Author Topic: WARNING: RG99 != RG300  (Read 11123 times)

Zereth (OP)

  • Posts: 40
WARNING: RG99 != RG300
« on: March 19, 2020, 09:13:46 am »
So some genius at Anbernic has had a brilliant idea: Using a smaller screen and a weaker chip in an RG300 shell.
(Sarcasm, anyone?)

I've been a week trading messages with them, talking about the RG300, because this item had "RG300" in its product name and description (got pictures of that) and a slightly lower price. I wanted one for testing, using different screens and all; they wouldn't sell me parts, so I asked for a discont to which they agreed... after I had completed my order. Fishy, but it's Anbernic, benefit of the doubt and all. So they send it, I ask about the discount and they say I did not order an RG300: that is an RG99: smaller screen, different processor.

So, guys... Be careful if you order RG300s. You might get one of these RG99s instead. I haven't received it yet, I actually hope it'll get cancelled before it arrives; if it does arrive I'll share some photos.

Funny part of the story: I was tasked by the parent's association over here to find a reliable supplier and choose an affordable gaming device for kids currently in lockdown (covid) and I told myself "two birds, one stone", the device I want and a bunch of them for the kids. Anbernic is not getting that big order, that's for sure. We'll see how the dispute/refund goes.

I'm not throwing in any links not to give them any traffic, hope you'll understand.

pcercuei

  • Posts: 1728
    • My devblog
Re: WARNING: RG99 != RG300
« Reply #1 on: March 19, 2020, 11:35:08 am »
You bought it from their official store on aliexpress?

Zereth (OP)

  • Posts: 40
Re: WARNING: RG99 != RG300
« Reply #2 on: March 19, 2020, 11:42:45 am »
Yes, and talked with them for a week before making the purchase, always about the RG300.

If you want screenshots of the convo I can PM them to you.

Dang it, here you go.
« Last Edit: March 19, 2020, 11:44:43 am by Zereth »

setedadivas

  • Posts: 13
Re: WARNING: RG99 != RG300
« Reply #3 on: March 19, 2020, 12:08:07 pm »
Yes, and talked with them for a week before making the purchase, always about the RG300.

If you want screenshots of the convo I can PM them to you.

Dang it, here you go.
Maybe it's not that bad, right?  At least the system appears to be the same as that of older consoles.  The problem is that the dollar is getting higher every day.

Enviado de meu moto g(7) play usando o Tapatalk


Zereth (OP)

  • Posts: 40
Re: WARNING: RG99 != RG300
« Reply #4 on: March 19, 2020, 12:37:50 pm »
Maybe it's not that bad, right?
Well it is. It may as well be an RS-90 in an RG300 shell. And I bet it'll be 320x240.

The parents over here are annoyed... at me. They had me propose several models, they researched them; they rejected the RS-90 (Retro Mini) because of the tiny screen, some mentioned "potential eyesight problems" for their kids, go figure. They finally agreed on the RG300, a couple of them had seen mine and most of them had Game Boys when they were younger. They tasked me with finding a "reliable supplier", they don't trust Gearbest, Banggood, Aliexpress. But we're talking 3 kids per home (average), some were sent here from bigger cities with their relatives, this is a mess. Amazon prices aren't an option. So I went for AliExpress, official Anbernic store; I approached them for a single unit, if you mention there can be hundreds of units involved they'll put on their widest smile to make a deal. And you won't know if they'll be up to it.

Kids can't go out to the park or anything, some picked their parents' phones and even made in-game purchases. I know, parental controls and all, they didn't. And the bandwidth they're taking up is... the biggest problem. We're away from the nearest city, we rely on 3G/4G for data, and grownups are using that for working from home.

Retro handhelds were a great option to address these problems, I put myself into this and it's become a shitstorm. I tried that old "two birds with one stone", get my device for testing and experiments and solving the kid issue... and stones are flying towards me instead. Virtual ones, so far (messages, puns). No good deed goes unpunished.

I'm trying to get out of this situation like it never happened. But also I thought I'd better warn you guys: these are two different devices. And 35 to 42 eur for a "RetroMini-like device" with misleading advertising, that's something to be wary of. Right?

I could go on and on, I hope this doesn't end up being another huge message of mine...

Zereth (OP)

  • Posts: 40
Re: WARNING: RG99 != RG300
« Reply #5 on: April 02, 2020, 03:48:38 pm »
First of all, sorry for the image quality. I'll try making better pictures if there's anyone really interested, but I've already asked for a return+refund. I was (still am) quite angry, my hands shaking and such, couldn't take better ones after several attempts. Also, no matter how high-res a picture of a turd is, it'll still be a picture of a turd...





It has integrated storage. Where the internal SD should be (if it were an RG300) it reads:
RG99_V1.0
20191221

USB-C charging port, most likely USB 2. Light leaks from both sides of the screen, in and out. Shoulder buttons feel a bit more... wiggly than those of the RG300. Games... it's your dear "169 in I" (sic).

The screen does actually look better than the RG300's but it's also smaller; it's got the same "IPS" sticker behind the battery the RG300 had, go figure. The infamous blue "mp4-like" menu has the text squashed, wider and shorter than it should be, but readable. If I had to guess I'd say maybe the screen is 480x320 and that menu has (almost always) run in 320x240, but your guess is as good as mine. I'm not feeling like counting pixels right now.

This turd is underpowered. For example, Street Fighter 2, Megaman Power Battle, Strider Hiryu, all have very annoying sound/music artifacts and slowdowns. Fatal Fury 2 plays and sounds like half speed, being generous there. Also, remember those 2 buttons for savestates and emulator menus? Not bound here; in the menu the "key pressed" sound is played, the emulators do nothing when they're pressed or held down. Shoulder buttons do work in Mario Kart, which works surprisingly well compared to other's I've mentioned, but nothing to call home about. Specially noticeable in GBA but also in other systems: there's one column of pixels to the right which is wrong. It's either from the other side of the screen or garbled, you know what I mean, right? Nothing new, really. Oh, my previous battery adapter for the RG300 fits perfectly, as anyone could expect.

I'm returning it, so I'm not tearing it apart unless I have to keep it and that would really-really-really piss me off. It does smell funny, not a figure of speech. It has a transparent sticker on the screen, what's beneath feels like plastic, not glass. It feels like an RS90 in a different dress, maybe a bit more underpowered than the RS90 but that might be because of the screen or my bias (I'm still pretty angry, it's taking me ages writing this). If you want any details, info, plugging it to the computer, you name it... just tell me. I'm not feeling... creative with this unit.

Summing up: If you buy an RG300 and it has the well-known blue menu and no internal SD card, congratulations! You've got an RG99! Don't ask me what to do with it!

Again, sorry for the poor photos.

P.S.: I didn't feel like counting pixels, so I made a "picture" folder in some SD card I had lying around, tossed my templates (320p, 360p, 480p) and opened them using both the "image viewer" and the file explorer in the RG99. They appear rotated 90deg no-matter-what (I got 2 versions of each, one at zero and another one at 90deg, all show up misaligned); I rotate them pushing random keys (as usual) and they won't show full-screen but squashed. Cool, not that I expected better but had to try. But... the screen flickers. Like, a LOT, disco time! I use the middle buttons (those which won't work with emulators) to lower the brightness and it gets more noticeable. Top brightness, less noticeable, still annoying.  It's not there while playing, but made me wonder... >30Hz screen? Final nail for its coffin?
« Last Edit: April 02, 2020, 04:22:52 pm by Zereth »

Zereth (OP)

  • Posts: 40
Re: WARNING: RG99 != RG300
« Reply #6 on: April 02, 2020, 08:53:12 pm »
Better photos, including internals and more info (JZ4725B):

https://obscurehandhelds.com/2020/03/the-rg99-isnt-what-it-looks-like/

Surkow

  • * Administrator
  • Posts: 696
Re: WARNING: RG99 != RG300
« Reply #7 on: April 02, 2020, 10:10:13 pm »
Despite that it wasn't advertised properly, it looks like a nice RS-90 upgrade. It'll probably run better with OpenDingux instead of ucosII.

Zereth (OP)

  • Posts: 40
Re: WARNING: RG99 != RG300
« Reply #8 on: April 03, 2020, 09:43:19 am »
Despite that it wasn't advertised properly, it looks like a nice RS-90 upgrade. It'll probably run better with OpenDingux instead of ucosII.

I agree it's kind of nice for an RS-90, the screen in particular. But for an RG300 it's anything but nice. And its price is (as for now) closer to the RG300 than the RS-90.

I am in lockdown and have been given 4 days to deliver it back, that's impossible. So it seems I'll have to keep it.
I feel defeated and strongly disgusted with Anbernic.

OpenDingux... I guess anything would run better than the stock OS, but it's 256MB of internal storage and I'm not feeling confident fiddling with it. You know, when you're excited and happy about getting something to work you put your heart and soul into it, no matter the odds, you'll ultimately get it to work. When you feel bad and disgusted and sick of something, no matter how much effort you put into it: there's no reward in the end, no satisfaction. And if I happen to brick it in the proccess I'll feel even worse. But if I can give you guys a hand to help any other poor souls who purchased an RG99 (boys and girls, please don't!), just drop me a line.

v47

  • Posts: 238
Re: WARNING: RG99 != RG300
« Reply #9 on: April 03, 2020, 03:15:57 pm »
This would be a fun device - with OpenDingux and a $20 pricetag.

Zereth (OP)

  • Posts: 40
Re: WARNING: RG99 != RG300
« Reply #10 on: April 03, 2020, 05:43:36 pm »
$20 plus any CFW, might think about it. $25 tops. But it's at about $40 without an SD card now, there's no reason to pick this RG99 over any LDK or RG300 for the price/performance.

Update on mine: Took me almost 3 hours on the phone but got it returned, just picked up. Poor delivery guys, not their fault but neither is mine...

Qinti

  • Posts: 53
Re: WARNING: RG99 != RG300
« Reply #11 on: April 13, 2020, 12:52:38 am »
So this was the reason why I saw the RG300 at such a cheap price in the Anbernic store this past sale. I almost went for it. My guess is that it is a RS-90 inside a RG300 she'll with little to no optimization to the interface, except to see that it works. Chabaduo at its finest...

kuhekin

  • Posts: 3
Re: WARNING: RG99 != RG300
« Reply #12 on: May 24, 2020, 01:56:10 pm »
Despite that it wasn't advertised properly, it looks like a nice RS-90 upgrade. It'll probably run better with OpenDingux instead of ucosII.

I agree it's kind of nice for an RS-90, the screen in particular. But for an RG300 it's anything but nice. And its price is (as for now) closer to the RG300 than the RS-90.

I am in lockdown and have been given 4 days to deliver it back, that's impossible. So it seems I'll have to keep it.
I feel defeated and strongly disgusted with Anbernic.

OpenDingux... I guess anything would run better than the stock OS, but it's 256MB of internal storage and I'm not feeling confident fiddling with it. You know, when you're excited and happy about getting something to work you put your heart and soul into it, no matter the odds, you'll ultimately get it to work. When you feel bad and disgusted and sick of something, no matter how much effort you put into it: there's no reward in the end, no satisfaction. And if I happen to brick it in the proccess I'll feel even worse. But if I can give you guys a hand to help any other poor souls who purchased an RG99 (boys and girls, please don't!), just drop me a line.

Oh no, i just ordered one for 26$

Is there any custom firmware for RG99 guys? I heard the factory firmware is bad.
If not, hope i can play some Pokemon games at least  :'(
« Last Edit: May 24, 2020, 02:12:50 pm by kuhekin »

v47

  • Posts: 238
Re: WARNING: RG99 != RG300
« Reply #13 on: May 24, 2020, 08:18:01 pm »
You could ask @pcercuei whether he'd be willing to support it - but that would mean getting him one unit for development purposes. I'd be willing to contribute a few bucks - it's essentially a bigger RetroMini with a larger screen and more buttons, and I think it would be quite nice with custom firmware.

pcercuei

  • Posts: 1728
    • My devblog
Re: WARNING: RG99 != RG300
« Reply #14 on: May 25, 2020, 03:17:06 am »
If it uses the same interface for the LCD as for the RS-12 or the g100, then I'd need to get these to work first.

kuhekin

  • Posts: 3
Re: WARNING: RG99 != RG300
« Reply #15 on: May 25, 2020, 04:34:49 am »
If it uses the same interface for the LCD as for the RS-12 or the g100, then I'd need to get these to work first.
Thank you, take your time  ;D

v47

  • Posts: 238
Re: WARNING: RG99 != RG300
« Reply #16 on: May 25, 2020, 09:08:31 am »
In case you missed the link;
Better photos, including internals and more info (JZ4725B):

https://obscurehandhelds.com/2020/03/the-rg99-isnt-what-it-looks-like/
Not sure whether it's enough to figure the LCD connection type out, if not, you'll probably need that one device to pull apart.
« Last Edit: May 25, 2020, 09:11:19 am by v47 »

kawabushi

  • Posts: 28
Re: WARNING: RG99 != RG300
« Reply #17 on: June 02, 2020, 05:34:35 pm »
But then, it?s so bad this RG-99? Considering its cpu is similar to the Retromini RG-90 in which came out a customized firmware that significantly improved performance, we can?t expect anything like that for the RG-99? It only costs US $28.72. The screen is pretty good at viewing angles. At emulation level it is able to do it decently?

v47

  • Posts: 238
Re: WARNING: RG99 != RG300
« Reply #18 on: June 02, 2020, 06:18:37 pm »
It's only bad when they try to masquerade it as RG300, and sell it for $50 (which seems to be exactly the case on ebay right now). If you can get it for less than $30 shipping included, then it's fine, even with the stock fw - same capabilities as the original RetroMini, if I understand correctly.

Custom fw would make it really nice - a bigger RetroMini with a larger screen and more buttons, a $25 pricetag, and an open system? Sign me up twice.

kawabushi

  • Posts: 28
Re: WARNING: RG99 != RG300
« Reply #19 on: June 02, 2020, 06:30:39 pm »
It's only bad when they try to masquerade it as RG300, and sell it for $50...
Custom fw would make it really nice - a bigger RetroMini with a larger screen and more buttons, a $25 pricetag, and an open system? Sign me up twice.

OK understand, here in my country, Spain, I can get it for 30 euros shipping included and purchased here in Spain directly, it would take a week to receive it alone. I think for that price I?ll try, and if a custom firmware comes out then better!

 

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