My needs for a retro gaming device:

  • supports both Handheld & TV modes
  • support multiple controllers for multiplay
  • can run games up to DS / N64 / PS1 smoothly

Overrall best solutions

Solution Handheld modes TV modes Multiplay Performance Overall Experience
Retroarch for Switch [x] [x] [x] good good enough performance, ideal form factor
Lakka for RPi with LCD Display [x] [x] [x] ok best retro feel
Android phone [x] [ ] [x] better good performance, handheld & TV experience lacking
Lakka live usb drive [ ] [x] [x] best runs on any PC

Solution 1: Retroarch for Switch

Pros:

  • best overrall gaming experience
  • the ideal form factor of a retro gaming device

Cons

  • FAT32 doesn’t support Chinese characters (no thumbnails for Chinese titles)

Solution 2: Lakka for RPi with LCD display

Pros

  • Clean UI
  • boot fast

Cons

  • not so portable
  • doesn’t support GPIO DSI LCD (fixed by changing video driver to fkms, see this issue)

Solution 3: Android phone + bluetooth controller

Pros

  • run games really smoothly
  • very easy to setup

Cons

  • handheld experience isn’t great (heavy controller, small screen height)
  • doesn’t have a smooth TV mode experience

Solution 4: bootable live usb drive with shared roms/playlists/savefiles

Difficulities:

  • Android apps (including Retroarch) don’t have permissions to access external storage
  • playlists not portable

Pros:

  • run on any PC/laptop

Explored solutions

Solution 1: Lakka for Switch

Pros

  • best Retroarch & Switch experience

Cons

  • need to boot RCM to play games

Solution 2: RetroPie for RPi with LCD display

Pros:

  • supports both LCD & HDMI
  • play basic games

Cons

  • Added complexity with EmulationStation and custom Retroarch setup

Solution 3: Raspberry Pi OS + Retroarch for RPi

Pros:

  • supports both LCD & HDMI
  • play basic games

Cons:

  • need to build Retroarch by yourself