Man, thanks so much for this. I was a little disappointed with the way some games looked out of the box and now they look right. I would have never figured this out lol.
Love your channel. I've had an RG351 for a while now, and every video i watch you mention this tutorial, so i thought I'd better take a look. What an improvement this makes. Thanks for your content, excellent RUclipsr
I love your reviews. I am so glad that I found a small RUclipsr with great content that doesn't walk on eggs in fear of burning bridges with the companies. As for the video, again, I'm confused. My first choice is still the RG350P, being that I don't intend to play games after the PS1 generation. And I really value the quality of the screen, after all, that's what we will use 100% of the time we use the device. And, although I don't mind having to configure here and there, I think it's too much work since there are devices with better screens on the market. And I'm sure that soon a new device will be launched capable of running everything that it runs and with an appropriate screen. I was super determined to buy the RP2 but after your review I realized that, despite being one of the best on the market today, it's still an undercooked device. And with the RG351P I see that in order to be able to play better games, somehow you have to sacrifice something, like a simple clean gameplay of older games. So, I would like your opinion, I'm a fan of retro games, and for that I intend to buy the RG350P, and for 3D games ahead, I'll wait for the RP3 maybe? Once again, thanks for your content.
Hey, these are great questions, and you're right that no one device is perfect out of the box. I think for pure gameplay experience for PS1 and below games, the RG350P is a solid choice, and would be even better if you modded it with a 350M screen so you could have 640x480 resolution and hardware scaling for PS1, SNES, NES, Genesis, GBA, and GB/GBC. But the honest truth is that I play my RG351P more than any other right now, but I have a unique device in that it has the internal WiFi that is no longer shipped with the device. The online connectivity for RetroAchievements, the solid RetroArch backend, and really nice themes are what keeps me coming back to the 351P. I really don't like the screen compromises (RGA scaling is great but not perfect), but the other features win me over. The RP2 is a neat little device but not something I really look forward to picking up and playing due to its buttons and laggy interface.
@@RetroGameCorps Thank you for your answer. Man, RP2 looked so promising, and it has the bells and whistles the community loves, but I really think the next generation will be excellent. Fingers crossed. I see that you really love RA Achievements, would love to try it one day, it looks really addictive haha And I would love to invest in the RG350M, but in my currency, it would be almost 1k, and that's a ridiculous amount of money at the moment. So RG350P it is!
Man, you really release that good stuff on high frequency. I just got my RG351P yesterday. I hope i can catch up :) Again, great video. This is absolutely helpful. Most emulators have problems showing the game content in a accurate way. Thanks for this one, Sir! It would be awesome if you could share the config files with us.
Hey, thanks! That's a great idea about the config files. I've been in such a state of "testing" the past couple weeks that they are not ready for sharing, but I'm sure I can whip it up pretty easily. On your side, it'd be really great if you could demonstrate how to set up WiFi with an OTG/USB dongle (assuming you don't have internal WiFi), I can't test it myself because my internal WiFi chip overrides the USB WiFi dongle. I'm curious to see if the WiFi dongle you have (the one from your videos) works with the 351P too, because that's the one I bought. And we could see if we can get RetroArch netplay working! :) I'm full of ideas today.
Thanks for the guide! I played through Ridge Racer R4 when I just got my RG351p. It was my first time playing a PSX game and I thought it looked kinda wrong. I set it to the correct ratio of the PSX and I even tried the other options you recommended and it looks absolutely gorgeous, even better than the gameplay videos of Ridge Racer Type 4 that you find on RUclips.
Thank you for all your hard work on all your videos. I just got my rg351p and your content had been extraordinarily helpful in getting things set up the way I want it.
Yo thanks bruh! My rg351p arrive today, can't wait. My rp2 won't get here until December because I order it on their third batch. You save me a lot of time. Good looking!
im so happy i dont have to turn RGA scaling on EVERY GAME every time now thank you for this walk threw I knew there must be a way to set it up by default
Retroarch overwhelmed me the first time I used. I returned after a couple year and it's made sense this time around. Same experience I had with dark souls 1.
Those aspect ratio charts are super nice. Every device should have this kind of in depth review! Would saved me from 280m issues! Not they are terrible!
Haha, thanks! Those charts were fun to make, I had to research each system and figure out what is the "official" aspect ratio. There's a lot of variance (especially with the SNES) and ALSO a lot of bad info out there on the Internet. I felt like a detective at some points, trying to uncover the truth! :)
@@RetroGameCorps yeah I super appreciate it! I was gonna say with all the variation, even some per game resolutions it's super cool to see you got it all together so clean! Probably a good headache there! Haha good work man!
Due to your absolut great videos, i have decided to bought a RG351P. Hopefully the handheld will arrive next week ;-) Then I will read your guide in particular. Many Thanks for that!
So RGA scalling for Retro Consoles, Integer scaling for handhelds. Gotcha, cheers mate I would never have figured this out myself; my 351M should be coming in a few days.
Great guide. A useful table on your site would be each of the emulators with the best options (just the extra options you enabled from the defaults) you have set for each of the emulators. You do have a table for 6 of them (Lynx, GBA,..etc) but how about a table for them all.
@@RetroGameCorps It's great to hear about the proper settings to get a better picture. Retro is why I want it so I went with the 350M but the next gen on the 351 is pretty tempting
Guys, if you change your resolution and reset the emulator, it wont work if you save on "save core overrides", so you have to save on "save content directory overrides", then reset the console/emulator and it will work! (took me some time to figure it out)
I love how nitpicky you are. This is the spirit for retro emulation. I will never understand how there's people out there that just play any retro game with squished pixels or in any aspect ratio. How can they live with themselves?
Yeah but I could say the same to his usage of that 2xSal filter, it's hideous lmao. It's a shame true 1:1 pixel perfection is not possible outside GBA on this device, but RGA scaling definitely works ok. Too bad it's not powerful enough for the best CRT filters.
I just got my device and downloaded a new firmware. I cant seem to get rid of the black side bars, no matter what aspect ratio I have changed to, would there be a fix for this?
Hi at N64 when changing the resolution to 648x480 the games crashes - how can i go back to 320x240? i cant find that menu anymore where i change the resolution
I have a question. You changed the resolution in Retroarch to 640x480. How did that help when the resolution of the actual display is 480x320? This is the only thing that keep me from buying it. I have no problem with black bars but I want my retro device to have the display capability of showing every pixel 1:1 or 1:2 (depending on the scaling integer). It looks like the N64 could NOT be pixel perfect on this device no matter what. They should have put the screen from the rg350 into this device :(
Hi, very good explanation, thanks for the hard work! I tried to apply the same concepts with ArkOS and everything works fine but shaders. I mean, they work as expected but if I try to save my settings in the override menu, when I run the same game again, shaders settings are lost. Any suggestions? edit: nevermind, I found it: I have to save the game/core/global shader setting within the shader menu
Thanks for this! Something that has been frustrating me though is that although I can access the EmuELEC menu at the system level and the game level, the specific system and game options you cite are not available to me. This is when I flashed the ArkOS version...Is that something, perhaps, I need to "turn on" through some RetroArch backend setting?
2:02 how did you get your games list in the middle of the screen like that? My games list is positioned on the left and I want mine looking likes yours
Hey Russ, great video. Do you have any advice for getting the best image running PS1 games (in particular those that have multiple resolutions for different sections of the game: FF8/Legend of Dragoon/etc)?
I would try RGA scaling since that is less hardware intensive, but you can also try the advanced-aa.glsl shader (under the anti-aliasing folder), that's also really nice with PS1.
This is another great video. I finally got it, the RG351p. Can I ask you something? The main menu you show has many options. I have much less. For example, "Emulec-Setting", "Game settings", "Network settings", "Game ratio", "Per Gamesettings"and many more are missing. Is it because I use ArkOS? i dont think so...
Hi, I am looking to purchase the RG552 and wondered if it is possible to add shaders/scanlines with the standard Linux software it ships with? Would be really grateful if you could answer this
With RGA scaling on does the picture compare to the retroid pocket 2 screen? I imagine there would still be differences but are they noticable to the naked eye? Thank you for making all of these great resources
It is noticeable, especially if you hold them up to one another. The 351P with RGA scaling on is definitely not as sharp as the RP2 or RG350M. I have found that once I actually start playing a game I don't even notice, but that's just my experience. For now, I've been really enjoying my RG351P thanks to its user interface, buttons, and WiFi options (RetroAchievements).
Hi hope someone can help I changed the resolution in retroarch while I was playing Starfox 64 it made the picture go in the bottom corner so I closed down retroarch and now it won't load Starfox 64 it freezes my rg351m everytime I try booting the game up I've tried loading with both 64 emulators in retroarch and it just won't load. Any advice would be great. I managed to fix it if anyone is having this problem I just went into the rom folder and deleted the slate save file for that game hope it helps someone.
@@KingKeshane if you connect the sd card up to a pc and go into the games partition you go into the roms folder for n64 you should see a file called mario 64 save slate if you delete that and try booting up the game when you put the sd card back in it should work. If not delete all mario 64 files and redownload the rom. Hope it works for you.
Dunno if this will be read but, I've got a problem with mine, especially the "push up" notification on screen after booting a game, they just happened to be very small. I'm talking about the stuff coming up whenever game is starting, or when I'm using hot keys to close games etc. They're weren't that small in the beginning.
I know retroarch pretty well since i have it setup on my arcade computer. BUT, on this handheld, let's say I do this on retroarch with the scaling and all, once I go back into the OS and start the game up that way, it will still keep those settings right? The OS in this handheld using those retroarch settings right?
Do you recommend this over the retroid pocket 2? I've heard that the buttons feel better on this but I thought it couldn't do N64 emulation so I was going to go with the RP2. After seeing N64 running on the RG351 in this video, I'm rethinking it.
Hi, I'm going to do an RP2/RG351P comparison video this weekend. N64 performance is better on the RP2 than on this device, so if that's the only thing that interests you, it might be worth it. But you're right, the buttons on this device feel much better, as well as some other stuff I'll cover in the video :)
@@RetroGameCorps my main interest is the 16 bit era but it would be nice to play a few of my favorite N64 games too. I had the original RG350 but I lost it. Is this device more powerful or is the firmware just better? Thanks for the info. I'll be looking forward to that video. 👍🏻
Hi! You're the first person to ever call me Taki, I am flattered :) I'm torn between the two, but I think the RG351P is the better system for me -- the things I really like (buttons, simple interface) are just better on the RG351P. I think that Anbernic will probably release an RG351M at some point, but I haven't seen anything official yet.
Great in-depth coverage! I tried RGA scaling on my OGA and indeed it looks great! What do you recommend for PSX? I can’t get rid of black bars on the top and bottom of the screen…
Hi, quick question: I wanna get one for only handhelds emulation, which one is the best screen 350p or 351p? I prefer to have a native resolution screen 320x240 and not upscale games, so am thinking to get a 350p but the 351p looks good as well.
Great info! You mentioned you'd be doing a full review in a week or so. As part of that review Id love to hear you compare the RG351P with the 350M.. Does the larger res screen of the 350M make a significant difference to image quality? Is the more powerful cpu of the 351P really noticeable relative to the 350M?
Hi, those are great suggestions, I'll add them to my extensive list of things to cover :) I also plan on doing a full RG350/RG351P/RP2 comparison video in the future.
How do you adjust screen size of individual games? When i open harvest moon 64 about a one inch zoomed screen appears top right for the game but nothing can be seen and 75% of the screen remains black? Is there a way to adjust game window size?
This was helpful. I've got a question though. My game (Evolution for DC) is running and looking great. But I got to a part near the start of the first dungeon that just massively dropped my FPS so much that I couldn't move. Even my menu settings freeze/massively lag. Any fixes? Or is it a rom specific problem?
Hey, I just sat down to replicate it but gave up...that intro segment is LONG! But to me it sounds like a game-specific problem. One option could be to load your save game using the Reicast core and see if you can get past that part and then save and resume on the Flycast core. To do this, you will want to navigate to the game in RetroArch (you can probably just find it in the "History" tab if you've played it recently), then select "Set Core Association" and change it there before booting it up.
@@GottenGood hmm, see if you can change it in the EmuELEC settings. Go to Game Settings > Per System Advanced Game Configuration > Emulator and switch there, then boot the game up through the EmuELEC interface. Fingers crossed that works!
@@RetroGameCorps Was able to change it to REICAST EMU in those settings. But now when I try to run the game it just shows the Anbernic loading and just bumps me out to the game selection again. Doesn't even load the rom for a second.
Hi thanks for the video!I have 2 questions( sorry for my bad English) : 1 Does this device run 2d mame/fba arcade games properly without lag or screen tearing? 2 Did you find any buttons issues on this device? Thanks in advance
Hi, MAME/FBNeo runs really well on this device, for example, it can play Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 at full speed on MAME. Here is my arcade games guide: retrogamecorps.com/2020/10/29/rg351p-arcade-games-guide/ And the buttons are GREAT on the RG51P. I wish the d-pad was a little softer, but otherwise everything else feels really good.
@@RetroGameCorps Sorry again! Just want to know if usually don't work games like Red Earth, The Outfoxies, Vimana, Viper Phase, Nebulas Ray, Kyukyoku Tiger 2 and others, do work properly on this device?
@@GiulioMa Hi, so I just tried them, here is how they turned out: Red Earth full speed with some audio crackling (FBN), Kyukyoku Tiger 2 @ 95% speed (MAME), Nebulas Ray full speed with some graphics glitches and no audio (MAME), Outfoxies @95% speed but no audio (MAME), Vimana @ 90% speed (FBN), and Viper Phase is not in the romsets I'm using. Hope that helps!
@@RetroGameCorps Man!Thank you so much!I really love those games, but I cannot find a 99%-100% full working romset....so sad! Maybe don't exist on Internet😰
Continuing ... and now I can't reconfigure, go back to normal. This "childish mode" does not show the games in emulators, there is no game ... I am lost. Help me, please 😭
That happens with a few systems. You may be better off turning RGA scaling off and using bilinear filtering if you are having text/sprite issues. It'll be a tiny bit softer than RGA scaling but it still works well.
Im sorry to ask, but my RG351p never save any settings I made inside retroarch I even checked the settings "save on exit", and saved current config I followed those steps you showed on 2nd minute too, and nothing
Your tutorials are fantastic! Would you be able to do one on setting the clock for the RG351p? I can see one on the Anbernic splash screen and there is a "display clock" setting in EmuElec, but I can't find anything to actually set the clock and certain Pokemon games won't work without it.
Hi Forrest, I'm working on a "start here" RG351P guide, and I will include that info. In the meantime, here is how to do it. Note that you will need to connect to the internet at least once in order to set the time, and you'll need to set up WiFi FTP to change the config file (see my "transfer guide" video if you haven't set up WiFi yet). Connect to the internet to automatically set the date and general time. You'll notice that the time zone won't match your current time zone. For me, mine was set to the Shanghai time zone. Using WiFi FTP, connect to your device. Go to /storage/.config/emuelec/configs/emuelec.conf, and open that file with a text editor. Find this text string: ------------ F - Language and keyboard ------------ Set the language of the system (fr_FR,en_US,en_GB,de_DE,pt_BR,es_ES,it_IT,eu_ES,tr_TR,zh_CN) system.language=en_US Set you local time Select your timezone from : ls /usr/share/zoneinfo/ (string) system.timezone=Asia/Shanghai You want to change that last line of code to whatever time zone you live in. To find the time zone wording, you can either go to /usr/share/zoneinfo and look it up, or you can use the listing found on (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones) this Wikipedia page. For example, I looked at the Wikipedia page and found US/Hawaii, and it worked perfectly.
Hi! i've purchased a rg351p and load some n64 games... for what i have been seeing, there are 3 emulators for the n64. The one thats is by default (parallel n64) doesn't work with some games, like diddy kong racing or jet force gemini... i tried with the other emulators (mugen64) and they work but they go super slow... could u give me some advice on how i can configure the mugen so i can get a much smoother emulation?? Thanks and regards from Chile!
Hi, so I realize the EmuELEC shows three emulators (ParaLLEl 64, Mupen64Plus, and Mupen64Plus-Next), but only two of them (ParaLLEl 64 and Mupen64Plus-Next actually load in RetroArch. Unfortunately I'm not sure how to optimize these emulators beyond what you've seen the screen configuration settings. ParaLLEl is designed more for speed, while Mupen64Plus is designed for accuracy. I've tried adjusting some of the Options settings but haven't found any improvements.
Considering I am only interested playing nes and snes titles, seems like I'd be better with a device offering 640x480, like 350m or 351mp, right? I am looking for a crisp image (hate the blurr, hate wierd looking toad, don't care about side bars though)
My settings haven't changed between this video and ArkOS, although I exclusively use RetroArch to configure my settings. Here is what I prefer: NES: 3:2 aspect ratio, Scale2x shader SNES: 3:2 aspect ratio, Scale2x shader Genesis/CD/32x: 3:2 aspect ratio, Scale2x shader Gameboy/GBC/GBA: “core provided” aspect ratio, integer scaling MAME/FBNeo: 3:2 aspect ratio, RGA scaling PS1: 3:2 aspect ratio, RGA scaling N64: 3:2 aspect ratio, RGA scaling, set resolution to 640x480 in Quick Menu > Options Dreamcast: 3:2 aspect ratio, RGA scaling, set resolution to 640x480 in Quick Menu > Options Nintendo DS: default settings PSP: default settings
@@RetroGameCorps Hi, i'm trying to set all of these up with ArkOS but when I turn on either RGA scaling or bilinear filtering for N64 the screen just goes black. I can still control the game and hear it but no visuals. Would really apprecate any help, thanks!
@@peteroper7439 Once you set up RGA scaling, save it as a core override and close out of RetroArch. Then start up the game again and it should work. Dreamcast will do the same thing (show a black screen).
Is this the best system to get to play if I mainly want to play GB , GBC , GBA , and GG games ? And where is the best place to buy from , so I don’t get stuck with a crappy knock off unit ? Thanks
Find them on Amazon. I got warranty and all. Yes this is perfect for everything below ps1. Some of the others are surprisingly good like psp and nds/n64. Dreamcast runs okay/good. Comes preloaded with 3k or more games.
When I change my n64 aspect ratio on my 351 to 640 by 480 the display shows up on the bottom quarter of the screen. Is this a glitch or am I doing something wrong?
There are a few tricks, like changing the display driver to "angrylion" in the Quick Menu > Options section. That will fix several games. In general it's pretty glitchy, though!
For the sake of precision, while game gear internal resolution is almost square at 160x144, its pixels are not square and the actual aspect ratio is 4:3
Good to know, thanks for the info! This is another reason why I prefer "core provided" aspect ratios, because core developers usually know and account for these things. Sometimes the math alone isn't a fair way to approach aspect ratio settings :)
Is there anywhere to get a realistic idea of how much screen real estate is lost to black bars for each system? Love the idea of perfect GBA scaling but want to know how “bad” the integer scaling for GBC and SNES are. I currently have a RG350P and cannot fully enjoy GB because of the scaling.
I have some questions 1.can i stretch all emulator to fullscreen? 2.is there xbrz shader(for 2d games)?? 3.are the dpad is easy for fighting games? Thx
Hi, you can stretch all of the emulators except for PSP and NDS to full screen. For the XBRZ shader, it's not pre-loaded on the console but it's easy to add. You'll want to download the shader pack (github.com/libretro/glsl-shaders) and place the glsp files in the storage/shaders folder, and the glsl files in the storage/shaders/shaders folder. The d-pad is okay for fighting games, I think it sticks out a bit too much for my tastes and it's a little stiffer than I'd like. Hopefully it'll improve as I play it more!
The latest version of 351ELEC does set the scaling settings for you, which is handy! But you may want to try your own shaders, etc. Either way, 90% of the work is done for you with that OS.
@@RetroGameCorps awesome, thanks. I've got a million of these handhelds by this point so I don't really want to be setting up every emu in every device.
It actually runs really well on this device. I think it'd be a good game to play through on this device. I only played the first 20 minutes or so, so there may be some glitches I don't know about!
@Retro Game Corps Thank you :) I was waiting for a configuration for the dreamcast games.I think it was the only thing that i found missing in this amazing video. The text was easy to read? Did you play with the settings to make the DC games look better?
if you are willing to completely give up on N64, Dreamcast, and PSP.. and mostly wanted to play SNES, Genesis, PS1, NES.. wouldn't the RG350M be better?.. maybe even with a 640x480 IPS upgrade?
Yes, the RG350M will suit your needs fairly well. There are a small number of SNES and PS1 games that will struggle on it but otherwise its 4:3 640x480 display is better equipped for those systems.
@@RetroGameCorps Yeah, that's what I am considering, but I just seen your review on the GameForce Chi as well which has similar specs with an RK3326. I am curious about the RG350M though. Can you use the screen ANd HDMI at the same time? For the purpose of playing on the screen while running the HDMI into a capture card?
Man, thanks so much for this. I was a little disappointed with the way some games looked out of the box and now they look right. I would have never figured this out lol.
Glad I could help!
+1
EVERY time I google how to do something with my 351 related questions, along comes yourself with the answer, everytime! thanks so much dude
Glad to help!
That shader makes it all nice again, thanks for the hint!
Got my unit today, already loving it (it's my first dedicated emulation handheld)
Love your channel. I've had an RG351 for a while now, and every video i watch you mention this tutorial, so i thought I'd better take a look. What an improvement this makes. Thanks for your content, excellent RUclipsr
I love your reviews. I am so glad that I found a small RUclipsr with great content that doesn't walk on eggs in fear of burning bridges with the companies.
As for the video, again, I'm confused. My first choice is still the RG350P, being that I don't intend to play games after the PS1 generation. And I really value the quality of the screen, after all, that's what we will use 100% of the time we use the device. And, although I don't mind having to configure here and there, I think it's too much work since there are devices with better screens on the market. And I'm sure that soon a new device will be launched capable of running everything that it runs and with an appropriate screen.
I was super determined to buy the RP2 but after your review I realized that, despite being one of the best on the market today, it's still an undercooked device.
And with the RG351P I see that in order to be able to play better games, somehow you have to sacrifice something, like a simple clean gameplay of older games.
So, I would like your opinion, I'm a fan of retro games, and for that I intend to buy the RG350P, and for 3D games ahead, I'll wait for the RP3 maybe?
Once again, thanks for your content.
Hey, these are great questions, and you're right that no one device is perfect out of the box. I think for pure gameplay experience for PS1 and below games, the RG350P is a solid choice, and would be even better if you modded it with a 350M screen so you could have 640x480 resolution and hardware scaling for PS1, SNES, NES, Genesis, GBA, and GB/GBC. But the honest truth is that I play my RG351P more than any other right now, but I have a unique device in that it has the internal WiFi that is no longer shipped with the device. The online connectivity for RetroAchievements, the solid RetroArch backend, and really nice themes are what keeps me coming back to the 351P. I really don't like the screen compromises (RGA scaling is great but not perfect), but the other features win me over. The RP2 is a neat little device but not something I really look forward to picking up and playing due to its buttons and laggy interface.
@@RetroGameCorps Thank you for your answer.
Man, RP2 looked so promising, and it has the bells and whistles the community loves, but I really think the next generation will be excellent. Fingers crossed.
I see that you really love RA Achievements, would love to try it one day, it looks really addictive haha
And I would love to invest in the RG350M, but in my currency, it would be almost 1k, and that's a ridiculous amount of money at the moment. So RG350P it is!
Man, you really release that good stuff on high frequency.
I just got my RG351P yesterday. I hope i can catch up :)
Again, great video. This is absolutely helpful. Most emulators have problems showing the game content in a accurate way. Thanks for this one, Sir!
It would be awesome if you could share the config files with us.
Hey, thanks! That's a great idea about the config files. I've been in such a state of "testing" the past couple weeks that they are not ready for sharing, but I'm sure I can whip it up pretty easily.
On your side, it'd be really great if you could demonstrate how to set up WiFi with an OTG/USB dongle (assuming you don't have internal WiFi), I can't test it myself because my internal WiFi chip overrides the USB WiFi dongle. I'm curious to see if the WiFi dongle you have (the one from your videos) works with the 351P too, because that's the one I bought. And we could see if we can get RetroArch netplay working! :) I'm full of ideas today.
Thanks for the guide! I played through Ridge Racer R4 when I just got my RG351p. It was my first time playing a PSX game and I thought it looked kinda wrong. I set it to the correct ratio of the PSX and I even tried the other options you recommended and it looks absolutely gorgeous, even better than the gameplay videos of Ridge Racer Type 4 that you find on RUclips.
Thank you for all your hard work on all your videos. I just got my rg351p and your content had been extraordinarily helpful in getting things set up the way I want it.
Yo thanks bruh! My rg351p arrive today, can't wait. My rp2 won't get here until December because I order it on their third batch. You save me a lot of time. Good looking!
Have fun!
im so happy i dont have to turn RGA scaling on EVERY GAME every time now thank you for this walk threw I knew there must be a way to set it up by default
Excellent guide as usual !
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great advice. Retroarch is very powerful and customisable, almost all issues can be overcome, but it's an unintuitive nightmare for beginners!
Retroarch overwhelmed me the first time I used. I returned after a couple year and it's made sense this time around. Same experience I had with dark souls 1.
Thank you for this!! I am going to switch to my 351p for retro emulation.
Comin through once again! Man, so much useful info in this video. Thank you and keep up the great work bro!
Those aspect ratio charts are super nice. Every device should have this kind of in depth review! Would saved me from 280m issues! Not they are terrible!
Haha, thanks! Those charts were fun to make, I had to research each system and figure out what is the "official" aspect ratio. There's a lot of variance (especially with the SNES) and ALSO a lot of bad info out there on the Internet. I felt like a detective at some points, trying to uncover the truth! :)
@@RetroGameCorps yeah I super appreciate it! I was gonna say with all the variation, even some per game resolutions it's super cool to see you got it all together so clean! Probably a good headache there! Haha good work man!
Really like all the information you're putting out for this.
1 year later and still the best video for 351elec setting
Due to your absolut great videos, i have decided to bought a RG351P. Hopefully the handheld will arrive next week ;-) Then I will read your guide in particular. Many Thanks for that!
Excellent video! Please consider creating more "technical" content like this!!
Great Tutorial Video! Made the games look incredible!
Happy to be of help!
Extremely helpful! Thank you very much for this guide.
Perfect guide! Thank you so much, this is a real timesaver
You're welcome!
So RGA scalling for Retro Consoles, Integer scaling for handhelds. Gotcha, cheers mate I would never have figured this out myself; my 351M should be coming in a few days.
Great guide. A useful table on your site would be each of the emulators with the best options (just the extra options you enabled from the defaults) you have set for each of the emulators. You do have a table for 6 of them (Lynx, GBA,..etc) but how about a table for them all.
Great look at this. Thanks for your hard work!
My pleasure! This one took a long time but I'm happy that I could get this info out to everyone.
@@RetroGameCorps It's great to hear about the proper settings to get a better picture. Retro is why I want it so I went with the 350M but the next gen on the 351 is pretty tempting
Thank you!
You bet!
You're a legend!!
Guys, if you change your resolution and reset the emulator, it wont work if you save on "save core overrides", so you have to save on "save content directory overrides", then reset the console/emulator and it will work! (took me some time to figure it out)
You've earned a sub. This really helped out a bunch.
Happy to be of assistance!
I love how nitpicky you are. This is the spirit for retro emulation.
I will never understand how there's people out there that just play any retro game with squished pixels or in any aspect ratio. How can they live with themselves?
mainly it has to do with not growing up with the games they are emulating. the only reason we don't like it is because we remember the original look.
Yeah but I could say the same to his usage of that 2xSal filter, it's hideous lmao.
It's a shame true 1:1 pixel perfection is not possible outside GBA on this device, but RGA scaling definitely works ok. Too bad it's not powerful enough for the best CRT filters.
Thank you for the video.
Thank you Russ.
I just got my device and downloaded a new firmware. I cant seem to get rid of the black side bars, no matter what aspect ratio I have changed to, would there be a fix for this?
Disable integer scaling maybe?!?
Thanks, great information!!
Thank you so much man :)
Hi at N64 when changing the resolution to 648x480 the games crashes - how can i go back to 320x240? i cant find that menu anymore where i change the resolution
Russ, random question... What system was Virtua Fighter playing on at the end of your video?
Looks like Sega 32x.
I have a question. You changed the resolution in Retroarch to 640x480. How did that help when the resolution of the actual display is 480x320? This is the only thing that keep me from buying it. I have no problem with black bars but I want my retro device to have the display capability of showing every pixel 1:1 or 1:2 (depending on the scaling integer). It looks like the N64 could NOT be pixel perfect on this device no matter what. They should have put the screen from the rg350 into this device :(
Hi, very good explanation, thanks for the hard work! I tried to apply the same concepts with ArkOS and everything works fine but shaders. I mean, they work as expected but if I try to save my settings in the override menu, when I run the same game again, shaders settings are lost. Any suggestions?
edit: nevermind, I found it: I have to save the game/core/global shader setting within the shader menu
Thanks for this! Something that has been frustrating me though is that although I can access the EmuELEC menu at the system level and the game level, the specific system and game options you cite are not available to me. This is when I flashed the ArkOS version...Is that something, perhaps, I need to "turn on" through some RetroArch backend setting?
I have a question. What is better, 360p with RGA scaling or 480p without filters? I can't choose between rg351p and rg350m.
This really helped dial in some stuff that was bugging me on the DC and N64 games.
NICE! That's exactly why I made this video. Happy to hear that it helped!
Thanks!!
hello my friend,how to save the shaders for all games snes for exemple,is it possible?
thank you
2:02 how did you get your games list in the middle of the screen like that? My games list is positioned on the left and I want mine looking likes yours
Hey Russ, great video. Do you have any advice for getting the best image running PS1 games (in particular those that have multiple resolutions for different sections of the game: FF8/Legend of Dragoon/etc)?
I would try RGA scaling since that is less hardware intensive, but you can also try the advanced-aa.glsl shader (under the anti-aliasing folder), that's also really nice with PS1.
This is another great video.
I finally got it, the RG351p.
Can I ask you something?
The main menu you show has many options.
I have much less. For example, "Emulec-Setting", "Game settings", "Network settings", "Game ratio", "Per Gamesettings"and many more are missing.
Is it because I use ArkOS? i dont think so...
I don't have 'shaders' option at all unfortunately
Hi, I am looking to purchase the RG552 and wondered if it is possible to add shaders/scanlines with the standard Linux software it ships with? Would be really grateful if you could answer this
With RGA scaling on does the picture compare to the retroid pocket 2 screen? I imagine there would still be differences but are they noticable to the naked eye? Thank you for making all of these great resources
It is noticeable, especially if you hold them up to one another. The 351P with RGA scaling on is definitely not as sharp as the RP2 or RG350M. I have found that once I actually start playing a game I don't even notice, but that's just my experience. For now, I've been really enjoying my RG351P thanks to its user interface, buttons, and WiFi options (RetroAchievements).
Is this guide necessary if I'm planning on using 351elec?
I have an record gameplay option but when i use it says error launching game with a blue screen any solutions?
Hi hope someone can help I changed the resolution in retroarch while I was playing Starfox 64 it made the picture go in the bottom corner so I closed down retroarch and now it won't load Starfox 64 it freezes my rg351m everytime I try booting the game up I've tried loading with both 64 emulators in retroarch and it just won't load. Any advice would be great.
I managed to fix it if anyone is having this problem I just went into the rom folder and deleted the slate save file for that game hope it helps someone.
Same thing happened to me. But it was on Mario 64. It doesn't even run anymore 😭
@@KingKeshane if you connect the sd card up to a pc and go into the games partition you go into the roms folder for n64 you should see a file called mario 64 save slate if you delete that and try booting up the game when you put the sd card back in it should work. If not delete all mario 64 files and redownload the rom. Hope it works for you.
Dunno if this will be read but, I've got a problem with mine, especially the "push up" notification on screen after booting a game, they just happened to be very small.
I'm talking about the stuff coming up whenever game is starting, or when I'm using hot keys to close games etc.
They're weren't that small in the beginning.
Quick question, I see that it has Bluetooth capabilities is it just for Bluetooth game controllers or can I use my Bluetooth ear buds?
Hello friend, is it heavy? compared to psp and psvita for example, what would be its weight?
Thx
Thanks for watching!
Yo Russ, nice video! Do you have any tips for ps1 emulation?
I know retroarch pretty well since i have it setup on my arcade computer. BUT, on this handheld, let's say I do this on retroarch with the scaling and all, once I go back into the OS and start the game up that way, it will still keep those settings right? The OS in this handheld using those retroarch settings right?
Do u think Is the best for Mame this device or PSP with mod? Thx
Good question. I don't have a PSP to test, but I have tried Final Burn Neo and MAME 2003 on this device and it runs really well!
Do you recommend this over the retroid pocket 2? I've heard that the buttons feel better on this but I thought it couldn't do N64 emulation so I was going to go with the RP2. After seeing N64 running on the RG351 in this video, I'm rethinking it.
Hi, I'm going to do an RP2/RG351P comparison video this weekend. N64 performance is better on the RP2 than on this device, so if that's the only thing that interests you, it might be worth it. But you're right, the buttons on this device feel much better, as well as some other stuff I'll cover in the video :)
@@RetroGameCorps my main interest is the 16 bit era but it would be nice to play a few of my favorite N64 games too. I had the original RG350 but I lost it. Is this device more powerful or is the firmware just better? Thanks for the info. I'll be looking forward to that video. 👍🏻
Hi Taki, really appreciating your videos and tips. Which do you like more, retroid pocket 2 or rg351p? Do you know if there is rg351M in the making?
Hi! You're the first person to ever call me Taki, I am flattered :) I'm torn between the two, but I think the RG351P is the better system for me -- the things I really like (buttons, simple interface) are just better on the RG351P. I think that Anbernic will probably release an RG351M at some point, but I haven't seen anything official yet.
@@RetroGameCorps hooops :) but you really sound like him o_O well.... I’m getting old ;-)
How did you get Zelda on GBC 0:45 look that good? On my system the colors look abit washed out
All I did was Integer Scaling ON, RGA scaling OFF, and used the LCD3x shader. That's it!
@@RetroGameCorps Thanks!
Great in-depth coverage! I tried RGA scaling on my OGA and indeed it looks great! What do you recommend for PSX? I can’t get rid of black bars on the top and bottom of the screen…
Hi, I play PS1 with "Core Provided" scaling and with RGA scaling turned ON. No black bars for me, maybe that's unique to the OGA?
Great video, your full guide was also really useful!
Is the over all process similar when using Ark OS?
Yep, for the most part this applies to ArkOS. 351ELEC already has most of these settings preconfigured.
@@RetroGameCorps Excellent, thanks so much :)
Hi, quick question:
I wanna get one for only handhelds emulation, which one is the best screen 350p or 351p?
I prefer to have a native resolution screen 320x240 and not upscale games, so am thinking to get a 350p but the 351p looks good as well.
@
Retro Game Corps any suggestion ?
Great info! You mentioned you'd be doing a full review in a week or so. As part of that review Id love to hear you compare the RG351P with the 350M..
Does the larger res screen of the 350M make a significant difference to image quality?
Is the more powerful cpu of the 351P really noticeable relative to the 350M?
Hi, those are great suggestions, I'll add them to my extensive list of things to cover :) I also plan on doing a full RG350/RG351P/RP2 comparison video in the future.
Sir what is the default settings back to original settings
How do you adjust screen size of individual games? When i open harvest moon 64 about a one inch zoomed screen appears top right for the game but nothing can be seen and 75% of the screen remains black? Is there a way to adjust game window size?
2:00 he explains that here
This was helpful. I've got a question though. My game (Evolution for DC) is running and looking great. But I got to a part near the start of the first dungeon that just massively dropped my FPS so much that I couldn't move. Even my menu settings freeze/massively lag. Any fixes? Or is it a rom specific problem?
Hey, I just sat down to replicate it but gave up...that intro segment is LONG! But to me it sounds like a game-specific problem. One option could be to load your save game using the Reicast core and see if you can get past that part and then save and resume on the Flycast core. To do this, you will want to navigate to the game in RetroArch (you can probably just find it in the "History" tab if you've played it recently), then select "Set Core Association" and change it there before booting it up.
@@RetroGameCorps Thanks for the reply. I checked and it only displays Flycast core in the "Set Core Association" settings.
@@GottenGood hmm, see if you can change it in the EmuELEC settings. Go to Game Settings > Per System Advanced Game Configuration > Emulator and switch there, then boot the game up through the EmuELEC interface. Fingers crossed that works!
@@RetroGameCorps Was able to change it to REICAST EMU in those settings. But now when I try to run the game it just shows the Anbernic loading and just bumps me out to the game selection again. Doesn't even load the rom for a second.
MarioKart DS seemed really laggy after changing the DraStic setting, is the game running like crap or was that a side-effect of the video?
Hi thanks for the video!I have 2 questions( sorry for my bad English) :
1 Does this device run 2d mame/fba arcade games properly without lag or screen tearing?
2 Did you find any buttons issues on this device? Thanks in advance
Hi, MAME/FBNeo runs really well on this device, for example, it can play Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 at full speed on MAME. Here is my arcade games guide: retrogamecorps.com/2020/10/29/rg351p-arcade-games-guide/
And the buttons are GREAT on the RG51P. I wish the d-pad was a little softer, but otherwise everything else feels really good.
@@RetroGameCorps Thanks!Subscribed!
@@RetroGameCorps Sorry again! Just want to know if usually don't work games like Red Earth, The Outfoxies, Vimana, Viper Phase, Nebulas Ray, Kyukyoku Tiger 2 and others, do work properly on this device?
@@GiulioMa Hi, so I just tried them, here is how they turned out: Red Earth full speed with some audio crackling (FBN), Kyukyoku Tiger 2 @ 95% speed (MAME), Nebulas Ray full speed with some graphics glitches and no audio (MAME), Outfoxies @95% speed but no audio (MAME), Vimana @ 90% speed (FBN), and Viper Phase is not in the romsets I'm using. Hope that helps!
@@RetroGameCorps Man!Thank you so much!I really love those games, but I cannot find a 99%-100% full working romset....so sad! Maybe don't exist on Internet😰
Hello how are you? I need help with my RG351p. I was exploring the settings and ended up unconfiguring. I put it with the interface in "kid mode" ...
Continuing ... and now I can't reconfigure, go back to normal. This "childish mode" does not show the games in emulators, there is no game ... I am lost. Help me, please 😭
RGA Scaling on PC Engine gives a horrible green tint to the screen.
Any way round this?
That happens with a few systems. You may be better off turning RGA scaling off and using bilinear filtering if you are having text/sprite issues. It'll be a tiny bit softer than RGA scaling but it still works well.
Im sorry to ask, but my RG351p never save any settings I made inside retroarch
I even checked the settings "save on exit", and saved current config
I followed those steps you showed on 2nd minute too, and nothing
Hey thanks for all !! can you make the same video for RG353V please ? 😢
Your tutorials are fantastic! Would you be able to do one on setting the clock for the RG351p? I can see one on the Anbernic splash screen and there is a "display clock" setting in EmuElec, but I can't find anything to actually set the clock and certain Pokemon games won't work without it.
Hi Forrest, I'm working on a "start here" RG351P guide, and I will include that info. In the meantime, here is how to do it. Note that you will need to connect to the internet at least once in order to set the time, and you'll need to set up WiFi FTP to change the config file (see my "transfer guide" video if you haven't set up WiFi yet).
Connect to the internet to automatically set the date and general time. You'll notice that the time zone won't match your current time zone. For me, mine was set to the Shanghai time zone. Using WiFi FTP, connect to your device. Go to /storage/.config/emuelec/configs/emuelec.conf, and open that file with a text editor. Find this text string:
------------ F - Language and keyboard ------------
Set the language of the system (fr_FR,en_US,en_GB,de_DE,pt_BR,es_ES,it_IT,eu_ES,tr_TR,zh_CN)
system.language=en_US
Set you local time
Select your timezone from : ls /usr/share/zoneinfo/ (string)
system.timezone=Asia/Shanghai
You want to change that last line of code to whatever time zone you live in. To find the time zone wording, you can either go to /usr/share/zoneinfo and look it up, or you can use the listing found on (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones) this Wikipedia page. For example, I looked at the Wikipedia page and found US/Hawaii, and it worked perfectly.
@@RetroGameCorps Wow, thanks so much!
Hi! i've purchased a rg351p and load some n64 games... for what i have been seeing, there are 3 emulators for the n64. The one thats is by default (parallel n64) doesn't work with some games, like diddy kong racing or jet force gemini... i tried with the other emulators (mugen64) and they work but they go super slow... could u give me some advice on how i can configure the mugen so i can get a much smoother emulation?? Thanks and regards from Chile!
Hi, so I realize the EmuELEC shows three emulators (ParaLLEl 64, Mupen64Plus, and Mupen64Plus-Next), but only two of them (ParaLLEl 64 and Mupen64Plus-Next actually load in RetroArch. Unfortunately I'm not sure how to optimize these emulators beyond what you've seen the screen configuration settings. ParaLLEl is designed more for speed, while Mupen64Plus is designed for accuracy. I've tried adjusting some of the Options settings but haven't found any improvements.
Considering I am only interested playing nes and snes titles, seems like I'd be better with a device offering 640x480, like 350m or 351mp, right? I am looking for a crisp image (hate the blurr, hate wierd looking toad, don't care about side bars though)
Are you able to make an updated guide with ArkOS?
My settings haven't changed between this video and ArkOS, although I exclusively use RetroArch to configure my settings. Here is what I prefer:
NES: 3:2 aspect ratio, Scale2x shader
SNES: 3:2 aspect ratio, Scale2x shader
Genesis/CD/32x: 3:2 aspect ratio, Scale2x shader
Gameboy/GBC/GBA: “core provided” aspect ratio, integer scaling
MAME/FBNeo: 3:2 aspect ratio, RGA scaling
PS1: 3:2 aspect ratio, RGA scaling
N64: 3:2 aspect ratio, RGA scaling, set resolution to 640x480 in Quick Menu > Options
Dreamcast: 3:2 aspect ratio, RGA scaling, set resolution to 640x480 in Quick Menu > Options
Nintendo DS: default settings
PSP: default settings
@@RetroGameCorps Hi, i'm trying to set all of these up with ArkOS but when I turn on either RGA scaling or bilinear filtering for N64 the screen just goes black. I can still control the game and hear it but no visuals. Would really apprecate any help, thanks!
@@peteroper7439 Once you set up RGA scaling, save it as a core override and close out of RetroArch. Then start up the game again and it should work. Dreamcast will do the same thing (show a black screen).
@@RetroGameCorps thank you so much! Worked great, keep up the excellent work on these videos!
Hi Russ! On GB, I've changed "GB Colorization" to CUSTOM... but it just stay there. Can you help.
Where do you find shaders ?
best settings for gba shader: lcd3 + gba color (yes you can apply 2 shaders at the same time)
Is this the best system to get to play if I mainly want to play GB , GBC , GBA , and GG games ? And where is the best place to buy from , so I don’t get stuck with a crappy knock off unit ? Thanks
Find them on Amazon. I got warranty and all. Yes this is perfect for everything below ps1. Some of the others are surprisingly good like psp and nds/n64. Dreamcast runs okay/good. Comes preloaded with 3k or more games.
When I change my n64 aspect ratio on my 351 to 640 by 480 the display shows up on the bottom quarter of the screen. Is this a glitch or am I doing something wrong?
I think you need to save your settings, close out of the game/RetroArch, and then jump back in for it to take effect.
On my rg351p i'm getting sound but a blank screen for some N64 games? do you or anybody have any advice what to do ?
What do I do about the lighting issue and the texture glitches on n64
There are a few tricks, like changing the display driver to "angrylion" in the Quick Menu > Options section. That will fix several games. In general it's pretty glitchy, though!
@@RetroGameCorps Thanks!
For the sake of precision, while game gear internal resolution is almost square at 160x144, its pixels are not square and the actual aspect ratio is 4:3
Good to know, thanks for the info! This is another reason why I prefer "core provided" aspect ratios, because core developers usually know and account for these things. Sometimes the math alone isn't a fair way to approach aspect ratio settings :)
Is there anywhere to get a realistic idea of how much screen real estate is lost to black bars for each system? Love the idea of perfect GBA scaling but want to know how “bad” the integer scaling for GBC and SNES are.
I currently have a RG350P and cannot fully enjoy GB because of the scaling.
I'll include this in my review, thanks for the idea!
I have some questions
1.can i stretch all emulator to fullscreen?
2.is there xbrz shader(for 2d games)??
3.are the dpad is easy for fighting games?
Thx
Hi, you can stretch all of the emulators except for PSP and NDS to full screen. For the XBRZ shader, it's not pre-loaded on the console but it's easy to add. You'll want to download the shader pack (github.com/libretro/glsl-shaders) and place the glsp files in the storage/shaders folder, and the glsl files in the storage/shaders/shaders folder. The d-pad is okay for fighting games, I think it sticks out a bit too much for my tastes and it's a little stiffer than I'd like. Hopefully it'll improve as I play it more!
@Retro Game Corps for psp you can have a full screen.😂
@@100toursdemagie7 yes, you're right. But in stretching it will cause severe pixel distortion and screen tearing, so not really a viable option.
DO any of the new custom firmwares have these settings by default?
The latest version of 351ELEC does set the scaling settings for you, which is handy! But you may want to try your own shaders, etc. Either way, 90% of the work is done for you with that OS.
@@RetroGameCorps awesome, thanks. I've got a million of these handhelds by this point so I don't really want to be setting up every emu in every device.
@@welshmouse haha, I feel your pain! One of these days I'll get around to making shareable retroarch.cfg files for people :)
No idea why, but my L3 and R3 buttons aren't bringing me into the RA menu from an emulator. Configuration is correct as per settings... Any ideas?
Try starting a game then pressing select and x button together
How the rg351p run skies of arcadia? Never played and would love to try it on the go
It actually runs really well on this device. I think it'd be a good game to play through on this device. I only played the first 20 minutes or so, so there may be some glitches I don't know about!
@Retro Game Corps Thank you :) I was waiting for a configuration for the dreamcast games.I think it was the only thing that i found missing in this amazing video. The text was easy to read? Did you play with the settings to make the DC games look better?
@@OutOTW you need to set the resolution to 640x480 in the Quick Menu options, and turn RGA scaling on in the Display options. That’s it!
@@RetroGameCorps Nice! thanks :D
I was following the instructions on Mario 64 I saved the core settings and now that rom won't run anymore
my game looks blurry when i play it, i use ArkOS and its pokemon emerald. is there a way to fix it?
Is there a button just to take you out of the current game being played back to that game system menu without going through Retroarch ?
Hold select down and press start button 2 times
every time i put some games to the favorites, its gone after i restart the device... how can i fix that ?
if you are willing to completely give up on N64, Dreamcast, and PSP.. and mostly wanted to play SNES, Genesis, PS1, NES.. wouldn't the RG350M be better?.. maybe even with a 640x480 IPS upgrade?
Yes, the RG350M will suit your needs fairly well. There are a small number of SNES and PS1 games that will struggle on it but otherwise its 4:3 640x480 display is better equipped for those systems.
@@RetroGameCorps Yeah, that's what I am considering, but I just seen your review on the GameForce Chi as well which has similar specs with an RK3326. I am curious about the RG350M though. Can you use the screen ANd HDMI at the same time? For the purpose of playing on the screen while running the HDMI into a capture card?
@@ulfrinn8783 good question, the screen turns off when in HDMI mode and I don't think there is a setting toggle for it.
You should check out the blinear shader. Looks much better than rga scaling and the scale2x shader in my opinion.
Plz help my anbernic problem how to hard reset