Is this the best retro gaming handheld? Why I chose the R36S as my portable console.

Retro computer games are getting more and more popular at the moment. Many of us are now within reach of an attraction where you can go and sample a whole range of original arcade cabinets with all the feel of an 80’s arcade.

But those are best for a day out. Most of the time we’ll want to satisfy our gaming urge with emulation.

Emulation is where we run a computer program that mimics the arcade cabinet, console or home computer that we want to play on our own PC. You can of course still buy the old machines but that can get quite expensive and does need you to be able to tinker with 40 year old electronics.

But one of the best ways to enjoy retro games is with a handheld device. One where you can easily take it with you or just pick up for a quick 10 minutes gaming while you wait for the train, or have a cup of coffee. No messing around with laptops and game controllers, just turn on and go.

So in this video I’ll show you a great way to play all the original games with what I rate as one of the best retro handheld consoles, the R36S.

Why the R36S

The R36S is one of many retro gaming handheld consoles on the market at the moment. These consoles range from as little as £5 all the way to over £500 for a top of the range model. So why have I chosen the R36S which you’ll pick up for between £30 and £40, even cheaper if you use one of the Chinese online stores.

If you want the best retro gaming experience you’ll find your computer is your best bet. It’s absolutely free and you get to play every console, home computer and arcade cabinet ever made. But it does need a bit of research and setting up, and of course you need to be at your computer to play the games.

Quite often you’ll want a quick and easy way to play a few games and explore your library wherever and whenever you want. And this is where a handheld console comes into it’s own.

So is the R36S the best retro gaming console?

In terms of sheer emulation power no. The more you spend the more powerful computer system you’ll get. More power means you can emulate newer systems, right up to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

In terms of build quality, then no again. Other machines have larger, higher definition, screens, hall effect joysticks, and so on.

Where the R36S excels is in doing a good job of emulation, for a great range of systems at a rock bottom price in a fully loaded, easy to use package. No frills just great fun!

What is the R36S

The R36S is a vertical console which means it’s based on the basic Nintendo Gameboy format.

It’s got a 3.5 inch display with 640 x 480 pixels resolution. That doesn’t sound much but the systems we’ll be emulating generally have lower resolutions so the display will have no problems. Using the 4:3 aspect ratio also matches with the older TV standard so it’s just the perfect size for our retro consoles.

It’s got all the controls you’ll find on a modern game controller. Two analogue joysticks, a d pad, the four main console buttons, select and start buttons and round the back the shoulder and trigger buttons. So we’ll have everything we need to play any game on any console.

The battery will power the device for up to 8 hours of gaming and is removable so you console won’t die with the battery.

It comes with an SD card preloaded with either 20000 or 40000 games. These are the original game files from the old consoles and arcades so you’re playing the original titles in all their glory. No cheap fakes.

The computing power is provided by a Rockchip RK3326 processor which is a quad core ARM Cortex-A35 CPU running at 1.5GHz with 1GB of RAM. For comparison this gives it about the same performance as a Raspberry Pi 3B.

So there’s nothing that stands out in this spec. But you’ve got everything you need for a great retro emulation machine.

Why I Think This Is the Best

The R36S does everything competently for about half the price of anything else of comparable performance. Cheaper systems can’t emulate the same range of machines so you won’t get some of the late 90s consoles. If you want to go for a branded console with the same performance you’ll be looking at £80 and over to match it.

For me this makes it a perfect choice if you want a machine to give retro gaming a try, and for seasoned users, a machine that you can tinker with and pop in your pocket for on the go gaming.

It will play any console or arcade machine up to the Nintendo 64, Sega Saturn or Sony PlayStation era. Beyond that it will struggle, but everything else will run at full speed. This gives you 20 years worth of gaming from the heyday of home computing.

Pre loaded on your SD card you get arcade cabinets, all the Nintendo consoles up to the N64 and DS, all the Sega consoles, and the Sony PlayStation and even some PlayStation portable titles.

If you want other consoles like the Atari machines or the home computers, all you have to do is get hold of some game backups and drop them into the ready made folders on the console’s SD card. All the emulators are pre installed and ready to go, so just add the games.

And as I said earlier all of this for around £30 to £40.

What’s It Like to Use

The vertical form factor works really well. The unit fits really nicely in your hands and all the controls are responsive and feel good under your fingers.

The screen is bright and sharp and displays the games at their proper proportions even when filling the screen, thanks to that 4:3 aspect ratio.

For some of the portrait mode arcade games you can either have the system stretch the display, but I find this looks completely wrong so having it at proper proportions works best for me. With these old games being at much lower resolution they still work great on the R36 even with the smaller sized screen.

Gameplay is spot on. All of the older 8 and 16 bit consoles along with the arcade classics run without any issues or slow downs.

Moving up to the later consoles such as the Nintendo 64, PlayStation and Dreamcast you can start to see that the processor is topping out. The gameplay for almost all the games is pretty much at full speed, but some of the really hard to emulate games to start to stutter a bit. You can improve this by overclocking the system and playing with the emulation settings but overall the R36 covers a good 90% of the titles for these machines without bother.

Pre installed you do get a few PlayStation Portable games. These do work but again it will depend on the game how well it works.

So overall the console will give you thousands of classic games from the 80s and 90s. More than enough to keep you occupied for years to come.