The Game Console R33S flew under the radar a bit when it arrived a while back. Its cousin, the R36S, is widely revered as the budget handheld to love. So why did one clone system blow up and the other languish? Well, because even AliExpress didn’t want to carry the R33S. It was apparently a little too on the nose for someone either at Miyoo or Anbernic, because all the listings came down almost as soon as they went up. You could score one on Amazon stateside if you were willing to pay $80, but who wants to do that for a clone system? As such, it’s only been recently that this one has started popping up as available again.
Any strange copyright claims aside, the R33S does its job as a clone system quite well and does so with an RK3326, which has more under the hood than the devices it’s out to emulate (zing!). The screen and controls are just as solid as its more “mainstream” competitors, and you get the benefit of additional community firmware options that aren’t available on the other devices. So if you’ve scored a new R33S and want to get it running at its best, you’re in the right place. Let’s take a look at Game Console’s answer to the devices that took this hobby by storm just a few short years ago.
Table of Contents
R33S Specs
What You’ll Need
- A trusted brand of micro SD card (64GB – 128GB recommended). Cards that come with these devices are of poor quality and prone to failure. If you ordered a loaded card with your device, back it up and chuck the card. It will eventually fail. Don’t say we didn’t warn you!
- An SD Card reader
- A Windows/MAC/Linux PC
- 7-zip or WinRAR to unpack any downloads
- Image writing software appropriate for your firmware of choice
- Rufus – One-stop shop for formatting and writing your SD images.
- Balena Etcher – Image writing software available for all major Desktop OS’ (Note: Some users have reported issues when flashing ArkOS with Balena. I’ve had it work ok, but if you’re experiencing issues, it’s best to try another flashing software.)
- Win32DiskImager – An open-source option designed for Windows, but there are many ports.
- MintStick/USB Image Writer – Image writing software that comes baked-in with many popular Linux OS distros.
Firmware Options
ArkOS
You should be greeted with a splash screen on first boot
The R33S comes preloaded with ArkOS, and the device is all the better for it. This polished community firmware offers nearly limitless customization options for each user to tune things to their liking.
Whether you want to start fresh with the newest release of ArkOS and your own ROM collection, or from a more reliable SD card, here are the steps to install a fresh copy.
- Head over to the ArkOS GitHub and download the latest appropriate release for the R33S. This is a community-maintained image that works best with the R33S.
- Unpack the downloaded file with Winzip or the software of your choice
- Write the unpacked .img file with Rufus or a tool of your choice
- Remove the SD card from the PC and insert it into your device
- Power on the handheld and wait for the ArkOS Splash screen to let you know the firmware has begun the installation process.
Finding the Correct Screen Panel
Upload the file to see which panel your device uses
The R33S, much like its older cousin the R36S, has seen a number of different screen panels used over time. I got lucky with installing the default ArkOS images, but if you’re having issues, there is hope. If the device screen displays as blank with a lit blue LED, it is likely that the screen panel files are the culprit.
Note: Your first step if the screen is displaying distorted pixels or lines on first power, is to charge the device. These handhelds act up when low on battery and the flashing process may not run.
If you still have the stock OS card that came with your device, you can use this Screen Identifying Tool on the ArkOS Github from the great AeolusUX.
Once you have determined which panel your device is equipped with, you can flash the correct image as appropriate. If you no longer have your stock SD card, you will have to try out each set of files included with the .img as seen below.
The panel config files included on your ArkOS image
- Determine your panel version.
- If you cannot, start with Panel 4 if the device is more recent, and work your way back from there.
- Locate the Panel files inside the ROOT partition of the ArkOS SD card.
ROCKNIX
Rocknix running on the R33S
- Download the latest Rocknix image for the R33S from the project’s GitHub
- Unpack the image file using Winzip or the software of your choice
- Write the unpacked image file to a fresh SD card using any of the options listed above
- Insert the freshly written SD card into the TF-OS slot of the R33S.
- Power on and allow the new firmware to install.
Additional Tips
ArkOS running on the Game Console R33S
Rocknix is a Linux OS, and as such the SD1 card will be formatted to the EXT4 file system. This can be a headache if you’re running on a Windows PC. To avoid problems, you can use a two-card SD setup.
- Ensure the new SD card is formatted to a Windows-friendly format of FAT32 or EXFAT.
- Â Once Rocknix is initialized on your device, insert a blank SD card into the TF2 slot.
- Rocknix should automatically recognize the second card and populate it with folders for game storage.
- Remove the second SD card, insert it into your PC, and load your ROM collection.
Where to buy
Still thinking of picking up an R33S? See the button below.
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