RG351

The Anbernic RG351P was launched in late September 2020, and is considered an upgrade from its popular cousin, the RG350. The RG351M followed in January of 2021, which features a metal shell and WiFi connectivity.

This page will be continuously updated with new articles and guides, so be sure to check back often! Have a suggestion or request? Fill out this form or leave a comment below.

RG351P & RG351M Starter Guide (2021 edition)

Getting Started

So you’re thinking about buying an RG351 device. This section will help you decide which model to buy, learn what accessories to consider, and understand all of your resources.

Setup and Orientation

Okay, your RG351 device has finally arrived in the mail! Let’s set it up and get it loaded with your favorite classic games.

Tweaks and Upgrades

So you’ve had your RG351P/M for a bit, and now you’re ready to tackle some of the more involved customization options available for this open-source platform. Let’s do this.

85 thoughts on “RG351”

    1. Hey Russ,
      I just installed ArkOS, updated it and my cores. All went great, even nailed the background music! Unfortunately I went to plug my wifi dongle in to download my box art and stuff, as soon as I plugged it in the screen went black and that’s all I get now. I’m fairly new and this was my first big project, any thoughts to help out a noob?

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      1. Hey Russ,
        Currently waiting on my RG351P. Quick question from a noob. What is the max size of micro sd supported on this device?
        Thanks!

        Like

  2. I’m having an issue. I’m not sure how to save any of my games whether it be in the actual game save or save state. When I go to save in game and close the game and go back into the game, my save data is gone. So I figured this system isn’t like the RP2 (I have that as well and that game save works just fine). So I tried using save state. The only issue is it keeps on showing the hourglass with 0% and never saves. And if I try to close the game when it still shows that, my RetroArch freezes and I have to click the restart button. Do you know why I can’t save any games??? I tried even changing the directory to the save file and save state to my SD card in its own folder but that didn’t work either.

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    1. Hi, this could be a number of reasons. Are you using the original card that came with your device? If so my guess is that it is having write errors, and you should upgrade to a more reputable cardmaker (like SanDisk or Samsung). You should be able to save games and save states with no issues…

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    2. you have to “close content” and then quit retroarch, its annoying, but if you do a save state and then “close content” first, that should actually save the state.

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    2. Hi Russ. I just received my rg351p. And I’m having an issue with trying to save my game on pockmon gold . I hit save. Then power it off then when I get back on to play it says start new game.

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      2. I don’t play Pokémon, but I just trusted out Pokémon Gold and it saves fine for me. Both the in-game saves and save states work as expected. So, first, what firmware are you guys running? I’m on the 351elec Reborn firmware. Next, what core is running your game? When I load the game and check in RetroArch it shows that Gambatte is the core running the game.

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      3. Sorry about the typo. That should say “I just tried out Pokémon Gold” and not “trusted”.

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  5. I’m absolutely loving all these guides. Do you by any chance know how to set it up so that a game automatically uses a certain core when opening it from the Emuelec UI? I want Star Fox to automatically use the 2010 snes9x core since that one runs it the best.

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  6. Is there any reason for my controls not to be working on certain games. I have upgraded to Arkos and the
    Dreamcast Sonic game won’t allow any directional buttons just the 4 letter buttons if you get me.

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      1. Thanks I will give that a go now. Thanks once again for all your help. Great guy, fast response and superb info as always.

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  8. Hey Russ i need help finding my missing bios files. i have quite a few missing like for doom and quake and msx amiga and quite a few more it shows me under the missing bios option. any solution for this? thanks bro.

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  9. Hey I really want to use Amiga and Dos Box emulation. Do I need any Bios files or can I just create the game folder and drag games in and run them from the core in Retroarch? Amazing website and great channel on YouTube too. Thank you!!!!

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  10. I am trying to play Cruis’n USA on the RG 351P. I have both the N64 and the arcade version through MAME. Neither one is playable because they run so slow. I have tried different cores and messed with the settings without any luck. Is this game beyond the capabilities of the RG 351P or is there a setting I am not aware of?

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  12. I’ve tried to get Quake 1 working (under Ports) and copied the two .pak files as explained, but when i start Quake it immediatly throws me back to the ES Menu. Can someone enlighten me on what’s happening there? Do i need the id1 subfolder, maybe?

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    1. Hi Gordon, it depends on what operating system you are using. If you are using ArkOS, the path is ports/quake/quakepaks/. For 351ELEC, they go in roms/ports/quake/id1/. For the stock EmuELEC firmware, the path is also roms/ports/quake/id1/.

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      1. Thanks for the answer. I have a RG351p and i put the files just where they supposed to be, but it doesn’t work – puts me back to ES immediatly. Don’t know what could be wrong here.
        Quake 2 DOES work.

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  13. Fixed the Quake-“Problem”. Should have used the .pak files from the original game in the first place.
    Put some modified .pak files from a source port into the folder, so it was obviously not working.

    Question: Does the Quake 1 Port support any music packs/folder, yet?

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    1. I was able to get music on Quake 1, but not on Quake 2, but I think that’s because of the core itself 🙂
      But I wasn’t able to get the Mission Packs working on Quake 1, not sure what’s wrong :S

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      2. i tried to do the sd card transfer. i have 124 gb card but when i put the firmware on it im only left with a gig to add games. what am i doing wrong?

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    1. I would like a guide for Quake 1 and 2, and for the Mission Packs as well 🙂 I can’t launch for the Mission Packs for the life of me xD

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  17. Hilfeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…….

    Hallo.
    Ich habe bei RetroArch Menü,bei der Treiber/Kontroller Einstellungen“ linuxraw“ unabsichtlich eingestellt.
    Jetzt funktionieren die Tasten A,B,X,Y nicht mehr.Bitteeeeeeeeee um Hilfeeeeeeeeee.
    Ich kann nix mehr machen.
    Lg.Deniz…..

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  18. Hi there.
    I unintentionally set “linuxraw” in the RetroArch menu in the driver / controller settings.
    Now the buttons A, B, X, Y no longer work. Pleaseeeeeeeeee for helpeeeeeeeeee.
    I can’t do anything anymore.
    Lg.Deniz … ..

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  19. Russ

    I wanted to say thanks for all the support you provide for this great little handheld! You do it in a friendly and generous way! I was sitting on the fence about getting one until a ran across your YouTube channel and site.

    Thanks!

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  20. I am having issues with PSX games. I have downloaded the .bin and .cue of the games and put them in the EASYROM/psx folder but when I start the RG351, I don’t even see the PSX in the games selection menu. I have also tried putting the games in their own folders under EASYROM/psx with the same result. I also checked that the /EASYROM/bios folder and it contains the right bioses (scph101 to scph10011). Any idea?

    More info: After buying the machine I followed the guide to upgrade the ArkOS and all other consoles work perfectly fine

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  21. Thx for your reviews and guides. I bought myself an 351 for Christmas. Works really good most of the time. And thx to you I changed the os to arkos. But I have 2 minor problems. Problem 1 is That it doesn’t find all of my psx games in menu. Through retroarch I can find and start them. Maybe someone knows a reason. Second is that I can’t launch most of the neogeo games that were pre installed. Like the metal slug games.

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    1. I am having the same problem. A minority of the neogeo games actually seem to run after doing the ArkOS swap out. Although to be honest I’m not sure if they would have worked even beforehand, given that the ArkOS swap does not seem to have affected SOME of the games in the system.

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  22. Great stuff, thank you! 🙂
    Any chance to see a Guide for the RG280V as well? Or is it too similar to the RG350 and such? 🙂
    Thanks!

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  23. First of all congratulations on the best page out there for customising the portable game console. Next my question is how do you get the DOSBOX games to run. I did this for my samsung and there was a lot of editing required of the config files to path each individual rom. When i create the pc folder and place a few freeware/shareware games like commander keen, secrete agent etc. I get the following error. Drive c already mounted with local directory storage/roms/pc/ illegal command gamename.exe.

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  24. I have an issue with my RG351P. I have tried 3 different WIFI dongles, and 2 different OTG adaptor, but Network doesnt work. I pushed the adaptor well but it doesnt work also. I cant detect any wireless network. Can you help me on this? Thank you in advanced.

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  25. Hi!

    Thanks for all the help I found on this page, I got an issue I have not seen before.

    After starting the emus ( usually nintendo ones) any other emus won’t recognise input whereas I can still.navigate the 351 UI and load games if I restart it.

    What am I missing here? The device played fantastic for a week until I wanted to play some pokemon…

    Thanks in advance!

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  26. My RG351P just arrived in the mail yesterday. Whenever I power it on it makes a buzzing/vibrating noise. Is it supposed to do that? I purchased it brand new.

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  27. Good day friend. Help please, my favorite game doesn’t work on Anbernic RG 351 p Parasite Eva 2 on PSx
    Hangs at the very beginning. What to do ? A solution is needed!

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  28. Super helpful guide! About to purchase after the info I read here.

    Just wanted to check is there a way to get Goldeneye running to a decent playable level on the RG351P?
    Apologies if obvious, I’m knew to the world of emulation!

    Cheers

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  29. Is there anyway to factory reset the device? I tried to change the map keys on a rom and now only the B button is mapped when I load a rom and I can’t do anything, but the Dpad and all the buttons work on the menu when I start up the device or pick a rom but not when you start a rom

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  30. How do i get my mp3s to play specific to the Systems? I’ve tried adding a bgmusic folders inside the System folders but that doesn’t seem to want to work?

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    1. It’ll need to be part of the theme. If you look at other themes that have per-system music, you might be able to borrow the code from their xml file and figure it out. I haven’t tackled that option just yet 😎 the theme files should be in the themes folder on your sd card

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  31. Hi,
    Am in need of some help if possible.
    I bought this for my son and he loves it. But now nothing will load up. When you turn it on you get the loading screen as normal but then it goes to a screen which says “Emulec Emulationstation” under this it says done but you can not get off this screen.
    Any ideas what this is and how to sort this out. I have no idea about these games consoles.
    Thanks in advance

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  32. Hey Russ,
    Currently waiting on my RG351P. Quick question from a noob. What is the max size of micro sd supported on this device?
    Thanks! I

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  34. Hi Russ.

    A few weeks after I’ve bought my RG351p my left joystick started to drift to the right (by about 0.37). I had no clue what was the reason, so I switched the left stick with the right one. With the same result i.e. right stick on the left is drifting, left on the right side doesn’t drift. Some people on Ambernic’s Discord channel had suggested me to buy a new joystick, so I bought one. But without any improvements -> the new stick still drifts in the same direction. I’ve also tried other firmwares but no improvement there as well. Can you please help me somehow? I would really appreciate that. Thanks.

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  35. I’m looking for a bit of guidance here. I’ve flashed 351Elec (downloaded the latest version as of 3/30/21) to a new SD card and am loving it so far! Unfortunately though, nothing I can do will make the 351p show the Neo Geo Pocket Color as a system on the UI. I have the Neo Pocket Color’s folder on the GAMES partition loaded with 39 roms, and I’ve copied all the BIOS files over from the original generic card to the BIOS folder of the new card, but still the system does not show up on the 351Elec UI. When I go into settings and look at the list of systems/consoles that can be checked and unchecked for display, the Neo Pocket Color isn’t even on that list (although plenty of other gaming systems which I don’t have roms or intentions for DO appear on the checkable list). Is this just not a console that 3521Elec currently runs or recognizes? TIA for any help or info!

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  36. i set up my rg351p threw set up guide and brought a new sd card, was working fine but now suddenly my psx games are not saving, says it saved but then when i go out of game and back in, the game as not saved.

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  37. Hi, could you explain me how to change a disk with hatari. There is an issue. I open hatari to chose the disk2 of the game but i can’t move the elevator to scroll and find the file. Excuse my english. Thanks.

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  38. Hello, sorry to ask. I’ve been trying to find a place to purchase this. I tried Amazon and it did not work well for me. If you wouldn’t mind letting me know, thank you.

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      1. Yes I have, mjkj is who I got it from on Amazon and unfortunately had a very bad experience with them. I ordered it a month ago and nothing.

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  39. Just got my RG351P yesterday. Number one priority was back up the SD card. So there are 3 partitions on the stock SD card – emuelec, games and an unreadable partition in win 10. The games and emuelec partitions can be backed up by simply putting the SD card into a card reader and then copy/paste. This was around 48gb.
    I used win32 disk imager to read the unreadable partition and saved it to my PC as an image file, this file shows as 58gb, which I thought was weird because I thought this partition was emulators, save games and other stuff.
    What’s weirder than all that – the SD card is only 64gb, but all 3 partitions come to a total of 107gb.
    Can anybody shed some light on this?

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    1. Yes. In general the emulators support in-games saves if the console itself had some sort of save system. Also, many of the emulators also support save states. I usually make use of both methods when playing through a game.

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  42. Hi guys, I have an issue about controller when using RG351M. Whenever the battery go down below 30%, it will appear this line: “open sim hardware osh controller pb disconnected” and the button stopped working right after. But when I charged the device, the button working again. Is there any solution to fix this? Please help.

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  43. Russ–I had a thought. It’d be interesting to see a guide helping users figure out how to change hotkey bindings permanently. Using the default SELECT as the hotkey modifier – SELECT + START to quite, and SELECT + X for the RetroArch menu – is convenient, but it will cause problems for certain games.

    For example – in Final Fantasy for the NES, SELECT + B is supposed to open the map screen, but in RetroArch, it’s already mapped to RESET. As another example, in Advance Wars for the NES, when you complete the Normal campaign, you’re supposed to be able to press SELECT + A to select the Hard Campaign… but in RetroArch, it’s already mapped to PAUSE EMULATION.

    I’ve changed these settings to use R3 (because I doubt any game uses the right analog stick + a face button combo; it’s ergonomically non-sensical), but I had to edit configuration files because saving RetroArch configs and getting them to permanently stick gets incredibly finicky. I’ve never once succeeded in getting hotkey bindings that are changed through the RetroArch UI to save permanently when rebooting.

    If this is a problem unique to me, then nevermind; but if you get other users chiming in with the same issue, I can try to retrace my steps and help put together a guide that shows which config files to change and how (assuming you aren’t already thinking about it yourself).

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  44. Has anyone had an issue where anything but the base firmware wont bootup and just shows a black screen? I can even use the retro game corps updated base firmware and that works but when I try to load 351 elec, ark os etc.. they all do the same thing upon boot up

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  45. heeey, so i followed the tutorial for making m3u files for playstation and apparently i didnt need to and i unselected cue files and now i cant see ps in the main menu to even get to the games, pleeeease help lol.

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  46. Please help me! I bought an rg351p and followed your video on Youtube the 2021 guide on setting it up. I bought a SanDisk 128gb microSD card and used rufus to flash 351 Elec on to it. The problem is that games don’t save, in game they do but when I restart a game there’s no data. Save states appeart to work but when I load the state nothing happens. I’ve also tried using Retroarch. I’m at a total loss…

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  47. Hi Russ,

    Greetings from Portugal!! 🇵🇹
    I have recently installed ArkOS on my RG351P using your amazing guide but I’m having problems with my PSX games. I have about 10 games saved on the SD Card but I can only see half of them on the handheld. These games were the same ones that came originally with the RG351P.
    Can you help me find a solution? Crash bandicoot 1 and 2 are part of the games I cannot see, so this is serious!

    Thanks in advance and keep up the good work!!

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  48. Hi Russ — thanks for all these helpful videos. I have an RG351M and I love it. In the basic Emuelec, when I click on RetroAchievements, it just says “Please wait” and spins forever forcing me to reset. I’ve gotten RetroAchievements to work before — any idea what might cause this?

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  49. Thanks the videos and information you have given is a great help
    used it to help setup my device (RG351P)
    however do you have anything on to do the N64 emulator controllers (joystick setting)
    and setting as inverted

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  50. I having a no sound issue with my rg 351p and i have narrowed it down to the problem is within retro arch the speakers are working fine out of games but when i load up a game no sound. I messed with the settings befor trying to fix a crackling sound i was getting with some games and now i have zero sound in game. If anyone can help me please i just want to reset to default. What settings do i need to have selected to get my sound back.

    Other than that i love this thing its so awesone to have a hand held emulator.

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