There are many gaming emulators for Linux. But a specific Linux Operating System for a handheld system is something that makes for a great way to play older games in a handheld form.

There are a few handheld devices on the market. They can range from $30 and up. There are devices you can order that come with a charging cable, a screen protector, case, and even an SD card with a pre-installed OS and games.

The model I will cover is the R36 Series, which is made up of three models:

1. R36S (this is a vertical version; there is also a horizontal version called the R36H)
2. R36 Pro
3. R36 Max

Device Functions

There are a lot of similarities between the three models; but of course, there are some differences.

Let's look at the R36S, and then we can cover the differences of the other two models. Figure 1 shows a picture.

FIGURE 1

The left device is the R36S, the middle device is the R36 Pro, and the right one is the R36 Max.

The basic hardware is:

• CPU - Rockchip RK3326
  • ARM Cortex-A35
  • 4 Cores and 4 Threads
  • 1.3-1.5 GHz
• GPU - Mali G31 MP2 (650 MHz)
• RAM - 1 GB DDR3L (low voltage)
• Internal Storage - None
• Micro SD Slots - 2
  • TF1 (right side) is mainly for OS, but can hold games
    • should be a smaller size if it holds OS only
  • TF2 (left side) is for games
    • should be larger to hold more games, usually FAT32
  • size is between 16 and 512 GB
• Display - 3.5 inch screen
  • 4:3 IPS
  • 640x480 pixels
• USB - 2 USB-C ports
  • DC - for charging
  • OTG
• Battery - 3500 mAh (3-5 hours)
• Speakers - Mono
• Headphone - Jack on bottom
• Bluetooth - None
• WiFi - None
• Emulators - 20+
• Games - 10,000+

Now, to compare the R36 Pro. Mostly the devices are identical, except for:

• Internal Storage - 8 GB EMMC
• Battery - 4000 mAh (6 hours)
• Case - Better grip
• Emulators - 30+
• Games - 30,000+

The R36 Max has more difference:

• RAM - 1 GB DDR3
• Internal Storage - None
• Display - 4 inch screen
  • 1:1 TFT
  • 720x720 pixels
• Battery - 4000 mAh
• Case - Better grip
• Emulators - 30+
• Games - 30,000+

The firmware for the models differs since the Pro and Max can handle more emulators and games. There is also apparently smoother handling of games for the Pro and Max.

Emulators

There are a variety of emulators supported by the different models of the R36 devices.

Some emulators supported by the various models:

• NES (Nintendo Entertainment System)
• SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System)
• N64 (Nintendo 64)
• Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance
• Sega Genesis/Mega Drive
• Sega Game Gear
• PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16
• Neo Geo
• PlayStation 1 (PS1)
• PlayStation Portable (PSP)
• Capcom System 1, 2, and 3 (CPS1, CPS2, CPS3)
• MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator)
• Dreamcast (with some limitations)
• Nintendo DS

After booting the R36 Pro, it created the following folders, which are ready to copy ROMs into each appropriate folder:

• 3do (Panasonic 32-bit (Three Dimensional Optics))
• advision (Entex Adventure Vision 8-bit)
• alg (American Laser Games 16-bit)
• amiga (Amiga 16/32-bit)
• amigacd32 (Amiga CD32 32-bit)
• amstradcpc (Amstrad CPC 8-bit)
• apple2 (Apple II 8-bit)
• arduboy (Arduboy 8-bit handheld)
• astrocde (Bally Astrocade 8-bit)
• atari2600 (Atari 2600 8-bit)
• atari5200 (Atari 5200 8-bit)
• atari7800 (Atari 7200 8-bit)
• atari800 (Atari 800 8-bit)
• atarijaguar (Atari Jaguar 64-bit)
• atarilynx (Atari Lynx 8-bit handheld)
• atarist (Atari Sixteen/Thirty-two (ST) 16/32-bit)
• atarixegs (Atari XL-Compatible Eight-bit Game System 8-bit)
• atomiswave (Sammy Atomiswave 32-bit)
• c128 (Commodore 128 8-bit)
• c16 (Commodore 16 8-bit)
• c64 (Commodore 64 8-bit)
• channelf (Fairchild Channel F 8-bit)
• coco3 (Tandy TRS-80 Color Computer 3 8-bit)
• coleco (ColecoVision 8-bit)
• cps1 (Capcom Play System I 16-bit)
• cps2 (Capcom Play System II 16-bit)
• cps3 (Capcom Play System III 32-bit)
• daphne (Daphne used for games that utilize a laser-disk)
• doom (Doom core game WADs (Where's All the Data))
• dos (Microsoft Disk Operating System)
• dreamcast (Sega DreamCast 128-bit)
• easyrpg (RPG Maker 8/16-bit)
• famicom (Japanese Famicom 8-bit)
• fds (Famicom Disk system 8-bit)
• gameandwatch (Nintendo Game & Watch 4-bit handheld)
• gamegear (Sega Game Gear 8-bit)
• gb (Nintendo GameBoy 8-bit)
• gba (Nintendo GameBoy Advance 32-bit)
• gbc (Nintendo GameBoy Color 8-bit)
• genesis (Sega Genesis 16-bit)
• gx4000 (Amstrad GX4000 8-bit)
• intellivision (Intellivision 8-bit)
• j2me (Java 2 Micro Edition 8-bit)
• love2d (LÖVE Game Engine 8-bit)
• lowresnx (LowRes NX fantasy console 8-bit)
• mame (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator 8/16-bit)
• mame2003 (MAME v0.78 8/16-bit)
• mastersystem (Sega Master System 8-bit)
• megadrive (Sega Mega Drive 16-bit)
• megaduck (Mega Duck handheld 8-bit)
• msumd (Sega Genesis/Mega Drive games that have been modified to support MSU-MD (Mega EverDrive Pro Mode 16-bit)
• msx (MicroSoft eXtended 8-bit)
• msx2 (MicroSoft eXtended v2 16-bit)
• n64 (Nintendo 64 64-bit)
• n64dd (Nintendo 64 Disk Drive 64-bit)
• naomi (Sega Naomi (New Arcade Operation Machine Idea) 16/32-bit)
• nds (Nintendo DS handheld 16-bit)
• neogeo (Neo Geo 16-bit)
• neogeocd (Neo Geo CD 16-bit)
• nes (Nintendo Entertainment System 16-bit)
• ngp (Neo Geo Pocket handheld 16-bit)
• ngpc (Neo Geo Pocket Color handheld 16-bit)
• odyssey2 (Magnavox Odyssey 2 4-bit?)
• onscripter (ONScripter 8-bit+ (depends on the system it is run on)
• openbor (OpenBOR game engine 32-bit)
• palm (Palm OS handheld 16-bit for color displays)
• pc98 (NEC PC-9801/PC-9821 8-bit+)
• pcengine (PC Engine 16-bit, same as Turbo Grafx-16)
• pcenginecd (PC Engine CD 16-bit)
• pcfx (NEC PC-FX 16-bit)
• pico-8 (Pico-8 handheld 8-bit)
• pokemonmini (Pokemon Mini handheld 8-bit)
• psp (PlayStation Portable handheld 32-bit)
• pspminis (PlayStation Portable Minis handheld 32-bit)
• psx (PlayStation 1 32-bit)
• satellaview (Nintendo Satellaview 16-bit)
• saturn (Sega Saturn 16-bit)
• scummvm (ScrummVM 16-bit)
• scv (Epoch Super Cassette Vision 8-bit)
• sega32x (enhancements for Sega Genesis 32-bit)
• segacd (Sega CD add-on for Sega Genesis/Mega Drive 16-bit)
• sfc (Super Famicom 16-bit)
• sg-1000 (Sega Game 1000 8-bit)
• sgb (Super Game Boy accessory play Game Boy games on SNES)
• snes (Super Nintendo Entertainment System 16-bit)
• snesmsu1 (enhancments for SNES for a virtual chip)
• solarus (Solarus 2d game engine 16-bit)
• sufami (add-on for the Super Famicom)
• supergrafx (Super Grafx, same as PC Engine and Turbo Grafx 16 16-bit)
• supervision (Watara Supervision 8-bit)
• thomson (Thomson MO/TO 8-bit)
• ti99 (Texas Instruments 99/4a 16-bit)
• tic80 (TIny Computer handheld 8-bit)
• turbografx (Turbo Grafx 16-bit)
• turbografxcd (Turbo Grafx CD
• tvc (Videoton TV-Computer 64 16-bit)
• uzebox (ATMega 8-bit)
• vectrex (Vectrex 8-bit)
• vic20 (Commodore VIC-20 8-bit)
• virtualboy
• vmac (Nintendo Virtual Box visor 16-bit)
• vmu (Virtual Memory card for Sega Dreamcast)
• wasm4 (WebAssembly game engine 16-bit)
• wonderswan (Bandai Wonder Swan handheld 16-bit)
• wonderswancolor (Bandai Wonder Swan Color 16-bit)
• x1 (Sharp X1 8-bit)
• x68000 (Sharp X68000 16-bit)
• zx81 (Sinclair ZX81 8-bit)
• zxspectrum (Sinclair ZX Spectrum 8-bit)

This can give you an idea of which emulators the Pro supports, which would also be true of the Max.

So, once the device boots from a base SD card with ArkOS installed on it, the system will create a folder for the storage of the necessary ROM files.

Buttons

There are 17 controller buttons on the devices and four extras for power, volume, and reset.

The control buttons are for playing the games, which you can see in Figure 1.

On the left side is a D-pad, which controls the four directions. Below the D-pad is a thumb-stick that is clickable.

On the right side of the device are four buttons (A, B, X, Y) and another thumb-stick that is clickable.

In the middle are three buttons. The left one is the 'Select' button, the right button is the 'Start', and the middle button, slightly higher than the others, is the 'RA Menu' button.

On the back of the handheld console are four buttons. Two on the left side (L1 and L2) and two on the right side (R1 and R2). The L1 and R1 are towards the edge of the device, while L2 and R2 are towards the center.

On the left side of the device are two smaller buttons, which are the power and reset buttons. The volume up and down buttons are on the right side of the device.

There are buttons and combinations of buttons that do certain tasks:

• Select + Start - Exit game
• Select + A - Pause game
• Select + X - Enter RetroArch Menu
• L1 + L2 + Y Y Y - Factory Data Reset

Charging

Be sure to connect the USB-C cable into the DC port, the bottom left USB-C port.

While charging, do not press the 'Reset' button on the left side of the device. The 'Reset' button is used as a power off method to use when the device is locked up. The 'Reset' button is like removing the power from a frozen system and not performing a proper shutdown. This can cause data corruption.

Conclusion

These R36 handheld models are quite nice and support many emulators and games.

If you get one, be sure to look more at the Pro or Max version, and you may as well get the case for it too.

I will follow up with an article on getting the SD card set up.