RK2020 handheld emulator review: Dreamcast games in your pocket - browningthoureprot

At a Glance

Adept's Military rank

Pros

• Ruling specs almost keep up Dreamcast, PSP games
• Sharp and bright 3.5″ display
• Great D-pad and human face buttons
• RetroArch is a step leading from custom Linux OSes

Cons

• Right of first publication issues
• Whatsoever buttons aren't as good as the face buttons
• Edges aren't rodlike enough
• Very sleazy talker

Our Verdict

The RK2020 is extraordinary of the best hand-held gaming emulators you can buy right directly, playing PS1 games with ease, but stumbles with Dreamcast and PSP.

Thither's never been a bettor clock time to be a retro gamer, particularly if you want to carry the classics around in your pocket. The RK2020 from RK Console is yet another in a long line of handheld emulation devices that plays games from a wide range of classical consoles.

While RK2020 plays everything from NES to PS1 with ease thanks to potent hardware, it falls fair-minded short on Dreamcast and PSP emulation. The RK2020 comes in leash different case variations and the pricing can be found as low as $70—which is the highest-priced device like this I've tested so far. Despite those minor drawbacks, this is ane of the best hand-held emulators you can buy, and information technology's become my go-to device for retroactive play in the medal of my helping hand.

Let's hollow in.

Adam Patrick Murray/IDG

The RK2020 in Crystal Empurpled

Included in the corner:

• RK2020 Console
• 32GB MicroSD card (Osmium pre-unexploded)
• USB Type A MicroSD card reviewer
• USB-C charging cable
• User manual

Main emulators included with the RK2020:

• NES
• SNES
• PlayStation 1
• Nintendo 64
• Dreamcast
• GameBoy Color
• GameBoy Advance
• PSP
• and more

Hardware design

The RK2020 comes in triad different case options. I was sent the Crystal Purple variation that harks back to the semi-transparent constructive Atomlike Purple color found on GameBoy Colorize. IT's a fun look that matches the portable nature of this handheld. The Al version looks overnice as well only is a pricer option at $120. You can also get the handheld in Crystal Black.

Hardware spectacles:

• CPU: RockChip RK3326 (Quad-Core ARM Cortex-A35 @ 1.3GHz)
• GPU: Mali-G31 Dvalin
• Random-access memory: 1GB DDR3L
• Reveal: 3.5 column inch 320×480 IPS
• Battery: 2600 mAh Li-Polymer

The RK2020's build quality is rock candy solid, simply the edges aren't rounded disconnected enough for my taste, which contributed to a little of strain when held for yearlong periods. The 3.5-inch screen looks nice and bright, with sharp pixels and no signs of ghosting. The battery life lasts close to a solid 4 hours depending on the ape being used—more art intensive games can cut off that to almost incomplete.

Adam Patrick Murray/IDG

The Liquid crystal display screen is needlelike and bright.

The D-Pad is above the analog mystify (the direction it should be) and taller than the ones found on other emulators similar the New PocketGo. I found it slightly stiff, but the added acme helped differentiate between the various directions. The analog stick also stands taller than usual on a twist like this, but it sits at bottom of a recess that allows it to be a traditional 'stick' rather than a 'sliding pad' like-minded is set up on the New PocketGo. It's a better design, but it's still subpar compared to console controllers, and I gravitated towards using the D-Pad as overmuch as I could.

The face buttons connected the RK2020 proffer my favorite tactile spirit out of every handheld emulator I've time-tested so far—they are marvellous. The height off the expression plate gives more than enough depth for a satisfying trigger, the perimeter of each button is ample enough to feel well, and the distance between all button is absolutely placed to ensure no false presses. Button presses offer a very healthy resistance that gives plenty of feedback, though there is a moment too a lot wobble for my liking at either end of the press. The only downside to the face buttons is the close positioning to the screen. There were times where my thumb would weirdy finished the screen a little too such. The RK2020 is relatively small, and I would have been fine with a wider arrangement to help counterpunch this.

Adam St. Patrick Murray/IDG

The D-aggrandise and expression buttons are fantastic.

Unfortunately the Start and Select keys are almost charge with the face plate, making IT hard to trigger them without either glancing down Oregon sliding your thumb a trifle to double-check its placement. Worse, the way you leave most emulators requires pressing both of those buttons at the same time, twice. It never felt good, and I really wish they were raised out of the system more. The Select button also needs to be pressed at the unchanged time As X in order to bring astir the emulation settings, another action that never felt normal or natural thanks to the placement of the buttons.

Because the twist is so thin the RK2020 features a root-by-side shoulder button placement rather than stacked. I've exploited this placement enough to get used to that, but it's not my loved design. I'd rather see a thicker system to accommodate stacked shoulder buttoms. Luckily, the buttons do have plenty of legal separation, and the clicky triggers take just enough pres to engage, but aren't loose enough to allow false presses.

Adam Patrick Gilbert Murray/IDG

The bottom of the RK2020 features one MicroSD card one-armed bandit and a very tinny speaker. You'll uncovering a power button, headphone jack, USB-C port for charging, and USB Type A embrasure up top. The USB-A port allows use of a WiFi dongle or extrinsic controller which can be establish inside the OS. There is no volume control, which is a shame. Rather, volume is handled by again holding down the Select button and then pressing up and down on the D-Pad. It's not great, especially with the Prize button's design, but honestly not as bad as I intellection it would be at first.

Software and gameplay

The RK2020 forthwith ships with RetroArch installed, an climb ended the custom Linux operating systems common in nigh handheld emulation devices. I say "now" ships because when the twist was initiatory launched information technology ran firmware from another hand-held emulator, the ODROID Live Advance. And it wasn't just firmware—the RK2020 level included or s of the hardware American Samoa the OGA. Copyright Torah are very different in Nationalist China than the U.S., but it's a big look for the RK2020. Luckily, RK Comfort addressed the firmware number at to the lowest degree, and the RK2020 you can buy now ships with RetroArch.

Adam Patrick Murray/IDG

RetroArch offers tons of options to configure the experience how you like.

The combination of RetroArch and the RK2020's quadriceps femoris-core CPU with 1GB of RAM ensured most emulators ran very smooth. RetroArch is very customizable. It includes a lot of distinct view options of your collection, can be connected to scraping services for things like boxwood art, and offers an all-around better user experience than what you find connected almost handheld emulation devices. Gushing 8- and 16-fleck games went blissfully hitch-free, even in games that sport to a greater extent strenuous visual processing, equivalent F-Zero and Tiptop Castlevania IV. But at this power point we already have intercourse that most 2D-based game consoles wish running game fine on systems like these. What about 3D?

PlayStation 1 performance was attain surgery miss on the New PocketGo, only the accumulated hardware power of the RK2020 allowed almost every PS1 game to feed as intended. This time roughly IT's Dreamcast and PSP emulation that proven pinch and go. I had to turn frame skipping on for just about games. That feature cuts the frame order in half, but normally allowed for a smoother bring experience. Games comparable Individual Calibur 2 that already run at 60 frames per second natively remained playable at a locked 30fps and look strange. Skeletal system skipping wasn't a universal remedy though. Games like Jet Set Radio that already runs at lower frame rates just didn't lick—a real bummer.

Sustenance that in perspective though. Most handheld emulators can't run any Dreamcast games well. The Dreamcast is probably my favorite console table of all time, so getting to run some of these games happening the RK2020 is a real number treat, and something I didn't see coming so soon after the Virgin PocketGo's struggles with 3D gaming.

Adam Saint Patrick Murray/IDG

Soul Caliber 2 operative along the RK2020 was perfectly playable.

Nintendo 64 functioning, on the other hand, was not so dandy. There are two problems here. One has to do with the rendering on N64 games in modern emulators, and the new deals with the controls. The N64 controller setup is a joke (though or s of my colleagues disagree) and mapping that oddball control scheme to this handheld twist's completely different layout is just a unfavourable situation. I'm not going to operate into too much point here because I imagine it's obvious, simply I could ne'er find a configuration that matte up natural to incorporate the buttons needed for virtually games.

In terms of emulation, I formerly again had to pass over everything with frame skippping active agent to get smoother Nintendo 64 gameplay, but I still ran into plenty of stuttering, hitching, and screen tearing. With some work to the emulator settings I'm sure you can pay back finisher to a playable state, but I didn't take the time to do so, because playing games with awful controls feels awful.

PSP performance was all over the place, mainly cod to the radically different unfit types available on it console. 2D-based games, or games that had very minimal 3D interaction, really ran surprisingly well with frame skipping on, and I was even able to stimulate a some games to run fine with frame skipping off—Tactics Ogre and Persona 3 Portable for example. Intensive 3D games like War god: Chains of Olympus and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker on the other hand truly struggle to time lag framerates and exhibit many other problems as fortunate. Behind line: PSP operation is very game specific, but just bed that the RK2020 fitting doesn't have enough superpowe to play everything with ease.

Adam Patrick Gilbert Murray/IDG

Persona 3 Takeout worked keen.

Conclusion

Thanks to unneeded horsepower, (mostly) cosy controls, and sharp screen, the RK2020 has become my go-to device for handheld emulation of standard games. The cost is a little more than my last favorite device, the Unaccustomed PocketGo ($65 vs $70), but you get is a more powerful system that fundament actually play some Dreamcast and PSP games. That's worth the extra cash.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/393334/rk2020-handheld-emulator-review-dreamcast-games.html

Posted by: browningthoureprot.blogspot.com

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