Playdate OS 3.0 is here!

Regular readers will know I'm a big fan of Panic's little yellow Playdate machine, it's well made, fun to play with a huge library of games.

Well version 3.0 of the operating system has now been released which makes it even better and easier to use.  The main new feature is that your games are now organised into folders : All Games, Alphabetical, Recently Played, Season 1, Season 2 (if you purchased this), Catalog, Sideloaded and System.  This makes finding your required game a lot quicker and easier rather than scrolling through a long list previously.  It's also possible to add your own folders so if you want to create a folder for a specific genre of game that could be done.

I'm hugely impressed with this new version of the operating system, it makes the Playdate way more user friendly and the new version is fast and responsive, great job Panic!

This eBay Gameboy Advance SP seller really is awesome!

I've always loved the GameBoy Advance SP so was excited when I discovered an eBay seller who goes by the username of 'domaniacal'.  This seller provides custom made GBA SPs using a variety of different shells and colour schemes.  As you can see from the photos I chose a glow in the dark Metroid themed device and, as I'm a big fan of the Kirby series, a pink Kirby themed device.  You have to wait an average of about 3 weeks to receive your SP as the seller orders the shell and buttons but what sets this seller apart from the rest is firstly the fact that when the build is completed they send you photos of the completed build and of the machine working so you know exactly what you're getting before it's shipped and secondly it's the superb quality of the machines they make, they really are excellent!  Each machine comes with a fully backlit screen offering an amazing 15 levels of brightness and the machines look and feel really premium.  Also each machine comes with a matching storage box to keep it in, another nice touch.

I was even able to pay a bit extra and purchase an EZ Flash Omega Definitive Edition flash cart loaded with pretty much every GBA game so it was ready to go straight out of the box!

The last thing which really impressed me was when they were building the Kirby SP they changed the colour of the power light to pink to match the colour of the shell, it really is little touches like that which make this seller so awesome!

If like me you're a fan of the GBA SP and are looking for a well made, high quality custom built device you really can't go wrong with domaniacal on eBay!

OneX Sugar 1 Review - quite the transformation!

2025 is becoming the year of Android dual screen handhelds with the recent releases of the Ayn Thor and the AyaNeo Pocket DS, but hold on, there's another device and this one is unusual, unique and highly ingenious, the OneX Sugar 1.

What makes this device unique is that it can be used as either a single screen or dual screen Android device, it does this via a series of very strong magnets on the screens and controllers and a second small screen tucked away on the back of the device.  To transform to a dual screen device you simply detach the two controller sections from the magnets, flip them up, release the small screen from behind the machine, attach the controllers to that and hey presto you have a dual screen device ready for DS, 3DS and Wii U games!  A magnetic d-pad is also included which can be attached to whichever side it's required.  The Sugar 1 really is a very clever piece of design!

Another thing to mention is that, as you can see from the above photo it comes in one of the best looking and premium carry cases I've seen.  My case was included as I was an 'early bird' backer on Indiegogo but otherwise it has to be purchased separately and it's absolutely worth it.

The build quality of the Sugar 1 is excellent, the magnets are strong and both screens are OLED providing a bright, sharp and vivid image.  And thanks to it's Snapdragon Gen3 processor it's extremely powerful able to play pretty much anything you can throw at it with virtually no issues.

The only issue I had was that a small amount of tinkering in the settings was required for some GameCube titles on the Dolphin emulator but apart from that everything ran flawlessly.

With regards to Nintendo DS, both the Drastic and MelonDS emulators can be used, both of these require a small bit of tinkering in the settings to get dual screen support to work, however instructions can be found on YouTube and online for doing this, once set up though DS games look and play really well and on the Drastic emulator it's even possible to increase the resolution so they look even better.

Since I own a 3DS and an extensive library of titles I've not tried 3DS emulation but from what I've read online I believe this to be excellent as well.

Wii U emulation is provided by the Cemu emulator, this is still in it's early stages on Android so performance will vary from game to game, I've only so far tried one title, 007 : Legends and couldn't get beyond the title screen but I understand there are quite a few Wii U titles which do play and play well.

To sum up this is a comfortable to hold, well made, powerful dual screen Android handheld and I absolutely love it!