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SoCoder -> Blogs Home -> Blogs

 
Kuron
Created : 10 November 2023
Edited : 10 November 2023

Anbernic RG35XX
It came the other day, and I have purposely NOT used it, because I wanted to put GarlicOS on it.

Well, I followed the directions, or so I thought. Installed GarlicOS as a two card setup, as the PlayStation files will likely take up one 512GB card by themselves. Anyway, I messed something up, because it does not work.

The OS loads okay, but none of the roms or consoles and such are loading. So, I messed something up. Feeling pretty dejected, but will try again tomorrow.

Not sure what I messed up, but will try and figure it out.

 

Comments
Saturday, 11 November 2023, 13:21
Kuron
 		Kuron took the chickenshit option and ordered a fully loaded 512GB card from Etsy that was on sale for almost $20 off:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1548333694/anbernic-rg35xx-512-gb-sd-card-garlic-os

Not the best brand of card, but when I get it, I can make an image of it and copy it to a Samsung card. All the hard work is done for me. And I can look at it to see how it is done to add more to it, with a second card for more systems and games if there is something else I want.

Looking forward to the Pico8 support! 49 Systems and it can handle every system from the beginning to the PS1. Also people have been able to get N64 and NDS running on it as well.

Literally lost a lifetime of gaming stuff when Carolyn died, now it is ALL replaced (and then some) with just one handheld device.

This is everything included:
Sunday, 19 November 2023, 07:02
Kuron
 		Disk I ordered came Saturday. Since it is a boot disk with all of the stuff on it, I need to clone it and I want to work from one of the clones (I will make a few).

So... Disk imaging software...

Macrium Reflect Free is no longer around, they pulled the plug on the free version.

I went to:

https://www.ntfs.com

I have used the following software of theirs since it has existed:

CD/DVD/Blu-ray Data Burner
ISO Manager
ISO Burner
Partition Manager

Never a problem and extremely reliable software. That is all free now, but some of it used to cost when I first started using it and it was well worth the money.

I decided to buy their Disk Image software. I have NOT tried it, I simply bought it for $39 based on my experience with their other products over the many, many, many years.

Will try it later today and get an image made of the disk I received and then create a couple of other disks.

Looking forward to trying out my new toy and playing some games. Have the HDMI cable to hook it into the TV and a joypad to plug into it as well, if I want to play it on the TV.
Sunday, 19 November 2023, 07:07
cyangames
 		http://www.oldversion.com/windows/macrium-reflect-5-0-5089

Old Version has versions of Macrium Reflect that can still be used
Monday, 20 November 2023, 00:20
Kuron
 		About seven hours to clone the 512GB MicroSD disk I was sent to my hard drive as a disk image. Had to be RAW copy as you need to copy empty/blank space as well for all four partitions.

Now creating my first disk from the image on the hard drive. Estimating almost 48 hours, but has now gone down to 40 hours. Seems to be going about 3MB/s right now. Again needs to be RAW, as blank space needs to be there for all four partitions. 6.5GB so far of 463.4 GB.

Gonna get a lot of thumb twiddling practice in.
Monday, 20 November 2023, 09:42
Kuron
 		Well, while asleep it crapped out in trying to make a disk from the image I had created.

Now sure if I needed to create a raw image or not. *sighs*

The disk has four partitions on it, and a couple are empty, the other two have stuff on them. They all need to be there as do all the files.

Is trial and error for Ole' Kuron. Old dog, new tricks!
Tuesday, 21 November 2023, 20:55
Kuron
 		All done and works perfectly! Has everything on it, PS1 being the last system.

I am working from the copy I made on a Samsung 512GB disk, not the disk I ordered. I made a couple of changes when I made the copy, but it works like a charm and has more space instead of leaving so much unallocated space.

Ole' Kuron is happy!

I never loaded the disk I was sent, I merely copied it. With such things, I always like to instantly copy it and work from a copy, especially when the disk is a brand I am not crazy about. It is SP brand, which are okayish I guess, but for the price difference I would generally just buy a Samsung. I try and avoid Sandisk nowadays as I have had an issue or two with them. SP to me, just isn't quite as trusted of a brand and only has a five year warranty, not that that means anything.

Anyway, the master is saved and I am working off a copy and I need to make two more copies and then I will be set. Man, I am so loving this. Ole' Kuron is back to gaming!!!

Also have bought cables to plug it into my TV (if my TV will work, bought it back in 2015 and have not used it yet) and bought some joysticks to plug into the Anbernic when playing on the TV.
Wednesday, 22 November 2023, 06:00
cyangames
 		I've seen this model on Aliexpress quite a lot of late, might pick it up next month.
Wednesday, 22 November 2023, 06:33
Kuron
 		If you do, let me know and I can post you over a disk (should tape nicely inside a Christmas card) and save you a ton of work trying to configure things and download things. It's not just a matter of grabbing ROMs, it is also getting the box artwork for every game and configured in the right size. Settings for each system to tweak the display, etc,

I highly recommend the Anbernic RG35XX. I can't tell you how cool it is to play PSX games on it and how smooth they are. It is still mindboggling to have everything from the PSX backwards on one device. I can play all my favorite golf games from the old days on one device.

There is another brand that is incredibly similar, but it only has a 2 core CPU. So glad I went with this, four cores and it plows through everything I have tried on it.
Wednesday, 22 November 2023, 06:48
Jayenkai
 		Every time I visit this thread, I'm reminded of my GPD XP which I bought in May 2017 that could quite happily do all of the above, up to Dreamcast era, has a lovely DS style clamshell design, and ran all my OUYA games too.
...And I keep wondering how much more capable the above device MUST be.. I mean, it's over 5 years later. Surely Android tech has grown leaps and bounds since then?! Right!?

Can it at the very least do Gamecube smoothly?

> Reveal 🔎
Wednesday, 22 November 2023, 11:51
Kuron
 		Due to Covid and the shortages, tech didn't grow too much since 2020. Even with Pi, they quit developing something new for a year and just concentrated on back orders.

Yes, it can do some Game Cube games as well as some N64.

GPD line, could never literally find in stock anywhere over here and that was precovid, just like many of the systems out now. Just like the new Analogue with colored cases, they release in such limited quantities that you can never get one.

Even thumby was hard to get, have been trying since last year.

The Anbernic seems to actually be mass produced, or at least a lot more widely available.

Can't stand the design of the one in your pic, and would do my head and neck in trying to see the screen while playing. I really like the original GameBoy design. Works best for me.

The one in your pic, the screen is way too wide for retro gaming. But, for its time, it was top notch. IIRC, they cost 2-3X+ what the Anbernic sells for.

On my way to Physical Therapy, but will post some pics later today.
Wednesday, 22 November 2023, 11:55
Jayenkai
 		I'm not sure I would buy another GPD, nowadays. Their later models all have fans in them, and the volume of the one in my GPDWin is WAY too loud to put up with.
Does the Anbernic have a fan?
Wednesday, 22 November 2023, 15:09
Kuron
 		Who said this was Android? Android has NOTHING to do with it.

This runs GarlicOS. A custom OS, inspired by OnionOS. It has RetroArch integrated. The stock OS is also not Android.

I could not get along with the color of that GPD.

Anbernic doesn't have a fan. I would argue most ARM devices do not. It is simply not needed unless you are talking specialty chips that are being pushed super hard (ie more than the chip was really designed for). Even much of the Pi stuff that has fans will still run fine without a fan and not throttle too low.

Anbernic (when running Garlic OS) can easily be overclocked or under clocked. The OS it ships with is crap, as is the microsd card it comes on and what games are on it are problematic. New ones direct from the manufacturer now supposedly ship with GarlicOS, but still have the game ROM issue on the devices.

GarlicOS is a must have and then you have to set up all of the systems, all of the BIOS for each system, all of the roms and all of the artwork. I happily paid for a card already set up with everything and duped it. Well worth the price. Saved me months of work setting up 25,000 games and numerous different systems.

These are the systems on my Anbernic now, and all of the games for each system are on it. A screenshot of the NES showing what the listings look like.

It is capable of more systems that are NOT on it, and I will likely add those in time.

Nice because you can adjust the visuals for each system, as to how it is scaled, etc. Screen size is perfect and are simple adjustments mainly for things like GB, etc. One setting for the GB emulator and all the games run the way you want.

Phone automatically rotated some of the images, and I do not have a way to correct that on the Chromebook or on SoCoder.


> Reveal 🔎
Wednesday, 22 November 2023, 15:14
Kuron
 		There are some N64 games on this in the ported section. The arcade games alone are amazing. Also like having Pico8 games on a console.
Wednesday, 22 November 2023, 15:48
Jayenkai
 		Oh, I'm sorry, not sure why I assumed it was Android.
.. If it's Linux, then, that's ok, I guess.
You can probably get a bunch of Steam games running on it.
Wednesday, 22 November 2023, 15:49
Kuron
 		Just ran through the Arcade listing. Damn, had tears (literally) in my eyes when I saw it had the arcade version of Tutankham on it.

https://www.rotheblog.com/2020/08/classic-arcade-games/value-stern-tutankham-east-st-louis-il/

I had a Tutankham cabinet. Rebuilt over many, many years. Got left in TN in my storage locker. Started out with buying a working motherboard off of ebay.

Even the 2600 version of this game was fun.
Wednesday, 22 November 2023, 22:19
Kuron
 		Android is mainly on phones and tablets and they have certainly progressed. Not that I am interested, but there are some really cool big name games for Android now. ARM chips used in phones and tablets are really powerful now.
Wednesday, 22 November 2023, 22:30
Kuron
 		Anbernic RG35XX specs:

3.5-inch IPS full viewing angle, OCA full lamination 640*480
CPU: Quad-core ARM Cortex-A9
GPU: Quad-core PowerVR SGX544MP
RAM: DDR3 256MB

Best $74 I ever spent (it can be bought cheaper if you do not mind waiting for shipping) and spent $74 for a 512GB card all set up.

I have not tried it, but it should work with my wireless gamepads when I dig them out.
Thursday, 23 November 2023, 22:36
Kuron
 		Keep finding some hidden gems, that I did not expect to be on there. This was in the Game & Watch section. I did not have a lot of the cool games back in the day, but I did have this one and I played the heck out of it:
Thursday, 23 November 2023, 22:39
Kuron
 		This game is on there, which I also had back in the day. I remember due to the cost, it was my only Christmas present. Played this one a whole lot, too:


View on YouTube
Friday, 24 November 2023, 03:50
cyangames
 		I watched a review by Wicked Gamer and Collector on a few of these last night, have garnered an extra £8 in aliepxress credit from playing their cute lil merge game last week whilst on the bus, etc. If I remember, I'll post the link to it tonight.
Friday, 24 November 2023, 07:03
Kuron
 		Went to try to plug it into my Samsung TV which is one of the two TVs I bought in 2015 right before I left Maryland and have yet to ever use them or turn them on.

Found out the hard way, that the Samsung TV does NOT take a standard power cable which most TVs I have had LCD wise used a power cable like the back of a desktop PC.

Nope, not the Samsung. Uses a power adapted like a laptop. *sighs* That may be what the extra laptop adapter I saw when I was unpacking stuff here, or it may not have made the move. Will have to look for it this weekend. For now all such adapters and power cords and audio cables are in one huge plastic box.

If not, will have to order an adapter.

I am just hoping the TV will work, as I do the big Hitachi in the studio. Neither have been used, but I Plan to also plug them into the lappies for audio/video editing, etc.
Friday, 24 November 2023, 11:40
Kuron
 		@Jay. AFAIK, It is not Linux, either (I could be wrong). RetroARCH should not be confused with ARCH Linux. RetroArch will run on most platforms. This is a custom firmware and I am not sure if Linux isn't used somewhere underneath, but I have not been able to find a mention of it, yet.
Thursday, 07 December 2023, 02:47
cyangames
 		Picked up my R36S yesterday, so far, very happy with it, even through it doesn't do Robotron 2084 on it, gahhh!
Thursday, 07 December 2023, 16:35
cyangames
 		Okay, yes, this little game box is just lovely It has squirreled away most of my time tonight somehow and still has 33% charge left!
Thursday, 07 December 2023, 19:16
Kuron
 		I am glad you are loving it. So many of these great devices and there is one "just right" for everybody.

I gave it a quick glance the other day when you mentioned it and liked the fact it mentioned N64. I finally got a chance today to really read up on it and I found a good site with compatibility listings. It is supposed to be based on the RG351MP. So this is a detailed listing of N64 compatibility. Not many N64 games I would want to play, but must-haves for me like Mario Golf are problematic.

The menu on Garlic OS lets you easily overclock or underclock the device if you need it for some games. I am going to have to be happy with what I have for now due to almost $2,000 to get my truck fixed. My device kicks butt, and the couple of N64 games I would want to play, I can play on the PC or likely even my Chromebook. And I have some decent controllers for the PC.

I have not even delved into my Thumby or my Orange Pi yet.
Friday, 08 December 2023, 02:20
cyangames
 		Ouch, $2k is almost right-off money isn't it?

Hope the fix ups work and last well for it