Review on Retroflag CASE Raspberry Zero Shutdown: Optimal Protection and Convenient Shutdown Feature by John Rocha

TL;DR: Still great value even after all the few drops. We recommend. If you still want the best experience: get an original system with original games or a flash card like EverDrive. Read more below. ---------------------------------------------- ---- ------------------------ ----Hardware---------------- - ---- ------------------------ --- Body: Almost identical to the regular DMG-01 Game Boy, but 30% smaller. The plastic feels great. Has a nice weight. The area of the cartridge (where the RPI Zero is located) will heat up after a while. I'm not sure how this will affect the lifespan of the RPI Zero in the long run. Buttons: The A/B/X/Y buttons are great. The d-pad is so-so... It tilts (see the last two images) which causes me to sometimes accidentally press "down" in platform games when I mean "right". The L and R buttons, while great, require you to get used to them and hold the system in a certain way. Luckily, Retroflag added dimples to make the buttons easier to find. Screen: Looks good and has good viewing angles... But why didn't anyone mention anything about screen cracking? Screen tearing occurs in some games. I added an image of Mega Man on the Genesis screen tearing when going up or down the stairs when changing areas. The words in Retropie are also blurry, but that's because the menu isn't optimized for small screens. Sound: The headphone jack has constant white noise and sometimes crackles. Sometimes crackling occurs due to emulation. Constant white noise through iron. The speaker itself is great. Get good volumes. Make sure the volume is set to 100% in Emulation Station. The default value is 77%.------------------------------- ------------ ----- --------------- ---- --Games--------- ----- --------------------------------- ----------- - ---- If a has done your research, you already know that RPI Zero is pretty weak. These are the ones I tested with Retropie. Please keep in mind that I haven't tested more than 5 games on each system, so take all of that with a grain of salt. This should at least give you a general idea of how well certain systems work. Atari 2600: works great. A small bug in some games. Atari Lynx: works great. Family Disk System: Works great. Fulfilled by Amazon: works great. Make sure you are using the correct version of the ROM set. Some games don't work, but most do. Game Gear: Works great. Even if the emulation seems a little sped up for a few days compared to the real hardware. Don't quote me as I can't confirm it 100%. Game Boy: Works great. Game Boy Advance: Games work fine with lr-gpsp, but the emulation is pretty inaccurate. I tried running Megaman Zero and it was error proof. Framerate and audio issues running lr-mgba on Pi Zero. Game Boy Color: Works great. Genesis: Works great. Master system: works great. Neo Geo: works great. Make sure you are using the correct version of the ROM set. Neo Geo Pocket: Low frame rate. sound distortion too. Neo Geo Pocket Color: Low frame rate. sound distortion too. NES: works great. PC Engine: Works great. PC Engine CD: works great. Make sure you have the correct BIOS installed (upper and lower case is important). I've only had luck with CHD files. Sega 32X: buggy. Audio distortion… There are frame rate issues in games. I crashed The Amazing Spider-Man. Sega CD: works great. Be sure to use BIN and CUE files. When you clean, be sure to remove the BIN entries, otherwise you will see duplicates of each rom. SNES: Games don't run at full speed, but they're definitely playable. It's safe to say that any game that requires a custom chip won't work. Some games are completely buggy, like SF Alpha 2. --------------------------------- ------ - -More info---- ------------------------------------------ - ------- --------- Low Volume: Don't forget to set the volume to 100% in Emulation Station. The default value is 77%. Disk check error at boot. For those who want the GPi to do a disk check on every boot... You need to create a file called (fsck.conf) with the content: ``` ````````````````` ` [Unit ]Before=systemd-fsck-root.service```````````````````` ` And put it in the directory: (/etc/systemd/system/fake - hwclock .service.d/). You must use sudo commands to create this folder. Thanks to tsoliman on Reddit for this. Fast Download: Follow Retroflag's instructions on their website to download faster. You need to change your time zone and set GMT +8. Best Theme: I recommend using the Gameboy Zero 3.5-inch theme or a dark theme for this system. The text isn't as blurry as the stocks theme. Installation instructions are on their GitHub. Scraping: use a scraper. It's in beta and you'll need some getting used to the UI, but it's faster than parsing directly on the Pi Zero. Make sure you change the settings from Video Parsing to Image. Having videos to play with will reduce battery life and also take up a lot of space on the micro SD card. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Toggle: Search the Reddit @retroflag_gpi subreddit for instructions on installing Bluetooth and a WiFi toggle. This will most likely increase your battery life. Using capital letters in folders and files is important if you are having trouble.------------------------ ------- --- Conclusion- ------------------------------------- ------- --Also after issues like d-pad, screen tearing, "weak" RPI zero and uneven emulation for some consoles, at $69.99 this is still amazing. We recommend. However, if you still want the best experience: get an original system with original games or a flash card like EverDrive.