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Author Topic: Is the dingoo a330 still worth it?  (Read 5712 times)

Fishcakes (OP)

  • Posts: 56
Is the dingoo a330 still worth it?
« on: November 23, 2016, 10:52:55 pm »
Hey guys. Sorry if this is in the wrong section. This is my first post.

Ive been looking into a truly portable emulation console and Im thinking of picking up a dingoo a330 mostly for snes, nes, genesis and gba. Is this handheld still a viable option? Every other alternative is way too big for pocket carry except maybe a gcw zero, and those things are near impossible to find now.

And if the dingoo a330 is still a good option for pocketable emulation(especially snes), how would i go about setting it up for optimal performance and where do i get all the emulators?

Thanks, and i apologize for the questions, i just want to be sure this device will play what i want properly before jumping in and being dissapointed

cronot

  • Posts: 48
Re: Is the dingoo a330 still worth it?
« Reply #1 on: November 24, 2016, 07:13:13 pm »
Well, I've just checked aliexpress and there's a single result for it. So I guess it's right now reaching its end of life, so you can expect it to get even harder to find from now on.

With that said - and keep in mind I speak from experience with the A320, which is only slightly below the A330 - I would say the A330 is still very capable, and it would fit your needs for portability, at the very least.

As for emulation, it depends on which OS you will go with - Native or OpenDingux. Personally I prefer OpenDingux because it has a less rough interface than Native, and since it's Linux, there's also a lot of game ports you can stuff in there (Doom, Descent, Duke 3D, OpenTyrian, etc.... of course, depends if you care about these things).

For native, you will want to avoid the default emulators - they are at best "ok", but usually they are lacking in one or more aspects - performance, accuracy, configuration ability, poor UI, etc.

So, if you go with third-party emulators... I'm not sure how well the best non-default GBA emulator runs, because I've never tried. The default native emulator is not so good.

Genesis and NES are pretty good if you stick to the ones on lion_rsm's emulation pack.

SNES is mostly ok (again, with the one on lion_rsm's pack, and also PocketSNES) - SNES emulation is on the edge of what the hardware on the dingoo can deliver, so it's a bit demanding on the device, but the majority of games will run good enough to be playable. This remark also applies to SNES9x4D on OpenDingux, so I'm skipping that below.

Now for OpenDingux:

For GBA, just go with ReGBA. It's recommended you get the GBA Bios binary to use with it to improve emulation compatibility. Doing that, I've got it running everything I've thrown at it, and usually with pretty good performance.

For Genesis, PicoDrive. It just works perfectly.

For NES, FCEU320. Only complaint I have with it is sound quality, which is clearly inferior compared to native. I still prefer to endure it than to drop back to native. I just got used to it in the end.

For all of these, you can find the links in the wiki (link at the top). Some of them may have newer versions since the wiki is somewhat outdated, you may want to check the listings on http://dl.openhandhelds.org/ as well (most dingoo software are hosted there and it's where many of the links on the wiki will point to anyway).
« Last Edit: November 24, 2016, 07:20:30 pm by cronot »

Fishcakes (OP)

  • Posts: 56
Re: Is the dingoo a330 still worth it?
« Reply #2 on: November 24, 2016, 08:04:21 pm »
Wow, thanks for the detailed response. Awesome.  Yep, id definately go with opendingux. Im mostly concerned with snes as far as playability.

I forgot to ask in my original post, but is snes on dingoo better than psp? I managed to get everything running on my psp, but 40fps is pretty much unplayable(to me)

cronot

  • Posts: 48
Re: Is the dingoo a330 still worth it?
« Reply #3 on: November 25, 2016, 12:01:31 am »
Well, you'd better give up on the Dingoo then because 40fps is pretty much the average you'll get with it on SNES. What you're looking for would probably be better served by the GCW0, if you can find one of course.

Sadly, I think dedicated devices for emulation are really on the way out, IMHO, or are being pushed even more into a niche market with a very small (and relatively expensive) selection of devices. It's more practical and cost effective nowadays to just get an Android smartphone, a Bluetooth controller, then get RetroArch (or buy a standalone emulator) and play away. That, of course, is not a as pocketable solution, but unless someone comes up with a much cheaper dedicated device for emulation, you'll have to cough up some serious cash on that niche.
« Last Edit: November 25, 2016, 12:07:54 am by cronot »

Fishcakes (OP)

  • Posts: 56
Re: Is the dingoo a330 still worth it?
« Reply #4 on: November 25, 2016, 03:09:30 am »
Damn. Thats disappointing. Guess ill keep my eye out for a gcw zero, barring that ive just gotta hope some other company comes out with something actually pocket sized. Thanks for answering my questions

 

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