FYI, maybe a few of you retro game console emulator fans from this community already know that is now a flood of inexpensive Linux-based open-source portable retro game video console available from Asia and China especially.
I was wondering if anyone has tried any of the latest ARM-based handhelds game consoles with LibreELEC and Kodi's integrated RetroPlayer gaming capabilities based on game add-ons for Kodi?
Many people are today referring to new ARM based handhelds coming from China as "OGA clones" since the ODROID-GO Advance (a.k.a. OGA) by HardKernel was the first to pioneer the use of RK3326 ARM SoC in a handheld game console.
From what I read, the original OGA hardware quality is not great and is only available as a kit, while some of the Chinese "clones" have innovated by improving designs, enhanced hardware parts, and better build quality.
The back-story; During the recent few years, you might have noticed have a multitude of cheap but well-made handheld game consoles running open-source software made for retro game emulation has been pouring out from China.
Re-releases of retro-style video game consoles designed for televisions have already become a big thing globally but this year it looks to be the portable retro gaming market and subculture turn to blow up!
But until very recently, all of those handhelds have been based on MIPS architecture which is one of the few platforms that Kodi and LibreELEC run on.
Now several relatively inexpensive ARM/ARM64-based handheld game console devices have been released, almost all of which so far that are not Android-based appear to based on Rockchip RK3326 with Quad-Core ARM64 and Mali-G31 MP2
It should be noted that Rockchip RK3326 is otherwise just your standard ARM Cortex-A35 SOC so it should not be long before newer handheld game consoles from China will use other ARM SoCs from other ARM SoC manufacturers.
Though from the looks of it, the year 2020 will be the year of the OGA clones!
ANBERNIC who is famous for high-quality hardware in this market has just now released RG351P ("RG351 Plastic") as its first ARM-based handheld game console, running the same OpenDingux Linux OS that they run on their MIPS-based handhelds.
Retroid Pocket 2 from MooreChip Technologies is based on MediaTek MT6580 SoC ships pre-configured with Android 6 as well a Linux OS in a dual-boot setup. This company at least has a very good reputation for taking feedback and offering better support than others.
PowKiddy RGB10 is another "OGA clone" that is also just now available,
ZPG Pro (Z-Pocket Game Pro) is another one, it ships with an aluminium metal case so aim for slightly more premium market, though from the reviews so far that aluminium metal that is the only thing "Pro" about it.
RK2020 was otherwise first to market with an "OGA clone", and it was really the only real "clone" of OGA in the meaning as it basically a copy without innovation, in that it not only looks extremely similar but initially also shipped with a straight 1-to1 copy of HardKernel's firmware for the ODROID-GO Advance. Today the RK2020 ships controversially ships with EmuELEC as its operating-system instead, which a fork of CoreELEC, which in turn is a fork of LibreELEC (which as we all know was originally a fork of OpenELEC), yet I read claims that EmuELEC has relicensed their project and say that no one can use it commercially unless they get their approval which if true is not either in the spirit of open-source.
Gameforce RK3326 is an upcoming/forthcoming handheld which is rumoured to have a 4:3 640×480 IPS display (while all the other mentioned RK3326 game console handhelds have a 3:2 480×320 LCD display), and such a 4:3 aspect-radio screen is wanted by many retro gaming enthusiasts.
No idea what Linux operating-system distributions most of these will ship with but guessing it will be EmuElec, Batocera Linux, or Retro Arena OS and all use EmulationStation or other stand-alone frontend software, e.g. forks or Retropie and Recalbox like distros as people run on Raspberry Pi 3/4.
