0:03 This is the most ultimate portable
0:06 emulation setup. And this is the least
0:09 ultimate portable emulation setup. Don't
0:12 don't don't get this one. Get this one.
0:24 Hey there. How's it going? I'm Techweb.
0:25 Welcome. Thanks for clicking on the
0:28 video today. So, uh, this is kind of a
0:30 kind of a weird video for me to make
0:32 because I didn't actually like plan this
0:34 out. Like most things that define my
0:36 life, it it just sort of happened and I
0:38 shrugged and went with it. That's how I
0:40 got this tattoo, but we'll save that
0:42 story for another day. Today, I'm I'm
0:44 here to show you a little like kit that
0:46 I put together. This happened all by
0:48 itself. It started out as just some
0:50 things that I always used together and
0:52 eventually it evolved into this like kit
0:55 that is super useful to me. this fun
0:57 little portable retro gaming setup that
0:58 I can bring back and forth hither and
1:01 thither. I use this on all my different
1:04 PCs. I have lots of them. I use it to
1:06 play my retro games when I'm in the mood
1:08 to actually play games instead of just
1:10 making videos about doodads that play
1:12 games. I use this to record my gameplay
1:14 for my videos. I use this to bring my
1:16 save games back and forth between any PC
1:18 that I'm playing on. And I recently
1:20 upgraded the kit to give me some extra
1:22 portable retro gaming superpowers.
1:24 Basically, you can play retro games on
1:26 any screen, anywhere, at any time with
1:29 this setup in a super comfy and super
1:31 efficient kind of way. And even when I
1:34 leave the house, which I do all the
1:36 time, like when I go to parties and
1:38 stuff, parties with cute girls, I I get
1:41 invited to those like every day. And I I
1:43 also go to them every day. So, I bring
1:45 this with me to play retro games at the
1:48 cute girl parties. Real quick, before we
1:51 actually look at the individual stuff
1:53 and things and how to actually make this
1:55 and get it set up in your life, let me
1:57 give you a quick tour to show you why
2:00 this is actually a thing. The heart of
2:02 the kit is a controller and a USB stick
2:04 with my games. This stick has two
2:06 important things on it. The first is my
2:09 Retrobat build. I can plug this into any
2:11 PC and fire this up and I'm taken to
2:14 emulation station. Here is my main game
2:15 collection. This is the same game
2:17 collection that I have on all my 128
2:19 gigabyte SD cards for my retro
2:21 handhelds. I also have extra space on
2:23 here for more higherend stuff. Retrobat
2:25 has all the emulators included. It's all
2:28 set up for you. It's the simplest and
2:30 easiest way to get playing retro games
2:32 on your PC. It's basically idiot proof,
2:35 which it which is good for you. And when
2:37 you have this on a USB stick, you can
2:40 just bring this back and forth between
2:41 your PCs to play your retro games
2:43 anywhere. I use this thing all over the
2:46 place. My computer. My other computer.
2:48 My other other computer. My other other
2:51 other computer. My laptop computer. I
2:53 bring it with me when I go places. I
2:55 bring it on trips. I bring it with me
2:58 when I visit your Bob. It's a no fuss
3:00 retro emulation powerhouse that is no
3:04 bigger than a USB stick. It's it's
3:06 exactly USB stick sized. Actually, I
3:09 also have a DOSs build on here. Dweeb
3:11 DOSs with all my DOS games. I'll explain
3:14 that in a bit, but basically I can fire
3:16 up DOSs and turn any computer into a
3:19 retro DOS PC. So on this stick, I have
3:22 all my old retro console games and my
3:25 retro PC games. It's a double whammy. I
3:26 have the entire kit in this lovely
3:28 little pouch. I'll show it to you in a
3:30 bit. This is how the kit started, just
3:32 this stuff. But I made some additions
3:34 once I started using it often because I
3:36 realized that sometimes I'm not at a
3:38 computer. At first, I thought maybe I
3:40 should add a retro handheld to this
3:42 setup. That would be a fine idea, and I
3:43 recommend checking out this video if you
3:45 want to learn about the joy of using a
3:48 retro handheld as a home console. But I
3:50 don't want this kit to be a ton of
3:52 stuff. This is like a minimalist setup.
3:54 However, the minimalists amongst you
3:55 will probably know that the best
3:58 minimalist portable retro gaming console
4:00 is just to use your phone. I made a
4:02 video about that topic, too. I already
4:04 have my phone set up for retro gaming. I
4:06 always have it with me. So, I added a
4:08 few things that just lets me do phone
4:10 gaming in the best way when I'm ooting a
4:13 boot, both on the phone itself and using
4:15 the phone as an actual console that I
4:18 can plug into a TV. So, let's go over
4:20 the specific specific items that I chose
4:22 for my kit. And I'll show you some uh
4:25 alternatives that I like as well uh at
4:26 the end of the video. And of course,
4:28 I'll have links to all this stuff in the
4:30 thingy below. Those will be affiliate
4:32 links. So, if you use those links to buy
4:34 any of this, it helps me out just a
4:36 little bit. It helps me keep the lights
4:38 on and the root beer flowing. So, thanks
4:40 for doing that if you do, and thanks for
4:42 nothing if you don't. Let's start with
4:45 the star of the show, the USB stick.
4:48 This stick is a SanDisk Ultra Flare 256
4:50 GB USB stick. That's it. This is my
4:52 personal main retro game collection, at
4:54 least my portable collection. I have a
4:56 big hard drive that I use as my archive
4:59 on my main PC, but I game off of this
5:01 stick. It's nothing crazy. It's not
5:03 super expensive or over the top. This is
5:05 the stick that I settled on, though. I
5:06 really like this one. You could make
5:08 this kit a lot smaller with a smaller
5:11 controller, but I wanted a big full-size
5:13 controller, and uh I just went with my
5:15 favorite controller. This is my Ghillit
5:18 K3 Max Pro, whatever, whatever it's
5:21 called. I forget. This controller is big
5:23 and comfy. I like that it sort of has a
5:25 Game Boy DMG vibe. It's got amazing,
5:27 wonderful Hall effect sticks, my
5:29 favorite sticks and triggers. amazing
5:31 triggers, lovely feeling to the buttons,
5:33 and a great battery life. And it's just
5:36 no nonsense. It doesn't have a ton of
5:38 tricks. It just it's just a really good,
5:40 simple controller. I also like that you
5:43 can use this controller with the the 2.4
5:46 GHz dongle or Bluetooth. I bring the USB
5:48 dongle with it as part of the kit, so
5:49 that way I don't have to mess around
5:51 with Bluetooth pairing every time I want
5:53 to play a game. On the phone side, I
5:55 have three things, well, four things if
5:57 you include the phone itself. My phone
6:00 is an S22 Plus that I bought refurbished
6:02 on Amazon, but I mean, just use whatever
6:04 phone you already have, obviously. I
6:06 have this stand. I I used to use a cheap
6:08 little plastic stand, but I upgraded to
6:11 a metal stand, and it is so much nicer
6:13 to have a real stand for my phone in
6:15 this little kit. This is a UG Green uh
6:17 stand. I don't know if it has a name. I
6:19 can use this to game on a desk or table,
6:21 just using my phone as like a a mini TV
6:23 kind of thing. Or I can use this to hold
6:26 my phone while I do video out over HDMI.
6:28 Kind of like a little portable docking
6:29 station kind of thing. Speaking of
6:32 which, this is a USBC to HDMI adapter. I
6:34 had a cheap plastic one, but I also
6:36 upgraded this to a good one with a metal
6:38 casing on the plugs and it's braided.
6:40 Just kind of decking out my kit with all
6:41 the best versions of everything, you
6:44 know. And I also have this short HDMI
6:46 cable. But what I like about this one is
6:48 it's a very thin cable. Way smaller in
6:50 my little kit to have this thin,
6:52 lightweight HDMI cable in there instead
6:54 of a big thick one. The actual pouch is
6:57 probably my favorite part of the kit.
6:59 That's kind of what makes it feel like a
7:02 kit. This is the Broy travel packing
7:04 pouch. It's uh pretty expensive for what
7:06 it is. It's like 30 bucks. There's
7:08 definitely cheaper pouches out there.
7:11 However, I am nuts about this line of
7:13 Broy products. I bought their travel
7:15 sling, which I brought with me on a past
7:17 trip last year, and I love that thing.
7:19 And then I bought their daypack, which I
7:21 also love. And then I bought the
7:22 matching pouch just to have it for
7:24 pouchy things. And then I realized that
7:26 it's the perfect size pouch for this
7:27 little retro gaming kit. So, I've been
7:29 using it for that. So, with all this
7:31 stuff, I have all the retro gaming
7:33 superpowers that I need. It does
7:35 everything I need it to, and it takes up
7:37 no more space than it needs to. Now, for
7:40 making the USB thingy, I'm not going to
7:42 turn this into a big in-depth tutorial
7:44 or anything. This is more just supposed
7:46 to be about the kit, not a deep dive on
7:48 how to set up Retrobad or DOSBox. I've
7:50 made tutorials on both of those topics
7:52 in the past, though, so I'll link to
7:53 those videos if you need a hand. But,
7:55 I'll give you the quick version right
7:58 now because it is so simple that is it's
8:00 probably all you need. The first step is
8:05 to pop that USB stick into your PC.
8:07 Nice. Now, we need to download Retrobat.
8:09 The It's just an installer. You can
8:11 download it from their website, and then
8:12 you run the installer. It's pretty
8:14 straightforward. However, when you get
8:16 to the part where it asks you where you
8:18 want to install it, just make sure that
8:20 you pick your USB stick. And uh yeah,
8:22 that that's kind of it. Just let the
8:24 installer do its thing. It'll install
8:26 the front end and the emulators on the
8:28 back end and create a directory for you
8:30 to put your games. When the install is
8:32 done, just go ahead and fire it up and
8:33 make sure it worked, which which it
8:35 will. I've never had any problems. It
8:37 even comes with a few homebrew games if
8:39 you want to give some of those a try.
8:40 Now, we need to add our games. Within
8:43 the Retromat folder is a ROMs folder.
8:45 And in here is the folders for each
8:47 retro system. And you just pop your ROM
8:49 files in in those folders. If you have
8:51 ROMs from an SD card, from like a a
8:53 retro handheld or whatever, feel free to
8:56 use those. Whatever you do, don't Google
8:58 how to download ROMs from the internet.
9:00 That's a bunch of piracy stuff. And I
9:04 would never suggest that you do that
9:06 sort of thing. So just pop those ROM
9:08 files into the folders. It'll now show
9:09 your games. You can do all the usual
9:11 emulation station things. You can scrape
9:13 your art to pretty it up. You can turn
9:16 on bezels and shaders. Retrobat makes
9:18 this all so easy. Check out my video if
9:20 you can't figure this out. And of
9:22 course, you can download themes like the
9:24 TechWeb theme. That's right. You can
9:26 download this right here in Retrobat.
9:28 Yeah, that's right. I'm basically a part
9:30 of Retrobat. I'm uh I'm kind of a big
9:33 deal. And oh man, this is so cool. If
9:35 you try to run a game that Retrobat
9:37 doesn't have the emulator for, it will
9:39 download the emulator for you. It will
9:42 install it and it will set it up so you
9:44 don't have to do anything. Retrobat
9:47 makes this so dang easy. Everything you
9:49 do here, all that stuff will be
9:51 installed in the Retrobat version that
9:52 you have on your stick. So, whatever you
9:54 do here in Retrobat, it will travel with
9:56 you on this stick and it'll be exactly
9:58 the same on every computer that you run
10:01 this on. For DOSs games, the program I
10:04 recommend is Dossbox Staging. And the
10:05 version of Dossbox Staging that I
10:07 recommend is called Dweeb DOSs. That's
10:09 my own personal customized version of
10:11 Dossbox Staging that I put together with
10:13 a bunch of tools and extra features. All
10:14 you really need to do is download Dweb
10:17 DOSs and then unzip it and then add your
10:19 games to the games folder. And uh yeah,
10:20 that that's that's pretty much it. You
10:22 can run dweeb doss and be taken to a
10:24 command prompt. You can type read me if
10:26 you want to read my quick start guide or
10:29 you can just do stuff the way you the
10:31 way you would on a normal DOSs PC. If
10:32 you need to learn about this, I have
10:35 several videos on the topic, but this
10:36 video should get you sorted. I actually
10:39 teach you how to use DOSS in that one. I
10:42 spoil you, you know that. And get this,
10:44 you can also use all of these programs
10:46 on Linux. If you have a Steam Deck, you
10:49 can just pop that USB stick into a uh
10:51 USB A TOC adapter and then you just need
10:53 to add the executables for Retrobat and
10:56 Dweeb DOSs as non- Steam games and they
10:59 both work great. There are better ways
11:01 to run retro games on the deck. I made a
11:03 video about that. And I also made a a
11:05 native Linux version of Dweeb DOS, so
11:07 that's probably what you should use. But
11:09 if you do have a stick setup with all
11:11 your games and you just want to play
11:13 that on your deck just so you have all
11:15 the stuff that you already set up and
11:16 your save games and all that stuff,
11:18 nothing stopping you from doing it.
11:20 Nothing except your own self-doubt, but
11:22 your self-doubt is an idiot. Don't
11:25 listen to that guy. The phone setup is
11:27 uh quite a bit more involved because
11:30 setting up a phone for emulation is
11:31 basically just setting up an Android
11:33 device for emulation. The short version
11:35 is that you need to download your
11:36 emulators, RetroArchs for the older
11:39 stuff, Dolphin for Gamecube, Nether SX2
11:43 for PS2, PPSSP for PSP, Eden for Switch,
11:45 and Aahara for 3DS. And you'll probably
11:47 want to install a front end like Digi
11:50 Show or ESD, which is what I use to
11:51 manage your games and make it look all
11:54 pretty and feel all like a retro console
11:55 kind of thing. Too much to explain here,
11:57 but yeah, watch watch this video if you
12:00 need a crash course. Linked below. To
12:02 finish up, I'd like to cover a few
12:04 alternatives for this stuff that I chose
12:06 for my kit. If you want your kit to be
12:08 yeah, more portable if or if you have
12:10 other needs. These are other things that
12:13 have passed the does tech like it test.
12:15 Starting with the USB stick, you can get
12:18 a bigger stick. Get make get one of
12:20 whatever size you want. I like this
12:22 SanDisk one, but there's other other
12:24 brands that have different shapes. This
12:26 Kingston one that I have has a built-in
12:28 USB plug cover. I also like this tiny
12:30 little guy. This one's great for laptops
12:32 or whatever where you don't want a big
12:34 stick sticking out, pun intended. You
12:36 can also just go with a straightup
12:38 external hard drive instead. Either an
12:40 external SSD or even a mechanical drive.
12:42 That's a better choice if you want to
12:44 have lots of games in your portable
12:46 emulation setup. There's also drives
12:48 that you can get that come preloaded
12:50 with games preset up ready to rock. I've
12:52 reviewed a few of them. There's one cute
12:54 little 64 gigabyte thing that comes
12:57 preset up or a 4 terbte medium-sized
12:59 thing or even a big honking 12 terbte
13:02 behemoth packed with like every retro
13:04 game ever. Much less portable, but like
13:06 if you get a bigger pouch then nothing
13:08 stopping you. For controllers there
13:10 there's a million in one controllers out
13:12 there. Just, you know, go with whatever
13:14 one that you like the best. But my
13:16 alternatives that I'll recommend is this
13:19 8bit DO SN30 Pro which is an amazing
13:21 controller for retro games and it's a
13:23 smaller, more compact form factor, so
13:25 it's very travel friendly. You can also
13:27 get a teeny tiny itsy-bitsy micro
13:29 controller. These are actually really
13:31 neat. This would be fun to make like a
13:33 super mini minimalist kit. Heck, you
13:35 could probably keep it in a little dice
13:36 pouch or something. Or if you're
13:38 bringing this places for multiplayer
13:39 goodness, you can grab four of those
13:41 microcontrollers and you can amaze and
13:43 delight your friends by busting out some
13:45 turtles in time at your next friendship
13:47 suare. I'd totally do that if I had
13:50 friends. For the stand, there is lots of
13:52 stands. I have lots of these little
13:54 plastic guys that that do they get the
13:57 job done. And for the pouch, ju just get
13:59 a pouch. Any pouch of the appropriate
14:02 size will work. Find a cool pencil case.
14:04 Get a lunchbox or a Beimo bag or a
14:06 hippie- dippy tribal thing. Just get
14:08 something that fits everything and suits
14:10 your vibe. I'm not here to judge you on
14:12 your fashion choices. But uh yeah,
14:14 that's it. That that that's what I
14:16 wanted to show you. It's nothing crazy
14:18 special. It's just a few things that I
14:20 started using together and it it turned
14:22 into a kit. And I like having this kit
14:24 together as a as a kit so much that I
14:26 just I wanted to make a video to share
14:28 it. I hope you found this helpful or at
14:30 least entertaining. Let me know in the
14:32 comments if you uh if you have anything
14:34 like this. What is what is your kit?
14:36 What what is the stuff that you really
14:38 like having together as a kit? If you do
14:40 that and your kit is better than my kit,
14:42 you can fully expect me to steal your
14:43 idea and and make a video about it
14:45 passing it off as my own idea without
14:48 giving you credit. But deep down in your
14:50 heart, you'll know. That's going to do
14:52 it for me for today. I'm Techweb. Thanks
