I got my hands on a R36S (G80C v1.2 Clone with same processor & 1GB RAM) recently and started working on an LCS port since it's the only GTA game that I haven't played. And, I've hit a big milestone!

GTA: Liberty City Stories is now running on our R36S test device through a PortMaster-compatible runtime! (Android Port)

To be clear, this is a private ALPHA, not a public release or download yet. I need the community's help to complete the port :)

Currently working on real hardware:

• Sustained, interactive gameplay
• First story mission completed
• Controls and tutorial prompts
• Vehicle, weapon and other sound effects
• Autosave and manual save/load after a complete restart
• No observed lag or stutter during our tested session

Still unfinished:

• Radio stations and soundtrack music (Require a rooted phone for this)
• Clean-install and final package testing
• Full-campaign testing

I'm looking for 4-5 careful volunteers to test different R36S hardware and OS setups. This is hands-on alpha testing rather than early access, so testers should be comfortable following instructions, repeating tests and sharing logs when something fails.

We especially need at least one person with a rooted Android phone and a legitimate Google Play installation of GTA LCS 2.4.379. Since my phone is not rooted, I Was not able to get the radio and music of the game working. A rooted phone will help us validate the extraction process for the missing music asset from the tester’s own copy.

The port does not include or distribute Rockstar game files. Please don’t offer downloaded APK or OBB/WAD files.

Interested? Comment with:

• Your R36S model or whether it is an original/clone
• Your OS and version
• Whether you own GTA LCS 2.4.379 on Google Play
• Whether you have access to a rooted Android phone

We’ll select a mix of setups rather than simply taking the first five replies.

Here’s the current alpha running on-device 👇

Got bored and drew my R36S what do yall think 👀

its keep loading but not getting at setup screen i took battery out restarted it still its not laggy or anything but idk tf is going on help meee HG36 clone

https://reddit.com/link/1v3wmr1/video/fh1ashh44veh1/player

https://reddit.com/link/1v3wmr1/video/nh1mylg05veh1/player

https://reddit.com/link/1v3wmr1/video/44f93w325veh1/player

https://reddit.com/link/1v3wmr1/video/5v53t46o5veh1/player

https://reddit.com/link/1v3wmr1/video/aep5fatq5veh1/player

Hi!

After many hours of experimenting, I managed to get Ruffle running on the R36S with DarkOS. Personally I searched for it and i couldn't find a way to do it so i did it myself.

I don't consider this a proper "port" since Ruffle already provides official Linux ARM64 builds. What I really did was adapt it to work on the R36S by integrating the required libraries, creating launcher scripts, and making it work with the PortMaster runtime.

I also want to be transparent about the process: this project relied heavily on AI-assisted development. AI was incredibly useful for investigating logs, understanding Linux graphics issues, and exploring possible solutions. However, getting everything working still required a lot of manual testing, trial and error, and debugging directly on the device.

I'm sharing this because I'd love to see other people improve it if possible. I don't really care about credit I just want Flash games to become another playable platform on the R36S.

Requirements

• DarkOS
• Portmaster

Current status

• ✅ Official Ruffle ARM64 nightly works.
• ✅ GPU acceleration is working.
• ✅ Playable performance in games such as Fancy Pants.
• ✅ Controller support through gptokeyb.
• ⚠️ There is still a graphical issue: moving the mouse cursor (mapped to the right analog stick) causes screen flickering while the cursor is moving. When the cursor is stationary, the flickering stops.
• ⚠️ Because of this, point-and-click games may not provide the best experience yet, although it's perfectly usable for navigating menus in keyboard-focused games.

Folder layout

/roms/ports/
│
├── DadNMe.sh
├── FancyPants.sh
├── ...
└── ruffleEngine/
    ├── ruffle
    ├── libssl.so.1.1
    ├── libcrypto.so.1.1
    ├── (required libraries)
    └── games/
        ├── DadNMe/
        │   ├── dadnme.swf
        │   └── controles.gptk
        │
        ├── FancyPants/
        │   ├── fancypants.swf
        │   └── controles.gptk
        │
        └── ...

Each game has its own launcher script inside /roms/ports/.

The launcher only needs these variables to be changed:

CARPETA_JUEGO="DadNMe"
ARCHIVO_SWF="dadnme.swf"
ARCHIVO_GPTK="controles.gptk"

Each game's folder contains:

• the Flash (.swf) file
• a .gptk controller profile

The .gptk profile will likely need to be customized for each game, since Flash games don't share a common control scheme.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dpP34JznpMx-Zx8XOuTlnlXKHlMQi4bZ/view?usp=sharing

I reviewed the SD card guide and it says it can take red & grey ultras, but I don’t know if this will work

So recently, I changed my R36s Ultra (yeah I regret Buying it) from Emuelec to DarkOsRe, and yeah basically I enjoyed it. Especially the In Built Kodi app, I am using it pretty much everyday, I am playing ports game (GTA VC, PvZ, Minecraft) and I am using the Kodi app to store videos, music, Photos inside it to use it offline.

I saw a couple of YT videos on Lineage OS, and it made me interested in it, like the idea of running Android on this tiny device makes me wanna try it, but then it comes to that I have an Ultra, and lineage os dont works on Clones I think.

I even dont know if The Ultra is considered as clone or not, but is it worth it to switch to lineage os.

and I have some doubts

1) Does all retro games which runs in Dark/Ark OS runs same on Lineage OS?
2) Is It a headache to download all the Emulators on Lineage OS?
3) What extra features does Lineage OS provide?
4) Is there a feature/app to map controller settings on non controller supported games?
5) does battery drains much faster in Lineage OS Compared to Dark/Ark Os?

well I will be pleasured if anyone answered this questions (and note I am still using the stock sd card which came with the device, I am saving up money to buy a 128 Gig SD card, so yeah I am ready if it crashes)

Para baixar toda a biblioteca do r36s (Emuladores até PSP/NDS/PS1 que ele roda) no cartão externo eu preciso de quanto a memória e isso é possível e sim desse tem sites que disponibilizam tudo?

In the title

I spent some time trying to get Philips CD-i working on Arch-R (R36S) and discovered something that may save others a few hours.

Most guides recommend downloading cdimono1.zip. Unfortunately, many copies available online only contain:

- cdi200.rom

- cdi220b.rom

That BIOS is incomplete for current versions of same_cdi_libretro.

The core fails with:

Fatal error: Required files are missing, the machine cannot be run.

The RetroArch log shows:

zx405037p__cdi_servo_2.1__b43t__llek9215.mc68hc705c8a_withtestrom.7201 NOT FOUND

zx405042p__cdi_slave_2.0__b43t__zzmk9213.mc68hc705c8a_withtestrom.7206 NOT FOUND

The working BIOS also includes these two MCU firmware files.

I've documented the setup, BIOS location, required directory structure, and the issue here:

https://github.com/khizhnik/r36s-ArchR-fixtures/tree/main/research/Philips%20CD-i%20on%20Arch-R

Hopefully this saves someone else from chasing "Fatal error" messages.

If anyone has tested more CD-i titles on RK3326, I'd be interested to hear which games perform best.

Hello, I have read a lot of threads but i'm not able to find a respons about this question:

If I insert SD on pc, I only see a partition called ARKOS-128G of 767MB, the other partition of 48gb is hide.

If I start to clone it (as is), when I insert the new sd inside the console, I have a different view of the emulator and only few games. So, I suppose the cloning phase it's wrong.

What I need to do?? Thank you.

Very few people talk about playing Java games on the R36S, and for good reason, since the RetroArch core is still pretty limited (I haven't tried any 3D games yet).

Even so, it's a pretty interesting experience. I recommend using the 320×240 builds of games—they look perfect on the handheld's screen. I'm still testing more games to see which ones work without major issues, but at least these three ran pretty well.

If you wanna try it yourself, just drop the .jar files into the j2me folder inside EASYROMS.

Sorry about the rough video quality and questionable editing. I recorded this pretty quickly because I was really excited about it.

V96 R36S iirc??? No wifi int so adapter...

Já testei todos os painéis e o 5 foi o único que funcionou em relação imagem da tela, os outros ou ficavam tela preta ou a imagem ficava travada em um canto e espelhada no resto

Used a 3D printer to invert the button layout

Well, some of you saw the post I made a while ago here, asking for port ideas, and undoubtedly the most commented on was Hollow Knight, which in turn already has a port on Portmaster, however, it only works on devices with 2GB of RAM or more, and with a 16:9 resolution; development of the port began some time ago, I call it the Hollow Knight Lite R36S Edition, although it's obviously not exclusive to the R36S, it aims to work satisfactorily on weaker devices and has an adaptation for 4:3 resolution. The other project is ArkBogs, which does seem somewhat out of place in this subreddit's topic, but I wanted to include it here for the sake of announcing the project. ArkBogs is a version of dArkOS for low-cost TV boxes, those with 1-2GB of RAM are also in early development; I'll update you on both projects in this subreddit.

I just got this dangle RTL8188FTV and connected it to my console but it doesn’t show any WiFi’s how to fix it

Before I start I have a r36s clone I tried joining the subreddit for clones but I have to be approved to join. Im trying to install a new os but when I put in the new sd card it still boots into the old os. I've tired removing the SD card and when I power it on it boots into the os and still has games, does it have internal storage? I bought this from micro center not knowing it was a clone so any help will be greatly appreciated. Btw its a new sd card

I need help when i select mcpe launcher and select opti carft or any other evrsion it goes back to main menu help i am on stock r36s on my own sd card not rxx3 card thjngy here is the youtube video

1st yt video https://youtu.be/okgnY2TrlxI?si=IsGliZsRNzS2QJaj. (i used yt dub feature)

2nd yt video

https://youtu.be/HrUIICJ5aZQ?si=dYPBSoTo1YZaAdiG

They are truly a ticking time bomb, using my phone etchdroid and a 3ds hinksemi card to give this thing some life

I spent the last few days testing Arch-R on my R36S. I originally switched because I had reached a dead end trying to push the old Linux 4.4 kernel in dArkOS any further.

My goal wasn't to compare distributions. I simply wanted a modern kernel to continue low-level hardware research.

Here are my observations so far.

What worked immediately:

- System booted normally after flashing.

- All core services came up without issues.

- USB OTG gadget works out of the box.

- Ethernet-over-USB works immediately.

- SSH over USB works immediately.

- Wi-Fi works.

- The battery indicator reports correct battery level.

- No speaker noise in the menus.

- No speaker noise after leaving games.

- No speaker noise while using my USB Wi-Fi dongle.

For me, USB Ethernet alone was a huge improvement. On dArkOS I spent a long time patching DTBs and experimenting with USB gadget mode before reaching the same point.

Things I noticed:

Wi-Fi SSH

After rebooting the console, SSH over Wi-Fi reports: WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED!

It is easy to fix by removing the old SSH host key from known_hosts, but it becomes annoying during development.

I haven't investigated the reason yet.

OTG role switching

Switching from USB Gadget mode to USB Host still requires rebooting or powering the console off.

Runtime role switching would still be preferable.

Package repository

The Arch-R repository intentionally contains only a relatively small set of packages.

For example, I tried installing Midnight Commander:

pacman -S mc

and discovered that the package is simply not available.

This isn't necessarily a problem, but developers coming from a traditional Arch Linux environment should be aware of it.

SanDisk SD cards in TF2

I immediately ran into the exact same TF2 problem I had previously solved in dArkOS.

Large SanDisk cards fail to initialize because of the MMC timing configuration.

The good news is that my previous DTB fix works on Arch-R without modification.

Repository:

https://github.com/khizhnik/r36s-ArchR-fixtures

PortMaster

One interesting difference compared to dArkOS:

PortMaster itself correctly detected all of my existing ports.

However, EmulationStation only displayed ports whose launcher scripts were located directly inside:

/storage/roms/ports

After copying the launcher .sh files to the top-level ports directory, every port immediately appeared and launched correctly.

So this seems to be an Arch-R frontend convention rather than a PortMaster problem.

Why I moved to Arch-R

The only reason I switched was the newer Linux kernel.

For people interested in kernel work, device trees, USB, drivers, or low-level hardware research, this alone is a huge advantage.

If your current operating system already does everything you need, I don't think there is a strong reason to migrate.

But if you enjoy exploring how these handhelds actually work internally, the newer kernel opens many interesting possibilities.

Overall impression

After only three days, I can already say that the overall architecture of Arch-R feels well designed.

This may surprise people who know that I'm not particularly fond of Arch Linux.

Even so, I think the project itself is technically impressive.

If someone ever decides to build a Debian or Ubuntu based operating system for the R36S with a clean and maintainable architecture, I would strongly recommend studying the solutions already implemented in Arch-R.

At the moment I'm running Arch-R from an 8 GB SD card while keeping my dArkOS installation intact.

My plan is to continue comparing both systems because I believe each of them can inspire improvements in the other.

Test hardware

Device:

R36S

PCB revision: R36S-V1.0

PCB date: 2024-09-27

SoC

Rockchip RK3326

RAM

1 GB (2 × Micron D9QWN DDR3)

Audio

RK817 PMIC / audio codec

External amplifier marked 20N52 (possibly JS2001 family, not yet confirmed)

I've searched for a solution but I've still not found any around so I'll ask again.
Even though its been asked before. Since all the previous posts I've found with this question. How do I make the cursor dissapear during normal game-play and re-appear when menus are open?

And also. I don't think this problem applies to any specific devices so I'll not provide a mainboard number here since I think its irrevelant to this discussion. Any fixes that could be done on device, USB(OTG) and/or with Remote Services would be greatly appreciated.Also if you really wanted to know at least I can tell you it is an R36 ULTRA. Don't see the mainboard number under the battery. Sorry.

Did all right (i guess), half life and undertale are working both perfectly but balatro doesent even open.

I putted the .exe in the balatro folder
I am using the latest port master version
My r36s is a clone but it has some version of arkos(I don’t know wich)

Tried renaming the file to just balatro or Balatro.exe but none work

What could i do?

I am trying to create a fork of dArkOSRE - https://github.com/southoz/dArkOSRE-R36 - and i want to know about how to build an image file myself after altering the fork's source code. I cant seem to find any information on this online, so if someone can help or point me in the right direction, it would be much appreciated.