Well, here’s my feature on spruceOS and where the project is heading with their 4.5.0 update. Rather than just running through a changelog, I wanted to get into why spruce has grown the way it has: the push toward that “one card to rule them all” idea, making the same SD card useful across more handhelds, the work behind dArkMoss/BaseOS, offline RetroAchievements, and how the project has expanded without losing the hobbyist spirit that made it interesting in the first place.

To put it together I interviewed all four members of the spruce team: SundownerSport, Ry, Arkun and Chris, all about their own parts of the project, how they work together, and what 4.5.0 represents for spruce going forward. There’s quite a lot in there about the technical side, but also about the people behind it and the wonderfully informal “follow the fun” philosophy that seems to shape a lot of what spruce becomes.

I like to interview developers in the retro handheld scene so people can get a peek behind the curtain about what goes on, so hopefully there’s something in here for anyone curious :)

Let me know what you think!

Hah!

That’s fair. In my defence, an article like this takes me a good while to put together. I’ll start with the idea, jot down notes, get in touch with the developer and interview them at their convenience, then go through their answers and work out how to build that material into a story that still feels like their experience, using the quotes I like most to help bring it to life.

All the way through that process I’m drafting, redrafting and leaving myself little notes in the article. I tend to get ideas down quickly and tidy them up later; that’s just how I work. Most of the time it all gets cleaned up, but occasionally one of those awkward little notes-to-self survives the edit and sneaks into the finished piece.

That’s what happened here.

I will say, though, you could probably have made the point a little more kindly. I’m not pretending to be some flawless professional journalist. This is a hobby for me, and I do it because I genuinely love gaming, especially handheld gaming. I put a lot of time into these pieces because I care about the people and projects I’m writing about, even if the odd rough edge from my process slips through.

Even before I got to this part, I was thinking “if I want to play a GBA SP, I’ll just play one.”

That’s fair! I collect the originals too, although I’m more partial to the non-SP models, especially once they’ve been modded. But what I miss on the real hardware is save states, fast-forward, upscaling, and all the other modern conveniences you quickly get spoiled by. For roughly the price of one EverDrive (lovely things though they are) I can buy a very solid modern interpretation, throw every game I actually want on it, and have them loading instantly. Nostalgia is great; nostalgia with quality-of-life features is even better.

As for the A.I. side, also fair. I was fully expecting the pitchforks to come out over that bit. But after interviewing somewhere around 70 developers in the handheld scene, I’ve seen plenty of people who have been coding for decades use A.I. as exactly that: a tool. Sometimes it gives them breathing room, sometimes it gets them through the boring parts, sometimes it lets them spend more time on the bits they actually care about. I completely understand why the subject is sore, but gaming in 2026 pretending developers aren’t already using these tools feels a little like angrily shouting at the tide for coming in.

Hi there!

The Brick Hammer does not have any DAC output, no. They’re wonderful to have as a retro handheld which also plays music, but as a device dedicated to high quality audio, you’re far, far better opting for a dedicated DAP.

The M30 you mentioned has:

• AKM AK4376: the main DAC. It’s a 32-bit stereo DAC from Asahi Kasei Microdevices, with an integrated Class-G headphone amplifier and support for sample rates up to 384 kHz. Manuals+
• JuLi2167: the DSP / audio decoding processor. Manuals+
• WM8965 and TPA6530: “dual decoding” or “dual DAC” arrangement.

While they’re not like…industry leading, compared to the Brick Bro, it will sound like a Lamborghini! But as you say, this will depend on the earpods you get. I’d recommend some nice IEMs! Even Moondrop Chu II’s are reaaaally cheap but give you a great sound :)

I’ve been spending a bunch of time with TortOS, the new custom firmware for the TrimUI Brick and Brick Hammer, so I chatted with its developer Geekstrada, who also works with Helaas on Leaf for the Miniloong Pocket 1.

My article goes into why he wanted TortOS to be deliberately small and focused, the Cover Flow-inspired UI, how he keeps emulator cores ready in memory to make launching games so fast, and why he’d rather support fewer systems really well than chase everything the Brick can technically run.

We also talk quite a bit about Muse, its lovely music side, and the old iPods and physical music collections that helped inspire it. I’ve been using my TortOS set-up with just three games per system and filling the rest of the card with music, which ended up feeling like a pretty perfect fit for what TortOS is trying to do.

Anyway, if you’re at all curious on this new firmware, or the dev side of it, then hopefully you like the article :)

I interviewed Vincent Lee, the creator of GetBetterButtons, for the third entry in my Artist Spotlight series, which focuses on people making physical things for the gaming community.

Vincent designs replacement buttons and controls for retro handhelds, but the process behind them is considerably deeper than I expected. He reverse-engineers handhelds, builds detailed CAD models and simulations, goes through dozens of prototypes, and even develops his own tools to help with the process. We also get into his aluminium “Endgame” buttons, how CNC machining changes what he can design, and why he thinks handheld manufacturers still get buttons and D-pads wrong.

There’s also a pretty interesting background behind the whole thing: before starting GetBetterButtons, Vincent worked in hardware engineering and product development at Bose, which I found fascinating.

If you’ve ever installed a set of replacement buttons in a handheld, were curious about the process, or wondered why some controls feel so much better than others, Hopefully you’ll enjoy this one!

This article on how to buy a dirt cheap ‘junk’ Sony PSP from Japan, and how to bring it back to life!

https://gardinerbryant.com/buying-a-psp-from-japan/

I love the Sony PSP, and any excuse I can find to write about them is fine by me. But I’m proud of this one :)

I’m in an odd position in that I only really fell into reviewing handhelds. Early on when I’d writing gaming articles and interviews, some of the companies started to reach out to me, which in turn led to others doing so. I only mention this because I had the unique intro to it all by actually befriending some people at each company. And now I’ve ended up in the odd spot of knowing what each company is working on, and has planned for around the next 18 months or so.

I only say this to give some context as to why I can’t tell you who it is exactly, but I do know one company looked into the stereoscopic 3D screens, and replicating them. I don’t know how far along they are, whether it is viable, or whether they’ll continue, but I do know at least one company is interested and had started work that way.

As it stands though, there’s nothing at all like that on the market!

I’m really glad you enjoyed it!

Thank you :)

Here’s my interview with OpenSauce and PabloMK7, the two developers behind Azahar, and as far as I can establish, this is the first and only interview the pair have done together about the project.

We talk about their very different routes into programming and 3DS development, their time working with Citra, how Lime3DS and PabloMK7’s fork eventually came together as Azahar, and some of the difficult problems involved in emulating the 3DS hardware accurately. We also get into what makes the original 3DS systems so interesting to emulate, and the new wave of dual-screen Android handhelds like the AYN Thor and Retroid Pocket Duo/Duo Lite that are bringing fresh attention to 3DS emulation.

There’s also plenty here about open source, preservation, the homebrew scene, and where they see 3DS emulation going next. It was a really interesting conversation, especially getting both sides of Azahar’s story in one place.

Hope some here enjoy it!

Warning, it is a bit of a long read, probably best for those who like articles instead of short form!

This isn’t build for the 3DS. It is marketing specifically as a DS handheld, and with good reason. The screens matching in size give it away (both the same size = DS! Large top, small bottom = 3DS!). While it runs some, they’re not ideal on here.

You’d be better looking at AYN’s Thor or Retroid’s Duo (coming up soon)

You’re super welcome! If you’ve ever any specific concerns or questions when it comes to handhelds, I’m always here!

I can test it for you! Let me get back to you on that (just making a coffee right now!)

They had it already on the pre-loaded ROM list with the micro SD card, so I’ll take a pic or two (if that translates well), and let you know.

Quick Edit:

Works perfectly. All the bullets coming from the bottom rise through both screens on the proper angles, there’s no slowdown that I can see. It matches perfectly. This really isn’t something I can photograph since it all moves so quick, but I’ll try my best and update this again with some pictures. That said, not one issue. Perfection!

I can’t wait to hear what you think!

I’m not entirely sure if it is the exactly same gap size, but the screens do match with the action. The best example is Sonic (Rush, I think it is called?). The action matches sync on both screens, there’s no Hz misalignment as we saw on the RG DS back last year before release (and the patch which fixed it!)

They’re super different handhelds, despite being ostensibly the same thing!

I have two of the Thors from AYN. One is the Thor Pro they sent me back before release to review, the other is the low-end entry model, the Thor Lite. And to me they perfectly nail the 3DS requirements. Obviously you can run DS games to your heart’s content as well, even the Lite model has more than enough power to run them.

The DS Plus has the advantage of two screens matching size (the original DS had the same size top and bottom screen), and the resolution is exactly 4x that original size. So (this isn’t upscaling), what you get is 4x ‘integer scaling’. It will present the pixels perfectly!

The Thor Pro will run anything from Switch to the WiiU, PS3, PC game emulation, 3DS upscaled like you wouldn’t believe. But it is designed to be wonderful at everything, and has a price to match that. The DS Plus is super affordable and perfect with DS games. The included stylus you store in the body is the icing on the cake to me!

Power? Upscaling? Emulating any and all systems? AYN’s Thor. DS? Older low performance systems like PSX, GBA, SNES and so on? DS Plus.

Super understandable!

At least it occupies the lower end of the retro handheld price bracket. Some of the handhelds I’ve reviewed have been worth a stunning amount, I just love how the lower end with a niche laser focused specific purpose like this one can be a more approachable price. You could wait for the 11/11 sales coming up soonish on Aliexpress, they’re famously pretty good for discounted prices :)

I’ve just published my time with the Anbernic RG DS Plus, the bulk of this is the usual review things, but of some note was that I got to chat directly with Anbernic about the device and their take on it: why they revisited the original RG DS, the new NNDDSS emulator and some of the design decisions behind the Plus.

The RG DS Plus itself is Anbernic’s second iteration of making a NDS-focused retro handheld, a modern take on being able to emulate all of the original DS games. I love this one so much.

I also spoke with the devs behind Cocoon, who are working on bringing Cocoon (a super 3DS-ish front-end/launcher for dual screen handhelds) to the RG DS Plus very soon. Just a bit of a chance to look a little beyond the hardware itself and at what this could mean for dual-screen Linux handhelds going forward, Cocoon for the DS Plus isn’t far off now (they’re moving from being Android-only to both Android and Linux!)

If you’re interested in the RG DS Plus, DS emulation or where these weird little dual-screen handhelds are heading, you might like this one!___

Really interesting that you’ve got issues! I’ve got…far more than I care to admit (since I review them though, that’s a handy excuse!) and I haven’t had any issues with the batteries or any system failures. I’m sorry to hear you do!