AYASpace 2 turns three Android handhelds into a 3D hall of boxes and cartridges

AYANEO's new launcher reads your files, shows them as boxed games and has its own emulator built in. For now it runs on the KONKR Pocket Advance, Pocket Block and AYANEO Pocket Micro 2.

AI-drafted from 2 sources. This story was written with AI from the outside reporting listed under Sources, and checked by automated tools before it went up. The originals have the full detail.

AYANEO has put out AYASpace 2, a launcher it bills as a "Pocket Museum". It finds the games on an Android handheld and lays them out in a 3D hall, as boxes and cartridges. Retro Handhelds reports it was unveiled during a livestream for the KONKR Pocket Block and Pocket Advance. The download page lists version 0.3.3, dated 27 October.

It runs on three devices so far: the KONKR Pocket Advance, the KONKR Pocket Block and the AYANEO Pocket Micro 2, each with its own installer. The page warns that some devices cannot run the 3D hall and get a photo instead. Retro Handhelds hopes for wider support later, but AYANEO has not promised it on that page.

Multi-console, on paper

AYANEO calls it a multi-console launcher, yet the page names only one system. Everything specific is about Game Boy Advance: a built-in fingerprint database, .gba files and GBA colour correction. If you are hoping to see a PS1 shelf, that is not something the page confirms.

The fingerprint part is the clever bit. Games are identified from the contents of the file, so a badly named ROM still comes up with the right title, and different versions of one game are grouped together. Retro Handhelds notes that this means no scraping. Names, years, genres and publishers are built in, and the hall can be sorted by series, genre or publisher.

The boxes are a separate download

AYASpace 2 comes with no games, as the page says plainly. The covers do not come in the box either: without an optional media pack, everything shows a generic box and cartridge. The packs are offered as a separate download, and they are what gives you the shelf in AYANEO's own pictures.

An emulator in the launcher

There is an emulator built in, so nothing else needs setting up. It has save states, fast forward up to 4x and Run Ahead to cut input lag. Rewind works like scrubbing a video, with a timeline you can step along before confirming or cancelling. Two handhelds on the same network can also sync saves, save states, play records and favourites, after pairing with a code, and you get a preview of the changes before they apply.

Retro Handhelds plans to compare it with Socket and other launchers of this kind, which should show how much of it holds up in daily use.

Sources

• AYASpace 2 Pocket Museum (AYANEO)
• AYANEO Announces AYASpace 2, Turning Your Handheld Into a 'Pocket Museum' (Retro Handhelds)

Image: Image: AYANEO