I tried 6 pirate game consoles from AliExpress

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  • Опубліковано 14 тра 2024
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    AliExpress is so full of more pirate consoles than you can shake a peg-leg at, but what exactly are they? Are they repurposed Android TV Boxes, or emulation stations running on custom linux, or faithful adaptations of the original consoles with after-market chips? Are the controllers stiff, mush, or somewhere in the sweet zone?
    Discuss on the forum: linustechtips.com/topic/15203...
    Buy a Data Frog MI Pad-80 on AliExpress: lmg.gg/SRJ1H
    Buy a Gamestation 5 on AliExpress: lmg.gg/iWXJ8
    Buy an Arcade Box on AliExpress: lmg.gg/V7WNA
    Buy a Hyper Base FC Retro Game Console on AliExpress: lmg.gg/vtQhQ
    Buy a Beelink GT King WiFi6 Smart TV box on AliExpress: lmg.gg/Cia5Z
    Buy a Retro Super Console X Pro Plus on AliExpress: lmg.gg/KKJzO
    Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group.
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    MUSIC CREDIT
    ---------------------------------------------------
    Intro: Laszlo - Supernova
    Video Link: • [Electro] - Laszlo - S...
    iTunes Download Link: itunes.apple.com/us/album/sup...
    Artist Link: / laszlomusic
    Outro: Approaching Nirvana - Sugar High
    Video Link: • Sugar High - Approachi...
    Listen on Spotify: spoti.fi/UxWkUw
    Artist Link: / approachingnirvana
    Intro animation by MBarek Abdelwassaa / mbarek_abdel
    Monitor And Keyboard by vadimmihalkevich / CC BY 4.0 geni.us/PgGWp
    Mechanical RGB Keyboard by BigBrotherECE / CC BY 4.0 geni.us/mj6pHk4
    Mouse Gamer free Model By Oscar Creativo / CC BY 4.0 geni.us/Ps3XfE
    CHAPTERS
    ---------------------------------------------------
    0:00 Intro
    1:10 Mi Pad80 Famiclone/Flashlight
    3:10 GameStation 5
    5:35 Arcade Box
    8:38 Hyper Base FC
    11:21 Super Console X King/Beelink GT King
    13:44 Super Console X Pro Plus
    15:49 Conclusions from Grandma
  • Ігри

КОМЕНТАРІ • 2,8 тис.

  • @LinusTechTips
    @LinusTechTips  10 місяців тому +679

    Have you used any of these emulation boxes before? What have your experiences been? Let us know below!
    Buy a Data Frog MI Pad-80 on AliExpress: lmg.gg/SRJ1H
    Buy a Gamestation 5 on AliExpress: lmg.gg/iWXJ8
    Buy an Arcade Box on AliExpress: lmg.gg/V7WNA
    Buy a Hyper Base FC Retro Game Console on AliExpress: lmg.gg/vtQhQ
    Buy a Beelink GT King WiFi6 Smart TV box on AliExpress: lmg.gg/Cia5Z
    Buy a Retro Super Console X Pro Plus on AliExpress: lmg.gg/KKJzO
    Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group.

    • @jameskarlov
      @jameskarlov 10 місяців тому +12

      I like money

    • @RedstoneFederation
      @RedstoneFederation 10 місяців тому +26

      I will not be purchasing these products xoxo.

    • @cinnurgiants2277
      @cinnurgiants2277 10 місяців тому +10

      😎 Actually I have the Retro Monster which is similar power to Hyper base. I am very happy with it. I don’t care about more powerful systems because I grew up in the arcade. I love that I can play MAME games and the interface is great. Some do suck bad, like you pointed out.

    • @somefreshbread
      @somefreshbread 10 місяців тому +9

      Okay whoever paired an NES controller with a Super Famicom is an expert troll.

    • @realcartoongirl
      @realcartoongirl 10 місяців тому +5

      kids have their phones theae days

  • @Gurgio
    @Gurgio 10 місяців тому +14750

    "I wouldn't pilot a submarine with them" is my new favourite phrase to describe the quality of a controller

    • @Finnix.
      @Finnix. 10 місяців тому +371

      Absolutly legendary sentence (also the scene is at 10:20)

    • @timox8
      @timox8 10 місяців тому +894

      As soon as i heard linus say that i went into the comments

    • @russmack11
      @russmack11 10 місяців тому +130

      Savage...

    • @Narcle0
      @Narcle0 10 місяців тому +230

      Agree. He said it so casually too. lol

    • @misaelheredia
      @misaelheredia 10 місяців тому +171

      He tried saying it on another video but got stopped mid way “too early?”

  • @billyeveryteen7328
    @billyeveryteen7328 10 місяців тому +765

    At least those knockoff consoles come with actual games, even though they are pirated. When I was a kid, the "Gamestation" equivalent was called a "Polystation," and they always advertised themselves as having 200+ games, but what they often ended up having was 200 different versions of Tetris.

    • @gorkskoal9315
      @gorkskoal9315 10 місяців тому +8

      And would be heavily advertised in EGM

    • @Master-Cunninglinguist
      @Master-Cunninglinguist 10 місяців тому +40

      Core memory unlocked 🤣

    • @burp2019
      @burp2019 10 місяців тому +6

      *IT'S JUST NOT A GAME ANYMORE*

    • @stigrabbid589
      @stigrabbid589 10 місяців тому +10

      There was also a generic famiclone that had a Playstation shaped shell but when you opened the top loader door it had a cartridge port where the cd player would be on a Playstation which made it look more accurate and also protected the port from dust, the controllers looked nothing like Playstation controllers though.

    • @senorchivo90
      @senorchivo90 10 місяців тому +12

      You can play any retro game you want, so long as it's Tetris, Frogger, or Snake!

  • @homestar92
    @homestar92 10 місяців тому +446

    A couple of those (specifically the ones that lack HDMI) aren't emulators - they're SoC implementations of actual NES hardware. Even the GameStation 5. The epoxy blob was covering the NOAC (Nintendo-on-a-chip) and the other component was a microcontroller for reading the USB ports and translating them to something that NES hardware can understand (a real NES uses a shift register to capture the controller state at a moment in time and then read it serially)

    • @TobyCowles
      @TobyCowles 9 місяців тому +55

      And the NES on chip in general is not known for being a very faithful hardware recreation of the NES with many sound artifacts and inconsistent speed and low quality video output. Any time people talk about reverse engineered hardware being inherently better than software emulators I think of how good NES software emulation is (good enough that it is Speedrun legal) and I think of how bad the NES on chips are, ultimately it all comes down to implementation.

    • @anon_y_mousse
      @anon_y_mousse 9 місяців тому +25

      @@TobyCowles To be fair, that chip is probably older than you and never had a second revision to make it feature complete. If they'd kept developing it like emulation technology, then it'd be on par feature-wise and who knows, we might've seen other consoles get that treatment and work better than the emulators.

    • @TobyCowles
      @TobyCowles 9 місяців тому +11

      @@anon_y_mousse oh certainly, they have been building those NES on chips basically unchanged since the mid 90s and a lot has changed in that time. And there are reasons why hardware based solutions should in theory be better, you just have so much more control of the signal timings when you are working with something that low level. But it increasingly feels like we are in a weird place where with enough optimization software solutions can actually achieve similar or better results to hardware based ones.
      The PicoFly vs HWFly for instance - the HWFly needed an FPGA to produce the glitch pulse with a precise enough timing to glitch a switch, and when the PicoFly was in development a lot of people were skeptical that a microcontroller could get a consistent glitch but it was able to.
      I would love to see hardware based clones of more recent consoles. But I doubt we ever will because by the time that the tools to properly produce reverse engineered hardware for a more complicated console are available the software solution will likely have had so much development time and optimization put into it that it isn't even worth it to bother with a hardware clone except for a few die hard people.
      Something like MISTER is I suppose a challenge to this theory - but that is still a relatively niche product that still focuses largely on older consoles.

    • @rfmerrill
      @rfmerrill 9 місяців тому +7

      Do you actually know that last part? Because my assumption was that the chip on the carrier was the ROM with all the games on it, and the "USB ports" are just NES controller ports with USB connectors.

    • @rfmerrill
      @rfmerrill 9 місяців тому +14

      Also another fun fact: NOACs have been so prolific and cheap to buy that when they made the Atari Flashback, they actually ported all the games to NES and used a NOAC rather than try to emulate a VCS.

  • @erikhendrickson59
    @erikhendrickson59 9 місяців тому +28

    4:16 I especially like how the manual is in Russian but the diagram is labeled in Spanish.

  • @pelor92
    @pelor92 10 місяців тому +307

    FYi the schmoo at 3:54 is not used for obfuscation, but as an extreme form of cost cutting, as it is cheaper to glue the bare die to the pcb and wire bond out the IOs, as for commodity ICs packaging is more expensive than the die itself (this technique is heavily used in simple mass scale manufactured goods like calculators)

    • @straphyr
      @straphyr 10 місяців тому +14

      I've also seen this with cards that play music. No packaging means no hard edges in the paper, just a bump, and they might be able to squeeze a few more cards in a box for shipping.

    • @Henchman1977
      @Henchman1977 10 місяців тому +2

      I just made the same comment... I don't even think it's extreme, just makes sense if you gonna do a fixed run like this.

    • @sphericalcow2762
      @sphericalcow2762 10 місяців тому +6

      you're right. i remember prying off the black glue from the pcb of an old calculator when i was a kid. good times XD

  • @Preston_Rowe
    @Preston_Rowe 10 місяців тому +810

    Linus, you should use the GS5 shell as a case for a tiny PC build. Would be a cool idea for a future video!

    • @StigDesign
      @StigDesign 10 місяців тому +11

      so true :D the copy consoles is kind of cool with the design both gs5 and Hyper base fc :D bot be nice for special tiny pc build for retro :D

    • @TheAkashicTraveller
      @TheAkashicTraveller 10 місяців тому +41

      Not sure you could do much other than put a single board computer in it.

    • @Preston_Rowe
      @Preston_Rowe 10 місяців тому +10

      @@TheAkashicTraveller definetly would be a challenge! but they got a lot of creative genius there and Im sure they could get something cool. Probibly will have to use mobile/laptop parts or a Raspberry Pi

    • @ezequieljimenez3391
      @ezequieljimenez3391 10 місяців тому +13

      Maybe a raspberry PC/android OS that could run Nvidia GeForce now

    • @4uffin
      @4uffin 10 місяців тому +2

      That would be one TINY ASS pc...

  • @hunterchasens835
    @hunterchasens835 10 місяців тому +71

    I think a lot of those "analog" controllers mapped to a D-pad which is why there was such a large dead zone.

    • @KagoK
      @KagoK 9 місяців тому +6

      @@murtisoft but you can also program the controller so that when the joystick is in some quadrant, it maps to a d-pad input rather than a joystick input

    • @nunyabusiness896
      @nunyabusiness896 9 місяців тому +1

      @@murtisoft You're not wrong that quality and design varies, but it's also common for controllers to be set up wildly incorrectly by lazy devs, especially for bootleg stuff. For example, I had an N64 USB controller and even with the well known and popular Project64 it worked horribly until I went into the settings and messed with the calibration and sensitivity sliders and by the time I was done it was just about as good as a real N64 controller. If devs get even lazier and just map the analog joystick to digital D-pad inputs (not uncommon at all), it will be even worse.

  • @Plondysaurus
    @Plondysaurus 10 місяців тому +108

    When I set my Pi library up, I read a lot about N64 being a sticking point for some emulation infrastructures because of the way they were coded rather than a performance issue. It takes separate effort to properly emulate them which a lot of these guys may just decide is not worth it when they can throw thousands of other types of games on there and hit the target number for the page headline.

    • @kanedaku
      @kanedaku 9 місяців тому +2

      Pi 3B sucks at PSX emulation. Barely playable.

    • @kanedaku
      @kanedaku 9 місяців тому

      @@anon_y_mousse I have used both RetroArch and Bacocera(?) And neither plays PSX games properly so I gave up on them.

    • @kanedaku
      @kanedaku 9 місяців тому

      @@anon_y_mousse **on PSX games, not the emulators

    • @scrub_jay
      @scrub_jay 9 місяців тому +5

      Even Nintendo can't emulate their own shit perfectly. The recently released Switch Online version of Pilotwings 64 was criticized for running at a too-fast speed, effectively ruining the Birdman stages because you have to mash the button way more than you should.

    • @anon_y_mousse
      @anon_y_mousse 9 місяців тому +1

      @@kanedaku You should try building from source then, because pcsx-rearmed always worked full speed for me. Just make sure you enable Neon so it utilizes the hardware more fully.

  • @thexgamer8240
    @thexgamer8240 10 місяців тому +893

    My parents almost bought one of these knockoffs for my birthday. Glad I told them that I didn’t need anything else.

    • @rockpie
      @rockpie 10 місяців тому +8

      lucky

    • @christiankm8820
      @christiankm8820 10 місяців тому +55

      ​@@HeisenbergIsHerewow am i glad youtube has a translation feature built in

    • @monsterhunter445
      @monsterhunter445 10 місяців тому +64

      ​@@HeisenbergIsHereholy smokes google translates spam too

    • @otherssingpuree1779
      @otherssingpuree1779 10 місяців тому +32

      My parents once bought me a knock off that was more expensive than what I wanted.

    • @skydivenext
      @skydivenext 10 місяців тому +14

      ​@@otherssingpuree1779my parent bought me a knockoff and I was grateful for them to care about me, you don't judge parents buddy
      Is your fault for not saying what you like

  • @Alex-oh5rt
    @Alex-oh5rt 10 місяців тому +166

    10:20 loving the comparison of controllers to submarine piloting 😂

    • @diegoatlas
      @diegoatlas 10 місяців тому +3

      I was looking for this comment hahaha

    • @yjytjet
      @yjytjet 10 місяців тому

      @@diegoatlas Me too!

    • @etrur2595
      @etrur2595 9 місяців тому

      'I mean you're not wrongggg, but you didn't have to say itttt' vibes

  • @upinarms79
    @upinarms79 10 місяців тому +15

    15:50 "i you're comfortable with the piracy and profiting off of other's IP..." Considering Nintendo and Sony's willingness to price jab for retro games these days... yeah, I don't have much sympathy for them. They're the ones raking in all the money while the original developers only see pennies on the dollar from it, anyway.

  • @Jock257z
    @Jock257z 10 місяців тому +57

    to be honest the lantern is quite useful, imagine trying to connect it behind the tv, with the lights off

  • @TrapMusicNow
    @TrapMusicNow 10 місяців тому +1563

    We need a list of the best emulators with software loaded for home built arcade cabinets. LETS GO

    • @ozzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
      @ozzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz 10 місяців тому +9

      fr that would be amazing

    • @therevdidntdeserveit
      @therevdidntdeserveit 10 місяців тому +38

      Just get a Mister FPGA with the jamma connector, the update all script grabs a shit load of arcade cores

    • @stigrabbid589
      @stigrabbid589 10 місяців тому +30

      MAME is a well known arcade emulator, supports just about everything too.

    • @colinedits9892
      @colinedits9892 10 місяців тому +2

      RaccoonBox

    • @steel5897
      @steel5897 10 місяців тому +16

      Software: MAME and Retroarch
      For hardware emulation of course you want a Mister.

  • @AnCapGamer
    @AnCapGamer 10 місяців тому +25

    10:23 HAHAHAHA!!! "i would not pilot a submarine with them" Well Played, Linus!!

  • @Th3_Native
    @Th3_Native 5 місяців тому +2

    I love these types of videos. Testing older or off the wall tech.

  • @solo-ion3633
    @solo-ion3633 9 місяців тому +4

    I've always been curious what's actually in these boxes, but never been game to find out. Thanks LTT for sating my curiosity.

  • @devils_468
    @devils_468 10 місяців тому +58

    10:22 damn Linus didn't have to do them like that

    • @wrampagegamer
      @wrampagegamer 10 місяців тому +2

      Yeah true he fook them up

  • @yo.adrian
    @yo.adrian 10 місяців тому +357

    Wow, just what I needed, a flashlight built into a game console.
    I bet it'll sell like hotcakes with that feature alone.

    • @Link200767
      @Link200767 10 місяців тому +10

      pretty sure it does sell like hotcakes to soccer moms, i mean soccer birth givers.

    • @factsnfeatures
      @factsnfeatures 10 місяців тому +11

      Actually it's freaking awesome. Anyone who's ever tried to plug stuff into the back of a TV where is dark would agree with that.

    • @NineEyeRon
      @NineEyeRon 10 місяців тому +1

      Ha I read that as flashlight at first

    • @LiveErrors
      @LiveErrors 10 місяців тому

      I don't think that was an uncommon feature on old cheap plastic game thingies

    • @adora_was_taken
      @adora_was_taken 10 місяців тому +3

      @@Link200767 you're so funny

  • @NiFeGetsTubey
    @NiFeGetsTubey 9 місяців тому +7

    A note about only having two dongles for four controllers: KinHank states that you can use one dongle per two controllers. Though from what I understand, it's a bit tricky to set up. I've only needed just one controller.

    • @mycenotaph
      @mycenotaph 9 місяців тому

      yeah i have a kinhank console, can confirm
      seriously though those controllers are TRASH, they're passable for grandma's house give it to a five year old but if you are an adult with more than $10 to your name, buying an 8bitdo usb controller is totally worth the money for those android consoles (and it'll work on your computer, too)

  • @Daniel10663
    @Daniel10663 10 місяців тому +9

    5:08 "i have the same information you do" brooo that took me outtt 💀💀

  • @Oaisus
    @Oaisus 10 місяців тому +328

    The black dot on the pcb isn't to hide the chip under it. The black dot is the chip. It's cheaper to mount the silicon die directly onto the pcb rather than packaging it into a whole discrete chip which then has to soldered on separately.

    • @piskipa
      @piskipa 10 місяців тому +19

      Yep, super common in pirated games too, chinese snes/gameboy repros use this approach a lot.

    • @treborrrrr
      @treborrrrr 10 місяців тому +37

      I was honestly surprised Linus didn't know what it was. COBs or "Blobs" are everywhere.

    • @Oaisus
      @Oaisus 10 місяців тому +20

      @@treborrrrr I've heard him talk about them before he could have just read it off the script without thinking or just forgot about it

    • @AkirIkasu
      @AkirIkasu 10 місяців тому +11

      Between this and Linus not realizing the scaling and latency issues were from the TV I’m a bit disappointed.

    • @danny_dan4323
      @danny_dan4323 10 місяців тому +23

      @@AkirIkasu When they're as bad as shown, it's very likely not just the TV. I'll agree the video quality's the TV, but definitely not the input latency.

  • @letsgetto1millwithoutvids
    @letsgetto1millwithoutvids 10 місяців тому +22

    10:23 😂😂 "I wouldn't pilot a submarine with them" that was savage they would still probably be better than what ocean gate was using

  • @spideye.m8639
    @spideye.m8639 9 місяців тому +40

    Bro got the GAY STATION 5 💀

    • @Vickers11
      @Vickers11 Місяць тому +1

      😂😂😂 fr

    • @joshbuckner2594
      @joshbuckner2594 Місяць тому +1

      Dead

    • @joshbuckner2594
      @joshbuckner2594 Місяць тому +1

      With titles like Pokeman, COD(not call of duty), Grand theft anal, Donkey Dong, amd my personal favorite Assassin's Cream

    • @bitelaserkhalif
      @bitelaserkhalif Місяць тому

      Cum on duty?​@@joshbuckner2594

    • @thefkgjames
      @thefkgjames 27 днів тому +2

      Donkey dong 😂💀💀💀

  • @Jaburezu
    @Jaburezu 9 місяців тому +1

    Hot damn! Y'all just reminded me of some of my favorite childhood games that I have long forgotten: "Field Combat" and "Milk and Nuts".
    I could have left this world without remembering these gems even once. Thanks so much for that!

  • @gogma7os
    @gogma7os 10 місяців тому +495

    I was in an electronics store the other day, and I remember seeing a gameboy-looking pirate console with, I think, 500 games. I was tempted to check it out, but then I saw they were selling it for $80 USD; no way was I paying for that.

    • @kameljoe21
      @kameljoe21 10 місяців тому +9

      Generally games cost 50 or more dollars so 80 dollars is not far off.

    • @DanielFerreira-ez8qd
      @DanielFerreira-ez8qd 10 місяців тому +39

      ​@@kameljoe21 Those consoles only hold roms for, at the latest, ps1 games. Those aren't licensed either, so you're far better off downloading those roms yourself.

    • @ElShotte
      @ElShotte 10 місяців тому +16

      ​@@DanielFerreira-ez8qd Yeah pretty much, rather than letting some random company (that had nothing to do with either games or the actual original hardware) that makes it's money on ripping other companies off. You might as well just rip the original company off directly, as you would be doing it anyway even purchasing a console as such.

    • @leonro
      @leonro 10 місяців тому +5

      @@DanielFerreira-ez8qd PS1? Those with "only" 500 games will likely have an incomplete library of NES and gameboy at best, or more likely will be full of games from the Atari 2600 and C64. Those games were fun back then and can still be nice to play, but you'll probably get bored of them within 5-10 minutes. Not worth paying more than on any modern game that you might play for hours before being done with it.
      Edit: also PS1 library will likely be incomplete, since those games occupy a "large" amount of storage (hundreds of MB!). It's unlikely that they'll put PS1 games on something like an EMMC that's got up to 8GB of storage instead of a 16kb one on the NES.

    • @BenLA5
      @BenLA5 10 місяців тому +3

      80? I sold Paper Mario TTYD (gamecube) for $135 USD recently (NM disc, and manual) lol. Retro games paid for my new car...and house. 10/10 would recommend

  • @kira07
    @kira07 10 місяців тому +146

    plastic screws are actually more expensive than metal ones, those are probably nylon, and they used them probably because they did not want to crack acrylic cases, or maybe they just had them laying around from something else

    • @WXKFA
      @WXKFA 9 місяців тому +4

      Cheap plastic screws that are one-time use only and super cheap metal screws that pop their head right off when you try to unscrew them. Evil.

    • @volvo09
      @volvo09 9 місяців тому +1

      ​@@WXKFAI had an experience with those screws that break the heads off when you go to remove them.... Like 1/3 of them broke. The quality looked like an old document that was a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy.....

  • @alaskanmalamute101
    @alaskanmalamute101 10 місяців тому +3

    11:07 Worth the $61 for Bad Ass Babes 🤣🤣

  • @Syrupyraptor
    @Syrupyraptor 3 місяці тому

    I just found your videos starting with you buying the shop, love that kinda stuff and the whole building a pc for crisis

  • @Bro3256
    @Bro3256 10 місяців тому +59

    5:18 that's Hudson Soft's Nuts & Milk originally released for the Famicom on July 20, 1984 releasing on the same day as Lode Runner
    it's actually a historically important game for being one of the first third party releases on a Nintendo console

    • @modarkthemauler
      @modarkthemauler 10 місяців тому +6

      I remember playing it on a knock off snes console way back in 1999.

  • @Ratzmutz
    @Ratzmutz 10 місяців тому +30

    Love how the manual at 4:23 is in Russian, but the illustration has labels in Spanish

    • @bean367
      @bean367 10 місяців тому +6

      It's also clearly Google translated Russian

    • @vmakar85
      @vmakar85 10 місяців тому

      @@bean367 да (yes) 😝

  • @calebschoonraad6810
    @calebschoonraad6810 9 місяців тому

    An honest and entertaining review! Thank you guy's, job well done!

  • @xyzzy64
    @xyzzy64 9 місяців тому +2

    7:10 funny that you mentioned breaking the geneva convention earlier, since the game your playing here geniunely does so lmao (the healthbar- look up "Geneva Convention Red Cross Emblem")

  • @cobaltretrotech
    @cobaltretrotech 10 місяців тому +120

    The first two systems are what are known as Famicom on a chip. They are a true software pirate's favorite way to produce NES clones, as they are very cheap compared to the Android boxes

    • @MatthewMS.
      @MatthewMS. 10 місяців тому +1

      Poison ivy can be so itchy

  • @MazLad
    @MazLad 10 місяців тому +18

    That submarine controller comment caught me off guard. Great stuff.

  • @Explicit_Image
    @Explicit_Image 6 місяців тому

    Quickest sponsor clips and I appreciate it 🤙🏻

  • @exidy-yt
    @exidy-yt 9 місяців тому +1

    I have the 'super famicom' cased version of the stinky Kinhank one shown in the end, came with 2 controllers and a loaded 256gb microSD card full of gaming goodness, I couldn't be happier with it. The controllers are only good not great, but it also takes my Xbox 360 controller without any additional configuring, and hooked up to my tiny bedside 12" screen it's a perfect beast for some pre-shuteye gaming. Also the included ROMhacks for SNES and Genesis games are astounding. Worth every penny. My PC can do the heavy gaming, this little gem is retrogaming awesomeness.

  • @noodleman9945
    @noodleman9945 10 місяців тому +10

    3:10 Linus really scared me into thinking we were going to get another sponsor segue.

  • @boblatte123
    @boblatte123 10 місяців тому +12

    12:14 DEAR GOD WHAT THE HELL DID THEY DO TO MY BOY BANJO

    • @diamondrocks2266
      @diamondrocks2266 10 місяців тому +2

      It’s the “make Microsoft money demon” that has possessed Rare into releasing $40+ of Sea Of Thieves cosmetics every month

  • @flywheelshyster6549
    @flywheelshyster6549 10 місяців тому

    great video idea. i love these going through aliexpress or temu or whatnaught videos

  • @Jinny-Wa
    @Jinny-Wa 9 місяців тому +3

    12:44 Linus gets all excited and quickly changes the pic

  • @kevingollner552
    @kevingollner552 10 місяців тому +122

    I think it's time to do the opposite of "the cheapest emulators/consoles" and look at the biggest and best. The one you never need to replace and don't have to go to grandma's house to play. I'm talking about the Megacade from Extreme Home arcades. I'd love to see a deep dive into this machine. It would also be great to know how to build our own arcade based PC for home.

    • @grinnbearit8427
      @grinnbearit8427 10 місяців тому +2

      This please❤

    • @naamadossantossilva4736
      @naamadossantossilva4736 10 місяців тому +6

      At those prices building a gaming PC with a 4090 is better.

    • @TheZachary86
      @TheZachary86 10 місяців тому +5

      That’s a gaming PC

    • @BigFatCone
      @BigFatCone 10 місяців тому +1

      It's just a gaming PC running RetroArch and a frontend.

    • @banjouk8889
      @banjouk8889 10 місяців тому +2

      They have already reviewed the most expensive emulator

  • @dogbog99
    @dogbog99 10 місяців тому +12

    “I wouldn’t pilot a submarine with them”

    • @rnimations
      @rnimations 10 місяців тому

      i swr that got me lol🤣

  • @dodovomitory3496
    @dodovomitory3496 10 місяців тому

    0:35
    buy that mini retro screen! looks awesome!
    its on the 4th column

  • @user-pn2ii3gg1n
    @user-pn2ii3gg1n 9 місяців тому

    Would love to see a video on retro-handhelds, preferably not just simple fami-clones that are everywhere.

  • @OlafsLeftArm
    @OlafsLeftArm 10 місяців тому +82

    Love the new submarine standardization for game controllers 😂

  • @Patrick2480
    @Patrick2480 10 місяців тому +28

    Beats of Rage was a single fan tribute game had sprites/graphics from the Streets of Rage games, then it got turned into its own engine that you can make a customable Beat em up game from any franchise out there ie Ultimate Double Dragon, Atomiswave was an arcade system like the Neo Geo, in fact SNK developed games after discontinuing their NG

  • @pr0xZen
    @pr0xZen 5 місяців тому +1

    The "schmoo" is a super common, low-cost way of adding cheap, bare silicon dies to pcbs. The bonding leads that would typically connect the silicon die inside a molded casing, to its external legs or pads, is instead bonded directly to pads on the pcb. Then the fragile silicon die and bonding leads get covered in a blob of epoxy to protect them.

  • @Jamie_D
    @Jamie_D 10 місяців тому

    love how excited he got about some of the Hyper Base FC stuff :)

  • @craigcharlesworth1538
    @craigcharlesworth1538 10 місяців тому +28

    I think there was a legit Sega licenced plug-and-play that came in that Sonic shaped controller shell. Presumably they sold off the tooling afterwards and it's now just used as a generic controller shell for any Chinese bootleg going.

  • @Evan-rn3kc
    @Evan-rn3kc 10 місяців тому +20

    The "shmoo" on the GS5 is a silicon die directly bonded to the PCB. It's called "'chip on board" and is cheaper than bonding to a separate package.

  • @zZSandManZzdis
    @zZSandManZzdis 10 місяців тому +1

    The Xnia xbox 360 emulator is also working mighty fine. There are a few bugs here and there. But nothing a simple game restart cant fix. Some games have audio bugs that wont go away but ive only experienced it in 2 of the 25 games ive emulated. There are people creating patches for some of the larger games (like RDR) but you need a decent cpu and gpu. I get a playable experience on a ryzen 3600 and a rtx 3070. If any of you have questions id be happy to answer!

  • @xryancat
    @xryancat 10 місяців тому

    You can tell Linus has really been enjoying these segues lately! It’s contagious.

  • @FriendlyRivals
    @FriendlyRivals 10 місяців тому +37

    That submarine joke was out of left field and absolutely hilarious 😂

  • @hellothereme5719
    @hellothereme5719 10 місяців тому +15

    I love how for the gs5 the manual is in russian but the labeling for the extremely helpful graphic is in Spanish.

    • @quest-fish
      @quest-fish 10 місяців тому +2

      thought i was the only one who noticed lmao

    • @Xabbath
      @Xabbath 9 місяців тому +1

      For a moment I thought I knew Russian when I read the image. Nope.

    • @Opinionatorr
      @Opinionatorr 9 місяців тому

      That was so funny.

  • @XxVicistxX
    @XxVicistxX 10 місяців тому +2

    I would love a video like this but for the growing assortment of retro handheld emulators such as the Miyoo Mini Plus, Retroid Pocket 3+, the wide range of Anbernic devices, and the newer decent Powkiddy devices. Expecially with the custom fan made firmwares (Jelos, OnionOS, GammaOS, GarlicOS, etc) that make these devices so much better.

    • @dabearodactyl
      @dabearodactyl 9 місяців тому +1

      garlicos sounds pretty badass, ngl

  • @sourhour3403
    @sourhour3403 9 місяців тому +1

    I used to have a tiiiiny handheld console like this with a screen built in, and recently I bought another one. Though these contain only knockoffs, not any roms from real games. I actually really like them, not as a main-stay gaming device or anything but definitely for roadtrips and such. They have RIDICULOUS battery life, and you can always just bring spares.

  • @zeikjt
    @zeikjt 10 місяців тому +8

    14:42 almost certainly the laser cut acrylic burned because bad QC, and everyone knows how nasty burnt/melted plastic smells

  • @-SeventeenF
    @-SeventeenF 10 місяців тому +14

    4:15 The visible portion of the manual, translated (yes, it makes as much sense in Russian as it does here):
    GAME STATION
    Read the instruction :
    1. Connect the detail, as shown on the picture .
    2. Teleprogramme :
    May watch television only when game console is turned off .
    3. How to Play :
    After connect the game device to the television . Please carefully read the description .
    1). Turn on the television .
    2). Choose the channel for this gaming device using the VHF channel switcher , then plug the audio-video cable into the AV input of the television and

  • @Vnifit
    @Vnifit 8 місяців тому

    At 3:51 the "schmoo" on the board is not because they are trying to hide anything, but is actually just what's called a "chip-on-board"; the raw chip is glued to the PCB and small gold wires are connected directly to the board from the chip before it is covered in this black epoxy to protect it. It is a cost saving measure, as you don't need to pay for the package and pads. If you've ever opened a cheap electronic such as a calculator, you will almost certainly see this inside them.

  • @ZXRulezzz
    @ZXRulezzz 10 місяців тому +1

    Small green PCB on GS5's motherboard is a flash ROM, I think. It's adapted from BGA to TSSOP/SSOP/whatever package the board was initially designed for. And the blob thing is a usual NES-on-a-chip, but even cheaper because it isn't even packaged as a chip.
    Not that it matters much.

  • @redjules1215
    @redjules1215 10 місяців тому +16

    That one with the cartridge shaped drive is kind of cool.

    • @JackieBright
      @JackieBright 10 місяців тому

      I've actually thought about doing that before, but it would probably be better and simpler to use a more simple communication standard to send just the id of the cartridge and load it from an SSD inside the console

  • @prymus141
    @prymus141 10 місяців тому +13

    Just FYI: Those controllers from 4:00 ARE NOT USB 2.0 The pinout on the board and the controller is used differently.

  • @confusinggameplays1687
    @confusinggameplays1687 10 місяців тому

    I ABSOLUTELY! Love this type of content from LTT! ❤❤

  • @therunawaykid6523
    @therunawaykid6523 9 місяців тому

    Pretty impressed by that arcade box and a good choice of games

  • @thesoundofheli
    @thesoundofheli 10 місяців тому +122

    In a sense, I'm quite uninterested in tech. But I just keep watching LTT due to the crazy amounts of charisma on display by most hosts. Linus and his energy and honesty are just so inspirational to me that after 3 years of watching LTT, I had to drop a comment. Please, keep doing what you doing because I get to laugh and smile for free once a day. Thank you!

    • @haniffaris8917
      @haniffaris8917 10 місяців тому +2

      Man, this is positive and all, but you can't seriously just left out his co-host.

  • @sarithU
    @sarithU 10 місяців тому +14

    Man the new videos are enjoyable and adventures , love to see more like this linus , keep up the good work linus and the crew ❤️🎉

  • @Shax117
    @Shax117 9 місяців тому

    Here in the Philippines, someone got the boards from those 6000 in one games and built a retro arcade with an LED TV and classic button controllers. Have one at home and it's great.

  • @rastas_4221
    @rastas_4221 9 місяців тому

    These have been going for so long. I remember N64 controller shaped one my cousin had in the early 2000's.

  • @vicorp
    @vicorp 10 місяців тому +11

    I've had a few of these type boxes. The best & easiest was the Super Console X King like the one Linus has in the video. It might not be able to play everything (mostly no PS2 & beyond), there is enough on there that you don't miss them much. The fact it can do AtomisWave was quite welcome. Other than that, I use a hacked PS Classic with USB sticks or an i5-10400F system I tossed together just for emulation.

  • @tomdgardner
    @tomdgardner 10 місяців тому +42

    I was hoping you would peek into the Retro Gaming Handheld scene; maybe a future episode of this?
    So many to pick from, more features and cheaper than the options shown here.
    -Retroid Pocket 3+
    -Miyoo Mini Plus
    -DataFrog SN2000
    and many more!

    • @douglas215
      @douglas215 10 місяців тому +3

      Yeah! I got the RG35XX and with custom OS it is amazing little device!

    • @vixox314
      @vixox314 10 місяців тому +6

      adding to the list:
      -Anbernic RG35xx
      -Powkiddy X55
      -Retroid Pocket Flip
      -AYN Odin Lite
      and maybe if is possible:
      -PS Vita with homebrew
      -3DS with homebrew

    • @luhibi1220
      @luhibi1220 10 місяців тому +1

      They already did take a look at it before, an updated video would still be nice

  • @threesixtydegreeorbits2047
    @threesixtydegreeorbits2047 10 місяців тому +5

    5:21 milk and nuts is a classic (for real)

  • @maqelepo
    @maqelepo 9 місяців тому

    This Brings back some lovely memories ... like playing with the TV Game console inside the fridge ... (literally in the deep freezer) because the cartridge was overheating and i wanted to play TOPGUN. Or how you had to note the serial number and the circuit layout of your brand new "Made In China" console, because one of your friends "or me" could swap it out for a faulty one in less than a minute when you went to use the bathroom ... GOOD OLD DAYS.

  • @joshua_lee732
    @joshua_lee732 10 місяців тому

    6:15 actually that is brilliant because the controllers are likely RF and not 2.4GHz or some other proprietary standard. If theirRF that means you get better battery life and latency and the signal can penetrate walls and such very well with a kuch more reliable signal. I support this.

  • @Unknown-sz8kg
    @Unknown-sz8kg 10 місяців тому +17

    Linus: Using adblocker is like pirating!
    Also Linus:

  • @redwolfe3343
    @redwolfe3343 10 місяців тому +13

    What is truly amazing about these kinds of consoles is that they often dont have the number of games they advertise. They have that amout of programs sure but often they use rom hacks of games already on system or they have duplicate titles to pad out the numbers. I have seen some where some of them are broken to be unplayable in some. Truly these things are a work of art. You cant fake this kind of awful.

    • @cehaem2
      @cehaem2 10 місяців тому +2

      They just download whatever they can off the internet and stick it on the memory card,

    • @scrub_jay
      @scrub_jay 9 місяців тому

      There's a long precedent for this in gaming. Remember Action 52?

  • @PrimeTF
    @PrimeTF 8 місяців тому

    Can't wait for you to start reviewing all those after-market retro consoles that actually play NES/SNES/Genesis games, all the Hyperkin Retrons and all that.

  • @dantesparda8524
    @dantesparda8524 4 місяці тому

    the 3ds circle pad was pretty good, AND THE CIRCLE PAD PRO ATTACHMENT WAS GREAT TOO!!!

  • @notenoughmonkeys
    @notenoughmonkeys 10 місяців тому +109

    Always love retro content and you really went all out on the privateering here. Piracy with a hard Arrrrrrrr if you will...

    • @tranquility6789
      @tranquility6789 10 місяців тому +11

      Hard R 💀

    • @doomdimensiondweller5627
      @doomdimensiondweller5627 10 місяців тому +1

      I never saw the point of these, most people have a laptop or desktop that is more powerful then these things so just download the emulator and roms yourself and play that way. Also with the extra power of a PC you can change settings and even install mods.

    • @3ericw
      @3ericw 10 місяців тому +6

      ​@doomdimensiondweller5627 it's a gift for children when you can't afford a gaming console or pc

    • @doomdimensiondweller5627
      @doomdimensiondweller5627 10 місяців тому +1

      @@3ericw The problem with that. Really little children who could tolerate this and not notice how bad they are.(even as a teenager I knew these were junk) wouldn't be interested in games this old or this hard.

    • @tehwabbbit
      @tehwabbbit 10 місяців тому +3

      ​@@doomdimensiondweller5627they have a place. Cheap consoles for kids to hookup to bedroom TV, or even a cheap emulation box which isn't a PC. Same reason people run something like the Shield hooked up to the TV rather than a more expensive, noisier, hotter PC.
      Even handheld, whilst a mobile can emulate most stuff, many handhelds like the ambernics etc are a better experience (and don't drain phone battery!)

  • @NovaInspired
    @NovaInspired 10 місяців тому +58

    Caution with malware with these, pretty similar to the android tv boxes and those were found with malware pre installed or with major security flaws in the past

    • @elnkr2603
      @elnkr2603 10 місяців тому +12

      I mean, to be fair, you don't need to connect them to the internet. Plugging anything you care about into them or vice versa, though, could be scary.

    • @spritely
      @spritely 10 місяців тому +23

      bro literally mentions this in the video

    • @Liminal.Headspace
      @Liminal.Headspace 10 місяців тому +1

      ​@@spritelyNo, he mentioned only the Android Tv box, which is an old trend. OP said that all these consoles can be full of malware.

    • @PeterParker-vq2cz
      @PeterParker-vq2cz 10 місяців тому +3

      @@Liminal.Headspace guy in video said that too rofl

    • @nicholaskeck4986
      @nicholaskeck4986 10 місяців тому

      Most of emulator ones have no way to connect to a network anyway, I'm sure the ones that connect the controller via Bluetooth can cause some issues, but most of them things have no way of connecting anyway, now if your gonna try plugging one of the micro SD cards into a connected device then that is a whole different story lol

  • @WaveIan
    @WaveIan 9 місяців тому +2

    Ideally I'd hope to see some snooping into each rooted device's malware risks. More and more people are getting into emulation, and the risks are worth more than a casual "hey maybe don't connect this to your network".

  • @LunchBXcrue
    @LunchBXcrue 9 місяців тому

    Cant wait for LTTs submarine controller tier list!

  • @KenS1267
    @KenS1267 10 місяців тому +87

    I am normally not in favor of piracy. But the fact is that the companies that own these games either don't exist any more or won't release them for any hardware released in the last decade. ROM's and emulation are the only option people really have once their old consoles break or get to the point that they no longer want to boot them up just to play another hour of Ocarina of Time.

    • @broveku
      @broveku 10 місяців тому +21

      Piracy is completely okay so long as you aren’t pirating small studio indie games. if it’s triple A or no longer easily available rip that shit

    • @randomdeliveryguy
      @randomdeliveryguy 10 місяців тому +9

      @@broveku I would rather people pirated my game than not play it tho.

    • @fafski1199
      @fafski1199 10 місяців тому +11

      @@broveku Yep, who really want's to spend several months hunting down an old retro game on EBay, to only find it's now a collectors item and costs upwards of $300 (excluding shipping).
      And why? Because the console manufacturer or game Dev's have abandoned it and simply can't be bothered to even re-release a downloadable copy of it from thier store.
      In that situation piracy and emulation, really is the only realistic option available, if you still want to play the game.
      It's not as though they are losing money from sales by you pirating it, because they aren't selling the game anymore, in the first place. Plus they still wouldn't make a dime, if you actually went and bought that barely available and expensive used but original copy.

    • @SlamFM36
      @SlamFM36 10 місяців тому +2

      Agreed, honestly the illegal side of emulation is probably keeping old games alive just as much if not more than the legal side of it. I'm in favor of pirating abandonware IPs too, even if they're only as little as a year old. Usually if it's been abandoned than the game probably sucked but sometimes you get one that would be worth a play if you can pirate it.

    • @nova8747
      @nova8747 10 місяців тому +5

      @@broveku I've noticed that getting on the good side of pirates works out quite nicely in the long run. As they'll either just buy your game outright down the line, tell their friends about it, or simply throw a positive response in some forum that might net a sale or two provided your game is actually good.

  • @brianmosleyb9104
    @brianmosleyb9104 10 місяців тому +51

    Id love to see you guys do a write up like this on the pirate game HDD "consoles" . They come loaded with games all they way up to current consoles and is set up as a plug and play type system but using a PC. They're between 40 and 100$ and seem a little too good to be true

    • @ISCARI0T
      @ISCARI0T 10 місяців тому

      Where can I buy it

    • @brianmosleyb9104
      @brianmosleyb9104 9 місяців тому +2

      @@ISCARI0T AliExpress

    • @L_Zant
      @L_Zant 9 місяців тому +1

      RGT 85 reviews a few of them if you are interestes

  • @jjmtz89853
    @jjmtz89853 6 місяців тому +1

    6:49 I think the Arcade Box’s “X” and “O” are reversed because that’s how the PlayStation controllers were configured in Japan until around the PS3.

  • @carnotan
    @carnotan 10 місяців тому

    I'm so looking forward to the Hardware Lab analysis of "Best Gamepads to pilot a submarine with"

  • @onabikewithadrone
    @onabikewithadrone 10 місяців тому +6

    Wrt Game Station 5 manual. In the early 90s Russian (and former USSR) market was flooded with NES clone called Dandy. There were two ways of connecting it: using RCA connectors for video/audio and the one shown in the manual. You would use the latter in case your TV does not have RCA. Then you plug RCAs from the console into a special box and you connect the box via coaxial cable to your TV's VHF input. Then you tune the channel et voila, you are playing. Additional fun was in the fact that these RCA-to-coaxial boxes were cheaply made and were basically acting as transmitters. So you could tune into someone else's game session and just watch it :) Granted, the range was just couple of apartments, but still.
    And the picture in the manual shows one of the versions of the console which included light gun. Although, I have no idea why captions on the figure are in Italian

    • @mal0gen
      @mal0gen 9 місяців тому

      Were the Dandy games good?

    • @onabikewithadrone
      @onabikewithadrone 9 місяців тому

      @@mal0gen they were the same as on NES. I do not know how it worked, but my bet is that game "cartridges" were not original :D And also there were a lot of 999..9-games-in-one cartridges. These were terrible as you may guess (usually its Super Mario, Tetris and some other lightweight stuff). But the real games were all the rage: multiple TMNTs, Micro Machines and a lot of other games I can't remember now

  • @98ahni
    @98ahni 10 місяців тому +5

    _"Look at the dead zone!"_
    Yes, that's what happens when you play a *D-pad* game with a joystick.

  • @elinelai1891
    @elinelai1891 5 місяців тому +1

    Instructions in broken Russian, picture in Spanish and the Game Station logo in what seems to be a Spider-Man font of all fonts
    This is precious

  • @coreyferreyra
    @coreyferreyra 9 місяців тому +1

    When the BeeLink was being shown, I did a double take seeing the artwork on the DS menu. The World Ends With You is a damn good game, but it is definitely not the sort of game you play on a system like this without a touch screen, so I wonder why they had the art for it on this.

  • @taylorrkenneth
    @taylorrkenneth 10 місяців тому +110

    Even with controller deadzones, that FC box definitely seems worth the buy at $ 65. Especially as a gift for someone who wants to get into retro games but doesn't feel comfortable getting into emulation and piracy.

    • @therealmistermemer
      @therealmistermemer 9 місяців тому +47

      That's literally all it does, emulation and piracy.

    • @White_Tiger93
      @White_Tiger93 9 місяців тому +3

      It's still not cool to make money from emulation scene just to be honest with you, all of this knock-off console, they literally stole everything from roms to emulator.

    • @rickyricardo3551
      @rickyricardo3551 9 місяців тому +13

      ​@White_Tiger93 yes because Nintendo sure deserves that respect(Not)

    • @constitutionalright827
      @constitutionalright827 9 місяців тому +1

      Not that I care but by getting it and giving it to them, you're literally BOTH into emulation and piracy...

    • @cannonballer44
      @cannonballer44 9 місяців тому

      lmfao@@therealmistermemer

  • @livelongandtroll9108
    @livelongandtroll9108 10 місяців тому +10

    04:22 Lol... Manual Russian, picture Spanish... they clearly stole the picture from a Spanish manual of a different device.

  • @thomaslai9058
    @thomaslai9058 Місяць тому

    I have a Pandora's Box 4 mounted in a 2P arcade joystick package. My go-to for the retro arcade experience!

  • @Otis151
    @Otis151 9 місяців тому

    OMG. i as just about to say Linus is trying so hard not to just break the thing open, then the next shot is him ripping it open with his bare hands. god bless him.

  • @Zoro22thegod
    @Zoro22thegod 10 місяців тому +3

    I got one of this boxes with idk how many games from consoles up until the PS1 era.
    It only plugs in to HDMI and a Barell plug for power.
    The controllers seem the same has this ones 5:44.
    Most Fun I've had in a while

  • @heathbarpunch
    @heathbarpunch 10 місяців тому +3

    Yes the flashing on the top of the screen is normal when you run Starfox64 at HD resolutions. My understanding is that it always existed it was just not visible because off screen back in the day.

  • @sindrisuncatcher653
    @sindrisuncatcher653 3 місяці тому

    Hey, I liked the slide-around pseudo-joystick on the 3ds! It's more precise and more comfortable than the sticks on the joy-cons, in an even lower profile, even if it doesn't stack up against the full sized sticks on modern xbox/ps controllers.

  • @MidNS
    @MidNS 10 місяців тому

    Should do a video on the wealth of retro emulation handhelds such as the Miyoo Mini+ and Retroid consoles.

  • @fried169
    @fried169 10 місяців тому +13

    would love to see a video on retro-handhelds, preferably not just simple fami-clones that are everywhere. Theres a lot of really cool stuff out there like the miyoo mini or a bunch of stuff from anbernic. There's whole dev communities around these things too with stuff like OnionOS and other custom operating systems.

  • @YonatanAvhar
    @YonatanAvhar 10 місяців тому +11

    3:54 They don't use the schmoo because they don't want you to know what chip that is. It's called a COB (Chip On Board), and it's essentially a bare die connected to the PCB via bond wires, and the black epoxy blob is there to protect it since there's no conventional package like with a proper packaged and soldered chip

    • @bnjbhkj
      @bnjbhkj 9 місяців тому +2

      yet another UA-camr who says things when they don't know what they are talking about. I really feel like LTT has gone downhill big time.

    • @RedStripeMedia
      @RedStripeMedia 9 місяців тому +3

      There is similar anti reverse engineering epoxy. They arent here for electrical engineering. Theyre an entertainment channel always have been but usually are a great fun fast reference