ANBERNIC's secret weapon, 3DS RetroAchievements news, and more

🤒 Hello and welcome to another edition of The Memory Core newsletter! I had planned on sending a separate newsletter earlier this week, but instead I spent the week sick in bed.

As a result, I've got a longer one for you, with two main stories. First, some details about GammaOS and ANBERNIC making things official. Then, an early, early indication of RetroAchievements coming to 3DS emulation.

Scroll to the end for a "brand-new Mana adventure."

GammaOS and the RG VITA Pro

The days of terrible software on ANBERNIC handhelds might finally be coming to an end, and it's thanks to a familiar face in the community: Gamma.

In case you haven't heard of GammaOS, it's a custom firmware designed specifically for gaming handhelds. The LineageOS-based builds replace the (often lacking) stock builds from hardware manufacturers, adding new features and performance enhancements.

Check out this recent interview by my friend dash if you want to learn more, but here's how he describes his goal with the project:

GammaOS is the layer that turns good hardware into a good experience:

- stripping back the noise
- fixing the fundamentals (display timing, audio, input, sleep, thermals)
- adding the features that make sense for handhelds (controller mapping, sensible scaling, quick access toggles, emulator-first workflow)
- and maintaining it so it does not rot after the first launch window

That includes not just removing bloatware and unnecessary background services, but also adding features like global shaders and pre-configured RetroArch and Daijisho frontend setups.

His builds can be game-changing for many devices, but until now they've been restricted to Patreon supporters for the first 60 days of their release. After that, they're available for free to the general public.

But the RG VITA Pro will be different. For this device, ANBERNIC and Gamma are working together to make the build public at launch, and for good reason.

It's no secret that ANBERNIC and most other OEMs have lousy software. As Gamma puts it, "most of them are hardware companies in a fast market." Software takes a back seat to shipping more hardware.

As a result, ANBERNIC approached Gamma with a proposal for the RG VITA Pro. Gamma writes that the company "[recognizes] that there is a demand for my builds domestically and internationally, and are feeling some pressure on not having the best stock builds on day one."

It's unlikely that the device will ship with GammaOS pre-installed, but the idea is to use the RG VITA Pro to gauge interest. If the install base is large enough, the company may start working directly with Gamma on future releases.

But it's still early, and nothing is set in stone. Gamma writes:

We are still deciding on [a] direction for the future, ideally I'd like to add as many unique QoL enhancements as possible to the base Android builds for GammaOS first before going down the path of potentially prebundling it. New features and functionality not seen in Android gaming devices before.

For now, he is "getting access to pre-production units, developers and can start influencing the future products."

We still don't know official pricing for the RG VITA Pro, but the addition of GammaOS could tip the scales in terms of value. Stay tuned for more on this in the coming weeks.

Nintendo 3DS RetroAchievements?

Watch out 3DS fans, the hawk-eyed Redditor Kirais spotted a recent pull request for Azahar with the very early inklings of RetroAchievements support.

We're less than a month away from Wii Achievements hitting the platform, with the March 19th rollout date now set in stone, but does this mean that the Nintendo 3DS is next?

Well, probably not.

Back in November, RetroAchievements team member wes wrote on Discord:

"We could roll out 3DS right now. The main problem with 3DS is ensuring we have a suitable host emulator. Citra left things in a bit of a mess, to put it kindly, and I'm not convinced the dust is totally settled on what the stable fork going forward is going to be."

He went on to write, "sometime around 2027 seems like a safe bet for 3DS to be a serious discussion point."

For its part, Azahar was first announced in late 2024, and will celebrate the 1-year anniversary of its first release on March 16th. That's not a lot of time for emulator development, but considering it's effectively a merger of PabloMK7's Citra fork and Lime3DS, the team has a lot of experience under its belt.

I reached out to the Azahar developer PabloMK7, who confirmed that "there is still a lot to be figured out" and that he "still cannot tell if and when it will become a reality."

That said, they are in touch with the RetroAchievements team, and RA implementation is something "we had already began looking at... a while ago" according to Azahar dev OpenSauce.

Regardless, Nintendo 3DS RetroAchievements would be a major rollout, possibly even larger than the current Wii rollout. The dev team would need a significant amount of time to prepare, so it's unlikely to happen any time soon.

Maybe they'll arrive in time for the AYN Thor 2.

Handheld highlights

💸 AYN announced that the next batch of Thor and Odin 3 orders, which opens on Monday and starts shipping in April. However, it also notes that the Thor may see a price jump in April as a result of rising costs. Thanks, AI. [Discord]

📂 An interesting leak indicates that Lenovo may reveal a hybrid handheld/PC foldable at Mobile World Congress called the Lenovo Go Fold. In all likelihood it will remain a concept piece, but at least it's an interesting one. [Windows Latest]

FPGA focus

👾 The peculiar 8-bit gaming console GameTank was successfully crowdfunded this week, and will now move into the production phase. I say peculiar because it's not technically an FPGA console designed to play older systems, but rather a dual-CPU platform for new, retro-style games. Check out the link to learn more. [Crowd Supply]

The emulator report

🕹️ It's the end of the month, which means it's time for another MAME update. MAME 0.286 adds SDL3 support for macOS, as well as a rare early arcade version of Mario Bros. Check out the full patch notes for the rundown of newly working games and systems. [MAME]

🪐 The developer behind Yaba Sanshiro released a new tool to convert save files from Mednafen and SSF to Yaba Sanshiro's save format (you will need an account, however). He also released a blog post detailing how/why he's using AI coding tools, and how it's helped him revamp the emulator's UI in just one week. [Save tool] [Blog post]

🆕 Batocera released another preview video of version 43, which is closer than ever to a stable release. It details some new features, like Triforce support (thanks to the big Dolphin update), game recording, and more. [YouTube]

Retro archive

🔥 Embers of Mana, a ROM hack of the original Final Fantasy Adventure game for the Game Boy, is now available to download. It bills itself as an (unofficial) "brand-new Mana adventure." [Download]

🤜 There's a new SNES game coming soon, and it's designed to play on original hardware. Triple Impact is a two-player side-scrolling beat 'em up with seven levels to play through. It's nearing completion, but the trailer that dropped this week makes it look like a very good time. [YouTube]

🗾 Shmuplations released a translated interview from 1985, featuring Masanobu Endo and Shigesato Itoi. This pre-dates Itoi's work in game design, but the two discuss Endo's game studio, appropriately called Game Studio, which was an offshoot of Namco. [Shmuplations]

🎰 New York state has filed a lawsuit against Valve for loot box mechanics in games like Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2, which it argues is unregulated gambling. The press release has more details and it may not ultimately amount to much, but I'm glad the rise in gambling is at least being looked at by authorities in some manner. I'll be watching this one closely on Polymarket. [Press release] [Ars Technica]