KinHank X3-Plus
Mar. 18th, 2023 05:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroThis was originally listed on AliExpress as KinHank Super Console X3 Plus Retro Video Game Consoles Built-in 114000 Classic Games 4K Output Mini Game Box For PSP/PS1/SNES. It’s a mini-console, not a handheld, and comes with everything you need to plug it into your TV.
And as the Wicked Gamer Youtube channel puts it, “You know it’s almost like your birthday with a package from China.”
So, I first plugged this into my portable monitor and tested it right out of the box:
• The system is only slightly larger than my Roku box and probably weighs less than the Anbernic RG552 handheld. I think you could squeeze six of them into an original NES.
• This has a few dozen systems available (mostly older, but including a lot of weirder ones like the Intellivision and 3DO) and the emulation is generally running RetroArch via an EmuElec frontend. Many of them use frames or borders to deal with the aspect ratio of a monitor or HD TV versus an old CRT TV. Nothing defaulted to being stretched, thankfully, so I didn’t spend much time fiddling with video settings.
• When plugged into my portable monitor (via HDMI) it doesn’t give me any sound.
• The packed-in controllers are knockoff PS1 controllers that feel kind of light and hollow, and run on AAA batteries. The system also comes with a remote control (for the TV setup/alternate Android frontend) that also needs AAA batteries.
• I appreciate that there are separate sections for NES games and NES hacks, SNES games and SNES hacks—if you’re going to load those up, segmenting them is nice. I don’t appreciate that this thing is loaded with duplicate roms—and not even multiple regions, often just half a dozen copies of the same game with the same name. It certainly makes scrolling through looking for something take a while. At least there’s a search function?
• That said, I might go through the card to beef up my main rom collection; at least the PS1 selection was better than I’ve seen elsewhere and there are a lot of hacks that might be worth trying.
• When I reviewed the RG351, I mused on the “tiers” of games that are easier and harder to emulate. This (disappointingly) seems to match the RG351 and original Retroid Pocket in that it can do Tier 2 well (SNES, Genesis, PS1), and can try Tier 3 (PSP, N64 and DS) with only limited success. This is most disappointing because the Retroid Pocket 2+ and the RG552 can play Tier 3 well, and the Retroid Pocket 3 can make attempts at Tier 4 (PS2, Gamecube, 3DS). This lags badly on Super Smash Bros (N64) and had some choppiness and input lag issues with Dracula X Chronicles (PSP), and crashed when I tried New Super Mario Bros (DS). Not that the DS games would be very playable anyway, as there’s no touchscreen.
• The default hotkeys include Start+Select to reset to the frontend, R3+L3 to bring up the RetroArch menu, and Select+L1 / Select+R1 to save and load states. The latter was a major issue because several of the systems just defaulted L1 to “load state”…systems that otherwise used the L1 button.
For my second trial, I hooked this up to my actual TV:
• The first thing I did was fiddle with the sound settings; then I set up the wi-fi and updated EmuElec to the latest version. One of these two things solved the sound problem. The update also seemed to reduce the loading time getting into games and returning to the main menu afterwards.
• I was wondering how much input lag is the controllers (and their Bluetooth connection) and how much is the system; and when I tried using my wired Logitec PC controller instead of the packed-in ones, there was significantly less of a problem. It still wasn’t perfect on every system, but definitely much better.
• I needed to do some fiddling with settings to make everything work properly: I needed to remap my controller specifically so the GBA games would recognize it; I needed to switch emulator cores to make PSX and Dreamcast run games instead of throwing up error messages. Random minor stuff, really, but it does fight the “plug-and-play” nature of the device.
• PSX (specifically using Duckstation) and Dreamcast (auto-chosen RetroArch core) run just fine at full speed. I’ve heard about music issues with PSX games on similar devices, but this seemed to work on the couple of games I tried. The way the ISO was ripped may make a difference.
• Updating the firmware got me a better version of DraStic that successfully ran New Super Mario Bros and mapped the touchpad pointer to the left analogue stick.
• PSP still has frame skipping and input lag issues, along with scratchy sound. N64 still runs unplayably slow and choppy.
• Testing GB/GBA games on my big TV has reminded me how much those games were not intended for a big screen; the side-by-side of the SNES and GBA versions of Breath of Fire is actually pretty entertaining.
So my overall thoughts:
• Pros: This comes absolutely loaded with stuff, including roms and emulators for systems I’d forgotten even existed. The RetroArch setup is pretty easy to navigate and the search function actually works. RetroArch supports state states, fast forward, cheats and all that good stuff for most of the systems.
• Cons: It can only run up to Tier 2 systems well. The rom list is clogged with duplicates that are a pain to deal with cleaning out manually. The controllers are crappy, so you’d need to provide your own. You need at least a mild working knowledge of RetroArch to get the full use out of this and to troubleshoot problems that come up. And while this is specific to me, I don’t love RetroArch overall and dislike the default choice of hotkeys—I much prefer having a dedicated menu button.
• For the same $100, the Retroid Pocket 2+ will do pretty much all emulation better and only requires slightly more RetroArch savviness. You’d still have to buy at least one additional controller for multiplayer, but that and a USB-C splitter would turn your handheld into a mini-console with very little fuss. You would have to provide your own rom collection, but if the flood of duplicates would annoy you and you don’t care about Atari 7800 and 3DO games, that’s probably not a big hardship.
• I suspect if I wait a few years, versions of this that actually can handle higher-end emulation will start appearing. But the fact that it’s noticeably less powerful than similarly-priced handhelds right now is probably the most annoying thing about this device.
Overall: I didn’t actually need to buy this thing. But I got a few hours of entertainment out of fiddling with it and pulling the rom list for Lynx, Pokemini, Wonderswan, the NES/SNES hacks and a few other systems gave me a lot of new things to try on my other devices without much effort.
And as the Wicked Gamer Youtube channel puts it, “You know it’s almost like your birthday with a package from China.”
So, I first plugged this into my portable monitor and tested it right out of the box:
• The system is only slightly larger than my Roku box and probably weighs less than the Anbernic RG552 handheld. I think you could squeeze six of them into an original NES.
• This has a few dozen systems available (mostly older, but including a lot of weirder ones like the Intellivision and 3DO) and the emulation is generally running RetroArch via an EmuElec frontend. Many of them use frames or borders to deal with the aspect ratio of a monitor or HD TV versus an old CRT TV. Nothing defaulted to being stretched, thankfully, so I didn’t spend much time fiddling with video settings.
• When plugged into my portable monitor (via HDMI) it doesn’t give me any sound.
• The packed-in controllers are knockoff PS1 controllers that feel kind of light and hollow, and run on AAA batteries. The system also comes with a remote control (for the TV setup/alternate Android frontend) that also needs AAA batteries.
• I appreciate that there are separate sections for NES games and NES hacks, SNES games and SNES hacks—if you’re going to load those up, segmenting them is nice. I don’t appreciate that this thing is loaded with duplicate roms—and not even multiple regions, often just half a dozen copies of the same game with the same name. It certainly makes scrolling through looking for something take a while. At least there’s a search function?
• That said, I might go through the card to beef up my main rom collection; at least the PS1 selection was better than I’ve seen elsewhere and there are a lot of hacks that might be worth trying.
• When I reviewed the RG351, I mused on the “tiers” of games that are easier and harder to emulate. This (disappointingly) seems to match the RG351 and original Retroid Pocket in that it can do Tier 2 well (SNES, Genesis, PS1), and can try Tier 3 (PSP, N64 and DS) with only limited success. This is most disappointing because the Retroid Pocket 2+ and the RG552 can play Tier 3 well, and the Retroid Pocket 3 can make attempts at Tier 4 (PS2, Gamecube, 3DS). This lags badly on Super Smash Bros (N64) and had some choppiness and input lag issues with Dracula X Chronicles (PSP), and crashed when I tried New Super Mario Bros (DS). Not that the DS games would be very playable anyway, as there’s no touchscreen.
• The default hotkeys include Start+Select to reset to the frontend, R3+L3 to bring up the RetroArch menu, and Select+L1 / Select+R1 to save and load states. The latter was a major issue because several of the systems just defaulted L1 to “load state”…systems that otherwise used the L1 button.
For my second trial, I hooked this up to my actual TV:
• The first thing I did was fiddle with the sound settings; then I set up the wi-fi and updated EmuElec to the latest version. One of these two things solved the sound problem. The update also seemed to reduce the loading time getting into games and returning to the main menu afterwards.
• I was wondering how much input lag is the controllers (and their Bluetooth connection) and how much is the system; and when I tried using my wired Logitec PC controller instead of the packed-in ones, there was significantly less of a problem. It still wasn’t perfect on every system, but definitely much better.
• I needed to do some fiddling with settings to make everything work properly: I needed to remap my controller specifically so the GBA games would recognize it; I needed to switch emulator cores to make PSX and Dreamcast run games instead of throwing up error messages. Random minor stuff, really, but it does fight the “plug-and-play” nature of the device.
• PSX (specifically using Duckstation) and Dreamcast (auto-chosen RetroArch core) run just fine at full speed. I’ve heard about music issues with PSX games on similar devices, but this seemed to work on the couple of games I tried. The way the ISO was ripped may make a difference.
• Updating the firmware got me a better version of DraStic that successfully ran New Super Mario Bros and mapped the touchpad pointer to the left analogue stick.
• PSP still has frame skipping and input lag issues, along with scratchy sound. N64 still runs unplayably slow and choppy.
• Testing GB/GBA games on my big TV has reminded me how much those games were not intended for a big screen; the side-by-side of the SNES and GBA versions of Breath of Fire is actually pretty entertaining.
So my overall thoughts:
• Pros: This comes absolutely loaded with stuff, including roms and emulators for systems I’d forgotten even existed. The RetroArch setup is pretty easy to navigate and the search function actually works. RetroArch supports state states, fast forward, cheats and all that good stuff for most of the systems.
• Cons: It can only run up to Tier 2 systems well. The rom list is clogged with duplicates that are a pain to deal with cleaning out manually. The controllers are crappy, so you’d need to provide your own. You need at least a mild working knowledge of RetroArch to get the full use out of this and to troubleshoot problems that come up. And while this is specific to me, I don’t love RetroArch overall and dislike the default choice of hotkeys—I much prefer having a dedicated menu button.
• For the same $100, the Retroid Pocket 2+ will do pretty much all emulation better and only requires slightly more RetroArch savviness. You’d still have to buy at least one additional controller for multiplayer, but that and a USB-C splitter would turn your handheld into a mini-console with very little fuss. You would have to provide your own rom collection, but if the flood of duplicates would annoy you and you don’t care about Atari 7800 and 3DO games, that’s probably not a big hardship.
• I suspect if I wait a few years, versions of this that actually can handle higher-end emulation will start appearing. But the fact that it’s noticeably less powerful than similarly-priced handhelds right now is probably the most annoying thing about this device.
Overall: I didn’t actually need to buy this thing. But I got a few hours of entertainment out of fiddling with it and pulling the rom list for Lynx, Pokemini, Wonderswan, the NES/SNES hacks and a few other systems gave me a lot of new things to try on my other devices without much effort.
