It’s only been less than a month since spruceOS v4.3.4 was released, which was primarily focused on providing bug fixes and subtle improvements. However, spruceOS v4.4.0 is now here, and it’s arguably the largest update that we’ve seen for this custom firmware.
Kicking things off, after initial Anbernic H700 support arrived with v4.3.0, those devices are now marked as “Stable” with spruceOS v4.4.0. That’s a huge accomplishment, as the list of supported handhelds even includes the recently released Anbernic RG SP, to go along with the rest of the H700 lineup.
With Anbernic handhelds reaching the Stable status, this has led to a couple of familiar friends entering the fray. The PowKiddy RGB30 is now listed as “In Development, testers wanted,” while the Miniloong Pocket 1 gains the “Initial support, unstable” tag.
Specifically with the RGB30, spruceOS is taking a similar approach to what we have with BaseOS on Anbernic handhelds. In order to try out spruce, you’ll need to first install dArkMoss on the TF1 microSD card, then load spruceOS onto the TF2 microSD card.
From there, the next biggest change with spruceOS v4.4.0 is the addition of DSperate, which has taken the CFW scene by storm as of late. As described in the release notes, this “is a ground up emulator and NOT just another reskin or hack of DraStic.”
If you want to check out some of the other new features available in the latest release of spruceOS, there’s a list below. Otherwise, head over to the GitHub Releases page to see changelog in its entirety, and, of course, to download the latest build for your handheld.
spruceOS v4.4.0 Key Features
- A brand new NDS emulator called DSperate by Noxwell!
- Per-device configurations
- Auto-resume, integer scaling, video effects and a subtle grid
- RetroAchievements
- Boot straight to NDS firmware
- spruce menu colours, and DraStic-trngaje
- spruce now runs on the H700 Anbernic handhelds
- Powkiddy RGB30 on dArkMoss
- PortMaster
- Dreamcast, NAOMI and Atomiswave
- New systems
- Atari Jaguar
- Tandy CoCo via xroar
- Standalone ScummVM, YabaSanshiro and mupen64plus brought to the Anbernic XX
- Every RetroArch hotkey bound by name across both builds on the XX line
- np2kai core replaced, Saturn on the Brick Pro, Intellivision CPU mode, IGM re-enabled for DOSBox
- Miyoo Mini paced with the frame limiter rather than audio, roughly tripling GBA speed
- Updates and OTA
- Incremental updates, so a device downloads a diff rather than the whole card image.
- Networking
- Power, sleep and shutdown
- Interface
- New Installer App
- Description
- Custom software for a variety of Miyoo, TrimUI, and Anbernic handhelds – and then some.
- Key features
- Snappy and incredibly themeable custom Python-based UI.
- Game Switcher
- Autosave on shutdown/autoresume on boot
- Native Pico-8 support with Splore.
- CPU performance profiles
- Game Nursery for downloading free ports, demakes, and homebrew for a variety of systems, directly to your device.
- OTA updates over Wi-Fi on device.
- Theme Garden for browsing and downloading an ever-growing (currently over 80!) selection of community-made themes
- +1 more
- GitHub
- GitHub
