the weekend and is only just filming his impressions video now, so his full review is still a little ways off. But we’ve chatted about it, he’ll be reviewing that very thing.
Awesome, thanks for that info. I’m kinda new to this whole handheld thing. Russ runs the Retro Game Corps youtube channel right? If so, I’ve probably watched like 10 hours of his stuff in the past couple of days as a result of my new obsession. His channel is so refreshing after some of the other stuff I watched.
I’ve just published my not-quite-a-review, not-quite-an-impressions-piece, but something closer to a good old-fashioned feature article about the AYN Odin 3 Portal, which is a retro handheld designed to emulate old games (but can also emulate PC games very well). I wanted to approach this one a little differently from your typical handheld review.
I interviewed several developers behind the software people are most likely to use on hardware this powerful, including jpolo (ARMSX3), Camille LaVey (Eden), Utkarsh (GameNative) and Json (DroidDeck). Their insights into the Dragonwing Q8, the challenges of modern emulation and where things are heading form a big part of the article, alongside my own testing of everything from PS2 and GameCube to PS3, Xbox 360 and PC gaming.
It’s also a rather long read, much closer to those enormous feature articles gaming websites used to publish years ago. I’ve always loved that sort of writing, and I suspect it’ll appeal to a certain kind of retro gaming enthusiast who enjoys digging into the technology and the people behind it. Or I hope so, anyway. It is a long read.
As for the Portal itself? I think it’s about as close to the perfect larger Android gaming handheld as you can get, provided you can afford it. The OLED is gorgeous, the controls are wonderful, performance is extraordinary, and that infamous high-pitched fan whine from the Odin 3 is completely gone. Not everything runs perfectly, especially some demanding PS3 games, but gaming on this thing has been an absolute pleasure.
Hope you enjoy the read!
@PerfectDark It seems interesting, but I’ll stick to my core belief that modern phone/tablet operating systems are the literal worst possible choices for gaming. But, really, even for normal usage IMO they’re starting to really show their age. They made lots of sense back in 2010 for 1GHz processors that performed about 1/10th as well relative to modern processors of the same speed and 256MiB of RAM to pull ahead of the interfaces that preceded them, but they have not scaled well at all and have become so messy and bloated…
(Yeah, I think mobile devices should use a real OS now.)
It runs android because on average x86 machines run worse of the battery then arms based machines (especially in this size form factor) which I would argue is the most important quality to have in a gaming handheld. Your basically trading compatibility for battery life and if you want this thing can run Linux.
@sompreno Not really, no. It runs Android because that’s the most conveniently easy to adapt over in such a manner where they wouldn’t have to build new interfaces or anything like that.
Not all x86 hardware is incapable of matching mobile profiles. See the Steamdeck for example. Of course, for a device like this you’d aim at a slightly lower profile, but you get the idea. (Though, that said, I’m still a bit shocked Intel threw away the Atom line.)
Is that true? I personally can’t think of an example where a x86 computer out competes an arms computer with equivalent specs in battery life.
@sompreno Oh ARM has significant advantages, but don’t knock what x86 can do these days. A lot of ARM’s biggest advantages are worked into x86 (albeit after rather than before.)
Things like the Steamdeck are intentionally configured for a higher profile for heavy(ish) gaming. Configure similar chipsets for a lower profile and you’d get something pretty darned competitive.
That said, I just realized you made us go off on a tangent. None of this ever had anything to do with ARM vs x86. You’d be surprised how much software is available for ARM. You can do most things on a Raspberry Pi that you can do on a desktop. You couldn’t run x86 software (without processor emulation anyway) but a shocking amount of software can be compiled for ARM. You don’t need Android for ARM.
Oh ok that’s quite interesting and sorry for going on a tangent.
I did mention earlier that portal 3 wasn’t locked to android but android makes sense since it has by far the most software support of any os you could run on an arms processor and regardless of what do do end up running you are going to end up with comparability issues when running most pc games so the whole android is bad for gaming thing kind of falls flat.
@sompreno That’s quite a run-on sentence…
I guess you haven’t used a Raspberry Pi or similar device? They run on Linux using standard distributions. Standard libraries are compiled to run natively on them. They use standard APIs, etc etc. Everything runs natively using the same stuff as their x86 equivalents. That’s the advantage of actually open systems. Android has exactly zero advantage in this regard.
Actually, the biggest problem with such devices is completely irrespective of whether Android, Linux, or anything else: drivers. The hardware that ARM devices use has a strong tendency to be exceptionally proprietary. Since you keep bringing it back to ARM vs x86, x86 systems have a tendency towards standardization that ARM systems absolutely do not. It’s not guaranteed mind
What’s stopping you from getting one of these devices and putting Knulli, Rocknix or any of these other 200 Linux destros designed for these handhelds?
@Starburn I have this on my Anbernic device actually. There are a number of issues though. First, these distros are designed to be “immutable” first of all. So, for example, when Rocknix’s RetroArch had a version of the MSX emulator that literally crashed if you tried to load a second disk in a multidisk game (of which there are MANY) I couldn’t update that module or even RetroArch as a whole, I had to update the whole OS (a wait of months.) They’re also much much more minimal, slimmed down to have as little as possible. You can’t just install and run normal software on such a device. It’s a carefully controlled environment.
I do think Linux is the most realistic way forward, but I think it’s time for devices like these to have a real OS.
You know, basically more like Steamdeck
Totally - Android is ok for emulation, but it is lacking all the PC-exclusive releases that every gamer has in his steam library. The glory the Steamdeck is that you can simply play what you already own without buying everything again.
If you read the review you’d see they mention x64 emulation through things like GameNative. You can play lots of steam games on android devices now, the major limiting factor is the power of the hardware on android devices and driver support.
@KatherinaReichelt No no, it’s not that. I’ve seen some work to port a sort of WINE or something over to Android and get some Windows titles working for example. But that doesn’t fix the fundamental problems.
Android, iOS, and even Windows Mobile now are all just… wrong for gaming. The systems they use are simply not built for it and their nature makes them not very adaptable. (Like with Linux I can swap out systemd for OpenRC for example, but there is no equivalent of this sort of thing for Android.)
There’s more input latency, more output latency, the coding languages and APIs are inefficient and ridiculously limited and use way too much battery power even for simple 2D pixel art games, etc etc.
Indeed the Steamdeck is much closer to the right balance — because of the OS.
I’m fascinated by running “not typical phone games” on android. Something about up cycling old tech really speaks to me. I’m using an older android phone in one of those gamesir controllers as a makeshift Switch and I think its fantastic. Even a mid range phone from a few years ago will have a high refresh rate OLED screen and there are plenty of frontend apps to make it feel like a real console.
I’m quite sensitive to lag so there’s no bluetooth in my set up, and I cant perceive any of the issues you speak of. In running 3D games (currently playing Chants of Senaar, Twilight Princess recomp) I don’t have any problems with the battery life, which is particularly impressive given the age of the hardware. Looking at Droid Deck videos on high end Snapdragon processors suggest that they’re quite capable.
I have a steam deck and the heft and weight of the device means whenever in pick it up, I just want to put it back down again. The cooling needed for x86 systems is awful for a portable system. I wouldn’t consider a steam deck 2 unless its ARM. I’m really hoping Valve go in that direction following the steam frame.
Lol wut, how did they pick the name AYN? Is it programmed in Objectivist-C?
I think it stands for All You Need
