The MOST Powerful Modern GameBoy - RetroStone 

The Retro Future, The Retro Stone is *not* Raspberry Pi based. It’s built on it’s own proprietary SBC called RetroStone Pi. That’s why it says you need an H3 compatible Operating System, the clue there being that the Raspberry Pi is built on the Broadcom BCM2837B0, an A53 SoC with a proprietary GPU and not an Allwinner H3.

I have the predecessor, the RaspiBoy, and to add games to it all you have to do is put roms on a thumb drive, boot up the system, plug the thumb drive into a USB port on the system and it'll copy the games automatically (once the LED indicator stops blinking the games have finished copying). Also, I'm not sure if the RetroStone has this, but my RaspiBoy had an extra button which I was able to program to shut down the RetroPie OS from anywhere, preventing me from ever having boot issues. I do agree that the screen quality isn't great (seems the same type of screen is used on both the RaspiBoy and RetroStone) but it's passable, and with some tweaking to the settings/brightness/contrast it's not bad.

I got one that was built by a guy in China for $200 from an original gameboy shell running pi3 with 6 buttons, D-Pad, and Analog controller, battery indicator, and L R buttons for $200. The guy does quality work.

Really like the design, layout and proportions

As of today I feel like the gcw zero was THE best retro handheld device insane compadability up to psx games, too bad they don't make them anymore..

Great video matey - thanks for the mention 👍🏻

yep, it is Orange Pi based. I had to build mine from scratch. Got every part printed out in the build kit I just had to put it together and upload firmware.

Love this Vid, the opinions and review is on spot!! keep up the good work m8

Been watching your channel for a couple of days now. You earned a new subscriber bc your videos are really cool. Keep it up!

Hey, that's pretty cool, wanting to build my own retropi build, got the screen, pi and casing sorted, just need to source the controls and general equipment

looks like i hit refresh at just the right time :) love your vids dude

Besides the turn on screen glitch that lcd looks amazing.

Was really glad to hear you too had struggled with the Raspberry Pie and it wasn't just me! Same trouble here with booting up, crashing and then wondering whether to just power off or wait! Then thinking "Shit will that break it completely?" Awesome stuff as ever!

It just boggles my mind why so many companies are copying the original GB where all games SINCE then need shoulder buttons. Yeah, they tray to ham fist some on a GB type body but why not just go with the GBA type body? Isn't that retro enough?

This is probably the best one yet. Interested in knowing how it handles PS1.

Recalbox is my go to for Pi powered projects. I think it's far more user-friendly then Retropie and it works so, so well.

All I need is a raspberry pi zero in a original GBA shaped case, that's rechargeable and cost $100 or less. Why do these companies keep making handhelds from the first Gameboy.

It says it supports "USB ROMs automount script" which I assume is the same as the RetroPie ROM-shuttle. If so, you can insert a blank USB, and it will create a directory structure for you. After that, you can put your roms in that directory structure from your PC (it's obvious where things go), then re-insert it into the console, and it will automatically scrape the directories for new ROMs.

"It feels like a really really.. um.. real kind of device" Good to know it feels like a real device lol Great content thanks for sharing!

For adding games on other Rpi devices, I've used ftp over WiFi before. Very simple. You can download games on a PC or even your phone, then wirelessly transfer them over.

If it is running RetroPi or some variant of it, you can enable a Samba share in the settings for the roms, and then access it from your computer and drag and drop straight from your computer to the device wirelessly. Edit: this is assuming it is connected to the wifi.

This is the kind of thing I'm into.... love it

Looks lit😎 hope I can afford one later one

I like it. I'll get one in 2 -4 years when its half price, and its operating system has been perfected.

there's a new supreme image out for this now and a new one coming :)

This is based on Orange Pi, essentially a cheaper chinese clone of the raspberry. I don't know what version of the board this mount, but generally it's a bit less performant than a raspberry. The point is, for 140€ i would expect a "premium" hardware. I bought myself an Orange Pi PC complete with the box and cables for only 18$. I guess they could do better on the final price.

How would you compare this to the Clockwork Gameshell? I've been really interested in the Gameshell, but this one has piqued my interest now too.

Hey seems like you just need a better image for the OS, Retropie is best from what I've experienced based on emulation station etc

If you have not seen the Game Boy Zero mod (also based on a pi linux computer, but raspberry instead of orange) do check it out.

I would love to see a video tutorial on how to load games !

Fantastic!!

This gameboy is amazing! My favorite RU-vid channel!!! By the way I'm ordering a gameboy advance. Should i try to do a mod?

Wish I could afford it xD great review as always though :)

You could make a nice custom operating system for this. Is there any good psp like handhelds good fkr emulation devices?

Great video as usual but It would be wonderful if you dedicated more time to demonstrating the various game emulation on each of your console reviews - some actual Zelda Ocarina of Time gameplay in this particular video would have been superb and also some playstation one gameplay so that we could see the frame rate in game etc. Other than that great video as always, I simply think that all of your videos would benefit from an additional 5 minutes of pure gameplay demonstrating several games on each of the more power hungry emulators - N64, PS1 etc. It's always very informative and extremely interesting to see these handheld machines actually playing games as that is what we buy them for so it would be extremely helpful to actually see how the games play on them and how the screen resolution looks etc. Thank you for all of your great work and I'm looking forward to more excellent videos to come, many thanks!

' what about the choice different cartridge games... do this game have auto turbo shooting

OMFGosh, it looks amazing!!!!!

I didn't even know what RetrOrangePi is, but now I can mod my Kano.

If I got this at the age of 5 in 2000 I would never have used anything else

Is there a full version of the intro music?

can u show us how to put emulators & roms inside the sd card? how much is it for u.s.?

looks nice but is there another option for an OS?

This device is not a Raspberry Pi, but it is based on the Orange Pi. I ordered one myself and it takes some time before I will get it. The reason for me to decide for the Retrostone and not another device based on the Raspberry Pi is that most kits are based on the Raspberry Pi Zero and those are too slow for the games that I want to emulate. And I ended up choosing between the Retrostone and the Freeplay CM3, and the last one is a DIY kit where you need to modify an existing gameboy advance case by cutting into the plastic and thinking about it made it feel more like a hassle compared to any fun doing. In the end I thought it would be smarter to go with the Retrostone, where you get a finished product and only need to deal with the software, but that part isn't too different compared to installing Retropie Raspberry Pi. I was looking for something like this for some time now, being able to play old games where I want and when I want with only one device that can emulate most old gaming hardware. And as someone who played games on the Gameboy and the Supervision this device also brings back some good memories with the design.

Dude... to put games on it, just put it on your Wi-Fi (or ethernet), and from your PC navigate to \\Retropie. (Assuming that's a pretty stock setup.) -- Or you could just get a pre-baked image... (or turn on the rom copying service, and just plug in a thumbdrive -- no need to run a desktop on the PI -- just turn it on from the Retropie Setup...) -- And if the screen aspect ratio is wrong, change the frame buffer size to something that is the correct aspect ratio for your LCD (it looks to be 4:3~ish? -- but ideally, you'd just put the actual resolution of the LCD...). -- Sad that it doesn't have a safe shutdown button though. ☹

I see of can play multiplayer How does this work?

how long is the battery life?

There is a Chinese guy on facebook that makes gameboys with 6 buttons on the front, a PSP analogue as well as regular D pad. He charges 200 dollars though.

Does it support save states?

i want it!!!!! but theres is no shop of it, or even online and i don't have us dollar

But where are we supposed to get roms? Emuparadise is dead now...

I am a tech guy myself and I have to agree with you, I really hate how needlessly complex it is to set up a Pi, especially when it comes to getting the files you want on to it. It most definitely is not as simple as just dragging and dropping files on to the SD card and that is a real shame. The file system that linux uses is a complete mess and I absolutely hate it. It is the main reason that I decided to shy away from the Pi and I hate the thing for it. Not because I hate the Pi but because I want to love it so much but just can't due to it being so non user friendly. The screen does look like it is pretty poor quality too which is a damn shame for such a high end device. If they ever upgrade the screen quality I may actually consider getting one and giving the Pi a 2nd chance simply due to the fact of how cool the thing is and the fact that it can be used just like a standalone Pi and not necessarily as a portable device which I particularly like.

their website indicated they designed their own board, cool but they chose to use an allwinner h3 processor which is exactly what an orange pi uses, which is a cheap china version of a raspberry pi 3. the obvious reason of parts cost aside which they can squeeze out more from the end user, the processor itself is buggy in firmware perspective and unlike RP you don't get much support from chinese community. i don't think is worthy for the $200 price tag.

Looks so Good, but the Dpad make one some sad, for me.

9:00 Can't you just record this with your right thumb included so I can see the input lag...

Can you do a video on updating the odroid go?

Oh mah gawd it's the legendary Project Atlantis

Looks interesting, but I'm not in the targeted market as I'd rather build my own inside a crappy cardboard box or shoddy 3d printed case ;-p. And you hit the nail on the head, the lcd is def composite.

If this were like $50 then maybe. But 200? Wow.

Is it just me or has this channel been growing a lot lately?

anyone know exactly what the intro music is called?

For 135 € i prefer buying a psp or a ps vita that cost much less and has less problems than dat console.

insert the sd card on your desktop and add games?.

Will have to say that the proce is actually around $170 USD, definitely not $100. Everything else is fine though. :)

The biggest thing I hate is the sd card corruption issue with retropie. Only reason I dont use it.

Is your headphone jack working properly?

except the Ethernet port, this looks good.

Takes +7:00 minutes for him to turn on a game. And way too expensive when you can a similar ones on Amazon for a quarter of the price.

I am really liking this handheld. Have to knock the VGA-based screen and poor sound for anyone using headphones (a hardware fix is already available) but all else is good. Also RU-vidrs "Were Dirty Gaming" and "Regelad" created an excellent base image to use.

I can understand the fun in building one but buying an already made one seems weird. Just get a hacked psvita.

The intro music has a bit of "Megaman Battle Network" vibe to it. It's making my ears wet

Can it run dolphin emulator

this is cool but i dont think its for me. i think im just gonna get an odroid go and an xu4 with the ogst console kit

can it run crysis?

Can this thing play sega saturn games

You don’t have to use usb you can transfer via ftp

No a huge fan of the inset buttons, plus it looks like they are very close to the bottom of the device; like it would be awkward to hold for longer periods of time.

I want this

yeah and my name was there finally lolll. (Pathanan Worakitsitthisatorn) Thanks again and sending love from Thailand!

The hedge-DMI...

like everyone else, i love the idea of this kind of device-an all-in-one portable emulation device that can theoretically handle games up to the n64/ps1-but i'm always disappointed by how hacked together all such devices seem to be, whether it's on the hardware or the software side. for instance, with this or the raspberry pi, the whole manner in which it boots up, sprouting loads of text like it's an ms-dos program from the 80s, just seems an unnecessary concession to its linux-based nature. or look at how that retrorange pi splash screen (which to me already looks kind of chintzy) starts to the side before popping into the center-pretty sloppy. at least with the retrostone, it looks like they've done a good job with the hardware side of it, even if having the on/off switch, four usb ports, and an ethernet cable all on the top of the console strikes me as a little overly busy, as though they want this device to be able to do more than it really needs to do. i'm glad the functionality is there, but i'm not really eager to get one of these things (and certainly not at the price points they're at now) until someone really nails the presentation side of things.

I became hungry because of every time you say raspberry so where do I buy a raspberry pie 🥧

Wow you just skipped the n64 gameplay. I really was expecting to see how far can this console go, but instead you played a DMG game.. just non sense!

I'm so glad you used the word 'temperamental'. I got mine a few days ago, and though it IS fantastic, temperamental is definitely a good word for it.

My OCD is kicking in with the mark on your table. Thought i had something on my screen xD

Can run play 1 games?

Quite impressive I was aspecting some nes butleg haked awful roms , single down point of this portable cosole is the baterry life pie drain very fast , 2h gameplay

Nintendo Switch + Renix is the better alternative for the price.

This thing is interesting but the raspberry pi makes very little sense for a readymade product.

you don't connected it to your pc you take out the sd card and put the files on there

But can it run crysis

You sure its supposed to be an orange pi OS?

Will they ever make a small handheld that uses Android? It's not hard.

should be able to just dump your roms straight on to the sd card from a pc afaik

135€ for a Raspberry Pi in a fancy case.

cool, enjoy your emulation lag

Wish i could have one. 😢😢

0:01 when the actual review starts. you are welcome

that is a custom rpi

Gotta say this is good but not with retrorangepi laggs like fk

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