A great entry into the retro handheld segment. Great performance. Great screen. I mostly play PS1 games and the thumbsticks make it that little bit better. 64GB MicroSD card included.
Choice Promotion
AU$4.5 off every AU$30 (max AU$13.5)
Plus one on the Odin 2, I bought a Pro version after getting one of these R36S units a couple of months back. Chalk and cheese of course, but the R36S was a good introduction to hand held emulators.
Yeah Odin 2 Pro is 10x the price. You'd expect then to be night and day
@x x: Odin 2 starts at $300 USD. That model isn't in stock either, so you're looking at $369 USD. Then add your shipping. It'll push close to 10x.
@Orion au: Oh wow i didn't realise they're so exy. Would a Steam deck be a better option at this price point? Or do people mostly buy these to emulate old school games
@x x: It just depends what you value. The steam deck is more powerful and also natively plays PC games, but is bulky and lacks the battery life.
Odin 2 on the other hand, has great battery life and is more portable, but lacks the PC games (unless you stream).
Thank you!
How about 'top end' models that are in AliExpress.?
The ones you listed are $$$ 😅 thx again
Look into the Retroid Pocket 3+/Flip. I don't think they're on AliExpress, but they are higher end, good quality devices going for about $200AUD atm (on special due to the 4's upcoming release). They're still very solid devices. The Retroid Pocket 2S is slightly cheaper again, and can still emulate up to some PS2/Gamecube
Got one before xmas, both the SD cards were immediate failures or looked ok, but could never boot the system properly. Was a long, sweaty wait while I busily refreshed some new cards. Do recommend replacing the supplied ones immediately, didn't bother taking it up with the AliExpress seller.
16 and 64 do the job?
16gb for the OS and up to 512gb for games but 64gb is plenty.
Thanks mate.
That's how i set mine up too. Works great
@furiousgeorge: Nah as i have said in some other retro handheld posts before the first thing i do is make a backup and keep these cards away. They always seem to stuffup. Just make sure to buy a few good sd cards when there on sale and you wont have any issues. I have too many at this point. I have the Rg35xx, Rg351v, RGB30, R35S and R36s, Miyoo Mini Plus, M17, Sf2000 Datafrog and the Retroid Pocket 3+. Most are setup with 256gb or 512gb cards at this point.
@habib23q: So just transfer the game roms supplied to a better card? I’m still not sure what ROMs are best for this so using the supplied would be easier, definitely. Cheers.
@furiousgeorge: If that's your only source then yes. If not there's many places to find them. Google Tiny Romset for a better set.
I tried a 16gb card here, and it didn't work - not sure if the card was busted. A 32gb was fine however, and the larger games went onto a 128gb card - but 64 will be fine.
I was able to copy half the supplied games from their original card before it just died. Plenty of pre-built system images out there with lots of games for like raspberry pi/pc builds you could borrow from :)
good deal
Looking for a handheld for a while, the thumbsticks have sold me!
Got the black one and a case for $69.98 delivered including tax.
A device that allows me to play portable PS1 games in the palm of my hand like a Gameboy device. My 90's kid brain is overwhelmed!
I have an similar device but it only plays up to the 16 bit era (SNES/Megadrive).
Extra storage is definitely needed - many of the PS1 games are large ISO files (700mb each disc) because if I remember correctly the uncompressed audio tracks (WAV files) for the game music were typically stored on the disc.
You should be compressing the games to pbp or chd.
Thanks. I'll keep that in mind next time I'm fiddling around with PS1 iso files.
Mine came out to $55 delivered cheers OP
Which OS do people recommend putting on this when we get it?
ArkOS. RG351MP & R35S versions should both work with R36S.
The MP is the most recent. Use that.
Stupid question, does this have issues saving games / game states?
Nope
My one would not save states, it would just sit there at 0% forever. I ended up putting the game SD card into a card reader and doing a "first aid" in disc utility on my macbook. It took all of about 2 seconds to scan and I'm not sure what it actually fixed, but after doing that the save game states now work fine.
nope but i did a fresh install of arkos and the did the roms again
Does it play N64?
Yes.
Anyone have the RG35XX + and can comment on how much they paid and if they like it?
$100, will get it next week and let you know.
Any update?
Got it, it's pretty neat, pretty sure it's overkill for the pokemon game I am playing on it. SD card died, spent hours trying to figure out how to download and setup a new card. Overall I wouldn't buy again. I did play Gran Turismo on it, and it's fine, a little hard with no joysticks, I wouldn't play it again.
You can delete them.
I only play open source games and games that I have original copies of.
Awesome thanks OP
You guys are giving me FOMO. Should i buy this even though i already have a Steam Deck with 1TB emulation SD?
no
Don't see any reason why you would to be honest. SD is much more powerful, bigger screen etc. I wouldn't if I had one.
I like this because it's very compact, great battery life and I just want to play PS1 games.
Thanks for talking me off the ledge. Save my $$ to build an arcade machine this year.
Gonna cop!
Final charge for me was $57.55 AUD, paid in USD.
How ? I am getting the final amount as 62 aud
They paid in USD. So the conversion occurs elsewhere.
Correct
I get 10% GST added which bumps up the price :(
That's normal.
This is pretty poor quality.
Got a r36s and old rg35xx before Xmas.
Anbernic is premium quality. R36s feels like cheap plastic Chinese stuff. Was light bleed all around and you can feel it in your hand it feels like thin tacky plastic wheeeas the anbernic is great.
Screen is also not as good as the anbernic
Plastic was so bad and ugly it even had a slight hole.
Sold the r36 and kept the anbernic. Much better even without the thumb sticks.
Sd card probs everytike you transfer files so make site you get a new one. Out garlic os on it
I updated ArkOS with a Wifi USB dongle. Enable Remote Services.
https://youtu.be/SHa3Dva_aBY
Cloning the original MicroSD to a new MicroSD.
https://www.reddit.com/r/SBCGaming/s/VIXA0d5bKP
First comment.
Back up the original before updating.
Did anyone else’s order get cancelled due to ‘shipping issues’?
I got 'failed to clear customs'
Normal. It'll clear.
I didn’t get that. I just got shipping issues and then a refund. I’ll try another vendor
I got mine from this post yesterday - only took 8 days to arrive in Brissy
Anyone have issues importing? Mine has failed to clear customs
Normal. It'll clear.
fingers crossed
No need. It'll clear.
Just received mine on 11/1 only took 8 days to arrive in Brissy, very impressed.
Ordered mine 2/1 but from DataFrog FCS and received today (12/1) in Tassie. That's really impressive
My case that i ordered came today, but then I looked at my order and the actual r36s failed with shipping and i've been refunded ….
my case got stopped at customs lol - but the console arrived no issues.
Mine arrived in WA today.
Edit: what's the best way to transfer to a better sd card, is it as simple as just copying everything to the new card?
Be careful. It appears that SANDisk drives will work as your OS drive but not your ROMs drive (TF2). I've been mucking around all day trying to work out best solution.
1: New install ArkOS
1.a - install roms onto OS disk
2: New install ArkOS
2a - install roms onto TF2/ROM seperate disk
3: Clone OS disk and reimage and then setup TF2 seperate Rom Disk and copy over from original ROM disk
Kept me busy all day :P
I cloned the OS card with Rufus then I wrote the image with Belena Etcher to the new card.
I just copied the contents of the Game card to a new Game card via a PC. Only worked with a Samsung card.
Set mine up yesterday and pretty happy with it so far - however, does anyone know where to put the image files from the TinyBestGo sets to get the images to show up in emulation station??
I thought those images were for another OS, (Garlic/Onion). I just used the scraper in ArkOS.
ah. okay. I was hoping to save some time/effort.
Some googling reveals run\media\mmcblk0p1\Emulation\tools\downloaded_media\nds\covers as the default (with full linux path) so I might give that a try with system names within the tools folder on the game sd. Then i might try on the os to see if that works - I'll report back.
I dont want to scrape as it takes literally forever, and also it doesn't have wifi so I can't be bothered with the OTG setup
Some systems I had already had pics/images/videos, some didn't . Used Skraper which is done on the PC to get the ones that didn't and while still slow and tedious means you can just leave it and let it do its thing on your PC rather than have to muck around with OTG WiFi or tethered mobile on your device.
@Limbot: Neither of the methods I suggested above worked… so I'll use Skraper and give it a go on PC!
@Thiefsie: This worked fairly well apart from the Mame2003 games not being picked up, Pico 8 and Ports being absent also.
Looks like (from Skraper) that the correct path is just /images or /videos within each emulator console directory.
Been scraping for 3 hours on my set, 12.5 to go hahaha. (3500 roms taking up approx 135GB)
Loving mine so far! What cases are you buying? I've left my protective plastic on the screen for now.
PS you can get internet access to it by tethering to a mobile with USB-C.
I may have spoken too soon :(
Took an image of the factory OS card, placed it back in to the console and now it won't boot. I just get a black screen. I'm trying a factory ArkOS image to another SD card to try and resolve it.
My 2 arrived yesterday. Interestingly 2 different boxes, and 2 different capacity batteries, 3200 and 3500mAh.
One came with a screen protector and short USB cable, the other with just a quick start guide and a longer USB cable.
Interesting. Same colour?
Yep both purple. Motherboard build date for both is the same. Ordered them a day apart
So weird! My purple came in a predominately black box with the screen protector (which doesn't fit terribly well - a little too large) and cable.
Does anyone have a copy of the original drive image they can upload somewhere? My image doesn't work, and my ArkOS image just gives me a flashing white cursor in the top left of the screen after boot
Did you replace the Game Card? For some strange reason, the system won't boot with SanDisk cards in that Game slot.
Original game card. I've tried booting with it in and out. I'm trying to rewrite the new Samsung 128GB card now with the ArkOS image using Rufus. Seems like this device is pretty fickle.
I think I've got it worked out now. Re-downloaded the image, wrote it to SD Card using Rufus. Replaced the .dtb file BEFORE booting to newly created card, whereas before I booted to new SD Card, got the white screen bug and then replaced the .dtb after a forced shutdown (probably interrupting the expansion process running in the background which I couldn't actually see).
@Adster01: Someone uploaded the 15/12 & 22/12 updates with the added .dtb file already if your still having trouble or for anyone else - especially if you don't have a wifi/ethernet dongle.
https://www.reddit.com/r/SBCGaming/comments/18kztju/r36s_ark…
@MatHeadGetz: Thanks mate. I've now got the clean ArkOS image working, bit bummed about the one it shipped with though. It was nice.
Ayn Odin 2
https://www.ayntec.com/collections/odin/products/odin-2
Retroid Pocket 4
https://www.goretroid.com/en-au/collections/frontpage/produc…
Steam Deck can be an emulation machine as well.