Last updated: 13JAN2021
Fresh off the heels of 351ELEC, another RG351P operating system is now available. This one is called ArkOS, and it has some features that may make it my favorite operating system yet.
The developer who created ArkOS is not new to RK3326 chipset devices like the RG351P, as they had previously developed an operating system called TheRA-NTFS that was used on similar ODROID GO ADVANCE handheld devices (and clones). But there were enough deviations from TheRA-NTFS to warrant a new name, and now we have ArkOS (Another RK3326 OS).
What I really love about this OS is that it has a lot of quality of life features: online updating, 32-bit and 64-bit userspace, background music, and screensaver options. So let’s dive into this OS and show why I think this might be the best one yet.
ArkOS features
ArkOS is based on UBUNTU 19.10, and being based on a full Linux build give the developer a lot of room to work with. For example, he was able to create a 32-bit and 64-bit userspace, which effectively doubles the possibilities in terms of emulators and apps that can run on the device in this OS. A good example is the fact that this OS can now run both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of RetroArch, which means that certain cores that are unique to those versions are now available across the board. Similarly, if there are 64-bit (or 32-bit) standalone emulators that can be ported over, they’ll work as well. This means there is a lot of promise for future emulator options with this OS.
Like 351ELEC, ArkOS features a separate partition for ROMs, which allows you to drag and drop game files from your PC/Mac directly onto the microSD card. However, ArkOS features the more modern exFAT file system, which is more Mac-friendly compared to 351ELEC (and EmuELEC 3.7) which use FAT32 file systems. Note that the ability to view and manipulate multiple partitions is only available in Windows 10 and MacOS; so if you don’t see the partition and you’re using Windows 7 or 8, that’s the reason.
One of my favorite aspects of this OS is that future OS updates (unless it’s something fundamentally BIG) will be provided through OTA (over-the-air) updates. In other words, you’ll just connect to WiFi and initiate firmware updates — much like you would on your phone. That’s super awesome to me. Moreover, the versions of RetroArch that are on this OS also support online core updates — so you can just jump onto the network and update your cores to the latest builds seamlessly. This is extremely beneficial to me because it means that users don’t have to remove the microSD card from their device at all, unless they want to add/delete ROMs on their computer.
Finally, the quality of life benefits on this OS are pretty impressive. You can load your own background music to play while you’re navigating the menus; I loaded up the soothing PS4 main menu drone music, and now my RG351P plays that soft music while I’m in the main menu. It’s a small touch but it really does make my experience more enjoyable. Additionally, there is a screensaver function that will cycle through the videos associated with the games you have installed on your device. It’s a very entertaining feature, but it’s also useful — you can just press START while a video is playing and launch that game right then and there. This is also a very small feature, but I have been using it constantly.
ArkOS is getting new features added all the time, so be sure to check my Firmware Comparison Guide for more info.
How to install ArkOS
Another thing I love about ArkOS is that its installation guide is quite comprehensive. So rather than re-type their guide, I am just going to say that you should go to this GitHub page to read through the installation instructions and download the necessary file. The method is simple: download the file, unzip it, flash it to a new SD card using Win32 Disk Imager (PC) or ApplePi Baker v2 (Mac), then put the card into your device to finish the installation. The video above will also walk you through the process.
After that, you can put the microSD card back into your PC/Mac and add your ROMs to their appropriate folder within the “EASYROMS” partition on the card. Note that this OS does not come with bios files, so you will need to add them yourself. If you still have your stock SD card, you can grab them from the “Games” partition on that card. Additionally, the developer created this handy guide which shows every system supported by ArkOS, what emulator it uses, what file types are supported, and what bios files are required (and where to put them).
Overall, setting up ArkOS is fundamentally similar to the other RG351P operating systems, because they all use EmulationStation as their frontend. So my RG351P Starter Guide and Screen Configuration Guide are still applicable here.
Notes
- ArkOS is frequently updated, so be sure to consult the Changelog to see what features have been recently added.
- Because there are two versions of RetroArch on this system, you will have to configure both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of RetroArch separately. This means setting up HotKeys will have to be done twice, and so on.
- Additionally, these versions of RetroArch use the RGUI menu driver (RetroArch theme) by default, so it’ll look a little different from the XMB menu driver you’re probably used to. I personally switched mine back (Settings > Drivers > Menu Driver > XMB) to the old format because that’s what I prefer, but it’s up to you. Both menu drivers have the same settings, but are organized just a bit differently.
- WiFi FTP is still possible, but you need to select “Enable Remote Access” in the Options menu every time you want to connect to your device. The address will be your IP address (192.168.86.##), username is “ark”, and password is also “ark”. You can also bypass an FTP client and use their web browser feature instead.
- To set up background music, place any .mp3 files in the home/ark/.emulationstation/music folder (if there isn’t a music folder, just make one). You will need to connect to your device via WiFi FTP (SSH) to find this folder. Once you have loaded your mp3s, go back into your device and press START then go to Sound Settings > Frontend Music > ON.
- To set the time, you will first need to connect to WiFi to set the system time, but the timezone will be stuck on UTC. To change that, you have to access Terminal using an OTG adapter and a USB keyboard — more info here. Once in Terminal, you need to adjust the timezone using a timedatectl command like in this guide. I tested it and it worked great, but it was a bit of a pain to figure out. The developer is aware of this issue and is working on a fix.
- If you’re looking for hotkeys (like how to exit a game, and so on), be sure to check out this section of the ArkOS FAQs.
If you’re looking for other tips, be sure to check out the developer’s ArkOS FAQs.
Retro Game Corps 
Great now I don’t have to wait for the greatest 351EmuElec update!
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Kinda frustrated with a couple things.
*There is no fbneo folder. Adding the folder doesn’t add the games.
*Putting my MAME-2003 games in the MAME folder results in them not running. It won’t let me change the default core (no core even appears in the setting). Putting them in the MAME-2003 folder works, but there’s no artwork for it in the menu, so it’s just some barely visible black text.
*The brightness setting automatically jumps down a notch or two when you implement it. So if you put it at 1% it drops to zero and the screen turns off.
*I can’t find any manual way to update the game list.
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The dev addressed these problems in the now closed issue on github.
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Okay thanks for the update. I saw this reply AFTER I spent 10 minutes writing a step-by-step reply to each of your issues :). Not to self — read all of the comments before replying!
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I really love this software have lidded lots of great titles I really like the fact that their is no camera and WiFi is optional on this unit but I’m having one problem and I searched but I can’t seem to find an answer when ever I save in game it shows it saved but after I reload nothing am I understanding is their a special way to save other than in game I’m rather new to this to emulators but has been relatively easy up to this point this has been the only thing I can’t seem to figure out yet thanks
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Hi, RetroArch is finicky about saves. When you do an in-game save, you most close the game before you close RetroArch. So go to Quick Menu > Close Content after you save the game, and the. You can exit out of RetroArch. Please let me know if that works!
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Hey Russ
Both of these new os look great. I’m going to need some more memory cards so I can test them and switch back and forth.
I really don’t know where you find the time to learn about all these new developments and also to test and video them! Thanks very much!!
On Mon, 16 Nov 2020 at 12:00 AM, Retro Game Corps wrote:
> Russ Crandall posted: ” Fresh off the heels of 351ELEC, another RG351P > operating system is now available. This one is called ArkOS, and it has > some features that may make it my favorite operating system yet. The > developer who created ArkOS is not new to RK3326 chipset devic” >
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for some reason, after push system update , (select + X) to go to the system menu can’t work anymore
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Thanks for your guides and videos. You helped me a lot.
This firmware is nice and I like RGUI over XMB, but everything doesn’t work out of the box coming from 351Elec. For example, I had to edit the /etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg in order to use P-UAE core for Amiga hdz games. ArkOS uses Amiberry by default and I haven’t been able to change it from the UI.
And some file extensions are missing (7z for pcengine for example)
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Russ, great video as usual man! Thank you. Quick question: are you able to change the volume on ArkOS using the volume wheel on the RG351P? Mine was ignoring it and I could only change it via the menus. I flashed back to 351ELEC for now, but ArkOS is looking like the better long term OS right now and I want to hop back over.
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Hi Jose, that’s the first I’ve heard of this problem. If you don’t mind, could you add that as an issue in the developer’s GitHub? He may have a fix for it already. Thanks! https://github.com/christianhaitian/arkos/issues
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Yeah I planned on it after seeing if you had the same issue! I plan on reinstalling ArkOS on a different card and making sure I can duplicate the issue before I submit just to make sure I don’t waste anyone’s time. Thanks Russ!
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Hi Russ,
I’m loving Arkos so far and it makes the RG351 an amazing little retro pocket console; your channel and website are a great help in setting it up to be the best it can be, so first and foremost thx! There’s one thing though: After having scraped boxarts, there appears to be no way to refresh as I can’t find it in the menu. Maybe there’s something obvious that I’m missing but there are 2400 boxarts dying to be added. Thx again’
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Hi Vince, when I scrape new boxart, I just restart EmulationStation to get them to show up. Is that not working for you?
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Hi Russ, haven’t been able to fully try and check it because of failed scrape, even though I’m a registered member so that’s kind of weird. Will set up another account at screenscraper.fr. However I did just notice two missing boxarts that I remembered did pop up. Hopefully a dedicated refresh menu button will be added at some point, like in Emuelec. Thanks for responding, as a token of gratitude I got you some new members because my 351 has gone viral among my retrogame loving friends and family and they’re expecting theirs shortly😆
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Haha, that’s awesome to hear!
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One thing I forgot to mention, but you can also press SELECT and select “Edit Game Metadata” and re-scrape that individual game (and perhaps change the search parameters to find the exact game if there is an issue with its naming).
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On your point about having multiple SD’s with different OS.
I also plan to do this to try out the different options, however my question is on save states.
How do you work your save states/files between SD/OS?
I don’t want to play 10 hours on ArkOS then go back to standard OS and lose progress?
On my Android devices this was easy (GPD XD+ etc) but when I had RG350 / Bittboy I got fed up with save state issue.
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dubsmachine, I was able to transfer saves between OS’s with no problems, I just backed up my entire roms folder then transferred it to the card with the new OS.
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Yup that worked for me too on initial setup of 2nd OS card but looking for a smarter way ongoing.
I don’t want to copy 200gb of roms back and forth all the time.
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Can I add OpenBOR to ArkOS? I loaded the OS and like it quite a bit but was hoping to load some OpenBOR games.
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So far I like this OS better than the others, among other reasons, it seems the text in menus , I’m just having a few things to work out. I can get connected via FTP, but I’m not sure where to add additional themes. I am also having trouble getting turbo fire working on TG 16 games. On the other OS’s I can turn on a toggle for Turbo Fire through Retroarch (via options), and while I can still do that here and it tells me Turbo has been toggled on, it doesn’t actually work. I also seem to be unable to scrape videos,although that’s not a huge deal to me right now. I was also having an issue where in menus, the controls were not responsive (sometimes it wouldn’t react, and sometimes it’d just scroll automatically) which seems to have went away after I took the wi-fi dongle out, so maybe that was interfering with the control signal somehow? Sorry for the dump of questions, this site has been an excellent resource for getting my 351 going 🙂
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Hi, you can add themes in the etc/emulationstation/themes folder. For the other issues, I would recommend you post them in the ArkOS issues tab, the developer has been very responsive to any bugs! https://github.com/christianhaitian/arkos/issues
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I mentioned the turbo controls in the issues, and by the end of the day, he had an update that fixed the problem 🙂
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I followed your instructions to the letter, but when I go to ArkOS options, “Emulator Settings” is not available. Do I need to upgrade the firmware?
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Hi, I think it might be part of the online update, but I’m not sure. I just double checked on mine, and it’s between game collection settings and scraper in my menu.
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Great tutorials Russ! Have you been able to get the ports working? I’m having some issues there…
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Hi, I’ve gotten Quake and Doom to work so far, that’s all I’ve tested. I used the info on this side to set it up: https://github.com/christianhaitian/arkos/wiki/ArkOS-Emulators-and-Ports-information
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Great guide Russ.
I’m going to end spending more on SD cards and accessories as i have done on the device lol.
The only thing i’ve not got to work is the menu music.
My folder structure is different to yours, so probably putting it in the wrong directory.
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I hear you, I’ve been buying cards left and right :). The developer is pushing a new update later tonight/tomorrow that will change the BGM folder to the roms folder, so you’ll just have to drag/drop in the future. That’ll be an easy fix!
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Menu music all sorted now after the update.
All so easy to update, brilliant.
Thanks
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Just wanted to check in to see if you have played around with the PPSSPP emulator within the ArkOS system yet. I have just started myself and have been fairly pleased with the performance (though I’ve not yet tested it with the God of War games). There are two issues that I’ve run into: cheats and fonts.
Unlike with the standard RetroArch interface, it doesn’t appear that PPSSPP has the ability to download the cheats database via WiFi. I believe the database needs to be downloaded and then dropped into the proper folder within the PPSSPP structure.
PSP fonts are proprietary and many games are a bit wonky without the correct fonts (e.g., Jeanne D’Arc). I actually have an old PSP that I can rip my fonts from. However, it again needs to be dropped into the proper folder within the PPSSPP structure.
I’m just not sure where the PPSSPP folders are at … presumably in the partion that I can’t read in regular old Window Explorer?
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Hi, I’m working on a PSP guide right now! The developer of ArkOS made adding cheats super easy, you can actually do it from the EASYROMS partition. Here is the path: roms/psp/ppsspp/PSP/CHEATS/cheat.db
As far as where to get a cheat.db, this is what I have been using: https://github.com/Saramagrean/CWCheat-Database-Plus-
For fonts, they have to be added via WiFi FTP. Once you have that set up, they go here: /opt/ppsspp/assets/flash0/font/
Unfortunately, the GoW games have a weird rainbow particle effect. You can fix that by turning “Skip buffer effects” mode on, but it also blacks out the sky. So it’s not ideal. But if you run the 30 FPS cheat and set frame skip to 1, the games run pretty smoothly!
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Thanks!
Aside from the skies of arcadia(I was the one who asked on youtube =P).
I wanted to play Jeanne D’Arc and I though it would work because of the fonts. I already have them, but is nice to know where to put them 🙂 Can’t wait to have mine rg351p.
Thanks for all this guides, you are amazing!
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Thanks for the feedback. About 20 minutes after posting, I did find the cheats folder that, as you mention, is quite easy to add through the normal Windows explorer. I also was able to use WinSCP … though I’m still screwing around with the fonts … I may give up on that.
N64 is still a challenge, which is always disappointing. I was an N64 fanboy back in the day, so the nostalgia is deep. Unfortunately, this has always been one of the most difficult systems to emulate. 25 years later and it still seems like a person needs a supercomputer + good luck to run N64. I’ll probably spend some time with the emulator engines … swapping around parallel and gliden64, etc.
PSP is running better than I would’ve expected. I only tried GoW Ghosts of Sparta once and it hung badly. I think I’m only skipping 1 frame, but it wasn’t even close to playable. So, I have work to do there, too.
Thanks again for all the hard work.
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Hey Russ! Thanks for another great guide! I’m really enjoying ArkOS. Performance seems to be improved across the board. And the ability to apply updates via WiFi is great. Thanks for sharing this!
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I am liking ArkOS so far, but for some reason the cheats are not working. Maybe I’m doing something wrong lol. Otherwise I am loving the RG351 lol.
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Hey, thanks for the great content!
Do you have any advice on how to hide the notifications that show, when you start a game, that inform us that overrides have been loaded? I’ve tried a few things, and even managed to turn off the game video completely! …
For your Canadian viewers, here are amazon.ca links to a USB wifi dongle, and a USB A -> USB C adapter, that I have purchased, and work with the RG351p:
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Hi Billy, the setting you are looking for is in RetroArch. Open it up without a game loaded, then go to Settings > On-Screen Display > On-Screen Notifications > OFF. Thanks for the links!
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Hi Russ
Another newbie here I’m afraid. I am struggling to restore / flash arkos to a fresh as card using apple baked pie (something like that) on my Mac. It’s a new scandisk 128, from Amazon.
I have tried following your guide step by step, but no joy so far. It seems to do it’s thing, increasing the size to 128 then right at the end claims it can’t access the file. When I check the card it’s empty.
Any ideas would be appreciated
Gavin
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Well the newest update hours ago posted F’d up my RG351P now ARkOS cannot be updated along w/ Retroarch you cannot update the cores and such. always task failed. while ARKOS after the update. it can connect to wife but cannot be updated any longer
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How did you find an mp3 of the soothing PS4 main menu drone music? I have hunted around with no luck. Thanks!
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I believe I ripped it from a YouTube video using one of those YouTube-to-mp3 websites. There are several videos that just have the PS4 menu drone music.
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Thanks for this guide. I tried this OS and it is my favourite too but I’m facing some problems.
I installed the ArkOS with the bios and roms from original microsd but:
– Most of neogeo roms don’t work (black screen). For example, all metal slug are not working.
– Psx bin/srm roms are not detected. Only roms in ISO format are listed.
– There is no fbneo folder. Adding the folder doesn’t add the games.
I check on the github page but I can not find a solution.
Thank you.
Adam
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Some updated:
Neogeo roms: In the “Emulator settings” I changed the Neogeo core to “FBALPHA2012” and now it works with all roms. Before it was set to AUTO.
I found a solution about the psx issue. If I create a CUE file for each bin roms, they will be listed.
I still don’t find a solution about fbneo folder.
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Hi, I saw that you fixed a couple of these already. For FBNeo, the games go into the “Arcade” folder, which you can see listed on the GitHub page:
https://github.com/christianhaitian/arkos/wiki/ArkOS-Emulators-and-Ports-information
Arcade
Emulator: (lr-fbneo) fbalpha2012 fbalpha2016 fbalpha2018
Required ROM Version: FBAlpha v0.2.97.44 (v0.2.97.40, v0.2.97.42 and v0.2.97.43 may work as well)
Rom Folder: arcade
Extensions: .zip .ZIP .7z .7Z .cue .CUE
Bios: pgm.zip (for PGM games only like Knights of Valour and DoDonPachi)
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hi after the penultimate update the console no longer updates the cores and no longer even updates the console giving an error
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Hi, here are the instructions to fix the connection issues: https://github.com/christianhaitian/arkos/releases/tag/v1.4.12.07.2020
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Hello, need help!
I locked my main menu full options by mistake, I noticed there was a code similar to Cheat codes in games, a sequence to unlock it again, but I didn’t memorize it. I searched everywhere but can’t find any image or article abt it.
Can u please help. I’m using arkOS
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Hi Yousif,
to unlock and return to the full UI, enter this code:
UP,UP,DOWN,DOWN,LEFT,RIGHT,LEFT,RIGHT,B,A
I hope it works.
Bye
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Hi Adam,
I’ve tried it on the menu but it doesn’t work, maybe I need to do it in a specific menu I’m not sure but.. when I reach the part where I press B it just backs out of the menu. I’ve also tried to use it inside one of the sub menus but no luck so far.
I’ll keep trying different things and see if it’s gonna work.
Thanks though
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Use the left thumb stick instead of the dpad.
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Hello from Porto Alegre, Brazil,
great stuff, dude. all pages, all videos. Congrats.
But I can use some of your insights:
Mame 2003 Plus core cannot be seen at “Emulator Settings – Arcade Various Platform”. So there are some roms from my correct 0.78 romset, like Galaga or Pole Position that only work if loaded direct from Load Content in Retroarch32, not from Arkos Mame 2003 UI. My guess Arkos is only using FBNEO or FBALPHA2012 cores and it can´t see Mame 2003 Plus core installed on Retroarch.
Any advice will be apreciated.
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@Andrei I am also having difficulties with arcade / mame on this OS. A specific Mame emulator cannot be chosen. It seems to default to Mame 2010. Many of my roms just black screen upon attempting to load.
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Hi, you´re right. Default is Mame 2010, by retroarch, roms folder “mame”, mame romset 0.78.
Everything is now working fine.
All other arcade roms (fbneo romset 0.2.97.44) go into roms folder “arcade” (except CPx, of course) and using fbneo core or one of those fba cores.
Thanks all.
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Hey, so i just did the auto update through wifi and now my device cant see any of my games even tho they are still intact on the sd card. I only have like 38 games now available, some of them same as after the initial instal (cavestory for example) but other ones i didnt put there like mouse trap on amiga or some psp games. I was looking around in the game collection menu, checked “show all” or smth like that but nothing changes. The funny thing is i can even find the mouse trap game on the card. I can just reformat the sd card and install the system again but i would like to know what happened.
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>The funny thing is i can even find the mouse trap game on the card.
i meant to say “i can’t” ofc 😉
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For some reason, I cannot connect to the FTP on my computer. I have tried both WinSCP and Filezilla. It is not the adapter as I have set up and established a connection to the internet through my wi-fi and downloaded updates for both ArkOS and the emulators. I have followed all the simple steps in the guide and am having no luck. Not my firewall either. I appreciate any assistance.
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Make sure you go into the Options menu and select “Enable Remote Services”. You have to do that every time you boot up the device, as a security measure.
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Thanks for the quick reply. I have followed all the steps in your guide. I have tried both stock OS and ArkOS. I got it to run on my Surface Pro so I think I’m having an issue with my main PC. Both are Windows 10. Not the firewall, either. Again, thanks. Your guides have been extremely helpful. If I can’t get it to run tomorrow I’ll post a detailed report.
Cheers,
Kerry
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Sorry to hear that’s happening to you – that does sound very odd. Have you tried the browser method in the ArkOS GitHub guide? I’d be curious to see if that method works for you.
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I too can’t access my rg351p via SFTP on a Mac using FileZilla or the other Mac client mentioned. I too have no prob with internet and have updated the device with the dongle and have connections enabled. It’s frustrating. However, all I wanted to do that way was add background music. I saw in the ArkOS FAQs that you don’t have to FTP for that, but can just add it to a folder on the SD card which worked fine for me.
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Yes, ArkOS has been updated since first making this guide, and the bgmusic can be added directly from the roms folder!
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Fixed the issue. My PC was not on the same network which was weird. Thanks again for all of your assistance. You’re a good man. Merry Christmas!
Your guide was the main reason I got an RG351P. I really love this thing. Got one for my adult son as well. Now to tweak for a few hours.
Kerry in Alaska
On Tue, Dec 15, 2020 at 7:05 AM Retro Game Corps wrote:
> Russ Crandall commented: “Yes, ArkOS has been updated since first making > this guide, and the bgmusic can be added directly from the roms folder!” >
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Glad it worked out, and Merry Christmas to you as well!
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Great tutorial Russ!!
I’ve followed the process and all is working fine on my new RG351P.
Just a quick question, it is possible to copy the shades from the 351Elec into ArKos?
Rpi – super-2xsai.glsp is my favourite shade for SNES and I would like to use it on ArKos
Thanks
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Just two simple questions, I’m a tech-head, so simple answers will suffice! 1) How many psx bios files do need to place in the psx bios folder to get the games running smoothly? 2) How do you reveal the hidden config files for each emulator as none of my GBA games are working and I’m wanting to delete the GBA’s .cfg file to allow it to initialise a new one.
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Hello,
I do not understand how to organize my MAME collection. One Mame folder works more or less but the other shows no initial system icon and then I just get a list of games which turn to black text when I try to select them. I am not enough of an expert to know which games belong in which folders when it comes to arcade. My consoles are perfectly organized as I know the collections well. Any help would be appreciated as I’m on only my second day with an emulation device. I worked out my own segaCD and PSX issues and have mostly given up on Dreamcast/PSP for the moment as they just don’t perform to my liking.
Thanks,
MC
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OH, another thing I forgot. In the various MAME systems I do not see an option to align screen vertically like Russ’s guide indicates. Perhaps I’m using the wrong default cores?
I am loving the content on this site and it has already vastly improved my enjoyment of the device!!!
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To update this issue, I have a system called MAME with an icon that works somewhat, but does not offer a vertical alignment.
I have a system called ARCADE CLASSICS with an icon that works and does offer vertical alignment, but does not work on all games.
I have a system that I don’t know what it is called and it just has a black icon. It lists the games but does not let me know what game I am selecting. It does offer vertical alignment and looks to perform nicely. I would like to have an icon to select the system and then be able to see the games I’m selecting from the folder.
I see up above that someone said the dev closed this issue, but combed through open and closed issues and only saw one instance of “MAME” and it was not this issue.
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I am also now realizing that my cps1, cps2, cps3 that were previously working (and I don’t think I changed them) are now no longer visible in the carousel. This disappeared when I added mame folders. I checked both retroarch and retroarch32 to ensure that I had the cores installed and I ran online core updater to no avail.
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OH, another thing I forgot. In the various MAME systems I do not see an option to align screen vertically like Russ’s guide indicates. Perhaps I’m using the wrong default cores?
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Hi trying out ArkOS, struggling with MAME. With EMUELEC i can select which mame version to use. When transferring my files back to ArkOS could i have overwritten a config file? I see the option with other cores to select the core for the game. For MAME it just shows DEFAULT.
Any ideas?
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Hi Great guide. Was wondering if anyone can help me with Colecovision emulation. I have bluemsx and all folders on Sd. Also coleco.rom. Here’s my situation…
B4 adding Bluemsx and folders, when I tried to load a colecovison game, the screen would go black and then return to the emulator frontend and game list. But after adding Bluemsx, I go to the colecovision emulator, select a game and the screen then goes to a blue microsoft msx type screen with text on top and a list of commands on the bottom (i.e. load, run..stuff like that) but no matter what buttons I push or controls I move, nothing happens. I have looked all over for help to get these games running but no luck. Watched every video and setup I could find. Nothing. I had no problems with the RG350, Pocket Go or any of my other handhelds. Please help.
Thank You
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I tried downloading the ArkOS 7z file from both different links that are available and they keep saying that the disk image is corrupt from both links.
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Hi great videos, Can you make a video for batocera and comparison with the other ones ?
Regards
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I just released a comparison video today, here you go! https://youtu.be/99IM3NZVOMo
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I’ve updated ArkOS multiple times, I have a compatible dongle, I cannot SSH into my device IP, cannot FTP via filezila, and cannot connect in browser (or on mobile device) to http://rg351p. I have enabled/disabled connections multiple times and wifi is working fine for multiple scraper types.
I just want to do something simple. Unfortunately the theme I use is missing logos, most notably for me the PCEngineCD and I want to add that logo so I don’t have to use a theme I don’t like.
A similar theme that is a harsh yellow that I do not like does have the correct emulator logo. I planned to just drag that image over.
Is there any other way to add a logo to a theme outside of FTP with ArkOS ?
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For reference:
Status: Waiting to retry…
Status: Connecting to rg351p…
Response: fzSftp started, protocol_version=9
Command: open “ark@rg351p” 22
Error: Connection timed out after 20 seconds of inactivity
Error: Could not connect to server
I have also done this via IP which I don’t want to post here.
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I worked out my own resolution for this problem:
So I did work out a workaround that was easy.
I went to game collection by theme.
I put all the PCEngineCD games into PCE-CD on the theme
I sorted theme by system
Then I put HIDE on for PCEngineCD.
NOW IT WORKS JUST LIKE I WANTED!
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My Playstation emulator is missing from emulation station. Not sure if I deleted something in the EASYROMS folder. How can bring it back?
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Hello from Finland.
Just got RG351P Christmas and replaced original sd card with bigger one and changed to ArkOS at same time. Yesterday did OTA update the OS to latest version. So everything is quite new to me and I have few questions.
– PSP and DC emulators: PSP Ridge Racer sound isn’t so good and game won’t run very well and same goes with DC Crazy Taxi. Should I change emulator core or something else? Everything is stock/original settings.
– Colecovision roms won’t start. When try run those it start MSX basic. I did copy bios folder from original memory card and also download Coleco bios from internet. Renamed bios to COLECO.ROM. Every Coleco rom just goes to MSX Basic
– Atari 5200 ROMS won’t start. Those go to Atari 800 Computer console and haven’t find way start game cartridges.
Thank you very much making this nice new OS 🙂
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Got an RG351p for Xmas and loving it.
Switched out the standard card for a larger 256gb one and installed ArkOS. Have updated and got everything working nice except for Neogeo and CPS1/2/3. For the life of me I cannot work out where I am going wrong :S Has anyone else had any issues?
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I have 256GB card too. Just copy CPS1/2/3 roms from
original card same folders.
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NeoGeo working everything ok too. Just copy roms to folder. And that one folder missing from ArkOS Copy roms to Arcade folder.
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I actually got Atari 5200 games working. But those won’t work
as usual console/tv-games. You have to select cartridge from menu at Atari 800 home computer console and then warm boot from menu. Wish there was auto start as every other games start from ArkOS menu.
Still no luck with Colecovision and Magnavox Odyssey(Philips Videopac). Coleco start up MSX Basic and Magnavox won’t show at all. Even there’s folder for these games. Maybe there isn’t emulator even folder exists..
Atari Jaguar support would be nice too. Jaguar games are quite small.
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I actually got Odyssey 2 working. Problem was that my roms were zipped and those needed be bin format.
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Also Coleco is working now. Problem was with some game roms that work with real Colecovision but emulator boot those to MSX Basic. My luck was that these games were first at list and always try same games.
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Hey! 🙂 Great site, and the guides are really useful, thanks for all the work! 🙂
I got my RG351P and I’m loving it, I have a bunch of other similar devices (like the original RG350), but the hardware, the experience and software on the 351P are incredible! It doesn’t have the screen of the 350M, sure, but it is a big jump forward from the original 350 🙂
I’m using ArkOS and my device came with a wifi dongle and an adapter (although I already had one because of the RG350). The possibility to update the OS and the cores from wifi is so cool!
And then I started wondering if there is any way to leverage wifi to do a backup from the ArkOS side (i.e. system files, retroarch configurations, etc.), to be stored on the “cloud” or on a computer. We wouldn’t need to physically take the microSD and back it up manually on a computer, or do it over FTP.
This would be great to ensure that in case something happens to the microSD card, we don’t loose all of our painstakingly crafted config files. Oh and perhaps we could include the saves on the backup too 🙂
Maybe an rsync client, or any other app that might use a similar principle to backup to the cloud (Dropbox or similar)? Besides the backup, it would be great to have a way to backup/restore from a clean image, with the previously backed up information (again, in the case a microSD goes belly up).
I know ArkOS is based on Ubuntu, and I’m sure that there is something like that on Linux, was wondering how hard could it be to setup such a functionality on our belived RG351P.
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First off, thank you! Your guides are a MASSIVE help.
Just a quick question: I’ve successfully installed ArkOS into my RG351P. I’m at the step now where I want to copy my ROMs into my card. How about the BIOS that I backed up from my original file?
Besides making a disk image of the original card, I also copied the BIOS folder into my SSD (I did the same with the ROMs, too, so I can pick-and-choose what I want in the new ArkOS card).
Do I just copy the BIOS files from the original card into the new ArkOS card (overwriting the ArkOS bios files in some cases)?
Thanks again!
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Hello. I really appreciate what you are doing for the retrogamer/handheld community, you are on my daily top list on youtube.
I have a request. Sorry if this is already answered to, but have you some info about how to migrate saves and save states from 351elec to ArkOS ? (more specifically PS1 saves)
Or maybe a complete retroarch backup exported to the ArkOS one would also do the trick ?
Thanks,
Oli
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Where are the bios files that I need to put in the bios folder?
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