In this guide I’ll show you how to get emulation up and running on M-series (Apple silicon) Mac computers (iMac, Mac Mini, and MacBooks).

Table of Contents

Recommended accessories
Consider OpenEmu
EmulationStation Desktop Edition (ES-DE)
Add ROMs and BIOS
RetroArch
Sony PlayStation Portable
Nintendo 3DS
GameCube and Wii
Sony PlayStation 2
Microsoft Xbox
Nintendo Wii U
Sony PlayStation 3
Nintendo Switch

Changelog

Recommended accessories

You don’t meed much in order to run classic games on your Mac. The primary thing you’ll need is a controller. Standard console controllers will often allow you to connect to Macs via X-input; Xbox Series, PS4, and PS5 controllers in particular work great. If you are looking for a good retro-friendly line of controllers, I would recommend either the 8BitDo SN30 Pro or the 8BitDo Pro 2. Both have an X-input mode and will be recognized as Xbox controllers, and can generally be found for under $50.

If you are using a Mac that is constrained by internal storage (like the lowest-price Mac Mini I used in making this guide), then it might be worth grabbing a USB flash drive to store all of your ROM files. I prefer the Samsung USB-C flash drives, since they are small, reliable, and relatively cheap. The 256GB or 512GB should be perfect for most larger libraries.

Consider OpenEmu

Before we even get started with the guide itself, it might be worth considering OpenEmu as an alternative option. This is a sleek, all-in-one emulator app focused on retro systems up through GameCube, N64, and PSP. So if you are only looking to emulate a small library of classic retro games, this app is a great solution without having to dive into the weeds like we’re going to for the rest of this guide.

To get a look at all of its supported systems and other helpful hints, check out their wiki page.

EmulationStation Desktop Edition (ES-DE)

The core of our emulation experience on Mac will be anchored by ES-DE, a frontend application that will tie all of the disparate emulation apps together into a shiny package. In order to maximize our ES-DE experience, I recommend installing this app BEFORE you start with the actual emulator apps.

To get started, download the MacOS “Apple” version from their website. The first time you open the app, it will prompt you to choose where your ROM directories should be created. If you are using a flash drive, you’ll want to point to that (it will generally be /Volumes/FlashDriveName). It will then let you create your directories and you can quit the app. Now in whatever folder you designated you should see a bunch of ROM directories. You can open each of those and see a “systeminfo.txt” file which will contain information about the emulated system and which file types it accepts.

For scraping boxart, you’ll need a screenscraper.fr login, which you can get for free on their website. If you sign up for their Patreon, it will unlock faster scraping speeds.

For specific ES-DE information pertaining to Macs, check out this page from their user guide.

Note that some apps can’t be configured to work with controller hotkeys. In particular, Cemu, Ryujinx, and Lime3DS will require you to use a mouse/keyboard to exit out of your game and return to ES-DE. One option would be to use a special app to invoke keyboard commands (like CMD + Q to quit the emulator app). This blog post highlights some apps that might work in that regard, and I’ve heard that Joystick Mapper ($5) is the most compatible of the apps out there.

Add ROMs and BIOS

Now that ES-DE has created our ROM directories, we can start dragging and dropping our ROM files. These files are copyrighted and you are on your own to find them. If you are not sure which files to use, consult the systeminfo.txt file found within each ROM subfolder. Additionally, in the specific emulator sections below I’ll discuss my favorite files for each console, and any of their specific quirks.

BIOS files are system files required to make certain consoles work. The diagram above is a quick list of some of the most common BIOS files. Like ROMs, BIOS files are copyrighted, and you are on your own to find them. More BIOS information can be found here.

RetroArch

RetroArch covers dozens of different consoles, and it is my preferred way to play retro systems up through PS1, N64, Dreamcast, and Saturn. It has a wide range of customization but is also a little daunting. The guide video above will help you get started, but I also have a more comprehensive RetroArch starter guide if you want to get a little more into the weeds.

Because ES-DE takes care of the navigation and launching aspect of RetroArch for us, the main things you have to take care of are hotkeys and pointing the app to your BIOS folder. All that is discussed in the video above!

Recommended RetroArch cores:

Arcade (FinalBurn Neo) -- fighting games and beat'em ups
Arcade (MAME 2003-Plus) -- all-around arcade emulation
NEC PCE/TG-16/PCE-CD/TG-CD (Beetle PCE)
Nintendo GB/GBC (Gambatte)
Nintendo GBA (mGBA)
Nintendo DS (melonDS)
Nintendo NES (Nestopia)
Nintendo SNES (Snes9x Current or BSNES)
Nintendo 64 (Mupen64Plus)
Sega Master System/Genesis/CD (Genesis Plus GX)
Sega 32x (PicoDrive)
Sega Saturn (Beetle Saturn)
Sega Dreamcast (Flycast)
SNK Neo Geo (FinalBurn Neo)
Sony PlayStation (Beetle PSX)

Beyond just the cores/systems listed above, there are a ton of other classic systems you can play as well. I’d recommend checking out the Libretro Docs guide for more information about individual cores and systems (look in the “Core Library” section).

Now we’re going to cover the standalone emulator apps that I use beyond RetroArch. These are listed in order of how they are covered in the video guide above.

Sony PlayStation Portable

Emulator: PPSSPP
File type: .iso or .cso
BIOS: not required

Setting up PSP is super simple, thanks to the outstanding PPSSPP app. Simply download it, point it to your ROM location, and then go into the Settings to configure the graphics as you like. Most Macs with Apple silicon will be able to run all PSP games at 6x or higher resolution upscale.

This app has support for Retro Achievements, which you can find in the Settings > Tools section.

Nintendo 3DS

Emulator: Lime3DS
File type: .3ds (decrypted)
BIOS: not required

Lime3DS is now discontinued because the developers have moved to a new program called Azahar (which hasn’t released an app yet as of writing this guide). Thankfully, they left an archive of their app, which you can find here.

Nintendo GameCube and Wii

Emulator: Dolphin
File type: .iso or .rvz
BIOS: not required

Dolphin is available in both stable and dev releases; I generally stick with the stable releases thanks to their overall stability. Setting up the controls is usually the most challenging part of this app, but the video guide above will walk you through some of the basics. For Wii games, another consideration is to use a cheap USB Wii sensor bar and an actual Wiimote, which will pair to your system seamlessly and provide a more authentic experience. A video guide for that is below, along with a guide on how to add the GameCube boot logo to Dolphin if you’d like:

If you run into any issues with the emulator, the Dolphin guides page is super helpful.

Sony PlayStation 2

Emulator: PCSX2
File type: .iso or .chd
BIOS: SCPH-70012.bin (one example of many)

PCSX2 is a feature-rich PS2 emulator that is very easy to configure. Most of the configuration can be done in the initial setup screen. If you’d like to extract your own PS2 BIOS, this guide will show you how to do that without needing a console at all. Just note that it requires a Windows PC to actually do it!

In order for this app to work properly with the ES-DE frontend, you will need to rename the app in your Applications folder to simply “PCSX2.app”.

Microsoft Xbox

Emulator: Xemu
File type: .iso (mulletted)
BIOS: mcpx_1.0.bin, Complex_4627v1.03.bin, and xbox_hdd.qcow2

Xemu requires three BIOS files. The first two are copyrighted, but the Xemu team provides a blank, copyright-free version of its HDD image at the link above.

In order to run an ISO file in Xemu, it needs to be converted to an XISO format (this process is also referred to as “mulletting”). There are several ways to do this, but one of the easiest is this webtool; simply add your ISO file and it will give you an updated file in its place. More info about this process is found here.

Nintendo Wii U

Emulator: Cemu
File type: rpx or wua
BIOS: not required (if you use decrypted files)

Cemu file types can be confusing, but I generally recommend using rpx files and converting them to wua files. The EmuDeck wiki has a good writeup on the whole thing, and my file compression guide will walk you through the wua conversion process.

Sony PlayStation 3

Emulator: RPCS3
File type: Disc dump (folder) or pkg/rap files
BIOS: PS3UPDAT.PUP

The RPCS3 quick start guide is super handy, it’ll walk you through the setup process and explain the difference between the two different file types.

Nintendo Switch

Emulator: Ryujinx
File type: nsp (digital game) or xci (cartridge dump)
BIOS: prod.keys, firmware (latest version, or one that matches prod.keys version)

Ryujinx has been taken offline but archives exist around the Internet. No direct links are provided in this guide.

Changelog

23FEB2025
– published guide

Here’s a quick rundown of what I did with the stock OS that came with my GKD Pixel to improve its overall look and feel. This is all totally subjective, and is likely to change as new versions of the Pixel’s IUX firmware are developed.

Switch to EmulationStation, set it to the default launcher

When you first boot the console, it will launch their IUX menu system, which looks to be a reskinned version of GMenu2x, which was a common UI back in the 2019-2020 era of retro handhelds. This is a totally serviceable menu system. To navigate around, just pick whatever category of gaming you want to play (arcade, handheld, etc), then navigate to the system and press A to see a list of games that are loaded on your card. From there you can launch each game.

Personally, I prefer the more robust options afforded within EmulationStation, especially since this stock OS is forked from ROCKNIX with a bunch of additional configuration options available.

To switch to EmulationStation as your default launcher, go into the Settings section within IUX and choose the Settings app. Under “Launcher”, change it from IUX to EmulationStation. Press B to exit the Settings app, it will ask you to save the settings. Press B again to get to the main menu, then press START then R1 to reboot the device into EmulationStation.

If you ever want to get back to IUX from EmulationStation, press START and select Quit > Enter IUX. You’ll need to go back into the Settings app and change the Launcher back to IUX if you want to boot into IUX in the future, otherwise it’ll take you back to EmulationStation upon the next reboot.

Hide unwanted systems

If you are seeing systems you don’t want to see, press START to bring up the Main Menu, then navigate to Game Collection Settings > Systems Displayed and disable any you want hidden.

Add your own games

My review unit card came with a bunch of pre-loaded cards, but depending on where you buy it from, you may get a card that isn’t preloaded with anything other than the OS. If you’d like to add your own games, remove the card from your device and then insert it into your PC (you may need a USB microSD card adapter). There will be two partitions on your card, one called EMUELEC and the other called ROMS. Open the ROMS partition and navigate to the “roms” folder within. This will contain over 100 different folders of supported systems, and you can add your games directly there. For a more detailed list of the systems and what file types and BIOS are required, check out the “Systems” section of the ROCKNIX wiki.

Get a USB WiFi dongle and adapter

To really take advantage of your device, a WiFi dongle is super handy. For the purposes of this video, I used this adapter, mostly because it’s known to be compatible with a lot of lower-end devices like those that use the RK3326 chipset. Other adapters might work as well! You will also need a USB-C adapter to interface with the GKD Pixel’s USB-C port.

In EmulationStation, press START to bring up the Main Menu, then go to Network Settings > Enable Network > ON. Once you have turned it on, press B to back out the Main Menu. You should see the light on your adapter (if it has one) light up; if it doesn’t, sometimes you need to unplug the adapter and plug it back in. Go back to Network Settings > WiFi SSD and you should see a list of your nearby networks. Choose the network of your choice, then enter the password under WiFi Key below that. Back out of the Network Settings menu, give it a minute, and it should connect. You will know your device is connected when you get a WiFi network symbol on the top-right of your screen and/or if you see an IP Address listed in your Network Settings menu.

Add new themes via network

The first thing I did with my device was to change out the theme to something a bit more personalized. I tried a bunch from the Batocera repo and Jetup’s gallery, but many of them don’t work properly with the EmulationStation configuration that GKD has released. The one I ended up liking the most is the Switch Theme which is a few years old but still really nice and clean.

To install this theme (or any other), go to its GitHub page, then click on the green “Code” button near the top-right. Select “Download zip”, and then once downloaded, extract that folder (it should be named “es-theme-switch-master”).

Now we need to connect to our device over WiFi, I recommend using a Samba share since it’s really simple. On your device, go to Network Settings and ensure that “Enable Samba” is turned on.

• PC connection: open a Windows Explorer window, and in the navigation bar type in “\\RK3326” or “\\192.168.86.XXX”, with XXX being the IP address specific to your device (which you can find in your device’s Network Settings once connected to WiFi). When trying to open one of the folders that appear, you will be prompted for a username and password, use “root” as the username and “rocknix” as the password.
• Mac connection: open Finder and in the top Menu Bar select Go > Connect to Server… and in the address bar that appears, type “smb://RK3326” or “smb://192.168.86.XXX” with XXX being your device’s IP address. When trying to open one of the folders that appear, you will be prompted for a username and password, use “root” as the username and “rocknix” as the password.

Once connected, navigate to emulationstation > themes and drop your folder into there. After the transfer is complete, you should find that theme under UI Settings in your EmulationStation menu.

Manually scrape boxart

The boxart with your stock card (if there is any) will be relatively haphazard. Since I removed all of the stock games and replaced them with my own, I scraped my own boxart as well. The Stock OS doesn’t have a functioning scraper option, so you will need to do it offline with an app called Skraper. I actually made a video about this process nearly four years ago and it still works fine, you can find it above!

PortMaster

PortMaster will be preloaded on your Stock OS and surprisingly, it actually works! This is most likely because GKD is using the Anbernic RG351MP version of ROCKNIX as their OS base, and that also has working PortMaster functionality. Make sure that you are connected to your network, then go into Tools > PortMaster. You will be prompted to update your PortMaster on first boot.

Note that if your device comes pre-loaded with some ports (mine came with a few), updating PortMaster will likely break them. To fix this, go into PortMaster’s “Manage Ports” section and reinstall the ports. If that still doesn’t work, delete the ports and reinstall them with your own commercial files.

Music player

Once connected with PortMaster, you can find the GMU Music app in the “Ready to Run” ports section of the app. Download that and then put your music files in the roms > ports > gmu-music-player > music folder on your card (each album can be put in its own subfolder). Now, on your device navigate to Ports > GMU Music Player to launch the app. You’ll be greeted by a quick start guide which will walk you through the controls for the app.

The only real bummer I’ve found from this GMU Music App (including the version that comes with the OS) is that the usual way of turning off your screen (SELECT/MENU + Up on the d-pad) doesn’t seem to work.

Game streaming

Yes, it is possible to use Moonlight to steam from a PC to your GKD Pixel 2. To do so, I recommend using the Moonlight New app available on PortMaster, and following the Apollo guide instructions in the video above. I wasn’t able to get controls working on my device while testing, so further investigation is needed.

Add native Pico-8

There will be a Pico-8 section installed on your Stock OS, but it hasn’t been properly configured. To do so, follow the ROCKNIX wiki page on the subject, and add the commercial files to the roms/pico-8 folder on your device. Once you have your files added, be sure to go to Main Menu > Game Settings > Per System Advanced Configuration and set the Pico-8 emulator to Pico-8: Pico8 (and not Fake08).

You should now be able to go into the Pico-8 section on your device and launch Splore (with an internet connection to download games). You can also add your carts (png files) manually to the Pico-8 folder (download them directly from Lexaloffle here).

Make a version of StarkOS?

Something to consider is that because we are using the Switch theme on the GKD Pixel, we could further simplify the OS experience by creating a tailored version of boxart to match that theme. I did something similar with “StarkOS” last year, creating an OS that was tailored for non-reading kids and those who aren’t tech savvy. Check out the guide here to see what might be possible. The only distinction is that Stock OS (and ROCKNIX) doesn’t have a quick shutdown and resume function like ArkOS, so it won’t be a perfect match. But still fun to think of the possibilities!

Changelog

01FEB2025
– published guide

I’ve really been enjoying the TrimUI Brick, and I spent a few days really fine-tuning its configuration to make it a simple, custom experience. This guide will show you all the steps I took and how you can set up something similar for yourself if you would like.

Note that in general, this guide can be used as a MinUI setup guide as well. MinUI is generally a very simple and intuitive experience, and I’m going to show you some special customizations you can try to really enhance and personalize your experience.

Table of Contents

Project goals
Set up the microSD card
Install MinUI
Add MinUI custom paks (optional)
Add BIOS files
Add game files
Game collections
Customize your systems
Create a custom boot logo
General MinUI tips
Adding PortMaster and WiFi
Box art Easter Egg
Add LED light control
Start fresh with Stock OS
Try out KNULLI

Changelog

Project goals

Let’s talk about what I’m trying to accomplish with this particular setup.

• Light and simple. I want to keep my UI as clean as possible, while giving my access to my favorite core systems.
• Focused on retro systems. Even though the TrimUI Brick is capable of some higher-end systems like N64, PSP, and Dreamcast, I want to hone in on systems I think excel the most with the Brick, which are games that don’t need any analog stick workarounds or those whose performance isn’t so demanding it makes the handheld heat up a bunch. So we’re going to stick with PS1 and below, plus Pico-8 and arcade games.
• Offline gaming. Even though I love using Retro Achievements, and this device is capable of WiFi, I am setting it up as an offline console. My thinking is that because the handheld is so small and pocketable, you will most often be playing it while on the go, where WiFi connectivity feels like a complication that detracts from the gaming experience.

In the long run, if you are looking to get the most bang for your buck, then this setup isn’t for you. Stock OS or KNULLI will give you more options for other systems, and wonderful tools like PortMaster. This setup is meant to streamline and optimize the gaming experience so that you have fewer barriers to entry, while still having quick and easy access to many systems.

Set up the microSD card

Setting up the card for MinUI is super easy. If you are using a microSD card that is larger than 32GB, it is recommended you format it to FAT32. The TrimUI Brick will still function with the default exFAT file system, but I have found that it can create corruption issues, so it’s best to stick with FAT32.

If you are using a brand new SD card that is 32GB or smaller, you don’t have to do anything. If you are not using a brand new card, I recommend using SD Card Formatter to wipe the card beforehand, but after that you are good to go.

If you are using a card that is over 32GB in file size, here is how to format it to FAT32:

• Windows: download and install Rufus on your PC. The standard “rufus-4.6.exe” (the number will likely change) is fine. Insert your card and open Rufus, then select your card from the drop-down menu. Set the “Boot selection” to “Non bootable”, and set “File system” to FAT32. Under “Volume label” you can name the card, then press START and follow the prompts.
• Mac: Insert your card and open Disk Utility (it is pre-installed in MacOS). Select your microSD card, then select Erase. Give the card a name and under the “Format” option select “MS-DOS (FAT32)” and click Erase.

In general, I recommend the cards listed below, in order or preference. The prices fluctuate all the time, so keep an eye out for deals. If you are just going to play 8-bit and 16-bit era cartridge games, a 16GB or 32GB card will be plenty. A 128GB card will allow you to load EVERY 8-bit and 16-bit game out there, just about all of the arcade games that work, and quite a few PS1, TG-CD, and Sega CD games (those systems have the largest file sizes). A 256GB or 512GB card will allow you to store even more of those larger games, but is mostly overkill for a device like the TrimUI Brick. I personally use a 64GB or 128GB card.

As far as model (“Extreme” vs “Ultra”, etc), this won’t matter when it comes to playing games. Some cards may transfer files more quickly (like when adding ROMs to the card), but the difference will be negligible. Instead, shop around for the best deal based on your desired amount of storage!

16GB cards: 
SanDisk Ultra  
SanDisk Industrial

32GB cards:
Samsung Pro Endurance
SanDisk Extreme

64GB cards:
Samsung Pro Endurance
SanDisk Extreme

128GB cards:
Samsung EVO Select
SanDisk Ultra

256GB microSD:
SanDisk Ultra
Samsung EVO Select
Samsung Pro Plus

512GB microSD:
SanDisk Ultra
Samsung EVO Select
Samsung Pro Plus

If you need a microSD card reader to plug into your PC, this one from Anker has never done me wrong for $15, and I also love this more fancy version with USB-C and USB-A connections.

Install MinUI

Now that your card is ready, we can download and install the requisite MinUI files.

Go to the MinUI website and download the latest releases — both the BASE and EXTRAS zip files listed in the “Assets” section of the release. Unzip both zip files and place the extracted files into the root (base) directory of your microSD card as specified below:

• With the BASE zip file, move over the following folders and files:
  • Bios (folder)
  • MinUI.zip
  • Roms (folder)
  • Saves (folder)
  • trimui (folder)

• With the EXTRAS zip file, just move over everything (minus the readme file). You may get prompted to merge similar folders, just click yes if that happens.

Add MinUI custom paks (optional)

Adding these optional paks allow us to launch certain systems on MinUI that are not supported by the stock MinUI experience. These paks won’t receive official support, but are great if you want to run arcade games, native Pico-8, or maybe a few N64 and Dreamcast games.

• Go to Ryan’s TrimUI Smart Pro Custom MinUI Paks GitHub page and download the latest release
• Extract the zip file and then move all of its contents to the root of your microSD card. You may get prompted to merge similar folders, just click yes if that happens.

Thanks to tenlevels and ryanmsartor for putting this together!

Add BIOS files

Now that you have added MinUI’s BASE and EXTRAS folders, plus MinUI Custom Paks, we can start adding our game and BIOS files. Let’s start with BIOS files. These are necessary for certain systems to run properly, and have unique locations in MinUI. Here is a list of BIOS files and their locations within the MinUI file system. These BIOS files are case sensitive!

Note that like with ROM files, BIOS files are copyrighted, and you are on your own to source them.

Game Boy (boot logo): Bios > GB > gb_bios.bin
Game Boy Color (boot logo): Bios > GBC > gbc_bios.bin
Game Boy Advance (boot logo): Bios > GBA > gba_bios.bin
Sega CD: Bios > MD > bios_CD_E.bin, bios_CD_J.bin, and bios_CD_U.bin
Sony PlayStation: Bios > PS > psxonpsp660.bin
TurboGrafx CD: Bios > PCE > syscard3.pce
Famicom Disk System: Bios > FC > disksys.rom
Pokemon Mini: Bios > PKM > bios.min
Super Game Boy: Bios > sgb.bios
Neo Geo: place neogeo.zip in same folder as Neo Geo ROMs
Sega Dreamcast: Bios > dc > dc_boot.bin
Sega Naomi: Bios > dc > naomi.zip
Pico-8 (Native): Emus > tg3040 > PICO.pak > PICO8_Wrapper > bin > pico8.dat and pico8_64 from the paid Raspberry Pi version of the console

Add game files

Adding game files is mostly straightforward: add the game files to the corresponding Roms folder on your SD card. So for example, add your Game Boy ROMs to the Roms > Game Boy (GB) folder on your microSD card.

Some tips and tricks:

• Only folders that have game files inside of them will appear in the MinUI menu, so it will have a nice clean experience.
• If you add files to any folder and then decide you don’t want them to actually appear in the MinUI menu, rather than deleting the files, you can add a “.disabled” extension to the end of the folder and it won’t appear. For example, if you have a bunch of games added to Atari Lynx (LYNX), you can just rename that folder to “Atari Lynx (LYNX).disabled” and it won’t show up in the menu. This can be especially handy if you want to have games appear in a Collection but not in the main menu.
• There are two Pico-8 ROM folders available, the one named “P8” uses the Fake08 emulator, and the “PICO” folder is using the native app wrapper. I recommend the PICO option, which has better compatibility.
• You can change the name of each folder to whatever you would like, as long as you keep the emulator association (in parenthesis) at the end of the folder name. So you could make a folder named either Sega Genesis (MD) or Sega Mega Drive (MD), whatever you prefer.
• If you want, you can make additional folders as long as they have the same emulator association in parenthesis at the end of the folder name. So you could have BOTH the Sega Genesis (MD) and Sega Mega Drive (MD) folders appear in the menu, if you wanted to separate your 16-bit Sega games by region.
• You can also consolidate similar systems into the same folder, as long as they use the same emulator core. For example, you can add Sega CD and Sega 32X games into your Sega Genesis (MD) folder, and all three systems will launch from the same menu. This is handy because I think MinUI is best when it is simple, and having a single Sega Genesis folder is a lot cleaner than having three total folders to scroll through. Another example is my preferred arcade setup, which I lump together with Neo Geo since the main arcade core in this setup is FinalBurn Neo (which also supports Neo Geo). So I change my folder name to “Arcade and Neo Geo (FBN)”, and put both FinalBurn Neo arcade games and Neo Geo games together.
• For arcade folders, you will want to add a map.txt file into the ROM folder to ensure that the full arcade name is displayed. The MinUI custom paks will already contain that within the FBNeo folder, but here is a direct link if you need it.
• By default, the folders will appear in alphabetical order in MinUI, but you can customize the order by adding a number and closed parens (like “1)” and so on) at the start of the title. Here is a sample order that is not alphabetical, but actually grouped by manufacturer, release date, and console type:

0) Arcade and Neo Geo (FBN)
1) Game Boy (GB)
2) Game Boy Color (GBC)
3) Game Boy Advance (GBA)
4) Nintendo Entertainment System (FC)
5) Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SFC)
6) Sega Genesis (MD)
…and so on.

Note that if you are going to have more than 10 systems (0 through 9), then you need to use a leading zero to accommodate double digits:

00) Arcade and Neo Geo (FBN)
01) Game Boy (GB)
02) Game Boy Color (GBC)
03) Game Boy Advance (GBA)
04) Nintendo Entertainment System (FC)
05) Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SFC)
06) Sega Genesis (MD)
…and so on.

Game collections

MinUI supports Collections, which are simple and customizable text files.

To get started, created a folder named “Collections” in the root directory of your microSD card. Inside your Collections folder, add a txt file and name it whatever you would like. Open the txt file with a text editor like Notepad, and simply make a list of games and their paths. Here is an example of “Castlevanias.txt” from my collection:

/Roms/4) Nintendo Entertainment System (FC)/Castlevania (USA) (Rev A).nes
/Roms/4) Nintendo Entertainment System (FC)/Castlevania II – Simon’s Quest (USA).nes
/Roms/4) Nintendo Entertainment System (FC)/Castlevania III – Dracula’s Curse (USA).nes
/Roms/1) Game Boy (GB)/Castlevania – The Adventure (USA) (Castlevania Anniversary Collection).gb
/Roms/1) Game Boy (GB)/Castlevania II – Belmont’s Revenge (USA, Europe).gb
/Roms/1) Game Boy (GB)/Kid Dracula (Restored).gb
/Roms/5) Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SFC)/Super Castlevania IV (USA).sfc
/Roms/3) Game Boy Advance (GBA)/Castlevania – Aria of Sorrow (USA).gba
/Roms/3) Game Boy Advance (GBA)/Castlevania – Harmony of Dissonance (USA).gba
/Roms/7) TurboGrafx-16 (PCE)/Castlevania – Rondo of Blood (Japan) [T-En by Burnt Lasagna & Cubanraul v1.01] [n].chd
/Roms/8) Sony PlayStation (PS)/Castlevania – Symphony of the Night (QoL v1.2).chd

So you can see in this collection I have added the games in a mix of release and system order, starting with NES and going from there. I also added Kid Dracula since it feels like a spiritual successor to some of the older Castlevania games.

Some tricks and tips:

• If you make any changes to the game or directory names, it will break the connection. For example, if you change the number order of your ROM folders, you’ll have to change their path in each of your Collections too.
• You can add hidden games to your Collections, so that they only appear in the Collection and not in the main menu. Let’s say that I don’t want Nintendo DS games to show up in my main menu, but I want to add a certain NDS game to a collection, like Final Fantasy III. I can hide the Nintendo DS folder by adding a “.disabled” extension to the folder name, and then add that full folder name to my collection, like this (in bold to make it easier to find):

/Roms/4) Nintendo Entertainment System (FC)/Final Fantasy (USA).nes
/Roms/3) Game Boy Advance (GBA)/Final Fantasy I & II – Dawn of Souls (Rebalanced).gba
/Roms/Nintendo DS (NDS).disabled/Final Fantasy III (USA).nds
/Roms/3) Game Boy Advance (GBA)/Final Fantasy IV Advance (Restored).gba
/Roms/3) Game Boy Advance (GBA)/Final Fantasy V Advance (USA).gba
/Roms/5) Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SFC)/Final Fantasy VI (TWUE 3.06) + Bug Fixes & Add-Ons.sfc
/Roms/8) Sony PlayStation (PS)/Final Fantasy VII.pbp
/Roms/8) Sony PlayStation (PS)/Final Fantasy VIII.pbp
/Roms/8) Sony PlayStation (PS)/Final Fantasy IX.pbp
/Roms/8) Sony PlayStation (PS)/Final Fantasy Tactics (USA).chd
/Roms/1) Game Boy (GB)/Final Fantasy Adventure (World) (Collection of Mana).gb
/Roms/1) Game Boy (GB)/Final Fantasy Legend (USA).gb
/Roms/1) Game Boy (GB)/Final Fantasy Legend II (USA).gb
/Roms/1) Game Boy (GB)/Final Fantasy Legend III (USA).gb

If you’d like some help in getting started, here is a zip file of my own MinUI Collections (right-click and select “Save As”). Bear in mind that the ROM file names may not match yours, but it will give you an idea of some favorites.

Customize your systems

Now that we have all of our games added and everything organized, now we can start to play our games. But there are a few customizations we can do to enhance our play experience as well.

Let’s use Game Boy as our example.

• Start up a Game Boy game, then press the Menu button (to the left of the SELECT button on the TrimUI Brick).
• Go to Options > Frontend, and choose the defaults for your system. They are already pre-configured by the MinUI developer, but you might want to adjust them yourself. For example, I prefer the following settings for GB:
  • Screen Scaling: Aspect
  • Screen Effect: Grid
  • Screen Sharpness: Crisp
  • CPU Speed: Powersave
  • Debug HUD: Off
  • Max FF Speed: 4x
• Now, go to Options > Emulator. Here you can make more adjustments, like GB Colorization, Color Correction, and more. Note that if you have added the BIOS file, you can go to Use Official Bootloader and set it to Enabled so you can see the boot logo when starting GB games.
• Next, under Options > Shortcuts, you can add hotkeys. Any spare button can be used (like the shoulder and trigger buttons, which didn’t exist on the GB), or you can press MENU + another button for a combo hotkey. These are the shortcuts I set for every system:
  • Save & Quit: MENU + START
  • Cycle Scaling: L3
  • Cycle Effect: R3
  • Toggle FF: R2
• This means that I can press the two front function keys (considered L3 and R3 in MinUI) to cycle between aspect ratio and grid/scanline effects. Also any time I press R2 I can toggle ON/OFF fast forward, and if I press MENU + START it will save and exit my game.
• Once you are done with adjusting the settings for your system, go to Options > Save Changes > Save for console. Now every Game Boy game will follow these same configurations.
• Go through each of the other systems and also set them up accordingly: your preferred scaling and CPU speed, any Emulator-specific settings, and your shortcuts; then just select “Save for console” and move on to the next one. This is a little tedious, but only has to be done once.

Create a custom boot logo

The EXTRAS file from MinUI contains a Boot logo tool; if you go into Tools and run the Bootlogo tool, by default it will replace the TrimUI boot logo with a MinUI boot logo. But the cool thing is you can just make your own image and boot that instead.

• Put the microSD card in your computer, then go to Tools > tg3040 > Bootlogo.pak. Inside you will see a file named bootlogo.bmp. Using a photo editing app like Photoshop or GIMP, make a small bmp file. I recommend something around 500×500 or less, and with a black background so it blends into the rest of the screen.
• Once you have your new file, name it bootlogo.bmp and replace the file you found in the Tools > tg3040 > Bootlogo.pak folder.
• Here is a boot logo that I made using the typical RGC fond and color scheme: to download, right-click on this link and select “save as…” and then replace the bootlogo.bmp file you found in the Tools > tg3040 > Bootlogo.pak folder.

Note that after you run this tool, it will “self-destruct” and not appear again. To make it re-appear (like if you want to run the tool again with a new image), put the card back into your PC and go to Tools > tg3040 > Bootlogo.pak.disabled and remove the “.disabled” portion of the folder name.

In addition to the Bootlogo tool, you will find a tool named “Remove loading” in the Tools menu. This will remove the TrimUI “loading screen” when launching the system, so you can run this one time to have a cleaner experience.

General MinUI tips

When actually using MinUI, here are some handy tips and tricks:

• Any time you are playing a game, you can press and hold the POWER button to create a Quicksave, and then next time you turn on the device it will resume where you were mid-game.
• Tap the POWER button to put the device to sleep. After a few minutes the device will auto-shutdown to conserve battery life. If you are in the middle of a game when you put it to sleep, it will save your game before powering off.
• If you don’t press anything for 30 seconds, MinUI will automatically put your device to sleep. Tap the POWER button to resume from sleep.
• If you want to start up a game from the menu that you’ve already made a save for, you can press the X button instead of A to launch the game and your save file at the same time. Otherwise, you can press A to start the game over from the beginning, or press the MENU button while in the game to load your last save state.
• To adjust brightness, press and hold the MENU button, then press Volume Up or Down.
• The toggle switch on the right side of the device is a MUTE toggle, if you toggle it down it will mute the game, and toggling it up will restore the audio.

Adding PortMaster and WiFi

MinUI is simple by design, but with the help of the custom MinUI paks detailed above, you can add some other core functionality to the platform.

Adding WiFi:

WiFi will already work in MinUI if you connected it previously with your Stock OS card (the WiFi information is stored on the device, not the cards). So simply use the Stock card to connect, then switch back to your MinUI card. You’ll know it’s working when you see the WiFi symbol on the top-right of your MinUI interface. There are reports that leaving Bluetooth enabled on the Stock OS card can inhibit WiFi connectivity in MinUI, so turn that off with the Stock card if you experience any connection issues.

MinUI’s native emulator cores don’t support WiFi functions like Retro Achievements, but you can experiment with the MinUI Custom Paks to use RetroArch and log into Retro Achievements that way. This goes against the spirit of this guide but it’s definitely possible!

To disable WiFi, launch the Stock OS card again and disable it, then power off and switch back to your MinUI card.

Adding PortMaster:

Note that adding PortMaster to MinUI is contrary to the OS’s original design, and should only be attempted by tinkerers.

First, make sure that you have added the MinUI Custom Paks as detailed in the section above, since that contains PortMaster. Next, go into the Tools > tg5040 folder and grab the Portmaster.pak, and copy that into your Tools > tg3040 folder.

To get PortMaster running properly, you need to install a special firmware known as TrimUI_EX, which was made by a PortMaster team member. You will need a spare microSD card to set it up, which you can discard once you have gone through this section. We are simply installing the firmware on a different card and then going back to our MinUI card.

Take a spare microSD card and format it to FAT32. Follow the instructions found here, but use the firmware found on this page instead of the TrimUI Smart Pro firmware detailed in that guide. Note that there is always a risk of bricking your device with any firmware flash, so be sure to follow those instructions carefully. Once you are done with that process, you can turn off your device and discard that FAT32 TrimUI_EX card.

Back on your original MinUI card, you will need to “reinstall” the OS by adding the “trimui” folder and “MinUI.zip” file from the most recent official base version of MinUI to the root directory of your card. This will prompt MinUI to update itself upon first boot. Now you should have full access to MinUI as well as PortMaster.

The PortMaster app does not seem to work with WiFi, so you will likely need to install your games offline. Thankfully we can use PortMaster’s “autoinstall” tool to easily install games with minimal effort.

To install PortMaster games offline:

• Download each of the Runtimes from this page, and place them in the Roms > Apps > PortMaster > PortMaster > libs folder of your microSD card.
• Go to the PortMaster Games page, find the game that you want to add, then download the zip file. Place the zip file in the Roms > Apps > PortMaster > PortMaster > autoinstall folder of your microSD card.
• Turn on your device, then go to Tools > PortMaster. As it starts, the app will auto install the zip files you added in the previous step, and place the Port folder to the Data > ports folder on your SD card, and your Ports SH file to the Roms > PORTS folder. PortMaster has a habit of crashing during the autoinstall process, simply re-start PortMaster to resume where you were.
• You should now find the Port available in the Roms > Ports section of your MinUI device. Note that commercial ports require data files that are detailed on that game’s PortMaster page, so those will need to be added after running the auto install function. Generally, you will add the commercial files in the Roms > Ports > (name of port) > gamedata folder.

There are MANY Ports that will not boot on the TrimUI Brick right now, so definitely consider Ports to be an “added bonus” for the whole experience. Ports that I got working using the steps above: Apotris, Cannonball-st, Celeste, Freegemas, Panzer Paladin, Sonic Mania, and TMNT Shredder’s Revenge.

Box art Easter Egg

Yes, it is possible to add box art to MinUI (sort of). It’s not a supported feature on the OS, but something that was built into it at one point for the developer to make an easy navigation experience for children. Please note this is a labor-intensive process, and likely not great when using a single SD card between several different devices and resolutions. But if you are using your MinUI card on a single device, this could enhance your gameplay experience (and make it easier for non-readers to navigate).

Note that because this feature is unsupported, future updates to MinUI may break compatibility. You can read more about it here.

• Within each ROM folder, create a folder named “.res” (with a dot in front of it). In Windows you will get a prompt to confirm you are making a hidden folder, and on Mac it won’t let you even make that folder until you press CMD + SHIFT + “.” (period) to reveal hidden files first.
• Inside that folder, add PNG image files that correspond to the ROM file in the main ROM folder. This image file name needs to include the ROM’s file extension too. So for example, “Super Mario Bros 2.nes” will need an image named “Super Mario Bros 2.nes.png”.
• Images will need to be manually resized to look good on your screen. For the TrimUI Brick, I would recommend a width of 300px for each square and vertical box art image, and 350px for wide images (like the SNES box art). For 480p displays (like the Miyoo Flip pictured above), I would recommend a width of 200px for square/vertical and 250px for wide images.

To acquire boxart, I would recommend grabbing the images from Libretro’s thumbnail repository, since they are already in PNG format. Just bear in mind that you will need to resize and rename each of them to match your ROMs. If the game you are looking for isn’t present in the Libretro repo, then searching TheGamesDB may yield more results, but bear in mind that these are usually JPG files that will need to be converted to PNG.

Box art even carries over to Game Collections automatically, so your box art will appear there. In addition, you can make a “.res” folder within the main ROMs folder if you want console/system art (i.e. Game Boy, NES, SNES etc console art) and you can do the same for custom collections art (Super Marios, Castlevanias, etc).

Add LED light control

By default, MinUI will turn off your TrimUI’s LED lights, but if you want to restore them, check out this LedControl app from developer ro9inmorgan.

To install, download the latest release and unzip/copy the LedControl.pak folder to the Apps folder of your card. You should then find the app in your Apps menu.

Start fresh with stock OS

If you would rather get back to the original stock OS experience, or if your device didn’t come with a stock OS card, here is how to set it up from scratch.

If you are using a brand new SD card that is 32GB or smaller, you don’t have to do anything. If you are not using a brand new card, I recommend using SD Card Formatter to wipe the card beforehand, but after that you are good to go.

If you are using a card that is over 32GB in file size, here is how to format it to FAT32:

Mac: Insert your card and open Disk Utility (it is pre-installed in MacOS). Select your microSD card, then select Erase. Give the card a name and under the “Format” option select “MS-DOS (FAT32)” and click Erase.

Windows: download and install Rufus on your PC. The standard “rufus-4.6.exe” (the number will likely change) is fine. Insert your card and open Rufus, then select your card from the drop-down menu. Set the “Boot selection” to “Non bootable”, and set “File system” to FAT32. Under “Volume label” you can name the card, then press START and follow the prompts.

Download the latest “SD base package” zip file from this page. Unzip the file and place everything in the root directory of your microSD card. From there, add your game files and you are back to a fresh stock experience.

Try out KNULLI

If you are looking for a different experience, KNULLI (forked from Batocera) has a working Pre-Alpha version of their OS for the TrimUI Brick. This is still a work in progress, but you can grab it from their releases page.

If you need help setting up KNULLI, check out their excellent website!

Changelog

30JAN2025
– added LedControl app section

14JAN2025
– added MinUI “reinstallation” instructions for after flashing PortMaster-friendly firmware (thanks Shaun Inman for the tip)
– added instructions on how to add box art to MinUI

13JAN2025
– added direct link to FBNeo map.txt file for full arcade game names

18DEC2024
– added link to my MinUI Collections zip file

11DEC2024
– added stock OS section
– added KNULLI section

09DEC2024
– published guide
– added video link
– added PortMaster section

In this guide we’re going to figure out how to use a combination of screen settings and effects – including shaders, filters, and overlays – to enhance the visual experience of retro handhelds. We’ll mostly focus on the most common screen aspect ratio (4:3) and resolution (640×480) found on handheld devices, but these fundamentals can be applied to a wide variety of screen types.

Note that even though this is a LONG guide, I would still consider it to be a STARTER GUIDE. The whole world of screen effects is both wide and deep, and there are enthusiasts who devote countless hours to designing and tweaking these images to perfection. This guide will walk you through the very basics and give you enough tools to improve your visual experience without earning a PhD in Pixelology.

The majority of this guide will rely on a basic understanding of how RetroArch works — how to enter the RetroArch Quick Menu, and the interplay between configuration files, overrides, and so on. If you need a refresher, I recommend my RetroArch Starter Guide.

Special thanks to community member and GBC game developer Ben Jelter (Jeltron) who helped me conceptualize and package this guide. Be sure to check out his website and some of his video games!

Table of Contents

Size, resolution, and aspect ratio
Integer scaling
Colorization, color correction, and interframe blending
Filters
Shaders
Shimmerless shaders
Overlays
Which approach is best for you?
Some example setups
Special considerations for OnionOS (Miyoo Mini/Plus)
Other OS considerations
My preferred setup for each system
 - Game Boy
 - Game Boy Color
 - Game Boy Advance
 - Pixel-era home console systems
 - 3D-era home console systems
720 x 720 screen settings

Changelog

Size, resolution, and aspect ratio

Three common words or phrases used when describing a display are size, resolution, and aspect ratio.

Size: this is simply the size of the screen, usually measured in inches diagonally. For the purposes of this guide, size doesn’t really matter — it is just how big the display is. It can come into play when discussing pixel density, which is a feature of resolution.

Resolution: this is how many pixels are found on the display. These are measured horizontally and vertically, usually in that order. So the standard 640×480 resolution display we’re going to use in this guide means that we have 640 horizontal pixels, and 480 vertical pixels. In general, the higher resolution the better — that will give the screen a sharper, cleaner look, because of its increased pixel density (or pixels per inch, also known as ppi). A 480p display like we’re using in this guide has a fairly low ppi (228 ppi for 3.5″ displays), requiring additional tricks (like those found in this guide) to balance pixels or improve the overall image. Personally, once I am using a screen that has a 1080p or higher resolution, I generally don’t care much about adjusting the image using shaders or other tricks, because the ppi is so high that it makes it hard to discern any pixel balance issues anyway. As an example, a 5″ 1080p panel will have a ppi of 440, or nearly twice the pixel density of a 3.5″ 480p display.

Aspect ratio: the aspect ratio of a screen will depend on its horizontal and vertical pixels. A 640×480 display has a 4:3 aspect ratio (you can get this figure by turning 640/480 as a fraction and then simplifying that fraction down to 4/3). This is a common aspect ratio for most home console retro systems, since most TVs at the time were 4:3. There are exceptions, especially with handheld systems: GB/GBC were 10:9, and GBA was 3:2. During the PS2 era, TVs with a 16:9 aspect ratio became popular, and that has become the standard TV aspect ratio for home console systems ever since.

For this guide, we will maintain the aspect ratio of our emulated system. So in the case of GBA, that means we will use a 3:2 aspect ratio, even if that wider aspect ratio does result in natural black bars on the top and bottom. With GB/GBC, we’ll stick with its original (narrower) 10:9 aspect ration, giving us black bars on the left and right. We will take advantage of this empty space with overlays to make the overall image look good anyway. In the case of SNES, we are going to display the image in 4:3, even though some games were originally designed with an 8:7 aspect ratio in mind.

Integer scaling

The term scaling simply means to increase the size of your game image beyond its original resolution. Most people will scale their retro game image to fill the whole screen, but will maintain the original aspect ratio.

Integer scaling refers to scaling the original pixel image to the closest integer (or whole number) scale supported by your screen’s resolution (640×480 in this case). This is done by simple multiplication.

Let’s use Game Boy Advance as an example. The original GBA resolution was 240×160, with an aspect ratio of 3:2. This means that a 2x integer scale is 480×320, and a 3x integer scale is 720×480. Because integer scaling will only scale up to the next whole number, this can sometimes result in a smaller image on your display. When considering our 640×480 display, that means we can only use a 2x integer scale (480×320), since the 640 horizontal pixels on our screen isn’t enough to accommodate the 720 horizontal pixels required to properly show a 3x integer scale. The end result is a small 2x integer scale image, which you can see below — it’s only 2.5″ in size on a 3.5″ display.

In my opinion a 2.5″ 2x integer scale is too small to really enjoy on a 3.5″ display, because it will result in wide black bars on all four sides. So in most cases people will use non-integer scaling to blow up the image to fill up the screen, even if that results in uneven pixels. In the case of GBA on a 480p display, that will give you a 2.7x scale (which you can see above), which is 3.4″ in size. You will still have some black bars on the top and bottom of the screen, but that is expected because the GBA had a wider 3:2 aspect ratio than the 4:3 panel we’re using.

To enable or disable integer scaling, you will want to go into RetroArch Settings > Video > Scaling > Integer Scaling.

Keep in mind that non-integer scaling can present some issues with pixel balance, meaning that the square pixels in your game image may appear distorted or uneven. Let’s use Mega Man X on the SNES as our example.

The first image is integer scaled, and you can see that thankfully it’s pretty close to full screen, so you have minimal bars on each side. This will provide a crisp and balanced image that’s just a bit smaller than full screen. Now if you want a full-screen experience, non-integer scaling on our example panel will be a 2.1x scale. The issue is that this non-integer scale presents distorted pixels, which you can clearly see in Mega Man’s life bar. It should have even pellets across the life bar, but instead we have small gaps due to the natural pixel imbalance that comes from non-integer scaling.

For many users, non-integer scaling is just fine — they’d rather see their game in full screen than worry about the pellets on Mega Man’s life bar. And that’s totally cool! But in this guide we’re going to use some tricks to give us a full screen AND balanced pixels, plus some other neat effects.

Some systems naturally support integer scaling on a 480p panel like we’re using in this guide. These systems will give you a full-screen experience and a perfectly-scaled image (note that some games were designed with a unique resolution, so these are general standards per console):

Neo Geo: 320×224 (2x integer scale on 480p panels with small black bars at top and bottom)
Sega Genesis/CD: 320×224 (2x integer scale on 480p panels with small black bars at top and bottom)
Sega Saturn: 320×224 (2x integer scale on 480p panels with small black bars at top and bottom)
Sega 32X: 320×240 (2x integer scale on 480p panels)
Sony PlayStation: 320×240 (2x integer scale on 480p panels)**
Nintendo 64: 320×240 (2x integer scale on 480p panels)**
Sega Dreamcast: 640×480 (1x integer scale on 480p panels)

* Picodrive and Genesis Plus GX cores appear to have different “core-provided” aspect ratios
** Some N64 and PS1 games natively ran at 640×480

In summary, integer scaling is the quickest way to provide a nice, crisp image on your retro handheld screen — the pixels will be perfectly balanced, but will sometimes come at the price of a smaller image on your screen. Non-integer scaling can increase the size of your image, but may have uneven pixels depending on the system.

Colorization, color correction, and interframe blending

Before we get too far into all the ways we can apply screen effects to our game image, there are a few options within each emulator’s core settings. These effects can be used independently of shaders and filters, but will sometimes cause a conflict when used in combination with them. In general I would recommend these as the “first step” towards adjusting your screen image without jumping into shaders, filters, and overlays.

Colorization is used with the original Game Boy to mimic the screens found on those old handhelds. On its own, the Game Boy image is simply grayscale; what we remember as being colored was simply the LCD panel technology at the time (DMG, Pocket, Light, etc).

RetroArch’s primary Game Boy core, Gambatte, provides a number of colorization (also known as color palette) options for Game Boy, so that you can tweak the image to suit your mood. To enable these, start a game, enter the RetroArch Quick Menu, then go into Core Options. Set GB Colorization to Internal, then under Internal Palette, try out some of the options until you find one that works best for you. Once you are happy, you can exit out of the menu and it should auto-save your choice for all future Game Boy games. You can also make more specific saves (like on a per-game basis) via the Quick Menu > Core Options > Manage Core Options menu.

Some of the overlay packs we’ll discuss later in this guide also use their own custom palettes to really lock in the color profile. To load a custom palette, the palette should be named “default.pal” and placed in the RetroArch System (BIOS) folder, in a folder named “palettes”. Most custom OS options have their own BIOS folder, so you would simply place your palettes/default.pal file there, and then under RetroArch Quick Menu > Core Options > GB Colorization, set it to Custom and it will automatically apply your custom palette found in the BIOS folder. Note that due to the limitations of this setup in RetroArch, you can only have one custom color palette at a time.

If you want to go further down the rabbit hole, you can make your own custom Game Boy color palettes. My friend Crystal has a great video about it.

Color correction is another option found within most GBC/GBA emulator cores that will desaturate your LCD screen to better represent the colors as they appeared on original hardware. These are not 100% accurate representations, but may give you an effect that is closer to what you remember.

These color correction options will depend on the emulator core you are using, but in general they can be found within the RetroArch Quick Menu > Core Options section. Gambatte has two options (fast and accurate), which will provide a different look for each game. Once you are happy with your adjustments, you can exit out of the menu and it should auto-save your choice for all future games using that core. You can also make more specific saves (like on a per-game basis) via the Quick Menu > Core Options > Manage Core Options menu.

Finally, interframe blending provides a slight LCD ghosting effect that is similar to what you experienced on old handhelds.

Within Gambatte (for Game Boy and Game Boy Color) you can find the option within RetroArch Quick Menu > Core Options > Interframe Blending. You have three options: Simple, Accurate, and Fast. For mGBA (Game Boy Advance), you it will be found in RetroArch Quick Menu > Core Options > Video > Interframe Blending, with four options: Simple, Smart, Accurate, and Fast.

These effects can also help reduce flickering that result from modern screen’s fast response times (especially with GBA games). For the most part, this setting can be used regardless of shader/filter/overlay, and is sometimes can be used in specific combinations for a more realistic effect. For a demonstration, see the video below, which shows of LCD Ghosting (Accurate), then Interframe Blending OFF, then Simple Interframe Blending.

Filters

Filters are CPU-intensive screen effects that are applied to your image as it is presented on the screen. There are many custom filters available, and the default filters found on RetroArch are pretty great. But bear in mind that because they require CPU power to use, which is what most of our emulation power comes from, it can have a significant performance tax on your device. It may even render some systems unplayable.

There are two major types of filters available within RetroArch. The first is called a bilinear filter, and you can activate it in the Settings > Video > Scaling menu. This is a lightweight filter that can generally be used at any time without any performance tax. This filter will soften hard pixel edges but also balance the pixels, so it works well with non-integer scaling. On its own, I don’t really like this filter, because even though it smooths out the image, it makes the game appear a little too blurry and unfocused. Here is an example:

The bilinear filter can also be applied in combination with other filters to create an improved effect. One of my favorite tricks is to apply BOTH a bilinear filter and the Normal2x filter; the latter can be found in Settings > Video > Video Filter. When used in combination, it will balance pixels and also sharpen the image, giving us something very close to a “best of both worlds” scenario when using non-integer scaling.

Additionally, there are other filters that can be used on their own to provide a retro effect. Some of my favorites include the “Blargg” filters, which are an easy way to apply a TV-like effect to your display. Bear in mind that these filters do have a performance tax, and may not work well with your handheld device.

Filters cannot generally be combined with shaders, which also provide screen effects (we’ll talk more about them in a moment). So I would recommend using filters only if they provide the exact desired effect you’re looking for, or if you are only going to use them in combination with an overlay (we’ll also cover those in a moment!).

If you turn on a filter and like it, you can save it by creating an OVERRIDE. This can be found in the Quick Menu > Overrides > Save Game/Core/Content Directory Override. Game overrides will save the settings for that game only, core overrides will be specific to that emulator core (like Snes9x), and content directory overrides will save for every ROM in that folder (like SNES) regardless of core.

Shaders

Shaders behave much like a filter, but run off the GPU instead of the CPU. This can be advantageous because most emulators rely on CPU power the most, leaving us unused GPU processing power that we can then apply with shaders. The end result is that we can use many shaders without significant performance tax. There are also a LOT of default shaders to choose from, way more than filters, which gives us more options for customizability.

You will often find two types of shaders within RetroArch: GLSL shaders, and SLANG shaders. GLSL shaders are available for OpenGL-supported devices, and are the most common for low-powered retro handhelds. SLANG shaders are newer and more feature-rich, and are compatible with Vulkan, Direct3D, OpenGL, and other renderers. These shaders are generally not available on cheaper retro handhelds, but can be found on modern Android devices and handheld PCs.

If you are installing RetroArch yourself, either on an Android device or on Windows, it’s generally a good idea to update your shaders. You can do that by going to RetroArch’s Main Menu > Online Updater > Update (GLSL/SLANG) Shaders. This only needs to be done that first time, and maybe every once in a while afterwards if you want to make sure you have the latest and greatest shader options.

Shaders are saved in RetroArch by using a PRESET. After loading a game, enter the RetroArch Quick Menu and navigate to the Shaders section. There you can load various shader presets to find the one you like best. Note that after loading a shader, near the bottom of the menu you will have an option to adjust shader parameters. Once you are satisfied with the results, you can choose Save Preset > Save Game/Core/Content Directory Preset. Game presets will save the settings for that game only, core presets will be specific to that emulator core (like Snes9x), and content directory presets will save for every ROM in that folder (like SNES) regardless of core.

A note about KNULLI and shaders: KNULLI is unique in that it allows you to make RetroArch adjustments in their main EmulationStation frontend menu. By default, most systems will have a shader applied already, and if you attempt to save a new shader preset it will be overwritten by KNULLI the next time you start a game. In order to make sure your overlay presets “stick”, you want to turn them off in the EmulationStation menu. To do so, press START to bring up the main menu, then select Game Settings > Game Rendering & Shaders > Shader Set and set it to NONE. Now, when you set a game/core/content directory shader preset, it will save.

ROCKNIX/JELOS is similar in that you can set your shader within the main menu (also found in “Game Settings”), but thankfully they have the entire list of available shaders there, so it’s pretty easy to set up a shader in that menu instead — no need to deal with shader presets!

Personally, I use shaders for three different use cases:

• Interpolation shaders to balance pixels
• Handheld shaders to create an LCD grid effect
• CRT shaders to mimic the feel of an old TV

Each of these shaders can be found in their respective folder, after starting up a game: go to RetroArch Quick Menu > Shaders > Load Preset > GLSL or SLANG > (Interpolation, Handheld, or CRT):

Interpolation shaders will generally balance pixels like you will find with a bilinear filter, but with a sharper overall image output. These shaders are excellent if you want mostly even pixels and a relatively sharp image without the CPU tax that comes from using filters. These shaders can also be combined with overlays to provide balanced pixels, sharp edges, and whatever effect the overlay provides (like bezels or an LCD grid). Some common interpolation shaders include Pixellate, Bandlimit-Pixel, and Sharp-Bilinear-2x-Prescale; these will smooth out the image while remaining relatively sharp.

Note that interpolation shaders can sometimes suffer from “shimmering”, when the image wobbles while scrolling. This can be addressed by manually installing a shimmerless shader, which will be detailed in the next section.

Some of my recommended interpolation shaders:
/pixel-art-scaling/pixel_aa (sharpest)
/pixel-art-scaling/pixel_aa_fast (for low-powered devices like RK3326)
/interpolation/bandlimit-pixel (sharp but slightly demanding)
/interpolation/pixellate
/interpolation/sharp-bilinear-2x-prescale

Handheld shaders can either mimic an original handheld’s screen, or provide more generic results like an LCD grid effect. There are some heavy-duty shaders in this folder, especially those that mimic the specific handheld’s screen, so they may not be a great fit for your handheld because they can negatively affect performance. A common shader to apply for systems like GB/GBC/GBA is LCD3x, which is lightweight and provides a simple LCD grid effect.

Grid shaders will darken the image on your screen. You can either adjust the brightness on your panel, or tweak the shader’s settings via RetroArch Quick Menu > Shaders > Shader Parameters. For many shaders, here you can adjust the Brighten Scanlines or Brighten LCD values until you find the settings that match your panel and tastes.

CRT shaders can provide an excellent visual experience with just one single setting. These are often best used with emulated home console systems, because they often provide a scanline effect, slight image softening, and the natural blooming that comes from playing on a CRT television. Some will even include a natural curvature to mimic old TVs!

But keep in mind that CRT shaders generally require integer scaling to properly show scanlines and other effects — some, like the CRT-Consumer (SLANG) shader, can often look fine with non-integer scaling. Unfortunately, some of the really impressive CRT shaders (like CRT-Consumer) require a lot of performance power, and so they are limited to more powerful 4:3 handhelds like the Retroid Pocket 2S or Anbernic RG405M.

Some of my recommended CRT shaders:
/crt/crt-1tap (light effect)
/crt/crt-blurPi (light effect, supports non-integer scaling)
/crt/zfast-crt-geo-svideo (dramatic effect)
/crt/consumer (demanding)

One last note: shaders can be manipulated well beyond just finding the right one to match your needs. They can be stacked on top of one another — like using a bloom shader appended by a CRT or scanline shader. Additionally, within the shaders menu there is an option called Shader Parameters — this will allow you to adjust the shader to better suit your mood.

Shimmerless shaders

Many interpolation shaders will suffer from an effect called “shimmering”, where the image has a slight wobbling effect when the screen is scrolling. This is hard to see on most handhelds due to their small screens. There is a shader that minimizes this issue, but it is not installed with RetroArch by default. Instead, you will have to manually install this shader (note that it is already pre-installed on some custom OS options, like muOS and GammaOS, as detailed below). Below are instructions on how to get it directly from the author’s GitHub page, but I’ve also included it in the RGC Overlay Pack at the end of this guide, along with other shaders, overlays, and palettes that may be of use.

1. Head over to this GitHub page, and then click on the green “<> Code” button, and select “Download ZIP”.
2. Once downloaded, unzip the file and you will find two folders: shaders_glsl and shaders_slang.
3. Choose the folder that corresponds to the shaders your device uses (generally it will be GLSL for low-powered Linux handhelds, and SLANG for Android).
4. Now you want to add this folder to your device. You can really place it anywhere as long as you navigate to it within RetroArch, but I prefer to put it in a standard RetroArch folder for easy access. That location will depend on the operating system you are using.

One you have it installed on your device, open up a game then select RA Quick Menu > Shaders > Load Preset and navigate to its location. I generally just use the standard sharp-shimmerless shader, but you can experiment with the bgr/rgb (and vgbr/vrgb for vertical games) which support subpixel rendering by each color profile.

Once you are satisfied with the results, you can choose Save Preset > Save Game/Core/Content Directory Preset. Game presets will save the settings for that game only, core presets will be specific to that emulator core (like Snes9x), and content directory presets will save for every ROM in that folder (like SNES) regardless of core.

Overlays

The last major effects you can apply on your handheld screen overlays. While these can make a variety of changes to your game image, I like to think of them as “textures” that complement the rest of your effects. Some of the more common overlays will provide bezels to cover up any black bars on your screen, or scanline/grid effects that can be placed on top of your shader or filter effect. We’ll talk more about combining these effects in the next section.

RetroArch comes with some pre-installed overlays, but they are limited and mostly focused on 16:9 aspect ratio devices. On Android and iOS, there will be a touchscreen controller overlay turned on by default.

Like with shaders, custom overlays are stored in various locations depending on the operating system you are using.

To set up overlays, open up a game then select RA Quick Menu > On-Screen Overlay > Display Overlay > ON. Then, under Overlay Preset, navigate to the overlay you want to apply. Once selected, you can adjust some parameters like its opacity (some are designed to be used at a 0.70 opacity, others up to 1.00). After you have found an overlay that you like, you can save it as a Core, Content Directory, or Game Override.

Because most of the default overlays found in RetroArch are created with 16:9 displays in mind, community artists and developers have made several packs specific for 4:3 480p displays. Some are already pre-installed on certain operating systems, like muOS. Here are some of the most popular options:

• Jeltron’s Retro Overlays: these were primarily made with the Miyoo Mini Plus in mind, but they will work well with most other screens.
• Perfect Overlays: these were collected by mugwomp93, and adapted from 1playerinsertcoin’s work (full profile here).
• drkhrse Miyoo Bezels: these were also made with the Miyoo Mini Plus’ 480p screen in mind, but will work on other devices.
• RetroArch Perfect Overlays: this collection adapts both mugwomp93 and drkhrse’s work into one package.

These overlay packs have instructions either on their respective GitHub pages, or found in readme files inside of the pack. Be sure to follow their instructions for the optimal results!

If you turn on an overlay and like it, you can save it by creating an OVERRIDE. This can be found in the Quick Menu > Overrides > Save Game/Core/Content Directory Override. Game overrides will save the settings for that game only, core overrides will be specific to that emulator core (like Snes9x), and content directory overrides will save for every ROM in that folder (like SNES) regardless of core.

Which approach is best for you?

Now that we understand each screen effect and what they can do, let’s talk about applying each of these tools to reach your desired effect.

To start, you have to determine what sort of gaming experience you want when playing these retro games. You can generally classify your desired effect into three categories (thanks to Jeltron for the categorization help):

Modern pixels: this style generally uses minimal effects but focuses on having accurate, square pixels (sometimes referred to as “crispy”). This category is often associated with a clean integer scaling look, and maybe a light grid shader or overlay to complement the sharp textures. This isn’t necessarily how these consoles originally looked, especially on home console (CRT) systems, but they can look very crisp and chunky, which gives a retro vibe. A modern example would be recent pixel art RPGs like the Octopath Traveler series; you could even add a slight bloom shader to mimic those modern RPGs even more.

Also in this category would be interpolation shaders, which allow you to use non-integer scaling with a similarly balanced result (but not 100% crispy). In general, this is the closest you can get to a “pure/raw” (albeit not historically representative) look, and this is often what I demonstrate in my videos.

Upscaled image: this category uses shader and filter effects to create an “HD Remaster” look, similar to what you can find in some remastered releases from Square-Enix. These images will be rounded and inky looking, almost like a watercolor painting. While not traditional by any stretch, these can carry a unique look to your games and overshadow any pixel balance issues as well.

Pseudo authentic: this category applies any combination of shaders, filters, and overlays designed to recreate the original image on CRT televisions and original handheld console hardware. This type of approach will often make home console and arcade games look less pixelated but with more depth, just as they did on TVs at the time. For handheld systems, this category will focus on colorization, overlay borders, and LCD grids to enhance the immersive quality of playing handheld games on a handheld emulation device. Note that the most impressive shaders, like those within the Royale category, are too demanding for most retro handhelds; we’ll stick with more lightweight options in this guide.

Note that this category in particular can get extremely deep and complex, and many of the more heavy-duty shader effects require more power than most cheap retro handhelds can provide. But near the end of this guide I’ll show off some of my favorite examples that will work just fine on most handhelds today.

Some example setups

Let’s go through some common systems and scenarios to give you examples of what you can apply depending on your preferences. Note that these are only examples to show the range of choices you have available, to help narrow down what you prefer.

Game Boy

There are many different configurations when it comes to Game Boy screen effects. For these examples I focused on options that provide a more DMG-centered look, but you can get similar results with other Game Boy versions, like the Light and Pocket models. The first example uses integer scaling and a DMG-style overlay and Gambatte’s own Special 1 color palette; the GB image is only slightly smaller than it was on an original DMG Game Boy when using a 3.5″ screen. The second example combines Jeltron’s overlay and custom palette (note that this palette is unique to OnionOS on the Miyoo Mini/Plus devices), if using something else Jeltron recommends a PixelShift palette (explained here). The third example is using a custom overlay and palette from the “Perfect” pack, with non-integer scaling to make the image as large as possible.

Game Boy Color

Game Boy Color is also full of various options, and in these examples I tried to stay as true to a “realistic” experience without diving too far into special configurations. The first example is the simplest, with non-integer scaling and a GBC color shader instead of Gambatte’s default color correction. The second option is more thorough: it includes integer scaling, a slight offset to account for Jeltron’s overlay, and fast color for a slightly desaturated look. Finally, the third example is a middle ground between the other two, with non-integer scaling (and a shimmerless shader to balance pixels), then an overlay and fast color correction.

Game Boy Advance

As mentioned previously, the Game Boy Advance image is small when applying an integer scale, so I prefer to use non-integer scaling and then a combination of interpolation (or shimmerless) shader and an LCD grid overlay to create an image that is mostly balanced. It might not hold up under a microscope, but the results look spectacular to the human eye. Our first example is a simple LCD3x shader, which will give you the most uneven pixels with a grid effect. The second example includes the sharp shimmerless shader to balance pixels, which are then textured with Jeltron’s GBA overlay for a grid effect. In the third example, we have the same approach but with the “Perfect” overlay instead, which has a nice reflective color on the GBA logo.

Nintendo Entertainment System (and PCE/TG-16)

As we start to get into home console systems, let’s focus on CRT shaders and crispy pixels. We’re going to stick with a standard 4:3 aspect ratio, although some prefer an 8:7 aspect for systems like NES, PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16, and SNES. I’m going to lump NES and TG-16 together, since most games have the same 256×240 resolution, so the effect will be identical. The first example is a clean integer scale, and the second example is also integer scaled with an added CRT geom shader for a curved look with scanlines that add depth. For the third example, I combined non-integer scaling with bilinear filter to create a balanced look on a larger display, and then added Jeltron’s CRT overlay (1.00 opacity) for a textured effect that masks some of the bilinear filter’s softness.

Super Nintendo (SNES)

It’s hard to pinpoint a “perfect” SNES screen effect, because the system looks great under a variety of circumstances. The first example uses a simple sharp shimmerless shader to provide a clean, chunky effect that takes up the whole screen. The second example has naturally balanced pixels due to integer scaling, and uses Jeltron’s CRT overlay and a glow shader to create a bloom effect. Unfortunately there aren’t many bloom-style GLSL shaders at our disposal, and the kawaze shader’s effect is a little intense. Finally, the third example uses integer scaling and the CRT consumer shader for a rounded effect with balanced pixels.

Sega Genesis (and Sega CD)

Sega Genesis and Sega CD generally have natural integer scaling with small black bars at the top and bottom of the screen (although this is presented differently across emulators). In the first example, we have (natural) integer scaling and no shader, creating a clean look without any effects. The second example applies a simple CRT scanline overlay, and the third example adds a kawaze glow shader to make a softer, retro visual effect. Note that Jeltron’s scanline overlay produces a bit of a browner tint to darker shadows.

Nintendo 64 (and PS1, DC, and Saturn)

For more demanding 3D systems like PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, and Saturn, you may be limited in what screen effects you can use. Thankfully, these systems generally run at a native 240p or 480p resolution, so they will scale perfectly on the screen, and will naturally look good. But there are some lightweight effects you can apply to enhance your experience. In the first example we have no shader applied, for a clean/raw look. The second example applies Jeltron’s CRT overlay (1.00 opacity) to soften the hard edges, and the third example is a lightweight zfast crt shader which further enhances the effect with more depth.

Arcade games

Here are three examples that work well with (horizontally-oriented) arcade games. The first is a sharp-shimmerless shader to balance pixels while filling out the screen with non-integer scaling, which retains a more modern pixel look. The second is a crt-consumer shader, which is a slightly heavyweight shader providing a curved look that resembles older arcade cabinets. Finally, the third option is a non-curved crt-1tap bloom (SLANG) shader, which provides a nice depth of field and bloom effect.

Note that for Neo Geo games, they had a slightly wider aspect ratio, which gives us space to use a small border overlay to enhance the experience. I recommend the overlay you can find from Jeltron’s pack (instructions provided on his website).

Special considerations for OnionOS (Miyoo Mini/Plus)

The team behind OnionOS have done some wizardry with their software that warrants special attention, because setting up screen effects on the Miyoo Mini and Miyoo Mini Plus are a little bit different that what we’ve established in the guide so far. Despite being a much more limited platform due to firmware constraints, the team has actually made the setup process easier and more accurate than using stock RetroArch. In fact, OnionOS fixes a bug in mainline RetroArch that makes overlays look worse at partial transparency — so your overlay options will often look better and less washed out on a Miyoo Mini Plus compared to other devices. This bug fix was created by akouzoukos (the creator of Apotris!), which makes it even cooler.

The OnionOS team also implemented special Gambatte palettes in their RetroArch build, which color-match special overlays (made by Jeltron) that are also pre-installed on the system. Long story short, OnionOS gives you the flexibility to install some robust screen effects without having to manually install anything.

• To properly configure each recommended overlay setup on OnionOS, I recommend reading through Jeltron’s guide on GitHub. The shaders, filters, and overlays described in his guide are already installed on recent versions of OnionOS (v4.2 and beyond), so it’s just a matter of following the instructions on your device to get them up and running.
• The Jeltron GBC and NGPC filters reshade the pixels and apply a pixel grid, further enhancing the illusion of playing on an original handheld. They work great with GBC’s multiple color correction options, letting you dial in your preferred look and feel.
• The GB overlay, when combined with the proper palette, replicates a shadow being cast onto the screen lens, and the reflective nature of the screen itself. It’s especially apparent when playing games with a scrolling effect.
• OnionOS also supports bilinear and bicubic scaling, which gives you additional options when using non-integer scaling on systems like GBA. Alternating these two scaling options gives with textured overlays can produce some unique effects.
• The Onion CRT overlay options include many that aren’t featured elsewhere (due to the aforementioned RetroArch bug), including matrix and checkerboard patterns, which are definitely worth checking out on these devices.

Note that these tips do not apply to the V4 Miyoo Mini (with its higher resolution screen), just the Miyoo Mini Plus and the older (V3 and below) Miyoo Mini models. Jeltron has a separate pack for the V4 on his GitHub repo.

Other OS considerations

• For the stock operating system on Anbernic RG*XX devices, they will have overlays and shaders pre-applied. The stock firmware is constantly being updated (more info in my RG*XX starter guide), but for most versions it is easy to configure. Go to App Center > Apps > Bezels, by default it should be set to AUTO, which will make overlays appear on all systems. If you set it to OFF, the shaders settings will still apply, but games will be non-integer scaled without any overlays. At that point you can adjust the overlay settings however you would like and save them as a game/core/content directory.
  • Note that when plugging in your RG*XX device into an external screen via HDMI, it’s better to have the bezels set to AUTO because then the games will scale properly on a 16:9 display. If your bezels are set to OFF, the game image will stretch to fullscreen and look squished.

• For MinUI, most supported devices (including RG*XX devices, Miyoo Mini/Plus, Miyoo A30, TrimUI Smart Pro, and PowKiddy RGB30) have the option to add a light grid or scanline shader to the image. To do so, start up a game then press the Menu button > Options > Frontend and under Screen effect, select either Grid or Line. I prefer Grid for handheld (LCD) systems and Line for home console (CRT) systems. Note that these effects will darken the screen; to adjust the brightness, press Menu plus Vol+/- to reach your desired brightness level
  • MinUI also has integer/non-integer scaling options. This is also found in Menu > Options > Frontend, under Screen Scaling. “Native” is integer scaling, “Aspect” is non-integer scaling with the core-provided aspect ratio, and “Fullscreen” will stretch the image to full screen. You can use the screen effect (Line/Grid) settings regardless of scaling option.
  • Once you are happy with the results, go to Menu > Save Changes > Save for console (you can also choose “Save for game” for a per-game setting).

• KNULLI (and Batocera) has a habit of overriding your RetroArch settings with their own, which are configured in EmulationStation. They have a unique implementation of shaders (you can read more about it here), but I prefer to adjust the shaders directly in RetroArch, like with the other OS options found in this guide. If you are setting up your system in RetroArch but finding that the settings are not sticking when you close and open another game, go into the KUNLLI Main Menu > Game Settings and see if there are any settings that are turned on that are disrupting your RA overrides.
  • For example, if your shader presets are not saving and being overwritten by KNULLI’s default setting for that particular system, go into the system menu within KNULLI (i.e. the SNES games list, for example), then press SELECT and choose Advance System Options > Game Rendering and Shaders > Shader Set > NONE. That will remove any preconfigured shaders and allow you to save your own preset within RetroArch itself.
  • The same trick can be done with integer scaling and bilinear filtering; in fact for those two options I usually just set them in the KNULLI menu instead of within RetroArch just to make sure they don’t have any conflicts. It’s an extra step but easy once you get the hang of it.

• Adding shaders to KNULLI. If you try and place shaders in a folder within the regular file system (known as userdata in KNULLI), there is a bug in RetroArch where it won’t see the shader files. Instead, you must navigate to a certain folder FIRST, then navigate to where you saved the shader folder. It sounds complicated, but it’s actually pretty easy, I’ll walk you through an example.
  • For this example, let’s assume you saved the RGC shaders folder directly into the KNULLI ROMs folder for quick and easy access.
  • Open up a game in RetroArch, then press Menu + B to open up the RetroArch Quick Menu. Navigate to Shaders > Load Preset
  • Now, hover over the “Parent Directory” option at the top of the file system, and press A four times until you navigate to the root (“/”) directory. You’ll see it listed with a bunch of Linuxy folders like “bin, boot, dev, etc”. Navigate down to userdata > roms and then find the location of your RGC shaders folder. You should now see the appropriate shader files inside there, and you can load them and save the shader preset.
• If you aren’t able to manually load the shaders, bear in mind that nearly all of the shaders in my RGC shaders pack are already loaded on KNULLI. The one exception is the sharp-shimmerless shader; in that case, I would recommend using the pixel-aa shader as your interpolation shader as it works just as well (and is already loaded in KNULLI). Here are the locations of each shader within KNULLI’s RetroArch folder:
  • /crt/crt-1tap.glsp (subtle CRT effect)
  • /crt/zfast_crt_geo_svideo.glsp (dramatic CRT effect)
  • /pixel-art-scaling/pixel_aa.glsp (sharp interpolation that eliminates shimmering)
• More info about KNULLI and shaders can be found on their comprehensive wiki page.

My preferred setup for each system

In this section I am going to show my favorite configurations for each of the major systems. These are all collected in this RGC Overlays Pack, which you can install and load on the handheld of your choice. Note that none of these shaders and overlays were created by me, they are simply collected from the following resources for the purposes of streamlining this section. These reference packs have many more options if you want to dig further, which I encourage you to do!

• Jeltron’s Retro Overlays
• mugwomp93’s Perfect Overlays (adapted from 1playerinsertcoin)

These recommendations are made with low-powered handhelds in mind. If you have a 480p 4:3 device with more power (like a Retroid Pocket 2S or Anbernic RG405M), you have the ability to use high-end shaders like CRT-Consumer for greater effect. In the cases below, we’re going to try to enhance the game image without affecting performance.

Instructions: download the RGC Overlays Pack which contains three folders: overlays, shaders, and palettes. Place the overlays and shaders subfolders in the respective folder of your OS, as detailed in the shaders and overlays sections above. For example, with muOS you would place the shaders in SD1/MUOS/retroarch/shaders, and the overlays will go in SD1/MUOS/retroarch/overlays. The location is not super important, and if you cannot access the shaders/overlays folders on your own, no worries! Just make a new folder for each somewhere on the same card where your ROMs are stored, and then navigate to that location within RetroArch when loading up the shader or overlay. The palettes folder should be moved to the BIOS folder of your OS, so that it looks like BIOS/palettes/default.pal.

Let’s start with the handheld systems. For these, we have two options depending on the size of your screen and your preference towards perfect pixels. I would recommend integer scaling on 3.5″ or 4″ displays, and non-integer scaling on smaller (2.8″) displays — but try out both and see which one you like the most.

Game Boy (integer scaling): Jeltron overlay with PixelShift 03 or Special 1 colorization

For integer-scaled Game Boy, the Jeltron overlays provide a nice dark border and various screen effects to mimic the original handheld screen. Jeltron recommends the PixelShift 03 colorization option on the left, but you can experiement with other options to see what you like best (like Special 1, in the image on the right).

After installing the RGC overlay pack into the appropriate folders as explained above, start up a GB game. Press whatever key combo brings up your RetroArch Quick Menu (usually Menu + X). Press the B button to get to the Main Menu, then choose Video > Scaling and set the values as follows:

Integer Scaling: ON
Aspect Ratio: Custom
Integer Scaling: OFF (to reset scaling)
Custom Aspect Ratio (X Position): 80
Custom Aspect Ratio (Y Position): 12
Custom Aspect Ratio (Width): 480 (3x)
Custom Aspect Ratio (Height): 432 (3x)
Bilinear Filtering: OFF

Next, press B a couple times to return to the Main Menu, then select Quick Menu > Shaders > Video Shaders OFF. Then, go back to Quick Menu > On-Screen Overlay and set the following:

Overlay Preset: Jeltron_GB-DMG.cfg (in RGC overlays folder)
Overlay Opacity: 1.00

Press B to return to the Quick Menu, then go to Core Options and set the following :

GB Colorization: Internal
Internal Palette: PixelShift - Pack 1
PixelShift Pack 1 Palette: PixelShift 03 - BGB 0.3 Emulator
Interframe Blending: Simple

or 

GB Colorization: Internal
Internal Palette: Special 1
Interframe Blending: Simple

To check the results, go to Quick Menu > Resume Game. If you are satisfied, go back to the Quick Menu and select Overrides > Save Content Directory Override

Game Boy (non-integer scaling): Perfect overlay with custom palette or Special 1 colorization w/ 60% overlay opacity

For non-integer scaled Game Boy, the “Perfect” overlay provide a nice shadow effect at the edges and can use their custom palette. I have also found that using other colorization effects (especially Special 1) can really make some of the textures pop as well. With some colorization choices, like Internal-DMG, it might be best to reduce the overlay opacity to as little as 0.60 to provide more balanced contrast. Also bear in mind that this is a relatively BRIGHT shader, so reducing your screen’s brightness can help balance things out.

After installing the RGC overlay pack into the appropriate folders as explained above, start up a GB game. Press whatever key combo brings up your RetroArch Quick Menu (usually Menu + X). Press the B button to get to the Main Menu, then choose Video > Scaling and set the values as follows:

Integer Scaling: OFF
Integer Scale Overscale: OFF
Aspect Ratio: Core Provided
Bilinear Filtering: OFF

Next, press B a couple times to return to the Main Menu, then select Quick Menu > Shaders > Video Shaders > ON, then navigate to Load Preset and navigate to where you saved the shimmerless shader when installing the RGC overlay pack, and choose sharp-shimmerless.glsp. While still in the Shaders menu, select Save Preset > Save Content Directory Preset.

Then, go back to Quick Menu > On-Screen Overlay and set the following:

Overlay Preset: Perfect_GB-DMG.cfg (in RGC overlays folder)
Overlay Opacity: 1.00 (or adjust to taste)

Press B to return to the Quick Menu, then go to Core Options and set the following :

GB Colorization: Custom (for custom palette)
Interframe Blending: Simple

or 

GB Colorization: Internal
Internal Palette: Special 1
Interframe Blending: Simple

To check the results, go to Quick Menu > Resume Game. If you are satisfied, go back to the Quick Menu and select Overrides > Save Content Directory Override

Game Boy Color (integer scaling): Jeltron overlay with accurate or fast color correction

Jeltron’s integer-scaled GBC overlays are great, and really capture the essence of playing on a Game Boy Color. The big question is whether you prefer the more accurate colors on the left, or more saturated colors like on the right.

After installing the RGC overlay pack into the appropriate folders as explained above, start up a GBC game. Press whatever key combo brings up your RetroArch Quick Menu (usually Menu + X). Press the B button to get to the Main Menu, then choose Video > Scaling > Integer Scaling > OFF. Next, choose Aspect Ratio > Custom and set the values as follows:

Integer Scaling: ON
Aspect Ratio: Custom
Integer Scaling: OFF (to reset scaling)
Custom Aspect Ratio (X Position): 80
Custom Aspect Ratio (Y Position): 12
Custom Aspect Ratio (Width): 480 (3x)
Custom Aspect Ratio (Height): 432 (3x)
Bilinear Filtering: OFF

Next, press B a couple times to return to the Main Menu, then select Quick Menu > Shaders > Video Shaders OFF. Then, go back to Quick Menu > On-Screen Overlay and set the following:

Overlay Preset: Jeltron_GB-Color.cfg (in RGC overlays folder)
Overlay Opacity: 1.00

Press B to return to the Quick Menu, then go to Core Options and set the following :

Color Correction: GBC Only
Color Correction Mode: Accurate (desaturated) or Fast (saturated)
Interframe Blending: Simple

To check the results, go to Quick Menu > Resume Game. If you are satisfied, go back to the Quick Menu and select Overrides > Save Content Directory Override

Game Boy Color (non-integer scaling): Perfect overlay with 1.00 or 0.80 overlay opacity

If you prefer non-integer scaled GBC for the largest screen possible, then the “Perfect” overlays are an excellent match. They provide a grid and shadow effect, but can be quite dark at 1.00 opacity. I recommend experimenting with lower opacity levels to find what you like best.

After installing the RGC overlay pack into the appropriate folders as explained above, start up a GBC game. Press whatever key combo brings up your RetroArch Quick Menu (usually Menu + X). Press the B button to get to the Main Menu, then choose Video > Scaling and set the values as follows:

Integer Scaling: OFF
Integer Scale Overscale: OFF
Aspect Ratio: Core Provided
Bilinear Filtering: OFF

Next, press B a couple times to return to the Main Menu, then select Quick Menu > Shaders > Video Shaders > ON, then navigate to Load Preset and navigate to where you saved the shimmerless shader when installing the RGC pack, and choose sharp-shimmerless.glsp. While still in the Shaders menu, select Save Preset > Save Content Directory Preset.

Then, go back to Quick Menu > On-Screen Overlay and set the following:

Overlay Preset: Perfect_GB-Color.cfg (in RGC overlays folder)
Overlay Opacity: 1.00 or 0.80 (or whatever you like best!)

Press B to return to the Quick Menu, then go to Core Options and set the following :

Color Correction: GBC Only
Color Correction Mode: Accurate (desaturated) or Fast (saturated)
Interframe Blending: Simple

To check the results, go to Quick Menu > Resume Game. If you are satisfied, go back to the Quick Menu and select Overrides > Save Content Directory Override

Game Boy Advance (non-integer scaling): Perfect (75%) overlay with shimmerless shader

As discussed previously, GBA with integer scaling is too small on a 480p display. So instead we’re going to use non-integer scaling and the sharp shimmerless shader to balance the image as much as possible. From there, we are going to apply the “Perfect” 75% overlay (I really like its colorful GBA logo on the bottom; the Jeltron GBA overlay is more subdued if you prefer that look). Finally, you can choose to use color correction and interframe blending to further enhance the experience.

After installing the RGC overlay pack into the appropriate folders as explained above, start up a GBA game. Press whatever key combo brings up your RetroArch Quick Menu (usually Menu + X). Press the B button to get to the Main Menu, then choose Video > Scaling and set the values as follows:

Integer Scaling: ON
Aspect Ratio: Custom
Integer Scaling: OFF (to reset scaling)
Custom Aspect Ratio (X Position): 0
Custom Aspect Ratio (Y Position): 0
Custom Aspect Ratio (Width): 640
Custom Aspect Ratio (Height): 427
Bilinear Filtering: OFF

Next, press B a couple times to return to the Main Menu, then select Quick Menu > Shaders > Video Shaders > ON, then navigate to Load Preset and navigate to where you saved the shimmerless shader when installing the RGC pack, and choose sharp-shimmerless.glsp. While still in the Shaders menu, select Save Preset > Save Core Preset.

Then, go back to Quick Menu > On-Screen Overlay and set the following:

Overlay Preset: Perfect_GBA.cfg (in RGC overlays folder)
Overlay Opacity: 1.00 (or whatever you like best!)

Press B to return to the Quick Menu, then go to Core Options and set the following :

Color Correction: OFF or ON (based on preference)
Interframe Blending: ON (to reduce flickering)

To check the results, go to Quick Menu > Resume Game. If you are satisfied, go back to the Quick Menu and select Overrides > Save Core Override

Pixel-era home console (non-integer scaling): sharp shimmerless shader with or without CRT overlay

This section applies to the many home console systems in the pixel/retro era: NES, SNES, Genesis, TG-16, and so on. It can also be applied to MAME/FBNeo (horizontal) arcade games as well. For this group of systems, I think it’s most important to balance pixels while giving the game as large an image as possible. For this reason we’re going to use a sharp-shimmerless shader to balance the pixels for non-integer-scaled systems, and then an optional CRT overlay to provide more texture and a little depth. Also see below for a more dramatic CRT effect.

After installing the RGC overlay pack into the appropriate folders as explained above, start up a game. Press whatever key combo brings up your RetroArch Quick Menu (usually Menu + X). Press the B button to get to the Main Menu, then choose Video > Scaling and set the values as follows:

Integer Scaling: OFF
Aspect Ratio: Full
Bilinear Filtering: OFF

Next, press B a couple times to return to the Main Menu, then select Quick Menu > Shaders > Video Shaders > ON, then navigate to Load Preset and navigate to where you saved the shimmerless shader when installing the RGC pack, and choose sharp-shimmerless.glsp. While still in the Shaders menu, select Save Preset > Save Core Preset.

If you would like to apply a CRT overlay, go back to Quick Menu > On-Screen Overlay and set the following:

Overlay Preset: Jeltron_CRT.cfg (in RGC overlays folder)
Overlay Opacity: 1.00

To check the results, go to Quick Menu > Resume Game. If you are satisfied, go back to the Quick Menu and select Overrides > Save Core Override

If you are looking for a dramatic CRT shader that is lightweight, I would recommend the CRT > zfast_crt_geo_svideo shader. It is not available on some custom firmwares but can be found on the RetroArch GLSL shader repository, and is also included in the RGC Overlays Pack. Note that this shaders requires integer scaling for a balanced picture. If you’d like to go even further, you can layer another shader under the CRT shader to provide a more pronounced blooming effect, like in the images above. Note that some of the colors will be slightly modified by this shader (you can see it’s most prominent in the Super Mario Bros. 2 image — everything has a light blueish tone to it).

Shaders > Load Preset > Blur > kawase_glow
Shaders > Append Preset > crt > zfast_crt_geo_svideo
Shaders > Shader Parameters > Scanline Amount: 12.00
Shaders > Shader Parameters > Mask Amount: 0.40
Shaders > Shader Parameters > Convergence X-Axis: 0.50 (set to 0 for sharper image)
Shaders > Shader Parameters > Convergence X-Axis: -0.20 (set to 0 for sharper image)

Also make sure that you have any On-Screen Overlays turned OFF since they can conflict with this setup. If you are happy with these results, you can go back into the Shaders menu, then select Save Preset > Save Core Preset. Then go back to the Quick Menu and select Overrides > Save Core Override.

3D-era home consoles (integer scaling): Jeltron CRT overlay with bilinear filtering or shimmerless shader

This applies to systems like PS1, N64, Saturn, and Dreamcast. For this era of games, we are dealing with a higher pixel density, and also somewhat jagged 3D polygons. Applying a bilinear filter will smooth out those polygons and thanks to the higher pixel count, it will give the image depth without the blurriness that comes from using this filter on pixel-based systems. If the image is too blurry for your liking, you can turn bilinear filtering off and use the shimmerless shader to slightly soften the image instead. Also see below for a more dramatic CRT effect.

Note that depending on your device, it may be running a non-RetroArch emulator in order to improve performance (like the standalone N64 emulator used in muOS and other custom firmwares). If that is the case with your handheld, there is not much you can do in terms of enhancing the image.

After installing the RGC overlay pack into the appropriate folders as explained above, start up a game. Press whatever key combo brings up your RetroArch Quick Menu (usually Menu + X). Press the B button to get to the Main Menu, then choose Video > Scaling and set the values as follows:

Integer Scaling: OFF
Aspect Ratio: Core provided
Bilinear Filtering: ON

Next, press B a couple times to return to the Main Menu, then select Quick Menu > Shaders > Video Shaders OFF. Then, go back to Quick Menu > On-Screen Overlay and set the following:

Overlay Preset: Jeltron_CRT.cfg (in RGC overlays folder)
Overlay Opacity: 1.00

To check the results, go to Quick Menu > Resume Game. If the image looks too blurry for your game, then we can remove the Interframe Blending and apply a shimmerless shader instead. Go back to Main Menu > Video > Scaling > Bilinear Filtering > OFF, then return to the Main Menu. Select Quick Menu > Shaders > Video Shaders > ON, then navigate to Load Preset and navigate to where you saved the shimmerless shader when installing the RGC overlay pack, and choose sharp-shimmerless.glsp. While still in the Shaders menu, select Save Preset > Save Core Preset.

Once you are satisfied with your setup, go back to the Quick Menu and select Overrides > Save Core Override.

If you are looking for a dramatic CRT shader that is lightweight, I would recommend the CRT > zfast_crt_geo_svideo shader. It is not available on some custom firmwares but can be found on the RetroArch GLSL shader repository, and is also included in the RGC Overlays Pack. Note that this shaders requires integer scaling for a balanced picture, which is perfect for these 3D systems since they already are integer scaled on a 480p display. If you’d like to go even further, you can layer another shader under the CRT shader to provide a more pronounced blooming effect, like in the images above.

Here are my recommended settings:

Shaders > Load Preset > Blur > kawase_glow
Shaders > Append Preset > crt > zfast_crt_geo_svideo
Shaders > Shader Parameters > Scanline Amount: 12.00
Shaders > Shader Parameters > Mask Amount: 0.40
Shaders > Shader Parameters > Convergence X-Axis: 0.50 (set to 0 for sharper image)
Shaders > Shader Parameters > Convergence X-Axis: -0.20 (set to 0 for sharper image)

Also make sure that you have any On-Screen Overlays turned OFF since they can conflict with this setup. If you are happy with these results, you can go back into the Shaders menu, then select Save Preset > Save Core Preset. Then go back to the Quick Menu and select Overrides > Save Core Override.

720 x 720 screen settings

While this guide is focused on standard 640×480 resolution (4:3) displays, another popular screen type is 720×720 (1:1). These screens are found in devices like the PowKiddy RGB30, ZPG A1 Unicorn, and Anbernic RG Cube handhelds. Here are my preferred settings for each of the popular emulated systems.

To start, download the 720×720 overlays pack available on Jeltron’s Retro Overlays repository, since we’ll be using several of them. Install them on your device like you did the RGC shaders and overlays pack noted above. Note that for many of the system-based Jeltron overlays, there are pixel offsets and dimensions specific to those consoles, so be sure to read through their readme file to configure everything properly.

In order to use the pixel_aa and pixel_aa_fast shaders, you may need to run the Main Menu > Online Updater > Update GLSL Shaders function within RetroArch. If the option is not there (like with the stock version of Anbernic’s H700 firmware), you will need to go into Settings > User Interface > Menu Item Visibility > Show Online Updater > ON.

With the pixel_aa shader, before saving it as a Core Preset, go into Shader Parameters > Enable subpixel AA > 1.00 to help balance and sharpen pixels even more. You can use other shaders (like sharp shimmerless), they will produce the same result, but the pixel_aa is my favorite for this screen because it makes everything look very crisp.

For GB/GBC and NGPC in particular, Jeltron has some wonderful integer-scaled overlays for these screens, but I prefer to use non-integer scaling to blow the image up as large as possible, then use the pixel_aa shader to balance the pixels. Try out both methods to see which one you prefer!

Note that the Jeltron overlays will darken your screen, so you may need to increase the brightness to suit your needs. You can also try experimenting with the overlay opacity to find your preferred mix of overlay plus screen intensity; the opacity recommendations above are simply my favorites.

Changelog

17NOV2024:
– added Spruce (Miyoo A30) overlay location

18OCT2024:
– added 720×720 section

23SEP2024:
– added links to KNULLI’s updated shaders wiki page

02SEP2024:
– added a section about adding shaders to KNULLI specifically, which can be tricky. You can find it in the Other OS Considerations section.

01SEP2024:
– published guide
– added some recommended shaders thanks to community feedback

Syncthing is a powerful peer-to-peer file synchronization service, available on a variety of platforms. In this guide I’ll walk you through the basics when it comes to setup and syncing your saves and save states within RetroArch.

Table of Contents

What is Syncthing?
RetroArch best practices
Set up a host PC
Set up a handheld client
Connecting devices to one another
Android
ROCKNIX (and JELOS)
ArkOS
muOS
KNULLI (and Batocera)
CrossMix OS
Onion OS
spruceOS
Windows handheld PC
Steam Deck
Notes

Changelog

What is Syncthing?

Before you decide whether to use this tool with your favorite handhelds, let’s talk about what Syncthing is (and perhaps more importantly, what it isn’t). We’ll also go over some advantages and disadvantages of a setup like this.

• Syncthing is a peer-to-peer file synchronization app. This means it connects from one device to another, with no middleman. For example, this is not a cloud service, those will generally connect elsewhere (like Dropbox) and sync from there. Instead, you will need to connect your device to another handheld, or a host machine (like a PC) to sync your files. This syncing process is faster and more secure, and doesn’t rely on a third party for network upkeep.
• Syncthing is multi-platform. It is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac, and has host applications on Android too. Many Linux-based handheld OS options, such as muOS, KNULLI, and ROCKNIX, have native support for Syncthing too. Once you have the process down, adding a new device can be very easy.
• For the best results, use a PC host machine. It’s possible to simply sync between one device and another, but most handheld OS setups are dependent on a PC (Mac, Windows, or Linux) for the initial configuration. I’ve found that my ideal setup is to use a PC in my home that is always on and running Syncthing, which can then sync with every handheld as I use them. It also then serves as an unofficial backup machine as well.
• Your “host PC” doesn’t need to be a PC! I’ve heard many stories of people using devices like an Android phone or TV box, or a Raspberry Pi, to be a lightweight Syncthing machine.
• Syncthing can happen across the Internet, just not on your local network. The beauty of Syncthing is that once the devices are synced with your host PC (which will likely simply reside on your home network), even if they are connected to WiFi elsewhere they will still find one another and sync, provided your host PC is up and running at home. So you can take your handhelds on travel, connect them to any WiFi (or a hotspot on your phone), and they will still sync up as needed.
• This app can sync just about anything. In this guide we’re going to focus on RetroArch saves and save states, but you could also sync saves from other standalone emulators, or even your ROM folders themselves.
• It can get complicated. For example, by default RetroArch writes its save states into folders by core name, which means that in order to get them to sync, you’ll need to use the same RetroArch core for each device. Some devices, like the Miyoo Mini Plus, use modified or non-standard cores for optimal performance, which can cause incompatibilities with other handhelds. So just bear in mind that even if you have everything set up, some handhelds (and emulated systems) can become problematic.
• Save states can be tricky. In this guide we’ll set up syncing for save states (.state) and in-game memory save files (.srm), but SRM files are generally more stable. They can be used across many RetroArch cores, whereas save states are mostly core-dependent. Additionally, the way that some handheld OS options handle save states can vary, which may inadvertently overwrite a beloved save state. We’ll set up Syncthing to keep version backups in case this happens, but just bear in mind that there is more risk when using a save state vs a save file. There is a balance here — save files will be more stable and compatible, but save states can be more convenient.
• It takes a moment to sync. Some OS options have a handy suspend-resume function, where you can quickly power off your device and then boot right back to where you were previously thanks to auto load/save states. This function can sometimes not play well with Syncthing, because the sync may not complete in the short time that it takes to power down, and when it powers up, it may start RetroArch before you are connected to your network, which means it won’t sync or load the latest save file. For the best results, you will want to fully close your game (and quit RetroArch) and wait a few seconds before powering down your device, and when powering on the device, allow it to connect to your network and sync before starting up a game. This reduces the “pick up and play” aspect of a suspend-resume device, so it’s another balance to weigh when choosing a Syncthing setup.
• Syncthing can drain your battery more quickly (especially on Android). Because this is a network service, it will result in increased network activity, which will by definition be more taxing on your battery than not syncing. This can be especially bad on Android, which will constantly be searching for file changes in your folders. Here are some tips to improve the Android battery experience, and I also cover them in the video guide above (and Android section below).

So if I haven’t scared you off at this point, let’s actually start getting set up.

RetroArch best practices

Let’s go over a couple tips that will help you get the best experience with this setup. Bear in mind that this guide assumes you have a rudimentary understanding of RetroArch and how to navigate its menus; if you are brand new to the app, check out my RetroArch starter guide.

Standardize your ROM library. RetroArch names its save files based on the names of your ROM files. If you have a haphazard collection of ROMs floating around on each of your devices, they will not sync properly. Instead, consider having a single ROM library that you can then use to populate each of your devices. Personally, I own an external SSD that hosts all of my ROM files, and all of my devices (and their SD cards) are populated from this single resource. This will standardize the games list and their file names so that the save files will work properly.

Standardize your RetroArch save settings. The way that each handheld OS is configured for saves and save states can vary, and there are many ways you can set this up. The setup process that I recommend is currently based on the way that most of these handheld OS options save their files, or can be easily modified to be compatible

Like I mentioned in the section above, save states can be tricky. If you want the most consistent results with Syncthing, I would recommend mostly relying on SRAM (in-game) saves instead of save states. If you do prefer to use save states, I would recommend saving and loading them manually (via hotkeys) instead of turning on auto save/load. If you really want to use auto save/load states, I would recommend using them with incremental save states, which we will configure below. We’re also going to save 10 incremental save states per game so that you can always go back to one in the RetroArch Quick Menu settings and revert to an old state in case the setup accidentally overwrites a crucial file.

When using incremental save states, there may be a moment where your device loads a state from a different increment than your device, and that conflict will result in loading an older save state. If that happens, open your device’s RetroArch Quick Menu while playing the game, then go into the Save States quick menu, adjust the increment, and load the state. Keep trying that until you find the state you are looking for.

With that out of the way, let’s go over my recommended save settings. This will need to be configured within RetroArch one time on each device (including your host PC) to make sure everything is uniform. I think that muOS’s settings are fairly standard, so let’s use that as our standard too.

Open RetroArch then navigate to Settings > Saving, and set the following configurations (some may already be set):

Sort Saves into Folders by Core Name: ON
Sort Save States into Folders by Core Name: ON
Sort Saves into Folders by Content Directory: OFF
Sort Save States into Folder by Content Directory: OFF
Write Saves to Content Directory: OFF
Write Save States to Content Directory: OFF
Auto Save State: ON (optional, see notes above)
Auto Load State: ON (optional, see notes above)
Increment Save State Index Automatically: ON
Maximum Auto-Increment Save States to Keep: 10

Optional:
Don't Overwrite SaveRAM on Loading Save State: ON (see note below)

^ The above option is recommended if you are going to be using auto save/load states, because it will preserve your in-game saves when writing a new save state.  This will reduce accidental overwrites of your game data, but also keep in mind that it can cause some compatibility issues with certain games (SNES in particular).

Once complete, go to the RetroArch Main Menu > Configuration File > Save Current Configuration. If your OS uses both RetroArch64 and 32 independently (like ArkOS), then you may need to do this for each RetroArch version.

Some OS options (like ROCKNIX) will place its saves in the same folder as the ROMs by default. This is convenient for offline backups, but can really wreak having on a Syncthing setup. For this reason, you’ll want to change the saving options as we see above, and then manually move any old save files from your ROM folder to the new save folder (more instructions in the ROCKNIX section).

Set up a host PC

For best results, you will want a PC host machine — it will act as “home base” for your files, and devices will sync with your PC as needed. Windows, Linux, or Mac will work fine, even an Android device or Raspberry Pi can get the job done — but for this setup we’re going to use a Windows PC.

It is also possible to set up Syncthing without a “host machine”, so you can share directly from one handheld to another, and I explain that process in the “Connecting devices to one another” section down below. But bear in mind that most of these handheld operating systems require a PC for their initial setup.

• If you haven’t already, download and install the latest Windows release of RetroArch onto your PC. You can download the Nightly or Stable version, I prefer the Nightly version. Once installed, run the program once to populate the folders we’ll use for syncing. Additionally, go into Settings > Saving and make the recommended save state changes indicated in the section above. Once complete, you can exit out of the app.
• Download the latest release of Syncthing for Windows. Run the exe and install the app (approve any security permissions errors you encounter). When prompted, choose to run Syncthing when Windows starts, and then choose to open the Syncthing configuration client (you can also go directly to it by typing in http://127.0.0.1:8384 or localhost:8384 in your web browser’s address bar).
• Under the Folders menu on the left side, click on the “Add Folder” button. Let’s set up our save files first.
  • In the General tab, create a Folder Label (like “ra-saves”), and then under Folder Path, type in the location of your RetroArch saves folder. By default it will be C:\RetroArch-Win64\saves — I would recommend navigating through your C: folder just to verify. (Mac users: the default RetroArch folder will be found in your Documents folder.)
  • In the File Versioning tab, change the File Versioning to “Simple File Versioning”. This will store up to five backup versions of each file every time they are updated, in case you need to restore one of them later. Syncthing will clean these up over time, so there’s no additional work on your end.
  • That’s it, we’ve now set up the save files folder on our host machine.
• Repeat this setup process for save states. I recommend the Folder Label “ra-states” and the folder path should be C:\RetroArch-Win64\states — all other configurations should be the same.

Note that if you used EmuDeck to set up RetroArch previously, the save file locations will be different.

Saves: C:\Users\%USERPROFILE%\emudeck\EmulationStation-DE\Emulators\RetroArch\saves
States: C:\Users\%USERPROFILE%\emudeck\EmulationStation-DE\Emulators\RetroArch\states

If you are going to set up Syncthing on other operating systems, I recommend these apps:

• MacOS client (RetroArch files are found within the Documents directory)
• Linux — often found within each distribution; packages for Ubuntu and Debian are here

Throughout this guide you may get prompts from Syncthing to set up a username and password for each client, or various security vulnerability warnings associated with your handheld. For this setup we’re not going to set up any credentials, since we’re syncing save files, not banking information or precious cat photos, and our host PC is within our home network. But if you plan on using your host PC as a mobile device, for example with a laptop that you will connect to unsecured public networks (like an airport or coffee shop WiFi), then I would recommend setting up login credentials on that machine. To do so, open the host PC’s Syncthing web interface, then click on Actions > Settings. In the GUI tab, add GUI Authentication User and Password information, then click Save. This will prompt you to log in with your credentials, and provide an additional layer of security.

Set up a handheld client

Now that we have a host machine that will work as our “home base” for our saves and states, let’s connect it with a handheld. Each handheld (and OS) is a little different, and I have instructions for each down below. We’re going to use muOS in this generic example because it’s fairly simple; if you aren’t using muOS, simply head to the instructions section of your preferred OS.

• Connect your device to your home network. In muOS, this can be found under Config > WiFi Network. Once connected, you should see a confirmation on the bottom-right of the WiFi Network screen along with your IP address (which will look like 192.168.86.XX with XX being a number assigned to your device by your router). Make note of this IP address for later.
• Now, go to Config > Web Services > Syncthing and select ENABLE.
• For best results, go back to the main menu and restart your device, and wait for it to reconnect with your WiFi network.

Now that you have Syncthing enabled and your IP address noted, let’s connect your device to your PC host.

• Back on your PC, go into your web client (you can go directly to it by typing in http://127.0.0.1:8384 or localhost:8384 in your web browser). On the bottom-right side you will see a Remote Devices header: click on the “Add Remote Device” button.
  • On the following pop-up menu you should be prompted to add a device that is nearby, click on the Device ID (a string of characters).
  • Under the Device Name block, name it whatever you would like, I usually standardize it with “os-device” (as in “muos-rg35xxsp”).
  • In the Sharing tab, click on whatever folders you want to sync with the device (“ra-saves” and “ra-states” in this example), then click on the Save button.
• Open another tab on your web browser and type in the IP address of your muOS device. After the IP address, add a colon (:) and the port number of 7070. The full address should look like http://192.168.86.XX:7070
  • Note that if this doesn’t connect with your device, try port 8384 instead of 7070. muOS uses 7070 but most others use 8384.
• This will bring up another Syncthing web client, but this time it’s for the device and not your host PC. Now we can link the two together.
  • On this web client, you should get a banner prompt to add a new device. Click on the “Add Device” button.
  • If things go well, the Device ID and Device Name of your host PC should be pre-populated. You can change the Device Name if you’d like, but at this point you can just click the Save button.
  • After you have connected with the host PC, you’ll get two additional banner prompts to share the folders you chose earlier. Let’s do ra-saves first. Click on the Add button, and a pop-up will appear. In the Folder Path section, we need to direct it to where muOS places its RetroArch saves. Here are the locations:

Saves: 
mnt/mmc/MUOS/save/file (if using single-card setup)
mnt/sdcard/MUOS/save/file (if using two-card setup)

States: 
mnt/mmc/MUOS/save/state (if using single-card setup)
mnt/sdcard/MUOS/save/state (if using two-card setup)

Note that as you type in the path (like mnt/mmc/MUOS/save/file), Syncthing has a handy dropdown prompt to show you possible folder locations.

• That’s it, now just click on the Save button.
• Repeat this process but with the save states folder.

Congratulations, you are now synced! Anytime either the host PC or the device makes a change in the synced folders (i.e. saves a game), these changes will be reflected on the other device. Bear in mind that because this is a peer-to-peer service, both devices need to be running Syncthing at the same time for this sync to happen.

Connecting devices to one another

In the previous sections, we connected our devices to your single host PC. This is the simplest setup — any time your host PC is running Syncthing, a device will connect to it and sync its files. This allows your PC to act as a hub for all sync activity, as well as a backup repository for your save files.

However, you can also set up Syncthing to allow devices to talk directly to one another, not just the PC host. This means that instead of relying on the host PC as a middleman to sync your files, the devices can sync among themselves (provided they are both connected via Syncthing). This is totally optional but super cool!

To set this up, make sure that both devices (which we will name DEVICE1 and DEVICE2 for this demonstration) are connected to your network and running Syncthing, and already configured to sync the same folders with the host PC.

• Open up the web client for DEVICE1 (which will generally be http://192.168.86.XX:8384 on your web browser, with the device’s IP address).
• On the DEVICE1 web client, click on the “Add Remote Device” button on the bottom right of your screen.
• You should see the DEVICE2’s Device ID as a clickable link, click on that. Next, add whatever Device Name you would like.
• In the Sharing tab, click on whatever folders you want to sync with DEVICE2, then click on the Save button.
• Open up the web client for DEVICE2 (which will generally be http://192.168.86.XX:8384 on your web browser, with the device’s IP address).
• You should see a banner prompt to connect to DEVICE1. Click on Add Device and then Save on the pop-up window. After that, you should get more banner prompts, for each folder that you are sharing. Simply click the Share buttons for each and everything will be set up.

Now both devices will sync with one another in addition to the host PC.

Android

This guide will work with any Android device running RetroArch, including handhelds, smartphones, and tablets. There are two easy ways to install Syncthing on Android:

• Syncthing-Fork: this app is on the Play Store, and what we’ll be using for this setup.
• Syncthing (official): this app is no longer on the Play Store, but you can download a version on their GitHub releases page

Once you have installed Syncthing-Fork on your device, make sure that it is connected to your WiFi.

If you haven’t already, go into RetroArch on your device and set the Settings > Saving options as recommended in the RetroArch Best Practices section above.

• Back on your host PC, go into your web client (you can go directly to it by typing in http://127.0.0.1:8384 or localhost:8384 in your web browser). On the bottom-right side you will see a Remote Devices header: click on the “Add Remote Device” button.
  • On the following pop-up menu you should be prompted to add a device that is nearby, click on the Device ID (a string of characters).
  • Under the Device Name block, name it whatever you would like, I usually standardize it with “os-device” (as in “android-odin2”).
  • In the Sharing tab, click on whatever folders you want to sync with the device (“ra-saves” and “ra-states” in this example), then click on the Save button.
• On your Android device, swipe down from the top to bring up the notifications tray. You should see a Syncthing notification that your host PC wants to connect to your device. Tap on the small arrow on the right side to bring up an “Accept/Ignore” option menu, tap on “Accept”. You’ll get a window pop-up with options to change the name of your PC; otherwise, tap on the “Create” button on the top-right.
• Swipe down again from the top to bring up the notifications tray, and now you should see new Syncthing notifications asking you to accept connections from the host PC for the folders you specified earlier (“ra-saves” and “ra-states”). Tap on one of those notifications (let’s do “ra-saves” first) and “Accept” the connection, and then in the pop-up window you will see an option for a folder icon and the word Directory. Tap on that and then navigate to the location of your RetroArch saves folder. Here are the standard locations on Android:

Saves: Device root directory > RetroArch > saves
States: Device root directory > RetroArch > states

• Once you have navigated to your saves folder, tap on “Use this Folder” and accept any permissions requests. Once back in the pop-up window, tap on the “Create” button on the top-right.
• Do the same thing with the ra-states notification in your notification tray, and you are all synced.

Battery tips for running on Android: Because Syncthing will run constantly on your Android device, it can impact your battery life more than on other devices. Here are some tips to find the best balance between syncing and battery performance:

• Go to Settings > Syncthing Options and set the following:
  • Global discovery: OFF
  • Enable Relaying: OFF
  • Note: if you plan on accessing Syncthing outside of your home network (which is possible!), then leave these two settings ON.
• Go to Settings > Run Conditions and set the following:
  • Run on mobile data > OFF
  • Run without network connection > OFF
  • Run according to time schedule > ON (see note below)
  • Duration of the sync cycle: 5 minutes

With these settings, the device will only run Syncthing once per hour, for five minutes at a time. This will delay the sync process, so you won’t have instantaneous syncing, but it will drastically improve your battery life. Bear in mind that this will require your host PC to be running during that five-minute period when Syncthing runs on your Android device.

If you would like to manually sync (say for example right after a handheld gaming session and you’re ready to play on another device), open up the Syncthing-Fork app, then go to the STATUS tap and tap on “FORCE START / IGNORE RUN CONDITIONS”. This will turn on Syncthing and sync your files; after it’s complete, you can then tap on “FOLLOW RUN CONDITIONS” to go back to the sync-once-per-hour setup. Here are some more battery life tips.

Note that syncing saves from other emulator apps on Android can be problematic, because most of them save their data within the Android file system, which Syncthing cannot access without rooting your device first. Long story short: if the emulator allows you to choose where to put your app data (like PPSSPP or Lime3DS) then you can set it up with Syncthing. For others (Iike Duckstation and Dolphin) you won’t be able to without rooting your Android device.

ROCKNIX (and JELOS)

This setup guide will work for both ROCKNIX and its predecessor, JELOS.

The way that ROCKNIX is configured is unique — its save files are saved in the same folder as your ROMs, and the save states are saved in their own folder in the main ROMs directory. This setup give you easy offline access to those save files, and works really well when connecting between multiple devices running ROCKNIX, since they use the same file structure. But I have found that if you want to use Syncthing on ROCKNIX (or JELOS) with other devices running different operating systems, your best bet is to only in-game sync save files and not save states, because the save state organization isn’t really compatible with the other contemporary OS options out there.

Update RetroArch save location:

To get ROCKNIX in-game saves to work nicely with other devices on other operating systems, we are going to standardize the RetroArch saves location and manually move over any save files you want to preserve in their new location.

• In the main ROCKNIX menu, navigate to Tools > RetroArch (64-bit) to open RetroArch
• Navigate to Settings > Saving and make the following changes:

Sort Saves into Folders by Core Name: ON
Write Saves to Content Directory: OFF

(all other options should be off by default)

• Navigate to the RetroArch main menu > Configuration File > Save Current Configuration, then exit out of RetroArch.

Enable and configure Syncthing:

• In the ROCKNIX main menu, navigate to Network Settings
• Connect to your local WiFi if you haven’t already, and make note of your IP address
• Navigate down to Cloud Services > Enable Syncthing and turn it ON
• Return to the ROCKNIX main menu and select System Settings
• To make setting up easier, turn Rotate Root Password to OFF and then create a memorable root password.
• Restart your device to make sure all configurations are properly saved and enabled.

• Back on your PC, go into your web client (you can go directly to it by typing in http://127.0.0.1:8384 or localhost:8384 in your web browser). On the bottom-right side you will see a Remote Devices header: click on the “Add Remote Device” button.
  • On the following pop-up menu you should be prompted to add a device that is nearby, click on the Device ID (a string of characters).
  • Under the Device Name block, name it whatever you would like, I usually standardize it with “os-device” (as in “rocknix-rgb30”).
  • In the Sharing tab, click on whatever folders you want to sync with the device (just “ra-saves” in this example), then click on the Save button.
• Open another tab on your web browser and type in the IP address of your ROCKNIX device. After the IP address, add a colon (:) and the port number of 8384. The full address should look like http://192.168.86.XX:8384
• This will bring up another Syncthing web client, but this time it’s for the device and not your host PC. It will ask you to log in, the credentials will be “root” for the username, and whatever root password you configured in the previous step.
  • Once in the ROCKNIX web client, you should get a banner prompt to add a new device. Click on the “Add Device” button.
  • If things go well, the Device ID and Device Name of your host PC should be pre-populated. You can change the Device Name if you’d like, but at this point you can just click the Save button.
  • After you have connected with the host PC, you’ll get an additional banner prompt to share the ra-saves folder you chose earlier. Click on the Add button, and a pop-up will appear. In the Folder Path section, we need to direct it to where ROCKNIX now hosts its RetroArch saves. Here is the location:

Saves: storage/.config/retroarch/saves

• That’s it, now just click on the Save button. After a moment, your save files will be synced with the host PC.

Manually move over saves:

Now that we have set up our new saves folder, and synced our save files from Syncthing, we can manually move any ROCKNIX saves from its previous location to the new one. Bear in mind that this assumes the ROCKNIX file you are moving is your priority save file, and you want to overwrite any existing saves from other synced devices.

• If you have any old save files you want to preserve, go to Tools > File Manager and open the app
• Navigate to /storage/roms (it should start there by default), and then find the ROM folder of the game that has the saves you want to preserve
• Open the ROM folder and locate the save file, then press X to bring up a context menu; choose “Copy”
• Now, navigate to /storage/.config/retroarch/saves and find the core of whatever ROM file you are using (for example, Gambatte for GB or GBC).
• Press the X button again to bring up the context menu, then select “Paste”. If there is an existing save file in that location, you will get prompted to overwrite the file.
• That’s it, just repeat that for any other saves you want to transfer to Syncthing.

For more information about using Syncthing on ROCKNIX, check out their wiki page on the subject.

ArkOS

ArkOS doesn’t support Syncthing out of the box, but because it is based on Ubuntu it’s possible to set it up with a couple Terminal commands. Here is a great written guide by len0rd; note that this is a more advanced topic. If you run into any issues, there are a few solutions offered in this Reddit post, as well as in this guide from developer Sarav.

muOS

The instructions for setting up on muOS are the same as described in the handheld client section above, so I’ll simply repeat them here:

• Connect your device to your home network. In muOS, this can be found under Config > WiFi Network. Once connected, you should see a confirmation on the bottom-right of the WiFi Network screen along with your IP address (which will look like 192.168.86.XX with XX being a number assigned to your device by your router). Make note of this IP address for later.
• Now, go to Config > Web Services > Syncthing and select ENABLE.
• For best results, go back to the main menu and restart your device, and wait for it to reconnect with your WiFi network.

Now that you have Syncthing enabled and your IP address noted, let’s connect your device to your PC host.

• Back on your host PC, go into your web client (you can go directly to it by typing in http://127.0.0.1:8384 or localhost:8384 in your web browser). On the bottom-right side you will see a Remote Devices header: click on the “Add Remote Device” button.
  • On the following pop-up menu you should be prompted to add a device that is nearby, click on the Device ID (a string of characters).
  • Under the Device Name block, name it whatever you would like, I usually standardize it with “os-device” (as in “muos-rg35xxsp”).
  • In the Sharing tab, click on whatever folders you want to sync with the device (“ra-saves” and “ra-states” in this example), then click on the Save button.
• Open another tab on your web browser and type in the IP address of your muOS device. After the IP address, add a colon (:) and the port number of 7070. The full address should look like http://192.168.86.XX:7070
  • Note that if this doesn’t connect with your device, try port 8384 instead of 7070. muOS uses 7070 but most others use 8384.
• This will bring up another Syncthing web client, but this time it’s for the device and not your host PC. Now we can link the two together.
  • On this web client, you should get a banner prompt to add a new device. Click on the “Add Device” button.
  • If things go well, the Device ID and Device Name of your host PC should be pre-populated. You can change the Device Name if you’d like, but at this point you can just click the Save button.
  • After you have connected with the host PC, you’ll get two additional banner prompts to share the folders you chose earlier. Let’s do ra-saves first. Click on the Add button, and a pop-up will appear. In the Folder Path section, we need to direct it to where muOS places its RetroArch saves. Here are the locations:

Saves: 
mnt/mmc/MUOS/save/file (if using single-card setup)
mnt/sdcard/MUOS/save/file (if using two-card setup)

States: 
mnt/mmc/MUOS/save/state (if using single-card setup)
mnt/sdcard/MUOS/save/state (if using two-card setup)

• That’s it, now just click on the Save button.
• Repeat this process but with the save states folder.

KNULLI (and Batocera)

KNULLI offers Syncthing for all of the RG*XX devices (and the TrimUI Smart Pro), and it’s easy to set up. However, due to the way that saves are configured and the relatively locked-down nature of Batocera (from which KNULLI is forked), syncing its save configuration with other operating systems is problematic. For example, all saves and states are dumped into the same folder, which is contrary to the default RetroArch configuration (and how we’ve set up every other system in this guide). Instead, for the best compatibility and least amount of headaches, I recommend using Syncthing on KNULLI only with other KNULLI or Batocera devices.

Note that for KNULLI to work properly, your microSD cards must be formatted to ext4. This is done by default on KNULLI, but if you formatted to FAT32 or exFAT they won’t report changes to the filesystem, which will mess up syncing.

There is a full Syncthing setup guide available on the Batocera wiki, and this connection process will be the same with KNULLI. Here’s how to specifically set it up on handheld devices:

• Connect your device to WiFi via the Network Settings menu. Once connected, make note of your IP address in that same menu.
• Navigate to System Settings > Services > Syncthing > ON to enable the Syncthing service.
• Restart your device to make sure the changes have saved and are enabled.
• Repeat these steps for your second KNULLI or Batocera device.

Now we can connect our two devices, which we will name DEVICE1 and DEVICE2 for this portion of the guide.

• On a PC, open up the web client for DEVICE1 (which will be http://192.168.86.XX:8384 on your web browser, with the device’s IP address that we made note of earlier).
• Under the Folders section, click on the “Add Folder” button
• Under Folder Label, name it “saves”, and under Folder Path, write userdata/saves, then click the Save button.
• Back on the DEVICE1 web client main menu, click on the “Add Remote Device” button on the bottom right of your screen.
• You should see the DEVICE2’s Device ID as a clickable link, click on that. Next, add whatever Device Name you would like.
• In the Sharing tab, click on whatever folders you want to sync with DEVICE2 (“saves” in this case), then click on the Save button.
• Open up the web client for DEVICE2 (which will generally be http://192.168.86.XX:8384 on your web browser, with the device’s IP address).
• You should see a banner prompt to connect to DEVICE1. Click on Add Device and then Save on the pop-up window.
• You’ll see another banner prompt to connect to DEVICE1’s “saves” folder. Click on the Add button and under Folder Path, type in userdata/saves and then click on the Save button.
• The two devices should now sync with one another.

As an added bonus, these handhelds will sync directly with one another, without the need for a host PC as a middleman. You can repeat this process for any number of KNULLI or Batocera devices — handhelds, PC builds, and so on!

CrossMix OS (TrimUI Smart Pro)

This will help you get set up with Syncthing on a TrimUI Smart Pro running CrossMix OS.

To start, connect to your WiFi and then head to Apps > System Tools > Network > Display IP and make note of your device’s IP address.

Next, enable Syncthing by going to Apps > System Tools > Network > Syncthing > Enabled. Once enabled, restart your device for the best results.

Update RetroArch save location:

By default, CrossMix OS saves its RetroArch saves by content directory name (i.e. NES) instead of core name. In order to properly sync with other devices running other operating systems, we need to alter the way that RetroArch saves its games.

• Go to Apps > RetroArch and open the app
• Head to Settings > Saving and make changes as reflected below:

Sort Saves into Folders by Core Name: ON
Sort Save States into Folders by Core Name: ON
Sort Saves into Folders by Content Directory: OFF
Sort Save States into Folder by Content Directory: OFF
Write Saves to Content Directory: OFF
Write Save States to Content Directory: OFF
Auto Save State: ON (optional)
Auto Load State: ON (optional)
Increment Save State Index Automatically: ON
Maximum Auto-Increment Save States to Keep: 10

Optional:
Don't Overwrite SaveRAM on Loading Save State: ON (see note below)

^ The above option is recommended if you are going to be using auto save/load states, because it will preserve your in-game saves when writing a new save state.  This will reduce accidental overwrites of your game data, but also keep in mind that it can cause some compatibility issues with certain games (SNES in particular).

• Back on your PC, go into your web client (you can go directly to it by typing in http://127.0.0.1:8384 or localhost:8384 in your web browser). On the bottom-right side you will see a Remote Devices header: click on the “Add Remote Device” button.
  • On the following pop-up menu you should be prompted to add a device that is nearby, click on the Device ID (a string of characters).
  • Under the Device Name block, name it whatever you would like, I usually standardize it with “os-device” (as in “crossmix-tsp”).
  • In the Sharing tab, click on whatever folders you want to sync with the device (“ra-saves” and “ra-states” in this example), then click on the Save button.
• Open another tab on your web browser and type in the IP address of your TrimUI Smart Pro. After the IP address, add a colon (:) and the port number of 8384. The full address should look like http://192.168.86.XX:8384
  • This will bring up another Syncthing web client, but this time it’s for the device and not your host PC. When connecting, it will ask for your username (trimui) and password (trimuisync)
  • On this web client, you should get a banner prompt to add a new device. Click on the “Add Device” button.
  • If things go well, the Device ID and Device Name of your host PC should be pre-populated. You can change the Device Name if you’d like, but at this point you can just click the Save button.
  • After you have connected with the host PC, you’ll get two additional banner prompts to share the folders you chose earlier. Let’s do ra-saves first. Click on the Add button, and a pop-up will appear. In the Folder Path section, we need to direct it to where CrossMix OS places its RetroArch saves. Here are the locations:

Saves: mnt/SDCARD/RetroArch/.retroarch/saves
States: mnt/SDCARD/RetroArch/.retroarch/states

• That’s it, now just click on the Save button.
• Repeat this process but with the save states folder.

OnionOS (Miyoo Mini Plus)

OnionOS does not have native Syncthing support, but it can be installed manually. Here is an excellent video guide from Phyrex to help you get set up.

This app will only work on the Miyoo Mini Plus (not the original Miyoo Mini), since it has WiFi. This is also meant to run with the latest Onion v4.3.1 or later, so update if you haven’t already. For more information, here is the GitHub page for the OnionOS Syncthing client.

spruceOS (Miyoo A30)

Syncthing is natively supported on the Miyoo A30 running spruceOS.

• Go to Settings on your device and enable WiFi, then connect to your home network
• Once connected, make note of your device’s IP address within the Settings menu
• On the main spruceOS menu, go to Apps > RTC and set the clock on your device to the current time.
• Still in the Apps menu, click on the Syncthing app. It will take a moment to set up Syncthing and then return you to the Apps folder.

• Back on your PC, go into your web client (you can go directly to it by typing in http://127.0.0.1:8384 or localhost:8384 in your web browser). On the bottom-right side you will see a Remote Devices header: click on the “Add Remote Device” button.
  • On the following pop-up menu you should be prompted to add a device that is nearby, click on the Device ID (a string of characters).
  • Under the Device Name block, name it whatever you would like, I usually standardize it with “os-device” (as in “spruce-miyooA30”).
  • In the Sharing tab, click on whatever folders you want to sync with the device (“ra-saves” and “ra-states” in this example), then click on the Save button.
• Open another tab on your web browser and type in the IP address of your A30 device. After the IP address, add a colon (:) and the port number of 8384. The full address should look like http://192.168.86.XX:8384
  • This will bring up another Syncthing web client, but this time it’s for the device and not your host PC.
  • On this web client, you should get a banner prompt to add a new device. Click on the “Add Device” button.
  • If things go well, the Device ID and Device Name of your host PC should be pre-populated. You can change the Device Name if you’d like, but at this point you can just click the Save button.
  • After you have connected with the host PC, you’ll get two additional banner prompts to share the folders you chose earlier. Let’s do ra-saves first. Click on the Add button, and a pop-up will appear. In the Folder Path section, we need to direct it to where spruceOS places its RetroArch saves. Here are the locations:

Saves: mnt/SDCARD/Saves/saves
States: mnt/SDCARD/Saves/states

• That’s it, now just click on the Save button.
• Repeat this process but with the save states folder.

Some notes for spruceOS:

• Due to the nature of the Miyoo A30 and spruceOS, some emulator cores may differ from the standard cores used with most other operating systems. A good example is SNES: spruceOS uses the Supafaust core, while most others use Snes9x. Because we are saving our game files via core name, that means that SNES cross-compatibility won’t work. Other systems, like GB/GBC and GBA, will work fine because they use the same standard Gambatte and mGBA cores, respectively.
  • You CAN manually sync the Snes9x folder with the Supafaust folder to force updates between the two. This will only work with in-game save files and not save states.
  • On the spruceOS device’s web client, click on “Add Folder” and name the Folder Label “snes-saves”; for Folder Path, choose /mnt/SDCARD/Saves/saves/Supafaust
  • Under the Sharing tab, choose your host PC and then click the Save button
  • On your host PC’s web client, you’ll get a banner notification that the MiyooA30 wants to share the snes-saves folder. Click on the Add button and under Folder Path choose C:\RetroArch-Win64\saves\Snes9x and click the Save button. Now you should be able to sync saves between the A30 and your other devices (but not save states).
  • If you run into any timezone sync issues with spruceOS, it’s recommended to set your RTC to the UTC time zone and disable WiFi Time Sync in the settings.

Windows handheld PC

Windows handhelds (like the ROG Ally X, Lenovo Legion Go, and so on) are unique because you will need to manually install Syncthing before setting it up. For this guide we are going to assume that a different PC is acting as your host PC. If you are going to use the Windows handheld as a host PC, then follow the host PC configuration instructions above.

• On your handheld PC, download the latest release of Syncthing for Windows. Run the exe and install the app (approve any security permissions errors you encounter). When prompted, choose to run Syncthing when Windows starts, and then choose to open the Syncthing configuration client.

• Back on your host PC, go into your web client (you can go directly to it by typing in http://127.0.0.1:8384 or localhost:8384 in your web browser). On the bottom-right side you will see a Remote Devices header: click on the “Add Remote Device” button.
  • On the following pop-up menu you should be prompted to add a device that is nearby, click on the Device ID (a string of characters).
  • Under the Device Name block, name it whatever you would like, I usually standardize it with “os-device” (as in “windows-rogally”).
  • In the Sharing tab, click on whatever folders you want to sync with the device (“ra-saves” and “ra-states” in this example), then click on the Save button

• On your Windows handheld, open the Syncthing configuration client if you haven’t already, you can access it by typing http://127.0.0.1:8384 or localhost:8384 in your web browser.
• On the handheld PC web client, you should get a banner prompt to add a new device. Click on the “Add Device” button.
  • If things go well, the Device ID and Device Name of your host PC should be pre-populated. You can change the Device Name if you’d like, but at this point you can just click the Save button.
  • After you have connected with the host PC, you’ll get two additional banner prompts to share the folders you chose earlier. Let’s do sa-saves first. Click on the Add button, and a pop-up will appear. In the Folder Path section, we need to direct it to where RetroArch places its saves on Windows. Here are the locations:

Saves: C:\RetroArch-Win64\saves
States: C:\RetroArch-Win64\states

Note that if you used EmuDeck to set up RetroArch previously, the save file locations will be different.

Saves: C:\Users\%USERPROFILE%\emudeck\EmulationStation-DE\Emulators\RetroArch\saves
States: C:\Users\%USERPROFILE%\emudeck\EmulationStation-DE\Emulators\RetroArch\states

• That’s it, now just click on the Save button.
• Repeat this process but with the save states folder.

Steam Deck

Setting up Syncthing on the Steam Deck is possible, but can get quite complicated when you start factoring in other emulators. The EmuDeck team has a full writeup on their website to help you get started, but I would consider it to be an advanced topic.

Note that the RetroArch paths on Steam Deck are located here:

/home/deck/.var/app/org.libretro.RetroArch/config/retroarch/saves
/home/deck/.var/app/org.libretro.RetroArch/config/retroarch/states

Also note that the EmuDeck team is hard at work on creating a cross-platform cloud sync solution. It’s already working pretty great on the Steam Deck, with varying degrees of success on Windows EmuDeck as well. They’re also working on a sync solution for the Miyoo Mini Plus!

Notes

• This setup could be used with any number of standalone emulators. The trick will be to understand where each of their save files are located on your respective device, and then point them to the same location as you sync their folders. This could be done with PPSSPP, Dolphin, PCSX2, and so on.
• Syncthing could be used with more than just save files. For example you could host your retro ROM directory on your host PC, and then sync them with each device (provided they use a similar folder structure). This means you could add and remove games from your host PC and they will be similarly updated on each device.
• Developer Sarav has also written up a handy guide if you want to dive further into the world of Syncthing on retro devices.

Changelog

16JAN2025
– updated spruceOS notes based on feedback

30OCT2024
– updated muOS paths due to new update

13AUG2024
– fixed some typos

12AUG2024
– updates to the guide that I wasn’t able to finish in time of video release

11AUG2024
– published guide

It’s been a few years since I made a proper PortMaster guide, and there have been lots of updates to the platform since then. PortMaster started as a way for the ArkOS developer to easily collect various PC port options on their OS, but it has now grown to its own platform independent of any particular OS. This guide will help you get started with PortMaster on your favorite handheld device.

Table of Contents

What is PortMaster?
Supported devices
Installation
Port installation process
Installation examples
Porting other games
Notes

Changelog

What is PortMaster?

In a nutshell, PortMaster is a program designed for Linux-based handheld devices that organizes and simplifies the installation process for hundreds of PC ports. In its most simple form, you open the app on your device, download the PC port (and maybe add some commercial data files if necessary) from its user menu, and then launch that new PC port on your handheld once it’s been installed. These games run natively on the device, as opposed to the typical emulation you expect on these types of handhelds.

If you want the latest information about this awesome tool, I would recommend checking the official PortMaster website, which is maintained by their fantastic development team and other enthusiasts. They also have an active discord server for help with troubleshooting or if you want to help develop for the platform. Also, if you have the means, please consider donating to the project as a show of thanks for all the wonderful gaming opportunities they provide to the community.

Disclaimer: PortMaster (and porting PC games in general) is an experimental and fun project, but not perfect. The team does their best to test and confirm that these ports will be universally compatible with the 30+ handhelds that work with the platform, but there will be hiccups from time to time. It’s a complicated process, as the games, runtime files, firmware options, and the PortMaster app itself are all under constant development and improvement, which can cause bugs from time to time. If a game is not launching as expected, I would recommend checking out the PortMaster discord server to see if there are any insights from the community.

Long story short, I would not recommend buying a PC game at full price solely to play it on PortMaster, since there is a small risk that the game will not work properly on your favorite device or operating system. But if you already own the game, or you also want to play it on PC, or maybe there’s a killer sale on Steam, then it’s probably worth trying!

Also, please keep in mind that PortMaster is developed with Linux-based handhelds in mind. Android-based devices (like those from Retroid) have all sorts of excellent features and perks, such as Play Store games, effortless sleep and streaming, and more — but PortMaster is not available on Android.

Supported devices

The list of devices that are supported by PortMaster is constantly growing, and thanks to development work from the custom firmware community, it is often a matter of days before a new device has PortMaster support. There is an official list of supported devices on the PortMaster website, but it is not up to date as of making this guide (like I said, the list is constantly growing!).

Instead of focusing on an individual list of supported devices, let’s organize it by operating systems that support the platform:

• ArkOS: the initial release of PortMaster was designed by the ArkOS developer, but since then it has expanded to other communities. Thankfully, PortMaster continues to work on ArkOS!
  • Supported devices: Anbernic RG351* and RG353** series, PowKiddy RGB30 and RK2023, R35S and similar handhelds, GameForce Chi, and other legacy devices like the PowKiddy RGB10, OGA, etc.
  • * The Anbernic RG351P and RG351M devices were dropped from ArkOS support prior to PortMaster’s inception, so you will need to use the WuMMLe versions of that OS to bring PortMaster onboard.
  • ** Not all Anbernic RG353 devices are supported by ArkOS, only the RG353M, RG353V, and RG3553VS (plus the RG503, which has the same chipset). The RG353P and RG353PS devices will still generally work with the RG353M build of ArkOS, but aren’t officially supported by the developer.

• AmberELEC: formerly known as 351ELEC, one of the lead PortMaster developers also works on the AmberELEC team and so they are synced very well. Development on this OS has slowed over the years, but it’s still a solid experience for the devices work with it. Also, if you install the latest pre-release version of the OS, it will expand support to other handhelds like the R36S.
  • Supported devices: Anbernic RG351P, RG351M, RG351V, RG351MP, and RG552; PowKiddy RGB20S, XU10, R35X, R36S, D007 Plus

• ROCKNIX: formerly known as JELOS, this OS has a large range of supported devices, and some very robust Linux kernel foundation, making it streamlined and powerful.
  • Supported devices: Anbernic RG351 and RG353 series, RG-ARC, RG552, R35S and similar handhelds, PowKiddy RGB30 and X55 (among others), ODROID devices, and the GameForce Ace.

• UnofficialOS: this is a fork of JELOS that provides support to RK3326 and RK3566 devices. It no longer appears to be in active development, but PortMaster should still work on it for most games.
  • Supported devices: Anbernic RG351 and RG353 series

• The Retro Arena: this custom firmware (often stylized as TheRA) is based on Ubuntu and has various levels of support on a variety of handhelds. Many of their OS builds are in beta or unfinished states, so compatibility with PortMaster is relatively inconsistent. Your best bet is to consult their website and YouTube channel to see what projects they are currently working on.

• muOS: this OS is focused on Anbernic devices that use the H700 processor. There are some compatibility limitations with this chipset and PortMaster (many of which get better each day), and among the H700 OS options this one has the most compatibility with PortMaster.
  • Supported devices: Anbernic RG35XX Plus, RG35XX H, RG28XX, and RG35XX SP.

• KNULLI: this OS is a fork of Batocera focused on handheld devices, to include H700 chipset handheld with plans for more in the future.
  • Supported devices: Anbernic RG35XX Plus, RG35XX H, RG28XX, and RG35XX SP; TrimUI Smart Pro
  • By default, KNULLI uses an EXT4 file system for storage, which improves functionality with PortMaster. This is a Linux-readable file system, which means you can’t just plug your microSD card into a Windows/Mac computer to transfer files; instead, you will need to transfer files via a network connection (detailed in my RG35XX starter guide). If you are prioritizing PortMaster functionality on your KNULLI handheld, then keeping it at EXT4 is recommended; otherwise, it is possible to format the file system to exFAT for easier file transfers on Windows and Mac computers. More information on this subject is available in the Add Games and PortMaster sections of the KNULLI wiki.

• CrossMixOS: this is an enhanced version of the stock TrimUI Smart Pro OS, with baked-in PortMaster support.
  • Supported device: TrimUI Smart Pro
  • Note that the TrimUI Smart Pro is missing 32-bit drivers so many games (especially those with gmloaderr and box86 backends) will not run
  • Note you can also make PortMaster work on TrimUI Smart Pro’s stock OS using these tools
  • For commercial ports, their gamedata files will need to be placed in the Data > ports folder

One final note: while this guide is focused on handhelds, PortMaster is increasing support for TV boxes and SBCs within OS options like ROCKNIX. So be sure to check out the respective OS pages in case other devices you own are supported!

Installation

Note: PortMaster requires you to be connected to the Internet in order to work as intended, so be sure to connect to your local network before using it.

For most of the supported operating systems, they will already have PortMaster installed as part of the setup process. In general, you can navigate to the Ports section of that OS and find a link to the PortMaster app, and launch it from there. There are some exceptions: for example, in muOS, you can find PortMaster under their “Apps” section, and it’s in the “Tools” sections of ArkOS and ROCKNIX.

For KNULLI, you will need to run a built-in PortMaster install script the very first time. Head to Ports section on your device and choose “Install PortMaster”; once complete, it will restart EmulationStation, and under the Ports section you should now just see the PortMaster app.

If the OS doesn’t have PortMaster listed (for example if you updated from an older version of that OS), you can manually install PortMaster. There are two methods to this: you can add a custom installation script that will install PortMaster, or you can install the “full” version of this script which will include all of its runtimes (usually these are installed as needed when you install individual ports, so this just saves you that extra step later).

• Head over to the PortMaster GitHub Releases page
  • Download the latest “Install.PortMaster.sh” or “Install.Full.PortMaster.sh” file onto your computer
  • Insert your device’s microSD card (if you are using a dual-card setup, it will be whatever card you use to store your ROM files)
  • Place the .sh file of your choice into the “Ports” section of your device’s microSD card (it will usually be listed in the same section as the rest of your ROMs folders, which can vary by OS).
  • Eject your SD card and place it in your device, then navigate to the Ports section of your OS and launch the “Install PortMaster” script.
  • Once complete, you should see PortMaster in the Ports section of your device; if not, try restarting the device and checking again.

That’s it, you should now be able to launch PortMaster! If it’s been a while since you last launched the app, it will likely have an update waiting for you, and will restart the app when ready.

Port installation process

Note: PortMaster requires you to be connected to the Internet in order to work as intended, so be sure to connect to your local network before using it.

When you open PortMaster on your device, you will be be greeted by their main menu:

• Featured Ports: these are recommended ports curated by the PortMaster team.
• All Ports: this is a full list of all ports available on the platform, all 500+ of them
• Ready to Run Ports: these are freeware, open-source, or games that PortMaster got express permission to distribute. These ports fully installed directly from the PortMaster interface, no commercial files required
• Manage Ports: this will allow you to reinstall or uninstall your current ports
• Options: here you can adjust the language, theme, and sound of the PortMaster app. This section also has a Runtime Manager app, that lets you install or reinstall runtime files to make sure your games are working properly
• Exit: this exits the app, of course! You can also just press the “B” button on your device while in the main menu to exit the app

Installing “Ready to Run” ports: this process is very simple, it’s just a matter of navigating through the Ready to Run Ports section, choose your game, and install it from there. Next, exit PortMaster and you should find it in your Ports section (if you don’t see it, you may need to refresh your games list or restart the device).

Installing commercial ports: Navigate to the “All Ports” section in PortMaster, choose the game, and install it. Note that this will only install the package/wrapper and any necessary runtime files for the game, not the game itself. After that, you will need to manually add the commercial files to your microSD card. For specifics, I recommend going to the PortMaster Games page on your computer, then find your game, and click the “Details” button for that game. This will show you instructions for where to put your commercial files, and whether you need to get the game from a specific store (like Steam vs Epic vs GOG).

Installing without WiFi: if you are using a device without network connectivity, you can still install ports. To start, make sure that you install (or update) PortMaster using the latest “Install.Full.PortMaster.sh” file explained in the Installation section above. After everything is installed and updated, you will find a PortMaster folder inside of your ROMs > ports folder on your device’s microSD card. Inside that PortMaster folder, you’ll see a folder named “autoinstall”. On your computer, browse the PortMaster Games section of their website, click on the game of your choice, then click the “Download” button to download that game’s zip file. Place the zip file in the PortMaster > autoinstall folder, and then next time you start PortMaster (even if not connected to the internet) the game will install into the appropriate location and be playable.

Because the installation process for commercial ports can vary, let’s go over a few examples that will demonstrate some of the main ways to install these games.

Installation examples

Here are some installation examples for various methods and operating systems:

Simple drag-and-drop (Windows): Half-Life

For a good chunk of games, you simply need to grab your game’s data files after installing it onto your Windows PC. Most PortMaster games will work with a Steam installation, but some others may specify if it needs to be from an alternative source like Epic, GOG, or Itch.io.

• Install Half-Life on your Windows PC via Steam.
• Within your Steam client’s “Library” section, right click on the game and select Manage > Browse Local File.
• Navigate to the “valve” directory, and drag this folder’s contents to the Ports > Half-Life > valve directory on your microSD card
• Eject the SD card, put it back into your device, then launch the game via your Ports section

Simple drag-and-drop (Mac): Balatro

Sometimes the simple drag-and-drop process will work on Mac without any issue. Balatro is an easy example.

• Install Balatro on your Mac via Steam.
• Within your Steam client’s “Library” section, right click on the game and select Manage > Browse Local File.
• In Finder, you will see an app called Balatro.app. Right-click on that, then select Show Package Contents > Contents > Resources
• Find the Balatro.love file, and drag this into the Ports > Balatro folder on your microSD card
• Eject the SD card, put it back into your device, then launch the game via your Ports section

For games that require the Windows files specifically, you can still get them via Mac, by following the “Install Linux version via Steam (Mac)” section below but with the Windows version of the game instead.

Install Linux version via Steam (Windows): Shovel Knight – Treasure Trove

Sometimes, the port will require the Linux version of the game. It’s still possible to grab those files from a Windows PC, and it’s pretty easy once you get the hang of it. Let’s use Shovel Knight as our example.

• On your Windows PC, press WIN + R to bring up the Run command
• In the Run window, type steam://open/console and press ENTER
• This will open up Steam into a new tab called “Console”
• Head over to steamdb.info and search for the game (Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove in this example)
• Make note of the App ID of the game (250760), then click on the Depots section on the left and note the Linux file Depot ID (250764 as of making this guide; this number may change with future updates to the game)
• Back on the Steam Console tap, type download_depot 250760 250764 and press ENTER
• Wait a while for the game to download (it can take upwards of 20 minutes), then the console window will show you the location of the file depot
• Copy that location, then paste it into a Windows navigation bar to go directly to that folder
• Copy the folder contents (in this case it should be subfolders named 32, 64, and data) and drag them into the Ports > shovelknight > gamedata > shovelknight folder on your microSD card as specified in the PortMaster game page
• Eject the SD card, put it back into your device, then launch the game via your Ports section

Install Linux version via Steam (Mac): Undertale

Installing the Linux version of a game via Mac is also possible, and it’s pretty easy once you get the hang of it. This can also be used for ports that require the Windows version of the game when you are on a Mac. Let’s use Undertale as our example.

• On your Mac, open the Terminal app (it can be found in your Applications folder)
•  Exit out of Steam if you have it open, then type the following command /Applications/Steam.app/Contents/MacOS/steam_osx -console and press ENTER
• This will open up Steam into a new tab called “Console”
• Head over to steamdb.info and search for the game (Undertale in this example)
• Make note of the App ID of the game (391540), then click on the Depots section on the left and note the Linux file Depot ID (391544 as of making this guide; this number may change with future updates to the game)
• Back on the Steam Console tap, type download_depot 391540 391544 and press ENTER
• Wait a while for the game to download (it can take upwards of 20 minutes), then the console window will show you the location of the file depot
• Copy that location, then go to Finder > Go > Go to Folder and paste it in. You may get an error, if so you can navigate to /Users/(NameOfMac)/Library/Application Support/Steam/Steam.AppBundle/Steam/Contents/MacOS, then go to steamapps > content > app_391540 > depot_351544 and you will find your game data files
• Navigate to the assets folder, and drag this folder’s contents to the Ports > undertale > assets folder on your microSD card as specified in the PortMaster game page
• Eject the SD card, put it back into your device, then launch the game via your Ports section

Compatibility version (Windows or Mac): Stardew Valley

For games like Stardew Valley, you will need the compatibility (32-bit) version of the game.

• On your PC or Mac, open Steam and go to the Library section
• Right click on the game and select Properties
• Navigate to the Betas tab, then click on the drop-down menu and select “Compatibility”
• The game will update in Steam to download and install the required compatibility files
• Once updated, right-click on the game in your Library and select Manage > Browse Local Files
• Drag and drop these content files to the Ports > stardewvalley > gamedata folder on your SD card
• Eject the SD card, put it back into your device, then launch the game via your Ports section

DLC (Windows or Mac): TMNT Shredder’s Revenge

Some ports also support the DLC for that game, including TMNT Shredder’s Revenge. The process is mostly the same, other than an additional step of downloading the DLC files. Note that you will need to have purchased the DLC ahead of time.

• Follow the same instructions as above for installing the Linux version of a game (like Shovel Knight or Undertale above).
• The DepotID for this game will be download_depot 1361510 1361511
• Next, do the same for the DLC DepotID, which will be download_depot 1361510 2348930
• Go to the individual game data folders on your computer, then add their contents to the Ports > tmntsr > gamedata folder on your device’s microSD card
• Eject the SD card, put it back into your device, then launch the game via your Ports section

Port from an Android game: AM2R (Another Metroid 2 Remake)

Some ports, like AM2R, require the Android apk for the game. These apk files are generally available via the Internet or by using an APK extractor app if you already have the game installed on your Android device.

• Find the AM2R apk file online, there are various places to find it (although it can be a challenge due to various takedowns over the years).
• Once you have the file, rename it to am2r.apk and add it to the Ports > am2r > gamedata folder of your device’s microSD card
• Eject the SD card, put it back into your device, then launch the game via your Ports section

Port from a ROM file: Render96ex (Super Mario 64)

Some ports require a ROM file to build everything. Games like Ship of Harkinian (The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time) have a more involved process, while others like Render96ex (Super Mario 64) are more straightforward; instructions are below.

• You will need the US version of Super Mario 64, its SH1 sum is 9bef1128717f958171a4afac3ed78ee2bb4e86ce
• Re-name your ROM file to baserom.us.z64
• Place the ROM file in the Ports > render96ex folder of your microSD card
• Eject the SD card, put it back into your device, then launch the game via your Ports section
• You’ll be prompted to compile resources (done automatically by the app) and install some optional add-ons, consult the Render96ex PortMaster page for additional details
• By default, this port only uses the analog stick to control Mario (and navigate the menus). D-pad-only devices will not be able to navigate the menu. Two solutions: if you are using an OS that lets you swap between d-pad and analog stick input (like muOS), then tap the POWER button to toggle to the analog stick and remap your buttons by pressing Start then R1 while in the menu; or, if you have a device that can run the same firmware and has an analog stick, load the game on that device then remap the buttons, and then put the card back into your d-pad-only device.

Note that as of making this guide, Render96ex background music is not working properly on muOS, so skip that additional add-on when first booting the game. The muOS team is aware of it and working on a fix.

Porting other games

The process of porting a game is rather complex due to the game’s engine, dependencies, OS compatibility, and more. Most games will generally require a Linux version to exist as well, which isn’t always possible. So just because a lightweight game might sound like an awesome fit for PortMaster, it doesn’t mean that a port of the game is actually feasible. A great example is Animal Well — it would be perfect on these handhelds, but it is a DirectX12 game that only runs on Windows.

If you want to suggest a port, check out the PortMaster Suggestions page. Here you can create an account and submit suggestions, and also vote on other suggestions. Before submitting, the PortMaster team recommends consulting their portability chart.

You can also filter the Suggestions page to include rejected claims, and then read about why porting them is not possible. Some good examples include Pokemon Infinite Fusion, Guacamelee, and Hades.

If you are a developer or hobbyist and want to try porting a game on your own, they have comprehensive tutorials and resources on their website to help you get started.

Notes

• If a game keeps crashing on you, there is a log.txt file generated in each port’s folder; you can reference that log (or share it on their discord) to see why the game isn’t working on your device/OS.
• PortMaster has a bunch of themes which can enhance your browsing experience, check them out! They also have a guide if you want to try making your own theme.
• For those wondering about the PC port of Celeste, that one is a little trickier, as it requires a more involved process. Here is my written guide on the subject — some of the references to devices and operating systems are outdated, but as long as you have a device with PortMaster installed, there’s a good chance this process will work on your handheld.

Changelog

24JUL2024
-added note about TrimUI Smart Pro CrossMix OS port gamedata location

13JUL2024
– added note about Android-based devices
– made a separate “porting other games” section

12JUL2024
– published guide
– added context for SM64 on muOS

Pico-8 is an awesome fantasy console, and one of its biggest strengths is that it works on Windows, Mac, Linux, and any number of Linux-based handhelds with ease. Unfortunately, getting it to run natively on Android devices is not as simple; there are some excellent Pico-8 emulator cores available for RetroArch, but none of them replicate the thrilling experience of navigating the Splore menu and downloading/playing carts directly within that native environment.

In this guide we’re going to trick our Android devices into running a Windows environment that will launch Splore. Once set up, it takes a couple extra taps to get running, but it’s pretty neat.

Note that this will require a somewhat powerful Android device to run, I would recommend something like the Retroid Pocket 3+ or higher. Also note that running Pico-8 through a Windows container on Android like this is inherently buggier than running it natively on Windows, Mac, or Linux. There will simply be some moments where the app or controls will freeze. It’s not perfect!

This guide was inspired by redditor jtischer1979’s post; thanks for the tips!

Add Pico-8 to your device

• Download the latest Winlator APK from their releases page, and install it on your Android device.
• If you haven’t already, purchase Pico-8 (generally $15 USD), then download the windows.zip version (not the “setup.exe” version). Image below.

• One you have downloaded the .zip version of Pico-8, unzip the package so that you have a folder named “pico-8”. Now you want to transfer this folder to the Internal Storage > Download folder of your device. There are many ways you can do it, but the simplest may be to transfer the folder onto your device’s microSD card, then within your device’s Files app, copy the folder to Internal Storage > Download.

Set up Winlator

• Start up the Winlator app on your device, and enable all permissions requirements at startup. It will install some System Files, which might take a minute.
• In the Containers heading, you tap the “+” button on the top-right.
  • Rename the Container to something memorable (like Pico-8)
  • Under Screen Size, you have a few options:
    • For 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratio devices, I recommend 800×600
    • For 1:1 devices like the RG Cube, I recommend “Custom” and 720×720
  • For Graphics Driver, you have a few options depending on the device and it’s chipset
    • In most cases, I recommend VirGL (Universal)
    • For Retroid devices, LLVMpipe (Software) seems to work best
    • For Odin or other Snapdragon devices, try Turnip (Adreno)
  • For Audio Driver, choose ALSA
  • In the Win Components tab, choose DirectX > Direct Sound > Native (Windows)
  • In the Advanced tab, you can remove CPU cores under “Processor Affinity”, although I have found the default settings work well.
• One you have made these adjustments, click the blue check mark on the bottom right to save the container settings

Make a Pico-8 shortcut

Now that the container has been created, click on the hamburger (three dot) menu and select “Run”. This will create a Windows desktop environment. To navigate in this environment, think of your device’s touch screen as a laptop’s touchpad; press and drag your finger to move the mouse cursor, and tap to click (and tap with two fingers to right-click).

• Once in Windows, an Explorer window should appear, showing multiple storage drives.
• Navigate to the D: drive, then open the Pico-8 folder that we previously added to the device’s internal storage. Inside, find the pico8.exe file, then right click by tapping with two fingers, and choose “Create Shortcut”.
• This will create a shortcut on your desktop. Verify it is there, then navigate to the Windows Start > Exit Desktop to exit the Windows environment.

Boot into Pico-8 Splore

Back in the main Winlator interface, tap on the Menu icon to the left of the word “Containers” in the top menu bar, and select Shortcuts. You should now see a Pico-8 shortcut in this menu, but it needs some additional configuration.

• Tap on the hamburger (three dot) menu button on the right, then select Settings
• Scroll down to the tabs, choose Advanced > Exec Arguments and add “-splore” (minus the quotations) in the text box.

In an ideal world, that should be it. You can press OK and then tap on the pico8 shortcut to boot into Splore and enjoy Pico-8!

To exit out of this environment, hover over any game within the Splore menu and select Options > Shutdown Pico-8. After a moment it should boot you back into Winlator.

From now on, getting into Pico-8 is pretty fast. Open Winlator, navigate to Menu > Shortcuts, tap on the pico8 shortcut. DONE.

Troubleshooting issues

Depending on your device and how its controller / graphics profiles were programmed, you may run into other issues. Here is a (not comprehensive) list of things you could do to make sure it’s working properly.

Graphics issues?

• In Winlator, go to Menu > Shortcuts and to the right of the pico8 shortcut, tap the hamburger (three dot) menu button on the right, then select Settings
  • Adjust the graphics driver. For example, for the Anbernic RG Cube, changing the Graphics Driver to Turnip (Adreno) allowed Splore to boot
  • Adjust the DX Wrapper. I have found that WinD3D seems to work best, but it’s worth toggling the others to see if they work
  • Under the Advanced tab, set the Box86 and Box64 presets to Compatibility

Controller issues?

By default, the app should detect your device’s controls, but with some devices (especially those from Anbernic), it may not. Let’s set them up manually.

• In Winlator, go to Menu > Input controls
• Under Profile, tap the “+” icon and create a new input profile of your choice (“RGcube”, etc).
• Once created, click on the drop-down menu under “Profile” and choose the one you just created
• Under the External Controllers heading, you should see the name of your controller input (“retrogame_joypad” for Anbernic devices), tap on that.
• Now, in this next section, you can press a button on your controller, and then map it to whatever you’d like.
  • I have found that for Anbernic devices, which don’t seem to properly detect xinput controls within Winlator, it’s best to map the controls to keyboard inputs, which work great in Pico-8. Here is the input mapping that I used for the RG Cube:
    • Button A: Keyboard X
    • Button B: Keyboard C
    • Button Start: Keyboard ENTER
    • Dpad Up: Keyboard UP (and so on)
    • Analog stick Up (Axis Y+): Keyboard UP (and so on)
• Now that the controls are set up, let’s assign this profile to your Pico-8 shortcut.
  • In Winlator, go to Menu > Shortcuts and to the right of the pico8 shortcut, tap the hamburger (three dot) menu button on the right, then select Settings
  • Under the Advanced tab, select Input Controls > Profile and choose your control profile. Set the DirectInput Mapper Type to XInput.

Running Pico-8 through a Windows container on Android like this is inherently buggier than running it natively on Windows, Mac, or Linux. There will simply be some moments where the app or controls will freeze. It’s not perfect!

Other resources

In addition to my written guide, there are two other helpful YouTube videos. The first is a setup guide video from Adin Walls going through a process very similar to this written guide (albeit with an older version of Winlator, so there may be some inconsistencies). The second option is to manually install the fake08 RetroArch core, using ET Land xoxo‘s video.

Alternatively, if you just want to try out a few games, you could always navigate to the Pico-8 cart repository on your device’s browser and play the games from there. Just note that it’s a slightly miserable experience, with crackly audio, virtual controls taking up screen real estate, and a fullscreen mode that will often make the image *smaller* rather than larger. Below is a demonstration of the experience.

Changelog

21JUN2024
– published guide

Anbernic’s budget line of devices, using the Allwinner H700 CPU, are an excellent combination of affordability and performance. This guide will help you get started with this entire family of handheld emulation devices, which includes:

Anbernic RG35XX Plus
Anbernic RG35XX “2024”
Anbernic RG35XX H
Anbernic RG35XX SP
Anbernic RG28XX
Anbernic RG40XX H
Anbernic RG40XXV
Anbernic RG Cube XX

Note: if you’re looking for the original Anbernic RG35XX, that guide is right here.

Table of Contents

Choose a handheld
Where to buy
Charging and safety
Recommended accessories
ROMs and BIOS
Choose an operating system
Stock (Anbernic) OS
Modded stock OS
Recommended stock OS tweaks
KNULLI
muOS
MinUI
GarlicOS 2.0
ROCKNIX
Shaders, overlays, and more
Hardware mods

Changelog

Choose a handheld

One of the best things about the RG35XX family of devices is that it seems like there is an option for everyone. Want something that reminds you of a Game Boy? RG35XX Plus. Clamshell and clicky buttons? Easy, the SP. Ultra pocketable? RG28XX. I personally like the RG35XX H the best, because I find it the most comfortable thanks to its horizontal layout, and it has stereo speakers and dual analog sticks.

Below you will find my videos on each handheld, including first impressions and a more detailed review. Each of the devices are capable of HDMI out, but keep in mind that the RG28XX and RG35XX “2024” models do not have WiFi or Bluetooth.

Anbernic RG35XX Plus — Impressions // Review
Anbernic RG35XX “2024” — Review
Anbernic RG35XX H — Impressions // Review
Anbernic RG35XX SP — Impressions // Review
Anbernic RG28XX — Review
Anbernic RG40XX H — Impressions // Review
Anbernic RG40XXV — Review
Anbernic RG Cube XX — Review

Where to buy

The Anbernic RG35XX family of devices are widely available, from a variety of sources.

3.5″ devices:

2.8″ and 4.0″ devices:

AliExpress: If you want the best deal, I recommend shopping around on AliExpress, and waiting for site-wide sales to maximize your value. Buying directly from Anbernic’s AliExpress store will usually give you a fair price, but there are other dropshipping stores like Cutesliving and Ampown who will undercut the price to give you an even better deal. Note that because they are shipping from China, it will generally take a couple weeks to arrive.

Anbernic: You can also buy the devices directly from Anbernic. Depending on how long the device has been available, they may offer shipping from warehouses in the US and Europe. These prices will generally be higher than on AliExpress, and they will charge shipping.

Dropshippers: There are third-party websites that offer Anbernic products, like KeepRetro, GoGameGeek, and LITNXT. They may offer discounts, but generally their prices will be higher than AliExpress or Anbernic directly.

Amazon: There are also vendors who sell Anbernic devices on Amazon. These prices will almost always be higher than AliExpress, but there are periodic sales that are competitive with Anbernic’s website prices and sometimes even AliExpress. The advantage of Amazon is that you have an easier return/refund process in case you get a faulty unit, and faster shipping.

Charging and safety

The RG*XX line of devices are known for being very affordable, but that also means that many of its components are rather cheap. One important example has to do with charging; there is not a consensus on the issue, but the overall sentiment is that these devices are lacking in proper voltage regulation. This means that a contemporary USB-C fast charger (like those used for modern smartphones) will likely not work on these devices, because it cannot properly regulate the signal.

There have been reports of overcharged (and even hazardous) batteries on devices, which is usually linked to the charging brick or a failed component on the device itself. This happens with other handhelds from other companies as well, and it is best to be vigilant when charging any cheap electronic device.

For the best results, I recommend using a USB-A cable (like the one that comes with your device), and a brick that meets the specific charging signal the device requires. The RG*XX devices will not come with a charging brick, but on the back of the device there is a sticker or other text that specifies the required adapter input. This will look like “5V => 1.5A” or something very similar. To make sure your device is properly charged, I would recommend using an adapter that has that exact spec, and to only charge the device under supervision (for example, don’t charge it overnight). Here is a link to a charging brick that has the exact 5V 1.5A output that most Anbernic devices require.

Recommended accessories

The RG35XX family of devices will have two microSD card slots — the first is for the operating system, and the second slot is generally used for additional game storage. Depending on the operating system you choose (more on that later), you can either use a single-card or dual-card setup. The card that comes with the device will likely be 64GB and filled with games, and depending on where you buy the device, there may be an option to buy a second card filled with more games. I recommend adding your own ROM library instead, to curate your retro gaming experience, and because the games that come on these cards are often poorly organized or are mismatched regions/languages.

While previously Anbernic had been using cheap, generic microSD cards for their devices, they have recently switched to using KIOXIA cards, which are a sub-brand of Toshiba. These cards are reliable and can generally be used in most situations. The general rule is this: if your device came with a blue KIOXIA card, it should be pretty reliable, but if you got a generic black microSD card, it will be more apt to fail (especially if you try to flash a firmware to it).

Note that some custom firmwares (like MinUI) are meant to be used ON TOP of the standard card that comes with the device, while others can be installed on brand new cards. If you have the means, I would recommend picking up a couple different cards so that you can experiment with several OS options to find the one that matches you the best.

Each OS option uses a slightly different setup: MinUI is designed to work with two different cards, while the others can all be placed on a single card if you’d like. So for MinUI, I would recommend a 16GB OS card, and another larger card for games. For Knulli or muOS, you can use a single large for both the OS and games, or a two-card setup.

In general, I recommend the cards listed below, in order or preference. The prices fluctuate all the time, so keep an eye out for deals. A 128GB card will allow you to load EVERY 8-bit and 16-bit game out there, just about all of the arcade games that work, and quite a few PS1, Dreamcast, PSP, and Sega CD games (those systems have the largest file sizes). A 256GB or 512GB card will allow you to store even more of those larger games, but is mostly overkill for devices such as these.

As far as model (“Extreme” vs “Ultra”, etc), this won’t matter when it comes to playing games. Some cards may transfer files more quickly (like when adding ROMs to the card), but the difference will be negligible. Instead, shop around for the best deal based on your desired amount of storage!

16GB cards: 
SanDisk Ultra  
SanDisk Industrial

32GB cards:
Samsung Pro Endurance
SanDisk Extreme

64GB cards:
Samsung Pro Endurance
SanDisk Extreme

128GB cards:
Samsung EVO Select
SanDisk Ultra

256GB microSD:
SanDisk Ultra
Samsung EVO Select
Samsung Pro Plus

512GB microSD:
SanDisk Ultra
Samsung EVO Select
Samsung Pro Plus

Note that when upgrading your firmware card to a new card, you cannot simply copy and paste your files onto the new card — the original card has several specific partitions that are necessary to run the system. Instead I would recommend flashing Modded Stock OS onto the new card, or a custom OS like KNULLI or muOS (all detailed later in this guide).

Additionally, these devices can double as a pseudo home console, thanks to their HDMI output function as well as the ability to connect to controllers via bluetooth or USB. The HDMI adapter is smaller than the standard size, so you will either want to grab a mini HDMI cable like this one, or a mini HDMI adapter to use with an existing cable.

If you don’t have a nice microSD to USB reader, you might want to think about getting one. A nice adapter like this one from Anker will give you fast transfer speeds, and won’t cause any corruption issues with your card. There is also a fancy new USB-C/A adapter now available!

Most RG35XX devices can also connect to Bluetooth controllers. The RG28XX and RG35XX “2024” models don’t have Bluetooth, but support controllers connected via their “USB/OTG” port. I recommend the 8bitdo SN30 Pro controllers, which are usually around $40 and can connect easily to the device.

ROMs and BIOS files

As you set up a device, it’s always best to build your own ROM library. This allows you to curate your games lists, and source them on your own. Many of these devices will come pre-loaded, but the games are often poorly organized, in the wrong language, and of shady origins. If you want to dump your own retro cartridges, I recommend the Save the Hero Builders cartridge reader, which will allow you to extract your ROM file from most popular retro systems, AND your save files at the same time. ROM and BIOS files are copyrighted, and not shared on this website. Here is a general list of game systems that you can play on the RG35XX family of devices (actual supported systems varies by OS). Those noted with an asterisk cannot play every game at full speed, and so performance may vary.

When getting ROM files, I recommend using the “No-Intro” naming convention, which is the standard naming used for ROM sets within RetroArch and other emulation communities. By using no-intro naming, you will be more likely to get box art automatically added when you load up your games and scrape their media. If you have a question as to how a game should be named, I recommend checking out the Libretro thumbnails directory. If your game name matches the thumbnail name found in this directory, chances are that it will properly download the media for it.

Additionally, an important component of a ROM library is maintaining BIOS files. BIOS files are system files necessary for some emulators (GBA, Sega CD, or PS1), and are helpful in improving accuracy with other systems. These files are copyrighted so you are on your own to find them; here is more information about BIOS files.

Here is a listing of the most common BIOS files:

GAME BOY (for boot logo):
gb_bios.bin

GAME BOY COLOR (for boot logo):
gbc_bios.bin

GAME BOY ADVANCE:
gba_bios.bin

FAMICOM DISK SYSTEM:
disksys.rom

NEO GEO:
neogeo.zip

SEGA CD:
bios_CD_E.bin
bios_CD_J.bin
bios_CD_U.bin

TURBOGRAFX-CD:
syscard1.pce
syscard2.pce
syscard3.pce

PLAYSTATION 1:
scph5501.bin
psxonpsp660.bin (MinUI)

SATURN:
saturn_bios.bin

DREAMCAST:
dc_boot.bin
naomi.zip (Naomi)
awbios.zip (Atomiswave)

The location of ROM and BIOS files on your microSD card will depend on the OS that you use. We’ll discuss each in their respective sections.

Choose an operating system

There are a variety of OS options for these devices, from the default (“stock”) operating system that ships with the device, to community-led “custom firmware” alternatives. Below you will find a breakdown of each option, plus their advantages and disadvantages. When it comes down to it, I wouldn’t consider any OS option to be complete or perfect, but they each have their own excellent qualities.

The best aspect of these firmware options is that they all completely reside on microSD card, so you can swap between them without making any permanent change to the device itself. So really, your only cost when trying out each of these options is that you’ll likely want to have multiple microSD cards so you can swap between them.

If you don’t want to read through and determine the best firmware for you, here is my generic recommendation:

• BEGINNER: The stock operating system is just fine for most users. It has decent performance out of the box, and you can either enjoy the games that came with the default card, or easily add your own by dragging/dropping onto the card. All major features: WiFi, Bluetooth, HDMI, etc all work with the stock OS.
• NOVICE: If you like the stock OS but want to improve some of its functions, or if you want to make a backup card, I would recommend checking out the “modified” stock OS, which can be upgraded by a simple drag-and-drop, or you could flash it to a new card as a second copy.
• MINIMALIST: If you want an OS that “gets out of the way” so can just fire up your games with minimal distraction, check out MinUI.
• INTERMEDIATE: Once you’re ready to jump into the custom OS world, I would recommend KNULLI, which has a beautiful EmulationStation-based interface and a wide variety of features like a screensaver, theme downloader, onboard media scraping, and more.
• TINKERER: If you are a veteran of the handheld emulator scene, and like having the most advanced emulation performance (and don’t mind tinkering with configurations or re-flashing your card with each new update), then muOS is a really fun option. With some work, this can be tweaked exactly to your preferences.

For the starter guide video posted above, I show how to configure both stock (and modded stock), and KNULLI. For all the others, written instructions are also provided below.

Stock OS and microstutters: some users have noted that certain versions of Anbernic’s stock operating system have microstutters, particularly when playing within RetroArch. This is likely a screen configuration issue within their kernel or RetroArch video settings. There is no definitive “this version has it, this version doesn’t” solution at this point, but one solution is that custom firmwares like KNULLI and muOS (detailed below) don’t seem to have this issue. MinUI has also recently implemented measures to smooth out performance as well. So if you experience this on your device, the simplest solution may be to try those alternatives.

Stock (Anbernic) OS

Recommended microSD card setup: SINGLE CARD (64GB+)

The RG35XX devices will come with a 64GB card that features their latest stock operating system. This OS is surprisingly decent, albeit a little rough around the edges. At the very least, it will give brand new users a “plug and play” experience that allows them some pretty great gameplay out of the box, and options to upgrade later.

ROMs and BIOS: The main microSD card partition you will need to access on Stock OS will be called either “NO NAME” or “ROMS” depending on your device and firmware version. ROM files are found in the “Roms” folder of your stock OS card, and BIOS files are in the “bios” folder. They should already be pre-populated with the requisite files.

Using this OS is pretty intuitive. For the most part, you want to navigate to your games via the second menu “RA Games”, choose your system, then choose your game. It also have a Favorites function (press START while hovering over a game to add it as a Favorite), and you can also search for games or browse your play history. The stock OS also features a music player, video player, and eBook reader. You can add your files to the SD card via the corresponding folder (video, music, etc).

Your stock OS will also come with an “APPS” section. Its location depends on your device and OS version, but it will either be found within the “RA Games” section, or a dedicated App Center in the main menu. One of the most important apps is called Quick Shutdown, make sure you turn this option ON. Now, when in a game you can tap the POWER button and it will automatically save your progress and shut the device off. When you power the device back on, it will go back to where you were in the game — super handy. With the RG35XXSP, the Quick Shutdown app will also ask if you’d like to shutdown or sleep the device when closing the lid; I recommend shutting the device down, since the sleep power drain on Stock OS is pretty bad (about 4% battery per hour).

While in a game, you can press the MENU button to bring up the RetroArch quick menu, for more fine-tuned settings configurations. If you want to learn more about how RetroArch works, check out my guide, and I also explain some recommended adjustments in this section below.

Toggle analog/digital controls: One neat trick for devices that lack an analog stick (RG35XX Plus, RG28XX, and RG35XXSP), on more recent firmware releases, you can tap the POWER button while in a game and it will swap between a d-pad and left analog stick input. This is especially handy with N64, Dreamcast, and PSP titles that rely on analog stick controls. If your device is using an older firmware, you can update using the instructions below.

You can easily update the firmware to its latest release (with some added upgrades) by using “modded” stock OS, detailed in the next section. I highly recommend it, it will only take a few minutes to update.

If you lose the stock OS card, or if you want to upgrade to a newer SD card, you can download a new Stock OS image directly from Anbernic — but it’s not recommended that you go this route. That is because their SD card image is a full 64GB image, so you will need to make sure you have the internet connection and storage space for such a large file. If you want to download the official Anbernic firmware, head over to this page, and download the corresponding firmware file for your device. From there, you can flash this image to a 64GB (or larger microSD card) using tools like Balena Etcher or Rufus. This image will not come with games. For better results, I recommend downloading and installing the “modded” version of Stock OS maintained by developer cbepx-me (more information below).

Modded Stock OS

Recommended microSD card setup: SINGLE CARD (64GB+)

Developer cbepx-me has been meticulously merging Anbernic’s software revisions into a clean, improved software image. If you want to continue using the stock experience, I would recommend using this image. This solution can be used to flash a new card or to simply update your existing stock card.

Install on a new microSD card: It’s recommended that you install this image using a Windows PC for the best results. Head to this page, then navigate to the Google Drive link found on that page. Click on the folder that corresponds to your device, then Stock OS Mod > OS Image > “Base” image file. Once downloaded, use Rufus to flash this image file to your microSD card. After it’s been flashed, insert the card into your device, power it on, and allow it to go through the installation process.

When flashing a new card in Windows, it will create some additional partitions, which may create some additional windows pop-ups. You can ignore these, or if you’d like you can use Disk Management to unassign drive letter for those partitions to they don’t appear again.

Update your current stock microSD card: Head to this page, then navigate to the Google Drive link found on that page. Click on the folder that corresponds to your device, then Stock OS Mod > Update_Package > (name of 7zip upgrade file corresponding to your device). Once downloaded, use 7zip to extract the contents of the file, then find the “APPS” folder. Drag and drop its contents into the Roms > APPS folder of your microSD card, merging any files if prompted. Insert the card into your device then navigate to App Center > Apps (or RA Games > Apps if you are using an older version of Stock OS), then you should see a file that is named something like “RG35xxX_Upgrade_202xxxxx”. Run this app and it will upgrade your system.

Important note: If you are running an (older) 32-bit version of the Anbernic stock OS (dated prior to 25 June 2024), then you cannot update that stock OS to the more recent (64-bit) versions of modded stock. Instead, you will need to install modded stock to a new microSD card as detailed above, and then transfer any game files or saves from your old card to your new one.

Recommended Stock OS tweaks

These tweaks are written with the assumption that you’ve already updated the stock OS to the “modded” version in the section above, with the default settings elsewhere.

Change the boot logo: Insert your SD card into a computer, and then open the “Volumn” partition. Inside you’ll find a file named “bootlogo.bmp”; replace this file with another 640 x 480 (bmp) image with the same name to change the boot logo! Within the “ROMS” partition if you navigate to the anbernic > bootlogo folder you will find a bunch of sample bmp files you could use if you don’t want to make your own. There are also a collection of boot logos available here.

Enable RetroAchievements: For the devices with WiFi, you can set up RetroAchievements for most games. First, connect to your WiFi by going to Settings > Network Settings and adding your credentials. Once connected, go to Settings > Retroarch Settings > Start RetroArch. Once inside, go to Settings > Achievements and add your RetroArch credentials. You’ll need to make a free account on their website if you haven’t already. Once you have added your credentials, go to Main Menu > Configuration File > Save Current Configuration. Now you can exit RetroArch and you will connect to the RetroAchievements server every time you start a game.

Fixing the visual features of Stock OS: By default the stock overlays and shaders for GB, GBC, GBA, and other handheld systems are fantastic. But for home console systems, I found that the default scanline shader settings are a little too blurry and the stock overlays waste valuable screen real estate. So for systems like NES, SNES, and Genesis, I recommend the following adjustments:

• Go into Settings > RetroArch and start up RetroArch. Go into Settings > User Interface > Menu Item Visibility > Quick Menu and ensure that “Shaders” and “Save Core Overrides” is turned ON. Then back out to the main RetroArch menu and select Configuration File > Save Current Configuration, and then exit RetroArch.
• Start up a game from one of these systems, then press the M button to bring up the RetroArch quick menu
• Scroll down to Shaders > Load Preset > Interpolation and choose either the “Pixellate” or “Sharp Bilinear 2x Prescale” shaders, either will work great to balance pixels and are very similar.
• After choosing the shader, it will take you back to the main Shaders menu. Choose Save Preset > Save Core Preset
• Press the B button until you get to the Main Menu, then choose Settings > User Interface > On-Screen Overlay > Display Overlay > OFF
• Press the B button until you get to the Main Menu, then choose Settings > Video > Scaling > Aspect Ratio > Core Provided
• Press the B button until you get to the Main Menu, then choose Quick Menu > Overrides > Save Core Overrides

If you want to improve the visual experience even more on Stock OS, here are a couple other recommended adjustments:

• PS1 enhanced resolution: Open a PS1 game, then press the M button to bring up the RetroArch quick menu. Navigate to Core Options > GPU Plugin and turn ON the “Enhanced Resolution” and “Enhanced Resolution Speed Hack” options. This will output a full 480p resolution for games, when applicable. It will automatically save this setting for all PS1 games, so no need to do anything else.
• Game Boy LCD ghosting: Open a GB or GBC game, then press the M button to bring up the RetroArch quick menu. Navigate to Core Options > Interframe Blending and set it to “LCD Ghosting (Accurate)”. While in there, you can also adjust the GB colorization options but I think the default one is great. It will automatically save this setting for all GB/GBC games, so no need to do anything else.
• NES overscan: Open an NES game, then press the M button to bring up the RetroArch quick menu. Navigate to Core Options > Video and set both of the “Crop Horizontal Overscan” options to 8. This will reduce flickering on the sides of scrolling NES games like Super Mario Bros 3. It will automatically save this setting for all NES games, so no need to do anything else.

Add boxart/media: I recommend using Skraper to scrape your boxart directly from your ROM library. If you haven’t used this tool before, here is a quick video guide I made a while back for older systems, but the process will work here as well. Additionally, you can download boxarts individually using Libretro’s thumbnail repository (this will be handy if you have a smaller library). For the best results, you will want to resize the box art to no more than 300px wide, to reduce file sizes. The OS is expecting a 4:3 aspect ratio image, so if you use standard box art it will likely look squished (for basically everything but SNES games). Using Skraper, you could scrape screenshots or “miximage” options instead, which will generally output to 4:3 or similar. The boxart needs to be added to the same folder as your ROMs, but in a subfolder named “Imgs”. If you have a stock microSD card, you should already see that folder and some images within. The image file name needs to match the name of the ROM.

Add YouTube app: Yep, you can add a YouTube app to Stock and modified Stock OS following this simple guide.

KNULLI

Recommended microSD card setup: DUAL CARD (16GB & 64GB+)

KNULLI is a fork of Batocera, a popular custom Linux firmware. This OS takes advantage of several years’ worth of development and refinement, to provide a user interface that is mature and highly customizable. It also had on-board media scraping for Wi-Fi capable devices, which allows you to create a nice, rich user environment.

ROMs and BIOS: The main microSD card partition you will need to access on KNULLI will be called SHARE; within it, you will find folders named roms and bios, where you can add your files. Accessing the SHARE partition will vary depending on your setup, which we will discuss in the little blue box below.

Batocera folder system: If you need help figuring out which folder corresponds to which system, or the necessary BIOS files for each system, check out the Batocera Systems page on their wiki, which will apply to KNULLI as well.

INSTALL KNULLI: the installation process is relatively simple, but requires you to flash a new microSD card. Let’s do it.

• Head over to the KNULLI GitHub releases page, and download the img.gz file that corresponds to your device.
• Using a tool like Rufus (Windows) or Balena Etcher (Windows and Mac), flash the img file to a microSD card. You can flash it to 16GB or larger cards; if you are going with a two-card setup, I recommend 16GB. If you are going with a single-card setup, you can use any size you’d like (128GB is a pretty standard size).
  • If you run into any issues flashing the card, you can extract the img.gz file to its uncompressed img file format using a tool like 7zip; this should give a more stable flashing experience.
• Once the flash is complete, eject the SD card and put it into your device. If using a two-card setup, you can add the second card to the device now too. The OS card will initialize and you will be ready to start messing around with the KNULLI.

TWO-CARD SETUP: You can use a second SD card to store your game files separately from the operating system. The card can be in exFAT or EXT4 file format, although the team recommends using EXT4 (more information here) for improved PortMaster compatibility. To get started, boot up KNULLI with the second card inserted, then go into the Main Menu > System Settings > Storage > Storage Device and switch from Internal to the second card. Restart the device, during the reboot process it will populate your second card with the required folders. Once it has rebooted, shut down the device and add your games.

CREATE AN exFAT FILE PARTITION: by default, the storage partition for the main KNULLI microSD card is in EXT4 file format, which is only readable by Linux machines. This is done to enhance compatibility with certain PortMaster games. Having an EXT4 file format means that you won’t be able to drag and drop your games onto the card from Windows or Mac without using special third-party software. It is possible to use a second SD card (as detailed above), or reformat the SD1 card partition to exFAT, which will give you the ability to drag and drop games/BIOS files directly on Windows and Mac — but it will lose some PortMaster functionality (more info here).

To format your games partition to exFAT, open the main KNULLI menu by pressing START, then navigate to System Settings > Frontend Developer Options > Format a Disk and follow the prompts to format the partition to exFAT. It is recommended you do this BEFORE adding any game files.

If you want to keep the EXT4 file format (and widest PortMaster support), you can transfer your game files via network transfer. This is relatively simple once you get the hang of it, and full instructions are provided here (and below).

ADD GAMES VIA NETWORK: if you are using the standard EXT4 partition on a single card, you will need a Linux machine to read the SD card, or you will need to add games via network connection. The simplest method to do this is via Samba (SMB). First on your device go to Network Settings and enable WiFi, and connect to your local network. Now let’s begin:

• PC connection: open a Windows Explorer window, and in the navigation bar type in “\\KNULLI” or “\\192.168.86.XXX”, with XXX being the IP address specific to your device (which you can find in your device’s Network Settings once connected to WiFi). When trying to open one of the folders that appear, you may be prompted for a username and password, you can type “guest” as the username and leave the password blank. If you’d like to have more security, you can set up a proper username and password in System Settings > Security on your device.
• Mac connection: open Finder and in the top Menu Bar select Go > Connect to Server… and in the address bar that appears, type “smb://KNULLI” or “smb://192.168.86.XXX” with XXX being your device’s IP address. You may be prompted for a username and password, you can type “guest” as the username and leave the password blank. If you’d like to have more security, you can set up a proper username and password in System Settings > Security on your device.
• Now, on your computer you can wirelessly transfer your game and BIOS files.

You may encounter some issues with the controller mapping after you first install KNULLI. If this happens, go to Main Menu > Controller & BT Settings > Controller Mapping and remap your controls

Missing BIOS: if your BIOS files don’t match what KNULLI is looking for, you will get a pop-up warning about missing BIOS. You can go into the Game Settings > Missing BIOS Check to see what the discrepancy is, and you can fix it from there. Additionally, you can turn off the BIOS check before games start in case the mismatch doesn’t actually affect your gameplay.

UPDATE KNULLI: the team is working on OTA (wireless) updates, but for now, manual is the way to go. Thankfully it’s pretty easy.

• Go to the latest KNULLI release, and at the bottom of the post you will find the Assets section. Download the file labeled as “boot.tar.xz” that corresponds to your device, it should be about 2GB.
• Using a tool like 7zip, extract the file, you should see a file named batocera.update within the “boot” folder.
• Insert your SD1 card, and you will find a partition named BATOCERA, then navigate to the “boot” folder. Inside this folder, you’ll find a file named batocera. Delete this file and then drag/drop the batocera.update file we downloaded earlier into this boot folder.
• Eject the SD card insert it into your device, and upon boot your KNULLI installation will update to the latest release.

SCRAPE BOXART: one of the best features of KNULLI is the ability to scrape boxart directly on the device.

• To start, head over to ScreenScraper and create a free account if you haven’t already. Make note of your login credentials.
• On your device, press START to bring up the Main Menu. Navigate to the Scraper section, then in Scraper Settings > Account, add your USERNAME and PASSWORD credentials.
• From there, choose which types of media you wish to download. I like to use “Box 2D” as my image source, and I also turn on the “Scrape Videos” option. Everything else I leave unchecked.
• Once you are ready to scrape, select the “Scrape Now” button at the bottom of the main Scraper menu. Depending on the size of your library, it may take some time. Once done, go to the Main Menu > Game Settings > Update Gamelists to see the new media.

Screensaver: After scraping boxart/media, you can use the screensaver function. Press START to bring up the KNULLI menu, then navigate to UI Settings > Screensaver Settings. Here you can set Screensaver Behavior > Random Video. Now if you leave the device idle for 5 minutes while in the main menu, videos will start appearing. You can also initiate the screensaver by pressing SELECT while in the main menu. While a video is playing you can press SELECT to go to the next video, or START to being playing that game.

PortMaster: this wonderful app is already installed on KNULLI, you can find it in the Ports section of your menu. It requires WiFi connection to work. Not every PortMaster game works on KNULLI, but many do. To read more about PortMaster, check out their website. In KNULLI, you’ll find PortMaster within the Ports section; initially you will have to install the app, and then after that you can launch it.

Adding native Pico-8: It is possible to play Pico-8 games through the native app, but it is more of an advanced process compared to other OS options like muOS. Here is more information about the setup process.

KNULLI hotkeys: see the table above for important hotkeys (here is a full chart if you need it). There is more information on the KNULLI website as well. Note that while KNULLI has a quick shutdown option (Menu + POWER), this will not create an automatic save state nor will it boot back into your game when you power down. This is simply a fast way to turn off your device instead of going back to the main menu. So if you are going to use this function and want to save your progress beforehand, press Menu + Y to create a quick save, then power down the device. When you turn the device back on, start up your game, and press Menu + X to quick load your save. Adjusting hotkeys in KNULLI is possible, but a more advanced topic. Here is more information on the Batocera wiki page, as the process is the same.

Additional tips and tricks:

• When first starting KNULLI, you will hear background music. To turn this off, navigate to Sound Settings > Frontend Music > OFF, then back out of the menu for the change to take effect.
• There are a number of freeware games loaded onto the device when you first install it. To delete them, go to the ALL GAMES section of the frontend menu, and then press and hold the A button to bring up a sub-menu, then choose to delete each game.
• HDMI works, but for the best results, plug in the cable AFTER the device is already booted.
• KNULLI can also use the “Perfect Overlays” pack designed for muOS, if you’d like to add special overlays to GB/GBC/GBA games. Check out the “Configure Overlays” portion of the muOS section below for more information. The overlay pack should be placed in share > system > configs > retroarch > overlays (use SSH or SFTP to access this location, or move it over using KNULLI’s built-in file manager tool).
• Note that if you run into any problems saving the shader presets under the RetroArch Quick Menu, try going into the KNULLI Main Menu > Games Settings > Game Rendering & Shaders > Shader Set > NONE. This should remove any global presets so that your own per-core shader preset will work properly.

muOS

Recommended microSD card setup: DUAL CARD (16GB & 64GB+)

muOS (originally known as MustardOS) is a simple yet surprisingly robust custom OS solution for the RG35XX family of devices (and the original RG35XX handheld, too). Among all the community-developed software options, this one is best suited for the tech-savvy and tinkerers, and once you get the hang of it, you can really unlock the potential of these handheld devices.

For the best results, I recommend using a two-card setup with muOS, because updating this OS requires you to reflash the SD1 card.

INSTALL MUOS: download the latest software image from the muOS website. The team recommends flashing that downloaded image file using Raspberry Pi Imager, which is available on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Once you have flashed your card, insert it into your device and turn it on. This first installation can take quite some time. Once it’s done, shut down the device via the menu, and now we can add game files.

ROMs and BIOS: BIOS files go in the first microSD card (or the second card if you use the “Migrate to SD2” option described in the video above), in the MUOS > bios folder. Note that in the video above, I mentioned putting the dc_boot.bin BIOS file directly into the BIOS folder, but it needs to be placed into a subfolder named “dc” within the BIOS folder first.

When it comes to ROM files, muOS is unique because it doesn’t really care where you put them. You can throw them on the first card, or the second card. The only requirement is that you make a folder named “ROMS” in the root directory of whatever card you are using. From there, make subfolders however you’d like and put your games inside. Here is the structure that I used:

Arcade – MAME 2003 Plus
Arcade – Neo Geo
Nintendo – Game Boy
Nintendo – Super Nintendo
Sega – Dreamcast
Sega – Genesis…and so on.

Now, when you start up muOS again, you can browse your folders, pick your game, and start it up. Provided that you named the folders somewhat conventionally (like my example above), the system will guess which console you are launching and start it up. If it doesn’t know which system you are launching, it will prompt you to choose the system and your desired emulator core (after that first time, it’ll remember your preferences). If you ever want to re-assign the system or emulator core after the face, press SELECT when hovering over a game and make new choices.

Add artwork: You can add your artwork to your device, and they go in a specific location. On your SD1 card (or SD2 if you migrated to it as shown in the video above), navigate to MUOS > info > catalogue and within that folder you will see a list of game system folders. In each folder you will find three subfolders: box, preview, and text. “Box” refers to your boxart, “Preview” is for screenshots, and “Text” is for descriptive metadata. The images should be in .png file format, and the “Text” file should be txt. Each media file name will need to match its corresponding ROM name. As a general rule I use boxart images that are 300px in width, to reduce their file size. For more advanced users, you can try out Artie Scraper, which will scrape the boxart for you, but requires inputting Terminal commands.

UPDATE MUOS: unfortunately, as far as I can tell the only way to update to a new version of muOS is to flash a new SD1 card with the new software release, similar to installing the OS in the first place. This is why I recommend using a two-card setup, so that you don’t have to re-transfer your game files. Thankfully, muOS has handy backup and archive apps built-in, to ease the process of preserving your SD1 card contents (see the next section for more information). This is currently being worked on, and if you use the latest (“BANANAS”) version of the OS, chances are the next update won’t require re-flashing.

Archive / Backup Manager: muOS has the ability to create backups of important files, like your artwork, BIOS, configs, and RetroArch saves. You can create these backups using the Backup Manager, found in the Applications section. These will be created in a folder named “ARCHIVE” on your SD card. You can then pull these files from the SD card for safekeeping. Then if you need to reflash muOS, you can re-import these files using the Archive Manager.

General settings: In the Configuration > General Settings section there are some interesting options. Here you can enable/disable background music, choose which folder to start into when booting the device, turn on/off HDMI, and even adjust the color temperature of your screen. Additionally, within the configuration menu, you can also assign the correct device so that the controls will work as intended, in the “Device Type” section.

Themes: There are some themes already available in your muOS installation, you can swap them by going to Configuration > Theme Picker. You can also download community themes via their website.

WiFi Network and Web Services: these options can be found within the Configuration menu, and allow you to connect to your local network, enable Syncthing (to sync save files), navigate your device’s file system over a web browser, and sync the device clock to your network time. To use the File Browser, turn it on under Web Services, and then on your computer’s browser (connected to the same network as your device, type the devices IP address (found in the WiFi Network Configuration section) and add :9090 at the end. The address should look like 192.168.86.XX:9090. When prompted for a username and password, use “muos” for both fields.

PortMaster: this wonderful app is already installed on muOS, you can find it in the Applications > PortMaster section. It requires WiFi connection to work, and more games found in PortMaster are fully supported. Once you install a port, it will appear in the Ports section of your file browser. To read more about PortMaster, check out their website or my PortMaster guide.

Adding native Pico-8: It is possible to play Pico-8 games through the native app, and it is pleasantly easy to set up. Here are the instructions.

Additional tips and tricks:

• You can set favorites by pressing Y when hovering over a game. It will then be added to your Favourites section within the main menu. They will be sorted alphabetically.
• The muOS team recommends NOT using the stock SD card to flash their OS.

MinUI

Recommended microSD card setup: DUAL CARD (16GB & 64GB+)

MinUI is a custom launcher for a variety of devices, and it supports the entire RG35XX family.

ROMs and BIOS: It’s recommended that you use a two-card setup with MinUI. When you install the OS and launch it the first time, it will populate your ROM and BIOS folders on the second card, and afterwards you can add your files. For more information about specific BIOS files, you can find guidance in the readme file contained in your MinUI installation zip file.

Some major advantages of MinUI is that it is super simple — once you’ve added your games, the entire experience is very intuitive. This is the OS that I add to devices that I am going to gift to people who aren’t very familiar with electronics or technology. Additionally, most of the settings have been optimized for the device already, so there is no need to jump into the settings unless you want to. And finally, its unified settings menu means that you won’t have to bother learning how to navigate RetroArch’s clumsy menu system.

MinUI also features a simple interaction experience. For example, to power off your device, simply hold the power button. If you’re in a game when you power if off, it will create a quicksave file, and the next time you boot the device up, it’ll take you back to that same spot in your game.

The main disadvantage of MinUI is that it only supports up to PS1, and has no WiFi or Bluetooth support.

INSTALL MINUI:

• Download and unzip the latest release from their GitHub page. You will at least need the “base” zip file but you can also grab the “extras” one for additional emulators like Game Gear, Pico-8, PC Engine (TurboGrafx), Super Game Boy, Virtual Boy, and Master System.
• If your second microSD (SD2) card is larger than 32GB, it is recommended that you format it to the FAT32 file system. This will make the card cross-compatible with other devices like the Miyoo Mini, original RG35XX, and TrimUI Smart.
  • If using Windows, use the guiformat tool to format the card to FAT32.
  • If you have a Mac, “Erase” the disk using the Mac’s built-in Disk Utility app, and select MS-DOS (FAT) file format.
• In the unzipped MinUI base folder, navigate to “rg35xxplus” > dmenu.bin, and place that file to the root of the “NO NAME” or “ROMS” partition of your stock SD card (it’s the partition that contains the “anbernic” folder, it has various names depending on the device and stock OS version).
• Take the MinUI.zip file from the unzipped MinUI base folder and put that in the root directory of your second microSD (SD2) card.
• Put your microSD cards into the device, and let it run through the installation process. Once complete, you will be greeted with a blank menu. Power off the device by pressing and holding the POWER button for a couple seconds, then put the SD2 card back into your computer.
• On the card, you should now see ROMs and BIOS folders, among others. Add your game and BIOS files according to the MinUI readme file.
• If you’d like, you can drag and drop the contents of the “Extras” zip file into the SD2 card (choose to “merge” the files when prompted) for additional systems like Game Gear and Virtual Boy, and then add those ROMs/BIOS files as well. Instructions are also provided in the “extras” readme file.

To update MinUI, download the latest release (the “base” zip file), unzip it, and move the MinUI.zip file onto your SD2 card. The next time you boot your device, it will update.

If you want to revert back to Stock OS, insert your SD1 card into a computer, and rename the dmenu.bin file to something else, like dmenu_disabled.bin. If you’d like, you can change it back to dmenu.bin to get back into MinUI.

ADDITIONAL MINUI TIPS:

• While in a game, press the MENU button to bring up an options screen. Here you can quit your game, load/save your state, and browse more options. Note that by default, games will not auto-save or auto-load, so be sure to save your progress using in-game saves or save states.
• When navigating the games lists, if your game has a save state already saved to it, you can press the X button instead of the A button to launch the game directly into your save state — it’s super fast and handy.
• The options menu has a variety of powerful options, and handy subtitles to explain each option. You can set aspect ratio, scanlines, button mapping, hotkey mapping, and more on a system-level or on a per-game basis.
• MinUI has a quicksave function, simply power down the device while in a game and it will save your spot, and resume it when you power the device back on.
• MinUI has a sleep function, simply tap on the power button while in game and tap it again to resume. When in the main menu, the screen will automatically go to sleep if you don’t press anything for a minute. Tap the power button to bring it back up — but if you leave it in sleep for over two minutes, the device will just power down to save on battery life.
• MinUI has support for multi-disc games, check out the readme.txt file for more details.
• MinUI has HDMI support, and scales games properly.

RY’S MINUI ADD-ON PAKS: there is a community package that will expand your gaming options with MinUI on RG35XX devices. This will add stock emulators into the MinUI interface so that you can play Dreamcast, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 64, PSP, and arcade games within the MinUI interface. It also contains a number of tools that includes an eBook reader, music player, and more. To install this package, head over to their GitHub page and follow the instructions in their readme file.

GarlicOS 2.0

GarlicOS 2.0 is an updated version of the original GarlicOS (made for the original RG35XX handheld in 2022). This OS is meant to be used across multiple devices, including those on other chipsets (even Android-based devices).

This OS is still in an early alpha state, and while it’s available for the public, I would recommend waiting until it is in a beta release state unless you want to be at the forefront of Garlic testing. If you would like to test it out and provide feedback to the developer, here is a link to the installation package.

ROCKNIX

Members of the ROCKNIX (formerly JELOS) team are working to potentially port their OS to the RG35XX family of devices. This is still very much a work in progress, and may not come to pass, but I will update this guide as we hear more about it.

Getting ROCKNIX ported to these devices would be a big win, since it has stable and widespread support across a variety of handhelds. This will allow users to take their SD2 (games) card and swap them between devices for easy ROM/saves compatibility. ROCKNIX also features extensive documentation, preconfigured optimizations, EmulationStation-backed configuration options, Portmaster support, easy multiplayer, robust networking features (including OTA updates), and much more.

Shaders, overlays, and more

I recently created a shaders and overlays guide for 4:3 480p screens, which includes all of the RG*XX devices. This is a great option is you want to really max out the screen effects on your device — you can balance pixels, fill out any black borders, and even create a CRT television effect like you can see in the thumbnail above. In addition to the video guide, I’ve also made a comprehensive written guide. You can apply shaders and overlays to all of the OS options available for this device, for the most part (MinUI is somewhat limited but still has scanline/grid overlay options).

Be sure to note the “Other OS Considerations” section of the written guide (and video) for some tips and tricks related to some of the OS options for these devices. There is also a section at the end of the written guide with recommended shaders and links to overlays for the RG Cube XX.

Hardware mods

One of the best things about these devices is that they are fun to mess around with. You can customize the look and feel of each handheld to personalize your overall experience. For example, in the video above I apply a quick “tape mod” to the RG35XXSP to soften the buttons and dampen their clickiness. This is all personal preference, but it has definitely enhanced my experience with the handheld. Note that recent updates to this device have generally solved the clickiness issue with the RG35XXSP.

Here are my tape layer recommendations:
D-Pad, SELECT/START/Menu buttons: 2 layers each
Face buttons: 3 layers each
Shoulders/triggers: 2 or 3 layers each

In addition, you can find stickers and replacement buttons for each handheld on Etsy, created by community members. One of my favorite shops is Sakura Retro Modding — they feature a number of difference options for each device and have been making similar mods for years.

Another great example is EpicPrintingShop, who makes reversible grips/cases for most Anbernic devices, to both protect your device and improve its ergonomics.

Changelog

26OCT2024
– fixed broken muOS link
– added Artier Scraper muOS link

24OCT2024
– added RG*XX comparison video
– added links to RG Cube XX

16OCT2024
– added muOS video guide
– updated muOS section

02SEP2024
– added section related to shaders and overlays guide
– removed muOS shader/overlays section to reduce conflicts with shader guide

27AUG2024
– updated Syncthing link in muOS section
– updated link to muOS theme repository

24AUG2024
– added Charging and safety section
– added Hardware mods section
– updated links to new devices (RG40XX)
– updated pros/cons based on recent updates

04AUG2024
– added new overlay section in the muOS part of the guide

02AUG2024
– added notes about lid support in KNULLI and muOS
– adjusted pros/cons in muOS to reflect new updates
– added note about new muOS update method
– added link to muOS “perfect” overlays set

10JUL2024
– added more context re: exFAT and EXT4 file systems when using KNULLI
– added note about updating 32-bit stock OS to 64-bit modded stock OS

05JUL2024
– added instructions to format SD2 to FAT32 when using MinUI
– updated advantages/disadvantages to muOS thanks to new features added to Refried Beans

14JUN2024
– added YouTube app for Stock OS
– added wording re: copy/pasting files to new microSD card
– various tweaks and clarifications

07JUN2024
– published guide

Let’s imagine you have a child you’d like to introduce to your favorite retro games — but maybe they can’t read yet, or navigating through a complex interface is overwhelming for them. Or maybe you have a friend (or parent!) who can barely change the input signal on their television, let alone understand the difference between EmulationStation and RetroArch. Going even further, maybe you want a SUPER simple interface for yourself that focuses on the games while curating the look and feel of the box art. In this guide I’m going to show you how to perfectly curate a retro handheld to transform it into a foolproof handheld console of their dreams.

Before we get started, let’s clear the air — this is not an effortless project. It requires some work to get everything dialed in perfectly, and YOU are the one who is going to do that work. I’ve tried to make it as painless as possible with this guide, an accompanying video, and a pre-configured software image, but it’s still going to take a little work to dial everything in. The joy in this project comes from a job well done, and from easing the recipient’s gaming experience. So, is this process easy? Not really. But is it worth it? Yes.

Table of Contents

Recommended devices
Recommended microSD cards
Why ArkOS?
Installation
Configuration
Beautification
Clean everything up
Add a custom boot logo
Pre-made microSD card image (StarkOS)

Changelog

Recommended devices

There is no shortage of handheld devices on the market, in a variety of shapes, sizes, and prices. For this project, I am going to recommend devices that are currently supported by the ArkOS custom operating system, for reasons I’ll explain later. There is a good variety of handhelds supported by this OS, but in particular I think that the Anbernic RG353PS might be the best fit. It has a nostalgic SNES form factor, is relatively comfortable for a variety of hand sizes, and has button placement that make it perfect for our needs.

Devices supported by ArkOS:

Ironically, the Anbernic RG353PS is not officially supported by ArkOS, because the developer doesn’t own one of these devices. Thankfully, their software build for a similar device (RG353M) will work just fine. Just bear in mind that if you run into any problems, the developer doesn’t have any RG353PS-specific support.

Note that there is another device similar to the RG353PS, called the RG353P. This one is almost identical other than that it can also dual-boot into Android. We’re not going to need that feature in this setup, but if there is a specific RG353P color you prefer, then the RG353P might be a good alternative; just bear in mind that it’s a little more expensive than the RG353PS.

* The RG351P and RG351M devices were dropped from official support in 2021, so while those builds will work with this setup, they will lack the Quick Mode option.

Recommended microSD cards

The majority of the devices you can use (especially those from Anbernic) will come with a dual microSD card setup. The idea is that you can use a smaller card for the operating system, and a second, larger card to store your games. The benefit here is that you can swap your second card between ArkOS-supported device, or if you need to re-flash the OS card you won’t have to mess with your games card.

For this particular project, I recommend doing a single-card setup. The idea here is that because this device will be played by children, it reduces the risk of one of two cards being lost! Of course, if you are familiar with how to set up ArkOS, you can always use a dual-card setup too.

The size of your card will depend on how many game you plan on loading onto the device. If you plan on just focusing on old cartridge-based systems, a 16GB card is plenty, since those file sizes are small. If you plan on adding CD-based systems (like Sega CD, PS1, Dreamcast, etc), then the file sizes will get larger. Because the price differences are relatively minor between them, getting 128GB card will provide you with lots of space for games without breaking the bank.

Here is a list of cards I recommend, based on their durability and reliability.

16GB cards: 
SanDisk Ultra  

32GB cards:
SanDisk Ultra
Samsung Pro Endurance

64GB cards:
SanDisk Ultra
Samsung EVO Select

128GB cards:
SanDisk Extreme
Samsung EVO Select
SanDisk Ultra

256GB cards:
SanDisk Extreme
Samsung EVO Select
SanDisk Ultra

Why ArkOS?

There are PLENTY of operating systems out there for retro handhelds, and many of them are very beginner-friendly. For example, you could load up a Miyoo Mini Plus with OnionOS or MinUI and that will likely work well for most people (check out my guide here if you’d like to go that route). Similarly, GarlicOS on the Anbernic RG35XX is a great combo, as is Knulli on the RG35XX Plus and H handhelds. Other OS options, like ROCKNIX or AmberELEC, have EmulationStation frontends and settings menus, giving you a unified experience for many handhelds.

But we’re going to use ArkOS for a few reasons:

• It has an EmulationStation frontend and is pre-installed with a specific theme called Switch, and when configured properly, it can give you a game-browsing experience that puts the games first and foremost, and is easily curated to your needs. This will make the experience very simple for those who cannot read.
• It has a feature known as “Quick Mode” which will allow you to power down the device almost instantly, and resume the game when you power back on.
• This OS provides for a lot of freedom when configuring RetroArch, giving you the ability to easily customize hotkeys and more to your liking.
• If you’d like, you can create a custom boot logo for your device to give it a more personalized look and feel for whomever you are gifting the device to.

Installation

I have a full ArkOS installation and setup guide on this website, but for this project we’re going to revisit the process again.

• Head over to the ArkOS wiki page and scroll down to the bottom of the page. There you will see a listing of devices and links via GDrive and Mega to download an SD card image. Find your corresponding device and download the file to your computer. The file will be in img.xz format.
• If you’d like, you can use a decompression tool like 7Zip (Windows) or The Unarchiver (Mac) to extract the .xz file into .img format. It should be around 8GB in total size after extracting it. This step isn’t necessary but some have found that flashing the image when it is uncompressed can sometimes avoid errors.
• If you are not using a brand new microSD card, I recommend formatting the card using the sdcard.org formatter tool (available for both Windows and Mac). This is an extra step but I have found that it often saves me headaches later down the line.
• Using a flashing software tool like Rufus or Win32DiskImager (Windows) or ApplePiBaker (Mac) to flash the img file to a microSD card. Balena Etcher also works for Windows/Mac but there have been reports of it not working well with ArkOS.
• Once you have flashed the card, eject it from your computer and place the card in the SD1/TF1 slot on your device. Boot the device up, and it will resize your partitions. When it is done initializing the system, you will see the main ArkOS page.
• If you are going to use a two-card setup, insert a blank microSD card (if it is not a brand new card, you can format it first on your PC using the sdcard.org formatter just to be safe), then navigate to Options > Advanced > Switch to SD2 for ROMs. This will populate the cards with all the appropriate ROM folders. Note that after making this switch, you will need to have both cards in your device to boot with this setup.
• Connect to WiFi: In order to scrape boxart and update the system, you need to be connected to WiFi. While on the main ArkOS menu, navigate to Options > WiFi and follow the prompts to connect your device to your WiFi network. Some devices (like the RG351P, RG351MP, and RGB10) do not have WiFi chips, so you will need to use a USB WiFi dongle.
• Update ArkOS: Navigate to Options > Update to update the OS to the latest version. You’ll need to be connected to the internet for this to work.

Next, we’re going to add our game and BIOS files. I would recommend adding more games that you plan on putting in the final game list, so that you have some choice to swap around games as needed.

• Turn off your device by pressing START and going to Quit > Shutdown System. Eject the SD1 card from your device (or SD2 if using a dual-card setup), and insert the card into your PC. You can now start adding your ROM and BIOS files to the EASYROMS partition on your card, and be sure to use the ArkOS emulators page to see the appropriate folder, file format, and BIOS files for each system. Once you are done, you can eject the card, re-insert it into your device, and start playing games.

Note that if you are an advanced user, yes you can get in the weeds when adding games! You could load up your favorite ROM hacks, the standalone native Pico-8 console, or even some ports via PortMaster.

Configuration

Next, we need to tweak ArkOS so that it will be easier to use for the end user.

Turn on Quick Mode: Go into Options > Advanced > Enable Quick Mode to set this up. This allows you to press the Function key + Power to quickly turn off ArkOS, and it’ll save your progress at the same time if you’re in the middle of a game. When you start the device back up, it will boot back to the game you were playing, or the main menu if you weren’t in a game. Note that for devices without a dedicated Function (F) button, the hotkey is generally the R3 button; so you would click down on the right analog stick and tap Power at the same time.

Set all games to run via RetroArch: Some systems, like N64, will run via a standalone emulator by default. We need them to run via RetroArch so that they will work properly with Quick Mode. Press the START button then select Emulator Settings, and go to Nintendo 64 and set the Emulator to RETROARCH. That’s it. Most of the others will be already preconfigured, other than some outliers like Sega Saturn. Pico-8 is the one exception, you can launch the native app and still use Quick Mode, no need for RetroArch.

RetroArch configurations: Many RetroArch settings are configured out of the box, but there are a few that I like to do with a fresh ArkOS installation. To get started, navigate to the RetroArch section and choose to open “RETROARCH” (the 64-bit version). Note that you will also want to do the same adjustments with RETROARCH32 (the 32-bit version, mostly for PS1 emulation).

• Configuration file: this is the most important file, which will save your changes in RetroArch. Once you have made any of the changes below, be sure to go to Configuration File > Save Current Configuration.
• Quick Exit: To exit out of any game running via RetroArch in ArkOS, you need to press SELECT + START twice. Personally, I like to only press it one time. To set this up, go to Settings > Input > Confirm Quit and toggle it off.
• Hotkeys: Go into Settings > Input > Hotkeys to make any adjustments from the ArkOS defaults. Personally, I like to adjust the following (diagram above):
  • Fast Forward (Toggle): R2
  • Show FPS (Toggle): Y button
  • Reset Content: B button (should be mapped by default)
  • Manual save state (SELECT + R1) and load state (SELECT + L1) are already configured in ArkOS.
• Auto Save/Load: Go into Settings > Saving > and toggle ON these two settings: Auto Save State and Load State Automatically. Now, when you close out of a game, it will save your spot, and then when you load the game, it’ll resume that same place.
• Fewer notifications: RetroArch will by default give you a bunch of notifications when you start up the game, which is great if you like data, but not great for kids. I recommend going into Settings > User Interface > On-Screen Notifications > Notification Visibility and toggle OFF the following options:
  • Display Framerate: OFF
  • “Load Content” Startup Notification: OFF
  • Save State Notification: OFF

Once you have made your desired changes, be sure to save your configuration by going to Configuration File > Save Current Configurations. If you mess up your RetroArch settings, you can go to the main ArkOS menu and go to Options > Advance > Restore Default RetroArch Settings.

Another element you may want to tweak are core options. For example, you can adjust colorization for Game Boy, or remove sprite limits for NES. You can access these by opening a game and press SELECT + X to bring up the RetroArch Quick Menu, and scroll down until you find Core Options. You can also set up shaders for certain systems as well, which are explained in my RetroArch guide.

Beautification

Now that we have configured the settings how we want, we are going to add custom boxart, and then hide all of our work to give the end user a more seamless experience. Setting up the boxart is a two-step process, because we’re going to make art that is of uniform shape and size to enhance the navigation experience.

Scrape artwork: We’re going to start by scraping boxart, not because we need it, but because it will create the right image file names for each of our games, as well as an XML file. To start, you will need a free account from screenscraper.fr. Next, connect your device to WiFi, and then press the START button and navigate to SCRAPER. Here you can adjust the parameters (for example I prefer to have “Box2D” as my Image Source, then add your username/password from screenscraper. Next, choose “Scrape Now”, determine which systems you want to scrape art for, and then choose “Start”. It may take some time to scrape everything if you have a large collection. If you prefer to keep your device offline or if you have a device without WiFi capability (like the RG351MP), you can scrape the boxart using a Windows PC (here is my guide).

Replace the artwork with your own: Now that we have the preliminary art added, shut the device down and eject the SD card, then put it into your computer. Now, go to SteamGridDB and find a good image for each game. What I prefer to do is search for the game, then look at the “Grid” images, and pick one that is 600×900 resolution (which is most of them). One note is that the image should be in PNG file format (they usually are). On my computer I’ll have one window open that is navigating the ROM SD card, so I can easily see what game(s) to search for, and then once I have the image I like, I save it directly into the SD card, overwriting the existing boxart (and using its original filename). This is probably the most mundane part of the project, and another reason why you don’t want to have a LARGE file library for your system. I also find this to be really fun, because I can choose boxart that I think will appeal to whomever I am gifting the device to.

Make a FAVORITES list: Navigate through your game libraries, and choose which games you want to appear in the main games list. We’re going to manage this via the Favorites function. When you find a game you want to add to the main collection, hover over it and press the Y button, you should get a notification that it was added to your Favorites list.

Change and configure the system theme: Press the START button and choose UI Settings > Theme > ES-Theme-Switch. Then in the UI settings, make the following changes:

• UI Mode: FULL
• Transition style: SLIDE
• Game launch transition: FADE
• Start on System: FAVORITES
• Visible Systems: ADJUST AS NEEDED
• Boot on Gamelist: ON
• Hide System View: OFF (for now)
• Quick System Select: OFF
• Carousel Transitions: ON
• Show Clock: OFF
• On-Screen Help: ON
• Show Battery Status: ICON AND TEXT
• Everything else: OFF

Now, go to UI Settings > Theme Configuration and make the following changes:

• Gamelist View Style: GRID
• Default Grid Size: AUTOMATIC
• Theme Color: DARK
• System Icon Style: DEFAULT
• Detailed Gamelist View Style: NO METADATA
• Gridview Selection: DEFAULT
• Show Top and Bottom Bar: YES
• Force Uppercase: NO

Now, when you go back to the ArkOS interface, you should automatically be in the Favorites section. If the box art doesn’t seem to be of a uniform size, try restarting the device and checking again.

Clean everything up

Now that everything looks nice, let’s hide some of the more advanced configurations. It’s for their own good.

• Disable WiFi: While on the main ArkOS menu, navigate to Options > WiFi and choose “Delete existing connections”. Once that is done, turn off the WiFi, and exit the menu.
• Press START and select UI Settings > Hide System View > ON. This will make it so that the only list the user sees is the Favorites menu.
• Back out to the main menu and verify that you are in the Favorites section, and that everything is working properly.
• Press START and select UI Settings > UI Mode > KID. You will get a warning, just confirm that you want to proceed. Now when you exit the menu and press START, nothing will happen, and the user is not able to remove any games from the favorites list either. They just need to know that in order to power the device down, they can press F + POWER.
• Note that while this makes the user interface pretty foolproof, it doesn’t prevent the user from accessing the RetroArch Quick Menu, by pressing SELECT + X at the same time while in a game. Hopefully they don’t do that.

To reverse these settings, you can disable KID mode by typing in the Konami code on your device (Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A). It should work with the d-pad, but if it doesn’t, use the analog stick. From there, go to UI Settings > Hide System View > OFF, and you can now access the whole game library.

One last note: this current setup still allows for access to the RetroArch Quick Menu while playing a game, if needed. I tossed and turned whether or not to remove that hotkey to further lock the device down, but I assumed that it might be rare that someone would press SELECT + X at the same time. If you’d like to remove the possibility (especially if you’re handing this device off to a child), you can disable the RA Quick Menu hotkey by going into RetroArch > Settings > Input > Hotkeys and then press the Y button on your device while hovering over the “Menu Toggle” option. Save your RetroArch configuration file and you are good to go. Then, if you ever need to get back into the system, once everything is fully set up, you could remove the EmulationStation kid mode (following the instructions in the blue box above), then boot into RetroArch directly from the ArkOS menu, then re-set the RA Quick Menu hotkey. It’s a bit of extra work but that would fully lock it down and still grant you access to it when needed.

Add a custom boot logo

If you would like, you can manually create your own boot logo for ArkOS. It is an advanced procedure, and requires you to have a GitHub account. Here are the instructions.

Pre-made microSD card image (StarkOS)

In addition to building this software image from scratch with the instructions above, I’ve also made a specific software image that you can download and flash to a microSD card. This will have the preconfigured settings ready to go, but you will need to add your own ROMs/BIOS files, and also add the boxart yourself. But it does have a couple nice perks, like a custom Retro Game Corps boot logo, and a special loading screen.

This software image is the latest version of ArkOS as of making this guide (April 2024), but you can also update it yourself via the online updater after you’ve flashed it to a microSD card. It’s designed to be used with a 16GB card. This image was made with the ArkOS developer’s permission, although he wanted me to emphasize that the RG353P and RG353PS are not officially supported devices by ArkOS, so if you run into any issues, you’ll need to troubleshoot them yourself without his assistance. I’m calling this image “StarkOS” — Simple, Tailored ArkOS — to avoid confusion between the two.

Note that this StarkOS firmware image is for the Anbernic RG353P, RG353PS, and RG353M devices only. If you want to use this setup with a different ArkOS-supported device, you’ll have to set it up manually since it will require a different SD card image.

Instructions:

• Download the StarkOS image and save it to your computer. You can find it via Archive or Mega. Mega will be faster but because the file is over 5GB, it will prompt you to sign up for their Pro tier or wait a number of hours before finishing the download. Archive is more stable.
• If you’d like, you can use a decompression tool like 7Zip (Windows) or The Unarchiver (Mac) to extract the .xz file into .img format. It should be around 16GB in total size after extracting it. This step isn’t necessary but some have found that flashing the image when it is uncompressed can sometimes avoid errors.
• If you are not using a brand new microSD card, I recommend formatting the card using the sdcard.org formatter tool (available for both Windows and Mac). This is an extra step but I have found that it often saves me headaches later down the line.
• Using a flashing software tool like Rufus or Win32DiskImager (Windows) or ApplePiBaker (Mac) to flash the img file to a microSD card. Balena Etcher also works for Windows/Mac but there have been reports of it not working well with ArkOS.
• If you are using a card larger than 16GB, you can try to resize the EASYROMS partition using an app like MiniTool Partition Wizard.
• Connect to WiFi: In order to scrape boxart and update the system, you need to be connected to WiFi. While on the main ArkOS menu, navigate to Options > WiFi and follow the prompts to connect your device to your WiFi network. Some devices (like the RG351P, RG351MP, and RGB10) do not have WiFi chips, so you will need to use a USB WiFi dongle.
• Update ArkOS: Navigate to Options > Update to update the OS to the latest version. You’ll need to be connected to the internet for this to work.

From there, you will need to add your ROMs/BIOS files and artwork following the steps above. You won’t need to adjust hotkeys or RetroArch settings, since those are preconfigured. Same thing with the theme options. Once everything is added, follow the “Clean Everything Up” settings and you’ll be good to go.

Changelog

29APR2024
– added Archive.org link for the StarkOS image
– added instructions on how to resize the StarkOS EASYROMS partition if using a card larger than 16GB
– fixed typos
– updated device list

28APR2024
– published guide

The Amazon Fire Stick 4K Max is a great little streaming device, and for that use case alone it’s a pretty good deal. But did you know that it can play a surprising amount of retro games too, without any need to modify the device in any way? This guide will show you how to get up and running with your favorite retro systems with just a few tools.

Table of Contents
Which systems can you play on the Fire Stick?
Build your ROM library
Recommended accessories
Download emulator apps
Load up your games
Set up RetroArch
Other notes

Changelog

Which systems can you play on the Fire TV Stick?

Before jumping into this project, you might be curious about which games you can actually play on your device. Here is a general list of systems that can be played on the Amazon Fire Stick 4K Max. Other Fire Sticks (like the Lite, Hd, and 4K models) may not be as performant. Those noted with an asterisk cannot play every game at full speed, and so performance may vary.

Build your ROM library

If you haven’t already, I recommend building a ROM library of your favorite games to play on the Fire Stick. ROM file sources will not be shared on this website.

When getting ROM files, I recommend using the “No-Intro” naming convention, which is the standard naming used for ROM sets within RetroArch and other emulation communities. By using no-intro naming, you will be more likely to get box art automatically added when you load up your games and scrape their media. If you have a question as to how a game should be named, I recommend checking out the Libretro thumbnails directory. If your game name matches the thumbnail name found in this directory, chances are that it will properly download the media for it.

Additionally, an important component of a ROM library is maintaining BIOS files. BIOS files are system files necessary for some emulators (GBA, Sega CD, or PS1), and are helpful in improving accuracy with other systems. These files are copyrighted so you are on your own to find them, but a quick search for a RetroArch bios pack should get you on your way.  Here is more information about BIOS files.

Here is a listing of the most common BIOS files:

GAME BOY (for boot logo):
gb_bios.bin

GAME BOY COLOR (for boot logo):
gbc_bios.bin

GAME BOY ADVANCE:
gba_bios.bin

NEO GEO:
neogeo.zip (place in your Neo Geo ROMs folder)

SEGA CD:
bios_CD_E.bin
bios_CD_J.bin
bios_CD_U.bin

TURBOGRAFX-CD:
syscard1.pce
syscard2.pce
syscard3.pce

PLAYSTATION 1:
scph5001.bin (there are many options)

Note that Dreamcast usually requires BIOS files, but the app I recommend for the Fire Stick (FlyCast) doesn’t need them.

Recommended accessories

In addition to the Fire Stick itself, I recommend three accessories: a game controller, a USB drive, and a USB splitter so that you can connect the USB drive to your Fire Stick.

As far as game controllers go, I have tested a few and found that the 8BitDo SN30 Pro is low-latency and also has a fitting retro nostalgic look and feel to it. It’s about $40 and well worth it — there are also newer versions with Hall-sensor sticks (reducing stick drift), or cool transparent green and purple colors. Note that when connecting it to your Fire Stick, pair the controller in X-Input (Windows) mode instead of D-Input (Android) mode. To do so, press the X and START button at the same time when starting up the controller the first time you pair it. After it’s paired, you just have to press the START button to reconnect to your Fire Stick.

While you can load games directly onto the Fire Stick, it only has 16GB of internal memory which can fill up really fast. Instead, I recommend using a USB drive that you can plug into a PC to load with games, which will simplify the process and give you plenty of space for all of your favorites. Note that you should use a USB 2.0 flash drive, because they have a lower power draw. If you try and use a fancy USB 3.0+ drive it will likely not have enough power to run the drive and the Fire Stick at the same time, since they will both be using the same power source (if you plug in a drive and it’s not recognized, this is probably the reason why). I recommend the SanDisk Cruze Blade, I’ve been using it for years for this exact purpose.

Finally, I recommend this micro USB splitter, which will allow you to plug in the USB drive and power the Fire Stick at the same time.

Download emulator apps

Loading emulators onto your Fire Stick is relatively easy, and this guide will make it even easier to grab those apps all at once. To start, on the Fire Stick go to the Apps section, then search for and install the app called “Downloader”. This is a web browser that will allow you to directly download and install games onto the Fire Stick.

Once installed, go into your Fire Stick settings > My Fire TV > About and then click on the name of your device (“Fire Stick 4K Max”) several times, until you see a pop-up that says you are now a developer. Go back to the My Fire TV settings, then choose Developer Options > Install Unknown Apps > Downloader and turn it ON. Now you are ready to install apps from the Downloader app.

You can either find each emulator on your own, or navigate to this guide using the Downloader app (just search for Retro Game Corps and then click on the Fire Stick guide on my front page). Here are direct links to each of the emulators I recommend:

RetroArch (most retro systems) -- main site
FlyCast (Sega Dreamcast) -- main site
PPSSPP (PlayStation Portable) -- main site
DraStic (Nintendo DS) -- main site

Note that each of these emulators are free. DraStic was previously a paid app only available via the Google Play Store, but as of March 2024, the developer has decided to make it available for free and is working to make it open source. There is no current distribution path or DraStic other than the Play Store, so I am linking to an archive of the latest version.

Load up your games

To load your games, you will first need to format your flash drive to FAT32. The easiest way to do this is to plug it into the Fire Stick, and it will prompt you to reformat the drive. When given the option, choose “External” storage, which lets you plug it directly into a PC afterwards. If you have a flash drive that is 32GB or smaller, it will already be in FAT32 format, so you won’t need to reformat it. If the flash drive is larger than 32GB and you still don’t get a prompt, go into the Fire settings, then choose My Fire TV > USB Drive and format it to External Store from there.

Now, go back to Settings > My Fire TV > USB Drive > Eject USB Drive. Once it is ejected, remove the flash drive from your Fire Stick and plug it into your PC. You should see a bunch of Android-related folder in the root directory; make a folder named “Games” and within that folder, make subfolders for your games (GB, GBC, NES, etc), and put your games inside. Once you have loaded up your games, you can eject it from your PC and plug it back into the Fire Stick.

Set up RetroArch

RetroArch will be your main app for most emulation, especially for those systems which are more retro-oriented. The app itself takes some time to get acquainted with, so I recommend my full RetroArch guide video above. It’s a little long, but it will break down each component of the emulation frontend.

The most important part will be to install the cores that work best for the Fire Stick. These are the cores that I recommend:

Recommended RetroArch cores:

Arcade (FinalBurn Neo) -- fighting games and beat'em ups
Arcade (MAME 2003-Plus) -- all-around arcade emulation
Commodore Amiga (PUAE)
DOS (DosBox-Pure)
NEC PCE/TG-16/PCE-CD/TG-CD (Beetle PCE)
Nintendo GB/GBC (Gambatte)
Nintendo GBA (mGBA)
Nintendo Virtual Boy (Beetle VB)
Nintendo NES (Nestopia UE)
Nintendo SNES (Snes9x Current)
Nintendo 64 (ParaLLEl)
ScummVM -- point-and-click PC games
Sega Master System/Genesis/CD (Genesis Plus GX)
Sega 32x (PicoDrive)
SNK Neo Geo (FinalBurn Neo)
Sony PlayStation (SwanStation)

From there, you will want to set your System folder to point to your BIOS folder, bind your controller keys, set your hotkeys, and create playlists, which are all explained in the video above. Here is a diagram of my recommended hotkey settings:

After that, you should be good to go: navigate to your playlist, pick a game, and start it up.

Other notes

• When setting up DraStic and PPSSPP, the app will ask for you to choose your game folder. Unfortunately, the Fire Stick controller and your game controller won’t let you properly navigate the file system to pick your folder, and it can be frustrating. I found the best method is to connect a bluetooth mouse and then click around until you find it (strangely, the mouse cursor won’t appear, so you have to feel yourself around). Using a bluetooth keyboard might work better. Thankfully, you only have to do this one time, and after that it will know where your games are located.
• Frontends like Daijisho can be installed, but won’t be able to launch RetroArch games for some reason. I’ve mostly just been launching the individual apps and running the games from there.
• Some emulators and cores can be installed but will crash when you try and launch a game. For example, the RetroArch Flycast core will crash when you start a game, and the standalone Mupen64Plus FZ app will crash as well. Redream is a Dreamcast emulator that works pretty well, but has severe graphical issues with many games.

Changelog

06MAR2024
– published guide