Adam image

Internal card setup (INT slot) for RG350 and RG280 consoles. Result of a collaboration project of Team RParadise formed by:

• Brumagix Gamer
• eduardofilo
• Juanmote (Juanma)
• La Retro Cueva

The setup is made based on the following parts:

• OpenDingux. Mainly thanks to pcercuei.
• SimpleMenu. Thanks to FGL82.
• RetroArch. The combination of OPK wrappers has been built with script RG3550_auto_ra_installer based on this definition file.
  • Oficial. Mainly thanks to jdgleaver.
  • Poligraf. Thanks to Poligraf.
• Standalone applications:
  • ColecoD. Thanks to alekmaul.
  • Daphne. Thanks to DavidKnight247.
  • FBA. Thanks to plrguez.
  • JzIntv. Thanks to DavidKnight247.
  • PCSX4All. Thanks to jdgleaver.
  • ReGBA. Thanks to jdgleaver.
  • Tac08. Thanks to 0xCAFED00D.
  • VbEmu. Thanks to gameblabla.
  • xMAME. Thanks to Slaanesh. Installed this settings interface.
  • Commander. Thanks to glebm.
  • PyBackup

Installation procedure

1. Download the dump file from the releases section of this repository.
2. Flash the file (img.gz) without decompressing with Balena Etcher on a microSD card of at least 4GB.
3. Mount the microSD in a computer. If we just flashed it, depending on the operating system, it may be necessary to remove it from the reader and reinsert it. In Windows, one of the two partitions containing the card will be mounted and the other will give an error. The error is normal since the second partition is Linux type.
4. Place the kernel suitable to the console model. This can be done in several ways depending on the PC operating system.

Windows

1. Open the select_kernel.bat script on the partition mounted correctly, by double clicking on it.

   

2. A console will appear where we will have to type the number corresponding to our console model from the list.

   

3. Press Return and, when prompted, eject the card safely.

   

Linux

1. Open a terminal and change the current directory to the path corresponding to partition 1 of the card (we can find out the mount point on our system with the df command). From that directory run the command bash select_kernel.sh.

   

2. A dialog will appear inviting us to select our console model with the cursor keys.

   

3. Press Return and, when prompted, eject the card safely.

   

Any system

There is a third method valid for any operating system (Windows, Linux, Mac). The idea is to view partition 1 of the card with a file explorer and manually copy the two files in the directory corresponding to our console model to the root of that partition. Being a FAT32 partition, there should be no problem accessing the files from any system. Click on the following thumbnail to see a small video.

At this point, the card will be ready to work on the console model that we have selected in the previous procedure. If we have not already done yet, we will safely eject it from the PC and insert the card into the console slot marked with INT.

The above procedure can be repeated to change to another console model at any time. That is, the image is compatible with the four supported console models, so the same card will serve us for several machines.

Partition 2 contained in the image file has about 3.5GB (so it can be flashed without problems on cards with a capacity of 4GB or greater). During the first boot, this partition will expand to occupy all available space on the card.

Content installation

The card that we have just prepared is empty of contents. It only contains the OpenDingux system, the SimpleMenu frontend, the RetroArch cores, and a few standalone emulators. All the configuration has been done with the idea that the contents are provided from the card that we will place in the slot marked with EXT.

Before continuing, we will make a brief comment on the legal considerations of installing such contents. The matter is complex. If you are interested, a good article is this Retro Game Corps post. Although there are few legal precedents on the subject, the problem primarily affects BIOS and ROMs. In a simplified way, it is usually considered that we can handle the ROMs of the games and the BIOS of the machines that we own. Actually it is more of a rule based on common sense, since as we say, there are few legal sentences on the subject and of course the opinion of the different participants in the industry is not consistent.

External microSD format and label

For all the preconfigured paths in the setup to work, the external microSD card needs to be in FAT32 format and NOT have label defined. In case of having a label, it will have to be removed.

In Windows we can do it from the Properties box of the unit where the external card is mounted. Click on the following thumbnail to see a small video.

In Linux it can be done by executing the following command from a terminal (in the example the device /dev/mmcblk0p1 has been used, but it will have to be replaced by the one that corresponds in our case):

sudo fatlabel /dev/mmcblk0p1 -r

ROMs

The SimpleMenu frontend has been configured with a series of predefined paths where it will try to locate the ROMs and graphical previews. If we do not want to modify the SimpleMenu configuration, we will have to stick to these paths. In the table below, the name of the directory that will have to exist on the external card when we mount it on the PC is indicated in the second column. For example, in the following screenshot we can see the ROMs directory of the Game Boy system, which as we can see, is located next to all the others within the roms folder at the root of the card.

The above path on the PC will correspond to /media/sdcard/roms on the console system, once the card is in the console and the system has booted. In case of modifying the SimpleMenu configuration, or manually opening the emulators from GMenu2X, this will be the kind of path that we will use (/media/sdcard/roms/GB for Game Boy for instance).

Below is the table of the systems configured in SimpleMenu with the paths where we must place the ROMs and the supported extensions.

System	Path	Supported extensions
MAME	roms/ARCADE	zip, 7z
Capcom Play System	roms/CPS	zip, 7z
Final Burn Alpha	roms/FBA	zip
Daphne	roms/DAPHNE	zip
Nintendo NES	roms/FC	zip, nes, 7z
Nintendo SNES	roms/SFC	smc, sfc, zip, 7z
Nintendo Virtual Boy	roms/VB	vb, vboy, bin, zip, 7z
SEGA SG-1000	roms/SG1000	zip, sg, 7z
SEGA Master System	roms/SMS	zip, sms, 7z
SEGA Megadrive	roms/MD	zip, bin, smd, md, 7z
SEGA CD	roms/SEGACD	bin, chd, 7z, zip
SEGA 32X	roms/32X	zip, 32x, 7z
Atari 2600	roms/A2600	bin, a26, 7z, zip
Atari 5200	roms/A5200	bin, a52, 7z, zip
Atari 7800	roms/A7800	bin, a78, 7z, zip
Inteillivision	roms/INTELLI	int
ColecoVision	roms/COLECO	rom, col
SNK Neo Geo	roms/NEOGEO	zip, 7z
NEC PC Engine	roms/PCE	pce, tg16, cue, 7z, zip
NEC PC Engine CD	roms/PCECD	pce, tg16, cue, chd, 7z, zip
Sony PlayStation	roms/PS	mdf, zip, pbp, cue, bin, img, ccd, sub, chd
Nintendo Game Boy	roms/GB	gb, gz, zip, 7z
Nintendo Game Boy Color	roms/GBC	gbc, zip, 7z
Nintendo Game Boy Advance	roms/GBA	gba, zip, 7z
Nintendo Game&Watch	roms/GW	mgw, zip, 7z
SEGA Game Gear	roms/GG	zip, gg, 7z
Atari Lynx	roms/LYNX	zip, lnx, 7z
SNK Neo Geo Pocket	roms/NGP	ngp, ngc, 7z, zip
WonderSwan	roms/WSC	ws, wsc, zip, 7z
Pokemon Mini	roms/POKEMINI	min, zip, 7z
Watara Supervision	roms/SUPERVISION	sv, bin, 7z, zip
Sinclair ZX Spectrum	roms/ZX	tzx, tap, z80, rzx, scl, trd, dsk, zip, 7z
Amstrad CPC	roms/AMSTRAD	dsk, sna, tap, cdt, voc, cpr, m3u, zip, 7z
Commodore 64	roms/C64	crt, d64, t64, bin, 7z, zip
MSX	roms/MSX	rom, ri, mx1, mx2, col, dsk, cas, sg, sc, m3u, zip, 7z
Commodore Amiga	roms/AMIGA	adf, adz, dms, fdi, ipf, hdf, hdz, lha, slave, info, cue, ccd, nrg, mds, iso, chd, uae, m3u, zip, 7z
Doom	roms/DOOM	wad, zip, 7z
Quake	roms/QUAKE	pak, zip, 7z
MS-DOS	roms/DOSBOX	zip, dosz, exe, com, bat, iso, cue, ins, img, ima, vhd, m3u, m3u8, 7z
ScummVM	roms/SCUMMVM	*
Pico8	roms/PICO8	png
TIC80	roms/TIC80	tic, 7z, zip

Previews

The previews should be placed in a directory with name .previews within each of the ROM directories in the previous list. For example, the previews of GB should be located in roms/GB/.previews, this being the path from the root of the external card when mounted in the PC. The preview files have to be PNGs with the same name as the game (except for the extension).

If we have followed the paths indicated above, later in SimpleMenu the game will be represented as follows:

BIOS

All the emulators installed in the image (RetroArch included) have redirected the paths where the BIOS should be to the bios directory on the external card. Similar to the case of ROMs, the bios directory at the root of the external card will correspond to the path /media/sdcard/bios on the console system.

Not all emulators need BIOS. This is the case of machines that did not have it or whose function has been emulated. The following is the BIOS file name and path where we will have to install it. To help identify the correct files, its size in bytes and an MD5 hash are indicated if it is known. The cases in which the BIOS is essential for the emulator to work are also marked. If 'NO' is indicated, the emulator will work, but still it is recommended to install the BIOS in order to achieve the best compatibility. To check MD5 hashes, the cross-platform utility Quickhash is recommended.

The sizes and hashes indicated are from BIOS that have been proven functional, but not necessarily the only possible ones. That is, in some machines there are several possible BIOS versions, usually because there have been several models of the machines (the case of the PlayStation being one of the most typical), or because someone has developed BIOS with improved capabilities (here the typical example is that of Neo Geo and his UNIBIOS).

System	Path	Size	MD5 hash	Needed?
Atari 5200	bios/5200.rom	2048	281f20ea4320404ec820fb7ec0693b38	Yes
Atari 7800	bios/7800 BIOS (U).rom		0763f1ffb006ddbe32e52d497ee848ae	No
SEGACD	bios/bios_CD_E.bin	131072	e66fa1dc5820d254611fdcdba0662372	Yes
SEGACD	bios/bios_CD_J.bin	131072	278a9397d192149e84e820ac621a8edd	Yes
SEGACD	bios/bios_CD_U.bin	131072	854b9150240a198070150e4566ae1290	Yes
Intellivision	bios/exec.bin	8192	62e761035cb657903761800f4437b8af	Yes
Intellivision	bios/grom.bin	2048	0cd5946c6473e42e8e4c2137785e427f	Yes
PC Engine CD	bios/syscard3.pce	262144	390815d3d1a184a9e73adc91ba55f2bb	Yes
Commodore Amiga	bios/kick34005.A500	262144	82a21c1890cae844b3df741f2762d48d	Yes on Amiga 500
Commodore Amiga	bios/kick37175.A500	524288	dc10d7bdd1b6f450773dfb558477c230	Yes on Amiga 500+
Commodore Amiga	bios/kick40063.A600	524288	e40a5dfb3d017ba8779faba30cbd1c8e	Yes on Amiga 600
Commodore Amiga	bios/kick40068.A1200	524288	646773759326fbac3b2311fd8c8793ee	Yes on Amiga 1200
Commodore Amiga	bios/kick40060.CD32	524288	5f8924d013dd57a89cf349f4cdedc6b1	No
Commodore Amiga	bios/kick40060.CD32.ext	524288	bb72565701b1b6faece07d68ea5da639	No
Atari Lynx	bios/lynxboot.img	512	fcd403db69f54290b51035d82f835e7b	Yes
Phillips Videopac	bios/o2rom.bin	1024	562d5ebf9e030a40d6fabfc2f33139fd	Yes
SNK Neo Geo	bios/neogeo.zip	1950023	36241192dae2823eaf3bf464dde6dbc6	Yes on FBA, No on RetroArch
Nintendo GBA	bios/gba_bios.bin	16384	a860e8c0b6d573d191e4ec7db1b1e4f6	No, although recommended
PlayStation	bios/SCPH1001.BIN	524288	924e392ed05558ffdb115408c263dccf	No, although very recommended
Nintendo GB	bios/gb_bios.bin	256	32fbbd84168d3482956eb3c5051637f5	No
Nintendo GBC	bios/gbc_bios.bin	2304	dbfce9db9deaa2567f6a84fde55f9680	No
Pokemon Mini	bios/bios.min	4096	1e4fb124a3a886865acb574f388c803d	Yes
MSX (BlueMSX)	bios/Machines/			Yes
MSX (fMSX)	bios/MSX.ROM	32768	364a1a579fe5cb8dba54519bcfcdac0d	Yes on MSX
MSX (fMSX)	bios/MSX2.ROM		ec3a01c91f24fbddcbcab0ad301bc9ef	Yes on MSX2
MSX (fMSX)	bios/MSX2EXT.ROM		2183c2aff17cf4297bdb496de78c2e8a	Yes on MSX2
MSX (fMSX)	bios/MSX2P.ROM	32768	847cc025ffae665487940ff2639540e5	Yes on MSX2+
MSX (fMSX)	bios/MSX2PEXT.ROM	16384	7c8243c71d8f143b2531f01afa6a05dc	Yes on MSX2+

Controls

Here are some cool shortcuts that can be used with the OpenDingux system, SimpleMenu, RetroArch, and standalone emulators.

Context	Shorcut	Function
OpenDingux	POWER + START + SELECT	Reboot
OpenDingux	POWER + UP	Volume up
OpenDingux	POWER + DOWN	Volume down
OpenDingux	POWER + RIGHT	Brightness up
OpenDingux	POWER + LEFT	Brightness down
OpenDingux	POWER + B	Mouse mode (formerly POWER + L1)
OpenDingux	POWER + A	Hardware scaling ratio mode
OpenDingux	POWER + SELECT	Kill current app
OpenDingux	POWER + Y	Sleep mode (tap POWER to resume)
OpenDingux	POWER + X	take screenshot (on ~/screenshots)
OpenDingux	A (while powering on)	It'll skip the logo and show the output of the init scripts
SimpleMenu	Start	Brings up the Settings screen
SimpleMenu	Select	Rom options. Let's you select autolaunch, emulator (if multiple emulators are defined for the selected section) and overclocking
SimpleMenu	Up	Selects the previous game
SimpleMenu	Down	Selects the next game
SimpleMenu	Left	Skips to the previous page in the current section
SimpleMenu	Right	Skips to the next page in the current section
SimpleMenu	L1	Switches to the previous section
SimpleMenu	R1	Switches to the next section
SimpleMenu	L2	Goes to the favorites section
SimpleMenu	R2	Refreshes the current section (in case you added some ROMs while the menu is running)
SimpleMenu	A	Launches a game/program
SimpleMenu	Y	Switches between menu and fullscreen mode
SimpleMenu	X	On regular sections, marks a game as a favorite, on the favorites section, it takes it off from the favorites list
SimpleMenu	B	If pressed and released, it takes you to the section group selection screen. If pressed and held, it acts as a hotkey to be combined with other keys
SimpleMenu	B + Up	Skips to the previous letter
SimpleMenu	B + Down	Skips to the next letter
SimpleMenu	B + Left	Goes to the previous section, without showing the logo
SimpleMenu	B + Right	Goes to the next section, without showing the logo
SimpleMenu	B + Select	Random select
SimpleMenu	B + X	Deletes the selected rom WITHOUT ASKING FOR CONFIRMATION. Doesn't work on the favorites section or in the Apps and Games section
SimpleMenu	B + A	Launches the emulator itself instead of a rom, if it supports to be run as a standalone application
RetroArch	Select + A	Pause
RetroArch	Select + B	Reset
RetroArch	Select + X	RetroArch Menu
RetroArch	Select + Y	Fast forward
RetroArch	Select + R1	Savestate save
RetroArch	Select + L1	Savestate load
RetroArch	Select + R2	Swap disc
RetroArch	Select + L2	Open CD tray
RetroArch	Select + Start	Quit
RetroArch	Select + Left/Right	Change savestate slot
RetroArch	Select + Up/Down	Volume change
FBA (MAME, FBA y CPS)	L1 + R1 + Start or Power	Open emulator menu that allows us to quit
Neo Geo FBA RetroArch	A + B + Y	UniBIOS settings
xMAME	Select + L1 + R1	Quit
Daphne	L1	Insert coin
Daphne	Start	Start game
Daphne	Select	Quit
ReGBA (GBA)	Power or Select + Start	Open emulator menu that allows us to quit
PCSX4All (PlayStation)	Power or Select + Start	Open emulator menu that allows us to quit
JzIntv	Select	Open emulator menu that allows us to quit
JzIntv	Power	Quit
JzIntv	R1	Virtual controller
JzIntv	L1	Virtual keyboard
ColecoD (ColecoVision)	Select + Start	Open emulator menu that allows us to quit
Tac08 (PICO8)	Start	Open emulator menu that allows us to quit
Fuse (ZX Spectrum)	Select	Virtual keyboard
Cap32 (AMSTRAD CPC)	Y + Start	Virtual keyboard. Once displayed, open/close the RA menu (Select + X) so that the left stick starts working as a mouse
Vice 64 (Commodore 64)	Select	Virtual keyboard
PUAE (Commodores Amiga)	L1	Virtual keyboard

Problem solving

Unsupported video mode

Some RetroArch cores show the following error screen when working in resolutions not supported by the system:

In this case proceed as follows:

1. Open RetroArch menu (Select + X).

2. Go to Main Menu > Settings > Video > Scaling and check Integer Scale and Keep Aspect Ratio options.

   

3. Go to Main Menu > Settings > Video > Video Filter and select Upscale_256x-320x240.filt filter (last on the list):

   

Finally, to not make this change every time you open the game, go to Main Menu > Quick Menu > Overrides and select Save Game Overrides.

RetroArch force closing

Sometimes, when trying to exit RetroArch, it freezes and does not return to the frontend. In these cases, force close the application in the foreground (RetroArch at that moment) by pressing the shortcut Power + Select. It is important to press the keys in that order, that is, press Power a little before and without releasing it then press Select.

Emulator selection

In the SimpleMenu configuration, many of the systems offer several emulator options, that is, you can choose between several emulators or RetroArch cores. Also the preferred emulator or core can be saved for each game.

In simple systems, such as 8-bit machines, only RetroArch has been configured, considering it the best option. But in more complex systems, such as arcade, the offer of emulators is wide. For example, in MAME, the following options are available:

• RetroArch MAME2003 core
• RetroArch MAME2003+ core
• FBA
• xMAME romset 84
• xMAME romset 69
• xMAME romset 52

The emulation options appear in this order in the list, the first being the default option if you do not manually specify an emulator for a specific game. Therefore, if left unchanged, the default option for running MAME games will be the MAME2003 RetroArch core.

If a specific game does not work with the default emulator, press Select in the SimpleMenu games list. A selector will appear with three options, the third one being the emulator to use. We will move to this third option and change the emulator by pressing left/right. To save the change we will press Select again. When opening the game by pressing A the emulator or RA core that we have chosen will be launched. If the new emulator is not working properly, try another option until you get good performance.

Another situation in which we should change the emulator option is when the game runs slow. In addition to the choppy sound, the best way to measure if the game is moving fast enough is to activate the frames per second or FPS counter. In RetroArch we can activate the option for a particular game in the menu Main Menu > Settings > On-Screen Display > On-Screen Notifications > Notification Visibility > Display Framerate, but if we want to activate it in general, we must first close the content that we are executing. This would be the procedure described in detail.

1. Launch any game that runs with RetroArch (for example, all Handheld systems are configured with RetroArch by default).
2. Open RetroArch meny pressing Select + X.
3. Select Close Content menu.
4. Follow the path: Main Menu > Settings > On-Screen Display > On-Screen Notifications > Notification Visibility.
5. Enable Display Framerate.
6. Go back to the Main Menu by pressing B repeatedly.
7. Open Configuration File menu.
8. Invoke Save Current Configuration command.
9. Go back to the Main Menu by pressing B once.
10. Invoke Quit RetroArch command.

To deactivate it, we will proceed in the same way but deactivating the option in step 5.

In xMAME the FPS option is activated/deactivated at any time by pressing Start + R1.

Telegram channel for updates

Join this Telegram channel to get update notifications: https://t.me/adam_image