RetroPie

Retro Game Console/Emulator

Resource

• Tag: retro games
  • Play your retro console on a modern TV, Wireframe — Issue 49
• The 13 Best Android Emulators for Retro Gaming
• The Pros and Cons of Playing Video Games on an Emulator
• Super NES Classic loaded with 21 games! The Best Retro And Mini Console Gifts Dec 2018
• 5 ways to play old-school games on a Raspberry Pi
• Super Ninetendo Pi
• Running OpenGL-based Games & Emulators on Adafruit PiTFT Displays
• Linux Gaming: Nintendo 64 Emulation on Odroid.
• SNES EZ Key Bluefruit Game Pad
• http://makezine.com/projects/build-retro-gaming-console-raspberry-pi/
• http://lifehacker.com/how-to-turn-your-raspberry-pi-into-a-retro-game-console-498561192
• https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Playstation-1/ File extensions
  • Playstation 1 Rom filetypes?
• Pixel Vision - a console capable of emulating some of the most classic game systems.

Beginners

• Help! I just bought a handheld, now what?, including Roms & Bios 5/30/2023.
• R35S/R36S Ultimate Setup Guide - ArkOS, Roms and BIOS 9/23/2023. Good intro.

RetroArch

• https://retroarch.com/?page=cores
• Good up to Dreamcast, Nintendo 64 and Sega Saturn.
• On Android, download "RetroArch plus" instead of regular RetroArch. Regular RetroArch does not have Beetle Saturn bios for Sega Saturn.
• How to Use RetroArch to Make Old Games Easier to Beat
  • How to Use Cheats in RetroArch?
  • Save states, slow motion, rewind

• Retro Game Corps
  • *RetroArch Starter Guide
  • Quick Guide: Cheats for Retro Handheld Devices 2/4/2021 (video)
  • Retro Gaming on the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max by Retro Game Corps 10/31/2021 (video)
  • Set up RetroArch from Retroid Pocket 2+ Starter Guide (Part 1/2) (video)1/16/2022
  • ArkOS Starter Guide (for Anbernic RG353, RG351 devices and more!). Pay attention to the sector 'RetroArch configuration'. 3/27/2023 (video)
  • Android Handheld Starter Guide & Written guide. 3/30/2025

• RetroArch Tutorial from Video Game Emulation for Newbies
• Retroarch - The Ultimate User Guide by altarofgaming.com 8/27/2022

• Retroarch for Windows Basic Tutorial (video) with lots of links 5/12/2020.

• Retroarch: Android Smartphone Tutorial
  • PS2, PlayStation 2 (PS2) Emulator on RetroArch: PCSX2 Core (Install guide: setup / config / tutorial)
  • PS1
  • Neo Geo
  • N64
  • Sega Saturn, Sega 32x, Sega CD, Sega Dreamcast
  • Amiga
  • MSX
  • NEC PC-88

• How to play N64 games with Retroarch on Linux
• Amazon Fire Stick RetroArch Tutorial Play Retro Games On The Amazon Fire Stick by ETA Prime

• Summary of the RetroArch GUI:
  • Main Menu (RetroArch icon) - Load Core, Load Content, Online Updater, Configuration File, Help, Quit
  • Settings (Gear icon) - Driver, Video, Audio, Input, Latency, Configuration, Saving, Logging, File Browser, Frame Throttle, On-Screen Display, User Interface, AI Service, Power Management, Achievements, Network, User, Directory
  • History (Click icon)
  • Import Content (+ sign)

• My experience:
  • Rotate the phone to landscape.
  • It seems we need to click everything twice (except the top level: Main menu/Settings/History...) to enter the option.
  • The first row shows the RetroArch icon. Click on anywhere at the top row will return back to the previous level. Do not use the 'swipe' gesture. For example, if we are on 'Main Menu' and click on 'Online Updater', the word next to the RetroArch will change from 'Main Menu' to 'Online Updater'.
  • During playing a game, we can click the 'RetroArch' icon at the bottom to bring up the "Quick Menu" where we have options of 'Resume', 'Restart', 'Close Content', 'Take Screenshot', 'State Slot', 'Save State', 'Load State', 'Undo Load State', 'Undo Save State', 'Options', 'On-Screen Overlay', 'Video Layout', 'Rewind', 'Latency', 'Controls', 'Cheat'. 'Shaders', 'Overrides' and 'Information'.
  • During playing a game, we can click on the "Start" icon to pause a game.
  • Main Menu
    • Online Updater (a globe icon).
      • Core Downloader. Download the cores you need. You will see a symbol [#] next to the core we have already downloaded. See "RetroArch Starter Guide" for preferred cores for popular systems.
      • Update Core info files/Assets/Controller Profiles/Cheats/Databases/Shaders.
      • 'On-Demand Thumbnail Downloads' = ON.
    • Configuration File. Save Current Configuration.
  • Settings
    • Drivers. Video = gl/vulkan.
    • Video.
      • Scaling. Integer Scale, Aspect Ratio, Video Filter.
      • Bilinear Filtering
    • Input.
      • Port 1 Controls.
      • Hotkeys. This works if we have a controller/keyboard/mouse. See RetroArch Starter Guide for a list of useful hotkeys. Quick menu: Up face button, Close-content: Left face button, Quit: Start button.
    • Configuration. 'Save Configuration on Quit' = ON.
    • Saving. 'Auto Save State' = ON. 'Load State Automatically' = ON.
    • On-Screen Display. 'On-Screen Overlay' = ON. 'Hide Overlay When Controller is Connected' = ON.
    • User Interface.
      • Menu Item Visibility. Turn off of the following: Show Explor, Show Favorites, Show Images, Show Music, Show Netplay.
      • Menu. glui -> ozone
    • Playlists.
      • Manage Playlists. We can change the default core or refresh/delete a playlist.
    • Directory. File Browser -> browser to the top folder of ROM files.
  • Import Content
    • Scan Directory
    • Scan File
    • Manual Scan (better than Scan Directory).
      • Scan Inside Archives: this will scan the files within the zip file, whether you want this on will depend on the system you are scanning. You will want this off if scanning arcade games.
      • Arcade DAT File: this is important if you are scanning arcade games.
      • 'Overwrite Existing Playlist'.

Install on Ubuntu

• Install & Setup RetroArch to Play Classic Video Games in Ubuntu 24.04
• Play Classic Video Games With RetroArch on Ubuntu 24.04

Recommended cores

• joeysretrohandhelds (popular systems)
• My preferred RetroArch cores for popular systems from retrogamecorps
  • Arcade (FB Alpha 2012) -- for low-end devices
  • 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 DS (melonDS)
  • Nintendo NES (Nestopia)
  • Nintendo SNES (Snes9x or bsnes)
  • Nintendo 64 (Mupen64Plus or ParaLLEl)
  • Nintendo GameCube/Wii (Dolphin)
  • Sega Master System/Genesis/CD (Genesis Plus GX)
  • Sega 32x (PicoDrive)
  • Sega Saturn (Beetle Saturn or YabaSanshiro)
  • Sega Dreamcast (Flycast)
  • SNK Neo Geo (FinalBurn Neo)
  • Sony PlayStation (Beetle PSX or PCSX ReARMed)
  • Sony PlayStation 2 (PCSX2)
  • Sony Playstation Portable (PPSSPP)

• For MAME games, I'll use the "Arcade (FinalBurn Neo)" as the default core. If FBNeo failed for an individual game, then I'll modify the game's metadata (SELECT button) and scroll down to the very bottom "ALTERNATIVE EMULATOR" and select "Arcade (MAME 2003-Plus)" .

Tips

Retroarch Not Working? Here Are Some Fixes for You

ROM file extensions

• Sony - PlayStation (PCSX ReARMed)

Interface

• https://retroarch.com/?page=interface
• RetroArch 1.8.5 is out replacing the XMB UI with Ozone plus lots of bug fixing
• Change the interface back to XMB Drivers - Menu.

Input, port

• Each port represents a "slot" where a controller can be connected.
• Single-player games only use Port 1, so the active controller needs to be assigned to it.
• In multiplayer games, players use Ports 1–4, and you can assign specific controllers to each one in RetroArch.

When you plug in an external controller, RetroArch moves that controller to Port 1 and internal shifts to Port 2.

Controller tester

• jstest

  sudo apt update
  sudo apt install joystick
  jstest /dev/input/js0  # jstest --normal /dev/input/js0
  

  • This will show you real-time button presses and analog stick movements.
  • Real-time readouts of axis values (usually axis 0 & 1 for left stick, 2 & 3 for right stick).
  • Full-range (analog): Axis values change smoothly (e.g., 0 → 500 → 12000 → 32767).
  • If js0 doesn’t exist, use ls /dev/input/ to check what input devices are listed.
  • If the axis jumps, sticks, or doesn’t reach full values, you may have a hardware issue or a misconfigured driver.
  • 8-way (digital-style): Values jump directly to fixed values like -32767 or +32767, and stay there.
• jstest-gtk
  • https://github.com/Grumbel/jstest-gtk
  • jstest-gtk Is A Joystick Testing And Configuration Tool For Linux
  • How To Install jstest-gtk on Ubuntu 20.04
• Move your joystick and observe response in menu navigation or games that rely on analog input (e.g., N64, Dreamcast).
  • N64
    • Super Mario 64 – Mario walks, jogs, or runs depending on how far you tilt the stick.
    • The Legend of Zelda : Ocarina of Time - Link walks or runs based on analog input.
    • Wave Race 64 - Precise analog steering of your jet ski.
    • Mario Kart 64 - Steering is analog-sensitive; tighter or looser turns based on input strength.
  • PS1
    • Ape Escape - Requires dual analog sticks — one for movement, one for tools.
    • Gran Turismo - Acceleration and steering are analog-sensitive.
    • Metal Gear Solid (DualShock version) - Can use analog stick for smoother sneaking.
  • Dreamcast
    • Crazy Taxi - Analog steering and throttle control.
    • Sonic Adventure - Sonic moves faster with more tilt.
    • Virtua Tennis - Movement around the court is analog-based.
  • PSP
    • God of War: Chains of Olympus Movement and aiming respond to stick pressure.
    • Daxter Full analog 3D movement.
    • Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories Analog driving and walking.
  • Some signs of problems:
    • Drifting (cursor moves without touching stick)
    • No response or full-lock behavior
    • Only 8-way movement instead of full range

Frame skip

Quick Menu (menu + X on Rocknix) -> Core Options -> Video -> Frame Skipping. Default is OFF.

Analog to Digital Type

• It maps analog stick movement to D-pad directions (↑ ↓ ← →) for older or digital-only games and emulators.
• Example Use Case: You’re playing an NES or SNES game that only supports the D-pad.
• When to Leave It on “None”: If you're playing a game that uses real analog input (e.g., Super Mario 64 or Ape Escape), leave this set to None so the stick functions properly.

On-screen overlays/bezels

• Bezels are static images that are displayed around the game screen, filling in the black areas. They can be designed to look like the original console you're emulating (e.g., a Game Boy or SNES), an arcade cabinet, or even generic retro-themed artwork.
• https://valent-in.github.io/retropad-editor/,
  • RetroPad Editor - create and edit onscreen gamepads
• https://github.com/libretro/common-overlays contains png files for different on-screen overlay.
• My default is "neo-retropad.cfg" under /data/user/0/com.retroarch/overlays/gamepads/neo-retropad/. Why sometimes the d-pad becomes an analog-stick?
  • The cfg files are located at /storage/user/0/com.retroarch/overlays/gamepads directory.
  • For per-game/per-directory/per-core setting, I need to first play the game and then click the "RetroArch" on-screen icon to go to the Retroarch quick menu. In the quick menu, scroll down and find the "On-Screen Overlay" option.
  • For sega games, I change the overlay to genesis/genesis.cfg
  • For arcade games, I change the overlay to arcade/arcade.cfg or arcade-minimal/arcade-minimal.cfg. The left control is an 8-directional stick, rather than d-pad.
  • Remember to choose the "Overrides" option when we returned from "On-Screen Overlay" option in order to apply the new input on-screen overlay to all games in the directory and/or the same core.
• What is a Libretro Overlay?
• Configure RetroArch on Android and fix problems mentioned to choose anything under the "flat" directory for NES games.
• Common retro games screen ratio
• Examples RG40xx h is 4:3 screen ratio
  • NES, SNES, Genesis, PS1, N64: 4:3
  • GBA: 3:2
  • PSP: 16:9
  • Arcade games varied widely, but many were wider or taller than 4:3
• RetroArch
  • Settings - User Interface - On-screen Overlay.
  • Quick menu -> Onscreen Overlay or Overlays.
  • Go to "Display Overlay" and make sure it's set to "ON."
  • Select a .cfg file
  • Save Configuration:

Shader

Shaders for Retro Games

Playlist

• How to refresh a playlist?
  • If the playlist was created by "Import Content" -> "Scan Directory", then do it again.
  • Refresh playlist(PL) will only show on manually created playlists (e.g. Sega Saturn chd files by using Playlists -> Import Content -> Manual Scan)). Settings -> Playlist -> Manage PL -> Sega Saturn -> Refresh PL.

Syncthing

Syncthing on Retro Handhelds! Save Sync Guide. Written guide.

Sega controller + RetroArch

• Retroid Pocket Classic Six-Button Guide (YT)
• I use 8bitdo Sega bluetooth controller on Android.
  • Manual, Official, FAQ
  • Press start to turn on the controller. Press & hold start for 3 seconds to turn off the controller.
  • According to the manual, D-input was used. Press & hold "B & Start" to turn on the controller. Then press & hold "pair" to 2 seconds to enter pairing mode.
  • In RetroArch, "B" button is like OK and "C" button is like Back.
  • In RetroArch, if we do not use the bluetooth controller for a while it will lose the connection. So I need to quit RetroArch and launch it again.
  • Retroarch Sega Saturn Emulation Button Mapping Setup For Retro-Bit 2.4 GHz Saturn Controller (video)
  • How To Configure & Map A 6 Sega Controller On RetroPie - RetroPie Guy Tutorial
  • How to remap a 6 button controller in retroarch for your Sega Genesis Mini!

• Landscape/Portrait:
  • I place my phone in a landscape model. The main interface includes "Main Menu" (icon is like a home), "Playlists" (icon is like a right-click menu) and "Settings" (icon is like a wheel) can be navigated through the left and right buttons on D-pad in the controller.
  • If we want to change the user interface, Go to Settings -> User Interface. Change from the default "glui" to "xmb".

• To play Sega Saturn games, I need to download both BIOS and Core files.
  • BIOS files include mpr-17933.bin & sega_101.bin. These files should be manually downloaded and put in the RetroArch/system folder. RetroArch Tutorial provides a link to download RetroArch BIOS bundle. PS: some games like NES can be played by downloading just Core without a need for any BIOS file.
  • Core files can be downloaded from Main Menu -> Load Core

• Games can be added from Playlists -> Import Content -> Scan Directory
  • I am copying games from SD card to a game folder on the internal storage. The SD card is under /storage/XXXX-XXXX/ folder (according to "Files" -> SD card -> Select 3 dots next to a folder -> Folder Info) but it seems RetroArch cannot find it.
  • Scanned games (systems) will be listed under the Playlists menu.

• Configuration should be saved from Main Menu -> Configuration File -> Save Current Configuration

• Controller setup. Settings -> Input
  • Hotkeys:
    • Hotkey Enable: Press & hold the Select button (right most of 3 on the bottom row of the controller)
    • Close Content: Press & hold the Start button. Now Select + Start will bring up the "Quick Menu".
  • Port 1 Controls: confirm it is 8Bitdo M30

• Settings -> Logging. The log file can be used for troubleshooting. The log file will be saved under RetroArch -> Log folder.
  • Enable "Logging Verbosity"
  • Enable "Log to File"

• Settings -> Directory. Understand where does RetroArch look for or save files.

Sega controller on Debian/Ubuntu

• Retro-Bit Official Sega Genesis USB Controller 8-Button Arcade Pad for Sega Genesis Mini, Switch, PC, Mac, Steam, RetroPie, Raspberry Pi

• Retroarch version 1.19.1

• In Retroarch, buttons are numbered from 0. So I got Button 0, Button 1, .., Button 9 from "Port 1 Controls" screen.
• This online hardware gamepad tester also number my controller's buttons starting from 0.
  • button 0: X (when the button is pressed, the value changed from 0 to 1)
  • button 1: A
  • button 2: B
  • button 3: Y
  • button 4: C
  • button 5: Z
  • button 6: Left shoulder
  • button 7: Right shoulder
  • button 8: Mode
  • button 9: Start
  • Axis 0: horizontal on D-pad (left = -1, right = 1)
  • Axis 1: vertical on D-pad

• In Retroarch, Settings -> Input -> RetroPad Binds -> Port 1 Controls.
  • Device Index automatically identified my controller as Retro-bit Genesis/Saturn 8 button Arcade Pad.
  • For each set up (like D-Pad Up), it can show both a button and a key. For example, for "D-Pad Up", I got "Axis -1, Key up"
  • To avoid the effect of existing assigned buttons, when I assign a button, I use my keyboard up/down key to highlight one item and press the Enter key first. Then I press a button I like.
  • D-Pad Down, "Axis +1, Key down"
  • D-Pad Left, "Axis -0, Key left"
  • D-Pad Right, "Axis +0, Key right"
  • B button (Down), "Button 2, Key z". Note: it seems Retroarch using the Switch controller (cf Xbox) as the reference, hence B button corresponds to "(Down)" and X button is "(Top)". I follow the letters shown on the controller to assign each button.
  • A button (Right), "Button 1, Key x"
  • Y button (left), "Button 3", Key a"
  • X button (top), "Button 0", Key s"
  • Select button, "Button 8, Key rshift" (mode button)
  • Start button, "Button 9, Key enter"
  • L button (shoulder), "Button 6, Key q"
  • R button (shoulder), "Button 7, Key w"
  • Press "Backspace" key on my keyboard OR B button on the controller to go back to the previous screen
  • Hotkeys - note for each item we don't need to press the Select/mode button. Again, we use the keyboard "Enter" in order to assign a button.
    • Hotkey Enabled: "Button 8" (Mode button)
    • Menu Toggle/RA Menu/Quick Menu/Pause Menu: f1 (Y button, the top one)
    • Quit: "Button 0, Key escape" (Start)
    • Close Content: "Button 9" (X button). No needed if we use ES-DE as a front-end.
    • Load State: "Button 6, Key f4" (L button)
    • Save State: "Button 7, Key f2" (R button)
    • Run-Ahead (reduce latency): right d-pad
    • Toggle FF: ???
    • Press "Backspace" key or the B button to return to the previous dialog
    • Press "Backspace" twice, move to Main Menu -> Configuration File -> Save Current Configuration.
  • Confirm Quit/Close/Reset: change to off so Select+Start only needs to be pressed one time

• Settings
  • Configuration -> Save Configuration on Quit is ON.
  • Directory -> System/BIOS. I copied all Bios files to here ~/.var/app/org.libretro.RetroArch/config/retroarch/system
  • Directory -> File Browser. I changed to /home/$USER/ROMs

• To import games
  • First we download Cores. Main Menu -> Online Updater. Load Core -> Download a Core.
  • Import Content -> Manual Scan. Remember to enable "Scan Inside Archives" for zip ROM files (like NES, GBC, GBA)
  • If we want to refresh a directory, choose Scan Directory and select one which has been previously scanned.

Emulators

• Dreamcast, Youtube: Raspberry Pi 3 Dreamcast Emulation
• N64. Youtube: Raspberry Pi 3 Nintendo 64 Emulation
• PSP: Youtube: Raspberry Pi 3 Running PSP Emulator Retropie Emulation Station

ROM

• https://www.reddit.com/r/roms/
  • Rom Center Markdown Edition 2023
  • Roms Megathread 4.0 HTML Edition 2021
    • myrient-Redump

• A curated and scraped ROM collection - 2.0 Reupload
  • The webpage contains links to mainly the arcade (CPS1, CPS2, CPS2, NeoGeo and NeoGeoCD), GB/GBA/GBC, N64, NES, PC Engine (CD), Sega CD/Game Gear/Master system/Mega Drive/Naomi, SNES and WonderSwan Color games.

• tiny best set go. Tiny Best Set: GO! Is a hand-curated set of games for the Miyoo Mini (running Onion OS) or the Anbernic RG-35XX (running Garlic OS).
  • The set is 6gb and contains 1,900 games for: Arcade, Neo Geo, Atari 2600, TurboGrafx-16, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, NES, SNES, Game Gear, Master System, and Genesis
  • A 64gb expansion adds 10 Sega CD, 10 TurboGrafx-16 CD, and 100 PlayStation games and brings the total size to about 55gb
  • A 128gb expansion adds 15 more Sega CD, 15 more TurboGrafx-16 CD, and 100 more PlayStation games and brings the total size to about 95gb

• PS1/PSX
  • Archive

• NDS
  • NDS Collection

• Dreamcast
  • Dreamcast CHD - USA - Fullset. I need to extract 7z file for Batocera/Knulli.

• Google: download games roms for retro game console
• romsmania Is romsmania good? Vimm’s lair is safest, but cdromance is fast. Romsmania has lots of viruses.
• Best Rom sites to download retro games and emulators
• 20 Best Rom Sites – Safe & Trusted In 2022 To Download ROMs
• Top 10 Websites and Apps to download RETRO ROMs for Android to play classic console games
• http://www.freeroms.com/
• http://coolrom.com/emulators/psp/
• http://www.emuparadise.me/PSP_ROMs/
• http://romhustler.net/roms/psp
• http://www.downarea51.com/2014/04/daftar-game-iso-psp.html#.VzXUlZ5H8_t
• http://www.portalroms.com/en/isos/psp (include covers)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdGSH5vy2Xw (some examples)
• Retroid Pocket 2 - How to Download ROMs without PC/MAC and Do it straight from the device
• Flycast Atomiswave collection by Verevet_dark from archive.org. flycast (dreamcast bios) works on RP2 stock OS.

Convert ROM

• The Ultimate ROM File Compression Guide
• The Complete ROMs & BIOS Organization Guide (Best File Types, Converting, .m3u Playlists & More!)
  • Recommended File Types & Compression for ROMS
  • Recommended BIOS Files

BIOS

• https://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/Emulator_files (including download links for each systems)
• Full & Clean BIOSes set for ArkOS, LibRetro, RetroArch, RetroPie, Recalbox and Batocera.
• https://cdromance.com/bios-files/ (GameCube, ...)

Aspect ratio/resolution

• The Guide to Aspect Ratio’s & Resolutions on Retro Handhelds
• Best screen resolution for retro gaming
• Screen size comparisons https://shauninman.com/utils/screens/
• Understanding Aspect Ratios and Resolutions in Retro Gaming
• 20:19 ratio (0.95, height/width): NGPC (black bars on 2 sides on 4:3 devices)
• 16:15 ratio (0.94): NES
• 10:9 ratio (0.90): GBC
• 8:7 ratio (0.88): SNES
• 4:3 ratio (0.75): NES, SNES, Master system, Sega Genesis, Dreamcast, N64, NDS, PS
• 10:7 ratio (0.70): Mega drive (black bars invisible)
• 3:2 ratio (0.67): GBA closer to 16:9 (PSP)
• 16:9 ratio (0.56): PSP (black bars on top/bottom on 4:3 devices)

• Scaling
  • Perfect or Near-Perfect Integer Scaling:
    • Arcade (CPS3, MAME, FBNeo): Many arcade games (like those using 320x240 or 384x224) scale perfectly to 640x480 at 2x.
    • Sega Genesis / Mega Drive: Native 320x240, scales perfectly 2x to 640x480.
    • PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16: 320x240, also scales 2x.
    • PlayStation 1: Most games are 320x240, so 2x scaling fits well.
    • Neo Geo: 320x224, 2x scaling with slight black bars.
    • Game Boy Advance: 240x160, 2x scaling gives 480x320—centered with black bars, but pixels remain sharp
  • Systems That Don’t Scale Perfectly (But Still Look Good):
    • Super Nintendo (SNES): 256x224 native. 2x scaling = 512x448, so you’ll get black bars around the image, but pixels will be sharp and undistorted.
    • Game Boy / Game Boy Color: Lower resolutions (160x144), 3x scaling = 480x432, so you’ll have black bars but maintain pixel accuracy.
    • NES: 256x240, 2x scaling = 512x480, so black bars on the sides
  • How to Enable Integer Scaling in OnionOS (RetroArch):
    • Open any game.
    • Press MENU + SELECT to enter the RetroArch Quick Menu.
    • Navigate to: Settings → Video → Scaling → Integer Scaling. Turn this option ON.
    • Optionally, save your configuration for all games or just the current core/game:
      • Go to Main Menu → Configuration File → Save Current Configuration
      • Or use Overrides for core/game-specific settings

Check versions

• https://wiki.batocera.org/current_and_previous_releases

SSH

SSH/Xterm and Common Commands: root/linux

Manuals

• https://www.gamesdatabase.org/all_manuals
• Archive.org
  • GB
  • Sega Genesis

Access a game's manual from Batocera

• Main Menu -> User Interface Settings -> Show Manual Icon. Now before launching a game, hold the A button. It'll show "VIEW GAME MANUAL" at the top of the quick menu.
• Viewing pdf game manuals.

Old/new hardware

• Top 5 Mini PCs Of 2022 | $40-$499 The Best Small For Factor Computers You Can Buy 2022/6. 6th/7th gen i5/i7 is good for PS2/3DS/Wii GameCube and below. New CPU includes N5105, Ryzen 7 4800U (PS3 OK).
• HP Elitedesk 705 G4 Ryzen 5 2400GE. Radeon RX Vega 11 Graphics. No need for a separate GPU card.
• Dell Optiplex 3050 SFF + GT 1030 low profile

Emulation Station

• ES-DE on Android Guide: My Favorite Launcher!
  • Demystifying RetroArch - A Beginner's Guide 28:57 long
  • RetroArch Starter Guide 39:10 long
• Anbernic RG406V Setup Guide and EmulationStation on Android Setup Guide
  • (Video) Anbernic RG556, RG Cube, RG406V & RG406H Starter Setup Guide (Emulators, Roms, Tweaks)
• Lit of EmulationStation themes (Many are v4, for the latest build of ES.) Taken from the RetroPi fork
• Press "X" to start screensaver immediately according to instruction at the bottom of the screen
  • Systems based on Emulation Station have this function such as ArkOS, Batocera, JELOS, RetroOZ, ...
  • Idle for 5 minutes will trigger screensave. ARKOS -> UI Settings -> Screensaver Settings.
  • if you press start it'll play the game you're watching
• ES-DE: How to use the Screensaver
• ES-DE on Android: How to configure RetroArch to close when exiting a game
• ES-DE Android Setup Guide (plus Companion app & Mjolnir for the AYN Thor!)

Emulators

• Other Settings - Alternative Emulators
• recommended cores

gamelist.xml

Q: If I modify metadata of a game in emulationstation, what file is exactly modified?
A: When you modify metadata for a game in EmulationStation, the changes are typically saved to a file called gamelist.xml. This file contains the metadata information for games in a specific system. The gamelist.xml file can be located in one of three places, in order of priority:

• [SYSTEM_PATH]/gamelist.xml (in the ROM folder)
• ~/.emulationstation/gamelists/[SYSTEM_NAME]/gamelist.xml
• /etc/emulationstation/gamelists/[SYSTEM_NAME]/gamelist.xml

Navigation

General navigation

• Start button (ESC)
• Back button (F1)
• Left and right shoulder buttons (Page up / Page down)
• Left and right trigger buttons (Home / End)
• A button (Enter)
• B button (Back key)
• X button (Delete) Starts the media viewer in the gamelist view or the screensaver in the system view
• Y button (Insert on Linux and Windows, F13 on macOS) Marks games as favorites in the gamelist view
• Alt + F4 (Windows and Linux) or Command + Q (macOS) (keyboard only) Quits the application.

Rescan ROMS

Two methods:

• Navigate to "Quit" and select it. In the next menu, choose "Restart EmulationStation"
• Go to "Utilities". Select "Rescan ROM directory"

Scraped images/videos

• On Desktop, these are saved in ~/ES-DE/downloaded_media/ for each systems. For example, ~/ES-DE/downloaded_media/dreamcast/ contains subdirectories "3dboxes, backcovers, covers, fanart, manuals, marquees, miximages, physicalmedia, screenshots, titlescreens, videos". The location can be changed from OTHER SETTINGS -> GAME MEDIA DIRECTORY. See Manually copying game media files
  • I check only Game names, Ratings, Other metadata, Videos and Game manuals. This will not ignore images. So it will only create "manuals" and "vidoes" subfolders in each game system. The 'metadata' part (like released year, genre, developer, etc) is not saved in an individual subfolder in each game system.
  • If I check "Screenshot", it will create "miximages" and "screenshots" subfolder in each game system.
• On Knulli, the scraped files are saved in each system. For example, SHARE/roms/dreamcast has subdirectories "images" and "videos". Note that on Desktop it is called screenshots but Knulli called it images.

Theme

• Theme gallery
• I choose ES-THEME-CARBON. The font size is nice. In the Theme Configuration,
  • Background = "Carbon Controls"
  • Gamelist View Style = Detailed
  • Default grid size = 1x1
  • Color scheme = Blue

User Manual

• Click "Select" -> "View User Manual"

• Menus & Settings:
  • Select: Quick access menu

• Controls: In-Game Hotkeys
  • M + Start: exit game
  • M + B: emulator menu
  • M + L1: screenshot
  • Select: add credit
  • M + Select: use d-pad as analog stick
  • M + up/down: Next/previous save lot
  • M + left/right: Rewind/fast forward
  • M + Y: Quick save to current plot
  • M + X: Quick load from current plot
  • L2: Swap first/second screen
  • M + L2: Switch dual/single screen

Difficulty

• Easy: Arcade & MAME, NES 1983, GBA 2001, Sega Genesis 1988, SNES 1990, PC Engine CD 1987, NEO GEO 1990, PS1 1994

• More difficult: Dreamcast 1998, N64 1996, Sega Saturn 1994,PSP 2004. TrimUI Smart Pro.

• Even more difficult: GameCube 2001, PS2 2000, 3DS 2011, Wii 2006

• GameBoy < GBC < GBA < NES < SNES < PSX < Arcade < NDS < Saturn < N64 < Dreamcast < PSP < GameCube < PS2 < Switch. The New PowKiddy X18S is Just AWFUL

• First generation of video game consoles. Magnavox Odyssey.
• Second generation of video game consoles. Atari 2600 & 5200.
• Third generation of video game consoles/8-bit era. Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Master, Atari 7800, Commodore 64 .
• Fourth generation of video game consoles/16-bit era. PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16, Sega Mega drive/Genesis, SNES, NEO GEO, GBA, Atari lynx, Sega CD, Sega 32X.
• Fifth generation of video game consoles (N64, PSX, Saturn).
• Emulation on Loki Zero: Way Better with Linux!

SD card formatter

• Formatting SD or USB disk under Linux
  • GUI: 'disks utility
  • CLI: sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=4M & sudo mkfs -t ext4 /deb/sdb

SD card copy/backup

• The 'SD card copier' from Raspberry Pi OS does not work for the JELOS shipped with RGB30. The error message is "non-msdos partition table on source"
• The following commands works

  # Assume the original SD card is /dev/sda
  sudo umount /dev/sda*
  sudo if=/dev/sda of=jelosRGB30.img bs=1M status=progress
  
  # Assume the new SD card is /dev/sdb
  sudo umount /dev/sdb*
  sudo if=jelosRGB30.img of=/dev/sdb bs=1M status=progress
  # Unplug SD card in /dev/sdb
  

RetroPie

• RetroPie
  • 12 Best Games to Play on Retropie (Download Links)
  • Best retro games: the best classic video games around
    • Super Mario Bros. 3. NES
    • The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past. SNES
    • Tetris
    • Street Fighter II Turbo. Arcade
    • Super Mario Kart. SNES
    • Sonic The Hedgehog 2. Sega Mega Drive
    • Donkey Kong. Arcade
    • Outrun. Arcade
    • Streets Of Rage 2. Sega Mega Drive
    • Space Invaders. Arcade
    • Super Metroid. SNES
    • Duck Hunt. NES
    • Paperboy. Arcade
    • Ms. Pac-Man. Arcade
    • Gauntlet. Arcade
    • Pong. Arcade
    • Sensible Soccer.
    • Day Of The Tentacle
    • Manic Miner
    • Chuckie Egg
  • Doc → First Installation including HotKey
  • How to Install RetroPie as an App in Raspbian on Raspberry Pi, Manual installation. It works (07/2020).
    • We can configure to start RetroPie at boot (see Manual installation).
    • If we want to start RetroPie from the command line, we need to exit the GUI Desktop and switch to text console - teletype/TTY (eg Ctrl-Alt-F2). After enter username/password, type emulationstation to start RetroPie.
    • After we quit the emulationstation, we can start the GUI Desktop by startx.
  • RetroPie and Raspberry Pi PIXEL Desktop
  • How to transfer ROM from your primary computer. For example copy *.smc files to ~/RetroPie/roms/snes folder.
  • What is the “Hotkey Enable” button supposed to be?. Choose select button as the hotkey, even though I've already assigned Select previously.
  • (backslash giving a #) Keyboard setup.

Username: pi, password: raspberry. See RetroPie wiki.

$ ssh [email protected]
[email protected]'s password:

The programs included with the Debian GNU/Linux system are free software;
the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the
individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright.

Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent
permitted by applicable law.
Last login: Wed May 11 17:35:37 2016 from 10.42.0.1

   .~~.   .~~.    Wednesday, 11 May 2016,  5:36:53 pm UTC
  '. \ ' ' / .'   Linux 4.1.19+ armv6l GNU/Linux
   .~ .~~~..~.
  : .~.'~'.~. :   Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
 ~ (   ) (   ) ~  /dev/root        15G  2.2G   12G  16% /
( : '~'.~.'~' : ) Uptime.............: 0 days, 00h04m04s
 ~ .~       ~. ~  Memory.............: 114884kB (Free) / 250692kB (Total)
  (   |   |   )   Running Processes..: 70
  '~         ~'   IP Address.........: 10.42.0.37
    *--~-~--*     Temperature........: CPU: 46°C/114°F GPU: 46°C/114°F
                  The RetroPie Project, http://www.petrockblock.com

pi@retropie:~ $ df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/root        15G  2.2G   12G  16% /
devtmpfs        119M     0  119M   0% /dev
tmpfs           123M     0  123M   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs           123M  8.5M  114M   7% /run
tmpfs           5.0M  4.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
tmpfs           123M     0  123M   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/mmcblk0p1   57M   20M   38M  35% /boot

Install on Debian

• https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Debian/
• Tested on Debian 11
  • ~/Downloads/RetroPie-Setup
  • Copy roms to each game folders under ~/RetroPie/roms
  • Copy BIOS to ~/RetroPie/BIOS
• We can launch the app by searching "RetroPie" in GNOME or type "emulationstation" in a Terminal
  • When we are done with playing, we should choose "Quit Emulationstation" instead of "Shutdown System".
  • We can launch emulationstation in a windowed mode from a Terminal emulationstation --windowed --resolution 1080 720
• For the face buttons on my Sega controller, it is better to switch A & B, X & Y buttons so A is right, B is down, X is up and Y is left.

Quit RetroPie

• If we exit RetroPie, we need to choose "Quit EmulationStation" (2nd option).
• If we accidentally choose "Shutdown System". We can use Tab + Alt key to switch to another Terminal (eg Tabby) and issue the commands

ps -ef | grep gnome-terminal-server # Get PID XXXXX
kill -9 XXXXX

Check my RetroPie version

How to check which RetroPie version I'm on?. It works (I am using v4.8, 2022 Mar 13); it matched with the information on the download page. However, the Raspbian version is 10 (buster) according to "/etc/os-release" so the Kodi is version 18 not 19.

$ cd ~/RetroPie-Setup
$ git show

Another way is to run RetroPie setup program. See a screenshot How To Backup and Update Your RetroPie Image.

Setup

How to Build Your Own NES or SNES Classic with a Raspberry Pi and RetroPie

Volume in audio

Latest update lvl0: VolumeControl::init() - Failed to find mixer elements!. I got this message after I switch from RetroPie to Kodi.

USB audio

RetroPie/Raspberry Pi: How to Configure a USB Sound Device

Exit a game

Press HotKey and Start button. Another way is "Esc" or "Esc + enter" on a keyboard. This helps exiting games from N64 where 'select' is not one of its buttons. Exit every Emulator with "escape" key and Setting the ESC Key as the Exit Emulation Button, ESC key doesnt Exit emulator

Install RetroPie as an App

• Can I "save" saved game files before reflashing?
• https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Manual-Installation/
  • NOTE: The Rasberry Pi OS 'bullseye' release is not yet supported by RetroPie.
  • Raspbian 11 (Bullseye) is not supported yet
• The downloadable Raspberry Pi images distributed by The RetroPie Foundation are built on top of Raspberry Pi OS Lite, which is just the regular RPiOS without the LXDE/PIXEL desktop environment. You can add the desktop to an existing build using the instructions at https://retropie.org.uk/docs/FAQ/#where-did-the-desktop-go.
• Installing RetroPie on Raspberry Pi OS 2020
• How to install Retropie on a Raspberry Pi to play emulators 2022

Controller configurations

• Controller Configuration
• The Ultimate RetroPie Controller Guide
• RetroPie-joystick-selection
• RetroPie Key Remapping

Raspberry Pi 3

• I have a raspberry pi 3 what should I do with it?
• Would Raspberry pi 3b+ be good enough or should I opt for raspberry pi 4? PS1 works flawlessly on 3b+. N64 & PSP emulation isn't great even with a 4. Dreamcast is spotty on a pi 3, however some games and settings are fine.
• Order is Arcade < PS1 < N64 < Saturn < Dreamcast < PSP. Retro Gaming on the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max
• Pi3B Performance Question

Tips

10 RetroPie Setup Tips and Tutorial for the Raspberry Pi 4

ROM

ROM size

On my 128 GB SD card du -sh /media/crucial/RetroPie/roms/* | sort -hr | head or ncdu ~/RetroPie/roms (interactive) shows the top folders taking most space

• dreamcast: 24 GB (28 folders)
• psx: 13.4 GB (111 folders)
• arcade: 9 GB (2988 files)
• fba: 8.2 GB (1350 files)
• n64: 7.2 GB (470 files)
• mame-libretro: 7 GB (2334 files)
• gba: 6.3 GB (932 files)
• segacd: 4.7 GB (23 files)
• amiga: 3.6 GB (4280 games)
• snes: 3.0 GB (3362 games)
• neogeo: 2.8 GB (187 games)
• TOTAL: 106 GB, 118649 items

Transfer ROMs

• https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Updating-RetroPie/#backup-option-2
• Three ways to transfer ROMs. Using the USB drive approach, you will copy ROMs to your USB drive, connect it to your Pi, and RetroPie will automatically copy them to the SD card and make them available in Emulation Station (and the RetroPie UI).
• RetroPie 4.8 Setup and Install Guide for the Raspberry Pi Wagner's TechTalk

ROMS location

The SD card has 2 partitions: boot and retropie.

ROMs are located in retropie/home/pi/RetroPie/roms directory.

$ ls '/media/brb/retropie/home/pi/' 
bgm  coolcv_mapping.txt  gunconf  RetroPie  RetroPie-Setup  v3

$ ls '/media/brb/retropie/home/pi/RetroPie/' 
BIOS  retropiemenu  roms  splashscreens

Running ROMs from a USB drive

Running ROMs from a USB drive

Network share

Running ROMs from a Network Share

Backup/restore

https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Updating-RetroPie/#backup-option-2 (if you don't want to create a sd image you can just back up your BIOS, roms, and configuration files from the samba shares), or back up the /home/pi folder which contains lots of folders (bgm, Desktop, Documents, Downloads, gunconf, Music, Pictures, Public, RetroPie, RetroPie-Setup, Templates, v3, Videos)

(Update) The procedure below is not optimal especially the SD card is very large. I only need to back up the retropie/home/pi/RetroPie/roms folder.

sudo umount /media/brb/retropie
sudo umount /media/brb/boot
sudo dd bs=4M if=/dev/sdc | pigz -4 > RetroPie-128g.img.gz

# Restore
gunzip --stdout raspbian.img.gz | sudo dd bs=4M of=/dev/sdb

This assumes the 2nd SD card is the same or has a larger capacity. For example if my source is samsung 128GB and the target is another samsung 128GB but a different model, I got the following error.

$ gunzip --stdout RetroPie-128g.img.gz | sudo dd bs=4M of=/dev/sdc
[sudo] password for brb: 
dd: error writing '/dev/sdc': No space left on device
0+3763699 records in
0+3763698 records out
128043712512 bytes (128 GB, 119 GiB) copied, 3455.3 s, 37.1 MB/s

The fdisk command shows the reason:

# source sd card (larger capacity)
sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdc
Disk /dev/sdc: 119.38 GiB, 128177930240 bytes, 250347520 sectors

# another sd card (a little smaller capacity)
sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdc
Disk /dev/sdc: 119.26 GiB, 128043712512 bytes, 250085376 sectors

RetroPie Configuration

• AUDIO
• BLUETOOTH
• CONFIGURATION EDITOR
• ES THEMES
• FILE MANAGER - seems no way to quit using a controller
• RASPI-CONFIG - This is equivalent to 'raspi-config'
• RETROARCH
  • Load Core
  • Load Content
  • Load Recent
  • Playlists
  • Scan Content
  • Netplay
  • Settings
  • Information
  • Configuration File: retroarch.cfg
• RETROARCH NET PLAY
• RETROPIE SETUP
  • Basic install - This will install all packages from the 'Core' and 'Main' package sections.
  • Update - update installed packages?
  • Manage packages - core/main/opt/driver/exp/depends
  • Configuration /tools - lots of options
  • Update RetroPie-Setup script
  • Uninstall RetroPie
  • Perform reboot
• RUN COMMAND CONFIGURATION
• SHOW IP
• SPLASH SCREENS
• WIFI

Display FPS

• Display Framerate In RetroPie Show FPS Counter
• RetroARCH - Settings -> User Interface -> Onscreen display - Notifications -> Notification Visibility -> Display Framerate.

Favorites and Recent

• How to Enable “Favorites” and “Last Played” on Retropie
• Press 'Y' will add the current (selected) game to Favorites.
• 'Favorites' and 'Last Played' will be shown on the main screen parallel to emulation consoles.
• RetroPie Docs

Scrape

• craping Metadata Location
  • Location of your images: /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation/downloaded_images
  • Location of your gamelist.xml: /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation/gamelists
• How To Scrape Videos In RetroPie Using Steven Selph's Scraper
• Add images and videos using skyscraper
• Video Snap Screen Savers In RetroPie If you don't have any videos it won't work.
• How can I add a Video Screensaver?
• Transfer scraped images from RetroPie to ArkOS.
  • gamelist.xml is the file used to show them in emulation station.
  • You can actually use Skraper from your PC and just scrape them from the Games partition when your SD card is connected. It's much easier using their UI.

Change the default emulator

• RetroPie Tips (Change resolution, emulator and exit games)
• How To Change Emulators On RetroPie - RetroPie Guy Emulator Tutorial (video)

draStic ds emulator

(TUTORIAL) How to add draStic ds emulator and configure it and add ROMS with RetroPie-Manager

DS games that don't require touch screen

• ncesc.com
• DS games that don't use touch screen?
• Looking for DS games that don't need touch controls and would be a good inclusion for Retropie
• Yugioh games
• Digimon World: Dusk/Dawn
• Pokemon games (touch screen is only used for mini-games)
• Mario Kart DS
• Advance Wars Days of Ruin

Slot and state: save/load game

• Save State - How to Save Games in Retropie / Emulation Station
• Menu + R1 - save state
• Menu + L1 - load state

List of games

• n64 on pi3, RetroPie N64 Compatibility Chart
• 15 Best N64 Games you Need to Try on Retropie (with links)

Tekken 3: psx

The first screen should be selecting a mode. If this cannot be loaded, choose "RETROPIE SETUP -> Basic install" will fix the problem.

Manual.

The Legend of Zelda

• The Legend of Zelda (video game), The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild/薩爾達傳說 曠野之息
• Game & Watch: The Legend of Zelda, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening.
• The Legend of Zelda (NES) - 100% Full Game Walkthrough

Donkey Kong

Play guide

Super Mario Bros

You've Been Playing 'Super Mario Bros.' Wrong Your Whole Life. Search 'Tiktok'.

Kodi

• Turn Kodi into a RetroPie "system"
• To boot Kodi at launch: RetroPie - RetroPie Setup - Configuration/tools - autostart. To go back to RetroPie, Power -> Exit.
• Kodi

Debian/Linux

• Retropie on Debian/Ubuntu/Mint
• How To Install RetroPie On Ubuntu: A Step-by-step Guide
• How To Install RetroPie On A PC - Desktop Or Laptop Old Or New
• How to Install Retropie/Emulationstation on OrangePi3
• 3 NES Emulators to Play Old NES Games on Linux

PlayStation 2

How to Emulate PlayStation 2 on the Raspberry Pi 5 and Earlier

PC

LaunchBox

• LaunchBox. The Easiest Way To Play Your Favorite Retro Games On PC! New LaunchBox Update

Retrobat

• https://www.retrobat.org/
• The Easiest Emulation Setup on Windows

Android

• Android emulation starter guide 13APR2025.
• Android guide
  • RetroArch Android Setup Guide by joeysretrohandhelds.
  • Anbernic RG556 & RG Cube Starter Setup Guide (Emulators, Roms, Tweaks), Written guide
  • Android Emulation Setup Guide! (with Odin 3 settings) 2025/12/16.

• THIS is How I Set Up Android Handhelds! (RP2s Setup Guide) 2023/11
• Start-to-Finish COMPLETE Android Emulation Setup 2025/8

• Play PSP Games On Your Android With PPSSPP! By ETA PRIME
• Play 3DS Games On Android With Citra! By ETA PRIME
• This $120 Black Friday 5G Android Phone Is An Awesome Emulation Device! Saga saturn (Yaba Sanshiro 2), Dreamcast (redream), PSP (ppsspp), DS (dual screens), N64 (Mupen64 Plus FZ) and even Gamecube (Dolphin-MMJR)! ATV Launcher Pro.

Download emulators for each systems

• Obtainium Setup Guide from Joey Retro Handhelds.
  • For most sources, you don't need to be exact with the URL you enter; for example, any GitHub URL that contains the base repo URL would be accepted by the GitHub source. Wiki.
  • Obtainium supports a lot of App Sources
• Retroid Pocket Starter Guide
  • the latest Emulation Pack json script

Front end

• Daijishou: on Retroid Pock 2, the resolution is not high enough so some options are truncated. How about scrcpy.
• On Android:
  • Switch hotkeys mapping works depending on the controller
  • I cannot find a place to remap buttons in global settings or individual platform
  • I still need Android 'back' button to quit a game
  • Note Daijishou is still a front end. For example if I configure it to use Duckstation to play ps1 games, it still use Duckstation to emulate it. If I click the back button to quit the game, I can see Duckstation is in the list of last used apps.
• ES-DE/Emulation Station
  • EmulationStation on Android is AMAZING
  • EmulationStation on Android Ultimate Setup Guide! Plus, add Yuzu back!

SD card

When we insert an SD card, Android (11 and up) will offer two options

• Use as portable storage - format it as exFat. We can use the card in computers. Some games won't work out in this format. But we can use a frontend to access the games on certain emulators. We can create a new folder called 'games' on the SD card. Then create other subfolders like 'bios'. After that copy game folders under 'games' folder.
• Use as internal storage - only work in Android OS.

Button mapping

How to Use Button Mapping to Play Virtually Any Android Game With a Controller

Transfer emulation data

Transfer Emulator Data Between Android Handhelds (RetroArch, NetherSX2, Dolphin, Lime3DS & more!)

PC gaming: GameNative

• https://github.com/utkarshdalal/GameNative
• GameNative Guide: PC Gaming Made Easy!
• This Changes Mobile Gaming Forever! PC Gaming on Android Is Getting Crazy!

Chromebook, TV box

• This $98 Chromebook Is Great For Emulation & Cloud Gaming! AMD CPU, Android Apps. Launchbox.
  • AMD a4-9120c vs intel celeron n4020 (a little better)
• Walmart’s New $30 Onn Android TV Box Is Actually Pretty Good! S905Y2 CPU, 2021/6, MicroUSB OTG cable
• HK1 S905X3 tv box
  • Armbian for Amlogic s9xxx tv box
• Google’s New Chromecast Is Awesome! Chromecast With Google TV Review S905X2 CPU, 2020/10. USB-C dongle with PD input & better power adapter (original one is 5V & 1.5A = 7.5W). micro SD card was used here.
  • Top 6 New Chromecast Tips & Tricks for MAXIMUM AWESOMENESS.
  • Maximize Your Chromecasts Full Capabilities. Add a USB drive as an extension of the device storage (only support USB 2.0 speed), Move apps to USB drive
• New Chromecast with Google TV HD Is Pretty Great For $29
  • VP9 Vs. AV1 | Which is better for watching Youtube ?
  • the previous one does not support OTG storage
  • the original 4k model, if your using OTG hub, the power supply that comes with the device is not up to scratch and will not work. You need a beefier power supply.
  • Also Google has disabled the ability to WRITE to the usb stick/memory card attached to the OTG hub. Its fine of your READING, like loading roms, but if your emulator requires to save files in the same folder as your roms on the attached usb stick/memory card on the OTG hub, this will not work. I did a lot of troubleshooting back when thr 4k version was released. Files will only be saved to specific folders on the storage device, depending on the app.

• Chromecast with google tv
  • Google’s New Chromecast Is Awesome! Chromecast With Google TV Review (4k)
  • The All New Chromecast with Google TV HD Is Pretty Great For $29! Hands-On Review
  • Emulation on Chromecast Google TV 2022 Jan.
  • Walmart’s New $30 Onn Android TV Box Is Actually Pretty Good!
• Amazon Fire Stick
  • Amazon Fire Stick RetroArch Tutorial Play Retro Games On The Amazon Fire Stick ETA Prime
  • Amazon Fire Stick 4K MAX The BEST So Far 🔥 Emulation,Gaming,Streaming ETA Prime. PS1 is using RetroArch & PCSX ReARMed core.
  • Retro Gaming on the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max by Retro Game Corps

• Retro Gaming on a $30 Walmart Onn 4k plus TV Box 2026/1/31

iOS

How to Install Emulators for iPhone Using 4 Easy Methods

Mac

• How to Emulate on Macs! Full Starter Guide 2025
• The 5 Best Console Emulators for Your Mac

PlayStation analog and rumble support list

PlayStation analog and rumble support list

Help

PS1 Games in Bin/Cue format show up twice on the game list

• 351ELEC - PS1 Games in Bin/Cue format show up twice on the game list, PSX: double entries because of .bin/.cue files
• PS1 games having multiple games from on rom?. Convert all the BIN and CUE files to CHD format. There are tools to do this. Saves a ton of space, and makes it so that you only have one CHD file per disc.
• On Anbernic rg353v I click 'SELECT' and 'VIEW CUSTOMISATION' -> 'FILE EXTENSIONS'. There are 11 file extensions selected by default. I just need to uncheck ".BIN".

Convert to CHD

Compress Your ROMs on Android with CHDroid!

Convert 7z to zip file

According to the 7z documentation, the -o option should be followed immediately by the output directory path, without a space.

7z x -o/tmp/extracted archive.7z 
zip -r archive.zip /tmp/extracted/*

rm -rf /tmp/extracted

NVIDIA Shield

• How To Setup RetroArch On the Nvidia Shield Tv To Play Retro Games 2018
• How Good is the NVIDIA Shield TV Pro at Emulation 2021

Handheld

• Top 30 Handheld Retro Consoles- Emulator Comparison & Review Last update on 2021-12-03
• Tiers of the (Handheld Emulation) Kingdom: A Beginner's Guide to Dedicated Emulation Handhelds (Fall 2023)
• My Favorite Handhelds for Each Retro System and spreadsheet 2024/5/5

Retro Pocket 2

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retroid_Pocket_2. MediaTek MT6580. 640x480 (4:3). 1GB RAM. Micro HDMI.
• https://www.reddit.com/r/retroid/
• Wiki, Retro Handhelds
• RetroArch
  • Retroarch on the Retroid Pocket 2
  • Retroid Pocket 2 - RetroArch Quick-Start Guide (video) by Spin Retro & Tech Tips
  • Retroid Pocket 2 - Playstation 1 RetroArch Guide (Control Issues, Disc Swap, Dualshock Mode) (video) by Spin Retro & Tech Tips
  • Retroid Pocket 2 Beginner Guide - Initial Setup - Retroarch Setup - DraStic Setup - And More! (video) by Cyberphile, written guide
  • Retroid Pocket V2 - Retroarch Theme, Config and Setup (video)
  • What Is a BIOS And What Can It Do? PlayStation BIOS And Emulators in The 21st Century
  • Quick summary: Hold the "HOME" button until we see the "Gamepad" or "Touch" mode. Load Content -> /Storage -> sdcard1 -> now we are in the SD card. Choose a right location for the ROMs. This is a temporary solution to load a game (eg PS1/N64) when the "Scan Directory" method cannot recognize or put games on the RHS of the RetroArch main menu.
  • Retroarch Not Working? Here’s a Bunch of Fixes
  • The RetroArch version is 1.8.4 on my Android 8.1.0.
• USB-C + USB keyboard works well. Another way is to use scrcpy
• Retroid Pocket 2 Guide (not Plus)
• Mine only charges if I use usb-A to usb-C cable. Retroid pocket 2 won’t charge?Mine will only charge when it was turned on
• In Android OS, press and hold 'HOME' button to switch modes (Touch, Gamepad & mouse, Gamepad, Mouse). Use the Gampad Mode app to see the current mode.
  • In Touch indicator mode, the cursor is a white circle. It is the best since we can use D-pad to scroll down. "B" button to go back. If we hold the "A" button we can scroll up/down with joystick when the cursor is on the right edge.
  • In Gamepad & mouse mode. Cursor is an arrow. Both Analog stick & D-Pad work. "B" button works.
  • In Gamepad mode. No cursor. D-Pad works. Useful in RetroArch. "B" button works.
  • In "mouse" mode. Cursor is an arrow. Analog stick works. "B" button will not work. Question: when will this be useful compared to the "Touch" mode? See this case.
• Stock SD Card for RETROID Pocket 2 Download Link
  • SD card is 32GB. Metal side faces up. It is exFat partition.

    $ ls /media/brb/CAC2-7778
    Comic Book.zip  gpsp      RetroArch            Roms          Wallpaper
    games           LOST.DIR  preinstall           Riivive v1.1  Huntzman.zip  
    System Volume Information
    

• Retro Game Corps (written guides)
  • Nintendo DS on the Retroid Pocket 2 2020/9
  • Sega Dreamcast on the Retroid Pocket 2 2020/9
  • Retroid Pocket 2 In-Depth Review 2020/10
  • Retroid Pocket 2 Setup/install: Quick and Easy Getting-Started Guide 2020/10
  • Deep Dive Comparison: RG350M vs RG351P vs Retroid Pocket 2 2020/11
  • Retroid Pocket 2 - Android 8.1 Install Guide (video), written guide.
  • How to Install LineageOS 15.1 on Retroid Pocket 2 2021/3
  • Retroid Pocket 2 Beginner's Guide - Part 1 (Retroid Pocket App) 2020/10
• Taki Udon
  • Retroid Pocket 2 - Game Settings (Google sreadsheet)
  • Retroid Pocket 2 - The Best Retro Device Under $80 (N64/PS1/DC/DS/PSP) 2020/8
  • N64 Performance - Retroid Pocket 2 (29 Games Tested) 2020/8
  • Retroid Pocket 2 - Amazing Nintendo DS Performance! (42 Games Tested) 2020/8
  • Surprising Dreamcast Performance! - Retroid Pocket 2 2020/8
  • Retroid Pocket 2 - PSP Emulation Test 2020/8
  • They Brought Back The N64! - Funtastic Retroid Pocket 2 2020/12
• Spin Retro & Tech Tips
  • Retroid Pocket 2 - RetroArch Quick-Start Guide
  • Retroid Pocket 2 Beginner's Guide - Part 2 (Android System)
  • Retroid Pocket 2 - Playstation 1 RetroArch Guide (Control Issues, Disc Swap, Dualshock Mode)
  • Retroid Pocket 2 Emulation Test
  • Surprising PSP Emulation Performance - Retroid Pocket 2, The Legend of Heroes - Trails in the Sky
• Tholin Gamer
  • Retroid Pocket 2 - 5 TIPS for MAX PERFORMANCE - Easy Tricks & Emulator Configurations 2020/11
• retroid OS/retroidOS
  • An Absolute Beginner's Guide for the RP2
    • Adding your own games to RetroidOS /games/download/ folder. See this video Sega Dreamcast on the Retroid Pocket 2 (Retroid OS vs Flycast vs RetroArch with flycast core).
    • Issue: If a game is in a folder containing several files, we need to go to the folder and select the most crucial file.
    • Issue: However sometimes the game name ("Disney's Tarzen" from psx) will become 'unknown'. There is no way to modify the game name on the Retroid OS.
    • Issue: no scraping option.
  • Where are RetroidOS roms located?
  • How to add roms in Android RetroArch.
  • search: retroid OS add games
• Android 8.1
  • How To Upgrade/Re-Flash your Retroid Pocket 2 (The Easy Way)
  • RETROID POCKET 2 – ANDROID 8.1 INSTALL GUIDE
• You can use scrcpy to use your PC as a bigger screen for your Retroid Pocket 2(+), and get mouse and keyboard controls with scrcpy. No lag or stutter. Very simple. Step 1: On Ubuntu, apt to install scrcpy, step 2 - plug the RP2 to the USB port on Ubuntu, and step 3- launch scrcpy from Ubuntu Terminal. Voila.
• N64
  • https://mupen64plus.org/ for PC
  • Mupen64Plus FZ edition in Android. How to set up Mupen64plus FZ on your Android device. FAQ
  • On a PC, we can easily change the settings. See for example How to emulate Nintendo 64 on your computer
  • To enable frame skip, follow Retroid pocket 2 + Mupen64 configuration: Games at 640x480. Make a copy of some profile, name the new profile as you wish, edit the profile and make sure Frameskip is enabled.
  • Controller and other settings Retroid Pocket 2+ N64 M64Plus FZ Emulator Performance & Controller Settings, Tutorial: Universal Mupen 64 Plus FZ Profile for Retroid Pocket 2 w/Gameplay (video)

Emulation tests

• Miyoo

Anbernic RG353v

• Anbernic RG353V In-Depth Review from Retro Game Corps
• RG353V Review - What Everyone Expects From Anbernic from Phawx
• Anbernic RG353V - Anbernic's latest dual booting retro gaming vertical handheld!
• Anbernic RG353V: Unboxing & Impressions - How about those joysticks? | RH First Thoughts (Part 1), Part 2
• RH Reviews: The Anbernic RG353V (game mode)
• Dual boot (assume SD card is in):
  • By default, F + Power cannot boot to Android for some reason
  • In Linux, Main Menu > System Settings > Uncheck Default Linux Boot. Now it will boot into Android by default. If we like to boot into Linux, we need to hold F + power buttons. Release power button until we see the led turns to red and then it turns to green again. Now release the power button and then the F button. PS. this seems to be a hit-and-miss operation. It's probably best to not change the settings in Linux and use the existence of the SD card to decide which OS to boot from.
• Firmware download
  • ANBERNIC RG353P official 64 bit system updating EN-20220926
  • Blocked Third-party cookies can prevent Drive Web downloads
  • Original firmware download
• ANBERNIC RG353V & RG552 GOOGLE PLAY STORE INSTALLATION ANDROID 11 - HANDHELD RETROGAMING - PLAYSTORE (not-English)

• SSH log in. username/password is root/linux. See System Settings -> Advanced/Security.

  $ sshnocheck [email protected]
  
     / \   _ __ | |__   ___ _ __ _ __ (_) ___
    / _ \ | |_ \| |_ \ / _ \  __|  _ \| |/ __|
   / ___ \| | | | |_) |  __/ |  | | | | | (__
  /_/   \_\_| |_|_.__/ \___|_|  |_| |_|_|\___|
  
                     RK3566
  
  
  -- type 'anbernic-check-updates' to check for stable branch --
  -- add 'beta' switch to check for latest arch developments  --
  
  Disk format: ext4
  Battery: 91%
  Temperature: 39°C
  Architecture: rg353
  Model: Rockchip RK3566 RG353V
  System: Linux 4.19.172
  Available memory: 1752/1969 MB
  Cpu number: 4
  Cpu max frequency: 1800 MHz
  OS version: 31-dev 2022/09/26 02:56
  
  # cat /etc/os-release
  NAME=Buildroot
  VERSION=-ga3d4e6fb
  ID=buildroot
  VERSION_ID=2021.05-git
  PRETTY_NAME="Buildroot 2021.05-git"
  
  # df -h
  ...
  /dev/mmcblk1p1            3.0G      2.2G    771.7M  75% /boot
  ...
  /dev/mmcblk1p2            2.9G    948.5M      2.0G  32% /userdata
  /dev/mmcblk2p1           57.4G     52.3G      5.1G  91% /media/NO_LABEL
  /dev/mmcblk1p1            3.0G      2.2G    771.7M  75% /media/ANBERNIC
  /dev/mmcblk1p3            8.3G      8.0K      8.3G   0% /media/GAMES
  /dev/mmcblk1p2            2.9G    948.5M      2.0G  32% /media/SHARE
  /dev/mmcblk2p1           57.4G     52.3G      5.1G  91% /userdata/roms
  
  # ls -l /userdata/roms | wc -l
  125
  # ls /userdata/roms/n64
  
  # htop
  
  # ls /media/SHARE/kodi
  iptv      kodi      movies    music     pictures
  
  # ls /media/ANBERNIC         
  anbernic-boot.conf  asoundrc            bootb               splash              uboot.img
  asound.state        boot                extlinux            tools               uboot_origin.img
  
  # uname -a
  Linux ANBERNIC 4.19.172 #1 SMP Mon Sep 19 10:14:24 PDT 2022 aarch64 GNU/Linux
  

• UI Settings. EmuELEC based.
  • ANBERNIC-SIMPLE-THEME -default. Does not show videos.
  • ANBERNIC-THEME can show videos. But the game names, videos & description are very tiny.
  • ART-NEXT-THEME is similar to ANBERNIC-THEME but no description.
  • ARTPIE-THEME uses vertical stripes; not a good choice on a small screen handheld. Forget it.
  • ES-THEME-CARBON looks good but no game names on the LHS. It only displays videos/images.
  • ES-THEME-EPIC-CODY looks good. However, it does not include a description. Note it has a Chinese interface. To switch to another emulator, use the shoulder buttons.
  • SIMPLECOMICBOOK looks good but the videos are smaller. The game names and videos are half half. It also a short game description (scrolling way) on the bottom right corner. Main screen is cool.
• rg353vs is enough if you don't care much about N64, Sega Saturn and Dreamcast emulation (runs better on Android)
• Anbernic RG353V Retro Arena Stable Preview
• Hardware issues:
  • Sound from the speaker or 3.5mm jack does not work. However, USB-C to 3.5mm female headphone jack adapter and bluetooth audio work.
  • It cannot turn on nor charging while I was using Anbernic Linux OS (it shows 38% power). Hold on 'power' button or 'reset' button did not help. I opened the case and unplugged/plugged the battery connectors and that does not help. Fortunately just like my Retroid Pocket 2, after I have been charged it again for a while (USB power meter did not show any voltage at the beginning), the power LED turned on again (into yellow). When it turned on into Android, it shows only 3% power. I guess there is a calibration problem for battery with both Anbernic rg353v and Retroid Pocket 2 devices. PS: the charging speed is very low (5v 0.36a ~ 2w) when I connect it to my PC or power bank.
  • GarlicOS Setup & Upgrades Guide | Anbernic RG35XX, Upgraded 2800mah battery
  • The battery on my rg353v shows YLM-ANBERNIC FL 755060 3200mAH 3.7V 11.84Wh.
  • Upgraded 353V Battery
  • RG353V Hall Sensor Joystick Replacement Guide. This includes a picture of the battery used.
  • RG35xx 2800 mah battery upgrade. Useful. With many aliexpress links. Battery 605065 means 60x50x65 in measurement?

RGB30

• PowKiddy RGB30 Starter Guide, Written guide.
  • Console screen
  • Square screen is perfect for Game Boy, Gameboy Color, NES, SNES, and PICO-8.
• Super Niche But Awesome // RGB30 Review
• Powkiddy RGB30 Ultimate Setup Guide - ArkOS, Roms & Pico-8, Box Art and Tweaks
• ArkOS + external controller. Can I use external controllers with this unit? from FAQ.

RG556

• Anbernic RG556 Review: Almost Perfect
• I Was Wrong About The ANBERNIC RG556 (Sorry)
• Anbernic RG556 Setup Guide
• Anbernic RG556 & RG Cube Starter Setup Guide (Emulators, Roms, Tweaks), Odin 2/Odin 2 Mini Setup Guide (Roms, Emulators, Tweaks) from Joey's.
• RG556 Compatibility Sheet in google doc
• USB C Secondary Display for RG556
  • the only way that I found to get video/audio output from the RG556 is using a non powered USB C to HDMI, or an unpowered USB C to USB C. BUT, for some reason, when You try to use a powered USB C hub, or a USB C powered dock, it doesnt work.
  • the RG556 doesnt have the feature to charge and do video/audio output at the same time ( or charge and use USB devices at the same time).
  • Anbernic RG556 RG Cube Setup Guide. Bear in mind that this device has issues connecting to many docks, and sadly seems to have trouble producing video out at the same time as charging. I have found that the Anker adapter above is the most consistent option to output the video signal to a TV or monitor.
• Desktop mode. Anbernic RG556 Review - What Nobody told you about it

Powerkiddy x55 (Rockchip RK3566)

A growing number of cheap handheld retro game consoles can run mainline Linux

RG40xx

• Power on problem:
  • Official Anbernic website Unable to power on, unable to charge (For RG 35XX series, RG 40XX series and RG CubeXX.)
  • RG40XXV stopped powering on
    • While plugged into power hold down the reset button for 5 seconds. Unplug power then hold power button until it boots. It seems this model (or at least mine) any time a card is ejected or inserted I have to do this.
    • Only suggestion I have is go back to stockOS and use the reset procedure to see if you can get it back.
  • My RG35XX dont turn on
    • Make sure the Anbernic is unplugged from charging cable
    • Remove the OS card
    • Insert the OS card
    • Press the reset button (no need to hold)
    • Press the Power button
• Check battery level: cat /sys/class/power_supply/axp2202-battery/capacity
• Sega Genesis (3 buttons):

  Earthworm Jim: Genesis vs. RG40XX H

  Action	Original Sega Button	RG40XX H Button (Knulli)	Physical Location
  Fire Weapon	A	Y	Left
  Head Whip	B	B	Bottom
  Jump	C	A	Right

• Sega Saturn:

  Sega to RG40XX H (Knulli) Button Mapping

  Sega Saturn Button	Typical Function	RG40XX H Button	Physical Position
  A	Confirm / Select	B	Bottom
  B	Action / Back	A	Right
  C	Special Action	Y	Left
  X / Y / Z	Extra Actions (6-Button)	L1 / X / R1	Top Row / Shoulders
  Start	Pause / Menu	Start	Center Right

• Summary table

  RG40XX H (Knulli OS) Performance Table

  System	Playability	Recommended Emulator/Core	Notes
  Dreamcast / Atomiswave	Excellent	Libretro: FlycastVL (Vulkan)	Use Vulkan for best performance on Linux.
  Nintendo 64	Good	Libretro: Parallel N64	Use "Rice" or "Glide64" GFX plugins for speed.
  PSP	Moderate	Standalone: PPSSPP	Avoid Libretro core; use standalone for 2x speed.
  Sega Saturn	Sketchy	Libretro: YabaSanshiro	Stick to 2D titles; 3D games often stutter.
  Nintendo DS	Great	Standalone: Drastic	Runs full speed; use "L/R" to swap screens.
  PortMaster	Excellent	Native / Script	Great for PC ports like Stardew Valley or Celesta.
  PS1	Perfect	Libretro: DuckStation / PCSX-Rearmed	Can usually handle 2x resolution upscaling.

Evercade

https://evercade.co.uk/, Wikipedia

Other emulators

• ODroid Go Super firmware comparison
• EmuELEC. Retro emulation for Amlogic devices. Based on CoreELEC and Lakka with tidbits from Batocera.
  • EmuELEC turns your Android Box into a retro console TUTORIAL
• recalbox
• RetroPie vs Recalbox vs Lakka vs Batocera for retro gaming on the Raspberry Pi
• AetherSX2 beta released: PS2 emulator for Android
• Duckstation for PSX
  • Retroid Pocket 3+ PlayStation Settings & Gameplay | Duckstation | Android | Retro Gaming | PSX (video)

Batocera

• Image download
  • Images include ARM devices from Anbernic, ODroid, Raspberry Pi & S905X tv box. PS: RetroPie has ARM images for Raspberry Pi and Odroid C1/C1+/C2 & XU3/XU4.
  • EmulationStation Menu Trees
  • It shipped with 12 games.

• Beginner’s guide to Install and Setup Batocera on Raspberry Pi

• Archives download link https://mirrors.o2switch.fr/batocera/x86_64/stable/last/archives/

• SSH/Xterm and Common Commands. Username/password is root/linux. hostname: batocera.local. The Linux system is buildroot.
  • This is useful if the system froze when I tested a hard game on Pi zero 2W.

• Batocera. Turn a USB Flash Drive into a Portable Gaming "System"! by Retro Game Corps.
  • It includes KODI too! Kodi Media Center.
  • Use \\BATOCERA to transfer roms to it
• Install to an internal drive, video.
• Portable HDD game from Aliexpress
• Full & Clean BIOSes set for RetroArch, RetroPie, Recalbox and Batocera
  • archive.org
  • The Mini Cake PACK FULL BIOS BATOCERA

• How to Setup PPSSPP in Batocera
• PPSSPP Don't recognize controller

• Controller
  • https://wiki.batocera.org/configure_a_controller
  • South face button is OK/Confirm/Launch, East face button is Cancel/BACK. See the Wiki link above. There is a hint at the bottom of the Batocera interface. This is kind of XBOX controller.
  • Use the Space bar on keyboard or the Start button on a regular controller in order to go to the Menu
  • Map a Controller. Note the controller setting is saved in a cfg file which is in the SHARE partition.
  • Bluetooth Controller Setup For Batocera (video)
  • How to save multiple controller profiles?
  • Some common ES functions and how they map to the PlayStation, Xbox and SNES controllers
  • Remapping controls per emulator
• Scrape
  • Games Settings - Update Games Lists
  • How to Use Skraper for Batocera (video). https://screenscraper.fr (need a registration, works fine), https://scraper.net. We download a GUI App. After launching it, we choose Recalbox which might be the one closest to Batocera. Then you enter the network folder path (eg \\batocera\share\roms).
  • Is there a way to transfer all my scrapped media (screenshots and box covers) from a Batocera PC install to a 351Elec sd card for the RG351M?

• File manager for PC
  • F1 to enter file manager
  • Alt + F4/Ctrl + q to quit
• How to Setup Nintendo 64 in Batocera. For some reason, n64 games in Batocera do not work great as in RetroPie on RP 3B.
• is it possible to enter terminal window on Batacera?
• New Flatpak Linux Apps Installation Instructions, How to Install Linux Apps into Batocera (video). We can install Firefox, ... and access them directly from Batocera GUI.
• Similar games: hold the right button on a game. It will show a list of games with the same title but from other emulators.
• Theme/UI Settings
  • https://wiki.batocera.org/themes (Updates and downloads -> Themes)
  • Alekfull-Artflix/ES-Theme-Carbon

• Screensaver. Press "Select" and follow the on-screen instruction.

EmuDeck

• https://www.emudeck.com/. SteamOS, ChimeraOS, Linux, Windows Beta.
• Easy Emulation on Windows! EmuDeck Starter Guide 12/19/2023
• EmuDeck for Windows How To ! Simplifies Installing and Running Game Emulators 6/1/2024

Retropie vs Recalbox vs Batocera vs Lakka

Best Retro-Gaming OS: Retropie vs Recalbox vs Batocera vs Lakka

ArkOS and dArkOS

• https://github.com/christianhaitian/arkos/wiki (not maintained, Ubuntu-based) and dArkOS (Debian-based)
  • OTA Update: Options -> Upgrade. Type 'ok' and click the 'OK' button to continue.
• retrogamecorps
  • ARKOS STARTER GUIDE
  • Creating The SIMPLEST Retro Handheld OS
• Wifi and Remote Services can be enabled from OPTIONS
  • Once Remote Services are activated, the device’s IP address can be accessed via a browser on a PC. This allows for the transfer of files.
  • Default username/password is ark/ark
  • There is a partition called "EASYROMS". ROMS should be placed here instead of 'root/roms' folder. Or we can use the Remote Services (see below) and http://IP:80 to manage ROMS.
  • The web interface powered by filebrowser is convenient when we enable Remote Services from Options in the main interface (next to PICO-8). Docker. Just open a web browser and go to the http://URL:80. It'll show the files under /roms folder.

• Arkos uses Retroarch (others like Lakka, Batocera, RetroPie). Therefore, save states are still in the menu. See FAQ.
  • Retroarch Hotkey: Select. Select + R1=save, Select + L1=Load, Select + A = Pause.
  • Select + Start twice to quit a game.

• Change and save Aspect ratio in RetroArch: Select + X when we are playing a game.
  • Click "B" to go to Quick menu. Scroll down to "Settings" -> Video -> Scaling -> Aspect Ratio. Change to 8:7, for example.
  • Click "B" several times until we see "Quick menu". Click "A". Scroll down to Overrides -> Pick Save Content Directory Overrides if we want to change the settings for all games in the current (game) directory.

• How to quit 351FILES or FILE MANAGER in OPTIONS.
  • Answer: Click Y to open the context menu and select "Quit". See Frequently Asked Questions RG351V.
• The OS is based on Ubuntu 19.10. See Building ArkOS from scratch. After I install htop, I see the memory usage is around 240MB. Also uname -a shows the kernel is aarch64.

ark@rg353v:~$ cat /etc/os-release
NAME="Ubuntu"
VERSION="19.10 (Eoan Ermine)"
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 19.10"

• Does ArkOS support USB C audio output?
• ArkOS sudden no audio
• It seems ArkOS can only support up to GameCube. For harder games like PS2, Xbox, Wii, 3DS, Wii U, Switch, PS3, consider JELOS. See Emulation on Loki Zero: Way Better with JELOS!

• Frontend:
  • ArkOS - Emulationstation-FCAMOD
  • Batocera - EmulationStation
  • Lakka - PS3's XrossMediaBar (XMB)
  • RetroPie - EmulationStation

• Scraped videos playback
  • Press the Select button to start the screensaver immediately if we don't want to wait for 5 minutes.
  • In screensaver, we can press the 'A' button to launch the corresponding game. See ArkOS Starter Guide by Retro Game Corps.
  • For some reason, ffplay is missing from the menu. I can't enable it from UI Settings -> Visible systems . See ArkOS and Videos (FFplay). Edit /etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg file. See Add a New System in EmulationStation or this.
  • In Kodi, choose Videos -> Add videos -> Browse -> EASYROMS -> genesis -> videos -> OK. Enter a name for this media source. OK. "This directory contains Movies ". "Do you want to refresh information for all items within this path?" -> Yes. Choose the new created item. Long press the first video -> "Play from here".

• AnbersPorts
  • install
  • play videos

• PortMasters
  • On ArkOS, Options -> Tools -> PortMaster and ThemeMaster. After installing a game, the game can be launched from the ArkOS main menu -> Ports.
  • RGB30 Ports and Portmaster-GUI in ArkOS which includes a list of native full screen (720x720) games.
  • Powkiddy RGB30 Ports and Portmaster has a demo of some games.
  • https://github.com/christianhaitian/PortMaster
  • https://portmaster.games/
  • PortMaster Starter Guide 2024/7/12

• Drastic and NDS games
  • See What are the global event keys and emulator event keys in ArkOS? Look at "For Drastic (NDS emulator)".
  • R2: Screen swap between upper and lower DS screens
  • L2: Swap between dual screen and single screen view
  • Right Joystick: Move the stylus
  • R3: Stylus tap
  • L3: Drastic menu

Knulli

• KNULLI is a fork of Batocera (cf. ES-DE is designed to be an "App" you run on top of an OS)
• Notes on rg40xx-h:
  • No power on/red LED problem as in Rocknix OS
  • Wifi not working on rg40xx-h. However connect to ethernet via a USB-c hub (tripp-lite) works. The screen will show the wifi connection icon though. We can disable Wifi.
  • Cannot launch a game from screensaver
  • Cannot jump to next game in screensaver. Go to Screensaver Settings - Enable Screensaver Controls.
  • Go to "DEVICE SETTINGS" - TELEMETRY - toggle off.
  • By default, the screen is dimmed after being idle for 5 minutes. We can modify both the MODE and EXTENDED MODE settings in Device Settings -Power management.
  • Shutdown but still losing battery

• Setting up a second SD Card.
  • Start - System Settings - Storage - choose the name of your SD card
  • You can choose the file system format ext4/exFAT (I choose ext4).
  • make sure to reboot once more to apply the formatting. During reboot, KNULLI will automatically populate the second SD card with all the required folders and files. The partition label is called SHARE.

• SSH: knulli.local. root/linux
• Folder structure follows Batocera
• Hotkeys. Game Settings -> RetroArch Hotkeys.
  • Function + Start: Quit the game and return to EmulationStation
  • Function + Vol up: Increase brightness
  • Function + B: Quick Menu
  • Function + Y: save
  • Function + X: load
  • To flag a game as a favorite: Hold the X button while highlighting the game you want to favorite.
  • Select a game and hold the A button. you can delete a game, add to favorites, scrape, edit this game's metdata and change emulator, and so on.
• NDS hotkeys.
  • Function + L2 to toggle dual and single screen.
  • L2 swap the first and the second screen
  • R2 touch cursor click
  • Right Joystick: Move the stylus
  • Function + B Drastic menu

• BIOS
• Input

• Enable FPS
  • While in a game, press M + B to go to Quick Menu. Press B to go to Main Menu. Then go to "Settings" -> User Interface -> On-Screen Notifications. Turn it on.
  • To save the setting, go back to "Main Menu" -> Quick Menu. Scroll down to Overrides. Select Save Core Overrides (this keeps FPS on for all games in that system).
  • If we want to see FPS for every games/systems, use Knulli Settings - Frontend Developer Options - SHOW FRAMERATE (but it seems there are too much information overlay)

• Start a game from the beginning
  • Start a game, then press M + A for reset.

• File transfer.
  • Main menu -> System settings -> Services -> Enable_WIFI_Dongle. Open local computer's file manager and find KNULLI. No username/password is needed. See Wiki -> Networking.

• Media player /userdata/roms/mpv folder
  • mpv version 0.39.0
  • m3u files do not appear in MPV file list in Knulli OS. A trick is to rename .m3u files to .mp4 files (cf. muOS supports the m3u file format directly).
  • IPTV playlist (95.9k): https://iptv-org.github.io/iptv/index.m3u
  • m3u generator
  • Curated resources about IPTV Awesome IPTV (8.7k).
    • For example PublicIPTV -> NBC News NOW shows the URLs. PublicIPTV even includes a free online m3u8 player.
    • https://github.com/4gray/iptvnator/releases

• Pico8
  • Copy "pico-8_0.2.6b_raspi.zip" to roms/pico8 folder and then run the binary file knulli-install-pico8. At the end, several pico8* files do not appear in roms/pico8 folder.
  • "touch Splore.png". I do
    1. Main menu -> System Settings -> Advanced/Frontend Developer Options -> Clean gamelists and remove unused media (remove unused entries, and clean references to missing medias). It did not help if we have an existing Splore.png entry in "gamelist.xml" file (eg we copy the whole pico8 folder from other OS).
    2. nano gamelist.xml and remove existing Splore.png entry (Splore.png does not need an entry in gamelist.xml).
    3. Main menu -> Game Settings -> Update gamelists
  • After running scraping, file names will be replaced by the real game names in the game list according to <gamelist.xml>.

• Video guides
  • KNULLI Starter Guide - Simple and Beautiful OS!
  • KNULLI Gladiator Complete Setup Guide (ROMs, BIOS, Box Art, Tweaks)

muOS/MustardOS

• Download
  • Installation will show a progress bar at the top of the screen (tested on muOS 2502.0 Pixie). Be patient.
• The interface is one page with 8 options: Content, Collection, History, Apps, Info, Config, Reboot, Shutdown!!!
• How to Watch Live TV On Retro Handhelds With IPTV and muOS
  • After selecting a file (mp4, m3u), we need to choose a core. Select "Media Player". Then it provides 3 choices: FFPlay, Live TV and MPV. Select MPV.
  • There is no official support for batch assigning a core to multiple files at once.
• Where do I put my content?
  • like http://192.168.1.XX:9090/.
  • SSH - root/root, port 22.
  • How to use SFTP + FileBrowser - muos/muos.
• For each game systems, we need to create a new folder in SD1 > MUOS > ROMS and upload files there.
• For bios, upload them to SD1 > MUOS > bios folder.
• In Applications, it has
  • Archive Manager
  • Dingux Commander
  • Flip Clock
  • GMU Music Player
  • Moonlight
  • PortMaster
  • PPSSPP
  • RetroArch
  • RGB Controller
  • Simple terminal
  • Task Toolkit - Backup XXX
• muOS does not support scraping. But there is a method. Enhance Your muOS Experience with Scrappy: A Powerful Scraper.

JELOS

• Github
  • FAQ. roms/bios. The root password can be changed using the menu once we disable the rotation.
  • Add games.

• ROCKNIX.
  • Originally launched as JELOS, ROCKNIX brings the best of community-built custom firmware to a wide array of devices from Anbernic, PowKiddy, Retroid, and more.
  • The software works on a variety of handhelds grouped by CPUs: RK3326, RK3566, RK3399, H700, S922X, RK3588, SD865.

• How to exit a game: Gadget Guides – JELOS Beginner’s Guide for Anbernic RG353 Devices.
  • For most emulators/systems – Press Select + Start, then press Select + Start again to confirm your exit.
  • For DraStic (Nintendo DS emulator) – Press L3 (left analog stick). A menu will appear. Choose Exit DraStic.
    • Some versions have this mapped to R3 (right analog stick).
  • For PPSSPP (PSP emulator) – Press L3 (left analog stick). A menu will appear. Choose Exit to JELOS.
  • For Sega Saturn (Yabasanshiro emulator) – Press Select. A menu will appear. Choose Exit.
  • How to quit PICO-8: Click start, then choose "options" then "shutdown Pico-8". If this does not work, hold L1, then press Start + Select, it exits PICO-8.

• Change 4:3 system to 8:7 aspect ratio for games like NES, SNES, Genesis, PS1, N64, Dreamcast using RetroArch (Select + X). Go to a game folder. Press Select, scroll down to advance system. Find game aspect ratio settings for that specific system.

• How to quit MUSIC Player, Gmu music player? Hold R3 and press SELECT.
• How to quit MPlayer? SELECT + START.
  • Drop mp4 files into mplayer directory.
  • To convert 16:9 aspect ratio videos to 1:1 videos. Adobe Express. Need to log in (eg Gmail). Works great.

• Firmware Megathread: ARKOS JELOS & STOCK Firmware START HERE

• JELOS Wiki -> Controls
  • RetroArch
    • Select + Start: quit game
    • Select + R1: save state
    • Select + L1: load state
    • Select + X (north): open RA menu
    • Select + Y (west): Show FPS
    • Select + R2: Fast-forward
  • Mednafen Hotkeys
  • Standalone Emulators

• Network Settings menu:
  • Network services - SSH, SAMBA, and SIMPLE HTTP SERVER.
  • Cloud services - Syncthing and mount cloud drive.
  • VPN services - Tailscale, Zerotier one

• Can you enable rumble in JELOS?

# ls /storage/roms
3do              ecwolf           neogeo           scummvm
3ds              eduke            nes              sega32x
BGM              famicom          ngp              segacd
amiga            fbneo            ngpc             sfc
amigacd32        fds              odyssey          sg-1000
amstradcpc       gameandwatch     openbor          sgfx
arcade           gamecube         opt              snes
atari2600        gamegear         pc               snesmsu1
atari5200        gb               pc88             solarus
atari7800        gba              pc98             sufami
atari800         gbc              pcengine         supervision
atarijaguar      genesis          pcenginecd       switch
atarilynx        intellivision    pcfx             tg16
atarist          j2me             pet              tg16cd
atomiswave       mame             pico-8           tic-80
bezels           mastersystem     pokemini         uzebox
bios             megacd           ports            vectrex
build            megadrive        ps2              vic20
c128             megadrive-japan  psp              videopac
c16              megaduck         pspminis         virtualboy
c64              mplayer          psx              wii
channelf         msx              quake            wonderswan
coleco           msx2             satellaview      wonderswancolor
daphne           n64              saturn           x1
doom             naomi            savestates       x68000
dreamcast        nds              sc-3000          zx81
easyrpg          neocd            screenshots      zxspectrum
# uname -a
Linux RG353V 4.19.172 #1 SMP Wed Nov 30 17:30:28 UTC 2022 aarch64 GNU/Linux
RG353V:~ # cat /etc/os-release 
OS_NAME="JELOS"
OS_VERSION="20221130"
HW_DEVICE="RG353P"
HW_ARCH="aarch64"
HW_CPU="Rockchip RK3566"
HOME_URL="https://www.jelos.org"
BUILD_ID="ee2d813a7c2dcab9d320b20cd0fc5ee0b3c60bf8"
BUILD_BRANCH="main"
BUILD_DATE="Wed Nov 30 17:28:06 UTC 2022"

ROCKNIX

• https://rocknix.org/ ROCKNIX is a fork of JELOS.
  • https://github.com/ROCKNIX/distribution
• Media play with mpv:
  • it lists all supported formats but it seems ytb file does not work.
  • A: pause/play
  • Select + Start: quit and save the playback position
  • /usr/bin/mpv --fullscreen --geometry=480x640 --hwdec=auto-safe --input-ipc-server=/tmp/mpvsocket FILENAME
• SSH:
  • h700.local
  • root/rocknix
• Transfer files
  • scp FILENAME [email protected]:roms/mplayer/
• Play Youtube Playing youtube streaming by using a .m3u file does not work. It requires youtube-dl or yt-dlp utilities. But they are not available in Rocknix.

  cd ~/roms/mplayer
  wget https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_aarch64 -O yt-dlp
  chmod +x yt-dlp
  ./yt-dlp -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Wp94G4vIyM
  

  Start -> Game settings -> Update gamelists

• Tools -> File Manager
  • Y: context menu: copy, cut, delete, rename, select all, new directory and Quit.
  • A: go back
  • B: confirm
• Hotkeys on RG40xx H
  • L1 + Select + Start: Exit Emulator / Application
  • Menu + Volume Up: Brightness Up
• PSP
  • Menu + X = Open RA Menu. See RetroArch Hotkeys.
  • PSP games list.
• Dreamcast (harder than PSP)
  • Use native/internal resolution, Threaded rendering: On, V-Sync: OFF, Anisotropic/enhancements: OFF
  • If a game is just shy of full speed, try Frameskip=1 or Audio Stretch
  • Prefer CHD over GDI over CDI for accuracy and fewer glitches
  • For fighters, set Input polling = Early and Run-Ahead=1 in RetroArch to trim latency.
• PortMaster
  • After I installed a game, a .sh file was created in /roms/port_scripts folder. I need to move them to the /roms/ports folder. See this.
  • File manager: Y=Select a file. X=menu. A=Confirm. B=Back.
• Pico-8. To quit it, press Start -> Options -> Shutdown Pico-8.

OnionOS

• https://onionui.github.io/ (v4.3.1-1)
• Installation
  • Make sure the SD card has been formatted to FAT32.
  • Extract the zip file to your SD card. Done.

• ROM folders
  • The emulators are categorized by Arcade systems, Consoles and PC systems, Handheld systems, etc.
  • Tiny Best Set: GO!

• To change the game core for a specific game in OnionOS, follow these steps:
  • Navigate to the game in your game list.
  • Press the Y button on the game you want to change the core for. This opens the Game List Options (GLO) menu
  • Emulators

• You can access the RetroArch Quick Menu while playing a game in OnionOS.
  • To do this, press the MENU button and the SELECT button at the same time while in-game.
  • See FAQ about changing a game's scaling

• To start a game from the beginning in OnionOS—rather than loading from the last auto-save state—you have several options:
  • Use the "Reset Game" Feature (Recommended). In the game list, highlight the game you want to start fresh. Press the Y button to open the Game List Options (GLO) menu. Select "Reset game".
  • Restart the Game via RetroArch: While in-game, hold the MENU and SELECT buttons to open the RetroArch menu. In the menu, look for the "Restart" option. Selecting this will reboot the game to the title screen, starting from the beginning.
  • Disable Auto-Load Save States (Optional, for future launches): Launch any game and press MENU + SELECT to open the RetroArch menu. Press B to go back one level. Navigate to Settings › Saving › Load State Automatically and turn it off. To make this change permanent, go to Quick Menu › Overrides and select Save Game Overrides (for just this game), Save Core Overrides (for all games on this core), or Save Content Overrides (for all games in the folder).

• Menu button. See the Shortcuts page.
  • In the Main Menu (not in a game)
    • Short press MENU: Launches the GameSwitcher—a quick-access interface to browse and resume recently played games.
    • Long press MENU (or hold): Opens the context menu for additional options.
    • Double press MENU: Resumes the last played game.
  • In-Game
    • Short press MENU: Saves your current state and exits to the GameSwitcher (quick game switching interface).
    • Long press MENU (hold): Saves your current state and exits all the way back to the main menu.
    • Double press MENU: Launches the second-most recently played game.
  • Other MENU Button Combos (In-Game)
    • MENU + SELECT: Opens the RetroArch Quick Menu.
    • MENU + START: Changes aspect ratio.
    • MENU + L/R: Toggles rewind/fast forward.
    • MENU + L2/R2: Loads/saves state.
    • MENU + X: Toggles FPS display.
    • MENU + POWER: Takes a screenshot.

• Keep Aspect Ratio (default RetroArch video settings for most sytems):
  • If you turn integer scale off and keep aspect ratio on in RetroArch, the emulator will try to scale the game image as large as possible to fill the screen while still preserving the original aspect ratio.
  • Arcade game (MAME, FBNeo, CPS3) resolutions vary widely. Some cores or system presets may use integer scaling ON by default if the native resolution is a good fit for the Miyoo Mini Plus screen, but generally, integer scale is OFF unless you override it.

• Guide
  • Miyoo Mini Plus Setup Guide
  • Miyoo Mini (and Miyoo Mini Plus) Starter Guide
  • Step-by-Step Miyoo Mini (and Miyoo Mini Plus) Starter Guide

• To refresh the game list, SELECT -> Refresh all roms.
  • Tip: For some reason, some ROMs are detected (as indicated by the number in the bottom right corner) but are not displayed. However, when I scroll down, the names of the missing titles appear.

• Box arts: to scrape games, in a game list -> Y -> Scraper.

• Pico-8.
  • Pico-8 Standalone
  • Enable the PICO-8 (PICO-8 standalone) emulator using the Onion Package Manager's Expert section. You need to have previously purchased PICO-8.
  • Use the native Pico-8 by adding it via the Onion Package Manager’s Expert section.
  • copy pico8_dyn and pico8.dat to /RApp/PICO-8/bin folder.

• Apps
  • Quick Guide
  • Package Manager
  • Activity Tracker
  • RetroArch
  • Search
  • Themes
  • Tweaks
    • System
    • Network
      • Hotspot
      • Samba
      • HTTP. After we enable it, it will run the File Browser program. We can use the IP address to upload/download files on SD card. It also shows the SD card used/full size.
      • SSH ("uname -a" shows Linux version 4.9.84, armv7l)
      • FTP
      • Telnet
      • VNC
      • Disable services in game
    • Button shortcuts
    • Appearance
    • Advanced
    • Tools
  • Battery Monitor
  • File Explorer (DinguxCommander). This needs to be installed from Apps -> Package Manager -> APPS. *** Inside File Explorer, hit "Y" to bring up the right-click menu (includes an Exit item).
    • A: Open folder / View or execute file
    • B: Move up one directory / Cancel action
    • X: Manage selected items (Copy/Delete/Move etc)
  • Video player. MENU to quit a video. START for full screen/16:9.
  • Music player. A hint "MENU + Select to exit" is shown on the "Apps" screen.

• Settings
  • Shutdown
  • WIFI
  • Display
  • Menu sound
  • Sleep timer
  • About device. See Used/total storage

• Hotkeys
  • NDS

• Display video thumbnails of games. See AdvanceMENU.

• Top games
  • 100 PS1 Games, 100 PS1/PSX Games on the Miyoo Mini Plus! Preloaded & Added
  • 100 NDS Games & Onion v4.3 is Here! Miyoo Mini (Plus) Showcase and Guide for tricks of playing NDS on miyoo. Nintendo DS on the Miyoo Mini Plus! Setup Guide + 64 Game Showcase.

ARES

Jetson Nano

• https://techtoytinker.com/theretroarena-ares ARES: AURORA RETRO ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM
• RetroArena-Setup. RetroArena-Setup is a custom fork of RetroPie for Odroid N2, Odroid XU4, and RockPro64 Nvidia Jetson Nano and Numerous handheld devices.

Different definition

• https://ares-emu.net/
• ARES (Advanced Retro Emulator System) is a custom firmware and frontend for the Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) handheld console. It is designed to allow users to play games from a variety of different systems on their PSP, including classic console systems like the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Sega Genesis, and Super Nintendo.

PPSSPP

• PPSSPP PSP Emulation on Android Complete Setup Guide! HD Textures, 60FPS, Cheats & More!
• PSP Emulation Tweak Guide for ANBERNIC RG35XX H

Dolphin: Wii and GameCube

Dolphin Emulator Will Get Faster Updates on Linux With Flatpak

Switch

• Yuzu
• How to install the Ryujinx Emulator on Ubuntu and Other Distros

MAME

MAME's Latest Update Adds Support for a Rare Arcade Game

DOS games DOSBox

• DOS games on Steam Deck: Here’s the best way to do it
• How to Install DOSBox in Ubuntu to Play Old Games
• https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DOSBox
• FreeDOS vs. DOSBox: Which Is Best for Running MS-DOS Apps?

Pico-8

• Pico-8 Fantasy Console
  • BBS
  • Manual
  • Basic startup

  cd pico-8
  ./pico8 -windowed 1

  • ESC to switch between Editor and Terminal
  • LS
  • SAVE Filename
  • LOAD Filename
  • Ctrl+s to save
  • On Linux, pico-8 save files to the directory ~/.lexaloffle/pico-8/carts
  • Alt+F4 or Ctrl+q to quit
• Videos
  • Pico-8 (with Splore) on Android setup guide
  • Pico-8 Tutorial Crash Course For TOTAL Game Dev Beginners!
  • Pico-8 Tutorial - Breakout
  • $90 and Amazing for Retro Emulation (RGB30 Review)
  • GUIDE: PICO-8 ON RETRO HANDHELD DEVICES
  • Retro handheld. After purchasing pico8, download raspberry pi zip file. Copy the following files to the pico8 folder in handheld.
    • pico8 (needed?)
    • pico8.dat
    • pico8_dyn
    • pico8_64 (needed?)
• JELOS Wiki
• Default gamepad button mappings
• Batocera. See the mapping of buttons and keys. It also shows how to modify es_systems_pico8.cfg to include pico-8.
• How do I download a game (.png)
  • Go to Pico-8 Carts.
  • Go to a game page.
  • Navigate to the bottom left corner of the game and click on the icon called Cart (marked in the image).
  • A static image will now show up.
  • Right click the image and click Save Image As.
  • Give the file a name that reflects the game. In this example: Vampire vs Pope Army.png
• File name extension. You should not simply rename Pico-8 game files from *.p8.png to *.p8 or *.png without understanding the consequences:
  • .p8 — This is a plain text source code file for a Pico-8 cartridge.
  • .p8.png — This is a special PNG image file that contains the game’s code and data embedded in the image’s pixel data. It is both a valid PNG image (viewable as a picture) and a Pico-8 cartridge (loadable by Pico-8).

Xbox

How to Play Classic Xbox Games on Your PC With Xemu

Windows PC games

• Winlator Android application
• GameHub Lite Project (run on Android)
  • Retro Handhelds are Steam Decks Now

Power consumption for different games

RG552. NES < Dreamcast, PSP, N64, Sega Saturn

Wii

• Impressive Wii emulation on Orange Pi 5
• Nintendo Consoles Are the Perfect Workout Machines for Beginners
• Why I'm Still Looking for a Nintendo Wii This Christmas

Streaming

• How to Stream PC Games to Raspberry Pi with Sunshine & Moonlight
• Guide: Moonlight on Retro Handhelds, PowKiddy RGB30 Starter Guide
• Moonlight (NVIDIA gpu)
  • PC streaming & Game Pass in Anbernic RG353P In-Depth Review
  • Setup and install in Game Streaming on RG351 devices, RGB10 Max, and more!
  • Low Vs Ultra GeForce GTX 1050 Performance Review, amazon
• Sunshine (non-NVIDIA gpu)
  • Setup and install in Game Streaming on RG351 devices, RGB10 Max, and more!
• Goodbye Sunshine & Moonlight, Hello Apollo & Artemis (Setup Guide)
  • Apollo Github: https://github.com/ClassicOldSong/Apollo
  • Artemis Android
  • Moonlight
• Apollo, Wiki
  • Apollo/Sunshine (server) -> Artemis (Android)/Moonlight (PC/Other)

Online/browser

• Internet Archive
• Online emulator (require adobe flash; eg Google Chrome)
• Super mario bros, 買任天堂 Switch 不搭太可惜！「史上最受青睞」14 款遊戲出爐
• PlayEmulator
• 5 More Browser Games Sites to Play Games Online in Single or Multiplayer Mode
• https://myemulator.online/
• 14 popular Google Doodle games you can still play

Controller

• Online tester
  • https://hardwaretester.com/gamepad. This can show the button numbers B0, B1, .... It also shows the USB's Vendor & Product IDs.
  • https://joypad.ai/. Buttons are numbered B1, B2, ... Switch controller was used as a reference.
  • https://gamepadtester.net/. PS4 was used as a reference to show the physical locations

• NES does not have shoulder buttons nor X/Y buttons.
• Controllers have shoulder buttons (L/R)
  • SNES
  • GBA
  • NDS
  • Sega Saturn
  • N64 (and Z button)
  • Dreamcast
  • PSP (2004)
• Controllers have shoulder buttons (L1/L2/R1/R2)
  • PlayStation 1 (1994)
  • Xbox one, Xbox X|S.
• PS1 controllers (1994) start to have R2/L2 buttons.
• DirectInput vs. XInput for Game Controllers: What’s the Difference?, What Does XInput and DirectInput Mean?
  • DirectInput/D-input: 1995 DirectX. Legacy mode for older games.
  • XInput/X-input: 2005 Xbox consoles, does not support keyboard, mouse, ... Supports up to 4 controllers at the same time.
• 北通 Betop BTP-BD2E, Aliexpress, Amazon
• GameSir T4
• GameCube
• N64
• LB/LT - What is L1 and L2 for Xbox?
  • LB = L1, B=bumper/shoulder
  • LT = L2, T=trigger/back

8bitdo

• 8Bitdo SN30

• 8Bitdo SN30 Pro bluetooth + wired.
  • Manual.
  • RetroPie, RetroPie and 8bitdo SN30 pro.
  • Debian
    • Hold Start + x (same as Windows) until first 2 leds are flashing
    • Hold the pair button (next to L1).
    • See if "8bitdo SN30 Pro" can be found. If yes, connect to it.
    • If GNOME gui acts up, use the blueman. sudo apt install blueman and launch it by blueman-manager
    • Hold Start 3 seconds to turn off
    • Reconnect: just press the Start button. It should auto-connect.

• 8Bitdo Zero 2 Bluetooth, Manual. It is shown as "Pro controller" from my testing. 2D games are better fit, also Nintendo Online games (Nes & Snes).
  • Windows (X-input): X & start. hold Select.
  • Android: B & start. hold Select.
  • macOS: A & start. hold Select.
  • keyboard mode: R & start. hold Select.
  • The controller is like SNES. The Best Controllers for Retro Gaming. SNES Controller Compatible Games.
  • Using 8Bitdo Zero 2 as a BT clicker
  • Games with gamepad support but without r2, l2 and joystick. AM2R, Rush rally 3.
  • 8Bitdo Zero 2 Controller Review (video)
  • How to use an 8BitDo Zero 2 controller with Clip Studio Paint on iPad. So the keyboard mode works because the button mapping can be changed in each individual app.
  • Setting Up A Controller For Anki on MacOS. Control your Laptop with a Remote (For Anki, Dance Tutorials, etc.). Software - Karabiner-element. The software is designed to work on macOS only. It does not change the firmware on Zero 2.
  • 2D Games vs. 3D Games: What Are the Differences?

• I used this tiny game controller as a productivity tool for work — here’s what happened 8bitdo Micro

• SN30 Pro button mapping changed in Android 11. kl files are system files, read-only, and you can't edit them without root permission.

• 8BitDo Zero 2 Key Mapping for Your ereader feat. Onyx Boox Note Air 2 Plus.
  • Key mapper Android software. Github.

• 8bitdo pro 2 bluetooth controller

• 8Bitdo Micro Bluetooth Gamepad, Manual.
  • S (Switch) / D (Android) / K (Keyboard) modes.
  • Switch is useful for the Nintendo Switch.
  • D (Direct input mode) is generally used for Windows/Linux/Android/Retro handheld devices.
  • FAQ
  • I am using the keyboard mode. Change the bottom switch to 'K'.
  • When I use 8bitdo Ultimate Software from Android, I can easily remap buttons. Remapping is persistent. After I connect the controller to Debian Linux, the remapping still holds.
  • Control sound volume. The ultimate software does not currently support assigning system-level functions like volume up/down to arbitrary buttons. A workaround using third-party Android apps: Using Key Mapper Apps
    1. Pair your 8BitDo controller to your Android device in keyboard or controller mode.
    2. Install a key mapping app like Key Mapper.
    3. In the app, assign specific controller buttons (e.g., D-pad up/down) to trigger the Android system’s volume up/down actions.
    4. Grant the necessary permissions to the app so it can control system volume. video.

Now, pressing the assigned button on your controller will change the device’s volume, including during YouTube playback

• From official 8bitd.com
  • *8BitDo Ultimate Software now on PC, Android and iOS. This covers a lot of controllers including SN pro and Micro.
  • 8BitDo Ultimate Software V2 for Windows

Hall effect joysticks/triggers

• Hall-Effect Joysticks: How do they work and how will they eliminate joystick drift?
• 8Bitdo Ultimate 2C Wired Controller, 8BitDo Ultimate 2C Wired Controller

D-Pad

10 Types of Games You Should Play With Your D-Pad Instead of an Analog Stick

Wii remote

• 5 Ways to Repurpose an Old Nintendo Wii Remote
• How I turned my old Wiimote into a PC mouse (using two candles)

Key mapper

• Key Mapping on Android Handhelds & Phones.
• Anbernic Key Mapper (Keymap)
  • I assign "A" to play/pause, "B" to exit full screen, Left/Right arrows to some left/right places in the Brave browser when I watch Youtube videos. Not sure how to turn it off.

Top games, best games

• All Time Top Games Lists with screenshots
• I Love Playing With My Commodore 64 (YT)
• Retro Game Starter Pack For KIDS! (Top 50 games) (YT)
• Arcade system boards
  • Atari System 1/2/Jaguar
  • Capcom: CPS-1, CPS-2, CPS-3
  • Konami
  • Namco
  • Sega: System 1/2/16/18/24/32, Model 1/2/3, NAOMI 1/2
  • SNK: Neo Geo
  • Taito
  • Midway
• Mame/Arcade Top 300 Games, Arcade video game. Altered Beast, Donkey Kong, Killer Instinct, 1942,
• NES: The legend of Zelda, The legend of Kage
  • FC Compact Family Computer Console.
  • My 15 Favorite NES Games. Batman, Blaster Master, Castlevania III, Contra, Double Dragon II, Dragon Warrior, Life Force, Little Nemo: The Dream Master, Mega Man 2, Mike Tyson's Punch Out, Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, Shadow of the Ninja, Shadowgate, Super Mario Bros 2, Tecmo Super Bowl, TMNT II: The Arcade Game, Wizards & Warriors.
  • 9 Games For NES That Are Actually Possible To Beat. Bubble Bobble, Jaws, Kirby's Adventure, Mega Man 6, DuckTales, Felix The Cat, Chip 'N Dale Rescue Rangers, Super Mario Bros, Guerrilla War.
  • Recommened by ChatGPT: Super Mario Bros, Duck Hunt, Tetris, Excitebike, Kirby's Adventure, Dr. Mario, Balloon Fight, Ice Climber, Bubble Bobble, Donkey Kong Jr.
  • 20 BEST NES Games of All Time

• GBA (Nintendo): Castlevania circle of the Moon, Rayman
• GBC: Rayman
• Sega Genesis/Sega Mega Drive: Castle of Illusion, Ghouls and Ghosts, Road Rash 2, Streets of Rage 2, Dessert Strike, Golden Axe, Paperboy.
  • Sega Genesis Classics,
  • 31 Best Sega Genesis Games Of All Time.
• Sega Master System
• Sega Game Gear
• Sega Mega CD
• SNES (Nintendo): Super metroid, Super mario world 2: Yoshi's island
  • How many snes games used the L&R shoulder buttons?.
  • 21 Best Super Nintendo Games (SNES)
  • 20 Best SNES Games of All Time

• TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine
• NEO GEO: The King of fighters 2002, Shock Troopers, baseball stars 2, Blazing Star, (FBA42-5, arcade)
• PS1: Tekken 3, R4: Ridge racer Type 4, Tony hawk pro skater 2, Crash team racing, Rayman
  • TOP PS1 GAMES (PART 1 of 9) OVER 150 GAMES!!.
• N64: Super mario 64, Mario kart 64, F-Zero X, Cruis'n USA, Paper Mario, Super smash bros, Mario tennis (hard), Banjo kazooie, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of time, Conker's bad fur day, Yoshi's story, Goldeneye 007.
• Sega Dreamcast: Dead or alive 2, Crazy taxi 2, Jet set radio, Tennis 2k2, Virtua fighter 3TB, Sonic adventure 2, Frogger 2: swampy's revenge, 18 wheeler: American pro trucker, Gauntlet legends, Sega rally 2, Star wars: racer, Marvel vs Capcom 2, NBA 2K, Virtua Cop 2, Aqua GT, Daytona USA, Skies of Arcadia, soul calibur, Virtua Striker 2, AeroWings.
• Atomiswave (It is based on Sega's Dreamcast system board): Metal slug 6. The location of awbios.zip depends on the Batocera version. On v35, I need to put it in "/bioc/dc" folder.
• Sega Saturn: Nights into dreams, Guardian heroes, Sega rally championship, Nights into dreams, Virtua Cop 2, Clockworkd knight 2, Virtua fighter 2, Panzer dragoon, Saturn bomberman, Sonic 3D blast, Virtua fighter remix, The legend of oasis, Fighters MegaMix, Athlete Kings. 30 Best Sega Saturn Games Of All Time, My Sega Saturn Top 10 Fighting Games.
• Sega Naomi: Crazy Taxi, Capcom Vs. SNK, Dead or Alive 2 Millennium, Marvel VS Capcom 2, Virtua Tennis 2, Wave Runners.
• NDS (Nintendo)
• PSP: Grand Theft Auto: vice city stories, Tekken 5, Tekken 6, Ridge racer 4, Twisted metall head-one, Ultimate ghosts N' Goblins, Virtua Tennis 3, X-Man legends 2, God of war: chains of olympus, Castlevania dracula X chronicles, Wipeout pulse, Soul calibur broken destiny, Hot shots golf, Lumines, Blazbllue continuum shift II, Burnout legends, Final fantasy crisis core, Little big planet, Valkyria chronicles II, Persona 3, OutRun 2006 (push to limit), Daxter, Gran Turismo
  • Top 100 PSP GAMES OF ALL TIME (According to Metacritic).
• GameCube (Nintendo): Paper mario: thousand year door, Tony hawk pro skater 3, Mario kart: double dash!!, Sonic heroes, Pitfall: the lost expedition, Legend of zelda: wind waker, Mario party 6 (simple), Need for speed: most wanted (hard), Timespllitters 2
• PS2: Backyard basketball, Moto GP2, Grand theft auto III, Crash bandicoot: the wrath of cortex, Final fantasy X, Kingdom hearts, TAZ: wanted, Simpsons hit & run (easy)

Favorite Genres

These Are My Favorite Genres for Console Gaming

Arcade1Up

• Street Fighter 2
  • training mode: GBA, Play Station (SF collection 2), Sega saturn (alpha 2).
  • 街霸2，世界速通纪录创造者，手法犀利出招狠毒，极致暴力演绎
  • Street Fighter 2 Art Resources
  • Moves list
  • Street fighter 2: Champion edition "sf2ceua.zip". We can use "Arcade (MAME 2003-Plus)" or "Arcade (FinalBurn Neo)"
  • Japanese Explains What They REALLY Said In Street Fighter 2
  • Arcade1Up - Capcom Street Fighter II: Champion Turbo Legacy Edition Arcade with Riser & Lit Marquee - Multi

• Street fighter 3: Third strike (Arcade)

• Marvel vs Capcom
  • Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes (PSX, has training mode)
  • Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (Dreamcast & Xbox, has training mode)
  • Capcom Classics Collection (PS2)
  • Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds: Special Edition (Playstation 3)
  • Arcade1Up Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 X-Men ‘97 Edition Deluxe Arcade Machine, Built for Your Home, Over 5-Foot-Tall Cabinet with Over 8 Classic Games

Gameplay, walkthrough

• super mario world 2 yoshi's island walkthrough
• The legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time. Complete Switch Controls Guide and Tips, strategywiki.org
  • Use the controller to move your character, Link, and interact with the environment.
  • Use the A button to attack and the B button to use items or perform special actions.
  • D-pad: Use the D-pad to move Link and navigate menus.
  • Joystick: Use the joystick to control the camera.
  • A button: Press the A button to attack, talk to characters, and interact with objects.
  • B button: Press the B button to use items, such as weapons and tools, and perform special actions, such as rolling and blocking.
  • Z button: Press the Z button to target enemies or objects.
  • C buttons: Use the C buttons to change the camera angle or select items from the inventory.
  • L and R buttons: Press the L and R buttons to access the inventory and select items.
  • Start button: Press the Start button to access the in-game menu and save your progress.

Simulation Games

You Should Play More Simulation Games (Especially the Boring Ones)

Civilization

• Every Version of Sid Meier's Civilization Compared
• Some of the emulators that can be used to play Civilization games include:
  • DOSBox: DOSBox is an emulator that allows you to run DOS-based games on modern systems. It can be used to play the original Civilization game and its expansions, as well as other DOS-based games.
  • ScummVM: ScummVM is an emulator that allows you to play point-and-click adventure games, including some of the early Civilization games.
  • OpenEmu: OpenEmu is a multi-system emulator that allows you to play games from a variety of platforms, including the original Civilization game and its expansions.
  • MAME: MAME is an emulator that allows you to play arcade games, including some of the early Civilization games that were released for arcade platforms.
  • PCSX2: PCSX2 is an emulator that allows you to play PlayStation 2 games on your PC, including Civilization: Revolution, which was released for the PlayStation 2.

Longplay of Indiana Jones

• Indiana Jones Video Game Retrospective | A Complete History and Review
• The Temple of Doom (Arcade/Ports/NES)
• The Last Crusade NES
• The Infernal Machine (GBC)
• Longplay of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Genesis
• Longplay of Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine n64
• Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings PSP
• Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb - Full Game Walkthrough PS2
• INDIANA JONES AND THE GREAT CIRCLE Gameplay Walkthrough FULL GAME PC

Street fighter 快打旋風 with training mode

See Street Fighter 2 Practice Mode

• Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting (PS1 and 30th Anniversary Collection only)
• Super Street Fighter II Turbo (GBA and 30th Anniversary Collection)
• Street Fighter Alpha 3 (GBA and 30th Anniversary Collection). Street Fighter Alpha 3 - Ryu Move List
• Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike (30th Anniversary Collection and some mods)

Retro racing games

12 Old School Retro Racing Games That Are Still Worth Playing

Game	Released / Era	Platform(s) / Type	What Makes It Still Worth Playing
Need for Speed Underground 2	2004	PS2, Xbox, etc.	Open-world arcade style, heavy car customization, strong soundtrack
Ridge Racer	Early 1990s	Arcade / PlayStation / ports	Great sense of speed, satisfying arcade physics
F-Zero	1990 (SNES)	Super Nintendo / ports	Futuristic high speed, tight control, memorable tracks
Wipeout 2097 (Wipeout XL)	1995	PlayStation / ports	Anti-gravity racing, sleek visuals, soundtrack
Gran Turismo 4	2004	PS2	Huge car & track roster, depth and realism
Burnout 3: Takedown	2004	PS2, Xbox	Fun arcade crashes, takedowns, intensity
Virtua Racer	1992	Arcade / Sega systems / ports	Early 3D racer, still fun for arcade feel
Crazy Taxi	1999	Arcade / Dreamcast / others	Racing through traffic vs time, big personality
Forza Motorsport 2	2007	Xbox 360	Good balance of simulation and arcade, customization
Rock N Roll Racing	1993	SNES / compilations	Mix of music + racing, fun isometric view
Micro Machines	1991 (original) onward	NES, SNES, handhelds, ports	Top-down racing with toy vehicles, creative courses (e.g. desktops, pool tables)
Colin McRae Rally	1998	PlayStation, PC, etc.	Real rally cars & tracks, difficulty modes, car handling, set up mechanics

Game and Watch

• List of Game & Watch games
• The world's FIRST handhelds! (video)
• GAME & WATCH MICKEY MOUSE ( 接雞蛋 ) 1981. Handheld Game: Mickey Mouse (1981 Nintendo) . Downloads.
• game and watch rom collection
• Game and watch gallery 2, 3, 4
• Game & Watch Gallery 4 (Gameboy Advance)
• RetroPie, Game and Watch ROMS (gw-libretro) (MGW files)
• Batocera
• In RetroArch, the Core is "Handheld Electronic (GW)". See Libretro Docs.

Game for kids

Retro Games FOR KIDS!