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Tech News
Retroid has introduced the Pocket Duo Lite Plus, a new dual-screen handheld positioned between the standard Pocket Duo and the cheaper Pocket Duo Lite. It pairs the Lite's 60Hz LCD screens and digital triggers with the standard Pocket Duo's Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 chipset and 8GB/128GB memory configuration. The device launches at $219 but is discounted to $199 through a promo code available until the end of October.
A developer has built ZX Desk, a full graphical desktop environment for the 1982 ZX Spectrum 48K, written entirely in Z80 assembly. It supports overlapping resizable windows with z-ordering, pull-down menus, a file manager, notepad, calendar, clock and settings panel, all running within the machine's 48K memory and real-time frame budget, on actual hardware rather than an emulator.
Amazon is selling the Retroid Pocket Flip 2 for $229, down $40 from its $269 list price, marking the handheld's lowest price yet. The clamshell Android device uses a Snapdragon 865 chip with active cooling and a 5.5-inch 1080p AMOLED screen, enabling emulation up to GameCube, Dreamcast and PS2 as well as lighter Switch and Android titles.
Programmer John Carmack reflected on Musashi's Book of Five Rings, drawing a parallel between the evolution of martial arts from combat necessity to hobby and sport, and the trajectory of manual coding skills as AI increasingly automates programming tasks. He suggests that meticulous hand-written coding is shifting from an essential craft into a ceremonial practice, much like traditional martial arts became after losing battlefield relevance.
Unico has unveiled the Traveller ULW10, a 10-inch 4:3 CRT-style monitor built for retro gaming consoles, featuring a hidden rear compartment to stash hardware out of sight. The display supports RGB SCART, VGA, and HDMI inputs but notably omits composite video due to internal space constraints, and it can digitally emulate CRT and pixel-art visual effects despite not being a true CRT. It will launch via Kickstarter in three colorways, with pricing still unannounced.
Apple Arcade launched Retro Bowl College+ on August 6, a version of New Star Games' 2023 college football spin-off. The game lets players manage one of over 250 college teams using simple swipe-based controls for passing, running and kicking, while defense is handled by the game's simulation. Off the field, players must juggle roster morale, player ratings, facility upgrades and team budgets.
Retro, a friend-focused photo-sharing app founded by former Instagram engineers Nathan Sharp and Ryan Olson, closed a Series A round of more than $21 million in December, according to an SEC filing spotted by Business Insider. The filing was made under the startup's legal name, Lone Palm Labs, and Pitchbook now pegs the company's valuation above $100 million.
Analogue's FPGA-based N64 remake, the Analogue 3D, outputs video at up to 3,840 x 2,160 pixels, but the original games it plays were rendered natively at far lower resolutions, typically around 320 x 240 and occasionally up to 640 x 480. The console upscales and cleans up that old output—removing blur, distance fog, and choppy frame rates—rather than generating new high-resolution textures or geometry.