My retrogaming handheld

BATLEXP G350 setup notes

2026-02-22 #videogames

0. intro

  1. A few years ago, I set up a retro gaming console on a raspberry pi with recalbox. I used it to clear many classics from my backlog: A Link to the Past, Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger, Suikoden II, Final Fantasy Tactics. I started many others that I left unfinished, I upgraded the raspberry pi, I tried other emulation distros, and eventually stopped using it. Mostly because it was a hassle to plug it into my TV and pair the bluetooth controller every time I wanted to play.

  2. I recently came across this magazine article and learned a few interesting things:

    • There are now cheap Chinese portable consoles that can be run as emulation stations like the one I had in my raspberry pi.
    • Those handhelds can be bought online (through AliExpress) and shipped to my country (which is not always the case, depending on what year it is).
    • The R36S is the most common but there are many more, covering a wide price range.
    • There’s this beautiful thing called portmaster, which extends support on these devices with many open source ports of console games, PC classics, and even recent indie games.

  3. I made up my mind about buying one of these but didn’t right away. Instead I started lurking subreddits like r/R36S and r/SBCGaming. There I learned some more:

    • Even though they are a cheap knockoff of a cheap console, you can still get a “fake” version of the R36S, depending on who you buy it from.
    • The pre-intalled OS, ROMs, and SD card suck and you should change all of these before they self-destruct.
    • There are better quality options in the same price range as the R36S.

  4. With all this info I settled on buying a BATLEXP G350 instead (BATLE with a single ‘T’).

    • It cost me 50 dollars and arrived about a month later. Buying guide here.
    • Its quality is good enough to warrant a storage case. I didn’t buy one but I repurposed one I had from an 8BitDo controller.

    • After using it for a while I noticed its Game Boy form factor can be a bit straining on the hands, so it’s probably a good idea to also buy or 3D-print a grip for it.

      • Since I’m having so much fun with these things, I might end up upgrading to a horizontal handheld.

  5. This is a very fun hobby that’s completely orthogonal to the actual playing of video games. The fun comes from:

    1. setting up the system,
    2. making plans of interesting games to try, and figuring out how to best run them on the console.

1. setup

  1. As with the R36S, I read recommendations to change the stock OS and romset from the BATLEXP.

    • I went with the ArkOS distribution; another popular one is Pan4Elec.
    • I followed this setup video from the handhelds wiki.
    • Since I’m on macOS I used Balena Etcher instead of Rufus (brew install --cask balenaetcher)
    • I flashed the RG351MP image (from the ArkOS wiki) into a 128gb SD card

    • I overwrote the .dtb and Image files in the BOOT partition with those linked in the video

      • Later I saw some issues with the right stick which I fixed by installing these other files.

        • Later later I realized that the file in that post is the same I was already using, so maybe I didn’t copy it right the first time or overwriting it just resets broken things.

          • Later later later the console froze to a black screen on boot which I was able to fix by overwriting these files again, which would confirm that theory.

  2. Moving on with the setup, I downloaded the base and 64gb versions of the Tiny Best Set Go from the internet archive and manually distributed the ROMs into the corresponding system dirs from the EASYROMS partition of the SD card.

    • This gave me a nicely curated baseline of games that includes most of what I’d like to play without cluttering the catalog too much.
    • Upon restarting, I noticed a bunch of ._ prefixed files in the collection. There’s a handy built-in tool in the options menu to remove them.

  3. Next, I installed portmaster from these instructions.

    • Since the BATLEXP has no wifi connection, I had to use the Install.Full.PortMaster.sh file.
    • I cleared preexisting portmaster files from EASYROMS/tools/
    • Back on the ArkOS menu, I ran the script from options -> tools
    • After this I could add new ports by placing them in EASYROMS/tools/PortMaster/autoinstall/ and following any other port-specific instructions. This typically means dropping some game assets at EASYROMS/ports/<gamename>/
    • Browsing the portmaster catalog by “most downloaded” is a good way to get ideas on how to spice up the Tiny Best Set Go catalog.

  4. I applied some hotkey re-mappings recommended by the video and some extra ones to handle save state slots.

    • Note that these mappings only apply to retroarch-managed ROMs; other emulators, like the PSP one, will stick with default keybindings.

  5. Since the BATLEXP has no internet access, and it’s not straightforward to add images manually, I have no preview covers in the menu.

    • I’ve seen the Skraper tool recommended for this, but it doesn’t run on macOS and I couldn’t be bothered to switch to my windows laptop, so no cover images for now.

2. games

  1. Turing-completeness of an electronic device is not proven until it runs Doom. In ArkOS I can drop the WAD files into a top-level doom folder, as if it was another emulated console. I can also run it, as well as its mods, through the doomengines port. There similarly are ports for Wolfenstein, Quake, and friends. There’s the deadly cute Poom for the pico-8, also supported by the BATLEXP. And then there’s Doom64, which is not a port but its own game, one so dark that to play it I need to bump the brightness to the max, turn the lights off, sit in a corner of the room, and hide under a blanket.
  2. I have fond memories of Prince of Persia. I played it on an old CGA 286 PC that I inherited from a cousin before I got my first real computer. The colors were ugly but the animations defied the limitations of that machine; the little guy running, jumping, and hanging on screen was like a hologram sent from the future. All of those memories came back when I recently read Jordan Mechner’s journals. And now I’m pleased to see how well the game fits this little handheld when played through the SDLPoP port. With the timer turned off, Prince of Persia is as much an elegant puzzle as it is a cinematic platformer. More than any of the sequels, two of its spiritual successors also feature in my imaginary playlist: Flashback, for the Sega Genesis, and Another World, for the Sega CD.
  3. Even though there are better ones, Winning Eleven 2002 will always be the definitive soccer video game to me. The faster, arcade-y mechanics feel at home in the handheld.
  4. I was never much of a car person or a car-game person, but then again OutRun was never much about cars as it was about cool music on the radio, virtual wind blowing through your hair, the proximity of a blonde, an endless row of palm trees and perennial blue skies. There’s a port for this one that plays better than the arcade.
  5. Mario Tennis: Power Tour was an oddly satisfying find. It has an RPG-like story mode, which plays a bit like Pokémon, as well as exhibition matches with the Mario crew. I was surprised by what a good tennis simulator this is; immediately fun to pick up but with a challenging learning curve ahead. For a more traditional tennis game, Virtua Tennis 3 for the PSP does the trick.
  6. Growing up I obsessed over absurd humor and surrealism—through TV shows like Rocko’s Modern Life and Freakazoid—so I was immediately hooked to Earthworm Jim 2. A game that made me carry pigs around from level one, dodge falling nannies, and eventually become a cow seemed specifically designed for me; I couldn’t believe they let the designers get away with it. A terrific game, on top of that: amazing graphics, classic arcade fun, a new type of gameplay on every level. I used to rent the Genesis cartridge to play during weekends, and got very far, but I don’t think I ever finished it. Some day.
  7. Striking that same surrealist chord was NBA Jam. Perhaps overshadowed by Midway stablemate Mortal Kombat, NBA Jam’s development has an interesting backstory, told in Reyan Ali’s book. My basketball-playing schoolmates introduced me to the game on the Sega Genesis; later I played a lot of Hangtime on the PC. The best one for the BATLEXP seems to be the arcade version of NBA Jam T.E.
  8. Retrogaming is less about recreating an experience than about recreating the memory of that experience. Which means, paradoxically, that the look and feel of old games is sometimes better captured by newer ones. Two examples come to mind: Xeno Crisis, inspired by arcade classic Smash TV, a modern game built to target old hardware; and Shovel Knight, perhaps the last platformer I will force myself to play.
  9. The Pokémon games make the perfect casual RPGs. I’ve played the first generation in all of its forms (Red, Yellow, FireRed, even the Trading Card Game for the Game Boy). I went as far as Silver, but the ever-growing number of Pokémon and types eventually made me lose interest. Rather than picking up where I left off, I’m more interested in exploring the fan-made ROM hacks, a world of their own from which I picked Pokémon Unbound as my candidate.
  10. As you may have guessed, I enjoy making lists of games, and a variation of that pastime is making lists of classic JRPGs I have yet to play. From the ones that could work on this handheld, the list starts with Earthbound, which I would like to play in its MaternalBound Redux form, and continues with its Mother 3 sequel. Then there’s Golden Sun, Dragon Quest (either III or V), and Terranigma.
  11. Adjacent to classic RPGs are Metroidvanias, a genre I’m long overdue for. I understand it is best represented by Super Metroid on the SNES and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on the PSX.
  12. I never really looked into Nintendo 64 games: nobody I knew owned the console, it’s always been hard to emulate (even to this day) and I never cared much for its blocky 3D graphics (I always preferred the PSX brand of lowpoly). For historical reasons, though, I’m curious about games like Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time, both of which conveniently have great ports that run smoother and look better than the originals.
  13. I have unfinished (or, rather, unstarted) business with open world games in general, and Grand Theft Auto in particular. Seeing that the ports for GTA III and Vice City run decently on the BATLEXP, perhaps now it’s time.
  14. A handheld is a good home for fast arcade games that I would otherwise skip on the desktop or the living room. I mean beat 'em ups like the Ninja Turtles ones—the original on the Arcade, which has the best graphics, or Turtles in Time for the SNES which has the better gameplay, or the modern Shredder’s Revenge, which surprisingly plays well on these devices. And then there are the run 'n' guns, like Metal Slug (X and 3 being the best) and Sunset Riders.
  15. Fun fact: when I was a kid I wanted to skate, inspired by personal heroes Bart Simpson and Marty McFly. I asked for a skateboard for Christmas and my parents obliged with this ridiculously long skateboard that was about as heavy as I was. So that hobby never really took off. I never tried a skating video game, but I always appreciated the concept from a distance. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 looks like the perfect way to mindlessly kill 10 minutes on this handheld, so I better start practicing.


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Facundo Olano A very fun hobby that’s completely orthogonal to the actual playing of video games.

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