2023-07-07 - Miyoo Mini Plus

📆 Post date: 07-07-2023

I recently had the urge to play some old Megadrive (Genesis) games. I dusted off my old Retoflag GPI Gameboy style handheld and, well, just sort of blinked at it for a moment. It was big and chunky, like a Gameboy, which was great but it has over a minute boot up time, and takes AA batteries.

Knowing a few years had passed since I picked it up, I had a quick google and to my absolute shock, stunningly, there’s been quite a bit of movement in this space. I stumbled first on a £6 Gameboy on TEMU claiming to sport 400 games, so, obviously I ordered it.

Crappy £6 Game boy!

It arrived, and, as expected was a total turkey that just had 400 random NES games preloaded and no method to load new roms (yes, i took it to bits to check for memory card slot.) It did however, have a pretty good form-factor, weighed a lot less than my Retroflag and came on instantly(ish.) My mind was ser, now I **********needed a good handheld.

After some poking around forums and watching some YouTube videos I decided I wanted something like a Miyoo Mini Plus, then, to my shock the actual device was in stock on the Droix store website.

I ordered it, it arrived with no issue, costing around £68 (if i recall.)

The device was loaded with a an operating system that was essentially shite. I had prepared though and already downloaded OnionOS, a user made open source RetroArch powered OS for it. It’s worth knowing that you must run the Onion OS beta in order to use it on a “plus” model.

Please make sure you get the right version, or it won’t boot.

After some basic SD card formatting and tinkering I had the OS set up on a 128GB card. All I needed to do then was load some NOT ILLEGAL TOTALLY LEGITIMATE ROMS!

I loaded them on, used the “Skraper” application to get the artwork for the games (the OnionOS wiki told me how to do this.) Now, after a few pleasantly spent says of tinkering and loading games on it, i have what maybe the perfect retro gaming box, for me.

☝ Pros

Small
Nice buttons
Good screen
Wi-Fi! (for retro achievements!)
Reasonable price
Software easy to setup and use
Quick start-up (few seconds)

👇 Cons

No Bluetooth or USB data, so I can’t use external controllers.
Screen glass/plastic is SUPER soft, I recommend a screen protector, right away.
Speaker is middling at best.
No TV out of any kind.

With my 128GB SD card, I have all the games I would ever want (8 and 16 bit) including some larger file size Sega CD titles and some PS1 games. I don’t feel like the device is missing anything at all and at this time it’s the best Shining Force experience I could ask for 🤤

The 640x480 (IPS) screen make games look great, with the smaller screen size some of these old games could be mistaken for newer indie titles.

Honestly, I can’t think of a reason to buy any other handheld at the moment, unless someone makes a clamshell with similar OS, I’ll be playing this for many years to come.

Games I have played a LOT OF on this handheld in include:

FC - NES Open golf
MD - Shining Force (1)
SFC - Zombies ate my Neighbours
GG - Crystal warriors
MD - Alien Storm
FC - The Least Star Fighter

(happy to test any game on request)

Thank you for reading. If you have any questions you can get me under the username ‘hexdsl’ on Threads or use the social links on this site to find my Discord and email address.

(For legal reasons - this post was for entertainment purpose only and no ROMS were actually tested, because that would be wrong and I would not do that… for legal reasons.)